Craig, Elijah, Richard & Ray in town!

Right... The ole con report... I would have written it sooner, NORMALLY... March 2006 wasn't normal though! :B

But Elijah Wood, Craig Parker, Richard Kiel and Ray Park came to town on March 4-5! Pix linked to Monkeys, click Celebrity collection (after you have clicked any of the two colourful buttons in the top right corner, that is...), photos 61-71.

On March 4 I got up too early, cleansed my armpits, teeth and tongue, and went to stand in line for 1 h before the con opened up. Only lost my toes. Wish they would throw this party in the SUMMER! Same thing goes for the film festival! COUGH!!! *pneumonia, really*

Anyway, the line in front of me was 40-50 m, and it grew quickly behind me so the toes were a fair deal.

The raging mass of flesh welled into the con centre and grabbed tix to meet Elijah. Whose plane had just landed, we heard. I would have to be a nerve wreck for a few more hours, and decided to warm up with... to... Craig Parker in the meantime and get THAT over and done with.

I had certainly... noticed Craig in the Ring movies. The week before the con I remembered to actually do some RESEARCH to see if he had any major skeletons in his closet, but I found none at the IMDB boards. :) His reputation was blinding.

(Negative bahstahd Yoze: "GREAT, so if he doesn't DEVOUR me I'll know it to be MY fault.")

Shivering (from the cold outside... aye...) I entered the Craig queue area, injected a hefty syringe of Nerdiness and asked the nerd in front of me if he could shoot Craig and me... with my camera. The nerd said he would be happy to oblige and proceeded to speak of every other con in Sweden, ever, which I think he had attended. :)

I chose a photo to be signed - they had one where he looked SOOOOOOOOOO pwetty but I thought it would seem nerd-cooler to pick one of Haldir shooting orcs, so I did...

Fellow Nerd and his buddy were done talking to Craig, and I was still hiding behind them, when Craig spotted the Canadian iron-on patch on my coat and screamed: "You're from Canada?"
Yoze: "Er... no, sadly... hehe..."

He beckoned me to squeeze past the other nerds and not be shy, and asked how I was. Handshake! Mmmm, I like it when THEY remember to extend their hands... *COUGH* Craig asked for my name. "Josefine, with an F." Then he grabbed his silver pen and test-wrote it on a spare bit of paper nearby. Awww. :B And got it right, too, after automatically starting to spell it with a "PH". That is how exotic I get. :p

He went on to sign the Haldir photo most beautifully:

Dear Josefine, [YEAH RIGHT!!!]
lovely to meet you, [YEAH RIGHT!!!]
Craig Parker [Well, you know, I still don't see the resemblance between him and Haldir, but I'll believe it then :D ]

He picked up the photo and blew lightly all over the silver ink to dry it. :) I grin-asked if I could have my picture taken with him, which was easily done as he sat ON the table all day, instead of behind it like normal con celebs. I handed my camera to Fellow Nerd, helped him kick the display into life and slithered around Craig's neck. Craig leaned his head against mine... first... :) The photo, as usual, miraculously turned out nice... by which I mean clear... not featuring-an-eye-soothing-woman... And I BLOODY REMEMBERED to tell him...

"YOU'RE MY FAVOURITE ELF GUY!"

...for which he thanked me, and I took a few snapshots as he greeted the next nerd. I split by fuzz-cloud. :D Of course, that was kind of expected after my fruitless closet-skeleton-research.

Elijah still seemed to be on his way from the airport so I got a ticket for Richard Kiel and got his siggy... and a pic with him... by a nerd... and took my own pics... Squee! I saw him grab-crush a few people's skulls with his hands but maybe that was just the guys or summat. :/ Anyway, I can't say I'm a James Bond fan, but Jaws is da BEST James Bond character! :B He and... his little miss blond-braids.

*ponders* Who else is there to enjoy in James Bond?

James - slime
James's women - are forced to sleep with James outta gratitude
James's enemies - I haven't really sat through a lot of James Bond movies, but there should be a bunch baddies for me in there. Jaws is excellent though. :)

A while later, there was much squealing and flesh-pressing around a certain corner of the con. The arrangers got sweaty trying to make the crowd "BACK OFF, MAKE ROOM FOR THE TICKET-HOLDERS, OH PLEEEEEEEEEEEASE, BACK AWAY FROM THE ROPES GODDAMMIT, SNIFFLE!!!"

When it was my turn (after Elijah had signed about 10% of the siggies he were to sign that day) I, ehehehehe, ALSO REMEMBERED to pick out one siggy-photo for me and one for my net buddy, who tragically could not be with us on this day. (That sounds like I was going to put the siggy in her coffin. *cries*) Then I approached Elijah

*GASP*

and one of his people told me to have everything ready, that there was to be no posing (flashback to london... tragedy... oh well) and that I might take my own photos afterwards.

*GULP*

A nerd... scuttered off... and before me sat ELIJAH! +O Smiling, I'm pretty sure. I took a couple of steps forward. Actually. One or two of us remembered to shake hands! :D

Elijah: "Hi, how are you?"
Yoze, brain happily on holiday: "How are YOOOOOOU?! :D"

He signed my buddy's photo while I told him: "She's my friend who couldn't be here, she would LOVE to meet you though..."
Elijah: "Aww..."

Or something like it... Then he signed my photo. My holidaying brain had not noticed that the name-note-writer had spelled my name without an E at the end, so I quickly pointed that out to Elijah, who kindly fixed me an E between the N and the punctuation sign. :) That was a narrow escape, eh? Think how RUINED my LIFE would have been if I had only MET ELIJAH without having him SPELL MY NAME WITH A SILENT E! Er... Then I said "Thanks for coming" before I fled. Forgot to tell him... "YOU'RE ALWAYS INTERESTING!" ...which would make one look a LITTLE less like a "Hello-what-do-you-mean-you-have-been-in-other-movies-than-LOTR" kind of fan. :p

I fled 2 whole m and kneeled next to a few other cam-slingers. And MISSED the moment when Elijah looked at the creature beside me because it yelled at him to look our way. But I did get an un-blurry pic of Elijah looking up, looking funny... :9 Eyes visible... Wow... In the meantime he chatted with some more normal fans, whom he told this was his first time in Sweden. Then I got up, mutter-gasped "Thanks, Elijah!" and fled even farther, to the other side of the screen behind him, where a pile of swooning fans, waving siggies, had accumulated.

I could have gone home now, but what if miracles started to occur at cons once the crowds thinned out? I sat down in a quiet corner and avoided the schoolbook for a while by texting the Elijah fan.

Behind a nearby screen was Ray Park from Star wars, I knew. I peeked around the screen and took a few dark, far-away pics, although I was already pondering the option of actually... gasp... WALKING UP TO HIM! Moments later I spotted Elijah leaving his corner for a break, posing with a couple of fans in the process. :)

Before he returned, the queue for Elijah opened up - no more tix, which I hoped meant that posing or something would now be allowed. I got back in there... found no nerd... was herded past Elijah... I got another pic, but one I could have done without. :p Ah well.

All my senses had been violently baked all day, so I was now tired-insane enough to slip back into Craig's queue - which had been opened way back - with my cunning plan. My fellow Craig-stalkers yelled at Elijah, who was close, to look up and smile for their cam. I was unprepared, but got a pic of him doodling a silver bunny on the black table cloth. :)

Second Craig meeting. I said hi, told him we met before, got another handshake :D and asked if I could just take a picture of him. Craig kindly consented, and posed for LITTLE OLE ME! XD He also told me "Take care." Awww.

Instantly addicted to having great big movie stars pose for LITTLE OLE ME, I figured I should ask Ray Park too. Waited a few seconds behind a nerd. Then I shook his hand, thanked him for coming and asked for a picture... Yay... He too said "Take care." :)

At least one remembers his Star Wars face...!

I and a row of other nerds saw Elijah leave for the day. Standing in front of the wall, he let us photograph him... and photographed us! I'm not sure he caught me though. :B

Nerd on her way out: "The king has left the building."

Shopping Item Yoze Could Not Resist: A white towel - too big for hands, too small for bodies - that said "Don't Panic!" *slaps you*