The Nerd Queen Journal: Sam the Awesome

One of my favorite costumes, which won an honorable mention for workmanship, a lady dressed as Carol Burnett in the Gone with the Wind parody.

I came up with an awesome way to sum up this year’s Farpoint convention.

A sci fi convention is like a family.

My mom’s family is never this cool, neither is my dad’s family. My grandmother on my mother’s side, all she wants to talk about is the Bible, what she cleaned, and what terrible things she’s going through- all boring. My dad’s family is much bigger than my mom’s, for there are so many cousins and people running around back and forth through my Uncle Jim’s house whenever my Great Uncle Gary comes to visit. It’s insanity.

But the one thing I’ve loved about these conventions is that being around these people is a lot more fun. They’re not related by blood directly to me, but they are family since I’ve known them from the day I was born. And my dad’s known all of them a lot longer.

My dad was friends with the Boogie Knights since before they formed, back at Glen Burnie High School in the late 70s. Though the filk band has changed over the years and my parents are no longer in the group, my dad has been friends with John of Denver and Theodoric (Dave) since high school, and they were both at my dad’s wedding. They saw me for the first time and thought I was their “fair” one.

I thought my honorary Boogie Knight name was Hayley, Paramour of William (named after Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams). But I learned from a friend of my dad’s that I was actually “Rachel the Fair”. I can dream my name is different that the one I was given at birth, can’t I?

If only I had a picture of me saying, “Crikey! That’s the end,” at the end of the “Exclamations” song that the Boogies wrote based on the same song from Schoolhouse Rock. That one is Sharon’s favorite, the lady known as Dionne of Warwick. Or better yet, I still have a picture in my mind of John hoisting me on his shoulder and singing the opening notes of “The Dragon Feeds Tonight”. (Get it? Dragon instead of lion? Never mind.)

The Boogie Knights doing their halftime masquerade show.

I got to see them sing “The King’s Crusade Took My Hubby Away” at masquerade intermission, which was awesome, since my mom loves the Ramones’ version of that song and the parody equally. (“The KKK Took My Baby Away”)

And then at the end of masquerade on Saturday, Dave, who was also master of ceremonies, called the actor of Smallville and Once Upon a Time Sam Witwer to approach the stage and give out the award to Best in Show. It went to two people dressed as the two characters in the original Star Trek where a woman with an orange fur top was fighting off a white furry beast. Witwer was on stage, ready to fight the beast, and the guy in the beast suit went up to him and tried to attack.

This action between actor and beast got a lot of laughs. And then the Catwoman cosplayer, who tried to steal the Best in Show award in her act, stole back the award from the lady in the orange fur top, and tried to run away with it. (Her act was “Catwoman Steals the Show”- where the masquerade ninjas ran after her and snatched the award from her) But since I was a catcher helping George with masquerade and I was sitting by the edge of the stage, I grabbed the trophy from her and gave it back to its owner.

The woman who won it told me, “Thank you!” I was smiling the whole time. I just hoped Sam Witwer wouldn’t wrestle the beast to get the trophy for himself. He wouldn’t.

Witwer also stole the show at the beginning of masquerade when he did his little strut on stage, taking off his jacket and walking a “catwalk” when Dave introduced him as a judge. All the girls, including me, went crazy, drooling all over him. I’ve never seen any of his TV appearances, but I sure am a fan of his now. He’s pretty hot.

Enver Gjokaj

I also met the other two guests at the con, whom were just fantabulous to say the least. Enver Gjokaj (Agent Sousa from my favorite Marvel show Agent Carter) was sweet and had a sense of humor. I loved it when he started talking about Bruce Campbell in Army of Darkness, which was by far the movie that made me laugh the hardest. And Gjokaj also said he would have loved to see Agent Sousa and Peggy Carter in London, if the show on ABC didn’t get canceled.

He wasn’t sure if Agent Sousa was the guy who became Peggy’s husband, though.

Nicholas Meyer at his Q&A after the movie Time After Time.

The guy with the driest sense of humor was Nicholas Meyer, who at his panel, said, “Khan, you’ve been unfriended.” He’s the guy who wrote and directed Star Trek Wrath of Khan, remember, the original with Shatner and Nimoy. I met him during his viewing of another movie he wrote and directed, Time After Time, an old movie about H.G. Wells making a time machine and chasing Jack the Ripper in modern day California, which was at the time, the year 1979.

I almost didn’t meet Meyer when he was about to show the movie and answer questions about it. Before I got to the hotel on Sunday, someone pulled the fire alarm in the building. When I got there, everyone was outside waiting for the fire department, but no big deal because the weather was a little too nice- talking spring weather with highs in the low 70s. By 12:30, we got the all clear to go inside, but all the panels and shows at the con got squeezed.

I thought Meyer would be back at the autograph table by quarter to two so I could get my boyfriend’s stuff signed. My boyfriend had a Star Trek manual and the other night he bought a comic book of The Seven Per Cent Solution in an auction that he gave to me to sign by the author. But Meyer didn’t show- he was already backstage getting ready for the movie. I was pissed.

It wasn’t until after I texted my beau that I wasn’t going to get his stuff signed when my dad told me, “Go outside- Nick Meyer is at the table signing things now,” just after the movie started playing post technical difficulties. (The sound on the DVD wasn’t working in the ballroom, so the sound guys had to fix it and my dad went up to Meyer to tell him the situation. Meyer was not happy about it.)

So, I now have a signed copy of a comic book and a Star Trek manual, waiting to be given as presents to my lover. At least I didn’t scream when I was almost stood up and I can surprise my boyfriend on Wednesday when I see him.

Even though Anthony wasn’t able to see the con and go to the panels for the heavy $60 fee on Saturday, he did get a chance to pay for the $10 badge for Saturday night to see the masquerade with me and meet my sci fi family. He called a few people sir, but they said, “No, don’t call me sir! You’re too polite, call me by my first name!” They were very friendly and they were happy to see that I wasn’t single and lonely anymore.

I think he had fun anyway for that night. We didn’t stay for Ten Forward because the party didn’t start until 11 p.m. and he had to go to work in the morning. He also already had dinner before he came to see me when I thought we’d have dinner together. So he said that I owed him for getting me dinner in a hurry before I had to go help with the costume show. I still feel bad about that night.

I will say that the funniest performances that night were the Catwoman and the two female Ghostbusters fighting off a giant inflatable Pikachu. That was my mom’s favorite entry- she thought the person inside the giant Pikachu was adorable.

Farpoint, Balticon, Shore Leave, I always have family to see three times a year at those cons. I’m very happy to see them every year no matter what. I just hope I get to be an author guest at one of those cons when I get Super Frost published.

Now, back to writing.