Blog on the Lillypad
Saturday, November 29, 2003
 | It's the Convention Report! Day 2
Day Two of the Doctor Who convention dawned gray and cold, and by afternoon, snow was falling. Inside the hotel, however, everything was sunny. Breakfast began with the Sheraton's vast and diverse buffet. One of the Doctor Who celebs, Anneke Wilks, was down there early, and we chatted for a moment before finding plates. She went off to the VIP section, and my two convention cronies, Tom and Kevin, found me and we ate together. |
Later, the merchandise room opened. I went in and bought four hard-to-get stories on video and then saw Kevin and called, "Kevin, do you have any money?" This earnest call made everybody laugh, but good old Kevin coughed up $20 for me so I could by an audio story that he had recommended. Later, I went to the ATM and paid him back. He was pleased that I had immediately purchased a story he had recommended.
 | Anneke Wills and Frazer Hines played two companions to the Second Doctor (Remember, I am a fan of the Third Doctor, but I have seen several Second Doctor episodes, and he is my second favorite.) They told stories about working on the series. (Both of them, of course, had been in their early twenties--perhaps late teens, and Patrick Troughton, the man who played the second Doctor, had been fortyish atthe time.)
Patrick Troughton had been both fatherly and yet a rascal, and his favorite way of getting through the long days had been to form a tightly knit group of happy friends who played practical jokes. Frazer told of a scene in which the Doctor (Troughton) and Jamie (played by Frazier himself) were supposed to dash a half cup of cold water into the face of an unconscious victim of a ravenous alien creature who eats every living thing he finds. The Doctor scoops up a small cup half filled with water, dashes it in her face and exclaims, "Peri! Peri! Wake up! We've got to get you out of here!" And the lovely Peri blinks and says, "Oh Doctor! What's happened? Help me up!" |
| So they did it once the right way, and then by prearrangement the director told them they had to do it again. So the girl who played Peri lay back down on the slab and feigned unconsciousness. Then the two men ran in with a huge bucket of water between them and threw it over her and Troughton exclaimed, in character, "Peri! Peri! Wake up! We've got to get you out of here!" To her credit, the young lady who played Peri, trying not to sputter and---drenched from head to foot---blinked and said in perfect character "Oh Doctor! What's happened? Help me up!" to the delight of the crew. |  |
The jokes were frequent and usually slapstick, but Frazer told of finding a hat with a logo that said, "Boring Old Fart" on the front So he gave it to Troughton as a joke, and Troughton's eyes actually got wet and he said, "Frazer, do I really come across as a boring old fart?" And he was so concerned and worried that Frazer had to reassure him. Anneke also recalled that once she got comfortable working with Patrick (after a year with Bill Hartnell as te First Doctor), she and her co-star Michael Craze (Ben) bought t-shirts that said "Bring Back Bill Hartnell". They thought this would be hilariously funny, but Troughton was crushed.
Meanwhile, our other guest (who played the Sixth Doctor), went down to the merchandise room to meet people and shake hands (on his own time, which was very nice). He has taken great pains to learn again every character name and person who played each character (even minor, one-off characters) during his stint as the Doctor to keep his anecdotes vivid for the fans (because the fans love to hear stories about the behind-the-scenes stuff). He is a big man in every way, and I was really impressed with how carefully he does a good job. I shook hands with him and told him I follow his adventures on audio and really enjoy them. I thanked him for coming.
Back to the pub for beer and lunch with Tom and Kevin. Kevin and I split an overpriced lunch of chicken fingers and fries. The snow was coming down and nobody wanted to drive out to find cheaper food.
| Tom, Kevin, and I spent some time together and were joined by others who wandered in, stopped to talk, and ordered food or beer or both. Then back to the dealers' room just to look at the tables. At 4:00, Fraser, Anneke, and Colin were all on stage for a tribute to Pat Troughton. The program began with a 3-minute video from Troughton himself as he introduced a PBS call-in viewing of the show back in the 80's. On air, he twitted Colin Baker for his weight. But he was charming and endearing to watch, and it lent a moment's poignancy to the program. Once again, it was clear---especially with Colin Baker---that they had made an effort to recall stories and details to tell us. |  |
 | Later in the evening, we had only one fan video to watch. It started incredibly well but wilted as it progressed (which happens a lot), so I finally left and came upstairs to my room for some sleep. I am having a really wonderful time and feel much better, though I am watching what I eat very carefully and avoiding the foods that have bothered me. I've only had two beers each day instead of my usual rate of three per day at a convention. When I sleep, I sleep very well, and two days have gone by with no tightness in my chest. Last night I had a brief moment where I felt like my throat was having trouble, but it passed as soon as it came. Stay tuned for the next report! |
Friday, November 28, 2003
 | Live From the Convention Floor! |
Day #1: Well, the final part of my trip was through driving rain--bad enough to send me hydroplaning on a bridge in Louisville KY, but it was a "short spin". I arrived on my second day of driving (Thanksgiving Day) at about 2:00 EST, which was 1:00 Chicago time. I'd been in the lobby for five minutes when I spotted Tom Beck, organizer of the "Prydonians of Princeton," a New Jersey Doctor Who fan club. He introduced me to Karen, an accountant from Philly who runs the autograph sessions at the Panopiticon Convention in England. We had Thanksgiving dinner together.
Tom used to be so hardcore in his fandom that he didn't even make friends outside of SF fandom, but two years ago a diagnosis of diabetes was a wake up call to him. He's lost a lot of weight, has rekindled his Jewish faith, and is now building a relationship with a woman that he hopes will lead to marriage. He and I have had many good discussion comparing the Jewish and Christian faiths. And yesterday was no different. We started to talk about a person's duty to his or her neighbor, but we were interrupted when more people came.
| After finishing there, I made a quick run up to the room for the back stretcher, as my back was hurting a lot. After thirty minutes of hanging down, I returned to the elevators and entered a car to join Anneke Wills, except I didn't know it was Anneke Wills. I'm a Third Doctor fan, and Anneke played a companion (Polly) to the First Doctor and the Second Doctor. We smiled at each other and said hello. She cordially asked me if I was with the hockey tournament (ie, one of the moms), and I cheerfully said no, I was part of the Doctor Who convention. I saw the slight look of surprise in her eyes and just figured that since I wasn't wearing the typical regalia (Doctor Who T-shirt, buttons, scarf, multi-color overcoat etc.), I had not seemed like one of the fans. We said goodbye and I went out to hunt up friends. The next day, I saw Anneke again at breakfast and apologized, but she laughed it off, took my hand, and said it was fine. |  |
A woman I've not met before, Adina, showed up from California. She was tired but hungry and didn't want to spend $20 on dinner at the hotel café, so I told her I'd ride with her to find a Denny's or something. The easy camaraderie of the convention is one of the things I like best about it. Adina is a gentle, softspoken, amazing person. She navigated us around the northwest sectors of the Chicago metro area in her rented Ford Explorer with finesse. She's lived in England, visited Australia, and been all over the US. Plus she cared for a father who died of leukemia and a mother who died of Alzheimers, but she told me none of it was as bad as it sounds. Her mother had lucid moments and they had a great relationship, and she came away glad that she spent a few years personally caring for her. At 38 she is now able to pick up her education again. She's studying Middle Eastern studies at Stanford University ("Just to get the degree," she tells me. "I'll never use it.") So we talked about the Koran and the Sufist poets. I've read the first two books of the Koran, and her brief overview helped me.
 | Back at the hotel, the bar was filling up. I joined a large group and had a good time comparing opinions on various Doctor Who stories. Two different fellows bought me beers, which was very nice of them. I had, of course, Bass Ale. And no ill effects except I was tired when I walked into the room and the beers made me a lot more tired. My vote for stupidest Doctor Who story goes to a two-part bit of nonsense called "The Sontaran Experiment," which is nothing other than a story of a monstrous creature torturing humans until the Doctor saves them, except he's too late on all of them except for his own companion, Sarah Jane. He does manage to save her, thus ensuring that the series could continue and would not be ended by a horrible alien creature from one of the most predictable stories I have ever seen. |
| However, "Sontaron Experiment" is not gloriously stupid enough, according to the others. The favorite pick for stupidest story in the opinion of most of the others is a four parter called "Time Lash". I must admit, a story that produces such gems of dialogue as "No, no, not the mind probe!" is pretty bad. But I think the reason most fans hate "Time Lash" even more than the other occasional duds in the series is because some clever person figured out that the title, "Time Lash" is actually an anagram for "Lame Shit". |  |
I'd been up at 3:30 and went to bed at ten. Now it's Friday morning, and I am getting ready to go downstairs for breakfast and meet up with others. My back is hurting me, but I have my inversion table here, and I've already been on it twice this morning. More later!
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
 | Just like the Flopsy Bunnies!
I've discovered a natural remedy for stress and anxiety! How many of you literate readers have read The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies by Beatrix Potter? Benjamin and his wife Flopsy and their many children dine on Farmer McGregor's lettuce, and because lettuce is soporific, it puts them all to sleep. Well, while one or two leaves of green lettuce (not iceberg) has no effect on humans, lettuce juice, just two or three ounces at a time, has remarkable sedative effects. I've been sipping it throughout the day and here it is past 11:00 a.m. and I'm doing pretty good. No throat spasms (though my glands on the left side are quite swollen). |
I have learned that while Dr. Norman Parker recommends lettuce juice for the spleen and liver, lettuce juice has been known by herablists for ages as an opiate. I suppose that getting it in sufficient quantities to get really spaced out is too difficult. But if you juice two full bunches of the green leaf lettuce you get between 6 - 8 ounces of juice. Mix that as one part with two parts carrot juice, and you get a bland, slightly sweet, dark green juice that makes you feel just right with the world.
Monday, November 24, 2003
 | Secret Radio now updated
Latest news from Grace Jovian is that Secret Radio has been updated with a new chapter. Click Here to see what's happening at Indianapolis's premier Baptist Church and college! |
 | Red Letter Day
So I got it, and now all my other symptoms---back pain, stress, throat closing, anxiety, are easing off. Nuts! I think, All of this mess is tied to my hormones. I suppose that's better than having it all be tied to a pair of bad lungs or a weak heart, but hormones are just so unregulatable (ha-ha!--new word!). This month, my Fist of Death never got out of hand. For the last two months, as Red Letter Day got closer and closer, I would get edgier and edgier and more irritated with people (though I always did recognize it was me being irritable and have thus kept my mouth shut so far). But the extreme irritability didn't happen this month. The throat thing, however, has been bad enough. |
This morning, my throat still has some soreness in it, but it does not feel thick and closed up---not much, anyway. I am somewhat crampy, but one Advil every four hours gets me through. Perhaps next month will be better. Everybody recommends soy, but tofu upsets my stomach. However, I have just discovered tempeh, which is a fermented soy product. I think it tastes better, and I prefer the texture. It stir fries better. Some people say eat a serving of it every day and menopausal symptoms will be relieved. We'll see.
Post Script This afternoon, my throat is bothering me a lot. Oh well! At least it was a nice morning!
