My TwiTour Experience
by Bri (@1breezybri)
Checking in at the Parsippany, NJ Hilton was surreal. Every other person was wearing something Twilight related and I felt like I had found “my people.” My friend, K, and I brought our bags up to the room and quickly descended to register at the table since we were Gold Ticket Pass holders and were allowed to do everything first before the other attendees.
Like molesting cardboard Edward.
There were banners and posters galore telling us that we had officially entered the Twifandom. I have to admit, K and I squee'd like junior high school girls. With our Gold Passes secured around our necks with lanyards, we entered the vendor room. It was the only room open that early in the morning so we began to look around at all the merchandise that was available.
That's when we noticed we had company. Directly behind us was The Hillywood Show. Since there were so few of us there that early, we immediately got in the short line to get their autographs and have our picture taken with the cute fake-sters. The Hillywood Show (
link) is a small production company featuring Hannah and Hilly Hindi. Hannah (Alice) directs all of the Show's spoofs and they and their friends act out the appropriate parts. Hannah was extremely pleasant to talk to and was more than happy to tell us about the show and ask that we tell people about their website.
We wound up at a merch table for WeBook Apparel that is co-run by Fanfiction diva, Tex_belle. She was extremely friendly and just generally excited to be there. We talked fic for a while and I was very impressed by her drive, ambition, and intensity for all things Twilight. Her beta, Tigress5cubs, is a very intelligent woman and a successful lawyer and I am proud that people like her exist in the fandom.
Friday was day one and it included Q&A sessions and autographs with Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight's director) and Gil Birmingham (Billy Black). They both had incredible insight and knowledge about the world they helped to create. Catherine studied architecture in college and said that it helped her in her quest to be a director because it is all about problem solving. You must build something to legal specifications that is also beautiful and artistic and she said that describes directing to a tee.
She also delighted in telling us that at the beginning of the Twilight road, Rob told her that he was getting a lot of disparaging responses from people about his being cast as Edward. When Catherine told him to stop looking at blogs online, he said, "no, they're in emails from my mum!" Hilarious!
Catherine also divulged that a certain red-head that's been cast for Eclipse was originally offered the role for Twilight but she was uninterested in such a seemingly small project. Ha. I repeat, BRING BACK RACHELLE!!
If all that wasn't spicy enough, she also said that the reason a certain caramel colored vamp-mom wasn't included in the garage scene because she spends way too much time in the bathroom. I swear, the things you learn at conventions!
Gil was up next and was very articulate. He made it known that he was extremely proud to play the role of Billy Black for two reasons in particular: one, he was able to play a native american in a contemporary role that did not involve poverty or reservations so that we could see how modern american indians are “just like everyone else”, and two, he sat in Billy's wheelchair with honor, saying that you don't realize how lucky you are to be able to go where you want to go when you want to go there until you are at the mercy of a wheelchair.
One of his funny stories was when Billy Burke (Charlie Swan) was bringing Gil (as Billy Black) up the front steps of Charlie's house in the wheelchair and dropped him! Gil asked Billy if he was drinking, lol. He was also very confused as to how Billy Black could be driving a pick-up truck (the grrrr stare down with Eduardo) considering he was, ya know, in a fricking wheelchair and all. The producers literally said, "eh, it's ok, don't worry about it."
*blink, blink*
We noticed.
Day two involved Q&A and autograph sessions with Edi Gathegi (Laurent), and the wolfpack boys, Kiowa Gordon (Embry Call), Alex Meraz (Paul), and Chaske "Mufasa" Spencer (Sam Uley).
Chaske was James Earl Jones, no lie.
"SIMBA..."
The best part of seeing our boys up there on that stage was to truly realize that they are just human beings like the rest of us. They laughed together, joked together, and even razzed each other. The stars we know and love have become a family and it all started with a beautiful novel by Stephenie Meyer.
Alex told us that aside from hitting on Kiowa while he was in a wig, he also taught him how to throw a punch. Kiowa got a little overzealous and gave Alex a nice wallop. Alex also said that in the scene when Kristen (as Bella) walks up to the wolfpack and confronts Sam and the other boys about Jake's transformation, he went over the top one take and partially strangled Kristen. She was taken aback but went with it and the producers at Summit FREAKED THE FRICK OUT...saying "no one touches Kristen Stewart." LOL 'Cept Rob ;o) Yeah, I said it.
Alex said that he apologized like crazy and felt like one of the sour patch kids from the commercials..."I'm sowwy!"..."First they're sour, then they're sweet." Too cute.
Kiowa, or Ki as he signed my book, was ADORABLE!! He was playing video games with his friends when his mom called and he had to pause the game in the typical teenage-kid-in-an-80's-movie moment. Perfect! Then somehow, he got talked into singing, and the first lyrical words out of his mouth were, "My mama takes the morning train..." with Chaske and Alex acting as his back-up dancers. They had skillz, trust.
When we were in line to get the wolfpack's autograph, Kiowa Gordon (Embry Call) was sitting to my right with no one at his station, smiling up at me. I asked him, "so Ki, are you bored yet?" to which he responded, "no, but I've really gotta take a leak."
Then I said, "Wow, thank you for that," and he giggled and said, "hehe, welcome."
K and I eventually wound up at TGIFridays in the midst of all the commotion only to be greeted by our server, Jessica. Couldn't escape that bitch!
The Vampire Ball was the second night of the convention and all I will say is *swoon* for a hug from Gil Birmingham and a hug AND a kiss on the temple from Alex Meraz. All of my old and new Twifriends were dressed to the nines and we partied with the abandon of normal humans that would soon go back to the daily grind.
My new buuuuuudddddies. They were the shiznit. Ya know, if I were Snoop Dogg.
There were other nighttime shenanigans that included livin it up with "Edward" and "Jacob" and Heather, the photographer, of
Fire and Ice Photos.
Somehow, Fakob (Mike Martinez) ended up becoming my buddy and there were drunken times to be had.
I still don't know how he ended up on my lap.
The ball ended with a beautiful performance by "Edward" (Daniel Jackson) on the piano. Throughout the convention, he played Carter Burwell's "Bella's Lullabye" and various other songs. My favorite, by far, was Yiruma's "River Flows in You" which never fails to take my breath away.
Of course, it could have been other reasons that I enjoyed his company. Just sayin.
All in all, it was a fantastic time and I highly recommend it to anyone who has the good fortune to find themselves in the general vicinity of a convention.
Color version of pic from above:
And lastly, me being a dirty hOor.
The rest of the pics can be seen on my
Photobucket or on
Heather's Blogger,
Gabby's FB page, or
Lisa's FB page!
That is all.
