CouverCon 
 

October 23-25, 1998
A Benefit for The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation

I'd resolved myself to the fact that there was no way I could attend this con, since my husband had lost his job. Well, imagine my surprise when Nancy "Ma" Reed (of the infamous Reed Gang; see my Set Visit report) e-mailed me and asked if I wanted to go to the con since her youngest son Eric couldn't attend. The ticket was paid for and all I had to do was chip in for gas and the hotel. How could I resist?

Here's my Con report:

WARNING!! It's long; it's *very* detailed (obsessed... me? No way! I'm a Virgo) and is probably more than you ever wanted to know about TS (well, maybe not). <bg>

10/21/98

Nancy, her son Travis, and I arrived late Wednesday night. We stayed at the Greenbrier on Robson. Our room had two beds, a sofa bed and a small kitchenette so we could grab food from Safeway and cook it. Certainly saved some big bucks. We shared the room with Melissa Selby and Deborah Davison. Our room number was 307 (coincidence or fate?)

The only 'bad' thing about the Greenbrier was the fact they had no elevator. Man, I thought those stairs were gonna be the death of me. (Hey, I'm old, okay?) And parking in the garage was an adventure. You had tiny little spaces and concrete supports to maneuver around.

10/22/98

After breakfast we drove out to Pet Fly to make sure we knew how to get there. Took the mandatory pic of the sign with the Paramount, Viper, and TS logos as well as the Sentinel 'eye'.

As we were walking back to the car, someone spotted a window sticker with TS on it. I got a pic. It had the Sentinel eye with an eight ball where the iris should be. Above the pic it said The Sentinel; and below the eye was Film Unit. The bottom of the sticker had Season Four Productions, Inc. and the Pet Fly address and phone number along with the Paramount logo.

We left Pet Fly and headed over to Stanley Park. The weather in Vancouver was just beautiful. Warm, sunshine, 70ish temperatures (not exactly normal for this time of year). Nancy, Travis, Melissa, and Deborah went to the aquarium and I waited outside for them and took pictures.

I got hungry waiting so I bought a hot dog and drink from the vendor. As I paid for the food the man said, "Hide the hot dog under your shirt until you sit down. If you don't the seagulls will swoop down and grab it right out of your hand. They're very aggressive." Little did I know it wasn't the seagulls I had to worry about.

Sat down and started to eat, taking the time to look around at everything. Next thing I knew there was a black squirrel on the table, inching forward and trying to steal my hot dog! I did give him some of the bun, even though you're not supposed to feed *any* of the animals in the park. Snapped a few pics of the squirrel and a close-up of a gull.

The others came out and they had some food, then we headed back to the hotel for a short rest. Later that evening the Ad Group had a get together at the Hard Rock Cafe. Got a pic of a poster featuring Santana (hey, it's Sentinel
related), and had a great time meeting and talking with people.

10/23/98

We were scheduled for a set tour at 1:00. Before we left for Pet Fly we stopped at a Mr. Tube Steak to eat. <g>

What can I say about being on the set? It was awesome. Seeing up close and personal the stuff you only casually see on TV. Took lots and lots of pics (are you tired of hearing this yet?) including close ups of Simon's business cards, the pics on Jim's desk, and Jim's duck cup in the break room.

The Loft... Yes, they now have a blue sofa. And even though I took pics of the 'big stuff', I was more interested in the little details, like the books on the shelf in the living room and the tapes.

Books: An eclectic mix; I'll just give you titles. The Illearth War; Wheels; The Pizza Connection; Management of Urinary Tract Infections; Life Extension; Finite Mathematics with Applications; The Emergence of Man; Stars Come Out Within; The Dolorosa Deal; Birds of North America; Pilgrm at Tinker Creek; Burrowing Birds; The Foxfire Book; Foxfire 2, 3 & 4; Voyage of the Stella; The Great Red Island; The Dinosaur Project; Dru Skin; Social Psychology; Single-Variable Calculus; Glaucoma; A Little of What You Fancy; The Sign of the Twisted Candles; Reaching Out; Principles of Oil Well Production; Bottom High to the Crowd; Instrument/commercial pilot manual; Henry & Claire An Intimate Portrait of the Luces; Functional Planning of General Hospitals; Introduction to Materials Science; Conquest of Mexico/Conquest of Peru; Birding Around the Year; Treatment Strategies for Refractory Depression; In Search of France; His&Hers; These United States; None of the Above; The Time-Life Series, Great Ages of Man: Imperial Rome; Byzantium; Age of Progress; Age of Kings; Twentieth Century; Imperial Rome; Age of Enlightenment; Age of Exploration; Classical Greece; Complete Karate; Where Birds Live; Anthropology; Two volumes of Foreign Affairs, Summer 1985 & Winter 1985/86; Making of the Nation; an annual edition of Anthropology 95/96; Angler's Bible; America Today and Yesterday; Cultural Anthropology; Sea Sense; Cold Storage; Foreign Affairs Fall 1984; Heath Language Arts; Birds: Alternative Names; King Soloman's Ring; Shorebirds of North America; The Birdwatcher's Book of Lists; Coping with Teenage Depression; Cruise Ships; National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds; Foreign Birds Their Care and Breeding; A Cat Called Amnesia; Advanced Birding; How to Catch Trout; Banana Blitz; Tan Your Hide!; No Treason; People Without Government; and a few others I either couldn't read the names of or they got cut off in the pics.

Cassettes: Night Sighs Dec 31, 94; Annette (with an address written below it); Annette July 12; Sounds of Silence; Having Fun Yet?; Led Zepplin at Club Med 1970; Kill Me, Kill You by Gil; Surveillance #6013; 75001-54002 Module 4.

CD's: H2O; Prokofiev Symphony No 5; Whitney Houston, I'm Every Woman; DH1, pressures collide; Michelle Wright/The Change; Curtis Stigers, Never Saw a Miracle; John Gogo, It Never Fails; and a bunch of jewel cases with no names on them.

Maureen Caine was our guide on the tour. She used to be Garett's stand-in, but is now the Executive Assistant to Bob Hargrove, a producer for TS. After we saw Major Crimes and the Loft, Maureen took us over to the 'temple of the sentinel' set for S2, part 2. Bob Bottieri took over tour duties.

After that we left and went back to the hotel again before heading over to the Westin for registration. Later that night we attended the Mixer (it was disco and *very* loud), but got to meet some more people even though we had to shout to hear one another.

10/24/98

Got up early to hear the talk on Breaking into Screenwriting. It was quite interesting and fun. Jim's truck was in the back of the room, roped off. The rest of the day is pretty much a blur, I'm afraid. Except for Tim Thomerson, who almost had me PMP cause I was laughing so hard. I can just imagine what the set of The Rig was like when he and Richard got together.

Ryf retold the story of a practical joke he'd played on Richard. He took some toilet paper, smooshed a brownie, then spread it down the two pieces. He then hooked the paper on the back of Richard's pants before he went out to film a scene. Richard knew something was up when the camera started to shake cause the cameraman was laughing so hard.

Ryf also told us that during the scene in S2 when Garett was pulled from the fountain, the producer took a bucket of ice water and threw it on him. Brrrrr... Also, while Richard was giving Garett mouth-to-mouth, he decided to see how far down Garett's throat he could stick his tongue. Garett finally jumped up and yelled, "Ewwwww... that's *so* gross!"

During the filming of S2, part 2 Richard also had a bucket of ice water thrown on him during a scene. However, he didn't react, just continued to 'float'.

Bob Chapin was *gorgeous* and told us an interesting story about the making of the Errol Flynn movie, Captain Blood. Back in those days, the actors really were expert swordsmen; it was part of their training. Basil Rathbone, an accomplished actor and probably most known for playing Sherlock Holmes in the movies, was being paid $3,000 a week; Flynn's salary was $500 a week. Apparently Flynn wasn't too thrilled about practicing his sword play, and at one point Rathbone walked up to him and said, "You're not even worth the $500."

I didn't get to see the Bilson pilot because a handful of us went out to dinner with Melanie Angel and Ricardo Scarabelli. Poor Ricardo was obviously exhausted, but came anyway. He said he thought of the fans as 'clients', and he felt a duty to make sure we were well taken care of. As we were walking back to the hotel, Ricardo stopped and bought a cigar, which he was smoking. Melanie mentioned they had to stop at the liquor store (I knew where it was cause it was next to the Safeway we shopped at earlier in the day). Ricardo turned to me and asked if I'd hold his cigar. Nancy pulled out her Polaroid and snapped a pic! What I didn't know until they came out was that when Ricardo was standing in line, he said, "Look at the woman out there smoking a cigar."

10/25/98

As you've already heard, Richard was late coming to the brunch. Turns out the limo company forgot to pick him up! The food at the brunch wasn't much better than at the con in April, and I had to ask twice for a cup of coffee. They were way understaffed.

Everything was a bit rushed after that. Leigh Taylor-Young had to leave so I never did get her autograph.

There was definitely a different feel to this con compared to the one in April. It's hard to describe. Maybe someone else can put it into words. But I certainly don't regret attending. I got to meet a lot more people this time and had a blast.

I took eight rolls of film (192 pics in all), so I've broken this section into subgroups:

Cascade PD Headquarters
The Loft
Richard Burgi
Garett Maggart
Other Con Guests
Stanley Park
The Temple of the Sentinel set from Sentinel, Too, part 2
Miscellaneous
 

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