November 26, 2003
My photo with Juliet Landau
Another Buffy pic; this one is with
Unfortunately, the photographer managed to cut off the top of my head.
My photo with James Marsters
Though Spike speaks with a British accent, James is actually a Californian.
UPDATE: Please read! This is NOT James Marsters's website. This website belongs to the guy who's in the picture with James. Leaving a comment for James here is not going to do you any good, because this is NOT his website.
Last Chase
This is the final picture in my series with
More Chase
This is my second photo with
That's right: I have three different Starfleet uniforms.
After all, I wouldn't want people seeing me wear the same uniform I had at the previous convention. What a fashion faux pas that would be!
November 25, 2003
My First Star Trek Photo
My first couple of Star Trek conventions were in Houston while I was going to law school. They were fan-run conventions with no actors as guests.
After I moved to Washington, D.C., I went to my first major Star Trek convention, and it was at that convention that I met my first Star Trek actor:
Chase played Leeta the Dabo girl on Deep Space 9. It was a fairly minor recurring role that got bigger as time went on.
Because she was not a "headliner" star, she took time to chat with the fans as she signed autographs, and she was happy to do photos. I've met her at several conventions since that first one, and she's always been friendly to the fans. (In fact, I think I've seen Chase at more conventions than anyone except Marina Sirtis.)
Chase recently released a CD on which she sings various torch song classics. The CD is called Thrill of the Chase, and it's available from her fan club website. I'm not particularly a fan of jazz music, but she's got a very good voice and she performs the songs well.
(And yes, I'm a member of her fan club.)
November 18, 2003
I'm Taller than Orson Scott Card
In July, I spent a week at Orson Scott Card's Literary Boot Camp. It was a great experience, and I learned a lot. I keep meaning to write more about that experience, and I suppose I'll get to it one of these days.
Anyway, this is a picture of me with Orson Scott Card. He may be a literary giant, but as you can see he's very short in person.
JUST KIDDING! I'm actually just barely taller than he is, but he decided to "accentuate the difference in height" for the photo.
Logical
This was taken at a Creation convention in Phoenix in 1998 (or 1999 -- I'm not 100% sure. I'll have to look it up.)
This was back in the days before conventions were selling photo-op tickets.
Apparently the convention promoters hadn't sold as many autographs for Leonard Nimoy as they had expected. So, as the autograph line was winding down, they were still trying to get people to buy additional autograph tickets (and they had a fairly large stack.)
Having already gotten his autograph, I waited until there were only about five people left in line, then I said that I'd buy a ticket if I could get a photo with him instead of an autograph. They said that was fine with them if it was OK with him.
It was.
November 14, 2003
My photo with Jeri Ryan
I just found this photo today while going through the boxes I brought over from my parents' basement a few weeks ago; I thought I'd lost it.
This was taken at a convention in Boston in July 1998. As you can see, Jeri was nice enough to look at the camera and smile for the photo.
Now, a photo taken like that didn't cost me anything. (Yes, I paid for convention admission and for the autograph, but I paid nothing extra for the photo.) But when it comes to major stars I actually prefer the paid photo ops.
Why? Less stress.
With the photo ops, I know I'm going to get the picture. I don't have to worry about finding someone to actually take the picture. I don't have to think about whether one of the convention promoters is going to step in to stop photo-taking in order to speed up the autograph line.
Anyway, enough about that. You want to know about Jeri's convention appearance.
Unfortunately, I can't remember very many details, since it was several years ago. I do remember that she auctioned off (for charity) a couple of the Borg items she had worn on the show. I also remember that a woman asked her a question implying that the character of Seven of Nine was degrading to women, and as I recall she handled it pretty well, pointing out that Seven's character was intelligent and strong-willed.
November 12, 2003
My autograph from Lisa Kushell
The story of how and why I got this autograph was told in a comment on another entry, and I thought I'd use that as an excuse to post the picture. Here's the story, so you don't have to go look at it on the other page:
A few years ago, I was at a [Star Trek] convention and a someone from the Oxygen network was there, interviewing people who had just gotten William Shatner's autograph. She was asking them how much they would pay for her autograph.She interviewed me and we joked a bit about how much her autograph would be worth, and how it would be worth more if she'd actually been on Star Trek. Then she mentioned she'd been on an episode of the X-Files, and I said that was close enough.
So, if you play your cards right, you might be able to get away with pretending to have appeared on a genre show.
(By the way, the interviewer's name was Lisa Kushell, and she really did play a call girl in the X-Files episode "Orison.")
At the time I spoke with her, I couldn't remember that particular episode, so I couldn't say that I remembered her character. Later, when I looked up the episode, I realized that I would have instantly remembered her character if she'd mentioned that she played a call girl with a red wig. (The red wig was important to the plot.)
UPDATE: It turns out the interview bit she did at the convention is available on her website. I'm not in it, though. But it's pretty funny.
November 10, 2003
My Ultimate Star Trek Souvenir
I've chosen to start my photo blog with what I used to call my "Holy Grail" of Star Trek souvenirs. I started getting my photo with Trek stars about six years ago. Getting photos with stars of lesser magnitude was not too hard, but since William Shatner only appeared at major conventions, I doubted I would get a chance to get a posed picture with him.
Then, some of the convention promoters began to offer "photo ops" with the stars, and so last March at a convention in Pasedena, I was able to get my picture taken with him. In August, I was able to get it autographed at a convention in Las Vegas.