4 Responses to "Staggering Stories Podcast #127: The Silent Stars Go Mahna Mahna"

1. Staggering Stories Podcast says:

   4 March 2012 at 15:14

   Here’s Andre’s feedback that Keith so ruthlessly cut down!

   Hello to all members, real, fictional and otherwise undermined components of The Staggering Stories Team! Let us take a minute to realize that once again no one has said hello to the non-living components of the show. It’s ok we’ll wait…..

   Done? Good. I am sending you a hello from what is quite possibly the best Doctor Who convention in this or any other world. OK I am home already but if I had a phone number I would have called and screamed LOBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBYYYYYYCOOOOOOON!!!! Of course with the time difference you would have been at work, It would be left on your answering machine and it would have been a non issue this year.

   OK well I arrived on Wednesday and proceeded to stock my personal bar in my room. I went light this year only vodka, more vodka, rum, Jack Daniels, bourbon, gin, beer, hard cider (in deference to Jean’s previous complaints on the lack of cider) and proper mixers. I also bought Twinkies yes those sweet delicious cream filled bastions of goodness. Also with various other snacks I was ready for Gallifrey. Oh and cigarettes Cheap California cigarettes which I don’t understand because they always claim to be so healthy out there. But they were a mere 2 dollars after my big NY coupons cut the price in half.

   Anyway where was I? Amongst the first people I saw there were Chris from Radio Free Skaro and his lovely girlfriend Katrina. I promptly picked Chris up as well as I could. He is slightly taller then I so this was difficult. I later saw Paul and Little Pete from The Pharos Project. These were people that I could easily pick up and swing around and thus did so.

   Later Paul and I were the last two people at Wednesday’s Lobbycon which ended early at 3 am. I did however spend a portion of Wednesday loading the truck that brings all the goodies to the Marriott. While not exactly what I had planned on doing on vacation I am a firm believer that helping out at a fan run convention is an excellent thing to do especially if it has rewards later in the weekend.

   Thursday I shuffled out of the hotel to Denny’s with a few close friends then on to the liquor store to stock up again and then out across California with Michelle H of The Happiness Patrol to her old haunts and a stop by the local meet up pub for the LA branch of the MCFC supporters club to watch a bit of the Porto game.

   After that and buying some more fabric for my costume we headed back to the hotel stopping along the way for Chocodiles the wonderful chocolate covered Twinkies. Then I helped with the offload of the Gally Truck and helped build the TARDIS that is located on the stage in the main hall. After a trip to world famous Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles I attended LobbyCon and had an interesting morning with breakfast at the hotel and a trip for the last of my alcohol for my room bar. I also shipped 8 cases of chocodiles back to NY for distribution to various coworkers. In fact I am eating one now. The best description as to how they taste was given to me my a friend that had one for the first time yesterday. “These things taste like dreams”.

   OK We are now at Friday! Opening ceremonies. I missed this. I have no memory what I was doing but I missed it. The Radio Free Skaro panel was great and had Camille Corduri in what was the shortest dress of the weekend. It made me realise that I would choose her over Billie Piper everyday and twice on Sunday! Yum (ok down boy) I did attend various panels during the day such as “Miracle or Mistake: A Torchwood Miracle Day review. I did this one primarlly due to the fact that I have a similar panel at ICON 31 in March (along with 6 other panels I am completely mental you know). The IDW panel was lovely along with some art from the upcoming IDW Doctor Who Star Trek The Next Generation crossover. I went to other panels, recorded bumpers, and prepped my costume for Saturday. I did stop by and got Caitlin Blackwood’s autograph. I mentioned that I had a friend costume as her last year and her mother asked about it and if she (my friend ) had fun. I said well it was actually a man in his mid 40’s that costumed as her but it was done very tastfully. She then took down all of El Presidente’s information so congratulations as I believe that you will shortly have BOTH Amy Pond’s restraining order against you! (Just kidding about the restraining order)
   Oh and I drank copiously and picked people up. (Please see attached photos)

   Saturday was another full day filled with autographs, panels, and various other things including the Masquerade http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qbBw2ZZ3gs&list=FLvTr39-DtNXdfP65NAUDMOA&index=1&feature=plpp_video alright can you pass the email to whoever did not watch that video? We also recorded a Gallifrey version of the TARDIS Tavern Podcast. I also won a presentation award for my costume! Later I interview Simon Fisher-Becker and had twinkies with him at LobbyCon which I stayed up until Starbucks opened at 5am.

   The next morning I was rudely woken up by liver wanting to have a talk about the past few days. I told him that we would talk shortly but I was hallucinating right now could he please come back after a few drinks as it was 8:30 and I needed breakfast as well. Sunday was a day like all the others but with some differences. More autographs, more panels, more interview and bumper recording, and I got interviewed for a change. This time it was due to my costume which as you know by now was a set of ribbons. The interview was done by the good people at Nerdist who have a youtube channel coming out soon. went to more panels and eventually Closing Ceremonies it was stellar as usual with a huge fabulous treat in it Simon Fisher-Becker doing his Monologue from the Wedding of River Song. You know the one. It ‘s the one that ends with Doctor WHO? Doctor WHO?. I felt immense pity for Toby Hayes as he was then handed the microphone. I would have felt sorry for anyone that had to follow that.

   The evening ended with Shaun Lyons stating that they will tell us eventually who next years headliner will be. All he said though was that it will be huge as they are pulling out all the stops for the anniversary year. With that in mind I have already Pre-Registered for next year. I have also started squirring money away for hotel airfare and of course the big expense… my bar tab. With closing ceremonies over this let to two things the big lobbycon party as well as the Volunteer Party. I attended both. The volunteer party was notable as one of the main convention runners proposed to his girlfriend at the party. I loved this but I am a huge girl when it comes to things like this. The other thing that I loved was arguing football with Paul McGann. As a Manchester City supporter who can date his support from before the Sheik bought the club and him being a Liverpool fan we had much to talk about.
   Later it was up stairs to party and drink, and drink some more and continue until Starbucks opened at 5 am.

   Monday. The saddest of days. I awoke at 9am and went to breakfast. Bumped into Simon Fisher-Becker that prince among men and had breakfast with him and Michelle H of the Happiness Patrol. Breakfast was grand and we said our eventual goodbyes. I packed my bags realized I was 20 pounds over the limit and had to unpack various things and finish what food and booze I could to get me under 50 pounds. This would not be too hard as I had an 11:30 pm flight. Do you have any idea how mindnumbing boring it is to spend a day in a hotel lobby? I ended up watching via twitter all of them leaving and going home and arriving before I had even left the lobby. The flight was as usual a royal pain as not only am I fat but tall as well. There was no sleep until I got home and took a 4 hour nap. Then went to bed early and slept for 11 hours straight.

   Well that is the condensed version.
   All the best
   Andre Tessier
   TARDIS Tavern Podcast
   (Available on iTunes also http://tardistavern.libsyn.com/)

   Log in to Reply
2. Andre says:

   4 March 2012 at 23:31

   Sigh. what about the audio feedback I sent in?

   Log in to Reply
3. Nea says:

   5 March 2012 at 23:31

   Where is the tea duelling? I got all excited to see that.

   Log in to Reply
4. Adam J Purcell says:

   7 March 2012 at 17:12

   Yes, sorry about that again, Andre. We will certainly include your audio feedback next time. It was lost amongst your wonderful Gally photos.

   Sorry Nea, the Tea Duelling URL is hidden away in those links but there are rather more than usual this time! Jean’s video can be found on the fledgling Staggering Stories YouTube channel at: http://youtu.be/EbbYRjesSjw

   Log in to Reply