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After the visit to Cuddly Termite's Burbank offices, we headed for the hotel. Once again, there had been slight changes in plans after we had left my computer behind. We discovered that very view fen dressed as casually as I had expected. I normally don't worry about this sort of thing but I didn't want TPTB to discount our efforts as those of the great 'unwashed.' I needn't have worried about my own contribution to appearances, I soon discovered, since it wasn't my wardrobe but my gender that caused me to stand out in the crowd. Yes, listsibs, just as there are probably no more than 5 males on this list, there were perhaps a total of 5 males in the crowd. The demographics of the attending fen contrasted sharply with the demographics of the attending spokesMEN on stage. My roomie thinks I'm making too big a deal about this, but I found myself wondering just how well the two groups would be able to communicate with each other, whether in fact, what the fans asked for, the creators would even understand well enough to deliver. But I digress. Rather than an auditorium or theater setting, we found ourselves in some sort of banquet room at circular tables of about 8 each. Our hosts set up 3 TVs so that fen in all sections of the room could see the episode, one that would come midway in the 4th season. It was quite an amazing experience watching an ep in an audience of about 250 excited fans. I found myself laughing, listening to hundreds of women cheering and booing and laughing so loudly that I missed lines and even a sense of the whole episode. [Not a complaint, just an observation] They cheered when they saw the intro and heard the new music; they cheered when they saw the episode title and the names of the stars. They cheered and laughed at little character moments, little touches of continuity tying this episode to earlier ones. Without giving away too much of the episode, I wish to comment on a couple of aspects. This was a Jake-centric episode. We got to see more of him in his role as an academic, a role I can identify with. This was something I had been hoping for. But I felt that there was something lacking in the camaraderie between Joe and Jake. It's not just that there were fewer scenes in which they were on-screen together -- that made sense with the plot, I guess. But when they were on-screen, they seemed less 'together.' Their body language was more distant, separate. It bothered me. I'm hoping that this results from some logical, canonical situation and not from some homophobic political meddling. After we viewed the episode, we had the pleasure of seeing Davey Belman, Peter DuMaurier, Bill A. Yancy, and Robert Bergman take the stage for a brief Q&A. Robert was his usual charming, wry self, creating a 'spotlight' for himself from a small flashlight, as he walked on stage. Most of the Q&A was friendly and appropriate, a lot of the time spent in sort of a mutual admiration and gratitude. I've decided to focus on parts of the Q & A not exactly covered in previous reports. Or let's say that I plan to focus on that aspect a bit differently, when I post Part 3. --Wolf oooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooo
Whenever I see the names of collaborators linked together with an 'and,' I'm at least temporarily fooled into believing that they will be similar in personality and outlook. Fooled every time, even after knowing about Lennon and McCartney. Got to get over that. The names 'Belman and DuMaurier' had me fooled until I watched the Q&A. Can we say Yin and Yang? (I'll return to this later) So first I should start with the questions that were not asked, the 'negative space,' so to speak. The slash aficionados held their tongues, that of course being the politic thing to do. No one asked whether DB would relent, as has Chris Carter apparently done with Mulder and Scully, and allow the partners to 'leak' some of their true feelings for each other. I know *I* held back on that one. Also, while the fen were abuzz with the kind of gossip we are not allowed to discuss on WatchAD, no one sought to have our inferences confirmed. But it went further than this. We didn't refrain merely from asking whether Gary Magnum and a certain actress were 'an item.' We refrained from asking where the hell he was, I'm assuming because everyone was too embarrassed or polite to ask. And we all knew, anyway. But the silence sort of drew my attention to the fact that he was not there, but in Australia on vacation. It was a loud silence. OK, on to the questions that drew my attention. Before I left, I asked the listsibs which questions they wanted me to ask or report on. I'll answer those first. Panther asked whether, by looking at the new episode, we could tell if the new season would be more or less slashy. I think it's hard to tell how 8 episodes will go based on this one. My impression of this particular episode was that it was definitely LESS slashy. But I'm going to have to reassess when I view it in the context of the whole season, because I got the impression we were up against another 'arc,' in which one episode had to be understood in the context of those surrounding it. Yeah, I know, wishy-washy. Panther's other question had to do with the direction of season 5. Season 5 has NOT BEEN WRITTEN, yet. DB said he would not even start writing until May, when he found out whether there would even be a season 5. [He admits to having a general sort of idea, but no solid plans] There is a down side and an up side to this. The down side for me is that it seems as though he lacks confidence in the network's ability to see past their prejudices. He put all his effort into closing out this segment of the series, trying to go out with a bang, hoping he's left enough of a viable opening should TPTB get a clue. But the UP side is ... Hey, guys! we can write to him and make suggestions about how we want the 5th season to go -- things we would like to see! We can be involved in the brainstorming process. Way Cool!! Casey asked about what the network was going to do about advertising. What I found surprising was that DB and PDM said *they did not know* what the advertisers had planned. The whole advertising thing is out of their hands! A corollary to that is that merchandising, something they would LOVE to do, is also out of their hands. It's all up to US to request it. Big surprise for me! Now the thing that really stood out for me -- the differences between DB and PDM. The 'slashiest' question asked was a request for hugs between the guys. PDM did NOT 'get it.' He made a face like it was a weird request, like it was slightly off the wall or from left field or whatever. DB seemed to nod and say yes, he thought there were hugs. He was a bit befuddled but seemed to grasp the import of the question. PDM concluded that yes there were 'manly displays of affection.' In what I think was a related question, someone asked about the gender of the fan base. DB seemed quite happy with the fact that the 'fans were all women' [I knew what he meant, so I didn't take offense.] But PDM seemed to feel it was necessary to assert that there were a LOT of men out there watching -- millions in fact. They just didn't go to rallies or write letters. I couldn't tell whether PDM's concerns about demographics were political or personal. Finally, DB said that much of what went into these new, eight eps were as a result of things we said we liked or wanted to see. I've been reading the spoiler list since I returned and noticed that several people interpreted this pronouncement differently from how I did. I don't think he meant that whole plot points or substance was added or changed for us. I think he meant that because we see the details -- like the frozen peas on the injuries -- he included a lot of those little touches for us -- the focused fans -- to get. Almost like little 'in' jokes. In fact, during our viewing of the episode, many people laughed at these little touches, the laughter of recognition that 'yeah, that's what Jake would do.' PDM, in contrast, [IMHO] commented that he didn't realize the episode was that funny. What I felt I was seeing were some real cultural differences between the audience and the creators of this show as well as perceptual differences between the collaborators. And those differences seemed to be causing misfires in communication. The goodwill was there but the differences were causing interference, IMHO. Well, I seem to have gone on kinda long and my ... um .. roomie has requested my presence. So I guess I'll get off now. --Wolf oooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooo
Well, listsibs, if you've read parts 1-3 of my report, you could probably tell that they were hard to write -- I felt so .. like I had to be more formal or something. Like some sort of newspaper reporter. Well, if you don't mind, I really want to tell you about my trip to LA, the fen I met, and some news on the home front. Lighten up a bit. (I know that not all WatchADians like to read the personal stuff, so I separated it from the REPORT. That way, if you want to delete this, you won't miss any juicy gossip about 'the guys.' ;) ) My roomie and I took off Tuesday morning the 5th, driving through heavy rain in Washington, followed by cold and fog in Oregon and northern California. Finally able to thaw out in LA! We had a bit of trouble with accommodations on the trip down, since some service employees here and there had problems relating to two guys so obviously smitten. (Love that word, 'smitten.') But on the whole, people were friendly. There is hope! We were the first guests to unload on poor Aly! We must have been pretty ripe from our days on the road. But Aly was quite the host! Turns out that Aly is really Allison. This was pretty weird since I had originally made arrangements on my own to stay with her but then canceled saying that my roommate was making the arrangements. Since I've had to be careful not using my roomie's or my real name on-line, we never put it all together. This led to another strange coincidence I'll tell you about later... So anyway, about 30 minutes after we arrived, this huge van pulled up and out piled Jenny, Patty, RG, Gina, Marmot and her sons, Tobias and Marco. After we all got settled, claiming our sleeping spots and shower times, we did a video-watching marathon. Gina and RG are relatively new to TW so we watched some favorite key eps for the slash-aware. And half of us had never seen the blooper reel, so that was on the agenda as well. Aly cooked up a huge, filling pot of spaghetti. Then, after dinner, she gave us the tour of the house, especially the kitchen and announced that she is "Jake-ish." I was puzzled by that, until she reminded us of that great scene from season one, when Joe is hanging out with Jake in the warehouse. Joe says, "I could use a beer," and Jake says, "It's in the fridge, man." ;) The moral: Help yourself! Well, I could tell you the minute-by-minute run-down of the weekend, but instead I'll sort of run through the stuff that kinda surprised me. I was a little surprised by Marmot's 11-year-old son, Tobias and his brother Marco. Seems they were the original fans at her house. They're pretty precocious, slightly slash-aware but think the whole thing is pretty funny. During the more outrageous 'parlor games,' they were asleep (or we're pretty sure they were asleep). We're not used to just hanging out with a lot of women, so we took turns going outside to play Frisbee with Tobias and Marco, who seemed to appreciate it. They confided that hanging out with their mom's friends was kind of weird. Another surprise, which many people experience, is finding out that the mental picture you have of an on-line acquaintance differs so much from reality. I'm sure *I* was a shock to them! Like Aly. I pictured her as about 5' 10" tall and having waist-length blonde hair. I so do not have a clue where that picture came from. Turns out she's still pretty tall but not that tall. And her hair is short and light brown with sort of blonde streaks. And age. I was sure that everybody was around my age, you know somewhere between 25 and 35. But Aly, RG, and Marmot are really in their 40s and Gina was only about 22 or 23. Only Jenny and Patty fit that part of the picture! (My .. um .. paramour wants me to add that he's closer to 40 than to 30 also and that the ladies' ages weren't really good predictors of behavior. [Those were not his words, but that's what he meant.]) I was pretty amazed by how different women are from men. In *behavior*! You know what I mean!! (My sweetie is looking over my shoulder and making rude remarks about my writing. Now he's questioning my use of the word 'sweetie' .. Back in a minute.) Sorry, I've lost my train of thought. Oh yeah, some differences between men and women, you know, besides the obvious ones. Like picking places to sleep. No one bothered to fight over places to sleep. Aly let us use the guest bedroom and nobody seemed to care. Tobias and Marco claimed one of the sofas and people just sort of grabbed places on the floor. There was no competition or conflict in it. No flipping coins or arguments. Very strange but kinda cool. Also, the next day, when we all went to lunch together between the visit to Cuddly Termite and the Rally, my roommate just about lost it [quietly and politely, of course] while the women at the table passed the bill around and each figured what she owed. Accurately, I might add. It was a real trip to watch that muscle in his jaw just sort of pop a bit. I just knew he wanted someone to do the 'normal' thing and *grab* that sucker and pay the whole thing. A bit of a culture clash -- what a hoot! Roomie had been told that one of the nights would be a slumber party. We knew nothing of what to expect. Well, let me tell you, I had no *idea* how raunchy women could get when they talk about stuff, especially slash. I thought you all on the *list* were blunt! There is no part of the human anatomy or its function that they will NOT discuss with quite a bit of candor and with great relish! Not for the faint of heart. I can think of several fellow students who could write whole papers on this little linguistic find! I also found out that the whole mutual grooming thing I had heard about -- hairbrushing and putting on each other's makeup -- is really not what happens after adolescence, at least that's what they told me. I was a little disappointed. I like getting my hair brushed... And the games! Jenny introduced this game, which Marmot admits to having played in junior high school, called "He/She." It's sorta like Madlibs. Each person has a slip of paper on which you write the answer to a question. You cover the answer and pass the paper to the left and that person answers the next question until about 8 questions have been answered. The result is a story. This is what the sequence can look like when you're done:
Except we made it HE/HE and the parts ended up making NO sense. So you could end up with these stories, like... Jake and Joe were in interrogation room #3 playing 'cop-in-leather meets the free-love hippie.' Jake says, "I'm not in the mood to have my head ventilated by some pissed-off magpie!" Joe replies, "Yeah, or maybe the sun won't rise." Mulder and Krycek saw them and said, "The truth! You couldn't handle the truth!" And Jake and Joe replied, "NO! It's not over!" And it all ended in a double wedding complete with Irish step dancers and lots of lube. After lots of beverages and multiple rounds of this game, the raunchiness factor and the laughter rose considerably. I had to usher my roomie off to bed sort of early, due to his sensitivity to noise, especially the rather loud, high-pitched sound of the feminine guffaw. (My sweetie wants me to tell you that it wasn't personal, that he actually had a good time up until the end when we started pairing up our favorite slash guys with the people at the party. (I think he was just jealous that Jenny got Joe) Oh, no, he says he wanted Jake. I stand corrected.) My roommate, who will kill me if I call him sweetie one more time, is nagging me to get off the computer. So I will end Part 4 here. Hope this wasn't too long. Had a great time! --Wolf oooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooo
Listsibs: Wolf and I have talked things over and have decided to co-author this post. We're a bit nervous about this but many on this list have sent us their good wishes and offered advice over the past two months, so we feel that we owe it to you to do this. Just as Allison and a few other sibs suspected from the beginning, we discovered -- during the rally -- that while we had been writing to each other about our feelings for our roommates -- all this time, we were really writing about each other. The clues were there, at least for me, but at first, I couldn't believe it and then later had doubts and eventually just wouldn't let myself believe what Allison and others could see so plainly. Many of my life decisions have been fear-based; getting sucked into denial is just one of them, it seems. Wolf says 'ditto,' (But not in those words). ... My turn. I was so not ready for all this! But that's not what we are writing this post about. Panther is giving me 'that look' -- the one that says 'get on with it.' :) We are writing to send everybody a big thank you for listening to us through all our angsty rants and for all the encouragement to 'just do it!' (something I think I've heard a lot more of lately ;)) ... If Wolf is done with his little innuendoes, I'll just get on with it here. We are about to go on digest because we can't look in on the list as often as we have been. Wolf needs to focus on his academic work and we both need time to focus on each other. I feel strange saying this. I've known this guy for 3 years, but now I feel as though I have to get to know him all over again. I didn't realize that ... I don't know how to say it. It's not that there is *more* feeling here or *more* relationship. It's more like it's *different.* Like we've moved *sideways.* (Wolf is doing little sideways dance steps for our amusement. He is so cute. Oops! He didn't like the "C" word.) Anyway, now we need the time to figure this out, figure each other out. ... Panther and I still want to check in on the list and maybe de-lurk occasionally on threads that we have something to say about. And we definitely will read the Tuesday Morning Quarterbacking of the eps this season! Probably join in. If anyone wants to 'e' us privately, feel free. Thanks for listening. And happy Watchman watching! --Wolf and Panther oooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooo Date: Sun, 17 Jan 1999, 5:25 p.m. "What are you doing? "What does it look like I'm doing, Jim? I'm taking out the recycling." "But what's in all those shopping bags? Where did they come from?" "My room. They came from my room, Jim." " .. And?" "What's in 'em?" "That's what I asked, Blair." "My stash of small paper bags, Jim. Re-cycling them. Don't need 'em anymore."
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Thanks for reading to the end of this experimental story. Please, send Comments to Marmoset
Since March 8, 2000, people have read this story.