OK, here's my report. ;D
Friday:Originally I was only spending Friday night there and going home Saturday.
I arrived in NYC around 3 in the afternoon at Penn Station. Spent the next 30 minutes looking all over the place for
Nanna. Finally she had me paged! ;D
Boy was it great to finally meet in person after speaking 5 times a week for the past 2 years. Just totally awesome.
We went back to our hotel, I got settled in , we got dressed for Friday night's party at Madame X and then we had a nice dinner and took the subway to our destination.
Madame X was very crowded and I was buzzing with anticipation. We made our way upstairs and Nanna introduced me to a few people and some knew who I was before we even said a word. That was interesting! Met
Shirley,
Sonneschein,
Riboflavnb2, and
Django.
Django introduced me to other fans. We all had fun figuring out each other's screen names. Special shout-out to
Mr. Horse Owner and his
lovely boyfriend.
I had forgotten my camera and Django offered to get pics of me and the various soap boys. She also introduced me to several of them. I met
Dennis Grabosch from AWZ and his husband
Brent first I think. Met
Igor Dolgatschew from AWZ and hit it off right away. Very charming. Met the publicist for AWZ,
Jovan, and also
Tom Chroust. Both sexy men! Met
Felix Isenbügel from GZSZ. He's tiny! And charming! Meeting
Jo and
Thore was surreal.
They both knew who I was. I was amazed.
Mingled and met many many people. Met the lovely
Bonobochick! What up girl? ;D Met
Scarpien,
Thunderkat,
bsgnut,
Zam, a new
Finnish friend, more people and more people. Just amazing!
Let me say, that meeting so many of you and hearing you tell me or Nanna how much of a difference the English subtitles have made to you really falling in love with the story of Christian and Olli was amazing and humbling. Nanna truly deserved the very sweet things that both stars and fans said to her this weekend.
In the bar they were playing representative videos from each of the shows,
and when they played the 4/4 video of Christian and Olli it was an amazing atmosphere. Electric. People cheering and screaming when "Breathe Me" started and when they kissed and even when they came out in their boxers at the end. Oh and people were screaming "
Judith!!!" at the end when she and Gregor interrupt the boys.
Nanna and I were sent up on the stage with Thore and Jo after that clip and people were very kind to us. Thank you.
After the clips came more mingling and then the fanvid awards. Lots of ooing and ahhing at the vids and laughter at Flippa's video. ;D
Met
Gregory Michael, Hal Sparks and
Scott Evans. All very nice.
Mingle, mingle, mingle....
Ended up in the back of the club in a glassed in room, and had a very nice chat with Jo and Thore and told them how important their storyline has been and how their perfomances as Christian and Oliver have played an enormous part in the appeal of the Chrolli story. They were both modest about that. Jo ended up talking with a few other people while Thore and I had a nice conversation about the role and the story and the phenomenom of Chrolli/Ollian.
I also got to express my appreciation to Tom Chroust for his wonderful writing and told him he was another reason why the story was so successful.
Ended up running into
Dennis, Brent, Igor, and
Felix outside and then bumped into them in various combinations throughout the night.
I talked with
Felix about his storyline on GZSZ and also mentioned his role in a short film called "Love Kills". We discussed that a bit, and he told me about a project he was putting together involving the 18th century German poet, Goethe, and electronic music! The rest of the night, whenever I ran into him, or someone wanted to be introduced to him, I would mention that project! (in a teasing way) By the end of the night he said I should be his publicist. ;D
Bumped into
Gregory Michael and got a picture with him, and I said he looked great, but I looked like his father or something. He started laughing and was very kind. ;D
Spent the rest of the night like a social butterfly.
Have to mention that for some reason
Igor Dolgatschew and I hit it off.
At some point after running into
Igor for the third or fourth time we became like middle school buddies and started joking and insulting each other. He's a real smart-ass.
Later in the evening he came up to me, looked me in the eye and told me to "Fuck Off". I said "What?" and he said..." Fuck. Off." I told him to fuck off, and he said "You'd like that...wouldn't you?" Well.
So, we spent the next rest of the night and next day telling each other to "fuck off" or "fuck you!" ;D ;D
My little running joke with
Tom Chroust was that everytime I ran into him I'd call him
Tom Cruise.
;D It started right when we were introduced and I said "Oh my God, i didn't know Tom Cruise was going to be here!"
;D
By the end of the night I spent some time out back on the patio with
Thore, Nanna,
Antideb,
Felix, Sonneschein, Zam, Tom Chroust , Jovan, and a few other folks.
Towards the end of the evening I started saying my goodbyes. I was still intending on heading home in the morning. So when people would say they would see me tommorrow I would inform them that I was actually leaving.
Jo and Thore and 10 other people told me I had to stay.
And then, well.....Igor gave me his cigarette case with the proviso that I had to stay another day, and Jovan, their publicist said he'd give me the shirt he had on if I stayed. So.....I agreed to stay. ;D
I'm glad I did!
Ended the night with a late night snack with about 10 other people, including
Reta, Zam, Sonneschein, Nanna, Beth, Shirley, Django, and more! (I'm old and forgetful so don't be offended if you were there! My tiny brain can only handle so much...) Rode the subway with Nanna and Zam, until Zam got off.
OK, so went back to the hotel with Nanna and spent an almost sleepless night due to many different noises from inside and outside the hotel!
Saturday:Saturday we were late to brunch because of me having to change my ticket home. Got there for the last 15 minutes or so.
This day the events were being held at the Historic
Stonewall Inn.
Saw all my new friends from the night before and all was well.
New friends that day included
Anthony and his
lovely boyfriend who's name escapes me at the moment. These guys actually led the hunt for a pharmacy for me, Nanna, Jovan, and a couple of other folks. Thank you guys!!!!
Managed to go to 3 of the panels. All very interesting and let me tell you...
Hal Sparks is an amazing emcee/moderator. He's witty, intelligent, diplomatic, and attentive. Great job!
Gregory Michael and
Dennis Grabosch were also perfect.
During the panel on romantic triangles Jo was saying how Olli isn't doing anything wrong or bad and I don't remember what exactly he said, and some people started clapping, and I stuck my head around the corner right into Gregory Michael's microphone and did a loud "Boo!!!"
Thore instantly started cracking up and was pointing at me and thanking me. ;D ;D ;D ;D
And don't worry, Jo still likes me.
Oh, One question at one of the panels was about reactions to gay storylines, and
Tom Chroust gave an absolutely horrifying example from way back during the Tom and Ulli storyline on VL where one person wrote a letter saying that all gays should be sent to the gas chamber. He was still shaken up by that 10 years later. Awful... Dennis made the point that generally in Germany homophobia is more subtle than it is here. And both men agreed that in Germany, at least there are no religous groups trying to control what you can watch on television.
Very interesting discussion.
Had just dozens of fun moments all Saturday with
Riboflavinb2, Sonneschein, Nanna, and fun little moments with
Anthony and Lovely Boyfriend, where it seemed like we were stallking each other! ;D I wasn't! (maybe)
Anthony....drop me a PM if you're reading this!
Oh!
Igor came running up to me and engulfed me in a hug, said something positively filthy and thanked me profusely for a gift that I didn't give him.
Zam had!!!! ;D ;D Dennis had to explain who actually gave him the gift.
Um...Oh...
Igor was especially naughty with me outside in front of 15 or so people, and that would be his modus operandi with me the rest of the day. ;D
Felix and I had a running joke all day about stealing things....don't ask.
;D
Watched interviews being done outside in the freezing cold wind with
Scott, Hal, and I don't remember who else. Poor guys were in just shirts! Had to do eventy things like get
Scott Evans to sign Kish photos for the auction and send certain tardy soap stars upstairs for the panels they were supposed to be speaking on! ;D
More fun moments included talking with Dennis' husband
Brent, watching
Beth and Igor play pool, telling a certain person exactly what to do with their
boobs when speaking to
Thore, dishing the dirt with
Bonobochick, buying bandaids with
Nanna, flirting with
Jovan, being bitches with
Zam, being bitches with
Sonneschein, and the list goes on...
Finally Nanna and I left to get in a nap before the Saturday night party.
Meh...no nap. Tried to sleep with no success. People above me kept rearranging their furniture!!! Scraping the bed on the floor like every 15 minutes.
OK, so...since I had only brought an "outfit" for one night, Nanna and I went shopping for a hoody for me. I picked out the white one you see in my pictures. Decided to wear my white t-shirt too and have the guys sign it.
Nanna and I went and had another nice little dinner and then off to the ball! I mean party!
Just a real fun atmosphere. Everyone knew this was going to be great, and it was. There was a cool DJ who's buddy happened to be there with him. The buddy happened to be
Andreas Jancke.
So...we walk into the club and there's freakin'
Gregor! ;D
Thore offered to introduce me. He um...said Andreas could be strange....and he was a bit.
I called him "hoheit" , which means "Your highness" ;D And he said something about his sword....
Everyone was having a great time mingling with everyone else. It really didn't matter by then if you were a fan or a "star".
Oh...one dance related thing was really cool. the DJ put on "Just Dance" by
Lady Gaga and everyone just went crazy. The DJ would turn down the volume and we'd all be singing the song.
Everyone was dancing their asses off, raising their arms , and singing. Great great fun!
Some of the soap boys danced, including Felix and Thore.
OK, now to my T-shirt signing stuff. I asked
Jo first to sign my shirt. He didn't want to ruin it. I said not to worry. So he signed my lower chest. Well....then I asked
Scott Evans to sign it...and he asked where Jo signed it. I opened my jacket, and Scott saw where... then signed just above Jo, and then kept the marker and asked Jo to sign his
actual chest! So I'm standing there while Scott Evans pulls the collar of his shirt way down and has Jo sign his cute hairy chest with permanent magic marker! Then we had him sign Shirley's chest too! ;D Right after that i took the pics of Jo, Shirley, and Scott together.
OK, then I had
Igor and
Felix and
Tom Chroust sign my shirt. No stories there.
Then
Andreas signed it in the middle of my chest.
Then...
Thore decided to sign the belly of my shirt.
;D
He proceeded to get down on his knees. I swear on a stack of bibles....and signed my shirt. Several people were like...OMG! Including myself. ;D After I woke up from my dead faint...I thanked him, and we took a picture with him acting like he was signing my shoulder or something....
Well what could top that moment? Glad you asked.... I still needed
Dennis Grabosch's autograph. Well I go over and ask him...he looks at my shirt, by now the front is getting a little full, and he kneels down in front of me too!! And Dennis then whips up my shirt and starts signing my actual side and belly!
I'm like..."Hey, you don't have to sign...." and he looks up and says " I've always wanted to do this. Come on!! Let me do it!"
So I let him. ;D ;D ;D
It's still there after 2 showers.
Then I had him actually sign the damn shirt. Up by my shoulder.
Nanna was a dancing machine and danced with a friendly youtube fan. Hi Moeguy! God Save the Queen! ;D
I played with
Scarpien's hair. Gossiped with
Bonobochick, chatted with
Beth, Shirley, Patricia, Riboflavinb2, stared at the
RTL cameraman Sergey, took his picture with
Jovan, and had loads of fun. Nanna kept trying to buy me a drink but the bartender gave me free ones because they were just Coke. ;D
Took more pics. And then wanted a goodbye one with Thore. Riboflavinb2 obliged. Earlier in the night, out of nowhere, Thore had stuck his hand in front of me and opened it up in 2 motions.
He then said "Look how big it is. You know what that means?"
And I shook my head and then we compared hand sizes then I ran away. ;D Well, anyway..I asked him to put our hands together again for a pic and you can see that one. So then...he just stands up and scoops me up off the floor and puts me across his shoulders! And you can see those pics too. What you can't see is the 5 or 6 other people that grabbed their cameras and started snapping away while people were whooping and hollering.
I was a mix of embarassed and absolutely thrilled. ;D
So...yeah...that was about it.
Eventually all good things must come to an end, and we said our goodbyes. I was leaving before the brunch on Sunday so this was it. Had goodbye hugs with a bunch of people. Fans and stars.
Thore, Igor, Dennis, and Jo gave especially nice ones then.
As I was saying goodbye to
Igor he gave me a last hug and I told him one last time to fuck off and he told me "Fuck you!", and I said "
You'd like that...."
;D
I have to say....meeting many of you folks was a real treat. You aren't just faceless names that comment on the video clips or here , anymore. You're real people whose love for the Chrolli story are the reason we keep doing the translations.
Meeting the actors was an amazing experience. These are no longer far away personages to me. They're also now, real people, that I had a lot of fun with.
Thanks once again to
Shirley and Nanna. And to
Django ,Sonneschein, Riboflavnb2, and everyone else who helped make this a weekend I won't ever forget!
My T-shirt. ;D
Thanks to Django for taking this picture. I love it!