WinchestMidwest - the aftermath - Day 1

Now that I've gotten some sleep I feel a bit more coherent and able to write up my post about winchestmidwest this past weekend.

In case you don't know, WinchestMidwest is a fan run con here in the Chicago area that attracts folks from Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, etc. I love it because it's only a half hour from where I live. :-)

I missed last year, so it was great to go again this year with my best buddy, charityflint (aka Chris). I also made a new shirt for the con - Hee!

       

After we got to the hotel Friday night we went and registered and hooked up with folks like queeberquabbler , seesmooshrun , wilde_moon , asyouleft , the_other_sandy (who was sick and in self-imposed quarantine) and lily_cat .

First up was a panel about Seasons 1-5: the Kripke Years, accompanied by very well put together videos that summed up each season. It was very interesting to go back and think about and discuss all of the major arcs that the show has gone through, all of the characters that have come and gone and all of the shenanigans that went on as well (loved that sign queeberquabbler !).

We were supposed to have Skyped with the art crew on the set of SPN up in Vancouver, but they were unable to, so we watched The French Mistake, followed up directly by And Then There Were None, which left many of us devastated. Lots of us (including me) compared it to the X-Files episode, Ice, which I thought was rather appropriate since both Steven Williams and Mitch Pileggi were on XF.

Pie-a-Palooza came next aka Pin the Pie in Dean's Pie Hole. As you can probably guess, much hilarity abounded as we were each blind folded and spun around and attempted to stick our piece of pie onto Dean. :-) I had to leave the room for a bit after my turn, but I think my buddy charityflint won! Many thanks to lily_cat for making all the delicious pies we ate afterwards!




More to come about Saturday in the next post!

WinchestMidwest - the aftermath - Day 2

Day Two of winchestmidwest...

I was wary about the first panel on Saturday, talking about season six, because as most of you know, I've hated it with a burning passion and haven't watched about six episodes of it. But it actually went really well and not a lot was focused on soul-less Sam so I was able to keep my temper in check. :-) I did have to control myself and not blurt out how much I hate Lisa and that entire storyline when the Lisa-love in the room was overwhelming. Blech.

We did From Script to Screen next, which this year was Like a Virgin, an episode I love, thankfully, and not one that would've made me leave the room. I got to play the dead girl's sister, Liz, and read her parts. I always wondered why, in the actual episode, we saw all those girls in the cage, and later in the van, yet they only needed one to summon up Mother. Well, in the script there's a scene explaining that they were actually food, sacrifices, for Mother. I wish that had been kept in. Kudos to charityflint , who played Dragon #1, and had to read all of that Latin, which she did an amazing job of!

Next was a panel about the SPN anime, comics and graphic novels. We didn't concentrate too much on the books and comics (other than to say Keith DeCandido is a horrible author and they shred canon to bits in the comics) and talked more about the anime - our likes and dislikes of it. Then we watched the first two episodes dubbed in English.

I missed half of the next panel, talking about the Signs and Symbols of SPN, but from what I saw it was very interesting. Next we learned how to pick locks, which I failed at miserably since left handed people are apparently not supposed to be able to do it. Whatever. At least Chris had fun.

After dinner was the Supernatural RPG panel hosted by seesmooshrun . I found it very informative since I'm a bit of a gamer myself, but hadn't had a chance to play the SPN version yet. I could tell a lot of people were completely and totally lost when all the rules, etc were explained, but I think the lightbulb went on when Linda ran a short game with three volunteers and everyone could see how role playing was done.

Last but not least, we all gathered to watch Misha Collins in Stonehenge Apocalypse. Yeah, you can see where this is going. :-) Combine that cheesy movie with lots of alcohol and a room full of fangirls and what do you get? A freaking laugh riot! LOL! We did Mystery Science Theater to that entire thing! I nearly DIED when they start slapping the C-4 onto Stonehenge and wilde_moon yells out "You stones think you're so smart!" in a perfect Dean Winchester impersonation. ROTFL!! What made the night even funnier was that Chris had never seen the movie, so her reactions were priceless! The end was the best, when she turns to me and says, "Misha DIES?? He DIES??" LOL! Ah, Chris, I didn't want to spoil it for ya. ;-)

More to come about Sunday in the next post! But before that, how 'bout some photos? Me and queeberquabbler and me and wilde_moon

    


More to come about Sunday in the next post!

WinchestMidwest - the aftermath - Day 3

Day Three of winchestmidwest...

The first panel Sunday morning was the best, about special effects make up, run by lily_cat who does this professionally for a living. She asked for three volunteers, so of course I raised my hand. :-) I got to have the binding link from Born Under a Bad Sign put on my own arm. And it looked FANTASTIC. Like a real burn! I was totally impressed. Next, wilde_moon got to have Castiel's hand print from Lazarus Rising put on her arm, and again, Sarah did a simply amazing job. Last was agent_jl36 who got the works done to her, as Dean from the end of Swan Song, after Sam beats the crap out of him. Let's put it this way - after we were done the three of us (and a few others) went down to the bathroom so Jen could see what she looked like in a mirror and someone in the lobby asked if they should call an ambulance. :-)

   

    


asyouleft was up next, talking about Tropes in SPN. I love Megan's panels. They're always well put together and a LOT of fun, as Megan is totally at ease talking in front of a room full of people and has an awesome sense of humor. :-) I honestly didn't realize how many tropes SPN uses!

After that was queeberquabbler 's panel on the mythology of The Mother of All, and how it looks like SPN went about combining a few different myths and legends to create her, and their version of Purgatory. I love mythology, so I was totally fascinated. Excellent job, Jen! :-)

The spoiler panel was next, but as opposed to previous years, we have little in the way of spoilers for the remaining episodes of the season, so we ended up talking about what we'd like to see happen. Some interesting ideas were thrown out there. All I know is, we're fast running out of episodes and there seems to be a LOT of ground we need to cover.

We did some raffle items after that and I won two magnets and a bookmark while Chris won all of that and the western-themed WinchestMidwest sign. Chris and I also took part in the Scavenger Hunt and while we completed all our tasks we ended up not winning. :-(

The very last thing we did was go outside so that lily_cat could show off her 1967 black, four-door Chevy Impala! It's a little worse for wear, but damn, it's the freaking Impala! We all got to sit in it and get our pictures taken and we also had our group photo taken in front of it. Many thanks to Sarah for bringing the car for all of us to see!

Then unfortunately it was time to say goodbye. :-( Hugs were exchanged and many photos were taken with promises to see everyone next year, same time, same place. :-)

Here's our group photo - I'm kneeling down in front in the light grey jacket. And thank you, seesmooshrun for the bunny ears I just now noticed. :-)

( PICTURES! PICTURES! PICTURES! )

Many thanks to ant3ka and trillian276709 for putting on another great convention!