Friday was our first day where we all had panels we wanted to attend. However, we were 6 people with 6 different fandoms so we decided to split up in order to maximize everyone’s day. I chose the Coraline, Flash Forward, 9 and District-9 panels. Boy, was it a long day! We started off believing we wouldn’t get into the Coraline panel at all because of the massive line, but were able to score 3rd row seats to the right of the stage. So stoked! While waiting for the panel to begin, we notice that Deborah Ann Woll (True Blood’s rebellious teenage vampire, Jessica) was sitting directly behind us! We asked her for a picture and she was the absolute sweetest girl ever. She was very meek and quiet – she spoke so low you could barely hear what she said. Total doll. And that hair? Beautiful!

The Coraline panel was mind-blowing. They showed behind the scenes clips from the DVD of all the meticulous work that went into creating the stop-motion flick. I could not believe how tedious it is and even more so  – how passionate all these animators are about their work. They love every second of it. It’s such a beautiful thing to watch! Everyone pick up a copy of this DVD – such a timeless and amazing movie.

Next, I was able to remain in the same ballroom for the Flash Forward panel. As the room cleared after Coraline, I scored 2nd row seats! Flash Forward is a new ABC series that is being referred to as the next LOST. We were lucky enough to get to see almost the entire pilot episode, which seemed amazing! Afterwards, the cast came out (Joseph Fiennes and John Cho among others) to chat a bit and answer some fan questions. The cast was hilarious and I really loved that John Cho is exactly like his character from Harold & Kumar. As the panel was wrapping up, they announced a surprise guest: Dominic Monaghan!!! I squealed like a Twihard. It was embarrassing, but amazing all at once! They confirmed that Dom will be a character that they introduce that “fucks things up a bit.” Excellent! Dom was asked a question about his character on LOST & whether we would see him again during the last season and he answered rather vaguely with “I don’t think anyone ever really dies on that show.” We’ll see!

Afterwards, we moved on to the dreaded Hall H for both the 9 panel and the District-9 panel, two completely different movies with similar names. After waiting entirely too long, we entered the hall for 9 and were disappointed with the panel (not the movie). It seemed like the moderator didn’t know what he was talking about or had never spoken at a public event in his life. Then the audience Q&A was ridiculously painful, made up of spastic Elijah fangirls (ahem) or Tim Burton fanboys that didn’t realize he wasn’t the director. Here’s a clip of Elijah answering whether he sees any similarities between his character, 9, and Frodo:

Once the madness of the day was over, the madness of the night began! We had tickets to go see Bear McCreary at the House of Blues downtown. He was performing his tracks from the Battlestar Galatica series and cast members were supposedly going to be present. I have to say that I am not a huge BSG fan, so when I found out we were going, I wasn’t all that enthused. However, I was completely surprised. Besides the fearful “SO SAY WE ALL” that the audience chanted repeatedly, which sounded like some sort of cult to an outsider like me, I had a great time! The cast joined the band onstage for a very emotional remembrance of their producer and friend that had passed away earlier that day. It even brought me to tears. Later, the cast joined the audience downstairs and just hung out & watched the show just like the rest of us. It was really great. Both the hubs and our friends were beside themselves since this is their favorite show and their favorite actors. They all got major face time with everyone and I even got the guts to (drunkenly) head on over to James Callis, who plays Baltar, and tell him that I think he is awesome. Thankfully I stopped there. We also got a picture with Edward James Olmos, whom I am pretty certain I want as my grandfather.