What can I say about JM's musical talent? That it's developing? That what his lyrics lack in subtlety or poetry, they make up for in sentiment? That I love him for his acting, and not his singing. There were some nice guitar bits and some sweet-sounding singing bits, and also some really awful not-even-close-to-hitting-them-in-tune bits.

He started out acoustic, with the quieter songs, then plugged in his guitar for the rest. There were a bunch of funny moments when he made mistakes... like counting down a song for a band, even though he had no band... he stopped himself, and said "Look at me, I'm counting like there's a band." And looking around behind him, he said "Charlie?? Kevin??" ... and like forgetting the words to Goodbye... he said "This next song is called Goodbye," played a couple of chords, then stopped and said "I can't remember it!"

At one point, he told us that he'd been playing music for 25 years, but that it had been on the back burner for a long time, and that he thought he'd turned from a pretty good amateur into a horrible professional. Then he reiterated several times that he thought performances were more personal and interesting when there were mistakes and problems. Then he broke a string, and had to leave the room for five minutes to get it fixed. I'm thinking that he asked for that one.

There were some nice intros -- he told us that he was tired of writing songs about how someone or other hurt him so long ago, and now that he's "very much in love," he's writing some more optimistic songs. The whole thing was kind of nice actually - like a Q&A, except with singing, instead of all the stupid questions and lollipop sucking...

James had the following to say about it (posted on his web page):

Hey everybody! Just back from the Detroit concert - it was great to connect with everyone there. I think my music sucked a little bit, but I tried to make up for it with a lot of conversation with everyone. It didn't help that my A string broke mid-concert - but that's live performance for you. I promise much better for future events. I'm excited about the upcoming cons - the response from you guys has been amazing. These will be the last cons I'll do for a while - I need to focus on the acting and am working on writing some new material for the next album. Keep rocking!
   -- James

While we were waiting for the cocktail party to start, we passed ASH waiting for the elevator, and later, all the other guests eating dinner together in the restaurant. In fact, the first floor is a mezzanine that looks down into the restaurant, and there were people gathered at the railing watching them eat, like in a zoo...

They gave us two drink tickets for the cocktail party, which didn't measure up to the open-bar-coolness of Vulkon, but was still far superior to what we got at MR. Which was... let me think... oh yeah, nothing. I was surprised when Eric Kufs told us that he also got two drink tickets. I told him that they had a giant roll of tickets - surely he could just ask for some more, being a celebrity guest and all... Jordan and Adam and Eric were all exceedingly nice, and talked to us about shows and venues, the lighting in the ballroom, and the layout of my living room... :) Danny Strong was there, talking to a crowd of people, which briefly included me. Tony Head was also there, talking to an even bigger crowd of people, which even more briefly included me... :) Nobody was taking pictures, so I didn't either.

Andy Hallett got in late, and couldn't make it to the karaoke. Julie Caitlin Brown did a couple of songs (which was great!), Tony did a song (which was great!), then they turned it over to the audience. The guys from Common Rotation came and sat in the back for a while, and looked at the song book - Eric did eventually do a song (medicine for damaged ear drums?). LeeAnn says Eric sang Alison, isrc.

Q&A's on Saturday:

Banquet:

And then again, what can I say about Common Rotation? That it was too good to take pictures! Pretty much all of the other vip guests showed up at some point, sitting in a special area off to the side of the stage. After the show, they sold CDs and stuff in the back, and I think everyone got in that line. The boys were signing, and Amber was doing the selling. She even tried on a shirt for Kristina to model the size. We waited around until the line got short, so we could have some CDs signed. Eric said something like "Did you guys really wait in that long line?" :) They offered us cookies or something out of a tupperware.

In the bar... LeeAnn and Kristina got some great pictures. I was feeling uncharacteristically un-stalkery and reluctant to ask for pictures. Usually I feel like I should get my money's worth. Maybe I was just feeling shy... Or maybe, I was on a Common Rotation high and already felt like my money had been well spent :)

Q&A's on Sunday:

Autos & Photos

I had another try at the trio photo this year, and I had much better luck with that whole looking at the camera thing. Although my funny picture from last year did draw double takes from everyone who signed it... Adam said "Was James Marsters walking by?"

One more thing - we were waiting in an interminable line at the airport, when Tony Head, looking uber cool carrying his guitar case, got in another line nearby. We thought about telling him that he was in the slow line (which was true), but decided that the be-nice-to-fans part of his weekend was probably over :)