We Will Rock You – Frankfurt 09.01.2015 (Dernière Day)

Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought that this last day at the beautiful Frankfurt venue would be one of the best days of my life, two of the best shows I’ve ever seen – and that three of my biggest (show-related) dreams would finally come true.

Matinee
When I first stepped into the Opera House, to my delight, they finally had set up the Cast list for the performances at the reception. The even bigger delight came when I saw who would be on as Galileo & Scaramouche: Fabio Diso & Leoni Kristin Oeffinger! I took the list into my hands and stared at it with a shocked expression on my face and a loud squeak trying to make its way up my stomach, into my throat and out of my mouth – F***ing YES! I had come across the fact of how rare it was to get Fabio as Galileo, and to get Leoni as Scara was even more rare, and I never expected (although wished for it) to ever get to see either of them in one of the lead roles during that short run in Frankfurt – and now I had them both.
Leoni as Scara…uhm, holy moly. I had only known her as teacher so far, and whenever I thought about her as Scara after seeing pics of it, it felt weird, although if you’d ask me, I couldn’t give you a reason why. Maybe I’m too biased by always seeing Jeannine Michele Wacker as Scara 😉 Anyways, the moment Leoni stepped foot on the stage, it was totally hers. Her voice is totally different from Jeannine’s, but absolutely stunning nonetheless. It’s deep, with a slight rasping sound when she comes down to the low notes, but at the same time, all powerful, which left me completely speechless. I’d never guessed that this was lying dormant underneath that teacher role. From the acting point, her Scaramouche is adorable, she has this very headstrong and stubborn attitude, with what she makes the Galileo at her side – in this case, Fabio – look very tiny and small. If I think about it, if I was a guy and was to play Galileo next to her, I’d be pretty scared of her 😀
And now, to Fabio Diso…OH MY GOD. First of all: he is, without a doubt THE most adorable, cute and “Oh, I want to run on stage and hug him like a little boy” kind of Galileo I have EVER had the pleasure and honour to see on and off stage. He has this certain kind of way to style his hair…I mean….just look at him. (Fabio, if you see this: sorry that I borrowed the pic off your page, but I thought best to have people see what I mean, if that’s okay with you 🙂 )

Anyways, second thing: HIS VOICE. I’m honest, I had very high expectations of him after that short recording. And all of them were pretty much just by far surpassed! Even after his first few vocals of “I Want To Break Free”, I couldn’t keep myself from shaking my head, murmuring “Holy crap.”, because he was better than I had ever expected and thought possible. His voice is the most powerful any other Galileo of the german Cast has ever presented to the audience, and especially in the high vocals, he puts all his power, energy and talent into the notes, it was mindblowing. The moment he opens his mouth, you don’t believe your ears, if that makes sense. I could go on and on, keep praising him, but there are just no words to express HOW breathtakingly good and talented this young man is, you have to see it for yourself.
Third thing: the interaction/harmony between Fabio and Leoni. One word: WOW. I always thought there was no pair that seemed to be more made for each other on stage than Christopher Brose & Jeannine Michele Wacker, but those two proved me wrong. Every oh so tiny movement and word is geared to each other, and their voices just match. And as to how they play the characters, I think Fabio is the most talented Galileo of all. Each of them is dorky and insecure and weird in their own way, which is wonderful and a joy to watch, but he gives it the last touch that I think the role needs to be just perfect. He’s even more dorky and insecure than Chris or Stuart, and if you didn’t know the show as I do, you could never believe that that little boy is capable of becoming the biggest rock star in the history of the iPlanet, because hands down, if you look at that cute little face, you don’t buy it that he’s a hero or sort of a “guitar guy”. And seeing him proving everybody wrong – mindblowing. As to Leoni, she totally lights a fire under him, she has him in the palm of her hands and she bosses him around as she pleases. The way Fabio reacts to that is what I call talent. Whoever decided to put these two up on that stage together in the two lead roles has my deepest gratitude. Just wow.
The two other roles that were completely different than usual were Robert Meyer as Brit and Marjolein Teepen as Ozzy. Seeing someone else than Markus Neugebauer in the role of Brit was weird, but refreshing, and although my first thought was “He looks a bit like a milksop without a beard”, I was positively impressed by Robert. I only knew him as Madonna, one of the Bohemians, and I must say, he did a good job. I liked the way he tried to look extremely strong and macho-like, and also, that his voice is lighter than Markus’, it was a refreshing new touch to see in the role. There is a lot of potential in him, and I hope he gets to play the role a few more times during the running tour, because he definitely deserves it. As to Marjolein as Ozzy…let’s just be honest: I’m totally biased as to who plays this role. For me, there’s only one true Ozzy, and that is Andrea Sánchez Del Solar. Period. Marjolein‘s voice is stunning, no question, she has some killer vocals and a huge talent, especially on the high notes, but in comparison to other Ozzy’s, she just doesn’t touch me with them, not even during “(No-One But You) Only The Good Die Young”. I can’t explain it, maybe my mind is too gridlocked on my opinion, and I know people will think I’m a horrible person, but that’s how it is. I met Marjolein in person three times, and I know for a fact that she is a very loving, caring, nice, lovely & patient person who takes her time with her fans, and I would never diminish her talent in any way. But I guess once you have your favourites, and those favourites impressed you so much with their first performance, it’s hard for others to convince you of something else. I’m sorry for that.

Over all, this show left me in total awe, and with a new favourite Galileo – Fabio Diso, with whom the current Cast has THE most talented one in their midst, someone who definitely has the talent to take over the lead role, and I sincerely hope he gets to play it much more during the tour.

Evening
It seems like destiny saved the best thing for the very last show in Frankfurt: Andrea Sánchez Del Solar as Scaramouche. Ever since I had seen her as Ozzy and learned that she was also one of the three understudies for the roles, it was one of my dreams to see her as Scara at least once. And there it was, where I least expected it. When she told me about it right after the Matinee, forgotten was the migraine I suffered from for the entire 2nd Act, pumped full of pills against the headaches and the terrible nausea – nothing in the world would keep me from witnessing my favourite WWRY alumni doing her thing in the biggest lead role. And hell, what a show it was.
The moment she stepped foot on stage in that purple wig and the black dress thingy, belting out the few german lines of “I Want To Break Free” that Scaramouche sings at the beginning…I was feeling like a proud mother. Or friend. I know it sounds strange, but that’s how it is. I felt tears welling up in my eyes when I heard the vocals coming from her, and they almost overwhelmed me. And a few big fans across the aisle that cheered her on loudly proved my point: she deserved this role. Her “Somebody To Love” was absolutely beautiful; she can hold notes for as long as not many people I’ve met (who are in the theatre business) can, and it’s so wonderful and refreshing to have a complete different intonation, a much deeper voice than any of the other Scara’s. And still, even more so, her high vocals are breathtaking, from what I could gather in the first row, she left the audience in complete awe with her amazing singing talent (not that it surprised me, though). As to her acting, her way of displaying Scaramouche…wow. I know that the role is supposed to be cheeky and mean to Galileo, bossing him around, taking the lead and such, and I’ve seen quite the ways of doing it since last year…but without a doubt, Andrea‘s way was just beyond hilarious, adorable and cuddly! The way she intonates some of Scara’s sentences, how she behaves around and with Galileo (Christopher Brose, in this case) is just…whoa. And it looked like she enjoyed herself in that role so much, which is wonderful to see – when an actor gets the opportunity to play big roles and do it with such a naturalness, because that’s what they all work really hard for. No surprise she got some of the biggest applause after that last show, it was more than deserved, and still, after over two weeks, I feel really proud of her. Although it still feels surreal that I really witnessed it.

Thank you, “We Will Rock You”, for amazing 7 shows in Frankfurt, for giving me so many beautiful memories, and I hope to maybe see all of you again in Hamburg – or at the latest, in Cologne, where it all began! THANK YOU for being such a talented, lovely & wonderfully crazy bunch!

We Will Rock You – Frankfurt 19.-21.12.2014

After over one and a half years since the last time I had seen the show on german soil – and knowing that its Cast was almost the same as it had been when they toured through Basel and Essen in 2013 – I went into it with a lot of excitement and expectations. I was mostly looking forward to see everyone again after such a long time, as there were at least two people among them that I dearly missed and had stayed in touch ever since the closing. And I was also looking forward to how much everyone’s talent had improved since the last time I’ve seen them. And I was NOT disappointed.

19.12. 2014 (Evening/Preview)
I didn’t realize the first two shows that weekend would be previews – I was convinced that that show actually was the Premiere, until I saw some of the Casts posts on facebook. Anyways, despite a few technical difficulties (that, honestly, I didn’t even realize were technical difficulties because I hadn’t seen the show since June 2013 and thought “Oh, well, guess they’ve done a few more changes than usual” to myself, ha-ha), the feeling of being back with this talented bunch covered everything that had gone wrong that night.
Galileo & Scaramouche were played by Christopher Brose & Marjolein Teepen. I know Chris from last year, where he completely blew me away. His voice is incredible, and I was excited about having him as my 1st Galileo on this tour again. And despite the fact that he seemed somewhat sick to me, or tired, he still gave me goosebumps. The way he displays Galileo again was exactly how I thought Galileo must be. He’s that dorky, stupid guy who pulls off the role as a limelight hog at the end as if he’s never done anything else. He shows the audience he loves to be up there, which is, for me, one of the most important things any actor on a stage can do.
I was, however, disappointed about Marjolein. Not because of her talent, no way at all, because she HAS talent, she has proven it more than once to me when I had seen her as Killer Queen – her voice is really stunning. But to me, her display of Scaramouche was lacking  something that I love about that character, although I can’t put a finger on what that is. Maybe it was that she wasn’t as cute-bossy as the lead role, Jeannine Michele Wacker, who, until then, had been my main Scara on last year’s tour, or maybe that the relationship between her and Chris seemed a bit cold to me. But that’s all my personal opinion and is not supposed to diminish anyone’s talent in that Cast!
Markus Neugebauer played Brit once again, and after Anna Lidman last year, Ozzy was played by one of the new Cast members, Linda Holmgren. As usual, Markus‘ talent knocked me off my feet. I knew he was good, I had seen him last year and already thought he was the best Brit I had ever seen, but what he did on stage that night – wow. He has developed SO much since 2013, something I thought wasn’t possible. It was just tiny things, notes, that he did and sung differently, but those changes were truly amazing, especially the even more raspy sound of his voice on the high notes or the “waves” he gave some of his notes in “I Want It All”. And to see Linda was something I was curious about. I love the role of Ozzy, because she sings one of my all-time favourite Queen songs, and therefor I always have very high expectations to the person stepping into that role – and I might be a bit overly critical ever since I first saw Rachel John in that role at the Dominion Theatre in London and especially Andrea Sánchez Del Solar in 2013 in Essen. And Linda did not disappoint me, I even liked her better than Anna last year. Her voice is a lot higher than either Anna’s or Andrea’s, but it was something new to me, and she definitely did that role justice – especially in the high notes. That woman knows how to sing.
Brigitte Oelke & Martin Berger as Killer Queen & Khashoggi – do I need to say more? These two are institutions, have been with the show since 2004, and no matter how often I see them, their talent and amazing stage presence blows me away. Their interactions with each other, their voices, their acting – there’s not much better on german stages nowadays than these two. Brigitte’s voice…well, there is no word for it, you have to hear it for yourself. I’d bet that if she wanted to, she could blow up all the headlights in the theatre hall, and not even with a lot of effort, because her voice is THAT powerful.

20.12.2014 (Matinee & Evening/Premiere)
FINALLY, I would be seeing Jeannine Michele Wacker as Scaramouche again, and I couldn’t have been more excited for it. I had missed everything that I adore about her display of the role, and when she first came on stage, I couldn’t stop the major grin on my face. The thing with her and her Scara is, she’s the cutest, but also bossiest one I had seen so far. You look at her and think “Oh, look how tiny she is, how adorable!”, but then that girl opens her mouth and what comes out of it is too good to be true. Her voice is absolutely BREATHTAKING. It had already been like that last year, but what she did on stage that day was beyond my expectations. I knew she had different engagement over the past couple of months, even during this WWRY tour, she’s working at “Artus” in St. Gallen (Switzerland) every now and then, but you’d never guess the stress she has. Her intonation is crazy, her high vocals are not only high, but as strong as I’ve barely heard any other german singer being capable of. And her way of commanding Galileo about is just something you have to enjoy.
My Galileo that Matinee was Stuart Sumner – something I’ve noticed right away during “Radio GaGa”, when I didn’t spot him in his usual place as a teacher in the background. And although at first I was a bit sceptical – I had only seen him in the lead role once, and to be honest, he hadn’t fully convinced me back then. There were quite a few times he mixed up his text or one time, forgot it for a moment, and although I know it’s normal, they’re all just human and german isn’t his native language, (and I’d be the last person to judge anybody about it!!!) it disappointed me a bit, as I had heard opinions about how amazing he was as Galileo. This time, however, I was more than impressed. His voice had always been amazing, it was the one thing he convinced me with last year, but hearing him again showed me how much it had improved over the past months. And his interaction with Jeannine was adorable. He’s the most “manly” Galileo of all I have seen so far, the most “Rockstar” kind of guy of all of them, and every single time, his long vocals at the end of “We Are The Champions” leave me in complete awe – he knows how damn good his voice is, and he sure knows how to use it to have the audience in the palm of his hand.

Then….Premiere night. My first ever, with – of course – all the main Cast in the lead roles. I only want to say a few words to the (for me) dream pair of Galileo & Scaramouche: Christopher Brose & Jeannine Michele Wacker. Ever since Essen in 2013, I can safely say that I can never get enough of the interaction between those two on stage. They work together so unbelievably well, their voices match SO well, too, and all their movements and vocals are totally geared to each other as if they never did anything else in their life than being up on that WWRY stage together. Jeannine’s cuteness in playing Scara takes Chris’ dorky Galileo-behaviour to new highs, and Chris’ rocking side at the end lets Jeannine turn into a small pile of fangirl – I barely have seen two people who seem so destined to sing and act together – and their duet of “Who Wants To Live Forever” is one of the most beautiful and tear-bringing things I have ever seen on a stage.

21.12.2014 (Matinee & Evening)
Two different Galileo’s, Killer Queen’s & Bap’s – nice. When months before, I had booked my tickets for that weekend, I had only booked the evening show, as my original plan had been to meet up with a friend that day – which turned out to be a fail, so 30 minutes before the show started and after I had overheard a conversation whereby Isabel Trinkaus would be playing Killer Queen that afternoon, I spontaneously purchased another ticket in the middle of the 6th row (which was actually the 3rd row – what exactly the staff at the Old Opera House thought about that confusing seating, only god knows!)
To have Isabel as the evil Killer Queen was something I was absolutely thrilled about. Honestly, you can’t compare her to Brigitte Oelke in any way, and you’d be very wrong to even try to. Whereas Brigitte’s KQ is nothing but evil, loud and the very meaning of a “Diva”, Isabel’s KQ is even more evil, loud, scary – and extraordinarily bitchy. Which is actually a good thing. I love that touch so much that she gives the role, and since the last time I had seen her in it, she has improved so unbelievably much, her voice has become so incredible it was more than a delight to see her in that huge lead again.
Now to that day’s Ozzy, who was – in both shows – played by Andrea Sánchez Del Solar…if you know me well enough, you know what that fact means to me. Ever since I had first seen her Ozzy, and everything that comes with that role, I was done. I don’t even have words for the talent that that girl has inside of her. Her deep voice fits perfectly to “I Want It All”, and the soul in it never fails to make me completely cry my heart out during “(No-One But You) Only The Good Die Young”. She’s the first and only person after Rachel John at the Dominion Theatre in London who ever made me tear up at that song, even BEFORE she has started singing – simply because I know what’s coming, and it’s the most beautiful thing I ever witnessed on stage. Moreover, the harmony between her and Markus Neugebauer is perfect. Their voices are geared to each other, it seems, because they’re both so unbelievably strong and a guarantee for goosebumps. If you ever have the chance to see either of them somewhere on a stage in the world – grab a ticket.

Over all, that weekend was a wonderful and memorable one. I met wonderful people again – Jeannine & Andrea, who I had massively missed over the past 18 months, Stuart & Brigitte, who recognized me despite my not so memorable face, and seemed genuinely happy to see me again and cared about how I’d been since we’ve last seen each other, Victor Barretto, who had been part of last year’s Cast and who, sitting in the same row as me during the Premiere show, also recognized me and asked how I had been…and not to mention two of the nicest people I have ever met. Martin, one of the band members, who I genuinely came to like, because he was so lovely and funny, and made me look a teeny tiny less stupid and dumb as I was standing all by myself at the Stage Door between and after all (!) of the 5 shows of the weekend, outside, defying cold, wind and rain, and who I sadly never got to say a proper Thank You & Goodbye to. I hope one day I can have another shot at that. And of course that WONDERFUL blond woman of the crew whose name I sadly never learned, but who was the kindest thing I ever came across at a Stage Door – taking care of me, making sure I wouldn’t freeze myself to death after the Premiere, and after two hours of waiting for the ones I was waiting for, dragged me (under my protest) to the premiere party to get out of the cold and right into the fun of it. If you read this: THANK YOU for everything, and I sincerely hope we’ll meet again one day.
And of course the numerous hugs, smiles, winks & waves of the people I genuinely care so much about – not just as actors, but more, as human beings, as people like you and me, – will stay in my memory of that weekend.

 

Asylum Europe 4 – Frankfurt 24.-26.05.2013 – A Convention Report

My 3rd and last “Supernatural” Convention, taking place at the Sheraton Airport Hotel in Frankfurt. Never thought I’d actually do a Con-Report at all, because it will just turn out to be too long and making me all emotional again, but it was too great to not share it.

Friday, 24th May, 2013:
I arrived at a friend’s place on thursday night, and registration was supposed to be on friday evening at 5pm, which meant a lot of time with the girls I was to meet there: Angii, Claudia, Vanessa, Rebecca, Justine, Laura, Maria & Karina. And of course, to finally meet the two ladies I was dying to see again: Susie & Jaynee, two members of the Staff. I arrived at the Starbucks close to the Sheraton Hotel on friday morning at about 9:15, and from afar, I could already see my friend Angii sitting there with her mother (really, it wasn’t hard to make her out, as she was wearing her monkey hat). I went up to her, and we hugged so tight as if we knew each other in person for years, and we instantly had this connection that I can’t explain. She’s such a cute little girl! We talked a lot about earlier conventions, the other girls, Supernatural, just everything, and it was like there would never be an end to that. After about an hour or sth, we decided to go back to the Hotel Lobby, where we would meet up with the other girls in a few hours, and as soon as we got there, it was easy to get in contact with other fans. The next one who came was Vanessa, who is seriously such a gorgeous girl, and shortly after that, Claudia arrived. Of course, it was weird for me, as I had never met them before, but I instantly liked them. We then decided to walk around the Airport for a while until the others would arrive, and after 2 more hours or so, we all were finally united, and I felt like this group would be the best one for this weekend. As everyone except for me was staying at the Sheraton for the next days, they all checked in at about 1pm, then we all went around the Airport once more until it was time to have lunch. When we got back to the lobby, I heard somebody call my name, and when my head bopped around, I saw Susie standing there, and, despite the stupid look on my face I was SO happy to finally see her again after one year! We had been staying in touch over the past year, and became real good friends, and she had become so dear to me that I only had decided to come to AE4 because she, Jaynee and me had talked for weeks and they had told me they would be there…it had only been 3 weeks before the event  that I had booked my bus and turned in my holiday request at work. We talked for about 15 minutes, I gave Susie and Jaynee the presents I brought them – a tiny penguin for Jaynee, as she had told me she loves every black and white animal, and  a huge package of biscuits for Susie. Dear Lord, I never have seen anybody craving for anything so badly, haha 😀
After that, we were all send downstairs as it seemed we were “disturbing” the other Hotel Guests. Me and the girls went up to their room and started doing random group pictures as a memory until it was time to go downstairs for the registration.

I have no idea how time flew, but suddenly it was 5:30pm and it started…it was honestly a mess. The hotel staff hadn’t managed to get a room ready for it, so everyone was squeezing and shoving each other downstairs infront of a long desk. There was no order at all and the Rogue Staff had a real hard time to bring any order into it (by that time, one of the Staff Members, Dominik, was already losing part of his voice, as he was the one who was trying to manage building queues by shouting). Somehow, in all the crowd, my friends and I managed to be the ones getting registered pretty soon. Gladly, we all were standing at the part of the counter where Susie was doing her job, and I felt very special when I of everyone around was the one who hadn’t had to show her ID, haha 🙂 We all got out badges, our lanyards and the Autograph Sheet and shoved our way outside to get some fresh air and breathe a bit. It just felt like minutes when we heard the news that the last person had been registered and the selling of the Photo Ops would start just now (at about 7pm). I won’t give you a full report of what happened in that crowd, just know that: it was HORRIBLE. People were shoving and pushing each other, and it was SO hot inside that me and my friends thought we would boil on the spot. And actually NOBODY had the dignity to make some space when Rogue Staff Members shoved everyone a bit further back; as as soon as they were gone, everyone was pushing forward again. I actually have no idea how I survived this war, but I got out with my Matt & my Matt & Richard Double Photo Op, all happy. By that time I had no idea that these two wouldn’t be the only ones I’d do that weekend.
Me and my girls went straight for one of their rooms to get ourselves refreshed a bit before the Motto Party that was supposed to happen later that night at 9:30pm. It was fun watching the girls getting ready and all dressed up as Super Heroes; Laura as Captain America and Justine as Nerdy Batman! We then went downstairs to meet the others (except for Maria & Karina, who were so shattered from their long car drive to Frankfurt and the stressful registration that they’d decided to stay up in their room), and Vanessa had the best costume ever: Danaerys, one of the Main Characters of the TV Show “Game Of Thrones” (which I had never seen and don’t intend to, but of course I had seen pictures of that character before), and it was flawless! She even had made herself an own Dragon Egg which looked so real; of course, everyone was amazed and wanted to get a picture with her 🙂 The girls had brought self-made purple nurples to the party, something with wodka, lemon juice, apple juice, Blue Curacao and some other stuff that I can’t remember, but it was delicious! And of course: it was deep purple! As soon as there were the typical “Supernatural” Songs were played (Eye Of The Tiger, Cherry Pie, Carry On My Wayward Son, etc.), the girls rushed onto the dancefloor and started dancing, along with so many others. It was an amazing atmosphere, though I never dance. Too soon, sadly, I had to get home to not miss my last bus, so I said goodbye to the girls and already couldn’t wait for the next morning, where the Convention would REALLY begin!

Saturday, 25th May, 2013:
Finally the weekend really started! The Main Hall, where all the Panels would be happening, was supposed to be open at around 8:30am, and Claudia & Vanessa had told us the night before that they would be sitting infront of the room at already about 6am, to assure we all would get the perfect seats…which we DID. The first two rows were reserved seating, but we were lucky to be the first that were let into the room and got our seats in the third row, just behind them. It was a perfect view, the room was very bright and I knew that it would be the perfect place to get amazing pictures with my Nikon Camera. After a few safety announcements made by Doug, our
all beloved MoC (Master Of Ceremonies), the first Panel started: Misha Collins.
I honestly can’t remember a lot about his panel, because I was so focused on taking like millions of pictures.  I just remember that close to the end, there was this one girl who had prepared a little personal something, reading it out aloud to Misha, expressing her love for him, how much he inspired her and changed her life (which I honestly didn’t like at all, as for me, it was just a weak copy of that one girl a few years back that did the same for Jensen, something that brought tears to my eye, but I just didn’t like that people need to do that, sorry), and Misha actually was really touched and I even think had a hard time not to start crying.

Next Panel on schedule: Richard Speight Jr. What a man. He’s smiling all the time, he just can’t answer questions seriously, and is SO sympathetic in every possible way. Someone in the room asked him if on his journey to Frankfurt there had been some troubles with the train again (which Jared had had 2 years ago, where the suitcases of his wife Gen had been forgotten on the platform in Amsterdam when the train started moving and Jared, all hero-like, hit the emergency stop button; the way Jared had told the story back then was hilarious), and Richard smiled and said no, but asked if everybody in the room already knew Jared’s story, and as there were a lot of Con-Newbies around, he decided to tell the entire story again, and that man…my, I can actually picture him telling Goodnight Stories to his kids, he’s SO good at it! He tells them so vivid, and it’s so much fun to watch his facial expressions and movements while he does, I loved to hear the story his way. It was funny, the story was so long when he told it, that I think out of all questions that were supposed to be asked by fans, he only got to answer three or four before Doug came on stage and told him that time’s up.

Next Panel was the one of Matt Cohen, and that was probably the one I was excited about the most. I just LOVE Matt, I adore him, he’s just the hottest and most beautiful young men I’ve ever seen and met. And I wasn’t disappointed, he looked breathtaking. Again, I can’t remember any of the things that were said, only that he hugged like 3000 people that were queueing at the Microphones to ask their questions; even the ones who didn’t even have any questions, got free hugs. You can imagine it was really tempting to go up there, too, but I just felt like it was pretty pathetic to be like that, not even asking questions, only want to get a hug. Guess I’m too old for this kind of stuff. Anyways, at one point of his panel (where he was walking around like the entire time; it was so difficult to get decent and good pictures of him or anybody this weekend, as they were always moving around and the pics got all blurry), he came up infront of our row and saw my friend Maria typing on her mobile phone – huge mistake. She was tweeting about the panel, and Matt went up to her, wanted to know what she was doing; he then took her phone, and when he noticed it was Richard Speight Jr.’s face as her background picture, took the phone and held it directly into the Camera! It was heaven for Maria, being her first Con and being kind of picked on already. After that, Matt turned into my direction, and when he saw me raising my camera at him, he made the possibly dorkiest face on this planet and let me take a priceless picture. God, I love this man to pieces!

Sadly, I missed most of the next three Panels, that were the ones of first Mark Sheppard, Kevin McNally (that one I missed entirely) & DJ Qualls, as I had to go and take my Photo Op with Matt, which I was so excited about, (and which was amazing;  pic follows further down!) but thankfully, somehow I still managed to take some pictures of Mark’s and DJ’s 🙂

After I got back from my Photo Op, I went straight for the Autograph Room, as honestly, the Panel DJ had wasn’t really  of any interest for me. As I was standing in the queue, waiting for my turn to get my Autograph from Mark, not thinking of ANYTHING bad at all, suddenly, there was this man standing right beside me on the right, leaning in onto me and talking to me in english in a deep voice, and only then I realized it was the one and only Ty Olsson walking around the queues! He stepped to everyone in line, saying that when it was our turn at Mark’s table, we should tell him to write “I love Ty” beside his autograph. I was so starstruck of having Ty being right at my side that I barely listened but stared at him like a fool, managing to ask if I could a quick picture of him; but he just looked at me sadly, saying “I’m not allowed to!” and went off. So when it was my turn, of course I tried to make Mark writing Ty’s exact words in my book, but I almost knew he wouldn’t. First of all because someone in line before me had already told him about Ty’s joke, and second because Mark just doesn’t take part in these kind of jokes, he almost always rejects them. So he just said “I know he made you say that”, signed my book, and I left. It was sad, but I was too excited about Ty standing so close to me that I didn’t care at that moment *lol*
Next one before I wanted to go back to the Panel Room was Misha’s Autograph, because I already feared that I wouldn’t get it the next day, considering the long Queue already. When I got closer to him, I was taking some sneaky pictures, and I suddenly realized that right infront of me, there was a girl in line that had prepared her nails in an amazing way, with a tiny little Castiel painted on every single of the nails. It looked absolutely amazing, and when Misha noticed them, he just couldn’t resist: he asked the girl to stand right behind him, grabbing his face from behing for a picture with Misha’s phone…it was SURREAL, especially, when Richard came from the table next to Misha, staring at what they were doing, grabbing Misha’s phone and took a picture himself. I was still buzzed about this when it was my turn to get my Autograph, but I managed to say “You know we expect this picture to be your new profile pic on twitter!”, but he only looked at me oddly, signed my book and I left. And yes, I felt REALLY stupid at that moment.

When I got back to the Main Hall, the one and only Kim Rhodes was already on stage. WHAT. A. WOMAN. I am honest here: I have never been a fan of Sheriff Jodie Mills, I never missed her when she didn’t show up again, and honestly, can’t even remember any of her storylines (like the ones where her family gets killed?!). But when I had the honour to see her on stage, I was simply blown away. That woman must be the cutest, sweetest, funniest person on this planet! Plus, she is definitely the biggest fangirl this universe has ever seen! When she talked about her first days on the “Supernatural” Set, talking about Jensen & Jared, it was almost like she was talking out of our own hearts, because we all would’ve reacted exactly the same. She expressed her never-ending love for Jensen, told us she loves DJ & James Patrick Stuart to pieces (but also, that we should never tell James anything about that *lol), and also that Julian Richings was amazing. By the end of the panel, there was a girl who came up, giving her a rose as a Thank You for being such an inspiration to her, for being so amazing, and when Kim took it from her, her eyes were watering with tears, which was so humane and cute that I myself felt some tears coming up in my own eyes. Kim made a last statement about how it was NOT okay for men to rape or abuse women, and everyone, me included, had the highest respect ever for this woman! By then, I already was so in love with her, that I spontaneously decided to quickly buy a Photo Op with her, which I did directly after she had left the stage. And I love it to bits!

Please don’t ask me what actually I did after that, I only remember that I missed almost every bit of the Panel of Julian Richings, except for the last minutes, where I took at least some pictures. I just remember that he told us about his small role in the Horror Movie “Wrong Turn”, and I instantly could remember his role, seeing his face and all.

What happened after that…well, I can’t name it, honestly, because it was so absolutely absurd and funny and ridiculous…which was the moment I completely fell for the weird amazingness that is Mr. Ty Olsson, who’s Panel it was next. I’m honest here again, I absolutely disliked Benny, his role on “Supernatural” in Season 8, much of it due to the fact that he has such a hard accent on the show that I really barely understood anything of what he said. Also, his role is so…unlikeable, he drives a wedge between Dean and Sam, because he and Dean become kind of “brothers” in Purgatory, and Benny was just so unsympathetic, I can’t describe it; luckily, as I knew, I wasn’t the only one, almost everyone I talked to this weekend didn’t like him on the show (not a good start for Ty, you might think *lol*). But on this stage, I think everybody started loving Ty. It was the first time any of us had seen one of the actors coming onto stage with Alcohol, drinking beer like the entire time. There was this one girl, just before Ty wanted to take a sip, who shouted: “Are you sure you should drink this?” and Ty just stared at her, grinned, then walked up to her, grabbing her hand and pulling her all the way to the tech balcony, where the stairs were so steep that the day before, he had almost fallen down, without even spilling one sip of his beer back then. I think the entire room was completely dying of laughter. Then there was this girl that Ty caught yawning; he jumped down the stage, ran up to her, grabbing her arm and pulling her up on stage, and started interviewing her, asking  if he was that boring to her. She was french and Ty called up a girl who translated. Jesus, it was hilarious. By the end of his panel (honestly, why did it have to be over so fast?), Rick Worthy crashed it (just as Ty had done earlier on Rick’s), doing a round with his hand over his head, which should indicate the way Vampires “do Alien Babies”. It was the most surreal and weird but also funniest thing we all had ever seen, and it became a total running gag that weekend, one that even Misha picked up on his last Panel on sunday. I won’t talk about seeing A LOT of Rick’s…asscrack that weekend, because I might just get nightmares because of it (on sunday, even Susie went down from the tech balcony to tell him to pull up his pants!) *lol* I think it’s an understatement that I have a thing for Ty ever since that day and I will never be able to see him the same way when I’m going to see him on a TV Screen. Or Rick, for that matter.

After that, we all relaxed a bit on the girls’ room in the Sheraton and got some food into us (okay, hands on table, it were only Starbucks Frappucino’s). Later, Rebecca & Justine, who had been one of the last lucky ones to get a Meet & Greet with all the actors, went off, and while Laura chilled somewhere (seriously, girl, where did you go? *lol*), Karina & Maria relaxed up on their rooms, so did Claudia & Vanessa, and I went around with Angii and her mother until Claudia texted me if I could come up to their room to practise their pose for their Misha Photo the next day (which had turned out to be total crap and which would be redone on sunday). After that, I went back to Angii and we somehow overcame the time until it was time to get ready for the 2nd Motto Party in the evening (except for Rebecca, Justine & Laura, none of us others went to the Jason Manns concert, which I regret now, as Richard and even Ty had been there, too, singing; I am so stupid.) Neither Claudia nor Vanessa or me stayed long, though, as we were all tired and didn’t want to go to bed too late, as the next day would start at 6am infront of the Main Hall again (and again, Vanessa & Claudia both saved us amazing seats in the 4th row!!!). I went home and after a little bit to eat, went off to bed. The next day would be long and hard, as it would be the last day and also meant a couple of really, really hard Goodbyes…

Sunday, 26th May, 2013
I think it is not an understatement that everyone in the Main Hall that morning was tired as hell, totally shattered. It was no surprise, then, that, as two Stewards who helped Rogue out that weekend – Ines and Rea, I believe, – played with little plush toys infront of the camera, up on the tech balcony, the ENTIRE room went totally nuts. Everyone was laughing and cheering while “Circle Of Life” from “The Lion King” was playing in the background (damn you, Doug *lol*), and I was just like: “WTH?, and I think it was Justine who said what I was thinking: “You really know that everyone in here is tired as fuck when they totally freak out because of some plush animals infront of a camera.” I love you, Jussy 😀
After that, Doug came on stage, telling us that there had been a slight change of schedule: due to the fact that Matt had to leave earlier, right after the Closing Ceremony that evening, Misha’s and his Panel were switched around, so that the first one that day would be the one with Richard Speight Jr. & Matt Cohen, while the one with Misha would be the last one on that day. I think no one had a problem with finishing that weekend with Misha, and Doug won all our hearts when he said: “I bet everyone of you would like to finish on Misha.” That man is too hilarious.
When Richard and Matt came on stage, it was clear to me that again, it would be quite difficult to get some good pictures, as they are probably the ones that are walking around their panels the most. Again, Matt gave free hugs to the entire audience, whoever asked for it, and he and Richard harmonized so well together! They were talking about earlier roles, and suddenly, Doug displayed old pictures of Richard on a big screen, where he was about 18 and had terrible hair. Matt was totally blown away by that, and instantly took a picture of him infront of the pictures (what a fangirl!), and they were followed by a Police Transvestite picture of Matt in one of his roles, and a dorky Photo Op picture of Richard and him on some Convention. I sadly don’t really remember much more about their Panel, only that of course, it was way too short and I loved it. These two on a Convention are always more than fun. Next Panel…god, Ty Olsson & Rick Worthy. In the morning. And we all just KNEW they would come up on stage with at least one bottle of beer in their hand, each. Well, it wasnt just one bottle…they had brought two barrels of beer and also, three or four more bottles that were already standing on the table on stage, and all I could think was: “What the hell is going on here?” Both of them just didn’t disappoint us in any way, they were BREATHTAKING. They are the funniest people I have ever seen, and not for the first time I deeply regretted that I hadn’t get a Ty Photo Op or one with him and Misha, and that I hadn’t any time to go and get some more money to afford it (apart from the fact that actually I didn’t have the money for the Kim Photo earlier, either). Of course, Rick and Ty both got us all pregnant with their “Alien-Vampire-Babies-Hand-Over-The-Head”-Gesture – I doubt this will EVER get old, – and as I said before, Susie came down once to tell Rick to “please pull up his pants”, and Ty made the joke like he was pulling a credit card down Ricks’s…crack. I feel like I’m almost going red by just thinking about that. At one point of the panel one girl reminded Ty that the day before, he had promised he would be singing in his panel on sunday, and what followed was something SO beautiful it brought tears to my eyes: him and Rick were singing the children’s lullaby “You are my sunshine”, and I was really impressed by how soft and smooth Ty’s voice sounded, I loved it! They also both danced with two fans infront of the stage, and it would be an understatement if I’d say it had been kind of a dirty dance *lol*. Just before the end, Rick spotted one fan that was dressed up in a costume of a blue fox and got a little “foxy” with her/him. I think I can never look at either of them – neither Rick nor Ty – in a normal, humane way. Never. *lol*

Next two Panels were Mark Sheppard and after that DJ Qualls & Kevin McNally. Can’t really say a lot about them; Mark’s panels are almost always the same. He said “I. Am. Your. King.” a couple of times, something I love about him, because he’s so much of Crowley that you just gotta like him, even if he doesn’t do all the things you ask of him once you stay infront of him. And DJ & Kevin…I might better not say that, but although they seem nice and cool and kind of funny, neither of them really were interesting to me, so their Panels were the ones I could easily avoid in order to get my Photo Ops taken or my Autographs. Which doesn’t mean that I don’t have respect of them, I do! It’s just, they didn’t leave a huge impression on me on the Show, so they’re just not my favourites and never will be. Though DJ can be cute, gotta admit that 🙂

After the break (which was between the Panel of Mark and the one of Kevin & DJ), I had a Photo “Date” with my lovely ladies, Susie & Jaynee. When I knew I was coming to AE4, this was in my head like all the time. I knew this would probably be the last time I’d see them both for a very long time or maybe forever, so you can imagine my sunday was…dichotomous. On the one hand, I enjoyed every bit of this last day, on the other hand, right when I woke up that morning and later, sat in the Main Hall, tears started welling up in my eyes just thinking of the Goodbyes in the evening. So I had managed to meet up with both of them at 2pm at the Photo Studio Room to take Photo Ops together. When I arrived there and got into the room, there were only the two Photographers there, Chris and the other girl, one guy that was sitting at the Laptop, Jaynee, Susie…and Mark Sheppard, who had had his Photo Session just before the lunch break. I saw Susie cuddling up with him and felt weird standing there like ordered but never collected, but Susie then told Chris we wanted to take pictures, and he got in position; so did we. First pic was me and Susie, then I took both, Jaynee and her, on my my left and right side for a pic together, last one was one with Jaynee. It might sound creepy and childish and needy and pathetic, but in that moment, I must’ve been the happiest person on this planet. Since I knew for over an hour I would take the pics with them, I was more excited about it than I had ever been about any Photo Op I had taken with any actor brought to Germany by Rogue Events. It meant I would’ve own a wonderful memory and a great picture that no one could take away from me. And knowing that both of the ladies enjoyed that too, and were happy we did it, just made me even more happy.

After I was out of the Photo Studio, I went straight for the Autograph Room, knowing that the Panels that were happening right now weren’t my faves (I completely missed the Panel of Julian & Kim, but heard Kim was cute as ever and Julian was pretty cool). When I got there, first thing I noticed: Queues of Death. There was a short line and a VERY long line; the short one, I thought, was probably for Rick or Ty, the long one for Misha – well, wrong. It was the complete opposite. The long queue was for Rick AND Ty, and I was pretty amazed by how popular they both already seemed to be – I mean…Misha? Hello? He’s probably everyone’s favourite puppy in the fandom! But I understood the hype, as I just had fallen in love with Ty the day before, and as I stood in the Queue, getting closer, I could hear music coming from his direction, because he had his mobile phone on his table, blasting Hip Hop out of its speakers. When it was my turn, I gave him my Autograph book and as there was not much space on the one side anymore (I didn’t want to start a new page for just 1 Autograph of Rick), I told him to not sign too big, so that Rick would still be able to sign on the same page as him. Ty looked and me in this strange but very tempting way, like “Uhm…are you serious?” and I said “Well, but it won’t be a problem, Rick can also sign on the next page, you don’t have to squeeze your Autograph in some way, no problem!”, because I had a weird feeling…which was completely justified. I should’ve known that, as just before Ty started signing, he grinned at me in this odd way, a way that seriously made my knees buckle, and then he squeezed his Autograph in the far left corner, REALLY tiny, not more than a little circle, and wrote “Sorry I took up space” right beside it on the bottom on the page. At first I was like: “WTF?” but later, it made me smile so much because I knew this made his Autograph even more special for me (of course, this was nothing compared to the Autograph my friend Laura got from him just before me: “Nice boobs…I mean, shoes” *lol*)

After that, we went all the way to the back again to queue for Rick, and it seemed like his Queue NEVER ended; the more we came forward, the slower it got, and we knew that Rick took his time to talk with everyone who was standing infront of him which was seriously so nice…but considering that it was Misha’s panel a few minutes later, that wasn’t really comforting at all. But then something happened that none of us had expected: Misha, who was sitting at the table right beside Rick, started throwing Marshmallows at the queues. He had gotten them from some fan, and obviously, he’s not really the Marshmallow Type. Some people got them thrown against their head, some caught them and ate them…but most of them – me, Rebecca & Justine, who were standing in Rick’s Queue, included, – caught them, only to throw them back at Misha. It was really a Marshmallow War…and the funniest thing I was ever honoured to be a part of. We were laughing our asses off when one girl threw one of the Marshmallow back at him, hitting him on his chest, and another one (actually, the one that I threw) almost hit the Rogue Staff Member that sat next to him against her head. There was this one girl, Kim, who was standing right infront of us, and when Misha threw one of the sweet things at her, she caught it right in her mouth, and everyone was cheering, even him. When he finally had to leave for his panel, he still threw Marshmallows at us, and we were throwing them back; I will not tell you how bad the floor looked after that, I’ll just say that I’m glad I wasn’t part of the Hotel Staff that day *lol*

After that, we three rushed back to the very last panel of the weekend…which started like really weird. After a few minutes, we all could hear Misha’s voice blasting through the speakers, but none of us could make him out…when suddenly, his face appeared on one of the screens, and everyone instantly cheered and knew that he was hiding up at the tech balcony, with a camera pointed on him! He told us that he felt like he was so popular already that he had overcome the need to be seen by us in person on stage, and that he had to fly home earlier, that right at that moment, he was back home in his bathroom in Los Angeles. There were shouts from the entire audience to make him come down, and suddenly, his body popped up over the balustrade, he pulled a face and shouted: “Don’t yell at me!!!”
I honestly don’t remember anything that was said in this panel, guess I was too focused on taking pictures and realizing it were only a few minutes left until this perfect weekend was already over again. At one point in the middle, suddenly, Kim, Matt, Richard & Julian showed up on stage; everyone was saying their Thank You’s for an amazing weekend, told us how much they loved and enjoyed everything and that they hoped they’ll be back in Germany one day. That was the first time I felt tears coming up inside of me, but somehow, I could hold them down. Misha went on with his panel, but after 10 minutes, the rest of the lot came up on stage: Ty, Rick, Kevin, DJ & Jason Manns, and in that moment I knew it was over. The guys all said their Thank You’s, too, how much they loved it here, and when Misha said “Guys, I think I speak for all of us when I say that this is our version of heaven”, I was done, the first tear came out of the corner of my eye. Then Doug came on stage, and everyone in the audience – we knew this would mean the definite end, it was never good when Doug came on stage during the panels *lol* – was shouting “GO AWAY, DOUG!!” and when Doug went off stage, Misha called him back with “Come back, Doug!”. They all “guarded” him in their midst, started to cuddle and nudge him, and Misha even started nibbling at his left ear; the audience went mad. Then Misha said “And I think that Doug’s going to lead you out with a song” and…Doug started singing “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Well, it’s a miracle I didn’t collapse, considering it is my all-time favourite song, being the biggest “We Will Rock You” and Queen-Fan; all actors on stage were singing along, and by the time Ty made us all cheer and clap as loud as we could (honestly, it was like being in a huge stadium, it was a BLAST!), really EVERYONE in that room stood up and gave them and Doug and just everyone of Rogue long Standing Ovations. I couldn’t have pictured a better end to that weekend, it was flawless.

I didn’t care that my tears now really had started flowing, and when me and my girls left the room and Rebecca, Justine and me went off to collect our Matt/Richard Double Photo, I noticed how quiet and serious Rebecca had gotten. When we got into the crowded room, we three were standing in the Queue and started talking about how Vanessa & Claudia already had been totally teared up when we left the room, and somehow I kept my strength, but when I saw Justine next to me turning away, swiping her eye, I broke down and started crying, and soon after me, Rebecca started, too. There we were, the biggest babies on this planet, crying like someone had just died, knowing it would be the last Con-Weekend we all would have, that it was a Final Goodbye…it was horrible, honestly. I won’t go into detail here, because it just brings up everything again. After we went back to the others down at the Registration desk, we all build a circle and hugged each other, then we took a few Goodbye Pictures.

By that time, I think my face must’ve been a complete mess. I couldn’t stop crying while I was texting with Susie, who wanted to know where I was – I knew she was coming to say Goodbye. And that was something I couldn’t cope with. When my friend Angii at one point, while we stood all there, sobbing, pointed to the hallway, saying “There’s Susie”, and I went up to her, I felt like there was something breaking inside of me. She stared at me with a shocked glare when I reached her and asked “Why are you crying?”, and all I could do was shaking my head. I don’t really remember a lot she said to me, I just remember feeling her hugging me as tight as no one had ever hugged and hold me before. Minutes passed until she let go of me, trying to comfort me. Then Jaynee came, seeing me crying, pulling me into her arms, trying to make me stop crying with making some jokes, telling me she would slap me if I wouldn’t stop right there. But I just couldn’t stop at all, even as Staff Members from Rogue came up to me, pulling me into their arms, too (thanks so much for that, Dominik, and that woman who showed me a picture of her nephew in a ridiculous costume that made me laugh somehow), and then there was this one girl I knew from tumblr – Ines. She talked to Susie, saying her Goodbyes, then looked at me, and before I knew what was happening, pulling me into her arms, hugging and comforting me too, and that was the moment I think I realized what was going on there. I won’t go into further details about my entire Goodbyes with Susie & Jaynee here, because it’s something really dear and private to me, and because it just brings up the worst pain I’ve ever felt. It was the most beautiful and at the same time most horrible moment of my entire life, getting so close to my two wonderful friends, just to let them go – maybe for good – too soon. One thing stayed in my mind and I really try to cling to that since that night, one sentence Susie said to me just before she left for good:

“Remember: you don’t have to see each other to have a friendship.”

So, this weekend was beautiful and perfect in every way. I loved that I got to spent more time with Jaynee & Susie, that I got to know all the wonderful girls I only knew over twitter or one short meeting – Rebecca, Justine, Vanessa, Claudia, Maria, Laura, Karina & Angii – and that they made my weekend SO unforgettable! I am happy that only by accident, I got in touch with Ines, who I think could even become a great friend to me, given time and all.

My resumé of this weekend: NEVER give Misha Collins sweets that could be adapted for throwing, if you want a beautiful, cute, normal Photo Op with Matt Cohen & Richard Speight Jr…DON’T TELL THEM, because in the end, they’ll just screw it up anyways *lol*, sleep and food are overestimated, it’s never a shame to cry into your friends’ arms…and Mr. Ty Olsson got himself a huge Groupie. THANK YOU for everyone who participated in all of this with me, who made it through all the Queueing-Madness and who indulged with me in any way. I love you all to bits! ❤