The Winchester Family Business

Here I am, still marveling how I ended up back here in Nashville, Tennessee.  I didn’t think I’d make it to this weekend’s Salute to Supernatural initially.  After all, the con was moved from a weather and family friendly early June to the worst possible weekend in February, Super Bowl Weekend.  Come Tuesday though, it looked like the weather would be spring like, there were plenty of tickets left, and I found a great deal at a nearby hotel.  Couple that with the fact that I missed out on last year's fun thanks to illness and Creation announced this would be the last con in Nashville, and all that was left on my part was a six and a half hour drive, a drop in the bucket for me.  
 
So far, Nashcon has been enjoyable.  It’s been very low key I’ll admit, but considering most cons are circuses I’ll take low key.  The guests have been fun, the fans seem to be enjoying themselves, and best of all, it’s freaking February 4th and I’m not knee deep in snow.  It’s all good! 

So here’s a somewhat jumbled report based on all the fun that’s been had since last night’s Karaoke Party and today’s panels involving Rob Benedict (Chuck), Kim Rhodes (Sheriff Jody Mills), Gabriel Tigerman (Andy), Matt Cohen (young John Winchester), Richard Speight Jr. (Gabriel/The Trickster), Sebastian Roche (Balthazar), and Misha Collins (Castiel).  
 

Twitter is a very strange beast.  Normally when I do to a con, I always have my laptop handy and take a lot of notes.  For this year’s “Salute To Supernatural” in Chicago, I did something different.  I decided to tweet instead.  Turns out I did A LOT.  I have no idea why, especially since the whole 144 character format drives me batty!  However, tweeting through a laptop is way easier than a phone, so that’s why I managed to get out so many.  There were hardly any people there with laptops.  
 
Apparently though, the tweets got attention.  I guess I was paraphrasing in ways that others weren’t.  I’ve never been good at just telling the facts.  Even on Sunday when I introduced myself to Clif Kosterman, he went, “Oh, you’re the one with all the tweets yesterday.”  I know people next to me started following after they saw everything I was writing.  I picked up a lot of followers that weekend.
 
It’s taken me a couple of weeks, but I’ve found that many of my tweets didn’t make the con tweet summaries that are so popular after these things on other blog sites.  So, I decided to make an archive for myself.  Sure the con is long passed, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to share.  I know a ton of you out there aren't Twitter savvy (and I often think that's a good thing).  Who knows, maybe future cons will end up just being summaries of my tweets.  We’ll see.  
 

Once again I had the great fortune of being able to attend the private Question and Answer session with the very eloquent Jensen Ackles. 

I have to say, I think this time the seating arrangements were handled much better by Creation than last year.  All participants were alphabetically assigned a seat.  Last year it was it was random and there was contenting when getting in line out side the board room.  Assigned seats negate the need for people to line up to get good seats and negated an additional line in the area.  This is also were fans line up for the photo ops so anyway to keep the people flowing and reduce capacity is a plus.  I commend Creation on it change in procedure.

We all entered the room took our assigned seats and had a few minutes to collect our thoughts.  Many participants were first timers to the Q&A and it can be an overwhelming experience, especially when you get to be so close to once of the most eloquent actors in the entertainment business these days.  Not to mention one half of the hottest brother duo on TV.

(Photos courtesy of Sablegreen)

I was only able to attend one day of the convention this year and it has made me thirsty for more! The Q&A sessions are always of the most interest to me so I was happy to get to hear not only Jared and Jensen, but also Richard Speight answer audience questions. We’ll start with him first. 

This was my first time seeing Richard Speight at a convention but from what I’ve read, I knew what to expect. Now I know why people rave about the karaoke! 

 

This year I bought a gold ticket to the Salute to Supernatural convention in Chicago and attended the continental breakfast with the J2s.  The event was held in one of the hotel ballrooms.  The excitement and fun were there as was the anticipation of the J2 arrival.  And arrive they did bright eyed and chipper and ready for a fun day. 

(My favorite pic from the con by far.  Thanks @guynormanbee.)

The biggest challenge as editor of this site is trying to keep con reports, especially since there were so many this year, fresh.  I mean, as fan experiences, conventions can be equated with the same high one gets on religious retreats.  You come back refreshed, renewed, thrilled to meet your fellow brethren, and at times with a new perspective on things.  Then you go back to your daily life and it’s all a sweet memory.  When reading about cons through reports, they get dry as toast after a while.  
 
I know, I’m sure you’re saying, “Come on Alice, what does this have to do with what was said at the J & J panel?”  Well that’s it.  I’ve got the full breakdown on this site of every J & J panel this year.  A lot Misha too.  A lot of other con guests, which are mostly the same guests each time.  Did something extraordinary happen at this weekend’s Salute to Supernatural that didn’t happen at other cons?  Yes and no.  Mostly no.  But here’s some of the really fun facts about this weekend in particular between all the panels, special events, and private Q & A’s.
 
There are some mild spoilers here folks.  Nothing that’ll give away the farm, but if you’re even the slightest bit spoilerphobic, this might not be for you.

(Photo courtesy of Lindsay Warren)

The next event was another Auction. I once again recorded the items and the amount they sold for:
 

(Photo courtesy of @wolfling)

The MC announced, "Give a nice Toronto Welcome to Jared and Jensen!"  The two came onstage.
 
JP – Hi Guys
JA – Alright! Good turnout.
JA – I guess people really do watch the show.
JP – I guess so. Thank you guys.
 
After sitting down Jared started rocking in his chair.  ‘I have bit of a rocking chair.’  Since they figure people were standing in line to ask a question they decided to start.  Jared looked at a young woman, ‘You look excited, we will start with you.’