[2010-03-29] Scruffydog Updates from AAm Autograph Session

[Scruffydog777]

Well the autographs session went well but there were a few small problems.
I arrived right around 4 pm. I thought there might be a problem once I looked around. I said I'd be wearing black slacks, black shirt and maybe a black coat. Well this described about 90% of the guys who were there. But not to worry, Aron found me first, followed soon after by the others. These were 3 great guys, very well mannered, I was very happy that they were there representing different age groups.

I went to talk to an employee to ask for one of the managers mentioned in our e-mail. Neither one of them were there. We finally talked to someone who some what knew what was going on and he told us to go down stairs to reception. We went downstairs and I talked to the guy behind the counter and he didn't seem to have a clue as to what I was talking about. This is where Mark being there was really a god send. He explained in French what was going on and soon afterwards we had someone with us connected with what was going on back stage.

He told us to give him a call at 5:15 and then he'd meet back up with us. We went upstairs, where I bought my discs. We then went downstairs to unwrap them. 5:15 arrived and I saw Mark making several attempts to call the gentleman we met before but with no success. I thought this will truely s*** if we lose out on this opportunity because we cant reach him by phone. But a couple of minutes later, this gentleman came walking around the corner and scooped us up. We went up stairs and he asked me if I had the receipt for all the cd's I had. To my horror, I couldn't find it. When were unpacking all the cd's I had, we threw out the original bags they came in. I searched franticly for the bags I had thrown out. Could only find one of them. Several minutes went by, with thoughts of this going to cost us this great opportunity, but in the end, he said forget about it.

So we went for a long walk, through several doors, up an elevator, down a long corridor and we finally entered a room and there she was. I wasn't expecting her to be there already she was right there in front of us. With all the people that were in there, she stood out like a beacon in the night. She shook hands with all of us and then we took up positions around the table.

This was unexpected, at least by me. I thought we'd all be in a room and suddenly she would enter, but such was not the case. It caught me way off guard. We asked if we could take pictures and they said okay. There was a film crew there from M6 who pretty much filmed everything.

I had problems with the camcorder I borrowed from my brother. I would set it up on a mini tripod and when left un-attended, would start zooming in by itself to a point where the image was unviewable. That wasn't too great a problem. We were there for numerous minutes and I did get in several good video clips. I just wont have the video of her signing every cd as some people hoped.

I presented her with the open letter and she looked carefully at it but didn't read it fully. A comment was made about the signatures which I mistakenly said yes to in which I wasn't sure of but thought afterwards they might be asking how many fans were in the forum and I quickly said something to the affect that we have 2000 members.

I thought this was going to be a tough time for me. But because she was there when we got there. Because I was having problems with my camcorder, I really didn't have time to think about the whole thing. Well then the people from M6 started interviewing me. Which had an affect on my video efforts, but also got me to thinking about the subject at hand, Alizee. It was a tough moment to get through. Maybe you will all get to see it on an M6 video, though I could do with out it.

I presented Alizee with a couple of small gifts. A t shirt that says Boston loves ya, and an Alizee America hat. I asked her twice to put it on, but she checked I guess with her make up artist and they said no, said they'd do it later, but I kind of doubt it because so many other fans give her gifts.

After all the cd's were signed, we each took a picture with her and then we had to leave.
We went downstairs and filmed and photographed her at several times during this.

We all went out for a couple of drinks afterwards. Met Marks wife. She's as wonderful a person as Mark is. We Toasted Alizee at one point then went our seperate ways. It would be nice to meet up with all of them again.

I tried transferring the movies from my brothers camera to my laptop tonight so I could up load them, but I had no success. I even tried downloading a couple of programs that should have helped out but with no luck. So these videos will probably have to wait until I get home.
As for the cd's. I will be treating them like egg sheells when I fly home tomorrow