James Callis Narrates "The Podfather" Documentary

James has narrated a documentary for BBC 4, called The Podfather. It's about the inventor of the microchip. It was aired yesterday, Monday the 12th, but is also online. If you're in the UK, you can watch the documentary here. If not, it seems like there's no way to see this. Blah.

I'm a little pissed off that I can't watch it, but I'm glad James was asked to narrate. He has a beautiful voice. It also seems fitting that he'd do documentaries, since he's so well read and up to date with stuff.

And I didn't know this about the chip inventor, so another thing Professor James has taught me! ;)

Here's how the BBC site describes the documentary:

Documentary telling the story of silicon chip inventor Robert Noyce, godfather of today's digital world.

Re-living the heady days of Silicon Valley's seminal start-ups, the film tells how Noyce also founded Intel, the company responsible for more than 80 per cent of the microprocessors in personal computers. Noyce defined the unconventional, innovative culture of Silicon Valley - the likes of Apple and Google would be influenced by his egalitarian management style, which was inspired by his religious upbringing.

Podfather shows why Noyce may be the most important person most people have never heard of. Contributors include industry giants Gordon Moore and Andy Grove.

James Canis?

Do you think James looks like this dog (canis lupus familiaris)? I think he looks a lot like this dog (canis lupus familiaris) (long-haired dachshund).

Note the prominent chest hair, silky long hair by the ears, warm and intelligent brown eyes and the nose shape. Admittedly, the nose is a bit too long, but there's a definite similarity there. Dachshunds are known for their low stature, and James is a short guy, so it seems to fit.

I've added a poll to the right margin, just for fun. Let me know if you agree, or if I'm just obsessed with dogs.

PS: two Cavils on the prowl.

EDIT: Poll results

Well, no mass of votes flooded into the poll, but here are the results:

Hmm, now that you mention it... 3
OMG! James Canis! 1
What are you on?! 1
Total votes 5

I'm glad that 4 out of 5 voters do seem to see the canine nature of our James. The problem is: he just cut his hair! So is he a short-haired dachshund now?

An Evening With James Callis - The Panel, Part 1

So this is the panel from the con An Evening With James Callis, held in Bonn, Germany, this September. The main post for the con is here and you can stream or download the full video for this panel - the high quality link is the second one - here at Scifi-trek.de. There's also an audio stream file at VDVD Magazine here. This is a ninety-minute panel, so each post will cover about 30 minutes.

All photos by René Kissien from Caprica-City. Thank you so much for letting me use them! I was going to pick the right picture to go with each answer, but truth be told, I don't have that kind of patience, so apart from the one where he's fiddling with the bottle, these are pretty much picked at random. He looks great in all of them, and that's all that matters.

James is introduced and comes in to much applause, smiling charmingly.

Thank you very much. This is a very.. I would say quaint gathering, thank you very much indeed for coming. And I've just literally hopped off the plane from London, um.. so I'm here to answer some questions. Whatever you'd like to kind of ask me, within the bounds of reason [laughter; he removes the scarf and places it on the table.] And if I can answer, I shall. It's my second time in Bonn, I thought I'd say, I was here earlier in the year for FedCon. It's a really beautiful city, and just as I was coming here, we heard the church bells ringing. It's a beautiful sunny day as we head into the winter. I imagine that you're all Battlestar aficionados but I don't know. And you've all made your way here. Is everyone here from Germany?
(laughter)

Voice from the audience: NO!

No? (laughter) Goodness me. So why don't I just open this up to the floor and try and answer your questions. I don't know where I'll place myself.. I might look more nonchalant standing here by this desk. (leans on the desk; laughter) So does anybody have a question at all? No? You all came here just to look at me? How disappointing, I'm very sorry. Who's gonna be the first? There aren't any prizes for the first person. But come on, ask me a question, I'll try and answer it if I can.

Always good at breaking the ice, and he seems completely at ease and relaxed in this setting. He's warm and friendly, and he gives very loqacious answers. I'm actually glad there weren't that many questions, because he gets to really elaborate on the questions he does get, and it's one of the best panels, if not THE best panel, ever.

The way he describes the day and the church bells makes me think, once again, about his attitude and personality. Some people are always complaining, while others see beauty wherever they go. It's an odd thing. I'm sure James has bad days and bad moods, but there's something positive about his general disposition, like he sees the world as a beautiful, fascinating place and the people in it as inherently good and ... well, fascinating as well. There are many instances of that in this panel. He just makes things and people sound so... interesting. I feel uplifted by it.


(Gotta love the scarf!)

Fan: I would like to ask you what do you remember about the first day and the last day on set?

James: First and last day. Well, this has been um..chronicled, because I suppose it's like... the first day on set and I was the very first person to film on set. It was basically number Six and Gaius Baltar meeting each other for the first time in the story, where she comes into the house and we end up kissing. That was the first day. That's quite a memorable day. [laughter] If you remember, I was actually sat doing a television interview with this... I was sitting in my own house, and then the TV screens showed the interviewer. The funny thing about that was, the interviewer was actually in the next room behind me, not in a TV station (?) science. So she was being filmed on another camera while they were filming me. There was a discussion, I believe, into my role in developing methods of artificial intelligence.

The first day was really just um... just this thing where Tricia and I have this huge embrace and we end up kissing lots and lots. [laughter] And I think possibly, in a rather cynical way, they wanted that to be the very first thing, because they weren't particularly sure necessarily about me or Tricia. So it was like "le's get this in the can first of all" that's what they call it.. as in the film can. "Can" is also used colloquially as bathroom or toilet in England, but that's not what they meant. [laughter] They said "Let's get this in the can", and I think so that it could be hurried to the executives at either Sci Fi or NBC, so they can look at it and say...

They are very ruthless, these people, genuinely. If they don't like what they see, then you're out of a job. And there's no... it's like X Factor without laughs, or Pop Idol. It's just like "Hey, you - bye." By that stage already, cos I'd been involved... I'd had this before where somebody I was working with.. After about a week the producers and directors, they didn't like what they were seing, and it's a very... like I said, very cruel and ruthless. So whilst this person I knew was sacked, there were four people waiting in the hotel, to take that person's part. And I assumed that one of the reasons we filmed that thing first was because both myself and Tricia were unknown entities, quantities, for the network. And they wanted to check that that worked ,or tht scene really worked. I was just lucky that I was opposite Tricia, who's very beautiful and fantastic. I think that the people watching it were like, "Yeah, this works, ok." So we had some reprieve..

[leans on the table and tips over a glass] Oops! There's nothing in it, it's ok. [There's a bottle of mineral water next to the glass, and he finds it's already been opened] How am I gonna get... oh, it's been done already. [pours water into the glass.]



So that was the first day. Actually it took me several.. I dunno, about three weeks to actually get on Galactica. You know, the whole show is Galactica but our particular storyline, we didn't get on set, we were filming somewhere else. It was memorable in lots and lots of ways. The director Michael Rymer, who was with us all the way thru... was very bold. And because it was the first day there's a lot of tension, and there's a lot of... There were several people on set who were executives, and they kept on crowding in by the monitor, you know, checking. Basically at some point, the director Michael Rymer just said, "Can you guys let me frakking od my job and get lost?" It was quite brave, really, a lot of people wouldn' t have said that. So they disappeared and things became slightly easier.

This has been told lost of times, seriously, but I was very self-conscious getting undressed in front of all these people. And I asked the camera crew if they would be gentle with me and maybe not make fun of me when I got my clothes off, to which the cameraman replied, just seriously went, "Do you think anyone's looking at YOU?" (laughter) "You're in the room with Tricia. Doesn't matter what you do, you could be chopped liver, forget it, don't worry." Which was quite helpful. [laughter]

I'm amused that he stops to ponder on the meanings of the word "can" - and looks rather amused at the toilet connotation. Does the British humor rely heavily on toilet stuff? Kixxa tells me it does, but I do wonder about James. Hmm.

I don't think he's mentioned that thing about the interview in the first episode before. It's a nice addition, because I often feel like he skips that bit to get to the hot sex stuff (well, who wouldn't?) I started to think about the woman who played Kellen the journalist. She appears on screen at the same moment as Gaius, it's the first time we see Gaius Baltar, and that's a moment a lot of people in the world have seen. Yet I don't remember ever hearing what her name is or hearing anything about her. I should look her up. Hmm. She doesn't even seem to be listed as "Kellen". I guess it's Suleka Matthew? I'm impressed James still remembers her name.

I think I've already commented on the sex scenes as much as I can - I won't get into the donuts here - but just one more thing: I cannot imagine what BSG would be like if James wasn't Baltar and Tricia wasn't Six. Can you? Honestly, that sounds like some hellish parallel universe where everything is wrong.

I was wondering why I made a note of him being so natural about the glass and not being distracted by it. Maybe it's because, had it been me, I'd already be sooo nervous about talking in public, and the glass would have made me even more nervous. (Little things like that really put me off at work.) But he keeps acting like he's talking to friends in a relaxed setting, and this is one of the reasons why I love him so much.

The reply continues:

And we kinda jump, like Battlestar, I dunno, five years in the future, to the last day. The last day was terribly hectic and I think it was filmed until something like 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning. Normally when you finish the season and you forget something, you can always go back and do little bits you haven't done before. But on the last night, nobody's was ever coming bak,so it was just finishing when you finish.

There was something like three units, that means there are three cameras on different stages. It was like being part of some big battle, because... While you were doing your scene, I'm waiting to do my scene, I'm like "when are you gonna do my scene?" Well you have to do the scene, Jamie's in your scene, and Jamie's on a sound stage over there, filming. There was trouble coordinating everybody together, people hanging around for ages. And we were all, as you've seen in the finale, everybody's in like fighting gear, everybody's got their guns and wahtever. You're just like... honestly felt like being in some battle. you stand there having a cigarette like that, and over the radio they go, "second unit! second unit!"I remember one man running up to me, pointing at me very.. "third unit, third unit, quickly quickly!" and just disappearing into the night. (laughter) And there were a lot of battles that we were filming, you could hear sporadic gunfire.

I think I got home at something like.. around 3 o'clock in the morning, I was gonna have a, you know, little drink or whatever.. and i remember ringing Jamie Bamber who's my close friend, and he was filming until something like 5:30 in the morning, he was very disappointed. He was like, [indignant voice] "Yeah, you go have your drink. You know some of us are still working!"[laughter]

And the last scene I filmed, actually, there's something slightly poetic about it but it was also with Tricia. Funnily enough, I don't actually think it actually made the cut. It's not in the final show. But it was her and me running around the corridor firing these huge guns at imaginary cylons. I think there was only like one chance to get it right and you can only rehearse so many times. Actually you may know, firing these guns is genuinely dangerous. You've got people who are armors who tell you what to do, but... if the magazine jams, these things are... they're called blanks, but they're like real bullet casings that can come out and hit you in the face and burn you. And there are so many ppl around firing guns that uh... I don't know, people were getting shells in the eyes... so that was the beginning and that was the end.
(applause) Any other questions?

It's interesting that they apparently filmed out of order, with the battle on BSG coming last. I'm not a huge fan of space battles, but there was something endearing about seeing James in army gear. There are certain types of clothes where he just looks... small and loveable. (L)! The big helmet was especially cute on him. Amusingly, Tricia looked much more at home in her army gear, maybe because she's more athletic and taller than James.

The final days of shooting sound like a pretty chaotic experience - even if James described it as "frakking awesome" in the 08 Comic Con panel - and he doesn't sound all that emotional talking about it. Maybe it was one of those things where it just went so quickly, you had no time to process it until later.



The next question is about director Michael Rymer and what kind of techniques he used while filming.

We were terribly lucky to have this man lead us. I've worked with a lot of people over the years, and I'm not... I'm in a slightly difficult position to talk about it, because I am so partisan. I'm a fan of the show, but I'm also a big fan of Michael Rymer, a big fan. So I dunno. Just learned so much, and not just about film, but about the way that .. the way he manages people. He's very nonconfrontational. He always wants everybody's idea first of all before he'll tell his idea. He wants to hear what YOU think and what you want to do. If he likes it, he'll, he'll stand, he... He's someone who has the courage and the confidence to stand back. This is a big deal, because a lot of people don't have that courage or that confidence and they're constantly jumping [jumps forward] in and changing things, that can be quite difficult. This is somebody who's like, "Yeah, do what you want. If I don't like it I'll tell you." Very mild-mannered with a very good sense of humor. But like a lot of people out there, like the ... [he doesn't finish this thought]

Making the show was a gentle experience, it wasn't a hard experience. He's a very nice man who wants the best out of everybody and the best FOR everybody, so I was.. also as well... He would give everybody a chance to do their thing. Occasionally, for example... say you were trying to work out a scene that's going to be a big scene and you didn't quite know what he was going to go. A lot of directors then would be like, "Well, I don't know.. how much time have I got [pretends to look at watch] I have to get this thing in the can. It's just about getting it shot. So you're the guy talking. Right. It's gonna be on you first of all, right, that's it." You understand, even though you do this for a living, that's quite a lot of pressure for somebody, and sometimes if there's too much pressure, you can't do the thing you need to do.

So occasionally I would say... [?] how we're filming this, Michael would put the camera at the back of people, like make it move back. I'd say what for, what are you filming.. He went,"What I'm doing is... this will give me a great cutting point at any point during the scene, but it will also allow you as the actor to get your confidence up. By the time you're cooking? with gas, then I can come around and be on your face." That's a rather marvellous technique, but a lot of people I don't think would have the confidence to do that, because they'd spend five or ten minutes shooting people's backs to see the room, and there'd be a lot of people in the studio going, "Sorry, what the hell is this man doing? He's just giving us lots of people's backs." I suppose I'm delving into the tricks of the trade there, but.. He also said, you know, sometimes that'll give him leeway to see where he wants the angel of the picture to be.



And in my.. I dunno how many years I've been acting now, I think it's like over 12 or 15 years, but one of the .. one of the most generous men, like from the second week on, the whole cast spent most of their time at his house. And it was one dinner party after a cocktail party after.. So in some way he was the person who galvanized the family together. I just remember, my experience is like, when you've done the day's filming, everybody's off on their separate little trip(?). I've rarely been invited into the director's house to discuss what we're doing. Rarely. This was something that happened for five years. And.. that's a pretty special connection. So that then.. I'm a firm believer that actually anybody can act, really, anybody. But you have to feel comfortable, you have to feel confident enough to do that thing. He's somebody who really did make us feel comfortable and confident enough to give it our all.

And I suppose, you know, different things.. he's Australian, he's not American, so he's got a you know, a different... When things got a bit gung ho and a bit like you know, "Let's go!" whatever, Michael would always step back in that, slightly. In a way that I think if you were American, you'd be gunning for it! "No, that's... I'm not sure about that. I'm not sure that's the.. um... " in the sense that he's got a healthy dose of cyniscism, he's not totally... what's the word, your party man or your party line.

And another thing he did, which I think they really liked, although I think they found it tough at the time, was that he'd embroider(?) ideas they gave him. Most people just wanna shoot what they've got, that's it, you know, what have I got on the page? Right. He would always be looking into... where'd the idea come from? How can I make the idea slightly more interesting? "You know, it says this but what if you did that? You come into the room, you're already.. you're already upset." Just little ideas that would then elevate the material. I believe actually his wife, Loretta, was the person - she and Eddie - that come to that song that we used at the beginning of the show, the Gayatri mantra. He's an informed.. spiritual... enlightened individual. An absolute privilege working with.

I don't really know enough about Rymer or film making to really comment on this very much. However, I always love hearing James praise other people, because it brings out his warmth so much. He seems excited to get to talk about Rymer. And I like that he can appreciate spirituality and mentions it as a positive quality (that will come out more later in the panel). It makes me feel like he might appreciate mine as well.

I just have to return to his Battlestar yearbook entry where he wrote about Rymer in a teasing way that, I suspect, he reserves only for people he knows well and who truly get his humor:

Four years passed pretty peacably - although the Hiring of Mike "Boomerang" No reason or Rymer - threatened to sink the whole project down the crapper - For a start no one could understand a word the man said - Think Crocodile Dundee meets Orson Welles - then double it. Luckily his hold over the proceedings was only slight - and when they made him a producer - he disappeared altogether - which seems to be a running theme in this particular line of work.

:D :D What can I add to that?

James: Let's just talk about sex, shall we? [laughter] Any other questions? Cos like we've got 90 minutes. I could tell a joke, but uh...

Fan: Hello, James.

James: Hi.

Fan: I don't have a question, but I'd like to say that you're looking frakking gorgeous tonight and that's already worth coming.

James: That's really sweet, and I believe that there is an eye doctor somewhere in the hotel. You can get... (laughter) And your head tested as well afterwards. That is very sweet, thank you.

[silence]

Um.... this IS the Battlestar Galactica event, right? Not Stargate? (laughter) I have come to the right place, have I? I'm just checking, just checking.

Heee! I'm not sure if James is so much flattered as amused at the comment. I'm a bit curious about him in this respect. Does he, in fact, realize he's drop dead gorgeous but tries to keep himself humble? Or does he genuinely have such a negative body image and self image that he thinks he's pretty bad looking? As for the fan's comment: I SECOND, with a great big Gaius hand raise. Sexy professor charm! *droools* (I wouldn't necessarily have stood up and said that to his face, but then I'm posting it in public where he may read it anytime - so I guess I can't judge.) And he did say "Let's just talk about sex", so it's all his fault if the fans' minds are in the gutter now. ;)



Asked about the lack of goodbye scene between Laura Roslin and Gaius Baltar. "How would you picture such a goodbye scene between Laura and Gaius?"

You know, it's a fascinating.. I've never thought of that before. I think that it would have been a goobye with no words, I think, essentially. There's something that these... we were so lucky the writing on the show was so brilliant, and a lot of the writing isn't just writing lines, it's writing the things you don't say. Several points that.. "Gaius can't reply", "Gaius doesn't know what to say", "Laura wants to say something but doesn't". And I'm thinking now that there was a big deal of things like when Gaeta was going up before the firing squad, there was a thing where I said to him about, "I know who you are." I think this was important for everyone on the show, there's a kind of recognition about "I know who you are", or "I know what you're about". And I don't think, given their history, that there would be any words. It would be a look in the eye... And that look in the eye would say so many things. On some level it'd be like "Go, go do whatever you're going to do." And the fact that we can look at each other means on some level that we wish each other no harm. We've gone thru so much together.

It's a slightly one-sided thing because I think Gaius really had um... Gaius appreciated Laura, Gaius found Laura attractive and briliant and honest, and she was everything that he could never be. And this is something I tried to bring, I suppose, to the character, that he could see it. It wasn't that he hated it, he could see it. But given the kind of character Gaius was, it's not necessarily something she could see in him. So it's like one of the those things, a love-hate relatioship, I think on some level he really loved her and she really hated him. (laughter) Like I said, if there had been a goodbye, they wouldn't have tainted it with words. She's too clever. He, Gaius, might have tried to say something... inappropriate or wrong.. but Laura was a really classy lady, and she wouldn't have needed to say anything. A look, a nod... and then goodbye. That's all.

This is a beautiful answer, and that's how I picture Laura and Gaius' goodbye as well. Again, James sounds very warm talking about it. I love the idea of "I know who you are" as a running theme between the characters. They know each other; humanity has dwindled to very little, and the same people have been stuck together for some years now; everybody knows each other, and maybe it's a bad thing in some ways, but there's also a recognition, an integrity about it. You can see the others' humanity when you know them.

It's interesting how much respect James has for Laura Roslin, and I imagine it also has something to do with his respect and admiration for Mary McDonnell. I personally found Laura's position as the main character annoying sometimes, by the end, because she would do horrible things and yet people would hail her as a heroine. But I'm not saying I disrespect the character in general; she was smart, she was classy, and there would probably have been a really awesome goodbye scene, had they thought to make one. I'd rather have Baltar and Six back together, of course, but it would have been nice to have that too.



The next question is about whether James watches the show. The fan had had seen somewhere that Eddie and Mary do not.

James: They didn't watch the show?

Fan: Yeah.

James: Not true. [laughter] No. I can tell you right now that's not true.

Fan: Okay.

James: I know for sure it's not true about Eddie. Because, I mean, Eddie used to come to me and say, [eddie voice] Have you seen the rushes? [/eddie voice] The rushes are what you.. when you just filmed something, that's called.., before it's processed, before they make the sound and everything, the stuff just out of the film cam... Although it's not a film camera.. by the first season we were shooting on digital video, HD, but the rushes are the thing that gets processed. So Eddie was always like, "Have you seen the rushes?" And I said, "I haven't actually watched anything, no." [ev] "I watch everything. [laughter] Everything. So should you." [/ev] And.. yeah, when I hear Eddie hasn't watched the show, it's not true and not real.

Maybe Mary hadn't, or I don't know about Mary. I find... I was just in London a few days ago, and um... I just come home from dropping one of my kids at school, and I turned in the new.. I had just gotten satellite television for the first time, been away from it... [something seems to happen off camera] Thank you. Thank you very much. [laughter] Don't try this at home.

I just got satellite TV, been away from it five years in Canada, getting back to London and getting all the stuff... Flicking through channels, and there's Battlestar Galactica... for me gen.. I couldn't work out what episode, what season, what was.. you know, in the sense of being involved with so much product and so much stuff. I knew it was our show and not the sone from the 70's. [laughter] Other than that, it was like.. do I appear in this one? Do I have a lot to say? I can't really remember.. Yeah, but they did, or they will. I'll send Mary the box set on your behalf.
[laughter]

I love how he makes the most Eddie face while doing the Eddie voice. It's uncanny. He nods his head, looking entirely serious, and he really does look like Edward James Olmos for a moment. It's weird how he can do that.

It's odd to think of how little he can tell the different episodes and seasons apart. The interviews show that he's seen the episodes when they first come out, and he remembers Baltar's storylines well - because he lived through them - but it seems like the fans have more of an idea about what happened in which episode/season. It's interesting that being inside the thing actually makes you less exact about this type of thing. (He proves this later on by not remembering what episode the nuked Earth was in, "but it was the end of one season".) Or maybe he's just a scatter-brained professor. We can never fully discount that possibility.



The next question is about his future projects. I already transcribed most of this for the original con post:

I've been involved in something in England, a pilot... [Meet Pursuit Delange] It's a rather difficult thing to describe. It was a comedy and it was very risqué, very very risqué. So risqué that the pilot possibly won't be made, but now, people are interested perhaps in a movie that will be less risqué. Do you understand risqué? Essentially risqué is rude.. I think, essentially, rude or crude, or both. I play this guy who was a wannabe, he wanted to be involved in the media in some way. And he's very naïve and a bit... sweet, like a nice guy, sweet, but he gets... he meets up with an old school friend who never was actually his friend at school. And the old school firend is really mean, really nasty. So it's like a duo between myself who was like Bambi and my friend who was like Satan. (laughter) It was very funny to do.

Since then, actually, I've just done a film in London called Re-Uniting the Rubins. Which is about a family, the Rubins family, who haven't spoken to each other in fifteen years. And because of a course of events, they were thrown together. It's kind of a bittersweet comedy. Do you have, in Germany, do you have a show like The Apprentice... so you've got your own Donald Trump? A German version of Donald Trump? -You don't? You just get Donald Trump? Well, in England we have this guy called Alan Sugar, who runs The Apprentice. And he's um... terribly successful businessman but started from very humble beginnings. And the character that I played in this film is.. wants to be a business magnate, and is actually rather... I dunno, unpleasant, naïve..There's just been something on the news about what I was doing on the film... Which I didn't... when I got the script, I was... It's true, and that's on the news at ten.

There's all this mining going on in Africa for [ore?] that ends up in our mobile phones. Do you know about this? Some of you do. You go to the top of the class, the people who do. [laughs] Anyway, there's all this stuff that it's a huge conflict in the sense of the mobiles... Mobile or cell phones are a multi-billion dollar industry and business. We're all slaves to being on the mobile phone. But it's causing wars and havoc in Africa where people are being paid nothing. They spend their whole lives mining this stuff out of the Earth. And that's something that I was doing in the film. I was very unscrupulous. So that was that.

I didn't actually know that. So I guess I go to the back of the class. *blushes* Meet Pursuit Delange sounds awesome - James is NOT the bad guy? This should be a great change to his roles lately. When he described it was gross earlier, I wasn't sure if I'd like it, and I'm still not sure. It sounds very hit or miss. But I'm still eager to see it. I'm trying to think back of his roles, if he had any that were just "nice guy", and I guess he was as Tom and the Wolf, but not in so many others. Most of his TV and film roles have been somewhat menacing - Gaius is actually from the nicer end of the scale, considering crazy cult leader Mason Duryea or Haman the anti-Semitic mass murderer.

Re-Uniting the Rubins sounds pretty cool too. This sounds more like a "baddie" role, but not one he's done before. His role in Going Wrong was a sort of business man, but he was also dealing drugs and other shady stuff. Unless Danny Rubins does that, this might be a different thing. There's a family angle, which certainly isn't very common in his work. I can't remember him doing many roles where he even had a mother or father or sibling. In fact, have there been any? *muses* There may not have been.

Granted, I might actually hate these projects when they come out, so I won't say too much about how awesome they are, but we'll see. Sounds promising and slightly different to what he's been doing.

And uh, possibly some other stuff... Until I've actually got the job, until I'm actually on the set, I don't really like to talk about it, because our industry is so up and down. I have been called out before going, "You'll see me in this." And it doesn't really happen. So we'll see, watch this space.

I wish he weren't quite so secretive, but it's certainly a job where there are no certainties (pun unintended but I'm leaving it), and after getting to translate only 40 pages of a book myself - after bragging to everyone I know about translating a book - I can see where he's coming from. Things can change, and more often than not, they do.

To be continued...


In the next part: More chest hair!

Random Googlebits, Part Sept

I was going to get this done when it was still SEPTember, hah hah, but now that joke is not only unfunny but also untrue... I'm still saying it though, because I think James would appreciate the pun.

Random James-related links is leading the poll, and I freaked out for a moment thinking I'd linked to everything I can find, but browsing through the previous random googlebits posts, I've spared some. Whew. There may be a time when I run out, but there's still plenty of material for this.

Some lovely James pictures, mostly from the 2006 Comic Con - we've got beard, cap (not the "evil" cap) and James and Aaron being very chummy once again! I thought for a moment he was wearing some kind of cape here, but then I realized it's a long-sleeved shirt thrown over a t-shirt. It must be the Jesus beard that led me to thinking he looks like a cult leader. :D

Beach Blanket Battlestar - apparently someone went to the beach while BSG were filming there, and they got to meet some of the actors, including James. Not that many details, but there's a cute little side picture where you can see James smiling.

An interview with James and Bear McCreary at the BSG concert in April 2008 here. James is very excited about the music on BSG - and the interviewer is very excited about James, so much so that he included a couple of audio clips.

I’ve been acting…professionally at least, for…twelve years, or something like that. I’ve never felt more proud about being involved with this show. It does so many things. It says so much. The caliber of performance, writing, production value, graphics, the music, it’s almost more than the sum of all of its parts. I’m also very proud to be part of something which is in popular culture but is also a cautionary tale. We are looking at a very similar society to our own who have already screwed it up for themselves. There are lessons you can learn from this. It’s quite didactic!

Nobody can take that away from us. We’ve been involved in this superb phenomenon.

Well, that's him praising BSG once again, not him praising the music, but read more in the link. I love hearing him say how much he loves BSG - it almost sounds like he's one of us fans marveling at the show.

A lovely review of said concert, including two mentions of James, here.

Towards the end, during the encore, we noticed him standing on this balcony and completely rocking out and clapping like a fangirl to the music. It was fantastic. And he SANG. He played this song he wrote on the keyboard (the band played as well) and sang this song called "Spooky". I'm pretty sure Michelle recorded it, so it'll be up at some point. James compared playing for Bear as the guy who invented Chopsticks playing for Beethoven. It was brilliant, I don't remember the last time I've laughed so hard.

We told him where we were all from (England, Texas, Louisiana, and Australia) an he just stares at us and says "Fuck." Hee! He was very sweet, took a picture with all of us. When the camera was about to go off he says "This is Baltar's dream come true!"

A TV Squad reporter met James at a party and James knew who they are:

I said, "oh, you've read us then?" and he replied with: "Yes yes. I own a ... what do you call it ... ah yes, a computer." To that I could only laugh and say, "Touché, sir. Touché."

And a picture from the same event here. I must admit I'm not a huge fan of the hair gel. Let your hair run wild and free, James!

Others mentioning James...

I haven't done a lot of this yet, so let's get in some other people's mentions of James. Firstly, from a recent Tricia and Katee interview, this was a lot of fun. You can listen to the audio here. It's also transcribed here by Elizabeth White, so I'm just going to quote conveniently.

Firstly, some James love from Katee. The question was what they envied about each other's characters:

I was always envious of that and I think that working with James — I never got to work with James but I think once or twice. And he’s just absolutely amazing so…and I never had you know, but maybe fifteen, twenty scenes with him like the whole entire series. Not a lot.

Awww! I must admit I envy Tricia for that reason too. It's nice to see this for a change, after reading umpteen times how lucky James was to work with Tricia. I mean, Tricia is beautiful and awesome, but James is pretty awesome himself, so let's admit that Tricia was lucky too, shall we?

Q: If you could choose just ONE former BSG castmate to be stranded on an island with, who would you choose and why?
- Cainsrazor

For giggles, they'd pick each other, but for procreation? "The young studs" - James is mentioned by Tricia, and Katee seems to agree, so thumbs up - but which one? Who could survive in the wild..?

Katee: Trucco and Tahmoh. Yeah.

Tricia: Yeah.

Katee: None of the English boys…[laughing]

Tricia: None of the English boys…[laughing]

Katee: They’d be like…[in an English accent] “You want me to do what?”

Tricia: [in an English accent] “What is that?”

Katee: [in an English accent] “You want me to build you a fire? I can’t build a fire. [laughing] Bring out that thing you call — what do you call that? Like a zippo.”

[both laughing]

Tricia: We’re making fun of James [Callis] and Jamie [Bamber]. We love them…

Katee: We do love them but I don’t think — I’ve seen Trucco actually like fix a motorcycle, so I think I’d pick him.

:D :D :D Heee! I can just see James not making it in the wild. (How long before he'd freak out over the lack of cigarettes? An hour or two?) But if you needed a professor to keep you civilized - or a class clown to keep you entertained - he might be your pick. (I always talk like I actually know him, so I feel compelled to mention that I don't.)

Here's something from 2007: a lovely Q&A with Tricia, where someone asks about James, and she praises him:

¨James is... I adore James. He's one of the most talented, funniest guys I've ever met. He's very self-deprecating, he's very... he's very well read. It's funny cos half the time I have to ask him "What's that, James? What does that word mean, James?" He has a vocabulary that is way beyond my scope of English. But um.. he's just lovely. He's a very good actor, and I've been fortunate to be able to work off of him. I'm sure he has brought out better work from myself than would maybe just acting on my own. He's a bit of a klutz. He's the kind of guy that will get out of the van, on the way his hat will fall off, and while picking his hat, his backpack will fall off and hit him on the head. He'll trip over anything and... but he's very passionate, very focused on his work and.. he's wonderful.

He's got two cute little boys. One, he knows me, Joshua. And when he sees me on screen, he'll be like, "Tisha! Tisha!" but he has yet, in four years, to smile at me when I meet him in person. He looks at me like this, he goes, [frown] I'm sure he doesn't watch all of it, but he knows enough and he knows something... "My dad's with you but my mom's there... You know what, I don't like you!" But James is lovely."

Joshua sounds just adorable! And so does James. If you want to see him be a klutz, see the third season gag reel with him trying to get into a plane and hitting his head on the door. He's wearing a helmet so nothing happens, but it's.. heee. :D

Tricia and Lucy Lawless discuss James/Baltar here. I have some trouble hearing what they're saying, but they describe him as a "good soul", kind and generous. (L)!

I do wonder, though, why every time Lucy mentions James, it turns into the "Lucy sees James' penis" story. Tricia actually brings it up here. If you haven't seen it yet, it's in the third season gag reel - the scene, not the penis - and I think it's noteworthy that Lucy chokes up at the words "how long". It's at about 7:50, but my favorite bit has to be at 7:40 where James is lying naked on the baseship sofa and talking to the people on set: "Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the show! Tonight on Baltar's Basestar, we've got some fascinating people joining us." I wish the gag reels had more James in them.

That's about it for now. I'll save more for later.

My Autograph!

My full autograph on my wall, next to my bed. Now I can look at it anytime and see James' words to me. Once again: Best. Autograph. Ever. (L)!!!


I just had to take a picture with the autograph. I'm feeling happy and touched. Pedda had placed it in a hard envelope with a plastic binder, and I feel like I'm already abusing the paper again, but I just had to take one picture of me with it. As if it's a picture of me with James. Once again, sorry for the poor quality of both my webcam and my cell phone cam. I'll get a proper digital camera sometime soon.

"Hmm, something's missing here..." James adds a dash. :D (Photo by the lovely René Kissien of Caprica-City.)

I got my autograph today. It's long and beautiful and the dents of the marker can be felt with your fingers. James has something I've touched and I have something James has touched. It's all very cosmic. Huge thanks and hugs to Pedda of Caprica-City again!

Dear [real name] -
Thank you so much for your gifts...
so sorry to miss you
- need I ask...
But Do you -
wanna Join my cult?
Membership has its privileges!
Lots of and lots of love always
James Callis xxx

I've already commented on the content in the "Evening With James Callis" post below, but once again - it's the longest and sweetest autograph I've ever seen, and it really sounds genuinely tender. (L)! I wasn't expecting something this personalized, and still can't quite believe it. I feel touched by James in some way. It's hard to explain. I felt a weird panic when I first saw the pictures of him with my autograph, and the same feeling grabbed me for a moment when I opened the letter - like something irrevocable has happened, the REAL James has seen me, and I can't ever take it back. But I'm so happy with how this worked out. In the pictures - I haven't posted some because there are other people in them too - he looks touched and tender, and his words sound the same. It's more than I had expected. *sniff*

I love his handwriting. A lot of men write big choppy letters; there's something delicate about James' writing. He started fairly big and then made the text smaller as he went along, and the three little x's are in the right margin. It's endearing and touching that he wanted to add them. I love how the name itself is so small, like it's an aside and the message is more important. Like it's a letter and not an autograph. There's no s in his name, so it's James Calli. His R's are very inconsistent. The one in "membership" looks more like a v. And I love his L's and I's and D's with their little sails. All of this is so endearing and so James.

Yes, there's a dash after "but do you". And yes - that picture above is him adding the dash in. That's so... :D Why would he add a dash in after the fact? Did he feel something was missing? Or has he seen me make fun of his "dashing" writing skills and so he added it in to amuse me? Hmmm. I'm trying to decipher his expression for possible mischieviousness, but it's really hard to tell. :D I can't believe I have a picture of him drawing a dash - that's almost too perfect.

And yes - I'm very curious about those privileges. I want to join his cult right away. ;)

"Lots and lots of love always". Sniff! I know he writes "lots of love" a lot, but... I can't even write about that one.

He didn't draw a dog, which is the only little disappointment. (I think he ran out of space.) I really don't mind though, because the autograph is so beautiful and personalized. I asked for the dog just in case it would feel a little generic, no matter what he wrote; autographs easily feel that way. But I should have trusted James more, because he really makes them unique. It leaves me something to ask for, in case I meet him some day - I feel like this autograph is unique and once in a lifetime, so I might not want another one, ever. But I can ask him to draw a dog.

It's so touching to look at this printout, the one I held on to on those most depressed days last winter. I looked at it as I first woke up and last thing at night. I kept looking at it throughout the day when I was too tired to do much more than lie in bed. The printout became a symbol of the person I used to be - passionate about something, happy. I wanted to be that person again, and the printout somehow made me feel connected to that. Now I can look at it and think that I lived to see the fall and feel better - and I got to connect with James in some way. There's something beautiful and poetic about that.

I run my fingers on the printout. James and I are touching the same thing, there's only a two week lag. Our universes meet for a moment. I'm his binary messenger.*

* I haven't gone insane, I'm just excited about this.

Poll Post

OK, I added a poll to the sidebar. I'd be interested in seeing what you guys want to see in this blog.

-You can select multiple answers.
-You should be able to vote even if you're not registered/logged in to Blogger. (Let me know if you can't and I'll look into it.)

-If you want to see something not in the list, please elaborate in comments on this post. I'll try to fulfil your wishes (within reason!)

-Children's book parodies refers to something like this.

-Fan ponderings: personal posts about being a fan (there will always be some of this in the transcripts and link posts, so it's not a big loss if you guys don't want to see separate pondering posts).

If no one votes, things will remain exactly as they are. Scary prospect, huh? So vote!

Naughty Gaius is a Nymphomaniac Narcissist

OK, so here's the book I sent James. I made illustrations by hand, and while I did take some photos with my webcam, they are... well, see below.. not particularly good. I was thinking of possibly reproducing some drawings, perhaps on the computer, but for now this is all you're going to get. Sorry.

So the point of the book is to be a parody of children's books. I've made one before, called Naughty Gaius and the Soul-Breaking Guilt, and you can read it here. If this one isn't up to par, just remember I was super nervous, because I knew James would read it.




James looking at my book! The look on his face = absolute best scenario for a reaction. He looks like he gets the joke. He didn't have time to actually read it but I can see he appreciated it. (L)!!! Photo by René Kissien of Caprica-City.



The cover. It's one of the best arrogant poses in my opinion, and the sexy lady seducing him helps make it even more child-friendly.

IMPORTANT WORDS

Nymphomaniac: Someone who thinks about sex all the time and wants to have it with everyone. Naughty Gaius loves sex and is also very good at it. Nymphomaniacs or nymphos have a lot of fun in life, and they can teach us many things. In this book, you can find Gaius' best tips for sex (see pp.100-350).

Narcissist: Someone who thinks only about him- or herself. Other people are there for a reason: to make Gaius' life a little easier. A narcissist has an easy time in life because he or she doesn't have to care about other people's stupid feelings. Imagine it: you could do and say whatever you want, and focus on having fun!

Arrogant: This is what losers call someone who thinks he or she is good. Remember: there is nothing wrong with self-confidence! Gaius thinks he's better than everyone else, and often he is right. After all, he is a genius. (Are you a genius? Who says you're not?)

The clown of fun (and education, though he seems to be letting go of that balloon). I colored him in green, which made him more monster-like. He looked mighty scary to me while coloring. A lovely mascot for a children's book.

Gaius' life is one big party. He meets a lot of beautiful girls and indulges* in drinking and smoking* and, most of all, sex.

Indulge: If you enjoy doing something and do it a lot, that's called indulging. Some lame people try to "control" their lives and stop doing things they enjoy. Remember: you only live once, it's your only chance to indulge. (Or is it? See our book Six the Cylon and the Conundrum of Eternal Life.) Tips for indulging: see chapter 50, Gaius' Great Book of Pleasure.

Indulging in donuts. If James hasn't read my blog, he might not get the reference (I doubt he sees himself as a big donut hog in general), but I don't care. The colorful donuts add a nice childlikeness to the page. To the left: smoking after sex. There's basically four happy-looking dogs smoking. An orgy if you will.

Did you know? Smoking makes you feel good and look cool. You may be too young to buy cigarettes because of stupid laws, but ask your big sister/brother/older friend to buy them for you! It's best to not let Mommy/Daddy/other legal guardian know though, because parents have this stupid idea that children can't smoke. Don't listen to them, they're just trying to stop you from having fun. You don't want to miss out, do you? Start today!

"You can't have fun without alcohol!" This is perhaps the worst picture of them all, because you can basically see only me and my tongue, which always come out when I try to balance something. On top: "Smokers are cool!" (I tried to make this dog look a bit like James, but I'm not sure if it worked.) I drew a fangirl with hearts in her eyes next to that one. Bottom: "Smokers make new friends!" with dogs gleefully smoking and playing poker.

Gaius' Daddy, Julius, is a mean old man. He likes to make his son feel bad and isn't at all proud of everything he's done. Even if Gaius pays for his house and caretaker, Julius is always complaining and making people angry*.

"How much is he paying you?" Julius asks Six*. This makes Gaius so angry that he starts to beat his father with a newspaper. "See how he treats me?" Julius says to Six.

Did you know? This is how people get when they're old. It will also happen to your parents. Even if they're nice to you now, they're going to be horrible when you're a grown up. The only thing you can do is put them in an institution where people are paid to take care of them. You don't have to visit very often. Six also puts Gaius' father in an instituion, and he is finally happy.

Fun tip: You can buy sex from a hooker. If you want attention from your parents, ask your Daddy/stepdaddy if he ever bought sex. Even better, ask Mommy/Stepmommy if she ever sold herself. You're sure to get an answer out of them!

Fact of life: Sometimes you have to resort to violence with your old parents. It's not "right" or "wrong", it just is like that.

Angry Old Person. (I drew blood into the cane as well.) To the right, not pictured: "Hooker dog is censored". (You could see her legs and high heels though.)

Dear Mother/Father/Other Legal Guardian!

So, that's the end of our intergalactic sample of Naughty Gaius is a Nymphomaniac Narcissist! How did you like it? Or let's put it this way: how much did you LOVE it?


A. Enough to buy the entire 500-page opus? Yay! All you have to do is contact us and we will send you a copy! Prices:

Hardcover: $ 700 plus postage (to be announced later)

Paperback: $ 650 plus postage (see above)


B. Not enough to buy it? Sigh. Well, it's your choice. We respect your decision to deprive your children of fun and wholesome education. However, since we did work so hard at making this booklet for you, you still owe us $ 300 plus postage ($ 100). Be fair, or hear from our collection agency later!


Sincerely,

Appropriate Children's Books Ltd.

I think I scribbled in an autograph that said "Appropriate Children's Books Ltd" in really messy handwriting, but I'm not sure.

Back cover:

Don't forget our other entertaining and educational titles!

Crafty Kara Goes Drunk and Disorderly

Crafty Kara and the Quixotic Quadrangle

Crafty Kara and the Corroding Corpse


Toolman Tyrol is a Woeing Widower

Toolman Tyrol and the Fading Fatherhood

Toolman Tyrol and the Strangling Rage


Written and illustrated by Deniselle

Bound by Elina


Guarantee: This book was handled with care by two (2) loving fangirls and warm thoughts were sent to you while making it.

James Callis on Fan Mail

A new post from James! :) This is especially to people who have written him fan mail and have yet to receive a response. Posted today in the Unofficial website forum, I'm reproduding the whole thing with webmaster Janine's permission.

Fan mail
Sep 24, 2009 - 3:38PM

Dear All,

Just dropping a line,

- because it has come to my notice that there are several people - who have written to me for an autograph in the last 12 months - whom I haven't replied to...

There's a simple reason - I have several addresses and am rarely in one place for more than a few months.

So people send a request to my managers and then they send it on to my home address - where I have a redirection order to wherever I maybe currently -

this means that in practice I receive the mail at least 6 months after it has been originally sent...

people who wrote me last year have the added fun of having their mail sent from l.a to canada (where we shot BSG) then back from canada to L.A - onto London and if I wasn't in London then it gets sent back to L.A and either gets sent on again or awaits me there

If it sounds convoluted - it is!

I can only apologize to the many people who are still waiting (I'm sure they're not trawling this site in hope of an answer- but this is the only way really I can get that message out).

I promise if I receive it I will reply - it just takes a long while and whoever is waiting will have to have the patience of a whole hoard of saints!

Otherwise in Blightey but briefly and am off stateside pretty shortly for a while... having just moved house again and arrived back from India a few weeks ago

All good my end with one of the three kids guaranteeing that neither Neha or I sleep through the night...but you know we wouldn't have it any other way

Otherwise I wish you all well

and send love and hugs

anon

james xxx

Ever the sweet guy, James sounds genuinely sorry he hasn't been able to respond to everyone. I hope the message goes out to the people who have written him.

Blightey=UK, I guess? :D James' life always sounds so stressful. I don't know how he does it, but it sounds very intriguing that he's going to the States - perhaps we'll hear about a new US show or movie soon? The sleepless nights are just one of the reasons I'm never having children - but I imagine he's also very happy in a way I don't understand. (Neha is his wife, to those who don't know.)

The smilie in the end is very endearing. Maybe he's excited to talk to us and it makes him all gleeful.

(And lots of dashes, especially in the first paragraphs! ;) Our dashing man!)

Love and hugs right back at ya, James! :*

An Evening With James Callis

An Evening With James Callis took place in Bonn, Germany, on the 12th of September, 2009. About 100 people were present for a 90-minute panel, photo session and autograph session.

Scifi-trek.de has a video of the full panel. You can download or stream it on this page. There are two download links, the one below is higher quality. For Mac users: alt+click on the links to download the video. The panel is a MUST SEE for all James fans - perhaps the best panel ever, with lots of humor and in-depth answers. And he does those typical James faces all along. He's so animated, the camera can barely follow him sometimes. Lots of fun to watch.

There's also an audio stream of the full panel at VDVD Magazine, here.

Two brief video goodies:
James saying bye to some fans. Awww, so sweet! You know, I think I like that scarf even better than the rest of the outfit. I'm in love with the scarf. And the man wearing it.

James says hello to Caprica.de, before signing autographs. Strangely he looks more tired here than in the other video. His hair looks a bit toussled by the fangirls. :D

Many thanks for the photos below to René Kissien of Caprica-City. More of his pictures at kixxa's blog here.

James Callis with the Caprica City mascot, Schwein.


Pictures from the panel:





OMG Scarf!


OMG Chest Hair!


"And Tricia is like this tall..." (I'm just guessing :D)


And then the photos with MY STUFF OMG (L) (L) (L)


Apparently my name proved a little challenging, as he needed a cheat sheet (see the envelope being held for him.) So cute! :D Don't worry James, nobody gets it right the first time!


Best. Autograph. Ever. He looks so kind, poring over that. (L)!!! Oh James!

A large gallery of photos! He looks so gorgeous. Here. Photos by Evelyne J aka aa_eve_aa

Another photo gallery here. Lots of lovely Jamesy expressions! I'm kinda obsessed with that scarf, and I love the pictures where he touches it. Scarf fetish?

And some more photos here. It says James was a very calm guest, and in the photo session he was completely relaxed and let people do what they wanted. (Hence the photo of two girls kissing him. Yeah, I'm sure they had to twist his arm! :D)

This was the first picture:
He looks SO beautiful. The hair is still long, we've got glasses and ... some kind of English professor getup, complete with vest? Hee! See the picture here. SO HOT.

There's going to be a separate post with a transcript of the panel. I'm going to transcribe the whole thing - and kixxa's offered to help in case my fingers fall off while doing it - but it might take me a while. It's a really great panel, maybe the best one ever. He really expands on some things that we've heard in previous panels and there are some new things as well. Here's just a little teaser. It's about Rubins and Meet Pursuit Delange.

I've been involved in something in England, a pilot... [Meet Pursuit Delange] It's a rather difficult thing to describe. It was a comedy and it was very risqué, very very risqué. It was so risqué that the pilot possibly won't be made. People are interested perhaps in a movie that will be loess risqué. Do you understand risqué? Essentially risqué is rude.. rude or crude, or both. I play this guy who was a wannabe, he wanted to be involved in the media in some way. And he's very naïve and a bit... sweet, like a nice guy, sweet, but he meets up with an old school friend who never was actrually his friend at school. And the old school firend is really mean, really nasty. So it's like a duo between myself who was like Bambi and my friend who was like Satan. (laughter) It was very funny to do.

About Rubins:

It's kind of a bittersweet comedy. Do you have, in Germany, do you have a show like The Apprentice... so you've got your own Donald Trump? A German version of Donald Trump? -You don't? You just get Donald Trump? Well, in England we have this guy called Alan Sugar, who runs The Apprentice. And he's um... terribly successful businessman but started from very humble beginnings. And the character that I played in this film is.. wants to be a business magnate, and is actually rather... unpleasant, naïve..

There's just been something on the news about what I was doing on the film... Which I didn't... when I got the script, I was... It's true, and that's on the news at ten. There's all this mining going on in Africa for [ore?] that ends up in our mobile phones. Do you know about this? Some of you do. You go to the top of the class, the people who do. [laughs] Anyway, there's all this stuff that it's a huge conflict. Mobile or cell phones are a billion dollar industry and business. We're all slaves to being on the mobile phones. But it's causing wars and havoc in Africa where people are being paid nothing. They spend their whole lives mining this stuff out of the Earth. And that's something I was doing in the film. I was very unscrupulous.

And uh, possibly some other stuff... Until I actually got the job, until I'm actually on the set, I don't really like to talk about it. Our industry is so up and down. I have been quoted before going, "You'll see me in this." And it doesn't really happen. So you'll see, watch this space.

Also, a tweet:

Really nice event.Very easy going.he was even later eating in same room and saying goodbye at every table. No charge ;)

Yay! :) Sounds like he was in a good mood and the con was a very relaxed one.


Mindless fangirl gushing

This time, the con was a bit more personal for me, because I also sent James a little something and got his autograph (see the posts below this one for more details on what I sent). I was very anxious about his reaction, and the autograph and the photos were a very important, very positive experience.

HUGE thanks to Pedda of Caprica City for getting me James' autograph! It reads:

Dear [real name] -
Thank you so much for your gifts...
So sorry to miss you
Need I ask -
But do you wanna join my cult?
Membership has its privileges.
Lots and lots of love always
James Callis xxx

(L) (L) (L) OMG James.

Best. Autograph. Ever.
A. It's really long.
B. I know it's easy to write all that "sorry to miss you" and "lots of love" stuff but I am totally going to think he means it. See above how tender he looks writing it (unless I'm just seeing things...)
C. "Need I ask"? :D Hee! But James, I started your cult! Jamus? Somebody needs to get him a leaflet. And I'm going to take that "Membership has its privileges" thing as flirtation.
F. He has his arms over the picture. I'm totally checking for arm hairs when I get it.
G. JAMES CALLIS TOUCHED SOMETHING I OWN.
H. Oh James! (L)

I guess what I wished for was just a bit of James' kindness. It's the thing I love the most about him, and I've seen him be so kind at others, I was hungry for it. I wanted him to be kind at me. I feel like I got even more than I wanted, and my cup runneth over a little. But I'm just really happy and touched by this. I was concerned that maybe I'm hoping for too much and I'll be disappointed no matter what he writes. But it seems like he really understood how much this means to me and was willing to give me some of his kindness. It really means a lot.

I think I'm going to save some money and go to a con myself and report from there. We'll see when and if I can actually afford that, but I'm not nervous anymore. I'm not anxious about meeting him. Obviously there's nothing to worry about. I feel really good about this.

8 Days Til "An Evening With James Callis"

Great art was bound today as Elina helped me with my book for James. The one and only copy of Naughty Gaius is a Nymphomaniac Narcissist will be leaving for Germany tomorrow or Monday the latest (if I can't get my arse out of bed in time).

The reason it's that way around is... well, it was printed that way so it wouldn't fit vertically :P I thought of doing the book backwards like Hebrew books are, kinda fitting with the Jewish theme, but the pretty bows Elina made wouldn't be on the front then. She brought the yarn and punched the holes with my scissors, after we discovered that my old hole-puncher has a rust issue. I glued some pages, Elina glued some others, and the glue, as she can testify, was very clumpy and difficult to use. The result is... endearing... I'm sure he's gotten some self-made gifts from his kids, so it's similar. It's the thought that counts!

This book was bound with love by two fangirls. We also prayed to Jamus over it and sent our thoughts. The content is all mine, but I like the fact that there was some Lupine cooperation used in making the actual book.

We also had a deep and meaningful discussion about many things, including the BSG actors' names - Tahmoh's is the most original, but Callis is easy to remember - and James' very attractive blend of fat and muscle (belly and arms, respectively). If you want to donate to the Jamus religion - especially for James worshippers - you can do so. And really, you probably should.

PS. I have rejected a comment. Just in case there really is a Susan who reads my blog and will keep reading it very often, I apologize. You can re-post your comment without the poker link and it'll get through. Otherwise, nice try, spambot.