Hi, this is my first post so I hope I am doing it right! Please don't shoot me down in flames if I have put it in the wrong forum or done anything reprehensible! I had an e-mail this morning from the folks at Creation Entertainment announcing Sid was to attend Star Trek Vegas in August, on the Saturday, to benefit Doctors without Borders. If this is true you Americans are SOOO lucky. If I win the Lottery, I might even get to go!!

It's true indeed! It's just been announced that Sid is scheduled to appear at Creation's Convention in Las Vegas. Sid's appearance will benefit DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS, one of his chosen charities. He is tentatively scheduled to appear on Saturday, August 9; more details to come!

OH I want to go-BUT I CAN'T!

I don't have any money to go

It's probably fortunate that we're having a family reunion in Nebraska from August 8-10 so I'm not tempted. Otherwise, I might be trying to figure out how I could manage to fly to Las Vegas!

Carol

Hmm, I still have no plans for my annual free ticket. But then, my employing airline doesn't offer direct flights to Vegas. Need to find a way to get there for a reasonable price..

The whole lineup is awesome. And the ST Experience at the Vegas Hilton might close next year and I haven't been there yet. Call me crazy, but I'm very tempted.

I would like to go! I hope that I can go. I would reaaaaallllyyyy like to go.

That's really funny because ever since I saw the line up I've thought "hmmm, Malcolm McDowell is gonna be there. Now all they need is Sid." Heh.

Ku

Perhaps you could stop somewhere on the way... hmm. Although, no idea what the best place would be.

Best would be New York, there are plenty of flights from LHR. But then, flying firm from NYC to LAS is not exactly a bargain. LAX would be good option, but the flights are packed in the summer and I'll have low priority. Offload highly possible. August is a bad time in general because everyone is on the go and we are so prone to maneuver us into disruption.

We'll see. I still need to make my mind up, have too many plans and not enough leave..

I've never been to a Star Trek Convention before, what's it like?

<< I've never been to a Star Trek Convention before, what's it like? >>

I've been to LOTS of conventions, but never the huge one in Las Vegas. I suspect it's unlike anything I've ever done.

Go to Creationent.com and you should be able to watch some clips or something and get a feel for what it's like.

Carol

Gah I wanna go!! Whyyy do I have to be a poor college student....why!!
I have to stay here and work full time and put away my money in the bank for when I need it. And going to Vegas and not being able to gamble would just be pure torture for me. I guess I'll have to wait another year and a half until I'm 21....by then I should be able to afford to go to Vegas...and I'll be able to gamble too!
Manda

I know how you feel. I'm currently seperated and am looking for work. Sid's finally at a convention and I can't afford to go either! (although I wouldn't be gambling-I'm to cheap for that)

Creation just announced that not only will Sid appear at the convention in August, he'll also be taking part in a special meal opportunity:



Information and tickets available here.

I've never done a convention before and have a previous engagement at the time of this one. Though this is not my thing I wish I could be there.

Joy

I went to a convention years ago in VA. I drove there. It was small, I was glad because I always envisioned myself being very nervous. I remember seeing Richard Hatch in the hall peddling some of his books. I found that funny, because I thought boy celebrities are just like us.

OH How I wish I could go (sad emoticon)

So, it looks like Sid it will be appearing on Saturday. Now, that's good news for me. It would allow me enough time to go there on standby travel and return back to work on time for my deadlines. Wohoo!

Anyone been to a Creation Con? Is it worth it? What should I be wearing (hot outside - aircon inside)?

I am going with my mum! Yay! Could anyone recommend a good camera to take? I havent bought a digital camera and those disposalable ones dont work that well

Did anyone go to the convention? If so how was it?

I found a couple of pictures on flikr.com

http://flickr.com/search/?q=Siddig&s=rec

Let me know if the link doesn't work. Someone called the "luminator" took them on his talk on Saturday.

I went and had a blast! Although a couple of things didn't go as planned for me. I’m quite tired, but I’ll try to summarize now, as I’ll forget otherwise. Sorry for any grammar mistakes. My brain still feels kinda slushy because of time change, dehydration, all the impressions from Vegas and the Con, general fatigue and those Warp Core Breaches and Margaritas. Evil trap. LOL


Sid's talk on Saturday afternoon was very funny (it must run in the family as Malcolm was hilarious, too.). He did not know that Malcolm was there the day before, so he spend his evening watching the Olympics in his hotel room. Sid said that he’s a little angry with is uncle, as he hasn’t seen him for ages and >insert irony< that he’s left Vegas early to go on a holiday with the kids without saying hello. "If he’d have known that Malcolm was there, he’d have stalked him."

One girl asked him about his latest projects, were Sid mentioned Poirot, Cairo Times, Un Simple Espion and Un Homme Perdu. He rambled on about Un Homme Perdu. He said that it’s quite a dark weird movie, that has been to Cannes and has been to British TV once and that was pretty much it. And it’s porn. They made him drink half a bottle of Whiskey before shooting his porn scene and that was good, because in that state it was impossible for him to embarrass himself. All he needed to do was collapsing on the bed. Sid felt sorry for the Lebanese actress, who he’s done that scene with, as she was very sweet and fresh out of acting school. „What is her family thinking now, after seeing her assuming these poses“.

A guy came up to the mike asking Sid if he had a chance to write a computer game/virtual reality, what it would be about. Sid than concluded that this question is about what his fantasies and was asking if there are any children in the audience. Which there were. So he was sorry he couldn't tell moe, as this game would likely involve women.

Another question if Sid’s on screen friendship with Colm Meany continued off set. He said yes, but they don’t see each other a lot anymore and only hear each other through friends and work mates. One reason Sid mentioned was: "Colm is Irish Irish not American Irish and I am English". Sid then recollected one Saint Patrick’s Day when he still was doing DS9 in LA. He and Colm got a limo and Colm took him to every Irish pub in LA he could find. They actually drank more inside the limo than in the bars. Sid remembered ordering three pints of Guinness and one pint of Bitter from this one bartender who then refused serving him „we don’t serve your kind here“. He felt quite disturbed as this hadn’t happened to him since his school years. He went back to Colm telling him that they didn't serve him because he was black, but he assured him that this only happened because his Brit accent.

Next one asked about Poirot and if it’s a whole series. He then explained about Poirot and said that he enjoyed the character of Shaitana very much, as „he’s fun guy that kinda swings both ways“. JG Herztler (General Martok on DS9) was queuing to ask Sid a question about working with a certain JG on DS9. He said with a wink that he didn’t remember him and if it was that one camera guys. JG then came up the stage presenting Sid with a white visor cap. Sid thanked him, but as soon as JG turned around, threw it into the back of the stage.

The next question was to name the most unusual place he has been shooting at. He mentioned working in Mecca. They were filming inside of a mosque on a Friday and there was blood in front of it. Sid thought that someone has run over a chicken, only until a local explained that it’s from the hands being chopped of convicted thieves. They learned as well that the officials were told that the movie was a documentary, which made him feel quite uneasy. The one armed camera man ensured that it’s not a problem at all, but that coming from this character wasn’t a great relieve. Especially as they were constantly showing public executions on TV at the hotel’s lobby.

They didn't allow Sid to exceed his time on stage. Avery Brooks already took longer than scheduled.. Before Sid left the stage he picked up the hat and then chased after JG, who was supposed to start his autograph session next to the stage. I wonder what has happened hehind that curtain...



I had a ticket for the DS9 Lunch on Saturday were Sid, Jeff Combs, Rene Auberjonois and Max Grodenchik attended as guests. I met Gayle when queuing and joined her and her friends at the table. We had Rene coming to us first, telling us a hilarious story about his wife mistaking him for an old lady (he had long hair for his latest stage role). Sid only joined us only for a couple of minutes, as they sort of were running out of time. He came over with a „Oh, it’s the crazy table!“ And talked a bit about him not meeting Malcolm and then he was unfortunately moved to a different table. Sid was sorry: „all I did was slacking off my uncle“. Shame, but in the short time he was there he was absolute fun.

Thank you so much for this report!

Ulli

Thanks for chiming in, Portia. Sounds like you had fun.

Thanks for the report Portia.

Maybe it is just me but I did not think Un Homme Perdu was porn.

The actress who was in Siddig's love scene was incredible pretty in a quirky sort of way and to think she was fresh out of drama school.

I always feel so guilty about having seen the movie as long standing Siddig fans have not had the pleasure of seeing it. In my opinion it is great piece of work but might shock some of the forum with the sexual content.

Not surprised they gave him a couple of drinks though.

Also very interesting to read that he thought Shaitana "Swings both ways" in Poirot. I seem to recall that this was a topic of much discussion at the time, and none of us could agree.

It sounds like the convention crowd enjoyed his chat and he sounded on good form.

Best Wishes.

Jude.

Hi Portia,

This is Kathy here. It was nice meeting you at the Lunch. That was really fun wasn't it.

Yes, I neither think that Un Homme Perdu is porn. Maybe he just jokingly exaggerated or just in case people might watch it and get shocked. I like that movie a lot because it's dark, intense, different and Sid delivers a fine piece of acting. I'm still hoping for release with english subtitles.


@Kathy: Hi Yeees, the lunch was great, lovely meeting you there!

Oh, I’ve just remembered something else:

A fan was asking if it was true that Sid was in consideration to be the new Bond. Sid laughed and said no, he could only see himself trying out for that role if Bond would be Indian. And then he said with an Indian accent “Bond, James Bond” Sid added that the current Bond is doing a fantastic job. Especially wearing swimming trunks, men went to buy these after watching the movie, but when emerging out of the water, their wifes were running away out of their deck chairs and small children were crying.

And the all ever popular question about Star Trek fandom. He answered that he liked TNG when he was in his 20s, as for its time it had so many different races, species, colors and sexes in it. And he knows, as he’s treated quite a few of them himself.

Thankx Portia Sid sounds like a lot of fun.

Back then Sid referred to Shaitana as "metro-sexual" and it was obvious that Sid thought that meant "bi-sexual". It doesn't.

Shaitana's sexual orientation is an open question, but there's no doubt that the military suspect was a bit of a homophobe and thought Shaitana was gay. It also seemed to amuse Shaitana that this big military guy could be made very uncomfortable simply by brushing his hair back off his forehead for a photograph.

Thank you for the report, Portia. Oddly, I just returned from a birthday party at which the Las Vegas Convention was discussed. Three of the people at the party had been there. I was told that J.G. pretended he was going to give Sid a big hug. Sid backed away and called, "Security!" and this guy jumped up on stage between them. They said it was obviously planned out ahead of time.

I've met J.G. a couple times. His first "convention" was actually a fan club event with Sid and Andy in 1999.

I do feel a little guilty that I didn't list Malcolm as a Las Vegas guest in the newsletter. I only listed the DS9 people. Of course Sid COULD have gone to the Creation web site and found out who else was going to be there.

Carol

Thanks for adding more to the report, ladies. It sounds like Sid and J.G. were enjoying themselves.

OK, I'm doing the layout of Linda Burnett's Las Vegas report and discovered an interesting coincidence. Rene and Malcolm both told an anecdote about the same man. Who do you imagine they'd both talk about?

Carol

The Pope?

Pothos guessed Sid -- which is more likely, but still wrong.

Anyone else care to guess?

Carol

I should know and I can't remember. Malcolm's talk was kinda early and I was sitting in the back hangover clutching a very large coffee (aftermath of the Roddenberry Party and its complimentary bar offer).

Ok I have just cranked the old brain into gear could it be William Shatner?.

Jude

And we have a winner!

Shatner was in Boston Legal with Rene and the movie Generations with Malcolm.

Carol

Mandolyn 84 said:

>I found a couple of pictures on flikr.com

>http://flickr.com/search/?q=Siddig&s=rec

>Let me know if the link doesn't work. Someone called the "luminator" took them on his talk on Saturday.

Actually, most of those photos are mine. I'm new here; I'm Preloc and Kanar. Hi to all of you!
Here's a more direct link to my sets. There are two sets of Sid alone, plus sets of some of the other actors:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixellle/sets/

From this page, if you click on the set you want to see, you can see it as a slide show -- much more convenient than one at a time.

Hope you enjoy them!

Portia, Kathy and Gayle: I was at the lunch, too. Wasn't it great? They were all so personable, so warm and genuine.

Sid was funnier and looser than I had expected. I mentioned something about how his character grew so much during the series, whether it was gratifying as an actor to be able to develop the character like that, and how you could tell the Bashir of the later years just by the difference in his eyes. The comment about the eyes made him snort and he said something about what he must have been drinking the night before to make his eyes look like that. Very funny.

Was it at the lunch or on-stage...? ... he told a story about how he was so thin, they made him a fake chest -- two undershirts with padding between them -- to fill out the uniform a bit. LOL.

Thanks so much for the detailed post about his talk. I was already starting to forget some of the details because I have the memory of a gnat, even when I really *want* to remember everything.

I've seen some videos some folks have posted from the Con, but none of Sid. Has anyone else found any?

You have some great pictures there - thanks for sharing them

And LOL @ at the fake chest story I love someone with a self deprecating sense of humour.

Great pics thanks for the link! He does look like he was having a great time.

Joy

Yeah, the lunch was good fun. Although I got a little annoyed that their "schedule" of moving guests got a jumbled and we we hadn't had Sid with us as long as some of the other guests. Well, they're all very nice, as you said.

The chest story was on stage. Sid was telling the audience about his try-out in LA. They had all these other actors waiting, but it was sort of already decided that Sid would get the part of "Dr Amoros" (they changed it to Bashir later on). So there he was on his first day, getting this uniform with the fake chest.

Thanks for reminding me about the eyes comment. Did he mention something about med students there, too?

Also, I have this faint memory that he allegedly had to shave off all body hair for the shooting in Mecca. Or was it my mind getting a little of course

>Also, I have this faint memory that he allegedly had to shave off all body hair for the shooting in Mecca.

Yes, that's right! He said he can now sympathize with "the ladies," and that it's perfectly horrid when it grows back -- so itchy.

Between us all, we're piecing together a complete record of his talk! I'm so glad you folks are here to fill it in -- I was getting sad to think that I'd lost all the details and was left with just the general impression.

Just a quick bit of nothing. That shirt he was wearing was really nice, at least it looked good in the pictures. I have been coveting it all week, though on me it would be a huge let down. The man makes the clothes in this case I think.

Joy

I'm so glad Portia explained this. I'm going through a thousand convention photos taken by a semi-pro photographer (six CD's were hand-delivered to me yesterday by the editor of Oracle) and there's one that looks like Sid is holding a bra! No really, it looks like it. Once you know it's a visor cap, you can see that it's a visor cap, but it's easy to visualize it's something else.

So far I've shrunk, cropped and saved over two dozen Sid shots. How many am I thrilled with? Hummm, roughly none. If his hands aren't blurred, his eyes aren't closed and his hair isn't chopped off, then he's got his microphone in front of his chin and lower lip. Sigh. Why is this guy so hard to photograph? I've got a dozen excellent photos of Michael Dorn and I only need ONE!

Anyway, back to work. I'll be working at the state fair at my church's food booth next weekend so I need to get the newsletter finished up before then.

Carol

Why is Sid so hard to photograph? Because he never stands still!

Yeah. As I was working with the Dorn photos, I realized that Brent Spiner was saying nice things about him and he was just standing there beaming. Any third-grader with a disposable camera could have gotten an outstanding photo of Michael Dorn.

I tried to imagine Sid just standing on stage beaming. Seriously, can you picture it?

Carol

OK, you can officially disregard my earlier post. I discovered there's lots of Sid also on CD #3 including a top to toe shot I always like to have.

Carol

>Why is Sid so hard to photograph? Because he never stands still!

Yes!! Of all the people at the Con, Sid was the one I most wanted to get good shots of, and he was the most difficult, because of just that -- he didn't stand still for an instant. I had my long lens and my tripod, but the tripod was almost useless -- he was constantly moving. I couldn't even keep him in the frame by swiveling the head. I finally had to just use the tripod like a monopod, and swing the camera around to try to get him.

The plus side, though, is how animated he is/was. He had great expressions, and I tried to catch them. My efforts are up on the Gallery, if you want to check them out.

He's a challenge, for sure. I hope I get another chance to improve on this batch. Hopefully, this will be the place where I can find out if he's coming to another convention in the States, or another appearance of some kind.

LOL - remember when someone in the front shouted that he should stand still. Sid replied that this would be about the most still that they'd get him

Thanks for your photos, they are awesome and got me reminiscing yet again about Vegas.