Call For Papers- Critical Perspectives on Twilight

CFP:Critical Perspectives on the Twilight Saga, Edited by Maggie Parke and Natalie Wilson

Apologies for Cross-posting.

We are currently accepting proposals for essays to be included in an edited collection on Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga. We are looking for essays that examine the Twilight series, the fandom, and the films from various analytical and methodological perspectives. We are particularly interested in submissions from the following disciplines: film studies, sociology/popular culture studies, gender studies, critical race studies, literature, psychology, and education.

The collection is intended for a broader audience than is the case for many scholarly anthologies. We welcome work from academics, graduate students, bloggers, educators, and fans. Abstracts and subsequent essays should thus be intellectual in tone and treatment, but accessible to general readers.

The collection will focus on the following areas:

Twilight in the Media, Analysis of the Films, The Adaptation Process, Celebrities, and Music of Twilight

Explorations and analysis of the Fandom, Twi-net, Fan Fiction

Female Roles, Representations of Gender, Feminist Analysis of the Series

Readings of Vampire and Werewolf Lore, Consideration of Quileute Legend and Culture

Cross-Generational Issues, Analysis of Family or Mothers/Fathers in the series/fandom

Theological Considerations, Analysis of Twilight as Religious Allegory

Literary Analysis of the Series, Intertextual Considerations

We are particularly interested in the topics that follow:

Gender issues, female roles, chastity, abstinence only, reproductive rights/abortion, representation of masculinity/patriarchy

Film Adaptation, authorial influence, adaptation process

Mormonism, Christianity, feminist theology

The biological possibilities and capabilities within the mythical structure, rule-making and rule-breaking

Race, ethnic identity, cultural mythology, whiteness and white privilege

Literary and genre readings, werewolves, vampires, intertextuality, etc

The fandom, blogs, vlogs, celebrity culture

Pedagogical reads

Use of Twilight as an educational resource

Representations of family, maternal roles, paternal roles, sibling rivalry

Submission guidelines:

Send a 500 word abstract with contact information, affiliations, and a brief bio of approximately 50 words to AcademicTwilight@googlemail.com. Please use word, or rtf format.

Deadline for submissions is December 10.

Update...

Seriously? It's been a month since I've posted? Yikes... well, for 2 weeks I was in the woods of New Hampshire for camp, then my sister got married (YAY! BEST wedding!), then I repacked again, flew to Wales, and I've been here for a week. Work has started, I just got my teaching assignments (I'm teaching Digital Communications...a fancy way of saying IT class and web design stuff), and things are rolling!

Posts forthcoming: I still want to chat about working with Sandymontana productions in Portland on a commercial shoot, I've some thoughts on the New Moon soundtrack that I'm hashing through, and I'd love to do an analysis of the new trailer(s) in comparison with the Twilight one, so we'll see if I can get a few hours free to do that!

It looks like I'll be doing a few of the Twilight events with Creation Entertainment in the near future, and I'm putting together an anthology of critical essays on Twilight with a panelist from TwiCon. Certainly keeping busy! I'm hoping to get involved in some of the New Moon release events, but I've been less involved in this process as I was for Twilight, so we'll see.

Okay, more soon.

Pictures from Vampire Baseball!

I've finally got the go-ahead to post Vampire Baseball pictures, so here's a selection for you (they actually gave me permission about a week ago, but life's been rather nuts; after TwiCon I flew to Boston and saw friends for a couple of days and punched out some work on adaptation theory, and then popped up to Manchester NH to see my sister for a couple of days, and prep a pitch for a Critical Analysis work on Twilight...whoot! Now I'm in Holderness NH, preparing for camp. It's my 20th year there (...I started when I was 7), and my 10th year as a member of the council. Love it!).

Anywho, Vampire Baseball! Look back to

the post about it here, but I'll just post a slew of

pictures here and the rest on Webshots.

It was definitely a fun day. I'm still grateful to Leigh Trapp and Jeannie Barresi and the gang from FanTrips. It was a good time, and it sounds like it's going to happen again in the future. Wahoo!

Webshots Album here.

TwiCon: Day Three

So... day three of TwiCon! Wow, Saturday seems like six months ago already. The whole week already seems like some strange dream that happened in an alternate universe.

Okay, so the first thing I was involved in that day was the breakfast with Alex Meraz, who plays Paul in New Moon. It started a bit shaky as the food was kinda meh (danish and muffins), and people seemed a bit peeved, but then I think we helped them realize Alex was the main event...not breakfast, really. And Alex was brilliant (sorry for the fuzzy picture, flash was prohibited).

He's such a cool, laid back, and grounded guy. He

was honest, funny, and open. And I learned quite a bit about him that I didn't know. For example, he was about to sign up to join Cirque du Solei when he got the call about New Moon, he went to art school from the age of 13 (he's a painter), had a Fullbright scholarship, and is a dancer (I can't remember the name of the martial art he does; it's like break dancing...but not quite). Very cool guy, and I liked his mantra; it matches mine quite well with the 'do what you love and things start working out.... be joyful in all you do, do the best that you can, and things seem to fall into place.' It was also a nice moment of insight and calm in the middle of TwiCon craziness!

So after that I went through the vendor hall for the first time and enjoyed pouring over all of the kitchy little Twilight things. I was kind of amazed there weren't more vendors there

though- shouldn't someone

have been selling the books and the DVD? Or Hot Topic had a table of their licensed

materials? But what was there was fun. Jewelry, sign ups for fan trips, character-inspired lotions, dolls, tshirts and posters. Then I went to the session where they announced the winner of the Fan Fiction contest, and she read her story to us which was cool. The theme was 100 years after Breaking Dawn, so it was neat to hear how people thought the characters continued their lives. You can check that out on Twilighted.net.

Then I thought I'd just pop into the Dallas Ballroom to see how the set

up for the Q&A was going, and it was a bit manic! So I helped out there (and here was the apparently memorable sound check). It took a bit longer than planned to get the audience seated, but it was worth the wait I think when the actors came out. People freaked. I keep thinking I've heard the loudest these fans can get (Breaking Dawn release, UK Premiere...) but it just keeps getting more manic. Peter Facinelli, Jackson Rathbone, Alex Meraz, Kellan Lutz, Billy Burke, and Christian Serratos were there, and it was a lot of fun. The questions were kind of random ('Jackson, if Jasper had a band, what would he call it?') but they came up with some wicked clever answers (Peter: The Grateful Undead... Alex: 100 Vampires... cute). They were flirty with the audience, funny, relaxed, and gotta admit it, they looked good.

There was a bit of an awkward lull at one point, and Peter decided it was a good idea that he jump off stage and run through the audience, and upon his return he said 'That was the scariest thing...' Not gonna lie, I thought he was gonna get attacked and come back with broken ribs. Glad he made it. And he did that on no sleep and manic audience members (he'd just come back from Hawaii and had been up for something like 36 hours). But the audience loved it, and it really lifted the session. It was great fun.

It was over far too early, but they had to keep moving if people wanted their pictures with the actors. That was efficient, apparently, so that's one plus! My next stop was the Meet & Greet. It was kind of like speed dating. All of the fans came in and sat at tables leaving one chair open, and then the actors came in plus some of the periphery Big Names (Kaleb Nation, Hillywood, Twilight Music Girls etc.), and spent two minutes at each table before they were forced to switch. They were running short on time, and we didn't see everyone, but I was at a rockin' table. I was with Danyelle and Luisa, two of my fellow staff members, and then four great gals, Colleen Hearn, Elizabeth Savoic, Nicole Anderson, and Seraphina Gonzalez (sorry if I got the names wrong, it's hard to read your writing, girls!).

We were totally the party table, Billy Burke even passed another table to come hang with us, and we got some great inside info. We had prepared ahead of time so we knew exactly what we were going to ask people, and I'm summarizing their responses; they're NOT direct quotes. Here's a bit of the rundown:

We had Peter Facinelli first:

Me: Do you ever refer to the books while you are filming? Or re-read them to stay close to the character?

Peter: Yeah, I just finished Eclipse. I read the books before we start filming, but once we're filming, I just go off of the script to keep the character a bit more my own, but I still

know where Carlisle is coming from.

With Jackson Rathbone (after he did a little rap for us on the table, with the stellar lyrics of 'yo, yo, yo')

Me: So Jackson, in the first film they don't really talk about Jasper's ability. It's kinda crucial to his character... is that rectified in New Moon?

Jackson (I'm summarizing, this isn't a direct quote): Definitely. It's quick, one of those movie magic, 'easily fixed with one scene or one line' things, but basically I have a conversation with Alice where she asks me to help Bella enjoy her birthday, and then during the birthday I'm working my magic and Bella says, 'Jasper, stop that.' so it becomes more clear.

Us: Did you get to do your own stunts?

Jackson: Yes! All except for crashing into the piano. I got to go up to that point though. And that was funny, I'd run to crash into Rob, and I'd be followed by these guys with a giant crash pad, then I had to throw myself backwards to show how hard Edward threw me back and the guys would catch me on the pad. It was fun...but very strange.

Then we had Billy Burke, who amazingly has not read the books yet; this is interesting to me as I was told last year on set that 'the central cast has all read the book'....maybe they didn't rope him into that, but I can see how Billy Burke is an entity unto himself :)

Us: How many times did you have to pull Gil Birmingham up those steps in the wheelchair?

Billy: Oh, 15 or 16 times. I've got practice with people in wheelchairs, so we didn't have to rehearse, but yeah, it was all muscle. And Gil didn't help at all. He was a big lummox.

Our last guest was Christian Serratos who I worked with during Vampire Baseball, so we cut straight to the chase with her character:

Me: So Christian, Angela is supposed to be dating Ben, and we learned about how they got together in Midnight Sun, but he's gone...is Eric replacing that?

Christian: Yes, they've kind of set it up already with us going to prom together. There's a bit more canoodling with Eric in New Moon and then in Eclipse.... (and she makes a funny face with raised eyebrows... haha)

We also chatted with Craig Deering, one of the guys from Evil Iguana. Some interesting points with him were that he saw the film first and then read the book, and was very disappointed in the book. He wanted to see more of the fighting and killing of James, and assumed the book would have more, so was pissed that there wasn't more action.... but in a rather hysterical way :) He also said girls are crazy, and guys would love to know their thoughts...sometimes.

And Kimber, who was the hand model for Twilight (it's her hands on the cover); she said her popularity has skyrocketed with Twilight and CNN is working on a story about parts modeling because of her. It's interesting how Twilight really is invading EVERYTHING.

Okay, after the Q & A we waved goodbye to the cast (Billy grabbed another beer on the way out, it was pretty great), and went to change for the ball.

Honestly at this point I was on my seventeenth wind, was really tired, rather worn out, and probably could have just crashed... but the ball was REALLY fun. It was one of those situations where you kind of remove yourself to fully absorb the craziness around you, and then I slowly just dove in head first. People took the costume aspect very seriously, and the outfits were stunning. Marcus Foster was playing when we got there, and as we hadn't eaten in about four days we ate some food and enjoyed listening to him for a bit, then started making the rounds, chatting with my panelists, running into Ashley ten times, losing Luisa, Danyelle and Kallie umpteen times and refinding them again... it was neat. It was a big slice of crazy, but once you accept that this is an exceptional situation and just give into it, it was SO much fun.

People were dancing, smiling, complimenting everyone's outfits, taking pictures with Hillywood (Jasper and Alice were in their prom gear, with Alice's dress being a perfect replica of the description from the book, and Bella and

Edward were dressed exactly like that godawful Entertainment Weekly cover from ages back... so funny.

There was a costume contest too, so we got to

see all of the costumes in all their glory. My

favorites were the grou

p of five girls who had gowns made by one of them, inspired by the book covers. They were GORGEOUS and so fun. Also the two guys who we think came on their own... smart move as they were covered in women for the rest of the evening taking photographs with them and 'Edward' biting their necks. Funny stuff... they were good costumes though. 'Edward' even had gold contacts, and 'Jacob'...well, he wasn't really in a costume, but he looked just like Taylor Lautner, just about a foot shorter. Cute. Mini Jacob.

I vaguely remember the night ending, but I somehow dragged my exhausted body to bed and passed out around 1 or 2 I think. I'll put all of my photos up soon. I need to leave Webshots, but everytime I think about doing that it's as I'm writing a blog post, and to be honest... I can't be bothered at the moment!

Well there's the TwiCon reports. I still have another video to upload too from the Q&A session, but it's taking forever, so I'll do it next time. I've got some debriefing stuff to do, I want to survey my panelists and see what worked, and what didn't work that I am able to fix... not TwiCon as a whole... just the academic bits, and then I think I need a massive breather from TwiCon. I have a chapter to finish, I still want to write up about my experience PA-ing in Oregon, and I just got the official photos (well, some of them that were approved for posting and sharing) from Vampire Baseball! So I'll get those up too. (this picture is from baseball, it's Peter in his private booth next to the dugout talking to fans during the coffee sessions).

AAaaaaand breathe. I'm in Boston now, and definitely moving into the Boston Public Library tomorrow for a full day of work. YAY.

Thoughts on TwiCon

Hey there, so my day three report is on it's way... it's about half-written, but while I was typing I was also thinking about how these events are run, and I found myself on a tangent:

Aaaaand we're done. Thank. God. Which probably shouldn't be my first reaction, but it is. I think TwiCon is a brilliant idea. There were some amazing opportunities, great activities like ballroom dancing lessons, I loved the banners around the place, the Meet and Greet was a highlight, I had a brilliant time at the ball, the blood drive was genius, face painting fun,Twilight board games exciting, and of course my discussions and panels... and once I was there, I made the best of all of it, and overall had a good time, and met some stellar people, but the infrastructure was lacking in a few places that made it hard to fully enjoy the opportunities and experiences, and I think the organizers often forgot that this was a FUN event, and therefore it was hard for the staff and volunteers to remember that too.

Key Points for a successful event (I'm talkin' about any event):

*Hire professionals with experience in an event like this (not that the organizers were ill-experienced, but they hadn't done something of this scale, to my knowledge, and some of the interactions were a bit rough; I'm not going to expand. I'm not a gossip column, just an observer who has run many academic events of 100 people or less... but there are core elements that need to be in place for any event to run smoothly, and even small events like my small ones contain them, and large events must contain them in order to be successful!) :

*Thank your volunteers. They paid to attend, often got yelled at, and some of them worked 17 hour days in jobs that only upper staff should have run, in my opinion, and these volunteers deserve a medal.

*Utilize your volunteers and staff. There are some skilled people on staff. Use them. They are free and friendly.

*Offer volunteers and staff members food (bagels, cream cheese and coffee every morning does a lot to save sanity, stomachs, and goodwill); if the event is at a location with little to no food nearby (as it was in Dallas), offer this option at a massive discount or free to attendees. Or hold it in a hotel that offers free breakfast to guests.

*Include details in the program. I collected the bios of everyone for the academic panels weeks ahead of time so that they could go into the program and people would know it was being run by professionals, but they were never included in the program; i.e. people should have known that the 'music panel' was Sam Bradley, and 4 rockin' industry pros (MTV, Wired, The Onion/AV Club, and Bloodshot Records) and we'd have more than 37 (thanks Marah) people in the audience.

*Communicate with your staff. Staff debriefing ahead of time is crucial so everyone is on the same page, and feels involved. I could have had 11 panels on Dr. Suess and I don't know if anyone would have known, since it didn't seem they could even agree about elements I'd confirmed multiple times ahead of time (apparently they 'never knew' that another musician was supposed to be on my panel as well... right.' I've never even been to a summer camp or a chorus that didn't have an 'orientation' meeting with a schedule, itinerary, and things like t-shirts, folders, pens, etc.

*Remember this is FUN (this goes for every conference and convention. People come because they are interested). We like Twilight, remember? We got into this for a fun, loveable, sparkly vampire. So did all of the fans. I don't think it takes much to make Twilight fans excited and happy (of course the big events; but a smile, music, and decorations go a long way too), so that should be projected from the roof tops. The academic panels are a new depth to Twilight appreciation and I'm stoked they were included, but in general, a little fervor and excitement is all you need, and it goes a long way.

I had one woman come up to me yesterday morning and say one of her favorite parts was when I did the sound check before the actor Q&A... how sad is that? I mean I had fun, and I'm glad I could get people to laugh, but that shouldn't have been the best part. The best part should have been one of the programmed things! The sound guys asked me to run down the mics and sound-check them, so instead of 'test 1, 2' I said things like 'paging Dr. Cullen, Dr. Cullen in the house?' and 'I need a little Jacob Black'... those kind of silly things. It was just fun, and entertaining... but it should be a given, not a highlight, if you know what I mean.

So parts of it were rockin'. I'm sure they learned a lot, but yeah... you need to utilize your staff when you have capable people like this, appreciate what they are doing for you, and be willing to smile, and please people. It's not hard with Twilight fans! You blast the soundtrack, say 'Edward Cullen' from time to time, and cheese up the situation!

Day Three report coming... as well as a report on my time as a PA in Oregon on commercial shoots, pictures from Vampire Baseball, and thoughts on adaptation theory perhaps, if that's how I continue to progress, but I just thought I should get this down while I was thinking about it.

I'm also realizing that the fandom is a lot of fun, smart, influential and interesting, but I think I really get my kicks from the film making, and the development process. This is an interesting tangent and I do hope I might be able to run my own event in the future or something... but that may be a back-up. I think I'm more inclined towards the film creation, adaptation, development and marketing than I am to the offshoots of the piece. I think I'm more interested in the adaptation... not the retranslations and interpretations of the adaptation, if that makes sense... Hmm... I'm still figuring all of this out, can you tell?

It's certainly been interesting, educational and eye-opening for me. I hope it has for the partners as well, and the fans had a good time overall, despite the hiccups. Hmm... still pondering, waxing and wondering... we'll see!

TwiCon: Day Two

TwiCon Day Two: Oh girl... so this was my big day. For some reason, the organizers of TwiCon decided to put ALL of the academic programing and panels on the same day. There was simply too much going on. Granted I approved what I set forward, but of course I didn't realize there'd be a massive line for Christian Serratos's autograph and tickets for the 100 Monkeys concert, plus insanely popular informal programming sessions like Alice's Makeover Room, and Jasper's Relaxation Room, so it was manic.!
(pic is Courtney Smith, Genevieve Koski, Marah Eakin, Angela Watercutter, and Sam Bradley)

One of my biggest panels was the 'Music Industry and Twilight Panel.' It was rockin', regardless of our small audience numbers. I had Marah Eakin of Bloodshot Records, Courtnet Smith who worked for MTV2, Genevieve Koski who writes for The Onion/The AV Club, and Angela Watercutter who is a researcher for Wired magazine. So basically, kickin' people who know more about what they're doing than most people, and with all of them combined, the conversation was so insightful.

The industry pro's came out first, talked about how artists get onto labels, what labels mean, how songs get onto soundtracks, who picks those songs, what hurdles may occur... all of that nitty gritty stuff that we just never hear about but most of us think about. Then we brought out Sam Bradley (co-writer of 'Never Think' amongst other lovely credits) and he talked about what it's like from a musician's point of view. He was brilliant. I really appreciated his honesty and humor. He could laugh at himself, the situation, the circumstances...and still seemed to be having a really good time.

So my big gripe was the advertising for the session. If people looked in the program, they just saw 'music panel'...and not who was there. Who wouldn't want to see these people?! So yeah... It was awesome. The audience that attended had possibly one of the best seats in the house and got some stellar inside info on the music industry and Twilight's influence with the music. Of course I wish more people were there, but we had such a good time, I don't think anyone really minded.

So after the music panel (btw, I'm going to post all of the documents, PPs, playlists etc. that I can, as soon as I can, so you can see all that we saw in regards to formal programming), I chaired the Webmaster's Panel (talking to webmasters from HisGoldenEyes.com, TwilightSeriesTheories.com, BellaAndEdward.com, TwilightGuy.com, and TwilightMoms.com), then had a quick break where I ran up to Kalle and Kassie's podcast and did a bit on the 'news of TwiCon' with them, then back down for the Adaptation Panel. (Pocket Edward-wannabe joined in; picture is me on panel, with P.E. in the front)

It. Was. Awesome. Every now and again, I get a feeling that I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing with my life. TwiCon has been a good experience: networking, learning what works and what doesn't, etc., but overall, I don't really think I want to do this again unless I'm running it. There were too many basic things looked over, and the partners seemed so stressed; they forgot this was a fun, enjoyable, exciting event! But I digress... my panel was great, because once I got started talking about the adaptation of Twilight... it was brilliant! My fellow panelists and I had a great banter, we took lots of questions from the audience, debated with each other, fought for our opinions about actors and scenes, and generally enjoyed all aspects of what makes a book work, what makes a film work, and what were the hurdles that we've witnessed and what do we anticipate for New Moon. SO much fun. I left that flying high, feeling good, and full of fun....that's saying something after two days of nearly no food and nearly no sleep! (Picture is Ashley Benning and Jennifer Dee on the Adaptation Panel)

Afterwards we had a well-deserved break, saw Bobby Long and Marcus Foster play at Poor Davids (oh so much fun; they are hysterical, and they played together at the end... very fun. I'm a fan; I think I like Marcus and Sam better than Bobby, oddly enough, but it was uber fun). Then we bolted back to the hotel, grabbed some grub, and caught a bit of the 100 Monkeys show (where I also met Larry Carroll of MTV, who apparently wants to look at some academic-y elements of Twilight... hi. Rockin'.) (Picture is Bobby Long)

That was possibly the fastest post I've ever written, but those are the immediate bullet points so I remember what to expand upon later if I want to.

Lots has gone wrong which really makes me want to run my own convention/conference (possibly after the PhD thing is done... we'll see), but the things I've been involved with have turned out really well. I've been super happy with all of those efforts. My panelists are great, as are my volunteers, and honestly, those little details about friends, thanks, and fun times can really make all of the difference when organzing something like this.

More soon.... and eventually I'll have all of my pictures up on webshots, but for now, I shall tease you with a couple of random shots. (Picture is Danyelle Utley, Kassie Rodgers, Kallie Mathews, and me).

TwiCon, Thursday

Well, day one is in full swing at TwiCon 2009. There were a bunch of glitches planning, lots of little hurdles to overcome as we worked through the details, and tempers and patiences were getting tight... but honestly, now that the fans are all here, it's been pretty rockin'. It's hard not to get excited about what you've done when 2,500 people are all smiles, wearing home-made Twilight shirts, and are screaming at anything Twilight related.... and there's a whole lotta Twilight related things around here at the morning, so there's a lotta screaming!

I got here Tuesday and it's been two very full days of organizing my panels, and finishing up last minute details to make sure it all runs smoothly. I think we're gonna be okay (I sure hope those aren't famous last words). The fans started arriving early today, and it was fun to play 'who's for Twilight, and who's for Mary Kay?' (There's a Mary Kay convention going on at the same time, so we're filling the Sheraton).

Registration opened at 3pm, and the lines were MASSIVE. I haven't heard of any fights breaking out or anything, so I really hope all is going as smoothly as it looks like it is. I met with my

chairs and panelists, and I think we're all ready for the events of tomorrow. I haven't finished my adaptation presentation yet... but meh... details. At this point I can totally wax on without notes...right? Right.

I've just come back from the welcome reception and parts of that were UBER fun. The energy at the beginning was infectious. It's always good during these events to take a step back, pause, breathe, and look around at what we've put together. I started towards the Lone Star Ballroom tonight, where the welcome reception was, and was greeted with tons of cheers. Music was pounding, the TwiCon logo was all over the ballroom, people were hugging, laughing, jumping up and down, and sporting SO much Twilight gear. I haven't seen this kind of mania since the London premiere in December!

It started with the members of the Hillywood spoofs coming out, in character (Edward, Bella, Jasper and Alice) and they re-enacted moments of Twilight, but applied them to the TwiCon audience ("Don't worry, Jasper, you won't hurt the audience"). Cute. They were so well-dressed, and stayed in character uber well, it was a lot of fun; like a Saturday Night Live sketch, but TwiCon Day One Live :)

The middle bit dragged, but it had all of the necessary information needed at a big convention, and I particularly enjoyed Kaleb Nation's video about not asking actors creepy questions, and keeping the stalking to a minimum. Fun.

The best bit was the Evil Iguana spoof of the ballet studio fight scene in Twilight. It was hysterical! I'll link it as soon as it's up. HYSTERICAL. First of all, Alice was played by a dude and just took it to the enth degree; it was hysterical. "It's going to happen Edward, I've seen it" and burrying Edward's head in 'her' bosom. Oh so funny... and Carlisle constantly referring to the fact that "I'm a doctor..." in a cocky, very un-Carlisle way, but in a very hysterical way.

More soon, but there's part one! I'm off to the VIP reception on the top floor, and last minute touch ups on details for tomorrow.

Watch this space! And follow my Twitter too; tons of us are Twittering about TwiCon... but I think I'm from a slightly different perspective, if you know what I mean...

More pictures soon too... they take FOREVER to load here!

MaggieParke.com downtime

MaggieParke.com is down for a bit. It's kinda making me crazy because one host won't release the domain and therefore I can't do anything with it, and I'm just not THAT computer literate or have the time to fight with it right now.... so yeah, I'll work on that after TwiCon is over!

Thanks for the patience!

TwiCon: Day One- travel and prepping

Well, I'm officially in Dallas for TwiCon 2009 after a rather harrowing journey. It was good for awhile; my original flight in Portland was delayed, so they switched me to a direct flight to Dallas (yay! Direct flights are always nice), I sat next to a cool guy who's in the Air Force, lived in Japan, had just come back from Alaska... a fun seat partner and good chatter, but then when I landed.... no luggage. So they switched me, but not my stuff. Then they informed me that they could locate one, but did not yet know where the second one was... Joy.

So I got to the hotel after wading through a sea of Mary Kay representatives (there's a Mary Kay convention here too... at least I'll know where to go when my eyebrow furrow gets too pronounced), and met up with my roommates for the next few days. After a shower, food, and a little mindless TV, things were better. They still hadn't located my bags, but as of this morning they had both, and they were at my hotel and are now in my possession! Yay!

So today is all prepping. Putting together the program details, making sure everything that I'm able to prep for is prepped for, and trying to maintain a normal level of sanity :)

I'm getting stoked. I think it'll be neat when the fans get here and really see the excitement, and use that energy in the convention. Right now, I'm just ready for it to start!

I'll try to keep things updated on Twitter too, and will post full reports after TwiCon if not during... it'll depend on my exhaustion levels, I think!

TwiCon: Webmaster's Panel

Hello All!

Well TwiCon is now only 5 days away- YAY, and also, YIKES!

At TwiCon we're doing a panel with Kallie and Kassie from Twilight Series Theories, Kaleb Nation from The Twilight Guy, Lisa Hansen from Twilight Moms, Michelle Pan from BellaandEdward.com, and Kimmy from HisGoldenEyes. I believe it'll be recorded so more than just the attendees can see it, but basically, I want to ask for YOUR help.

In the comments to this post, I'd like you guys to post questions that you'd want to ask these Masters of the Twilight Online World :) Maybe how they first got into Twilight, what's one of the hardest aspects of running a Twilight site, who have you been able to meet...anything! I'll collect the questions and ask the best ones (and sign your name and location if you want me to credit you with the question) during the panel on Friday.

Happy Questioning!

Get thinking!

Vampires for Dinner? Why not...

I'll certainly be posting about Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, because I've got all sorts of adaptation stuff to comment on (Ginny and Harry's kiss... seriously?!), but first I'm sharing the adventures of dinner at the View Point Inn with Ashley and gang.

So I first met Ashley when she submitted a paper for TwiCon. She was stuyding something I was uber interested in, so I asked if she might want to help out with TwiCon planning. She did, she's cool, and thus she's my co-hort in formal programming for TwiCon. She and 10 of her friends and family are going on a massive Twilight-inspired trip to Portland, Forks, and all of the sights along the way and in between. Last night they were all in Portland (well, by the airport, and if the trip doesn't include a trip to Powell's, I'm not sure if you can say you've 'been to Portland'), and invited me to join them for dinner at the View Point Inn... aka the location of the prom in Twilight.

We all shlepped out there, missed the first exit, and therefore took a long, winding road to get to the Inn. I'm kind of glad for that though. It looked similar to the drive to the Cullen's house in the film; green caverns of trees with a road ploughing through, but every now and then we'd get a stunning view of the Gorge. It was great! Perhaps a bit longer, but worth it, methinks.

We finally arrived, and then the 'ooos' and 'ahhh

hs' began. It's a beautiful set up, hence why it was chosen. It's smaller than I'd expected, but it had that classic 'old grand lodge' feel to it, know what I mean? Like a ski lodge built in the 20's or something, and you expected men in tails and women in gowns to stroll through with a cigarette on the end of a stick. They took us through the foyer, through the main hall (beautiful! big log furniture, candles, hardwood floors, and the whole thing opened up to the outdoors), and out to the patio and our dining 'tent.' It was so much nicer than a 'tent', but that's the only word for it.

We had the option originally of the 'Twilight menu' or the normal menu, and believe it or not, we went with the normal menu (many more options... much better). I did get a kick out of the Twilight items on the menu- Edward's Elixir (I can't remember all of it, but it was a mix of blueberries, raspberries, pomegranate? and spritz), I ordered the Twilight Martini- basically the same ingredients but with vodka...so good. Also, we got the 'eternal love cake' which was a red velvet cake with chocolate icing. It was really good, but honestly the rest of the desserts

hugely overshadowed it. It was really pretty though.

We all got our own meals (bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin with apples was mine... aaa-mazing), and then we just got one of every dessert and passed them. Brilliant. I liked dining with this gang :) The fluffy cheesecake or the flourless chocolate cake was my favorite...

Anywho, amazing food aside, it was neat to see the film's location. The broad scope and large feel from the film actually turning out to be a quaint, historical, gorgeous spot, and to see how they changed the look. The 'Monte Carlo' arch is still there, but randomly shoved into a corner of the yard. It's certainly not a natural place for people to walk from to get to the Inn, but for the film, by having them walk from back there without a fence behind, it looks as though the property goes much further back; a larger scope. Also, there's a big pond in the middle of the yard with a fountain and whatnot, and we figured the gazebo must have gone over the pond in the film.

I'm also glad it wasn't freezing when we were there as it was in the film. Apparently during filming they'd put down coats on in between shots... I feel sorry for those girls in strapless silk dresses! Luckily it was warm, pleasant, breezy, and there was no need for a sweater at all except to ward off the mosquitos.

It was also neat to see how Twilight has seeped into this Inn's daily life. In the entrance area

there's a little gift shop with the expected trinkets like key chains and stationary, but now there's also two bookshelves full of Twilight items. Calendars, photos, t-shirts, the books, the dvd, Twilight-themed soaps... you get the idea. They've added Twilight items to their menu, and they have a section of the patio where you can buy a brick, and there's one for Edward and Bella. Cute.

I hope the Inn gets through this economic slump; it's out in the middle of nowhere so I could certainly see how it's problematic, but the food was phenomenal, the views unbeatable, and the staff rockin'. Definitely a good time, and it was good to meet my TwiCon cohort in the flesh before the madness that will be TwiCon. Oh girl...

HP: HBP soon. Webshots album here.

Fourth of July, Vampires, Wolves, and Baseball

(FYI: Sorry I don't have more pictures yet; they have to be approved for use and whatnot. I'll add them when I am able to :)

Well the Vampire Baseball event was yesterday in Portland, and it was brilliant. I was contacted by the organizers of Fan Trips to do some filming and photography for the event, so I've been inundated with planning, details, media stuff and seeing how all of these bits go together to make a very successful event. I was working for media planner Leigh Trapp, and with her son, Tyler; they were incredible. Seriously. If you were there, Tyler was the one running around, getting people screaming, doing the moonwalk on the dugout, and then organizing all of the actors, setting up the effects, running water to the players...he was all over!

Anywho, the event was a lot of fun. There were fourteen members, I think, of the Twilight cast and crew, there were fan games, autographs, coffees, a podcast, etc.

I got there a little after 7am and there was already a line at the front gate and music pumping from the inside (sadly that music kept pumping for the next ten hours; it was good music, but there were only about 10 songs... you can only listen to 'Can't Fight the Moonlight' so many times before you want to rip a speaker off the wall). All of the website owners were there, prepping for the podcast (Mugglenet/Twilight Source, His Golden Eyes, Twilight Live, etc.), the food was being organized (I walked through the basement of the stadium, past 17 million hot dog rolls, to get inside), and we were going through the plan of the day.

The fans started filing in, and they were awesome. So many homemade tshirts, Cullen Baseball shirts, painted faces, baseball socks, and lots of books. People were breaking into chants and cheers, and waving their books in the air (talk about a funny moment for me as a student of adaptation... at a baseball game, watching the actors, and seeing the books in the stadium... ahh the power of a book on fan mania and merchandising!).

Around 8:30 the actors started arriving and I was sent down to the field suites where they were having coffee sessions with fans. That was a lot of fun. Edi Gathegi was chatting with a couple of women about the relationships in Twilight, Rachelle Lefevre was twittering with some fans and taking pictures to post on their accounts, Peter Facinelli was wooing a big group and being his normal, comic-savvy self, and the room at the end was a fun fest. Solomon Trimble, Christian Serratos, Logan Welch, Michael Welch, Sean McGrath (frat boy), Catherine Grimme (young Bella), Ayanna Berkshire (Cora, the waitress), Alex Meraz (Paul in New Moon), and Kiowa Gordon (Embry) were in there with a big group of ladies completely enjoying themselves; hamming it up for their cameras, chatting with each other (you could definitely see the camraderie of the gang), and getting pumped for the game.

The fan games started during the coffees, and so did the heat! It was a scorcher! I felt bad for Rachelle's security in their suits! I was as hot as anything in a sundress, and I wish I had counted how many times I ran up and down the stadium steps in that heat; I definitely got my workout in! The cast took to the field to warm up, and I was rather floored at how good they were. It wasn't just connecting with the ball, they were hitting them way out, catching and throwing like pros... dang these people and their multiple talents!

The players were split into two teams: The Veggie Vampires Dances with Wolves (Peter's team), and Portland Purple People Eaters (Rachelle's team)...they came up with their own names. You'd have to ask them. The game was great. Everyone was having a good time, but obviously still competitive, and played wicked well. I was most impressed with Catherine Grimme... that girl is good!

There were lots of antics- a mock fight between the boys over a bad call, Rachelle replacing Peter with another pitcher as she didn't like his throws- and some fun effects too. There was a bit in the second inning where Catherine took a hit and immeidately was called 'safe', seemingly without running around the bases, so she looked like she had vampire speed! Really we filmed it the day before and Tyler sped it up with effects, but it looked great!

Peter's team won, and they were gracious about it... to an extent :) There may have been a few tossed gloves and well-intended tackles to the ground! Throughout the game there were pictionary games on the big screen, music, and all sorts of shenanigans. It was a lot of fun! I pretty much had access everywhere which was certainly a good time. I was on the field, in the boxes, taking hundreds of pictures of the actors, games, crew, and fans all day long.

It was neat to have a clear purpose through the day; to see the big picture and keep in mind that this was a fun, exciting and beneficial event, but still manage all of the small fires that exploded through the day. It was great, and not a shabby way to spend the fourth of July!

After the game there were autograph sessions where people could purchase autographs from each of the actors. I was with Christian Serratos and she was very cool. Friendly and happy to chat with everyone, and she enjoyed soaking JD on the field with a hose, he was another volunteer at her table. It was a nice, ridiculous way to end the ridiculous day... watching her tackle JD with a hose... haha.

I liked the laid back feel of the day; we were constantly running all over the place, and I think I subsisted on a handful of almonds and water until about 4pm, but it was still such a holiday/enjoyment atmosphere. I found it kind of disheartening to see the funds and particulars involved in doing an event like this, but I certainly understand the business aspects of the job, even if the job is playing ball on the fourth of July!

It's now just three weeks to TwiCon, and I think everything is lining up pretty darn well! Until then I'm de-Twilighting a smidge and focusing on chapters for my PhD...right. I tend to forget that I've this other giant project to do at the same time...

Pictures soon, I hope :)

Vampire Baseball

So I'm in Portland (YAY!), and have found that this city is just as rockin' as I remembered. It's gorgeous out, I've been able to finally relax a smidge and reorganize my work and contacts, and opportunities are abounding. I'm meeting with a director about an indie film on Monday, PA-ing for a few events here and there, and this weekend I'm managing a filming project for Vampire Baseball!

We're still working out the details of what that will be, but basically I'll be creating something like a video diary of the day; following the actors' coffees, arrivals, and play, fan reactions and all sorts of stuff like that to be projected on the big screen in PGE Park.

I'm sure I'll Twitter on the day, and do a write up afterwards; it's been awhile since I've been able to do one of those. Anyone gonna be there?

Sparking Adaptation Thoughts...

Every now and then, just when you think you have a water-tight schedule for how your research will progress that day, something comes along that blows it all up. Sometimes this can make you want to rip your hair from the roots, lock yourself in a small cupboard in the basement of a library and never see or speak to humans again as you rock back and forth, hugging your knees, trying to remember why you dove into PhD research in the first place, but sometimes, like today, it gets you whirling and thinking about all sorts of avenues that you hadn't thought about before.

All it took for me today was the interview on makingof.com with Melissa Rosenberg. It was only 8 minutes long, but while Twilight gossip runs rampant (and you'll notice I'm not a fan of commenting on the periphery gossip of the cast), information on the creative processes of the adaptations is not as plentiful; and every time there's just one new line of information, I get about a dozen new questions and ideas to follow.

I'm not familiar with makingof.com, but obviously I'm now going to stalk it for some of my behind-the-scenes informational needs. This interview was fairly general, but she did give me a few jumping off items that I'm going to have to see if I can learn more about. It was neat to hear about the processes in general; what she is used to, how she generally works, and then the specific examples with the Twilight Saga. I was surprised to learn that she considered her collaboration with Stephenie Meyer in Twilight's adaptation was less than it is in New Moon and Eclipse, as I certanily always got the feeling that she was heavily invovled in all of the processes. Although that may have been more towards the end; once they had a draft they circulated it to Meyer, and that's where the tweaking happened, whereas in Eclipse, Rosenberg actually sent Meyer her outline for the film, and they've worked together utilizing the unwritten elements of the novel (i.e. the significant backstory and mythology that didn't need to be in the book, but Meyer had to create to understand and write the text), and incorporating them into the film.

I also liked how Rosenberg called these moments 'easter eggs', using the DVD terminology for secrets hidden in the disc that only the die-hards would find, or the fans would understand. This is a nice nod to the ravenous fanbase who will, of course, have read all of the correspondance on The Twilight Lexicon, read the deleted chapters on Meyers's website, and have poured through every periphery text that has branched off from Meyers's four original texts. It's interestng to have one media's terminology (easter eggs for DVDs) apply to a film and a novel.

Lastly (well, lastly for this post, I've gotta go type some of this up while I'm thinking about it!), it was nice to hear Rosenberg's acknowledgement of the fans. She knew she was working with something beloved by millions, and many would disregard this in the creative process and just write the story that they felt needed to be told, but when working with a hugely popular text like this, and producing one of thes translation for an event film*, I think you need to realize the impact that respecting the fans can have on the final piece. It doesn't sound like she found that to be a shackle to her writing, but instead more of a motivation to turn a well-realized novel into a better-realized screenplay.

I still don't think the Twilight Saga is a perfect adaptation (nothing ever will be), but it's brilliant to analyze the different aspects of this particular work, and see how they have approached each translation of the novel, and how they are learning from each act as well. Twilight was open to all, very few knew what it was they were actually working with (as in the scope and mania surrounding this film). Now, with New Moon, it's a closed set, very few pictures and interviews have been released, and the set-visits were very limited and controlled (good for the filmmakers to control the interpretation and access of the media, but not necessarily an accurate representation of that set; it's more tailored and limited), and there have been less leaks of information online. I'll be quite interested to see how this affects the script, the film, the advertising and reception of the finished work.

See? Rambling... brain spinning... I love these days that get me thinking. I'm off now to see what other avenues and questions I can pull from this.


*I feel the need to define 'event film' as I don't think I have before. Event film is a rather new term, and it basically refers to a film that transcends one media, is from another print source, usually, and has entertainment events attached to its releases (i.e. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Twilight... based off of beloved books, huge fan base, midnight release parties, conventions, concerts and merchandise associated with each release etc.)

TwiCon and update

TwiCon's program is online! I'm sure we're still going to have to tweak it here and there as things come up, but it's there! Panelists are preparing, papers are being composed, and fans are getting more fanatic :) Anyone planning on attending?

I'm nearing the end of my year in Wales, and preparing for a bounce-all-over-the-place summer in the States! I had a conference this past week that I've been helping to organize for a few months and we had someone drop out at the last minute, so I whipped up a presentation on Twilight, of course. It's definitely a topic I can wax on without notes at this point! It was actually really interesting. I talked about authorial intent and audience expectation; i.e. what Stephenie Meyer's motivations were when writing it, what the filmmakers intentions are, what the fan's expectations are, and exactly how all of those things worked together during Twilight's adaptation to the big screen. It was actually kind of fun, and the questions at the end were brilliant. People asking all sorts of academicy stuff, and the discussion was a great stimulant for more research. Yay for last minute papers working out!

I've just one more week in Wales, then I'm heading home to see my folks for a few days in Pennsylvania, then to North Carolina for a family thing, then Oregon to work on an indie film set and shadow some production companies (I need more practical experience), then to Dallas Texas for TwiCon, then to New Hampshire for camp (YAY!) , then my sister's wedding in New Hampshire, and back to Wales in September! Whooooosh. Well my carbon footprint has not been small this year, but I hope I counter it somewhat by not owning a car, only using bikes, walking and public transport whenever I am in one of these many locations and being as hippily green as I possibly can :)

(p.s. this second picture is from Abergwyngregn, the next town over from Bangor where I was housesitting two weeks ago. I just popped it in to remember how gorgeous where I live is!)

Here's my list of to do for the blog:
* Talk about the script reading course I took at the Script Factory in London (rockin')
* Scene by scene analysis of Twilight
* Script vs. novel analysis
* Play the board game ad-nauseum (just bought it... disappointed that the trivia questions aren't challeging enough :-D)
* Maybe talk a bit about stage adaptations; I saw Lord of the Rings ages ago, I keep hearing about a Harry Potter stage play, and then there are the cross overs like Billy Elliot, Chicago, Nine, Mama Mia... I'll stew on that one
*...And any other random thoughts that enter my head :)

Now I just need 57 hours in my day, and I'll get all of it done! Plus my two chapters for my PhD, my yearly review, my scholarly article, and finding more conferences away from my Uni at which to present.

It'll be fiiiiine :)