These are the most commonly used search keywords to get to my site thru google.
Of course the data is only relevant from Oct 15-Dec 31. I didnt have the program in place prior to October 15th. Because of that, terms like Twilight, Pattinson, Stewart, New Moon etc are likely a lot lower than they would have been if this tracked all searches since day 1. I suspect if they were covered from the beginning, RPattinson would probably have topped 10,000 searches. That said, I was still impressed with the hockey related search numbers for the Olympics. These search terms ran thru the release of New Moon, so the Twilight phenomenon had SOME pull, but still Olympic searches dominated the numbers. With 2010 now here & the Olympics a few weeks away, it will be interesting to see how dominant they are at the end of 2010 in my search terms. 1st 1094 HOCKEY 2nd 852 OLYMPICS 3rd 833 2010 4th 592 CANADAGRAPHS 5th 309 ROBERT PATTINSON 6th 267 TEAM CANADA 7th 251 TEAM SWITZERLAND 8th 250 AUTOGRAPHS/SIGNED 9th 199 KRISTEN STEWART 10th 185 TWILIGHT 11th 118 TEAM CZECH REPUBLIC 12th 91 TEAM LATVIA 13th 88 ARGUMENT/ELEVATOR 14th 82 HOCKEY AUTOGRAPHS 15th 70 TWILIGHT AUTOGRAPHS 16th 51 NEW MOON 17th 46 TEAM FINLAND 18th 31 TAYLOR LAUTNER 19th 24 ANNA TORV 20th 19 JOSHUA JACKSON 20th 19 NEW MOON AUTOGRAPHS 20th 19 CANUCKS AUTOGRAPHS. Things I found interesting were that Taylor Lautner, although one of my best selling autographs, was quite frankly, not a very often searched term in comparison to his co-stars Rob & Kristen, and only moderately more than Kellan Lutz at 17. That put him 2 short of the logjam that became 20th place. I had to do a lot of partial word searches thru my list to find possible misspelled ones, and even though I did. Maybe I missed some. But these are within 99% accuracy, correct numbers. I was more amazed with the amount of mis-spellings some words had. Argument was spelled ELEVEN different ways. My personal favorite being "argewmint". With that many failed spellings of 1 word, you can imagine how its possible I may have missed 1 or 2. For peoples names like Rob, Kristen, Taylor, Anna & Joshua I searched their first names & last names to come up with the list. In Rob & Kristens cases, I even putt commonly used nicknames like RPatts, RPattz, KStew to find them. Interestingly Fringe stars Anna Torv & Joshua Jackson made the list. But the show itself did not.
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I considered burying my review in the middle of the blog, just to make you all read the whole thing thoroughly to find it....but, here it is..... It didnt suck, but it wasnt awesome either.
I'm giving it a generous 5.5/10. Now remember, I have NEVER READ THE BOOKS!!! So dont gripe at me with "oh, they forgot this" or "the so & so scene was ruined because this pointless background detail wasnt there". I dont care. I graded it as a movie, and not as a comparison to a piece of literature. It is a movie, I graded it as a movie compared to other movies. I was pretty worried it was going to be gawdaful after hearing responses from people I knew. Of the 6 people I knew in person who saw it prior to me, only ONE gave it any type of positive review. The rest were trashing it hard. Sites like IMDB & Rottentomatoes were in agreement with this assessment of it as well, so I was truly expecting garbage. Maybe thats why it rated higher than 5, because I went in with such low expecations & it overshot them. To me the film has several good pieces which are wrapped around a pile of really dull, dragged out scenes. Some of the smaller characters are a bit too dorky for my liking. Just them saying even a couple words made me roll my eyes. The pudgy little school kid that has a crush on Bella might be the most annoying of the bunch. They shoulda scrapped him all together. I personally did not have the same problems with the acting of the big 3 that others have stated. They arent going to win the academy award, but its fine. I mean if Sean William Scott or Hugh Grant can continue to find employment doing the same character over & over again in movies that arent even connected to each other, than whats the problem with these 3 acting the same as they did in the first film? The supporting cast did a decent job IMO with the limited screen time they generally had. The Volturri looked good image wise, but Michael Sheen & Dakota Fanning were the only two that really made a positive impact on me. If Jamie Campbell Bower had more of a role, maybe he coulda done the same. The rest however... I found most of them too rigid & not smooth enough in delivery. The fight scene was too sped up to enjoy. They needed to slow it down a bit. I realize they are vampires & are really quick, but the audience is only seeing minimal glances of the action & its really frustrating IMO. It was certainly fascinating to see scenes in places I knew, or had been to. That might have given it an extra .2 or so just for the Vancouver element? But overall, it wasnt terrible. I wont go spend $12.50 to see it again, but I could see me watching it down the road again if someone rented it. Its certainly watchable. So that is essentially my review of the movie, spoiler free I hope. Of course Twilight Saga: New Moon is a film that was a big deal to me, as I hounded this film pretty intensely compared to the efforts I usually put in to celeb hounding. Here is a list of top 10 things I learned/appreciated/enjoyed about the New Moon phenomenon being here. - Jackson Rathbone. The man who plays Jasper turned out to not just be a wonderful surprise for interacting with, but perhaps the nicest celeb I have ever met. After 1 of the 100 Monkeys perfornaces here he talked in chilly spring weather for like 15 minutes about anything & everything. Awesome guy who even after that first encounter, kept up his good guy images all the way thru Eclipse even. - Sam Bradley show at Richards On Richards. It was my big payday of the event. It nabbed me my first ever celebrity photo run in a national magazine (sure, it was OK Magazine & I would later blast them for being idiots...but still, it was groundbreaking for me) I also learned to enjoy Sams music leading up to the show & the short amount of time I got to enjoy his performance. It also lead to a cool impromptu sing along by Sam on the street after the show that I thought was all too cool, which later lead to getting a couple Pattinson autographs. So all in all, a very productive night. - Spencer Bell discovering. One of the things Jackson Rathbone told us about that night was Spencer Bell & asked us to donate to his site (link is in my twilight autographs section). It took me awhile after misplacing it, but I finally found the site & have since then enjoyed quite a bit of Spencers music. Sad that there cant be anymore. - Meeting Rob after filming in New West. It was the only set hounding I did in New Moon & it nabbed me the nicest Rob autograph I obtained the whole shoot, and to top it off he did in despite his driver trying to deter him from signing for me. At 6 AM, after a long night of work, Rob came over to a fence & signed for the 5 or so fans who waited it out, while his co-stars left with little more than a wave from a distance. - How it revitalized my celebrity hounding. Because of New Moon, I started hounding celebs a fair bit more over that run, and it still lingers some now. I met a lot more stars in that few months it was here that I had probably met in the past 5 yrs (minus my time at Toronto Film Fest a couple yrs ago) because I just rarely bothered going out. - Twitter strategizing with others to prevent chaos during the Blue Water Cafe cast dinner. After the shenanigans of Punkd images & Lainey Gossip to try & ruin the casts party at the Blue Water Cafe, several of the regulars who were at the scene took action & banded together despite all having different interests in being there. The one thing we all knew was, if it wasnt stopped now, chaos was going to ensue. Within 10 mins of Laineys tweets, 2-4 people had shown up, but no one else did after that & for that, the credit mainly goes to the few fans & myself who worked on creating a smoke screen to assure no one else would try coming down & making it a mob scene. - All the new hotspots I never knew about before. I pass places like Chill Winston often & have occasionally passed Glowbal & Blue Water Cafe, but never really though of them as anything special. Since then I have learned just how often they really have housed notable celebs. - Celebs twitter updates. Before New Moon I barely knew of Twitter. Within a week of it, I had signed up for an account & was using it daily to keep up to date on where people were & more importantly, celebs who tweeted about their every detail. It was vital in giving me good, solid info more times than I probably confessed at the time. Fan updates were 1 thing, but celebs updates were 5Xs better. -The day Kristen Stewart told my friends & I "I dont care". Outside of the Loose Moose one night we chatted with her for a few mins. One of my friends apologized for being there, which Kristen responded that she didnt infact care, understood we have a job to do. She respectfully asked us not to do 1 or 2 things, so we didnt. But for the mostpart, she was understanding that we had a job to do & was fine with it. - The fans. Sure, there is a large portion who are batshit nuts. Odds are a few of you will even read this & say "well, he cant be talking to me". When I see a 40 yr old woman nearly in tears because she met Rachelle Lefevre or a girl probably no older than 12 telling Kellan Lutz she wants his body...well, yeah, THEY are nuts. But I also met quite a few cool, laid back people whow ere just fans & who just wanted to soak up a bit of the experience of them being here. Some of the regulars were the most normal people of the bunch. It amazed me every time someone told me they were from Brazil, Texas, Minnesota, Belgium or Japan. I was just like "wow, you spent your vacation time to come here in the HOPES of seeing one of the cast?". Now granted, I have considered the same thing for my favorite TV show...but I also can combine it with work to offset some of the costs, as well I have a fair bit more knowledge & experience in finding them than Joe fan. But I admired their commitment to an entertainment medium & most of the time, I found most of them to be normal. For all the frustration the New Moon filming here brought me at times, the entertainment, money & memories likely outweight those frustrations greatly. Thats it on New Moon I guess. Next up is Eclipse.....which as we all know, I have a less fond memory of. Last week, Eclipse, the 3rd film in the Twilight Saga series, wrapped here in Vancouver. To be brutally honest, I was relieved.
Lets take you back to the beginning when the cast was first in town for New Moon, the 2nd film in the series, coming out in theatres everywhere November 20th. I started this entire venture, NOT LIKING the idea of Twilight. I had never seen the movie & vowed I wouldnt. In the first couple weeks, I even found it easy to justify my disdain for it as the stars we were seeing were few & far between & had been to say the least, unwilling to interact. From KStew staring at us as she walked into the hotel ignoring our requests to RPattz speed walking by us when we picked him out in mid day, they were giving us a negative vibe. The first turning point came when meeting Taylor Lautner for the first time. He was extremely friendly, pleasant, signed everything that was asked of him & I watched as he talked on a fans phone to her friend in another city, just because she asked him to. I wasnt about to run out & see the film just because of that, but I was about to start softening on this cast. Over the next while a variety of actions happened. I called out KStew publically, and she responded by becoming more cordial, cast members befriended the locals, and in general, cast came across as extremely friendly & easy to deal with. We liked them and they seemingly liked us (compared to other entertainers we encounter often who dont show any respect without any prior reason.). After I got my first Kristen Stewart autograph, I conceded that I would infact give the film a chance. She was the one hold out of the primary cast for signing at that point, and now she had signed & in fact done a 180 from what she was like in the early weeks. I rented the film, watched it with a couple friends. Not exactly Casablanca, but a moderately entertaining & watchable movie. I stated at that time I likely could see myself going to see New Moon when it comes out. By the time the filming for New Moon ended, we were seeing the cast almost every couple days, Rob here, Taylor there, Kristen here etc. They were exceptionally good to us & on more than 1 occasion, 1 of those 3 said "I dont care, I know you have a job to do" when we asked for more autographs or a photo. They were finally understanding they had reached a certain level of fame, and had found a happy medium in their lives with dealing with it. I was pro-Twilight by the time they left here at the end of New Moon. In the time between the end of New Moon & the start of Eclipse, a LOT happened in their lives (mostly with Rob & Kristen) & to be brutally honest, I had no idea how much it clearly affected them till I had to deal with them again. They went to Italy where they got their first true big time encounters with paps since their fame had skyrocketed. Oddly enough days before leaving Vancouver, many fans who were not actually here constantly were saying "cant wait for them to leave Van, so they can get a break from all the crazy fans there etc etc etc" only to learn it actually is worse everywhere else. Italy likely stressed them some, but it was NOTHING like what they endured in NYC & LA where they were under 24/7 surveillance. At least in Vancouver, we were only on them at major events & some weekends. The fact that Rob had gone to the same bar about 8-10 times before we ever actually saw him going there tells you just how much they were going out here undetected. They didnt have that luxury anymore. It changed them for the worse. When they came back for Eclipse, we again had a small slump at the beginning. Cast were being elusive. But this time it was not so much because of dumb luck as it was with the crowds waiting. Summer time in Vancouver, and growing hype around this series meant much larger crowds. To top it off, the mentally challenged gerbils in charge of Summit decided in their infinite wisdom to book the ENTIRE cast in 1 place. Imagine whatever your idea of hell is. This is surely what Rob & Kristen felt, if not, the smaller cast members as well. By the 2nd week of production there was about 25 paps in town & on average 30-50 fans waiting in & around the Sheraton Wall Centre hotel. Cast were becoming elusive & quick. Regular casual castmates like Nikki Rieed, Kellan Lutz & Peter Facinelli were out far less this film than the film prior, and Nikki opted to move away from the hotel with Elizabeth Reaser to a different hotel. I never got a chance to ask them why, but by Nikkis new "dont look at me" attitude she spawned in this film, I am guessing it was obviously a "I dont want to be around the hype" change of address. They wanted quiet, so they moved away. My question to Summit. Why the hell didnt you do what you did from the beginning? 3 hotels= moderate crowds most days. 1 hotel= everyone at the same place. It was literally ground zero & the cast were prisoners of their film companies incompetence. It made the fans more desperate, it made the paps more desperate, it made us autograph hounds more desperate. So what happens when you have that much desperation building? Stupidity. With 20+ out of town paps here, the first real uh oh was the night they went to a sushi bar for a cast party. Upon their return, Robs cab went underground, and without hesitation, the out of towners with nothing to lose since they dont live here, followed them in. This was a no-no amongst the regulars, but these out of towners who would onyl stay here for a week or two did not care. This action made the cast even less willing to go out. Soon, sightings were quite rare & it was usually the same couple guys. Kellan in full sprint for a jog. Xavier for a walk. Peter Facinelli out for a short stroll. The big 3 were hiding. Rob, Kristen & Taylor were practically ghosts except for group functions or at the set. Eventually the crowds died out. Ironically it came in the form of Summit growing a functioning brain cell, and it had the added luck of falling right when school was starting. They moved a large chunk of the cast out of the Sheraton to a small, still not completed apartment building a few blocks away called Level. I still remember 2 days before the first people would stumble across it saying to a couple people "I think they have moved them out of here" because it was so rare seeing anyone there. Within a week, all the regulars that were in the know had the new address. Only ones left without that info were the obsessive 24/7 "I cant live without seeing Rob/Taylor" fanatics that were still lurking around the now nearly ghost town like Sheraton. For a couple weeks, there was still moderate crowds around the Sheraton, while us regulars were finally getting a cast that was far more relaxed signing & posing for pics coming out of their new residence, they would sit around there on weekends hoping to see cast when there was only 3 elusive regulars there & occasionally a couple part time cast members. Eventually, even the die hards gave up. For the past month or so of filming the place had practically no one waiting there 5 out of 6 times.... Ironically, it coincidentally was around the same time a few fans were figuring out where the residence was. Soon there was crowds of 8-10 at the residence on any given day. It quickly became the end of the cast going out as often as they were those first couple weeks there. While the focus shifted to the smaller cast members, the likes of Rob & Kristen were finding it easier to get out & were seen often out on the town by fans. Thats something they had not enjoyed since as far back as New Moon production. They had to endure being "caught out" a handful of times, but for the mostpart, they went out with little fanfare... which brings me to why? Why with so much freedom suddenly were they so put off when they were found out? It wasnt just some paps they were trying to evade. Even in moderately calm settings where they would have signed or taken a photo with in NM, they were speedwalking/running away from now. They made people more desperate, and because of that. Stupid actions like the elevator incident happen. I dont endorse what my friend did. But in the same breath, I get somewhat why he did it. Rob & Kristen were giving him no choice. A reasonable reaction to us being there would have been a short, head down walk into the hotel, isntead of the Usain Bolt impression Kristen was trying to pull off everytime she came in. If they had casually walked in, like they had dozens of times in the past, there would not have been the panicked desperation of someone to follow them inside, because they would have been satisfied enough with the 2-3 seconds of them walking in, like the dozens of encounters prior. But when you hastily try to run away, all it does is incite panic into the others. So they feel they need to get something out of this, so they follow inside. Its sort of the same philosophy of what happened at the sushi place weeks earlier. They made a big production about getting the cast out of the restaurant, which included calling in police to escort Rob & Kristen to the garage... a private underground secured garage. They called POLICE in to help them escort them TO A PRIVATE SECURED UNDERGROUND GARAGE??!!!!, because there was 10-12 paps waiting 200 feet away on a sidewalk in the dark. I didnt even get to the pathetic part of this.... THEY WERE IN A SECURE BUILDING!!??? There was no need to drag officers off the street for this. All it did was again, like elevator gate, incite panic in those involved, and when panic is brought in, stupid decisions happen. So what did they do? Panicked & ran in after the cab to the underground. Every stupid action could have been prevented. That includes last weeks cab fiasco (which I still laugh at all the comments of people who have adapted the story to fit their own needs & act like there was a Fast & The Furious type race thru the crowded streets of Vancouver or something). Illogical actions lead to illogical actions. So, the last few memories I have of the Eclipse cast, are primarily negative. Much of the respect I gained for Kristen in New Moon, was lost in Eclipse. I had respect for Rob, now, I am unsure. The rest of the cast became less pleasant as well, with the likes of Kellan literally ignoring 3 girls as he returned to his hotel & not even making eye contact with them, Nikki leaving her place in hoodie tied up and sunglasses at night & giving a shit excuse like "I cant right now" before I even asked her.... which I would have understood if she was late for something. But she literally brushed off 3 people to go across the street & grab groceries, which of course meant she couldnt when she returned. I think much of her attitude comes from Paris though. Others who saw her occasionally when he wasnt around said she was her old friendly self still. I never had such luck after pre-production. It also was not helping sell the movie on me when certain minor stars tell me "I am only allowed to sign 1 & I have to put your name on it". Now if your Rob Pattinson, you can get away with that type of demand without raising red flags. But when you are Cameron Bright, well I really dont find that level of ego acceptable. Of course, its not entirely his fault. Most of it, is the people around him implementing such levels of narcissism. I wont name names, but a certain PARENT to him is a bitch...and its not just me and the regulars here who thinks it. I recently recieved an email from a fan who met him at a function overseas and she was with him there too, and she was no less pleasant to PAYING fans at an official function. Cam is gonna grow up thinking his shit doesnt stink because of his family, and one day hes going to learn they were wrong. The most disturbing part of this is, people from his school who were over here tell us he has the ego at school even. Its cast members who sell the movies....and unsell the movies. Even family members can help unsell a movie. Dont get me wrong. Eclipse still had some class in the cast. Bryce Dallas Howard, Xavier Samuel, Peter Facinelli & Jackson Rathbone were all awesome when they were seen around. Booboo Stewart, Jack Huston, Bronson Pelletier & Chaske Spencer were all great as well in the brief time I saw them. But just like I said during New Moon, when I said I wouldnt see Twilight till Kristen changed her ways. I wont see Eclipse because of the attitudes shown by them here. I'll still go see New Moon. I have good memories of that experience. But Eclipse, no. Its sad for Xavier & Bryce that I wont get to see the film that they did here, the one that they made such a positive influence on me with. For that, they can thank others, namely Kristen Stewart, Summit Entertainment, Stephenie Meyer, Kellan Lutz, and to a lesser extend Nikki Reed & Elizabeth Reaser. I absolutely hope they take Breaking Dawn to Portland. It will be a relief to not have it here. Dont be confused if it goes there either. Its NOT because of security/fans/paps because it will be considerably worse there obviously. It is because of the all mighty dollar. Which is fine, it is a business. But those of you who naively think the Twilight series is moving there because it will be calmer need to get your head checked. Anyone with an IQ higher than single digits & even a minor knowledge of Portland can tell you it will be far far far worse there with a region only about 1/2 the size of Vancouver, closer proximity to the stories roots, and closer proximity to Los Angeles, the media and fan attention on the area will be overwhelming for the cast. Just like when I told you all that Vancouver would be better than Italy, NYC & LA for their privacy, trust me when I tell you, Portland will NOT be better in that aspect. Its just not logically possible. But as we all know, Summit doesnt make decisions in the interest of their stars, they make it in the interest of their pocket book. Which like I said, is fine. it is a business after all. Too bad for them, their business model doesnt include a public relations course for the cast, that might help then sell the movie on possible fans on the fence. Its all fine & dandy to do a mall tour where the actors pretend for a couple hours. You should teach them how to pretend outside the mall as well. Thats where you actually do win over people. The ones lining up for 2+ hrs to see a star will likely go to see the movie regardless. The random encounter with someone at a hotel or restaurant on the other hand, those people likely have not made a commitment to see the movie & the stars can unsell the movie far easier than they can sell the movie to those same people. I started off as not a fan of Twilight, I was won over by the cast of New Moon, and was alienated by the cast of Eclipse. This month, I will go to see the LAST Twilight movie I intend to see from the series. The other day I had the oppourtunity to see 3 or more cast members from the Twilight series. Plus of course 1 special 1, the author...who has had cameos in the first couple movies.
My day started with rushing out of the house to get to the airport for Dakota Fanning leaving. When I saw what time it was I didnt think I would have a chance, but still had to try. I took the new skytrain line from the downtown core to the airport, and have to say, it did a very good job of getting me there in a decent time. Unfortunately I got a text when I was about 6-8 mins away telling me she had gone thru a few mins earlier. So I missed her by 10-15 mins. Little did I know, this would be just the start of the bad luck day. I grabbed a bite to eat & got caught up on the new pap/hound gossip of Punkd firing yet his 2nd photog in less than a month. While sitting around chatting about that, I got a hasty phone call from one of my buddies simply telling me to get back over to the departures area asap. I ran over there (a few hundred feet) to see Stephenie Meyer, the Twilight saga series writer approaching the desk to check luggage in. I found out she signed a few autographs before getting in line, but also was warned that we might get told no by her assistant. I, along with a couple other autograph hounds, 2 or 3 fans & the croc hunter waited in the area where she would have to go by to get to the security gate. While waiting for her, I was of course confronted by the croc hunter who wanted to challenge me to a fight. Of course, since the guy makes a living from lawsuits I opted to decline. Some yammering back & forth was interrupted by Stephenie finally coming thru. Instantly we were told "no, she doesnt have time to sign, she has a plane to catch" by her assistant. I never brought up the fact that she had 45-50 mins to get thru the security gate & no line up ahead of her. Wish I had, would have been interesting to see them come up with a new excuse. Instead I walked with her & her assistant for about 2-3 mins to the gate, away from the gate, back to the gate, all the while telling us no. I video taped most of her denial, unfortunately my editing program is messed up & wont edit the vid...so I am having to put off posting the vid till I can edit out the shaky camera work & dead miments. But I did take a handful of stills from it. After Steph left there was a few hrs to kill. When we returned, we found out we had just missed Billy Burke arriving. That didnt affect me so much, since I had nothing for him with me. We waited for our last hope of the evening. Peter Facinelli was due to leave later in the evening. We sat around chatting with people who in theory, arent supposed to talk to us. People that work with Punkd. But with the king croc hunter not around, everyone was allowed to be ammicable. After sitting there for well over an hour it was decided he either wasnt getting on the flight, or managed to sneak by us (which is possible depending on what the driver does & what type of luggage he has). We went home with little success. Not an overall good day...but you wont win them all I guess. After fighting off the general of all colds lately, I finally put in some quality time hounding yesterday & had reasonably decent results.
After a quick stop off to get a few Canucks in the late morning/early afternoon, it was off to go for Eclipse. First stop was to get a few BooBoo Stewart autographs at the former ground zero of the Eclipse cast. Since the mass exodus of the cast earlier this month from there, its been relatively a ghost town. However, it seems cast members who are here for breif stints still go there...this included Booboo. When I showed up he was sitting outside, hanging with 2 people, sipping away on a Subway drink while his friends were eating. Eventually they got up to leave & my friends & I grabbed a few autographs & a I took a few pics. Hewas incredibly pleasant & seemed thrilled with the attention. After that I headed to the still practically unknown destination of the current Eclipse cast. Although still in the downtown core, we opted to drive over there. Things seemed dead for awhile, then eventually there were small signs of life. First person sighted was Chaske Spencer. My friend hurried over to get him before he went in the door. I showed up a few seconds later & snapped a few pics of him before he headed inside. He told us about the long nights of shooting where they werent getting back till 7 AM. He said he was going upstairs to catch a nap...cant blame him. It was clearly a short nap though, as I would see him more later. At the same time we saw Chaske, another celebrity was spotted going to a store nearby. Current Smallville villian & best known as Mason on Dead Like Me, Callum Blue was out doing a bit of shopping. I was going to snap a few pics of him as he left, but he came out & spotted me & started up a conversation....so I would have felt like a real dick taking shots then. We chatted for a minute as he walked back to his residence, not far from where the Twilighters now reside. Sometime after that, and before the next encounter I saw a handful of the 100 Monkeys leave for their show they had last night at Neptoon Records. There was a bit of a lull after that. We would eventually see Chaske again going out with a friend. A little while after that from a distance one of the hounds noticed Xavier Samuel & 2 girls leaving in the opposite direction. We hurried after them, eventually catching up to him just before he was about to go & see a film. He stopped & signed a few autographs, and posted for a couple pics before heading inside. Upon returning there was an excitement that things were picking up. As it turned out, it was not really the case. A bit of a lull happened again, but when it was finally broken it was hectic. Alex Meraz, Kiowa Gordon & Bronson Pelletier came out together & headed towards the club area. I stopped Bronson first, then Kiowa. Both who seemed fine with being stopped. Alex kept going forward. I caught up to him & asked him to sign as well, he gave me a less than impressed look & signed 1 with what seemed like a pained look on his face. I had heard he was not too receptive to autographs, clearly they were right. I then pushed my luck & asked if the 3 of them would mind posing for a pick. I got an enthusiastic reply from 2 of them & they posed long enough for me to get 1 good pics. I'll give you 3 guesses who wasnt the overly enthused one. After that they went on their way & I returned to wait for more. Shortly after that, Chaske was on his way back...again. I got him to sign a couple photos & he went inside. As the evening wore on, I was getting itchy to go & check out the 100 Monkeys show. So I finally decided to take off & go to the venue. On my way to the bus to take me there I developed a mild leg cramp & decided I was going to stop off at home first, which was a slight detour from my route, but still close enough I could get to the venue in 20 mins if anything happened. As it turned out, that was actually the end of my day. I laid down to wait for the cramp to subside, but it never did & eventually I just fell asleep.....but all in all, a fairly decent day, so no regrets on bailing early. A couple hours were wasted various ways by various people. Two groups sent people into the show. One got the shots of Rob & Kristen together, the other did not. We were the did nots. We agreed on a plan, we agreed on who to send it. It was side tracked & derailed by seniority, and it cost us. The senior member who is a staffer opted to go in & take his girlfriend with him, instead of sending in someone familiar with the building & a person who was working on getting them the info on where to find them. The guy inside with his girlfriend left before the show ended because he "couldnt find them" instead of spending that time still looking. Shortly after he came out, the guy who was voted on to go in got the text with the exact location...it was useless now, since our only guy on the job LEFT THE SHOW EARLY!!!!! At the time, we didnt know yet that the other company had shots of them together, but we were still quite unimpressed with the poor decisions of the staff member who went in.
There was a long, drawn out wait for the cast to leave. By this point, the vehicles for them had been pulled into the building & you were not going to see them leave the show. When they did leave, it was again a convoy of cars. The cast & followers all going the same way along 1 way streets. We again managed to be the front vehicle in the pursuit. They drove an extended route to get to the little hideaway bar no one had heard of prior called Chambar. Even us, who eat frequently across the street from it didnt know it existed. The route they took there was tricky & assured them (only because we didnt have the knowledge befrehand they were going there...and a little miscommunication with another person on moving out of our way) a clean entry with little to know paps or fans interacting. We finally got out of there after what seemed like an eternity. We hurried around to the other side....but it was too late. They were in. A couple shots & and some short video was had, but nothing great. We were again going to have to wait. In the many hours of waiting, it was confirmed by our paps that the competitors had got shots of R&K close together inside the show & that they were going to be big. Everyone kinda felt like they had been kicked in the balls some. The pros gave up. Literally called it a night and left with a sinking feeling of failure I suspect. The amateurs, including myself decided "we've put in this long, we have to follow this thru now" & we did infact wait out the ridiculously long after party the Twilighters had with Kings Of Leon. A funny side story (I wasnt there for it, but all the people out there confirmed it). Charlie Bewley showed up to the party quite late. When he tried to get in, the roid raging mentally challenged steroid monkey security guard for Kings Of Leon, that thought he was important because he was tending to a door to a club no ones ever heard of, refused to let him in. One of the guys out there realized who it was & asked him if he could take a picture, then did. After that, psychowannabesomebody got aggressively verbal & nearly physically violent towards the photographer. Charlie was fine with the pics, and more interesting, the neanderthal was showing no intention of letting him in still...yet were angry about him being papped. Finally a friend of Charlies noticed him & came and rescued him. I just found it funny the brain damaged roid monkey was not going to let him in, but was angry someone was taking his picture. That guy was without question, the biggest loser I have ever met for security guards for celebrities. We saw Kristens manager outside & walked up & talked to him. He was quite socialable & pleasant & was quite understanding of what we do. The point of the photos inside the show was brought to his attention. He seemed less concerned about it than we were. He basically implied that they will always try to make a story out of nothing. Granted he is her manager and he could be protecting a client, but he seemed sincere when stating that theres nothing going on between them but friendship. But he also realizes how photos like these will be taken & basically had a "oh well" take on it. He was calm & not overly concerned by the potential these photos had. Seems he was right, because when I finally saw them, I saw nothing implying a straight out obvious kiss, like it had been translated to me earlier by the paps. There was mostly dead silence thru the hours of waiting. One of the guys got a few shots of Rob & Kristen sharing a few minutes together out back thru a fence. But for the mostpart, it was dead silent. It was sometime around 4 in the morning (maybe a touch earlier) when they finally came out as 1 group & jumped in a limo their staff had hired to rush them out. A few shots of them leaving were had but autograph chances were nil. We chased to the hotel. The limo showed up, and they all ran in quickly, leaving Kristens manager out there to barter with the driver. The limo driver clearly tried to gouge on the knowledge that he was carrying important people. He claimed it was the "going rate" & he might have been right for all I know, but it did seem grossly excessive. In the end Kristens manager paid the price, and brushed it off as joking, but the limo driver didnt seem to see it much as a joke. I still think he gouged them. With that, the night was over & we were finally able to go get some much needed sleep. Photos & vids from the night will be available later this week perhaps. I had 1 or 2 pics from the Water St Cafe arrivals run a few places. Not too sure if anything else has. More than two hours had passed since the cast entered the warehouse for the screening. I changed cars for the next part, and we got itchy trigger fingers, and decided to drive around the building to check things out. Our timing of this was huge as it turned out. In our little travel we were passed by John, Kristens manager in a car, this was our first sign they were leaving real soon. So my buddy went & grabbed a new spot, 1/2 way down the back lane of this area. I decided to go to the front of the building to watch out incase there was a front door sneak job. We had visual contact with each other. It didnt take long. Less than a minute & he saw the garage door in the back start to go up, and I ran to the back & got in the car. Within seconds of me getting in, they were passing us in the alley & the follow was on.
A four vehicle convoy of Twilight stars & staff rolled thru the area, with us stuck right in the middle, and the rest of the paps in tow. As we made our way into the Downton/Chinatown area, we were forced into a position of having to pass the lead vehicle. We did so & kept a guarded eye on them. At that point we were on the road that would lead to GM Place & were sure they were heading to the Kings Of Leon concert....as it turned out, that was wrong & they went straight, instead of turning, leaving us no longer in the chase group. We now had to play catch up. As they flew thru Chinatown & into the Downtown eastside, we followed on the next street over & the advantage of a driver with lots of experience in the area saved us> We pulled up to a corner in Gastown and they conveniently pulled right infront of us. We were once again following the lead vehicle & were unaware that behind us, the rest of the pack was held up. The front vehicle pulled up infront of a restaraunt, along with 1 more. We were forced to drive around them & hastily pulled to the side of the street & realizing autographs would be impossible, snapped a few shots of them going in. It was Rob, Kristen & Taylor. No other paps were anywhere to be seen. Seconds later they started to show up, and a minute or so later the last of the vehicles & paps showed up. It was too late for any of them to get them going in. We were the only ones. We didnt geta lot of shots, but we got the only shots. I never noticed exactly WHO all showed up. But there was about 6-8 cast members in the entourage. Besides those 3, Elizabeth Reaser, Nikki Reed, Ashley Greene, Kellan Lutz were definitely in the group & I think I saw Xavier Samuel as well, but was not as certain. Inside the Water St Cafe they ate & drank for well over an hour, the restaraunt actually put up curtains in the upstairs area so they could eat without hassle. Funny enough staff of the restaraunt or the crew kept coming to the window & snapping shots of the paps & hounds. Unaffected by it, they simply shot back. Eventually the vehicles returned, and it took less than a minute for them to orchestrate the get away. They pulled Rob & Kristens vehicle into the alleyway, leaving the rest out on the street. Everyone went in & around R & Ks vehicle, while the rest got away practically un-noticed. Kristen bolted in, Rob immediately after. Again, everyone scrambled to their vehicles & again, the follow was on. A cavalcade of celebs & photographers were en route to their next stop. Less than 4 minutes later the answer was known. They showed up to the back of GM Place. They were escorted into the gated security patrolled loading bay, and were positioned as close to the door as they could get them & rushed quickly into the venue. Once again, a waiting game would happen. (Part 3 coming soon) |
About meI occasionally argue with inanimate objects, but I usually win. So its all good. Archives
June 2012
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