glee-ful saturday

my friend lilcee, the teen, and i had been looking forward to this past saturday for weeks. and why? well, because we had these:

what exactly is that, you ask? well, paleyfest is a series of events, with each evening devoted to a different tv show. the creators, writers, and cast members sit on a panel and discuss their show, and it's a neat opportunity to hear the insiders' views about how the show came to be, what the process is like, and even a bit of q&a with the panel. we'd been tipped off by our buddy weezermonkey about it, and while she isn't a glee fan, she was kind enough to pass the info on to us. thank goodness, too, because the tickets sold out fast.

and saturday's event was all about "glee." whee! it's one of our favorite shows on tv right now, and we were all super duper excited to see which cast members would show up. none of us had ever been to a paleyfest event, so it was all a new experience for us. and you already know how starstruck the teen and i are, although we refrained from wearing "gleek" tees and making posters. heh.

i'd tried earlier that morning to snag some tickets for the upcoming glee live concert tour - it's right around the teen's birthday and she'd hinted that it would make a great present. of course, i was more than happy to comply - or at least, try. i was on the ticketbastard site the moment the sale opened up, with fingers flying on the keyboard, to no avail. the damn thing was completely sold out before i got past the effing word verification. i tried and tried for a solid half hour, but it was not to be - even with two browsers open searching for two measly seats on two different dates. i was incredibly bitter, but decided to keep checking every day. they often release more seats as the event gets closer. still - bah!

having been warned by our friend winnie, who'd attend the "lost" event a couple of weeks ago, we were prepared to show up crazy early to get a decent spot in line. the event was scheduled to start at 7, and so the teen and i arrived at lilcee's house around 3:30 (we needed to change and get ready, and the plan was to leave around 4). we had "rear balcony" seats, and it's a general-admission kind of thing. the earlier you get there, the better your seat will be in that section.

battling almost zero traffic on the way to the 90210, we were still amazed to find the line looking like this:

holy shit. the damn line was wrapped around the freaking corner. granted, we didn't actually arrive till 5:30, but i had to wonder what time the folks at the front of the line had gotten there. insanity.

we only waited for about half an hour-ish before the line started moving, and good thing, too - it was getting chilly out there.

we climbed a shitload of stairs to get to the balcony, and when we got inside the theater we headed right down to the very front row of what we thought was our section. i was making my way to a killer seat when the usher informed us that our tickets entitled us to seats in the very furthest area of the balcony. dang. oh, well - i tried.

after making our way to the center of the theater, we plopped down to get settled and read our complimentary issue of tv guide, who was a major sponsor of the evening.

right at 7, the lights went down and a man (of course, i don't remember who he was) came out onto the stage, said a few words of welcome, and then introduced this lady, who's the editor-in-chief of tv guide:

then the screen behind her lit up and showed a clip chosen for the evening from the archives at the paley center. the entire audience giggled as we were treated to a ridiculously cheesy bit from the old "brady bunch tv hour" variety show.

we were all really excited to hear that we were going to see a screening of the next episode of glee, which isn't scheduled to return to the air until a full month from now - april 13th. there was a smattering of cheering and squealing as it began, and i snapped a few shots of the screen with my DSLR, which i'd brought along with my zoom lens. hee!

but my giddiness quickly dissipated as i was approached by an usher, who demanded that i hand it over so he could delete the pictures i'd taken. shit. i wasn't about to give him my camera, so i just deleted them while he watched. i put the camera down for the rest of the screening and didn't even think about taking any more. dude was big, yo. and i wasn't about to get kicked out of there. besides, the pictures weren't all that great anyway. heh.

despite the fact that the stage was set with what looked like about 47 chairs, we were pretty amazed to find that, along with the co-creators and other show staff, almost the entire cast was present. lea michele, the fantastic singer/actress who plays "rachel," was glaringly absent, the two girls who play cheerleaders, and the principal were also MIA.

it was fun to listen to them banter back and forth, tell stories about casting and tapings, and hear spoilers and other cool details. i don't want to ruin anything for anyone, but if you want to read what we learned about upcoming episodes (music and storyline), EW has a good report here. i also found out that the tour tickets that had gone on sale that morning sold out in a record 22 seconds. holy eff - i never had a chance.

i took forty gajillion pictures, snapping away every few minutes, so here's just a handful. you can tell how far our seats were - again, i took these with my zoom lens!

jane lynch is freaking hilarious. she shared a couple of "sue sylvester's" more risque lines, ones that they're not sure will get past censors, like "shut your mouth before i rape it" and "i'm going to punch you square in the vagina (or, her cleaned-up version, taco)."

the audience q&a portion of the evening came and went all too quickly.

and then it was over. the lucky fuckers who were down near the front got to meet the cast members, who came over to sign autographs. we watched wistfully as we exited our shitty balcony.

we made a pitstop at nearby versailles for a late dinner, but i was still on a glee high and forgot to take pictures. no biggie, though. i'll just tell you that it was delicious and a great way to end our evening (aside from the hair that the teen found in her beans, boo).

now, if i can get my hands on a couple of those concert tickets...