The James Marsters Project

On Friday the 12th, at 7 am, I flew into Miami where I was greeted by Dare and Desi, two of my best friends from high school. Kelly would join us a few hours later. The reason for this reunion? Our mission to find and record evidence of James Marsters, the legendary peroxide blonde sometimes known as Spike. Finding evidence of the elusive actor would require all our mental and physical skills, but we were determined not to fail. We had trained for this moment for years, and were prepared for anything the Star Trek convention could throw at us.

At 5pm on Friday we began our drive to Orlando, stopping to pick up Plum along the way. We reached the hotel at about 10pm. The night brought a trip to Denny's and unpacking. But the next day would bring the official beginning of...

Vulkon - Orlando, FL
Nov. 13

After registering for the convention, we met up with several other James seekers including...Saber, Mary Ann, Rachel, and once again Plum. We compared notes and devised a plan to kidnap James using our scrunchies, then went off in search of food.

A meal later, we hit the dealer rooms where we found several photos implying the existence of James Marsters. While studying the evidence we had collected in the dealer's room, we ran into Chelle who was just coming into the hotel with her boyfriend. We also ran into a miniature version of Austin Powers who appeared to be drunk. The entire group of James seekers reunited for lunch.

By the time we got back it was close to time for the Q&A, during which it was rumored we would get our first look at James Marsters in person. The rumors proved correct. James appeared. I took notes, and my summary of the session can be found HERE.

After the interrogation, James had agreed to sit and sign things, giving us the proof we needed of his existence. While waiting for our turn with James we compared notes as a group again, and tried to evade some creepy guys in Star Trek uniforms (one of whom was carrying around a styrofoam "nuclear reactor" or replicator or something and another one who seemed to be on his own project in seach of breasts.)

We also met and talked to a guy in an incredible Darth Maul costume. We monopolized his time for at least half an hour and all took pictures with him. He later won the costume contest, which was only fitting.

He also told us that he had met James a few weeks earlier. An earlier sighting....of course we were interested. He and a friend, who's a make-up artist, went out on Halloween to try to win some costume contests. He went as Darth Maul and the other guy, who's a big Buffy fan, went as a Buffy vampire. He said that there weren't any contests because they were all on Saturday for some reason instead of Sunday. But when he was in a restaurant or something his friend came rushing up to him and said that Spike was outside. So he went outside and it was James with, I believe, his girlfriend. So he went up to him and said "You're going to be making a trip," in a fortune teller type voice. And James was like "Yeah!" And then he was like "To Orlando...Vulkon." And James was like "Yeah, yeah!" And then he told him that he was going too. An amazing but true story!

Desi, Kelly and I got our autographs before the rest of the group. But the others had their moment as well. James licked spoons, giving us his DNA as evidence towards his existence, and put his signature on the items we brought him. I videotaped the others while they were getting their signatures, so we would have further proof.

After the autograph signing, we changed clothes and ate dinner.

Then we went to the dance at "the Bronze." We danced for about 45 minutes before James made an appearance. Dare asked whether he would be dancing, but he wasn't sure. He was surrounded by a huge group of James seekers, and we thought he would probably get driven away. So several of us took pictures with him before he decided to leave. He asked me if I'd changed my outfit, and I said yeah. Then he told me I looked great. Awww.