a few questions: Was there any mention of DS: the Musical?

The DS musical was announced with a great deal of fanfair, but it's anemic demise over a year ago got very little attention. :-/ I hope you weren't looking forward to it.

Was that Sci-Luv documentary the special that was gonna be on the Sci-fi channel a loooong while ago now? [sounds like it! - too bad - but wasn't there two of those in the works?]

Yes, there were two, Ringo. Both of them were shelved once Sci-Fi saw the completed versions. SciFiLuv was sort of like an Antique's Roadshow for DS collectibles. Sciography was the documentary that ended up being a whole lot less than was hoped for. But sadly I can't say that really surprised me because when I taped my Seaview segment (way back on November 22, 2000) I heard some stories from the Executive Producer, Andy Schatzberg, about how they'd practically ambushed Anne Rice with an MPI tape of the 1970PT Will Loomis/Barnabas storyline and asked her if she'd "borrowed" the idea for her "Interview with the Vampire" (which she's flatly denied, BTW), and how they planned to bring up the whole von Bulow trial because, in their opinion, it was "news worthy." :-/ There were also times that I refused to answer some of the questions they'd scripted for my segment because I thought they were just too ridiculous. (There's a point where I'm standing outside the house while a friend, who's also in the segment, is answering some questions where I look like I might be pissed, and that's because I was. ) I honestly got the impression that they hoped they were going to get an older version of the obsessed 13-year-old I wrote about in the online article, "A Young Fan's Odyssey to Find Collinwood -- or how I came to realize a dream - and lord it over my friends," but they got a big surprise when I turned out not to be an obsessed 13-year-old trapped in a 44-year-old's body. LOL! At one point I jokingly said to them that I wasn't going to run up to the tower to kiss it just so they could get the shot because I had to show my face in public after the show aired. Andy kidded back that was too bad because it would have been a great shot, but I honestly think he was only half-kidding!
Truthfully, the ONLY reason I agreed to do the segment was as a tribute to my mom, who'd passed away six months before the taping. And it does seem as if that concept got through mostly intact. It's just too bad that most of the other segments seem to have turned out so badly.

What is 'Frid's Hair?'

KLS took some of Frid's hair one day while DS hairdesser Edith Tilles was cutting it.

Does DC have to 'sanction' these events?

I'm pretty sure he has no involvement in them whatsoever. They're fan based and run.

how is the convention 'laid out' - two or more ballrooms, or just one big room, er wot?

There's one big room for the actors' appearances and the various presentations, and a few smaller rooms for autograph sessions and the dealers.

Stokes enters anyway, saying the worst that will happen is having to hear the pitiful riddle. (Doncha love it?-painful for all of us!)

I've always thought the riddle was pretty inventive. I love how the last line, "And one door leads to the point of return," gets Julia into hot water when Stokes questions her about its possible meaning. That's a great scene.

We have in this ep what some consider the Big Blooper today, when Barnabas screams to Julia in the doctor's office, "Remember. . .remember someone," and Dr. Lang fills in the name of someone he never even knew: "Dr. Woodard." Wanted to get that out of the way first thing.

Well, obviously this was Frid's mistake and Addison Powell saved the moment. And within the context of the story, Dr. Lang probably couldn't have pulled out of thin air that Barnabas might have been referring to Woodard. But as far as Lang knowing who Woodard was goes, he might very well have because Barnabas had been relating his past history to Lang and it's not out of the realm of possibility that the subject of Woodard's death might have come up during those discussions.

Methinks Curtis himself is an over-the-top kind of guy who wants everything done that way.  Subtlety isn't his strong suit, is it?

Which probably explains how RD could have been Curtis' favorite DS actor.

Angelique's portrait hangs above the mantle (when was this painted?)

It must have been a self-portrait that Angelique conjured out of thin air.

Remember the old show Love, American Style?

What a trip down memory lane browsing that site was! I'd completely forgotten about at least half of those actors, but their names certainly brought back some happy memories. Thanks for the link, Mark

As for Kathleen , many fans are suprised when they learn that she had a pretty busy career after DS. But what was I saying just yesterday about several of the actors going on to do some of their better work after their stints on DS?

In the gazebo, Barnabas presents Josette with the music box.

Ah yes, the scene that the Millennium edition of the DS Almanac seems to have forgotten took place.

Besides you are at the, "top of the mountain" king, (or queen) of all you survey.

Well, there's actually one big drawback to this tower room, Allen. You see, the windows (which are probably only 3 feet long) are located just below what has to be an 11-12 foot ceiling, so all you can actually survey is the sky.

Midnite posted a few photos of the room on the most recent VN board. If you ask her nicely, maybe she'll be kind enough to post them again here.