Tag: winny clarke

I had my mind blown at ClexaCon 2018 – Part 4 (ClexaCon 2018 Day 2)

I had my mind blown at ClexaCon 2018 – Part 4 (ClexaCon 2018 Day 2)

This is part four of my ClexaCon 2018 adventure. April 4-10, I went on a trip to Las Vegas for ClexaCon, all the way from The Netherlands. You can find part one, part two, and part three here. In this ClexaCon 2018 Day 2 blog, I will tell you all about the following panels: Anyone But Me, Bisexual Representation, WayHaught, and Swerve.

Next week, you can read all about the rest of this day: the Shoot and Hollstein reunions, the red carpet event before the Cocktails for Change party, and the Ascension Party.

PS If you need more info about what ClexaCon is, you should read my blog post ClexaCon 2018 in Las Vegas: The Media and Entertainment Convention for LGBTQ Women and Allies.

‘I had my mind blown at ClexaCon 2018 – Part 4 (ClexaCon Day 2)’ This is part four of my ClexaCon 2018 adventure. In this blog, I will tell you all about the following panels: Anyone But Me, Bisexual Representation, WayHaught, and Swerve: http://bit.ly/ClexaCon20184

ClexaCon 2018 Day 2 – first panel: Anyone But Me

It has been ten years since Anyone But Me first aired. Rachael Hip-Flores and Nicole Pacent reunited in this panel and yes, there was as much laughter as you can imagine.

They talked about the growth of the show – from a guerilla-style type of shooting (they had no permits when they started filming, Tina Cesa Ward confessed) to shooting with an entire crew – and playing LGBTQ characters after The L Word had just ended.

Apparently, Nicole was a bit nervous about acting with Rachael before the shooting started, given the fact that she is bisexual and Rachael is not. Also, apparently, Anyone But Me made Rachael realize that women have boobs. As mentioned, there was much laughter 😉

On a final note, Nicole and Rachael, when can we expect that video about the letter?

ClexaCon 2018 Day 2 – second panel: Bisexual representation

Did you know you can own the three seasons on DVD? Try Amazon or eBay!

I was only present at this panel for a little while. That little while made me learn a thing or two, though! The first thing that was amazing to see was how the room was too small for the audience. The place was packed so clearly, we want more bisexual representation.

Another thing I learned was when Nicole Pacent said something about The L Word that I had not realized when it happened. You see, when The L Word first aired, I had only recently come out and I was still figuring out my own identity as a lesbian woman; at the time, I apparently had no brain cells available for all the other letters in our beautiful community.

Nicole told the audience about how offended she was by the Alice storyline, who started out as a bisexual woman, only to look back at it in later seasons as something of a mistake or even joke. I feel stupid for realizing only now how much of a relief it must have been for many women to see an out and proud bisexual woman and how much that storyline must have hurt later on. I guess we are never too old to learn…

ClexaCon 2018 Day 2 – third panel: WayHaught

You know, a second chance to see WayHaught up close is never a bad thing 😀 It is so endearing to see how invested Dominique Provost-Chalkley and Kat Barrell are in both this couple and the LGBTQ community.  The tears and emotions were real 😉

They talked about the relationship surviving (Dana: “You have always found your way back to each other. Why do you think that? Dominique: “Have you seen her?”), about what their WayHaught relationship means to the community (Dana: “You have been vocal fans of your fans.”), about the Rosita kiss, and about the whole oh-yeah-I-have-a-wife situation.

A big moment

For me, a big moment was this: as you can read in my previous blog and see at the end of my vlog, I was somewhat emotional realizing after the first day of ClexaCon how easily available LGBTQ content is nowadays as opposed to when I was growing up. After about 19 minutes, Kat starts talking about LGBTQ people who are older now but did not have that representation growing up, and she starts tearing up. I think my mouth dropped open. It truly did something to me to hear that acknowledgment from someone like her and to see her get emotional about it.

Wynonna Earp not available on your Netflix? Try Amazon! Want to own it on DVD or Blu-Ray? Try Amazon, eBay or Bol.com. Want to read the books? Try Amazon, eBay, Barnes & NobleSanity or Bol.com

ClexaCon 2018 Day 2 – fourth panel: Swerve

Another panel that I was really excited about was Swerve the web series. You may wonder why I love this show so much. Indeed, after every episode, I have to go to the comment section to figure out what I have just seen. That is precisely the beauty of it. The show does not spell everything out; you are left with questions that make you want to watch the next episode and season.

Sharon Belle and Winny Clarke were on the panel with Sheila Allen and Kisha Tapangan. An area that this show specifically touches on is mental health issues. You could tell that showing the topic in an honest way means a lot to Sharon and Winny. Emotions seem to be a common theme at ClexaCon; both actresses were tearing up at some point during this panel. 😉

It was not all sad though. At one moment, it was revealed that nobody knew what was going to happen in the next season because Jason Armstrong never lets anyone know beforehand. Winny asked the room to tweet him all at the same time. I bet he had a buzzing phone for a while.

Swerve teaser season 3

Then, they dropped the teaser for season three. At first, they could not get the laptop to work on the big screen. So the entire room got up and stood around the laptop, and the panel watched us watch the teaser. That was another fun moment to be a part of. After the panel, Sharon asked to see the teaser because she had not seen it yet. It was cool to watch Sharon watch her work and see how proud she was.

ClexaCon 2018 Day 2 Continued

Next week, I will talk about the rest of ClexaCon 2018 Day 2. That means you can read about the Shoot and Hollstein reunions, the red carpet event, and the Ascension Party! Yes, that includes a lot of backstage footage. If you sign up for my newsletter, you can be sure you will be the first one to read it. You can find the sign-up form on the top right of this page or in the footer. Also, do not forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel!

I had my mind blown at ClexaCon 2018 – Part 2 (ClexaCon 2018 Day 1)

I had my mind blown at ClexaCon 2018 – Part 2

This is part two of my ClexaCon 2018 adventure. April 4-10, I went on a trip to Las Vegas for ClexaCon, all the way from The Netherlands. Let me tell you, it was so worth the jetlag! You can find part one here. This is ClexaCon 2018 Day 1 (part two of my blog post series about ClexaCon)!

In this blog, I will tell you all about the first part of my ClexaCon 2018 Day 1 experience, from visiting interesting panels and meeting interesting people to my first interview EVER. Three-time Emmy nominee Dot Marie Jones (Glee) was so nice to help me out with this!

PS If you need more info about what ClexaCon is, you should read my blog post ClexaCon 2018 in Las Vegas: The Media and Entertainment Convention for LGBTQ Women and Allies.

‘I had my mind blown at ClexaCon 2018 – Part 2’ This is part two of my ClexaCon 2018 adventure. April 4-10, I went on a trip to Las Vegas for ClexaCon, all the way from The Netherlands. It was so worth the jetlag! In this blog, I will tell you all about my ClexaCon 2018 Day 1 experience, from visiting interesting panels and meeting interesting people to my first interview EVER. Want to know with whom it was? Find out here! http://bit.ly/ClexaCon20182

Friday, April 6th –ClexaCon 2018 Day 1

D-Day! ClexaCon finally officially started on Friday. This might be a good moment to say that I was pretty nervous beforehand and to explain why. As mentioned in my previous blog, I took a vlogging course. However, as we got closer to ClexaCon, I learned that press was allowed to hold short interviews with the talents at the red carpet and in the press room.

WHAT?! You mean actually talking to the people that I have been seeing on my screen for years now? Not just blogging and vlogging about the event but actually talking to the actresses? And, if possible, intelligently?

Here is something you need to know about me. I am easily impressed by people. Especially when I find them highly attractive. This makes my face decide to pop up a bright red color. This also makes my brain stop working and my mouth go silent. Nothing in my vlogging course said anything about interview styles and ways to prevent the fangirl in you from taking over your professional you.

ClexaCon 2018 Day 1 – First panel: Becoming YouTube creators

I started ClexaCon by visiting a panel that could help me with Meemoeder.com. Jess Harris-Distefano, Head of Creative Programming at YouTube Space LA, gave a presentation about becoming a YouTube creator. I have recently started making vlogs so of course, so I was interested in getting some tips.

Yes, there are tips all over the internet but being in The Netherlands, there is such a big distance between me and the company that getting help is hard. It felt like a unique opportunity to listen to someone who is dealing with big creators every day. Oh, and I am now rocking cool YouTube Spaces sunglasses 😉 Also, Jess recognized me from Instagram, how cool is that?!

Subscribe to my YouTube channel

Since you are reading this blog, could you subscribe to my YouTube channel? You do not know how much the numbers help when talking to people who can support this blog and my vlogs in moving forward. And if we can move Meemoeder.com forward, I can create more international LGTBQ content, which is what you want, right? It merely takes five seconds to click the subscribe button, so go, go, go! Thank you!!

If you want a specific example of how numbers help: at the moment of writing this blog, I am a few subscribers away from a hundred subscribers. If I reach that number of subscribers, I can claim a personalized link, which makes sharing my channel so much easier, allowing it to grow even more. In addition, it simply looks much more professional and I want to be taken seriously as a blogger and vlogger. Could you help me with that?

This is my new YouTube channel trailer. At ClexaCon, I asked many, many actresses to pronounce my name. How cool is it that people like Elise Bauman, Natasha Negovanlis, and Anna Silk help me introduce myself?!

Skipping lines

During this panel, I also learned that the press pass had another big advantage. Other press members in the WhatsApp group, who were at one of the main panels, informed me that press was able to skip lines and go to a designated area in the front of the massive room.

Indeed, at the smaller panels too, I was able to go everywhere I wanted. This full access took away so many of my worries from before the con as I really wanted to cover as much as possible for you guys and the schedule was so insane that waiting in line would greatly reduce my ability to do so. Also, restroom breaks are a necessity 😉

ClexaCon 2018 Day 1 – Second panel: Queer lady business

Being an entrepreneur of one company that caters to the LGBTQ community specifically and one company that does not cater to this niche (I have founded translation agency BudgetVertalingOnline in 2011), I was interested in seeing how others view the LGBTQ community as a market and what the specific hurdles are.

I always see this one picture of Christin Baker, CEO of Tello Films, and I was surprised by how energetic and funny she was. I found Tello Films a couple of years ago. As it turns out from the panel, that was about the same time she founded it and was still struggling with it.

Plenty of pie

What struck me the most was that she said that we are not all fighting for the same piece of the pie. There is plenty of pie available for everyone. We can achieve much more by working together rather than looking at each other as competitors. As I am still positioning Meemoeder.com in the market, I can testify that sometimes, you are not sure if collaborations are something that help your brand. Will they make you look the same as the one you are collaborating with?

In those cases, I think about what I want to achieve with Meemoeder.com. My mission is to share information and experiences with the LGBTQ community (specifically lesbian parents) so that they can feel better about themselves and their choices and be more confident about them. Christin is right: most of the time, collaborations help me with this mission!

ClexaCon 2018 Day 1: Meeting Shannan Leigh Reeve

Before the Queer lady business panel started, I saw Shannan Leigh Reeve, who had been in the previous panel. I absolutely loved I Hate Tommy Finch, so I asked for a quick picture. I was not expecting so much friendliness (not because of Shannan but because I was not sure how guests would react to press) but she was so cool! She asked for my name, which I was not expecting at all.

This, however, reminded me of one of my ClexaCon missions. I wanted to make a compilation of the ClexaCon guests pronouncing (or mispronouncing) my name. After all, I always have such a hard time introducing myself in the States. I wanted to use this compilation as my YouTube channel trailer. She was extremely helpful (and you can watch the result above).

Twenty

I also saw Lily Richards from Twenty the web series but there was no more time to talk to her. Actually, I saw her a couple of times at ClexaCon but every single moment was inconvenient (who wants to have a conversation in the restrooms?) so I ended up not talking to her, boohoo.

If you have not watched Twenty yet, you should. For some reason, I was not expecting much when I hit play the first episode. However, that whole cringeworthy introduction immediately had me hooked. This show is so funny, Lily is very interesting to watch and oh no, how you just want to punch some other characters. I backed the new season and I cannot wait for new episodes!

Lunch (not brunch)

ClexaCon 2018 Day 1, I learned something important about cons: food is essential if you want to keep going but it is also very hard to find time to eat if you are running around as press trying to cover everything.

So, when I received a message from Immy and Denise (other Dutchies I met, as you can read in my previous blog) that they were having lunch, I decided it was time for a break.

In this short break, I saw Sharon Belle, Winny Clarke, and Dot-Marie Jones casually walking by. In what alternative universe am I that these things happen? Right, ClexaCon! I felt so lucky and happy!

Interviewing Dot-Marie Jones

When I saw on the ClexaCon website a few months ago that Dot-Marie Jones was coming, I was really happy. I was a big Glee fan and her character always made me want to know more about both her and Coach Beiste. When I saw she had a quiet moment in the autograph section, I really wanted to talk to her. However, like I said, I had never interviewed anybody before and she is a pro at being interviewed. Also, I did not know if I was allowed to walk up to her.

Last summer, I joined a basketball team. I suck at dribbling, you guys. I usually throw the ball away immediately. My basketball team would have been proud seeing me dribbling around! I should apply this technique on the court!

After yelling at myself in my head for a while, I finally got up to a volunteer. I asked her if I was allowed to ask Dot a few questions. That was no problem at all, so now here I was, my heart pounding in my chest, telling the lovely volunteer that I was so nervous. She told me there was really nothing to worry about. Great. Ok. ClexaCon 2018 Day 1: here goes nothing…

ClexaCon 2018 Day 1: First interview EVER

So, I walked up to Dot and her wife. Then, I said something completely incoherent about me being nervous. I cannot believe how friendly she was. She literally helped me through the interview. As in, we found a good spot together and she helped me get a good camera angle. Being this nervous, I forgot to record the first part. I was being such an idiot but she stayed so friendly and calm. Also, how great to have a person about the same height for your first shot 😉

I asked her to pronounce my name too. The first tries were lost as I was not recording but she did it again when I finally was recording. I asked her about her playing a character being the victim of domestic abuse and a character transitioning from female to male. Also, having won many sports prizes and being nominated for an Emmy three times but not winning, I asked her what award she wants to win. See the conversation in the vlog at the top of this blog!

You know, I am so thankful for Dot-Marie Jones. She has helped me get over that first hurdle. Consequently, I felt so much more confident talking to the guests after that. I saw her a few times after the interview and she was just so chill.

UPDATE 4/23/2018:

ClexaCon 2018 Day 1 continued

Next week, I will talk about the second half of ClexaCon 2018 Day 1. That means you will read about the LGBTQ actresses panel, the Lost Girl panel, the Red panel, and the Wynonna Earp panel. If you sign up for my newsletter, you will be the first to know when this blog post comes out! You can sign up on the top right of this page or in the footer.

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