Thursday, December 3, 2009

Wristbands and Monkeys


...so I did my research...searched fan sites, watched youtube vids, read blogs for info on how to get wristbands for a premiere. At this point the New Moon premiere date wasn't even set in stone...at least not to the public. I must admit something...before all this "research" began, I re-read the entire saga. Yup. All of it. My boyfriend looked at me funny one day as a copy of Twilight burned a hole through my fingertips...

"Are you reading that again?"
"Um..no..I'm just skimming through certain parts."
"Oh"

Nose back in the book.

I think that was my response every time I picked up one of the books. I must mention that at this point, my Mom was now reading THE BOOKS. Oh the excitement to be able to share it with her. My Mom doesn't have the same knack for obsession, but I knew she'd enjoy them if she'd just start reading...In the middle of her reading Twilight, w/ New Moon in her duffel bag...we were off to Palm Springs. While she worked through Twilight, I reread New Moon with Eclipse in tow... I read while the intense sun baked my fragile skin, I read while I lounged on a blow up raft, I read while we took respite from the sun, I read while she read...

Looking back now, I can't believe how much I missed the first time around. The greatest part of rereading Twilight after you have read the partial draft of Midnight Sun is that it opens up a whole 'nother can of worms. You feel as if you possess a secret that no one else knows about; the inner workings of Edwards mind. Oh the glory.

Back to my LA idea...time went on and I continued my daily habit of checking sites such as www.robsessedpattinson.com, www.newmoonmovie.org, www.eclipsemovie.org (because at that time they were actually filming Eclipse in Vancouver, and I had to have my daily dose of sightings and set news!) www.cullenboysanonymous.com, www.twitarded.com and more...
I wasn't sure if my lovely Sister Sarah could get the time off of work/school, and though it disappointed me, I kept it on the back burner of my mind and didn't rule it out completely. In the meantime through my intense "research", I learned that people lined up a day or two in advanced for the Twilight Premiere in 08', and that they only gave out so many wristbands, and you had to have a wristband to be allowed next to the barricade on the red carpet. Ok...I thought...we can TRY?!

A couple rereads later and many sites explored, I get a call from Sar two weeks before the Premiere in LA. She says she can swing it. I squeal in delight. At first we planned to get up at the butt-crack of dawn on the morning of Monday Nov. 16th and drive up there...That WAS the plan. A few nights prior I randomly decided to check out the website for a band called 100 Monkeys. Who? 100 Monkeys is Jackson Rathbone's band. Who? Jackson Rathbone is the beautiful man that plays "Jasper" in the Twilight movies. I could definitely appreciate his male beauty, but Sarah thought he was super hot. She'd mentioned previous to my LA idea, that if the band, hence Jackson Rathbone, ever came to San Diego, we must go. Apparently their music was good too...By random chance while exploring www.100monkeysmusic.com, I noticed they had just announced a last minute show at The Viper Room in LA...the night before the Premiere! Fate? Frantically I texted Sarah to call me ASAP, and said it had something to do with Jackson Rathbone. That sure got her attention!
"We're going. I got tickets." That's all she said. We had our plan... Hurry up to LA after I got off work on Sunday, change/makeup in the car, Viper Room by 4:30pm, bite to eat after, check into our hotel, then be up early to go wait in line for those pesky wristbands.

Before I knew it Sunday had arrived. I was a bit nervous from the knowledge that twihards had been camped out to get wristbands since Thursday evening. I would not allow that knowledge to befuddle my attempts. The morning flew by and we were in Sarah's Civic and LA bound. We made record time and parked ourselves on a hill perpendicular to Sunset Blvd., about a block from The Viper Room. We hustled around the confines of her car and managed to do our make up, slather on deodorant and change into LA acceptable attire.

Once in line with about 40 other "Twi-hards", it was impossible not to be ecstatic. The Banana guy was in full force that afternoon, dancing around like a goof for Bananavision. Later we find out that the "banana guy" is the "Bananager"...Marty. Knowing this would prove useful in the future. The 100 Monkeys show ended up being a blast. We even got a glimpse of JRath's beautifully sculpted face as we waited in line for the bathroom before the show started. The Monkeys were partying inside some sort of green room which had a door that lead to the hallway, which in turn lead to the bathroom. After the show, we waited outside with a bunch of other crazies hoping to catch a glimpse of JRath again. We waited for about an hour and witnessed some crazy lady we later nicknamed "Mom Jeans" have a drunken breakdown because they wouldn't let her back in the bar. This woman was at least in her late 30's...drunk...crying...begging. It was disgraceful. We joke that she scared him away. Though he probably just left early seeing as the New Moon Premiere was the following day.

Fast forward to the following day: We were up and out the door by about 7:30am. We easily found our way to the Mann Village and Bruin Theatre in Westwood. As we circled for parking, the stark realization of just how long the line was became apparent. Oh well we said... We're in it to win it....that was our motto from the get-go. We found parking and trudged to the end of the line. The day was long, hotter than expected, and full of feelings of the unknown...btw, Justin Chon drove by and waved at us all around 1pm...that was our first Twi-sighting, and an exciting one at that. Towards the afternoon, as we had slowly been herded 5-6 blocks forward ,it slowly became apparent that Premiere time was fast approaching, and none of the security guards would tell us what was going on. We heard rumors from the front that all the place holder tickets had been given out the night before...and that those people were guaranteed a wristband...Finally we started noticing random people arriving and walking up towards the premiere area all nonchalantly...What were they doing? We had been waiting with at least 800 other people for 8 hours. It only took an outburst from some lady to one of the security guards about how we had all been lied to for the crowd to start misbehaving... With one look at each other, we grabbed hands and ran like the wind. 2 blocks down the street, one massive trash can wheeled out of our way, and we were against the barricade facing the street, parallel to the theatre. It wasn't the red carpet, but it sure felt good.

At that point, though we didn't have wristbands, I could smell the excitement in the air. Sarah had heard from one of the security guards that the limos were going to be pulling up right next to us on their way to the red carpet. Low and behold, she was right. Limos, sedans and SUV's starting arriving. Before we knew it, we had seen Nikki Reed, Jamie Campbell Bower, Alex Meraz, JRath again (we even screamed to him over the noise that we loved his show, and he said thank you), Kiowa Gordon, and more. But we all know who we were really waiting for...KStew and RPattz! Finally he arrived...you could tell by the crowd craning their neck to the right over the barricade. He emerged from the limo...again I could tell from the screams. He was escorted across the street, away from the red carpet...I gasped...could that mean he was coming to our side too? Was he really visiting all of us poor fans that hadn't camped out for 4 days, who hadn't won the golden ticket? Yes, yes he was! Like a flash of light I noticed one of the body guards make sure one of the limos was at a standstill, as he directed Rob accross the street, towards US! OMG OMG OMG...was all I could muster. At that point I think I lost all self control. Ridiculous really...How old am I? I screamed and practically flipped out like a 13 year old girl. I still to this day can't remember actually seeing him. I think I saw him as he crossed the street, but Sar assures me I did see him from about 15 ft away. I don't know. It was all an ecstasy-ridden blur. I must mention that as he got closer to us, the barricade started to slip and his body guards whisked him back towards the red carpet. (insert sigh here) We also saw KStew, Taylor and Dakota. They all looked fantastic. What a night...what a night. Even when it was over, we knew we only had a few more days until New Moon. It was the light at the end of the tunnel. -J

2 comments:

  1. psst-security guard told me about the limos (while you were in CBTL for bano)... and forgot to mention that we grabbed hands and ran like the wind screaming 'i cannot blieve we are doing this!' as we stampeded up to the theater. Oh and Julia Jones in CBTL! Annnd Justin Chon drive by!

    OK my installment will be the 2nd monkeys trip! :)

    PS you can delete this! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. SO jealous! I've never had a twi-sighting. My new years resolution is to change that :)

    ReplyDelete

Say it...OUT LOUD!