Because they finally aired the 4th and 5th season of Angel for the first time on German TV (of course the DVDs were out since a couple of years now), I took the opportunity to re-watch them: Not Fade Away is one of 2 episodes of the 5th season which has Vincent as Connor in it. It is only a small part, but it was worth watching it from a Vincent-fan-point-of-view, because we could finally see Connor in a way, at least I wanted for a long time. Additionally, the finale of the last season was a pretty good one - it finishes a lot of stories you always wanted to be ended and it left enough open for a 6th season at the comic release.
Of course I have some screenshots to share, you find here my favourite ones and all 45 of them at my German Fansite

Da sie es nun endlich Not Fade Away auch im deutschen TV gezeigt haben, hier ein paar Screenshots von Vincent als Angels Sohn Connor, alle 45 findet ihr auf meiner Webseite




( 5 more Screenshots  )

→ All 45 Caps ←

I have to admit that I didn't follow every news about the Angel comics, although I read them - at least as long as Vincent's Connor is in it :-) - so this post might not contain any news for you at all... But I was a little bit surprised when I received my tvmerch newsletter, where they told me, that the first "directors cut" of the Angel comics is out. I mean, seriously, we have that with DVDs quite a while, and I'm already used to the fact, that they announce it month later, when every fan already spend money on the normal DVD - unless you're as smart as patient and wait ;-) So we all know that. And now the same thing starts with comics??? Anyway, here is the information tvmerch gave away on the additional material:


So. Jetzt gibt es auch noch einen "Directors Cut" für die Angel comics, nicht, daß wir das nicht schon von DVDS zur Genüge kennen würden ;-/... Egal, hier sind die spärlichen Informationen über das Zusatzmaterial, die ich bei tvmerch dazu gefunden habe:

ANGEL AFTER THE FALL DIRECTOR'S CUT #1"SURROGATES"

Brian Lynch (w); Franco Urro (a); Alex Garner

Angel: After the Fall, picking up where Angel: Season Five ended, hit the ground running and has been a smash-hit ever since Joss Whedon's characters first stepped into a Los Angeles cast into Hell. Now, experience again the beginning of the story in this special edition that also includes writer Brian Lynch's complete script and his writer's annotations, too. Alex Garner (CVO) provides an all-new painted cover for this special issue.


COVER IS ALSO GOLD FOIL STAMPED!!!

Starfury - The Chosen convention report: February, 2nd 2008 - Party with Vincent:
We had a great time at the party. It started with the inevitable British con dance, but it got better later. Vincent came to our table, ask us if we’re up for a dance later and I replied “definitely” and so he had another chat with us, but it was actually harder to talk, because the music was very loud and we could barely hear each other, even when we put or heads close together. I remember him saying during a music break “Now lets talk, fast, fast!” and smiling and of course we were all laughing instead of talking and then the music came back and it was as hard as before ☺ So again, I’ll mostly stick to my questions, because Do already talked about her experiences and I basically couldn’t hear what Mary was saying and when Vincent answered her, I could only get parts of it.

• Con dancing: he thought that it wasn’t a really individual thing to do and he started to philosophize if he’s allowed to criticise and to call it weird or if that might be some sort of insult ;-) He finally decided that it would be OK to do so ☺ He mentioned that they only do it in the states with country music, what I already knew.

• Mad Men: he became again very passionate about it. He regretted that the ratings were not that good because the show is too intelligent, and people prefer to watch things like “Big Brother”. I asked him if he doesn’t think that the ratings will enhance now with the winning of the Golden Globe but he doesn’t seem to be so sure about it. I asked him, if it really is that bad, that the show had a rather small audience, because I know a couple of scifi shows, which always ever had a small, but steady audience and made it through quite some seasons. He disagreed with me because Lionsgate is a small company and they can’t afford that. The might broke easy, and when that happens… Mary asked a couple of questions regarding Mad Men too, but she sat the farthest away from me and the only one I could understand was about episode 4 “New Amsterdam”, which is the one he plans to use for the Emmy nomination. Later Vincent became passionate again about almost everyone who works at the show, including John Hamm, and I said, that I don’t like the character he's playing so much. He answered, that JH’s character is the “womanizer” at the show but I replied: “Doesn’t work for me” and the 2 other girls made sure, that Pete is the one ;-) It’s funny, I get along very well with almost every male or female character on the show except JH’s ☺ Man like him just push me away.

• Vincent's last name: I asked him about the correct pronouncing of his last name, because we actually had a discussion about that a while ago in Germany and he said his name in a German and in the American Way – and of course, right now, I don’t remember which was which, so I’m basically as smart as I was before that question ☺. He claimed to have some ancestors form Poland and Germany and the name was from there. I asked if he ever was in my country and he answered yes, but spared me the “beautiful country” part which usually follows then and which always sound silly to me. (Not that I don’t like my country, but for me it simply doesn’t sound honest if you ask someone if they ever were there and the always be like “ best country if the world” sort-of-thing. Not everything is shiny here and I prefer people who don’t pretend and do not throw empty phrases at me)

• Connor/Angel: He didn’t seem to like Angel, he didn’t feel welcome there and thought that Connor was badly written. He used a phrased which I wasn’t familiar with and this time I didn’t even had to ask what it means, he just get it from my face and started “translating”. I mean, this was something special with him: He was really sensitive about that not-being-native-English-issue and took care that you could understand him and I appreciated that more than I can say. I have had enough conversations in my life with English natives and especially with some male Brits at Starfury, were I had over and over again to ask what they mean, if they can’t speak a little slower and it tired me finally so much, so that I basically stopped talking at the last day (besides to my 2 girls). I run in actors at cons before who took care of a foreign audience, but so far Vincent is one of 3 actors who go that far with it (in case you care: the other were Robert Duncan McNeill & Garrett Wang, both from Star Trek Voyager).
  

• Convention: Having his reluctance about Angel in mind I asked him about conventions in general and he replied that it’s his 5th con (to my knowledge it's his 6th) and he likes it more now than at the beginning and small ones more than the big ones. He argued that with a bigger crowd things went out of control faster, someone does/says something stupid and others follow: “Men become more hostile, Women more aggressive”. He seemed to like it here, but he suspected that this might be his last convention, because Mad Men have quite a different Audience anyway (no con goers) and there are no conventions in the US. That’s actually not true and I sort of argued about that with him, but I think it was a misunderstanding: There are still cons in US (I’m right), but these are scifi or Star Trek related (so no cons for him, so he was right too ;-))
  

• Superior: Anyway, with all the Awards and therefore parties for the Mad Men cast took place the last weeks and the start of the shooting the 2nd season in 2 weeks, we could be happy that we had him here. He answered, that this con was a sidekick, because he was in London already and I wondered, but didn’t asked, if he was there because of the play he choose not to do. ( See my report from the Meet & Greet ). He didn’t liked London that much and considered the people arrogant, but he loves New York, were everybody seems to be friendly and I remember Do saying, that this has maybe to do with the European arrogance because of our history. Vincent made a very passionate statement afterwards, that to his conviction nobody should be superior to another human being, no matter were they are from, but he came back to a lighter mood and told us with a smile, that because of the great things which are going on with Mad Men right now, he actually just feel a little superior and I responded in the same mood, that I’m used to Americans feeling superior.

• Joss Whedons Blog / Writers Strike: I told him that JW wrote a while ago that the writers don’t get paid when stuff is released over the Internet (and I had things in my mind like additional scenes they shot for BSG, which take place between the seasons) and that I wasn’t sure, if I had understand it right. Vincent corrected me that the strike was about the whole “New media” area which includes DVDs. And I realized that for example AMC released the Mad Men episodes via I-tunes, so in that case they won’t get paid too.

• Pics for the Autograph session: I asked Vincent why he didn't bring any additional pics for the Autograph session. I regret that there were only some old Connor pics and nothing new, no stills, nothing from Mad Men. He said, that he don't have any which actually surprised me, because on every other con I ever attend the actors bring pics by themselves to make additional money.
  

• Literature: He had quite a long discussion with Do starting with Russian Literature and ending with a couple of authors, titles and contents of favoured books. He’s reading Proust right now, and as Mary didn’t knew about him, he explained it to her.

Vincent left later, but came back and took us to the dance floor. We started dancing and he told me that he liked my moves and the way I dance. He definitely knows what to say to a woman ;-) During the party Vincent came back to join us a couple of times, but in between we 3 girls had quite same fun with each other, especially when Do tried to make some pics of us during dancing. The light was too dark, but that didn’t stopped us from trying and to pose like silly ;-) Unfortunately the pics are pretty blurred, nevertheless it was fun doing them. When Vincent saw us taking the pics, he came over and stood between Mary and me (obviously he hadn’t heard about the con rule not to take pics with the actors at the party ☺) but this one ended as blurry as the other ones, especially when he basically run into Do and made a funny face at her while she was trying to get a shot ☺. Unfortunately I promised Do to join her for the Rocky Horror Dance and of course she forced me to keep my word. But I survived and we continued dancing, but I really didn’t like the music so much and when Vincent danced with me the next time I told him so. He didn’t liked it either, but “They won’t change it”, he was sure. But to my con experience, when an actor requests for different music he has a better chance to succeed than a paying guest and so he left and tried but came back claiming being not successful. But with next song the music suddenly changed and he beamed – so much for failing ☺. I don’t remember much more until the end of the party, when I told him, that they will now play the last song and he again danced with us. Afterwards he hugged and kissed me “Good Bye” and did the same to Do and to Mary and then for some reason came back to me and did it again, which probably let him win the Award for the man with the shortest memory at this con ☺))

The rest of this report will be for my Starfury Friends only, the reason is basically that I uploaded some pics here without having explicit permission, but they just belong to this night :-)
So please continue:

-> Our talk with Vincent / Con Party / Privat Pics / Sunday morning <-

Diesmal ist meine Ausrede, die Einträge nicht zweisprachig zu halten die Tatsache, dass ich derzeit ohne Internetanschluß bin :-)

I'm still sick, last night I throwed up, so I couldn't post, but I've got better today and was capable of buying  Berlinale tickets for Saturday.

Starfury - The Chosen convention report: February, 1rst 2008 - Meet & Greet:
I was never at a Meet & Greet before, because it's something you cannot do when you have 2000-3000 guests. So I enjoyed it, the actors came to the table and talked for a while. I missed the first one, Keith, because I went to the Bar to get something to drink. George came after him and he was really funny and likable. He talked a bit about the Buffy comics he was involved and wanted to know, if we prefer the Angel or Buffy comics. I couldn't help myself but to tease him  a bit and answered: "Firefly" and he gave me a look and said: "I almost liked you." :-) John was next, he was annoying, already drunk and full of himself and I was happy that he left soon.

Vincent came next and that gave me the opportunity to ask a couple of questions. In this post I'll stick mostly to mine, because I remember them better and I guess, dresden_doll_01  and aldo_77  gonna post their stuff themselves. I don't try to keep this in the right order, I think it will be easier for you guys to follow, when I'll sort them into topics, ok?

• Livejournal: He asked us,  where we were from and after that if we know each other before, so we told him, that we found us via LJ. He said that a friend of him found kartheiser_grls and aldo_77s site. He wanted to know our LJ names again and when he asks, if we like LJ, I said, that it gives you the chance to be pretty precise about your interests (the tag system I miss so much on MySpace) and therefore it's easy to find people who go for the same stuff

• Mad Men:
  
• I think he was pretty excited that we all new the show and watched it via Internet, only aldo_77 saw the first 4 eps on Swedish TV, I think.
  
• Vincent told us, that the shooting of the 2nd season starts in 3 weeks  and was happy about the Golden Globes. But he's hoping to get an Emmy for himself or getting at least nominated for it and put himself into it.
  
• He didn't know much how the story will proceed, but the next season should be set up 2 years later ( and then 4 years later), Pete will have a child and maybe a different boss. He normally finds out about things like 5 days before shooting, which is quite normal for TV shows to my knowledge.
  
• I told him, that I find the storyline with the pregnant Peggy implausible, because she went for doctor at the beginning of the 1rst season and he said, that they had have sex to soon and her prevention might had needed like 30 days. before she should go for it (I remembered later, that my parents went pregnant too, although they had taken prevention, well,  it was the 60s, right?)
• He worked with Elisabeth Moss (Peggy) like 10 years  before on workshops  for directors and writers in Sundance.
• I think it was dresden_doll_01 who asked how much of Pete is a part of him, and he said ( as he usual does at cons before), that he is a nice guy, but added, that Pete comes easy to him. I asked him if Pete stays  a "gray  shaded  character"  ( that is a literal translation from German and he didn't get it when i asked it first:  it means someone who has as much good as bad sides)  and he agreed and hoped so.
  
• We all agree that Vincent plays a perfect pycho :-)
• He said that Mad Men is the best thing that happened to him and I asked, if that's not always the case, when someone work in a project and is happy there. I knew actors who say that always and even mean it at this particular moment, but he disagreed and reminded me, that he didn't liked Connor and mentioned it before. He thinks that he was to weak ( he actually used a different phrase, but I don't remember it ) and that he was badly written.
• He thinks that the writers strikes give AMC a good chance to grab some really good writes, because so far only UA, Lionsgate and the Weinstein Brothers made deals with them.
  
• I wanted to know if the next season will have only 13  episodes again, and he agreed. Because I heard that from some scifi actors before, I asked, if that means they'll have more time to shoot one episode. But that's unfortunately not true, because AMC is to small, so they have not much money and have to shoot actually faster (only 7 days per episode), only 2 instead of 4 cameras like Angel had, a.s.f.
• We talked again about the quality of the show and he became very excited about it: he thinks, that there is still a lot of chauvinism out there, it's just much beneath the surface than it was in the 60s, so the show is not only a show about the 60s, but - and here I filled in - about today.

• New Movies or Plays: Unfortunately there are no new movies in sight, he auditioned for a couple of shows as a supporting actor instead. I like his independent movies very much, basically  I'm  following his career because of that and I asked about his theater plans. He said, that he checked a play in London and didn't liked it and if he gets payed bad, he wanted at least to like the play. We talk about the low payment you receive on theater in the States, very unlike than in Germany. he made a joke about getting a play in Germany if there wasn't the German language.

• Style: I think it was dresden_doll_01 who asked him about a style manager and he answered that they only kill individuality.
  

• Angel: Vincent wanted to know if we knew him from Angel, but I saw him first in "The Unsaid" and dresden_doll_01 even before that.

Remember when I told you about the singing at the opening? I didn't bring my camera, but dresden_doll_01 did and allowed me to show this pics here :-)



So that's how Vincent looked at the first night - very "Mad Men"ish, don't you think :-)) Suits him.

That'll be all for now,  I'm afraid I have to throw up again :-( Or maybe I should eat something? Just not quite sure right now...
I'll continue posting  during the next couple of days and I still have a couple of nice pics to share :-)

Aus Zeitgründen ist es mir im Moment nicht möglich, meine Einträge 2-sprachig zu halten; nach der Berlinale wieder :-) 

I need to relax now, so I calm down with my new dezember calender sheet from my webpage. I love Vincent as Connor. So happy, that they show it at german TV now, although the dubbing is horrible sometimes. No one comes close to his voice :-)

Ich werde mich jetzt langsam wieder beruhigen und mich an meinem Dezember-Kalenderblatt erfreuen :-) Ich liebe Vincent als Connor. Es ist wirklich schön, daß er jetzt im deutschen Fernsehen zu sehen ist, auch wenn die Synchronisation übel ist. Es kommt halt niemand an seine Originalstimme heran ;-)

I still have trouble with Tendonitis at both my hands, but I HAVE to post this: Vincent will be one of the guests at the Starfury Convention The Chosen at the Thistle Hotel in Bristol, 1-3 February 2008. You can already purchase tickets online, but so far no accommodation. The ticket will cost £65 for all three days (adults).
Let's enjoy Vincent's point of view regarding Connor and Angel for another time. I'm gonna be there, are you?
I'll keep you posted :-)

Ich habe immer noch Probleme mit meine Sehnenscheid-Entzündung, aber diese Neuigkeit MUSSTE ich einfach posten: Vincent wird ein der Gäste auf der Starfury Convention The Chosen vom 1.-3. Februar 2008 im Thistle Hotel in Bristol sein. Es ist bereits möglich, online Tickets zu ordern, Unterkünfte im Con-Hotel selbst allerdings noch nicht. Ein Wochenend-Ticket für Erwachsene kostet 65£. Ich bin gespannt, was Vincent diesmal zu Connor und Angel Themen zu sagen hat und werde da sein, Ihr auch?
Ich werde Euch auf dem laufenden halten :-)



Besides Vincent they invided so far: / Weitere Convention-Gäste sind:

• Juliet Landau (Drusilla)
• Elisabeth Rohm (Kate)
• Keith Szarabajka (Holtz)
• Jonathan Woodward (Knox)
• Neil Roberts
• Georges Jeanty (season 8 comic artist)

Because they show finally the end of season 3 of Angel in german TV, I deceided to make an new Connor Wallpaper, motive "Welcome back, Connor". And I mean it ;-) The pic is linked to the original on my website

Nachdem sich endlich Kabel1 erbarmt hat und die in Deutschland noch nie gezeigten Angel Episoden sendet, habe ich zur Feier des Tages beschlossen, ein neues Connor Wallpaper mit dem Thema "Welcome back, Connor" zu entwerfen. Und ich meine es genau so ;-) Das Bild hier ist verlinkt mit dem Original auf meiner Webseite

Tomorrow is THE Connor story for me in the 3rd season. I love and hate at the same time to watch the result of Holtz betrayal taking place. Vincent is georgeous playing the twisted kid, getting along and smiling to Angel on the outside, while codly planing his slow death on the inside. It's hard to watch how desperatly Angel tries to make a connection to his son and to show and tell that he loves him, but it's to late for that and Holtz succedes. But Vincentsface is priceless when Angel finally sink is his coffin to the button at the ocean and Connor seem to realize that it is over now: the mixture of hate, relieve and lonlyless is hard to take is outstanding. This is a really dark episode, Whedon's at his best, and a perfect clifhanger to seaon 4.

Heute und Morgen ist die Connor Folge in der 3. Staffel für mich. Es fällt mir jedesmal wieder schwer zu sehe, wie Holtz Rche am Ende erfolgreich stattfindet und alle - er selbst eingeschlossen - einen grauenhaften Preis bezahlen. Vincent spielt den gequälten Charakter Connors brilliant, nur scheinbar arrangiert er sich mit Angel, während er im Hintergrund dessen Tod plant. Es tut weh mit anzusehen, wie Angel verzweifelt versucht, in letzter Minute noch zu seinem Sohn durchzudringen, doch da ist es bereits zu spät und Holtz hat gewonnen. Wenn er in seinem Srag schließlich auf den Grund des Ozeans sinkt, ist Vincents unbezahlbar: Haß, Erleichtung und Einsamkeit sind nahezu gleichzeitig sichtbar. Das ist eine wirklich dunlke Folge in bester Whedon Manier und ein perfekter Cliffhänger in die 4. Staffel

My favorit Caps from / Meine Lieblings-Pics von http://www.vincent-kartheiser.de/AngelEps/3_22Caps.html are / sind:

Benediction was always on of my favorit Angel episode, because it tells you almost everything you need to understand Connors charakter. And that is necessary if you want to enjoy season 4, which I love most of all Angel seasons so far. You find out about Holtz' relationship to Connor and how he used him, despite he claimed to love him, to fulfill his revenge on Angel. Vincent gave a masterpiece of acting while showing all the confusion and mixed feelings Connor has to go through and it's very easy to sympatize with him. David as Angel is brilliant while trying to get close to his son, and failed completly by not listening to Cordy, who seems to be only person, who can imagine what Connor goes through. It's hard to watch, how he and his friends destroy almost every chance to earn Connors trust they wanted so badly, and just run in to Holtz trap, while a little more concern and less selfishness would just have avoid it... This is definitly one of the 10(10) eps.


Benediction war schon immer eine meiner Lieblingsfolgen, denn in ihr erfährt man alles, was man zum Verständnis von Connors Charakter benötigt. Es ist hard zu sehen, wie Holtz, dem er über alles vertraut, dies mißbraucht, um sein Rache an Angel zu perfektionieren un d es stellt sich die Frage, wie er dennoch behaupten kann, seinen Stiefsohn zu lieben. Vincent ist brilliant darin, alle emotionalen Ebenen seines Charakters sichtbar zu machen und leifert eine fabelhafte Performance. Sowohl Angel als auch seine komplette Gang versagen, wenn es darum geht, Connors Vertrauen zu gewinnen, im dem sie alle samt an der falschen Stelle lügen, um ihn zu beschützen und nicht an der richtigen Stelle hinhören. Cordy ist die einzige, die tiefer sieht, aber sie kann sich gegen Angel , der mit Gewalt beweisen will, was für ein toller Vater er ist, nicht durchsetzen. Keinem ist klar, daß sich Connor von dem Verrat aller Beteiligten nie wieder erholen wird...
Dies ist definitv eine der 10 (10) Sternchen Folgen ;-)

My favorit Caps from / Meine Lieblings-Pics von
http://www.vincent-kartheiser.de/AngelEps/3_21Caps.html
sind:

Ich habe vor einiger Zeit schon angefangen, zu Vincent Angel Eps 3.18 The Price & 3.19 A New World 94 Screenshots mit Connor-Motiven zu machen und die Folgen zu besprechen:




Ep. 3.18 Favorits:






Ep. 3.19 Favorits:

Ich habe endlich die beiden letzte Connor Tradingcards eingescannt, die mir noch gefehlt haben. FedCon seid Dank habe ich jetzt alle Motive mit Vincent Kartheiser ;-) Damit verzeihe ich doch schon fast, daß sie diesmal keinen Gast aus Angel hatten :-) Beide Cards stammen aus der Deception-Vorlage, in Wirklichkeit ist der Hintergrund silberfarben, aber das macht leider der Scanner nicht mit