GizTheGunslinger

You didn't ask for it, but here you are: a post of extolling Alex Hirsch after I met him on Big Festival Russia! Initially I went on the Festival only because of Hirsch - to say him a huge "thank you" for "Gravity Falls" and get an autograph. I didn't expect more and tried not to give myself any baseless hopes. And that was an absolutely right tactic, because as a result it paid back handsomely. During the first day of the Festival I behaved like a tyrannical trainer and was mercilessly hurrying my friend lorna-ka with whom we made this crusade to the Big Festival. To begin with, I didn't sleep all night (adrenaline is a terrible thing). We came to AVA Expo with the first bus at 10 a.m. Festival would open at 11.30, so we were standing near the gates for half an hour counting Dipper's caps in the mirror ceiling. We did damn right as we came so early, because by the time the Festival opened there was already a huge crowd and it all rushed to the "Gravity Falls" panel where autograph session with Alex Hirsch would be held. Each day of the Festival Alex would be able to host 250 people - 500 lucky beggars in two days. So the struggle was strong. Despite the fact that we were in the forefront in the queue I was only fiftieth and Lorna right after me. And so the great standing began. I remember this queue as something quiet pleasurable as I befriended so many wonderful people. There was a guy cosplaying Stan and pointing out each 15 minutes: "Only 4 hours left! Together we stand!" "One and a half hour left!" "I drink this "Slurm" for our queue - the best queue in the world!" and so on and so forth х) During this time Alex gave a press conference at the big stage. It was his first press conference after GF finale. And it finally blew my mind as I realized that it's all for real happening right hear, right now! I will not retell what Alex was talking about: you'd better watch fan-made videos or wait for the official video. It's really worth watching! Alex gave out lots of new information, canons and facts about different characters.

After 7 hours in the queue I appeared to be face to face with Alex Hirsch. What is Alex? Alex is one thousand and one smiles, rays of positivity, 150 level of soulfulness, unlimited sincerity and bearded mommy. I remember as 8 years ago I was at my one and only autograph session with Alan Wilder and how much thrill and trepidation I felt. But there were no such feels towards Alex. First of all, he is about the same age category as the rest of the people at the Festival. Secondly, he's behaving like a big child and everyone looking at him immediately wants to laugh, smile and fool around. He can gift himself to the others and inspire them with his energy, and he is doing it with such a great dedication that there are no doubts left in his sincerity. When it was my turn, I walked towards Alex with a brisk stride and didn't even have time to say a word as Alex exclaimed "Flapjack!" and embraced me in his flannel grasp. The fact is: there were hundreds of people wearing flannel shirts and my red and white striped shirt was highlighting in the crowd. But wearing it I was thinking about little Stan. I absolutely forgot that in "The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack" the main character was wearing red and white striped shirt too! After the hugs Alex noticed two brooches on my shirt: grunkle Stan and comics bubble with a word "fuck" (it was pinned in a way that looked like Stan was saying it). Alex burst out in laughter and barked in Stan's voice "FUCK!" Not every day the creator of your favourite cartoon says you "fuck" хD "Yup", - I said. - "It's a PG-13 edition!" (guess he liked it because he's currently working on a project oriented on an adult audience). I prepared a present for Alex: a linen bag with my print on it. I drew a picture with Alex sitting on a bear. The bear is wearing Ushanka hat and playing balalaika; Alex is holding vodka in one hand and a pickle cucumber in another. On the other side of the bag I drew Hirsch's head and a phrase from the picture he posted on Twitter: "Give me your vodka". Among other things on the front side I pinned 5 wooden brooches with traditionally Russian symbols. It's like I collected all the stereotypes and put Alex on the top of them. "It's a helpful present - you can put all the other presents in it!" He rejoiced childlike, laughed at the pictured, touched each brooch. After that I gave him my drawing for an autograph: he looked at it closely, noticed how many characters are drawn and laughed as he saw little Bill below the sheet: "Poor Bill!" "There is no place for him on a happy family portrait", - I justified. Another one wonderful thing about Alex: he wants to pay attention to each and everyone so that there will be no one deprived. Initially it was told that there will be only 30 seconds per person: 1 autograph and 1 photo. But Alex physically couldn't resist hugging every fan, drawing them some little sketches, making selfies and posing on camera. As a result 30 sec stretched into 1 minute and longer and even soft hints and pleas from organizers didn't help to speed up the process. Alex drew me sketch as well, signed it and engaged Bill in the corner. Then he made 3 selfies on my phone... I guess that's because he saw me making stupid faces each time he was making a photo, oh God xD In the end I literally soared away from this autograph session being full of incredible enthusiasm ⌒(o＾▽＾o)ノ