Vividcon 2009 Con Report
So Vividcon was absolutely amazing as it is every year. Even if I had no social contact whatsoever there'd still be the new vids and interesting vid talk and with all the wonderful people who attend, it makes it absolutely wonderful. So here is my con report of the whole experience this year:
For once, I packed the night before even going so far as to unplug my laptop and put it in my suitcase. This is a big deal for me. But it was so much less stressful the next day so I was happy. Unfortunately I did not go to sleep as early as I'd like so I wasn't as chipper as I hoped. It's Vividcon though, so whatever. I made the plane on time although there was a moment there where I was worried they wouldn't let me take my external hard drive and there's no way I'm leaving that behind. I watched T:TSCC throughout the whole flights and such and made it up to 220. I was really worried about making the 11:30 shuttle as my plane landed at 11:20 and if I missed it, I missed going with the Chicago tour group and would have to meet up with them by myself which would suck. It was close, we got there five minutes early although it took forever to leave the gate and then I ran down the stairs only to find the terminal stops and then ran the other way to find the bus shuttle station.
Somehow I made it a couple minutes early and was greeted by my first fan of Vividcon,
kassrachel. We talked a bit while taking the shuttle and while I sighed a big sigh of relief that I had made it. I got my room key and headed up to my room where I met my roommates,
redina,
par_avion and
talitha78 who it was so nice to see again. We went down to meet the group in the lobby and I met some new people,
everysecondtues,
hellpenguin, Vinny,
laura47,
shinetheway as well as people I've known before,
svmadelyn,
seperis,
settiai,
nightchik and
elishaveh (and my roomies minus
talitha78. We all set off for the subway station and on the train I talked to
hellpenguin and
everysecondtues about the different fandoms we were into including Psych, Stargates, Harry Potter and others. We arrived at Portillos which is a big place with lots of different pretty cheap dining options from hot dogs, burgers, pasta, etc. We got our own big table in the corner and were joined by
frostfire_17. More conversations ensued. It was so good being reminded of how great it is to talk fannish stuff with fannish people and to have a billion different things to talk about.
We then left to look at the Tribune Tower which included pieces from other famous buildings like the Taj Mahal and there I talked to Vinny about our different shows and I tried to get her to watch more of Alias among other shows. On the way there we crossed a unique bridge (I forget why) and saw all the pretty buildings. Then we went to the Hancock Tower and a couple people went up to see that while the rest of us went to the chocolate shop near there and had some delicious sundaes. I shared one with
laura47 and then she,
everysecondtues,
theodosia and I stayed and talked Due South, Harry Potter, Dumbledore/Grindelwald (I found another fan in
everysecondtues who writes fanfic!!) and other fannish stuff for awhile. WWe next went to Millennium Park which was really cool with it's shiny ball, LCDish waterfall screens and pretty parkness. We then went to the Art Institute for the free Thursday night thing and although we were short on time, it was inspiring to see some beautiful works of art with
hellpenguin (although I couldn't find the new media section :(). Then we headed to dinner at Pizanos which was an amazing overload of fannish and a bit of other topic conversations. Also I got to meet
medalline and learned that both her and hellpenguin live relatively close to my university :D It's a small world. We had a fun time time trying to divide up a huge cash only check but managed, yay math skills!
The subway ride home was a ton of fun as we started a TV questioning game with
medalline who actually watches more TV shows than I do (in my defense, she started much earlier than me :P). We'd name a show and she'd tell me if she'd seen it...and they were almost all yes answers. I was amazed and obviously have some catching up to do. Also there was some random daylight savings time and name discussions. We get back to the hotel and I see
elynross, who tells us registration is still open, YAY! That is immediately top priority as I really wanted to know what vids people are premiering. First I hug
deejay and receive my packet and have to go and sit down and read before I am completely overwhelmed by the amount of people in the room. There was so many people I know! So crazy. But the vids all looked completely amazing and I got my favorite surprise when I found out that
greensilver was doing a West Wing vid OMGYAY!!! Every year there's a surprise vid in a fandom I love and this one in particular makes me insanely happy since there are precious few TWW vids out there. Also happy to see a Veronica Mars vid and Slings and Arrows vidS.
Then I greeted some people from
dualbunny,
pharis,
dragonchic,
millylicious,
bradcpu,
jescaflowne and a bunch of other people I'm forgetting (sorry!). I went back to put my stuff in my room and talked a little with
katallison before heading to House O'Meat to have drinks with
settiai,
tuesday and
twocats. I took a brief side trip to say hello to
veredus at the table nearby and then we talked about vids, education, flying and some other random things. Then I went back to my room to check my Flist, write up the day's con report and try to finish T:TSCC.
I couldn't keep my eyes open on Thursday night to finish T:TSCC so I set my iPod alarm for 5:30 AM and woke up then to finish the show. Not the best sleep night as I woke up a few times but I managed to get up and watch finish the two and a half episodes I had left. Those were definitely intense with crying and OMGing. So glad and proud that I finished it though. I went to breakfast and mistakenly waited in the waffle line and met
pharis and
tinzelda there. I ate with
morgandawn,
xlorp,
rhoboat,
thirdblindmouse and
hafital (+others?) and then went to the VJ training which wasn't too hard thankfully. After I went over to wait for the con suite to open so I could buy some DVDs. There I finally met
cherryice and
sol_se and got to talk to them for awhile as well as
geekturnedvamp. When it opened, I quickly went in and bought a whole pile of DVDs I didn't have (or did and were scratched).
I hurried over to the Vidding History vidshow where I enjoyed seeing some classic vids with Smut probably being my favorite for obvious reasons (fun!). Then I started freaking out a bit over my vidshow which was next because I was scared the tech would mess up or I'd do something wrong. I was happy to see a decent amount of people show up even with the great panel next door. Thankfully nothing went wrong although it was hard to know how high was too high with the volume. After the vidshow, I got good comments with people who had liked it (thanks if you said anything!) so I was relieved/happy. Next I went to the Buffy lunch party hosted by
greensilver and had a lot of fun watching the musical with other fans. That episode never gets old. Then I had four panels to go to and I took notes for all of them (see previous posts). I had a great time listening to meta and discussion, being inspired and in Understanding Audiences, analyzing vids. It's just so nice to be in a room full of live people doing that and not just online. Because I went to Understanding Audiences, I couldn't go to Non-Attending Premieres which I was really bummed about (I had never wished I could be in two places more) so I picked up the VHS tape of Non-Attending Premieres, stopped to pick up DVDs from
morgandawn and talk a bit to her and then went to my room to watch them.
Finally it was time for Club Vivid and I went casual this year and went down to eat some hor d'oeuvres and drinks and talk to people. I think I met
thingswithwings at that point and talked to
bradcpu in his awesome Captain Hammer costume,
dragonchic,
jarrow,
everysecondtues,
sweetestdrain,
cherryice and many others. I was trying to drink as many drinks as possible before the vids started because I didn't want to miss any Premieres or favorite dance vids. They finally let us on the dance floor and I put on some glow sticks (with help) and then the Joxer dance begun which was super fun. Club Vivid was almost nonstop dancing this year with quick stops to check the playlist and get a drink or two. I had a good time dancing near
bananapyjamas
bradcpu
vidderkidder
sol_se and many others at different points of the show. There were SO many danceable and amazing, fun vids during the show from Start the Commotion with Hardison being awesome getting the party started, Tre Sorelle which I have fond memories of dancing in my dorm room to, Break Teen Spirit in Four Minutes which was amazing since I've been dying to dance/see a vid to that song for so long, Give It Up with Ferris Bueller nostalgia love, Can Delight with its AMAZING blow my mind effects, Seven Nation Army with so much robot love, BioniK where I could finally dance to the song (and scream, take this haters), Good which has the best chorus for dancing, That's What I Want Parker love, California Love where I fell massively in love with California all over again and Sexy Hell which was SO much fun to dance to a variation of Sexyback. My first Club Vivid vid, Just Dance also played and it was great to be really zen about it and not have any worried throughout the day and then finally see it play on screen. I was close to the screen so it was hard to see all the reactions and watch it at the same day but people seemed to enjoy it and know the words so that made me happy (along with a hug, thanks
bradcpu). There were also a lot of vids that it was fun to sing/shout the words to from Girl Trouble (up the ass! hee), End of the World As We Know It, Bale Out (never gets less funny!), Shatner on the Mount (Kirk climbed the mountain because he wants to make love with the mountain LOL), Dancing Queen (sooo much fun with other people), Flashdance (laughing at Dean's emo pain!), singing I Want Candy with hot guys, Thriller especially with MJ's passing, Get Low (and actually getting low too!), I'm On a Boat (on a motherfucking boat!), Closer (euphoric to have such a classic song and seeing everyone yell fuck you like an animal), Superstar (always my favorite especially with everyone singing and dancing along), Vogue (everyone singing and dancing it laughing is too fun) and of course Another Sunday which by this time everyone was going crazy with love and singing. I have to give a special should out to
sdwolfpup's Obamas vid, Say Hey (I Love You) because it was one of the best experiences of my life to watch this vid at CVV feeling all the energy and love and just pure joy that our president was a dork, in love and that he had actually won and made us believe again. Club Vivid was just heaven, pure and simple, favorite part of the con and the best one I ever had.
I helped clean up for my volunteer job and then headed to the Leverage room party where I barely fit in by the door. It was so much fun to watch the Pilot with other fans and have people to laugh with. When the episode was over, I went to the Doctor Who party where I came in during the Doctor/Master phone call in The Sound of Drums which was extra fun (and slashy). It was awesome to see John Simm being super sexy and it was great to hear comments on the slash. We watched up to the end of the singing Master scene of Last of the Time Lords and then stopped and watched Handlebars, Down with the Sickness and a few other Doctor Who vids. Finally I went back to my room and fell asleep. Next morning I woke up a bit early and checked my Flist and was thankful I didn't have a hangover. I put on my specially made Fans Support the Vidders T-Shirt for the Premieres vidders and went down to breakfast. There I ate with
cherryice
laurashapiro
niquali,
thuviaptarth and couple others maybe I forgot, calming Premieres vid nervousness and talking about various other topics. I then went up to
jescaflowne's panel which was one of the hardest decisions as I had to miss what I knew would be a great vidshow to watch with other people, You Crack Me Up. I did finally see
butterfly and told her how much I loved her Also Premiering vid. The panel was definitely worth it as she went over some really cool techniques and I was really inspired thinking of some effects to use in future vids. Next up was You Crack Me Up where we discussed the various comedy vids that played and it was interesting to discuss how they worked as well as inspiring for one of my vid ideas (I was dying to vid during/after these two panels). Then I had a junk lunch of con suite food and talked to
deejay,
jackiekjono,
justacat
talitha78 and some other people while we happily looked into our crack bags with Kirk and Spock on a llama (and Kirk cheating with one!) pins.
Next up was the Timing Was Everything panel which turned into the one that effected my viewing of vids throughout the con in thinking about timing/pacing of the premiering vids. It brought up some great things that I hadn't explicitly thought of like cutting faster when more instruments were playing but that made so much more sense when I did think about it. Next up I C WHAT YOU DID THAR which had some really interesting commentary on the vids there. Then there was the Town Hall panel which was fun and exciting to see all the future developments vidding may see soon (as well as being hilarious). Then I was inspired to vid so I listened to some vid ideas I had and then had dinner with
pharis and
tinzelda where we had fun talking Slings & Arrows and travel plans. I left early to get a good place in line although I briefly stopped to talk to
talitha78 and
redina in my hotel room. I was first in line for the first time but a few minutes later was joined by long line of people. I talked to
nightchik while waiting and when the doors were open I got to sit up front which was nice. And then Premieres started and were of course amazingly awesome. I wasn't feeling quite as emotionally engaged for some reason this year but there were some vids like American Tune, favorite vid of the con, that had me experience intense emotion and I had to keep myself from sobbing. During intermission and the end of the shows I tried to find people to tell them how much I loved their vids which is always nice to give insta feedback so vidders don't have to wait for it.
Next came Vid Karaoke where I got to relax since I wasn't singing this year. It's always fun to see Ian perform the opening song and I enjoyed seeing ...and the best part was to sing Don't Stop Believing with the entire room with so much energy and joy there. Then I went to the Star Trek party where I watched the end of Amok Time and enjoyed the slashy commentary. We then watched some vids like Poker Face, White Rabbit and a few others which was so much fun with fans who appreciated them. We watched Mirror, Mirror (the fan commentary is the best part) and then watched Don't Stop Believing while singing loudly which was awesome until security showed up and we had to quiet down. So we whispered Circus and Closer which was better than nothing. I left then to get some sleep which became more and more important as time went on.
Sunday I went down to eat breakfast (can't remember with who) and then went up to pick up a few vid DVDs that had Premieres on them. Next I went into Vid Review and enjoyed getting to hear people's thoughts on them although as usual I wished we had an extra hour to let people have more time to discuss the vids especially towards the end. After lunch I went to In Depth Vid Review which is great becaue I get a chance to see the vids again which helps comprehension immensely and seeing Marble House again helped me get the middle a lot more. It was also nice to get to discuss what makes a good Club Vivid vid in the context of one. Then came the Challenge vidshow and Auction vids which were great to see (Keith Mars vid!!). After Calls From the Public I wnet to get my DVD coupon and had a mini freakout because I couldn't find my DVD coupon and didn't know if I could get one but luckily I managed to get my copy. I talked to some people in the con suite including
unovis_lj,
keerawa,
killabeez talking Highlander (or this is earlier and I'm forgetting) and hung out a bit in the second floor lobby with
thingswithwings,
hellpenguin,
toft_froggy
cherryice (who came late to a kink flavored conversation, such is fandom) and a few others I'm forgetting (sorry). At 5:30,
cherryice and me went up to
rhoboat and
butterfly's room and ordered some sushi and stuff and talked vid type stuff along with Doctor Who fandom. Then
butterfly and me started talking Adam and Kris and she showed me some clips of their performances on AI, interviews, vids and pictures while I squeed over them. I love talking new fandoms to people who get it :) She also told me some Kris background stories that were interesting to hear. There were some problems in getting our food as it didn't come after an hour, we called to confirm, half hour later it still didn't show up and then we called again and they said they didn't have our order. We got a free appetizer out of the mix up and in 30 minutes we finally got to eat.
A few hours of Adam/Kris talk later, I left to get money out of the ATM, quickly got my d/l of Mad Men going and then saw
veredus and followed her to the Merlin party which I had thought was over (it was 11ish). I watched the end of the Merlin helps his village episofe and had fun saying metaphor when there was a slashy sword type shot and enjoyed watching the drinking game when Arthur twirled his sword or a fate line was uttered. Good times. I left after the episode and went downstairs to talk a bit to
rhoboat and
cherryice drinking their fizzy drinks. I was falling asleep so I left and went to sleep. Woke up forty five minutes early the next morning so I figured it was fate telling me to watch Mad Men. I did and fate was right because I was BLOWN AWAY when some of my wildest dreams came true as well as the episode being brilliant. So that put me in an ecstatic mood when I went down to eat breakfast with
cherryice,
everysecondtues,
astolat,
cesperanza and a few others I'm forgetting. Had a bit of sad goodbyes there and then tried to bring my external hard drive to
butterfly's room to try to transfer some of the vids and pics of Adam and Kris onto it but unfortunately as I found out, I couldn't transfer from her Mac to my NTSF hard drive. So I had to hurry and pack up my electronics and find
deejay to get a key to her room so I could put my stuff in my new room for the next night.
Then I left with
talitha78,
redina,
deejay,
cherryice and
thirdblindmouse to go to the Field Museum. We took the subway and talked a bit about Canada and then I sat down with
deejay and talked about California and plans to meet up in LA. We managed to get to the museum and saw Sue, the largest and best preserved T-Rex. We met up then with
deepad and
everysecondtues and took the elevator to see the library, a few different departments and
talitha78's office. It was cool to get a behind the scenes look at a museum. Then we went to the Pirates exhibit where I learned a lot more about pirates and understand their appeal more in terms of freedom and equality and the suckiness of life back then. I went down to grab lunch of
cherryice and we talked while waiting in the long line. We went over to join up with
threeblindmouse and
talitha78 and ate and then a few others joined us. A couple people went to the gift store and I quickly went to see the Michael Jackson mummy. We had to leave early so
cherryice could make her flight so we then left but I realized five minutes later that we had forgotten
thirdblindmouse in the gift store. Thankfully she was only a few minutes behind us and we got on the subway. We arrives back to the hotel and hung out in the lobby awhile with
par_avion and a few others.
I left after awhile after some hugs because I was super tired and needed a nap. I managed to get two hours of sleep which helped a lot and then checked my Flist a bit. Then
settiai,
deejay and me went down to the House O'Meat to get dinner. It was fun to get a chance to talk to them and order a good dinner and we talked various shows and books like the Dresden Files. It was also nice to be able to order a drink, a delicious Captain Mai Tai. Then we went back to the room and since my laptop didn't have a DVD drive, I watched VVC vids I had downloaded online with
deejay amd we talked vids a bit.
settiai let me use her laptop because she's awesome like that to watch a few DVD vids I had really wanted to see like Can Delight and Beautiful Dirty Rich (which I watched like four times, Adam <3). Then I went to bed at 12 and actually managed to get almost eight hours of sleep. I quickly showered and packed the next morning and ate some leftovers I didn't want to bother taking on the plane. I went down to breakfast with
deejay and we talked a bit until we were joined by
settiai who was taking the shuttle with me. There were sad hugs goodbye and then I took the shuttle to the airport. After
settiai left I was asked about the convention and fought the urge to answer we were there for gay porn. My trip to the airport was very smooth and best airport visit ever as I made it through getting my ticket and security in about fifteen minutes with separating my external hard drive helping a lot as I only got asked why I needed a big one (video editing explains it all). Then I spent the free time typing up some panel notes and the plane trip writing down my con report so I wouldn't forget it. And this is that con report!
It was so good to see everyone again and meet so many new awesome people! Let me know if there's things I'm forgetting, I'd love to rejog my VVC memories. Didn't spend nearly enough time with people and sadly probably missed some but such is Vividcon. Is it Vividcon 2010 yet?
For once, I packed the night before even going so far as to unplug my laptop and put it in my suitcase. This is a big deal for me. But it was so much less stressful the next day so I was happy. Unfortunately I did not go to sleep as early as I'd like so I wasn't as chipper as I hoped. It's Vividcon though, so whatever. I made the plane on time although there was a moment there where I was worried they wouldn't let me take my external hard drive and there's no way I'm leaving that behind. I watched T:TSCC throughout the whole flights and such and made it up to 220. I was really worried about making the 11:30 shuttle as my plane landed at 11:20 and if I missed it, I missed going with the Chicago tour group and would have to meet up with them by myself which would suck. It was close, we got there five minutes early although it took forever to leave the gate and then I ran down the stairs only to find the terminal stops and then ran the other way to find the bus shuttle station.
Somehow I made it a couple minutes early and was greeted by my first fan of Vividcon,
kassrachel. We talked a bit while taking the shuttle and while I sighed a big sigh of relief that I had made it. I got my room key and headed up to my room where I met my roommates,
redina,
par_avion and
talitha78 who it was so nice to see again. We went down to meet the group in the lobby and I met some new people,
everysecondtues,
hellpenguin, Vinny,
laura47,
shinetheway as well as people I've known before,
svmadelyn,
seperis,
settiai,
nightchik and
elishaveh (and my roomies minus
talitha78. We all set off for the subway station and on the train I talked to
hellpenguin and
everysecondtues about the different fandoms we were into including Psych, Stargates, Harry Potter and others. We arrived at Portillos which is a big place with lots of different pretty cheap dining options from hot dogs, burgers, pasta, etc. We got our own big table in the corner and were joined by
frostfire_17. More conversations ensued. It was so good being reminded of how great it is to talk fannish stuff with fannish people and to have a billion different things to talk about.
We then left to look at the Tribune Tower which included pieces from other famous buildings like the Taj Mahal and there I talked to Vinny about our different shows and I tried to get her to watch more of Alias among other shows. On the way there we crossed a unique bridge (I forget why) and saw all the pretty buildings. Then we went to the Hancock Tower and a couple people went up to see that while the rest of us went to the chocolate shop near there and had some delicious sundaes. I shared one with
laura47 and then she,
everysecondtues,
theodosia and I stayed and talked Due South, Harry Potter, Dumbledore/Grindelwald (I found another fan in
everysecondtues who writes fanfic!!) and other fannish stuff for awhile. WWe next went to Millennium Park which was really cool with it's shiny ball, LCDish waterfall screens and pretty parkness. We then went to the Art Institute for the free Thursday night thing and although we were short on time, it was inspiring to see some beautiful works of art with
hellpenguin (although I couldn't find the new media section :(). Then we headed to dinner at Pizanos which was an amazing overload of fannish and a bit of other topic conversations. Also I got to meet
medalline and learned that both her and hellpenguin live relatively close to my university :D It's a small world. We had a fun time time trying to divide up a huge cash only check but managed, yay math skills!
The subway ride home was a ton of fun as we started a TV questioning game with
medalline who actually watches more TV shows than I do (in my defense, she started much earlier than me :P). We'd name a show and she'd tell me if she'd seen it...and they were almost all yes answers. I was amazed and obviously have some catching up to do. Also there was some random daylight savings time and name discussions. We get back to the hotel and I see
elynross, who tells us registration is still open, YAY! That is immediately top priority as I really wanted to know what vids people are premiering. First I hug
deejay and receive my packet and have to go and sit down and read before I am completely overwhelmed by the amount of people in the room. There was so many people I know! So crazy. But the vids all looked completely amazing and I got my favorite surprise when I found out that
greensilver was doing a West Wing vid OMGYAY!!! Every year there's a surprise vid in a fandom I love and this one in particular makes me insanely happy since there are precious few TWW vids out there. Also happy to see a Veronica Mars vid and Slings and Arrows vidS.
Then I greeted some people from
dualbunny,
pharis,
dragonchic,
millylicious,
bradcpu,
jescaflowne and a bunch of other people I'm forgetting (sorry!). I went back to put my stuff in my room and talked a little with
katallison before heading to House O'Meat to have drinks with
settiai,
tuesday and
twocats. I took a brief side trip to say hello to
veredus at the table nearby and then we talked about vids, education, flying and some other random things. Then I went back to my room to check my Flist, write up the day's con report and try to finish T:TSCC.
I couldn't keep my eyes open on Thursday night to finish T:TSCC so I set my iPod alarm for 5:30 AM and woke up then to finish the show. Not the best sleep night as I woke up a few times but I managed to get up and watch finish the two and a half episodes I had left. Those were definitely intense with crying and OMGing. So glad and proud that I finished it though. I went to breakfast and mistakenly waited in the waffle line and met
pharis and
tinzelda there. I ate with
morgandawn,
xlorp,
rhoboat,
thirdblindmouse and
hafital (+others?) and then went to the VJ training which wasn't too hard thankfully. After I went over to wait for the con suite to open so I could buy some DVDs. There I finally met
cherryice and
sol_se and got to talk to them for awhile as well as
geekturnedvamp. When it opened, I quickly went in and bought a whole pile of DVDs I didn't have (or did and were scratched).
I hurried over to the Vidding History vidshow where I enjoyed seeing some classic vids with Smut probably being my favorite for obvious reasons (fun!). Then I started freaking out a bit over my vidshow which was next because I was scared the tech would mess up or I'd do something wrong. I was happy to see a decent amount of people show up even with the great panel next door. Thankfully nothing went wrong although it was hard to know how high was too high with the volume. After the vidshow, I got good comments with people who had liked it (thanks if you said anything!) so I was relieved/happy. Next I went to the Buffy lunch party hosted by
greensilver and had a lot of fun watching the musical with other fans. That episode never gets old. Then I had four panels to go to and I took notes for all of them (see previous posts). I had a great time listening to meta and discussion, being inspired and in Understanding Audiences, analyzing vids. It's just so nice to be in a room full of live people doing that and not just online. Because I went to Understanding Audiences, I couldn't go to Non-Attending Premieres which I was really bummed about (I had never wished I could be in two places more) so I picked up the VHS tape of Non-Attending Premieres, stopped to pick up DVDs from
morgandawn and talk a bit to her and then went to my room to watch them.
Finally it was time for Club Vivid and I went casual this year and went down to eat some hor d'oeuvres and drinks and talk to people. I think I met
thingswithwings at that point and talked to
bradcpu in his awesome Captain Hammer costume,
dragonchic,
jarrow,
everysecondtues,
sweetestdrain,
cherryice and many others. I was trying to drink as many drinks as possible before the vids started because I didn't want to miss any Premieres or favorite dance vids. They finally let us on the dance floor and I put on some glow sticks (with help) and then the Joxer dance begun which was super fun. Club Vivid was almost nonstop dancing this year with quick stops to check the playlist and get a drink or two. I had a good time dancing near
bananapyjamas
bradcpu
vidderkidder
sol_se and many others at different points of the show. There were SO many danceable and amazing, fun vids during the show from Start the Commotion with Hardison being awesome getting the party started, Tre Sorelle which I have fond memories of dancing in my dorm room to, Break Teen Spirit in Four Minutes which was amazing since I've been dying to dance/see a vid to that song for so long, Give It Up with Ferris Bueller nostalgia love, Can Delight with its AMAZING blow my mind effects, Seven Nation Army with so much robot love, BioniK where I could finally dance to the song (and scream, take this haters), Good which has the best chorus for dancing, That's What I Want Parker love, California Love where I fell massively in love with California all over again and Sexy Hell which was SO much fun to dance to a variation of Sexyback. My first Club Vivid vid, Just Dance also played and it was great to be really zen about it and not have any worried throughout the day and then finally see it play on screen. I was close to the screen so it was hard to see all the reactions and watch it at the same day but people seemed to enjoy it and know the words so that made me happy (along with a hug, thanks
bradcpu). There were also a lot of vids that it was fun to sing/shout the words to from Girl Trouble (up the ass! hee), End of the World As We Know It, Bale Out (never gets less funny!), Shatner on the Mount (Kirk climbed the mountain because he wants to make love with the mountain LOL), Dancing Queen (sooo much fun with other people), Flashdance (laughing at Dean's emo pain!), singing I Want Candy with hot guys, Thriller especially with MJ's passing, Get Low (and actually getting low too!), I'm On a Boat (on a motherfucking boat!), Closer (euphoric to have such a classic song and seeing everyone yell fuck you like an animal), Superstar (always my favorite especially with everyone singing and dancing along), Vogue (everyone singing and dancing it laughing is too fun) and of course Another Sunday which by this time everyone was going crazy with love and singing. I have to give a special should out to
sdwolfpup's Obamas vid, Say Hey (I Love You) because it was one of the best experiences of my life to watch this vid at CVV feeling all the energy and love and just pure joy that our president was a dork, in love and that he had actually won and made us believe again. Club Vivid was just heaven, pure and simple, favorite part of the con and the best one I ever had.
I helped clean up for my volunteer job and then headed to the Leverage room party where I barely fit in by the door. It was so much fun to watch the Pilot with other fans and have people to laugh with. When the episode was over, I went to the Doctor Who party where I came in during the Doctor/Master phone call in The Sound of Drums which was extra fun (and slashy). It was awesome to see John Simm being super sexy and it was great to hear comments on the slash. We watched up to the end of the singing Master scene of Last of the Time Lords and then stopped and watched Handlebars, Down with the Sickness and a few other Doctor Who vids. Finally I went back to my room and fell asleep. Next morning I woke up a bit early and checked my Flist and was thankful I didn't have a hangover. I put on my specially made Fans Support the Vidders T-Shirt for the Premieres vidders and went down to breakfast. There I ate with
cherryice
laurashapiro
niquali,
thuviaptarth and couple others maybe I forgot, calming Premieres vid nervousness and talking about various other topics. I then went up to
jescaflowne's panel which was one of the hardest decisions as I had to miss what I knew would be a great vidshow to watch with other people, You Crack Me Up. I did finally see
butterfly and told her how much I loved her Also Premiering vid. The panel was definitely worth it as she went over some really cool techniques and I was really inspired thinking of some effects to use in future vids. Next up was You Crack Me Up where we discussed the various comedy vids that played and it was interesting to discuss how they worked as well as inspiring for one of my vid ideas (I was dying to vid during/after these two panels). Then I had a junk lunch of con suite food and talked to
deejay,
jackiekjono,
justacat
talitha78 and some other people while we happily looked into our crack bags with Kirk and Spock on a llama (and Kirk cheating with one!) pins.
Next up was the Timing Was Everything panel which turned into the one that effected my viewing of vids throughout the con in thinking about timing/pacing of the premiering vids. It brought up some great things that I hadn't explicitly thought of like cutting faster when more instruments were playing but that made so much more sense when I did think about it. Next up I C WHAT YOU DID THAR which had some really interesting commentary on the vids there. Then there was the Town Hall panel which was fun and exciting to see all the future developments vidding may see soon (as well as being hilarious). Then I was inspired to vid so I listened to some vid ideas I had and then had dinner with
pharis and
tinzelda where we had fun talking Slings & Arrows and travel plans. I left early to get a good place in line although I briefly stopped to talk to
talitha78 and
redina in my hotel room. I was first in line for the first time but a few minutes later was joined by long line of people. I talked to
nightchik while waiting and when the doors were open I got to sit up front which was nice. And then Premieres started and were of course amazingly awesome. I wasn't feeling quite as emotionally engaged for some reason this year but there were some vids like American Tune, favorite vid of the con, that had me experience intense emotion and I had to keep myself from sobbing. During intermission and the end of the shows I tried to find people to tell them how much I loved their vids which is always nice to give insta feedback so vidders don't have to wait for it.
Next came Vid Karaoke where I got to relax since I wasn't singing this year. It's always fun to see Ian perform the opening song and I enjoyed seeing ...and the best part was to sing Don't Stop Believing with the entire room with so much energy and joy there. Then I went to the Star Trek party where I watched the end of Amok Time and enjoyed the slashy commentary. We then watched some vids like Poker Face, White Rabbit and a few others which was so much fun with fans who appreciated them. We watched Mirror, Mirror (the fan commentary is the best part) and then watched Don't Stop Believing while singing loudly which was awesome until security showed up and we had to quiet down. So we whispered Circus and Closer which was better than nothing. I left then to get some sleep which became more and more important as time went on.
Sunday I went down to eat breakfast (can't remember with who) and then went up to pick up a few vid DVDs that had Premieres on them. Next I went into Vid Review and enjoyed getting to hear people's thoughts on them although as usual I wished we had an extra hour to let people have more time to discuss the vids especially towards the end. After lunch I went to In Depth Vid Review which is great becaue I get a chance to see the vids again which helps comprehension immensely and seeing Marble House again helped me get the middle a lot more. It was also nice to get to discuss what makes a good Club Vivid vid in the context of one. Then came the Challenge vidshow and Auction vids which were great to see (Keith Mars vid!!). After Calls From the Public I wnet to get my DVD coupon and had a mini freakout because I couldn't find my DVD coupon and didn't know if I could get one but luckily I managed to get my copy. I talked to some people in the con suite including
unovis_lj,
keerawa,
killabeez talking Highlander (or this is earlier and I'm forgetting) and hung out a bit in the second floor lobby with
thingswithwings,
hellpenguin,
toft_froggy
cherryice (who came late to a kink flavored conversation, such is fandom) and a few others I'm forgetting (sorry). At 5:30,
cherryice and me went up to
rhoboat and
butterfly's room and ordered some sushi and stuff and talked vid type stuff along with Doctor Who fandom. Then
butterfly and me started talking Adam and Kris and she showed me some clips of their performances on AI, interviews, vids and pictures while I squeed over them. I love talking new fandoms to people who get it :) She also told me some Kris background stories that were interesting to hear. There were some problems in getting our food as it didn't come after an hour, we called to confirm, half hour later it still didn't show up and then we called again and they said they didn't have our order. We got a free appetizer out of the mix up and in 30 minutes we finally got to eat.
A few hours of Adam/Kris talk later, I left to get money out of the ATM, quickly got my d/l of Mad Men going and then saw
veredus and followed her to the Merlin party which I had thought was over (it was 11ish). I watched the end of the Merlin helps his village episofe and had fun saying metaphor when there was a slashy sword type shot and enjoyed watching the drinking game when Arthur twirled his sword or a fate line was uttered. Good times. I left after the episode and went downstairs to talk a bit to
rhoboat and
cherryice drinking their fizzy drinks. I was falling asleep so I left and went to sleep. Woke up forty five minutes early the next morning so I figured it was fate telling me to watch Mad Men. I did and fate was right because I was BLOWN AWAY when some of my wildest dreams came true as well as the episode being brilliant. So that put me in an ecstatic mood when I went down to eat breakfast with
cherryice,
everysecondtues,
astolat,
cesperanza and a few others I'm forgetting. Had a bit of sad goodbyes there and then tried to bring my external hard drive to
butterfly's room to try to transfer some of the vids and pics of Adam and Kris onto it but unfortunately as I found out, I couldn't transfer from her Mac to my NTSF hard drive. So I had to hurry and pack up my electronics and find
deejay to get a key to her room so I could put my stuff in my new room for the next night.
Then I left with
talitha78,
redina,
deejay,
cherryice and
thirdblindmouse to go to the Field Museum. We took the subway and talked a bit about Canada and then I sat down with
deejay and talked about California and plans to meet up in LA. We managed to get to the museum and saw Sue, the largest and best preserved T-Rex. We met up then with
deepad and
everysecondtues and took the elevator to see the library, a few different departments and
talitha78's office. It was cool to get a behind the scenes look at a museum. Then we went to the Pirates exhibit where I learned a lot more about pirates and understand their appeal more in terms of freedom and equality and the suckiness of life back then. I went down to grab lunch of
cherryice and we talked while waiting in the long line. We went over to join up with
threeblindmouse and
talitha78 and ate and then a few others joined us. A couple people went to the gift store and I quickly went to see the Michael Jackson mummy. We had to leave early so
cherryice could make her flight so we then left but I realized five minutes later that we had forgotten
thirdblindmouse in the gift store. Thankfully she was only a few minutes behind us and we got on the subway. We arrives back to the hotel and hung out in the lobby awhile with
par_avion and a few others.
I left after awhile after some hugs because I was super tired and needed a nap. I managed to get two hours of sleep which helped a lot and then checked my Flist a bit. Then
settiai,
deejay and me went down to the House O'Meat to get dinner. It was fun to get a chance to talk to them and order a good dinner and we talked various shows and books like the Dresden Files. It was also nice to be able to order a drink, a delicious Captain Mai Tai. Then we went back to the room and since my laptop didn't have a DVD drive, I watched VVC vids I had downloaded online with
deejay amd we talked vids a bit.
settiai let me use her laptop because she's awesome like that to watch a few DVD vids I had really wanted to see like Can Delight and Beautiful Dirty Rich (which I watched like four times, Adam <3). Then I went to bed at 12 and actually managed to get almost eight hours of sleep. I quickly showered and packed the next morning and ate some leftovers I didn't want to bother taking on the plane. I went down to breakfast with
deejay and we talked a bit until we were joined by
settiai who was taking the shuttle with me. There were sad hugs goodbye and then I took the shuttle to the airport. After
settiai left I was asked about the convention and fought the urge to answer we were there for gay porn. My trip to the airport was very smooth and best airport visit ever as I made it through getting my ticket and security in about fifteen minutes with separating my external hard drive helping a lot as I only got asked why I needed a big one (video editing explains it all). Then I spent the free time typing up some panel notes and the plane trip writing down my con report so I wouldn't forget it. And this is that con report!
It was so good to see everyone again and meet so many new awesome people! Let me know if there's things I'm forgetting, I'd love to rejog my VVC memories. Didn't spend nearly enough time with people and sadly probably missed some but such is Vividcon. Is it Vividcon 2010 yet?