Discworld Convention in Baltimore 2013
So today is the last day of the North American Discworld Convention (aka NADWCon), I've posted photos of me in costume (also at facebook), and I plan to upload all my favorite costume photos at photobucket... Since I have a break (time to pack, I won't check out until tomorrow morning) I thought I write about the Convention here. We found out, just a couple of days before the convention, that Sir Terry couldn't make it... which was a big disappointment, but really he has visited us via skype, video conferencing, and other means several times (at least once each day).
Thursday I left Ocean City bright and early, stopping once at a produce stand for fresh peaches and blueberries...
And I arrived in Baltimore around 10 am on July 4th (there was almost no traffic at the time). The Hotel gave me my room right away so I took my time unloading the car and putting my stuff away in my room... then I walked out and had a lovely early lunch at a near by Sushi Place. I chatted w/a few people who were getting ready for the convention, and took it easy. Then I watched the fireworks from the balcony off of the swimming pool, a spot with a spectacular view of the Inner Harbor (the fireworks were beautiful!).
Friday I slept a little later than I meant to, but I dressed up in my Steampunk gear and ran into old friends from previous Discworld conventions at breakfast, and then wandered off to attend some of the meetings (they had craft classes, presentations from artists who have worked on Terry's books, and various other fun). One I attended was on being in the Masquerade.... I was thinking about being in it, but then decided it was too much of a time commitment (I was actually worried I wouldn't get in my afternoon meditation, and I definitely would have missed the showing of the film 'Going Postal'). In the afternoon I attended one presentation on cartooning, and another on designing my own coat of Arms.
Friday night was the official opening of the convention, and Sir Terry did connect briefly to greet us (in spite of the time difference making him stay up really late).
Saturday got off to an early start, I dressed in my Miss Tick outfit (get it... she is a witch and a mystic, it's a pun!) went to early breakfast (meeting some nice people who are really into steam punk) and then went to the scheduled water aerobics (which was huge fun).
Later I walked over to Whole Foods to pick up some good lunch makings, and buy some shampoo.... and spent a lot of time just hanging out talking to people. We all have a lot in common (not just loving the Discworld, but loving a lot of the same books, TV shows & movies). In the afternoon I attended a silly class on DIY Disguises... and then went to a talk on how to commit the perfect murder (given by a British Pathologist who actually thinks it might be slightly easier to get away with murder in Great Britain... but he really doesn't actually recommend it at all).
Saturday night was the masquerade, and as I said: first I attended the screening of 'Going Postal' (which I loved), and then I went to watch the masquerade which was shorter and less boring than in past years (they had fewer people entering costumes and they reduced the amount of time people could waste on stage). In past years it has taken until midnight, and this year it was all done well before 11 pm.
Sunday morning I was again wearing Steampunk (but with a clean t-shirt) and we had a service of the Church of Om, I'll try to find the hymns that were sung (because they were awesome aka hilarious), the organ is over sized (as you would expect) with lots of enormous pipes. And they baptized Carrot's son. My notebook computer isn't working properly (it wouldn't allow me to go to twitter, and then it got stuck on a Marriott window which was truly annoying.... So I'm doing 'system restore' back to last January (I hope that fixes it). In the mean time I was off line until Monday morning (my last day here in Baltimore).
Sunday afternoon I took a class on knitting a beard, which is important in the Discworld if you want to masquerade as a Dwarf (because even the female dwarves have thick full beards), but of course it is even more important if I want to stone someone to death in Monty Python's Life of Brian (because only the men get to do the stoning). After that they did a nice live feed connection w/Sir Terry for a nice Q&A, the sound quality wasn't always the best (so I missed a couple of things) but it was a lovely full hour of getting to talk to him.
Sunday night was the big banquet and I was dressed up in full on Lady Sybil (it turns out the wig is a huge problem and needs major work... I should have tested it by trying to wear it for a prolonged time before the actual event!), and had a great time!
The dinner was excellent (I was a little surprised because the Marriott's restaurant is over priced and kind of awful), and the entertainment was REALLY entertaining (a huge improvement over the unfunny improv we had at Madison, Wisc's NADWCon2011). They were doing a musical Hall theme, but it was developed by people who actually knew a lot about the Discworld: the acrobat was astounding, the magician was hilarious, and the whole evening was great fun.
So today was the last day of the convention, at 1:30 pm we had a puppetry musical (which was a sill biography of Terry Pratchett's life with puppets) and at 3 pm is the official closing of the convention... . I had been thinking I would go to the Aquarium after that, but frankly I was already too tired! Instead I packed up some of my gear into the car, so I'll have an easier/faster check out tomorrow morning. Tomorrow I'll hit the road to drive to visit friends in New Jersey.
Thursday I left Ocean City bright and early, stopping once at a produce stand for fresh peaches and blueberries...
And I arrived in Baltimore around 10 am on July 4th (there was almost no traffic at the time). The Hotel gave me my room right away so I took my time unloading the car and putting my stuff away in my room... then I walked out and had a lovely early lunch at a near by Sushi Place. I chatted w/a few people who were getting ready for the convention, and took it easy. Then I watched the fireworks from the balcony off of the swimming pool, a spot with a spectacular view of the Inner Harbor (the fireworks were beautiful!).
Friday I slept a little later than I meant to, but I dressed up in my Steampunk gear and ran into old friends from previous Discworld conventions at breakfast, and then wandered off to attend some of the meetings (they had craft classes, presentations from artists who have worked on Terry's books, and various other fun). One I attended was on being in the Masquerade.... I was thinking about being in it, but then decided it was too much of a time commitment (I was actually worried I wouldn't get in my afternoon meditation, and I definitely would have missed the showing of the film 'Going Postal'). In the afternoon I attended one presentation on cartooning, and another on designing my own coat of Arms.
Friday night was the official opening of the convention, and Sir Terry did connect briefly to greet us (in spite of the time difference making him stay up really late).
Saturday got off to an early start, I dressed in my Miss Tick outfit (get it... she is a witch and a mystic, it's a pun!) went to early breakfast (meeting some nice people who are really into steam punk) and then went to the scheduled water aerobics (which was huge fun).
Later I walked over to Whole Foods to pick up some good lunch makings, and buy some shampoo.... and spent a lot of time just hanging out talking to people. We all have a lot in common (not just loving the Discworld, but loving a lot of the same books, TV shows & movies). In the afternoon I attended a silly class on DIY Disguises... and then went to a talk on how to commit the perfect murder (given by a British Pathologist who actually thinks it might be slightly easier to get away with murder in Great Britain... but he really doesn't actually recommend it at all).
Saturday night was the masquerade, and as I said: first I attended the screening of 'Going Postal' (which I loved), and then I went to watch the masquerade which was shorter and less boring than in past years (they had fewer people entering costumes and they reduced the amount of time people could waste on stage). In past years it has taken until midnight, and this year it was all done well before 11 pm.
Sunday morning I was again wearing Steampunk (but with a clean t-shirt) and we had a service of the Church of Om, I'll try to find the hymns that were sung (because they were awesome aka hilarious), the organ is over sized (as you would expect) with lots of enormous pipes. And they baptized Carrot's son. My notebook computer isn't working properly (it wouldn't allow me to go to twitter, and then it got stuck on a Marriott window which was truly annoying.... So I'm doing 'system restore' back to last January (I hope that fixes it). In the mean time I was off line until Monday morning (my last day here in Baltimore).
Sunday afternoon I took a class on knitting a beard, which is important in the Discworld if you want to masquerade as a Dwarf (because even the female dwarves have thick full beards), but of course it is even more important if I want to stone someone to death in Monty Python's Life of Brian (because only the men get to do the stoning). After that they did a nice live feed connection w/Sir Terry for a nice Q&A, the sound quality wasn't always the best (so I missed a couple of things) but it was a lovely full hour of getting to talk to him.
Sunday night was the big banquet and I was dressed up in full on Lady Sybil (it turns out the wig is a huge problem and needs major work... I should have tested it by trying to wear it for a prolonged time before the actual event!), and had a great time!
The dinner was excellent (I was a little surprised because the Marriott's restaurant is over priced and kind of awful), and the entertainment was REALLY entertaining (a huge improvement over the unfunny improv we had at Madison, Wisc's NADWCon2011). They were doing a musical Hall theme, but it was developed by people who actually knew a lot about the Discworld: the acrobat was astounding, the magician was hilarious, and the whole evening was great fun.
So today was the last day of the convention, at 1:30 pm we had a puppetry musical (which was a sill biography of Terry Pratchett's life with puppets) and at 3 pm is the official closing of the convention... . I had been thinking I would go to the Aquarium after that, but frankly I was already too tired! Instead I packed up some of my gear into the car, so I'll have an easier/faster check out tomorrow morning. Tomorrow I'll hit the road to drive to visit friends in New Jersey.