More on the weekend
Now that I've had a nap and some REAL food...
Stuff that was awesome
--Our costuming. Despite my gross procrastination this year, all of mine worked (though the Victorian polonaise has enough fiddly little flaws that I need to significantly revisit it if it's to get used again), and a couple of them worked way beyond my expectations. The striped Victorian day ensemble did indeed make people's eyes hurt, and the outfit I've been calling Incroyable (the one I posted a photo of) just went over *gangbusters* with people's mouths literally dropping open at sight of it.
Kevin had some logistical issues with his, meaning most didn't really end up the way he wanted, but that was largely balanced by Saturday night, where people who got it immediately laughed delightedly and people who didn't get it immediately would go "...HEY!" as he walked past and then laugh delightedly. As to what it was? Refer to this along with the quote "Gimme a scotch, I'm starving."
(I will have costume photos to share, but not tonight. And I might have to wait till I dig up a good photo by someone else of his Saturday night outfit as mine didn't really get the salient element.)
--Goth panels. Good topics, good panelists, good audiences (for the most part). I really enjoyed having such lively conversation with smart people, and getting more exposure to some folks I hadn't really interacted with before. And man, was it fun to rip into Twilight. Also, it is possible that I told djeternaldarkne I'd give him money to show up at Unhallowed Necropolis dressed like his grandmother. *whistles nonchalantly*
--Getting to spend time with the latest gothspawn--but even better, getting to spend time with their parents, who I haven't seen much of in recent months (for reasons that aren't entirely about the spawning).
--For that matter, getting to see a bunch of people I haven't seen much of in recent months. The socializing wasn't broad, but it was of very high quality.
--Scotch. How I love scotch. Scotchyscotchscotch. (ahem.) We had a bottle of Macallan 10-year we brought with us, and then got to try several new varieties on Saturday night (at a delightful party where I talked several people's ears off about clothing and wine). I particularly enjoyed the Scapa, which was like a summer evening bonfire--warm, golden, a little smoky but still clear and light.
--Movies. Between the con's in-house channels and the free HBO, I got to see several things, or at least parts of things, that were new to me. Hancock did not live up to the potential of its premise, but I really enjoyed the concept and it made excellent use of Will Smith's charm. The Bourne Ultimatum is not as good as the earlier films (suffering from the general sequel problem of diminishing returns), but I really appreciated how carefully the plot turns were crafted. Speed Racer had all the potential to be a wild, campy delight--capitalizing on the retro nostalgia of how bad the original was--but it seems that the Wachowskis have absolutely no sense of fun whatsoever; everything looked wonderful and the elements were in place, but it was all so deadly serious (except for Christina Ricci; also, Emile Hirsch has the acting ability of a cement block). The Incredible Hulk was...not as bad as I expected, and Edward Norton makes an affecting Bruce Banner, but it's badly constructed and not very believable (Liv Tyler as a PhD? Really?) even for a comic-book film. The Happening is SO phenomenally bad that it screams for a good hard MST3K'ing.
--Dancing. We didn't do a lot, but it was enough for me to get a little of the catharsis that I often find on the dance floor. And we found that we generally enjoyed the dances, albeit not always for reasons that were pure of motive.
--Dogs in costume. Seriously. There were several service dogs there and almost all of them were in costume at some point. I was particularly charmed by the golden retriever fairy.
--Kevin intimidating the hell out of djeternaldarkne and izzbot (in separate incidents), and then kissing Izzy square on the mouth.
Stuff that was not quite so awesome
--Physical condition. Now, con time is always short on sleep and decent food, and I allow for that, and all that scotch didn't help things much either; but I had inordinate trouble with my back and knees, and the bed made very clear how truly wonderful our bed at home is--I shouldn't be waking up sore, which I did at the hotel, and we were both sleeping really badly (we woke up at 7 a.m. today despite having not gotten to sleep until well after 2 a.m.). And when I'm sore (and tired), I tend to get cranky, and that doesn't help anything.
--Panels other than goth ones. I went to exactly none. This isn't really anyone's fault; I simply came to the realization that if I want to have a conversation with interesting geeks about esoteric topics, I can just read my f'list--I don't need the framework of panels at a con to achieve that anymore. I'd meant to hit some costuming things, but we overslept for most of them, and timing didn't work out for me to go to other panels that people I like and respect were on (or I flat out forgot because I am a scatterbrained dork and was sleep-deprived to boot).
--Having fans. I became several people's new best friend this year due to my costuming and the panels I did. I was very flattered to be highly regarded, don't get me wrong. It's just that they sometimes made it challenging to move on with my own plans.
--The version of That Guy At The Panel who turned up at Goth Fashion for Men. Regular congoers will know what I mean--basically, the one guy who thinks he knows better than anyone else there and tries to monopolize the whole panel. It's a fairly common specimen, alas, but I'd never encountered it a goth panel before. Kevin handled him quite firmly (that is NOT a euphemism), and he stormed off in a huff.
--Institutional and bureaucratic issues. The convention had problems with most PayPal registrations that took rather a lot of time to sort out and made me extremely cranky. On the hotel side, we were offered either a room way out in the Lakeside wing (where I've never been put unless it was specifically requested), or a room that was much smaller but closer to the function space (we ended up taking the latter). I have never experienced this before. We were also not able to use in-room checkout this morning, which was mildly irritating.
--Parties *other* than the one with the scotch. I've never been a huge fan of the traditional type of con party anyway, but the new restrictions on them have taken them into the realm of just being kind of sad.
--Costuming other than ours and some scattered gems (many of which were our friends). It felt like a lot of people reverted to "easy" this year, lots of garb, lots of generic vaguely-goth, lots of tunics over jeans (or, oh dear, corsets over jeans and t-shirts). I can understand why that would happen, but it did mean a fairly low ratio of eye candy. Also, I found nothing in the dealers' room I wanted. I did buy a hat pin because I needed one for Saturday night's costume, but that was the only thing I got at all.
--The BIGGEST FREAKING SPIDER I have ever seen in this area was on the ceiling of the hallway our room was on. We actually took photos because it was so astonishingly large, but you can imagine how I felt knowing this beastie was around.
In the end, it was a better weekend than not. I admit I hadn't entirely been looking forward to NWC this year, and thus it was pleasantly unexpected to have a good time. I don't know if we'll go next year, but I am glad we went this year after all.
Stuff that was awesome
--Our costuming. Despite my gross procrastination this year, all of mine worked (though the Victorian polonaise has enough fiddly little flaws that I need to significantly revisit it if it's to get used again), and a couple of them worked way beyond my expectations. The striped Victorian day ensemble did indeed make people's eyes hurt, and the outfit I've been calling Incroyable (the one I posted a photo of) just went over *gangbusters* with people's mouths literally dropping open at sight of it.
Kevin had some logistical issues with his, meaning most didn't really end up the way he wanted, but that was largely balanced by Saturday night, where people who got it immediately laughed delightedly and people who didn't get it immediately would go "...HEY!" as he walked past and then laugh delightedly. As to what it was? Refer to this along with the quote "Gimme a scotch, I'm starving."
(I will have costume photos to share, but not tonight. And I might have to wait till I dig up a good photo by someone else of his Saturday night outfit as mine didn't really get the salient element.)
--Goth panels. Good topics, good panelists, good audiences (for the most part). I really enjoyed having such lively conversation with smart people, and getting more exposure to some folks I hadn't really interacted with before. And man, was it fun to rip into Twilight. Also, it is possible that I told djeternaldarkne I'd give him money to show up at Unhallowed Necropolis dressed like his grandmother. *whistles nonchalantly*
--Getting to spend time with the latest gothspawn--but even better, getting to spend time with their parents, who I haven't seen much of in recent months (for reasons that aren't entirely about the spawning).
--For that matter, getting to see a bunch of people I haven't seen much of in recent months. The socializing wasn't broad, but it was of very high quality.
--Scotch. How I love scotch. Scotchyscotchscotch. (ahem.) We had a bottle of Macallan 10-year we brought with us, and then got to try several new varieties on Saturday night (at a delightful party where I talked several people's ears off about clothing and wine). I particularly enjoyed the Scapa, which was like a summer evening bonfire--warm, golden, a little smoky but still clear and light.
--Movies. Between the con's in-house channels and the free HBO, I got to see several things, or at least parts of things, that were new to me. Hancock did not live up to the potential of its premise, but I really enjoyed the concept and it made excellent use of Will Smith's charm. The Bourne Ultimatum is not as good as the earlier films (suffering from the general sequel problem of diminishing returns), but I really appreciated how carefully the plot turns were crafted. Speed Racer had all the potential to be a wild, campy delight--capitalizing on the retro nostalgia of how bad the original was--but it seems that the Wachowskis have absolutely no sense of fun whatsoever; everything looked wonderful and the elements were in place, but it was all so deadly serious (except for Christina Ricci; also, Emile Hirsch has the acting ability of a cement block). The Incredible Hulk was...not as bad as I expected, and Edward Norton makes an affecting Bruce Banner, but it's badly constructed and not very believable (Liv Tyler as a PhD? Really?) even for a comic-book film. The Happening is SO phenomenally bad that it screams for a good hard MST3K'ing.
--Dancing. We didn't do a lot, but it was enough for me to get a little of the catharsis that I often find on the dance floor. And we found that we generally enjoyed the dances, albeit not always for reasons that were pure of motive.
--Dogs in costume. Seriously. There were several service dogs there and almost all of them were in costume at some point. I was particularly charmed by the golden retriever fairy.
--Kevin intimidating the hell out of djeternaldarkne and izzbot (in separate incidents), and then kissing Izzy square on the mouth.
Stuff that was not quite so awesome
--Physical condition. Now, con time is always short on sleep and decent food, and I allow for that, and all that scotch didn't help things much either; but I had inordinate trouble with my back and knees, and the bed made very clear how truly wonderful our bed at home is--I shouldn't be waking up sore, which I did at the hotel, and we were both sleeping really badly (we woke up at 7 a.m. today despite having not gotten to sleep until well after 2 a.m.). And when I'm sore (and tired), I tend to get cranky, and that doesn't help anything.
--Panels other than goth ones. I went to exactly none. This isn't really anyone's fault; I simply came to the realization that if I want to have a conversation with interesting geeks about esoteric topics, I can just read my f'list--I don't need the framework of panels at a con to achieve that anymore. I'd meant to hit some costuming things, but we overslept for most of them, and timing didn't work out for me to go to other panels that people I like and respect were on (or I flat out forgot because I am a scatterbrained dork and was sleep-deprived to boot).
--Having fans. I became several people's new best friend this year due to my costuming and the panels I did. I was very flattered to be highly regarded, don't get me wrong. It's just that they sometimes made it challenging to move on with my own plans.
--The version of That Guy At The Panel who turned up at Goth Fashion for Men. Regular congoers will know what I mean--basically, the one guy who thinks he knows better than anyone else there and tries to monopolize the whole panel. It's a fairly common specimen, alas, but I'd never encountered it a goth panel before. Kevin handled him quite firmly (that is NOT a euphemism), and he stormed off in a huff.
--Institutional and bureaucratic issues. The convention had problems with most PayPal registrations that took rather a lot of time to sort out and made me extremely cranky. On the hotel side, we were offered either a room way out in the Lakeside wing (where I've never been put unless it was specifically requested), or a room that was much smaller but closer to the function space (we ended up taking the latter). I have never experienced this before. We were also not able to use in-room checkout this morning, which was mildly irritating.
--Parties *other* than the one with the scotch. I've never been a huge fan of the traditional type of con party anyway, but the new restrictions on them have taken them into the realm of just being kind of sad.
--Costuming other than ours and some scattered gems (many of which were our friends). It felt like a lot of people reverted to "easy" this year, lots of garb, lots of generic vaguely-goth, lots of tunics over jeans (or, oh dear, corsets over jeans and t-shirts). I can understand why that would happen, but it did mean a fairly low ratio of eye candy. Also, I found nothing in the dealers' room I wanted. I did buy a hat pin because I needed one for Saturday night's costume, but that was the only thing I got at all.
--The BIGGEST FREAKING SPIDER I have ever seen in this area was on the ceiling of the hallway our room was on. We actually took photos because it was so astonishingly large, but you can imagine how I felt knowing this beastie was around.
In the end, it was a better weekend than not. I admit I hadn't entirely been looking forward to NWC this year, and thus it was pleasantly unexpected to have a good time. I don't know if we'll go next year, but I am glad we went this year after all.