that was another country
This isn't one of my full-blown con reports, as I am without both time and energy this year, but I should make note of some of the more very awesome things about VividCon 09 while I still remember them.
More than anything, this year felt very different for me than the previous two. It was more like last year in that the novelty and intimidation of meeting vidders and watching vids felt instead like coming home. But there were some major differences that stand out, and I'm curious to see if next year is another new experience or if it feels more like last year did.
The biggest noticeable difference was that the dynamics of my social group remain as fluid as ever (which is healthy!), and this year I was not attached to anyone's hip like I usually am. It's always fun to have a con buddy, so there were moments when this kind of sucked, but I soon realized it freed me up to have conversations with wonderful people that I usually don't get to bond with as much. Instead of just getting closer to one person, I was able to bond with a whole bunch! That was really great. sockkpuppett and I discussed doing a collab that, hilariously, neither of us can remember what the source was. (I was tipsy and she was high; it's our own damn fault.) heresluck and I had a wonderful chat about budgeting and her trip to London. renenet kindly listened to my exhausted end-of-the-quarter school vent about how desperately I needed this vacation and didn't laugh when I cried. dualbunny let me in on some of her many vidding secrets, fan_eunice and I bonded over baldness, sisabet is still my favorite gossip queen, and apparently laurashapiro's subconscious thinks I'm a viking in the sack. There is no bad there. absolutedestiny was my cuddlebuddy for the weekend, and fortunately his girlfriend is rad and thinks it was awesome ;-) I wish I'd gotten to hang with the Morgan/Jen/Pips trio and the Brad/DC/Milly trio more, but there just aren't enough hours in the weekend :-(
And of course, several key people were missing this year! sdwolfpup! f1renze! obsessive24! buffyann! beerbad! kiki_miserychic! flummery! counteragent! thefourthvine! The list goes on and on. Sigh.
The other big difference was all the attention I received in terms of my vidding and the con itself. As someone who has only been a non-newbie for a year or so, I am still surprised that I was asked to do Vid Review. That said, I do feel very good about how it went, and I had a blast. I would do it every year if they let me :-) Thanks again to gwyn_r for helping make that such a positive experience I will never forget. Then, Ian gave me the honor of being the first Club Vivid vid ever to go to In-Depth Vid Review, talking about "Give it Up" for 20 minutes. I don't know if I've ever felt like so much of a rock star. The bastard even made me cry by comparing my CV trilogy to my own evolution as a vidder and part of the VVC community. I was deeply humbled and am very much, still. ("Give it Up" has been downloaded more in the last 5 days than any of my previous vids ever over several years.) I also had 5 vids play at the con, which is a new record for me as well. (Half Acre, Out of Classical Gas, Good, Give it Up, and Learn to Crawl.) And I was able to sell all 50 copies of my first dvd, which was very exciting for me. Thank you again to everyone who has been so kind about my work this year. I really do appreciate it more than you know.
Random moments to remember:
- Six songs into Club Vivid, fan_eunice and I both took off our matching Survivor shirts for the rest of the night, making the rest of the sweaty room very jealous :-)
- When I first saw heresluck, she picked me up and spun me around several times, and I was so dizzy I almost fell over afterward.
- Club Vivid in general was such a great night. Ian put together a wonderful show that delivered above and beyond, as always. My group crowded around me during "Give it Up" and we sang our hearts out. When millylicious's vid "Acid Intro" came on, we screamed "YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE" at the top of our lungs and it was AWESOME. Other highlights of the night for me were Dancing Queen, Say Hey, I'm on a Boat, Get Low, and Good. And of course, bradcpu's Captain Hammer costume couldn't be beat.
- greensilver and I successfully foisted season 3 of Dante's Cove upon our poor friends. And of course, it was every bit as terrible awesome as promised. You really have to see it to believe it.
Since VVC is where I get most of my "new" music these days, I should mention that even though this was a light year in terms of tunes acquired, there were three that really stood out and have become my unofficial con soundtrack forever on repeat:
- That Was Another Country by The Innocence Mission, vid by kassrachel (Lost)
- It Comes and Goes in Waves by Greg Laswell, vid by mlyn and feochadn (Varg Veum movies)
- Marble House by The Knife," vid by hollywoodgrrl (Doctor Who)
They are absolutely terrific vids well worth checking out if you get the chance. I recommend them highly.
I also had the pleasure of seeing my very favorite audio edit featured in a vid this year - "Acid Intro" by millylicious (multifandom). This is a set of tracks from my old hard house mixing days that I looped on my computer. (If you're curious to hear what the original sounds like, I've uploaded two of the four pieces - the bulk of it - here.) It was a real treat getting to dance to it at Club Vivid, and Milly did a fantastic job of really encapsulating the energy, motion, and power of the song with the vid. ♥
In addition to those vids, here are some of the standouts of the con for me that have also made their way onto my new mp3 mix:
- American Tune (West Wing) by greensilver
- Dancing Queen (Merlin) by greensilver & sweetestdrain
- They Don't Know (Doctor Who) by laurashapiro
- Say Hey (Obamas) by sdwolfpup
- Then the Morning Comes (Galaxy Quest) by fan_eunice
- Hard Sun (Firefly) by bradcpu & laurashapiro
- Mothership (Doctor Who) by laurashapiro (Yeah, Laura really sucked this year, as you can see *g*)
- Sea Fever (Slings & Arrows) by heresluck
- Lucky Me (Buffy) by millylicious
- Red Cliff (Red Cliff) by obsessive24
Of course, with 37 Premiering vids and something like 52 Club Vivid premieres, plus all the regular vidshows, there were a LOT of wonderful vids this year, and my list is by no means exhaustive in terms of recs. Again, these were just ones that stood out to me the most.
Okay, I think that about covers it for now. Yay, VividCon!
More than anything, this year felt very different for me than the previous two. It was more like last year in that the novelty and intimidation of meeting vidders and watching vids felt instead like coming home. But there were some major differences that stand out, and I'm curious to see if next year is another new experience or if it feels more like last year did.
The biggest noticeable difference was that the dynamics of my social group remain as fluid as ever (which is healthy!), and this year I was not attached to anyone's hip like I usually am. It's always fun to have a con buddy, so there were moments when this kind of sucked, but I soon realized it freed me up to have conversations with wonderful people that I usually don't get to bond with as much. Instead of just getting closer to one person, I was able to bond with a whole bunch! That was really great. sockkpuppett and I discussed doing a collab that, hilariously, neither of us can remember what the source was. (I was tipsy and she was high; it's our own damn fault.) heresluck and I had a wonderful chat about budgeting and her trip to London. renenet kindly listened to my exhausted end-of-the-quarter school vent about how desperately I needed this vacation and didn't laugh when I cried. dualbunny let me in on some of her many vidding secrets, fan_eunice and I bonded over baldness, sisabet is still my favorite gossip queen, and apparently laurashapiro's subconscious thinks I'm a viking in the sack. There is no bad there. absolutedestiny was my cuddlebuddy for the weekend, and fortunately his girlfriend is rad and thinks it was awesome ;-) I wish I'd gotten to hang with the Morgan/Jen/Pips trio and the Brad/DC/Milly trio more, but there just aren't enough hours in the weekend :-(
And of course, several key people were missing this year! sdwolfpup! f1renze! obsessive24! buffyann! beerbad! kiki_miserychic! flummery! counteragent! thefourthvine! The list goes on and on. Sigh.
The other big difference was all the attention I received in terms of my vidding and the con itself. As someone who has only been a non-newbie for a year or so, I am still surprised that I was asked to do Vid Review. That said, I do feel very good about how it went, and I had a blast. I would do it every year if they let me :-) Thanks again to gwyn_r for helping make that such a positive experience I will never forget. Then, Ian gave me the honor of being the first Club Vivid vid ever to go to In-Depth Vid Review, talking about "Give it Up" for 20 minutes. I don't know if I've ever felt like so much of a rock star. The bastard even made me cry by comparing my CV trilogy to my own evolution as a vidder and part of the VVC community. I was deeply humbled and am very much, still. ("Give it Up" has been downloaded more in the last 5 days than any of my previous vids ever over several years.) I also had 5 vids play at the con, which is a new record for me as well. (Half Acre, Out of Classical Gas, Good, Give it Up, and Learn to Crawl.) And I was able to sell all 50 copies of my first dvd, which was very exciting for me. Thank you again to everyone who has been so kind about my work this year. I really do appreciate it more than you know.
Random moments to remember:
- Six songs into Club Vivid, fan_eunice and I both took off our matching Survivor shirts for the rest of the night, making the rest of the sweaty room very jealous :-)
- When I first saw heresluck, she picked me up and spun me around several times, and I was so dizzy I almost fell over afterward.
- Club Vivid in general was such a great night. Ian put together a wonderful show that delivered above and beyond, as always. My group crowded around me during "Give it Up" and we sang our hearts out. When millylicious's vid "Acid Intro" came on, we screamed "YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE" at the top of our lungs and it was AWESOME. Other highlights of the night for me were Dancing Queen, Say Hey, I'm on a Boat, Get Low, and Good. And of course, bradcpu's Captain Hammer costume couldn't be beat.
- greensilver and I successfully foisted season 3 of Dante's Cove upon our poor friends. And of course, it was every bit as terrible awesome as promised. You really have to see it to believe it.
Since VVC is where I get most of my "new" music these days, I should mention that even though this was a light year in terms of tunes acquired, there were three that really stood out and have become my unofficial con soundtrack forever on repeat:
- That Was Another Country by The Innocence Mission, vid by kassrachel (Lost)
- It Comes and Goes in Waves by Greg Laswell, vid by mlyn and feochadn (Varg Veum movies)
- Marble House by The Knife," vid by hollywoodgrrl (Doctor Who)
They are absolutely terrific vids well worth checking out if you get the chance. I recommend them highly.
I also had the pleasure of seeing my very favorite audio edit featured in a vid this year - "Acid Intro" by millylicious (multifandom). This is a set of tracks from my old hard house mixing days that I looped on my computer. (If you're curious to hear what the original sounds like, I've uploaded two of the four pieces - the bulk of it - here.) It was a real treat getting to dance to it at Club Vivid, and Milly did a fantastic job of really encapsulating the energy, motion, and power of the song with the vid. ♥
In addition to those vids, here are some of the standouts of the con for me that have also made their way onto my new mp3 mix:
- American Tune (West Wing) by greensilver
- Dancing Queen (Merlin) by greensilver & sweetestdrain
- They Don't Know (Doctor Who) by laurashapiro
- Say Hey (Obamas) by sdwolfpup
- Then the Morning Comes (Galaxy Quest) by fan_eunice
- Hard Sun (Firefly) by bradcpu & laurashapiro
- Mothership (Doctor Who) by laurashapiro (Yeah, Laura really sucked this year, as you can see *g*)
- Sea Fever (Slings & Arrows) by heresluck
- Lucky Me (Buffy) by millylicious
- Red Cliff (Red Cliff) by obsessive24
Of course, with 37 Premiering vids and something like 52 Club Vivid premieres, plus all the regular vidshows, there were a LOT of wonderful vids this year, and my list is by no means exhaustive in terms of recs. Again, these were just ones that stood out to me the most.
Okay, I think that about covers it for now. Yay, VividCon!