Boskone Con Report #1
This was my first Boskone. Also, since I've never attended an Arisia, it was my first time in this con hotel as well. I was waffling all over the place, so I missed the room block at the con hotel. I called to see the price of a non-block room and it was $260. Yea.. no. So I stayed at the Marriott Renaissance a block or so away. Both hotels only had free wifi in the lobby, so no on-the-spot con reports.
I got a ride down with two fellow NH Broads *waves*. Thank you! I'd been prepared to take the bus, but this was faster, involved less schlepping, and more conversation.
I'd intended to attend the discussion group on Harrassment in fandom, but was too new to the con to actually find it before it was half over with. And at that point, I didn't want to interrupt. See, what threw me was that there's this huuuuuge room with eeeeeverything in it! That the dealer's room and artshow should share the same space made sense to me. That it was also the consuite, and a gaming space, and demo space, and discussion group and kaffeeklatsch space.. wow, that's a lot. I did eventually start to appreciate how it brought everyone together in interesting ways, but it does have its downsides.
The freebie table was packed! Overflowing with old sf/f magazines mostly. I did snag a Cecilia Tan antho (to say which would make me blush more than just saying 'Cecilia Tan antho') and I did see some Arietty posters that tempted. I was trying to travel light though and thought they'd get smushed.
I'd been expecting a Dunkin Donuts and CVS every five feet, but there were neither! Well, my phone insisted there was a DD, but it was down on a pier and I didn't see any signs, and there was a gate across the road.. so I gave up that search. Later, I found the con restaurant guide which guided me to the Italian deli/market right near my hotel! Yay! I'm doing this out of order, but.. there were 3 Starbuckses between the two hotels and the only other building you pass between them! And did you know they sell bagels, but they don't toast them?!
At the Italian deli/market thing, I got a cheese sub for a very reasonable price of I think $3.50 and some potato salad. It was not good potato salad. It was giant chunks of potato and a little bit of mayo and other stuff. Seriously, it was like eating a bunch of red bliss potatoes, without butter or salt. The sub was good though. They also do breakfast, so if I go to Arisia or Boskone next year, I'll be going there again.
Consuite food was interesting/different. Nobody is beating Wiscon's consuite in my mind, not with the popcorn and the veggie hot dogs. But they did have a constant supply of interesting breads and there was fruit. The thing I most appreciated were the hard-boiled eggs. It's a good dose of vegetarian protein. And portable!
The artshow was very impressive to me, who knows very little about art. I saw some artists I recognized from Wiscon. Mostly it was the sheer _amount_ of art, almost all of it really good and also coooool. One of these days I'll have a place with a lot of wall space and need to buy some of this cool art I keep seeing. Dragons! Space! They also had displays up of authors/artists who'd passed away in the last year, and those were nice.
The only thing I bought in the dealer's room was _Machine_ by Jennifer Pelland, from the Broad Universe table. Got it signed! And got two other awesome Broads to sign my copy of UnCONvential (which you should totally buy/read). I was trying to travel light, as I said, so I didn't browse the dealer's room much beyond one wander around. Didn't want to be tempted!
I guess I'll do the panel reports, such as they might be, in another post. And at another time, when I have my notes in fr... actually, it just occurred to me I do have the schedule (on my phone) and the notes in a notebook right in front of me. Well, later in any case!
But a final shoutout to that phone app! Awesome! I think the app itself is Guidebook, so other cons, you should definitely use that!! They released an update on Friday that wiped out my schedule and screwed up the descriptions so they didn't match the panels, but they eventually fixed it. I was worried about installing the further updates, because I thought it might wipe out my schedule each time. Learning curves. But srsly, I want this for Wiscon!
I got a ride down with two fellow NH Broads *waves*. Thank you! I'd been prepared to take the bus, but this was faster, involved less schlepping, and more conversation.
I'd intended to attend the discussion group on Harrassment in fandom, but was too new to the con to actually find it before it was half over with. And at that point, I didn't want to interrupt. See, what threw me was that there's this huuuuuge room with eeeeeverything in it! That the dealer's room and artshow should share the same space made sense to me. That it was also the consuite, and a gaming space, and demo space, and discussion group and kaffeeklatsch space.. wow, that's a lot. I did eventually start to appreciate how it brought everyone together in interesting ways, but it does have its downsides.
The freebie table was packed! Overflowing with old sf/f magazines mostly. I did snag a Cecilia Tan antho (to say which would make me blush more than just saying 'Cecilia Tan antho') and I did see some Arietty posters that tempted. I was trying to travel light though and thought they'd get smushed.
I'd been expecting a Dunkin Donuts and CVS every five feet, but there were neither! Well, my phone insisted there was a DD, but it was down on a pier and I didn't see any signs, and there was a gate across the road.. so I gave up that search. Later, I found the con restaurant guide which guided me to the Italian deli/market right near my hotel! Yay! I'm doing this out of order, but.. there were 3 Starbuckses between the two hotels and the only other building you pass between them! And did you know they sell bagels, but they don't toast them?!
At the Italian deli/market thing, I got a cheese sub for a very reasonable price of I think $3.50 and some potato salad. It was not good potato salad. It was giant chunks of potato and a little bit of mayo and other stuff. Seriously, it was like eating a bunch of red bliss potatoes, without butter or salt. The sub was good though. They also do breakfast, so if I go to Arisia or Boskone next year, I'll be going there again.
Consuite food was interesting/different. Nobody is beating Wiscon's consuite in my mind, not with the popcorn and the veggie hot dogs. But they did have a constant supply of interesting breads and there was fruit. The thing I most appreciated were the hard-boiled eggs. It's a good dose of vegetarian protein. And portable!
The artshow was very impressive to me, who knows very little about art. I saw some artists I recognized from Wiscon. Mostly it was the sheer _amount_ of art, almost all of it really good and also coooool. One of these days I'll have a place with a lot of wall space and need to buy some of this cool art I keep seeing. Dragons! Space! They also had displays up of authors/artists who'd passed away in the last year, and those were nice.
The only thing I bought in the dealer's room was _Machine_ by Jennifer Pelland, from the Broad Universe table. Got it signed! And got two other awesome Broads to sign my copy of UnCONvential (which you should totally buy/read). I was trying to travel light, as I said, so I didn't browse the dealer's room much beyond one wander around. Didn't want to be tempted!
I guess I'll do the panel reports, such as they might be, in another post. And at another time, when I have my notes in fr... actually, it just occurred to me I do have the schedule (on my phone) and the notes in a notebook right in front of me. Well, later in any case!
But a final shoutout to that phone app! Awesome! I think the app itself is Guidebook, so other cons, you should definitely use that!! They released an update on Friday that wiped out my schedule and screwed up the descriptions so they didn't match the panels, but they eventually fixed it. I was worried about installing the further updates, because I thought it might wipe out my schedule each time. Learning curves. But srsly, I want this for Wiscon!