spread the ashes of the colours over this heart of mine
[me & Adam are 
relaxed]
[and listening to "Neighborhood 1 (Tunnels)" by The Arcade Fire]
*waits for patsch to register icon* Don't know if anyone else will get it... If you don't - there's a good movie coming out soon. Make sure to watch it.
So, after having spend two great days in London, it was time to get to Hinckley in Leicestershire, where the 5th Discworld Convention would be taking place. For those of you who have been living in some other galaxy than me:
* Discworld
* Terry Pratchett
* Stephen Briggs
- and while we're at it -
* Lord Vetinari
Okay. Now you know the most important bits: the Discworld Con is held every two years, attended by about 800 mad people, and a whole lot of fun. A hotel is stuffed with dressed up nerds, there are fantastic guests of honour (like Terry, Stephen, and other guys I'll tell you about later), there are seminars, readings, lectures, games, parties - in short, it's a wonderful time.
We arrived at Hinckley station around late noon, and at once were ushered into sharing a cab to the hotel with two other attendees, Simon (I think) and Neil Gaiman Richard. Checked in, bathed in the luxury that was our room, then dived right in. Because OMGTERRY!!
We went to the first lecture, held by Lionel Fanthorpe. He's such a great speaker, it was fantastic. He talked of his days as a writer of pulp fantasy/science fiction. I really have to get some of his books. He's a wonderful person, a real elderly gentleman, someone you can't help but like. Just meeting him was worth it. At that lecture we met someone else, too - Nathalie, a fan from Belgium. Hit it off immediately. We'll probably attend the German Con in February together *squees*
The Opening Ceremony. I have no idea how to explain what this means to me, so I won't. I've said it before, and I can only say it again: Terry = God.
And an obsession spawned - Stephen Briggs took the stage and our hearts. I knew him before - well, knew who he was, but was never very interested. Amongst other things, Stephen is Vetinari in the stage productions, so he is Vetinari to most fans. To me, who'd never seen him, it was always Alan Rickman, so I was usually annoyed when everybody fawned over him. Well. Stephen gets up, Pats & me look at each other... And that was it.
Here I should explain something else: before the Con, you could apply for membership in various Guilds. Being a member of a Guild (like Assassins, Alchemists, Seamstresses, Fools...) means you work in a group of about thirty people, with a Head Of Guild and two Deputies. Each Guild has Tokens. For certain activities you loose or gain Tokens to/from other Guilds, so at the end the Guild with most Tokens from other Guilds wins. It's also a great way to get to know people. Pats and me are Assassins - meaning we wear black, look cool, and kill people for a fee. In plain words: if a member of another Guild paid us with Tokens, we'd kill someone for him. How? By sticking a post-it note on him which represents a dagger (or put one under his plate or on his glass, representing poison). Of course you could also buy insurances (meaning we wouldn't kill you for as long as you'd paid), chain vests (against daggers), or antidotes. It all got a lot crazier, trust me - including us charging the Alchemists for selling antidotes, and the Priest's Guild selling resurrections to killed people (which meant we could promptly kill them again, wheee). Oh, and of course we'd fee everyone who wear black but wasn't an Assassin. The cheek!
Anyways. Our Head Of Guild was, of course, Stephen (which meant we had to spend a whole lot of time with him, pity). There was no way around it, really. See, last time, when they did the Guild thing for the first time, he wasn't. They made him Head of the Merchants. You should know that Stephen, as I said, IS Vetinari, who was in the Assassin's Guild himself. Stephen also wears black. Stephen also is something like Terry's Most Official Fanboy. So, NOT being made Head of the Assassin's Guild didn't go over too well with him. What to do? Easy. Pay the Assassins a shitload of Tokens so they kill their own leader *LMAO* Which meant the Merchants lost on account of being broke, of course, but it also ensured that for the rest of Discworld Con History Stephen is going to be Head of the Assassin's Guild ;)
So, after the Opening Ceremony we had our first Guild meeting. Our two lovely Deputies, Orjan & Marco, explained the whole deal to us, and, of course, Stephen was there. Sweet Heavens. Believe me, that man has Charisma. And everything else, too. Plus being dead funny, a great talker, and an extremely nice guy. Honestly, I love him. He's fantastic. It's funny - I was only interested in Terry when I came, and it only took a few hours and who I mostly thought of was Stephen. Ah well. You see, that's how it is with most Discworld fans, I've found out ;)
So, later that night we all gathered together in the Dysk for a nightcap - Terry was going to read from his new, yet unpublished novel "Wintersmith" - a Tiffany story.
*SQUEE*
I adore this man so much.
After reading a long, long time from "Wintersmith", he read from the new book that's going to be published after that - "Making Money", a new Moist Von Lipwig story *bounces*
Honestly, that man does nothing but write, I swear. Not that I'm unhappy about it.
The next day, we went to an interview with Bernard Pearson.
He's Head of the Fool's Guild, and truly one of the funniest guys around.
And trust me, he's got some really cool stories to tell!
Okay, enough for now, I'll torture you some more later ;)
Coming up: (not) blowing for Stephen, Science with Jack & Ian, Hedgehogs, and Oops, I think we forgot to eat!
relaxed]
[and listening to "Neighborhood 1 (Tunnels)" by The Arcade Fire]
*waits for patsch to register icon* Don't know if anyone else will get it... If you don't - there's a good movie coming out soon. Make sure to watch it.
So, after having spend two great days in London, it was time to get to Hinckley in Leicestershire, where the 5th Discworld Convention would be taking place. For those of you who have been living in some other galaxy than me:
* Discworld
* Terry Pratchett
* Stephen Briggs
- and while we're at it -
* Lord Vetinari
Okay. Now you know the most important bits: the Discworld Con is held every two years, attended by about 800 mad people, and a whole lot of fun. A hotel is stuffed with dressed up nerds, there are fantastic guests of honour (like Terry, Stephen, and other guys I'll tell you about later), there are seminars, readings, lectures, games, parties - in short, it's a wonderful time.
We arrived at Hinckley station around late noon, and at once were ushered into sharing a cab to the hotel with two other attendees, Simon (I think) and Neil Gaiman Richard. Checked in, bathed in the luxury that was our room, then dived right in. Because OMGTERRY!!
We went to the first lecture, held by Lionel Fanthorpe. He's such a great speaker, it was fantastic. He talked of his days as a writer of pulp fantasy/science fiction. I really have to get some of his books. He's a wonderful person, a real elderly gentleman, someone you can't help but like. Just meeting him was worth it. At that lecture we met someone else, too - Nathalie, a fan from Belgium. Hit it off immediately. We'll probably attend the German Con in February together *squees*
The Opening Ceremony. I have no idea how to explain what this means to me, so I won't. I've said it before, and I can only say it again: Terry = God.
And an obsession spawned - Stephen Briggs took the stage and our hearts. I knew him before - well, knew who he was, but was never very interested. Amongst other things, Stephen is Vetinari in the stage productions, so he is Vetinari to most fans. To me, who'd never seen him, it was always Alan Rickman, so I was usually annoyed when everybody fawned over him. Well. Stephen gets up, Pats & me look at each other... And that was it.
Here I should explain something else: before the Con, you could apply for membership in various Guilds. Being a member of a Guild (like Assassins, Alchemists, Seamstresses, Fools...) means you work in a group of about thirty people, with a Head Of Guild and two Deputies. Each Guild has Tokens. For certain activities you loose or gain Tokens to/from other Guilds, so at the end the Guild with most Tokens from other Guilds wins. It's also a great way to get to know people. Pats and me are Assassins - meaning we wear black, look cool, and kill people for a fee. In plain words: if a member of another Guild paid us with Tokens, we'd kill someone for him. How? By sticking a post-it note on him which represents a dagger (or put one under his plate or on his glass, representing poison). Of course you could also buy insurances (meaning we wouldn't kill you for as long as you'd paid), chain vests (against daggers), or antidotes. It all got a lot crazier, trust me - including us charging the Alchemists for selling antidotes, and the Priest's Guild selling resurrections to killed people (which meant we could promptly kill them again, wheee). Oh, and of course we'd fee everyone who wear black but wasn't an Assassin. The cheek!
Anyways. Our Head Of Guild was, of course, Stephen (which meant we had to spend a whole lot of time with him, pity). There was no way around it, really. See, last time, when they did the Guild thing for the first time, he wasn't. They made him Head of the Merchants. You should know that Stephen, as I said, IS Vetinari, who was in the Assassin's Guild himself. Stephen also wears black. Stephen also is something like Terry's Most Official Fanboy. So, NOT being made Head of the Assassin's Guild didn't go over too well with him. What to do? Easy. Pay the Assassins a shitload of Tokens so they kill their own leader *LMAO* Which meant the Merchants lost on account of being broke, of course, but it also ensured that for the rest of Discworld Con History Stephen is going to be Head of the Assassin's Guild ;)
So, after the Opening Ceremony we had our first Guild meeting. Our two lovely Deputies, Orjan & Marco, explained the whole deal to us, and, of course, Stephen was there. Sweet Heavens. Believe me, that man has Charisma. And everything else, too. Plus being dead funny, a great talker, and an extremely nice guy. Honestly, I love him. He's fantastic. It's funny - I was only interested in Terry when I came, and it only took a few hours and who I mostly thought of was Stephen. Ah well. You see, that's how it is with most Discworld fans, I've found out ;)
So, later that night we all gathered together in the Dysk for a nightcap - Terry was going to read from his new, yet unpublished novel "Wintersmith" - a Tiffany story.
*SQUEE*
I adore this man so much.
After reading a long, long time from "Wintersmith", he read from the new book that's going to be published after that - "Making Money", a new Moist Von Lipwig story *bounces*
Honestly, that man does nothing but write, I swear. Not that I'm unhappy about it.
The next day, we went to an interview with Bernard Pearson.
He's Head of the Fool's Guild, and truly one of the funniest guys around.
And trust me, he's got some really cool stories to tell!
Okay, enough for now, I'll torture you some more later ;)
Coming up: (not) blowing for Stephen, Science with Jack & Ian, Hedgehogs, and Oops, I think we forgot to eat!