Guys, I can make polls now!
Poll Because I'm Curious
Anyway, Geek.Kon.
I spent time with sasha_feather and owlface1, and were_duck. I was also able to chat for reasonable amounts of time with berzerker_prime and britrock37, both of whom are heavy-lifting planners for the convention. I fangirled Sarah Monette (truepenny), telling her I loved her recent posts about revenge tragedies, and received book-buying advice from her in the dealer's room. We even saw bipagan!
I have enough brain functions for bulleted lists, so I'll do that.
*I liked that this year, more space was reserved for the convention, and all of the gaming stuff: RPGs, CCGs, LAN party, Super Mario Smash Brothers and what-have-you were all in a separate building (but still close and connected by a foot-bridge). I'm assuming that the people who like this stuff like it all being in one place. I liked it because I don't care about that stuff, and it was separated from all the stuff I was interested in: panels, vendors, and anime viewing.
*I watched the first two episodes of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles. Overall, I like the manga better, as expected. I think the art style in the manga is pretty neat, and it's lost in the nature of animation. Yuki Kajiura music gets pretty old pretty fast, too, and felt overly dramatic. I think this is just a general rule for me with CLAMP. In every instance I can think of, I prefer the manga version of their stories to the anime version.
*Attended SF Films of 2008; left pretty early on. Still, admired the comprehensive list of every sci-fi movie from 2008!
*Stuck around in SF&F TV Shows long enough to offer up my opinions of Terminator and Fringe. Was skeptical about panelist's opinion that Heroes is the best sci-fi show on TV. For white fanboys, maybe.
chrome_kitten has decided to stop watching the show after seeing the season 3 premiere (which I personally have yet to see), but she's had a great number of posts dissecting the show's representation of race and gender. This post analyzes the presentation of the Heroes centerfold in this week's Entertainment Weekly. This one offers a list of things she would have changed about season 2 to make it better. Pretty much every point involves giving more power to the female characters and people of color on the show. It might be hard for some people to hear.....because Heroes is their favorite show! But looking at how gender and race are represented in the media you spend time with is always important. It doesn't mean that you have to stop, but just give it some thought. It's hard not to read chrome_kitten's posts and not realize that Heroes really is all about white men. As she says:
to me, its biggest failing is that it still assumes that viewers can't get into stories that aren't centered on white, male characters. Characters of color are relegated to the background or to stories that are ultimately only important in how they affect the Petrelli storylines. Women are also generally either pushed to the background or are only foregrounded in terms of their gendered fucked-upedness (e.g. Niki/Jessica) or their potential for weekly torture porn (e.g. Claire). And as usual, heaven help the women of color. These portrayals are the primary reason why I've given up watching the show. I suspect that the writers, directors, producers, advertisers, etc. think they're being clever, insightful, or edgy; but really, they're just being lazy.
*Only lasted about 5 minutes in the Fanfiction panel. I didn't think any of particular depth was being discussed.
*britrock37's CLAMP panel was a delightful romp through all of CLAMP manga, ever, complete with PowerPoint slides. I thought it was a good overview for people wanting to know more about their work.
*Attended "Speedy Singularity" and "Build a World" panels. Lots of time was spent on Hard SF, which I'm not really interested, but I appreciated truepenny's presence.
*Purchases:
Revolutionary Girl Utena button
fanart bookmark of Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender
fanart bookmark of Sailor Moon
fanart bookmark of Tamaki from Ouran High School Host Club
Hammered by Elizabeth Bear (as recommended by truepenny
Those Who Hunt the Night by Barbara Hambly (as recommended by truepenny)
Bride of the Rat God by Barbara Hambly (as recommended by truepenny)
*sasha_feather, make sure you find me tomorrow, because I have were_duck's copy of Buffy, season 6 for you.
Differences of Wiscon and Geek.Kon that stand out for me, for the curious
*Geek.Kon strives for PG-13 fun, and lots of high school kids go. I like this. It's a safe space for them to totally freak out with each other, which I'm assuming is hard to find in high school.
*I love Wiscon, but Wiscon sucks in regards to anime content. I don't have a ton of fun in the dealer's room at Wiscon because yeah, I obviously like books, but I can get them from the library, and only one table sells cheap used ones. At Geek.Kon, there's all kinds of anime merchandise that makes me ridiculously excited, and I can't buy it anywhere else. Wiscon's cool, but you can buy books all the time, and I like being able to buy unique things at a convention. Also, at Geek.Kon, there is a room devoted to anime viewing all day, both days. Easy to run, nice for relaxing, and lots of varied content.
*The panels are a lot better at Wiscon. Still, panels are pretty much all that Wiscon does, aside from allowing attendees to plan their own parties, so that makes sense.
*There's lots more cosplay at Geek.Kon, at least of the anime variety, which I can easily recognize and appreciate. Of course, this also means there's more scary cosplay, :[ How come so many young girls dress up as Chii from Chobits?!
Anyway, Geek.Kon.
I spent time with sasha_feather and owlface1, and were_duck. I was also able to chat for reasonable amounts of time with berzerker_prime and britrock37, both of whom are heavy-lifting planners for the convention. I fangirled Sarah Monette (truepenny), telling her I loved her recent posts about revenge tragedies, and received book-buying advice from her in the dealer's room. We even saw bipagan!
I have enough brain functions for bulleted lists, so I'll do that.
*I liked that this year, more space was reserved for the convention, and all of the gaming stuff: RPGs, CCGs, LAN party, Super Mario Smash Brothers and what-have-you were all in a separate building (but still close and connected by a foot-bridge). I'm assuming that the people who like this stuff like it all being in one place. I liked it because I don't care about that stuff, and it was separated from all the stuff I was interested in: panels, vendors, and anime viewing.
*I watched the first two episodes of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles. Overall, I like the manga better, as expected. I think the art style in the manga is pretty neat, and it's lost in the nature of animation. Yuki Kajiura music gets pretty old pretty fast, too, and felt overly dramatic. I think this is just a general rule for me with CLAMP. In every instance I can think of, I prefer the manga version of their stories to the anime version.
*Attended SF Films of 2008; left pretty early on. Still, admired the comprehensive list of every sci-fi movie from 2008!
*Stuck around in SF&F TV Shows long enough to offer up my opinions of Terminator and Fringe. Was skeptical about panelist's opinion that Heroes is the best sci-fi show on TV. For white fanboys, maybe.
chrome_kitten has decided to stop watching the show after seeing the season 3 premiere (which I personally have yet to see), but she's had a great number of posts dissecting the show's representation of race and gender. This post analyzes the presentation of the Heroes centerfold in this week's Entertainment Weekly. This one offers a list of things she would have changed about season 2 to make it better. Pretty much every point involves giving more power to the female characters and people of color on the show. It might be hard for some people to hear.....because Heroes is their favorite show! But looking at how gender and race are represented in the media you spend time with is always important. It doesn't mean that you have to stop, but just give it some thought. It's hard not to read chrome_kitten's posts and not realize that Heroes really is all about white men. As she says:
to me, its biggest failing is that it still assumes that viewers can't get into stories that aren't centered on white, male characters. Characters of color are relegated to the background or to stories that are ultimately only important in how they affect the Petrelli storylines. Women are also generally either pushed to the background or are only foregrounded in terms of their gendered fucked-upedness (e.g. Niki/Jessica) or their potential for weekly torture porn (e.g. Claire). And as usual, heaven help the women of color. These portrayals are the primary reason why I've given up watching the show. I suspect that the writers, directors, producers, advertisers, etc. think they're being clever, insightful, or edgy; but really, they're just being lazy.
*Only lasted about 5 minutes in the Fanfiction panel. I didn't think any of particular depth was being discussed.
*britrock37's CLAMP panel was a delightful romp through all of CLAMP manga, ever, complete with PowerPoint slides. I thought it was a good overview for people wanting to know more about their work.
*Attended "Speedy Singularity" and "Build a World" panels. Lots of time was spent on Hard SF, which I'm not really interested, but I appreciated truepenny's presence.
*Purchases:
Revolutionary Girl Utena button
fanart bookmark of Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender
fanart bookmark of Sailor Moon
fanart bookmark of Tamaki from Ouran High School Host Club
Hammered by Elizabeth Bear (as recommended by truepenny
Those Who Hunt the Night by Barbara Hambly (as recommended by truepenny)
Bride of the Rat God by Barbara Hambly (as recommended by truepenny)
*sasha_feather, make sure you find me tomorrow, because I have were_duck's copy of Buffy, season 6 for you.
Differences of Wiscon and Geek.Kon that stand out for me, for the curious
*Geek.Kon strives for PG-13 fun, and lots of high school kids go. I like this. It's a safe space for them to totally freak out with each other, which I'm assuming is hard to find in high school.
*I love Wiscon, but Wiscon sucks in regards to anime content. I don't have a ton of fun in the dealer's room at Wiscon because yeah, I obviously like books, but I can get them from the library, and only one table sells cheap used ones. At Geek.Kon, there's all kinds of anime merchandise that makes me ridiculously excited, and I can't buy it anywhere else. Wiscon's cool, but you can buy books all the time, and I like being able to buy unique things at a convention. Also, at Geek.Kon, there is a room devoted to anime viewing all day, both days. Easy to run, nice for relaxing, and lots of varied content.
*The panels are a lot better at Wiscon. Still, panels are pretty much all that Wiscon does, aside from allowing attendees to plan their own parties, so that makes sense.
*There's lots more cosplay at Geek.Kon, at least of the anime variety, which I can easily recognize and appreciate. Of course, this also means there's more scary cosplay, :[ How come so many young girls dress up as Chii from Chobits?!