Convergence Report
I arrived at the Sheraton about noon on Friday--evidently my room had been occupied the night before, as it wasn't ready, and probably wouldn't be for a couple of hours. I was kind of disappointed, as I'd looked forward to taking a shower and perhaps a nap before the convention really got underway. Not to mention hauling my luggage around the hotel was a hassle.
The con registration was open, so I got my badge and papers, then volunteered up in the Gaming Suite for two hours. Got to talk to Dave Rust quite a bit, as well as a few other people--badging is easy, especially when the area isn't officially open.
Back down to the hotel desk, nope, not ready yet. Checked out the art show and dealers' room for an hour. Nope, not ready yet. Since there wasn't much point in me hanging around to see if it would open in time for me to rush upstairs, I instead headed off to my first panel, on Podcasting. Fortunately, the other panelist was an actual podcaster, Taylor Kent, so we had a good discussion. Big hint Mr. Kent gave for potential podcasters: when looking for a host, go for bandwidth.
Did some talking to people, it was now five o'clock, so back over to the hotel desk. My room still showed as not cleaned, so the desk clerk called up to have it hustled up. Five minutes later, I was finally on my way.
I didn't actually take a shower or nap, though I did finally get to drop the luggage off, and wash a few body parts. By the time I got done situating myself, it was time to head down for the Mark Time Radio Show, this year with special guest performer Wally Wingert (you may have heard him as the Tallest on Invader Zim, or as Renge on Bleach.) The plot involved a movie producer and his politician brother unleashing a horde of monsters on the land for economic reasons. Funny stuff.
Opening Ceremonies started with a skit, Survivor: Tattooine. Also funny. There were audio SF awards, and the introduction of this years' GOHs, including Bernie Wrightson (Swamp Thing), Wally Wingert, Lois McMaster Bujold (Miles Vorkosigan), John Kovalic (Dork Tower), Brian Keene (Conqueror Worms) and probably the youngest Guest of Honor Convergence has ever had, Emily Hagins, the director of Pathogen.
It got out a bit late, so I saw only the last bit of the Geek Social Fallacies panel. For the record, even in the fannish community, touching someone without their permission is not polite, and the other person is well within their rights to tell you so in the strongest terms. They're not just being mean.
After that, room parties! So many this year that on Friday night, I just went to the ones surrounding the pools. Stuffed myself silly, talked to people, played a couple of games. The most unusual event was from some folks who do LARP Changeling; two of their members actually got married at the con! (I didn't attend the ceremony, but did get some wedding cake.)
Pretty tuckered by this point, I went up to my lovely air-conditioned room, larger than my entire apartment, and got some sleep.
I woke up Saturday morning to the realization that my room faced east and I hadn't drawn the second, more opaque curtains the night before. Still, it was so nice being able to use the bathroom and take a long shower without worrying about anyone interrupting! Free newspaper too! (Breakfast would have been extra.)
I turned on the TV and happened to catch the last half hour or so of "Pokemon: Water Temple", in which Ash temporarily becomes King of the Sea.
After a quick nosh in the Consuite, it was off to "POC Clock: Mortality for Characters of Color." This was the first of several panels run by Nerds of Color that I attended. The premise was actually clocking movies to see how long it takes from when a non-WASP character is introduced in the film to when they die. The results were pretty sad.
Then it was off to "Wally World", where Mr. Wingert held forth on his career as an actor, with an emphasis on his voiceover work.
A showing of Pathogen was so crowded you couldn't even get near the door of the Cinema Rex room, so I bummed around a bit (nice art show again this year) until Dr. Jim Kakalios' lecture on physics and superheroes (with a slight modification for the "creature" theme of this year's con.) Well worth it, highly recommended if he comes to a con or physics gathering near you.
After that, "Shiny New Anime", though most of the stuff I'd already heard of--"Darker than Black" sounds kind of cool, and apparently there will be another season of "Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya."
Following on, "Are Bad Guys Monsters?", focusing on the difference between an antagonist, a villain and a monster.
You know, I attended a lot of panels this year. Next up, "New Time Audio SF from Old Time Radio." This one had folks from Mark Time and Firesign Theater on it, so was very informative about the history of audio SF. Hint to people wanting to win Mark Time awards--do not submit your productions of Frankenstein or Dracula. These have been done. The Internet is both a blessing--you can get your audio product out--and a curse, because there is little to no quality control, and word of mouth only works so far.
At this point, I went out for a bite at Dairy Queen.
Back at the con, "Adopted! A Roll of the Dice." This panel had a special focus on transracial and transcultural adoptions, as all the panelists were people of color adopted by white families. They talked about the special resonance characters such as Worf have for them. Interestingly enough, it seems that the Twin Cities is the center of one of the largest adoptees of color support structures. There was also some discussion of how adoption shifted between generations from being a shameful secret to something to show pride in.
Then it was time for more parties, this time mostly on the fourth floor. A couple of the rooms were closed, alas. I spent most of my time in the room showing anime music videos.
Back downstairs, I attended the "Yellowspace" panel, where the discussion was of the best and worst representation of Asians and Asian-Americans in genre media in the last year. "Winner" in the worst movie category was 300, although Pirates of the Carribean came in for a lot of harsh words as well. Egg Fu, of DC Comics, got worst comic book character, despite admittedly being much improved over the Silver Age version.
I dropped by the anime room to see if I'd won any prizes in their drawing. No.
A couple more room parties, a short stay to hear the Dregs in the music room, and thus to bed. Oh, it was so nice to be able to sleep.
The next morning, along with the Sunday paper, I discovered that checkout time was noon. The problem with that was that I would be in a panel at that time. So, after another luxurious shower, I packed up to be ready to leave, hurried down to the consuite for breakfast, and headed off to a panel.
This one was "Manga Invasion of Comics", which was lightly attended due to being first thing Sunday morning, and having been time-shifted after the programs were printed due to a conflict with another manga panel. Two recent college graduates talked about the various influences manga has had on US comics, from the artistic stylings of Frank Miller to distribution models. One of the panelists has a webcomic called (I think) "The Green Avenger." I should really check that out.
Back out, won nothing at the art show, won a prize package for my littler nieces at the silent auction (the two big money-getters were a very nice quilt and Gordon R. Dickson's typewriter.) Did not win anything at the Changeling party room.
Up and out of the room with the luggage, then to the checkout desk where supposedly there was a box to drop the room key in, but I didn't see it, so had to stand in line to check out.
Still, made it to the main "Manga" panel in the nick of time. My fellow panelists were Anna Waltz and Aaron Vander Giessen, and I grabbed the moderator slot by virtue of being both rested and pushy. (Plus having been in the hobby since before many in the audience were born.) As is the trend with these things, we covered some of the basics of what manga is, how it differs from mainstream US comics, some of our favorites, and which manga might be problematic for a teacher of middle-school children to have in the classroom. I hope that everyone had a good and informative time.
I made a last trip to the dealers' room, and picked up a birthday/graduation gift for my brother, who is now a PhD.
Then another swing by the consuite for lunch and a big can of VitaminEnergy drink from the folks at Glaceau, who were one of the convention sponsors.
With impeccable timing, I just missed the bus, and had to wait an hour for the next one. Luckily, there was cloud cover and a good breeze, so I didn't get sunstroke. Even better, the bus came just before the thunderstorm broke. Sadly, the rain hadn't quite stopped by the time I got off the bus downtown, but it was a nice break from the humid heat.