Vividcon 2009: My Con Report
I'm still battling the dreaded con crud, but if I don't post this report now, I'm going to forget every single thing that happened. The challenges of possessing a Swiss Cheese memory. :P I took very scanty notes on vidshows and panels (I didn't even take notes on my own panel); my emphasis this year was on the people of Vividcon, not the events. Fair warning: if we spoke over the weekend, chances are I hunted you down at vividcon and friended you. Hope you don't mind! :D
What little reccing I'm going to do will be extremely slapdash and link-less. If you need the links to the individual vids, check morgandawn's compilation here.
Thursday
I arrived at the con hotel at around 11:30am, dashed right passed feochadn, mlyn, and movies_michelle who were waiting in the lobby for me, and ran up to my room to freshen up. Roomies par_avion and redina were already there and hugs were exchanged. Then anoel got there, and sweaty hugs were exchanged. The roomies got previews of the crack panel buttons, and then I ran downstairs to begin tour guide duties. We set out at almost the exact same time as svmadelyn's group and ended up on the same train as them for quite a ways, which gave me a nice opportunity for conversation with nightchik and par_avion. Finally, our paths diverged and we headed to the Field Museum. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, which worked out well for my companions, who are all avid photographers. Before going into the museum, we stopped for hot dogs from one of the carts outside, and feochadn had her very first Chicago style dog with everything. She was not at all daunted by the hot peppers. I was impressed.
Then I took them into the museum and we started with a brief tour of the behind-the-scenes areas on the third floor, including my office. Everyone seemed to really enjoy this, and it was a lot of fun to show off to an appreciative audience. After that was the Pirates exhibit, which also seemed to go over well. After that we took a short Corner Bakery break and then headed over to see the Tsavo lions. feochadn is a huge fan of them and she and myln took many photos while movies_michelle and I chatted. Then we had to go downstairs to the Ancient Egypt exhibit to see the statue that vaguely resembles the late Michael Jackson. :) After that, we were pretty beat, so we began the trek back to the hotel. All in all, a lovely day with lovely companions.
We went our separate ways when we got back to the hotel, and I cannot for the life of me remember what I did for the rest of Thursday night. If anyone knows, help a sister out, would you? I know I must have eaten dinner at some point...Oh, no, in fact I did not. I went to hang out in the lobby, where I got to talk at some length with the delightful nushanakt, whom I got to know at vidukon. Then I headed up to the second floor lounge and watched people arrive for pre-reg. After I got my registration packet, I read the con booklet pretty much from cover to cover because I'm a nerd like that. I also hung out and chatted with deejay and Linda Tong for a while. And then I must have gone to bed because the rest is really a blank.
Friday
Breakfast was with deejay, elz, redina, Linda Tong, medalline, and hellpenguin. Since I had missed the newbie party the night before, I was happy to get to know newbies medalline and hellpenguin in this casual setting. Then I had vj, mod, and volunteer training first thing, and my volunteer shift with melina123 in the consuite started at 10am. I fetched ice and set up snacks. At 11, I went to the Vid Watching panel, and then there was lunch. rhoboat (who is awesome, by the way) and I met up briefly in her room to make a conference call to absent friend raspberry_splat and sent her the world's worst photo of me holding a smooching mini Kirk and Spock. :D Then I went across the street to the grill and got a hot dog for deejay and a burger, which Linda Tong and I shared. At 1pm was millylicious's Photoshop panel, which was fascinating, but did nothing to increase my desire to use Photoshop in my vids. Then was feochadn's History of Film panel, where she showed us some gorgeous silent film footage and the Greatest Straight Cut in film history. Then was the recruiter vid panel and the understanding audience panel. It was all panels, all the time.
For dinner, svmadelyn, elz, norabombay, amireal, seperis and I went to House of Meat and talked about some random wanky LJer who writes iceskating stories about Buddhist monks or some such rot. Good times. Then we went and prepared ourselves for Club Vivid, which entailed me lolling around on the bed watching par_avion put sparklies in her hair and getting swiped with her awesome Lush glitter bar. I loved that thing. Then I took about 5 minutes to put on my dress and brush my hair, and I was good to go. I met Linda Tong downstairs and she was good enough to share one of deejay's stash of Absolut Grape vodka coolers, which was very yummy, but still too much alcohol for my teetotlin' ass.
Club Vivid was a lot of fun; I really enjoy the opportunity to unselfconsciously dance my ass off among nonjudgmental people. It was particularly hot and sweaty this year, maybe because the con is slightly larger now? I was downing the water like crazy. I also took a couple of breaks in the spillover room, where I had nice conversations with shrift and cherryice. bananainpyjamas and I had a nice convo on the dance floor, of all places, I fondled millylicious's tribble, shinetheway gives great hugs and compliments, frostfire_17 is the most adorable drunk ever, mlyn was wearing the most amazing dress ever, and rhoboat and I about busted a gut laughing at the Shatner "Captain Kirk Is On a Mountain" vid. Oh, I also got a chance to meet sol_se, which was very exciting. :)
After Club Vivid, I popped my head into the Leverage party, but quickly backed out because TOO MUCH HUMANITY. I retreated to our room, got in my jammies, napped a little, then woke up and chatted with redina, par_avion, feochadn, and mlyn until sometime when I could no longer keep my eyes open.
Saturday
Breakfast was with par_avion, destina, kassrachel, redina, shinetheway, and frostfire_17, and we talked about where Vividcon fits in with the history of cons, which makes me really want to attend a slash con one of these days. Escapade, maybe?
svmadelyn and I were first up with our Crack Vidshow, and we were nervous that hung-over Club Vivid-ers would not be able to get it together for a 10am show, but we had a very nice turnout, and they came ready to laugh. People even sang along to the last vid, "Forever Fuzz," which is set to Peter Cetera's "Glory of Love". This was pleasing.
Then was our Crack Vid Panel, the notes of which can be found here. It's a big hurried mess in my brain (the full extent of my pre-panel notes="humor is subjective"), but I think it came off okay. If not, we had bribes. We gave away the Pon Farr Kirk/Spock action figures in the raffle, and we had little "crack bags" to hand out, filled with candy, stickers, toys, and of course, the awesome Kirk/Spock + Llama buttons made by jh_july001 and spaggel. Exhibits A and B:
I still have extras of those, if anyone wants one.
During lunch I hung out in the consuite with jackiekjono, keerawa, cmshaw, amireal, justacat, and deejay. Then it was time for nightchik and kiki_miserychic's Meta Vidshow with "'White' & Nerdy" in it. I was so pleased by the reaction! It got more laughs than I was expecting, especially considering the way it speeds along. Then during the Meta Panel afterwards, I was awed and delighted by the thoughtful comments, and the way that everyone seemed to really, really get it. deepad made a particularly spot-on comment on how it addressed the "performativity of race", which, yes, it absolutely does, but I had never thought of it in those exact terms. It was enlightening.
Then I attended the two hour Town Hall on Vidding and Visibility, which, as always, was extremely interesting. I got to hear rivkat talk lawyer-y stuff! It was swoon-worthy. :) I am most excited about a future possibility for us to host our own streaming vids via P2P software, especially in light of the disappearances of Imeem and Vimeo as an option for me.
Dinner was Thai food with norabombaby, and then came Premieres, which I spent in the spillover room. I did actually jot down some reactions in my con booklet, so here they are for you to marvel at:
"Metaphor": Funny
"Fight the Power": LOL
"Learn to Crawl": Femmeslash YAY
"Sleeping With Ghosts": Excellent!!
"It Comes and Goes in Waves": Beautiful vid
"Marble House": Gorgeous vid
"There Was Another Country": Very sweet character vid
"Go Baby": HOT!!
"Beautiful Dirty Rich": Cute!
"Heaven Is a Place on Earth": Cute slash vid
And that's it. I'm quite the scribe, aren't I? hahaha. Seriously, though, Premieres seemed like a lot of work this year. A lot of vids that demanded work from the viewer, and I just didn't have it in me, for the most part.
After Premieres was svmadelyn and seperis's Star Trek room party. Until you have watched "Amok Time" in a room full of snarky fans, you have not really lived, I don't think. ;) It was also fun to see how "Poker Face" plays in front of a live crowd. Turns out there's a lot of singing along involved. Sadly, I reached my social interaction critical mass half-way through the party and had to bail. Then, sleepytimes.
Sunday
Breakfast was at a table with movies_michelle, feochadn, mlyn, redina, sockkpuppett, and I think par_avion was there briefly. I made sure that everyone had received their Kirk/Spock crack buttons, and feochadn shared stories of life on the set of a small budget movie, and we debated whether or not it was out of character for Sam Winchester to carry a money clip.
Vid review was pretty tame this year except for the very end when people got a little het up about "The Long Spear." It was interesting to hear all the different opinions that one vid could spark. Lunch was at the grill across the street with svmadelyn and deejay, where I had a most delicious turkey sandwich and deejay shared her yummy onion rings.
I skipped In-Depth Vid Review in favor of a nap and went back down for the Challenge and Auction vids. My favorite of the Challenge show was far and away "Swing." It was precisely my kind of vid: fantastic movement and loads of fun. In between shows, I was able to get a chance to chat with gwyn_r who is all kinds of awesome and who commiserated with me on my jitters, as she also had a premiere in Auction ("Super Bon Bon"=Fast and Furious squee to the nth degree!!!!). Luckily, "That's Not My Name" was first on the list, so I was put out of my misery fairly early. The vid got a surprising number of laughs. I don't know why it surprised me, I did put a couple of goofy things in there, but I did not anticipate that they would be laugh out loud funny. Score one for emo Clark! \o/ I could not be more thrilled with the audience's reaction and applause. I was one happy vidder after it played. :DDDD
After that, there was Calls from the Public, where elynross solicits feedback and opinions on what could be done differently. As far as I'm concerned, the concom is doing a fantastic job, and the con really does run like clockwork. Afterwards, people congregated in the lounge, and I got to chat briefly with thingswithwings, toft_froggy, bitter_crimson, falzalot, and faos.
Then, con was officially over. It went by so quickly, but then it always does. I went to House of Meat with par_avion, elz, and lierdumoa. par_avion was giving me suggestions for the epic femmeslash vid I want to make, but for which I have not yet found the source. After dinner, we went up to the lounge and chatted for a while, and then par_avion fetched her laptop and we had an impromptu vid party where we watched Club Vivid vids, and a number of people joined us, like millylicious, svmadelyn, keerawa, astolat, lapillus. Many, many of the vids I was seeing for the first time, since I don't tend to process vids very well while I'm dancing.:) While chilling in the lounge, I had nice little chats with nightchik, medalline, and celli.
Monday
Sadly, by Monday morning I was starting to feel unwell, as the con crud was settling into a massive head cold. No way was I going to let down the people to whom I had promised a Field trip, though. anoel, thirdblindmouse, deejay, cherryice, redina, everysecondtues, deepad, if I was at any time cranky or peremptory during the trip, please blame the germs! In spite of my infirmity, I do think we had a good time. I gave them the quick behind the scenes tour, and then we went to Pirates. We had lunch at Corner Bakery, and then we booked it back to the hotel so cherryice could catch her flight. After that, I was completely done in and needed to be home NOW, so I took off, but not before gathering hugs from everyone in the lobby, and undoubtedly infecting them with the con plague. Oops!
In conclusion, Vividcon 2009 was awesome, and my effusive thanks go out to elynross and her team for doing such a wonderful lot of work to create this fun and safe haven for vidders. Looking forward to next year!!!
The End
What little reccing I'm going to do will be extremely slapdash and link-less. If you need the links to the individual vids, check morgandawn's compilation here.
Thursday
I arrived at the con hotel at around 11:30am, dashed right passed feochadn, mlyn, and movies_michelle who were waiting in the lobby for me, and ran up to my room to freshen up. Roomies par_avion and redina were already there and hugs were exchanged. Then anoel got there, and sweaty hugs were exchanged. The roomies got previews of the crack panel buttons, and then I ran downstairs to begin tour guide duties. We set out at almost the exact same time as svmadelyn's group and ended up on the same train as them for quite a ways, which gave me a nice opportunity for conversation with nightchik and par_avion. Finally, our paths diverged and we headed to the Field Museum. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, which worked out well for my companions, who are all avid photographers. Before going into the museum, we stopped for hot dogs from one of the carts outside, and feochadn had her very first Chicago style dog with everything. She was not at all daunted by the hot peppers. I was impressed.
Then I took them into the museum and we started with a brief tour of the behind-the-scenes areas on the third floor, including my office. Everyone seemed to really enjoy this, and it was a lot of fun to show off to an appreciative audience. After that was the Pirates exhibit, which also seemed to go over well. After that we took a short Corner Bakery break and then headed over to see the Tsavo lions. feochadn is a huge fan of them and she and myln took many photos while movies_michelle and I chatted. Then we had to go downstairs to the Ancient Egypt exhibit to see the statue that vaguely resembles the late Michael Jackson. :) After that, we were pretty beat, so we began the trek back to the hotel. All in all, a lovely day with lovely companions.
We went our separate ways when we got back to the hotel, and I cannot for the life of me remember what I did for the rest of Thursday night. If anyone knows, help a sister out, would you? I know I must have eaten dinner at some point...Oh, no, in fact I did not. I went to hang out in the lobby, where I got to talk at some length with the delightful nushanakt, whom I got to know at vidukon. Then I headed up to the second floor lounge and watched people arrive for pre-reg. After I got my registration packet, I read the con booklet pretty much from cover to cover because I'm a nerd like that. I also hung out and chatted with deejay and Linda Tong for a while. And then I must have gone to bed because the rest is really a blank.
Friday
Breakfast was with deejay, elz, redina, Linda Tong, medalline, and hellpenguin. Since I had missed the newbie party the night before, I was happy to get to know newbies medalline and hellpenguin in this casual setting. Then I had vj, mod, and volunteer training first thing, and my volunteer shift with melina123 in the consuite started at 10am. I fetched ice and set up snacks. At 11, I went to the Vid Watching panel, and then there was lunch. rhoboat (who is awesome, by the way) and I met up briefly in her room to make a conference call to absent friend raspberry_splat and sent her the world's worst photo of me holding a smooching mini Kirk and Spock. :D Then I went across the street to the grill and got a hot dog for deejay and a burger, which Linda Tong and I shared. At 1pm was millylicious's Photoshop panel, which was fascinating, but did nothing to increase my desire to use Photoshop in my vids. Then was feochadn's History of Film panel, where she showed us some gorgeous silent film footage and the Greatest Straight Cut in film history. Then was the recruiter vid panel and the understanding audience panel. It was all panels, all the time.
For dinner, svmadelyn, elz, norabombay, amireal, seperis and I went to House of Meat and talked about some random wanky LJer who writes iceskating stories about Buddhist monks or some such rot. Good times. Then we went and prepared ourselves for Club Vivid, which entailed me lolling around on the bed watching par_avion put sparklies in her hair and getting swiped with her awesome Lush glitter bar. I loved that thing. Then I took about 5 minutes to put on my dress and brush my hair, and I was good to go. I met Linda Tong downstairs and she was good enough to share one of deejay's stash of Absolut Grape vodka coolers, which was very yummy, but still too much alcohol for my teetotlin' ass.
Club Vivid was a lot of fun; I really enjoy the opportunity to unselfconsciously dance my ass off among nonjudgmental people. It was particularly hot and sweaty this year, maybe because the con is slightly larger now? I was downing the water like crazy. I also took a couple of breaks in the spillover room, where I had nice conversations with shrift and cherryice. bananainpyjamas and I had a nice convo on the dance floor, of all places, I fondled millylicious's tribble, shinetheway gives great hugs and compliments, frostfire_17 is the most adorable drunk ever, mlyn was wearing the most amazing dress ever, and rhoboat and I about busted a gut laughing at the Shatner "Captain Kirk Is On a Mountain" vid. Oh, I also got a chance to meet sol_se, which was very exciting. :)
After Club Vivid, I popped my head into the Leverage party, but quickly backed out because TOO MUCH HUMANITY. I retreated to our room, got in my jammies, napped a little, then woke up and chatted with redina, par_avion, feochadn, and mlyn until sometime when I could no longer keep my eyes open.
Saturday
Breakfast was with par_avion, destina, kassrachel, redina, shinetheway, and frostfire_17, and we talked about where Vividcon fits in with the history of cons, which makes me really want to attend a slash con one of these days. Escapade, maybe?
svmadelyn and I were first up with our Crack Vidshow, and we were nervous that hung-over Club Vivid-ers would not be able to get it together for a 10am show, but we had a very nice turnout, and they came ready to laugh. People even sang along to the last vid, "Forever Fuzz," which is set to Peter Cetera's "Glory of Love". This was pleasing.
Then was our Crack Vid Panel, the notes of which can be found here. It's a big hurried mess in my brain (the full extent of my pre-panel notes="humor is subjective"), but I think it came off okay. If not, we had bribes. We gave away the Pon Farr Kirk/Spock action figures in the raffle, and we had little "crack bags" to hand out, filled with candy, stickers, toys, and of course, the awesome Kirk/Spock + Llama buttons made by jh_july001 and spaggel. Exhibits A and B:
I still have extras of those, if anyone wants one.
During lunch I hung out in the consuite with jackiekjono, keerawa, cmshaw, amireal, justacat, and deejay. Then it was time for nightchik and kiki_miserychic's Meta Vidshow with "'White' & Nerdy" in it. I was so pleased by the reaction! It got more laughs than I was expecting, especially considering the way it speeds along. Then during the Meta Panel afterwards, I was awed and delighted by the thoughtful comments, and the way that everyone seemed to really, really get it. deepad made a particularly spot-on comment on how it addressed the "performativity of race", which, yes, it absolutely does, but I had never thought of it in those exact terms. It was enlightening.
Then I attended the two hour Town Hall on Vidding and Visibility, which, as always, was extremely interesting. I got to hear rivkat talk lawyer-y stuff! It was swoon-worthy. :) I am most excited about a future possibility for us to host our own streaming vids via P2P software, especially in light of the disappearances of Imeem and Vimeo as an option for me.
Dinner was Thai food with norabombaby, and then came Premieres, which I spent in the spillover room. I did actually jot down some reactions in my con booklet, so here they are for you to marvel at:
"Metaphor": Funny
"Fight the Power": LOL
"Learn to Crawl": Femmeslash YAY
"Sleeping With Ghosts": Excellent!!
"It Comes and Goes in Waves": Beautiful vid
"Marble House": Gorgeous vid
"There Was Another Country": Very sweet character vid
"Go Baby": HOT!!
"Beautiful Dirty Rich": Cute!
"Heaven Is a Place on Earth": Cute slash vid
And that's it. I'm quite the scribe, aren't I? hahaha. Seriously, though, Premieres seemed like a lot of work this year. A lot of vids that demanded work from the viewer, and I just didn't have it in me, for the most part.
After Premieres was svmadelyn and seperis's Star Trek room party. Until you have watched "Amok Time" in a room full of snarky fans, you have not really lived, I don't think. ;) It was also fun to see how "Poker Face" plays in front of a live crowd. Turns out there's a lot of singing along involved. Sadly, I reached my social interaction critical mass half-way through the party and had to bail. Then, sleepytimes.
Sunday
Breakfast was at a table with movies_michelle, feochadn, mlyn, redina, sockkpuppett, and I think par_avion was there briefly. I made sure that everyone had received their Kirk/Spock crack buttons, and feochadn shared stories of life on the set of a small budget movie, and we debated whether or not it was out of character for Sam Winchester to carry a money clip.
Vid review was pretty tame this year except for the very end when people got a little het up about "The Long Spear." It was interesting to hear all the different opinions that one vid could spark. Lunch was at the grill across the street with svmadelyn and deejay, where I had a most delicious turkey sandwich and deejay shared her yummy onion rings.
I skipped In-Depth Vid Review in favor of a nap and went back down for the Challenge and Auction vids. My favorite of the Challenge show was far and away "Swing." It was precisely my kind of vid: fantastic movement and loads of fun. In between shows, I was able to get a chance to chat with gwyn_r who is all kinds of awesome and who commiserated with me on my jitters, as she also had a premiere in Auction ("Super Bon Bon"=Fast and Furious squee to the nth degree!!!!). Luckily, "That's Not My Name" was first on the list, so I was put out of my misery fairly early. The vid got a surprising number of laughs. I don't know why it surprised me, I did put a couple of goofy things in there, but I did not anticipate that they would be laugh out loud funny. Score one for emo Clark! \o/ I could not be more thrilled with the audience's reaction and applause. I was one happy vidder after it played. :DDDD
After that, there was Calls from the Public, where elynross solicits feedback and opinions on what could be done differently. As far as I'm concerned, the concom is doing a fantastic job, and the con really does run like clockwork. Afterwards, people congregated in the lounge, and I got to chat briefly with thingswithwings, toft_froggy, bitter_crimson, falzalot, and faos.
Then, con was officially over. It went by so quickly, but then it always does. I went to House of Meat with par_avion, elz, and lierdumoa. par_avion was giving me suggestions for the epic femmeslash vid I want to make, but for which I have not yet found the source. After dinner, we went up to the lounge and chatted for a while, and then par_avion fetched her laptop and we had an impromptu vid party where we watched Club Vivid vids, and a number of people joined us, like millylicious, svmadelyn, keerawa, astolat, lapillus. Many, many of the vids I was seeing for the first time, since I don't tend to process vids very well while I'm dancing.:) While chilling in the lounge, I had nice little chats with nightchik, medalline, and celli.
Monday
Sadly, by Monday morning I was starting to feel unwell, as the con crud was settling into a massive head cold. No way was I going to let down the people to whom I had promised a Field trip, though. anoel, thirdblindmouse, deejay, cherryice, redina, everysecondtues, deepad, if I was at any time cranky or peremptory during the trip, please blame the germs! In spite of my infirmity, I do think we had a good time. I gave them the quick behind the scenes tour, and then we went to Pirates. We had lunch at Corner Bakery, and then we booked it back to the hotel so cherryice could catch her flight. After that, I was completely done in and needed to be home NOW, so I took off, but not before gathering hugs from everyone in the lobby, and undoubtedly infecting them with the con plague. Oops!
In conclusion, Vividcon 2009 was awesome, and my effusive thanks go out to elynross and her team for doing such a wonderful lot of work to create this fun and safe haven for vidders. Looking forward to next year!!!
The End