Back from WorldCon (pants bankrupt)
So I've returned from my first WorldCon in one piece, and gotten some much needed sleep. I won't be catching up on LJ, so if you posted anything I really should know, leave a comment here.
Basically, I spent the convention going to panels, filking, chatting with people and helping out in staff den. I did manage to check out the dealer's room and the hospitality suites, but never made it to any readings, or gaming, or parties, or the art show. It was a busy convention, but I had a really good time.
Staff den volunteering has got to be one of the more thankful jobs at a con. Not only are the people who come by thankful, but there is also food and drinks available.
Open filking was excellent. I went to humor and media theme circles. The circles were pretty polite and it was really nice to be with a different group than usual and get to hear new stuff. I played Brooke Lunderville's "Livejournal Shanty" for the humor circle with good reaction. Also performed Ben Newman's "Are We There Yet", Daniel Barrett's "Find the Longest Path", Must Be Tuesday's "My Place or Yours".
Soaking in filk music at a con always makes me want to write stuff, and so I finally pulled out a song I started at Boskone and finished it, and played it in circle. So yay!
The scheduling of things meant that there were a lot of program items that I only caught part of. This actually worked out pretty well, since I'm not really good at sitting for an hour and half anyhow. Panels, workshops, and concerts that I caught at least part of were:
* Re-reading. This was a really nifty panel, full of different perspectives, on the topic.
* Chapter and Verse, a concert and reading for filk based on literature. I finally got to hear the story "Meat" is based on.
* Welcome to Worldcon Part 1. I figure this might be useful since this was my first Worldcon, but really my experience with regional cons was more useful than the panel.
* Filk from the Listeners' Perspective. I didn't catch much of this panel, thanks to timing, but I think the generation difference between me and the panelist caused this not to speak to me.
* Legal Systems, Past and Future. This panel was somewhat interesting, but hearing lot of laughter and applause for the next room over caused me to instead go check out...
* The New Media, a panel about technology's effect on the arts. The topic wasn't something that would have caught by attention but the panelists included Cory Doctorrow and Neil Gaiman, so I think that accounts for the liveliness. This panel was a lot of fun.
* Concerts: Kathleen Sloan & David Weingart. Good concerts. I hadn't hear Dave Weingart in concert before and was quite impressed.
* The Prometheus Awards, for SF about freedom. I only caught the end of this, and so really don't have much to say.
* From the Earth to the Moon (concert). This was alright, but all I saw was songs I hear a lot before.
* Abby Normal: Comedy and SF. Another enjoyable panel.
* Concert: Heather Dale. Heather Dale continues to be an excellent performer.
* Would it Really Help to Get Rid of those Nasty Rough Men? a panel about single-sex cultures. I went to this expecting to get offended and have to leave, but went because two books I love (Ethan of Athos, and Glory Season) are single-sex worlds, and was very pleasantly surprised. Not only was there a lack of loudmouthed extremist politics, but the audience involvement was good too. There was a noticeable tendency to keep referencing various SF stories, and one of the panelist even brought a list of related reading to hand out. The topic did tangent a bit into the topic of could you have a violence free society, which was also nifty.
*Assistive Technology, or When is a Cyborg? I only caught a little bit of this before running of to...
* Concerts: TBA. These were the last minute concert sign-ups and happyfunpaul had one, so I went. The other concerts were by H. Scrimgeour and the Burnside-Clapp family. Good concerts all around, and I got the hear the story of arrival in Montreal rendered in song format.
* Designing the Perfect Filk Con. I wish I could say good things about this panel, since my friends were on it, but I really wanted to hear useful advice, rather than a wishful list of extremely unlikely ideals.
* Concert: Sassafrass. Sassafrass also continues to put on a good show.
* Private Passions: The Many Interests of Neil Gaiman. Listening to Neil Gaiman talk is in fact a good time.
* Concerts: Stone Dragons, and Seanan McGuire. I'm starting to really wish I had some thing to say about the concerts, other than "Yay, good concert!"
* Polyamory: Not Quite as Heinlein Described it. Another panel I was more impressed with than I expected to be, in large part because it actually keep relating back to literature. Emotionally, this was kind of mixed bag for me, but that could be an entire post on it's own.
* Songwriting Workshop. This was awesome! It started with everyone who wrote songs in the room (nearly everyone) talking briefly about there process. It was nifty to hear the varied processes and Seanan called me awesome for chording with a ukulele. Also, apparently I should go learn about structured poetry.
* Cultrual Memory, Societal Resilience and Change. I didn't stay long at this panel, which seemed rather unfocused.
* Fans aren't slans!: Pathologies of Fannish Culture. This wasn't something I was enthusiastic about, but at this point the con was running down, and my options were limited. I left early to catch...
* Concert: Blind Lemming Chiffon. My impression of this concert was surrealism with excellent fingerpicking.
I really wanted to get to see the Hugo awards, but Sunday evening, I was crashing and so went to sleep instead.
Some overall notes:
* Wandering the hall and going into panel room that laughter is coming out of works remarkably well.
* Overall, I was very impressed with the level of respect and politeness the panelists showed each other and the audience. Panel discussion were noticeably more polite on average than any regional con I'd been to. Perhaps it is a Canadian thing.
* I get shy went I think people know more than me about something.
* Good moderation dramatically improves a panel. Now I want to learn how to be a good moderator.
* My list of to-read has expanding dramatically. I guess I'll need to get over to the library soon.
Basically, I spent the convention going to panels, filking, chatting with people and helping out in staff den. I did manage to check out the dealer's room and the hospitality suites, but never made it to any readings, or gaming, or parties, or the art show. It was a busy convention, but I had a really good time.
Staff den volunteering has got to be one of the more thankful jobs at a con. Not only are the people who come by thankful, but there is also food and drinks available.
Open filking was excellent. I went to humor and media theme circles. The circles were pretty polite and it was really nice to be with a different group than usual and get to hear new stuff. I played Brooke Lunderville's "Livejournal Shanty" for the humor circle with good reaction. Also performed Ben Newman's "Are We There Yet", Daniel Barrett's "Find the Longest Path", Must Be Tuesday's "My Place or Yours".
Soaking in filk music at a con always makes me want to write stuff, and so I finally pulled out a song I started at Boskone and finished it, and played it in circle. So yay!
The scheduling of things meant that there were a lot of program items that I only caught part of. This actually worked out pretty well, since I'm not really good at sitting for an hour and half anyhow. Panels, workshops, and concerts that I caught at least part of were:
* Re-reading. This was a really nifty panel, full of different perspectives, on the topic.
* Chapter and Verse, a concert and reading for filk based on literature. I finally got to hear the story "Meat" is based on.
* Welcome to Worldcon Part 1. I figure this might be useful since this was my first Worldcon, but really my experience with regional cons was more useful than the panel.
* Filk from the Listeners' Perspective. I didn't catch much of this panel, thanks to timing, but I think the generation difference between me and the panelist caused this not to speak to me.
* Legal Systems, Past and Future. This panel was somewhat interesting, but hearing lot of laughter and applause for the next room over caused me to instead go check out...
* The New Media, a panel about technology's effect on the arts. The topic wasn't something that would have caught by attention but the panelists included Cory Doctorrow and Neil Gaiman, so I think that accounts for the liveliness. This panel was a lot of fun.
* Concerts: Kathleen Sloan & David Weingart. Good concerts. I hadn't hear Dave Weingart in concert before and was quite impressed.
* The Prometheus Awards, for SF about freedom. I only caught the end of this, and so really don't have much to say.
* From the Earth to the Moon (concert). This was alright, but all I saw was songs I hear a lot before.
* Abby Normal: Comedy and SF. Another enjoyable panel.
* Concert: Heather Dale. Heather Dale continues to be an excellent performer.
* Would it Really Help to Get Rid of those Nasty Rough Men? a panel about single-sex cultures. I went to this expecting to get offended and have to leave, but went because two books I love (Ethan of Athos, and Glory Season) are single-sex worlds, and was very pleasantly surprised. Not only was there a lack of loudmouthed extremist politics, but the audience involvement was good too. There was a noticeable tendency to keep referencing various SF stories, and one of the panelist even brought a list of related reading to hand out. The topic did tangent a bit into the topic of could you have a violence free society, which was also nifty.
*Assistive Technology, or When is a Cyborg? I only caught a little bit of this before running of to...
* Concerts: TBA. These were the last minute concert sign-ups and happyfunpaul had one, so I went. The other concerts were by H. Scrimgeour and the Burnside-Clapp family. Good concerts all around, and I got the hear the story of arrival in Montreal rendered in song format.
* Designing the Perfect Filk Con. I wish I could say good things about this panel, since my friends were on it, but I really wanted to hear useful advice, rather than a wishful list of extremely unlikely ideals.
* Concert: Sassafrass. Sassafrass also continues to put on a good show.
* Private Passions: The Many Interests of Neil Gaiman. Listening to Neil Gaiman talk is in fact a good time.
* Concerts: Stone Dragons, and Seanan McGuire. I'm starting to really wish I had some thing to say about the concerts, other than "Yay, good concert!"
* Polyamory: Not Quite as Heinlein Described it. Another panel I was more impressed with than I expected to be, in large part because it actually keep relating back to literature. Emotionally, this was kind of mixed bag for me, but that could be an entire post on it's own.
* Songwriting Workshop. This was awesome! It started with everyone who wrote songs in the room (nearly everyone) talking briefly about there process. It was nifty to hear the varied processes and Seanan called me awesome for chording with a ukulele. Also, apparently I should go learn about structured poetry.
* Cultrual Memory, Societal Resilience and Change. I didn't stay long at this panel, which seemed rather unfocused.
* Fans aren't slans!: Pathologies of Fannish Culture. This wasn't something I was enthusiastic about, but at this point the con was running down, and my options were limited. I left early to catch...
* Concert: Blind Lemming Chiffon. My impression of this concert was surrealism with excellent fingerpicking.
I really wanted to get to see the Hugo awards, but Sunday evening, I was crashing and so went to sleep instead.
Some overall notes:
* Wandering the hall and going into panel room that laughter is coming out of works remarkably well.
* Overall, I was very impressed with the level of respect and politeness the panelists showed each other and the audience. Panel discussion were noticeably more polite on average than any regional con I'd been to. Perhaps it is a Canadian thing.
* I get shy went I think people know more than me about something.
* Good moderation dramatically improves a panel. Now I want to learn how to be a good moderator.
* My list of to-read has expanding dramatically. I guess I'll need to get over to the library soon.