Redemption '09
Redemption '09 has just happened. Mostly, in a blur. There are fans posting about Best. Redemption. Ever. So I guess it went okay...
I have some regrets. Chiefly, I regret that I didn't get to say thank you in person to Paul Cornell or Kev Sutherland before they left *blush*. Both of them did us proud, and I feel guilty for not being able to wave them off.
We screwed up in placing con tables in Three Spires. We'd expected that Three Spires would get far more use than it did, and the coming cons suffered as a result. Sorry, guys - we let you down.
Getting merchandise to and from the dealers room was a nightmare, involving two separate lift systems (including the whacky main lifts) and trips through the kitchen. I'm not sure I can see a way to fix that, however.
We messed up over the issues of parking and the availability of non-smoking rooms; back when we first started taking bookings for '09, we were expecting to still be at Hinckley, where neither were an issue (loads of parking, and only non-smoking rooms). When the hotel changed, we were tardy in recognising the problem, and by then it was too late to get the message out. Damn. Something to be looked at for next time.
We forgot about cider, for the bar pricing. An oversight, plain and simple. Sorry about that.
Some regulars didn't make it, for one reason or another, and I rarely got the chance to talk to many of my friends who did.
Enough with the bad. There were some great moments, too. The three book-thread panels went very well. As murranker notes, these panels often just run themselves, and altariel and I just nudge things along occasionally, then sit back and marvel at the insight flowing off the audience. We had serious capacity problems in BR12, so we decamped to the Three Spires for the Saturday and Sunday panels. Particular highlights came in the middle panel, on fantasy procedurals, when siggav had coincidentally read every single one of the series I'd looked up for sort-of preparation, and so could fill in where I was waffling. And then gair came up with the ultimate genre fusion: fantasy/prison. I say write that sucker!
I was initially worried about whether anyone would make it to the quarterstaff workshop, what with it having to be so late on a Sunday (ceiling height problems), but I was reassured by several people asking me whether any sign-up or registration would be necessary. Phew. I'd organised 15 poles (PVC drainage pipes) to represent the staffs, and more people than that turned up. So hurrah!
It went very well too, with the manic gleam in some eyes particularly nice to behold. Plus, it's always good, when first demonstrating a technique, to get a whole crowd of people going "oooo," in an I-like-that sort of way. For anyone who'd like to know more, feel free to mail me, or look up the British Federation of Historical Swordplay for a nearby group.
Some people who'd missed previous Redemptions managed to make this one, so hurrah!
The opening and closing ceremonies were fantastic - certainly less tedious than they have been, on occasion, and enlivened by the sketch by iainjcoleman and the_magician, a superb turn from the RSF (deserved winners, as most entertaining despot), and magnificent drazi leaders. Helen and Simon were hugely entertaining all weekend long, but shone particularly during the ceremonies. I nominate them for Ruler campaigns!
Slight awkward moment during the opening: we'd decided to introduce Rob Shearman as first guest, because it's funnier to hype up a guest and then say "...and he's arriving tomorrow." But I forgot to inform Paul of this, who must have been thinking, "they can't even get my name right..." Oops. Still, Paul went on to be most amusing himself.
The cabaret, as always, was fantastic. I missed all the fancy dress due to loitering "backstage" in Jubilee, but being on first, I could sneak out to see most of the rest, while skipping back in to give Kat moral support. Great sketch by iainjcoleman and i_smell_shite, fabulous dance by Kat (which I saw! First time!), brilliant songs from Helen and _36, respectively, plus watervole's impressive poi-ing, blazingskies and co singing, a multimedia LotR/Who cross-over, a dance sketch, more Charles and Fiona... I'm sure I'm missing something out. As usual, it all seemed like a disaster-in-waiting during rehearsal (wrong lines, booming microphones and wailing feedback, missed lighting, off-key and unfunny delivery, etc.) and then comes the actual performance, and it all comes together brilliantly.
And the Socks! I was so pleased Kev agreed to come, after seeing the Socks performance at the Edinburgh Fringe. I'm gutted that work commitments meant that he couldn't spent the whole weekend with us, but it's fantastic that he managed to make it over to Coventry for the Socks show. Lovely to see (well, hear) so many of the audience splitting their sides, too.
I skipped the disco, but I managed to catch the last few dances of the fabulous ceilidh, and was hugely amused to discover that Pigeon English were handing out Drazi points. Result!
The food was great, of course - although the penne in the bar seemed to be an exception to that rule, and having the hotel (mostly) to ourselves was fantastic.
I didn't really get to do much chatting during the weekend, but I got an opportunity to join Rob Shearman during the Dead Dog, where he was holding forth with 36, calapine, Ming, Smitty, and a couple of others whose names I didn't catch (sorry). Public service announcement: Mr Shearman is a BAD BAD MAN with a truly diabolical sense of humour. Highly entertaining. Then, around two-ish, I found myself having a marvellous natter with selenay936 for a couple of hours, about all sorts of things.
Selenay, incidentally, states a point beautifully when she talks about stewarding. I can't tell you the number of times I passed a stewarding point, and saw the same, heroic, selfless people on duty. On the other hand, the number of times I saw cobrabay and micavity outside Ops and Main Hall respectively were vanishingly small. And sabremeister even slept in with the Tech, to keep things safe and secure. That's how dedicated the volunteers were.
Personal thanks to iainjcoleman and i_smell_shite for both putting up all the signage and wall quiz, and for lugging all my stuff across the country in their car, and back again. And - hedging into Kate Winslet territory here - to the lovely Kat for giving me the space to devote two years to this con. You can have your husband back now, love. He's a bit worn out, but not entirely broken down.
It was, I'm told, a great con. With luck, '11 will be even better. See you there!
I have some regrets. Chiefly, I regret that I didn't get to say thank you in person to Paul Cornell or Kev Sutherland before they left *blush*. Both of them did us proud, and I feel guilty for not being able to wave them off.
We screwed up in placing con tables in Three Spires. We'd expected that Three Spires would get far more use than it did, and the coming cons suffered as a result. Sorry, guys - we let you down.
Getting merchandise to and from the dealers room was a nightmare, involving two separate lift systems (including the whacky main lifts) and trips through the kitchen. I'm not sure I can see a way to fix that, however.
We messed up over the issues of parking and the availability of non-smoking rooms; back when we first started taking bookings for '09, we were expecting to still be at Hinckley, where neither were an issue (loads of parking, and only non-smoking rooms). When the hotel changed, we were tardy in recognising the problem, and by then it was too late to get the message out. Damn. Something to be looked at for next time.
We forgot about cider, for the bar pricing. An oversight, plain and simple. Sorry about that.
Some regulars didn't make it, for one reason or another, and I rarely got the chance to talk to many of my friends who did.
Enough with the bad. There were some great moments, too. The three book-thread panels went very well. As murranker notes, these panels often just run themselves, and altariel and I just nudge things along occasionally, then sit back and marvel at the insight flowing off the audience. We had serious capacity problems in BR12, so we decamped to the Three Spires for the Saturday and Sunday panels. Particular highlights came in the middle panel, on fantasy procedurals, when siggav had coincidentally read every single one of the series I'd looked up for sort-of preparation, and so could fill in where I was waffling. And then gair came up with the ultimate genre fusion: fantasy/prison. I say write that sucker!
I was initially worried about whether anyone would make it to the quarterstaff workshop, what with it having to be so late on a Sunday (ceiling height problems), but I was reassured by several people asking me whether any sign-up or registration would be necessary. Phew. I'd organised 15 poles (PVC drainage pipes) to represent the staffs, and more people than that turned up. So hurrah!
It went very well too, with the manic gleam in some eyes particularly nice to behold. Plus, it's always good, when first demonstrating a technique, to get a whole crowd of people going "oooo," in an I-like-that sort of way. For anyone who'd like to know more, feel free to mail me, or look up the British Federation of Historical Swordplay for a nearby group.
Some people who'd missed previous Redemptions managed to make this one, so hurrah!
The opening and closing ceremonies were fantastic - certainly less tedious than they have been, on occasion, and enlivened by the sketch by iainjcoleman and the_magician, a superb turn from the RSF (deserved winners, as most entertaining despot), and magnificent drazi leaders. Helen and Simon were hugely entertaining all weekend long, but shone particularly during the ceremonies. I nominate them for Ruler campaigns!
Slight awkward moment during the opening: we'd decided to introduce Rob Shearman as first guest, because it's funnier to hype up a guest and then say "...and he's arriving tomorrow." But I forgot to inform Paul of this, who must have been thinking, "they can't even get my name right..." Oops. Still, Paul went on to be most amusing himself.
The cabaret, as always, was fantastic. I missed all the fancy dress due to loitering "backstage" in Jubilee, but being on first, I could sneak out to see most of the rest, while skipping back in to give Kat moral support. Great sketch by iainjcoleman and i_smell_shite, fabulous dance by Kat (which I saw! First time!), brilliant songs from Helen and _36, respectively, plus watervole's impressive poi-ing, blazingskies and co singing, a multimedia LotR/Who cross-over, a dance sketch, more Charles and Fiona... I'm sure I'm missing something out. As usual, it all seemed like a disaster-in-waiting during rehearsal (wrong lines, booming microphones and wailing feedback, missed lighting, off-key and unfunny delivery, etc.) and then comes the actual performance, and it all comes together brilliantly.
And the Socks! I was so pleased Kev agreed to come, after seeing the Socks performance at the Edinburgh Fringe. I'm gutted that work commitments meant that he couldn't spent the whole weekend with us, but it's fantastic that he managed to make it over to Coventry for the Socks show. Lovely to see (well, hear) so many of the audience splitting their sides, too.
I skipped the disco, but I managed to catch the last few dances of the fabulous ceilidh, and was hugely amused to discover that Pigeon English were handing out Drazi points. Result!
The food was great, of course - although the penne in the bar seemed to be an exception to that rule, and having the hotel (mostly) to ourselves was fantastic.
I didn't really get to do much chatting during the weekend, but I got an opportunity to join Rob Shearman during the Dead Dog, where he was holding forth with 36, calapine, Ming, Smitty, and a couple of others whose names I didn't catch (sorry). Public service announcement: Mr Shearman is a BAD BAD MAN with a truly diabolical sense of humour. Highly entertaining. Then, around two-ish, I found myself having a marvellous natter with selenay936 for a couple of hours, about all sorts of things.
Selenay, incidentally, states a point beautifully when she talks about stewarding. I can't tell you the number of times I passed a stewarding point, and saw the same, heroic, selfless people on duty. On the other hand, the number of times I saw cobrabay and micavity outside Ops and Main Hall respectively were vanishingly small. And sabremeister even slept in with the Tech, to keep things safe and secure. That's how dedicated the volunteers were.
Personal thanks to iainjcoleman and i_smell_shite for both putting up all the signage and wall quiz, and for lugging all my stuff across the country in their car, and back again. And - hedging into Kate Winslet territory here - to the lovely Kat for giving me the space to devote two years to this con. You can have your husband back now, love. He's a bit worn out, but not entirely broken down.
It was, I'm told, a great con. With luck, '11 will be even better. See you there!