I arrived at Lunacon very worn out from my business trip to San Diego and determined to have a quiet, relaxing time. This fell apart immediately, when I wandered in Friday evening with Marc and Keira and had to go straight into my first panel, "Body Language and Costume Presentation", while they got us checked into the hotel and unloaded. We had more panelists than audience by a factor of 5:1, but the one audience member kept changing, so we gave specific advice to individuals and chatted among ourselves in between.
Program registration was smooth, smooth, smooth. All items present and accounted for and acquired quickly. Since pre-con program planning had been last-minute and unpleasantly disorganized, this was a relief and a bit of a surprise. I did note that one item I had asked to be taken off of (and which did not appear on my personal program schedule) was nonetheless still on the program with my name on it. Arrgh. I decided I was not going to make this my problem. Quiet and relaxing.
The Guests of Honor were Jacqueline Carey (Writer), Johnna Y. Klukas (Artist), Joe Siclari (Fan), and Winston Howlett (Special). I had met Carey at last year's Darkovercon, so while I've enjoyed the Kushiel books, I didn't feel compelled to spend the con attending her stuff. I was very, very pleased to see (2001 Hugo base creator) Johnna's unusual sculpture in wood and other media honored.
I was too mentally worn out to get into a Regency gown and go to the "Regency" ball, even though I'd brought the whole outfit. I'm told it was a very short ball (two dances). The program item description was deceptive:
Learn and try the dances of Jane Austen's day, at Lunacon's own homage to Regency romances. No experience necessary.
None of the dances done were within fifty years of Jane Austen's day or the Regency. Just saying. I have talked about this stuff at length elsewhere in my professional capacity, so I won't do it here.
Instead, I spent the evening alternately drifting through the Art Show Reception picking up interesting gossip about the Hugos and sitting around and chatting with folks in a
corner of the hallway, where I was introduced to the first Dalmatian
Tribble I'd ever seen, owned by my friend Vicki, a Pennsylvania
costumer and nuclear engineer. In keeping with my Holstein-themed
mission to view all the black and white animals at the San Diego Zoo
the previous week (trip photos here), I took its photograph.
I went to the "Bondage in Brundage" panel at 11:00 and slept through most of it, but managed to stay awake long enough for panelists Meredith Schwartz and Merav Hoffman to feed me an opening to complain about how bizarre it was to pair polyamory and bondage in this panel. I think I have to quote the item description here:
How do you make sadomasochistic characters respectable? If you write about bondage, do you have to get all the knots right? How does polyamory work in fiction, as opposed to real life? A guide to everything a writer needs to know about alternative sexuality. Adults only.
Okay, let's see.
1) Poly not suitable for children. This would be news to the poly groupings I know who are raising children. What next, homosexuality not suitable for children?
2) "How does polyamory work in fiction, as opposed to real life?" Shouldn't that be the other way around? It works in fiction as well as the author makes it work, duh.
3) Isn't the answer to the first question best summed up as "be Jacqueline Carey"?
Since I was pretty much sleepwalking, I headed back to my room, where my intended early night was made later by my discovery that all but one of the pillows in the room were feather. Bad pillows. Late-night summoning of pillows was performed. I wish hotels would go back to being downscale and having cheap pillows and polyester blankets instead of hyperallergenic down-filled bedding.
I woke up fairly early Saturday morning and went and swam and sat in the hot tub. My new bathing suit works well except that the straps are a bit long. I can fix this by crossing them in back and adding a snap, I think. I managed temporarily with a safety pin there and another in front to assure complete scar coverage.
I made a brief excursion to the very dangerous environs of Devra Langsam's Poison Pen Press in the dealer's room, where I was persuaded to part with way too much money for a spectacular book on Georgian jewelry. I am trying to convince myself that this book was professionally necessary in order for me to dress properly for Regency-era events. I'm trying very hard to convince myself of this. I consigned some of the new Spare Parts Regency Ballroom CD to Devra and sold one on the spot to a dance friend. I then wandered by the art show and had a long chat with Ted Atwood regarding NESFA politics (which, thankfully, are not my problem in any way, shape or form) and my desire to get Marvin Kaye and Parke Godwin's third "Solitude" novel written and published.
I caught the last half of the very interesting panel "Blogging as a Promotional Tool" with Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Bob Eggleton, Marianne Plumridge, and the extremely helpful Racheline Maltese. There was plenty of useful information not just for professional writers and artists but also for random natterers and professional dance historians like myself. I took notes and later collared Racheline for more details.
I was then sucked into a long work session with Ben Yalow on the Digital Wilderness Committee's project of bringing the Hugo Awards into the 21st century by working out accommodations for online work in the existing award categories. Going through the categories turned out to be easier than I expected, but still quite time-consuming. We broke for me to do my two panels then finally finished in the early evening. My virtue has not yet extended to writing this up properly. Very soon now, really.
My two afternoon program items went along smoothly. The Torchwood panel was predictably random nattering, which would have been more fun for me if more people had gotten as far along in their viewing as I had so I could have spared myself the constant self-editing to avoid spoilers.
The vampire panel was as lively as you'd expect when half the panelists arrive and immediately pull out pocket flasks. Putting Laura Anne Gilman and Keith DeCandido on a panel is asking for trouble (of the amusing comedy act variety), but we managed to stay more or less on topic. Michael Grabin explained his otherwise inexplicable presence on the panel: he'd suggested having it. Great participant-selection method there! Moderator K.T. Pinto mostly had different questions from the ones she'd used at Arisia, thank goodness. I boycotted the one question that was the same and struck me as stupid the second time around too ("How did you get into vampires?") I observed aloud that while Buffy had not ruined the vampire genre, it had to some degree ruined vampire program items for several years during which no one wanted to talk about anything but Buffy. Fortunately, that time has passed, and we actually had a nice balance of books, movies, TV, comics, etc. discussion.
I didn't get to much other program and didn't spend much time poring over the
pocket program, but I have to note this description, which would have
embarrassed me to be either the writer or the subject of:
Engage in discussion with Irene Gallo, the most popular and respected art director in the field of Science Fiction and Fantasy. This interview will illuminate the depth to which Irene Gallo has advanced the appreciation of the arts in the illustration field from book publishing to conventions to board memberships to gallery exhibits. Find out what makes her the best...
I can't decide whether the clumsy writing ("the depth to which Irene Gallo has advanced") or the slobbering tone is more annoying here, but I skipped the item, which was, I gather, an interview by Donato Giancola.
(I was also wondering, after Giancola's public admission/boast at a drawing panel later that afternoon that he had signed his name to a painting completed by his assistant and passed it off to an unsuspecting art director as his own work, whether Irene Gallo was the art director in question. I was not the only person at the con wondering the same thing, judging by chatter in the art show later. I knew this was the practice during the Renaissance, but I hadn't realized it was acceptable in today's art world.)
Saturday night's masquerade was short and lacked any really show-stopping costumes, alas. Cleaning up was the Kovalcin family, with big sister Laura in her Frog Princess getup and little sister Deanna in her (mom-made) Sandman costume both taking major awards. Diane (mom) also won awards in the Art Show. That whole family is just disgustingly talented. Kim Kindya had a major group presentation ("Revolutions"?) from some anime show. The costumes were in such a state of incompletion by masquerade time that they unfortunately didn't get onstage until after the judges had already left the room. The group looked uneven to me, though it's hard to say when not familiar with the source - some of the costumes (especially Shanti Fader's) looked really, really good, and other looked, um, less good. Also, pink hair and red costumes, ick. (That's more a comment on the original source material than Kim's taste, I expect.) I had volunteered to work as a Den Mom, but they had more Den Parents than Den Denizens, so I ended up doing some ushering and watching from the audience.
The halftime show was intended to be movie trailers, but due to some serious technical difficulties we only got to see about half of them. That's probably just as well - I think most of the ones we missed were "B" horror movies that I wasn't especially interested in. I felt for presenter Bob Greenberger, though, who was doing his best to carry on in spite of the uncooperative DVDs.
I spent the rest of the evening drifting around to parties, finally washing up at the Contata party where various filk and dance friends had collected. We heard bad news about Lois Mangan's declining health. I then managed to find high entertainment in meeting a small green laptop for the first time. The laptop has ears, which I found ridiculously pleasing. It folds up to be the size of a small purse and has a convenient carrying handle. It's supposed to be tough, but its owner wouldn't let me throw it against the wall or stomp on it to find out if it would still work afterwards. Some people are just no fun. I also note that the thing is a chick magnet for pleasantly geeky values of chick: at right are Keira, Racheline, and Patty admiring the pretty green toy. Patty does have clothes on, it just isn't obvious in the picture. It wasn't that exciting a party.
Since it's equipped with a camera of its own, I took a recursive sort of picture of myself taking a picture of the laptop taking my picture. (Click the picture for a larger view.)
At this point it was clear that I was in need of sleep, so I again went to bed fairly early. I am starting to feel old and sedate, going to sleep so early at conventions. I felt bad at not having gotten to Alexis Gilliland's launch party for his new website, but will cherish the illustrated invitation he handed me. I would really like to see Alexis get a Fan Artist Hugo again (he hasn't won since his run in 1980 and 1983-1985).
Sunday morning's primary occupation was checking out of the hotel and a long visit to the art show before it closed, where Johnna very kindly gave me permission to take a few shots of her work and post them here (click for larger views). Note that all of these works are copyright Johnna Y. Klukas. Much better pictures may be found on her website here.
Finally, I was given a pair of eyeballs which fit over your fingers to make a sort of puppet. The fact that I found this fascinating suggested to me it was time to go home and get more sleep, so we left fairly early in the afternoon.
It is surprisingly hard to get a good picture of your own hand wearing eyeballs.
This is marked March 31st, but it just showed up in my friendslist today -- are you backdating? This is me looking at my friend Laurel's OLPC at Minicon last month. I handled the keys well, but it doesn't do enough other things for me.
What are you going to do with the eyeballs? And Johnna's work is very spiffy -- she makes great rockets!
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | April 12, 2008 at 01:32 AM
Busted!
I wrote the post a couple of weeks ago (while I still remembered my weekend) and then held it while waiting from explicit permission from Johnna to post the pictures (she had specified "low res" and since I am Teh Clueless on photo stuff I wasn't sure if I had made them suitably low res). When I got the permission I released the post with the date I originally wrote it, having no notion of how weird that would look on a friendslist. I'm also probably going to cheat by going back and arranging those pictures more aesthetically when I get the chance, so the post will Magically Change at some point.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | April 12, 2008 at 09:05 PM
The owner of the X0 "little green laptop", while aware that it has a ridiculously long expected lifetime, was somewhat disinclined to reduce that lifetime precipitously.
Now, maybe if I owned two of them...
Posted by: Joshua Kronengold | April 14, 2008 at 12:13 AM