Balticon memories. I've been too tired to write about these. I'm still tired, so I will ignore things like complete sentences in favor of fragments and a few pictures (click the thumbnails for larger versions). Overall, it was a nice, relaxing convention with just enough work (panels and a ball) and plenty of time to just hang out.
Friday's travel: A car trip of great silliness with Marc, Keira, and Mer. Did not have to drive, which is fortunate, since I was too tired to drive. I was also too tired to sleep, so I emitted hyperactive and semi-coherent chatter for several hours while I navigated Keira through my backroads route down NJ. Conversational highlights of the trip included: (1) The urgent need to figure out while driving through NJ which character sings "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat" in Guys and Dolls (not remembering this information makes me feel senile.) This eventually involved a cell phone call to someone's mother and finally a smartphone google, and was followed by a cheerful round of my out-of-tune singing (more like chanting) of the whole thing to show that I can still remember lyrics even if I can't remember Nicely-Nicely. (2) Intense analysis of a defective sign which announced a "De ayed Gree". The relationship of the Gree and the Grue. Reasons for and methods of removal of the "a" from agree to result in the Gree and the consequences of this to traffic.
There were also some deliciously weird songs on Keira's iPod that I failed to make a note of but must get from her sometime.
Somewhere in Pennsylvania I finally managed to collapse mentally and slept until we got to the Baltimore beltway and I had to navigate again
Hotel: gave us a room with a single king-sized bed for four people. Sigh. Moving rooms at midnight, what fun. Pillows and comforter: feather, sigh, but I'd thought to bring my own pillow. Decor: blinding. I miss their previous decor, which was ugly but not as headache-inducing. Hot tub: still properly warm and bubbly.
Panels, mine: Two solid hours of program spent talking about Regency costume, men's and women's versions. The men's panel went better; I had prepared more intensely for it because it was newer material for me. I even had handouts. I am now inspired to spend some of my copious free time making a webpage to centralize the information on early 19th-century menswear. There's more out there than people realize, it's just scattered all over.
Panels, other people's: I actually went to three!
Sunday morning's "Evading gender bias in language" was time-shifted an hour with no notice. They'd moved all the panels in Salon D forward an hour for no obvious reason. I got there at what I thought was half an hour into the panel and was surprised to find a partial panel chatting informally. Ended up only staying partway into the panel once it officially started, since I had prep to do for the ball that afternoon, but was generally unimpressed. Very "women's studies 101" in level and included too much talk by Catherine Asaro and her co-panelists about aspects of their own work that didn't actually pertain to gender bias in language. (Hint: reversing gender roles is not the same as eliminating gender bias. Just saying.)
Sunday afternoon's "Feudalism in your Science Fiction and Fantasy stories" (their capitalization, not mine) was intermittently interesting but held in a room the approximate temperature of a sauna, which caused me to drift in and out and miss lots of good stuff.
Monday morning's "Classical Literature and SF" was (pleasingly) full of intelligent commentary by David Hartwell and his co-panelists on the vagaries of canon. Was surprised to hear Darrell Schweitzer refer to feminists as if he wasn't one while talking about how early the pulps had published female writers.
Award goodness: My friend Mark won the Compton Crook Award for his novel One Jump Ahead. Dealer's room was sold out of it. Arrgh. Found David Hartwell behind a dealer's table full of used books; doesn't Tor pay him enough? Claimed to be cleaning out excess, but bought another box of books while I watched. Helped out by relieving him of two Paula Volsky novels from said box: the fabulous Illusion, to replace the copy someone borrowed from me and never returned, and The Grand Ellipse
, just because. Illusion turned out to be a personalized ARC; how tacky to sell off one of those!
Left, writers of the future Rebecca Mazariegos and Kiyanna Remington, third and first place winners in the BSFS Jack Chalker 2008 Young Writer's Contest.
New worldcon bids: Reno in 2011, apparently being promulgated by some combination of Portland and Boston people, making one wonder what sort of catfight is going on in Pacific Northwest fandom. Mid-August dates suck, and really, who wants to go to Reno? Prefer the invisible-at-Balticon Seattle bid, which has Labor Day Weekend dates and a much more attractive city. Peggy Rae's house in 2010. This is a joke, but she'd better be careful or she'll end up running a backyard NASFiC.
Saturday night, masquerade.
Left, fan in hall costume Saturday night. No idea what this was,
but it made me happy just looking at it. Very Seussical, that leaf.
I was delighted to see a bigger and somewhat stronger masquerade than I've seen at the past several convention masquerades. It still wasn't back to the heights of the late '80s and early '90s, but it was quite respectable.
The absolute highlight of the evening was the winning group, "Sleeping Beauty", with Gaia Eirich, Megan Taylor, Sharyn Eirich, Fiona Schram, and Brian Harrington. This started out with the standard blessing of the three fairy godmothers and the awakening kiss, then in an absolutely magnificent turn of stagecraft featured the prince and princess dancing while the feuding godmothers switched her skirt back and forth from blue to pink two or three times. The sleight-of-skirt was incredibly well-done; I was watching closely and still couldn't quite catch how it worked. Bravo!
Left to right: Master costumer Ricky Dick as a collector of roaming ghosts in "First of November"; closeup of the staff; Ricky collects young writer.
Other impressive costumes included father and daughter Ricky and Caitlin Dick as, respectively, a creepy collector of ghosts in "First of November" (shown above) and a wolf-girl (reminiscent of Suzanne Tees' late-1980s "Wolfling") in "Watcher of the Woods".
I also really liked Sue Shambaugh's color-saturated "Caribbean Blue". Out of competition but good to see anyway were Tom Atkinson's Empire State Building, from a Balticon long ago, and Barbara Jewell and friend's Lady Cassandra, a big winner at Arisia back in January. All three entries pictured below.
Left to right: Sue Shambaugh as "Caribbean Blue"; shoulder detail; Barbara
Jewell and friend with Lady Cassandra; Tom Atkinson as the Empire State
Building (with Kong on top). [Updated: Barbara and Greykell with Lady C. Thanks, Jeff!]
General note: masquerade contestants should take dancing lessons before they try to do any sort of couple dancing on stage. Several winceworthy moments in this show.
Left, Peggy Rae's 2010 bid cake.
Saturday night: post-masquerade quest for a party with apple juice. Am I the only one in fandom who drinks the stuff? Funny-looking shopping bag (intended to be a carpetbag, but it doesn't look like one) logo at the Reno bid party, but no juice. Nameless party occurring for no reason except the possession of a chocolate fountain (truly, a good and sufficient reason for a party!) Enjoyed dipping things in chocolate. No juice, but did not miss it while playing with food. Peggy Rae had a sheet cake (yum) and serious food, but no apple juice. Philcon party had those evil Hostess-like snack cakes but no juice. Strange "pwarty" with art on the walls and books to look through but very passive hosting (and no juice). Rescued Elspeth from incipient politics with Keith in a hallway and pulled her into a party to calm down and rehydrate. Finally found apple juice at the costumers' party. Crashed early due to exhaustion.
Sunday's "Dover and Trafalgar Victory Ball", in honor of last year's Compton Crook (and Campbell) winner Naomi Novik. No pictures of this, since I was working. Wore Cathy's red dress; really have got to get on with the new corsetry so I can make new clothes of my own. Decided to be a strict constructionist on dance dates, so did country dances and a vastly dumbed-down cotillion. Filled the room for the entire time. Naomi came, danced, and enjoyed; I tried not to be too fangirly. Had fun putting Temeraire-universe references into the calling. Sold a few CDs. I think we should do this ball every year.
Sunday night, private parties. Happy birthday, Chort. Dance people all clustered in one party, very convenient. Learned that Tom Smith does individualized songs for hire; Chort and Barbara both had these and had set them to music videos. How cool. I am sorely tempted. Happy anniversary, Ken and Vicki. Along with a high concentration of interesting people, the tech party had apple juice; who'd've thought it?
Left: Con chair Greg Wright offers gratitude to the crew. Center: friends at the tech party; Larry (in scrumptious leather pants), Dan, Barbara, Sue Who, and anniversary-celebrant Ken. Right: more friends; Persis and, um, um, did I mention I'm bad with names? [Updated: it's Selki; thanks, Jeff!]
Monday travel: Smooth driving by Keira, with most traffic successfully evaded. Slept a lot. Home in time for dance practice.
last pic is Persis with Selki, and It's Greykell with Barb and Cassandra.
I'll check if Sandy took pics during the ball. Which was a blast. I got a pic with Naomi. And am now in the middle of book 3.
Posted by: jeff | July 03, 2008 at 03:16 PM
Jeff:
Guess whom eight of us are dancing for on Tuesday night...
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | July 03, 2008 at 03:18 PM
too much talk by Catherine Asaro
...must... NOT!... crack wise...
Posted by: Serge | July 03, 2008 at 04:24 PM
Oh, go ahead! I've disliked everything of hers I've read so you're not going to hurt my feelings.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | July 03, 2008 at 04:25 PM
Nah... By the way, the masquerade does look like it was really neat. How does it compare to, say, what worldcon masquerades show?
Posted by: Serge | July 03, 2008 at 04:55 PM
Did you rescue Elspeth from Keith - kfl? He asked why I wasn't there and I haven't been to Balticon for years.
As to Asaro, just reading the descriptions of her books made me not buy them. They sound like they're as much romance as SF!
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | July 03, 2008 at 05:20 PM
Serge: You can crack Morecambe, if you'd like.
Posted by: Fledgist | July 03, 2008 at 05:38 PM
Marilee:
from kfl, yes. The topic was clearly fallout from some recent DC-area fannish politics about which I know both too little and too much, and she looked like she was going to blow her top any second, which on the whole I thought was not worth it.
Serge:
Worldcon masquerades at their best are an order of magnitude better in quality and two or three times the size. Scary!
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | July 03, 2008 at 05:52 PM
Marilee:
Re. Asaro: some day when I have nothing else to blog about I will write about the planet of the pastel unicorns and my deep distaste for the entire universe that surrounds it.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | July 03, 2008 at 05:54 PM
Hah! Thanks for the notes and pictures. I'm still ready to be a minion of your in Denver.
I've tried to avoid Asaro, but John keeps picking up her books, gets part way thorugh them and goes "WTF?! I picked her up again??"
You'd think he'd learn...
Posted by: Tania | July 03, 2008 at 06:35 PM
You know, I returned to this thread (I forget to read the blog generally) just to say that Asaro does not do interesting gender roles. Her standard formula is somewhere between Beauty and the Beast and an abusive relationship on a planetary scale. I read them and cringe, but read them because they are occasionally very satisfying. Even when they're not, they give me satisfying scenes that should have been in the book. And hey, snarkfood.
I enjoyed her latest Skolia book, though a lot of that was low, low expectations. But one of the things I like best may have been unintentional/my own projecting.
It's not the romance. I *like* romance. It's that the romances almost universally contain significant power differentials, both physically and politically, and she never really explores that.
Posted by: Diatryma | July 03, 2008 at 09:26 PM
Marilee... They sound like they're as much romance as SF!
And here's my chance to trumpet an annoucement that, at the worldcon, my wife will be on two panels about writing cross-genre stories.
Posted by: Serge | July 04, 2008 at 08:47 AM
I've read a lot in the very limited subgenre of Regency romance, mostly when I was a teenager, and a few other historical romances now and then, but I don't read romance novels in general and avoid them intensely when my own love life is in disarray, which seems to be a permanent state lately. I especially avoid modern settings, since I can only deal with romance plots in historical settings where the need for a husband is more critical to survival.
But while I like romance and F&SF if the mix is well done and creative, I find that I have a very high mental threshold for that and Asaro just doesn't get over it. Wen Spencer did, and managed to do the gender-role-reversal thing in A Brother's Price and make it entertaining. Lois McMaster Bujold did in A Civil Campaign, but her current "Sharing Knife" stuff bores me.
Much of the current "paranormal romance" craze reads to me more like romance novels with a light coating of F&SF which is insufficient for me. And the covers are just scary. I'm sure there's some good stuff out there, but I need an editor who shares my tastes to sort it from the dreck. (I'm sure there's stuff out there that's not dreck but just doesn't match my tastes...but I'd want that sorted out too.)
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | July 04, 2008 at 10:03 AM
I read one novella of Asaro's, which was easily enough to prevent me from ever voluntarily buying a book of hers, and then read one novel after she handed me a copy as I was busy walking out of her reading. You'd think the walking out bit would have been a clue that I was not the right recipient for the freebie, eh?
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | July 04, 2008 at 10:07 AM
The red thing with a leaf on its head is a red Pikmin from a Nintendo video game called Pikmin. Wikipedia has a description.
Posted by: Nancy C. Mittens | July 04, 2008 at 11:48 AM
Susan... I think that Sharon Lee & Steve Miller's space operas might interest you. They are published as 'real' SF, but they do have a strong romantic streak in them. The Lost Fleet novels of military SF by John Hemry (writing as Jack Campbell) have a strong romantic subplot running thru the books.
(Come to think of it, 2006's James Bond movie Casino Royale is, I think, a very romantic story, but without the strict expectations that come with a story being published - and thus defined - as a romance.)
Posted by: Serge | July 04, 2008 at 12:07 PM
Of course, the post I just put up had it backward. Those recommendations really were for F/SF stories that also work as romances, although without that genre's restrictions. My wife wrote romance novella Kinsman and a sort-of sequel romance novel Kinsman's Oath that could have been published as a straight space adventure, because written SF is where she comes from, as opposed to people who think that something can be made SF just by throwing in a spaceship or a psychic power. Unfortunately, it didn't do well, probably because it was too much a real SF story.
Posted by: Serge | July 04, 2008 at 12:31 PM
Susan - I'm on kfl's side of the blowup, but I'm getting tired of hearing about it in email. I have the firm belief that he could be a reasonable person if he let go of some fannish obsessions.
I enjoyed Heyer as a teenager, but I'm not sure I could read them today.
Serge - I can't afford worldcons, but I wish her good luck on the panels!
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | July 04, 2008 at 05:55 PM
Marilee... Maybe one day there'll be a con or a worldcon where we can finally meet. I've just passed your good wishes on to my wife.
Posted by: Serge | July 04, 2008 at 06:18 PM
[cue music: old advertising jingle]
Wouldn't you like to be a Pikmin too?
I'm not inclined to get a Nintendo set, but I am somewhat inclined to make a leaf and wear it on my head just to confuse people. It would go nicely with my lavender maribou deely-boppers.
Lee/Miller recommendation noted, but probably won't be acted upon unless someone puts a book in front of me.
kfl and DC-area politics: I don't have enough information to have a side, but kfl drives me crazy in general. And whatever the rights or wrongs of the particular issue in question (some sort of spinoff of the politics I have heard about previously), it was clearly not going to be resolved by an escalating argument in a hallway in the party area, and my impression was that kfl was not going to agree to drop the subject.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | July 04, 2008 at 07:39 PM
Serge: I could read Sue's Kinsman novella and blog about what I think about it, but be very sure you want to hear what I think before putting it in front of me, since if I think it's dreck I will have no qualms about saying so (I can distinguish between dreck and not to my personal taste.)
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | July 04, 2008 at 07:43 PM
Hmmm...
Dare I?
Why not? I was a great admirer of TV spy John Drake.
There's a man who leads a life of danger
To everyone he meets he stays a stranger
With every move he makes another chance he takes
Odds are he won't live to see tomorrow
Secret agent man, secret agent man
They've given you a number and taken away your name
Heheheh.
Posted by: Serge | July 05, 2008 at 09:18 AM
Urk?
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | July 05, 2008 at 09:25 AM
Sorry about that. I know you watch very little TV, but thought you might have heard of the early 1960s British spy show Danger Man, which was known in the USA as Secret Agent. It starred Patrick MacGoohan. Anyway, the quote above was from the show's opening credits. My apologies for the confusion.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058846/
Posted by: Serge | July 05, 2008 at 09:54 AM
Susan - It may help to have Command Voice, but I can usually just tell kfl "We're not talking about that now" and we can talk about something else.
Serge, I was singing along with you! Watching Twilight Zone the last couple of days gave me lots of early work from people who would later be famous.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | July 05, 2008 at 06:50 PM
Marilee... Let's see. James Coburn. Robert Redford. Robert Duvall. Cliff Robertson. William Shatner. Those are the first names that pop up, but I'm sure that I'd track even more if I went thru it episode by episode.
And let's hear it for John Drake, the coolest of British spies!
Posted by: Serge | July 06, 2008 at 08:08 AM
I have no idea who most of these people are, but I get a huge thrill when people have conversations on Rixo that don't actually involve me (look, I'm throwing a good party!) so please continue talking about them. :)
Marilee:
I didn't want to talk to kfl. I read enough of his stuff on rasff to give me a headache without having to listen to it in person. I just wanted to break up a going-nowhere-except-downhill argument before it exploded messily all over the party hallway. Tugging on the participant I actually know and like seemed the most efficient way to do this. Kfl clearly doesn't know me from the wallpaper and has no reason to listen to me, Command Voice or no.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | July 06, 2008 at 10:22 AM
Marilee... Susan's comment ("I have no idea who most of these people are.") reminds me of when Pixar's animated film Finding Nemo came out. There was a scene where two swordfish were having (what else? a swordfight) and one of them sounded like James Mason. My then-manager's hubby worked at Pixar so I asked her if that was supposed to be Mason. Her reaction was:
"Who?"
Today's kids!
Speaking of spies of the 1960s, who, among those working for U.N.C.L.E., was your favorite? Napoleon Solo, or Ilya Kuryakin? I always prefered Ilya.
Posted by: Serge | July 06, 2008 at 02:57 PM
Yep, I liked Ilya, too, and I still like him on NCIS. I'm watching The Apartment now, it's always listed as a comedy and it never seems that funny to me.
Twilight Zone also had a very young Carol Burnett, two instances of one of the Darren's, and Fred MacMurray (who I'm watching much older now).
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | July 06, 2008 at 04:51 PM
Fred MacMurray was in an episode of The Twilight Zone? One actor I really love who was in quite a few episodes is Jack Klugman, who's most famous from the TV version of The Odd Couple although I preferred Quincy.
As for spies...
I think most women preferred Ilya to his womanizing partner, Napoleon. I doubt I'm the only man (OK, I was a boy then) who had the same preference for the same reason.
Regarding John Drake... I think what I liked about his character is that it owes more to John Lecarré than to Ian Fleming.
Posted by: Serge | July 07, 2008 at 09:30 AM
Yes, it was an episode where they land on a new planet to find a crashed ship just like theirs, with their bodies in it. Let's see if imdb will cough up the episode name.... Huh. The Scifi Channel Twilight Zone episode guide tells me the guy I was thinking of as Fred MacMurray was actually Jack Klugman. The episode was "The Death Ship." I don't know how I mistook him for Fred MacMurray! And yes, Jack Klugman was in other eps I saw those two days.
I think Ilya seemed more real, less slick, which is probably another way of saying what you were.
I think I liked how cool he was -- place to place, never ruffled. Kind of like I Spy.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | July 07, 2008 at 06:55 PM
Believe it or not, I never saw I Spy. My understanding is that that Robert Culp / Bill Cosby show went more for humor. Is that correct?
Posted by: Serge | July 07, 2008 at 06:58 PM
It had comedy, but a lot of times it was dark comedy because of the spying or cameraderie between the guys. It wasn't really a comedy show. It was the first time a black man had that kind of role.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | July 07, 2008 at 07:19 PM
I remember an interview with Robert Culp. I think he was supportive of Cosby, who was quite an angry young man back then. I too would have been very angry, had I been barred from equal access to Society's opportunities because of my skin color or because of my ethnic group.
Hmmm... I wonder if I Spy and Man from U.N.C.L.E. are available on NetFlix. Probably.
Posted by: Serge | July 08, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Heh. You missed gender, which didn't bother Cosby, but did a lot of women, including me.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | July 08, 2008 at 04:15 PM
My apologies for the oversight, Marilee. I'm very embarassed at it.
Posted by: Serge | July 08, 2008 at 04:18 PM
S'okay, it's not as obvious to you as it is to me! I still have strong memories of how I was treated at work and socially.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | July 08, 2008 at 04:25 PM
Marilee... When people talk of the Good Ole Days, they seem to forget how things really were. I wouldn't want to go back, and not just because that dental care really sucked.
Posted by: Serge | July 08, 2008 at 04:37 PM
When I was a little girl, I had a dentist who believed that chidren couldn't feel pain, and just drilled without anesthesia. I hit him, and then he strapped me down. Then we got another dentist.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | July 09, 2008 at 09:28 PM
I'm the outlier on things dental. The only thing I hated about dentist visits as a child was the flavor of the cleaning stuff. That's improved over the years, but it's not like it was a horror before. It might be that since I never had a cavity I missed out on the full dental monty.
My experiences as an adult have been a lot less fun: too many rounds of periodontal procedures, albeit with a very entertaining periodontist.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | July 10, 2008 at 06:16 AM
Dare I ask what it is that makes an entertaining periodentist actually entertaining, Susan?
As for your own experiences, Marilee, I expect that your dentist saw children as being on the same mental and intellectual level as animals, and we know that beasts don't feel pain. (Darn, my sarcasm subroutine kicked in again.)
Posted by: Serge | July 10, 2008 at 06:21 AM
We have similar senses of humor and we banter back and forth a lot; he's very good at interpreting my consonant-free noises during procedures.
I probably started it when the first (involuntary) words out of my mouth when I first met him were "my ghod, how long have you been out of dental school?!?!" He looked like a scruffy college student in denim scrubs. He laughed (the answer was about three years) and it sort of went downhill from there. He preens about his work, especially my patch. I insult him. He informs his assistant that he's about to get slapped for hurting me. I make approving noises. His poor new assistant hasn't quite caught on to the game, so she mostly looks horrified. After my last procedure a few weeks ago I announced lugubriously that I didn't think I liked him any more. She wanted to comfort my pain; he just laughed out loud, having correctly interpreted my absolutely deadpan expression.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | July 10, 2008 at 06:37 AM
When I had to have a crown put in, I went to a specialist. Phase One involved her removing the tooth remnants from my jaw and let bone grow back in the gap. Phase Two, a few months later, had her drilling a hole in that spot, then putting a screw in. When my wife and I later met her at the grocery store, there was an exchange of introductions where one of us admitted that she had screwed me.
Posted by: Serge | July 10, 2008 at 09:05 AM