I'm heading down to Maryland again this weekend for Darkovercon (officially known as Darkover Grand Council Meeting, but I've never seen/heard it called that except on the flyers). Darkovercon is a nifty little con of only a few hundred people that lately mixes a few old-line Darkover fans with a heavy dose of SCA, pagan, and queer fandoms, leavened with a whole lot of folk music and an extremely eccentric video track. The whole thing is very low-key and fun and a great place to hang out with a small group of authors who are regulars (Katherine Kurtz, C.S. Friedman, Tamora Pierce, etc.) It's an extremely dance-friendly con, so I have a dance-heavy schedule:
Friday 4:00-6:00pm
Early Playford Dances (1650-1670)
Weird country dances from the early editions of The Dancing Master. I avoid the standard repertoire as much as I can in favor of progressive rounds, longways multifigure progressives, and some of the more exotic short-set dances. I usually get a small but enthusiastic crowd willing to follow me through some odd dance history detours.
Saturday 10:00-11:00am
Regency Men's Costume Explored and Explained
Just what it sounds like: I'll talk about men's Regency costume and review some of the commercial patterns available. I even have a short handout.
Saturday 5:00-7:00pm
Regency Ball
Also just what it sounds like. Early 19th-century dancing, with live music and without the fancy historical steps.
Saturday 9:00-11:30(ish)pm
Clam Chowder Concert/B.O.G.S. fundraiser
I'm not part of the concert itself, but for the past eleven years I've run a fundraiser at the intermission on behalf of Children's Hospital which has raised tens of thousands of dollars over the years to benefit the sick kiddies, peaking with the $10,000 we raised in our tenth year. (Think about that number relative to a con of 3-400 people!) We've scaled down our ambitions since then so as not to burn out our small donor pool, but I still hope to bring in a couple of thousand dollars this year despite the dire economy. The entire thing started as a slightly naughty joke back in 1997 (explanation here) and has evolved into the con's pet charity with a crew of Wenches and Mensches to collect small unmarked bills and a polished money-counting operation to give us a running total; we raise all that money in well under an hour. I'll be one of the folks up at the microphone telling stories and begging for money.
As usual, I'd be happy to see any Rixo readers that happen to be at Darkovercon. I'll have a long relaxed stretch in the middle of Saturday to hang out and lots of free time Sunday. I'm going back and forth via mobile-wireless-Chinatownoid-bus once again so as not to have to drive through the heavy holiday weekend traffic.
Regency Men's Costume Explored
While the men are still in the costumes?
Posted by: Serge | November 25, 2008 at 08:36 AM
I haven't been to Darkover since, um, 2002. It's the busiest time of the school term, so I doubt I'll be getting there in at least the next couple of years, although I am kind of tempted to go next year anyway in order to celebrate the tenth anniversary of surviving Darkover '99. I don't think many of my friends go for the full con any more, although I believe some in the area still attend the ball.
I'm interested in hearing about how this bus service (I think you mentioned taking MegaBus this time?) works out for you. My husband travels between NYC-Baltimore sometimes, and I see it also goes from Toronto to Buffalo Airport.
Posted by: Carol Witt | November 25, 2008 at 10:03 AM
Have fun!
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | November 25, 2008 at 06:14 PM
Carol: I will report back on the bus service. With luck, I will do it from the bus.
Serge: I am ignoring you.
Marilee: I will! Any chance you might come up, or is Baltimore just too far for convenient travel?
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | November 26, 2008 at 06:18 PM
No chance, I'm afraid. Even if I wasn't going to a close family tomorrow, which will exhaust me, it would be enough driving that I'd need to stay overnight, and that's too expensive. Maybe another year.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | November 26, 2008 at 06:38 PM
If I were taking a car I could come visit you, but bus trips unfortunately preclude side excursions. Ah, well!
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | November 27, 2008 at 01:43 AM
So, here I am, blogging from a bus again. I could get used to this. Eastern Shuttle, this time. It showed up a little late (maybe ten minutes), and I only found the stop because there was already a line of people waiting. The wireless obviously works nicely, but there's nowhere to plug in, so I will have to be careful. I should have enough battery charge to get me all the way to Baltimore, but no movie-watching for me! It also seems to block ssh access to my shell accounts, which is rather annoying.
Eastern is not quite as luxurious as the Boltbus, more like a normal sort of intercity bus, and did I mention no outlets? I think this is a Genuine Chinatown Bus, given the ethnicity of the staff and the fact that my wireless node is Dragon-5607.
Current location: cruising down the NJ Turnpike with a nice view of the Manhattan skyline off in the distance.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | November 28, 2008 at 11:02 AM
Back on the bus, after a bit of a scrum getting on. Looks like Thanksgiving weekend travel overwhelms their logistics, though overall not as badly as it does Greyhound's. Leaving Baltimore now, about 50 minutes behind schedule.
At least the WiFi works!
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | November 30, 2008 at 04:42 PM
Looking forward to reading your report, Susan...
Posted by: Serge | November 30, 2008 at 05:18 PM
Traffic is awful, sigh. We're only just approaching NYC, already two hours behind schedule. I'm not going to get home before midnight. On the bright side, I am not the one driving the New Jersey Turnpike in pouring rain and heavy traffic.
Quotes of the weekend:
"We've got gin!"
"The Dark Side needs deely-boppers."
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | November 30, 2008 at 09:11 PM