Rixosous

Lonestarcon (worldcon) Schedule

After working like a mad thing running the Hugo Ceremony at last year's worldcon, this year at Lonestarcon I wanted a very easy, relaxed schedule that would allow me time to enjoy being back in Texas (one of my home states) for the first time in sixteen years and remind me that worldcons are supposed to be fun experiences.  So I have a very sensible three program items and no other scheduled work.  I did dutifully volunteer for a few things, but none of them worked out, which does not really bother me.  I expect I'll do some low-level volunteerage here and there, nothing too stressful.

In addition to the below items, I expect to attend the Friday and Saturday business meetings (and Sunday, if business spills over).  That will be right up there with having my toenails pulled off as far as fun goes, but there are issues up for discussion regarding which I have some decided opinions.  I'll also presumably be happily in the audience at the masquerade, Hugos, and opening ceremonies (assuming they are revealing the Hugo trophy there).  I will be helping out the Helsinki in 2015 worldcon bid in some as-yet-undetermined fashion. 

Otherwise, I am trying to be aggressively unscheduled this worldcon.  I realize that doesn't really square with the previous paragraph, but truly, for me, this is a relaxed schedule!

Thursday, 6:00-6:50 PM in 006A (Convention Center)
Organizing Your Costuming
Paige E. Ewing, Susan de Guardiola, David Weingart

From small spaces to the large studio, how do you organize your costume storage and workspace for maximum effectiveness?  (Anyone who's seen my sewing room can just stop laughing right now, okay?)

Thursday, 8:00-8:50 PM in 007B (Convention Center)
Dressing like Darcy
Joy Bragg-Staudt, Susan de Guardiola

Regency/Georgette Heyer menswear.  (Nothing like a detailed panel description, eh?  I will talk about all the pieces of clothing that make up a men's outfit and some patterns and sources for making or assembling your own outfit.)

Sunday, 2:00-2:50 PM in 101A (Convention Center)

Almost Nominated

Vincent Doherty, Susan de Guardiola, Nancy Hightower

We all know who made the Hugo Nominee list this year. But what about the those who were just a few points shy of the list?  (I assume they aren't going to give us a advance peek at the long nominee list for THIS year, so presumably we will talk about previous years.)

Balticon 2013 Ramblings

Balticon 2013, featuring REST AND RELAXATION, which I desperately needed after five days on the road in three different states with a dance gig and toddlers galore.

Okay, I did a few things.  But not many.  I arrived Friday afternoon in plenty of time to check into my room and put my chainmail into the art show and still have free time before the Steampunk Ball.  I wandered through the Victorian gambling games session, where I failed to get into a game of whist, and the con suite, where SFWA was sponsoring a band.  I am not actually fond of bands in con suites; it negatively affects conversation.

Note to SFWA: when you state that "Esteemed past and present members include Isaac Asimov, Anne McCaffrey, Ray Bradbury, and Andre Norton", the first thought that comes to mind is that ALL OF THESE PEOPLE ARE DEAD.  So which are the present members?

Balticon 2013 Schedule

Here's my nice, easy schedule for this year's Balticon.  Saturday is delightfully empty, and I am happily not overscheduled on the other days either.  I'll have lots of time to enjoy the convention and see friends and take a nice swim!  Other than my scheduled items, I have no special plans other than attending the masquerade.  I'll also have chainmail in the art show again, since that seems to be working nicely for me.  Find me if you want to hang out!

Friday, 10:00 PM - midnight in the Valley Ballroom
Dancing in the Gears! -- Steam Punk Ball
Susan de Guardiola (M)
Attention all aeronauts, aethernauts, lady and gentleman adventurers, mad scientists, inventors, and other Steampunks and neo-Victorians! Join us at 10 pm Friday night at for a time-traveling formal evening at the Steampunk Ball! Become part of the living clockwork of Victorian and Victorian-inspired set dances and spin madly with your partner to romantic waltzes and lively polkas. No previous experience is needed; all dances will be taught by dance mistress Susan de Guardiola. Music will be an eclectic mix of modern and nineteenth century. Steampunk, neo-Victorian, or Victorian costume encouraged and admired but not required. Airships and time machines should be parked outside the ballroom. No sabers, ray guns, or clanks permitted on the dance floor.

Sunday, 12:00-12:50 PM in Salon D
Making Sense of Patterns & Sewing References
Karen Schnaubelt (M), Susan de Guardiola, Jeanette Holloman, Marianne Pease, Kate Szkotnicki
Many folks these days are never actually taught to read and use a traditional pattern or to understand various sewing and construction terms.  Here's how to make sense of it all and understand the steps.

Sunday, 3:00-3:50 PM in the Derby Room
Music Editing for Dummies
Susan de Guardiola (M)
Do you want to get the music for your costume presentation just right? Want to put together
music for a photo display at a reunion? Attend this class in editing sound clips (for masquerade or otherwise) for people who are not techies, audio engineers, programmers, or any other sort of expert.
 

Lunacon 2013 Ramblings

I'm definitely getting better at this "just say no" method of avoiding overcommitting myself at conventions.  I've now achieved a pleasant balance of work and play twice in a row.  Let's see if I can keep it up.

The worst problems for me at Lunacon this year were the personal annoyances I was dragging along: a lingering bronchial cough, being tired and headachey and medicated because of it, a strained ankle that left me limping painfully around, and the money-is-tight necessity of commuting back and forth from home, adding ninety minutes of driving to my days.  My con was also curtailed early by my having a gig up here on Sunday afternoon, making going back to the con on Sunday morning impossible.

Despite all this, I had a good time.

Lunacon 2013 Schedule

After last year's perfectly insane schedule, this year I have much more manageable plans for Lunacon, with a sensible three items, and no late nights since I am commuting from home this year.  My official schedule:

So You Want to Make a Historical Outfit
Friday, 8:00-9:00pm, Maple
Lisa Ashton (moderator), Byron Connell, Susan de Guardiola, Diane Kovalcin

Where to start, places to find good documentation, pitfalls, problems, and solutions.

Regency Ball
Saturday, 1:00-3:00pm, Grand Ballroom North
Susan de Guardiola

Dress up in the elegant attire of the Austen era, or any other ballroom wear that suits your style, and dance the day away to the historically inspired choreographies of Susan de Guardiola.

Make & Take: Thread Buttons 18th Century Style
Saturday, 4:00-5:00pm, Halstead
Susan de Guardiola

How to make your own soft, washable buttons out of nothing but thread, in the style used for 18th and early 19th century style shirts before the age of mass-produced buttons.

I will once more have a few chainmail pieces in the art show, that having been surprisingly successful at Arisia.  Other than that, I plan to attend the masquerade, relax with friends, and hopefully spend some time in the hot tub.  I will not be around on Sunday, since I have a gig in Connecticut that afternoon.

Best times to catch me will be Friday evening and Saturday after five.

Arisia 2013 Schedule

After two years of completely insane schedules at Arisia, plus similar at Lunacon and a worldcon that got completely wiped out by running the Hugo Ceremony, this year I am working aggressively on maintaining "just say no" and "do not over-volunteer" policies.  I have succeeded in giving myself a pleasant, sane schedule for Arisia that should allow me to actually enjoy seeing my friends and attending panels and program items (like the Emerald Rose concerts!) that I am not actually on.  I look forward to this new, relaxed way of attending Arisia!

No Hugo Posts

Normally around this time of year I'm making an effort to read as many of the Hugo nominees as I can and posting my thoughts and votes in various categories.  I'm still doing the reading this year and have had about the usual proportion of enjoyment to what-the-heck-is-this-doing-on-the-shortlist? dismay, but I've deliberately avoided posting any thoughts on the nominees and will not be posting my votes this year. The reason for this is simple: I'm organizing the Hugo Ceremony.  And while that doesn't stop me from reading and voting, I think I'd find it mildly awkward to deal with nervous nominees if I've been making public statements about which of them I favor or trashing their efforts online for all the world to see.  I don't imagine too many of them read Rixo, especially in its current state of torpor, but it's not impossible.

Voting for the Hugo Awards closes tomorrow, Tuesday, July 31, 2012, at 11:59 p.m. PDT (Wednesday, August 1, 2012, at 2:59 a.m. EDT).  Anyone who is a member of this year's World Science Fiction Convention, Chicon 7, can vote here.  If you're not a member, you can still join the convention, and if you get the membership processed fast enough, will still be able to vote.  I would not put that off until the last minute if you intend to vote, since I don't know how quickly they deal with incoming memberships.

Balticon 2012 Schedule

My schedule for this weekend's Balticon.  This is vastly less crazy as the schedules I had at Arisia and Lunacon, so I will have time to just enjoy the convention! 

I will have a large chunk of free time on Saturday afternoon/evening, during which my only specific plan is to watch the Masquerade, so that'll be the best time to catch me for conversation.  Sunday afternoon I plan to be at the Chromatics and S.J. Tucker concerts (1pm and 3:30pm, respectively).

Friday, 10:00 pm - midnight (or later) in Valley Ballroom
Dancing in the Gears! -- Steam Punk Ball
Susan de Guardiola (M)
Attention all aeronauts, aethernauts, lady and gentleman adventurers, mad scientists, inventors, and other Steampunks and neo-Victorians! Join us at 10 pm Friday night at for a time-traveling formal evening at the Steampunk Ball! Become part of the living clockwork of Victorian and Victorian-inspired set dances and spin madly with your partner to romantic waltzes and lively polkas. No previous experience is needed; all dances will be taught by dance mistress Susan de Guardiola. Music will be an eclectic mix of modern and nineteenth century. Steampunk, neo-Victorian, or Victorian costume encouraged and admired but not required. Airships and time machines should be parked outside the ballroom. No sabers, ray guns, or clanks permitted on the dance floor.

Saturday, 12:00 noon - 3:00 pm in Frankie & Vinnie's (con suite)
Regency Tea and Games
Susan de Guardiola, Irene Urban
Come join us for afternoon High Tea and Regency era games.


Sunday, 12 noon - 1:00 pm in Garden Room
Liars Panel
Mark L. Van Name (moderator), Susan de Guardiola, Jennie Faries
Each panelist, including the moderator, answers all the questions. All answers must be the truth--except three. No one other than the answering panelist knows if the answers are true or lies. After each one, anyone in the audience can challenge the answering panelist. Multiple people can challenge; the more, the better. After there are no more challengers, the panelist tells whether the answer was truth or a lie. If it was true, every challenger puts a dollar in a bucket that runners pass. If it was a lie, the panelist puts $10 in the bucket. All proceeds go to support the literacy program, BSFS Books for Kids.

Sunday, dinnertime, offsite
Susan's Birthday Dinner Party!
All my friends are invited.  If you're a friend, email me for details.  :)

Sunday, 10:30 pm - 11:30 pm in Garden Room
Martian Parlor Croquet -- A Steampunk Diversion
Susan de Guardiola
Victorian explorers, adventurers, chrononauts, and aethernauts! Join us in the fine sands of the remote Martian Canal Estates, where the well-dressed 19th-century tourist and all civilized alien entities may indulge in the genteel yet cutthroat Martian pastime of parlor croquet. Portable gravity generators encouraged to prevent loss of croquet balls into the aether. Tentacular assistance prohibited.


Sunday/Monday, Midnight - 1:00 am in Salon A
Eye of Argon - the Play
Walter Hunt (M), Susan de Guardiola, Grig Larson, Hildy Silverman, Michael Ventrella
"One of the genre's most beloved pieces of appalling prose" presented in all its theatrical glory.  (Note: It's not a "play" exactly -- some of us pantomime the story as we read.)

Lunacon 2012 Schedule

My insane schedule for Lunacon this weekend is below.  It includes a nice mix of dance, costume, literary, and miscellaneous fun items, but how did I end up with about fifteen hours of program again?!?  (Masquerade rehearsal, not publicly scheduled, is 4pm-8pm Saturday.)

In between all this, I will somehow be collecting books for the Science Fiction Outreach Project.  Find me if you have books to donate!  The best time to catch me with books or just to say hi is, as always, right after an item but not when there's another one coming right up.

Regency Ball, Fri 21:00 - Fri 23:00, Westchester Ballroom B
Susan de Guardiola (M) 
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that dancing like Jane Austen is the way to spend Friday evening! No experience or partner necessary; all dances taught. Elegant costume (Regency or other) encouraged but not required.

What Are the Hugo Awards and Why You Should Care, Sat 10:00 - Sat 11:00, Westchester Ballroom A3
Neil Clarke, Susan de Guardiola, Arthur Hlavaty, Andrew Porter (M), Sharon Sbarsky 
How the Hugo awards work, why you should nominate, all those other categories and what they mean, what’s good and eligible this year?

Making a Rope Corset, Sat 12:00 - Sat 13:00, Port Chester
Susan de Guardiola (M) 
Part costuming, part performance art, part kinky fun, a rope corset must be remade each time it is worn, but the materials are cheap and they look impressive!

Waltz for Dummies, Sat 14:00 - Sat 15:00, Westchester Ballroom B
Susan de Guardiola (M) 
Easy cross-step waltz moves for people who think they can't dance!

Masquerade, Sat 20:00 - Sat 22:00, Grand Ballroom North
Susan de Guardiola (MC), Bob Greenberger (Halftime), Sandy Swank (Director)
Costumers transform themselves into a dizzying array of science fiction and fantasy recreations and original concepts. Claim your seat early to see the opening act, Tribe Hamsa, and make sure you stay for Trailer Park, the halftime show!

Eye of Argon Reading, Sun 10:00 - Sun 11:00, Westchester Ballroom B
Susan de Guardiola, Genevieve Iseult Eldredge, Hildy Silverman, Michael Ventrella 
Start your final day of Lunacon off right (wrong?) with the worst science fiction story ever written...now with extra drama! Compete in reading this hilarious masterpiece of bad writing with a straight face! Vote our readers off the island and make them act out the story! 

The Alternate Regency, Sun 11:00 - Sun 12:00, Birch
Byron Connell (M), Susan de Guardiola, Karin Rita Gastreich, Meredith Schwartz
From Sorcery and Cecilia to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell to Temeraire to The Magicians and Mrs. Quint to Shades of Milk and Honey, the English Regency has had many notable fantasy novels set in it recently. What do they have in common; how do they differ (from each other and from alternate histories set in other eras) and why are so many of them focused on magic?

Ballroom Croquet, Sun 13:00 - Sun 14:00, Westchester Ballroom B
Susan de Guardiola (M) 
What it says on the tin. Come play croquet in the ballroom. Adorable miniature sets provided. Flamingo optional.

Hoop Dance Jam, Sun 14:00 - Sun 15:00, Westchester Ballroom B
Susan de Guardiola (M) 
Hula hooping, modern style, to music with a good hooping beat! Some hoops provided, but bring your own as well!

 

Hugo Nomination Suggestions?

What I have so far for nominations for the Hugo Awards for this year (for F&SF/related work produced in 2011):

Deathless, by Catherynne Valente (Best Novel)

Masters of Science Fiction and Fantasy Art, by Karen Haber (Best Related Work) 
Jar Jar Binks Must Die, by Dan Kimmel (Best Related Work)

Niall Harrison, Editor, Strange Horizons, (Best Editor, Short Form)

Daniel Dos Santos (Best Professional Artist)
Bob Eggleton (Best Professional Artist)
John Picacio (Best Professional Artist)

Jim C. Hines (Best Fan Writer) (also, see here)
Cheryl Morgan (Best Fan Writer)

I don't feel particularly bad about not nominating very much, since I don't even pretend to keep up with the field in any comprehensive way, but is there anything/anyone else who really ought to be on my ballot?  I'm sure I'm overlooking things I've already read.  I'll wait until right before the deadline (Sunday night) to put my list in, but get any suggestions to me quickly, please!  

Note that I don't nominate in Best Editor, Long Form, because I think the category is a travesty, and that I almost certainly haven't seen any Dramatic Presentation (long or short), so there's not much point in suggesting those unless you can meet the rather high threshold of convincing me it's so unbelievably good that I should nominate it just on your say-so.  It is exceedingly unlikely that I will watch any video longer than five minutes, and I'm not going to read anything new that's longer than a short story.

Boskone 2012 Schedule

Yes, I'm actually going to Boskone for the first time in many years.  I wasn't hired for the Dance Flurry this year, alas, so I had a free weekend, and Boskone decided they'd like to have some indoor croquet, so...

Oddly enough, Boskone is held in the same hotel at Arisia, so it's going to be kind of weird, like a continuation the same con, but with three quarters of the population and programming gone.  Happily, though, I'm not going to be overworked, since I'm only doing the croquet.  My schedule:

Martian Croquet: A Steampunk Diversion
Saturday, 5:30pm-7pm, Galleria-Demo
Susan de Guardiola
Victorian explorers, adventurers, chrononauts, and aethernauts! Join us in the fine sands of the remote Martian Canal Estates, where the well-dressed 19th-century tourist and all civilized alien entities may indulge in the genteel yet cut-throat Martian pastime of parlor croquet. Portable gravity generators encouraged to prevent loss of croquet balls into the aether. Steampunk, historical, or science fictional costume encouraged for all species. Tentacular assistance prohibited.

The observant will recognize this item from previous Arisia and Balticon schedules.  Teeny-tiny croquet on tabletops.

I plan to hear Scalzi speak and as many of Tricky Pixie and S.J. Tucker's concerts as I can squeeze in, and other than that, just relax and hang out, see the art show, maybe help with the Chicon table or something.  So for once, this is a GOOD con to find me to chat!

Arisia 2012 Ramblings

My hectic work schedule didn't leave me much time for anything else.  Short version:

What I did not do at Arisia:

See the art show
Visit the dealer's room
Go to any program item I wasn't on
Talk to most of my friends there
Take any pictures
Get enough sleep

What I did do:

Eye of Argon reading
One costume panel
Masquerade with lengthy rehearsal
Four dance workshops
Martian croquet
Attend a few parties

Longer version:

Arisia 2012 Schedule

My crazy schedule this weekend for Arisia is below.  This is after I received my original schedule and sent an incredulous email to program, events, and the con chair pointing out that I was scheduled for over twenty-five hours of work (masquerade eats noon-midnight Saturday with rehearsal and stuff), including a couple of times when I was scheduled for two places at once, and got them to eliminate another half-dozen items.  I'm not sure what part of "no more than six items" was unclear; it seems like it should be an easy check within their program software to compare total number scheduled to the number one enters for "maximum total items" and flag someone if the former is greater than the latter.  Likewise the "two places at the same time" problem.

Here's the list:

Darkovercon 2011 Schedule

I'm heading out soon (traveling the day before Thanksgiving: very bad!) to Maryland for what will eventually include my annual trip to Darkovercon (formally known as Darkover Grand Council Meeting XXXIV) this Friday-Sunday.  I'm doing the traditional Regency Ball and my usual charity fundraising work.  Very easy schedule:

Saturday, 5:00-7:00 PM - Regency Ball

Regency dancing.  Live music.  The usual sort of thing.

Saturday, 9:00-11:30ish PM - Clam Chowder Concert

I am obviously not a member of the band, but I organize a fundraiser for Children's Hospital as part of the event every year, in which we raise money under the guise of bribing the band to sing the bawdy song known fondly as B.O.G.S.  After more than a decade the fact that this is pure theater is well-known, but we nonetheless manage to squeeze thousands of dollars out of only a few hundred very well-primed fans.

Prior to the con I'm looking forward to hanging out with my friends Jeff & Sandy and their daughter Megan and a Thanksgiving feast at Noel-Marie's with many fannish friends.

Philcon 2011 Schedule

I never actually received a schedule from Philcon, but this information turned up on the website today:

The "Eye Of Argon" Reading
Friday 11:59 PM
Crystal Ballroom Three
Oz Fontecchio (mod), Marvin Kaye, Joan Slonczewski, Gregory Frost, Susan de Guardiola, Phil Kahn
Panelists and the audience compete in dramatic readings of the reputedly WORST genre story ever written. A Philcon classic!

I'm not clear on whether this will be the standard model (we just read until we crack up) or Mike & Hildy & I's new-and-improved version with the voting off the island and the acting out.  I suspect the former but will push for the latter.  It won't be the same without Mike and Hildy, though!  But ooh, I'm on a panel with Marvin Kaye, co-author of my favorite unfinished trilogy ever...

Basic Costume Shapes & What You Can Do With Them
Saturday 1:00 PM
Plaza V (Five)
Lisa Ashton (mod), Vicki Warren, Susan de Guardiola, Patricia Wake, Carol Salemi
(i.e. T-tunic, circle skirt, cloaks, etc.) Many wonderful costumes start with a basic garment shape, that can then be transformed. If you are new to sewing itself, these shapes offer the benefit of an easy shape, no pattern, and very few seams, as well potential for embellishment, What are the basics and how do you go about using them?

Since I need to leave the con around 1:00 to get to my gig in Gettysburg, I'm not sure I'm actually going to be at this panel.  The others should do a great job without me if that's how it works out.

Other than these panels, I expect to be at the S.J. Tucker concert at 9pm Friday and otherwise spend most of Friday afternoon/evening and Saturday morning working in program operations, which will be by far the best place to find me, though not necessarily the best place to have a chat.  When I return to the con on Sunday I'll be floating around being semi-social with whoever's left and hopefully taking in at least one Cory Doctorow panel.

Renovation Schedule (worldcon, not house!)

My house needs renovation, too, but this is actually my program schedule for this year's worldcon, Renovation, running Wednesday-Sunday, August 17-21, 2011, in Reno, Nevada.  I've been completely stereotyped as a costumer this time, despite requests to put me on non-costume program as well.  So it goes.  Three panels (one of which seems wildly overpopulated at seven panelists!) plus sharing the calling of Friday afternoon's Regency tea dance with my friend Alan.  Best time to catch me at-con is at the end of one of these.

Wednesday 16:00 - 17:00, How to Watch a Masquerade
A11 (RSCC)
Byron P. Connell (M), Susan de Guardiola, John O'Halloran, John F. Hertz
Panel for everyone - things to look for, etiquette, why it seems to take a long time for the judges to make their decisions, etc.

Thursday 13:00 - 14:00, What to Expect as a Contestant in Your First Masquerade
A10 (RSCC)
Kevin Roche (M), Byron P. Connell, Susan de Guardiola, Christina O'Halloran
Will you be appearing in the Renovation Masquerade?  Here's an insiders' panel on what to expect and what to do; also what NOT to do.

Friday 12:00 - 14:00, Regency Workshop and Tea Dance
C3 (RSCC)
Susan de Guardiola (M), Alan Prince Winston (M)
Learn and practice Regency country dances, cotillions, and waltzes in a gentle, gracious atmosphere. All dances will be called or taught. Neither dance experience nor partners are required.

Sunday 11:00 - 12:00, History of Masquerades and Con Costuming
A11 (RSCC)
Pierre E. Pettinger Jr.(M), Byron P. Connell, Toni Lay, Sandra G. Pettinger, Susan de Guardiola, Karen Anderson, Yvonne Penney
Costumes have come a long way since Forrest J Ackerman and Myrtle R. Jones wore futuristic silver suits to the first Worldcon.  Stop by to hear some stories about costuming and masquerades, and find out how you can help preserve today's costumes for the future.

I also expect to be at a few other dances for at least a bit of time, some of the Business Meetings, any concerts with S.J. Tucker, and of course the Hugos and Masquerade.

Balticon 2011 Schedule

My exciting schedule of events for Balticon this weekend, with official descriptions and my comments:

Friday 10:00pm-midnight, Valley (Ball) Room
Dancing in the Gears Steam Punk Ball
Susan de Guardiola with Irene Urban and Jeff Poretsky (floor managers)
Attention all aeronauts, aethernauts, lady and gentleman adventurers, mad scientists, inventors, and other Steampunks and neo-Victorians! Join us at 10 pm  Friday night at for a time-traveling formal evening at the Steampunk Ball!  Become part of the living clockwork of Victorian and Victorian-inspired set dances and spin madly with your partner to romantic waltzes and lively polkas. No previous experience is needed; all dances will be taught by dance mistress Susan de Guardiola. Music will be an eclectic mix of modern and nineteenth century. Steampunk, neo-Victorian, or Victorian costume encouraged and admired but not required. Airships and time machines should be parked outside the ballroom. No sabers, ray guns, or clanks permitted on the dance floor.

(I wrote this description, so it's accurate!)

Saturday night/Sunday morning midnight-1:30am, Salon A
Eye of Argon - the Play
Susan de Guardiola, Daniel Kimmel, Marty Gear, Walter H. Hunt, Hildy Silverman, Michael A. Ventrella
"One of the genre's most beloved pieces of appalling prose" presented in all its theatrical glory." 

(Actually, we've sort of combined reading the play with a Survivor-style voting-off-the-island system that leaves the rejected readers acting out the story as we keep reading.  Calling this a play is kind of a stretch.  This is the third time out for Hildy, Michael, and I's roving Argon road show.  Maybe we'll read the second half of the story this time!)

Sunday, 11:00am-12:00noon, Valley (Ball) Room     
Martian Parlor Croquet: A Steampunk Diversion
Susan de Guardiola, Jeff Poretsky, Irene Urban
Victorian explorers, adventurers, chrononauts, and aethernauts! Join us in the fine sands of the remote Martian Canal Estates, where the well-dressed 19th-century tourist and all civilized alien entities may indulge in the genteel yet cutthroat Martian pastime of parlor croquet. Portable gravity generators encouraged to prevent loss of croquet balls into the aether.  Tentacular assistance prohibited.

(I wrote this description too.  We have tiny croquet mallets and we are not afraid to use them!)

Sunday, 3:00pm-4:50pm, Parlor 1041
Regency Tea and Games
Susan de Guardiola, Irene Urban, Jeff Poretsky
Come join us for afternoon High Tea and Regency era games.

(That's not what I sent them!  Here's the longer version:  Take a trip back in time to the society of early 19th century England and the games played during the era of Jane Austen, "Master and Commander", and the Napoleonic Wars!  Enjoy the pleasures of whist, the intricacy of picquet, or a cutthroat session of spillikins.  Games will be taught.  Regency costume encouraged (but not required).  Tea and light nibbles will be served!)

Steampunk World's Fair 2011 Schedule

This weekend, May 20-22, I will be appearing at the Steampunk World's Fair in Somerset, New Jersey and doing a whole list of exciting events -- a ball, dance workshops, lectures, and parlor croquet!  Details:

Friday, May 20th, 4pm-5pm
Victorian Ballroom Etiquette Talk
Victorian ballroom etiquette for beginners.  Proper bows and courtesies, how to perform introductions (and what you can do when youhave one) and the secret strategies of the dance card!

Friday, May 20th, 8pm-11pm
Formal Dance: The Big Brass Ball Part 1
Join us for a time-traveling formal evening at the Big Brass Ball!  Enjoy Victorian and Victorian-inspired set dances and spin madly with your partner to romantic waltzes and lively polkas.  No previous experience is needed; all dances will be taught by dance historian
Susan de Guardiola.  Music will be an eclectic mix of modern and nineteenth century.  Formal costume encouraged!

Saturday, May 21st, 2pm-3pm 
Germans: Silly Victorian Dance Games
What those wacky Victorians got up to in the ballroom after a few drinks too many!  Blindfolds, musical chairs, fan-slapping and more.  Freud would love it!

Saturday, May 21st, 4pm-5pm 
Victorian Dance Workshop I: Polkamania!
In-depth lesson on two popular Victorian ballroom dances, polka and
schottische and dancing to historical and modern music!  No experience
needed!

Sunday 10am-11am         
Martian Croquet
Explorers, adventurers, chrononauts, and aethernauts!  Join us in the
fine sands of the remote Martian Canal Estates, where the well-dressed
19th-century tourist and all civilized alien entities may indulge in
the genteel yet cutthroat Martian pastime of parlor croquet.

Sunday, May 22nd, 3pm-4pm
Victorian Dance workshop II: Whirl of Waltz
The secrets of how to spin madly around the dance floor in Victorian-style waltzing to a wild mix of historical and modern music!  No experience needed!

I'd be happy to meet up with any remaining Rixo readers -- find me there!

Lunacon 2011 Schedule

My very belated Lunacon schedule.  Only got the final version at the con and am posting it via the lobby wi-fi.  And it's mutating even as I type...

Friday Night Ball a.k.a. Steampunk Ball
Friday 8:00-11:00pm
Susan de Guardiola
From Regency to Victorian and everything in between, come join us and dance the night away!  Dance mistress Susan de Guardiola will provide instruction.  Costumes are encouraged and appreciated, but not required.  [This is "Friday Night Ball" on my panel list and "Steampunk Ball" in the program.  I am going to do whatever I feel like.  So there!]

Book Reviewing
Saturday 6:00-7:00pm
Daniel Grotta, Susan de Guardiola, Meredith Schwartz
How to review books, what makes a good review and what makes a GREAT review.  [I personally think the Oxford comma is sacred...]

The Eye of Argon
Saturday night/Sunday 12:00midnight-2:00am
Michael Ventrella, Hildy Silverman, Keith DeCandido, Susan de Guardiola, Ef Deal
The worst science fiction story ever told gets a reading by our brave panel as they compete to go the longest without tripping over a misspelled word or laughing uncontrollably.  Audience members are also encouraged to take a chance.  Can you keep a straight face, especially when the panel beings acting out the story?  [Really, you must come to this panel!  After Arisia, Mike and Hildy and I are a practiced comedic team!]

Researching Historical Costumes
Sunday 2:00-3:00pm
Susan de Guardiola, Diane Kovalcin
[We don't need no stinking description!  That's good, since they didn't give us one!]

This should be an interesting con.  The program was done rather late, and we seem to be improvising as we go.  I've just been recruited to judge the masquerade as well.  I'm also probably going to crash The Alternate Regency Sunday at noon because the sole panelist is a friend of mine, and am about to be dragged off a 5:00pm Friday panel on Y.A. literature for adults.  "About" means right this second...

Arisia 2011 Schedule

My ultra-crazy Arisia schedule for this weekend:

Darkovercon 2010 Schedule

As usual, I'm off to Darkovercon (formally known as Darkover Grand Council Meeting XXXIII) for the Friday through Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend.  I'm doing two dance events and my usual charity fundraising work, which is not so hectic a schedule that I won't have time to just hang out.

The specifics:

Philcon, improvised

Philcon is rapidly approaching, and I'm still dithering about the shape of my weekend. 

Part of it is fairly fixed:

I will arrive early Friday after picking up a mysterious package and one or two passengers in New Jersey.  I am feeling lame, so I will probably wear jeans and a slightly risqué t-shirt rather than bringing a costume.

I will spend all Friday afternoon and much of the evening running Program Ops, presumably once again in the Slightly Mauve room.  Since the schedules went out on Monday, I will probably spend lots of time troubleshooting program issues along with the usual check-in routine.

At some point I will escape and go hit parties and maybe some filking.  I am not on any program this year, so once I escape my time is my own.  If Principal Speaker Peter S. Beagle is on any evening programming I will escape long enough to go to that.  I often ignore programming and guests, but Beagle is a special case.

I will crash in a corner of Program Ops on the airbed I have thoughtfully supplied myself with.  Saturday morning will be more of the same.

Early Saturday afternoon, I will head to Gettysburg, where I will run an 1860s-era ball all dressed up in my hoop skirt.  I will be put up in style at the Gettysburg hotel and will be well paid for the whole experience.

Sunday morning, there will be brunch in Gettysburg.  I will not need to dress up but might have to look respectable, so I will bring a dress or something.

At that point I will have decisions to make:

1. return to Philcon and see The Last Unicorn (film) with Peter S. Beagle commenting?

1a. end up in Brooklyn at Catherynne Valente's no-doubt overcrowded book release party?

1b. end up in Manhattan at the no-doubt overcrowded Steampunk event?

1c. avoid NYC like a sensible person and go home and get a good night's sleep

2. drive in the opposite direction to see a friend of mine in the last performance of a musical in which he stars, resulting in getting home at, optimistically, midnight after six more hours of driving?*

3. become screamingly anti-social and go straight home from Gettysburg

What do you think?

 

* Note: this is insane.  That does not always stop me.

First, an Adventure

Before I start my life as a starving artist, I'm going to use my substantial accumulated back vacation pay to have one little Adventure.  A travel Adventure.  I'm going to Australia and New Zealand for three weeks, with the trip centered around this year's World Science Fiction Convention and a visit to my old friend Emily, whom I haven't seen since she moved to New Zealand twelve years ago.  I'll also be hitting the NZ natcon, Au Contraire, which is very conveniently located in Wellington, where Emily lives.

My style of Adventure is to:

My, what a gigantic...backlist you have

The readers' version of size counts?  The dream of young fanboy wannabe writers?  I might quibble with the choice of author, but the sentiment is fabulous and oh-so-NSFW. 

"I'd rather stay home and read." Indeed.

Can I read all the Hugo Award nominees in one week?

Okay, not quite all of them.  How about: all the words-only fiction Hugo nominees that I haven't already read in one week?

Stardancing

I heard the news today that Jeanne Robinson had died over the weekend, unsurprising since I knew of her fight with cancer, but saddening in the loss of a lovely artist of both words and dance.  I never knew her personally, but she and Spider's novel Stardance inspired one of those lovely songs that has stuck in my mind since I first heard it a quarter-century or so ago and still speaks to me deeply.  When I got my very first webpage, back in 1992, its primitive content consisted entirely of a quote from this song. 

I don't know who wrote it; I'm guessing one of the filk groups that performed at Shore Leave back in the mid-1980s.  I can still hear their voices in my head from an old live cassette tape I made then.  I transcribed the lyrics as accurately as I could long ago and repost them below with no intent to infringe copyright.  They express my thoughts more eloquently than I can myself.

So, and with sympathy to Spider and in thanks to Jeanne and to all those whose diverse arts leave the world a better place and stir creativity in others...

I shall leave the earth behind and dance where I am free
To dream of greater things
I shall say good-bye to air and choreography
And dance as thought I've wings.

Balticon 44 Schedule

I'm off to Balticon this weekend, feeling very sad due a whole lot of bad life things falling on me lately and yet another birthday.  This has negatively affected my planning, so I won't be quite as shiny and well-costumed as I'd hoped, but at least I'll be skinnier (twenty-three pounds lost since mid-February). 

I haven't actually received a formal schedule, but I think I'm just doing three special events in the main ballroom:

Steampunk World's Fair Schedule

I'm going to be scooting home from Kalamazoo very quickly this year to do a couple of things at the Steampunk World's Fair this weekend.  My schedule:

Friday, Embassy Suites Ballroom, 8:00-9:00: Victorian Dance Lesson

Friday, Embassy Suites Ballroom, 9:00-10:00: Victorian Ballroom Dancing

Saturday, Embassy Suites Ballroom, 2:30-3:30: Victorian Dance Etiquette

Yes, there's sort of a theme here. 

For the etiquette class I'll discuss ballroom manners and dance cards and teach people how to bow or curtsy in proper Victorian style.

I'll be around at the Fair in between these and into Saturday evening, but probably will go home that night since I have a million things to do to get ready for Balticon (Steampunk Ball!  Hoopdance!  Martian Croquet!)  I'm hoping to see/hear Professor Elemental perform, but otherwise I have no special plans except enjoying myself.  I will probably be underdressed relative to everyone else.

As usual, I'd love to say hi to any Rixo readers; catch me at the end of one of my sessions for best results.

Religion as a mating strategy

Hugo-nominated author Catherynne Valente, via Facebook, pointed out this Psychology Today article on religion as an adaptive reproductive strategy.  In short, the studies discussed in the article suggest that:

(1) conservative values related to sex (but not to other moral issues) lead to traditional religious observance rather than the reverse

(2) people profess more religious piety when they see a lot of attractive members of the same sex.

The deduced adaptive mating strategy is that when people feel they have a lot of very attractive competition out there, a conservative approach (locking down into monogamy) becomes more practical than playing the field because in the field, you will be out-competed by all those beautiful people.  They suggest that this may provide a partial explanation as to why traditional religion persists: it's an evolutionarily beneficial adaptation not because (or not only because) it enhances communal survival or any such lofty ideal, but because it is essentially selfish.  It enhances individual reproductive chances.  For women, it gets each a man who will provide for her and her children without being distracted by other obligations.  For men, it gets each one a woman who will bear his children exclusively.  Express religious belief and get laid have mating success!  It's all about sex!

I foresee this not being a popular interpretation among the religiously conservative.

What's a worldcon bid without a giant faceted phallic symbol?

See it at about :24 in this fabulous London in 2014 worldcon bid promotional video; go look soon before they get a takedown notice:

Serge should have a field day picking out the film references in this one.  (I'm tempted to make a project in the comments of listing them.  Help?  The only ones I recognize are a few of the recent Doctor Who clips.)

I was sort of sorry not to go back to Scotland, but this video just sold me on the bid.  I'll be sending my presupporting membership in this week.

(And yes, they're using that building in the bid logo.  So I'm entitled to make rude jokes about it.)

Locus Survey Poll Closes Today!

The title sort of says it all; I'm just boosting the signal.  Note that you do not have to be a Locus subscriber to vote in the annual Locus Awards here for your favorite fiction, non-fiction, artists, publishers, magazines, etc. of 2009.

I was quite pleased to have yet another opportunity to vote for Palimpsest in the Best Fantasy Novel category and for a number of other favorites as well.

Lunacon 2010 Schedule

Once again it's time for Lunacon!  This will be my 29th Lunacon.  That's just scary.

I have a busier program schedule than last year for some reason:

Hugo Nominations for 2009 Wanted

Well, it's getting to that time of the year again!  Hugo nominations are due March 13th.  If there's anything I ought to read in order to nominate it, now is the time to tell me.

As usual, last year I read all sorts of stuff (much of which was discussed here, findable via the Books category filter) that doesn't qualify either because it wasn't published in 2009 or because it wasn't F&SF.  So my first pass at nominations is pretty short:

I'm definitely nominating Palimpsest for Best Novel and Watchmen in DP-Long Form.  I will also nominate the opening montage of Watchmen in DP-Short Form, though I don't expect that to get anywhere.  But I thought it stood by itself and was absolutely fantastic -- more consistently so than the movie as a whole.  I am undecided as to whether to nominate Star Trek in DP-LF.  I loved it with happy nostalgic Trekkie love, but in many ways it was a terribly silly movie.

I'm probably nominating Seanan McGuire (Rosemary and Rue) for the Campbell (Not A Hugo) Award for best new writer.

I'm inclined to wait to nominate Terry Moore's Echo until the story is complete and then nominate the work as a whole if it ends strongly.

And then I'm coming up empty.  That's not a crisis; I don't always nominate much, if anything, though lately I'm making a point of reading all the fiction nominees once they're determined.  But if there's any work published in 2009 that anyone feels passionately about, please suggest it in the comments so I have time to locate and read it before the deadline.

I'll take suggestions in other categories as well, but since I'm not likely to watch any additional DPs and none of the other categories require as much lead time as the fiction ones, those are somewhat less urgent.

Arisia '10 Schedule

Arisia is coming up this weekend, and after rather overburdening myself last year I've cut back severely so that I can spend more time enjoying the convention and, in particular, indulging myself by going to just about every item that involves Musical GOH S.J. Tucker.

My panel schedule:

Saturday 1:00-2:00pm    Mask Making
Susan de Guardiola (m), Mimi Noyes, Jennifer Hunter
Masks make your personality, with costumes or not.

Sunday 7:00-8:00pm  Basic Costume Shapes
Ann Catelli (m), Susan de Guardiola, Toni Lay, Kristina Finan, Fiona Fawkes
Fundamental Costume Shapes: From T-tunics and conical skirts to cloaks, sometimes it just comes down to a basic shape. Some ideas are so adaptable they go on forever.

The first item is for Fast Track, the children's program.  The second is for adults of all ages.  I volunteered to be on it because I remember my first primitive efforts at sewing all involved geometry -- circle skirts, chemises made out of four rectangles, triangular gores, etc.  I was mostly self-taught, and basic shapes were familiar from math class.

In between these two items, my other big commitment is serving as Workmanship Judge for the Masquerade, which I'd estimate will occupy something like 6pm-11pm Saturday night.  Hence my desire for a very limited panel schedule.

Along with hitting as many of Sooj's items as I can, I'll also probably be at the Malice in Wonderland Ball and a completely random assortment of panels.  Otherwise, I'll just be hanging out.  Find me if you want to say hi!

Darkovercon 2009 Schedule

Here's a rather belated schedule (my fault, not theirs) of what I'm doing at Darkovercon this weekend down in Maryland.  As usual, I'm mostly doing dance stuff, and this year everything is packed into one crazy day:

Saturday 11:00am-1:00pm
Early Playford Dances (1650-1670)
Weird country dances from the early editions of The Dancing Master, mainly unusual stuff: progressive rounds, longways multifigure progressives, and some of the more exotic short-set dances.  In previous years we've done this on Friday afternoon and had a small but game crowd.  I've no idea how well it will work on a Saturday morning.

Saturday 5:00-7:00pm
Regency Ball
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 a member of the musical group -- anyone who's heard me sing will be relieved to hear this -- but for the past twelve years I've run a fundraiser at the intermission on behalf of Children's Hospital.  I hope to bring in a couple of thousand dollars this year despite the recession/depression/unemployment rate.  The story of this fundraiser is related here; it started as a joke, but has evolved into a major charity event.  I'll be one of the folks up on the stage begging for money.

As usual, I'd be happy to see any Rixo readers who are attending the convention.  Saturday may not be the best day for this, but Friday and Sunday should be pretty relaxed. 

Other things I hope/plan to do at the con:

• hear Emma Bull (one of this year's guests) speak
• something craftsy; maybe the Kumihomo braiding
• attend the Steampunk Chrononauts Parade at 7:00 Saturday evening, though actually participating may be overly optimistic given that it's squeezed between the ball and the concert
• attend the midnight singing of the Hallelujah Chorus (but I won't be singing, just experiencing)

I will be traveling by bus once again, hopefully with a smoother return trip than last year.

Philcon 2009 Schedule

I'm a complete zombie this week because it's the craziest time of year at my day job.  That means I'm looking forward to a con in order to catch up on my sleep/email/blogging.  Isn't that awful?

So, I'll sort of be at Philcon this weekend.  Once again I'm doing the "doughnut" version of the convention, with brief attendance wrapped around running a ball elsewhere.  I'll be there sometime Friday evening, though I'm not clear on my arrival time, and Saturday morning-into-early-afternoon.  Then I will leave to go do my usual dance gig in Gettysburg.  I'll return to the con Sunday morning and be there until I feel like going home.  I'll mostly be working in Program Ops (details still TBD), but I'll be on a few program items.  Here's the list with official descriptions:

Sat 1:00-2:00 PM in Plaza V
New Trends in Costuming: Steampunk, Gothic Lolita, Variations
Panelists: Susan de Guardiola (mod), Lisa Ashton
    Costuming is a diverse hobby, and offers something for everyone.  Take a look at some of these "newer" hot trends, how to build them, where to get inspiration

Sun 1:00-2:00 PM in Plaza III
Historical Corsetry
Panelists: Susan de Guardiola (mod), Lisa Ashton
    All those wonderful fantasy corsets that we dream about on our female heroes--learn from our experts about the real historical corsets that they are based on

Sun 2:00-3:00 PM in Plaza V
Writers That Should Have Quit When They Were Ahead
Panelists: Susan de Guardiola (mod), John Moore, Lee Gilliland
    Which writers work never lived up to their early promise

I'm also listed as being on "The Invasion of the Janeites" on Saturday at 5:00 PM, but they're going to have to take me off it since I'll be long gone to Gettysburg by then.

I vaguely hope to hit at least a few of these panels, though a reality check suggests that it's not likely to happen:

Fri @ 7: A Science Fiction Curriculum for Newcomers (because this is an endlessly arguable topic)

Fri @ 8: Cory Doctorow on Copyright (because it's Cory Doctorow)

Fri @ 10: Naughty Bits (bawdy ballads, always fun)

Fri @ 10: We Started this Cult Film S**t!  (Repo! panel)

Sat @ 10: Riding a Wave of Looking Backwards (Victorian/steampunk)

Sat @ 11: The Age of Anonymous (net, hacking, Cory Doctorow)

Sat @ 11: The Editors Panel (Short Fiction) (curious to hear Neil Clarke of Clarkesworld)

Sat @ 11: The Fannish Generation Gap (which I feel like I am in the middle of)

(Yeah, I have a little problem at 11; usually I solve this by not going to any of them)

Sat @ 12: Makeup Mini-Demo ('cause I suck at stage makeup)

Sat @ 2: Cory Doctorow reading (self-explanatory, right?)

Sun @ 11: Is The Short Story On Its Way Out? (reality check says I won't be back in time for this)

Sun @ 3: The Future of Print Genre Magazines (of vague interest to me)

Obviously one of the exciting things for me this year is Cory Doctorow as a special guest.  I am, um, less excited about Catherine Asaro as Principal Speaker.

Anticipation (2009 Worldcon) Schedule

Home from my travels at last, I'm heading out again to worldcon in Montreal in a couple of days.  My program schedule is below.  My first reaction when I received it was to swear comprehensively, since I had no idea most of this was coming and have been on the road with no time to prepare for things.  Friday's schedule is particularly horrific, with five and a half hours of program in nine hours, three of which are me flying solo on a bilingual Regency ball.  (Update 8/4: one Friday item canceled, life much improved.)  I'm also unclear as to how "I do not like to moderate" turned into me moderating four items, albeit mostly not talking-head panels.

Not on this list: I'll be attending the Business Meeting as I have business to shepherd along and an interest in several potential constitutional amendments.  This will chew up much of Friday, Saturday, and possibly Sunday mornings.

For anyone wanting to catch up with me, Saturday afternoon is clearly the time.  I don't have a cell phone, so either use the Voodoo Board or catch me at the end of one of my panels.  Do NOT catch me at the end of the Regency Ball, as I will be dashing off to change costume before another item an hour later and will be in High Frazzle mode. 

Meals: Thursday dinner may already be spoken for with a non-fannish local dance friend.  Friday is a masquerade judges' dinner.  I do not generally wake up in time for breakfast.

Anathem

Note to self: do not leave gigantic doorstopper Neal Stephenson novels for last in my Hugo reading when I'm under severe time pressure.  Anathem (HarperCollins 2008; no editor listed) is a solid 900-plus pages, not a single one of which could be described as easy reading, and took me three mornings, lunch hours, and sleep-deprived nights to make my way through, which is about twice as long as I'd expected.  This book just about killed me, and something more different from Little Brother would be hard to imagine.  This year's Hugo list is giving me some sort of literary whiplash.

Anathem is not for the intellectually timid or for anyone afraid of math, science, and philosophy.  I'm not well-versed in any of those three disciplines, and this book left me gasping for air much of the time.  Stephenson cuts his readers minimal slack.

The story starts fairly slowly, with the young "fraa" (monk) Erasmas moving through the daily routine of his "concent" (monastery): ritual observances with bells and song interspersed with manual labor and intellectual debate.  But this is not A Case of Conscience; the concent is not particularly religious in nature.  This is a community of scientist/philosopher-scholars with an entire descriptive hierarchy of terms for romantic/sexual liaisons between its denizens.  What appears at first to be a primitive, post-apocalyptic future Earth with familiar terms twisted by time rapidly turns out to be something else entirely.

Little Brother

Moving along through the Hugo nominees, Cory Doctorow's Little Brother (Tor, 2008; editor: Patrick Nielsen Hayden) is absolutely top-notch very-near-future speculative fiction that should scare and anger everyone as much as it did me.

In a Bay Area high school only a few years in our future, post-9/11 security theater has gone crazy.  The students are subject to constant tracking via their school-issued laptops, their library books, and even their movement style, with "gait recognition" software.  Needless to say, many of the smarter teenagers are busy coming up with hacks and ways to evade this surveillance as fast as the authorities can implement it.  Cutting out of school means starting by frying the surveillance chip in a physics textbook so it won't set off alarms.

But when Marcus and his friends sneak out of school one day to engage in a sort of complex real-world scavenger hunt run as part of a massive online game, they have the bad luck to do so on the same day that a massive terrorist attack hits San Francisco and Department of Homeland Security troops round up anyone behaving suspiciously, which includes Marcus and his friends.  Imprisoned and interrogated, Marcus is eventually released only to find that restrictions on personal freedom and even on speech and thought are slowly being tightened in the name of "keeping people safe."  Sound familiar?  His idealistic defense of personal liberty via the Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence does not go over well with either school authorities or his own father.

With few sympathetic adults to turn to, Marcus and his friends use simple tricks, social networks, cryptography, and their programming skills to technologically circumvent and undermine the crackdown while fighting to find a way to get their story heard and listened to.  Marcus' clear-eyed analysis of the uselessness of security theater and the price paid by innocent people due to the high failure rate of such precautions is familiar ground to anyone who's kept track of progressive political blogs over the past several years; Doctorow is clearly writing with utter personal passion.

Saturn's Children

I wanted to like this book.  Really.  I enjoyed Charles Stross' last two, Glasshouse and Halting State.  The latter was my #1 choice on the Hugo ballot last year; my thoughts on it are here.  I've enthusiastically recommended it to three different people in the last forty-eight hours.  But try as I might, I just could not care for Saturn's Children (Ace Books, 2008.  No editor listed.)

I was a little leery of the book from the start, since "lonely female sexbot" didn't sound to me like a character I was going to enjoy following.  Knowing it's a late-Heinlein pastiche, mostly of Friday, did not help, since I don't much like late Heinlein and particularly did not like Friday.  But Marilee liked it, and it turned up on the Hugo ballot, so I dutifully read it this week as part of my pre-voting marathon.

The Graveyard Book

I started off my June Hugo-novel-marathon for this year with Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book (HarperCollins 2008; editors thanked in the acknowledgments are Isabel Ford, Elise Howard, Sarah Odedina, and Clarissa Hutton).  This is a Young Adult novel, but it's a good read for adults as well.

The Graveyard Book is the story of Nobody Owens, a boy raised in a graveyard by the resident ghosts after the mysterious murder of his parents.  Gaiman explicitly cites The Jungle Book as an influence, and I loved it for the same reasons I loved the Kipling: watching a normal child grow up as part of an alien culture, with occasional, confusing excursions into or incursions from the normal human world.  Nobody, known as Bod, picks up some ghostly tricks (Fading) and is tutored by long-dead ghosts in such useful topics as the Elements and Humours.  Gaiman adds in his own versions of ghouls (who struck me as a Twain homage, with adopted names like the Duke of Westminster and the Bishop of Bath and Wells), vampires, and werewolves as well as the mysterious Sleer, protectors of treasures buried deep beneath the graveyard, and gives Bod various episodic adventures before finally pulling the whole thing together to resolve the mystery of his family's murder.

2009 Hugos: Short Fiction Categories

Last year I read the short fiction nominees last.  This time I'm doing them first.  Most of the nominees are available online; Anticipation has a fairly complete set of links on its Hugo Awards page.  I can't say often enough how much I like this practice.  I subscribe to only one magazine and buy very few anthologies, so if it weren't for the online availability I'd probably never read these works and not vote at all in these categories.

I'm not going to include detailed reviews, but here are a few thoughts and my order-of-voting for each category.  I'm trying to be more aggressive in my use of "No Award" the last few years and place only the stories I truly feel are Hugo-worthy above it on the ballot.  That doesn't mean the others are bad, necessarily, just that they aren't as exciting to me.

Joss Whedon at Wesleyan (May 30, 2009)

There aren't too many TV/film-related people that I'd make a special effort to see, but of the ten or twelve TV shows I've seen more than the odd episode of in my entire life, three are Joss Whedon's work, as is most of the dialogue from one of my favorite action movies, Speed.*  I think he's a brilliant writer and storyteller, and I'd never heard him speak.  So I made the time to trek thirty miles up the road on a Saturday evening and sit in a long line on the sidewalk outside Wesleyan's film studies building for ninety minutes in order to get a seat in the auditorium for his talk, titled "Defining American Culture: How Movies and TV Get Made."  The talk was the keynote speech for a larger conference.  I didn't feel like paying $250 to spend the weekend talking about breaking into Hollywood, so I was quite grateful that they opened the speech to the public for free.

As might be expected, Whedon is a witty and entertaining speaker, well worth the queue time.  Despite his geeky, aw-shucks veneer and claimed nervousness, he spoke fluently and  confidently, with a deep knowledge of and love for his field.  And if he was using notes, it wasn't obvious; the whole thing felt like a casual (if unusually amusing) conversation.  Not having spent much time watching his DVD commentaries, I was surprised that his voice was deeper than I expected and that he was sporting a distinctly red beard.

The rest of this extremely lengthy post is mostly a description of and excerpts from his remarks.  I thought when I started tapping away that I'd just get down a few good lines to quote, but it turned out to be such an interesting talk that I started taking very detailed notes and transcribing furiously.  He tosses off serial one-liners faster than I can type, but I believe anything in quotes below is word-for-word accurate.

Enjoy!

Over to Whedon:

"It is with great honor and extraordinary terror that I address you tonight..."

Balticon 43 Program Schedule

I'm just getting ready for Balticon this weekend and as always would be happy to meet any lurking (or non-lurking) Rixo readers who want to say hi.  My program schedule consists of two costume panels and a Steampunk ball.  I haven't actually gotten a formal schedule, so I don't have full descriptions of the costume panels, but here are the bare bones of it.  I'll update if I get more info pre-con.

Dancing in the Gears (Steampunk Ball)
Friday, 10:00pm-???
Susan de Guardiola with Jeff Poretsky, Raven Stern, and Marc Hartstein
Attention all aeronauts, aethernauts, lady and gentleman adventurers, mad scientists, inventors, and other Steampunks and neo-Victorians! Join us at 10pm Friday night at for a time-traveling formal evening at the Steampunk Ball! Become part of the living clockwork of Victorian and Victorian-inspired set dances and spin madly with your partner to romantic waltzes and lively polkas. No previous experience is needed; all dances will be taught by dance mistress Susan de Guardiola. Music will be an eclectic mix of modern and nineteenth century. Steampunk, neo-Victorian, or Victorian costume encouraged and admired but not required. Airships and time machines should be parked outside the ballroom. No sabers, ray guns, or clanks permitted on the dance floor.

Playing with Others: Group Costumes
Saturday, 4:00-5:00pm
Susan de Guardiola, Sharon Landrum, Karen Dick, Deb Salisbury
I'm clearly on this one because of last year's worldcon insanity with the giant Interplanet Janet group.  Sharon was one of the movers behind Bucconneer's gigantic Aladdin group.  Karen has a track record dating back to the early 1980s as one of the talents behind such magnificent groups as "Turn of a Friendly Card," "Pyrogenesis," "Blood Rites," "The Court of the Crimson King," and way too many others to count.

The Next Big Thing: What is Steampunk
Sunday, 3:00-4:00pm
Susan de Guardiola, Raven Stern, Ron Robinson, Judy M.
I sincerely hope we're just talking about Steampunk in a costume sense, from the Victorian all the way to the punk (which also covers Goth and tribal, I imagine).

Since I'm never entirely confident about publicity for a Friday night event, I'd be delighted if anyone with a blog or an LJ (especially if you're a member of a Steampunk community) could help spread the word about Friday night's dance.

 Edited 5/23/09 to add:

Well, it's always great fun to find out when you get to a convention that you've been surprise-scheduled for another panel.  I will also be on this one:

Vampires: Why We Love Them
Sunday, 11:00pm-midnight
Susan de Guardiola, Tony Ruggiero, Patrick Thomas, Jonathan Maberry
I trust the title of this one is self-explanatory.  I did volunteer for it, I just didn't realize I'd been scheduled for it.  I do vampire panels because for many years I collected vampire novels extensively and still collect them in a somewhat less obsessive fashion.  I tend to be the person either representing the literature side (if it's all about Buffy and other TV/film stuff) or the non-trendy side (vampire fiction before/other than Anne Rice, Twilight, etc.)

Lunacon 2009 Ramblings

Friday
I arrived much later than scheduled due to my day job dragging itself out longer than planned.  Check-in was a nightmare; it took more than half an hour to manage the simple task of getting the room and paying in cash for half the room cost.  The guy could not figure out that amount, despite some math help from me (no, $63 is really not half the cost for the weekend, though if he'd give it to me in writing...)  And then he couldn't make change.  Midway through this my roommate Mary Alice Ladd wandered by and I found out that she'd been able to check in even though her name wasn't on the room.  Wonderful security problem there -- maybe I should have just tried to check into someone else's room?  I asked to speak to a manager but it took so long for one to appear that I finally gave up waiting.  The hotel sent me a survey a couple of days later asking about my experience, and I gave them quite a diatribe about the utter incompetence of their Friday front desk staff.  Not a good start to the con.  Fortunately, it got a lot better.

Lunacon: Steampunk and Repo!

I'm off to Lunacon this weekend at the Escher (Rye Town) Hilton in Westchester County, NY.  I have a light program schedule: just a Steampunk Ball running from 10pm-??? on Friday night.  The blurb for the ball is:

Attention all aeronauts, aethernauts, lady and gentleman adventurers, mad scientists, inventors, and other Steampunks and neo-Victorians!

Join us at 10:00 PM Friday night in the Grand Ballroom for a time-traveling formal evening at the Steampunk Ball! Become part of the living clockwork of Victorian and Victorian-inspired set dances and spin madly with your partner to romantic waltzes and lively polkas.

No previous experience is needed; all dances will be taught by dance mistress Susan de Guardiola.

Music will be an eclectic mix of modern and nineteenth century. Steampunk, neo-Victorian, or Victorian costume encouraged and admired, but not required.

Airships and time machines should be parked outside the ballroom. No sabers, ray guns, or clanks permitted on the dance floor.

I'll be there in my black 1880s ballgown with little Steampunk touches (goggles!) teaching and calling Victorian and Victorian-inspired dances to a mix of modern and 19th-century music.  I'm a little worried about attendance with it being on Friday night, so if anyone who's going to Lunacon would like to help spread the word, please feel free to do so.  Really, please, pretty please!

I thought about volunteering for more programming, but decided I was feeling lazy, so I'm going to do my ball and then relax for the rest of the weekend and spend some time with friends.

Part of this relaxation will include wandering around in my thrown-together Repo! The Genetic Opera "GeneCo Inventory Girl" hall costume (a copy of the one from the movie, shown here).  It will be interesting to see if anyone recognizes this extremely minor, non-speaking background character.  Repo is my latest favorite obsession, and this will probably be the first of several costumes from the movie that emerge from my sewing room over the next few months.  I haven't done re-creation costumes in years; it's interesting going back into the obsessive-copying mindset needed to do it well.  My lengthy do-list includes such weird tasks as "boil the fur" and "dissect pantyhose."

As usual, if you read Rixo and will be at Lunacon, please say hi!

Marilee Hospitalized

This seems the most efficient way to let folks here know.  Marilee Layman has been hospitalized with a stroke.  Marilee's health has been precarious for many years, so this is...bad, though not as bad as it could be.  This is after another inconclusive hospitalization earlier this week.

I spoke earlier this evening to one of her friends from her library book group, Steve, who has been to the hospital to visit and reports that she is in the non-critical Neurological ICU.  She is conscious and responsive and does not appear physically impaired, but is having difficulty finding words.  He was able to visit only for a few minutes before she started to get a headache.  He picked up her house key and reassured her that her cats would be cared for by a neighbor who has done so in the past, which was her major concern.  (And he visited the cats and told me they were fine, if annoyed at having dry food.)

I've never met Marilee in person, but she has been incredibly supportive of me as a blogger and a friend and has been one of the most regular commenters here and on my dance history blog.  Her absence leaves a noticeable hole in our conversation and a gaping hole in my heart.  Hopefully it will be temporary and brief.

Since no one has access to her LJ account to post updates there, Steve has set up a separate forum on which he can provide updates on Marilee's condition here.  The hospital will not reveal information to anyone outside the family, but Steve is in touch with Marilee's brother for medical updates.

Weird @ Wicked

Overheard in an elevator yesterday: "You can't be a dragon -- you're my polyamorous sex slave!"  Sometimes it's better to just imagine the explanation.

I popped down to Wicked Faire in New Jersey for the day Saturday, which turned out to be a fairly odd experience as cons go and to set some sort of record for disorganization.  But it was fun anyway.  I hung out in the Steampunk room and talked to assorted old and new friends who conveniently dropped by.  I saw some really lovely Steampunk costumes but also way too many corsets-as-outerwear (I am tempted to unflatteringly abbreviate this as CaOWs.)  A new problem with that: unless the corset is cut to go over a bustle - and most purchased corsets are not - it makes a big dent in the back of the bustle, which looks kind of silly. 

I didn't take very many pictures overall, but I'll post a few here (click the images for larger versions.)  But I shopped!  I bought an overpriced black spaghetti-strap top with a suggestive statement embroidered on it.  Buying that sort of top is still novelty enough for me to accept the price.

Hugo Nomination Suggestions?

We're now in the nominating period for the Hugo Awards for SF/fantasy/related works published/created in 2008.  My reading is not particularly up-to-date and my film/TV-watching even less so, so I'm very open to suggestions for things I should read or see this month and/or reminders of things that I am already familiar with but may not remember.

Nominations close at the end of February, and while I am a fast reader and will have a much calmer life after this week, I need some lead time to locate/borrow/order things, so prompt suggestions are most likely to be acted upon.

A list of categories is here for those who can't rattle them all off by heart.

Proffering one's own works for consideration is acceptable, though I'm not going to nominate your stuff just 'cause I like you personally or because you comment here.  And I will be made most uncomfortable by followup questions along the lines of "so, did you nominate me?

Arisia 2009 Ramblings

As planned, this year's Arisia was a very quiet convention for me.  I've decided (or, rather, remembered) that I really don't much like being a dealer, at least in a dealer's row setup rather than a dealer's room.  It's isolating and there's too much pressure to be open early, late, and all the times in between.  Oh, well.  It did give me a big empty room for party-hosting, earned me a bit of cash along with defraying all con expenses, and helped unload stock from the chainmail biz I am rapidly getting out of.  It did mean I took very few pictures; sorry.