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randy_byersStill busy around these parts, but I'm going to try to jot down a few notes on the Worldcon, with more perhaps to follow.
This wasn't my favorite of the seven Worldcons I've been to (1984, 1993, 1996, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2011). My favorites are still Interaction and Anticipation, and if you know me personally you can probably figure out what those two had in common for me. But Renovation easily stands with the 2006 LACon amongst my post-TAFF Worldcons as a great deal of fun, even if neither was stratospheric.
One of the things that Renovation had in common with that LACon was the presence of Lucy Huntzinger and Ulrika O'Brien (although alas not Geri Sullivan). I had breakfast with Lucy on Thursday morning, and it was great to get caught up on life, since we really hadn't talked since 2006. Then on Thursday night (I think it was) I ran into Lucy and Ulrika wandering the halls trying to figure out if any of the parties looked inviting, and we headed down to the casino instead to find a beer and a quiet place to talk, which actually proved more difficult than you might imagine, since they apparently want you to be sitting at a slot machine before they'll serve you. Anyway, that was another great conversation. Throughout the convention I ran into Ulrika at various points as she patrolled the halls in the guise of a facilities facilitator of some kind or another. She was one of Suzle's team, and I kept running into Marci Malinowycz too. Always comforting to run into members of the Seattle contingent, of which there were more than usual because of the Far West location of the convention.
The daytime fanzine lounge, run by Christopher "What Just Hit Me?" Garcia, was located in the exhibition hall and was a magnet for people who needed a spot to rest their weary legs. Hopefully they were exposed to fanzines while doing so, and a new generation of faneds will spring up tomorrow. For those of us who like to spend the convention drinking, there was a convenient bar nearby, with two nice beers on tap and a variety of bottled beer and spirits also on offer. By Saturday I could expect Paul Wrigley to walk by on his way to his table in the dealer's room and say, "Ah, there's Ramdu with a glass of beer in his hand. All is well." Indeed, Wednesday evening, which was my first at the convention, was largely spent in this bar with Mark Plummer discussing the London in 2014 bid in great detail. Mark was drinking the Firestone Walker Double IPA, which I believe ended up doing some damage. It was a reprise of our drunken discussion in the wee hours at Corflu Zed, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
I shared a room with carl juarez and Dave O'Neill. We drove down together via Klamath Falls, and that was a fun trip. In fact we discovered a brewpub outside of Eugene called Hop Valley that was very nice, and carl got a growler to go that we drank in the motel room in Klamath Falls. Renovation was carl's first Worldcon, and I was happy to be an enabler on that front. Not sure how well the convention suited him, but everybody should go to a Worldcon at least once.
My personal take is that, while I've enjoyed every Worldcon I've been to, the ones I've gone to since I won TAFF have been the best because I now know so many people within fandom that I almost always have somebody to talk to at a Worldcon. There's not so much time wandering around feeling lonely and at loose ends. However, maybe it's just a matter of going to enough Worldcons that you get to know more of the regulars. For instance this year I renewed my acquaintance with a number of people I first met at Anticipation in 2009, including Joel Phillips, Craig Glassner, Kevin Roche, Andy Trembley, and Danny Lieberman. Not sure I made as many new connections this year, although that's partly because John "Chick Magnet" Coxon already felt like an old friend due to his TAFF visit in Seattle the week before. There was also Kim Kofmel of the London in 2014 bid parties, who along with Spike formed a formidable partnership of Responsible Adults while Dave "God of Pimms" O'Neill and James Bacon ran wild. Oh right, and I also met Dean Gahlon, courtesy of WOOF.
Yes, WOOF. WOOF ended up going fairly well. When I arrived on Wednesday, Chris Garcia had already set up a drop-off spot in the fanzine lounge for contributions to WOOF, and there were already three contributions on the table. Everybody who had promised me a zine before the convention delivered, even if Kat Templeton insisted on exercising the grand fannish tradition of printing her zine while the collation was going on. (She first tried to print it in the fanzine lounge, but when she killed the toner cartridge there, she took it to the Newsletter room, where her earlier gift of chocolate to the newsletter team provided the karma she needed for them to print the zine for her then and there.) One person -- Christian Maguire -- promised a zine at the convention but didn't come through, so the listing in the ToC is for a ghost zine. The collation was Saturday at noon, and a good crew showed up. I was amped up on adrenaline, but the people I remember circling the table were Chris "Holy Shit" Garcia, Claire "Um, What?" Brialey, Mark "Sugar Pine" Plummer, John "Some Awe" Coxon, David "Gently Now" Cake (who had never participated in an APA before), and David Shallcross, whom I hadn't met before so is spared a collation nickname. Once Kat showed up with her zine, I began to staple -- only to discover, after a half hour of jams, swearing, unjamming (bless Dean Gahlon for his leatherman) and experimentation, that I had brought the wrong staples with me. Off to Office Depot with Kat, where we got the necessary heavy duty staples. It was smooth sailing after that.
I could go into more detail about the experience of putting WOOF together, but I'll leave that for another day. In fact, I think I'll leave everything for another day. Visiting Fishlifters should be appearing in a bit, and I should put on some alternative pants. Which reminds me ...
This wasn't my favorite of the seven Worldcons I've been to (1984, 1993, 1996, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2011). My favorites are still Interaction and Anticipation, and if you know me personally you can probably figure out what those two had in common for me. But Renovation easily stands with the 2006 LACon amongst my post-TAFF Worldcons as a great deal of fun, even if neither was stratospheric.
One of the things that Renovation had in common with that LACon was the presence of Lucy Huntzinger and Ulrika O'Brien (although alas not Geri Sullivan). I had breakfast with Lucy on Thursday morning, and it was great to get caught up on life, since we really hadn't talked since 2006. Then on Thursday night (I think it was) I ran into Lucy and Ulrika wandering the halls trying to figure out if any of the parties looked inviting, and we headed down to the casino instead to find a beer and a quiet place to talk, which actually proved more difficult than you might imagine, since they apparently want you to be sitting at a slot machine before they'll serve you. Anyway, that was another great conversation. Throughout the convention I ran into Ulrika at various points as she patrolled the halls in the guise of a facilities facilitator of some kind or another. She was one of Suzle's team, and I kept running into Marci Malinowycz too. Always comforting to run into members of the Seattle contingent, of which there were more than usual because of the Far West location of the convention.
The daytime fanzine lounge, run by Christopher "What Just Hit Me?" Garcia, was located in the exhibition hall and was a magnet for people who needed a spot to rest their weary legs. Hopefully they were exposed to fanzines while doing so, and a new generation of faneds will spring up tomorrow. For those of us who like to spend the convention drinking, there was a convenient bar nearby, with two nice beers on tap and a variety of bottled beer and spirits also on offer. By Saturday I could expect Paul Wrigley to walk by on his way to his table in the dealer's room and say, "Ah, there's Ramdu with a glass of beer in his hand. All is well." Indeed, Wednesday evening, which was my first at the convention, was largely spent in this bar with Mark Plummer discussing the London in 2014 bid in great detail. Mark was drinking the Firestone Walker Double IPA, which I believe ended up doing some damage. It was a reprise of our drunken discussion in the wee hours at Corflu Zed, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
I shared a room with carl juarez and Dave O'Neill. We drove down together via Klamath Falls, and that was a fun trip. In fact we discovered a brewpub outside of Eugene called Hop Valley that was very nice, and carl got a growler to go that we drank in the motel room in Klamath Falls. Renovation was carl's first Worldcon, and I was happy to be an enabler on that front. Not sure how well the convention suited him, but everybody should go to a Worldcon at least once.
My personal take is that, while I've enjoyed every Worldcon I've been to, the ones I've gone to since I won TAFF have been the best because I now know so many people within fandom that I almost always have somebody to talk to at a Worldcon. There's not so much time wandering around feeling lonely and at loose ends. However, maybe it's just a matter of going to enough Worldcons that you get to know more of the regulars. For instance this year I renewed my acquaintance with a number of people I first met at Anticipation in 2009, including Joel Phillips, Craig Glassner, Kevin Roche, Andy Trembley, and Danny Lieberman. Not sure I made as many new connections this year, although that's partly because John "Chick Magnet" Coxon already felt like an old friend due to his TAFF visit in Seattle the week before. There was also Kim Kofmel of the London in 2014 bid parties, who along with Spike formed a formidable partnership of Responsible Adults while Dave "God of Pimms" O'Neill and James Bacon ran wild. Oh right, and I also met Dean Gahlon, courtesy of WOOF.
Yes, WOOF. WOOF ended up going fairly well. When I arrived on Wednesday, Chris Garcia had already set up a drop-off spot in the fanzine lounge for contributions to WOOF, and there were already three contributions on the table. Everybody who had promised me a zine before the convention delivered, even if Kat Templeton insisted on exercising the grand fannish tradition of printing her zine while the collation was going on. (She first tried to print it in the fanzine lounge, but when she killed the toner cartridge there, she took it to the Newsletter room, where her earlier gift of chocolate to the newsletter team provided the karma she needed for them to print the zine for her then and there.) One person -- Christian Maguire -- promised a zine at the convention but didn't come through, so the listing in the ToC is for a ghost zine. The collation was Saturday at noon, and a good crew showed up. I was amped up on adrenaline, but the people I remember circling the table were Chris "Holy Shit" Garcia, Claire "Um, What?" Brialey, Mark "Sugar Pine" Plummer, John "Some Awe" Coxon, David "Gently Now" Cake (who had never participated in an APA before), and David Shallcross, whom I hadn't met before so is spared a collation nickname. Once Kat showed up with her zine, I began to staple -- only to discover, after a half hour of jams, swearing, unjamming (bless Dean Gahlon for his leatherman) and experimentation, that I had brought the wrong staples with me. Off to Office Depot with Kat, where we got the necessary heavy duty staples. It was smooth sailing after that.
I could go into more detail about the experience of putting WOOF together, but I'll leave that for another day. In fact, I think I'll leave everything for another day. Visiting Fishlifters should be appearing in a bit, and I should put on some alternative pants. Which reminds me ...
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no subject
Date: 2011-08-24 07:12 pm (UTC)I did not, however, have the heart to tell you on site that our Yipe! contribution was bound into the compilation backwards (back to front).
I think (nay, hope) our prose is non-Garcian enough to make the problem apparent to the reader.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-24 08:30 pm (UTC):)
no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 05:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 05:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 04:40 pm (UTC)Its very unlikelihood makes it more valuable :-)
no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 04:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 04:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 04:51 pm (UTC)I was too busy paddling like crazy underneath to maintain the illusion of a smooth and effortless Masquerade to be pissy about the backwards stapling... and Andy pointed out that I'd failed to include page numbers, so it was my own damned fault anyway :-)
no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 04:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 05:13 pm (UTC)And all of us at Yipe were *really* glad to be part of the WOOF compilation. (And it was a good reminder of how to tweak the layout if we expect to publish an issue in hardcopy; J mentioned that if for no other reason than that he appreciated my taking on the special issue)
no subject
Date: 2011-08-24 09:48 pm (UTC)Second: I would argue strongly that I was also a semi-responsible adult :)
no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 05:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-24 10:36 pm (UTC)Next year in Chicago, though...
We're not working the con (other than in advisory roles) and we'll all be in one hotel. I expect to spend a bit of time sitting a Westercon 66 table and a lot of time talking about Westercon 66. But we will find time for lunches, and dinners, and beers and parties that aren't our own.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-24 11:31 pm (UTC)