valoise

Every year I travel to LA for Gallifrey One, a fantastic fan-run Doctor Who convention, but now that I live in Connecticut I wanted to try the Long Island Who convention.  There are several ways to get to the convention site, but I decided to drive to Bridgeport, take the ferry across the sound to Port Jefferson, NY with a short drive to the hotel.  Most relaxing way to travel, I haven't taken a car ferry since I lived in Seattle over 20 years ago.  Definitely recommend it.

As for the convention itself, it was more fun than I'd anticipated.  At a new convention, where I don't know the venue or have any friends there, I usually have some social anxiety but it wasn't too bad this time.  In the 5 minutes it took to walk in the hotel, check in, get my room key and find the elevator I'd already passed Katy Manning and Paul McGann. As a small convention (I think around 500 people) the guest list was small and so were the meeting rooms. Katy Manning and Frazer Hines were charming, frequent guests at US DW cons but their panels didn't feel stale & they were seemed really happy to be there.  Paul McGann and Sacha Dhawan were the highlights, though.  At one point Paul took a deep dive into his love of silent film, a passion I share.

There were some great fan-run panels on British TV in 2023, collecting screen used props, and several other topics.  I think the main downside was the size of the convention space, which seemed cramped. If they could negotiate the use of at least one other meeting room it would help things flow a bit better.  I may add this to my list of annual conventions, but as it's an August con, there may be conflicts with my long-standing attendance at WorldCons.

Although I'll probably always be sporadic in posting to DW, I'd like to start posting con reports again. Last weekend I had a virtual membership to the wonderful vidukon_cardiff and surprisingly found the package of convention swag in my mail a couple of days ago. That was really fast UK to US mail service. I watched the Vidding Narrative panel, which was great and some of the Vidder's Choice vidshow on Friday and both were great. For the rest of the weekend I only managed the 2012 Retrospective and Visual Feast vidshows due to some plans to spend time with family, but the swag contained a thumb drive with premieres vids and I plan to watch them as time permits. I had a vid from Tampopo that I made for the 2020 vexercises in the Visual Feast show.

I was going to rant about this on FB, but reconsidered, thinking that my journal would be more private. Last year I attended ConQuesT (an annual science fiction convention in Kansas City) for the first time, mainly because George RR Martin was one of the guests of honor. Mark Oshiro was the fan guest of honor. I'd seen them both on panels at Worldcons and thought it would be great to see them closer to home. I had an okay, but not great time, but sat in a couple of panels where the paternalistic subtle racist homophobia seemed a little close to the surface.

I hadn't planned on coming back this year, but they had Seanan McGuire and Nnedi Okorafor coming and I love their writing, so I went ahead and registered and made my hotel reservations. Later I found out that Mark Oshiro, a gay fan of color, was treated poorly by the 2015 con com and by fellow panelists on one of his panels.

Nnedi and Seanan had a panel together this afternoon. The moderator was well meaning but not particularly good at stimulating dialogue. He also had a bit of that mainsplainy attitude that obviously frustrated both women on the panel. I say obviously, but he was oblivious to it. The worst thing, though, was from the fourth member of the panel, an older white guy who had been part of the problematic panel last year with Mark Oshiro. He showed up late, apologizing but using the interruption to draw attention to himself. There were two empty seats at the table next to Nnedi, but instead of sitting next to the black woman he dragged a chair to the side of the table so he could sit next to the moderator, the only guy. Then the late panelist persisted in pronouncing Seanan's name wrong until the moderator finally corrected him. It was a generally uncomfortable experience capped off by the jerk taking a left turn into Christian theology, wedging it into the conversation where it didn't fit at all.

I met Seanan in the hall later and told her I was sorry for the crappy panel but hoped the rest of the con went better for her. She was accompanied by a member of con staff who said that this was definitely going to be her last year working on the con. I won't be coming back either, I don't care what writers they bring in.

In a little over a week I pack my bags and head off to London for Loncon3, this year's Worldcon. Only one month left of summer and a lot of that will be eaten up with travel and there's so much that I wanted to get done.

For instance, the con report I kept putting off for the Peter Wingfield Fan Club Manchester Road Trip. Is it weird to keep having conventions for an actor who doesn't act anymore? Maybe, but it's a great chance to get together with friends and Peter still likes it, so sure, as long as it will fit into his schedule I bet we will keep doing them. Several times during the convention Peter kept making references to next time, so maybe in a couple of years when he's doing his residency we can sneak in another one.

At this con Valentine Pelka joined us and read passages from a novel he's working on. Writer Adam Whitlach is putting the final touches on a novelization of War of the World: Goliath, an animiated film in which Peter voices the lead. He and Peter read a bit of it and it sounds very good. We also had Skype calls with Mark Deklin (Peter's co-star from Riverworld, the club has sort of adopted him) and Eric Small who is the writer/producer/director of the 10,000 Days, a web series in which Peter played a pivotal role. There was so much going on, but in lieu of a real con report, I'll just leave this here.




I would like try to take pictures and write brief con reports from London, but what will probably happen is a few camera shots posted to Facebook and more detailed stuff when I get back.

One of the biggest reasons I love Worldcon is the Hugo Award ceremony. I love reading through the nominated works. I love the suspense of voting and checking my list of choices against the winners. And I love the ceremony itself where you see seasoned veteran writers and new, young writers all get recognition.

( Sadly, my last day of panels )

And then I went back to the hotel to get ready for the Hugos. I always feel like I should at least make an effort to get out of jeans for the ceremonies. For the most part, my top picks all came in at least second. At least this year there were no winners that I strongly disliked, which has happened in the past. In case you're curious, here are the Hugo winners and picture of this year's winning base design.

The second full day at LoneStarCon and took in seven panels and strongly resisted temptation at the art show. There were some prints I liked a a couple of paintings that were tempting, but since I'm saving up for London next year, I resisted.


( the eclectic panels of day 2 )

This was the one day I thought I'd make time for hitting some of the bid parties, but I was so tired after SF Squeecast that I just went out to dinner and had a quiet evening reading. I know, sounds lame, but sometimes vacation means kicking back and being lazy.

Picking back up with the PWFC con in Portland, Saturday was so crammed with con goodness that I had to split it into two parts. Here’s the rest for that day, including a couple of great panels, an outstanding concert and a new scene for Joe Dawson and Methos.

Sunday to follow soon.

( Peter and Edan )

( Sanctuary )

( The concert - or the musical guys and Gillian’s wonderful talent )

I just realized that I’ve been back from the recent Peter Wingfield Fan Club convention in Portland for almost two weeks and still haven’t written up a con report so for the next few days I plan to rectify that situation. It was a wonderful time meeting up with friends and catching up with Peter. As GOH we had club perennial favorites David Abramowitz and Jim Byrnes and for the first time Gillian Horvath joined us. Lots of great info about Peter’s last few projects before med school, Highlander, Sanctuary and more.

( Wednesday through Friday )

If you haven’t already been subjected to my con photos, you can find them here

This is a long post with lots of text under the cut for specific panels.

Saturday
( Web Publishing and the Future of Magazines )

( Return of the Killer Bs )

I took in a concert while I ate lunch and enjoyed the singer and cellist Unwoman

Shibori
I’ve done a bit of dyeing in the past, both with chemical dyes and natural ones, so I was looking forward to learning some new techniques. The instructor was enthusiastic and not very organized. There were about five panels (out of more than 20) that I was interested in and since I hadn’t really done anything hands-on yet I took a gamble on this. I lost.


After the Shuttle: Our Next Spacecraft
Speculating on where space exploration is headed from an aerospace historian, an aeronautical engineer and an astrophysist/engineer.


( Art Direction: What’s Involved )

( Hugo awards ceremony )

Sunday
( The Superior Form: How Short Fiction Remains the Cutting Edge )

( History of Masquerade )

Rest of the afternoon spent at Art auction and waiting in the UPS line to ship home a painting, Doorway in the Sand by Jeff Fennel . It was only $100, which is kind of a steal, but, hey, it was the end of the auction and no one was bidding against me. He’s one of the artists whose works really caught my eye at the Art Show and I’m very, very happy to have it.

Closing ceremonies wound things up and I’m contemplating doing this all over again next year at Chicon 7 in Chicago

On Thursday I discovered a great breakfast restaurant at the Peppermill and over the next few days I had a heavenly frittata, a rich and flavorful short rib hash and an unbelievably good huevos rancheros on a bed of black beans and masa corn cake. Well fortified, I walked to the convention center and browsed the dealer’s room until the 11:00 panel.
( 1960s 60 years on )

Photographing a Masquerade

There are two places to take pictures. Fan photography area for good posed shots & flash allowed. In the hall there is no flash allowed, so the quality might not be so great. There’s often no room for a tripod in the fan photo area so a monopod can be great, also useful for taking pictures seated in the audience.

If you don’t want to take pictures in the fan photo area, hall costumes can offer a great chance to take good shots. Ask first & thank afterwards

At this point I had to get some lunch and spent some time talking to people hanging out in Hall 2.

( Miles Above: A Short Film About the Columbia )

Devo Spice concert
After the last panel, I decided to take in something a bit more upbeat, so I sat in on a short performance by sf, nerdy hip hop artist Devo Spice.


( Chesley Awards and Art Show )