Norwescon post #2
Mar. 27th, 2005 03:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperBack from the con now--and I've posted a few backdated entries that I'd queued up in Semagic while I was at the convention. Two of those are under my Writing filter, tracking the editing work I managed to do, but here is the first Norwescon post I did, covering Thursday night and Friday morning and afternoon.
And now, the rest of the con!
I forgot to mention that the freebies handed out at Registration included, at least in some bags, a paperback called Medalon by Jennifer Fallon. Now, I must admit that I haven't actually read this book yet, but I'm having a hard time working up enthusiasm to read it, on three grounds:
1) While reading the blurb, I caught a typo in it. This is what I get for being in major editing mode! But it also doesn't bode well for the quality of editing between the covers.
2) There's a character mentioned in the blurb called Brak. As someone who has watched quite a bit of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, I have a hard time taking any character who actually has the name Brak seriously. ;)
3) Every time I see the title, the first thing that pops into my brain is Megalon. As in the monster from the Godzilla flick Godzilla Vs. Megalon.
So, has anybody actually read this thing? Is it good? Is it not so much? Inquiring minds want to know!
In the meantime, I also got a free hardback that was being handed out: Neal Asher's Gridlinked. I wouldn't normally buy a hardback book, but hey, free. And the blurb on this book sounded entertaining, so I scarfed a copy.
On another pass through the huckster room, I picked up a copy of the CD Enchantment, put out by Heather Alexander's new band Uffington Horse. I did in fact purchase it from the hand of Heather herself, as she was hanging out at the table where they were selling it. Yay. :)
Lastly, I picked up a T-shirt that amuses the hell out of me. Think Cthulu Meets iPod, with the caption "cephaloPod", and you'll get an idea of what's on the shirt.
The biggest highlight of Friday evening turned out to be the now-traditional Klingon Karaoke! It was sadly devoid of actual Klingons this year, though we did have a chick show up in full Romulan garb. She did in fact remark upon the lack of Klingons as she got up on stage to do her number, to which![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mamishka yelled out in reply, "They're afraid of you!"
The Romulan promptly replied, "The way I sing, they ought to be!"
I was severely tempted to try to get up and sing something by Elvis--especially since the selection of songs available included both "Don't" and "Love Me", two of my very favorite Elvis ditties. Problem is, I'm not sure how well I can actually sing them in their native keys! Maybe I'd better practice them for next year, though. ;)
Meems andspazzkat got up to do a duet, though: "Love Shack", which worked amazingly well with their voices. They wound up getting fourth place in the contest, too. Next year, they plan to do Weird Al's "Ricky". Hee hee hee.
We also bumped intolyricae and tinlail at Karaoke, which was cool, since we hadn't talked to them for quite a while. But I wound up having to bug out before the singing was over, because they'd opened the door to the patio where people were smoking outside, and I couldn't handle the smoke. Bleah.
Along withsolarbird, we all did dinner at the hotel's cheaper restaurant, which was a bit of a letdown. It was well and thoroughly swamped, enough that the wait staff kept messing up orders. Our waitress in particular kept forgetting things--but we felt sorry for her, especially when somebody at the next table was quite unnecessarily bitchy to her. We tipped her extra on principle.
I worked out again on Saturday morning, and that was quite satisfying even if my iPod kept cutting out at random during the treadmilling. Foo. I'm probably going to have to break down and buy that new battery for the thing some time soon.
The afternoon went pretty well, though. I wound up going to a couple of different panels with Mimi. The first was a panel called Guilty Cartoon Pleasures, which was all about people confessing what really BAD cartoons they used to watch--or still do! We didn't stay for the whole panel, since it was standing room only and we didn't get to have chairs. But it was amusing while we were in there.
The other panel was also standing room only--but we got in early enough that I was able to scarf floor space up front. And Mimi actually got to get onto the panel--because it was a a Firefly panel, and somebody told the actual panelists that Meems has written an episode guide. "Come ON UP!" they cried, and cheerfully grabbed an extra chair for her.
Unsurprisingly, the panel was all about lamenting the cancellation of the show, and much amusement was had discussing favorite characters and favorite lines. Lyda Morehouse was the moderator--which pleased me, since I have a book by her on my shelves--and she amused me by plaintively observing that she could hardly quote the whole show by way of an answer to the "favorite line" question.
The best parts of the panel came in, though, when another panelist relayed that he'd actually seen a five-minute segment of the film. This provoked a suitable "OOOOOOOOOO" from the audience, both before and after he gave us the summary of what he'd seen. It sounded highly enjoyable.
Even he got trumped, though, when an actual propmaker from Burbank, CA came in and announced he had pictures of the actual Serenity, as well as photos of props he'd made for both the series and the film. That went over really, REALLY well, and so did a third panelist announcing she had some freebies to give out: 25 small posters promoting the movie, and postcards and buttons as well. I didn't scarf any of the loot, but Meems got one of the small posters because of being on the panel.
After that we hung out in Quiet Hospitality for a little while. Dara and Paul were in there having a sort of elf-themed artjam with an acquaintance of theirs, and Joe was there as well, so we wound up having a nice little conversational circle going on around that corner of the room.
Saturday evening was all about the Masquerade. Paul and I ran intojiapa while we were waiting in line to get in to where Dara and Meems were saving seats for us up front, so Amy got to sit with us there. A couple of costumes got scratched from the lineup, which kind of disappointed me, since one of them was apparently going to be Lord of the Rings-flavored; we spotted an Eye of Sauron prop that somebody had made leaning against the curtains on stage. The best of the costumes that did go on included "Tinky-Winky of Borg" (which is pretty much self-explanatory ;) ), and a very cool, larger-than-life, full-body red Anubis costume entitled "Life is War". The Anubis was armed with an ankh that separated into two huge swords, and included digitigrade feet!
The extra-special way cool part of the Masquerade show, though, was the half-time entertainment: taiko drumming, courtesy of the local taiko group Tsunami Taiko. They were very, VERY cool, and got a standing ovation from the crowd.
One thing which should pleaseframlingem: Robert J. Sawyer was announced as the Toastmaster for next year's convention.
Mimi and I wound up just going back to the room after that, pretty much, and we hung out yakking just because we hadn't actually had the opportunity to do that in a while. Mimi felt just a tad lame about that, since part of her kept nagging that she ought to get up and go out and make rounds through the parties, but we were also having a lot of fun yakking about her current adventures on AetherMUSH as well as potential things we might write about if we ever wanted to work together on a story.
And then, bed!
Not too much today. We got packed up and ready to go, and then did try to go to the second showing of the annual movie previews, but the guy who was supposed to run them never showed.
So Paul and I went ahead and scrammed. I had to start filling out some paperwork I need to get done, and Paul needed the afternoon to get stuff done at his place as well.
And so I'm home. Yay!
Miles yesterday: 2.02 (treadmill)
Miles out of Hobbiton: 57.73
Miles to Rivendell: 400.27
And now, the rest of the con!
I forgot to mention that the freebies handed out at Registration included, at least in some bags, a paperback called Medalon by Jennifer Fallon. Now, I must admit that I haven't actually read this book yet, but I'm having a hard time working up enthusiasm to read it, on three grounds:
1) While reading the blurb, I caught a typo in it. This is what I get for being in major editing mode! But it also doesn't bode well for the quality of editing between the covers.
2) There's a character mentioned in the blurb called Brak. As someone who has watched quite a bit of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, I have a hard time taking any character who actually has the name Brak seriously. ;)
3) Every time I see the title, the first thing that pops into my brain is Megalon. As in the monster from the Godzilla flick Godzilla Vs. Megalon.
So, has anybody actually read this thing? Is it good? Is it not so much? Inquiring minds want to know!
In the meantime, I also got a free hardback that was being handed out: Neal Asher's Gridlinked. I wouldn't normally buy a hardback book, but hey, free. And the blurb on this book sounded entertaining, so I scarfed a copy.
On another pass through the huckster room, I picked up a copy of the CD Enchantment, put out by Heather Alexander's new band Uffington Horse. I did in fact purchase it from the hand of Heather herself, as she was hanging out at the table where they were selling it. Yay. :)
Lastly, I picked up a T-shirt that amuses the hell out of me. Think Cthulu Meets iPod, with the caption "cephaloPod", and you'll get an idea of what's on the shirt.
The biggest highlight of Friday evening turned out to be the now-traditional Klingon Karaoke! It was sadly devoid of actual Klingons this year, though we did have a chick show up in full Romulan garb. She did in fact remark upon the lack of Klingons as she got up on stage to do her number, to which
mamishka yelled out in reply, "They're afraid of you!"The Romulan promptly replied, "The way I sing, they ought to be!"
I was severely tempted to try to get up and sing something by Elvis--especially since the selection of songs available included both "Don't" and "Love Me", two of my very favorite Elvis ditties. Problem is, I'm not sure how well I can actually sing them in their native keys! Maybe I'd better practice them for next year, though. ;)
Meems and
spazzkat got up to do a duet, though: "Love Shack", which worked amazingly well with their voices. They wound up getting fourth place in the contest, too. Next year, they plan to do Weird Al's "Ricky". Hee hee hee.We also bumped into
lyricae and tinlail at Karaoke, which was cool, since we hadn't talked to them for quite a while. But I wound up having to bug out before the singing was over, because they'd opened the door to the patio where people were smoking outside, and I couldn't handle the smoke. Bleah.Along with
solarbird, we all did dinner at the hotel's cheaper restaurant, which was a bit of a letdown. It was well and thoroughly swamped, enough that the wait staff kept messing up orders. Our waitress in particular kept forgetting things--but we felt sorry for her, especially when somebody at the next table was quite unnecessarily bitchy to her. We tipped her extra on principle.I worked out again on Saturday morning, and that was quite satisfying even if my iPod kept cutting out at random during the treadmilling. Foo. I'm probably going to have to break down and buy that new battery for the thing some time soon.
The afternoon went pretty well, though. I wound up going to a couple of different panels with Mimi. The first was a panel called Guilty Cartoon Pleasures, which was all about people confessing what really BAD cartoons they used to watch--or still do! We didn't stay for the whole panel, since it was standing room only and we didn't get to have chairs. But it was amusing while we were in there.
The other panel was also standing room only--but we got in early enough that I was able to scarf floor space up front. And Mimi actually got to get onto the panel--because it was a a Firefly panel, and somebody told the actual panelists that Meems has written an episode guide. "Come ON UP!" they cried, and cheerfully grabbed an extra chair for her.
Unsurprisingly, the panel was all about lamenting the cancellation of the show, and much amusement was had discussing favorite characters and favorite lines. Lyda Morehouse was the moderator--which pleased me, since I have a book by her on my shelves--and she amused me by plaintively observing that she could hardly quote the whole show by way of an answer to the "favorite line" question.
The best parts of the panel came in, though, when another panelist relayed that he'd actually seen a five-minute segment of the film. This provoked a suitable "OOOOOOOOOO" from the audience, both before and after he gave us the summary of what he'd seen. It sounded highly enjoyable.
Even he got trumped, though, when an actual propmaker from Burbank, CA came in and announced he had pictures of the actual Serenity, as well as photos of props he'd made for both the series and the film. That went over really, REALLY well, and so did a third panelist announcing she had some freebies to give out: 25 small posters promoting the movie, and postcards and buttons as well. I didn't scarf any of the loot, but Meems got one of the small posters because of being on the panel.
After that we hung out in Quiet Hospitality for a little while. Dara and Paul were in there having a sort of elf-themed artjam with an acquaintance of theirs, and Joe was there as well, so we wound up having a nice little conversational circle going on around that corner of the room.
Saturday evening was all about the Masquerade. Paul and I ran into
jiapa while we were waiting in line to get in to where Dara and Meems were saving seats for us up front, so Amy got to sit with us there. A couple of costumes got scratched from the lineup, which kind of disappointed me, since one of them was apparently going to be Lord of the Rings-flavored; we spotted an Eye of Sauron prop that somebody had made leaning against the curtains on stage. The best of the costumes that did go on included "Tinky-Winky of Borg" (which is pretty much self-explanatory ;) ), and a very cool, larger-than-life, full-body red Anubis costume entitled "Life is War". The Anubis was armed with an ankh that separated into two huge swords, and included digitigrade feet!The extra-special way cool part of the Masquerade show, though, was the half-time entertainment: taiko drumming, courtesy of the local taiko group Tsunami Taiko. They were very, VERY cool, and got a standing ovation from the crowd.
One thing which should please
framlingem: Robert J. Sawyer was announced as the Toastmaster for next year's convention.Mimi and I wound up just going back to the room after that, pretty much, and we hung out yakking just because we hadn't actually had the opportunity to do that in a while. Mimi felt just a tad lame about that, since part of her kept nagging that she ought to get up and go out and make rounds through the parties, but we were also having a lot of fun yakking about her current adventures on AetherMUSH as well as potential things we might write about if we ever wanted to work together on a story.
And then, bed!
Not too much today. We got packed up and ready to go, and then did try to go to the second showing of the annual movie previews, but the guy who was supposed to run them never showed.
So Paul and I went ahead and scrammed. I had to start filling out some paperwork I need to get done, and Paul needed the afternoon to get stuff done at his place as well.
And so I'm home. Yay!
Miles yesterday: 2.02 (treadmill)
Miles out of Hobbiton: 57.73
Miles to Rivendell: 400.27