Swancon Saturday
Apr. 15th, 2009 09:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stephbgThanks to art show babysitting volunteers I got to see a bit of con on Saturday, although was disappointed that one person failed to show, leaving someone in the lurch. Fortunately someone else stepped into the breech so we all got there in the end. While all this was happening I was oblivious, being in a panel of my own and thus phoneless.
Panel: Ready, steady, genesplice
Was lots of fun. Goodly amount of audience participation with fun things to look at, including slightly panicked artists. It would appear that CITES is a problem, but we all like ethics in our invented animals. The black market didn't do well.
(On a) Panel: How does technology create society?
Although this was my concept, I was not originally on this panel myself, but since we lost half of the compare-and-contrast author pairing, the topic became more generic and in need of bodies. It was great to be on a panel with Richard Morgan, and although the audience ran off away from the intended literary/narrative-building focus I think it was a lively and interesting discussion. I'm looking forward to listening to the podcast.
The room was packed to overflowing, which was nice, but due I suspect to RM's presence and a lack of promgramme competition at that time. I can see why some people thought Saturday might have seemed a little thin on the ground, but you get that sometimes.
Market Day
I'm not a particular fan of market day and/or the dealers' tables, mainly because I have all-year access to genre books and booksellers, and am not inclined to buy memorabilia. Small press, however, is my Swancon purchasing target, and I stocked up for a while.
Having arranged for Comic Book Guy to have a corner to display some of his collection of original comic art I only got a chance for a brief chat and didn't really see the art. Oh well, I'm told it was interesting!
Art Show auction, sales and breakdown
*cue hysterial laughter*
I *knew* the final auction/sale/collection etc session was going to be a disasterous bottleneck, but I was constrained by a number of factors some of which I won't list here. One of those was my unwillingness to make people wait or change advertised times by 10-15 minutes which would have helped. Huge thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fredmouse for traffic control at the door, and to Husband again for providing good cop services. Particularly when I started to growl (hopefully very quietly) "Make them go AWAY" *facepalm*. I ran out of cope, but given I've been very ill for the months (and indeed years) leading up to the con the fact I was even upright at that point was something of a triumph.
So, it could have been better in a number of ways. Unfortunately, having announced quite publicly that I would never (ever) do this again, I was struck at this time by a thought: "I could do this MUCH better". Oh no. *That's* why people do it again. But I won't. Ever. Except for handover and training.
May the gods protect the universe from my customer service skills.
I think it was about then that I lost the kilo I dropped during the con.
Masquerade
Got there! The recycled and repurposed Warrior-Priestess ensemble seemed to work OK, helped by the fact that I was too relieved to be concerned about my appearance (even the exposed flesh which normally causes me serious butterflies) and skipped the annual hair-and-makeup circus. Husband was The/My Prisoner.
The costumes were incredible. Every year, better and better, and so nice to see new faces (real and applied). Thanks to the people who showed me their reference pictures and seemed quite happy to explain who they were.
In event terms some things worked, some things didn't. I'd hoped the judging area would be in a quieter area, but it seemed to be a success. I was only there briefly to explain that I was not in contention for anything, so perhaps it was quieter and I didn't notice. If we were other people I would have allowed us in as a small group perhaps, but it was easier to duck the ethical issue.
The parade had too much music and other noise over it, so it was impossible to hear what people were saying. We could have used a stronger MC presence, but I believe we lost our scheduled MC late in the day. I don't know what happened to the judging guidelines after they got out of my hands, but it's a shame the "performance" aspect got used as a major decider rather than the minor point it was written as. /end grumble. I was *extremely* pleased thatdrhoz's facehugger got the recognition it deserved.
I danced briefly, which was enough for this time. Later I counted art show votes in my room. I spent some quality time talking to good friends. It was a good night.
Gaming
I didn't manage to play an actual game, but this evening I went into the games room and talked to people for a while. I attempted to explain my gaming phobia and had a breakthrough or two, so I'm getting closer! Honest!
Panel: Ready, steady, genesplice
Was lots of fun. Goodly amount of audience participation with fun things to look at, including slightly panicked artists. It would appear that CITES is a problem, but we all like ethics in our invented animals. The black market didn't do well.
(On a) Panel: How does technology create society?
Although this was my concept, I was not originally on this panel myself, but since we lost half of the compare-and-contrast author pairing, the topic became more generic and in need of bodies. It was great to be on a panel with Richard Morgan, and although the audience ran off away from the intended literary/narrative-building focus I think it was a lively and interesting discussion. I'm looking forward to listening to the podcast.
The room was packed to overflowing, which was nice, but due I suspect to RM's presence and a lack of promgramme competition at that time. I can see why some people thought Saturday might have seemed a little thin on the ground, but you get that sometimes.
Market Day
I'm not a particular fan of market day and/or the dealers' tables, mainly because I have all-year access to genre books and booksellers, and am not inclined to buy memorabilia. Small press, however, is my Swancon purchasing target, and I stocked up for a while.
Having arranged for Comic Book Guy to have a corner to display some of his collection of original comic art I only got a chance for a brief chat and didn't really see the art. Oh well, I'm told it was interesting!
Art Show auction, sales and breakdown
*cue hysterial laughter*
I *knew* the final auction/sale/collection etc session was going to be a disasterous bottleneck, but I was constrained by a number of factors some of which I won't list here. One of those was my unwillingness to make people wait or change advertised times by 10-15 minutes which would have helped. Huge thanks to
fredmouse for traffic control at the door, and to Husband again for providing good cop services. Particularly when I started to growl (hopefully very quietly) "Make them go AWAY" *facepalm*. I ran out of cope, but given I've been very ill for the months (and indeed years) leading up to the con the fact I was even upright at that point was something of a triumph.So, it could have been better in a number of ways. Unfortunately, having announced quite publicly that I would never (ever) do this again, I was struck at this time by a thought: "I could do this MUCH better". Oh no. *That's* why people do it again. But I won't. Ever. Except for handover and training.
May the gods protect the universe from my customer service skills.
I think it was about then that I lost the kilo I dropped during the con.
Masquerade
Got there! The recycled and repurposed Warrior-Priestess ensemble seemed to work OK, helped by the fact that I was too relieved to be concerned about my appearance (even the exposed flesh which normally causes me serious butterflies) and skipped the annual hair-and-makeup circus. Husband was The/My Prisoner.
The costumes were incredible. Every year, better and better, and so nice to see new faces (real and applied). Thanks to the people who showed me their reference pictures and seemed quite happy to explain who they were.
In event terms some things worked, some things didn't. I'd hoped the judging area would be in a quieter area, but it seemed to be a success. I was only there briefly to explain that I was not in contention for anything, so perhaps it was quieter and I didn't notice. If we were other people I would have allowed us in as a small group perhaps, but it was easier to duck the ethical issue.
The parade had too much music and other noise over it, so it was impossible to hear what people were saying. We could have used a stronger MC presence, but I believe we lost our scheduled MC late in the day. I don't know what happened to the judging guidelines after they got out of my hands, but it's a shame the "performance" aspect got used as a major decider rather than the minor point it was written as. /end grumble. I was *extremely* pleased that
drhoz's facehugger got the recognition it deserved.I danced briefly, which was enough for this time. Later I counted art show votes in my room. I spent some quality time talking to good friends. It was a good night.
Gaming
I didn't manage to play an actual game, but this evening I went into the games room and talked to people for a while. I attempted to explain my gaming phobia and had a breakthrough or two, so I'm getting closer! Honest!
