WisCon report
Overall
It was a good convention. In some ways the best because I was able to hang out with so many cool people, so many PoC, so many smart, wickedly sharp people! I love you all! On the other hand, it was a terrible convention because I had to work so much and couldn’t spend as much time as I wanted with everyone!
strangefetish and I left Chicago way later than expected due to my hubby’s meeting running long and him having the car at said meeting. I can’t complain, though, that man puts up with and so supports my sf habit that I’m just grateful for everything he does.
The ride up included the usual construction related annoyances, but was mostly uneventful. I turned in the banners for the Gathering upon checking in, and then strangefetish put on bunny socks and had me join her in a traditional jumping on hotel bed ceremony. I’ve never done that before. It was fun! Further proof that I need to stop being so darn uptight.
We then wandered over to ROOO and caught some other folks as they were leaving the reception for dinner. Unfortunately experienced firsthand the ‘my friend is cool so all their friends must be cool’ fallacy. Hint: if you don’t know me, don’t call me a bitchin’ babe. Oh, and just because you’re the only male at the table does NOT mean that you order for all the little ladies. This reminded me that I need to not be so nice and that it’s ok to speak my mind. Yes, you read that right, I actually tried to be nice and I restrained myself from speaking my mind. Usually I never do either, but I completely failed and regret it. Next time, I will just say “Oh, your group includes someone known to engage in fail? No thanks.” Or, “I’m sorry, did you just call me a bitchin’ babe? Hold still while I smack you around a bit…” Grrrr…. It marred an otherwise lovely meal with some very nice people.
I felt the need for some something sweet after dinner, so strangefetish and I walked over to the ice cream place (this was before I knew about sparkymonster’s advice to go get ice cream at these moments). We ran into Jeff and Michelle (who was very nice-glad to have met her) who were finishing up their ice cream and chatted a bit before going back to the hotel. We ran into sparkymonster, badger2305, lcohen, and Joanna and took some pictures that included fish faces and boobies before going to our room for the only good night’s sleep all weekend.
Saw littlebutfierce, raanve, and wrdnrd (nice to meet you) in the lobby and talked for a bit before going to set up the Gathering. Heard about geekaoke, which I would have enjoyed, but forgot about. Oh well, next year! Since the banners had been delivered on Thursday, the hotel staff had already hung them, which was great since the Clothing Swap needed some set-up help. Strangefetish helped a bunch and then my other two roomies, Helen and Sondra arrived and also helped. We opened on time to a waiting crowd of folks, and all seemed to go well from what I could tell.
I scored some finds at the Clothing Swap-a beautiful black bodice with ivory flowers along the edges, a flowing periwinkle skirt, a black knit dress with fringes, and an elegant teal dress! sistermarysith and I are both retiring from the Gathering this year and had posted a call for an apprentice, which turned out to be mystickeeper. Small world.
Tear down went pretty quickly, and I was done in plenty of time to make it to the PoC Meet and Greet dinner. Lest there be skeptics, I took pictures as proof of the existence of said dinner and said mythical beings. I felt like the guy in the Geico commercial taking pictures of the gecko, except I was taking pictures of dinocorns. The following mythical creatures were captured on film: ladyjax, oyceter, littlebutfierce, ladyjax, ktempest, Naamen, chr0me_kitten, badger2305, asim, sparkymonster, and moondancerdrake, plus other folks who may or may not have LJ names.
After dinner, I got dressed in a fancy dress from last year’s Clothing Swap and caught the tail-end of the Think_Galactic concom meeting, and then we opened for the party. Heathergalaxy made some awesome vegan cupcakes and I made vegan truffles, but the real hit of the evening were our sockpuppets. At one point, someone asked me if I was going to make one and I said I didn’t have to because “I am a sockpuppet!” I am very sad that I missed the Not Another Race Panel, as I heard it was the best thing to happen all weekend, and am hoping that it will be repeated next year, not on Friday night!
All four of us got up early and went to the farmers’ market armed with multiple bags for all our goodies. We got the usual smoothie, rhubarb pastries and pie, jam, cheese, and I even got to have cheese curds since strangefetish and Helen are both ok with food that squeaks! I had a “mild” cheese empanada and wondered if this was mild, what was the “spicy” like? I also bought some broccoli, cucumber, and nasturtiums to finish my garden collection. We dropped everything off at the room and went to separate panels.
I went to an academic presentation on Black Female Bodies, and caught the tail end of the Science and Colonialism panel. Anything that oyecter is on is good by me. I then grabbed salad from the hotel salad bar and went up to the Strategies for PoC session. I was very excited to see all the awesome folks there and am looking forward to keeping in touch. As others have already posted, Carl Brandon is broken and needs to be fixed, or else we need to look elsewhere to get our needs met. I feel bad about that, because I would like to support it, but it’s mission isn’t expansive enough for me. Not that I’m sure what I need the mission to be, or if such a mission is achievable, or if such a mission is achievable by one organization, but I definitely have needs that aren’t being met. For now, I will have to content myself with hanging out in person with wonderful people once per year at WisCon, and on LJ the rest of the year.
I have no recollection of what I did after that, but I think that's when I went to the dealers' room. Eventually, I ended up at the Safe Space at Cons panel. I didn’t take notes, but I don’t remember anything earth shattering. I was then on the Genuinely Multicultural panel and enjoyed that. The panelists (Ekaterina Sedia, Rachel Kronik, Nisi Shawl, and me) pretty much ran the panel without much need for the moderator, which was good. I think folks mostly asked good questions and we had a good discussion. There was one nice white lady who thought that the WorldCon being in Montreal this year was a sign of multiculturalism since Montreal is bilingual and I had to explain to her that that was purely accidental and no sign of anything. I also explained to her that while I understand that these things take time, I don't want to wait until I'm dead for progress to happen. Catherynne Valente asked some good questions and I decided that I like her and want to get to know her.
I missed the Tiptree Auction for the first time since I’ve been coming to WisCon because I was setting up the Capricon party. Helen, Sondra, and strangefetish went to change while I finished up, and they came back with lots of cleavage, so I took off my Capricon t-shirt and put on the bodice I had gotten at the Clothing Swap, so we would all have some cleavage, or in my case, the idea of cleavage. I managed to step out to other parties every now and then and LOVED the Verb Noire party. I still can’t decide which candy was best, “why so bitter?” or the watermelon pops. Karnythia has a wicked sense of humor! I love that in a person! She also looked damn good in her red dress! After we broke down the Capricon party, I came back and hung out for a bit before the party closed.
I was moving very slowly due to 2 nights in a row of little sleep, so I was late getting to the Think Galacticon table for my shift, but was luckily covered. Hung out for a bit telling folks about the convention, then went to Something is Wrong on the Internet. It was a little all over the place, but I did pick up some sites to check out. I was torn about going to the ABW lunch and brunch at Orpheum with friends, and decided on brunch since I had met most of the ABW folks and hadn’t had one meal with other folks, so the roomies and I went to Orpheum and ate way too much food with raanve and seaya. I think Sondra and seaya will be traveling the world together now that they have found each other. We all ran back for the BSG panel, where seaya and I relived our Ikea viper moment. I took no notes, which I regret, but it was a good panel. I then worked the Capricon table until my next panel, Dear Writer, I Don’t Want Kids. Again, good panel, nothing earth shattering, didn’t take notes.
The Think Galacticom concom had a great meeting over dinner at Noodles, where my roomies all happened to be also, and then we all ran back and got fancified for the dessert salon. As usual, there were so many people looking just gorgeous in their fancy dresses, chr0me_kitten and tanac, I'm looking at you. I got quite a few compliments, myself, so I was glad I had decided to dress up for the first time in what, 5 years??? The GoH speeches were awesome and I almost cried during Ellen’s speech and during ktempest and Catherynne Valente’s intro of Nisi. It was really difficult to simultaneously agree with Ellen's feeling of having found her tribe and also knowing it to fall down for me several years into fandom and realizing that being a PoC in fandom is not a welcome thing.
Wandered the parties, where I had been hoping to introduce strangefetish and brdgt, since they are superficial twins, but when I got to the Beer and Marmalade party, they were already fast friends. Asim schooled me on belly dancing a bit at his hafla, and then eventually, the roomies and I decided to call it a night. We were subject to giggling fits, however, so it took us forever to finally get to bed, and then once we did, there was quiet for only about 20 seconds before Helen asked if the neighbors thought this was a lull, which set us off again, until the next lull, which set us off again. I had cramps from laughing so hard.
I was moving very slowly and was the last one ready. Somehow we managed to get a cart and get all our stuff to our respective cars and checked out. Strangefetish came to my panel, Personal Shark Points, which was small, but a very good way for me to get out all my built-up anger, as I discussed how Tim Kring (Heroes) should run if he ever found himself alone in a dark alley with me, and how no one should even consider watching Stargate 90210 Universe. I also bet that Lou Diamond Phillips would be dead in no more than 42 minutes. Anyone want to lay odds on how long he’ll last?
None of the roomies or I are autograph collectors, so we skipped the SignOut and went in search of mac and cheese pizza based on Naamen’s glowing reviews. It was closed! so we went to some pub down the street since so many places were closed and we just couldn’t eat at Noodles again. We ran into the orc horde on the way back and much hugging and goodbyes ensued. Once inside the hotel, more hugging and goodbyes ensued, until finally, we got in our cars and hit the road to the outlet malls, but that’s a whole nother post…
Sondra bravely chose to go to an anti-religion panel (of which there were many this year and all of which I refused to go to) and was told that she was just like a racist because she believed in God. As a PoC, I find that offensive, and as a person of faith, I find it offensive. A group of us people of faith/supposed racists have decided to propose a panel next year on how it's not ok at WisCon to dis PoC, or women, or differently abled folks, or trans folks, or fat folks, but apparently, it's still perfectly acceptable to pick on folks who follow an organized religion, and in fact, there are multiple program items in which to do it. If you want to be an atheist, I support your right to do so and I treat you as an equal; all I ask that you respect my right to believe in God and that you treat me as an equal in return.
I’ve started reading about the fail that happened in the Take Back the Sci-Fi panel and am deeply disturbed. I think I’ve decided that I have to stay on concom in some capacity (so much for retirement) so that I can remind folks about these things so we try to ensure they don’t happen again. I also heard about the Getting it Wrong Gracefully fail and will remember that for next year, too. And the whole PoC/Safe Space as Zoo thing! I don’t even know where to start. I’m sorry these things happen. I wish they didn’t, and in some ways I am shocked that they do and in others, not so much.
The Think Galacticon concom is already taking all the stuff and discussing it for our con next month. I hope we do better. Given who everyone on the concom is, I have a good feeling that we will do better. When RaceFail first happened, I hadn’t even had a chance to tell the concom what was going on or that I personally wanted them to make a statement, and one of the (white) women in the group brought it up and everyone immediately said we needed to make a statement, make it quickly, and disseminate it widely. I love these people. I feel safe with them and know they have my back.
So, yes, there were some fantastic moments, there were som failtastic moments. But overall, it was good, so I shall return again next year.