Odyssey 2010
Having been home over a week its time to commit my ramblings on EasterCon to the ether Eastercon musings
Just some musings from a Con-virgin interspersed with what I actually did at Odyssey and some thoughts on issues raised by other folk in their own Eastercon reports.
Why did I go to Eastercon?
As a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism I had agreed to take part in the combat demo and “please-come-and-play-with-us” stall on the Sunday. Then I thought, “I’ve never been to a Con, so why not make a weekend of it”; so I signed up to attend. Then my wife decided to come too so it became more of an actual holiday (I tend to do too much when let out alone, and forget things like eating, drinking, and sleeping).
On Good Friday we got up reasonably early for the 3-hour (including breakfast) trip to Heathrow. As we were staying off-site we did not have to wait for the hotel to allow us to check-in so, after initially heading for the wrong queue (note: signs on the counter are great, but if the first person in the queue is leaning on the counter then they are invisible) we checked in for the Con.
I was impressed by the goodie-bag - free books are always welcome and free chocolate even more so.
We met up with a few folk that we knew and sat down to socialise in the bar. Whilst there we were handed our first newsletter of the weekend and decided to go to the apple tasting. As some of my friends are aware I am not a fan of fruit (or veg) regarding them as things that food eats for me. Nevertheless I think that this was an interesting item and meant I didn’t have to feel guilty about eating mostly burgers for the rest of the weekend.
Later in the afternoon I went to the first session of the Choral Workshop. The plan was to take whoever turned up and sing, in four-part harmony, a setting of “The Green Hills of Earth”. There are various versions of these words available as the title is referenced, and quoted from, in many of Heinlein’s works but is never written out in its entirety. This version had one chorus in Esperanto and I was quite bemused to find that in a room of about 20 people quite an animated discussion could be had as to the exact pronunciation required (and indeed as to whether the Esperanto could have been phrased better).
The standard of the singing was better than an ad hoc choir had any right to expect so we cut our first practice down from 2 hours to just over one.
At this point I was to find that one of the recurring themes of my weekend was “It doesn’t matter how much you highlight in your programme - the people you talk to will be interesting enough that you will keep talking right through what you had intended to attend”.
In the evening we attended the NewCon Press book launch as D had a story in one of the anthologies. I’d never attended a launch before and wasn’t sure what to expect. It seemed very friendly and, of course, there was the opportunity to buy books at a special discounted rate. I bought “Conflicts” - NewCon press’s first pure SciFi anthology - with D’s story in it, and “The Mammoth book of Alternate Histories”
We left at this point to make our way to the Travelodge at Heston Services (westbound) on the M4 - obviously only good if you’re travelling by car and, due to the nature of motorways, quite a long way from the Radisson at the end of a long day (but really very close in the morning - 12 miles / 4miles).
We settled down and read all the paperwork we’d been given.
On Saturday we decided to dress in our Steam-punk gear one day earlier than originally intended (we’d made the outfits for the ball on Sunday night) to take part in the “Hall Costumes” competition.
We arrived at the Radisson in time for the 1st Timers’ Meeting - due to some sort of fowl-up a bunch of us were sat together in the appropriate room with no one to run the meeting (by the end of the weekend we’d have known better what to do about this). We assume that as there wasn’t even a gopher present that the info about this re-scheduled meeting was incorrect, but we had a nice chat and got the feeling that there were others who knew just as little as we did.
I had another choral workshop next - I would have liked (bearing in mind the relatively high standard already reached) to have really done some work on the fine detail, but I understand the conductor wanting rather to consolidate what we already had.
Next up was “Bad Science” with Ben Goldacre of The Grauniad. The chances of my reading his column in the normal way are remote but I will have to look for the online versions as I felt that I could have listened to more (and in greater depth) of his talk.
Fantastic SF and Fantasy Make-up Techniques was a bit of a letdown. The problem was that the title and write-up offered too much. A face-painted cat, even with a prosthetic cat nose and contact lens cat-eyes didn’t match the title. This could have been a very strong item with the simple addition of some images of SciFi and Fantasy make-ups to which to refer the techniques used. A 2-minute set of images of the prosthetic being applied would have been useful rather than “this takes too long so I did it before you arrived”. I know that complicated make-ups take too long for a one-hour talk but I can already do basic make-up. I wanted more.
When we finished the Choral workshop we were told to gather for the Cabaret rehearsal at 3 - a bit of a pain as particularly wanted to attend the “Swordplay for Writers” talk. I duly stayed in my seat at the end of the make-up item and waited for everyone else to arrive. And waited. And waited.
Eventually at about 20 past I was told that I was not required until 5! Not only had I missed one item that I had wanted to attend; I now had to miss another (“Steampunk - Literature of Lifestyle”). Very Dischuffed.
I know others will be upset at the thought of no Masquerade next year but I think its something that needs an experienced theatrical producer to co-ordinate - asking Con tech to do it is asking too much in the available time.
I didn’t have any interest in Doctor Who (and anyway I knew we had it set to record at home so I headed for the bar for a quick throat loosener.
We (the Choir) got to watch the Masquerade until it was time for us to gather backstage - The backstage arrangements leave a lot to be desired - there was an emergency exit stairwell that had no solid door at the bottom, meaning a cold wind blowing into the “holding area”. For anyone with joint problems this was a real issue and we had managed to persuade the stage manager that we could be trusted to wait in the corner of the bar, outside the door into backstage. Having made it clear that waiting in the cold was a problem I would like to know who then though it was a good idea to insist that we move into that same cold area for 5 minutes before then spending two complete items formed up in the wings. Two lots of noise from moving all those bodies and a lot of disgruntled, cold and (due to the cold) in pain singers, who could have formed up in lines in the bar and, in a single movement, have walked on stage.
Straight back to the hotel for a hot bath and to write my name on the hall-costume tickets I’d been given.
As Sunday was the SCA Demo (and that’s why we’d come to Eastercon) I had not examined the programme in any depth. I started with a little socialising before helping to set up our table in the foyer of the Dealers’ Room and then putting on my armour for the Combat Display. For those who wondered what happened to the Rapier part of the display, its like this: Nik was travelling from Iceland and so she didn’t bring her fencing stuff (quite apart from the pressures of Chairing next Year’s Con-bid); Adam knew that Nick wasn’t bringing hers so he didn’t bring his; I brought mine but not any spare kit. If you want rapiers, ask your friendly Illustrious committee - we can even tie it in with the Con theme of Military SF (“Phule’s Company” anyone?).
After an hour of fighting - very well attended, to the extent of people watching from outside the room - I was in urgent need of salt and sugar so a quick trip to McD’s was in order then I changed into my Japanese hitatare and wandered the Con, just being part of the visible face of the SCA.
I helped Lena set the Calligraphy Workshop going - another hugely well attended item (we expected maybe 5 or 6; we had a room big enough for 15; we got 35 people - we would never have coped if Tom who is head of the Scribes Guild of the “Far Isles Medieval Society” hadn’t come and volunteered to help - Beer was later offered in thanks), before I had to head off and get back in armour for Nik’s “Physics of Weapons” talk. I was there as a walking prop of the “hit the man and see how you don’t hurt him because he’s in armour” type.
I would have stayed for the “Church of Chocolate” but needed to gather my clothing / armour / weapons / calligraphy kit from the four corners of the hotel. Not attending did, however, mean that there was time for more food before “Harry Potter and the Half-Cut Prince”.
This Musical travesty was hugely enjoyable even if it did take me until halfway through to realise that, as well as Harry Potter and The Rocky Horror Show, they were also parodying Dr Who.
Marian went to the Sock Knitting for beginners workshop and then Mitch Benn so I just hung around the bar chatting (including to Iain M Banks, who I will say here is A Good Guy, now I must read his books). For those who complain/worry that there are too many non-SF things on the programme I'll just say that they were all very well attended, so there is a demand for them; whether this is a good or bad thing I don't, with my vast four-day experience of fandom feel qualified to comment upon.
We never actually made it to the Steampunk Ball but spent some time in the bar so we saw most of the other costumes people had made (those that hadn’t already worn them as hall costumes).
We had a reasonably late start on Monday as the first item either of us wanted to see was D giving his talk on “Herschel - The Latest Images from Space”. This was fascinating and proved that we know some frighteningly clever people. We now await the results that he couldn’t show us when they are released in May.
The afternoon was a busy one, starting with Nik’s talk “Black Holes for Beginners” which I almost understood. Unfortunately I had to leave before the end to get to the Green Room ready for my own first item - that’s right, the helium hand strikes again, I was on a panel at my very first Con - The First International Clanger Symposium: Study of a Knitted Alien Race.
I presented a paper on “Problems in Ferro-Poultry Engineering. I would like to give full details of all the papers but I was in a slight funk and can only remember that I laughed a lot.
Our final item before the drive home was the Closing Ceremony (this may seem obvious but, for the benefit of those who were not present, I should point out that the actual Con still had another 6 hours of organised items left to run) where I found that I had won the Hall Costume competition.
I will definitely be attending next year - actually I don’t have a choice as I’ll probably be doing something on the Ops side as Nik is in charge.
Just some musings from a Con-virgin interspersed with what I actually did at Odyssey and some thoughts on issues raised by other folk in their own Eastercon reports.
Why did I go to Eastercon?
As a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism I had agreed to take part in the combat demo and “please-come-and-play-with-us” stall on the Sunday. Then I thought, “I’ve never been to a Con, so why not make a weekend of it”; so I signed up to attend. Then my wife decided to come too so it became more of an actual holiday (I tend to do too much when let out alone, and forget things like eating, drinking, and sleeping).
On Good Friday we got up reasonably early for the 3-hour (including breakfast) trip to Heathrow. As we were staying off-site we did not have to wait for the hotel to allow us to check-in so, after initially heading for the wrong queue (note: signs on the counter are great, but if the first person in the queue is leaning on the counter then they are invisible) we checked in for the Con.
I was impressed by the goodie-bag - free books are always welcome and free chocolate even more so.
We met up with a few folk that we knew and sat down to socialise in the bar. Whilst there we were handed our first newsletter of the weekend and decided to go to the apple tasting. As some of my friends are aware I am not a fan of fruit (or veg) regarding them as things that food eats for me. Nevertheless I think that this was an interesting item and meant I didn’t have to feel guilty about eating mostly burgers for the rest of the weekend.
Later in the afternoon I went to the first session of the Choral Workshop. The plan was to take whoever turned up and sing, in four-part harmony, a setting of “The Green Hills of Earth”. There are various versions of these words available as the title is referenced, and quoted from, in many of Heinlein’s works but is never written out in its entirety. This version had one chorus in Esperanto and I was quite bemused to find that in a room of about 20 people quite an animated discussion could be had as to the exact pronunciation required (and indeed as to whether the Esperanto could have been phrased better).
The standard of the singing was better than an ad hoc choir had any right to expect so we cut our first practice down from 2 hours to just over one.
At this point I was to find that one of the recurring themes of my weekend was “It doesn’t matter how much you highlight in your programme - the people you talk to will be interesting enough that you will keep talking right through what you had intended to attend”.
In the evening we attended the NewCon Press book launch as D had a story in one of the anthologies. I’d never attended a launch before and wasn’t sure what to expect. It seemed very friendly and, of course, there was the opportunity to buy books at a special discounted rate. I bought “Conflicts” - NewCon press’s first pure SciFi anthology - with D’s story in it, and “The Mammoth book of Alternate Histories”
We left at this point to make our way to the Travelodge at Heston Services (westbound) on the M4 - obviously only good if you’re travelling by car and, due to the nature of motorways, quite a long way from the Radisson at the end of a long day (but really very close in the morning - 12 miles / 4miles).
We settled down and read all the paperwork we’d been given.
On Saturday we decided to dress in our Steam-punk gear one day earlier than originally intended (we’d made the outfits for the ball on Sunday night) to take part in the “Hall Costumes” competition.
We arrived at the Radisson in time for the 1st Timers’ Meeting - due to some sort of fowl-up a bunch of us were sat together in the appropriate room with no one to run the meeting (by the end of the weekend we’d have known better what to do about this). We assume that as there wasn’t even a gopher present that the info about this re-scheduled meeting was incorrect, but we had a nice chat and got the feeling that there were others who knew just as little as we did.
I had another choral workshop next - I would have liked (bearing in mind the relatively high standard already reached) to have really done some work on the fine detail, but I understand the conductor wanting rather to consolidate what we already had.
Next up was “Bad Science” with Ben Goldacre of The Grauniad. The chances of my reading his column in the normal way are remote but I will have to look for the online versions as I felt that I could have listened to more (and in greater depth) of his talk.
Fantastic SF and Fantasy Make-up Techniques was a bit of a letdown. The problem was that the title and write-up offered too much. A face-painted cat, even with a prosthetic cat nose and contact lens cat-eyes didn’t match the title. This could have been a very strong item with the simple addition of some images of SciFi and Fantasy make-ups to which to refer the techniques used. A 2-minute set of images of the prosthetic being applied would have been useful rather than “this takes too long so I did it before you arrived”. I know that complicated make-ups take too long for a one-hour talk but I can already do basic make-up. I wanted more.
When we finished the Choral workshop we were told to gather for the Cabaret rehearsal at 3 - a bit of a pain as particularly wanted to attend the “Swordplay for Writers” talk. I duly stayed in my seat at the end of the make-up item and waited for everyone else to arrive. And waited. And waited.
Eventually at about 20 past I was told that I was not required until 5! Not only had I missed one item that I had wanted to attend; I now had to miss another (“Steampunk - Literature of Lifestyle”). Very Dischuffed.
I know others will be upset at the thought of no Masquerade next year but I think its something that needs an experienced theatrical producer to co-ordinate - asking Con tech to do it is asking too much in the available time.
I didn’t have any interest in Doctor Who (and anyway I knew we had it set to record at home so I headed for the bar for a quick throat loosener.
We (the Choir) got to watch the Masquerade until it was time for us to gather backstage - The backstage arrangements leave a lot to be desired - there was an emergency exit stairwell that had no solid door at the bottom, meaning a cold wind blowing into the “holding area”. For anyone with joint problems this was a real issue and we had managed to persuade the stage manager that we could be trusted to wait in the corner of the bar, outside the door into backstage. Having made it clear that waiting in the cold was a problem I would like to know who then though it was a good idea to insist that we move into that same cold area for 5 minutes before then spending two complete items formed up in the wings. Two lots of noise from moving all those bodies and a lot of disgruntled, cold and (due to the cold) in pain singers, who could have formed up in lines in the bar and, in a single movement, have walked on stage.
Straight back to the hotel for a hot bath and to write my name on the hall-costume tickets I’d been given.
As Sunday was the SCA Demo (and that’s why we’d come to Eastercon) I had not examined the programme in any depth. I started with a little socialising before helping to set up our table in the foyer of the Dealers’ Room and then putting on my armour for the Combat Display. For those who wondered what happened to the Rapier part of the display, its like this: Nik was travelling from Iceland and so she didn’t bring her fencing stuff (quite apart from the pressures of Chairing next Year’s Con-bid); Adam knew that Nick wasn’t bringing hers so he didn’t bring his; I brought mine but not any spare kit. If you want rapiers, ask your friendly Illustrious committee - we can even tie it in with the Con theme of Military SF (“Phule’s Company” anyone?).
After an hour of fighting - very well attended, to the extent of people watching from outside the room - I was in urgent need of salt and sugar so a quick trip to McD’s was in order then I changed into my Japanese hitatare and wandered the Con, just being part of the visible face of the SCA.
I helped Lena set the Calligraphy Workshop going - another hugely well attended item (we expected maybe 5 or 6; we had a room big enough for 15; we got 35 people - we would never have coped if Tom who is head of the Scribes Guild of the “Far Isles Medieval Society” hadn’t come and volunteered to help - Beer was later offered in thanks), before I had to head off and get back in armour for Nik’s “Physics of Weapons” talk. I was there as a walking prop of the “hit the man and see how you don’t hurt him because he’s in armour” type.
I would have stayed for the “Church of Chocolate” but needed to gather my clothing / armour / weapons / calligraphy kit from the four corners of the hotel. Not attending did, however, mean that there was time for more food before “Harry Potter and the Half-Cut Prince”.
This Musical travesty was hugely enjoyable even if it did take me until halfway through to realise that, as well as Harry Potter and The Rocky Horror Show, they were also parodying Dr Who.
Marian went to the Sock Knitting for beginners workshop and then Mitch Benn so I just hung around the bar chatting (including to Iain M Banks, who I will say here is A Good Guy, now I must read his books). For those who complain/worry that there are too many non-SF things on the programme I'll just say that they were all very well attended, so there is a demand for them; whether this is a good or bad thing I don't, with my vast four-day experience of fandom feel qualified to comment upon.
We never actually made it to the Steampunk Ball but spent some time in the bar so we saw most of the other costumes people had made (those that hadn’t already worn them as hall costumes).
We had a reasonably late start on Monday as the first item either of us wanted to see was D giving his talk on “Herschel - The Latest Images from Space”. This was fascinating and proved that we know some frighteningly clever people. We now await the results that he couldn’t show us when they are released in May.
The afternoon was a busy one, starting with Nik’s talk “Black Holes for Beginners” which I almost understood. Unfortunately I had to leave before the end to get to the Green Room ready for my own first item - that’s right, the helium hand strikes again, I was on a panel at my very first Con - The First International Clanger Symposium: Study of a Knitted Alien Race.
I presented a paper on “Problems in Ferro-Poultry Engineering. I would like to give full details of all the papers but I was in a slight funk and can only remember that I laughed a lot.
Our final item before the drive home was the Closing Ceremony (this may seem obvious but, for the benefit of those who were not present, I should point out that the actual Con still had another 6 hours of organised items left to run) where I found that I had won the Hall Costume competition.
I will definitely be attending next year - actually I don’t have a choice as I’ll probably be doing something on the Ops side as Nik is in charge.