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Balticon report
May. 26th, 2009 10:17 amBalticon was a fun time, as always, and it was great to catch up with friends. If I were more organized I'd post a list here, but instead please accept a general wave.
Attendance on Friday and Sunday seemed a bit light-- I met several folks on Saturday who said they were only coming in for the day. Traffic in the dealers' room also seemed light, though I did my bit by buying a shopping bag full of books plus a pair of earrings with dangling handcuffs.
As far as panels, the Compton Crook panel is always fun, though this year I was the oldest past winner there, having won in 2003. The Liars Panel raised a nice chunk of change for R.I.F., where the majority of the audience believed me when I confessed that my secret celebrity crush was Optimus Prime (truth) but also believed me that the oddest group I'd joined was Friends of Bob (while I am a past member of FoB, the oddest organization I've joined is SFWA.)
The Bheer panel also went well, but it was in Salon B, which started off hot and then got warmer. It grew so warm, in fact, that when I came back later to watch a panel with Gene Wolfe, as soon as the door opened to let us in a wall of heat came out, and I knew I would never be able to last in the audience. Instead I sat in on one of Josh's panels, and then we adjourned to the bar.
Met many old friends, and made new ones including my fellow Bheer panelists.
The most interesting panel I attended was High Noon in Fantasyland, discussing whether the rise of the fantasy genre was responsible for killing off westerns (consensus of the panelists was yes.)
Heading home from Balticon, Josh and I stopped at a shopping center for lunch. While checking for parking spaces, Josh said "Look, there's one there, by the Porsche."
"I see one, by a Jeep," I said, and pulled into the empty space.
"And here's the Porsche," he said.
Sure enough, there was a Jeep Wrangler to the left of the space, and a Porsche to the right. I'd completely skipped over the Porsche as uninteresting, while Josh hadn't seen the Jeep. Pretty much sums us up right there.
Got home Sunday night, which left Monday free for errands, including a trip up to the semi-annual library booksale in Ithaca, and catching the new Terminator movie Monday night.
And now, alas, it's back to the daily grind.
Attendance on Friday and Sunday seemed a bit light-- I met several folks on Saturday who said they were only coming in for the day. Traffic in the dealers' room also seemed light, though I did my bit by buying a shopping bag full of books plus a pair of earrings with dangling handcuffs.
As far as panels, the Compton Crook panel is always fun, though this year I was the oldest past winner there, having won in 2003. The Liars Panel raised a nice chunk of change for R.I.F., where the majority of the audience believed me when I confessed that my secret celebrity crush was Optimus Prime (truth) but also believed me that the oddest group I'd joined was Friends of Bob (while I am a past member of FoB, the oddest organization I've joined is SFWA.)
The Bheer panel also went well, but it was in Salon B, which started off hot and then got warmer. It grew so warm, in fact, that when I came back later to watch a panel with Gene Wolfe, as soon as the door opened to let us in a wall of heat came out, and I knew I would never be able to last in the audience. Instead I sat in on one of Josh's panels, and then we adjourned to the bar.
Met many old friends, and made new ones including my fellow Bheer panelists.
The most interesting panel I attended was High Noon in Fantasyland, discussing whether the rise of the fantasy genre was responsible for killing off westerns (consensus of the panelists was yes.)
Heading home from Balticon, Josh and I stopped at a shopping center for lunch. While checking for parking spaces, Josh said "Look, there's one there, by the Porsche."
"I see one, by a Jeep," I said, and pulled into the empty space.
"And here's the Porsche," he said.
Sure enough, there was a Jeep Wrangler to the left of the space, and a Porsche to the right. I'd completely skipped over the Porsche as uninteresting, while Josh hadn't seen the Jeep. Pretty much sums us up right there.
Got home Sunday night, which left Monday free for errands, including a trip up to the semi-annual library booksale in Ithaca, and catching the new Terminator movie Monday night.
And now, alas, it's back to the daily grind.