Thylacon - the first day
Jun. 18th, 2005 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithEffectively the first day because the friday was mostly registration.
And today it rained -- non-stop, heavy rain. It was to be expected that the previous day's sunny weather wouldn't last, seeing it's winter.
I woke up suddenly at 7.30 am. No apparent reason and nothing that had to be done in the morning. I spent most of the day on the ASIM table in the Dealers Room (photos from Dealers Room are on my website, so I won't repeat them). Which meant I had to wear my nifty Andromeda Spaceways Travel Agent tshirt ;)
Snuck down to Salamanca Market for a little bit, well, went in Dirk's car. Glad I had my coat, although it doesn't do up properly so it doesn't keep me very dry. But we bought some cheap umbrellas, which did a better job, but they're lethal things. Almost poked it in my eye.
First panel I went to was in the afternoon, with photos on website, of course. "The Appeal of the Anti-Hero". I don't think anything interesting came out of it, but it's a good example of one approach the panelists took to the seating. If you look at the photos ;) you'll notice the usual table with glasses of water for the panelists to sit behind, except in this case, they're sitting in front. Because it was a small con, a lot of panelists came up and sat in front of the audience without the table separating them. So rather than the 3 or 4 people talking amongst themselves, followed by questions from the audience, tghere was more interaction with the audience throughout the whole session.
After this, was my first panel =:-o on the very original and exciting subject "Is there life in the old dragon yet? Traditional fantasy in the new millennium". OK I wasn't too happy with how this went. Partly because I was so bloody tired (I did wonder at one point if going to sleep would be a good idea :| ) and I couldn't think of anything useful to say. And Kate & Richard were down the other end happily talking away. When I did say something, I'd start off how I intended but end up saying something different and feeling really stupid. Like my brain shut down everytime I opened my mouth :(
Don't remember anything interesting coming out of this discussion either, as if I'd remember if it did, but it's a good place to mention something else I noticed about the panels in general. A lot of the panels I've gone to in the past, and some cons seem worse than others, the bulk of the time has been spent defining the terms being discussed rather than the topic. Now this topic would have been a good candidate for that, but they pretty much decided that traditional fantasy = high fantays + sword & sorcery, with some examples thrown in to explain that they meant. Which is the way to do it. I hate it when potentially interesting discussions get bogged down arguments about definitions.
Now there was a break while the room was set up for the Masquerade/Ditmars. Now what did I do? We went down to the Bird Cage Bar (shapped like a birdcage) in the central part of the casino. Then I think there was a room party, maybe that was the one in Cat's room instead of last night.
I do remember going back to our room just after 7 to get changed for Masquerade, then Dirk dropped in to watch Dr Who, which finished at 8.15 and the Ditmars (the awards ceremony) started at 8. Bad timing there. So we missed most of them.
Funny how there are memory holes like that. Another one is the gap between the Ditmars & the Masquerade, because they closed the room to decorate it but can I remember what we/I did.
I don't always go to the Masquerade Ball, or only to the start, but I hung around for a while at this one, taking photos of people with fish in their ears (really, check website ;) but I didn't stay for the whole thing, because my feet didn't like my shoes after a while, so I went back to the room, got into bed and read for a while.
Until Terri, who incidentally got talked into entering the costume parade because there weren't many entries and won third prize, third photo under "Some of the costumes", anyway, she came back to the room and said there was a part in Kate Forsyth's room and was I coming? In the way that isn't really a question. Kate's room turned out to be over in the tower. A pie-slice shapped room i.e. it was significantly wider at the window end.
There was a good turn-up here, 1/4 of the con again. We ended up staying rather late here, after 2 am when almost everyone else had left, because of Terri and the bucket that was ordered at midnight. Kate is a lovely person though. I should read some of her books one day.
And today it rained -- non-stop, heavy rain. It was to be expected that the previous day's sunny weather wouldn't last, seeing it's winter.
I woke up suddenly at 7.30 am. No apparent reason and nothing that had to be done in the morning. I spent most of the day on the ASIM table in the Dealers Room (photos from Dealers Room are on my website, so I won't repeat them). Which meant I had to wear my nifty Andromeda Spaceways Travel Agent tshirt ;)
Snuck down to Salamanca Market for a little bit, well, went in Dirk's car. Glad I had my coat, although it doesn't do up properly so it doesn't keep me very dry. But we bought some cheap umbrellas, which did a better job, but they're lethal things. Almost poked it in my eye.
First panel I went to was in the afternoon, with photos on website, of course. "The Appeal of the Anti-Hero". I don't think anything interesting came out of it, but it's a good example of one approach the panelists took to the seating. If you look at the photos ;) you'll notice the usual table with glasses of water for the panelists to sit behind, except in this case, they're sitting in front. Because it was a small con, a lot of panelists came up and sat in front of the audience without the table separating them. So rather than the 3 or 4 people talking amongst themselves, followed by questions from the audience, tghere was more interaction with the audience throughout the whole session.
After this, was my first panel =:-o on the very original and exciting subject "Is there life in the old dragon yet? Traditional fantasy in the new millennium". OK I wasn't too happy with how this went. Partly because I was so bloody tired (I did wonder at one point if going to sleep would be a good idea :| ) and I couldn't think of anything useful to say. And Kate & Richard were down the other end happily talking away. When I did say something, I'd start off how I intended but end up saying something different and feeling really stupid. Like my brain shut down everytime I opened my mouth :(
Don't remember anything interesting coming out of this discussion either, as if I'd remember if it did, but it's a good place to mention something else I noticed about the panels in general. A lot of the panels I've gone to in the past, and some cons seem worse than others, the bulk of the time has been spent defining the terms being discussed rather than the topic. Now this topic would have been a good candidate for that, but they pretty much decided that traditional fantasy = high fantays + sword & sorcery, with some examples thrown in to explain that they meant. Which is the way to do it. I hate it when potentially interesting discussions get bogged down arguments about definitions.
Now there was a break while the room was set up for the Masquerade/Ditmars. Now what did I do? We went down to the Bird Cage Bar (shapped like a birdcage) in the central part of the casino. Then I think there was a room party, maybe that was the one in Cat's room instead of last night.
I do remember going back to our room just after 7 to get changed for Masquerade, then Dirk dropped in to watch Dr Who, which finished at 8.15 and the Ditmars (the awards ceremony) started at 8. Bad timing there. So we missed most of them.
Funny how there are memory holes like that. Another one is the gap between the Ditmars & the Masquerade, because they closed the room to decorate it but can I remember what we/I did.
I don't always go to the Masquerade Ball, or only to the start, but I hung around for a while at this one, taking photos of people with fish in their ears (really, check website ;) but I didn't stay for the whole thing, because my feet didn't like my shoes after a while, so I went back to the room, got into bed and read for a while.
Until Terri, who incidentally got talked into entering the costume parade because there weren't many entries and won third prize, third photo under "Some of the costumes", anyway, she came back to the room and said there was a part in Kate Forsyth's room and was I coming? In the way that isn't really a question. Kate's room turned out to be over in the tower. A pie-slice shapped room i.e. it was significantly wider at the window end.
There was a good turn-up here, 1/4 of the con again. We ended up staying rather late here, after 2 am when almost everyone else had left, because of Terri and the bucket that was ordered at midnight. Kate is a lovely person though. I should read some of her books one day.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-19 03:10 am (UTC)Oh, yes indeed! The panel killer!
And there's always someone, audience or panel, who acts like they're scoring points off the discussion, as if setting up the definition is more important the actual discussion.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 01:11 pm (UTC)Discussion of definitions can be useful, when you need to limit what's under, or to keep the discussion on topic, or, like in the panel I was just writing about, when you come to a new understanding of what something is means; but when they start taking over, sheesh, get over it.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-19 04:50 am (UTC)But it was fun :)
no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 01:06 pm (UTC)