Arisia

[yendi]

As always, I had grand plans to take detailed panel notes, and write a massive six-part con-report listing everything that happened.

As always, that ain't happening.

So, yeah, the con was fun. A lot of fun. I saw old friends, made some new ones, and generally had a blast.

Panels (asterisks on ones I moderated):

• TV Year in Review -- Just as much fun as I'd expected. Especially since the moderator was the only person in the room aside from me who was familiar with The Super Hero Squad Show, which we both recommended highly. The nifty kitteridge (the only person on the panel paid to write about TV, I think) was also on this panel, and the other two panelists also offered some good insights. This one actually ran the entire ninety minutes. Sadly, it was up against the s00j concert.

• The Changing Face of Fiction: Literature, Diversity, and Backlash -- A wonderfully drama-free panel. Sparkymonster (who was a great mod) has the book recs from this panel here. The other impressive panelists included asim, onyxhawke, and Carl Brandon winner Andrea Hairston.

• *1980s — The Silver Age of SF Movies? -- Hands down my favorite panel of the con (and the most full). I had great co-panelists (including Dan Kimmel, who mentioned that the IROSF is going away, which was a little bit of sad news to start things off), and a very, very engaged audience. And yes, the '80s really did produce some truly great movies. Also, theloriest and a handful of others in the audience born in the '80s made the rest of us feel old.

• *Continued in the Next Issue -- Sunday morning at 10AM. We had two panelists and three audience members. I get one of these every year (see my Sunday 8PM Too Many Chainsaws panel from last year). Turned into a group discussion, and was a fun way to kill time (then again, sleeping would have been fun, too). As many of you know, I consider Buffy Season 8 and Angel: After the Fall to be spectacular creative failures, but I also think the medium itself has potential (and books like Farscape, BSG, and others were brought up). That said, the group was too small to really go over the pros and cons properly.

• *Here Comes the Bride -- Not as well-attended as I'd hoped it would be, but a lively panel (including sovay and frankwu) helped energize things, and the audience was extremely engaged. And Bride of Frankenstein really such a good movie, that talking about it for an hour is always a joy.

*Old Worlds, New Writers : A solid end-of-con panel, although it got way to sidetracked by licensed properties and the like. Suffice to say, no one stepped (or down, as it were) to defend John Gregory Betancourt.

Overall, I enjoyed my panels a lot. I only had one fellow panelist whose presence dragged down a panel (fan archetype #12: person who rambles far too long, speaks authoritatively about stuff even though she's wrong, and ignores the topic at hand), and most of my fellow mods did a great job of keeping things on track.

As for non-panel stuff:

• For the first time since I started going to Arisia (in '06), I didn't game at all. I do regret that, but the timing just never worked out for me.

• The Green Room, as always was amazing. rosefox and sinboy do an incredible job here, and the hot food (turkey chili, green curry, etc) was all lovely. As was the assorted wonderful conversations I experienced throughout the weekend. You can spot me (as well as ckd, asim, and feste_sylvain) enjoying the hospitality in this picture.

• The hotel staff were, as always, wonderful. The hotel is cramped, and no one will miss the inability to get to the art show without dedicating half an afternoon to elevator time (or climbing Mount Arisia), but I never once had a bad encounter with a Hyatt employee in my years here.

• s00j as musical GoH was awesome! Both of the concerts I could make it to were packed, and so much fun. ConFusion folks, you owe it to yourself to make her shows this weekend.

• I made it to three parties this year: The Carl Brandon Society party on Saturday, the Margaret Ronald Wild Hunt Release Party on Saturday, and the Baen party on Sunday. All three were fun.

• I failed to make it to a lot of other parties, partially for the same reason I didn't game as much as I'd expected: I was simply exhausted. I don't think I went back to the room later than 12:30 on any night. Work simply kicked my ass last week.

• I also completely failed to remember slipjig's surprise party, because I suck.

• I did make it to my lovely wife's reading, where she read a brand-new story (and one that only I'd gotten to preview). Yay!

• I met a ton of new and nifty people, and saw a lot of old friends. Much of my con was simply spent in the company of other nifty people, having fun conversations.

• I also managed to miss a bunch of people I know were at the con, which is a shame. And what next year is for.

I'm likely leaving out a ton of stuff.

Comments

[rosefox]

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[theloriest.livejournal.com]

It's a joy spending time with you.

[s00j.livejournal.com]

<3 <3 <3 <3
also <3