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neadodsDespite the problems getting there, Worldcon was a fantastic con - doubly so, compared to the problems Torcon had. Because there were so few nits to pick, I'm starting with that first.
The Bad:
There's only one thing I can think of that they got, IMO, completely wrong. There were only 8 public terminals in the geek room (all but one at standing height, I'm told to keep kids from surfing all day long). Yes, there was wireless access all through the concourse, but y'know what? Geeks or not, we're not all on the bleeding edge of technology, and even if we are, we're not all going to travel with said tech, particularly with airline restrictions. Furthermore, unlike other cons with 24-hour access, the concourse computers were only available from 9am to 7pm. Not so good for those people like me, who expected to surf away the morning hours before the rest of the con caught up with us. Really craptastic for everyone in a wheelchair, who had only one usable public terminal.
The "I wish they did that differently:"
There were a few things that I wish they hadn't done simply because they were personally inconvenient. The con badges, for example, were laminated, and in clip holders. Good for the con - it made the badges very easy to see - crappy for me, because it was the first time in years I had a badge I couldn't at least fold into the wrist cuff where I prefer to wear them. And the clip holder kept opening up and dropping my badge on the floor. (There were lanyards, but they were gone by Friday morning.)
The pocket program was nowhere near pocket size, nor were the panels listed in a grid format. However, they did have blank grids for each day in the back of the program; you could read it and make your own schedule. I did so, and tore the sheets out, so I could have a grid in my pocket.
Things they did RIGHT:
Settle down and make some tea; this is a long list. Panel rooms were easy to find, and in the majority of cases, had enough space. The concourse was easy to find and navigate. I particularly liked the quotes hung on the support pillars, particularly "The golden age of Science Fiction is 12."
Food was plentiful and easy to find, from the mall to the restaurants (all mapped) within half a mile's walking distance. And the daily newsletter included restaurant reviews by the fans.
The con suite was a marvel. Usually those things are upstairs, downstairs, and down the hall to m'lady's chamber; this was, like everything else, easy to find and access. Once you got there, they had plentiful, nutritous food - not just chips and chocolate, but salsa, veggies and dip, and juices as well as sodas. There were also puzzles and even a little reading library, and I heard a rumor that it was also set up for wireless access. Best. Con Suite. Ever.
Programming covered the widest variety possible; everything from readings to alternate history challenges to even a class on stretching. Great stuff.
Lines were manageable; they were ready to deal with not only huge early lines for popular authors, finding a specific place for them to grow out of the traffic, but were also ready to deal with the inevitable overflow. (Those who couldn't make a first signing were given numbered tickets for the next signing.)
The exact timing of the newsletters wasn't entirely regular, but important news got out in time, and it was easy to find the newsletters. They even made a point of putting the latest out on the tables as the con suite opened.
All in all, a marvel of efficiency, particularly when compared to Torcon.
The Masquerade
I had to leave both the masq and the con early, so I don't know who won what. I'm hoping that someone reading this can tell me.
Someone behind the scenes must have been ripping their hair out - the masq started roughly 25 minutes late, several entries were shown out of order, plus one presentation was held, held, started, stopped, and started over. That said, I'm going to call the masq. successful anyway, because the audience had fun, there were lots of high-quality entrants, and the show might have staggered a bit, but it ran fairly smoothly considering its size and venue.
They had a very high level of technology; not just the ability to do some specialty back lighting effects, but after each presentation, while Sue de Guardiola read the particulars, they showed freeze-frames of the presentation with the title superimposed. Nice work.
Notable costumes:
Because there was a cash prize and a specialty prize for Discworld costumes, they predominated. There was some nice beauty from "Ikons for the new millenium," with archangels reinterpreted as high tech, and nice drama from the assassination of Death (although I reacted surprisingly badly to the picture of the burning towers used in the presentation). One ambitious pair of children recreated Harry Potter fending off a dementor with costumes they made by themselves.
And there was one novice who, if there is justice in the world, is no longer a novice, because his Evil sidhee costume was detailed and he sold it with charisma.
But it's the Discworld costumes - particularly 5 Discworld costumes - that stick in my mind.
1) The adorable young fan who dressed as the Death of Rats. She was perfect, from her big boney toes to the tail to the snout. She won best Young Fan, or Jr. or whatever they were calling the kiddie class, but since it was an adult-made costume, I wish she had been run in the adult class, where she deserved serious consideration for the special awards.
2) There was a kid just out of the Young Fan category who did a Tiffany Aching. It wasn't a brilliant costume, but it was very much in character, and might have gotten her somewhere in a smaller regional con. She didn't stand a snowball's chance for the special awards, but I hope she got something in class, because she put in a lot of obvious effort into sewing and research. (The smurfs standing in for the wee free men had to go, though.)
3) Under "Oh, close but not quite!" was another novice couple. He, in shorts, beard, and leather hat, came out, sat down, and opened a laptop. As he started typing, the Great A'Tuin swam across the stage behind him. It was a textbook example of one detail can ruin a great idea, though. The woman beneath A'tuin apparently wore only the turtle shell, head, and flippers. This led to... a distracting expanse of unexpected, glaring, white. Rotzler's rules aside, she needed a leotard or body paint or something, particularly since the freeze frame (quickly removed) showed an ample breast escaping the skateboard she was moving on.
4) Moving from the missed to the dead on target was the brilliant Pale Rider group. It started with a skinny Rincewind sprinting across stage, followed a moment later by wonderful remote-controlled Luggage. (They had fitted a trunk with teeth and tongue, bolted it to wheels, and covered the wheels with a skirt of little feet.) Following the Luggage was Death on the horse-skull motorbike, complete with Born to Rune jacket and itty bitty Death of Rats clinging to the rear fender.
and finally,
5) "Not the Usual Unusual." In this presentation, Lord Ventinari is insisting that Commander Vimes show him the "thing" that has been wreaking havoc across Ankh-Morpork. Gengiz Cohen comes in with something in a sack, but both Vimes and Gengiz insist that it's too dangerous to be let loose. Vetinari insists, the sack comes off, and...
It's a guy in a blue-sequinned dinner jacket. He starts singing, getting as far as "It's not unusual to be..." before the female screams start and the panties fly (even Susan d G. tossed a pair.) A pair of witches come out swinging bloomers (one set striped in red) and have to be held back. Finally the women knock out most of the men trying to get to the singer, and Gengiz knocks out all of the women... only to deep-dip the singer himself as down go the lights and the audience goes wild.
I'm very glad that I didn't have to choose between those last two for the special awards. Usual/Unusual had the perfect presentation - funny, unexpected, and slowly building on itself instead of fizzling out in a single joke - but the costumes, although well made and accurate to the illustratations didn't reach the level of technical proficiency required by Death's bonework, the motorcycle, or the Luggage.
Half time was "The Star Wars Guy," who acts out each of the movies. It's a lot funnier than it sounds!
Unfortuantely, I had to leave right around Luke fell off the Tauntaun; I had an early flight out the next morning. And while there was the time when it took two x-ray technicians to decide that there were no terrorist applications for my keychain (a ticket-shaped piece of scrap metal stamped "ADMIT - you love theater"), I got home with a great deal more efficiency than I got to Worldcon!
The Bad:
There's only one thing I can think of that they got, IMO, completely wrong. There were only 8 public terminals in the geek room (all but one at standing height, I'm told to keep kids from surfing all day long). Yes, there was wireless access all through the concourse, but y'know what? Geeks or not, we're not all on the bleeding edge of technology, and even if we are, we're not all going to travel with said tech, particularly with airline restrictions. Furthermore, unlike other cons with 24-hour access, the concourse computers were only available from 9am to 7pm. Not so good for those people like me, who expected to surf away the morning hours before the rest of the con caught up with us. Really craptastic for everyone in a wheelchair, who had only one usable public terminal.
The "I wish they did that differently:"
There were a few things that I wish they hadn't done simply because they were personally inconvenient. The con badges, for example, were laminated, and in clip holders. Good for the con - it made the badges very easy to see - crappy for me, because it was the first time in years I had a badge I couldn't at least fold into the wrist cuff where I prefer to wear them. And the clip holder kept opening up and dropping my badge on the floor. (There were lanyards, but they were gone by Friday morning.)
The pocket program was nowhere near pocket size, nor were the panels listed in a grid format. However, they did have blank grids for each day in the back of the program; you could read it and make your own schedule. I did so, and tore the sheets out, so I could have a grid in my pocket.
Things they did RIGHT:
Settle down and make some tea; this is a long list. Panel rooms were easy to find, and in the majority of cases, had enough space. The concourse was easy to find and navigate. I particularly liked the quotes hung on the support pillars, particularly "The golden age of Science Fiction is 12."
Food was plentiful and easy to find, from the mall to the restaurants (all mapped) within half a mile's walking distance. And the daily newsletter included restaurant reviews by the fans.
The con suite was a marvel. Usually those things are upstairs, downstairs, and down the hall to m'lady's chamber; this was, like everything else, easy to find and access. Once you got there, they had plentiful, nutritous food - not just chips and chocolate, but salsa, veggies and dip, and juices as well as sodas. There were also puzzles and even a little reading library, and I heard a rumor that it was also set up for wireless access. Best. Con Suite. Ever.
Programming covered the widest variety possible; everything from readings to alternate history challenges to even a class on stretching. Great stuff.
Lines were manageable; they were ready to deal with not only huge early lines for popular authors, finding a specific place for them to grow out of the traffic, but were also ready to deal with the inevitable overflow. (Those who couldn't make a first signing were given numbered tickets for the next signing.)
The exact timing of the newsletters wasn't entirely regular, but important news got out in time, and it was easy to find the newsletters. They even made a point of putting the latest out on the tables as the con suite opened.
All in all, a marvel of efficiency, particularly when compared to Torcon.
The Masquerade
I had to leave both the masq and the con early, so I don't know who won what. I'm hoping that someone reading this can tell me.
Someone behind the scenes must have been ripping their hair out - the masq started roughly 25 minutes late, several entries were shown out of order, plus one presentation was held, held, started, stopped, and started over. That said, I'm going to call the masq. successful anyway, because the audience had fun, there were lots of high-quality entrants, and the show might have staggered a bit, but it ran fairly smoothly considering its size and venue.
They had a very high level of technology; not just the ability to do some specialty back lighting effects, but after each presentation, while Sue de Guardiola read the particulars, they showed freeze-frames of the presentation with the title superimposed. Nice work.
Notable costumes:
Because there was a cash prize and a specialty prize for Discworld costumes, they predominated. There was some nice beauty from "Ikons for the new millenium," with archangels reinterpreted as high tech, and nice drama from the assassination of Death (although I reacted surprisingly badly to the picture of the burning towers used in the presentation). One ambitious pair of children recreated Harry Potter fending off a dementor with costumes they made by themselves.
And there was one novice who, if there is justice in the world, is no longer a novice, because his Evil sidhee costume was detailed and he sold it with charisma.
But it's the Discworld costumes - particularly 5 Discworld costumes - that stick in my mind.
1) The adorable young fan who dressed as the Death of Rats. She was perfect, from her big boney toes to the tail to the snout. She won best Young Fan, or Jr. or whatever they were calling the kiddie class, but since it was an adult-made costume, I wish she had been run in the adult class, where she deserved serious consideration for the special awards.
2) There was a kid just out of the Young Fan category who did a Tiffany Aching. It wasn't a brilliant costume, but it was very much in character, and might have gotten her somewhere in a smaller regional con. She didn't stand a snowball's chance for the special awards, but I hope she got something in class, because she put in a lot of obvious effort into sewing and research. (The smurfs standing in for the wee free men had to go, though.)
3) Under "Oh, close but not quite!" was another novice couple. He, in shorts, beard, and leather hat, came out, sat down, and opened a laptop. As he started typing, the Great A'Tuin swam across the stage behind him. It was a textbook example of one detail can ruin a great idea, though. The woman beneath A'tuin apparently wore only the turtle shell, head, and flippers. This led to... a distracting expanse of unexpected, glaring, white. Rotzler's rules aside, she needed a leotard or body paint or something, particularly since the freeze frame (quickly removed) showed an ample breast escaping the skateboard she was moving on.
4) Moving from the missed to the dead on target was the brilliant Pale Rider group. It started with a skinny Rincewind sprinting across stage, followed a moment later by wonderful remote-controlled Luggage. (They had fitted a trunk with teeth and tongue, bolted it to wheels, and covered the wheels with a skirt of little feet.) Following the Luggage was Death on the horse-skull motorbike, complete with Born to Rune jacket and itty bitty Death of Rats clinging to the rear fender.
and finally,
5) "Not the Usual Unusual." In this presentation, Lord Ventinari is insisting that Commander Vimes show him the "thing" that has been wreaking havoc across Ankh-Morpork. Gengiz Cohen comes in with something in a sack, but both Vimes and Gengiz insist that it's too dangerous to be let loose. Vetinari insists, the sack comes off, and...
It's a guy in a blue-sequinned dinner jacket. He starts singing, getting as far as "It's not unusual to be..." before the female screams start and the panties fly (even Susan d G. tossed a pair.) A pair of witches come out swinging bloomers (one set striped in red) and have to be held back. Finally the women knock out most of the men trying to get to the singer, and Gengiz knocks out all of the women... only to deep-dip the singer himself as down go the lights and the audience goes wild.
I'm very glad that I didn't have to choose between those last two for the special awards. Usual/Unusual had the perfect presentation - funny, unexpected, and slowly building on itself instead of fizzling out in a single joke - but the costumes, although well made and accurate to the illustratations didn't reach the level of technical proficiency required by Death's bonework, the motorcycle, or the Luggage.
Half time was "The Star Wars Guy," who acts out each of the movies. It's a lot funnier than it sounds!
Unfortuantely, I had to leave right around Luke fell off the Tauntaun; I had an early flight out the next morning. And while there was the time when it took two x-ray technicians to decide that there were no terrorist applications for my keychain (a ticket-shaped piece of scrap metal stamped "ADMIT - you love theater"), I got home with a great deal more efficiency than I got to Worldcon!
no subject
Date: 2004-09-07 01:01 pm (UTC)