Creature of Mad Enthusiasms

GridlockDC was ROCKlock. (azriona it was great to meet you!)

The con unofficially stripped kicked off on Friday, with the Black Cat club up the road having a Sherlock Holmes burlesque. I didn't go, but it was popular enough to need to have a second late show and twitter the next day included lines like "the hound is dancing to Metallica!" and "And then Sherlock was led off wearing a leash and a ball gag."

... I... still don't know if I'm sorry or relieved not to have been there.

Saturday morning, two of our Tin Box members got engaged. Congratulations!

When the convention proper started, ( I was very glad to see that Three Patch Podcast was down on the main convention floor )

( The concom was completely on the ball ) The concom's absolute triumph, though, was stepping in smooth as butter when Queer Readings in Canon started getting contentious. Without missing a beat, the room was shifted from hands-up questions and comments to moderated written comments and questions. This alone was well handled, but I got impressed right down to my socks when they swung in to deal with a well-known shouty complainer an the same panel and managed to quiet her down. I've had to deal with the same person;I want to know how that magic works

The whole panel program is online, and I'll be adding tumblr links to details as they become available. So ( I will just hit 3 highlights )

The third is too good to hide under a cut: THE event of the con was the cosplay Q&A on Sunday. A John, Mycroft, and Sherlock were answering questions in character, and the room was ready to ask anything and everything. Mycroft in particular had a good delivery of "Redacted" and an excellent hard stare, both used very often (especially when Sherlock asked "How many chocolate eclairs did you eat for breakfast?") Questions ranged from canonical - John was asked to defend his military experience and just where he was shot - through internet fanon - like questions about Mystrade.

And then Moriarty strode in, slinked his way up to the panel, and coolly asked "Did you miss me?" As soon as the howls of joy from the audience died down the hands rose, the first question being "Richard Brook. What was your inspiration for the children's story 'The Barber Who Gave Me a Bad Haircut and Then Was Found Dead in a Skip'?"

But the real inspiration came at the end of the panel... when someone in the audience decided to play along and suddenly there was an unexpected and unscripted laser pinpoint flaring red across Moriarty. The audience squealed and howled, and while Moriarty tried to figure out what we were reacting to, Sebastian Moran BURST out from the audience shouting "Get down! Get down!" and tackled him to the floor. They hid behind the podium; when Moran looked out, the laser aimed dead center of his chest and Moriarty dragged him back to safety until they could both retreat.

That moment is going to live in GridlockDC -- and MorMor -- history -- forever.

I missed meeting up with azriona, which is the one big bummer of the day. Other than that, Gridlock was a nice solid one-day convention.

The fledgling concom were sensible - they went in knowing what they could afford and how many people they could wrangle. Like 221BCon, the original plan was for 75 people; like 221BCon interest was far higher than that, with the bulk of the people arriving at the last bit. (Gridlock sold every last at-the-door ticket.) Unlike 221BCon, they made the decision to not expand. Now - 221B did so so brilliantly that nobody knew until afterward that they were 6x the size they'd originally planned and that's to their credit.

But Gridlock decided "we can handle x people AND THEN WE STOP" and that's to their credit too. (Especially since as it was, one of the panels was brutally overpacked.) I don't know the exact number, but I know it's north of 200 but I don't think very much north. Numbers also dropped as the day went on and the older fans, not used to the gruelling pace of an SF-style con (multi tracks, no lunch break) tired out and went home. (Me, I had an entire picnic in my purse.)

Panels ran a very nice gamut, from the standard Canon 101 to The Psychology of Sherlock Holmes (with an actual psychologist on the panel), a forensics presentation by a local forensics professor, Sherlock Holmes and Star Trek, Women of Canon, AbundantlyQueer talking about colonialism and war history, and a closed-door, let-it-all-hang-out safe space panel where people could vent and talk about the kind of things that they want to say about fandom and Sherlock without being used for wank bait or being dogpiled. (There was discussion of an LJ for tumblr refugees, but it must be locked down tight; I would like to join but can't find it.)

There was also a dealer's room, almost 100% fan crafters (no books! It always throws me there are no booksellers at Sherlock conventions) and a social room. The Social room had some freebies, including coloring-book style sheets of Sherlock fan art and games on the table to help break the ice.

Yes, there was a round of Sherlock Fluxx. I think I need to tweak one of the cards.

All in all, a nice, solid, worthy, enjoyable day. I look forward to next year's con. Maybe then I can finally meet you face to face, azriona!