Penguicon - Sunday

[vakkotaur]

I doubt I slept all that well dues to the unusual amount of caffeine and the ongoing noise outside the hotel room but it didn't seem to bother me much on Sunday. I saw Frank Hayes at breakfast and told him had I known what #13 (Never Set The Cat On Fire) was I'd have picked a different number to start. He replied that it was something people expected, so no big deal. When he spotted my ribbon he asked if I had any proof of the claim that I am not a werewolf.

Michael Z. Williamson, mzmadmike, was scheduled to have a reading of some of his work, but I don't know if anything was read. The attendance was very light, at least at first. I didn't expect to be too interested, but he had some interesting things to say and I might wind up reading some of his stuff if it's as funny as he seemed to be. A bit more on that below.

I stopped in to see the Chaos Machine and found it almost completely taken apart, and well on the way to being sorted out and packed up.

Frank Hayes was on the panel "Everything You Know About Filk Is Wrong" but it turned out to be more a rough history of filk. The definition has evolved. Once upon a time, maybe, it would have been "Filk - the folk music of (science fiction) fandom." Now it's more a mix of folk music of many fandoms and even that definition might be too constricted. It started purely acoustic, but that was not so much a matter of purity of art as of availability of equipment.[1]

I wandered through the dealer's room and found myself talking to Michael Z. Williamson before I realized who it was (shades of my first RCFM). Jay and Eric Raymond showed up not much later and Michael got to talking a bit about plans for a bit to pull on Howard Tayler. Someone went and fetched Howard one way or another and soon Michael, Jay, Eric, and myself were all behind him as he talked to someone. And then we started in a Gregorian-like chant of "Oooooooommmminoussss hummmmmm." Howard turned around once he realized just what was going on. There seemed to be a 'dawn of realization' moment before or as he turned that is surprisingly hard to describe but was worth being there for. Howard seemed to be amused by the silliness. If all that doesn't make sense, you might want to read (up on) a bit of Schlock Mercenary. You can start here. Or skip ahead a bit to this strip if you're impatient.

Closing ceremonies started a bit late, but went fairly quick so the gripe (& praise) session started a bit early. The con suite got a lot of praise, and the one thing I had a bit of a complaint about turned out to be rather "in beta" or maybe even alpha, so it's something not likely to remain a problem. A high point was the attacking of the Wayport Piñata. Wayport is the company that all the area hotels use for internet connectivity and evidently is universally loathed.

There was a sort of dead dog party in the con suite. It was mainly "help us go through this stuff" with a "please take some muenster with you." Penguicon had ordered some cheeses. Evidently the amount of muenster was bungled on the other end and the result was a massive quantity of muenster being delivered. The con suite folks were quite happy to have the chupaqueso making use muenster, and were giving away nontrivial amounts to anyone who asked for it Sunday afternoon.

After all that, and some rest, I tried to see if rdfox was around on IRC. He wasn't, so Jay and I went out to supper without going to see him. Turned out it was just as well as he wasn't feeling very well. Supper was bigger than I probably should have had, but La Shish (middle eastern cuisine) was quite good and I wasn't likely to have it again anytime soon.

---

On thing from earlier also amuses me. Howard Tayler asked my name not too long after Jay introduced us. "Or I'll wind up calling you 'Vakko'." It was explained that that would not offend me or cause any problems, at least from me. The idea that there would be a problem being called by a name I chose and use is foreign to me. And later Howard did need to step away from the Chaos Machine for a while and I was asked, "Vakko, can you look after things for a few minutes?" No problem.

---

[1] I am reminded of the person who spoke admiringly of the wood and brass design of 19th century scientific instruments who got a bit of a rude shock when it was explained to him that modern materials (such as plastics) were not used only because they had not yet been invented. Had they been available, they would have been used for the same reasons they're used today.

Comments

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

Yeah - looks like everyone I know already goes to Penguincon. I've known Mad Mike since the late 80s when he was a faire merchant. I bought my straw hats from his wife Gail.

[jmaynard.livejournal.com]

Well, then you oughtta go too!