Eastercon Part II
Apr. 3rd, 2002 03:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vyvyanxGot up on Friday bright and early for breakfast (G stayed in bed). Wonderful full cooked breakfast. Also staying in the B&B (and hence at breakfast) were John Bray (from whom I'd heard about the B&B in the first place), GT and DM, a solitary fan who didn't say a word to the rest of us the entire time we were there, and a fan couple with an annoying kid, who happily moved to the Hotel de France the next day. Also a rather unfortunate mundane couple, who were nothing to do with the con and were understandably rather bemused by the rest of us.
Woke G up and we went off to the hotel. Browsed in the Dealers' Room for some time. We were hoping to find some cheap MacLeod, but alas, it was not to be. We did, however, get a range of other books - for G I got Valis (Dick), Robot Visions (Asimov), Canal Dreams (Banks), Blade Runner 3 (Jeter), and for myself I got Flux and Icebones (Baxter) and Deathworld 2 and 3 (Harrison - I've read them before but wanted copies). We also had got a number of freebie books in our registration packs, including Sailing to Sarantium (Guy Gavriel Kay, who spoke at Eastercon in 2000) and Salt (some new author who G really rated). Looked also at beeblebears and a stand of random SF toys. There, G saw a light cycle, which he really wanted. I couldn't quite bring myself to buy it at that point, but said I'd think about it. We also looked at the Art Show, which had some lovely stuff as usual. No Sue Mason pictures for once, though - she restricted herself to sculptures this year.
At 3pm, went to The Terribly Splendid and Worthwhile Opening Ceremony. The committee were introduced, and slides of the previous Jersey Eastercon (Helicon I) were shown. After that, we stayed in the main auditorium for an interesting panel discussion of cold fusion and related issues. That was our programme attendance for that day! We then headed off to the bar, and stayed there most of the rest of the day, chatting to people. Went to one of the hotel restaurants for dinner - very nice, had bottle of wine with it as we were on holiday. (I did get rather annoyed at the weekend with waiters assuming G was paying - offering him the wine to taste, giving him the bill etc - even though I ordered everything and was the one actually paying for everything. Bah.) During the evening, met guy called Tim who we talked to quite a bit. He's a middle-aged con veteran, sometime photographer, programmer, and hand-rearer of emperor penguins.
He is possibly even more obsessed with penguins than![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
robinbloke. He flirted shamelessly with me throughout the evening, and somewhat for the rest of the con. He seems to be an instance of a particular type of older man for whom I seem to hold some strange fascination, despite me not being at all interested in them myself! G became quite irritated with Tim after a bit, and so did I in the end. But we also chatted to many other pleasant people, and all was cool. G and I unfortunately had a little squabble about what time we should go back to the B&B, but we sorted it out in the end.
On Saturday, I persuaded G to come down for breakfast. He ate it and then went back to bed :-) I headed off to the hotel, and went to a reasonably amusing item about Why Tech is Fun, at which Tim told many entertaining anecdotes. I then went to Sex Drives in SF and Fantasy - an extremely popular panel item, with much vigorous audience participation. One of the panellists was a fearsome woman called Farah, who provoked an intense discussion of whether slash should be regarded as science fiction, or as a separate genre. I think Gina would have found this item interesting. G had meant to come to this item, but turned up at the end of it, having overslept. We then went to the main auditorium (pausing only to pick up pints) for the George Hay Memorial lecture, delivered this year by an astronomer who talked about his work with a cutting-edge optical camera, detecting various distant objects of interest (supernova remnants, pulsars, quasars). Very interesting.
(He did, however, at one point show a slide of a medieval star map, which he claimed was from 8th century Iceland - this unfortunately being impossible, since Iceland was not settled until the ninth century, and the earliest surviving Icelandic manuscripts date from the twelfth century!) Then, exhausted by programme items, we repaired to the bar once more. Later in the afternoon, we looked round the Art Show again, and G noticed some pictures by SMS, who also draws for 2000 AD, which G is a great fan of. I pointed out SMS himself to G, as he was standing nearby. We then went to the robot workshop, and looked at people building stuff out of K-Nex etc. SMS came in to talk to someone, and G went up to chat to him. After that, G and SMS were very friendly throughout the con! Oh yes, also during the afternoon, I bought G a lilac beeblebear and a babelfish earring. I would have got him a light cycle, but they'd sold out. We spent a little while decorating the bear with bondage tape and G's old earring :-)
In the evening, we went to the Helicon Banquet (for which we'd luckily managed to buy almost the last tickets, the day before.) We took the bear along with us - now anagrammatically named Rex Babel Booze PhD. Drinks beforehand, then sat down at our table, which also contained one of the Guests of Honour - Brian Stableford - and his wife. Also Sue Mason, the artist, and our friend JM. And Andrew Eldritch's sister, bizarrely enough.
The banquet was ace - lovely food, fascinating conversation. Brian Stableford turned out to be very interested in goth music; he and G chatted a lot about that, and about writing. I talked quite a bit to Mrs Stableford, who is a rather strange woman. During dessert, Ian Watson gave a curious speech about gay Nazis and 7-mile-long battleships, which was very amusing, if totally incomprehensible. I became extremely drunk, and decided at one point that Andrew Eldritch's sister was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life. Afterwards, wandered off to the bar. Then, joined G watching SMS auditioning people to be Sprokkettes at Beyond Cyberdrome the next day (it's a bit hard to explain). Rex the bear was selected as a Sprokkette also. After that, we retired home for the night.
Woke G up and we went off to the hotel. Browsed in the Dealers' Room for some time. We were hoping to find some cheap MacLeod, but alas, it was not to be. We did, however, get a range of other books - for G I got Valis (Dick), Robot Visions (Asimov), Canal Dreams (Banks), Blade Runner 3 (Jeter), and for myself I got Flux and Icebones (Baxter) and Deathworld 2 and 3 (Harrison - I've read them before but wanted copies). We also had got a number of freebie books in our registration packs, including Sailing to Sarantium (Guy Gavriel Kay, who spoke at Eastercon in 2000) and Salt (some new author who G really rated). Looked also at beeblebears and a stand of random SF toys. There, G saw a light cycle, which he really wanted. I couldn't quite bring myself to buy it at that point, but said I'd think about it. We also looked at the Art Show, which had some lovely stuff as usual. No Sue Mason pictures for once, though - she restricted herself to sculptures this year.
At 3pm, went to The Terribly Splendid and Worthwhile Opening Ceremony. The committee were introduced, and slides of the previous Jersey Eastercon (Helicon I) were shown. After that, we stayed in the main auditorium for an interesting panel discussion of cold fusion and related issues. That was our programme attendance for that day! We then headed off to the bar, and stayed there most of the rest of the day, chatting to people. Went to one of the hotel restaurants for dinner - very nice, had bottle of wine with it as we were on holiday. (I did get rather annoyed at the weekend with waiters assuming G was paying - offering him the wine to taste, giving him the bill etc - even though I ordered everything and was the one actually paying for everything. Bah.) During the evening, met guy called Tim who we talked to quite a bit. He's a middle-aged con veteran, sometime photographer, programmer, and hand-rearer of emperor penguins.
He is possibly even more obsessed with penguins than
robinbloke. He flirted shamelessly with me throughout the evening, and somewhat for the rest of the con. He seems to be an instance of a particular type of older man for whom I seem to hold some strange fascination, despite me not being at all interested in them myself! G became quite irritated with Tim after a bit, and so did I in the end. But we also chatted to many other pleasant people, and all was cool. G and I unfortunately had a little squabble about what time we should go back to the B&B, but we sorted it out in the end.On Saturday, I persuaded G to come down for breakfast. He ate it and then went back to bed :-) I headed off to the hotel, and went to a reasonably amusing item about Why Tech is Fun, at which Tim told many entertaining anecdotes. I then went to Sex Drives in SF and Fantasy - an extremely popular panel item, with much vigorous audience participation. One of the panellists was a fearsome woman called Farah, who provoked an intense discussion of whether slash should be regarded as science fiction, or as a separate genre. I think Gina would have found this item interesting. G had meant to come to this item, but turned up at the end of it, having overslept. We then went to the main auditorium (pausing only to pick up pints) for the George Hay Memorial lecture, delivered this year by an astronomer who talked about his work with a cutting-edge optical camera, detecting various distant objects of interest (supernova remnants, pulsars, quasars). Very interesting.
(He did, however, at one point show a slide of a medieval star map, which he claimed was from 8th century Iceland - this unfortunately being impossible, since Iceland was not settled until the ninth century, and the earliest surviving Icelandic manuscripts date from the twelfth century!) Then, exhausted by programme items, we repaired to the bar once more. Later in the afternoon, we looked round the Art Show again, and G noticed some pictures by SMS, who also draws for 2000 AD, which G is a great fan of. I pointed out SMS himself to G, as he was standing nearby. We then went to the robot workshop, and looked at people building stuff out of K-Nex etc. SMS came in to talk to someone, and G went up to chat to him. After that, G and SMS were very friendly throughout the con! Oh yes, also during the afternoon, I bought G a lilac beeblebear and a babelfish earring. I would have got him a light cycle, but they'd sold out. We spent a little while decorating the bear with bondage tape and G's old earring :-)
In the evening, we went to the Helicon Banquet (for which we'd luckily managed to buy almost the last tickets, the day before.) We took the bear along with us - now anagrammatically named Rex Babel Booze PhD. Drinks beforehand, then sat down at our table, which also contained one of the Guests of Honour - Brian Stableford - and his wife. Also Sue Mason, the artist, and our friend JM. And Andrew Eldritch's sister, bizarrely enough.
The banquet was ace - lovely food, fascinating conversation. Brian Stableford turned out to be very interested in goth music; he and G chatted a lot about that, and about writing. I talked quite a bit to Mrs Stableford, who is a rather strange woman. During dessert, Ian Watson gave a curious speech about gay Nazis and 7-mile-long battleships, which was very amusing, if totally incomprehensible. I became extremely drunk, and decided at one point that Andrew Eldritch's sister was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life. Afterwards, wandered off to the bar. Then, joined G watching SMS auditioning people to be Sprokkettes at Beyond Cyberdrome the next day (it's a bit hard to explain). Rex the bear was selected as a Sprokkette also. After that, we retired home for the night.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2002-04-03 07:26 am (UTC)Salt (some new author who G really rated)
I'm reading that at the moment. Very good so far. I picked up a copy because I was speaking to the author's agent outside a cancelled Warren Zevon concert at Warwick Uni. I met his agent because he'd turned up to have a quiet drink with an old friend from Edinburgh who we'd bumped into as she'd co-incidentally just come out of a nearby cinema.
She didn't notice us sitting at the next table for several minutes, for which we had our revenge persuading her that the two of us from Cambridge and the two from London had merely decided that the Warwick Uni arts centre bar was a logical and convenient place for us to meet for a quiet pint.
no subject
Date: 2002-04-03 03:06 pm (UTC)