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Random Thoughts of an Otaku - May 30th, 2006
May. 30th, 2006
08:49 am - What a Weekend-Balticon
I came, I saw and I enjoyed is how I feel about Balticon this year. It had a great guest list with Neil Gaiman and Gene Wolfe leading the way. I am exhausted, so I will write up the report now. This will be a very lengthy report, so I may have to break this up. Photos will be up on Photobucket in a few days. For those who haven't been to be Balticon, it is MD's premier Science Fiction and Fantasy con. This is my relaxcon, but I always never get enough sleep at cons. Hotel beds are never like home.
Saturday
I left the house about 9:30 AM excited about the weekend ahead. I had an uneventful 45 minute trip to the convention. I left my bag at the bellhop because I wasn't checking until later. Since Pre-Registration had slowed down, I was able to pick up my badge with no problem along with my ribbon. I met up with fellow friends from Katsucon and Anime USA staffs including Greg Wright (head of programming) to get Program Participants badge and add myself to some panels. The one person I didn't see that was suppose to be there was Otakon con chair, Jim Vowles. I don't think I would recognize him if I saw him.
The Hunt Valley Inn is a great upgrade over slogging through three floors of the Wyndham except in every panel I was in on the second floor the rooms were hot. The con Suite at Balticon rocks because it is this old night club called Frankie and Vinnie's. This is 1950's Dinner design all over. This was amazing. I saw the Dealer's room and decided to get in on Worldcon bids over getting a ton swag at Balticon. There was Science Fiction Continuum there, but not much else interesting in the Dealer's Room. I did end up getting things at the end of the con.
I had a fun time at a panel called Once a Upon a time in Fandom. This is kind of like the Fans on Fans panels at Otakon, but there were amazing people in Fandom. Lee and Alexis Gilliand, Grig Larson, Sue Shambaugh and Tom Holtz were among the people at the panel. It is fun to listen more than you talk and meet people who still love fandom after all these years. I hope that I will be able to enjoy fandom after many years in it.
My first panel of the weekend that I was on was Science Fiction and Fantasy in Anime. We talked about themes and some great shows that I didn't even know about such as Crest of the Stars. The room was very well packed because there are people in Sci-Fi Fandom that have never seen an Anime (not even Miyazaki). It is fun to do a panel where people don't know what you are talking about and can explain shows even though it is only an hour show.
After the panel, I palyed a game called Why did the chicken?. It is a comedy game where you take a random question and answer it. Why would an eagle beat a stripper in a fight? was one of the questions. The game is fun even though I couldn't play it until the end of the game. I think I am going too buy this game soon and bring it cons to play with friends after cons wind down for the day.
After Dinner, I played some No Limit Texas Hold-em and was the first one eliminated. I can not play Poker well. The guy had K8 and I had KJ. The flop was K 2 3. I tried to force the action with some good raising to get him to fold. He got an 8 and two pair on fourth street and I was sunk at that point. I went all in on fourth street and lost the hand. I need to play more on the computer or on the Internet.
I went to the Masquerade and it started late. It started late because one of the judges was late because of dinner. I hate that when they start a half-hour late. This is true when you waited over an hour to get to the start of the show. Pre-Show was very nice with long time MC Marty Gear presenting the Jack Chalker Young Writers Award winners and the Compton Crook winner. The Compton Crook winner for best first novel was won by Maria Snyder. I can't wait to read her book while in the Otakon line.
The show itself only had 22 entries versus 35 entries for an Otakon or an Anime Con. Some of the highlights of the contest were two kids playing characters from City Of Heroes, A Serenity Group getting lost and land in Hunt Valley and a Han and Leia reinacting a scene from Empire Strikes Back.
I went to some parties and I will talk about those more in Sunday's part.
Sunday
I got up early this morning and tried a Breakfast from the restaurant. I enjoyed and It was at a decent price of $13. This is pretty good for con hotels. The amount of people and the amount of food they ate lead to the fast food place running out of money by the end of the weekend. It closed down at about 2 PM on Monday. The hotel had not realized how much fans eat in at the hotels at hotel cons.
After breakfast and once things got going, I decided to meet some of the program participants. They have a Program Participant Green Room. They provide a place for panelists to talk and meet each other along with some food and drink. I had a blast talking with Lee Gilliand about Anime and how the Hugos are won. I suggested a Campaign to have a Science Fiction Anime show win Best Dramatic Presentation Short Form and came up with an even better idea. She said why don't we have a Hugo for Anime. I thought it was a brilliant idea, so I am going to start working on this idea before LA Con to make it happen. Your proposal has to be approved twice. Once at one years Worldcon and then at the Next Year's Worldcon.
I gave blood for the first time in a year at the Heinlein Society blood drive. It was easy. Just fill out some forms, they did a lot of questions and then they put the nettle in my arm and some bags below that. They collected 38 Pints of Blood from 45 Donors. Some people haver recent Tatoos or are anemic and don't know it. Those are they key reasons that people can't give blood and not AIDS in fandom.
Afterwards, I went to Introduction to Cosplay at Noon on Sunday hosted my Anime USA's Cosplay Coordinator's Sue and Tom. It was a nice panel and a chance to introduce people to Cosplay and had about a dozen people attend. I wasn't the only person in the panel.
I had been talking to Worldcon 2007 in Japan about helping to promote their con. I had a chance to talk to Peggy Rae Sapienza about the event and the head of Programming. I really couldn't help them run their programming because they need people with a different skill set in the beginning. They needed people who were inside the American industry who could help them with legal issues and customes. I am not versed in either one of them, but I did give them Jim Vowles as a possibility and some industry reps from Anime on DVD.com.
Later on, I did another panel about remakes of Movies. It was pretty full again and It was quite a blast talking about movies like Mission Impossible and Posideon. People ask a lot of questions and that makes it fun more than just being very organized because you have to think on your feet. I felt as if I was least prepared because I hadn't seen Mission Impossible III or the new Posideon film.
I saw only one Anime all weekend (and it wasn't Howl's Moving Castle). It was Shingu: Secret of the Stellar War from Right Stuf International. I had not seen a Tatsuo Sato show until yesterday, but it is a cool show. It is a world full of fighting teens with paranormal powers and mecha that form paper and water. I can't wait to get this show and I hope to soon.
Klingon Feast was next for me. It was my dinner for the evening. This group of fans do a dinner theater as Klingons. It was a very nice Prime Rib dinner showing what the hotel can do for dinner and it was very good. The entertainment was of singing Klingon Filk, sword Demonstrations, dancing and other frolicing in the Klingon way. I wish I had more pictures of the event, but my camera batteries died about a third of the way into it.
I went to some parties and keep meeting fascinating and fun people. I support three Worldcon bids along the way and have a Chicago in 2008 Worldcon bid shirt for my pre-support. I also hope people will send me flyers to take to Otakon with me. I want to reach out to the Anime fans because they are the future of all fandoms. I met Donald and Jill Eastlake who have been involved with Worldcons for years. They are helping to bid for Chicago in 2008. They are great fans who are from Massachusettes. They say they could commit them, but they could commit me because I help out in fandom, also. I also got to meet people from Denver in 2008 and Montreal in 2009.
Parties at Balticon are rather staid affairs except for the Ravencon party (Richmond's Sci-Fi con). It had good music, interesting drinks and Rob Balder there who is always a fun conversation to listen to. I wish I had talked to him more. At about Midnight, I crashed into bed.
This is so long I am putting Monday and the closing thoughts as a seperate post.
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happy08:58 am - What a Weekend-Balticon Part 2
The Live Journal post was too long, so here is the second part.
Monday
I got up early and went to Wegman's for batteries and breakfast. Wegman's is the Supermarket on steroids. It has hot prepared food even Pizzas. This place is a place I will visit next year especially for food. I went in there intending to be there for 10 minutes and going back, but I stayed for an hour and a half to see this place and meet a college friend. It is one of the nicest supermarkets I have ever been too and it has Sushi (not ready at that Hour) for sale fresh every day. If you don't have a Wegman's nearby, find one (especially in the Northeast part of the country).
After I got back, I saw some Movie trailers that are a Balticon Monday tradition. I got to see the new Superman Returns trailer and it rocks. I just pray and hope it is a great film. The Superman series needs a great film to get the franchise going again especially after Supergirl and Superman IV movies.
Neil Gaiman introduced Mirrormask. I didn't see the film, but I got some pictures of him and heard the story about it. He explained that it took $4 million dollars to make along with the help of the Jim Henson company. While he was writing it at Jim's Henson house in New York state, he found an old Muppet that hadn't been touched in a dozen years. The latex fell apart when he was working with his eyes, slowly. It was one of the creepiest feelings he ever had.
After hearing him introduce it, I went to the Dealer's Room to see what else I would like. I did get a couple of things that I was thinking about over the weekend. I saw Neil Gaiman in the Dealer's Room without a massive crowd around him at Dealer's table signing some of his books for them. Signatures don't increase the value of a book as a living author, but does help sell them faster. I did meet him and tell him how much I love Marvel 1602 and that I can't wait to read Eternals next month. I was probably the only person who talked to him about his Comics and Graphic Novel works. He is a rare person in Comic Books to crossover from the writing of Comic Books to being an author in his own right. He has won the Hugo Award along with other awards in his long career.
Then, I was part of my last panel of the weekend which was about the Serenity movie. It was aptly entitled The best SF movie nobody saw. The room was wall to wall people and I should be on one of the Balticon Podcasts in the upcoming few months. They taped the podcast and when it is on Balticon's Podcasting site I will let you know. It was a great panel with people from various backgrounds in the Serenity/Firefly fandom. One who saw the series and like the series better, I who had only seen the movie and the Moderator who had seen the series first and then the movie. I brought my understanding of media to the panel and helped it. I did make a few mistakes along the way (getting Book and Walsh confused). In the end, it was a great discussion.
I went to the Klaffeklatsch with Lisa Snellings-Clark (Art Guests of Honor). She was not feeling well, so she left early. She did answer a couple of questions and it was interesting for how long it took. I volunteered a little bit tearing down the artshow walls and went to the improving Balticon panel.
Overall thoughts, suggestions and stories I couldn't get in
A story I couldn't get in over the weekend was I think I have an idea for a Fake Worldcon bid. As you know I live in Rednecksville, USA (Aberdeen, MD) within spitting distance of Aberdeen Proving Ground, I was talking to people at the parties over the weekend and someone suggested that I should do an APG in 2010 bid instead. That is a great idea because it would have masquerade contestants who glow from the weapons being tested, the Worldcon's best science program ever and destroy your computers with Bazookas for free. How does someone start one of those bids?
On to the suggestions, I hope that there is a photographer who can take photos and put up on the convention website. It would encourage people to show when they know what the convention is about. A related suggestion is to have a closing ceremony with a slideshow. It would help people to have memories over the weekend. Somebody needs to work on the Air Conditioning in the upstairs part especially the panels room. It helped to exhaust me over the weekend because it was so hot in those rooms.
Some other news from over the weekend, Washington, DC has moved there Science Fiction Worldcon bid from 2011 to 2012. This hasn't been an official bid announcement as the official bids are now only until 2010. I don't think the year will be decided until next year or the year after that.
Baltimore is hosting the 2009 Costume Con. Congrats to Marty Gear, head of the Masquerade, and Ricky Dick who lead the bid and are co-chairs of the event. The date and location in 2009 are to be announced. They are hoping to get the Marriott Hunt Valley on the weekend before Mother's Day. Marty is starting negociations this week. I hope people from the Anime costuming side come to this. The best in the cosplay realm can compete and beat the best costumers in the country.
I had a blast at my relaxacon and I will be back next year. I just totally love this con as much as I love Otakon because I don't feel stressed as a staffer or in a huge environment like Otakon.
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