Arisia SF&F Covention Laura and I spent the weekend at the
Arisia Science-Fiction & Fantasy Convention in Cambridge, Mass. It's a bit of a hike. We left Burlington, Ontario at 7:15 in the morning and arrived around 4:30 or so with just one pit-stop. (We did attempt to stop at the legendary
Jell-o Gallery and Museum in LeRoy, New York, but it wasn't open!)
It was a strange weekend.
When Arisia was good, it was very good.
But when it wasn't, it was dull and mediocre.
We didn't have as much fun or as much time with the people we thought we would, but we did meet new people, had great times with them and spent more time with people we didn't know quite as well.
Some highlights:
Drinks with
Robert J. Sawyer, his imprint editor/author the incomparable
Fiona Kelleghan and SF editor and
SFSCope.com webmaster Ian Randal Strock
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ianrandalstrock (pronounced Eye-In, just to confuse Scots).
Finally meeting
australianjoeDinner with my former neighbour, and friend of my son, Sean Drieger who now lives and works as a code-head in Cambridge.
A couple of insane parties hosted by Ziggurat Labs. They had a pyjama party on Friday night and a Science Fair themed party on Saturday. Both were really well run and the people were great.
Drive-by cameos from
wispfox.
Naughty Nurses finding nay, luring, donors for the Robert A. Heinlein Blood Drive.
Learning the game Munchkin from
perldiver and
avivasedai and playing with them Jessie and Jenny until 3 AM.
Meeting Benjamin, future President of the United States and the deliciously delightful Liz.
Sing-along-Buffy "Once More with Feeling" by the
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teseracte Players.
Women in corsets. Especially Liz and
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shadesong.
"Life is just one non-sequitur after Fruit bat!"
A 'life-sized' Jabba the Hutt...oh, and a very hot girl dressed in a copper Leia bikini. DROOL
The world's most eclectic take-out buffet courtesy of the charming couple of
majes and
jasra.
Getting waylaid at the elevator one night to hunt down snow cones which turned Laura's teeth and tongue blue.
Avoiding most panels attended by 'Primordial Man', a lumbering hulk/bore who drove me nuts by hijacking panels last year.
Escaping Saturday morning to
Zoe's restaurant near Harvard Square and NOT GETTING LOST!!!
Getting SURPRISED in the Chill Room.
perldiver's card tricks.
"My tongue is a science party."
People singing to fill the void after the DJ's laptop crapped out during the Saturday night Club Dance.
Did I mention the corsets? Just checking...
In the 'mundane' world, as SF people call it, I'm considered a bit of a geeky weirdo and thus feel marginalized. In the Con world, I'm considered a bit too straight and thus feel marginalized. ARGH!!!
NOTE I SENT TO ARISIA PROGRAM FOLKS
First, I thought Arisia was really smoothly run! Even the elevators worked better this year for the most part.
I had one question to ask the people at Information who referred me to Con Ops. When Con Ops thought Information had the badges I was looking for, there was no back and forth blaming. It was handled quickly and efficiently on the spot with a few phone calls and shortly thereafter I was picking my badges up at the information desk.
I LOVED the *Sing-along-Buffy*! They did a great job with it. It was interactive without being tedious (last year's pre-show of "Rocky Horror" seemed to go on forever. This one was bright and tight!)
The *Con Suite* was excellent, well-run by friendly people who were always on top of everything. I loved the Bagel Breakfast from the Writer's group.
*Gaming* was fun. Great atmosphere for newbie gamers.
The *Art Show* was quite good. I hope there was less theft than last year. Having an express elevator up there from time to time was good.
I like how you handled the dealers this year. The lack of one humming, energetic room was made up by a more intimate personal relationship with dealers cloistered in their individual 'cells'.
*Security* was discreet.
I didn't make it to the session in the pool but the very idea was BRILLIANT!
*Laura Anne Gilman* was a real delight. I can't wait to read her books now.
*Robert J. Sawyer* is a fantastic reader, engaging, funny and scary brilliant.
I heard good things about *Dr Richard C Staats* and so I went to see him for myself. He was a great moderator and very entertaining though I suspect if I'd seen him as a panellist he'd have been even funnier. I left with great respect for his ability to move the panel along, control the flow of the discussion, include the audience and stay out of the way unless he was needed. Pro!
The Hyatt Hotel was clean and helpful and the staff seemed to be having a blast watching us having fun. Every hotel has issues, but all-in-all I think it is working pretty well now as a site.
The *parties* were all managed very well. People checked ID's but weren't nasty about it. And they were very good about policing the no liquor outside the room rule without being obnoxious. Special nods to the deliciously mad women and men of Ziggurat Labs for two AMAZING parties (Pyjama and Science Fair).
That said...SMILE...the not-so good stuff...
1. I didn't feel you made the best use of the extra day. Instead it felt as though the usual three days were simply stretched over four.
2. The weekend seemed to have pacing problems. Friday was frantic with a blizzard of things to do. Saturday lurched from busy to barren. Sunday had even fewer bright spots and Monday...well...SHRUG. I never thought I could be bored at a con, but this year there were quite a few times I was.
3. Sunday night felt unfocused. Friday and Saturday each had dances and while Sunday had the formal dance, it wasn't a 'blow off steam' sort of fun dance. Sunday night didn't have a great common event to hold it together. Those 'center pole' events are necessary to pinch a con, where everyone is all over the place for much of the day, back together as one.
4. A lot of the panels were great, but panels which were unprepared drove me nuts. I left the "Iron Hack" frustrated because no one had bothered to figure out in advance how to actually pull off "write a piece of the story, and then hand it off to the next." without it being boring. It turned into something resembling a bad improv story exercise. Ditto the "Mad Scientist Laugh Contest", thought according to what I've read on-line it eventually got its act together and was hilarious. But the slow, messy start had me out of the room after fifteen minutes of lameness.
5. The DJ's laptop crapped out part-way through Saturday's Club dance. As a former DJ that just pissed me off. With I-pods as cheap as they are, there is no excuse not to have a backup with some long mixed sweeps ready to go just in case. Thank goodness for the Arisia crowd who started singing their own songs and dancing anyway.
6. I preferred the lay-out of the program last year. It seemed easier to follow the various tracks. May just be personal preference...
Last year I left Arisia for the eight and a half hour drive back to Canada counting the days until this year's Con. This time...I'm not sure whether or not I'll be back.
frustrated