Baycon: Monday report
May. 31st, 2016 07:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjSkipped a workout Monday morning because I wanted to get packed up and checked out before panels started. Went to a panel on "Bay Area's Separated Fandoms - Why?" which ended up being more of a "what" than a "why". We got something of a survey of the history of Bay Area fandom, and then a discussion of what the current significant thematic conventions are, and how various interests have moved and shifted. There was an acknowledgment that Bay Con, as an old-style "gen con" has tended to lose various segments of fandom to more focused events (especially ones also scheduled for Memorial Day Weekend!), in some cases leaving awkward gaps in the con experience, but in other cases simply acknowledging that those interests had been something of a separate con-within-a-con to begin with.
Next up, I was a panelist for a costuming discussion "make it accurate or make it pretty?" I thought it was a lively and nuanced discussion of how to balance the various possible costuming goals, with an understanding of venue, purpose, one's own role in the costumed function (e.g., staff vs. guest). Jean Martin was a fabulous moderator and my fellow panelists were all thoughtful, eloquent, and well-prepared.
Following that, I attended a panel on disability representation in genre that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
katerit was on (though I was planning to go anyway). Very good discussion, despite being set up as something of a standard "Disability 101" topic. (And despite the occasional obliviously derailing efforts of an audience member who was nursing some grudge from the '70s about feminism and kept trying to find some equivalence between disability marginalization and misandry...it was a bit hard to tell, given the level of incoherence. The panelists kept trying to politely re-direct. At one point I bluntly told him his question was way outside the scope of the panel.)
Finished up by having a leisurely lunch withkaterit and a friend from File 770. It was a good thing we had lots to chat about, because the coffee shop staff were scaled way back and in the end I had to go hunting for someone to get us our check. And then it was back home to check on the riotous growth of the tomatoes and cucumbers (Yay! Cucumber!), to check out the two book deliveries that had arrived while I was gone, and to actually manage to unpack fully and put the suitcase away (something I hadn't managed after the Kalamazoo trip).
It was a good con for book promotion: the bookseller in the dealers' room who carried the Alpennia books sold out of what he'd brought, and all sorts of people came up to me randomly to tell me how much they'd loved them. (Including some totally unscripted and unpaid shills in panel audiences who saved me from having to promote my own work. It's so much easier to focus on promoting the books by other people that I love when I can relax about my own books.)
The next convention this year will be Worldcon, and I need to get working on the swag I plan to bring for it. I have some ideas I think people will enjoy.
Next up, I was a panelist for a costuming discussion "make it accurate or make it pretty?" I thought it was a lively and nuanced discussion of how to balance the various possible costuming goals, with an understanding of venue, purpose, one's own role in the costumed function (e.g., staff vs. guest). Jean Martin was a fabulous moderator and my fellow panelists were all thoughtful, eloquent, and well-prepared.
Following that, I attended a panel on disability representation in genre that
katerit was on (though I was planning to go anyway). Very good discussion, despite being set up as something of a standard "Disability 101" topic. (And despite the occasional obliviously derailing efforts of an audience member who was nursing some grudge from the '70s about feminism and kept trying to find some equivalence between disability marginalization and misandry...it was a bit hard to tell, given the level of incoherence. The panelists kept trying to politely re-direct. At one point I bluntly told him his question was way outside the scope of the panel.)Finished up by having a leisurely lunch with
katerit and a friend from File 770. It was a good thing we had lots to chat about, because the coffee shop staff were scaled way back and in the end I had to go hunting for someone to get us our check. And then it was back home to check on the riotous growth of the tomatoes and cucumbers (Yay! Cucumber!), to check out the two book deliveries that had arrived while I was gone, and to actually manage to unpack fully and put the suitcase away (something I hadn't managed after the Kalamazoo trip).It was a good con for book promotion: the bookseller in the dealers' room who carried the Alpennia books sold out of what he'd brought, and all sorts of people came up to me randomly to tell me how much they'd loved them. (Including some totally unscripted and unpaid shills in panel audiences who saved me from having to promote my own work. It's so much easier to focus on promoting the books by other people that I love when I can relax about my own books.)
The next convention this year will be Worldcon, and I need to get working on the swag I plan to bring for it. I have some ideas I think people will enjoy.
