Boskone

[BookWyrm]

Shit.

With the combination of new romances, Valentines Day, and a good friends pre-wedding celebration, it looks like I won't be able to make Boskone this year after all. :(

[Balefont]

We'll be there and we're bring a n00b. I warned her and she's scared. ;)

[Mr. X]

We'll be there and we're bring a n00b. I warned her and she's scared. ;)

Woo-hoo! :)

We'll be there and we're bringing beer. I warned it that it's gonna get drunk and it's scared.

Thing is, I think that if it comes down to a fight between us and the beer, we're gonna win. Why? We've got ninjas on our side now. :ninja:

[Balefont]

Love you guys!!!

[LugaJetboyGirl]

Reports, people! Dish!

[Fenryng]

Fastest damn weekend of the year so far.

Regina and I took Friday off, and dropped off our dog Hunter at the dog day care place that we use. We had a brief lunch, and then drove down to the Westin Waterfront, the hotel where Boskone has been taking place for the last four years.

This was the first year that we decided to drive down, as opposed to taking the bus, and this alone made for a much better travelling arrangement than in years past. Not being at the mercy of other drivers and a schedule makes for a much more relaxing travelling day. What was unexpected and a great bonus was that getting to the Westin once you are in Boston is astounding in it's simplicity. This was one of those situations where if I had known how simple it was, I would have done it years ago.

We arrived at the hotel at two pm, and were fortunate in being able to check into our rooms immediately, which was an added bonus. We got unpacked, and bumped into Stego and Yagathai during the process. They were already in the process of volunteering. Regina went and registered, and then hung out with them at one of the volunteers table while I tried napping for a couple of hours.

Once I got up, I registered, and then went down into the dealer's room to explore while simultaneously talking with the guys.

The dealers room (and the program in general) was, I thought, much better than last year, which was arguably a low point for Boskone in that regard for us. Which is ironic, because I probably spent less this year on books at this con than I have in several years.

I only made it to one panel, and that was one with Tom Shippey regarding Tolkien. Much to my disappointment, the panel did not follow the topic, so I ended up leaving early. It was still great being able to just listen to his voice. I hunted for his book in the dealers room afterwards, but no such luck. I will have to track it down later.

After a bit, Regina and I went up to the so-called Irish Pub for dinner.

A word about the hotel.

I have mentioned before that the pricing for this place in regards to the food. Six dollars for french fries is about as vile as it can get.

So the so-called Irish Pub is popular, because it is the most reasonably priced of the two establishments that you have to choose from. The hotel takes great advantage of the fact that it is insolated from a lot of accommodations, and your choices are what they offered, or travel elsewhere, which could be inconvenient.

We split up after dinner, with Regina going back to the dealers and I went to the aforementioned panel.

Since I ended up leaving the panel early, I went back up to our room for some water, and encountered Mr. X and X-Ray having just arrived.

Once they got settled, we all went down to the pub again, and met up with Stego, Yags, and Maureen having dinner. We spent time talking and enjoying ourselves from there.

More later.

[Lady Greywolf]

Very interesting (and fun) to meet folks I have only read on the boards or heard in vent. Look forward to repeating the experience again.

[Balefont]

Very interesting (and fun) to meet folks I have only read on the boards or heard in vent. Look forward to repeating the experience again.

So glad you two could make it! You're wonderful people. :D

[Xray the Enforcer]

Very interesting (and fun) to meet folks I have only read on the boards or heard in vent. Look forward to repeating the experience again.

woohoo! I was convinced that we'd managed to scare you guys off, but I'm gratified to hear that we'll be seeing you again! (It was great to meet you!)

[Regina]

Very interesting (and fun) to meet folks I have only read on the boards or heard in vent. Look forward to repeating the experience again.

It was great meeting you, as well. Glad to hear we didn't scare you off!

I'll leave the detailed summaries to Fenryng, but needless to say we had a great time seeing everyone again.

However, I must point out that the winning quote of the con was from Stego. I can't remember the exact wording, but it was along the lines of:

"...and then I dropped my pants and whipped out my action figure."

WIN.

[Xray the Enforcer]

I think it was "I dropped my pants and held up my action figure" but we should ask Mr. X for sure. He apparently texted the quote to himself so it wouldn't EVER be forgotten.

The most important revelation of the weekend: TYCHO IS NO LONGER A NOOB. He's still fucking awesome, but we have a new n00b now: DrownedDanPyke (who may or may not ever post here because he's such a n00b he forgot both his password and the email address he signed up with). He uses office supplies as sartorial accessories (I am partial to binder clips myself for two skirts I have with broken fasteners) and, like all good librarians both male and female, has an enormous beard. He voluntarily drinks pink wine and he knew exactly what I was talking about when I started ranting about Angry Intergalactic Polar Bears. Man is quality.

[Mr. X]

According to my text, the exact quote was 'I took off my pants and held up my action figure.' At the time, Stego was in the process of explaining how he identifies with his He-Man action figures.

Boskone was great. Showed up around 9 on Friday, checked in, and went straight to the pub. We then headed to a panel on "Bad Books You Love" where S. C. Butler moderated while the other two panelists either mumbled barely audibly or went off on tangents. Yaoi manga was introduced as a guilty pleasure, a genre later misnamed as "Yahweh" by Stego. While we were sitting around in the lobby after the panel, Tycho arrived bearing copious amounts of good beer, some of which he brewed himself. We sampled this while exploring the party floor, though the party scene was rather lifeless. The highlight was watching an extremely sleep-deprived Stego reenact a scene from "Zeitgeist" with a mylar balloon in the shape of a five-pointed star filling in as the Pentagon.

Saturday we started off with a panel where John Picacio gave an overview of his work and took us step by step through the creation of a few of his covers. Later that day, we saw Picacio interview Michael Whelan (where I learned that Picacio is doing an ASOIAF themed calendar (:thumbsup:), though that may not be news to most of you) and attended an artist demo by Picacio, firmly establishing fanboy/girl-ing Picacio as the theme of our weekend. Somewhere in between was lunch at the pub and a panel on "The City in Science Fiction".

Balefont and company arrived just in time for what is becoming the annual BWB Legal Seafood dinner extravaganza, though a 9pm reservation meant we had plenty of time to pack everyone into our hotel room for drinking and snacking beforehand. Dinner was followed by chatting in the lobby of the Westin, where there are many comfortable chairs and couches to be found. We took over a party for some small press, sampled spruce beer (kind of like cheap gin for those who don't drink alcohol), and eventually wound up back in Stego's room for a discussion of action figure anatomy.

Sunday we got outbid on Picacio's original ink sketch for the SubPress cover of Drood, but successfully scored a signed print of Picacio's A Canticle for Leibowitz cover, one of my all-time favorite cover images. Our bus home was at 3:30, which provided us with a perfect excuse to cut out halfway through the last panel, which discussed whether pure good and evil are gone from epic fantasy. It seemed like such a promising topic but totally failed to deliver. So it goes.

Another year, another fine Presidents Day weekend in Boston. Cheers to Stego, Mo, fenryng, Regina, Tycho, Yagathai, Greywolf, Lady Greywolf, Balefont, Jay, and DrownedDanPyke for the good times.

[Xray the Enforcer]

Left work early on Friday to catch the train to Boston. Laughed at my colleagues still stuck at their desks, because I am that big of an asshole. Just as we were arriving at Back Bay station, I get a call from "Stego" but in fact it's Yagathai, which was pleasantly surprising because I wasn't sure Yags was going to make it this year. Then the tunnel cut us off. Met Fenryng in our hotel room as we were unpacking and then we all headed down to the pub to meet with peeps before the evening's last panel. SC Butler made an heroic attempt on that panel -- props to him for trying to salvage it. Unfortunately, the two other panelists weren't very...engaging. I admitted in public to liking the first three Anita Blake books and the Nightrunner series by Lynn Flewelling, despite being very aware of their (sometimes ginormous) flaws. Stego was introduced to the strange world of yaoi, but I think I prefer the "Yahweh" moniker he bestowed upon it. Then Tycho joined us and we went to the Reno party, where Stego re-enacted key scenes from Zeitgeist using a mylar balloon. Some truly horrible candy was eaten. We went to bed relatively (1am) early that night, where it was discovered by Regina that I'm way weirder sober than I am drunk.

Saturday, I woke up early and hungry, so Mr. X and I went down at 9am (I know!) to get breakfast, register and all that jazz. I went to a 10am panel entitled "The Suck Fairy, or when you realize upon reread that some of your favorite books suck." All four panelists were good, but serious props go to Jane Yolen. She really brings thoughtful commentary to every panel she's on, and here, paired with other good panelists, she was great. After that, I engaged in what seems to be my running theme at Boskone: fan-girl the artists. Mr. X and I went to a presentation by artist GOH John Picacio where he walked us through some of his recent compositions. Some artists are very insular and into their own world -- not John. He's incredibly engaged in the world (political climate, etc) around him and this informs his approach. Then lunch and a short break (thanks, drug side-effects) and then went to the panel where Picacio interviewed Michael Whelan, one of my all-time favorite artists.

This brings me to something I mentioned to Yags and Stego on Sunday -- these past two years have been BRILLIANT from the art side. Last year had Donato Giancola, Stephan Martinere and Dan Dos Santos and some of the original paintings for various Tor covers. This year it was Picacio, Whelan, Eggleton and Berry -- and the artist GOH didn't try to poison me with some awful blue drink this year! Win and win! For some reason, I didn't realize that Whelan was going to bring so many originals, and I almost soiled myself when I saw the set up. Fuck it, I almost started crying when I saw a couple of the originals for works I've loved for years and years. Yes, I know this makes me the biggest loser on the planet, but I don't care. (Aside to Stego/Yags -- you're right, Whelan has just gotten better over the years.)

Last panel was an art demo with Picacio. Not much demo actually happened because Stego and I couldn't keep our yaps shut and Picacio was too polite to ignore us, and instead kept answering our questions.

Between that panel and dinner, Balefont, Jay and L. showed up with more beer. We had an impromptu party in our room with meatcrack and booze. After dinner, we took over a corner of the lobby and somehow DrownedDanPyke figured out who the hell we were and introduced himself. This was just as the server delivered a very purple drink to Stego, cementing our reputation for being total badasses amongst fandom. Then we went to a couple of parties, eventually settling in at Nanopress, where Yagathai made me drink fizzy, sweet, non-alcoholic cheap gin (aka "spruce beer"). Stego vogued at the Frog Party. Yagathai demonstrated the Christian Side Hug. We finally decamped to Stego/Lady Stego's room where Stego bellowed about his "action figure." Yags and I discussed Robert Sapolsky and ape dominance displays. Tycho was un-n00bed officially and it seems we didn't scare off DDP because he said "hi" to us on Sunday.

Mr. X and I were outbid on a Picacio original sketch (goddammit), but the other guy was prepared to spend way more than we were. Still, we helped drive up the price a bit. We did get the signed print that Mr. X mentioned. I bought exactly 4 things at the con, all art related: necklace and earrings from Laurie and two books, both on art. One was a book of Picacio's art, the other a collection of all the Chesley Award winners from inception until 2003.

On Sunday we basically kicked around, got into the aforementioned bidding war, ate lunch, bought our stuff and went to our final panel. It was one of those panels where you know and like the moderator (David Anthony Durham), but it just crashed and burned all around him. It may have gotten better at the end, but we had to catch our bus back to NYC.

ETA: but yeah, serious props to my people. Stego, Mo, Yags, Fenryng, Regina (we got this roomie thing down to an art at this point), Tycho, Alchemist, Greywolf and Lady Greywolf (hope to see you two next year!), Balefont, Jay and L (keep drinkin' the 'Gansett!), DDP and, of course, Mr. X. :grouphug:

And props to the Boskone organizers. This year was great. Interesting guests, good panels, fabulous art show.

[Fenryng]

I was not aware that Tycho had actually been brewing his own beer. That is awesome, particularly in light of his chemical background. It should be very interesting to see what he comes up with. I was also unaware that beer containers come in the large sizes that were evidenced.

And as X-Ray mentioned, the artwork was very good this year. I discovered this time around that Michael Whelan is an artist that I enjoy.

However, I continue to maintain that John Howe and Alan Lee have not been getting the recognition in this country that they deserve. To go slightly off-topic.

On Saturday, I went into the general dealer/artwork room, and was summarily pressed by Stego into becomign an audio/visual expert assistant. What this meant was my working with one of the Con's smofs, setting up cameras and slide projectors and whatnot. This was a completely unexpected development, but painless, and interesting from a technical standpoint. Plus, I got to see the aforementioned Michael Whelan do his demonstration, as an added bonus.

I picked up the books that I wanted after this, and proceeded afterwards to ignore Stego's apparent order to make reservations with the Legal Seafood restaurant.

As has been mentioned, during the time when everyone was waiting for it to be time for us to go to the restaurant, everyone congregated in our room.

I had a fascinating conversation with Tycho, wherein he explained how hydrochloric acid is capable of eating through bone, flesh, wood, and porcelain, but not through a certain specific type of plastic. This was something that had been confusing me ever since I had seen an episode of the series Breaking Bad.

Yagathai and I had a lunchtime conversation about comics, which was a topic of conversation which I really wish I could have more often. It was from him that I discovered that despite everything that he has done, the Hulk has somehow successfully avoided killing any innocent bystanders during the course of all of his years of rampaging.

To which, I of course replied, bullshit. But, I digress.

I also had a conversation with Greywolf and Mrs. Greywolf about WoW, which covered exploring, and levelling, and things to do when tired of levelling. We also discussed how truly expansive the WoW world is. Granted, the graphics are not necessarily as good as other games, but they can focus on that sort of thing, because they do not have an entire world to deal with.

I also talked with Laurie?Lori?(apologies for spelling), Bale and Jay's friend who came along to see what a con is like. Kudos to her, and hopefully she and Mrs. Greywolf will be back.

During dinner, Jay and I discussed varied topics such as martial arts, the joys (re:trials) of home ownership, the idiocy of various electrical wiring jobs, and various other home-related topics.

And after a year of waiting, I finally got to see Stego and Mrs. Stego. Unfortunately, it wasn't since this last con that we had been able to see them.

Thanks again to Tycho, Mr. and Mrs. X for putting up with us as roommates yet once again; and it was fantastic seeing everyone again.

[LugaJetboyGirl]

Thanks for the reports, guys. It sounds like you had an awesome time!

[Yagathai]

Good time. Nice to see everyone.

[Mr. X]

I was not aware that Tycho had actually been brewing his own beer.

Yes, and we were drinking it in the room while you were there!

I must add that the Hulk's apparent ability to calculate complicated trajectories and solve multi-variable physic equations mid-rage in order to avoid harm to innocent bystanders was the best piece of trivia I picked up this weekend.

[Balefont]

Yes, and we were drinking it in the room while you were there!

So tasty. I was afraid to have more for fear of taking over the "bottle".

[drowned dan pyke]

The most important revelation of the weekend: TYCHO IS NO LONGER A NOOB. He's still fucking awesome, but we have a new n00b now: DrownedDanPyke (who may or may not ever post here because he's such a n00b he forgot both his password and the email address he signed up with). He uses office supplies as sartorial accessories (I am partial to binder clips myself for two skirts I have with broken fasteners) and, like all good librarians both male and female, has an enormous beard. He voluntarily drinks pink wine and he knew exactly what I was talking about when I started ranting about Angry Intergalactic Polar Bears. Man is quality.

Thanks for the kind words. And just so everybody knows, "he willingly drinks pink wine" is not even a euphemism. Just a statement of literal fact.

So yeah, just a n00b checking in to assure you all that, no you did not scare me off. In fact, I feel infinitely safer at Boskone now. Let's just keep "action figures" out of it as much as possible.

Not until I saw it typed out did I note what an unwieldy moniker I selected, so abbreviate as you see fit. I'm particular to this ddp revelation as it puts me in the same rarefied air as your favorite pro wrestler and mine, Diamond Dallas Page.

[Tycho]

Curse you DDP, posting a report before me even though you had to find your account again. Glad to see you found your way to the boards though. :cheers:

Thanks to the X's, Fenryng and Regina for allowing this absentminded student room on their floor. It was great to see Greywolf and Lady Greywolf again after meeting them at my first BwB event in Raleigh. Also thanks to the Balefont, Jay and Lori for bringing me knowledge of the growler in the best state of the union. (I never knew we had growlers, i never drank until i was 21, oddly enough on my 21st at the aforementioned Raleigh Trinoc'con) Also great to see Stego, Mrs. Stego and Yags too.

I got into Boston around 9 on Friday after dropping my car off at my sister's campus, yay free parking. We then made our way to the Cambridge Brewing Company for some eats and beer. After sampling their seasonals i picked up a growler of their imperial IPA the "Big Man" to add to my copious beer offerings to the BwB. It would have been great to bring a the oak aged barley wine, but unfortunately they had only prefilled growlers. On arriving at the hotel Bean quickly retreated. After a brief schmoozing and a tour of the party floor i went up to bed where X-ray and i commiserated on our lack of chest hair.

Saturday i registered, hit some panels and the dealer rooms. Caught the Hugo to read/watch list and realized i've missed as many of the movies as i have the books this year. I wound up back in the room pre-gaming tasting most of the beers i brought with Mr. X, Jay and anyone else who wanted a taste before legal seafoods. After legal seafoods much of the same, with discussion and beer (mine and Mr. X's) moving by parts from the room to the lobby to party floor to Stego's room to bed.

Sunday i awoke and shuffled about. Attended a much anticipated panel on good and evil in fantasy and whether they still exist given the greying trend. The synopsis sounded great, the panel itself was overridden by a single panelist with the help of the audience and kind of spiraled out of control even with heroic attempts on the part of Stego and Yags to bring it back to the original focus. Then the panel ended and so did the con. I found my way back to Babe my car and from there to scenic Troy.

It was great to see everyone. I don't know why i've never been to Boskone before. It's much lower key than worldcon and a good time to see people with less sleep deprivation. I hope to see everyone there next year if not sooner at NASFiC in Raleigh or at summer shenanigans in Little Rhody.