WorldCon Reports

[Xray the Enforcer]

I am terminally exhausted and reduced to surfing the toobs on my phone, so an actual report will have to wait.

Safe to say, ChiCon kicked ass and the BWB destroyed all comers. Too bad Racebannon never made it to the con. We missed that dude immensely.

[Mr. X]

Yeah, the lack of Racebannon was a bummer, but we did meet a really cool guy named Steve S. Seems like a great guy!

In other news, ChiCon was awesome. Why do we have to go back to work again?

Also, why did I think that not sleeping before going to the airport was a good idea?

[Xray the Enforcer]

I think you can blame beer and Pod for your lack of good judgment.

[Mr. X]

Yes. Especially Pod.

[mashiara]

The thread says "WorldCon reports", I don't see any reports yet. Where are the pictures, where are the humorous incidents described for us unable to attend? Come on, people! What do you mean, you are all exhausted from having such an awesome time? That's not an excuse!

*taps foot*

:)

[Frisco]

Mr. X can fit an entire chocolate replica Hugo in his mouth, and Yags used to date a girl who had legs of unequal length. I believe there may be more, but that's all I have retained at the moment.

[RaceBannon42]

Wait, Worldcon was this week?

I thought it was next week.

[Yagathai]

I spat on Ron Donachie. Also one of my cocktails made his face go numb, and he went home.

[Angalin]

It was my first WorldCon, and I went to two business meetings, one panel and one reading. I don't know if this says more about the programming, me, or Luga's determination. :P (Luga, I love you and lady n!)

I spat on Ron Donachie. Also one of my cocktails made his face go numb, and he went home.

How much ghost chili did he get in his glass? :stunned:

Also, why did I think that not sleeping before going to the airport was a good idea?

Oooooo.... ow.

There were no Klingons. There is something called BarFleet which is modeled on StarFleet which throws a pretty awesome dance party.

The tecno opera people, on the other hand... that was a sad, sad party.

Some man in a plush lizard (dragon?) suit was looking for people to drop in at his party. CSI's furries are much more impressive.

[Xray the Enforcer]

On my way out of the office on Wednesday, I told my coworkers that I was "going to Chicago to trash-talk Klingons in Dothraki, because one constructed language created for an imaginary, violent, alien society deserved another." Sadly, this did not come true, due to a near-complete lack of Klingons and my inability to carve out enough time to talk with the creator of the Dothraki language. I saw my first and only con Klingon about thirty seconds after we had checked into the hotel. We shared an elevator car with the brute: all 5'5" of him, with his Klingon forehead ridge "turtle shell" prosthesis set off-center on his head; clutched in his befurred hands was a ukelele. Welcomed into WorldCon by a short Klingon furry filker! I took it as A Sign. The second one, in fact. The first had happened as we went to hotel registration and Lodey bellowed my name, from his seat at the bar, across a very crowded hotel lobby. I knew the BWB were in for a mighty ride.

Mr. X and I grabbed some dinner (Chicago-style pizza, both deep dish and thin crust), and then we retired to the bar to join the growing crowd of BWB members. Already there were Lodey, Red Woman, Boiled Leather, Lord Mountain Goat, Peadar, Neal, Ithanos, Ser Camaris, Mormont, Trebla and a few others. No sign of Racebannon, though, which was distressing. After a few drinks, a bunch of us crowded into Arlington Bill's and Makotohanabi's hotel room to sample beers from Wisconsin. I spent most of my time talking with Ser Cam (because, fuck, why wouldn't I? He's a board unicorn -- more legend than actual person). Ty Franck and his fabulous wife stopped by for awhile, but Ty was some kind of fucked-up virus factory and after we hosed him down with Purell, he went back to his room to sleep. I don't remember much more about that night except that it was the first of many nights that I stayed up too late and regretted it heavily the next day.

Thursday was a bit of a "down" day -- breakfast with Fenryng, Regina (our long-time con roomies) and LacyinTX. Then I guess we wandered around a bit. Mr. X and I did a big booze shopping run and then Ser Scot, Angalin, Trebla and Stubby worked magic at Bullwinkles and got us a ton of soda and other mixers for the upcoming parties. We had the Meet&Greet, and it was wonderful to see so many people in the crowd. Information was distributed, as were Rat Cook t-shirts (we still have three left -- contact Mr. X for details), ribbons to get one into the private party on Friday and a few laffs as well. Most people went party hopping, although in separate groups. 3/4ths of the Mod Squad (Morm, Angalin and I) visited the London Bid Party, then ended up at Kansas City's Speakeasy (they had homebrew!) with the always-radiant Chataya. Once it got crowded at about 11pm, I decided "fuck it" because this was likely to be the only night I'd get more than three hours of sleep. I think a fair few people made the same call.

Friday dawned hot, and after breakfast Mr. X and I went to the dealers room, where we met up with Lady Narcissa for Leigh Bardugo's (aka Hedgerow) book signing. I hadn't bought a copy of her debut novel yet, so I went in search of one. I found the last fucking copy of the book -- nobody else had it -- at Larry Smith's stand. Not a surprise, that: The man has everything. I gloated for awhile to those who lost out, got my book signed (can't wait to read it!) and then went shopping. Aside from the book, I didn't buy anything. No jewelry (how that happened, I have no idea. Laurie's jewelry is my kryptonite) or other books. No utilikilts (or whatever knockoff the stand was selling), no corsets, no aviator goggles, no shoulder dragons nor glass winged cats nor crushed-velvet shawls. No t-shirts, no patches and no silly hats. I most certainly did not buy any hentai (but I know someone who did), paranormal romance novels featuring mermen, or My Little Pony illustrated erotica.

I did buy a supporting bid for this year's TitanCon, KC 2016 and an attending membership for London 2014. I would have bought one for San Antonio 2013, but their credit card reader was on the fritz. Yagathai shaved his head on a whim and he spent the entire afternoon rubbing the stubble with vague regret. That's nonsense, though -- he looks great with or without hair.

Then we got word that our suite was ready, three hours earlier than expected. BONUS! So we went up to the room and squealed with glee at how big it was. I want to publicly give a shout-out to Lea Farr, the convention party liaison. She was the most organized and pleasant person to work with. She described things clearly and totally stepped up when we had some extra requests. Thank you, Lea. After we got the keys, a whole pack of Bros showed up and we reorganized the suite. A few strong men and women carried all of the party supplies from my room to the service elevator (which opened up into a space accessible directly from the suite -- this came in handy many, many times during the weekend) and we got the party fully set up. Still no sign of Racebannon. But mouse showed up and was awesome from the get-go. She extorted party supplies from her sister, who lives near the hotel, proving that the BWB is a bad influence on everyone.

Some people ordered pizzas into the suite, but I had to hussy myself up because I was representing John Picacio at the Chesley Awards. (That mad bastard went to DragonCon and WorldCon on the same weekend -- he in fact arrived in Chicago on Saturday afternoon.) Picacio was up for an award for his ASOIAF calendar. The awards themselves were pretty straightforward, and John won for his category. I delivered his pre-prepared speech and then made a bunch of texts letting people know. Then I lugged the award -- heavy enough to be a perfect weapon for the board game Clue -- to the party. Oh, the party. I don't remember much, except that the bartenders tried to kill people with one of our specialty cocktails -- homemade apple pie liquor courtesy of Lord Dracarys (as if that's not enough to strike fear into your liver) and diced ghost chiles -- called The Master At Arms. The Master At Arms was one of two specialty cocktails that we invented in honor of Ron Donachie, aka Ser Rodrik Cassel. The other was "Ser Rodrik's Whiskers." And when I say "we" I mean that I came up with the names and then I saddled the poor bastards behind the bar with the task of creating something remotely palatable from the available ingredients. Ser Rodrik's Whiskers was Yagathai's creation: lemon, fresh ginger and sugar muddled with bourbon. I liked it. I also liked the Master At Arms, although that drink is a cruel taskmaster, and dangerous if underestimated. It was Ser Rodrik's Whiskers that made Ron's face go numb, and he did leave the party pretty soon afterward. He was gracious enough to chalk it up to "jet lag."

Sometime around 1am, GRRM rolled into the party. We plied him with alcohol, although I don't know if his face went numb as well. We had the annual toast to the living, the dead, and the new Free Company of the Pretender Pie. We welcomed quite a few new members into our midst, all excellent people. I had some great conversations with them and I look forward to seeing them at future cons. And then the serious drinking started. At some point around 3am, Ser Cam and a couple of others were standing in front of the bar, drinks raised to the heavens, screaming STRAAAAALIAAAAAA!!!!! about five time in a row. I have no idea what the fuck prompted that, but I am grateful that I lived to see such a spectacle. I think we shut the party down at 4am, because somehow I thought that this was early and would help conserve our strength for the coming day. How wrong I was. We packed it all in by 4:30am and went our separate ways. Still no Racebannon.

To be continued...

[theMountainGoat]

I humbly recommend Angalin as the Mother Fucking n00b of the Year 2012. I know she is a mod and therefore is automatically awesome but this was her first Worldcon and she stepped up and helped out like a trooper with anything and everything. All hail Angalin!

Thanks for all your help with the raffle, great job.

It would be remiss of me to not also thank Ser Scot for sterling work selling tickets, Paedar for his heroic and hilarious announcing work and to George and Parris for their generosity in donating so many awesome prizes to the cause. Thank you.

[Xray the Enforcer]

I humbly recommend Angalin as the Mother Fucking n00b of the Year 2012. I know she is a mod and therefore is automatically awesome but this was her first Worldcon and she stepped up and helped out like a trooper with anything and everything. All hail Angalin!

Thanks for all your help with the raffle, great job.

It would be remiss of me to not also thank Ser Scot for sterling work selling tickets, Paedar for his heroic and hilarious announcing work and to George and Parris for their generosity in donating so many awesome prizes to the cause. Thank you.

Enthusiastically seconded.

[Ixodes]

Too bad Racebannon never made it to the con. We missed that dude immensely.

What??? I was so jealous that Racebannon could go to Chicon and I couldn't. I was living vicariously through him. To find that the bastard never showed up is like a kick to the shins.

He is dead to me. I will now address all my attentions to my facebook friend Steve. At least he runs Warrior Dash's and such.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

great con.

Business meeting on Saturday was an... interesting experince during and immediately following the meeting. If you are in San Antonio next year we will need every able bodied brother at the primary meeting. Next year we will get the YA Hugo started with everyone's help.

[alguien]

(moved from wrong thread this afternoon):

I had a wonderful time at WorldCon.

As a writer, I met a lot of nice up-and-comers and attended several interesting helpful panels. As a fan, I heard some great readings (especially GRRM's) and saw some amazing books and art. And as a BWB member, it was great to put faces to screen names. You all are an amazing bunch. Sorry I couldn't party too late after the first night. My liver just ain't what it used to be. It was great to meet George. What a nice guy! [ETA: this has caused intense jealousy amongst my Chicago friends]

Also, I wanted to say that the offer still stands if anyone would like a free sample copy of my company's Science Fiction Omnibus. Just send me your address via PM if you're interested and I can ship you one for free. Its the least I can do for welcoming newbs such as me with open arms! :thumbsup:

Anyway, just ran 19 miles so I'm gonna go take a nap now.

[WinterWarrior]

What reading did GRRM do? Any news about his writing and WoW?

I am from Chicago but only made the autograph signing on Monday afternoon because I was out of town most of the weekend. Things were closing up in the dealers room but it was still fun to browse and I got a 1st edition copy of DwD. GRRM looked tired, but he and Donachie were very gracious at the signing.

So I am interested in what I missed as far as the interview session with GRRM on Saturday and his reading on Sunday. Can someone fill us in?

[Xray the Enforcer]

To say that I felt like shit when I woke up after just two hours of sleep (why body why?! why did you insist on waking up at 7am?) on Saturday would be an understatement. Looking down at my arm in the bathroom, I could see the vague remnants of Lord Jo's Friday Night Sharpie Rampage. I had managed to get most of the words and images off my body using hand sanitizer (the alcohol is a great solvent for the ink), but still a ghost of Hodor's member remained. I wish I could hide behind the excuse that I was drunk on Friday, but I don't even have that small comfort -- I was sober, just being an idiot.

Mr. X and I went to eat the Saddest Breakfast Ever. I could only manage a sliced banana and some soup, because apparently my body responds to exhaustion and blood sugar crashes by getting violently nauseated. That might be TMI, but I also just admitted that I let Jo draw an enormous phallus on my forearm while I was sober, so I think we're well past being embarrassed at this point. Anyway, after the bananas and soup I actually felt...not horrible. We saw Mouse walking along the street and she informed us that she had pillaged her own home for more party supplies. Have I mentioned how awesome Mouse is? And how the BWB is a terrible influence on people? After that, I decided that I was not going to be any use at the business meeting -- I was just strong enough and awake enough to be incredibly surly, and I knew what was going to go down at the meeting. And I knew that I would probably say or do something rash and stupid that would come back to bite the BWB in the ass, so I hid myself at the Why Fantasy is Kicking SF's Ass panel with Scott Lynch, Farah Mendelsohn, Ty Franck, Daniel Abraham and someone whose name I never found out. I loved it -- the panelists presented some interesting analyses on why fantasy is so popular right now, and frankly I wish I could just sit down with them and chat about storytelling and structure.

After that panel, we met up with others to hear how the business meeting went (we were getting text updates but afterwards we heard a full report) and I think we sat outside for awhile and then we went to Billy Goat Tavern (or maybe that was Friday? Lack of sleep had already fried my brain by Friday) and I ate a double cheezborger and everything was right with the world. Yags, Lodey, Stubs, Laoise and a few others went to the party suite because it was a quiet and safe corner to gather strength for the coming evening. Some of the crew made a heroic trek to buy extra supplies for the Saturday party, but special shout-out goes to Jebus. He endured a multi-hour odyssey to find a freakin' self-inking stamp so we could designate who was 21 and who wasn't. That, my friends, is dedication. Mapu rustled up 125 pounds of ice. And the hordes were pounding on the door at 8:45pm for the party to start. We let them cool their con heels in the hallway because goddammit, the flyer said 9pm and we're sticking to that. (We were still setting up, so it wasn't just me being a stubborn cow that directed this decision.)

I should take a moment here to give a special high-five to Boiled Leather and Red Woman. The entire con, they kept asking if they could do anything, run errands, etc. And I said yes, but when the time came, there was always someone else all up in my grille and I sent those people out to do the shopping. I don't think I've ever felt guilty for NOT kicking someone's ass before, but cons make us all do strange things. :lol: In any case, BL and RW were two troopers and they did a great job making people feel welcome at the party, no hard labor necessary.

I should probably take another moment here to give shout-outs to some of the BWB WorldCon neophytes who also stepped up in grand fashion during the Saturday party: Adz von Kolle, Alytha, Lady with Ink and Fragile Bird were all amazing. They did tasks without being asked (in fact, they came to me to ask for tasks and trash bags) and helped build a great party atmosphere.

I should probably take yet another moment to send a big BWB fist-bump to Ser Knight Somerville and his lady light. He doesn't post on the boards much (if at all), but he's always at WorldCon and seeing him in the crowd makes everything right with the world.

Shit. I have to get ready for work. The rest of my Saturday report must wait for later.

To be continued...

[Xray the Enforcer]

What reading did GRRM do? Any news about his writing and WoW?

I am from Chicago but only made the autograph signing on Monday afternoon because I was out of town most of the weekend. Things were closing up in the dealers room but it was still fun to browse and I got a 1st edition copy of DwD. GRRM looked tired, but he and Donachie were very gracious at the signing.

So I am interested in what I missed as far as the interview session with GRRM on Saturday and his reading on Sunday. Can someone fill us in?

The reading was from the upcoming World of Ice and Fire book about Aegon's Conquest. It was the same (or similar) excerpt as what was read at Bubonicon last week.

I didn't go to the interview, so someone else can write that up in their con report.

[Angalin]

I went to the first part of GRRM's interview with Mo Ryan, then decided I wasn't interested in how the books had made the moderator (Peter something?) feel and left to get coffee with Regina. To be fair, he might not have been that bad, but we'd just come out of the business meeting and our patience was low. What I did hear was fairly standard GRRM interview answers, nothing really new.

For those who care about Doom movies, they were filming Doom 3 on Navy Pier on Wednesday evening.

Oh! I do have one scoop. I spoke to George briefly on Saturday night (thank you, mouse, for introducing us, and I was glad to get the chance to chat with you briefly earlier :) ) and asked why he'd chosen The Owl Service to represent Alan Garner in THK graphic novel. He said it was because, instead of a magic sword, Garner had used magic dishes.

eta: thanks, MG and Xray! You made me feel so at home, the work was easy. And I'd never have gotten the raffle items off the top of the cabinet on my own.

eta2: and extra thanks to Malt for teaching me how to properly pronounce Brisingamen.

[beniowa]

Anyone else catch the Secret History panel? GRRM chaired this one with some of the greats of SFF: Dozois, Resnick, Haldeman, and Silverberg. They spent a hour and a half telling their favorite stories, often quite ribald, from previous conventions. It was quite hilarious. I couldn't possibly do the stories any justice, but I did see someone recording it so it's possible it may show up on the Net somewhere.