Friday, April 17, 1998
My honey & I
Julie's NorWesCon
(Northwest Science Fiction Convention)
Report
The convention ran from from Thursday, April 9 to Sunday, April 12. This was Norwescon 21, and it seems that as the years go by there are more and more panels included in the programming.
Thursday...
Thursday nights used to be pretty boring, with the only thing worth attending being the opening ceremonies. The opening ceremony panel is actually pretty good to go to because (hopefully) all the guests of honor will be there. As you're going to be spending a weekend amongst these people, it's sometimes a very good thing to know what the guests of honor look like... otherwise during a casual hallway conversation you might find yourself unintentionally telling the author of a book that his or her work really sucks.
This year Thursday night was full of worthwhile-looking panels to attend.
I,
however, was... distracted. Walt and I were busy getting to know each
other at that point. Lookit this guy! Is that a fabulous smile,
or what?
Friday...
Friday morning we got up to check out the registration situation - we learned quickly that the motto of the convention had already been well-established as "Registration Sucks". (Gene wrote a haiku about it, even.) So we couldn't get the art show membership badge (for Walt to use). We tromped upstairs and discovered in the green room that the pro badges weren't ready as well, so my chances to early proclaim myself as a pro and panel participant were dwindling, too.
We learned that the convention was serving a free breakfast downstairs,
so
heck,
we made use of it! They almost wouldn't let us in because we didn't
have badges yet, but after listening to a slightly annoyed explaination the
door guards let us pass. We sat with Mike Citrak and his family, and
at the table next door we spied Steve Gallacci. Steve never remembers
who I am, so I didn't bug him to say hi - I knew that I'd have plenty
of chances later on.
After breakfast we tracked down Gene and got the materials for the art show
so that I could hang them, and then it was off to the first panel. Gene
and I both
participated
on the panel, as well as R'ykandar Korra'ti (whose name I, and apparently
nobody else, can ever pronounce, so he said to just call him 'Dar'). It
was 'Fanzine Publishing, from Beginning to End' or somesuch, and it came
off just fine.
After the panel, Walt and I hung the artwork in the artshow (thank you, hon, for helping!), and I was proud that our artists looked so great up there.
I know other stuff happened on Friday, but right now I don't really recall.
I was pretty absorbed in getting to know Walt.
I
do know that we went to lunch and I took this pic of him. I can't help
but smile when I look at these pictures of Walt, his own smile is so infectious.
Maybe he can help me remember what we did, and I can edit this entry later.
Saturday...
Saturday morning we arose early to attend Steve Barnes' tai chi session. (And Steve, congratulations on your engagement! Very, very happy for you!) I've been going to Steve's sessions for years, and wanted to share him with Walt. Steve's one of my favorite people in the world - he's helped me through a lot of rough times over the years, both through his writings and occasional conversations and correspondence. I didn't get to talk with him this Norwescon at all, but am going to write him a celebratory email very soon to tell him about all the extraordinary growth that I've been enjoying these last few months. Steve is a great teacher; if you're a writer or want to be, you should take a look at the texts from his writing class.
I love doing tai chi... I've never made a habit of it outside of the convention, although I do have Steve's instruction video tape and have used it a few times. (It's excellent, by the way, and I highly recommend it! I don't see it for sale on his website, but if you send him email about it I'm sure he'd be glad to get you a copy. For that matter, I highly recommend all of Steve's materials.) The movements of tai chi flow so wonderfully, and are surprisingly easy for my old, middleaged overweight body to achieve. Every year at the convention I'm amazed at how much I recall from the previous year.
Maybe I'll start using Steve's tape regularly, eh? There's nothing that he loves to see more than people challenging themselves and growing. Perhaps I'm finally to a point where I'm mature enough that I can work on my body more (Steve would say I should be working on all aspects at the same time, but I just wasn't ready for that). We'll see how I do.
Saturday afternoon brought about the
infamous furry panel in which Gene, Edd Vick, and myself participated.
Steve Boyett (author of the much-debated furry novel Architect of
Sleep) and Lorelei Shannon also participated on the panel. Steve's
comments
consisted mostly of "Furry fandom confounds me and you're all immature fen
who insist in writing infantile plots in a stupid genre." Lorelei spent
her time repeatedly and pointedly proclaiming that she was a platonic lover
of animals and that she "didn't fuck skunks."
You see, the actual title of the panel was Furry Furor: Harmless Fun or
Not? It
basically
focused on the parts of furry fandom that enjoys erotica (also known as furotica
or furnography). Gene and I had
submitted
about 30 other possible furry panel topics to the concom, but instead of
all the interesting and balanced ones they could have chosen, they wrote
and chose the above inflamatory one instead. This did Not Make Us Happy.
But it ended up being an okay panel anyhow.
A
lot of interesting discussion did occur, once certain individuals realized
they were
talking
to the wrong crowd about how stupid writing in the furry genre was.
Joining us at the panel was a friend of Walt and mine, Rain Simpson. It
was great to meet him in
person!
Rain is a
furry artist and brought
his sketchpad along. Later on at the party, he drew a wonderful picture of
Frampton and Aislyn (Walt's and mine furry characters on the muck) together.
It's very sweet! I'm hoping he'll scan it for us.
Late Saturday afternoon and then came the Tai-Pan 10th Anniversary Party! I have a lot of digital pics from the party -- I gave them all to Gene for his webpages, so I'm hoping he'll put up a bunch of them.
The party was well attended and fun to hang out at. I was getting kinda tired by then, so I don't remember a lot about what went on. After the party we watched the Masquerade (which is the convention costume competition, not a party) on the television.
I think we went to bed after that.
Sunday...
Boy, was I ever exhausted by this point. We did breakfast, then checked out of the room and got back to the artshow to bid on pieces. The auction began at 1pm and I got to share the fun of excitement of an art auction with Walt! I love attending the auctions and watching the bidding wars, and occasionally bidding on pieces myself. Walt bid and won a Steve Gallacci original, a portrait of Erma. I bid on and won another Gallacci original of an anthropomorphic orca-girl that's now hanging in the living room of my apartment. It's beautiful!
In the artshow...
The Tai-Pan artists included in the show were Gary Fletcher (three of his pieces sold!), Chuck Melville, and David Zawitaj. Between them their art filled up the entire panel - I think next year we might have to get two panels, because there were pieces we weren't able to hang for lack of space.
After the auction we took down all the art out of the artshow and met the rest of the gang in the hotel lobby for dinner.
It was there that Anthony Waters and I finally caught up with each other -- we haven't gotten to talk to each other in a long time, so it gave us an opportunity to chat.
And that was pretty much it. As I think of other details I will edit this entry.
Whew!
Walt was with me for two more days before returning to Michigan. I treasure the time we spent together, and look forward to enjoying more of it in the future...
The answers to the questions I pondered on April 1st will have to come in a later entry. Sorry, this one is long enough already! :)
Listen to the mustn'ts, child
Listen to the don'ts
Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts
Listen to the never haves,
Then listen close to me...
Anything can happen, child
Anything can be.
--Shel Silverstein