Conventions

Essential Books Commentary

~ Cheryl

The post about the 20 Essential Books panel has garnered a fair amount of interest around the blogosphere. In particular Niall Harrison and Karen Burnham have been busy doing data mining.

I’m sure this is all very interesting, and I’ve been guilty of some of it myself, but I can’t help get the feeling that this is missing the point somewhat. That panel was not particularly diverse (and in part I picked it that way). We all know each other quite well, and to some extent we have similar tastes. We would have got a very different result if we had a panel composed of, say, Timmi Duchamp, Dave Truesdale, Jeff VanderMeer, Tempest Bradford and Jerry Pournelle. And that panel would not have produced a definitive list any more than we did.

And yes, even though the panel all knew each other, we don’t all read the same books. Each of my fellow panelists managed to pick at least one book that I hadn’t read. I’m mostly far more interested in those than in middling overlap between our lists.

Shopping

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

Central Denver is lovely. Despite the wide roads and grid layout, it is a proper town center with lots of good restaurants and shops, and excellent pubic transit (there’s a free bus going up and down the 16th Street mall). Tattered Cover, who sponsored the goodie bags for the con, turned out to have a beautiful bookstore – photos to follow. I did also try to photograph Coors Field, but my camera, being a loyal Giants fan, promptly ran out of batteries.

Anyway, there was a further reductions sale in Anne Taylor Loft, and the local store, Cira, whose window I had been salivating over all week, turned out to have things that fitted me. I am poorer, but very happy. Gotta rush now. The airport beckons.

Denvention Post Mortem

~ Cheryl ~ 18 Comments

I’m pleased to be able to report that the general consensus amongst the assembled Old Pharts was that Denvention 3 had dodged a bullet and would be solvent. There are had been considerable worry pre-con, partly because the convention’s finances appeared to be somewhat in disarray, and partly because of an unusually high number of cancellations. However, the convention committee appears to have adopted a fairly prudent policy of “if you don’t know how much money you have, don’t spend any”. At con this resulted in a number of areas appearing to be underfunded (signage being an obvious example). However, it also avoided a potential disaster. There are one or two outstanding issues that I don’t want to speculate on, so I can’t be 100% certain that the con is OK, but right now things are looking good.

One story that does appear to be coming up again and again is lack of communication. Programming and Tech appear to have had an unhappy relationship, and lots of things appear to have fallen through the cracks. The Old Pharts party almost didn’t happen, and even so the room number printed on the invitations was incorrect. I might never have got to the party had I not run into Geri Sullivan pushing a cart load of food and wine on my way there. Another example is specialty ribbons. There were apparently ribbons saying “Past Hugo winner”. Some people got them in their program packs, others (including me) didn’t. Mike Glyer got his from program ops, but their office wasn’t where the pocket program said it should be (in the convention center) and was in the Sheraton, so I never had time to go there. Similar problems happened with things like the “Past Worldcon Chair” ribbon.

Another issue that people have been talking about is the low attendance – generally estimated at around 3,500, or half the number of people who attended this year’s Finncon. Most of the suggestions as to why this happened have centered around the poor state of the economy, and/or laziness/incompetence on behalf of the convention committee. However, this evening I spoke to a local Colorado fan who had a very different explanation. He noted that most American Worldcons take place in cities with huge local populations. For cities like Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles there are thousands of fans who live within a couple of hours driving distance of the convention. Denver is a smaller and more isolated city, so the proportion of locals to traveling fans has probably been much lower. And the poor state of the US economy will be a much bigger problem for traveling fans than for locals.

When I get time I shall read around reactions in the blogosphere and write up a full con report. Tomorrow, however, I get to go shopping in Denver, and fly home to California.

Last Dangerous Party

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

Having had a bowl of chili in the hotel restaurant I am now starting to feel a little better. I have also remembered that, thanks to Kevin, I have an invitation to what is known as the Old Pharts Party (or more formerly the Former Worldcon Chairs Party). This is an ideal case to gauge SMOFish reaction to the convention, so I’m off to talk to people.

Neat Gift

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

It is traditional for the forthcoming Worldcon to not only host a party for the Hugo nominees after the ceremony, but also to give each of them a gift. The party is generally a bust, being massively overcrowded. This year was no exception. But this year’s gift was very good indeed. It is a combination pen and USB stick. The drive capacity is a useful 970 Mb. And of course the pen has “2008 Hugo Award Nominee” written on it (or if you prefer “Candidat – Prix Hugo 2008”). This is one nominee gist that I am going to carry everywhere with me and get a lot of use from. Thank you, Anticipation!

Another One Done

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

Well, that’s Worldcon over for another year. The mimeo demo appeared to go very well. It didn’t draw a huge audience, but there were several people there who had not used mimeo duplicators before and they all seemed very interested. The most significant point that came out of the demo is that mimeo really is a technology. You can’t buy the machines any more, but even if you could you can’t buy stencils, the right sort of paper, the ink or even corflu. In ten years time doing such a demonstration may be impossible because the supplies being saved by fans of mimeo will have run out.

Hopefully I was fairly entertaining during the demo, but once the program slot had ended and we were just into running pages I’m afraid I opted out. I went back to my hotel room and slept for a couple of hours. I still have a headache. Right now I need food. After that I will decide whether I can make it to parties, or whether I should do something with the huge amount of audio and video footage that I have collected during the past week.

Bleagh

~ Cheryl

I woke up with a screaming headache today. I don’t think it can have been the booze – I stayed dry last night until after all the Hugo stuff was finished, and then only had one glass of wine and a margarita. I’m pretty sure it is a reaction to 2 hours squinting at a computer screen in a dark auditorium. Still, can’t complain, don’t have time, Golden Ducks to cover. And the mimeo demo to do.

The Numbers

~ Cheryl

Denvention3 has posted the full breakdowns of nominations and the final ballot here. I’m going to sleep now. The Golden Ducks ceremony starts at 10:00am. Whose daft idea was that?

A Quick Post on Positions

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

The con newsletter lists the nominees in the order in which they finished. A few highlights:

  • John Scalzi was second in Best Novel
  • The Arrival finished last – I’m very disappointed by that
  • Paul Cornell’s Doctor Who episode was second
  • John Picacio was second
  • And I finished third behind Scalzi and Dave Langford

An Essential Book

~ Cheryl ~ 6 Comments

I’ve just finished the panel on “20 Essential Books of the Last Twenty Years”, with Charles Brown, Gary K Wolfe, Graham Sleight and Karen Burnham. The panel went very well and I will be posting everyone’s lists on this site soon (probably next week). However, I did want to note the fact that only one book appeared on the lists of all five panelists. That book was River of Gods by Ian McDonald. It is a fabulous book, and I heartily recommend it.

Access Update

~ Cheryl

It’s patchy. I’m OK now. The room where the Business Meeting was didn’t work too well so I had to go outside to post. In the Fanzine Lounge the connection dropped completely, but that my have been due to the baleful presence of Chris Garcia, who I am sure broadcasts his own radio signals. I need to check ut the main auditorium.

Update: I am sat in the front row of the main auditorium. This looks very good indeed. Check back around 7:30pm Denver time. I think we may be live.

Zagreb Returns

~ Cheryl ~ 4 Comments

A group of fans from Zagreb has turned up in Denver and announced a Worldcon bid for 2013. I will try to track them down for a podcast later. The Texans, who were planning a 2013 bid, look worried.

Update: I’ve just been checking distances, and Zagreb appears to be about 1400 km from Amsterdam, so if they do win it should not rule out a UK or Netherlands bid for 2015.

Australia Wins By A Cricket Score

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

It should be no surprise that Australia has won the site selection for 2010. They were unopposed, more or less, although the friendly aliens from XERPS did put up a great fight. The Australian Guests of Honor are as follows:

  • Kim Stanley Robinson
  • Robin Johnson
  • Shaun Tan

Slightly More Awake

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

So yes, the masquerade was great fun, even though I didn’t see much of it. I was backstage looking after a grizzy bear, a woman with huge wings, and the Great Beast of Aaargh. I think I am starting to specialize in mad costumes. Remember the llama from LA? The only totally crazy thing I missed out on this time was the velociraptors.

I have taken a bunch of pictures, and several videos of people talking about how their costumes were put together. I need time to process them, but I think they’ll be worth waiting for, especially the one about the bear.

The show appeared to go very well, aside from the usual problem of the management forgetting to think about getting competitors on stage quickly at the end to get their prizes. And everyone was happy except the very small number of competitors that the judges elected not to give prizes to. (I have ranted about this before.) I was exhausted, and fell into the Hyatt where I devoured a plate of nachos and met a man who destroys planets (or at least was part of the process that led to Pluto no longer being a planet).

Today we get to learn who Australia has chosen as their Guests of Honor, I moderate a panel, and we do the Hugos. After that, sleep.