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orbital 2008
Mar. 26th, 2008 12:41 pmSelf is returned from Eastercon where I got to spend lots o time awith ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
alicamel and jekesta and girlofprey. Am now more than a bit tired but got bored of Sleeping Forever so am awake instead. This is about Eastercon, aka Orbital 2008:
Possibly my very favourite thing was that I arrived home healthy and wholly uninfected by con-flu or any other of the other nasty viruses that tend to lurk in the corridors of a hotel packed with fen from all over the world. I've not even got jetlag. It's brilliant. I may never go to an American convention ever again. Except that I will. But never mind. The important thing is health, which I have and that is shiny indeed.
Almost as important is the awesome that was the Dealer's Room. I was v v good and only got as many books as my suitcase could hold. Almost exactly in fact. It was an accident, admittedly, but the fact remains, they all fitted. And there were halfprice books on the last day and so I experienced the giddy delight of purchasing no less than four Frank Herbert novels for the grand total of four quid. Two were beautiful hardbacks and three I've never read before. Also bought was some China Meuville who was at the con and sounded utterly fabulous indeed. They have lovely covers too and if there's one thing I'm very much in favour of, it's judging a book by its cover.
As indeed was this artist chap who I was talking to in the Art Auction. I won one of the arts and then he said "ta much" and I discovered that twas the artist of my shiny new picture that was sitting next to me. Tis a very lovely picture indeed that reminds me of all the good things in Asimov and was originally intended as a book cover, but somehow, madly, some other thing was eventually used.
I had panels. Which were terrifying. The first one was, at any rate. It'd been forever since I'd done any sort of public speaking. I used to like it - clearly I was mad at the time. It wasn't too bad. The audience was marvellous and had lots of things to say and I always prefer panels where there's that atmosphere that anyone in the room is quite welcome to join in the discussion. Twas something to do with religious analogy or symbolism or something in Whoness. Mostly there was some mentioning of Egyptian mythology which sounded terribly interesting but everything I know about it I fear comes from bloody Stargate, so I want to find out more now, yes. And something about Daleks, goodness knows what. Most of the audience thought DS9 was the best Trek though. Well done them.
The second one was late at night and I was much too tired to be bothered with things like Terror and Nerves and I do remember it being awfully fun even if we did not stick precisely to the topic... I think we justified this via this sort of reasoning: "Given that all companions are heroes in one way or another, who wore the best clothes while saving the world?" There was also a vote on whether Martha or Zoe had the best arse. Zoe won, but since we have not seen Martha in a shiny catsuit, it is really not fair.
But there were some Proper Bits too. Like Steven getting applauded for being the only companion ever asked to carry a four part story all by himself, while the Doctor disappeared for the whole thing, and do it incredibly well and The Massacre's great anyway. And I had a wee rant about how great Polly was but all everyone ever remembered was that bloody clip they always play where she offered to make the coffee (cause, heh, unlike Jamie and Ben, she was actually helping out) and there were yays of agreement which was Most Awesome. Paul Cornell threatened to text RTD for some reason... it might have been to get Freema in the catsuit. I can't remember. I do remember him asking of our audience, "Who'd put their hand up Zoe?"
For whatever reason there was a vote between Ace and Steven and teh Babs and Martha at the end. Martha won. Probably because we discovered, courtesy of Paul, that when she walked off in TW, she was not heading towards the bus stop or train station but towards the Cardiff branch of Forbidden Planet like the geek that she is. He did very good speakings on the awesome of Martha; it was great. There is something more than a bit squeefully yaysome about hearing Paul Cornell say "bones of the hand" whilst he's off on a tear about how great Martha is. And it was v nice getting to talk to Paul whilst I was not suffering from that horrible bug that was going around Gallifrey, and he is a fellow of infinite good cheer and awfully funny and v good in panels, yes.
Am still quite tired and am sure there were many other great things, but the very best panel was a lecture from the Director of Science of the European Space Agency. Mostly because he revealed that while in the midst of a crisis and he had to stay calm and keep his staff calm, he pretends that he's in the middle of a comic book and is, in fact, Dan Dare. "'What would Dan Dare do?' I ask myself." And that is how the Mars Express did not go boom. Also, he was dead judgey at chemistry and biology cause they are not Proper Science, unlike physics which was totally useful from the instant that the universe began and probably maybe before, somehow.
I now require more coffee as I'm having the overwhelming desire to fall asleep on my keyboard and there is no way that can possibly end well. Hope y'all had a fantastic weekend!
alicamel and jekesta and girlofprey. Am now more than a bit tired but got bored of Sleeping Forever so am awake instead. This is about Eastercon, aka Orbital 2008:Possibly my very favourite thing was that I arrived home healthy and wholly uninfected by con-flu or any other of the other nasty viruses that tend to lurk in the corridors of a hotel packed with fen from all over the world. I've not even got jetlag. It's brilliant. I may never go to an American convention ever again. Except that I will. But never mind. The important thing is health, which I have and that is shiny indeed.
Almost as important is the awesome that was the Dealer's Room. I was v v good and only got as many books as my suitcase could hold. Almost exactly in fact. It was an accident, admittedly, but the fact remains, they all fitted. And there were halfprice books on the last day and so I experienced the giddy delight of purchasing no less than four Frank Herbert novels for the grand total of four quid. Two were beautiful hardbacks and three I've never read before. Also bought was some China Meuville who was at the con and sounded utterly fabulous indeed. They have lovely covers too and if there's one thing I'm very much in favour of, it's judging a book by its cover.
As indeed was this artist chap who I was talking to in the Art Auction. I won one of the arts and then he said "ta much" and I discovered that twas the artist of my shiny new picture that was sitting next to me. Tis a very lovely picture indeed that reminds me of all the good things in Asimov and was originally intended as a book cover, but somehow, madly, some other thing was eventually used.
I had panels. Which were terrifying. The first one was, at any rate. It'd been forever since I'd done any sort of public speaking. I used to like it - clearly I was mad at the time. It wasn't too bad. The audience was marvellous and had lots of things to say and I always prefer panels where there's that atmosphere that anyone in the room is quite welcome to join in the discussion. Twas something to do with religious analogy or symbolism or something in Whoness. Mostly there was some mentioning of Egyptian mythology which sounded terribly interesting but everything I know about it I fear comes from bloody Stargate, so I want to find out more now, yes. And something about Daleks, goodness knows what. Most of the audience thought DS9 was the best Trek though. Well done them.
The second one was late at night and I was much too tired to be bothered with things like Terror and Nerves and I do remember it being awfully fun even if we did not stick precisely to the topic... I think we justified this via this sort of reasoning: "Given that all companions are heroes in one way or another, who wore the best clothes while saving the world?" There was also a vote on whether Martha or Zoe had the best arse. Zoe won, but since we have not seen Martha in a shiny catsuit, it is really not fair.
But there were some Proper Bits too. Like Steven getting applauded for being the only companion ever asked to carry a four part story all by himself, while the Doctor disappeared for the whole thing, and do it incredibly well and The Massacre's great anyway. And I had a wee rant about how great Polly was but all everyone ever remembered was that bloody clip they always play where she offered to make the coffee (cause, heh, unlike Jamie and Ben, she was actually helping out) and there were yays of agreement which was Most Awesome. Paul Cornell threatened to text RTD for some reason... it might have been to get Freema in the catsuit. I can't remember. I do remember him asking of our audience, "Who'd put their hand up Zoe?"
For whatever reason there was a vote between Ace and Steven and teh Babs and Martha at the end. Martha won. Probably because we discovered, courtesy of Paul, that when she walked off in TW, she was not heading towards the bus stop or train station but towards the Cardiff branch of Forbidden Planet like the geek that she is. He did very good speakings on the awesome of Martha; it was great. There is something more than a bit squeefully yaysome about hearing Paul Cornell say "bones of the hand" whilst he's off on a tear about how great Martha is. And it was v nice getting to talk to Paul whilst I was not suffering from that horrible bug that was going around Gallifrey, and he is a fellow of infinite good cheer and awfully funny and v good in panels, yes.
Am still quite tired and am sure there were many other great things, but the very best panel was a lecture from the Director of Science of the European Space Agency. Mostly because he revealed that while in the midst of a crisis and he had to stay calm and keep his staff calm, he pretends that he's in the middle of a comic book and is, in fact, Dan Dare. "'What would Dan Dare do?' I ask myself." And that is how the Mars Express did not go boom. Also, he was dead judgey at chemistry and biology cause they are not Proper Science, unlike physics which was totally useful from the instant that the universe began and probably maybe before, somehow.
I now require more coffee as I'm having the overwhelming desire to fall asleep on my keyboard and there is no way that can possibly end well. Hope y'all had a fantastic weekend!
