Keycon 23 Report

[crowdog66]

I am back. I am slightly hungover. I am very pleased with how my weekend went.

First, some pictures you should check out, all scans from the program book. Trust me. Seeing them will enhance your appreciation of what I'm about to tell you.

The Hospitality Suite writeups

Friday night programming.

Saturday programming, Part I.

Saturday programming, Part II.

Sunday programming.

The Gaming grid.

You can also find other pics, with more being added to the thread as time goes on, at http://www.keycon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=171

Got those? Good. While you read this, keep in mind the "background noise" that is always present at a science fiction convention. The whole point of the experience is to overwhelm the attendee with sights, sounds, tastes, textures, and things to do. The con committee and the people running the convention suites go out of their way to provide all the diverting, entertaining input they can -- and so do the fans, who come in costume, in makeup, in t-shirts with slogans, in silly hats/horns/wings... In short, it's an extremely saturated environment, an experience heightened by the fact that on the con suite floor in particular, people are usually crowded into the hospitality suites and passing each other constantly in the hallways. The problem at a good con is not finding things to do, but sometimes finding a place to be where things are NOT constantly happening. ;-)

Now, into the strange realm of... Keycon 23!

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KEYCON: FRIDAY, MAY 19TH, 2006

T-shirt of the Day: Life... Death... Birth: Repeat as Necessary
Button of the Day: C>: Reality.sys not found, reboot universe? Y/N

Arrived on the con floor at 5 pm-ish and laid down $50 for my weekend pass -- which turned out to be a darned good investment, as ye shall see. After dropping $2.50 for a cup of coffee in the hotel restaurant (the only money I spent there all weekend due to their outrageously inflated prices) while I looked over the program book, I attended the opening ceremonies, where I got to say "hi" to Robert Sawyer again, who I last saw when we were both guests at a Valleycon about 7 years back. At the opening ceremonies I ran into my friend Heather, who was attending her first science fiction convention; we had a bowl of ice cream (doled out by the con's guests of honor at the Ice Cream Social) before wandering up to the con suite floor to check out what was shaking. Answer: not much; many of the suites weren't even open yet. Back down to the Art Show, then, to check out the art -- only to discover that, in spite of intending to open at 7, by 7:10 they hadn't even gotten any artwork HUNG yet.

Well, there we were to come to the rescue! The Art Show organizer immediately set us to hanging the art of one Theresa Mather, who, bless her heart, had not only attached numbered bid sheets to each piece but also provided us with a numbered guide on how she wanted them hung on the 4'x4' art panels. And a bonus! She included, at the bottom of the box, two lovely bookmarks as gifts for the volunteers who hung her artwork. Since Heather's sister Betty had joined us to help out at this point, we did rock/paper/scissors to determine which of us three would get the bookmarks. I was fortunate enough to win first, and thus got to pick this lovely little piece of artwork:



My work at Art Show done, I left Heather and Betty and strolled around touring con suites, chatting with people I hadn't seen since LAST Keycon, and generally relaxing until 8 pm, when there was supposed to be an "Introduction to Vampire: The Masquerade LARP" panel. (LARP = Live Action Role Playing.) I was interested in joining the local LARP since my own GM, jeffheikkinen, is leaving town to pursue his Masters degree and I'll find myself without an RP in a few month's time. Unfortuantely, the LARP panel just never happened. Only one person showed up: me. That's right. Not even the people supposedly RUNNING the thing made an appearance. *sigh* Back to wandering the convention space, killing time until 9 pm, when the LARP itself was supposed to start in one of the ballrooms.

It turned out to be a bust, both because their gaming schedule would conflict with my Full Moon responsibilities AND because there was someone in the LARP with whom I had a bitter falling-out several years ago. I really didn't want to open up THAT particular can of worms. I received an Observer badge from the Storytellers, wandered around a bit listening to various people RPing (since there are almost 100 people in the LARP, they break up into smaller groups for one-on-one RP), then set off for the Art Show, where the art had at last got hung. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, since my con budget was so limited), I saw nothing in there that I felt irresistibly compelled to put a bid on.

So, back to the con suites, which by now were all up and running. Much good conversation. At the Demon's Lair you could "sell your soul" by writing your name on a piece of flash paper and burning it in a candle, after which you were given a small foam rubber token on a leather cord to wear around your neck as a sign that you had indeed concluded the transaction. Moreover, you could get more tokens by luring inviting other people to come to the suite and sell THEIR souls, at which point you got another token yourself. If you had two or more tokens, you could "issue challenges" to others with two or more tokens, the goal being to win the challenge, take away one of their tokens, and add it to your own string.

Well... of course, as soon as I got my second token, I challenged my friend Kevin. As the challenger, I got to role a big cardboard die with the deadly sins written on its faces; whichever sin came up was the one that I had to work with, crafting an insult which, when delivered to Kevin, was expected to be clever enough to get a roar of approval from the audience of people already in the suite. I got the roar, lol, but lost the second part of the challenge, when Kevin and I each drew a numbered Tarot card from a silk bag. Kevin got the higher number. Dammit! I was down to one token again, but soon convinced another person to sell their soul, thus putting myself back in the game again.

Alas, I got so busy that I never challenged anyone that weekend. However, people kept giving me their tokens, so by the end of the con I had six!

It was shortly after this that my friend Corey came and found me, grabbed me, and dragged me off to meet Lar deSouza, an artist who does some of the most hilarious media-related cartoons I've ever seen. More to the point, he's starting a regular comic book which needs a colorist. Fortunately I'd brought along a couple of samples of my work on Girl Genius and Hardy Boys, which he LOVED, and consequently he wants me to color his new project. Corey invited us both out to dinner on Saturday night. Score! (As a result of the long conversation that resulted from our meeting, which included many references to Harvey Birdman, Freakazoid, and classic cartoons of the '70s, I never DID make it to the Fannish Purity Test panel. Oh, the sacrifices.)

While hanging out in The Unimatrix (the Generations suite), I was also approached by a fellow who regularly runs local comic cons, asking me if George and I would like to appear at one of his shows. Got his business card. We'll have to see about that after the con.

Best Suite for Food on Friday: A toss-up between The Caped Caberet, with their samosa-and-a-softdrink for $2 (beef or veggie), and the Sleeping Dragon, with hot homemade soup for $1.50, 6 big cookies in a baggie for $1.25, and fresh fruit for free. Kudos also to the Poisoned Apple... mmm, hummos!

Temptations Avoided: The Butterbeer at Capes (root beer + caramel sauce = something NOT for the diabetic!).

Temptations Not Avoided: The milk chocolate Easter eggs sitting in large bowls, also in Capes. Hey... I can't be good ALL the time!

Most Interesting Conversation: That long natter between me, Lar, Corey, and a couple of others.

WTF? Moment: Someone from the states who had never heard of samosas -- or perogies!

Cutest Moment: Joey's soft n' fuzzy Cthulu slippers. Awwwwwww!

Loot Brought Home For George: A frozen beef samosa from Caped and a bag of oatmeal-raisin cookies from The Sleeping Dragon.



KEYCON: SATURDAY, MAY 20TH, 2006

T-shirt of the Day: Green Lantern logo, with a green blouse over top
Button(s) of the Day: Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read. and Prooffreading at it's best

Hit the convention floor at 11 am. First stop: the Dealers Room, where I bought The Grand Ettiella Egyptian Gypsies Tarot (yeah, I know, Redundant Department of Redundancy calling...), which I'd actually seen the night before at the LARP (spread out over a table with a bunch of other props for the game). I'd been immediately drawn to it, but also realized that I would probably never find a copy of it. Well, lo and behold...

Also picked up a couple of silver-plated goblets, a large one for myself and a smaller one for a friend. Total spent: $20, which got me 2 tickets in the draw on Sunday for prizes.

Checked out the Art Show again, where more pieces had gone up that morning, but still nothing that struck my fancy at all.

Up to the con suite level, where a stop at the Video Room netted me the first hour of "Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit", as well as a free mousepad AND a Mr. 2 Big chocolate bar gratis, as well as free popcorn. I followed this up with more samosas from Caped and an excellent bowl of beef barley soup from The Sleeping Dragon, letting the increasing flow of costumed characters amuse me as more and more people showed up at the con.

At noon I went back downstairs with a vague idea of catching the Frantic Films special effects demo panel, only to be sidetracked by my friend Candace -- who lined me up with my second big professional connection of the convention, at a booth set up near the gaming area and devoted to a new webcast series, The Dark. It turns out that they're doing a comic tie-in, and I immediately pulled out my samples and did my best to sell them on my skills as a colorist. This met with some success -- business cards were exchanged -- and even more success when, after their panel an hour or so later, I was able to collar their art director and make my pitch to him directly. More business cards changed hands, and he gave me one of the most positive indicators you can get: the instruction to call HIM if he had not called me within a couple of days. Score again!

(Note to self: take Candace and her husband Dave to dinner, as well as Corey, if the contacts they lined me up with pan out.)

After so much hard work, what could I do but relax? Back to pleasant meandering. More con suite wanderings, touching base with people I hadn't seen in years and finding out, to my amusement, that I was included in the Keycon retrospective suite's "blast from the past" presentation (once in a photo in my Doctor Who garb, and again in the form of artwork I'd done for a Keycon poster back in the '80's). More excellent free food from the various suites, including some Turkish Delight when I slipped into the video room to watch the first half of "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe". Thus pleasantly was time killed until the Masquerade.

Ah, the Masquerade! Many pictures to follow. 26 entries, gorgeous handiwork on several of the costumes, and a bellydancing demo at halftime. Who could ask for anything more?

Afterwards, as arranged, got together with Corey, Lar and his wife, a nice fellow named Ed who is the creator of Geek Tragedy, and several other people and went in search of supper. Walked around a four-block radius looking for a restaurant that could accomodate us, only to end up at the Moxies just down the street from the con hotel. Stimulating conversation, much laughter, and excellent food.

Then... well, it's a con. Back to the suites! Peeked in on a screening of "Revenge of the Sith", then picked up a $1.25 dessert of rice crispy squares from The Sleeping Dragon, which I munched on a couch in The Demon's Lair while watching my first ever episodes of "Robot Chicken" and "Drawn Together" (both hi-FUCKING-larious). As I sat there, who should come in but my friend Corey, now spiffed up in his famous Klingon jammies, who bestowed upon me his adorable plushie!Cthulhu hand puppet and left on his tour of dancing and drinking...

... leaving me stuck with the plushie! I do NOT carry stuffed animals around cons. After a couple more episodes of "Drawn Together", when Corey had not returned, I decided to go in search of him, with plushie!Cthulu on my hand. He got many caresses and much squeeing, but no luck finding his daddy, even after a foray into the packed (and loud) post-Masquerade social.

I finally ended up in the Caped Caberet, where I staked out space at a table near the door and tagged people as they came in, asking them to tell Corey that I was looking for him and that plushie!Cthulu missed his daddy. I then spent a bit of time in quiet contemplation/ordering of my new Tarot deck, but eventually had friends join me and launch into the rambling, fascinating conversations that are the raison d'etre of science fiction conventions. Thus four hours passed most pleasantly... I ended up going home at 3 am, very satisfied indeed.

Food Highlights: "Dragon Wings" (chicken wings with hot BBQ sauce) at The Poisoned Apple; "con coffee" (little candied balls of pure coffee, chocolate, and sugar, dusted with icing sugar) at the Caped Caberet; popcorn and fresh fruit (Video Room).

Loot Brought Home For George: A mousepad and a giant chocolate bar, plus two remaining rice crispy squares and a flattened "Wizards of the Coast" box that someone had been passing out for free.



KEYCON: SUNDAY, MAY 21ST, 2006

T-shirt of the Day: Comicraft logo, with a denim shirt over top
Button of the Day: Hail to the Sun God! He is the fun god. Ra! Ra! Ra!

Got to the con at 3 pm -- there was no real programming that I was interested in attending, but I did want to be present for the Dealers Room draw at 3:45 pm. Didn't win anything, dammit, and most of the people who did win were dealers themselves, lol... but I did run into another Laurie there, an old con friend who usually goes by the nickname of "Mom". She's a real Tarot card maven, and remarked that she'd only done one reading all weekend, which just didn't feel right, and that before she and her driver headed back to Fargo at 6 pm she'd really like to do some readings in The Poisoned Apple. I offered to go and stake out a space for her, since she wanted to go to Closing Ceremonies... and ended up doing just that, and holding the space by doing several readings of my own with the deck I'd purchased on Sunday.

WOW. The deck worked amazingly! The interpretation booklet that had come with it was completely whacked, so I tossed its instructions and winged it. Of the 7 readings I did that evening, only 1 was drastically off, which isn't bad considering that I'd previously done maybe 5 readings in my entire life.

I spent 4:30 to 8:30 in The Poisoned Apple (reading a Marion Zimmer Bradley novel when I wasn't doing cards or runes), then packed up and did what I thought was going to be my final wander of the con suite floor. The Dead Dog party was in full swing, and the suites and halls were packed with people. (For those of you who don't know, the Dead Dog happens at almost every science fiction convention. It's what people do after all the "official" convention stuff is done, the panel rooms have closed, and the fans still want to carry on the fun and frivolity of the weekend: go up to the con suite floor and continue the party. Most Dead Dogs end sometime the following morning.) I was about to leave at 9:30 pm -- I had even started saying my final goodbyes -- when I rediscovered the Keycon retrospective room, which, now that the displays were down, was an oasis of light and relative peace in the midst of sometimes loud and hectic partying. I took an armchair therein, sat for a few minutes talking with Joey... aw, hell! Got up and got myself a rum punch from The Short Plank and hung around until after midnight, nursing the drink while catching up with old friends one last time.

Loot Brought Home For George: None this time, though I almost bought a squishy rubber ball with tentacles and a flashing multi-colored light inside it from the Generations suite. Believe me, it looked even weirder than it sounds.

Major Regret For The Weekend: That I didn't make it to any of the RPGs run in The Sleeping Dragon. Dammit, I just had too much to do otherwise!

Most Pleasant Memories: Finding myself in the Keycon Retrospective. Lar deSouza praising my work, apparently sincerely. The tall, slender, fetching young lady in bellydancing garb wandering the con floor on Saturday (who also attracted a great deal of attention from several young men attending a wedding function in the hotel, but that's another story). Saturday night in The Caped Caberet, surrounded by good food, drink, laughter, and the glow of old friendships.

Resolution #1: I reconnected with a lot of people that depression and isolation had cut me off from over the years. I also gave my number/email many times, and received many numbers/email addies in return. KEEP UP THE CONTACT.

Resolution #2: This year's con renewed my faith in fandom. I simply HAVE to go back next year. :-)

And so... goodnight, sweet Keycon 23. May flights of starships sing thee to thy rest.

Comments

[matrixrefugee.livejournal.com]

Eee!! Cthulhu plushie! I bought a mini one at my first con ever.

And oh, how I envy you! But, there again, WorldCon's gonna be hosted in the States next year, so I may be going to that, though I'll get a hotel room and stay for the four days of it. Gives me more chances for more loopy costumes. I might even go to the expense of buying a bleached-blond wig and dressing as a more accurate-looking Flood... and even playing the character, though that might get me in trouble.

[metisbutterfly.livejournal.com]

Did you see my sister Melanie? she is in a comic called "the dark", it was featured in the free press.

[crowdog66.livejournal.com]

Sorry it took so long for me to get back to you on this. :-) Yep, I saw her at "The Dark" panel up on the stage, but did not realize that it was her! It looks like she might be onto a winner, though -- the series sounds fantastic.

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you had tons of fun. *grins* And, eee, Cthulhu slippers!

*snuggles*

Oh, that reminds me, should I see them at Dragon*Con again this year, would you like a plush Anubis, Bastet, or Horus? They're very cute.

[crowdog66.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... how much were they? :-) I'd love a Bastet for myself, and I have a friend who would simply die if she got an Anubis for her birthday...

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

I have no idea. :-) It's not quite been a year since I got mine, but I never remember D*C prices, just that I drop a lot of money.

Also, Anubis is adorable! *cuddles hers*

[dark-puck.livejournal.com]

Eeee! Plush Cthulu!

*stares at the Soul Caliber III tournament and whimpers* I couldn't get into the one at Nekocon... woe is me!

I'm glad you had fun, though. Cons are the best.

[eastpath.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you enjoyed yourself :D

Keycon was never the same for me after what happened... I'd always help Moses out in the Dealers room, but would be forever freaked out and afraid of seeing "him" anywhere, and when I did I'd get knots in my stomach and my heart would go all fast like I was having a panic attack... it wasn't worth it...

Though I do miss several people who hail there yearly :)

[crowdog66.livejournal.com]

*nods* Understandable. I didn't see "him" anywhere this year; mind you, I wasn't really looking. I knew that if I saw him I'd be tempted to confront him/berate him/smack him with whatever heavy object came to hand, and that would probably get me thrown out of the convention...

Missed seeing you this year, though. *hugs*

[eastpath.livejournal.com]

I think "he" had a serious falling out with the crowd awhile back due to some shit he pulled with the girl he'd been dating at the time.. It's way back in my LJ...but I think a lot of people stopped talking to him, so I'm not surprised....

I totally missed seeing you! *GAH* I need to visit :(

[cockatiel-art.livejournal.com]

Friiik... NOW **I** want to go to next year's keycon! Damn it damn it damn it..... I forgot all the reasons why I LOVED it!

**Starts working on some dragon fan art**