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Nearly a month late, but hopefully still good.
(Next time, I'm taking notes.)
The biggest take-aways from this year's Con.TXT were finally following up on adding all the people I swore I would, and learning that I can request small fridges for hotel rooms. Friday afternoon I went to the nearby Whole Foods, got three do-it-yourself salads and some yogurt, and stashed those away for the next few meals and had a much better time than I would have if I'd eaten out for those lunches and dinners. It's definitely something I'll have to keep in mind.
Also, I finally learned panel-hopping is really a no go. It all started with me hopping between the Everyone, Avengers and Slash Through The Ages, and I should have stuck with the former. The latter did get me a short lesson on Roman naming traditions, which was all well and good, but it wasn't as fun as the other one. I'd have had more fun if I'd stuck with one or the other, but going between them didn't do either any favors. Celebrating Femslash was one I took on a whim, stayed with the whole time, and was an absolute blast. Old and modern fandoms, which fandoms offer rich potential alone and which require a crossover from the same general genre because just how many medical examiner shows are out there right now, how rare it is for there to be multiple women to pull together into their own love triangle and the lost opportunities for that. As more women are given voices in media, more possibilities open up, and there are chances for more and more stories.
Lunch had a few minutes at the Video Game Fandoms table in the con suite, which just proves my point about hanging out in there. Most of it was focused on RPGs, and I talked about first-person shooters without any female playable characters almost being preferable to badly-designed ones. Although since then, Expiration Date hit the internet, featuring the absolutely adorable Miss Pauling demonstrating how she can kick anyone's ass. So there's her, now, too.
Not The OTP spent most of its time brainstorming how to find fics, with a good chunk of that devoted to talking about personal author's bookmark pages off the Archive Of Our Own. It turns out you can make collections of the few bright shining fics you've managed to find, and invite people to add to them as well. We talked about what we liked about the pairings, and I mentioned the sort of non-OTP fics - Rodney/Radek instead of John/Rodney, for example - are often a chance to explore fandom from a different angle than usual and avoid getting into ruts. Following that, Slashbabies focused on the wish fulfillment of reproduction and child-rearing and making baby acquisiton so simple and easy they sometimes simply fell from the sky. Between that, and the genuine struggles of non-heterosexual reproduction and child rearing, there's a lot of space for fandom to explore.
This was followed by Fannish Diaspora, some of which I felt was unfairly maligning Tumblr, which doesn't need help maligning itself, really. Fandom is in many more places than it used to be, and it takes a little more work finding everyone, but fandom will always be there to be found. Inverted Tropes focused on a few specific tropes to illustrate its points of the differences between subversions and inversions, and overall it was very nice to once again have the reminder to not play it so straight all the time and shake things up to keep it fresh. Finding new ways to tell old stories was the major theme of the day, and a good topic to end the panels. Dinner was a Whole Foods-based salad, and eaten fairly quickly, the better to get dressed in time for the evening's festivities.
I've never had a better time at the Disco Duck than I did this year. There was more dancing done, more games played, and total lack of self-consciousness that otherwise would have kept me from enjoying myself. bmouse is a wonderful dancer, let me tell you. Having someone there to encourage me to dance let me throw myself into things without thought of how I'd feel the next morning. It turns out I felt wonderful.
Werewolf Torts was both a quick crash course on legal jargon and brainstorming fantasy extrapolation of the concepts introduced. How taxes would be levied against vampires, if the werewolf or the one who infected the werewolf is at fault for property damage, recommendations for media that explores this sort of thing, like the Wolff and Byrd comics or early Anita Blake. Welcome to Night Vale was in the same room, so I stayed put, and at the time I was under incredible stress to not reveal any second anniversary live show spoilers. I had a lovely time just the same, and in mentioning Night Vale's similarities to In Watermelon Sugar realized how unfortunately obscure that particular work is. More people chimed in about the importance of positive and visible representation, as well as the fact that it's a rare crossover fandom for people who are fans of public radio but not cosmic horror. The nature of Night Vale as a podcast making morning commutes and gym workouts pass more pleasantly was unanimously agreed upon. I think it was here that there was a mention of the Fourth Wall getting a window installed: it's there, and intact, but the window can be looked through, and sometimes opened for conversation.
Star Trek was a time to talk about the disappointments of the recent movies, the highlights of Netflix carrying everything, how the actors and actresses know what the hell it is they're doing when it comes to crafting character. There isn't a lot of comedy in Trek, which makes the funny tie-in novels that much more valuable. And it's easy to see when the novels were written out of a genuine love of Trek or science fiction in general, instead of just being done on spec. I mentioned Deep Dish Nine as a thing which happens online, and the name of it got a nice big laugh out of everyone.
I gobbled lunch in the hotel room and headed down for You and I and AU, which started with AU bingo and brought up the subject that sometimes characters not carrying the Idiot Ball is an AU in and of itself. Fandom grabbing AUs and making fandoms out of those was a major topic of conversation. Types of AUs ran off the bingo game, as did when an AU gets jossed or if by its very nature it's exempt from that sort of thing, especially if it's for an open or closed canon. Small Fandom Support was low on energy, comparatively, and I've been to similar panels the last couple of cons and it's all very much the same - keep going, find a way to find your energy again, do what you can, bring people in through judicious pimping. Oh, and make a TV Tropes page, because once it's on TV Tropes everyone's going to know about it.
The Vid Show this year had a sing-a-long vid, and that's all I wanted. There was also almost an entire bottle of Bailey's drunk by me and me alone, and by god I was smashed. But a sober smashed. After the vid show there was Hollyslash Game Night in the main suite, charades and thirty-second cosplay and Taboo, and I did pretty well for myself for not being on an actual team. I wasn't allowed to say "I am Spartacus," so I said, "Everybody shares my name." Similarly, "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die" became, "Greetings. You may call me by...well. My progenitor is now deceased, at your hands - " which was enough for someone to get that one.
I managed to avoid a hangover, though I'm not quite sure how, and watched a bit of Mortal Combat in the main suite, which is the sort of movie best enjoyed with a bunch of fangirls about.
Vorkosigan touched a lot of topics, from the genetic makeup of Athos to Cordelia being a woman of unrestrained ambition and drive to Bujold herself going from being progressive to behind the times by standing still. I skipped the next couple of panels, hopping around and finally learning my lesson before making my way back to my last panel of the day.
Writing Difficult Topics was one of the main panels I'd wanted to attend since the schedule went live. A small panel, nice and intimate, we began by listing subjects we wished people would write about more - visible disabilities, invisible disabilities, gender and sexual identity, race, the parts of life that get ignored in much of social discourse and can't be forgotten. Someone said "educate across, listen down," which is one of the simplest and best pieces of advice for dealing with this sort of thing. It's getting easier to approach these subjects - hi there, cripbigbang - and the calling out of when people get it so wrong to offend everyone involved is a thing I'm glad to see, frankly. As much as it might scare people off from trying their hand at it, it can lead to those willing to make the attempt to pay more attention to what they're doing. It's not hard to find someone to help you out, and quite frankly, there's more information than ever before. Often, there's an FAQ about it already, so you don't need to make someone into your own FAQ page when it's already been done for you. We talked about the need for more joy within the conditions, because for all the day-to-day struggles of maintaining a life in the face of an indifferent and sometimes hostile world, there's still chances for happiness. Medication was something I brought up, and my desire to see as an organic part of someone's life in a fic. Maintaining the reality of one's life, that what you're saying about yourself is true, is something else that we talked about, and what happens when people don't necessarily believe you. It makes it more important to see yourself reflected.
And following that, I took the train back to New York City.
There are more write-ups here, of varying degrees of enthusiasm and depth, so check them out for the full holistic experience.
The biggest take-aways from this year's Con.TXT were finally following up on adding all the people I swore I would, and learning that I can request small fridges for hotel rooms. Friday afternoon I went to the nearby Whole Foods, got three do-it-yourself salads and some yogurt, and stashed those away for the next few meals and had a much better time than I would have if I'd eaten out for those lunches and dinners. It's definitely something I'll have to keep in mind.
Also, I finally learned panel-hopping is really a no go. It all started with me hopping between the Everyone, Avengers and Slash Through The Ages, and I should have stuck with the former. The latter did get me a short lesson on Roman naming traditions, which was all well and good, but it wasn't as fun as the other one. I'd have had more fun if I'd stuck with one or the other, but going between them didn't do either any favors. Celebrating Femslash was one I took on a whim, stayed with the whole time, and was an absolute blast. Old and modern fandoms, which fandoms offer rich potential alone and which require a crossover from the same general genre because just how many medical examiner shows are out there right now, how rare it is for there to be multiple women to pull together into their own love triangle and the lost opportunities for that. As more women are given voices in media, more possibilities open up, and there are chances for more and more stories.
Lunch had a few minutes at the Video Game Fandoms table in the con suite, which just proves my point about hanging out in there. Most of it was focused on RPGs, and I talked about first-person shooters without any female playable characters almost being preferable to badly-designed ones. Although since then, Expiration Date hit the internet, featuring the absolutely adorable Miss Pauling demonstrating how she can kick anyone's ass. So there's her, now, too.
Not The OTP spent most of its time brainstorming how to find fics, with a good chunk of that devoted to talking about personal author's bookmark pages off the Archive Of Our Own. It turns out you can make collections of the few bright shining fics you've managed to find, and invite people to add to them as well. We talked about what we liked about the pairings, and I mentioned the sort of non-OTP fics - Rodney/Radek instead of John/Rodney, for example - are often a chance to explore fandom from a different angle than usual and avoid getting into ruts. Following that, Slashbabies focused on the wish fulfillment of reproduction and child-rearing and making baby acquisiton so simple and easy they sometimes simply fell from the sky. Between that, and the genuine struggles of non-heterosexual reproduction and child rearing, there's a lot of space for fandom to explore.
This was followed by Fannish Diaspora, some of which I felt was unfairly maligning Tumblr, which doesn't need help maligning itself, really. Fandom is in many more places than it used to be, and it takes a little more work finding everyone, but fandom will always be there to be found. Inverted Tropes focused on a few specific tropes to illustrate its points of the differences between subversions and inversions, and overall it was very nice to once again have the reminder to not play it so straight all the time and shake things up to keep it fresh. Finding new ways to tell old stories was the major theme of the day, and a good topic to end the panels. Dinner was a Whole Foods-based salad, and eaten fairly quickly, the better to get dressed in time for the evening's festivities.
I've never had a better time at the Disco Duck than I did this year. There was more dancing done, more games played, and total lack of self-consciousness that otherwise would have kept me from enjoying myself. bmouse is a wonderful dancer, let me tell you. Having someone there to encourage me to dance let me throw myself into things without thought of how I'd feel the next morning. It turns out I felt wonderful.
Werewolf Torts was both a quick crash course on legal jargon and brainstorming fantasy extrapolation of the concepts introduced. How taxes would be levied against vampires, if the werewolf or the one who infected the werewolf is at fault for property damage, recommendations for media that explores this sort of thing, like the Wolff and Byrd comics or early Anita Blake. Welcome to Night Vale was in the same room, so I stayed put, and at the time I was under incredible stress to not reveal any second anniversary live show spoilers. I had a lovely time just the same, and in mentioning Night Vale's similarities to In Watermelon Sugar realized how unfortunately obscure that particular work is. More people chimed in about the importance of positive and visible representation, as well as the fact that it's a rare crossover fandom for people who are fans of public radio but not cosmic horror. The nature of Night Vale as a podcast making morning commutes and gym workouts pass more pleasantly was unanimously agreed upon. I think it was here that there was a mention of the Fourth Wall getting a window installed: it's there, and intact, but the window can be looked through, and sometimes opened for conversation.
Star Trek was a time to talk about the disappointments of the recent movies, the highlights of Netflix carrying everything, how the actors and actresses know what the hell it is they're doing when it comes to crafting character. There isn't a lot of comedy in Trek, which makes the funny tie-in novels that much more valuable. And it's easy to see when the novels were written out of a genuine love of Trek or science fiction in general, instead of just being done on spec. I mentioned Deep Dish Nine as a thing which happens online, and the name of it got a nice big laugh out of everyone.
I gobbled lunch in the hotel room and headed down for You and I and AU, which started with AU bingo and brought up the subject that sometimes characters not carrying the Idiot Ball is an AU in and of itself. Fandom grabbing AUs and making fandoms out of those was a major topic of conversation. Types of AUs ran off the bingo game, as did when an AU gets jossed or if by its very nature it's exempt from that sort of thing, especially if it's for an open or closed canon. Small Fandom Support was low on energy, comparatively, and I've been to similar panels the last couple of cons and it's all very much the same - keep going, find a way to find your energy again, do what you can, bring people in through judicious pimping. Oh, and make a TV Tropes page, because once it's on TV Tropes everyone's going to know about it.
The Vid Show this year had a sing-a-long vid, and that's all I wanted. There was also almost an entire bottle of Bailey's drunk by me and me alone, and by god I was smashed. But a sober smashed. After the vid show there was Hollyslash Game Night in the main suite, charades and thirty-second cosplay and Taboo, and I did pretty well for myself for not being on an actual team. I wasn't allowed to say "I am Spartacus," so I said, "Everybody shares my name." Similarly, "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die" became, "Greetings. You may call me by...well. My progenitor is now deceased, at your hands - " which was enough for someone to get that one.
I managed to avoid a hangover, though I'm not quite sure how, and watched a bit of Mortal Combat in the main suite, which is the sort of movie best enjoyed with a bunch of fangirls about.
Vorkosigan touched a lot of topics, from the genetic makeup of Athos to Cordelia being a woman of unrestrained ambition and drive to Bujold herself going from being progressive to behind the times by standing still. I skipped the next couple of panels, hopping around and finally learning my lesson before making my way back to my last panel of the day.
Writing Difficult Topics was one of the main panels I'd wanted to attend since the schedule went live. A small panel, nice and intimate, we began by listing subjects we wished people would write about more - visible disabilities, invisible disabilities, gender and sexual identity, race, the parts of life that get ignored in much of social discourse and can't be forgotten. Someone said "educate across, listen down," which is one of the simplest and best pieces of advice for dealing with this sort of thing. It's getting easier to approach these subjects - hi there, cripbigbang - and the calling out of when people get it so wrong to offend everyone involved is a thing I'm glad to see, frankly. As much as it might scare people off from trying their hand at it, it can lead to those willing to make the attempt to pay more attention to what they're doing. It's not hard to find someone to help you out, and quite frankly, there's more information than ever before. Often, there's an FAQ about it already, so you don't need to make someone into your own FAQ page when it's already been done for you. We talked about the need for more joy within the conditions, because for all the day-to-day struggles of maintaining a life in the face of an indifferent and sometimes hostile world, there's still chances for happiness. Medication was something I brought up, and my desire to see as an organic part of someone's life in a fic. Maintaining the reality of one's life, that what you're saying about yourself is true, is something else that we talked about, and what happens when people don't necessarily believe you. It makes it more important to see yourself reflected.
And following that, I took the train back to New York City.
There are more write-ups here, of varying degrees of enthusiasm and depth, so check them out for the full holistic experience.
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