Do I contradict myself?

It turns out that there's no Music AH for Worldcon 75.

I mean, on one level, I'm not shedding any tears over screwups with the convention after they booted me (and the way it was done). But on the other hand, my friends are going to miss out on a lot of the activity they enjoy at the convention because there's nobody put it together.

Complicated feelings.

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I just wrote a check, filled out a ballot, and sent in my vote for the 2019 Worldcon site selection. On one level it's good. I mean, I'm a Friend of the Dublin in 2019 bid, and they're the only bid so they're likely to win. I'm hoping that'll mean I just have a membership when they win.

But...

I'm doing this by mail. I'm not going to be in Helsinki to cast my ballot in person.

Blah.

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So the other thing I did today was finish the last of the Novelettes for the Hugo Awards and noticed something sad. The Puppy-driven Chuck Tingle parody, "Alien Stripper Bones From Behind by the T-Rex" by "Stix Hiscock" (a non de plume for someone, no idea who) was significantly better-written and easier to read than John C. Wright's "An Unimaginable Light"

Wright is, in theory, a real writer. His story was terribly written, though. Not worthy of a Hugo, not even worthy of being in your average junior high school literary magazine.

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Because Vox Day and his miserable crew of people have glommed onto my disagreement with Worldcon 75 I have made my DW/LJ posts mentioning any other party private. I've done likewise with my FB posts and deleted the tweets.

VD, GamerGaters, MRAs, Rabid Puppies: I despise you. I despise everything you stand for and everything you do. I will not allow you to use anything that I've written or talked about or said in furtherance of your abusive agenda.

Fuck you all and the horse you rode in on.

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As of today, 05 October 2016, I am no longer involved with Worldcon 75. Expect a long and angry post about this later.

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Today was the first brainstorming session for the program team for Worldcon 75, coming up next year in Helsinki!

I'm SO looking forward to this! We had a lot of good ideas going back and forth, and this was only a two hour session.

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I had a fantastic time at MidAmericon 2 in Kansas City, about which I shall write more later.

But for now, time to play catch-up, go through work emails, and try and stay awake during the day.

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Greetings all!

We're still two weeks out from MidAmericon II in Kansas City, but it's not too early to start thinking about the music programme at Worldcon 75 in Helsinki next year. Yours Truly will be coordinating it, but I'm looking to make this international (and heavily European, if possible).

So, if you think you'll be coming to Worldcon 75 and you'd be interested in taking part in the music programme, please shoot me an email with your name just so I can start building a list. Programme ideas are also welcome!

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MidAmericon 2, the 74th World Science Fiction Convention</a> has released the Hugo Awards finalists.

Remember, you need to be a member of the convention to vote!

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There was a Worldcon and there was a First Night and that was what I was in charge of.

I was pretty sure that I wanted it to be outside in Spokane's Riverfront Park and once I saw it at the All-Hands meeting in May I was sure of it. I also wanted it to be fun for everyone but my idea of fun isn't necessarily other people's idea. What I did start with asking the bids for 2018 to take part in it. Megan (my second) and Jill (my DH) also suggested that we get the bids for 2018, 2019, 2020 and MidAmericon to take part as well. A Spokane local put us in contact with the local SCA. The people at Visit Spokane and the park employees worked with us to get it all together; they arranged for food vendors and a beer garden from No-Li. MCFI arranged for FREE ICE CREAM. There was music and art set up.

I walked through the park in the morning and they were hard at work setting up tables and a canopy for performances. And ALSO I ran into Tim Griffin who agreed to fill in for our missing band (long story). Score!

At 3pm, I was at the park, where things were mostly all set up. At 3:30 pm, I went to get the signs for First Night, to discover that they had not, in fact, been delivered to the convention and our sign shop was trying to get them made. At 3:45pm, the bids hadn't yet shown up for setup (other than the SCA people and a couple of people from the DC in 17 bid). And by 4pm...everything was set up and ready to go. People from the convention came across the bridge and into the park and they had a good time. We had music and fun from Tom Smith and Phil Foglio. We had pictionary. We had Tim Griffin.

Activity-wise, all the bids and tables were great. Many, many thanks to the DC in 17,Helsinki in 2017, Montreal in 2017, Nippon 2017, New Orleans in 2018, San Jose in 2018, Dublin in 2019, and New Zealand in 2020 bids. And also to MidAmericon, JOF, the Medievalists, Choose Your Own Apocalypse, MCFI, Chidren's Programming. All of them are the reason that First Night was such a success.

Sure, there were some glitches, but mostly, I'm pleased at how it came out. What about you? Where you there? If so, did you like it? Were there things I could have done better? Things that didn't work for you? Things that really DID work for you? Let me know!

FIAWOL!

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OK, First Night at Sasquan plans are pretty much complete. It'll be a public event in Spokane's beautiful Riverfront Park. We've got all of the current bids for 2017 and 2018 taking part with fun activities, along with 2019 and 2020. A local medievalist group will be doing fighting demos. Site Selection will have an activity. Midamericon II, the next Worldcon after Sasquan, will have an activity. There'll be music, fun, a beer garden, food vendors, and ICE CREAM!

I hope some of you at least can join us. It's going to be so much fun!

And then I get to go to the parties and drink far too much to forget that I volunteered to run this.

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I'm sitting in Spokane International Airport, on my way back from the Sasquan All-Hands meeting; the last big meeting before the convention itself. I felt it was important to come, even though it's just a short visit, because I'm the Area Head for our First Night and I really, REALLY wanted to see Riverfront Park. That's where our First Night celebration, our "welcome to Worldcon and welcome to Spokane" party, is going to be.

I *love* the park. It's a great location, just a short way across footbridge from the Convention Center. There's plenty of trees for shade. Lots of wide, paved paths to get around, and most of our grassy spaces are easily handled by even a small mobility scooter (yes, we checked for accessibility -- we want this to be as inclusive and accessible as possible). The people with the park and Visit Spokane have been working with us and I think that it's going to be a lot of fun.

Now, a few things I noticed about Spokane itself. This is my first visit to the city (indeed, to the state of Washington) and I think it'll be a great venue for Worldcon. The downtown core is very compact, easily walkable for those who walk (and cutouts in most curbs for those on scooters; it's not perfect but it's very doable). The main party hotel is a bit of a trek from the Convention Center but probably not any worse than it was in Montreal, and I think there's less traffic in Spokane.

The people are ALL friendly and cheerful; I was REALLY impressed with how the staff of the Red Lion a the Park took the time to repair my friend Nolly's scooter when it stopped working (and she wasn't even staying there). Hotel staff, restaurant staff, random passers-by...everyone was genuinely very nice. The people who work in the park, the staff from Visit Spokane, even the TSA coming into the airport was cheerful and friendly and smiling. (I'd say that the TSA staff were welcoming, but I'm leaving).

Foodwise, the city has a lot to offer, and by New York standards I think it's really very inexpensive. A pint of good local beer in a hotel bar costs $5 (sorry UK fen, it's a US sized pint, so it'll look small to you). Certainly back in NY I couldn't touch at that price, even in a regular bar. There's a decently diverse restaurant scene with a nice wide range of prices. There's some GREAT local wines that I'm looking forward to sampling more of.

If, like me, you're a runner, you're going to love Spokane. There's a great trail right along the river that's wide and flat and connects with the trails in Riverfront Park as well. I'm half-toying with having a Sasquan Unofficial 5K. It looks great for walking and biking, too.

I'm getting really excited about Sasquan. I think First Night is going to be a blast and that Spokane is gonna be a great town for Worldcon.

I'm excited about it!

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For those who don't already know, I'm supporting Helsinki bid for the 2017 Worldcon. The race was pretty close last time, and I think we'll have a good chance this time. There are a few reasons that I'm supporting the bid, but I'd like to address something that seemed to be a concern in the last round, and that's the question of language. Now, I've been to Helsinki for two layovers on either side of a trip to Vienna, which isn't a LOT of time but was enough for a few impressions. This is, I think, the most important one.

Almost everyone in Helsinki spoke excellent English. This was a concern for me, because while I can get by in French and German, I speak no Finnish. As it turns out, this isn't problem because nobody other than the Finns speak Finnish. The beggar in the street I gave a euro to asked me for more...in English. The guy selling reindeer horn pendants and bracelets asked me, in English, about the weather in upstate New York (nice guy, by the way, and I'll buy more from him if/when Helsinki wins the bid!). The woman at the bookstore who sold me a copy of The Little Prince in Finnish for my collection spoke excellent English. The kid at the train station who worked in the coffee shop (see below) spoke excellent English. The bartenders and hotels and even the street food vendors? All English. The one place I found where I had to speak English slowly was a tiny out-of-the-way pizza place run by middle-eastern immigrants at 2 or 3 in the morning (what can I say? I was hungry!).

In general, you'll really only need two words of Finnish in Helsinki, "hei" ("Hi!") and "kiitos" ("Thanks!") and even those are just social niceties; if you say "Hi!" and "Thanks!" in English, you won't have a problem.

The Finnish word for Finland is Suomi.

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So, by now you know that I was in Texas for a chunk of time so that I could go to LoneStarCon 3. I also went early so I could play tourist and finally get to hang out with B (WINODW). And, being me, I took pictures.

Not quite so many pictures at the con as I normally would have, since I was working, but still, lots of pictures.

They're all on Flickr, of course, broken out into sets for each day

Day 1, including going B taking me shooting!
Day 2, where I took a bike ride to the San Antonio Missions.
Day 3 in which (among other things) I discovered the beergarita!
Day 4. 'Twas the night before Worldcon
Day 5. Worldcon!
Day 6. More Worldcon, including live-action Angry Birds!
Day 7. Worldcon continues! Yes, that's a bathtub full of lime jello melted ice cream
Day 8. Still more Worldcon, with a side trip to the bar at the Menger Hotel, where Teddy Roosevelt recruited the Rough Riders. Oh, and also the Hugos.




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And lo, I have returned, at long last, from Sunny Southern California. I have been away from anything resembling an internet connection since I left for Worldcon (the con had limited free terminals set up, but the queue was always far too long when I wandered by and I did NOT want to pay the hotel's outrageous $10 a day when I wasn't really going to be using it for much, so...

As was said else-LJ, Bankrupt My Pants!

I am Officially Packed for Worldcon. Checked luggage all ready to go, guitar in the case, filkbooks that I'm bringing in the carryon (mostly UK and German ones for the International Filk circle)
( My current programming schedule, which still may be wrongCollapse )

I have returned from two too-short weeks at Worldcon and in London.

I am making no attempt to catch up on my friendslist.

If there's something you want me to see, either email me via LJ or leave a comment here, please.

There are many things that happiness is. In those many things is NOT gathering papers for a trip across the Pond to Interthingy and realizing that you can't find your passport.

My flat is now a wreck, as I've moved papers and stuff looking for it (all while packing for this weekend's camping trip). And there it was, right where I didn't see it the first time, in the folder where it's supposed to be.