Conventional weekend
May. 30th, 2006 03:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mikeknI had a nice relaxing weekend down at Balticon. Didn't do as much as I thought I might, but didn't really miss out on anything I was looking forward to. I've deleted most of my emails and skimmed through all of LJ (poke me if I missed something important)
We took our time getting down there on Friday and arrived after the opening ceremonies. We ran into![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
notshakespeare almost immediately and chatted with him for awhile. Together we checked out the con suite (which was set up in one of the hotels restaurants). We were on our way to visit the game room when he got drawn further into the web of Lorraine a' Malena...
violet_amy and I continued on and ended up playing a game of Carcassonne The City until well after midnight.
We slept in some on Saturday, missed the collaboration panel while we ventured out to find some breakfast. We failed to find a Waffle house, but ended up at a Pennsylvania Dutch market place where we enjoyed a hearty breakfast and some shopping. After breakfast, I caught the end of the art guest of honor presentation, followed by the Neil Gaiman and Peter Beagle panel. Towards the end of the panel we snuck out to get in line for their book signing. When we got there the line was pretty short (we were in the first 20 people), but over the next half hour or so it grew very quickly.
I get stuffed signed for two reasons. The first is as a souvenir of meeting the author or musician, the second is usually to show them something odd from their past that I've found. In Neil's case, I had him sign my copy of "American Gods" because it is my favorite of his recent books, and I had him sign a copy of "Ghastly Beyond Belief" because I suspected he doesn't see them very often anymore (and I was correct too - he signed it with a comment about it being one from the vaults). For Peter Beagle, I only had my old book club compilation "The Fantasy Worlds of Peter Beagle" (but at least I had something! Poor guy got to sit there while Neil's hoards of fans brought book after book past him)
After the signings we cruised the dealers room until they closed and then went out for dinner at An Poitin Stil withnotshakespeare and a few of his friends. Sadly, they were out of the poitin (poteen) that day, but the food was good and filling.
Saturday evening ended with the costume masquerade - which got a late start but had some really cool costumes. After that was an auction to benefit RIF, but nothing really caught my eye.
The next day was another late start. I missed the Neil Gaiman and Gene Wolfe panel, but was able to grab a quick lunch at the hotel and catch the Have Browncoat, Will Travel performance. It was a fan play set sort of after Serenity (but with all the characters brought back). It had some good lines and some neat ideas, but mostly it was, well, a fan play.
After that was Neil Gaiman's guest of honor presentation, during which he read three short stories - all really good. I especially liked the one called "Orange" which was written as if it were the responses to a series of questions. Cool idea, and very nicely executed.
From there it was a signing for Gene Wolfe and Lisa Snellings-Clark (art GoH) followed by more hunting around in the dealer's room, then off to dinner. After dinner we got great seats for the Lorraine a' Malena (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
lorraineamalena) concert. There was some concern because we knew Malena was fighting a cold and at risk of losing her voice but notshakespeare, our inside man, said she was doing better and that the show would go on. The concert was a lot of fun, and I took several pictures (which I should really look at to see if they are any good).
After the show we hung out with withnotshakespeare and hughcasey while the Lorraine and Malena signed autographs. We then got invited to a party that was being thrown for them in the green room. Very cool :) Neil was there briefly, Lisa also attended for a while. Lorraine and Paul (her other musical partner) played some great tunes. I got to try a few weird fruit wines from a winery in Florida (but avoided the tomato and pepper one). Good time.
Monday morning we grab a quick bite to eat at the con suite and then caught the last of the trailers and previews they were showing. We stayed in the room for Neil Gaiman's introduction to Mirrormask, and the first half of the movie. After that we went to a panel on art and depression which was pretty interesting.
We left the con shortly after that, got a late breakfast at a Waffle House on the way home, and only got stuck in traffic as we approached Delaware. We were home to late to take advantage of Emma's invite to come game, so instead we went out to dinner withdame_margarete and finnfinnegan (and picked up the archery and gaming stuff that was used at Alles Faire).
We ran intokathy_the_geek, vonbryan, and snugglyevil at various times during the weekend but didn't get to hang out with them much. Bryan's voice (due to illness) was very impressive.
I was very good when it came to shopping this weekend - so I've got a much shorter loot list then I've had from some cons.
Da Loot:
5 books
2 new CDs
2 dice
1 game
1 t-shirt
plus I got 6 books and 4 CDs signed
We took our time getting down there on Friday and arrived after the opening ceremonies. We ran into
notshakespeare almost immediately and chatted with him for awhile. Together we checked out the con suite (which was set up in one of the hotels restaurants). We were on our way to visit the game room when he got drawn further into the web of Lorraine a' Malena...violet_amy and I continued on and ended up playing a game of Carcassonne The City until well after midnight.We slept in some on Saturday, missed the collaboration panel while we ventured out to find some breakfast. We failed to find a Waffle house, but ended up at a Pennsylvania Dutch market place where we enjoyed a hearty breakfast and some shopping. After breakfast, I caught the end of the art guest of honor presentation, followed by the Neil Gaiman and Peter Beagle panel. Towards the end of the panel we snuck out to get in line for their book signing. When we got there the line was pretty short (we were in the first 20 people), but over the next half hour or so it grew very quickly.
I get stuffed signed for two reasons. The first is as a souvenir of meeting the author or musician, the second is usually to show them something odd from their past that I've found. In Neil's case, I had him sign my copy of "American Gods" because it is my favorite of his recent books, and I had him sign a copy of "Ghastly Beyond Belief" because I suspected he doesn't see them very often anymore (and I was correct too - he signed it with a comment about it being one from the vaults). For Peter Beagle, I only had my old book club compilation "The Fantasy Worlds of Peter Beagle" (but at least I had something! Poor guy got to sit there while Neil's hoards of fans brought book after book past him)
After the signings we cruised the dealers room until they closed and then went out for dinner at An Poitin Stil with
notshakespeare and a few of his friends. Sadly, they were out of the poitin (poteen) that day, but the food was good and filling.Saturday evening ended with the costume masquerade - which got a late start but had some really cool costumes. After that was an auction to benefit RIF, but nothing really caught my eye.
The next day was another late start. I missed the Neil Gaiman and Gene Wolfe panel, but was able to grab a quick lunch at the hotel and catch the Have Browncoat, Will Travel performance. It was a fan play set sort of after Serenity (but with all the characters brought back). It had some good lines and some neat ideas, but mostly it was, well, a fan play.
After that was Neil Gaiman's guest of honor presentation, during which he read three short stories - all really good. I especially liked the one called "Orange" which was written as if it were the responses to a series of questions. Cool idea, and very nicely executed.
From there it was a signing for Gene Wolfe and Lisa Snellings-Clark (art GoH) followed by more hunting around in the dealer's room, then off to dinner. After dinner we got great seats for the Lorraine a' Malena (
lorraineamalena) concert. There was some concern because we knew Malena was fighting a cold and at risk of losing her voice but notshakespeare, our inside man, said she was doing better and that the show would go on. The concert was a lot of fun, and I took several pictures (which I should really look at to see if they are any good).After the show we hung out with with
notshakespeare and hughcasey while the Lorraine and Malena signed autographs. We then got invited to a party that was being thrown for them in the green room. Very cool :) Neil was there briefly, Lisa also attended for a while. Lorraine and Paul (her other musical partner) played some great tunes. I got to try a few weird fruit wines from a winery in Florida (but avoided the tomato and pepper one). Good time.Monday morning we grab a quick bite to eat at the con suite and then caught the last of the trailers and previews they were showing. We stayed in the room for Neil Gaiman's introduction to Mirrormask, and the first half of the movie. After that we went to a panel on art and depression which was pretty interesting.
We left the con shortly after that, got a late breakfast at a Waffle House on the way home, and only got stuck in traffic as we approached Delaware. We were home to late to take advantage of Emma's invite to come game, so instead we went out to dinner with
dame_margarete and finnfinnegan (and picked up the archery and gaming stuff that was used at Alles Faire).We ran into
kathy_the_geek, vonbryan, and snugglyevil at various times during the weekend but didn't get to hang out with them much. Bryan's voice (due to illness) was very impressive.I was very good when it came to shopping this weekend - so I've got a much shorter loot list then I've had from some cons.
Da Loot:
5 books
2 new CDs
2 dice
1 game
1 t-shirt
plus I got 6 books and 4 CDs signed
