North American Discworld Convention Wrap-Up

[marence]

Back and almost recovered from NADWCON 2009. Remember when we went to Vegas last winter and it snowed and shut down the city? Well, our weather luck is holding – Tempe’s long-overdue summer monsoons happened the day before we arrived. 100+ degrees, then torrential rain, followed by sprinkles and hot, repeat on Saturday. Friday was just hot and humid – damn, I wanted dry heat! By Monday, thankfully, the weather was back to being just hot with not a cloud in the sky.>

 

 

Enough about Tempe’s weather. Highlights included talking with Sir Terry Pratchett at Friday night’s Seamstress Guild Party* (see a picture kindly taken and posted by a British con-goer HERE); listening to and talking with dozens of interesting people about, life, the Discworld, and everything; participating in the Maskerade  - wait, this needs a paragraph (or three) of it’s own.

John and I decided to participate in the Maskerade, and rather than craft specific Discworld character costumes, just rummage thru the garb to find generic “a Man and a Woman of Ankh-Morpork” costumes. We’d make up for the costuming by presenting a skit – well, a song – on stage, with recorded music and an explanatory introduction. I wrote lyrics, John was supposed to have written music. For three weeks prior, the conversations went like this:

Me: Have you thought about the music yet?

Him: Yeah, I’m thinking about it.

The day before we left, with nothing written or recorded, he figured out that the lyrics could be sung to the tune of the Mickey Mouse Club Theme. No time to record anything, so we’d just do it a capella. We actually rehearsed the song in the hotel room a few times on Saturday afternoon, decided to just take the lyrics on stage with us, and wing it.

The M.C., Pat Harkin, in RL a dean of a British medical school, read the introduction to A Proposal For The Popular Acceptance of the Official Ankh-Morpork Tourism Promotional Song. A video was made of our performance and posted on YouTube, so now, here’s our rather horrible yet terribly fun performance.

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OK, back to highlights: Being entertained at breakfast every morning, whether by conversations overheard, roadrunners, ravens and wrens stealing food, the Great Deluge, or (my favorite!) filking by Dennis, the proprietor or Lookout Mountain Bookstore in Colorado; the serendipitous full moon picture; having the pool to ourselves on Saturday; the tons of themed broadsheets, ads, and flyers posted all over; and being reassured that everyone, including Sir Pterry, wants to do this again in two years.

There were only a couple of disappointments, one being able to attend just a few of the talks, because time went so quickly!; the filking session Sunday night, which, in the spirit of fairness and democracy, was run like a preschool; the redeye home, in which my seat was kicked continuously by the inconsiderate asshole behind me (only the repeated mantra “TSA can throw me into a pit” kept me from making A Scene); and SWWSUAL.**

I’ve posted some pix in a NADWCON set on Flickr. I’ve got dozens more, mostly blurry – the hotel was freezing with AC and the courtyard was hot and humid, and I think the imp in the iconograph got confused. Or he, like the rest of us, snuck off to the bar too often.

 

*If the terminology throws you, read Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, called a “comic fantasy” series but it’s evolved into a socio-political/cultural satirical series, with philosophical overtones and well-researched backgrounds. There’s something for everyone in the series; ask me for recommendations for a book that you’ll appreciate.

**She Who Will Stand Up And Lecture. Every con has one, the attendee who knows more than everyone there, and is compelled to stand up and lecture, often interrupting the speaker, presenting, in a loud, slow voice, information that has either already been given or is patently wrong. She encouraged audible eyerolls at every session, and by the end of the con became an object of amusement rather than annoyance. OK, she was still annoying, but we anticipated her interruptions, betting on how long it would take before she stood up and lectured.

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Comments

[kittylady.livejournal.com]

I found better pics of the two of you. If you want, friend me on flickr and I'll send you all of the non-blurry ones.

[marence.livejournal.com]

Thanx! We are friended.

Some time ago, I promised not to use friend or google as verbs. I failed; technology makes it so easy to embrace the dark side, even in matters like grammar.

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

Hello fellow con-goer! Care to be friends? (You may remember me as the Susan with the tall hair).

[marence.livejournal.com]

Sure! Friend away!

[drebleloaw.livejournal.com]

I would like to defend myself! The studio I work at had just finished a grueling 11 weeks of remodeling a new facility and then the move across town to the new location. Sooooo, all I was able to do was come up with the melody. I think my lovely wife who did a great job making me sound almost human.
That said, much fun was had by all and I am (really) counting the days till we get to do this again.