Boskone, in haphazard style

[gnomi]

Boskone was fun. The weekend was mostly fun. And full of interesting stuff:



-- On Friday, mabfan and I met magid for a late lunch and then went over to the hotel to check in before heading home to organize the last bits of luggage and head back to go to the convention. It's always fun to sit and shmooze with magid, and she even gave me a cool book.

-- We spent some time running around getting registered for the convention and getting mabfan his Program Participant stuff. And we found bandaids for mabfan to put on his bleeding finger. And we picked up the handouts that we'd had made for Saturday Night Live Dead. And we kept vortexing with people. So it was tight timing when we ran into Tamora Pierce and, as I scurried upstairs to do last-minute shabbat prep, mabfan got Tammy to come up to our room to sign some books I'd brought.

-- Dinner with just the family was so the way to go. Timing was, again, tight since mabfan had a panel at 7, and with the small group it was manageable. We managed to catch up with everyone else who would've been at dinner sometime during the con, so that was good. And I brought brownies made with the recipe that dancingdeer gave me last week, and they were extremely yummy. Definitely a recipe to make again.

-- On Saturday, mabfan was on a couple of panels, and there were others that we wanted to attend, as well. So we saw many more panels at this convention than we do at other conventions.

-- Saturday night, mabfan participated in Saturday Night Live Dead as a candidate for King of the Dead. Since his campaign was based around the slogan "Vote for Michael as your King and get Nomi as your Queen," he and I got all dressed up (him in his tux, top hat, gloves, and white-tipped cane and me in my black velvet skirt and blouse, black hose, and black patent-leather shoes) and went down to the ballroom where the event was taking place. We got there early and ended up helping set up, which was also fun. We spent a couple of hours "campaigning," which mostly involved talking to people and handing them the campaign poster. As a campaign speech, mabfan sang "When the Night Wind Howls" from "Ruddigore." In the end, he was elected King of the Dead, and he and I were invited to join the parade into the hall for the awards ceremony (a parade, I must note, led by a trumpet and many kazoos). He was also given his tools of office -- a garishly fuzzy hat (so I got to wear his much more staid top hat), a staff with a scary-looking skull on it (so I got to carry his regular white-tipped cane), and a bracelet of what look like teeth. We stayed for the giving of awards (more on this below), and then we went back to the room, changed out of our finery, and went and hung out in the Con Suite for a while.

-- Among the awards that are given at Boskone every year is the Skylark Award. This year's recipient was Tamora Pierce, who, in her thank-you speech, specifically cited mabfan as the person directly responsible for bringing her into fandom.

-- Sunday was a mixed bag. We got up early-ish, packed up our luggage, checked out of the hotel, and headed home to drop off our stuff. After breakfast out, we went back to the hotel for the day's programming. mabfan and I went to the dealer's room for a bit, during which time I was recruited for a 1 PM panel on Unanswered Questions, and then mabfan had a 12:30 panel on the history of Analog Magazine. I ran from that to the Unanswerable Questions panel, which had been reduced to two people (only one of whom had shown up) plus me. So we had a lively old time talking about knowledge, the extents of human knowledge, whether there was such a thing as unanswerable questions, and the like. At one point, I mentioned String Theory, and someone asked for a definition of it. So I drafted mabfan to answer the question, thus adding him to the panel on the fly. Eventually, with 10 minutes to go in the hour, the second panelist arrived.

-- After the Unanswerable Questions panel, mabfan, kradical, Leigh Grossman, and This Year's Sucker did the Sunday Funny Sunday panel, which has become something of a tradition at Boskone. This year, the topic was "Crossovers," and the Sucker was Michael Marano, who did an admirable job of moderating the other three. Much fun was had, by both panelists and audience.

-- We were supposed to meet up with buxom_bey after the panel ended at 3, but she had not yet arrived at the hotel. I went over to the coat rack to get the coat I'd left there when we'd arrived back at the convention after breakfast, and I found that someone had taken my coat and that I was coatless (my theory is that someone confused it for their own, but the end result -- whether the taking was accidental or malicious -- is the same). After searching closely for my coat, we reported its gone-ness to the convention's Information desk and I went to talk to Hotel Security while mabfan went to the Gripe Session. I gave a very detailed description (so much so that the Security guy complimented me on it) of my coat to Security, who said they'd get in touch if it was found, and then I went to meet mabfan at the Gripe Session, which was just about wrapping up. We headed back downstairs to look again on the coat racks, in case whoever had taken my coat had returned it, but to no avail. However, while we didn't find the coat, we did find buxom_bey, who had gotten herself misplaced. While we were talking to her, we encountered Michael Marano again and ckd, and so the five of us adjourned to the hotel bar, where we spent time talking. It was a lovely way to end the convention. We then double-checked that my coat had not been turned in to the convention nor returned to the coat racks, and then headed home.

Today, I went and procured for myself a new coat. It's too cold in Boston this time of year to be coatless, and the one coat I did have other than the missing one is not quite up to the weather we're having today. So now I just have to replace the gloves that were in the pocket of the coat that went missing. And I thank goodness that I had the good sense to take my house keys out of my coat pocket before I hung it on that coat rack.


Oh, and scarlettina -- a friend of yours (initials M O-K) came up to me near the Angelwear table and conveyed your greetings. I was greatly amused.

Comments

[magid.livejournal.com]

And I always think it's fun to sit and schmooze with you :-).

Sorry to hear about your coat; I hope you found something you really like.

And as for King of the Dead, are there photos??? Must see photos of excellent finery! (Note that I'm being the teeniest bit reasonable and not asking for a reprise of the Ruddigore song :-)

[affinity8.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear about your coat! That stinks. I hope it was mistaken identity and not plain old theft.

I loved Michael's Analog panel--he was a great moderator. I enjoyed Boskone all the way, though it seemed smaller than it did last year.

And oh, I've friended both this journal and mabfan! I told you I would :-)

(Sandra)

[dancingdeer.livejournal.com]

I'm glad the brownies worked out for you. Sorry about the coat, and I hope it's returned soon by whoever belatedly realized they had the wrong one.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the successful candidacy - I heard that he ran a good campaign!

Sorry about the missing coat. I suspect that whoever took it didn't realize it was the wrong coat until they got home, and then had no way of finding out whose it was. I'm glad you were able to replace it quickly, though.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

When Michael told me of his Evil Plans for Dead Domination, I was highly amused—he even serenaded me on the telephone with an excerpt of the upcoming performance. I simply knew he'd end up elected. I'm delighted you both succeeded. And now, on to World Domination!

...a friend of yours (initials M O-K) came up to me near the Angelwear table and conveyed your greetings. I was greatly amused.

My minions are everywhere. (Mwa-ha-ha!) That particular minion can be found here as ladyjestocost, should you like to follow her adventures.

I'm glad you both had an excellent time.

[red-queen.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, love the song from Ruddigore! I did makeup for the last MITGSP production of it. I'm sorry I didn't make it to the con -- would have loved to do your makeup for this (I do one heckuva spook, if I say so myself!). Killing off the entire mens' chorus during intermission was an adrenalin-infused experience each and every time, but great fun nonetheless.

Sounds like you deserved to win!