hmpf | Entries tagged with cons

After two abortive attempts in 1999 and 2000(?) I'm finally going to a Highlander con, it seems. Like the last time, I bought the ticket off someone who couldn't go - (((

rasmizar))) - but unlike the last time, the con will (I hope!) actually take place (last time it was cancelled just a couple of weeks after I bought the ticket, and I never saw my money again). Weird thing -

rasmizar's ticket is for preferred seating and includes autographs. That's weird for me because I'm really not interested in autographs, and asking anybody for one is an activity that's not exactly high on my list of priorities. If it hadn't been for

rasmizar's need to sell the ticket, I would probably have gotten the cheaper version, without autographs. But, hey, I guess I could simply get the autographs and give them to her, so she won't feel quite as bad about not being able to go there. :-)

Well...

fleta-BABE and

beccadg-BABE, you still looking for someone to share a room with? ;-) (Or, if that's not an option, I'll have to find my own room.)

Got a cheap deal on the plane ticket, too, so that's nice.

So, who else is going to be there? I'm a bit of a latecomer to this party...

***

To Whom It May Concern: I will be in Britain from the evening of March 7, leaving for Germany again on the 17th. I'll probably be in Plymouth for the first third of my stay, then go to Leeds for the con (10.-12.). I have no set plans for what I'm going to do after the con yet. That means: if you would like to meet me, drop me a mail or a reply here, and we can try to work something out. It's not a lot of time, but I'm better rested now than I was in August, when I basically slept all through my visits at

ommadon's,

aminspace's and

torneledhwen's, so maybe I can see you all in one frantic round-trip without falling into a coma again. ;-)

Current Mood: geeky

in about two hours.

Current Mood: nervous
Current Music: Blind Guardian: Nightfall in Middle-earth

I just spent an hour or more on ICQ with AnduraNova, surfing ebay and various sex shops for an orange-red latex skirt and top to dress AnduraNova up as Sikozu at the Bochum comic fair. Dashan will dress up as Chiana, I will be Zhaan, Nager will be Stark, and Bettina will be Scorpius again. You wouldn't believe how many hours of shopping - or rather, hours of searching for things without much success - go into each of these costumes.

But we will get to meet Virginia Hey. In fact, we'll have breakfast with her. And she'll probably think us total nutcases for appearing in full costume for breakfast, but we have no choice - the comic fair starts right after breakfast, so we can either get into costume *before* breakfast or not at all.

I sense that this has the potential to become the most embarrassing day of my life.

Current Mood: weird
Current Music: Placebo: Without You I'm Nothing

but a few short notes before I leave to visit

ankae...

1.) On Thursday I went to see 'Spirited Away' and it's a beautiful, beautiful movie. It had the same atmosphere and logic of many of my weirder dreams... Gotta go see it again next week, if I can find the time. Highly recommended.

2.) The evening of the same day I had to do a cast of my good buddy Nager's face because he wants to have a Stark mask made for the comic fair we are going to have a Farscape table at. Let's just say that at 40 degrees Celsius it was not a pleasant experience for him having to wear a rubber bathing cap for hours, and half of his head covered in plaster! It made me worry a bit about being Zhaan with that bald cap at the fair... I'll have to wear that thing for about 13 hours and I doubt it is any more comfortable than a bathing cap! The things we do for Farscape.

3.) Birthday (mine, that is) on Friday - nice and quiet. Breakfast with my mom, then work, then dinner with my mom (Indian food - yum!). (My dad was on a business trip.) Got nice books and nice music for presents. Unexpected present from a certain reader of this journal, too. (Thanks! You know who you are! *g*) Am 27 now, an age that almost fits with the grey hair I keep finding on my head more and more often...

4.) Happy Birthday also to my dear friends Kiki and

ankae!

5.) And to my Scape Sister Dashan who actually had her birthday a few days ago but had her party yesterday. Very nice party; met Atti there, important figure from German HL fandom and webmistress of Fanficparadies.de. Weird, meeting someone whose name you've known for years on the net 'in the flesh' for the first time... Atti was in the same situation, btw, knowing me from my old essay on becoming obsessed with Methos which seems to be rather well-known in German HL fandom. Hey, at least *one* of my pieces of writing is well-known. *g* AnduraNova and me talked with Atti and her boyfriend all night, I'm afraid - we hardly even noticed the other guests. *g* Atti may even come to the next local Farscape meeting.

5.) Going to visit ankae for a few days, but first I have to have breakfast and then do the dishes. The stacks in the kitchen look like every single plate, knife, pot, fork and glass in the house is dirty. Frell.

6.) Oh, and since

kernezelda and

kazbaby already posted links to our new vid 'Poison' in their LJs, I guess I should make it public here, too. Actually, we meant to wait a little while yet before really publishing the vid, since we wanted to overhaul the 'Peacekeeper' vid first, but, well, it's out there now, so I may as well point everyone who hasn't found it yet there. I'm pretty proud of this vid. AnduraNova still thinks 'Everybody Hurts' is better than 'Poison', but I think they are about on par. It was great fun to make, too, even if it made AnduraNova's husband realise that we're perverts. *g*

Go here to download it: ScapeSisters videos

7.) Apart from the dishes I'm feeling fine.

Current Mood: good
Current Music: Radiohead: Hail to the Thief

It's been almost two weeks since I returned from the fifth semi-annual meeting of the farscaped mailing list (farscaped@yahoogroups.de) and I would have written my report earlier if Real Life had allowed me some time to breathe. But I'm not here to whine – I'm here to tell you about a weekend of fannish fun and relentless scaping!

The most important fact first: after two years and five meetings, our German mini-con now finally has a name. We voted on it on Sunday, before we had to return to our respective Real Lives, and chose the very appropriate 'To Be Frelling CON-tinued' as the name for past and future events. (Though maybe, in light of the weekend's diet – chocolate, potato chips etc. - we should have chosen 'Eat Fatty Foods Con'...) Therefore, this is a report on 'To Be Frelling CON-tinued 5', and we'll reconvene in September for TBFC 6.

Well, what can I say, really, except 'It was fun!' We were 38 this time, with a huge contingent from the www.sf-community.de boards this time, thus once again breaking our record (29 scapers attended TBFC 4 in September 2002). We even had Scorpius there! Scorpius is called Bettina in Real Life, but she looked pretty frelling convincing – especially when she was harrassing hotel guests in the parking lot, hehe...

A good part of the attendees were veterans of former meetings and the atmosphere was – as usual – not unlike that of a family reunion. The best kind of family reunion, that is. Not one of those where you try to be nice to people who hate your guts, but the kind where you're meeting people you may not see very often but nevertheless feel a connection with. The location was the same as for last year's March meeting – Mark let us use the conference room and several rooms of 'his' hotel again, and we had the enormous pleasure of wreaking havoc ;-) in a four star hotel. I can tell you that there are few things on this Earth that are more amusing than the looks of businesspeople if they see scapers in pajamas (or, better yet, in a Scorpius costume!) walking past the conference room window.

I'll try and give a more or less coherent report now.

We arrived on Friday – the last batch of scapers arrived around midnight. Unlike at previous meetings, this time we only started watching when everyone had arrived, that is, after midnight. We spent the hours up to midnight talking and getting to know each other (there were at least ten people this time who had never taken part in our semi-annual Farscape 'orgies' before!), and Mark allowed us to loot the buffet after the 'normal' guests were done. We watched Unrealized Reality, Kansas, and Terra Firma the first evening. After Terra Firma a large part of the attendees went to bed while the rest settled down on their makeshift beds on the conference room floor and continued with some older eps until even the last scaper dozed off...

I should mention the air-beds. Air-beds are an essential part of every To Be Frelling CON-tinued. They work wonders in converting sober conference rooms into a scapers' paradise... I can really recommend the experience. *g*

After a very short night we woke up to discover that a *real conference was going on in the conference room next to ours, and we got to shock the businesspeople there by walking past their windows in our nightclothes (you had to walk across a balcony past the windows to get to the bathroom). We had breakfast together in yet another converted conference room on the ground floor, and then started watching in earnest.... *g*

I think we watched the rest of season four through A Constellation of Doubt. Then, dinner. Pasta, as usual. (Though not spaghetti this time.) And after dinner the rest... including 4.22. For some among us it was the first time they saw the season finale... Well, by the time we had reached the fateful 'To Be Continued' it was near midnight again, and since we had permission to use the hotel pool after the 'normal' guests had gone to bed many of us decided to vent their frustration in a game of water ball. The rest of us, including me, passed the time watching some 'classics' like Crackers Don't Matter (and, in some cases, including me, dozed off.) When the rest of the group returned (minus those who had decided to go to bed – yes, we *did* have *some 'real' beds!) we watched some more, and gently slipped into sleep and Farscape dreams....

The next day, after breakfast, we mostly talked, and watched fanvids, and had a prolonged brainstorming and voting session to find a name for our little 'convention'... All in all, it was a very relaxed meeting this time (though maybe I was especially relaxed this time because last time I'd been among the organisers and found it somewhat difficult to relax), and it was great seeing so many newbies!

Everyone who wants to participate in the next German Farscape extravaganza should join this mailing list: http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/farscaped
and visit this forum: http://www.sf-community.de

To see an amazing number of images of this amazing event, go here: http://events.altpeter.de/farscape5

German scapers, please also head here: http://fstreffen.allabouthmpf.com/regional.htm

Current Mood: calm

Okay, on to the second day...

Well, we got up sometime between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. (meaning, some of us got up at 8, and the rest got up one by one between 8 and 10 a.m., since there was only one bathroom, anyway. We had a very basic breakfast and then made our way to the con. I was supposed to meet with Mark there at 11 a.m. but he arrived a little late. I passed the time before his arrival standing around in the lobby with Christian, wondering if we were ever going to see a simple con guest - for some reason, everyone we saw seemed to be either an organiser, a helper or someone giving a talk or a presentation. We were really relieved when we finally spotted a guest! Christian seemed to know everybody, btw... and I had a very brief opportunity to meet Claudia Kern, sf serial author and genre journalist, and apparently also a scaper. She seemed nice, but mysteriously missed my talk later that day, although she reportedly had wanted to hear it.

When Mark finally arrived we asked one of the organisers for a room and took our equipment - which Mark had brought - there for a general check-up. Mark, whose claims to fame include the organisation and hosting of our semi-annual mailing list meetings #3 and #5 (http://fstreffen.allabouthmpf.com), had brought a notebook, a video beamer, and the 150 or so flyers Dashan and Christian had produced. (Have I recently mentioned how much I love you guys? Consider yourselves hugged. All three of you.)

Well, the equipment and the video clips I had selected worked just fine together, and after that had been ascertained, I once again tested my presentation in front of a scaper audience, this time consisting of Christian and Mark. Christian told me I had improved a little bit, but I'm not sure if I should believe that... ;-)

Oh, and for those who are curious which clips I was going to show:

- Tazey's fabulous fan vid 'Right Here, Right Now', for which I should have sent feedback ages ago 'cause it's so great!
- a clip from 'We're So Screwed 2: Hot To Katratzi' - the 'American' scene
- one of the CNN clips
- one of our latest batch of commercials
- the 'morale booster' video by Tiriel and co.

At 14:00 Christian left for his own presentation, and Mark and I joined his audience a little while later, after I'd grabbed a banana for lunch. Christian talked about a somewhat 'exotic' subject, the Masters of the Universe cartoon series from the eighties, and the audience was... well, not exactly huge. This had me worried a bit, as I had no idea how popular or unpopular Farscape is in German sf fandom. I half expected only a handful of people would turn up for my talk... After all, the show disappeared from German TV about a year and a half ago. I wasn't sure many would remember it, especially considering that it had been run late night on Sunday. Not the best slot for gaining new viewers, methinks.

At 15:00 Christian and I changed places, me taking his place at the presenter's table, and him joining the audience. At first, there wasn't much of a crowd, but as Mark was preparing the equipment, people started arriving, one by one... and soon I had a good crowd there (some 20 or so people), and began to get seriously nervous. Of course, I handed a flyer to everyone who entered the room!

Well, and then Mark was ready and I sat down at my table with my five pages of text and some rather pronounced 'rattlers in my stomach'. I apologised in advance for being nervous and for reading too fast, and in the following twenty minutes was very glad to find the audience very gracious. I started by stating the importance of Farscape for the genre at large, then spoke about the 'end' of the show, and then launched into an explanation of Farscape's greatness... though I almost decided to skip that part of the presentation as it turned out that most of my audience actually already knew Farscape (so, I probably didn't make many potential new fans... ah well, can't have everything, I guess). After my praise of the show followed a summary of the history and achievements of the Save Farscape campaign.

Of course, I was too fast again. However, the audience was very gracious and kind, and seemed to take into account that I was doing this for the very first time... After having delivered my talk I replied to questions about the cancellation and the campaign, and encouraged everybody to take part (of course!).

Well, and then it was over, or almost... 'cause some people from the audience stayed to talk to me and give me flyers of their own - among them some SeaQuest fans, whom I guess we scapers should consider as something akin to family, since their show was also created by Rockne and DK and cancelled prematurely... Rockne really has rotten luck with networks, it would seem!

Roger Murmann who has a monthly sf program on a local radio station also stayed to talk to me, or rather, to interview me, and Christian as well. Christian went first, and then it was my turn. Once again, I was dreadfully nervous, but Roger was quite good at asking the right questions, so I got to repeat the main points of my talk very neatly for his show... Unfortunately the interview will be aired quite close to where I live, so there's a certain danger of people who actually know me hearing it! I hope I didn't come over too incoherent! ;-)

When the interviews were over the con was almost over, as well, but I had a nice bit of talk with a guy whose name I didn't catch yet, who had actually been convinced to give Farscape a try - should he ever get an opportunity to see it - by the clip from 'We're So Screwed...' (and hopefully also a bit by my talk!!! *g*) So, I may have made at least one potential new viewer. We'll see.

And that was that, more or less. There wasn't much left to do except tell people farewell, and exchange some addresses... Mark was so kind as to take me at least part of the way to Frankfurt, so my train ticket would be a bit cheaper, and after some complications (travelling with two backpacks with a weight of over 20 kilos *always* means complications!) I arrived in Frankfurt at 23:00, very exhausted indeed, but also still on a convention high. Of course, this was followed by the post-con depression the next day... but that is another story... ;-)

I hoped I would be less tired today than I was yesterday, but I'm just as tired. Therefore, I'll just assume it will be no different tomorrow, and will try and write my con report (and a general LJ update) now...

Well, where to start? I'm back in Germany (alas). Getting here was... complicated, but that was my own fault, for making a detour to DortCon on my way from Barcelona to Frankfurt. ;-)

Notes on being home again:

- After using a Spanish keyboard for a month, I'm having trouble readjusting to the German one. I hope it won't take me a month to learn how to type 'in German' again!

- It was good seeing my parents and friends again.

- It was not so good to go back to uni today. I'm not ready for mundane life yet! I feel like there's a head cold waiting to happen lurking in my body, and working is not the best way to prevent it from happening...

- The picture I took of Francis on the last day turned out to be non-existent, since I failed to put the film in right. Frell.

- Seeing my roommates again is nice, though. Even if one of them will only be around a short while anymore, 'cause she's moving out. We're looking for a new one now, and today we interviewed two 'candidates', both of whom were nice. The interviews took very long, though, and afterwards there wasn't much left of my day. *sigh*

Okay, on to the con report now. I bet that's what you're really here for. ;-)

------------

*Preaching 'Scape at DortCon 2003*

I left Barcelona around 10 am, took a plane from Girona airport at 13:00 hours. Arrived at what RyanAir has declared 'Frankfurt-Hahn' but which is really a tiny airport nowhere near Frankfurt. Took a bus to Cologne. There took a train to Dortmund, where I was supposed to be picked up at the station by one of the con's organisers or one of the helpers. However, the guy's cellphone was malfunctioning. So, I spent an hour or so at the station, trying to reach him on the phone - was majorly pissed when the phone ate my whole 2-Euro-coin after a one second call to someone's answering machine. Sat around in a bistro for a while, thinking about how to get to the con with my 20 kilos of luggage - naturally, I'd forgotten to print out the address - in a town I'd never been to. Finally had the brilliant idea of calling Mark, who was going to be my partner-in-crime the next day, and ask him to look it up on the net. Which I did, and he did, then.

Took a taxi to the con and arrived somewhat exhausted at the Fritz-Henssler-Haus. A familiar face was the first thing I saw: Christian from the list was catching the air just when I arrived. After a split-second's uncertainty, we recognised each other - after all, we've stood together in rainy Cologne on October 5, 2002 - and then I was introduced to André Diehl, the guy I'd spoken to on the phone several times from Barcelona, and Torsten Frantz, one of the leading fen from the SFCD (Science Fiction Club Deutschland, the oldest SF club in Germany), who was going to be my host for the night.

Christian and I retired to the gopher room then - after I'd shed my mammoth of a backpack in some room on the ground floor - where I had a Tolkien Day flashback when eating the sandwiches made in the sandwich toaster. (At the Tolkien Day, we used to live on a diet consisting almost entirely of these kind of sandwiches... though they are called 'fried orc ears' there...)

After the orc ears, uhm, sandwiches, I 'forced' Christian to play audience to my Farscape presentation. As always when trying to speak in public, I was Much Too Fast - read five pages in about 20 minutes! Halfway through the text I gained two rather eager listeners who started asking questions about the Save Farscape movement and the show in general when I'd finished. That made me very happy of course, since secretly I'd feared no one would be interested in Farscape at all... (Turns out I was wrong... as proven more impressively by the turnout of my presentation the next day...)

Well, that was all very nice, but I was tired, and so I was rather happy when Torsten Frantz assembled his many charges for the night... a whopping total of eight people were to stay at his place! A few of them chose to stay at the con for the night's movie program, but the rest of us went 'home' where I fine-tuned my script again but didn't get to sleep much... 'cause of course we all sat around for quite a while yet. I got to meet BiFi again, another VIP (or rather, BNF, I suppose) from the SFCD whom I'd met at last year's Space Days. Among the guests was also an older fan who scored two points with me for being a) from Kiel and b) a Scaper. *g*

Well, but finally we did go to bed, or what passed for it. (A sofa, in my and Bifi's case, a mat on the floor in most other's.)

And I think at this point I will end my report today, 'cause I should go to bed now, too. Sunday's report will follow tomorrow. I promise.