On Thu, 8 Mar 2001, Jim Sharkey wrote:
> Thanks for the data, Tom. Anyone else been to any of these? I'd love
> to get a bird's eye view.
>
> For the record, I *can* afford it. I just believe my beloved bride
> would rip out my eyeballs for having the temerity to suggest that I
> spend that much money to go to a five day con without her, since I
> reckon she'd be less than enthralled by the sight of thousands of SF
> fans slavering over the latest SF memorabilia and arguing over the
> relative merits of Brin vs. Bear vs. Banks. :)
Let's see. My sister's not really into SF (but enjoys some fantasy); we
paid for a one-day membership for her (Saturday) when it was in Baltimore
in '98. She was able to find 3 or 4 panel discussions of interest to her;
the only one I remember her attending was the one about musical
instruments. There will be some programming that deals more with science
than science fiction, if your wife is interested in science.
If you want to get an idea of the variety of programming, check out:
http://www.chicon.org/sched/day1.htm
http://www.chicon.org/sched/day2.htm
http://www.chicon.org/sched/day3.htm
http://www.chicon.org/sched/day4.htm
http://www.chicon.org/sched/day5.htm
This is from last year's Worldcon in Chicago. The Bucconeer (Baltimore
1998) con doesn't have programming on its webpage anymore, or I'd pull up
URLs for that, specifically Saturday, and tell you that someone with very
little interest in SF or fandom was able to have an enjoyable day with
those events.
(It was really cool having my sister come to that one for a day. She
spent the night with us in our hotel room, then we loaded her car with all
her stuff, sent her back home to DC, went back to the con for a couple
more hours, got lunch, went to the airport, rented a car, drove down to
DC, and visited her for a few days, in which we were able to get our stuff
properly packaged and shipped. NEVER rely on the hotel to properly
package your stuff for shipping.)
I myself like the science-oriented programming a lot. There's usually a
dinosaur panel (seems obligatory or something) which can be quite
entertaining, I went to a presentation that ended up being mostly about
elephants once, there are some science presentations and panels directed
at writers who want their SF to be more scientific, etc. I think you
could go all day some days and do nothing but science programming, if you
wanted to.
Also, at LoneStarCon in '97, there was a "Living with a writer" panel, and
as my husband likes to write in his spare time (what little of it he has
these days) and has actually had a couple of things published in little
magazines that since went under, I figured maybe I'd get something out of
it. What I got out of it was that he was a heck of a lot easier to live
with than some other people, and that some of his idiosyncracies which
someone else might find annoying (but I usually find amusing and/or
endearing) were PERFECTLY NORMAL for a writer. (And he pulls the same
sort of stuff when he's working on a programming problem sometimes -- such
as he did last night at dinner before the theater. Thank God the
restaurant had paper napkins in dispensers at every table. I've got to
start having file cards in my purse for him....)
One other thing is, they tend to recommend that you take a morning or an
afternoon and get out of the con and see some of the cool stuff in the
city you're in. We tend not to do enough of that, but if there's
something cool in Philly that you and your wife want to see anyway, taking
a few hours off from the con to do that would be neat.
Some cons have gotten blocks of seats for pro sporting events taking place
during the con. I think there was an Orioles game we could have gone to
during Bucconeer, and maybe a pre-season Ravens game (Bucconeer was
earlier in August than usual), and I think there was also a Cubs game we
could have gone to last year. I could be remembering wrong on that,
though.
The parties at night can be fun. Not that I'm that big of a party animal,
though. It's been my experience that if I hit enough parties in the
course of a couple of hours, I can find one with a couple of very
interesting people who want to talk about something totally unrelated to
SF which I would find interesting anyway. (Homemade peppermint schnapps.
Motivating employees. How great Austin was before date X. (And anyone
who hasn't been here lately gets a graphic description of just what's been
torn up and built over -- I can be really mean that way, I'm afraid....))
And I found out last year that it's not a good idea for a somewhat
attractive woman who's dressed a bit more nicely than usual (at least for
being at a con) to climb 16 floors to get to a party if she doesn't want
to get hit on by the bartender of the party she's trying to get to. ;)
(Between the clothing and the healthy glow, I was told I looked gorgeous.
Not what I thought I needed to hear when I was dying for a glass of
water....)
Oh, and if she can get creative on gift selection, your wife might be able
to get some of her Christmas shopping out of the way in the dealers' room.
I get a non-insignificant amount of gift-shopping done at cons. In fact,
if my sister doesn't get back to me in the next 2 weeks to tell me she
wants something specific for her birthday (which is not too long after the
baby is due), she's going to end up with a few things from the dealers'
room at Aggiecon. (There are always jewelry vendors; Worldcon attracts
some with some very nice stuff.)
The art show will have some very nice pieces in it. Most of them will be
fantasy-oriented or SF-oriented, but I've seen some stuff that's more
properly labelled "astronomical" than "SF", and some beautifully crafted
3D stuff (including some gorgeous one-of-a-kind jewelry and hand-crafted
boxes) will be on display, as well. They even have tours through the art
show led by people who know what they're talking about -- kind of like
getting the guided tour through a large museum exhibit. We buy art at
cons, but mostly just get prints at Worldcon. (I got a lovely little
scratchboard piece, of a spiral galaxy, at Worldcon last year, though.)
Original art is a lot pricier there than at smaller conventions.
AggieCon, which we'll be going to later this month, is the source of most
of the art in our house.
There should be opportunities to hear live music ("Filk") during the day,
and to participate in song gatherings in the evenings. I think other
listmembers have more experience with the musical side of things than I
do, so I'll let them speak up. (Hint, hint!)
As much as anything else, though, Worldcon has become for us the time to
see people we otherwise wouldn't be able to. Not the big-name folks so
much as just people we've met at previous cons, who live in other parts of
the country and don't make it to any other events that we make it to. (I
keep getting e-mails begging me to show up at regional con X, for some
other region, and it just doesn't work out. I mean, I can't go to the con
that happens over Thanksgiving, because we've got family descending upon
the house then, and I can't get to the con that's over Memorial Day
weekend this year (although I *have* been told there would be enough
trained midwives on hand that I could deliver at the con -- but no thank
you, not on a first pregnancy, anyway), etc.)
What am I leaving out -- oh, costume stuff. I'm not really into that, but
they have a Masquerade where some incredibly good costumes are shown, and
if you like that sort of thing, it's breathtaking.
What else did I miss, folks?
Julia
