Belated Potlatch con report

[pantryslut]

Friday:



I worked Friday, and headed over to the hotel right after work. I wasn’t the only person from my office to do so, btw; my co-worker Ian was also attending (and volunteering) at the con.

My first task was to find imnotandrei so I could drop off my stuff in the hotel room and head to dinner. My poor sweetie was suffering from the flu, as, it seemed, was half of the con committee. I seem to have missed it, but I’m still taking extra vitamins just in case.

After I found Steven, we snuck off to a cozy French bistro-type place for a quiet and romantic early dinner together.

After dinner, we split up – I headed to final_girl’s going-away gathering at Lucky 13. I made it back to the hotel in time for the dress rehearsal of the play. Due to creeping illness, I’d had a third big part assigned to me at the last minute, and this was my first chance to run through it. Eep!

By the time the rehearsal was done, I was just about to drop. I stopped in at the con suite to say hi to folks (and admire elisem’s stockings, as instructed), and then dragged myself down the hall to bed.

The Ramada Plaza hotel rooms are tiny! I’d never seen the inside of one before. No tub, only a shower. Darn. And it seems so posh from the outside. Later in the weekend, black_pearl_10 and I would amuse ourselves by imagining what these rooms must look like when the bears are in town, for the International Bear gathering (or whatever it’s called) uses this place, too.



Saturday:



Saturday morning, after discovering a little packing mishap or two (which resulted in poor Steven going to the nearby Walgreen’s three times in one day, if I recall correctly), I snuck out of the con again and headed to the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market, which, if I’d been thinking and not deadline-delirious, I would have put into the Native Guide. I didn’t buy anything (except a taco for breakfast), but I did some heavy-duty browsing.

I got back in time for lunch with Steven and aforementioned co-worker at, where else? Tu Lan. Tu Lan, for those not in the know, is a very hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese restaurant with astoundingly good food. One of my regrets of the weekend is that I didn’t have enough chances to try more of the food. I missed out on banh mi! Just as an example.

Back for panels a go go. Potlatch has only one track of programming, so most of the con is present at the panels. The first one I caught was wild_irises’ “Better Fiection Through Chemistry,” aka “the drug panel.” nihilistic_kid was also present; it was nice to meet and say hi to him in person. The panel was fab, but maybe you had to be there. I owe the moderator a book.

Ideas to discuss: I disagree with wordweaverlynn’s assertion that writing about drugs is a boy’s club, but I take her point that all the best-known examples of such things are, and why is that? (though at this point I want to just wave a copy of How to Suppress Women’s Writing by Joanna Russ and be done with it). That’s why I’m supposed to lend out the book I mentioned, in fact: it’s a drug memoir by a woman. How to Stop Time: Heroin A-Z by Anne Marlowe is the one. It’s good. Check it out. Also mentioned: Prozac Nation. I’m sure there are others (cf. Russ, above). Can you name any?

OK, here’s a weird aside: I looked this book up on Amazon b/c I couldn’t remember the author’s name. In the “Customers who bought this book also bought” section is a list of heroin-related books…and The Women by Hilton Als, which has absolutely no connection that I can think of…except that I own it, too (and really like it).

Anyway. Next was Rudy Rucker’s Transrealism panel, which was packed with people I know: Terry Bisson, Richard Kadrey, charliegrrrl. I figured that with those sorts of folks on the panel, no matter what happened it would be an interesting discussion, and that’s more or less how it went. Afterwards I got to chat with Kadrey, always a nice thing, and thus meet John Shirley, too. We talked about Hellblazer, the comic not the movie, in case you were wondering.

After that, tea and baked goods. Actually, I skipped the tea. Bought a brownie for Steven. Came to a belated appreciation of the saffron bread.

Somewhere in here I visited the dealer’s room and bought a bright blue pirate hair ornament from guess who. It matched my shirt, but that was an afterthought.

Then there was this education panel with folks likebadgerbag and ritaxis saying really interesting things that have totally fled my mind. I remember Piaget floating by, though. I did not stand up and shout, “Zone of Proximal Development!” But I could have. And then maybe I, like abostick59, would have been invited up to the table to discourse. He (and his book – Pedagogy of the Oppressed?) was a better choice than me, though.

I think it was dinner break by now. Due to tricky timing, my dinner guests (which included elisem, yay) pleaded with me to forgo all culinary considerations and eat in the hotel restaurant instead. I gave in. It was OK, and I was declared a hero of the revolution.

And then there was the play. “The Complete Works of Philip K. Dick, Abridged,” a title I’ve never been happy with, but oh well. It’s a bunch of PKD-inspired (or, in many cases, lifted from his words) skits, bound together with some judiciously chosen I Ching commentaries. black_pearl_10 was in the audience, by his own request. You’ll have to ask him why he wanted so much to attend. It was a fun time, it seemed to go over well, and that’s all I have to say.

And then I snuck out again and attended a play party, which is why I need to wear turtlenecks this week.



Sunday:



I didn’t pack any turtlenecks for the con, though, so my gigantic hickey was prominently on display all day. I guess it was appropriate, then, that I spent a good chunk of the morning working with elisem to resize a very pretty silver wire necklace (with green leaf and purple berry beads) for my very outsized neck. It was here that I admitted that in my aesthetics, I seem to be a cat, and I prefer danglies of some sort or another on my jewelry.

I was on the Sunday morning panel, on adapting books into films (and on adapting PKD in particular). whumpdotcom was the ringleader. I think I managed to be both coherent and entertaining, which is all one can ask of me before noon.

Then the banquet, then the auction. More jewelry at the auction, plus the matrioshka doll that ritaxis craved – sorry – and that I think is missing a doll. Oh well. All the more appropriate, an incomplete matrioshka for me.

Friends stopped by on their way to the library while I was in the auction. That was nice.

After that, I dragged my weary carcass home. I worked my way through the lobby slowly, saying my goodbyes.

I wish I’d had time for more socializing. I feel like the con was over before I had a chance to see enough (or, in some cases, any) of some of my favorite people. But the socializing that I did do was valuable and fun, so I won’t complain too loud.

I wish I’d had a day off to sleep and recover, too. I didn’t fall ill, but I’m still a bit run down from the weekend, I think. Well, the next one’s almost here. Maybe I’ll get a nap in this time.

Comments

[cheekytubemouse.livejournal.com]

...my gigantic hickey was prominently on display all day.

I need more hickeys. I haven't had one in probably a decade now and that's much too long.

...in my aesthetics, I seem to be a cat, and I prefer danglies of some sort or another on my jewelry.

That would explain a lot of my jewelry choices.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I need more hickeys. I haven't had one in probably a decade now and that's much too long.

I have a spare or two at the moment you could borrow.

[whumpdotcom.livejournal.com]

I was on the Sunday morning panel, on adapting books into films (and on adapting PKD in particular). [info]whumpdotcom was the ringleader. I think I managed to be both coherent and entertaining, which is all one can ask of me before noon.

Thanks for joining us. You were more coherent than I!