[Arisia] programming

[magid]

I went to a bunch of panels and other events. While the schedule was reasonably full most of the time, there did seem to be imbalances in what went on, both in distribution (three LJ panels and a meetup is just ridiculous) and timing (the inevitable issue of multiple things going on at once, though this year there were fewer times that I was deciding among scheduled events).

In chronological order:

• City Building panel: the discussion focused mostly on why cities emerged in particular places, and the features of a city (specialization, particularly), all of it referencing history. There was one question about a city where the primary mode of transportation is flight, which I thought was given rather short shrift, and one question about sf that portrays a believable city. Other than that, it was stuck solidly in Terran cities of the past and present. Interesting stuff, but not exactly what I'd hoped for.
  
• Yoga: I went both mornings, as usual, and I'm really glad I hauled myself there, despite extreme (for me) sleep dep; it made a huge difference to how functional I was. Thanks to Surrealestate for leading the classes. (Monday it seemed strange to start the day without a yoga class!)
  
• Shaun the Sheep: wonderful shorts from the makers of Wallace and Grommit. I usually don't make it to the anime room, but this sounded really good, and it definitely was. There were a lot of people who showed up for these, and we all got to laugh a lot.
  
• Doctor Who animated episode: which was billed as "British Space Pirates." Which is to say, I'd not planned to see this, since it didn't mention it was Dr. Who, but I stayed long enough after the shorts to realize what it was. Pure luck. Not an amazing adventure or anything, but fun, and I'm glad I saw it.
  
• Homesteading in Space panel: the discussion focused mostly on the difficulties of getting people/animals/stuff up into space, with much attention to issues with space station communities (especially the need for gravity). I expected something more... I'm not sure how to describe it. Questions of how animals and plants might adapt to different planets (different minerals, or light, etc), or how different social structures might be invented to deal with new situations, terraforming, and so on. Which is not to say that it wasn't interesting and useful, just not the focus I'd anticipated.
  
• Mary, Mary, How Does Your Costume Grow? panel: on costuming not being just for extremely knowledgeable professionals, and using what you have, while considering how detailed it needs to be (will it be on stage only, or for walking about, too?). Fun pictures.
  
• Summit Mt. Arisia!: walking up the stairs to the top, and getting a ribbon for my efforts. Fun because I had people to walk with, and there were pictures showing comparative heights at other interesting sites (particularly ziggurats :-). I think this helped a lot of people remember that there were ways past the third floor that weren't elevators, and that it wasn't necessarily difficult to walk upstairs.
  
• club dance: always fun when the music's good. And there were people going up on stage to dance along, too, which was particularly memorable for YMCA. I stayed rather later than I should have, given that I hadn't managed a nap. Oops.
  
• Radio Shift Live Radio Drama: sponsored by the breakfast of humanoids! As always, lots of laughs given the excellent script [smiley face] and great voice work. Kudos to everyone involved.
  
• What's Cooking with Food Geekery? panel: food geeking, what could be better? Though again, it felt like this was too much about food now, and not much at all about sf. Which is still good, but really, I can get my food geek on in a lot of other places; I don't need Arisia for that. I didn't get to ask my question about sf books with food in it (integrated enough to be noticeable, rather than just a little bit for setting). The only one I think of is Sunshine. Any others?
  
• Goblin Ball: I meandered through, rather than attending. It looked like fun, though I have to say I hadn't figured out from the descriptions that it was the period ball, rather than something more tied to Labyrinth (which I just saw for the first time last month).
  
• Ripping Off History for Fun and Profit panel: which stayed pretty much on the topic as I had thought of it, discussions of how much accuracy one needs, depending on how close to actual history one is writing, questions of alternate history v. fictionalized "second world" Earth, using political/army sorts of history v. social history, the inability of the modern person to truly grok the mindset of people in a time far removed from ours, and so on. Laura Anne Gilman was on this panel, and she spoke well enough that I'm inclined to look for her writing (yeah, perhaps it would've been nice to read some WGoH books beforehand, but that rarely happens).
  
• Hildy Silverman reading: she read a nicely creepy very short story of her own that's coming out in a collection by the New Jersey Science Fiction Association, and one by another writer that's coming out in the upcoming edition of Space and Time magazine. The latter one was good, but hearing the first one took me back to college, when I proofread all her stories for her creative writing classes... Those were good times.

P.S. I wonder how much more focused the panels would have been had the panelists been able to plan things out in the weeks before the con.

Comments

[missdimple.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry I missed the Radio Drama panel. I'd hoped to be there, enjoy the show, and hang out with you. Alas, my hives had other plans...

[docorion.livejournal.com]

"I wonder how much more focused the panels would have been had the panelists been able to plan things out in the weeks before the con."

A *lot* more, speaking as a panelist. This was, IMNSHO, one of the biggest failures of the programming department; had they sent out these emails, I and my fellow panelists would have had a bunch more stuff *prepared*. Yes, I actually prepare for a con, much the way costumers and artists do: I get my material ready, read ahead, discuss with fellow panelists what we each can bring to the discussion...eh. None of that happened, and it showed in the quality of the panels, I think.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

It's always interesting to see how people can attend two entirely different cons at the same convention.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Ack! I'm so sorry to hear that the hives went more active :-(. I wish there were something I could do other than send sympathy.

I was glad that there was time to hang out the day before, at least; it's been way too long.

*careful non-itchy hugs*

[magid.livejournal.com]

I was hoping that was the case. Which is to say, while there was interesting conversation, it didn't seem to go as deep as I'd like. Not enough to get my geek on, as it were. And I'd rather that was the result of the programming department not being organized enough to do this than panelists intentionally not planning things in advance.

[magid.livejournal.com]

*grin*
There's a lot going on...

I was sorry to miss Gnomi's birthday gathering; that was high on my list of "dang, that should've happened".