Ye Olde Conventions

[pyat]

This month marks the 10th anniversary of my first convention - Visions 98, in Chicago, where I met theradarmun for the first (and thus far, only) time in the flesh, after having befriended her online spring of 1997. I have photos from this event, somewhere. I just can't seem to find them, aside from a half-dozen tiny scans I emailed to people in 1998. I am going to try and find them for the "10th Anniversary" of the event, if I can.

I started going to conventions relatively late in life, or at least "late" in terms of my capacity to get to them. Fear of being perceived as some kind of Trekkie or D&D loser scared me away from them, even if I WAS those things. Then I decided I didn't really give a toss, and started going to SF/Fantasy/Game and even Furry cons whenever I got the chance. I really enjoy the experience of "conspace", and I really enjoy being in the company of people who are simply enthusiastic about something.

In the late 90s and early 2000s, one of the events I most looked forward to was attending Primemedia and (later) Conthulhu, pleasant cons organized by senexmacdonald, thebitterguy, and redeem147, among others.

2002 was the big year. I managed to get to Anthrocon to sell books I'd written. Part of the fun was the experience of the roadtrip. Anthrocon was a solo voyage, with books and radio shows on tape for company, courtesy of doc_mystery. I headed southward with "no provision but an open face", as it were, or at least no decent maps. I will never forget, as darkness fell, putting on a tape and listening to the narrator talk about someone driving through "the mad, dark hills of Pennsylvania." I wrote about the con in glowing terms.

I had a very nice digital camera I'd borrowed from the newspaper. I took hundreds of pics, which I had burned to a CDR when I got home. The disc has since disappeared - I seem to think I someone left it at mar2nee's house, but presumably she'd have given it back! Aside from exactly two thumbnails, none of these images now remain. They used to be here, if any of your Internet-clever-chaps can extract them from the ether.

A couple of month later, velvetpage and I attended C-ACE, and in 2003 I went to GenCon with doc_mystery. These events were likewise well photographed... and once again, all the photos have vanished, somewhere. It isn't until late 2003, when I acquired a digital camera of my own, that the records start, as it were.

This is a long rounded way of telling you that I'm about to post still more photos in my journal. Stick around, because a lot of YOU are in them...


The Sanguine Lunch, Anthrocon 2004. L to R are leonard_arlotte, rikoshi, normanrafferty (in con-going shirt!), LJless Lynx, shavastak (at the head of the table), tealfox, andreal, wggthegnoll and melskunk!


melskunk, before the bloo! Dig the crown, though. We drove home doing "King of Town" impersonations. Anthrocon 2004, somewhere in New York state.


wggthegnoll and melskunk, upon our arrival at Anthrocon 2004.


wggthegnoll in full costume.


bardbloom! Anthrocon 2004, again. Erstwhile author of World Tree and quirkily serious fantasy fiction.


mufi and aprivatefox, playing World Tree. Folks I'd love to get to know better.


wggthegnoll and shavasktak. I miss shavastak!


2004 was the year I went to both Anthrocon and Gencon. Awesome! wggthegnoll and I stopped at White Castles en route. I described it, later, as "the nastiest thing I have ever put in my mouth... and I've eaten sand."


The lovely kesmun, who I've never managed to talk to for more than 3 minutes at a time. :(


Our very own doc_mystery! We drove up to Gencon together the following year, and his books on tape and radio plays have get me sane on many a solo trip.


bardbloom, beetiger, lediva and (in arms) projectmothra. Some of the shiniest people I know. :)


amarafox, at FanExp 2005. One of the coolest artists I know. She has really changed her look since this con!


melskunk AND amarafox, a sort of Unstoppable Duo of Awesome.

And, finally -

Terribly unflattering photo of thebitterguy and I, and two gentlemen from New Jersey, playing Ironclaw at Conthulhu... 2001?

And that's all for now, cause it's bedtim!

Comments

[redeem147.livejournal.com]

Ah, Visions 98. Do you remember the attack of the little Celtic dancers?

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I do! They were making fun of the people in the LARP. I know, cause I was in it, and was make fun at!

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

Those are great pictures! That's an especially nice one of me!

Like you, I was a little bit late to the Con-game. But since I'm older, I got to start earlier on the clock.

I think my first SF convention was the 1991 Ad Astra in Toronto.

And my first RPG convention was the 1991 Pandemonium (in Toronto), where I snagged my copy of TRS's Empire of the Petal Throne at the games auction for $35 Canadian (I remember this being the one where the folks behind Battlelords of the 23rd Century drove up from Buffalo to demo). I played in a great pulpy game of TORG that same time and won a prize after the voting of the other players.

I've only been to GenCon a few times, including my first visit (during the last Milwaukee GenCon) in 2002 where I met many friends from A&E (and now LJ). And, of course my fun road-trip with you one of the last few times I went to GenCon Indy (where 1> we got lost after dining at a Big Boy Restaurant and 2> I learned you didn't drive standard)!

::B::

[redeem147.livejournal.com]

And yet they wore those weird curlers in their hair and looked like Martians.

They woke people up one night knocking on all the doors looking for Nick Brendon. He had to be moved to another hotel. Poor baby looked exhausted on Sunday.

Too bad you only made the last year. It was always a good time.

[dronon.livejournal.com]

I wasn't able to get many image files out of the Internet Wayback Machine's archive. The URL you gave is only preserved as an AT&T placeholder page for unbuilt web pages. I found something called "road.jpg" - a sort of oval-framed leafy autumn road; a campaign(?) map called "erealm.jpg"; the top half of something labeled as "Society of the Gilded Halfling"; and some pics taken from Blade Runner.

[leonard-arlotte.livejournal.com]

Aiiieee!!

My photograph has been captured in Pyat's LJ! My soul is captured, or partly Canadian or something!

How will this affect me? I don't know, but I seem to have an odd craving for poutine all of a sudden.

[kisekileia.livejournal.com]

You drove to a con in PA without a map and GOT THERE?! That's kind of amazing.

Also, the gnoll costume is awesome.

[zenten.livejournal.com]

My first weekend con was Timelord 89.

Although oddly enough redeem147 was there as well ;)

[paka.livejournal.com]

Nice photos! And I like White Castles, but your mileage may vary, and my quick description for the uninitiated is that they're what a burger chain would have been like in the Soviet Union, had there been burger chains in the Soviet Union.

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

These were fun pictures. Thanks for sharing!

[rikoshi.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, I look so young!

[pyat.livejournal.com]

*nods!* I've been to a really weird one in Michigan while driving back from Midwest Furfest in 2003, with shurhaian. It was in a wooden building...

ANyway, we thought they were low quality, but edible. I think the ones I had with wggthegnoll were jalapeno cheeseburgers, and a special kind of Yecch.

You know, I'm not sure I trust a hyena's thoughts on burger chains. ;)

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Too bad you only made the last year. It was always a good time.

*nods* I was lured there by a bunch of folks I knew from a WBS roleplay chat room. We had a blast.

I'm wondering if you were at the Who Party that took place in Toronto a few months (I think) before the con? I think that was the first con I ever went to, aside from the local hobby store's event.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever met anyone who played Battlelords of the 23rd Century...


And, of course my fun road-trip with you one of the last few times I went to GenCon Indy (where 1> we got lost after dining at a Big Boy Restaurant and 2> I learned you didn't drive standard)!

While looking for photos from Visions 98, I actually found an envelope of your photos from one of the Gencons! Remind me to give them back.

I can drive standard... so long as the vehicle in question is a tractor.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Thanks for looking, man. :)

The Blade Runner stuff was for a GURPS RPG I ran - I'd put up an online encyclopedia. The autumn road image was taken from a photo of my parent's house, when they lived outside Kingston.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but I seem to have an odd craving for poutine all of a sudden.

First we take your soul, and then we take your cardiovascular system!

[pyat.livejournal.com]

That's kind of amazing.

Hey... it's ME we're talking about. ;) Although, I did have some basic maps, specifically a really high-level CAA map of NY and PA that showed all the main routes. And I had some written-down directions along the lines of "turn left here" for when I got to Philly. Still, I was pleasantly surprised to see the Adam's Mark Hotel rising out of the midnight mist in front of me...

Patrick makes awesome costumes!

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Weird, that! :)

[pyat.livejournal.com]

You're quite welcome! Are we likely to see you at a con any time soon?

[pyat.livejournal.com]

A babe-in-arms, practically!

[redeem147.livejournal.com]

I was at all of them after 1989. Was that the one with John Levene and Anneke Wills? If so, I was the MC. Was it at a hotel, or OCAD? I've lost track.

[thebitterguy]

That was 2001, IIRC. We talked with the Cthulhu Live guys (that's who that was) about Anthrax attacks, since one of the lived or worked not far from where the offending envelopes were sent.

I was suffering from the after-effects of a particularly unpleasent bout of food poisoning.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

John Levine? Don't you mean... "Gentleman Johnny Bingo", or whatever his cruise ship persona is? And yes, that was the one. :) I was there to hand our Realms magazines, but mostly I hung out in the screening room, watching Red Dwarf episodes I'd never seen before.

[mar2nee.livejournal.com]

You left something at my house? Oh no. If at the time I remembered giving it to you, I probably did. If then, like now, I'm not sure what you're talking about - the disk will be somewhere in the house in a pile, and not necessarily near a computer, even.
I can't even find my own stuff in my house!
Though, Syd was telling me the other day that "we still have Elizabeth's doll." So, I do know that a doll of hers is somewhere - and Syd probably knows where.
When are we playing again?

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sure I got it back from you. I think at one point we had some CDs that got mixed up, or something, and I brought yours back. Still, if you find a CD full of images of people dressed in animal costumes... ;) That's mine!

[pyat.livejournal.com]

That would have been the anthrax!