Not quite a con report

[chipotle]

I’m sitting in the hotel’s lobby—well, I can’t really say after Further Confusion since it’s still going on, and I’ll likely be back tomorrow after work for the “dead dog” party. I’m debating whether to go to one or two of the final panels.

It’s been a good convention for me, staying pretty relaxed. I’ve met a few people I only see once or twice a year (including some locals, who I have less excuse not to see). A few random thoughts and observations:

• I don’t want to declare the print fanzine completely dead, but I think it’s on its last legs. Yarf! had no table this year, Huzzah! officially closed in 2004; South Fur Lands was still around but looking thin. Sofawolf’s serials (as opposed to their books) still nominally exist, but now they’re being at-most-annuals, similar to FurNation’s eponymous magazine.
• Furry art is continuing to get more professional, in both appearance/quality of the art and the approach of the artists. There’s still a lot of cheesecake,¹ a lot of “not ready for prime time” stuff (both skill and content), but the median level now is higher than it was a decade ago, and the high points are much higher.
• An hour ago I was talking with Mick Collins and said, “Sometimes I feel like the cons I attend now are for a different fandom than the one I started in.” He said, “They are.” Some day it could be interesting to try to catalog just what the changes are. (Maybe.)
• It’s remarkable how nonchalant the hotel staff is when a bunch of costumed characters are (mock) fighting in the lobby.

I rarely buy a lot at these cons. This time, I bought two prints from Heather Bruton, and at a bit of prodding, Michael Bergey’s novel New Coyote, which I’ve read a little bit of in the author’s LiveJournal.

I also heard through the grapevine that the artist GoH this year, Eric Elliott, liked Why Coyotes Howl, and mentioned it at a panel. Pretty cool.

At this point, I’m going to keep sitting in the lobby and seeing who comes by, I think, possibly grabbing someone for dinner. I have an arguably unhealthy temptation to go to the steakhouse here at the hotel, which is said to be quite good, but I’ll probably make my saving throw.

(1) The observant will notice that one of the two prints I bought is, in fact, inarguably cheesecake. If called on this, I can only respond: neener neener!

Comments

[typographer.livejournal.com]

Maybe we'll just have to claim the last 'zine standing award, seeing how I have a two-year backlog of literature for mine, and have managed to keep published full sized zines three times a year for a loooooooong time now. :P

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

You may indeed. I can't think of any others running as reliably. "Fang, Claw & Steel" is still going as far as I know, but I think they're only twice a year. (There are a couple APAs running quarterly, to be fair, but they're not really fanzines.)

[padfootsm.livejournal.com]

You're at FC?! Argh...! Must find... and...leaving...tonight...curses upon myself...curses a million times over.

I've been mostly in the game rooms because I worked there running a bunch of games. XD

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

D'oh. Yes, I was. I didn't really wander through the game room except in passing -- a lot of time I was sitting in one of the hallways or lobby, trying to catch people as they went past. If I'd seen you, I'd have tried to sell you a book say "hi" at the least. :)

[padfootsm.livejournal.com]

I probably would've bought said books...depending on what books they were. Anywhere online I can buy them as I'm just about to head out?

If so, great!

As for the lobby, I only went through there in passing to the Dealer's hall. That wasn't too often...plus I have no clue what you look like. What events did you attend?

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

Well, my book is "Why Coyotes Howl," which was at the Sofawolf Press table. It's also available on their website, though. (http://www.sofawolf.com)

Mostly I just wandered to a few panels -- no major events this time. I end up trying to meet people at cons more than going for the programming, although that does depend on the programming that's around. (I keep telling myself to get involved with the writing track at FC or AC, but so far I haven't been listening.)

[typographer.livejournal.com]

Go ahead. Get involved. It's just a small thing. And once you start, you can quit any time you want.

No, really.

Any.

Time.

;)

[padfootsm.livejournal.com]

To be honest chipotle, I haven't been too incredibly impressed with the writing track at FC. It's good, but it's not one of those 'have to go to' things.

Nothing against those who run it, but it's only good, not great. ^_^

That may just be my opinion on it.

[smackjackal.livejournal.com]

It’s remarkable how nonchalant the hotel staff is when a bunch of costumed characters are (mock) fighting in the lobby.

Not really, when you think about it. The hotel has been host to one or two other sci-fi/fantasy cons every year and has done so for more than a decade. In other words, they're just used to _it_.

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

That's still interesting to me, in a way -- a "con hotel" that's just gotten used to making a chunk of its convention money annually this way. I've seen hotels which have at least _some_ experience with SF cons still look faintly bewildered when one takes over their lobby, and those are cons that aren't quite as out there, appearance-wise, as a typical furry con is. One wonders if this is something they go over in the new employee orientation at the Doubletree.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I tend to agree the paper fanzine is on its way out. I saw the signs years ago when we closed down PawPrints - art archives and websites were just making 'zines obsolete as the way the furry community stays in touch.

There's just way higher latency on a paper fanzine when you could be sending someone a message nearly instantly. Blogs like LJ let you share your life story with others with far less effort and more interactivity than the letters in the APAs, and if you want your stories published but you don't care about the money, as is often the case with fanzine authors, then you can just as easily post it somewhere and stick up notices in the blogs to get picked up.

That a bad thing? IMHO not really, fanzines are on the way out 'cause they're being replaced by superior things, and there's not much that's really unique to fanzines that would be lost in the conversion to websites, or at least I can't think of anything drastically important.

Things have changed - they always do

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

If you have any observations on how things have changed over the years, they'd be welcome at WikiFur (http://furry.wikicities.com/) (perhaps in the history (http://furry.wikicities.com/wiki/History) article, or in pages related to the things that have changed, like the one about conventions (http://furry.wikicities.com/wiki/Convention)). Those of us new to the fandom only really know things as they are, not as they were, so it would be great to get that kind of historical perspective recorded - it's even more important now that things like fanzines (http://furry.wikicities.com/wiki/Fanzine) are fading away.

For that matter, the current article about yourself (http://furry.wikicities.com/wiki/Watts_Martin) could do with improving, if you care to (and don't mind writing about yourself). We don't yet have anything on Mythagoras (http://furry.wikicities.com/index.php?title=Mythagoras&action=edit), either, though it's on our list (http://furry.wikicities.com/wiki/Category:Fanzines) of wanted pages.