My Worldcons

[howeird]

I have not been to many, because I came to con fandom late, and when I did there was Baycon and Silicon, bookending the summer, and that was enough for me.

My first Worldcon was kind of a Baycon on Steroids, ConJose. 2002. Photos are here and it was a who's who of many of my favorite writers. Bear, two Benfords, Brin, Vinge, Pohl, Niven. Lots of panels, and enough seats to be able to catch a little of another one if the first one you went to was not riveting. Many good Masq costumes and more hall costumes. It was a great time, and set the bar way up there for me, especially since I had not expected much from a local Worldcon.

Lack of finances and lack of vacation time has kept me fairly close to home. My next Worldcon was Denvention in Denver. I mostly liked the filk track, especially Kathy Mar's concert. I did not like that the hotels were not close to the event, but I liked the hall, except for all the walking between panel rooms. GoH was Lois McMaster Bujold, not a favorite of mine. I read a couple of the first Vorkosigan books, and was not thrilled with the way she treated women in them. Or how she came to idolize the dictator. Not as many hall costumes, I don't think I went to masq. David Brin was there (again) and gave a one man interactive chat. Fanzine lounge was all about alcohol. The con suite was funk, I met someone, but made the wrong choice to go back to the hotel instead of joining her and two of her new friends for dinner. Never heard from her again. Her new friend became an LJ friend, but she turns out to be batshit crazy, so I've stopped reading her pages.

Next con was Renovation, the 3 Bs were there again, con suite was a FAIL, chips was about all they had. Loncon party room was decorated in sci-fi & fantasy Underground station names. Lots of good panels, lots of good filk. Hilarious talk on the Creation Museum by John Scalzi. Masq was okay but I got no photos. Atlantis Hotel was excellent and even though it was connected to the event site, it was a LONG walk.

Finally London last month. Masq was excellent. Philharmonic was beyond brilliant. Most everything else was an amateur production. Way too crowded, no way to slide between panels because they were all full all the time. Fan area instead of hotel party rooms was a joke. Guests of Honor I had never heard of, one of them deceased and lionized up the yin-yang. Very limited food choices at the venue. Lots of food stalls, but not a lot of things I wanted to eat. I ended up playing tourist for two mornings. At least London was a great place to bail to.

Spokane coming up. No thank you. I was the news editor of an Eastern Washington weekly back in the 70s, covered the Spokane World's Fair (the Soviet Union pavilion was amazing) and have several friends who have moved there, with whom I keep in touch. I use the word "friend" loosely because they moved there to be with their fellow ultra-conservative, Christian compatriots. There's not much there there, and the weather in mid-August is an oven.

Kansas City MO. Nope, not going to a state which is still fighting the civil war. Can you say Ferguson?

So 2017. So many bids. Leaning toward Helsinki, but don't know if I can afford it.

Comments

[bovil.livejournal.com]

Room parties are alien to European conventions and European hotels. Something we have to live with when we play in other people's sandbox. The "Fan Village" was a creative attempt to bring together North American room party culture and European pub culture, but it was hampered by the incredibly complicated and expensive ExCeL catering and corkage rules.

[howeird]

Yeah, I knew that about Europe room parties going in, but with London's pubs and night life, there must have been off-site alternatives. And of course the con organizers knew all about the Excel corkage rules beforehand. It was mostly an amateur operation, Loncon3.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

I recall the lack of parties at my first Worldcon, in the UK, Brighton, 1979 Seacon. Same thing, I think, exacerbated by the rumors that the pros had their own party suite, much nicer than ours, and were hiding out from the fans. Disadvantage of Brighton: there's no there there.

Thanks for the compliment on Denvention 3 filk. That was partly my fault.

I will likely go to Worldcon in 2015 and 2016 because they're relatively cheaper to travel to than London. After Reno, I will not attend another Worldcon that doesn't have smoke-free facilities all around including a smoke-free party hotel. And yeah, Missouri is a haven for racist cops. Which is a drag. But I hear the BBQ is pretty good. 2015 should have pretty good filk.

Going by your standards, I'd be saving up money for 2020. New Zealand looks promising. The NZ fans I met at Aussiecon IV in 2010 were some very cool people, and NZ is beautiful. I spent all of my time there in Auckland, and on my next trip I'd really like to see more of NZ, and maybe also a side trip to Fiji, or more of Australia. My flights on Air New Zealand were all great - their coach reminded me of flying first class to Hawaii back in 1966 on Pan Am, except they didn't hand out foot warmers. And Pan Am had rock cornish game hen. Disadvantage: If you're looking for great filking, NZ probably isn't it.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

I'm sure there was a "pro bar" at one of the nearby pubs.

Before and after the con, the Fox @ Connaught (in the Connaught House Hotel behind the Premiere Inn) and the Fox @ ExCeL (at the west end of the ExCeL next to the Customs House DLR station) were popular pub destinations. But they were separated by the ExCeL itself.