My Wiscon 35
Tue, Jun. 7th, 2011 05:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterSo far, I only have one panel report up, and it's less a panel report and more a "The panel touched on these things, which got me on a whole 'nother track..."
I'll hopefully post on the "Assimilation and the Immigrant Grandchild" panel, but I'm still trying to figure out how to do so, since a lot of it was the panelists' personal stories. I'm fine posting my own, but I feel extremely weird and skeevy posting the other panelists'.
Friday
Friday was spent mostly in transportation, as the people who very kindly volunteered to carpool to Madison with me were delayed in traffic, and then delayed again. And again. And again. I feel really bad about having them swing through where I was, since I think Chicago's traffic may be even worse than LA's. But eventually we made it to Wiscon, even though by then I had missed all of the Gathering and the POC dinner! I dropped into the Carl Brandon Society party to say hi to a few people and to get my Con or Bust tshirt, and then collapsed into bed.
Also, what I thought was allergies on the airplane turned out to not go away, so I prepared for the con by buying a large box of lotioned tissue.
Saturday
In which I actually woke up fairly early! Went to the farmers' market withjinian and saw a lot of pretty plants and flowers, which she can probably talk about much more intelligently than me! I am getting better! After several years, I have discovered that I never eat all my farmers' market spoils in time, that pastries are the most portable and long-lasting items, and that if one forgets that jam counts as a liquid-type thing, one has to check in one's baggage and pay extra. Also, that due to this, it may not be worth getting jam if one already has three unfinished jars from previous Wiscons.
On the other hand, I got a cherry turnover (I LOVE cherry pie!), a wee strawberry rhubarb pie which was shared with some people but ultimately wolfed down as Monday morning breakfast, an orange-chocolate-chip loaf (consumed post-con, very tasty), some maple sugar candy for CB, and six mini cheesecakes! I am so tempted to do what Jinian did, and get one of each flavor of all the turnovers, because I really do love them. Or maybe just several cherry pies? I haven't found a lot of cherry pies I like back here, which makes me sad!
Oh right. Then I had lunch with fellow anime and manga panelists, after which I finally went to some panels! I was on the "Assimilation and the Immigrant Grandchild" one, which I felt went very well. Then I think I went to Fanfic 401, then to another one I was on (Looking Beyond the Gender Binary in Anime and Manga).coffeeandink has a
partial transcript, and fellow panelistlittlebutfierce has some reactions. I think the panel went all right? Still lurking about in Mely's comments every so often, because more discussion = always fun! I was kind of bugged by several audience questions that were kind of trying to come up with a Grand Unifying Theory about shoujo manga and the gender binary, but I say this not knowing if I did it myself on the panel.
This was also the day I went to parties and hung out with people and did jazz hands in photos!
Sunday
On Sunday, I decided to sleep instead of go to an 8:30 breakfast with Timmi DuChamp and Mely, slept for five minutes, then decided I should really be social and showered extremely fast.
Also, there was an Ooku panel! Probably my favorite panel of the con, though I think I talked to much from the audience. I particularly love Jinian's idea of the manga as a secret history and Yoshinaga's way of rewriting Edo Japan. Now I really want more panels on a few works of manga or a single mangaka (Takaya Natsuki, Y/Y?!), because I felt having everyone fairly familiar with the text made the conversation really interesting.
I always forget how short and long Wiscon is. Every time I plan for it, I feel like two full days of panels cannot possibly be enough, but then I find that my brain is pretty much dead after three panels. And then of course, there is post-panel discussion with friends, or ranting, or meals, and all in all, it is so very full!
Dinner included mango lassi with whipped cream (?!) and a maraschino cherry (?!?!) and conversation topics that ranged from "Edwardian... werewolf... soulmate" bandom fic, clone banging, and "Did I make up the giant flying whale or was that really there?" Post-dinner conversation included horse penises on the cover art of Mercedes Lackey's Arrows of the Queen trilogy and the gender of the hands on the Twilight cover.
I liked Nisi Shawl's GoH speech, although my complete lack of music pop culture means I need to look up what she sang to open and close it. I am 100% sure they are both extremely well-known and I will be embarrassed for not knowing them, much like I have zero knowledge of English-language TV pre-2000s.
And then! I wanted to socialize with people and check out the Genderfloomp dance party, but ended up being too tired and fell asleep.
Monday
I think by Monday, I had largely stopped using complete sentences and resorted to a lot of hand waving (literal) to make up for brain not coming up with more words. I also need to figure out a list of things to talk to with authors I want to kind of squee at, since at Sign Out, mostly I went up to people, was like "Hi! Um, I think you're cool" and then promptly run out of things to say. Next time: aim to be more social and less creepy!
Amazingly, Monday included no delayed flights. Also, Nisi Shawl was on my flight from Madison to O'Hare and talked a bit to me about the book she is working on! I am now super excited about it. Also, I do fangirl flaily arms and squee in the relative privacy of my journal.
It was a good, relaxing Wiscon. Some fail, but not FAIL, imo, and I feel like the con is less author-centric than it was when I first started going (2006). There was a lot more fannish programming this year (anime and manga, vids, fanfic, etc.), so I felt less unqualified. It was also really nice being there not feeling like a complete unqualified noob (2006), like Angry Asian Girl (2007), or feeling completely burnt out (2009).
I'll hopefully post on the "Assimilation and the Immigrant Grandchild" panel, but I'm still trying to figure out how to do so, since a lot of it was the panelists' personal stories. I'm fine posting my own, but I feel extremely weird and skeevy posting the other panelists'.
Friday
Friday was spent mostly in transportation, as the people who very kindly volunteered to carpool to Madison with me were delayed in traffic, and then delayed again. And again. And again. I feel really bad about having them swing through where I was, since I think Chicago's traffic may be even worse than LA's. But eventually we made it to Wiscon, even though by then I had missed all of the Gathering and the POC dinner! I dropped into the Carl Brandon Society party to say hi to a few people and to get my Con or Bust tshirt, and then collapsed into bed.
Also, what I thought was allergies on the airplane turned out to not go away, so I prepared for the con by buying a large box of lotioned tissue.
Saturday
In which I actually woke up fairly early! Went to the farmers' market with
jinian and saw a lot of pretty plants and flowers, which she can probably talk about much more intelligently than me! I am getting better! After several years, I have discovered that I never eat all my farmers' market spoils in time, that pastries are the most portable and long-lasting items, and that if one forgets that jam counts as a liquid-type thing, one has to check in one's baggage and pay extra. Also, that due to this, it may not be worth getting jam if one already has three unfinished jars from previous Wiscons. On the other hand, I got a cherry turnover (I LOVE cherry pie!), a wee strawberry rhubarb pie which was shared with some people but ultimately wolfed down as Monday morning breakfast, an orange-chocolate-chip loaf (consumed post-con, very tasty), some maple sugar candy for CB, and six mini cheesecakes! I am so tempted to do what Jinian did, and get one of each flavor of all the turnovers, because I really do love them. Or maybe just several cherry pies? I haven't found a lot of cherry pies I like back here, which makes me sad!
Oh right. Then I had lunch with fellow anime and manga panelists, after which I finally went to some panels! I was on the "Assimilation and the Immigrant Grandchild" one, which I felt went very well. Then I think I went to Fanfic 401, then to another one I was on (Looking Beyond the Gender Binary in Anime and Manga).
coffeeandink has a partial transcript, and fellow panelist
littlebutfierce has some reactions. I think the panel went all right? Still lurking about in Mely's comments every so often, because more discussion = always fun! I was kind of bugged by several audience questions that were kind of trying to come up with a Grand Unifying Theory about shoujo manga and the gender binary, but I say this not knowing if I did it myself on the panel. This was also the day I went to parties and hung out with people and did jazz hands in photos!
Sunday
On Sunday, I decided to sleep instead of go to an 8:30 breakfast with Timmi DuChamp and Mely, slept for five minutes, then decided I should really be social and showered extremely fast.
Also, there was an Ooku panel! Probably my favorite panel of the con, though I think I talked to much from the audience. I particularly love Jinian's idea of the manga as a secret history and Yoshinaga's way of rewriting Edo Japan. Now I really want more panels on a few works of manga or a single mangaka (Takaya Natsuki, Y/Y?!), because I felt having everyone fairly familiar with the text made the conversation really interesting.
I always forget how short and long Wiscon is. Every time I plan for it, I feel like two full days of panels cannot possibly be enough, but then I find that my brain is pretty much dead after three panels. And then of course, there is post-panel discussion with friends, or ranting, or meals, and all in all, it is so very full!
Dinner included mango lassi with whipped cream (?!) and a maraschino cherry (?!?!) and conversation topics that ranged from "Edwardian... werewolf... soulmate" bandom fic, clone banging, and "Did I make up the giant flying whale or was that really there?" Post-dinner conversation included horse penises on the cover art of Mercedes Lackey's Arrows of the Queen trilogy and the gender of the hands on the Twilight cover.
I liked Nisi Shawl's GoH speech, although my complete lack of music pop culture means I need to look up what she sang to open and close it. I am 100% sure they are both extremely well-known and I will be embarrassed for not knowing them, much like I have zero knowledge of English-language TV pre-2000s.
And then! I wanted to socialize with people and check out the Genderfloomp dance party, but ended up being too tired and fell asleep.
Monday
I think by Monday, I had largely stopped using complete sentences and resorted to a lot of hand waving (literal) to make up for brain not coming up with more words. I also need to figure out a list of things to talk to with authors I want to kind of squee at, since at Sign Out, mostly I went up to people, was like "Hi! Um, I think you're cool" and then promptly run out of things to say. Next time: aim to be more social and less creepy!
Amazingly, Monday included no delayed flights. Also, Nisi Shawl was on my flight from Madison to O'Hare and talked a bit to me about the book she is working on! I am now super excited about it. Also, I do fangirl flaily arms and squee in the relative privacy of my journal.
It was a good, relaxing Wiscon. Some fail, but not FAIL, imo, and I feel like the con is less author-centric than it was when I first started going (2006). There was a lot more fannish programming this year (anime and manga, vids, fanfic, etc.), so I felt less unqualified. It was also really nice being there not feeling like a complete unqualified noob (2006), like Angry Asian Girl (2007), or feeling completely burnt out (2009).
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Wed, Jun. 8th, 2011 07:36 am (UTC)