For all the sturm und drang surrounding Arisia Corporate for the past year (there have been some cultural conflicts that went poorly, and an irritating battle against Marriott Corp that has solidified my general sense that, while the Westin hotel are lovely people, Marriott as a whole are the spawn of the devil) -- nonetheless, I really love the convention itself. It's a fun time, and working on it is a blast. So a few preliminary notes, before I go to bed.
We experimentally split Team Arisia HQ (aka "back of house") from the Volunteers Desk in the lobby (aka "front of house"). This was a qualified success, IMO: there mostly isn't enough work to do, so it risks being a dull job. What saves the Volunteers Desk is its secondary job, the Duck Hunt -- running Duck Hunt Central is remarkably entertaining.
For those who haven't seen it, the convention buys an enormous number of interesting little rubber duckies. Indiana Jones Ducks. Knight Ducks. Sparkly Rainbow Unicorn Ducks. Bug-Eyed Alien Ducks. Dozens of models of Ducks. These are "hidden" (often in plain sight) around the hotel. If you find a Duck, you may keep it, bring it back to Duck Central to exchange for a different Duck, or exchange it for one of the Fabulous Prizes in the drawers below the table. (The Star Trek socks were the most in-demand prize this year.) Approximately every kid at the con got hugely into the Duck Hunt, along with many of the teens and not a small number of adults. Getting to play Vanna White repeatedly, explaining the You May Keep Your Duck or Exchange It For Fabulous Prizes, is both deeply stupid and remarkably fun.
I'm on six panels this year. Seven and a half hours of panels -- be careful what you ask for, but they've been a lot of fun. Four are done at this point (two more tomorrow), and all were a lot of fun, but I think my pick so far is "Branching Out From the Big Two", an examination of the world of comics beyond DC and Marvel. It was a rollicking 75 minutes, exploring just how enormous the field of comics actually is, and what a wealth of choice and variety there is.
Don't believe anyone moaning about "the death of comic books", because they full of shit: we are living in the golden age of comics right now, with more depth to the field than ever before. It was downright inspirational to a comics nerd like myself. Superhero comics may be reaching the end of the their rope, but that's just one tiny genre in a thousand.
The Bon Me food truck folks are amazing. They had to solo lunch today (the other planned truck had problems and couldn't make it at the last minute), but they were able to crank out hot, tasty lunches at amazing speed: I think they were turning folks over every 20-30 seconds. Given that we had to wait out in the cold for our orders, it was a godsend.
The Arisia Renaissance Ball is always a high point of my year.
On the one hand, it totally runs on rails by now -- we haven't even changed the prepared playlist in the past five+ years. (Although we actually do about ten of the twenty dances we prepare, and the exact list varies a little.) So variety isn't its strong suit.
OTOH, it is such a blast to run. This year was back to full strength, partly because we got a good timeslot and partly because I worked on publicizing it. It was over a hundred attendees, and 60+ people on the dance floor for much of it, which makes it one of the larger balls in the Kingdom. It's high-energy, it's fun, and it's full of people who haven't heard my jokes enough times to get tired of them. I can still get the entire room going "No Death" in unison, and get to introduce yet another generation to, "Everybody meet-two-three and go back-two-three, and first-couple-lead-down, go under-the-arms and join-at-the-end-of-the-line".
The Masquerade was fun as always. Not as many high-wattage performances as some years, though. The group portrait of Gentleman Jack was far and away my favorite: when they came out I marked them as the first contenders for Best in Show, and there weren't really any competitors playing at quite that level. Kate and I are fans of the show, and it was a great compression of the first season into two minutes, so it was delightful to see.
I have finally resigned myself to the fact that I don't have room to buy more stuff from the Art Show for myself. But I like the Art Show. So I have found a compromise: I can buy art for other people as gifts. This works for me.
The greatest innovation in modern fandom is House of Toast. This is a party about toast. No, really: they have several toasters running in parallel, several types of bread, and the better part of a hundred toppings. You wait on line (they're efficient, but typically about 15 minutes), get your slice of fresh toast, and get to choose up to three toppings in whatever fiendish combination you choose. (And there is a second room to then enjoy your toast and socialize.)
The moral of the story is that you do not need alcohol in order to have a great party. House of Toast is silly, fun, and just a little bit creative -- a fine place for fen to go. I backed their Kickstarter this year (to raise money for toppings and such), and would happily do so again: it's their second year doing this, and I hope they can continue for many more.
Possibly more thoughts tomorrow, but I should get to bed before it gets stupid-late...
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