Addendum to TBT's NORWESCON Review.

.....Yesterday was a whirlwind tour of NORWESCON for me. As usual I had a well-thought-out-plan (t) that went out the window after about one panel. I suffer badly from the 'Oooo, Look At That' syndrome. I get easily distracted, although not as badly as some. :-)

.....The NORWESCON Town Hall meeting was interesting, and sounded pretty familion to my SCA ears. The bottom line being that a volunteer organization is run by, wait for it, v-o-l-u-n-t-e-e-r-s, who have lives aside from the one in which they are volunteering. There is just not enough time over the course of the day to do everything one wants to do.

.....Came away with a small group of 'go-dos' myself though. I had to sit on my hands at several points as I kept feeling this NEED to volunteer to take something on for action. There were things that needed to be DONE and ORGANIZED, and I was THERE. But I know myself well enough to know that if I'm doing the SCA, I have no time to do a decent job for NORWESCON. It's one, or the other, but not both. Thankfully I'm old enough to realize the reality of that fact. :-)

.....But that is NOT going to stop me from volunteering the heck out of TBT though! :-) I'm determined that she enter some art in the art show next year. That she enter at least one costume in the masquerade. And that she put together a course syllabus and resume to head up a panel next year. I think that she would have a blast doing it, and the convention needs her talents.

.....Only movie previews that I noted that TBT didn't mention were 'Where The Wild Things Are' and 'Alice in Wonderland'. 'Where The Wild Things Are' was also a favorite children's book for me, so I have kind of high expectations for it. But I'm a little nervous seeing the trailers, it could be a dog. Live action monsters, hmmmm. The modern music was a little jarring to me as well. But we'll see. Also saw a picture of Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter in the Tim Burton production of 'Alice In Wonderland'. It's gonna be wild, that's for sure!

.....Listened to some good music in a couple of filk concerts. Inspirational in some regards. I really need to get off of my hind end and pull out some music. It has been too long and I need to play something again.

.....Last panel of the evening was 'Philosophy of the Undead'. A very wild panel discussing the moral implications of zombies and their ultimate dispatch. Although we couldn't seem to get the discussion off of the ground past trying to figure out how to assign a level of 'humanness' to zombies in order to establish whether it was even O.K. to wipe them out. Are there moral responsibilities of protecting their numbers if they have a consciusness? They eat brains, so are they alive? A conundrum worthy of giving one a headache! :-)

.....Time to get in line for coffee. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.

Late Saturday NORWESCON TBT Addendum.

.....LIVE! From the Bardic Circle in Evergreen Rooms 2 and 3 at NORWESCON. The Evergreen Rooms happen to be right next to the WiFi for the hotel, so I'm going to take advantage of both computer access and good bardic music.

.....And quite the eclectic mix! It's nothing like an SCA Bardic Circle, where everyone at least tries to be medieval in their approach. I've heard songs of space travel, the Loch Ness Monster, love affairs most bizarre (between beings from different planets, no less). If you can imagine it, there is a song for it. But I'm enjoying the mix, and even joining in (as long as I think that my voice is not going to be heard above everyone else :-)).

.....Oh, boy, was today crowded! I couldn't believe the numbers milling around on the main floor. Was it just me, or did it seem more crowded than usual? Maybe, maybe not.

.....Loving the Steampunk thing this year. What a variety. And well done stuff. I like that Victorian flair and elegance. The mechanical aspects add a nice juxtaposition between the fantasy aspects and the science fiction backgrounds.

.....Some good costuming of other types as well. There was a good Darth Vader, with his Stormtroopers around him. Boy, was he tall.

.....The masquerade had an Aztec Court as one of the presentations. There were at least a dozen of them in the troup, and they did a fantastic job on their research. A lot of bright colours, feathers, and body paint. From just the little bit of Mezo-American history that I know, I thing that they did a pretty good job with their stuff.

.....But I thought that the coolest costume was the Minotaur. It was all fake fur and naugahyde horns, but whoever actually put it together did a good job with it.

.....TBT mentioned the Mr. Lockwood presentation on electronic art. He used Corel and Adobe, but I could see immediately how many years I'm behind the scenes. The last time I really messed with Adobe Illustrator was to put together the artwork for platework on my circlets. The things that artists can do with electronic art is just simply amazing. The detailed line work, the shading, the colouring, it's just amazing. Makes me wish I were an artist. :-)

.....I also was confronted with my age yet again when sitting through a discussion of what has changed in AD&D since I really played last. Some of the things that are available on line are amazing. Gone are the days when it would take literally days and weeks to put together characters and adventures. You can generate player characters in mere minutes, and have access to hundreds of ready made adventures at your fingertips. Wow!

.....Was a little disappointed in the Tolkien panel. There was one Tolkien expert on the panel, but like TBT said, they didn't say much that we didn't already know or even speculate at some time or another. The influences on Tolkien himself are pretty well documented. Just the fact that his work on Beowulf (Beowulf: The Monster and the Critics) is still used as a textbook in colleges these days should say something significant about his root influences. Come on, people, wake up now. Let's get into some real speculation and discuss something interesting, like speculating on exactly what similarities there are between his own personality and Beren, and the similarities to the Nordic legends of Sigurd. Now that would be a decent discussion! I think that I'll write in a suggestion that a REAL Tolkien geek-out be scheduled as a panel next year. :-)

.....Holy Cow! What's with the gnome invasion this year! Besides the Steampunk craze, I saw dozens and dozens of those tall red hats all over the place. Some were two or three feet high. Some were only a foot or so tall. Some were pointed, and some were limp (and many were quite suggestive), but there were dozens and dozens of gnome hats all over the place. Are they here to take over the planet? Is it really a weird invasion from some other planet? I just don't know, but it's kinda scary. :-)

.....I guess that the Rocky Horror presentation was a little over the edge last night, even for Rocky Horror! :-) I need to find out the details. Makes me wish that I had made it to the showing. :-)

.....It was mentioned that there is a definite lack of hard science panels this year. This is a note to myself to hit up Stiven for some POCs for some of the local astronomy buffs. Maybe I should see if I can convince Ralph to do a panel or two on some of the stuff on which he geeks out. He is definitely a grade 'A' geek on a few things electronic, and military, and space, and would probably fit in quite nicely at NORWESCON.

.....Ooooo, someone just pulled out a lap dulcimer. I think that I'm going to sign off and listen to some dulcimer music.

.....Aaron / Arontius.