May 30, 2009

Guest Blog: A Meeting of the Mods

(Black Bear)

Memorial Day weekend is always a pleasure for me. I leave Indianapolis, land of a thousand racecars and a million tourists this time of year, and I go to Madison, Wisconsin instead for three days. I hit the Farmer’s Market, buy things I don’t need on State Street, and talk about books and issues of gender, politics, and sexuality at WisCon. WisCon is self-billed as the World’s Leading Feminist Science Fiction Convention; I’ll take their word on it, as my experience of the World’s Lesser Feminist Science Fiction Conventions is…. well, nonexistent. But I’ve gotten to know WisCon pretty well over the years. I started going in 1996, and by my count this was my 12th WisCon–I think I’ve missed only two. (Importantly, I did NOT miss Robin’s appearance at WisCon 29–she was marvelous.)* *

I’m the first to admit that I don’t fully participate in all things Con; I tend to watch from the sidelines, and for all I’ve been going there for the last 14 years give-or-take-a-few, I’m fairly sure that most of the Core WisCon regulars could not pick me out of a lineup. I spend most of my time loping rather gracelessly up and down the hall near the con suite (though less of that, now that I’m getting older and thicker. I less lope, and more lumber these days) and socializing with the friends I only see at WisCon. But this year, there was an added bonus feature! I met, for the first time and face to face in all her knitting glory**, my fellow moderator Jmeadows!!


Needless to say, it was a blast. It’s always good to meet new friends, in my book, and it’s especially fun to watch someone encountering something cool for the first time–shakes one out of jaded complacency, you know? I actually met quite a few people this weekend who were experiencing their first WisCon, come to think of it. And there’s something just fun about seeing folks get all lit up about the WisCon experience, which I have to agree is like no other con I’ve ever been to. I’ll blather more on my own blog, and let Jodi tell you what she thought of the whole thing; I’ll leave you instead with the best quote I heard all weekend, at a panel on Magic, Religion and Art:
Commentor: Magic is something you do and it works once, and you really hope it will work again.
Panelist: No, that’s baking.*

Take it away, Jodi–

(Jmeadows)

This was my first WisCon, and only my second convention of all time, so I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. My only other experience was a larger one, World Fantasy Con, a few years ago in my home town of Austin, Texas.*** WFC** has a lot of publishing industry folks, which is neat, but I didn’t actually bother with any of that. At WFC, I didn’t go to any panels, or readings (except one, where a friend read her poetry). I was more thrilled to hang out with friends I’d known online for years.

WisCon was a different experience, though. I have several friends who’ve gone to every WisCon they can manage. After years of hearing how amazing WisCon is, I decided to see for myself. I drove up with fellow forumite JaimeLee on Thursday, immediately met up with a handful of my best friends, and we were off on adventure in no time. We did panels,† went to a reading,†† and put in appearances at all the parties.

Madison is the cutest city. Downtown, at least. We had to stop and peer into every window (I’m still daydreaming about some of those dresses,)*** and the mixture of architecture was so darn cool and welcoming. There are wonderful lakes everywhere, so it’s easy to forget you’re in the middle of a city. The Concourse Hotel is right by the capitol building, which is gorgeous, of course, and you can look in any direction and find food. Golly, the food. Let me tell you. Mediterranean food, Chinese, coffee shops, and a pizza shop (which I went to with Black Bear and a few other friends) that has the weirdest stuff on pizzas. I got mac and cheese on mine. Laurel got something with potatoes and bacon…on pizza. It was weird, but really, really good. Another friend and I went to the farmer’s market where we got a giant cinnamon roll; we didn’t realize until too late that it was only a Saturday thing, and we couldn’t repeat our cinnamon roll experience on Sunday.**  Alas! Now I understand what people mean when they say eating their way through Madison, Wisconsin.****

I got to hang out with Black Bear several times. There was the pizza, a few times around parties, and one of the cool things about this con is that it’s small enough you actually can run into your friends in the hallway or during events. All in all? WisCon was awesome. The town is adorable, the programming is pretty interesting, and the people are AMAZING. I can see why this con has so many loyal attendees like Black Bear.

* * *

*She really must have been. People still mentioned her fondly this year.^

^ Not at all.  They’re just a very kindly and tolerant bunch.  And your putting your fist under their noses and saying and I’m a mod on her blog, wanna make something of it?, might have had something to do with it too.  –Hellgoddess/ed note

* Oh, bother. Jodi’s doing footnotes, so now I feel an obligation to footnote. But yes, Robin was fabulous. Her GOH speech was wonderful, she managed to work in bells AND roses AND dogs AND writing–it was not unlike the blog in this respect. ^

^ Hey.  And vampires.  And homeopathy. 

**It’s true, I had a sock-in-progress with me at all times, plus the knit socks I insisted on wearing every day. ^ The lady does not exaggerate.

^ Every day?  Hmmmmm . . .

* Snork. 

***I expected to see my family while in Austin, but what do you know: they heard I was coming home and immediately moved out of state. ^

^ They heard you were going to be wearing the SAME SOCKS SEVERAL DAYS IN A ROW.

** This is not to be confused with KFC, which is far higher in cholesterol.

†Laurel — remember her from mountain-climbing? — was actually on three of them. I made it to two so I could heckle her from the back of the room.

††After which I ran up to the dealers’ room^ to buy one of the books. That’s Sarah Prineas’s THE MAGIC THIEF. It’s Middle Grade fantasy. I got her to sign it for me after the con; she writes her notes in the code used in the book. I need to decipher mine still.

^There were so many things to buy. I could have spent a lot of money there, but managed to escape with only one other purchase: Elizabeth Moon’s SPEED OF DARK. My TBR (to be read) shelves are bowing. That doesn’t stop me from wanting, though. Mmm, books.

*** I bought a hat. My roommate Karen bought a pair of purple velvet Kangaroo hi-tops.

**I was, ahem, enormously impressed by the cinnamon rolls in Madison.   The only cinnamon rolls in this world that I know that can rival them are–I hope it’s still are and not were, I haven’t been back in a while–at Dysart’s Truck Stop in Orono, Maine.   Some of my old Maine friends and I had a fantasy about holding a launch party for SUNSHINE there but the actual tour kind of destroyed both my stamina and my sense of humour for some time so we didn’t pursue it.  And ALBION has less baking in it.

**** Double bother, I can’t figure out how to do the dagger thingys. But just felt the need to add that Madison has excellent sushi, and is known for its cheese and ice cream. I was deeply saddened at not getting a cherry turnover at the farmer’s market, but I settled for a rhubarb one instead and that was almost as good.

the-mod-squad
Two Heroines.  Clearly not to be messed with.   Note lady on the left fleeing the scene.

May 30, 2009 | Filed Under guest blog 

comments

Please join the discussion at Robin McKinley's Web Forum.

Our words must seem to be inevitable. -- William Butler Yeats