Conventions

By the time I started going to them, I had sorta lost interest in the whole deal. So other than playing in a few games, it was pretty meh for me.

Caption in Oxford. Small press comics. Mostly involves sitting in a garden drinking with friends. 100 people tops, at a guess.

UKCAC - UK Comic Art Convention. In the Student Union building near Russell Sq - as above, except an indoor bar. Used to get about 1,500 people.

San Diego - huge and slick and businessy. Drinking with top comic creators by rooftop swimming pools. I interviewed several wonderful and lovely creators - Sergio Aragones, Archie Goodwin, Doug Wildey, Scott McCloud. 15,000 people.

Angouleme, in the south of France. Takes over the town/city. Drinking in huge guest tent. Centred on the comic museum, a glorious four storey building. Opened on the first day by Jacques Lang, then Minister Of Culture, on live national TV. 250,000 people!

been to a few comic conventions - prized momeent at age 13/14(?) meeting Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura) and I still have our pic together.

but ppl are using convention up there in the way i think of conferences, is that a purely UK/US distinction or am I missing something?

The sci-fi ones were fun, pretty much what you'd expect. The ones I went to with my girlfriend were a lot more fun because she really enjoys meeting the famous people. The drum one was great, tons of great clinics and stuff to hit with sticks.

1. I got off work for a week and nobody gave a shit when I got up in the morning.

2. Nobody cared that I wasn't ther for the AM sessions as long as I made and appearance sometime in the afternoon.

3. I got to hang out with a crazy old Japanese documentary filmmaker, two members of the auditing team from the German branch of Arthur Anderson, a couple of Norwegian intel agents, some fromer CIA and DIA personnel, a guy who worked for SOCOM, and this awesome motherfucker from the Netherlands (ARNO YOU ARE AWESOME).

4. See # 3

5. See # 3

6. I got to hang out with a dude fm Scotland Yard, a hot girl fm Sweden's intelligence agency, and a rep fm some NGO (who cares which one, she wz hot)

I also went to Summercon 99, a nice hacker convention, which unfortunately fell right in the middle of one of my 'sober' periods - I got to hang out with

1. guys who cd ruin yr credit rating in the time it take you to read this

2. guys who cd give you palpitations and poss. a fatal attk just fm shaking yr hand

3. guys who ran their own server farms over wireless b4 802.11 was readily available on the market

4. guys who wanted to buy me hella shots and owned a large collection of firearms

(note: none of the preceding categories are exclusive)

Ergo: Classic.

Pretty much my reaction, and I did, except for a little roleplaying now and then.

No such barminess the year I went, though I think it was the world premiere of that Roswell autopsy footage (mildly comedic) and some incomprehensible Ukrainian chap blathering on about abductions. Oh, and blasts of War of the Worlds were played between each lecture.

Went to Worldcon (big SF convention, dunno how big in the grand scheme of things) about a decade back but was struck by how small it actually was. Great panel action featuring John Shirley, though.

Been to a couple guitar/gear shows. Those are kinda weird and erudite in an uncultured sort of way. Lots of pretty instruments that i'll never buy at those ludicrous prices, but still pretty. Funny how much people will charge for a metal box filled with wires and some diodes, though.

The most frightening convention i've ever been to isn't really a convention, but the E3 trade show, for video and computer games. Fills the totality of the LA convention center (two titanic and a couple lesser) halls filled with seizure-inducing electronics and so goddamn much money that it isn't funny. The geeks are quite nearly outnumbered by the suits and it makes for very interesting humanwatching.

But it's also good for an artery-clogging breakfast at The Pantry, since i have to drive up early enough to avoid traffic.

haha, and being approached by Chris Claremont (beside a different hotel pool on a different night), who I'd met several times before. First thing he says (no 'hello' or anything) was "So what do you think of my latest comics?" and I had to explain to him, not for the first time, that I hadn't read anything he'd written for some years.

Bwahahahahahaaa. Priceless. Bet you could substitute John Byrne in there and folks would still believe it.

The one time i met Claremont he seemed like a good enough guy, and i tried to get his take on the resurrection and exploitation of one of his most infamous creations/revisions (being Jean Grey/Phonenix). He wouldn't say anything near the microphone at the panel, but afterwards i got a good rant out of him.

Come on out, Martin. I'll make cookies.

Also, he got comic artists he met to draw topless images of the female X-Men in this hardback sketchbook he carried around with him. He was really proud of these dashed-off drawings of Storm's tits.

If academic conferences are included, I go to three or four of those a year. This is why I like to talk about the varying levels of attractiveness/repulsiveness of different academic disciplines.

Also various book and publishing events.

(I tagged along with some friends because they wanted someone to share the cost of the van rental; while the event was going on during the daytime Jacki and I went into Manhattan for record shopping.)

Few things were as surreal as going into the vendors hall and seeing one record dealer with four or five copies of the Yesterday and Today butcher sleeve, right next to each other. Although that may have been topped by the jam session -- 50 or 60 fans, all with acoustic guitars, each noodling away at their favorite Beatles song. I was so tempted to holler out a request for "Revolution 9."

This is the modern computer game industry in a nutshell.

Went to a couple of Worldcons and about a half-dozen conventions of the American Sociological Association and Pacific Sociological Association. Most academic conventions aren't all that spectacular - at least the ones I've ended up going to.

Apple's World Wide Developer Conference is the best of the computer ones... Total alpha-geek crowd and massive parties afterward.

-- strongo hulkington (dubplatestyl...), April 5th, 2004.

Fuck off, the both of yez.

You're saying this as if it's a problem.