Pictures from Arisia

[fibro-witch.livejournal.com]

Wanted to share the pictures I took of Byron with the people we meet. Here is a link to the pictures from his Byron on Facebook page. Does any one have contact information for the person in the Hit Girl costume. I misplaced the card she gave me with her email address and I wanted to send the picture of the two of them right to her.

I will be putting them up on our web site later today.

Jan Dumas & Byron

Panel review: Food Communicating Culture in Literature.

[avivasedai.livejournal.com]

I thought, since I write up my Arisia experience anyway, I'd put some panel reviews here in case people might be interested who didn't attend. Also, if other audience participants (good phrase, right?) or panelists want to comment/add, that would be great. Here's the first thing I attended, cut-tagged for your pleasure:

( Summary: good authors should make food fit into their story and be part of it. )

Article on Arisia from musical guest Rebecca Angel

[crazybone.livejournal.com]

Singing at Arisia

Noir in SF/F: a short review.

[avivasedai.livejournal.com]

Noir in SF/F: A very knowledgeable panel that tossed about movies known and unknown to me. How well does the blend of SF/F and the film noir genre blend? What are good examples? Is there more to a noir film than rain and night-time? Themes that cropped up were “rain in Los Angeles,” a protagonist with moral ambiguity, a femme fatale as well as a damsel in distress, betrayal of the main character by a best friend or the damsel, who may or may not also be the femme fatale. Alas for me that I didn’t take notes, because I might like to watch some of the movies they mentioned.

If anyone else can add the movies they mentioned, that would be great!

The Future of School: a longer review.

[avivasedai.livejournal.com]

( Definitely hiding this one; it was a great panel and there was a lot of good discussion. )

I don’t recall the final comments from the panelists, but I was very satisfied with this panel and complimented the panelists from it later.

If you went to the 'Boston as Setting' panel ...

[ron_newman]

... or even if you didn't, pick up this week's Boston Phoenix or read these features online:

11 fictional glimpses of the Boston of tomorrow

COMIC: The illustrated history of Boston's future, 2020-2100 AD

Interview: The authors of Future Boston on building the Boston of tomorrow

How to create a readable future, by "Several Future Boston authors" (this one is only online, not in print)

Similar to what I said in email to Arisia staff ...

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

Dear all,

I am hearing from people, attendees and staff, that this year's Arisia was excellent. That makes me very happy, as conchair, and I encourage each of you to remember what a key role you all had in making the con great. I really appreciate everyone's hard work and incredible efforts on behalf of Arisia.

Unfortunately, not all experiences at con were wholly positive.

On Sunday of convention, it was reported to us that someone on Arisia's security staff was acting in a fashion that violated Arisia's rules and code of conduct. When this came to our attention, the head of Arisia security and the conchair-on-duty responded to the situation and tried to defuse it. They then informed him that his staff status was revoked, and later also revoked his convention membership entirely when he continued to be in violation of Arisia policies. Finally, we had him escorted from the property by the hotel's security.

I am so incredibly sorry to anyone whose convention this impacted. ( Read more... )

Panel Length and Timing

[tehuti.livejournal.com]

I've been reading some conflicting opinions on the length of panels at Arisia '11, and wanted to start a discussion about them. Some folks loved the extended time, others not so much. I feel conflicted about it. Having the extra time to get from place to place in the hotel was nice, and the 75 minute format was interesting, but some panels definitely did not need the extra fifteen minutes.

I've also heard some complaints about the early and late start times of the panels, and a bit about other aspects of the con not matching the new panel format. One thing I specifically heard had to do with Fast Track. Starting panels before childcare opened didn't work, particularly for panelists with children. That clearly needs to be fixed for next year.

Anyone else have any thoughts?