Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Me and The Gryphon in the Dealers' Room

The Gryphon and I got up fairly early on Saturday to attend Philcon, the annual Philadelphia science fiction convention run by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society.

I dropped our dog, Una, off at the pet sitter's, where she was going to stay overnight, giving us some flexibility for arranging our day.

Then, we went to breakfast at the local diner before driving into the city. Of course, there often seem to be obstacles driving into the city during Philcon. This time, we encountered a funeral on Walnut Street, which we had to skirt by several blocks.

This made us a little late for when we intended to get there, as we'd hoped to get there around 10. But neither of us had anything we really wanted to go to until 11, so we were OK. We stopped first in the game room, to drop off our coats, visit with people and plan out our schedules for the day.

Then I went to a panel called "When Is Humor Not Funny?" One of my main reasons for going to this panel was because author James Morrow was on it. He is a SF author and was also the first interview we ever published in Wild Violet. The interview was done by a former Penn State student who interviewed Morrow on campus. I wanted him to know about the interview, in case he'd never checked it out.

That panel was a lot of fun. It had some good people on it. They not only talked about humor, but they were also funny themselves. Although I hadn't planned it that way, this panel kicked off my day of humor.

Afterwards, I told Morrow about the WV interview and gave him my card. He seemed interested and thanked me.

From there, I went to "Science Fiction of Another Color". On the way, I ran into DJ Rock, who is friends with many of The Gryphon's friends and has DJ'd at some parties we've attended. He had tentatively agreed to be our wedding DJ, contingent on whether or not he got a job overseas. As it turns out, he didn't get the job, so he will be our DJ. I told him I'd e-mail him later to work out details.

He was on the "Science Fiction of Another Color" panel. This was an interesting panel and had a good mix of people. There were two African-American women, both erotica writers, plus DJ Rock, who's also African-American, and then the artist guest of honor, Karl Kofoed, who is white and has written novels with multiethnic characters. Another author, a white woman, was also on the panel.

The conversation got to a good start as they introduced themselves and shared their interest in the subject, what they felt were some key concerns. But then an audience member started to interfere.

I don't know who he was, but instead of wearing the regular Philcon badge, he was wearing a laminated badge with the name of his magazine and his name on it, declaring himself the editor. He'd affixed the ribbons that would usually hang from the regular badge onto this homemade badge. Immediately, he came across as a self-serving idiot, frankly. Even the guests of honor wear the regular badges that just have their names on them.

So this audience member, a middle-aged white guy, kept speaking up, jumping into the conversation. He wasn't just giving his opinion but trying to steer the conversation the way he wanted to go.

If it hadn't been for the fact that DJ Rock was up there, along with Stephanie Burke, one of my favorite Philcon guests, I might have just left. Of course, Stephanie never lets anything throw her, and she continued merrily to make her witty remarks. I got a picture of her afterwards, in her costume.

I stopped into the game room to say hi to The Gryphon on my way to the next panel I attended, "Ninja, Pirate, Robot, Monkey." This panel was brilliant, I have to say. The panelists were supposed to advocate for either ninjas, pirates, robots or moneys, but they didn't know who they were going to get until they got there. Then they had to strenuously argue their point, why theirs was better than the others.

A Philcon staffer, Hugh Casey, moderated, asking them questions and then taking questions from the audience. The panelists answered them.

Phil Kahn was arguing on behalf of the robots, and he had a way of getting the last word and making it funny. So it was no surprise he won the audience vote at the end. However, the pirate advocate, Dusti Lewars, got a strong showing, even though she hardly spoke. I think it was just because she was actually dressed as a pirate. When I took her picture afterwards, I asked her if she'd arranged to get the pirate, and she admitted she had.

One of the most amusing things was when they attacked each other, like the monkey advocate calling the ninjas dumb because they didn't know what to do with a banana. Someone had asked who would be best to defend you against a mugger in a dark alley. Phil pointed out that robots have "Laser beams. Lasers!"

The woman advocating for the monkey, Esther M. Friesner, said that monkeys come in all shapes and sizes, and a mugger can't do much to you if he's got a tiny monkey crawling up his pant leg.

The people advocating for the ninjas were a brother-sister team of Salley-Rouge Pax and her twin. They were great at working as a team, finishing each other's sentences as they argued their case.

After the "Ninja, Pirate, Monkey, Robot!" panel, I returned to the game room to check in with The Gryphon. We decided to get something to eat, so we joined The Cheshire Cat and The Court Wizard for lunch in the hotel restaurant. I ordered a Greek salad and some espresso. The waiter had to go to the coffee cart to get that for me, but it was needed and appreciated.

We chatted about how our experiences were going at Philcon. This was actually the first time in a long time that either The Cheshire Cat or The Court Wizard had attended Philcon. From what I could tell, they had a really good time, which is good.

Then we had a little time to kill before the next thing I wanted to get to, so The Gryphon and I checked out the Dealers' Room and said hi to a few people we knew who had tables in there.

We also ran into a guy who'd volunteered at Otakon 2006, Mr. Shirt. He gave us each interesting ribbons to append to our badges. Mine read "Pink Fluffy Bunny Squad". And The Gryphon's had something about a Cthullu Patrol.

Both The Cheshire Cat and The Court Wizard were on a webcomic panel at 4 p.m., which I couldn't make, because I attended the key note speech by Charles Stross.

This year they handled the key note address differently. Instead of Stross giving a speech and then taking questions, SF editor Darrell Schweitzer interviewed him and then afterwards took questions. He talked a lot about his career in writing and how he got to the point he's at today.

Darrell Schweitzer and Charles Stross.

I caught up with him afterwards to figure out a time to interview him. He had to do a book signing immediately afterwards but he suggested I meet him at the bar area at 6 p.m.

So until then, I sat in on the "Gaming as an Educational Tool" panel, which The Gryphon was attending. It was interesting, and I watched as much as I could before I had to go. The panel got off-topic for a while, getting into the mechanics of game design but then got back on topic and spoke about games educators might find useful.

I actually got down to the bar area about eight minutes of 6. Stross was already there, so I guess his signing didn't go that long. I came up to him and told him I'd like to record it, so we had to find a quiet corner. He suggested going up to his room, since there were a couple chairs there, so that's what we did.

Of course, he had a time limit because he had to go take care of some business with his agent, so we could only talk for about 20-25 minutes. At the close of the interview, I asked if it would be OK to continue it online, and he said that was fine. I told him I'd e-mail him the rest of the questions.

I could tell he had to get going, because he kept looking at his laptop on his desk, which had the only clock in the room. Still, it was nice that he took the time to talk to me. The discussion was interesting, and I wish it could have gone on longer in person. But I know his written responses will be just as good.

After that, I had a little time to kill before the only panel I was on during the convention, so I went back to The Game Room, and The Gryphon and I got some dinner downstairs in the hotel restaurant. They were having a buffet, so I had spaghetti and vegetables, with fruit for dessert.

I don't remember exactly when, but sometime between the key note speech and my panel, I was wandering the hallways and encountered a trio of mummers, performing in the lobby. They were probably there for another group, since there were several other organizations meeting in the hotel that weekend.

My panel was called "She's in Love with a Geek: Social & Dating Tips for Nerds". Between the two of us, They Gryphon and I had generated some topics we thought should be addressed, so I had those in front of me. As it turned out, the person who had been designated the moderator didn't turn out. I ended up taking the reins along with The Independent Filmmaker, who was another panelist.

Incidentally, I found out why she missed the Robert Downey Sr. screening. Seems that her cell phone had died that day, so not only did she miss all my messages, but she also couldn't access her notes on the phone about where she had to be.

The Gryphon took a couple photos that, together, encompass the whole panel.

The panel was standing room only, and I couldn't have asked for a better group of panelists. On the panel were also Salley-Rouge Pax and her twin brother, and James and Karrie Hartstein, a married couple. So, given that the Independent Filmmaker is engaged, we had all levels represented: singletons, engaged people and married people.

I tried to keep the panel as close as possible to the description, which had promised humor, so when people started getting too serious, I threw in some jokes to lighten the mood. We also used some funny examples, where possible. The twins especially got into the spirit of it and were as entertaining as they'd been on the "Ninja, Pirate, Monkey, Robot!" panel earlier.

I was impressed with the audience, too, because I expected them to all be really quiet and sit there listening, but several people put up their hands and asked questions. At one point, a guy put his hand up and asked how you develop confidence, and we went down the panel and shared our stories.

Surprisingly, at the end of the panel, we saw him across the room, chatting up a girl, who seemed receptive. I thought that was so cool! Immediate gratification that somebody took our advice and was using it to some effect already.

That panel was a great idea, and I'm happy that I was a part of it. Afterwards, I hung around for a little while, talking to the other panel members and one of the attendees. She had raised her hand during the panel and shared a great story about how she'd been clueless in high school and didn't realize that when a guy actually sang her a song between classes that it meant he was interested!

We had a little time, then to stop up at the Con Suite and say hello to the couple who runs it, friends of our from many years working together at Otakon.

Then at 10 p.m. was "Bad Anime, Bad!" That was a fun panel, and it actually went over time. I've been to similar panels in the past. They play clips of bad anime and riff on them, basically.

A lot of my friends were on it, including The White Rabbit, The Cheshire Cat, The Dormouse, The Court Wizard. Then there was Robert Fenelon, who's a real anime expert, and a couple other people. The Pop Junkie ran the panel, as he did all of the anime programming at Philcon.

As is evident from these photos it was (pun intended) a very animated panel.

I had seen a lot of the clips before, so they weren't new to me, and I think they're funnier when you don't know what to expect. Still, it was an entertaining way to end the day.

We didn't have to rush home, because Una was at the pet sitter's. I hung out longer with The Gryphon. This was the first time, I think, that I went to Philcon and didn't go to at least one party. But by the time the anime panel ended, it was pretty late and I didn't know where any of them were.

So even though we didn't have to get home early, we didn't get home too much later than we had on Friday.

Before we left, I had The Gryphon photograph me next to the huge clock in the lobby. Makes me look like I'd been eating from the wrong side of the mushroom, doesn't it?

More Musings from Philcon 2006:

November 21, 2006 - Cutting Edge Panels

November 28, 2006 - Literary Sunday

Philcon 2005:

December 13, 2005 - Light Side, Dark Side

Philcon 2004:

December 14, 2004 - Friendly Philcon Morning

Philcon 2003:

December 15, 2005 - Convention from Another Planet

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

November 2006 Index

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