Quick Westercon Report
2002-07-11 09:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mdlbear(Let's try this again, shall we? My fingers got the better of me last time and hit ^Q when I meant ^W.)
Westercon was very small this year -- less than 1500 people. Nevertheless the hotel (LAX Radison) seemed unprepared. Not my first choice for a return. The elevators were definitely overloaded, and there was no stair access from the ``penthouse'' floor where the con suite and gaming were, to the party floor on 12. (You could go the other way.) The con suite was not handicap accessible.
Coffeeshop prices were high (surprise!) and the menu was limited, but it wasn't as bad as the San Jose Doubletree (formerly Red Lion) at Baycon.
Dealers I spoke to were definitely hurting -- the dealers' room seemed almost deserted most of the time.
But despite the size and the fact that I didn't get to much programming, I found it a relaxing and quite enjoyable con. I'm not sure how much of this was because the bar was conveniently close to the filk room.
I got to most of the other concerts. Filk had its own room on the ground floor, plus the room next door for overflow during the evenings. This meant that the main room could be locked when not occupied, so that people could leave instruments and sound gear (sound by the Tyra family -- yes!) in it.
Evening filking started early -- there were no evening concerts -- and as a result started to break up early. No filking 'til dawn here. This was OK by me; I seem to have gotten too old for that sort of thing.
gc.thestarport.org/.
I needed to be reachable in emergencies, because we were also having our house fumigated over the weekend, so I finally joined the ranks of people with bars of soap held up to their ears and got a cell phone. (As it turned out, the only call I got was the one telling me it was safe to go back into the house.)![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
chaoswolf
has been agitating for this for a long time, of course. We got a family
plan from AT&T, so Chaos got to carry Colleen's phone. Convenient for
making dinner arrangements, but otherwise rather annoying.
Westercon was very small this year -- less than 1500 people. Nevertheless the hotel (LAX Radison) seemed unprepared. Not my first choice for a return. The elevators were definitely overloaded, and there was no stair access from the ``penthouse'' floor where the con suite and gaming were, to the party floor on 12. (You could go the other way.) The con suite was not handicap accessible.
Coffeeshop prices were high (surprise!) and the menu was limited, but it wasn't as bad as the San Jose Doubletree (formerly Red Lion) at Baycon.
Dealers I spoke to were definitely hurting -- the dealers' room seemed almost deserted most of the time.
But despite the size and the fact that I didn't get to much programming, I found it a relaxing and quite enjoyable con. I'm not sure how much of this was because the bar was conveniently close to the filk room.
Filk
I didn't get to any programming at this con except the filking, which was sparsely attended but well worthwhile. I had a half-hour concert slot on Friday, and was on two back-to-back panels (filk publishing and copyright/DRM) on Sunday.I got to most of the other concerts. Filk had its own room on the ground floor, plus the room next door for overflow during the evenings. This meant that the main room could be locked when not occupied, so that people could leave instruments and sound gear (sound by the Tyra family -- yes!) in it.
Evening filking started early -- there were no evening concerts -- and as a result started to break up early. No filking 'til dawn here. This was OK by me; I seem to have gotten too old for that sort of thing.
Other
Colleen won a hall costume award for ``Piglet O'Hara'' -- Miss Piggy in Scarlet's dress from the barbecue scene in Gone With the Wind. This was a costume she's been longing to do for years now. Pictures coming soon togc.thestarport.org/.
I needed to be reachable in emergencies, because we were also having our house fumigated over the weekend, so I finally joined the ranks of people with bars of soap held up to their ears and got a cell phone. (As it turned out, the only call I got was the one telling me it was safe to go back into the house.)
chaoswolf
has been agitating for this for a long time, of course. We got a family
plan from AT&T, so Chaos got to carry Colleen's phone. Convenient for
making dinner arrangements, but otherwise rather annoying.