Redemption con report

Originally published at Angelic Paranoia. You can comment here or there.

The details:

Friday

After discovering the Redemption curse struck for the second time, we made it to Hinckley, no thanks to Tom Baker (on the sat nav) who tried to tell us we had gone down the wrong road as we approached the hotel.

We joined a long queue to check into the hotel, but made it up to the hotel room with the aid of Daniel, who we passed on the way, and we made it to How to run a panel. Which was very useful, although made me worried, since it suddenly hit me that we were running a panel.

A break to enjoy our very nice executive hotel room (with fridge!) and we went to Books 1: Leave your sword at the door, where I was a little out of my depth due to my tendency to read trash for most of my life. The first half of Forensics in fact and fiction was very interesting and it was a shame to leave it for the stewards meeting, but the latter was necessary to find out what’s going on, and in my case change my duties so I could go to the sword fighting workshop. Although this did then mean missing the Life on Mars panel, but it’s not a Redemption if you don’t miss things.

The Opening Ceremony was entertaining. I couldn’t quite be bothered to get up for the mixer game, though. It did seem a bit tricky by the need to find someone who didn’t like Doctor Who. The next panel was Torchwood: Is Jack carrying a torch for the Doctor or just a hand? I’m still undecided, there were some really good arguments both ways.

Then I stewarded and watched the Celidh. The dances were the same as at Burns Supper a few weeks ago, even some of the music was the same. I didn’t dance, though, because I was falling asleep, having not had any the week leading up to the con, so was boring and went to bed instead, so I could stay up the rest of the weekend. Although I confused myself with the double bed not being able to decide which side to sleep on, and still managed to fall out of it at one point.

Saturday

Saturday I decided I wasn’t that excited about any of the 10am panels, so I got up in time for breakfast, which consisted of a bowl of cornflakes with some warm soya milk. I was quite impressed I managed to eat the whole bowl. Then I had a nice leisurely shower, spent lots of time discussing my requirements for dinner and spent £2.60 in the dealers room on two books, which was pretty good going.

Then I went to the American Tribal Style bellydance workshop. It was really interesting to learn about and have a go. It could have quite easily been two hours, though, because one hour went by so quickly, and we overran slightly, so I was a bit late to Dr Who: The invasion of the fangirl.

This was interesting, as people talked about the fandom before and since the new series, and scariness of the OG forums, and Russell T Davies making Sarah Jane Smith into an old cat lady. It turns out that only in Britain did Doctor Who fandom use to be male-dominated, so quite what that says about us, I don’t know.

I left early to steward, then found out my session was cancelled, but I got a groat anyway and had time to lunch, so that was handy. After that I stewarded again and got to listen to Jane Killick talking about Writing the Babylong 5 Season by Season Guides. There was all sorts of stuff I never knew about Babylon 5, like how grumpy JMS was (he was tired), and why Bill Mumy thought Lennier had such a crap ending. None of which I should probably repeat here.

Then I went to Scott Fredericks’ Writing for Radio Workshop. It turns out he’s acted, written and is now a radio producer, so he knew all about it. What was most interesting were the things he talked about that didn’t quite match what the websites tell you. And there’s loads more than the websites tell you.

I left early to get to our panel on The good the bad and the ugly: Web design in fandom. Which had just the right number of people, so our fears (and my nightmare the previous night) were allayed. There were lots of good points that people came out with, that were written up and will be posted for all to see. A lot of things were pretty universally hated (and loved) which was a finding in itself.

I actually made it to the Man of Iron scriptreading this time round. I’d heard bits of the script before but hadn’t realised just how cliched, and bad it is. The acting (and the so bad it’s funny aspect of the script) made it really funny to watch. I liked Algor’s Sean Connery accent, Tarrant’s smiling, Dayna and Soolin draping themselves over Tarrant, and Avon’s running and falling.

I then had dinner, which was interesting because they’d made me salmon and then given it to someone else. I got it in the end, though, and in time to get to What would you cut first? Making a TV show to budget. There were lots of good suggestions, it was almost hard to see why you needed to spend much money at all.

The Masquerade and Cabaret were good fun. Although the second half I was stewarding the side door, which I found was behind the speakers, so I couldn’t hear. But I got to hang out with the performers and watch them being nervous instead.

Then was a panel I wouldn’t have been interested in two years ago: What will humans be eating in 100 years time. Mostly we talked about food in America, as they have a tendency to send it over here and it ends up catching on. But I learnt all sorts of things about the food there that I’ll have to look out for next week.

I then actually participated in a Blake’s 7 Wobblevision. I always thought these things looked good fun, which they are. I didn’t anticipate the amount of time in advance trying desperately to remember the plot, and eventually looking it up thanks to the hotel’s free wireless access. I then discovered it actually involves some acting ability, which I don’t have at all. I still don’t know the plot, not least because in the tradition of all TV, we shot it out of order. I’ll have to re-watch it.

After that I didn’t quite make the disco, so stayed around and chatted before bed.

Sunday

Sunday I decided I couldn’t quite face more soya milk and the faff trying to get it, so I had the porridge I’d brought with me instead, before going off to SF and gender roles. We found lots of examples of good female role models, and of ones that aren’t so much. And discussed gender, since that needed defining.

Then there was the talk on The new Blake’s 7, which isn’t something I knew much about. I was impressed by their trailers and the reasons they had for the things they changed, and why they did it in the first place. I’m looking forward to it, hopefully it will be good, even though it will never be quite the same.

The Backsword workshop didn’t seem like it lasted two hours at all. I had the same problem there I had in taekwon-do, which is that it doesn’t matter how many times a move is demonstrated, I then get completely clueless by the time I have to reproduce it. I managed in the end though, it just takes me a while. I did remember two-thirds of the way through that I have RSI in my knee and actually it doesn’t really like all that bending. I brought my bandage, just forgot about it completely. Much as I enjoyed the backsword though, I think I prefer fencing.

After lunch I went to Creating an alien culture. There were all sorts of cultures discussed. The trouble is, we decided, that since we’re not alien it’s tricky to create something that is completely alien. We also talked about ones we believed in, and someone brought up the idea that it either has to correspond to something in our world, or have internal consistency (or both) for us to believe in it.

The Closing Ceremony was good, if short. The Ruler of the Universe result was the best bit, as the total number of votes cast was twice the number of people at the con and thereby elegible to vote. Although the winner was declared, alliances were formed and in the absence of a calculator the candidate with no votes was declared the winner.

I then found myself dragged into doing a Sherlock Holmes wobblevision. To which I never quite found out the plot, but it did involve me wearing a moustache of orange cardboard. That stayed on as long as I didn’t have a facial expression. It handily finished just in time for the stewards debriefing.

After which was dinner at which we discussed online names, which led into the next panel, Online pseudonyms: How do we pick them? Should we use them? There were some interesting stories of how people came up with theirs and why, and that there is a lot of information about us on the internet. Unless, of course, you have someone with the same name as you in some of the same fandoms, and then if you google our name you don’t necessarily get me.

The last panel was Swordplay for writers, which I went to because I like swords, I don’t intend to write any sword fighting. It was interesting to hear how and why different swords were used. Then we got to play with them, and find out how heavy they were. The backsword was the prettiest, though.

Then there was just the Dead Dog Party left, which was actually called that for the first Redemption I’ve been to. I established that the sofas were not designed for short people, so ended up having to go back to the room to get a pillow to use as a cushion - we had six each after all, so there were plenty to spare. Although in my absence I was described as ’so straight’ by someone who shall remain nameless. And apparently people think Sel and I come as a pair, although we didn’t see that much of each other for most of the con, being in different panels a lot of the time.

We ended up lasting till 1.30, which considering I was fading at 11.30, was not too bad.

Monday

Somehow we checked out of the hotel before the deadline, which never happens. Daniel helped us load the car and we actually got to catch up for the first time in the whole con. This is the trouble with Redemption, it’s great fun, you get to meet lots of new people (and people whose names you recognise) but you end up not seeing people that much.

Sadly, though, we had to leave at some point. But it’s only two years till the next one, and my panelling experience can’t have been too bad because I have ideas for three more. And I have now signed up for Orbital (Eastercon 2008) which is only just over a year away.