Notes from CON.TXT 2008

CON.TXT is the third distinct convention I’ve been to, and it’s also the third type: media fandom (specifically, slash fandom) as opposed to anime or sci-fi. I’m equally comfortable with all three (alone and in combination), so it’s downright weird to hear otakudom spoken of as if it were a foreign country.

So it was a different experience. And an awesome one in its own right.

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The drive to the hotel was about an hour: short enough that I could have returned home if I’d forgotten something deathly important (fortunately, I didn’t), but long enough that I brought clothes and such along. Shared a room with stellar_dust (who convinced me to come) and melannen (who had convinced her). The block of rooms the hotel had reserved for con guests were sold out by the time we got our last-minute plans together; but it still had other rooms free, and we got one of those.

In terms of activity, this con is tiny. Admittedly, my basis for comparison includes Otakon, the biggest anime con in this time zone . . . but still, CON.TXT only has three simultaneous panels. You might think this would make it easier to get to every panel you want to see; you would be wrong. They’re all still interesting.

And the coolest thing, apart from the topics of the panels themselves, was the fact that it was all so familiar. That was clear from the first one I went to: dealing with Metafandom. We read the same communities. We see the same drama. I kept looking at name tags and thinking, “Wait. I’ve seen that username making comments before.” I’m not even into most of the shows that are popular here (notable exceptions include Doctor Who, and even then I’m not active in the fandom), but most of the discussion I do in fandom is with this crowd, and it showed.

As much as any con, it felt like home.

There’s a pirate-themed restaurant a few blocks from the hotel; I was lucky enough to join a group of people who had dinner there on Friday evening, with an appropriately scurvy hat purloined from stellar_dust. (Keep an eye out over here for the Seras fanart it inspired.) Delicious food and a sexy waitress with a costume and an accent! The finer things in life.

That night there was a dance, and if my heart hadn’t been won already, the dance would have done it. I’ve never been to a school dance I liked. I haven’t been to any decent dances at all since CTY. Except, now, for this one. There were still a few lackluster songs with beats and no melody, but oh, there were tunes worth dancing to.

We still left before the end, in order to get showers and some semblance of sleep before the early panels on Saturday. Later, heard someone say that the Time Warp should have been played earlier in the dance. I concur.

Another thing I’ll say about this con: they feed you well. Otakon has no free food; Balticon has some snacks lined up in the con suite; CON.TXT provides two free breakfasts, plus a snack, and drinks, all in the form of an open and unlimited buffet. No terribly healthy options this year, but excellent cheese biscuits.

There is of course an LJ comm for this LJ-based con, and panel recaps are being posted as we speak. (See also: the contents of the Overheard At CON.TXT wall.) I’ll add links to the ones I attended as they appear:
Long Fic, followed by its natural counterpart Short Fic
Basic icons with the GIMP
Fandom of One: The Tiny Fandoms Panel
Old School Who
Crossovers (with lots of recs!)
Fake News (ditto!)

That last one was a DIY panel (”there’s nothing scheduled in this room during this time slot, so anyone who has an idea, go for it!”) by stellar_dust and yours truly on Saturday. Half a dozen people showed up, but we had fun conversation. And clips. Wonderful, wonderful clips.

The vid show was on Saturday night, and it was glorious and fascinating and I have all these ideas now.

There were some games scheduled for after the vid show; we had signed up for the slashy version of Cranium, which is a dice-driven chimera of Pictionary, charades, spelling bees, humming, impressions, and (if you roll a six) getting free points. Two teams of ten, and it was ridiculously fun. This is a kind of fan interaction that I wish I had more often—and I don’t mean applause for my killer Kirk impression (”We must—reverse the flow—of the tachyon beams!”), I mean playing stupid games that even non-fans can see the appeal of, with people who understand all the fannish references. (Especially when half of them are drunk. Team Chemically Altered FTW!)

Another feature of this con of which I must sing the praises: the swap table. Put down your old fannish things, and pick up somebody else’s. Leftovers get donated, nothing gets thrown out, and many old items find loving new homes. I provided a stack of manga Fruits Basket (I realized I didn’t like it enough to buy the complete set) and Hikaru no Go (I read the whole thing in scanlation and discovered that I hate the second half), and walked out with four new books, some cool earrings, and what I believe is a lightsaber, although I’ll have to put some batteries in it before I’m entirely sure.

There was a library, too, for people who want to share the love of something without actually giving it away. And thus did I finally, finally read the first issue of Tek Jansen. (I’m waiting for the trade paperback before I buy. Yes, I know I have a long wait ahead of me.)

The hotel had a sore temptation in the form of free wireless Internet access. I kept abreast of my email (and occasionally played Destruct-O-Match during panels), but I deliberately avoided LJ and other time-swallowing online shenanigans. Cons are an opportunity to immerse myself in something social; I may be an Internet addict, but I still recognize the value of the occasional cutoff.

All that said, it was painfully ironic when my home Internet connection failed within an hour of my return.

But that’s all settled now; and in the meantime I had lovely new books to read. CON.TXT will be back in two years, and you better believe I’m going.