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Spokane and Sasquan
Aug. 25th, 2015 06:38 pmI'm still in Spokane. I fly back tomorrow. (That's Wednesday, my time. It's currently Tuesday afternoon. I'll be home Thursday afternoon if all goes to plan.)
On the whole, I think the convention went well, but it was dominated by two big issues.
I first heard about the forest fires as I was leaving Seattle last Monday. I saw something about them on the TV news on a set in the hotel lobby and then the guide on the train pointed out the smoke over some of the hills.
Tuesday was OK but after the opening ceremony on Wednesday, there was an outdoor event, a sort of fair with booths for future cons and bids and food stands and beer. It was glorious sunshine when this started around four o'clock, but I was sitting having a beer when it started to get dark like an impending thunderstorm. Only it didn't rain. And the sun went blood red. It was as dark as night long before sunset.
Thursday was OK, too, as far as I remember, but Friday was the day it looked like a London fog. Apparently at the Masquerade, the the host announced, "Smoking is forbidden in the auditorium. If you want to smoke, go outside and inhale deeply." The con will probably live in memory as "Smokane".
As it was darkening outside on Wednesday night, I was attending a meeting of the WSFS Mark Protection Committee. And that was the other thing that dominated the convention. The business meeting averaged about three hours a session, and the final session, on the last day of the convention, itself an oddity, lasted from 10:00 to about 13:30, to be followed by another MPC meeting. By which time there was just enough time to go to the closing ceremony.
In the end, I don't think the business meeting was more eventful than past years, it was just there was an awful lot of business to get through.
And this ties in to the Hugo ceremony. I liked the idea of allocated seating. I went past the auditorium at around six and peope were handing out tickets to whoever wanted them. I picked one up, went back to my room to check my e-mail and then sauntered down to take my seat about half an hour before it started. I'd brought a book with me to read, but there was a televised discussion on the screen which was actually quite interesting.
I thought the ceremony was very well done. Gerrold and Due, the hosts, did a great job. Unlike some years, there were not separate presenters for each award. Many were presented by the hosts, especially the ones that had no award as the winner. I'm sure this was known before hand. But the highlight was getting a dalek to do the Best Dramatic Presentation awards - he had some of the best lines of the night - and getting Kjell Lindgren to present the Best Novel from the ISS. (That bit had to be recorded. And a note for any future conventions to be held if free-fall: you need velcro badges. Lindgren's badge kept floating up past his face and I though it was going to garrotte him at one point.)
The Three-Body Problem was not my first choice for Best Novel - that was The Goblin Emperor, and Ancilliary Sword was second. But I would have been happy with any of those three winning.
Helsinki winning site selection on the first round of counting was a bit of a surprise. After the official announcement at the Saturday business meeting, and after the meeting was over, I went past their table to see iif they were ready to take memberships and got roped iinto validating the forms of those who had voted and was there for three hours. I did fill in a form for myself and got someone else to vallidate it.
The Grand Hotel has only been open a couple of months and still has some teething problems. Duriing the convention, the wait for a table for breakfast was about 20 minutes if you went down after eight o'clock. I took to rising at 7:15 and then going through my e-mail after breakfast before going to the business meetiing.
The lifts are of the type where you need a key card to go up to your room and the key card is the contactless type, like an Oyster Card. But several times I found the lift ignoring the key leaving me stranded (unless someone else was in the lift to press a button). Not had any problems getting into my room, though.
I wish there was a bath as well as a shower. I always feel unstable in a shower, and there wasn't even anything to hold on to whilst showering. Hand rails would be useful.
But one plus point. The TV set had an option on its menu called "World radio" and it was exactly that. I'm listening to BBC Radio 3 as I type.
Now I have to do some packking.
On the whole, I think the convention went well, but it was dominated by two big issues.
I first heard about the forest fires as I was leaving Seattle last Monday. I saw something about them on the TV news on a set in the hotel lobby and then the guide on the train pointed out the smoke over some of the hills.
Tuesday was OK but after the opening ceremony on Wednesday, there was an outdoor event, a sort of fair with booths for future cons and bids and food stands and beer. It was glorious sunshine when this started around four o'clock, but I was sitting having a beer when it started to get dark like an impending thunderstorm. Only it didn't rain. And the sun went blood red. It was as dark as night long before sunset.
Thursday was OK, too, as far as I remember, but Friday was the day it looked like a London fog. Apparently at the Masquerade, the the host announced, "Smoking is forbidden in the auditorium. If you want to smoke, go outside and inhale deeply." The con will probably live in memory as "Smokane".
As it was darkening outside on Wednesday night, I was attending a meeting of the WSFS Mark Protection Committee. And that was the other thing that dominated the convention. The business meeting averaged about three hours a session, and the final session, on the last day of the convention, itself an oddity, lasted from 10:00 to about 13:30, to be followed by another MPC meeting. By which time there was just enough time to go to the closing ceremony.
In the end, I don't think the business meeting was more eventful than past years, it was just there was an awful lot of business to get through.
And this ties in to the Hugo ceremony. I liked the idea of allocated seating. I went past the auditorium at around six and peope were handing out tickets to whoever wanted them. I picked one up, went back to my room to check my e-mail and then sauntered down to take my seat about half an hour before it started. I'd brought a book with me to read, but there was a televised discussion on the screen which was actually quite interesting.
I thought the ceremony was very well done. Gerrold and Due, the hosts, did a great job. Unlike some years, there were not separate presenters for each award. Many were presented by the hosts, especially the ones that had no award as the winner. I'm sure this was known before hand. But the highlight was getting a dalek to do the Best Dramatic Presentation awards - he had some of the best lines of the night - and getting Kjell Lindgren to present the Best Novel from the ISS. (That bit had to be recorded. And a note for any future conventions to be held if free-fall: you need velcro badges. Lindgren's badge kept floating up past his face and I though it was going to garrotte him at one point.)
The Three-Body Problem was not my first choice for Best Novel - that was The Goblin Emperor, and Ancilliary Sword was second. But I would have been happy with any of those three winning.
Helsinki winning site selection on the first round of counting was a bit of a surprise. After the official announcement at the Saturday business meeting, and after the meeting was over, I went past their table to see iif they were ready to take memberships and got roped iinto validating the forms of those who had voted and was there for three hours. I did fill in a form for myself and got someone else to vallidate it.
The Grand Hotel has only been open a couple of months and still has some teething problems. Duriing the convention, the wait for a table for breakfast was about 20 minutes if you went down after eight o'clock. I took to rising at 7:15 and then going through my e-mail after breakfast before going to the business meetiing.
The lifts are of the type where you need a key card to go up to your room and the key card is the contactless type, like an Oyster Card. But several times I found the lift ignoring the key leaving me stranded (unless someone else was in the lift to press a button). Not had any problems getting into my room, though.
I wish there was a bath as well as a shower. I always feel unstable in a shower, and there wasn't even anything to hold on to whilst showering. Hand rails would be useful.
But one plus point. The TV set had an option on its menu called "World radio" and it was exactly that. I'm listening to BBC Radio 3 as I type.
Now I have to do some packking.
