Con report

[graculus]

Hello to people. I think I left my brain under a chair somewhere at the convention hotel, so if anyone found it, please return it to me...

Anyway, had a great weekend, though my throat is sore as usual post-convention from having talked and laughed way too much. My panels went well, I think, though I was amused to be asked 'so basically, you dislike other people enjoying themselves?' when talking about why I loathe and detest the new shiny and think that jumping on bandwagons leads to the Dark Side. At least I'm honest enough to admit that everyone in fandom should be catering to my every whim and desire and not wasting their time on other stuff I don't like...

Other thoughts... hmmm. cycnus39 can attest to the power of Ed Exley's blue and white flannel jammies, but I wish I'd got more sleep. I can do a mean zombie impression, since long gone are the days when I could stay up all night and still function. Pah.

I also managed to get rid of the bad porn I'd accumulated over the past year or two, so apologies to whoever was foolish enough to pick that when their raffle ticket was called. I figure if people want good gay porn we can get some kind of lending library up and running... ;)

And I must have missed alyse's promised flailing workshop. Oh woe!

End of ramblings for now, must go write up panels and provide sources for the hideous entertaining examples used in the Fictive Disasters panel. Bring on the organic fire hose! :P

E.T.A.: Fictive Disasters in technicolour!

Comments

(frozen)

[blktauna.livejournal.com]

" I was amused to be asked 'so basically, you dislike other people enjoying themselves?' when talking about why I loathe and detest the new shiny and think that jumping on bandwagons leads to the Dark Side. At least I'm honest enough to admit that everyone in fandom should be catering to my every whim and desire and not wasting their time on other stuff I don't like..."

Word up! ;)

(frozen)

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Say it loud, I'm bloody awkward and gosh-darned proud of it! :P

[nausica2.livejournal.com]

Welcome back!

You are a very scary being. :P Like you that way, though.

(frozen)

[graculus.livejournal.com]

:)

And if you want to read something entertaining/scary, go read the examples we found for the 'Fictive Disasters' panel I helped mod here (http://www.livejournal.com/community/connotations/55865.html?mode=reply). ;)

[mer1973.livejournal.com]

Honestly, you are not being a good member of the fannish hive mind. Insisting on your own opinions rather then being an easy slut like the rest of us! The nerve!

Also, what is this good gay porn you speak of? It exsists?

(frozen)

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Resist the new shiny! The new shiny leads to the Dark Side! It will quite probably lead to the end of fandom as we know it!!!!1111!!

And when I say 'good' where gay porn is concerned, read 'not-quite-as-bad-as-usual'. ;)

[alyse]

And I must have missed alyse's promised flailing workshop. Oh woe!

You did? Damn. And I put my heart and soul into the demo because I thought you were watching. It was - even if I say so myself - the second best thing evar! (The best thing was having a legitimate excuse to act out slashy scenes with action figures.)

Oh well. There's always next year ::g::

[graculus.livejournal.com]

I think moonlettuce's pteranodon overshadowed your performance, though...

Next year, pornographic sand-castle contests!

(frozen)

[moonlettuce.livejournal.com]

Damn right, I'm expecting the Oscar nomination any day now...

[rivier.livejournal.com]

Oh my God, that link! Words flail me. And the loud honking noises I've been making have really scared the cat.

(frozen)

[graculus.livejournal.com]

This is what happens when slash fans socialise en masse. Is the subliminal message working yet? ;)

[thefannishwaldo.livejournal.com]

Fictive Disasters is killing me! OMG, people really posted that stuff???

I think my favorite summary ever was in SG1:

Daniel is bitten by a poisonous snake. Will he survive? Warning: death story.

(frozen)

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Apparently all kosher and real... and that's just one fandom! :P

[manna]

Not even two days after I get back from the con, the beagle woman shows up on fandom_wank. This thread and this one especially made me laugh a lot.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Well, at least that dispels any idea I was making all that up! ;)

(frozen)

[manna]

Yep. The family picture pretty much convinced me. Scarred me, but convinced me.

[chance1562.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. God.

Some of those..."things" masquerading as fiction you listed ::shudders::

I may have nightmares tonight - if I'm not laughing too hard at that line. "Inferno douser" ::sporfle::

[graculus.livejournal.com]

That was the product of about ten days research - imagine what you could come up with if you had more time...

Actually, I just found this one which I was sent by cycnus39 and forgot to include:

Both of the authors are well aware that this story varies from actual cannon for both Excalibur and Hellblazer. This is why it is an AU. Don't send any emails saying how something "didn't happen that way." We know. We just don't care. Thank you.

(frozen)

[chance1562.livejournal.com]

Oh lord, the "we're holier than you and know it" post. Gah.

(frozen)

[blktauna.livejournal.com]

AHAHHAHAAHAHHAHAH

well that's to the point!

[fledge.livejournal.com]

Um... my only objection to your criticism of the 'new shiny' is that for some of us, it *isn't* a bandwagon. We eyed, we speculated, we watched (cautiously) and we succumbed - not because of the gazillions of other fans, but because we genuinely *liked*. If you don't, that's fair enough, but if you're only avoiding it because of a majority following, you're not being fair to the show(s). Not everything popular is bad ;-) Then again, I suspect you were just trying to wind everyone up in the first place *G*

And I'm waiting for a new Man From UNCLE film to become the new shiny, because then what will you do? *EG*

[graculus.livejournal.com]

If you don't, that's fair enough, but if you're only avoiding it because of a majority following, you're not being fair to the show(s).

I'm not avoiding it purely because it's popular, I'm avoiding it because of the self-propelling fandom annoyance that it is/they are (depending on which new shiny you're talking about, if not both). Having been exposed to the worst kind of fannish aversion therapy known to mankind, I assure you that my reasons for disliking Firefly and all who sail in her are legion. And meanwhile, oddly enough, I find that shows don't really care if you're being 'fair' to them, since they're not animate.

Somehow, if the new UNCLE movie even ever gets off the ground, unless it stars two of a very short list of actors who seem to create their own fannish momentum regardless of content, I doubt it's going to manage to be shiny in any manner. And even if it did, I'm afraid I prefer the real thing to the ersatz version (see icon for details). ;)

[fledge.livejournal.com]

Ah, avoiding fandom, that I can understand. Still shouldn't stop you watching the show though, and just keeping quiet about it *G* Or is it that you feel a show which attracts such a following must be bad by definition..? Only that's logic I can't grasp, because you're a Stargate fan, and Stargate is hugely popular and bandwagonish.

And meanwhile, oddly enough, I find that shows don't really care if you're being 'fair' to them, since they're not animate.

:P Considering 'the show' as a feedback hungry entity which will be axed if viewing figures fall below a certain mystical mean, actually yes, watching/not watching for spurious reasons will have an effect. Hence the short life of Firefly *sniff*.

What I've noticed about [American] shows in general is that if it's good - by which I mean good *quality* not popularity - so good acting, good dialogue, good plot, and most importantly, a plot *arc* - it will be axed. Although Babylon 5 pulled through by the skin of its teeth; but since they'd tried to cram everything in before the end and then had a whole new season to play with, it does end rather abruptly - and oddly - halfway through the second-to-last season, and is then less good. But still better than any of the Treks or Gates or Scapes or whatnot. Firefly was good for all of the above reasons, and oh look, they axed it. Stargate SG-1 has not been good since season 4 - and was never as good as Babylon 5 - and it's already in its 9th season *shudders*.

Me, I go purely by what a show has to offer, and couldn't care less what fandom is up to; although it's nice to be able to 'talk shop' with other people.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Ah, avoiding fandom, that I can understand. Still shouldn't stop you watching the show though, and just keeping quiet about it

But where would be the fun in that? In the case of Firefly it's not just about the fandom, but it's impossible for me to consider the source in a vacuum anyway.

Only that's logic I can't grasp, because you're a Stargate fan, and Stargate is hugely popular and bandwagonish.

That might be an argument that would work if I hadn't been into Stargate since 1998, long before there was a bandwagon to jump on, and will probably still be into it long after the show is over.

Me, I go purely by what a show has to offer, and couldn't care less what fandom is up to; although it's nice to be able to 'talk shop' with other people.

Like I said, I don't separate the two but if you're able to, then more power to you. It's a shame that it seems nobody is allowed to dislike something just because they dislike it without being repeatedly told they have to 'give it a chance'. No, I don't.

[fledge.livejournal.com]

Of course you're allowed to dislike whatever you want to! I'm not arguing with your reasons, just trying to understand them - pure curiosity, really, because you're someone whose opinion I regard, therefore I want to comprehend it ;-) If I'm annoying you, I'll stop asking questions, but I'm really not trying to antagonise. I like looking at different points of view, seeing how other people tick, and it can be refreshing to find someone who doesn't feel the same way about things as me. If you didn't want a debate, maybe you shouldn't have brought it up as a public con topic in the first place ;-) ;-)

If you don't separate shows from their fandoms, then I think I can understand. You like to run with a small, idiosyncratic (some might say 'elitist') crowd, and don't enjoy all the popular, girlish squeeing and fluff? So a show that starts off with a large fanbase will put you off from the outset. Do I have that right?

As I say, I do have a totally different outlook, which is why I'm so curious. I enjoy fandom, but it isn't important to me in the way the shows themselves are, and I can happily distance myself from anything fannish that doesn't suit my point of view. I got into Stargate right from the start, too, same with Firefly and same with SGA. There may be a running Joss-and-SG bandwagon that takes over all new series, but that, to me, is very incidental. I like what I like, and won't let anyone else interfere with that; I've always been pretty idiosyncratic in my own way, and while I will happily join in the squeeing, it is for the squeeing's sake, not fandom's. I will, for instance, happily hold my ground over supporting tentacle fic - because *I* like it, and I don't care what anyone else thinks *G*

Are you a Babylon 5 fan, by the way? That's a show that didn't generate nearly as large a fanbase as it should have, given how excellent it was (or maybe that's why....)

(frozen)

[graculus.livejournal.com]

You like to run with a small, idiosyncratic (some might say 'elitist') crowd, and don't enjoy all the popular, girlish squeeing and fluff? So a show that starts off with a large fanbase will put you off from the outset. Do I have that right?

I'm sorry, I thought we'd met. ;) I know lots of people from lots of different fandoms, with the main thing we have in common being a love of well-written fic. If that's being elitist, then I think fandom as a whole is in a lot of trouble, since I'd say it was just about people finding common ground.

As for the large fandom thing, well you're the one making all the value judgements here. I'm an avid reader of Harry Potter fic and you can hardly get a much bigger fandom than that at the moment. I like what I like and dislike what I dislike and find it strange that people apparently take it personally if my likes and theirs don't coincide completely.

I can cope with fluff, I can cope with (and engage in) squeeing, but that's only the case for the things I like. There's not really a middle ground for me, it's like or dislike. I need to have something to squee about and the things I see that most often happening with, the 'new shiny' that's so popular with so many people, just doesn't give me what I need. And that isn't helped by the people telling me over and over that I should give stuff a try - like I've said before, it's aversion therapy...