Current mood:	happy
Entry tags:	balticon 42, con

Balticon 42, Day 3
We got a late start. Our first event was The Singularity. Dave Kanter and southernronin put on an amazing event, only topped by a huge announcement from the crazy talented creators of Stranger Things. I'm not sure if or when this can be discussed publicly, so I'd suggest subscribing to their feed to get the official announcement in their feed direct from Earl.

We split after The Singularity and I recorded a couple of author readings: Walter Jon Williams and Tom Doyle. I had heard about Williams' upcoming novel, Implied Spaces via an ad on Escape Pod. He read from the manuscript and I am even more interested than I was before. Tom Doyle's reading from last year was one of my favorites and we had corresponded a bit leading up to this year. I was not disappointed. Plus, Doyle bribed us with cookies. Again.

I got to meet David Williams who made a very strong, favorable first impression. I could not stay for his reading but Martha said it was great. I am glad she recorded it so I'll get a chance to hear it.

I managed to grab a quick lunch in amongst my recording obligations and kept far better hydrated. Also, the reading room, Pimlico, had fully functional air conditioning, so I was able to apply the hard won lessons of the day prior to keeping a more even keel.

I will admit that I found the End of an Era panel frustrating. I am embarassed to admit I was not very gracious about it, not good behavior for a panelist regardless of the mysterious topic or the uneven moderation. Billy Flynn did an excellent job, do not get me wrong, but I don't feel like I got an opportunity to make what few points I had to make. Jon Stallard, the Vicar, expressed similar sentiments on at least two occasions, so I am not all that upset.

If you had to endure my glower from the corner, again, my apologies. It was nothing personal and I should have found a better attitude before showing up. Also, by way of explanation, I was asked by Mur to record her event with Connie Willis and becuase of my prior commitment, had to decline. I do not like having to do so for any of my friends since my volunteer time and my gear is my own small but regular contribution to supporting and promoting their work. That disappointment goes double when the request comes from Mur. Quadruple when the event in question is her interviewing one of her heroes. Again, I should have better mastered my own disappointment as the panel isn't about me but what the attendees want to hear and what questions they have to be answered. I'm just saying I think I had some good reasons to at least glower on the inside.

Andrea and I got a chance to get away for dinner. It was a tad rushed but a pleasant interlude. It was also another regularly spaced meal, so kept my blood sugar well away from the critical grouch threshold.

We got back in time for me to make my last recording of the day and the weekend, Jeri Smith-Ready. She read from her new novel, a bit of magical realism involving vampires and a rock radio station. Good stuff.

I finally got my script for the live Mister Adventure. Rich and Davey generously gave me a few lines for the performance at Ravencon and Rich gave me an even bigger part for this episode. Jared, as Dr. Richards, and I had some fun with the geeky banter between our two characters, and Earl, as Dr. Zhou, got some great laughs at our expense with jabs like "nerd fight" and "geek testosterone". The cast was huge, the performance overall was a smash and it was certainly a high point of the con.

Sadly, I forgot to switch on my mic, as I had agreed to help Rich further by taking a recording. Thankfully, there were plenty of other recorders running, so my hthink-o should hardly affect Rich's ability to edit together a listenable episode for his regular listeners. In particular, David Kanter, of Stranger Things, had a pretty impressive bit of gear. There was also cthulhim's iRiver and someone else's H2, Paulette Jaxton's, I believe.

I immediately bolted from the room after we wrapped and I hastily packed my gear. I got ten steps down the hallway when I ran into a friend (and fellow committee member on USACM) who pointed out my next, and final, panel was in the room I had just left.

The panel in question was the Solo Podcasting panel. As with my copyright panel, I spent some time preparing ahead of time and think it went smoothly. I cannot thank the panelists enough: Grailwold, MA in PA and Jared as their answers and anecdotes totally made the panel. We had a good turnout and the audience seemed to agree.

I attended my only science panel a bit later on, after dropping off my gear. scifilaura was on a discussion of the science of Hitchhiker's Guide. The idea was appealing, the execution not so much. There was some good ideas and discussion but it tended to stray a bit far afield. Also, with Laura's involvement, I had hoped there might by a bit more astronomy or cosmology. As it was, she didn't get much input, partly because of the sciences that were discussed and partly because of somewhat weak moderation.

There was a gathering in the bar after. It was mostly quiet and I ducked out early since we needed to hit the road on the early side to get matt_wallace to his flight out of National on time. I got a chance to say good bye to almost everyone, but if I missed you, now you know why.