Jack William Bell's Journal: TorCon Report

I've been back in Grand Rapids from the Science Fiction World Convention in Toronto (TorCon) for three days already, but haven't had time to write it up. (And I have plenty to write about, including meeting Lady Guardian of this here /. -- more on that below.) Although in truth plenty of other people have already posted to various blogs and journals about their experiences at the convention. For example:

• My wife Anita posted from the convention here, here, here, here and here.
• Kathryn Cramer has a blog entry with some interesting observations of the tribulations of bringing small children to a large con, and a ton of links to other bloggers and journalers at the con (including moi).
• Cheryl Morgan has too many posts to link to individually, so just go to her blog page and look for the dates or read her zine's TorCon issue.
• Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla showed up in the evenings, although I think he might have been ghosting the con for the parties (he is a Toronto native). He has a couple of posts (and has promised more, including the one where Anita and I run into him) that you can read here and here.
• My Stilyagi friend Tammy Coxen has journal entries here, here and here. And a note; Tammy, do not let people talk you into chairing a WorldCon bid. You will regret it!
• Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing has only one TorCon post despite the fact he was everywhere at the con. But he does have a buttload of pictures.
• The Globe and Mail has a nice article about the convention, although it talks a bit much about the 'graying of fandom' (albeit from an outsiders POV). It does have a rather insightful comment on how the general public's view of fandom has changed. You can find some discussion about the article on William Gibson's message board.
• Of course there are plenty more blogs, journals and other websites talking about the convention that I know of. And a quick google brings up tons more.

But, for my own self, I really should write up what I remember of the convention before it all slips away... We rode up Wednesday, September 27th, with Roxanne, a Stilyagi and General Technics member, arriving at the Royal York hotel in Toronto about 2:00 AM. There we found our room and Anita went to bed while I wandered around the hotel hoping to run into someone I knew. Nearly immediately I stumbled into Dr. Dave, a skiffy friend from the Northwest, and we sat around talking a bit. While I was filling out a survey form for "Fannish Feud" (which Dr. Dave will be running at RadCon this winter) a mundane got into a loud argument with some fen and then stomped off, stopping to glare at me for a moment. (I guess I look too fannish for my own good.) As he left, his embarrassed girlfriend following, he started kicking over hotel furniture. This led to a phalanx of suit-clad hotel security chasing him down and the mad mundane soon returned, in handcuffs, escorted by said hotel security and local police. Girlfriend still following and looking even more embarrassed. Eventually he was led off again and taken away in a police car. Yes, the loyal girlfriend went along for the ride.

The next day I attended programming and found things in quite a mess. Several days later I learned that the programming chair for the convention had, to put it kindly, dropped the ball in ways that sounded more like a first-time convention than a WorldCon. (I won't go into the details or how I heard them; you can email me if you really want to know.) In any case the program book didn't match up, some guests were double-booked and the staff was frantically trying to just make things work. I felt sorry enough for them that I ended up volunteering a couple of mornings and afternoons, doing room management and running.

Still, in general, I did enjoy much of the programming I attended when I wasn't busy doing other things. There were a few exceptions; for one thing it was reinforced that I am going to have to stop attending panel discussions on Transhuman SF. I get ticked off pretty quickly when I know more about the subject than anyone on the panel, and I don't want to spend the entire hour with my hand in the air. What surprised me was that I seemed to know more than Charlie Stross, although perhaps if I had stuck around for the rest of the panel I might have heard him say things I found more insightful than I did before I buggered off. Only that would have meant listening to four other panelists pontificate on a subject they clearly knew bupkiss about and seething because I couldn't correct them. And yes, I should have been on the panel. But how would the programming staff know to ask me? I have few credentials...

The art show was OK, but honestly I have seen as good or better at a Norwescon or a WesterCon. This may have been because US artists didn't want to ship their stuff across the border. In any case there was little there I found truly arresting except for one guy (I didn't write down the name damn it) who had created some wonderful model-bashed spacecraft. Very nice work!

The dealer's room was similarly smaller and less interesting than I had expected. There were a gratifying number of book dealers. (Some with serious discounts, and yes I spent too much anyway.) But little else that caught my fancy.

The standout of the convention was, as before at ConJose, the parties. And once again I could not make them all despite trying my damnedest every night. Lots of old friends were there to share them with, including Paul and Julie from Bellingham, Palle from Vancouver B.C., the afore mentioned Dr. Dave and even Art Widner, who is still hale and hearty and ready to share a single malt. Plus plenty of new friends. Also Anita and I managed to put together some copasetic dinner and lunch groups for just about every meal. So the social part of TorCon was definitely a success for us.

Plus (as mentioned above) I got to meet Jenn, aka Lady Guardian. I had emailed her before the convention to say that we would be in Toronto and it would be nice to meet for dinner or something. Well, Jenn did far more than expected and came up with some free tickets to Second City! So not only did we have dinner with her (she had already eaten, but still managed some fries), we got to see the some of the thing that excites her most. It was cool to finally meet her, albeit for just a short while. And guys? She really is quite cute and fun to be around!

So overall it was an OK con, although probably not worth the cost. My sample of WorldCons is pretty small (just TorCon and ConJose) so I don't know how typical my experience was. Still I am glad I could go and also glad we could stop at the duty free on the way back and pick up a couple liters of decent single malt scotch...