The truth, the whole truth and something resembling the truth ...

[ericcoleman]

It's been a weekend. Some health problems almost kept me home, but I managed. I barely got to the circle friday night, and didn't manage saturday at all. But that was kind of expected.

I decided that I was going to get going an hour after I woke up.

I woke up at 6:30 as others in the house were getting ready for the same road trip. I managed to get back to sleep for a bit, but I did manage to get out of the house by about 9:30. So three hours after I woke up ... not bad for me.

Let's talk about the friday panels first. It started at 5 with a discussion of the various eras of comic books. We never quite decided when the eras began and ended up still having a blast (I define the modern era as beginning with Spiderman and the X-Men, some disagree though)

Next was Starting Your Filk Collection. It turned out to be just me and Juanita Coulson on the panel. I spent most of my time listening to Juanita, because ... well ... it's Juanita. She's been filking for a couple more years than me. Just a couple. Her show was brilliant saturday by the way ... more on that I'm sure ...

Shortly after the Filk panel the lovely and talented pheltzer brought me food ... Pita Inn ... oh thank you thank you thank you ... I haven't managed to get there in months, and didn't manage to get there again this weekend ... grumble

I went to opening ceremonies, which were a great deal of fun (even considering the band news ... RIP Jack Williamson) and then watched Space/Time and Tom Smith do their things. I hadn't seen Space/Time before. Really fun improv, I want to see their more scripted stuff now.

I went down to the the filk and only lasted a couple of songs. I had a bad case of hotel throat and decided that since I had to do a show the next day I needed to rest a bit. That became one of the themes for the weekend. Rest that is ... I'm on some blood pressure meds that are kicking my butt. I still managed a good show though ... more on that in a moment.

I went to breakfast saturday morning and when I came back to my table I found that someone else had been seated there. So we ended up having a very lovely chat. We both gave each other ideas for our individual kids, theatre geeked on a massive level, and generally had a wonderful time.

I watched a lot of catalana and billroper's show. All of Juanita's show ... and went up to perform myself. I asked the audience if they wanted the serious show or the mixed show. It was overwhelming for the mixed show (with one dementia fella asking for a funny show ... you know who you are) ... I almost stuck to the set list, except for the opener and a bunch of stuff in the middle ... 4 serious songs in the middle of the set, and Woman I Want is not exactly a "funny" song, even if it makes a lot of fannish women smile ... and fannish men for that matter.

Low Self Esteem
Standards
Trophy Wife
The Woman I Want
Ghosts
Don't Go Home
Color Of Your Eyes
In Crosby Park
Only Coffee House In Town
Hey Dad !!!
Bang My Bald Spot
How Can I Miss You?
Nice Guys

I couldn't play guitar to save my life, although I am probably the only one who will notice.

I stayed for most of lukeski and travis_clemmons and pixelene's set

I do want to mention pixelene. I was wondering what her music would sound like. After having worked so long with another very strong dementia artist, I was worried that we would have just another person along those lines. Instead she has her own very distinct and twisted voice (her singing voice is lovely, but you all know that, her writing voice is ... well ... just a little twisted). I'm enjoying the EP a lot.

There was another Tom Smith set, this time closed by a new song. I'm a happy camper to find that the new song is on the ITom CD. Great stuff.

I went back to the room to collapse for a bit. I didn't do a very good job of it. I managed to get myself down for some food, and went back and collapsed again. I hauled myself downstairs for almeda's concert (which was marvelous, anyone who breaks tigertoy is a hit in my book) and then went back to bed. This means that I played precisely two songs in music circles this weekend, both on friday night. Roman Wall Blues and WYSIWYG. This bums me out, but I was just not capable this weekend. My apologies.

I went to my final panel sunday. Two years in a row I have been unfortunate enough to be on a panel with a ... well, I will withhold comments and names to protect the foolish. But here is the line of logic ... see if you can figure this out

The panel was on blogs taking over from fanzines. This person's line of logic was "fanzines help fandom spread much better than the net ever could". This right after it was said, by this person, that most fanzines went to 50-100 people. There was a lovely young woman who looked at me as this was said with what I gather was the exact same WTF ??? look that I had. I rarely speak badly of people in this LJ (well, people in fandom) but this person's inane, uninformed and elitist slow motion babbling was ... well ... actually kind of funny.

I gathered up my traveling partner, and headed back to Iowa. I kind of feel like I never quite got to the con. I had a good time most of the time, but life is just bearing down too hard at the moment. Thanks to everyone who helped out, especially to gundo and born_to_me for putting me up and exapno for being a sweetheart to me ...

Maybe I'll actually get to the con next time.

On the bright side, The Secret Empire sold one of my CDs, their first of mine sold this year. Whoever it was apparently liked my show ... that's a good thing.

Comments

[tanac.livejournal.com]

I love the con reports. Makes me feel like I missed it along with everyone else :)

My calendar says that you're in town starting sometime on Wednesday. Looking forward to it!

Current schedule: Jeff works 'til 5. Me, free Thurs til 12, and after 330. Fri, free btw 12-3, and after 430 until we go to some gaming thing around 7ish (which you are more than welcome to attend as well, although I understand if it doesn't end up happening).

[ericcoleman]

the gaming thing sounds doable. Mom usually is in bed by then.

I'm here and about to head to bed myself ... it's been a long day.

[tanac.livejournal.com]

Ah! Well, have an excellent day - i'm off to school - free after 5pm, or poss for lunch at 12 (call), otherwise, we're meeting our friend calvin at Open Eye for scrabble and conversation around 7, and you are more than welcom to come find ius (we are enerally there 'til 10 or so).

*hugs*

[pheltzer.livejournal.com]

I don't know about lovely and talented... just happened to be headed in the right place at the right time for you. :) Sorry I didn't make it to your concert... but well stomach bug was kicking my ass.

[born-to-me.livejournal.com]

We love you. You're always welcome with us. :-)

And yes, the tigertoy breakage was just delightful... and he was such a trooper about being pulled up with no warning to be silly. It was great.

re: WTF?

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I wasn't at the panel, and I can't guess from the description who you're talking about, but what I think there is an explanation for the disconnect. Some people, people who started out as serious fan-zine fans, have a very strict and narrow definition of 'fandom' -- if you weren't an active member of ink-and-paper fanzine fandom, pubbing your own zine and known for loccing others, you weren't really a fan. I believe that what your perplexing panelist was thinking, even if they didn't say it, was not that blogging wouldn't get ideas out to more people, but that, because it's too easy for anyone to participate, it doesn't give the few people willing to put up with it the feeling of shared triumph over adversity that makes them a tight-knit group. Because blogging is so accessible, it's hard to maintain the small, intensely self-supporting group of people who must demonstrate their real dedication to the hobby to remain involved. (I wouldn't want to be so snarky as to suggest that the real problem such people have with the democratization of publishing is that it means that they're no longer special just because they're willing to slave over a hot mimeograph machine; in a world where everyone has a blog, their *writing* has to have merit for them to be noticed.)

To these people, blogs can spread something, but it isn't fandom by their definition.

If someone who can get on a panel at Windycon says something that sounds really boneheaded, it's usually going to be a matter of mismatching definitions or underlying assumptions. There are plenty of mundanes who can't pour piss out of a boot with the instructions printed on the heel, but fans are very rarely actually stupid.

Re: WTF?

[ericcoleman]

in a world where everyone has a blog, their *writing* has to have merit for them to be noticed.

I think you hit the nail on the head with that one. I have read a little of this person's "writing" today, and well ... ouch

but fans are very rarely actually stupid.

very rarely, but when they are ... they go for it ...

Re: WTF?

[mstrhypno.livejournal.com]

Well, I wasn't at the panel - I was on a couple of others though - and I know the individual that Eric's referring to, marginally.

This kind of cortical disconnect isn't new between fen who are tech connected and those who are not and points up a new dichotomy and a possible burgeoning class war in the making - the Wired and UnWired (and I am NOT talking coffee here, filkers!).

For me, the big problem in her statement regarding ink versus virtual pubs was the complete disregard of scope in virtual publishing, not to mention market penetration.

However, for someone who is not directly involved with virtual publishing, it is often difficult for them to grasp the immediate and global scope of such endeavors and, at times, they can become frustrated when that lack of understanding runs up against someone who keeps rubbing their noses in the fact and that person becomes annoyed at their refual to face facts.

Lee

Finding Family

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I slightly disagree with the analysis, above, about the value of writing in fanzines vs. blogs. I also disagree, mostly, with the panelist who said fanzines spread fandom better than the net ever could. For certain values of "better". For certain values of "fanzines". For certain values of "the net".

I cut my fannish eye-teeth on fanzines, and may be one of the few people you know who ever published on hecto; I may be one of the few people you know who remembers it. Fanzines were a dominant force in fandom (that's "science fiction fandom") for more than five decades. They were supplanted by convention fandom (eg Trekkies) and media fandom (eg Trekkers) as the major social interaction among lovers of sf. Eventually the writing itch was taken over by the net: first Usenet and then the web.

It's not so much that fandom was better Back In The Day, but that fandom was smaller. Virtually everyone who wrote or read amateur sf criticism/fannish insider pieces (such as con reports) either wrote for, read or knew about most of the major fanzines then being published. One could reasonably define an sf fan as one who read fanzines; it wasn't the only way one could be a fan, but it was a major dividing line between hard core fans (sercon or fannish) and readers. Indeed, fandom was about itself: Many fans didn't bother to read sf anymore, they just hung out with their friends.

Fandom took over the world. By the time of Star Trek and 2001: A Space Odyssey and the moon landing, science fiction was no longer "that crazy Buck Rogers stuff". People read "sci-fic" as a marketing category in the same way that they read westerns or romance. Some people didn't even read: sf was splashed across the boob tube and the big screen.

We are, for better or worse, no longer one community. Fanzines helped acculturate several generations of fans. The net helps people find others with similar interests. A fanzine with a run of 100 was more likely to generate discussion and long-term friendships with those who read it. A blog/website/netzine is likely to be read by thousands who will spend a few minutes and then go on to another site. Community building on the net is possible, but simultaneously harder and easier. One can easily start a community, but individuals have less say in how it's built, and traditions are harder to keep.

Die-hard fanzine fans, such as myself, sometimes circle the wagons around fanzine fandom. Not so much because of the fanzines themselves (though producing a well-produced and well-written zine is a high art form that should be remembered fondly) but because we want to hang out with our friends. We're all "fans" of one sort or another, and, speaking only for myself, I don't mind that "fan" has taken on a larger meaning but I do regret that "fandom" isn't quite the family that it was.

This is only a small part of an ever-growing historical rant. So there.

[catalana.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry I didn't get to see more of you this weekend, but I understand being worn out. That happens sometimes. *hug* But I did enjoy getting to hear WYSIWYG, even if I started inhaling Pepsi in the middle of it. (You know where. *grin*)

[ericcoleman]

I do find it amusing that you, who has looked the most horrified at a couple of my songs (and songs I cover) laughed the most at one of the most painful (or perceived as painful) jokes I have been doing in my songs lately.

Thanks ... it's good to see ...

[pixelene.livejournal.com]

Thanks :):):)

To be perfectly honest, the vast majority of my song ideas are not fannish, but just plain old funny (?) music. I started in Dementia by listening to Luke Ski.... now I listen to more dementia artists than I could possibly count.