| Aggiecon 40: more notes |
[Mar. 29th, 2009|09:03 am] |
More con commentary in rough draft:
Meeting Pat Virzi and her daughter Maddy Saturday was pretty cool. I hadn't seen Pat since Corflu Quire two years ago - not counting the virtual con suite from Corflu Zed two weeks ago, obviously - and we had a pleasant chat over lunch at Freebird's just off campus. Maddy is a 19-year old Junior at TAMU majoring in something like virtual animation; I forget the exact title (I'll have to email Pat about this), but Maddy said that places like Pixar and Disney recruit heavily from this program, so that's pretty cool. I wish her the best of luck in her degree. They weren't attending Aggiecon, though; on Thursday, the right front end of Maddy's car was smushed in a parking lot accident on campus, so Pat came charging down to play the role of "Mood Uplifter / Emotional Supporter / Mom With Credit Card" for her daughter. Maddy's description of her rental car - a Chrysler PT Cruiser - was most amusing: according to her, the engine sounded like four hamsters in a slightly a-kilter plastic wheel with the pick-up to match. Oh, well. It is a temporary deal until her car is repaired.
We met just outside the dealer's room and walked over to Freebird's on a relatively cool and windy day for College Station (low 60's, winds 15 - 20 mph, with "ample sunshine", as the Weather Channel likes to phrase things), but quite bearable. I thought the weather felt great; Pat and Maddy wore light jackets while I proudly displayed my Corflu Quire t-shirt, whichsports a delightful Harry Bell design. During the walk Pat and I compared notes on Corflu Zed - she gave me a package containing a Zed t-shirt, program book, Corflu Zed bookmark, a Corflu Zed poctsarcd, and the CRY anthology produced for the con. Totally awesome stuff - and I thanked her profusely, since I wasn't expecting anything like this at all - and I am totally looking forward to reading that fanzine anthology. Other topics we covered were other Texas cons, like ConDFW, Apollocon, Fencon, and so on, and rehashing our common link as Upper Midwest expatriates now ensconced in Texas; Pat has been in TX since 1982, and I have since 2001. No wonder she was wearing a jacket - she had become A Texan! Either that, or her blood has thinned out due to 27 years of living through Texas summer heat.
Lunch over - if anybody reading this ever comes to College Station, you really must eat at one of the three Freebirds in town; they have the best burritos I have ever tasted; try ordering the Monster Burrito and eating it in one sitting - we wandered back toward the MSC. Pat and Maddy were off to do some shopping - remember? she was "Mom with Credit Card" for the day - and I went back to Aggiecon.
I debated whether or not to buy a Saturday pass ($10) for all of three minutes. That was all the time I needed based on observations after walking in. It was dead, deader, deadest. There was no vitality present. Normally, a good con has a vibe going, a palpable energy that fuels attendees and sparks the engines that run the con. For the past three years, I have felt this at Aggiecon. Not this year, though. It felt like people were simply going through the motions. I paid 50-cents to wander the dealer's room one last time, which gave me the chance to chat awhile with Jennifer Rhodes, the media Guest of Honor. She played "Grams" Halliwell, the matriarchal witch in the television series, Charmed, and also Winona Ryder's off-the-wall mother in the cult film Heathers. Other genre shows she has appeared in are Quantum Leap and Third Rock from the Sun. She told me her favorite role was as "Sister Gloria, the Ninja Nun" in Night of the Demons 2. Since the first movie had done so well at the box office, Ms. Rhodes told me that her expectations were for the film to hit the big screens. Instead, NotD2 went straight to DVD. We talked about that trend for a bit, then I thanked her for the conversation and went on my way. I think she appreciated the chat, too; she was sitting alone at a table with photo stills and such looking quite bored. I am not familiar with Charmed, but did enjoy Quantum Leap a lot. Yeah, Jennifer Rhodes liked that one, too, and she is definitely a nice lady with a long, distinguised acting career. I hope she continues on for many a moon.
Other than that, there really wasn't much going on. Normally there are a lot of folks wandering around in costume and all, and the Cosplay contest was due to start at 3 PM, so I was hoping to get some photos of these. No such luck. Hardly anybody was displaying. Maybe they were all getting into costume ( it was, after all, about 1:15 PM at this point), but not everyone competes. The SCA folks were dueling again in the flag room, which is just below the main concourse where the dealer's, artshow, and console gaming rooms are located. Even that was sparsely attended. A brief trip over to Rudder Tower, which housed the panels on floors 3 and 4, revealed a lack of attendees.
It then dawned on me that Aggiecon 40's Author Guest of Honor, Todd McCaffrey, was reprising his GoH-ship from last year! They couldn't get somebody different this year? Hmm... Not good. Dipping into the same well nets little difference. Even Steven Brust, my old buddy, was remarkably absent. Normally when he's not on a panel, he is quite visible no matter which con he's at. That was another Bad Sign. And Rocky Horror Picture Show bores me; I have seen it often enough over the years.
These observations, added onto the funk of the previous day's revelations, did not bode well for the rest of the weekend. So I passed on buying the Saturday pass and went home to take a nap.
At least last night we were able to have Penny's birthday party (she was 24 yesterday) before sister Josie treated her to a few hours of fun at Hurricane Harry's. Good on them. I am glad they had a good time. Meanwhile, I watched the Iowa State University women's basketball eek past Michigan State to advance to the Elite Eight in the NCAA basketball tournament. Go Cyclones!
So that's what I've got to say about Aggiecon this year. It was quite the let-down compared to the past three years. I am definitely worried about next few years' editions since their traditional venue, the MSC, will not be available until something like 2013. We shall see what happens.
In the meantime, I hope the fannish grapevine does its magic and my comments here about their lack of updating their website with vital information about the con results in better communication in the future. Aggiecon has a long, storied history, and it would be a shame to see it wither away and die. This makes me wonder if this weekend I was witnessing the beginnings of its death spiral. Gee, I hope not. What a sad way to see it end.
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