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Aug. 10th, 2009 02:04 ampanels! some good ones, some potentially good ones that got derailed into wankery. and i got to watch ada palmer froth about atheism during the renaissance, which was far more interesting than i expected.
other con events! paul krugman? PAUL KRUGMAN?! frickin awesome.
programming was a bit disorganized -- misprinted schedules and such. also, they put some panels against each other that seemed to be aimed at the same niche audience. but a pretty good range of panel subjects. also, it looks like they had a pretty substantial set of events for teens, rather than just the younger kids' track. including a neil gaiman teen-only event.
the dealer's room was a bit sparse, but i gather some dealers dropped out fairly late in the game; i blame international borders. art show had some lovely pieces; jon singer's pottery continues to be quite lovely. i missed the masquerade, but i gather it was smaller than most arisia masqs. there were some good hall costumes, and steampunk is still ascendant -- tiny hats stuck on at an angle are all the rage as are goggles.
dj steve boy (i have pimped his groovelectric and podrunner podcasts in the past) was here! i hadn't realized he was an author, but he is, and he was also dj'ing the post-hugos dance (which i completely failed to make it to because i failed to make it to the hugos - i ended up falling into cool conversation in the con suite and hung out there providing near-real-time updates on the hugo winner announcements thanks to a twitter feed of the hugo award ceremony, and then it was time to party-hop here at the delta centre-ville hotel, and by the time i realized "oh, right, hugo dance", it was getting close to midnight and so i opted to punt the dance.)
city! montreal is really quite nice. parts of it are kind of heavily biologically-smelling in the summer, but that's what happens when you have horse-drawn carriages for tourists.
food! OM NOM NOM NOM. montreal is a city of fine fine food. french, polish, amerindian, etc.
weather! it held up quite nicely and the few bits of rain missed me when i was wandering among the palais, the delta, and various restaurants.
language! i mostly did okay. a few times i just flailed and explained (in french) that i'm sorry, i don't speak french.
other con events! paul krugman? PAUL KRUGMAN?! frickin awesome.
programming was a bit disorganized -- misprinted schedules and such. also, they put some panels against each other that seemed to be aimed at the same niche audience. but a pretty good range of panel subjects. also, it looks like they had a pretty substantial set of events for teens, rather than just the younger kids' track. including a neil gaiman teen-only event.
the dealer's room was a bit sparse, but i gather some dealers dropped out fairly late in the game; i blame international borders. art show had some lovely pieces; jon singer's pottery continues to be quite lovely. i missed the masquerade, but i gather it was smaller than most arisia masqs. there were some good hall costumes, and steampunk is still ascendant -- tiny hats stuck on at an angle are all the rage as are goggles.
dj steve boy (i have pimped his groovelectric and podrunner podcasts in the past) was here! i hadn't realized he was an author, but he is, and he was also dj'ing the post-hugos dance (which i completely failed to make it to because i failed to make it to the hugos - i ended up falling into cool conversation in the con suite and hung out there providing near-real-time updates on the hugo winner announcements thanks to a twitter feed of the hugo award ceremony, and then it was time to party-hop here at the delta centre-ville hotel, and by the time i realized "oh, right, hugo dance", it was getting close to midnight and so i opted to punt the dance.)
city! montreal is really quite nice. parts of it are kind of heavily biologically-smelling in the summer, but that's what happens when you have horse-drawn carriages for tourists.
food! OM NOM NOM NOM. montreal is a city of fine fine food. french, polish, amerindian, etc.
weather! it held up quite nicely and the few bits of rain missed me when i was wandering among the palais, the delta, and various restaurants.
language! i mostly did okay. a few times i just flailed and explained (in french) that i'm sorry, i don't speak french.
