The next programme item: SMOF-puncturing!
Oct. 2nd, 2005 10:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
major_clangerWell, we made Newcon in the end, what with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bugshaw feeling much better today. Having paused briefly to gawp at the baroque Victoriana of Northampton Guildhall (easily up there with the Blackpool Winter Gardens as the most architecturally extravagant con venue we've ever seen) we proceeded to have a serious book-buying accident courtesy of our friend Iain at the Aust Gate books table. He kindly provided a box free of charge, judging that mere bags would not suffice.
After catching the second half of the Space Tourism panel (most memorable for Ian 'Dagenham Heathway' Watson's surreal monologue whilst the Virgin Galactic video was sorted out) we headed out for lunch. Northampton boasts a most unusual war memorial: twin cenotaphs (designed by Lutyens) with what I at first took to be the Union Flag and the three Service ensigns flying. I thought that a little unusual (few memorials feature flags permanently) and had a closer look, only to discover that the flags are actually part of the carving, but brightly painted. Very odd.
Returning for 'Just A Minute', we headed upstairs to the Council Chamber, which featured an impressive set-up of posh wooded seats and desks, complete with mikes, voting buttons and drawers that proved to contain rude notes written by bored councillors to one another. Alas, although we had a panel, neither the compere nor the questions could be found, so we headed back downstairs for the bed-of-nails demo.
Yes, you read that right. Newcon had a jester as live entertainment (I think he may have been part of the local sf group?) who, amongst other things, gave a live demo of said act. As his glamourous assistant he volunteeredbugshaw; having done the lying-on-nails bit himself, he invited her to follow, or alternatively nobble someone from the audience to do likewise. For reasons that now escape me - in fact, I think they escaped me at the time - I foolishly headed off this ethical dilemma by volunteering myself. Scarily for the audience, this involved me removing my shirt to get the full effect; I'd like to repeat my apologies for any trauma thus caused. (But if mevennen's next book features a hairy, corpulent abomination from beyond the veil of sanity, we'll know where she got her inspiration. Serves her right for hogging the front row.) I can report that I remain mostly unperforated - I've always said running cons breeds a thick skin - although I can't quite see Slumberdown going out of business yet. If we're unlucky, there may be photographs.
Steve Cockayne then gave a fascinating talk on how his family's puppet theatre influenced his own writing, and how this in turn fed back into his own puppet-making, before Ian Watson was once again possessed by HG Wells to compere the closing ceremony. I'm delighted to report thatla_marquise_de_ won the fiction competition - apparently publication in Matrix awaits...
Congratulations to the Newcon committee, for putting together such an excellent event; we wish we'd been able to get along to the whole thing.
bugshaw feeling much better today. Having paused briefly to gawp at the baroque Victoriana of Northampton Guildhall (easily up there with the Blackpool Winter Gardens as the most architecturally extravagant con venue we've ever seen) we proceeded to have a serious book-buying accident courtesy of our friend Iain at the Aust Gate books table. He kindly provided a box free of charge, judging that mere bags would not suffice.After catching the second half of the Space Tourism panel (most memorable for Ian 'Dagenham Heathway' Watson's surreal monologue whilst the Virgin Galactic video was sorted out) we headed out for lunch. Northampton boasts a most unusual war memorial: twin cenotaphs (designed by Lutyens) with what I at first took to be the Union Flag and the three Service ensigns flying. I thought that a little unusual (few memorials feature flags permanently) and had a closer look, only to discover that the flags are actually part of the carving, but brightly painted. Very odd.
Returning for 'Just A Minute', we headed upstairs to the Council Chamber, which featured an impressive set-up of posh wooded seats and desks, complete with mikes, voting buttons and drawers that proved to contain rude notes written by bored councillors to one another. Alas, although we had a panel, neither the compere nor the questions could be found, so we headed back downstairs for the bed-of-nails demo.
Yes, you read that right. Newcon had a jester as live entertainment (I think he may have been part of the local sf group?) who, amongst other things, gave a live demo of said act. As his glamourous assistant he volunteered
bugshaw; having done the lying-on-nails bit himself, he invited her to follow, or alternatively nobble someone from the audience to do likewise. For reasons that now escape me - in fact, I think they escaped me at the time - I foolishly headed off this ethical dilemma by volunteering myself. Scarily for the audience, this involved me removing my shirt to get the full effect; I'd like to repeat my apologies for any trauma thus caused. (But if mevennen's next book features a hairy, corpulent abomination from beyond the veil of sanity, we'll know where she got her inspiration. Serves her right for hogging the front row.) I can report that I remain mostly unperforated - I've always said running cons breeds a thick skin - although I can't quite see Slumberdown going out of business yet. If we're unlucky, there may be photographs.Steve Cockayne then gave a fascinating talk on how his family's puppet theatre influenced his own writing, and how this in turn fed back into his own puppet-making, before Ian Watson was once again possessed by HG Wells to compere the closing ceremony. I'm delighted to report that
la_marquise_de_ won the fiction competition - apparently publication in Matrix awaits...Congratulations to the Newcon committee, for putting together such an excellent event; we wish we'd been able to get along to the whole thing.
