Welcome to the madness of Gallifrey One posts for the year!
By Saturday morning, I’ve already been here in LA for three days. Arriving earlier than ever before (Wednesday morning) has proven to be a good idea. It gave me time to begin adjusting to the time change, just hang out in the lobby, and connect with a few people I’d met in passing previously. On the down—or possibly just strange—side, by the time the con actually started on Friday, I felt almost as if the weekend ought to winding down instead of just ramping up.
In part, that feeling of being well into the con is probably due to the fact that one of the big social interactions of Gally was already in full swing by mid-afternoon on Thursday: ribbon trading. Even before badges were available at the registration table downstairs, people were in the lobby feverishly trading (even hotel staff had a ribbon to trade!). And it wasn’t just ribbons. This year, I saw the largest variety of non-ribbon tradables I’ve ever witnessed. There were Girl Scout cookies, candy spoons, hand-crochet adipose babies, tiny wooden TARDISes (this last being one I didn’t see in person, but saw posted on Facebook), and plenty more I probably didn’t even hear about.
Since I wasn’t able to get my ribbons from my supplier until about 8pm, that meant I was already hours behind on trading. Time will tell whether or not I’ll give them all out now, though the key seems to be making one’s stash visible. Without that visual cue, people don’t approach you to ask for ribbons; it seems to be an expectation that has grown along with Gally’s ribbon culture. Were I a cultural anthropologist/sociologist, I’d totally do a study on the development and evolution of the culture of various conventions.
Anyway, Thursday at Gally is primarily people arriving—often to the sound of squeals of delight from friends (many of us only see each other here, once a year)—and socializing in the lobby. LobbyCon is an event in and of itself. It can be intimidating for newbs or those with social anxiety or other issues that come with being in large crowds, but if one can work past it, I’ve always found people to be welcoming.
On Friday I had a relatively leisurely day planned, with only two interview panels overlapping other items on my to-see list. I ended up missing several things on my list for the sake of sanity and sitting down, but still saw some great stuff. I began the morning at the Radio Free Skaro (RFS) live show (which I believe will be #515 when it goes up on the site), which included interviews with Peter Davison, Sarah Dollard, Jamie Mathieson, Andy Pryor, Julian Glover, and Patricia Quinn. I stayed for most of that and then got antsy. I took a pass through the Dealers Room, scarfed down some lunch (I highly recommend a simple pack-and-carry lunch that you can eat any time, any place), and headed to my Kaffeeklatsch.
I have never done a Kaffeeklatsch before, so this was a Gally first for me. At sign-ups that morning, a friend and I had snagged the last two slots in the Kaffeeklatsch with Phil Plait (the Bad Astronomer) and Michelle Thaller (assistant director for Science Communication at Goddard Space Flight Center). I’ve long been a fan of Phil and his work (I used to recommend his book Bad Astronomy to my intro astro students for their research papers about misconceptions around space and astronomical phenomena), so it was great to sit in a room with him and only a few other people and discuss all sorts of things from how to approach science education to the recent groundbreaking news of direct observation of gravitational waves. I will definitely consider Kaffeeklatsches more seriously in future years.
Immediately after the Kaffeeklatsch was my first panel of the con, on “The Burdens of Continuity.” I hadn’t met any of my fellow panelists before, but as always, everyone was friendly and we all seemed to have our share of ideas to add to the conversation. It was well attended, and attendees had plenty of great questions and comments, too. I really love being in those conversations and hope to continue being a panelist for many Gallys to come.
At this point, the first overlap in my potential schedule arrived. However, I was at a point where I decided I didn’t want to slip into a panel late, but instead would rather get some autographs while there was a sort of lull in my schedule. I got autographs from a couple of the headliners and took a breather before the Peter Davison interview panel.
Peter was, as I expected from his RFS appearance and what I’ve seen of him in video interviews, a charming guest. His stories were well told and funny, and he seemed generally self-effacing and kind. Of course, there was the occasional jab at Colin Baker (mostly because he’s also a guest here), but again those felt truly light-hearted and not the least mean spirited. I look forward to meeting him in person later.
Though there were a couple of other panels I would kind of liked to have seen up after that, dinner soon became a priority. I walked with friends to a great little Greek deli (which turned into a minor saga in itself) and made it back—barely—in time for the live commentary on Face the Raven with writer Sarah Dollard and casting director Andy Pryor, moderated by Verity! Podcast‘s Deb Stanish. As expected, it was a wonderful commentary that involved several people (both on the panel and in the audience) fighting back tears (with varying degrees of success).
There was lots more in the way of evening entertainment—comedy shows, karaoke, an episode of Paul Cornell’s podcast—but I didn’t have the stamina for more. I wound down in my room and decided to start fresh on Day 2. There’s a lot on my schedule; we’ll see how much I get done.