Weekend

[dancerjodi]

On Friday I went to the "A Toast to Mr. Poe" Event at Waltham's Gore Estate. A literary actor http://americanliteraryblog.blogspot.com/ recited a few of Poe's works (The Masque of the Red Death, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar and Berenice) in the quiet, old dark room. Lovely! I hadn't heard any of these stories before and they were the most gruesome I've heard of his works. I don't get to do these kinds of intellectual, artsy-type things often because they just aren't Brian's cup of tea. It was a nice event on a cold winter's night (after Hot and Sour soup and Pad Thai Country at http://www.yelp.com/biz/erawan-of-siam-waltham .

I had ballet class on Saturday, and thankfully it was much less taxing on the body than last week. It was a good workout but I wasn't walking around sore for the rest of the weekend! After a shower and lunch we headed to my Sister's place for our nephew Colin's 2nd birthday. Balloons! There were a ton of people there, adults and kids alike. It was great to see some of her old-time friends that have been around forever. Colin likes balloons more than anything else, and he had received so many toys for Christmas that my Sister asked if anyone brought him anything, it was a balloon. The kids ran around the house dragging huge piles of helium balloons with them. If only adults were so easily amused. We stayed there longer than planned and with the snow and the drive and our early Sunday planned, went home to watch the Twin Peaks pilot (we've never seen it and are working our way through via Netflix) before bed.

Up early Sunday for some appointments and then Arisia http://2011.arisia.org/ . Brian was leading two costuming panels: one on thermoforming and one on molding and casting. We parked for free 2 blocks down from the hotel (yay for free Sunday parking at meters in Boston) and walked over. I think it was easily the smallest amount of things we've brought to a convention in a long time - we were able to carry it between the two of us and only took one trip. Though, it was odd going to a convention without a costume. We got registered right away, and the programming folks were kind enough to let us store our things in their office during the day when we weren't at the panels. Thermoforming was at 12:30 - Brian brought his mini-vacuum table (made from a bread machine) to the panel to demonstrate right there how things work. It was a full room, standing room only and there were lots of good questions. We had a couple of hours before the molding and casting panel at 3:30 to wander. I love the setup of the con in this hotel.

It's much more spread out and you don't feel like there are people on top of you. The art show and dealer room took up the huge room that Boston Comicon was in, and the panels, dances, etc took up the rest of the entirely of the hotel. There was also on the 16th floor, vendor rooms like in the old venues, so you could pick which format you wanted to sign up for (or shop at). We didn't have a ton of time, so in our in-between we grabbed lunch, checked out the dealers and the art, and got our things together for the next panel. The bellydance show ran from 4-6, so we missed the first half of it, but the part we did see was a lot of fun. Creative numbers, great costumes and performers. A great (huge) room to watch it in. They ended the show with a "everyone get up and dance with us", a nice vibe for things. We took that as our cue to head home, having to get up for work today and needing to take care of things at home before bed.

It's a great space and it's the only overnight/hotel con we have in this area. I would love for us to get more Star Wars peeps there again. We did run into a TK from CT, who has had the suit for a couple years and has just never hooked up with the 501st. He's a twin and his brother was also at the con with him - one of them ended up being pulled into the Nurse's skit late on Friday night (though the woman doing the skit goofed and said "401st" rather than 501st). I think the larger, more open setting does a lot to minimize some of the issues that people have complained about in the past. Going on a Sunday gets you free parking. It's a very good con for costumers (both in viewing them and talking about how to make them). We'll see how next year goes. Least of all, Brian and I were inspired to get a room there next year so that we could bring more of our own things to dress up in.

Monday, Monday!

Comments

[dali-muse.livejournal.com]

I had really wanted to go to the Poe reading with you and Tia, but I had to close Friday and open Saturday. Buy the time I got out of work it was 9:30! As it was, I had a drive by XMortis since I could only stay until half past midnight. It sounds like the reading was a fantastic time!

[lensman.livejournal.com]

Heh, When I saw the TARDIS that the girl from Canada brought down, I kept thinking it would have been great to see Brian in his Cpt. Jack costume clinging to the side of it. :-)

[tk7602.livejournal.com]

i never even saw the tardis until pictures later.

though, with my now chin length hair, jack would be tricky to pull off.

[jeditrilobite.livejournal.com]

It's nice to hear that the space has opened up a lot - that was one of the reasons why I think I don't look fondly back on Arisia - too many people in too small a space.