• 5/23/2008 14:30 Hall Costumes - How To


• 5/23/2008 17:30 Masquerade 101


• 5/24/2008 13:00 EZ Costuming Kids


• 5/25/2008 14:30 Wardrobe Malfunctions

It's going to make prepping the final LoEG party tight, but we're going for fewer decorations (since we don't know the hotel) plus the posters.
The EZ Costuming for Kids is a hands-on-make-silly-things class.

Or the next best thing.

My friend smashwolf has put a couple of Really Big digital projectors (one 10,000 lumens, one 6,000 lumens) up for sale on eBay.

One of them is the one used for the famous "Dive-in movies" projected on the side of the DoubleTree San Jose Hotel above the swimming pool at BayCons past.

Check 'em out. They're in great working order, and it's a really good price.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=200221983927&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=010

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=200221986167&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=010

I worked a lot on the Costume-Con 26 online scheduling tools this weekend, and the result is now available online.

Select "Program and Exhibits" from the top menu and you'll find "Prelimnary Program Schedule" offered near the top of the left menu.

If you want to refer someone there, you can use this link: http://www.cc26.info/show_prelim_schedule.php which actually redirects to the correct page.*

The schedule is still subject to massive changes, of course, but the online view is generated directly from the latest input to the program db, so it's always fresh.

*(Geekery: the redirect gets around the issues the secure server has with drilling down directly into the secure part of the site)

The rough cut of the Costume-Con 26 educational program is now available for viewing at this online program listing page

It's got some gaps and a duplicate or two, but all the data is now in the online database, so you'll see it maturing quickly as we continue to update it with participant responses.

After about 5 abortive attempts to write the Letter from the Chair for the Costume-Con 26 program book, I finally ended up with something I'm not embarrassed to have my byline on For All Eternity, and it has been duly forwarded to trystbat. And then re-sent, as I realized there was a sentence missing. Such sturm and drang over less than 500 words!
(And, yes, jaylake, I'm fully aware how much harder short writing actually can be ;-) )

The accompanying photo is more difficult, since my good head shots are 4 years and 3.5 hairstyles ago.

didjiman, did you get anything at IRLM Coronation that would be useful?

bovil and I made the long drive down last night, leaving San Jose about 8.

On the advice of lisa_marli, we finally tried the 25-156-152 route to Pacheco Pass, so as to avoid the idiots-stop at the 152-156 junction (where, as it turns out, CHP had someone directing traffic). It's definitely a better route in general, and we got to Casa de Fruta for dinner before 9.

I drove us as far as the second rest stop on I-5, and Andy took over and drove the rest of the way. We got here about 3:30am and slept in this morning. Lunch in the cafe, and then we helped hang some art show panels and provided a touch of Evil Genius mood lighting (from our decorating supplies ) for the consuite, since the room had the candelabra sconces on the wall and we had 3 full strings of candle flicker bulbs in our kit.

I'm about to go get in a workout, bovil is hanging out making himself useful, and plans for this evening include building the CC26 fashion show reservation tables, sending out a couple of CC26 broadcast notices and fashion show announcements, and then the big orphan's Thanksgiving dinner here for the early arrivals at the hotel.

Evil Genius Hall of Fame party Saturday night!

This weekend bovil and I are, as is our wont, joining the merry crew at vintacon.

We'll be checking into the Hilton Garden Inn Gilroy on Thursday Night so we can be rested and fresh for tasting on Friday morning.

hurray! A weekend where the only running around is in search of another glass of wine.

Thanks, bast_kitten

( Photos under here! )

Huge thanks to jadecat9 for shooting Van's portrait.

Conference report to come later

( photo behind the cut )

The West Coast Science Fantasy Conference (aka WesterCon 60, aka "Gnomeward Bound,") is being held this weekend (June 30-July 3) at the San Mateo Marriott here in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Sunday night (because the convention actually starts on Saturday, so Sunday is the second night) Andy Trembley (bovil) and I are directing the Masquerade competition. We're using the same process we've used at Anime Los Angeles and Baycon, which means:

• Things start on time,


• End on time, and


• Everybody has a good time.

(Using rules based, of course, on the ICG Fairness in Competition guidelines.)

We have great panels of judges for both on-stage (presentation) and the optional up-close (workmanship) judging, with a healthy mix of veteran judges and fresh faces.
We have lights and sound.
We have a erudite and entertaining Master of Ceremonies.
We have space for an audience.
We have an amazing live-action half-time presentation to keep the audience enthralled while the judges deliberate.

What's missing? You! A masquerade is just an empty stage without the costumers.

If you are attending Westercon 60, are you planning to enter the Masquerade?
If you are attending but not entering, would you like to help?

In either case, come visit the Masquerade desk (Saturday 12-6, Sunday 9-12:45) and we'll sign you up!

Kevin

P.S. If you'd care to drop a note to chair (at ) cc26.info expressing your intentions, it will help me plan how many munchies I need to have for contestants, etc.!)

P.P.S. Feel free to link to or forward this post (in its entirety) to appropriate recipients.

Here, as promised, is a photo of the ICG LAA plaque I was presented at Costume-Con 25. ( Shiny behind the cut )

These are sort of random thoughts and notes (not to be confused with Random's thoughts, which... oh, never mind :-)

bovil and I had a really good time. Minor bad travel-fu on the way east; our Seattle flight was delayed while they repaired the first class lavatory.

We picked up our car and made it to the hotel despite the error in the published directions. Said hi, got dinner at Ruby Tuesdays (which I saw the inside of *too many times* during the weekend).

Loved the concourse, banners, and kiosk, and have notes and photos for reference. The DoubleTree function areas are split into several areas, so we're definitely going to be installing some onsite navigational aids in that spirit.

The original location for the CC26 table was a bit problematic, because it was on the end of the Concourse opposite from reg, and there were a) the Now and Then display and b) the giant lattice partition hiding us from traffic. When we moved into the front half of the concourse things were much easier.

In general, I was impressed by the organization of everything, with one complaint -- the one-hour-on-the-hour program slots. Inevitably, the panel before mine would run up to if not over the hour and we'd get a late start. This was especially bad for the cross-dressing panel, as the ironing demonstration ran over, their equipment had to be broken down and our AV set up. Fortunately, ours was the last panel of the day and our audience was willing to stay a little late so we could cover the points we wanted to.

The Friday social was, well, nicely social. It was also nice of the hotel to make sure later on that CC26 guests could get into "Generations" (the main hotel bar) without paying a cover if we wanted to buy a drink and bring it back to the con suite. The hotel location was also great when I had to do my shopping run for the Evil Genius party.

I spent most of my non-panel time at the CC26 table for obvious reasons, but I always seemed to have good company there; we sold a number of memberships.

It was great fun being in the "hunk of the month" chair for Match Game CC. Sidebar: if you didn't watch the original, each of the six panel positions on "Match Game" acquired certain personalities. As I've come to know it, Seat 1 was for the current male hot TV property, Seat 4 the equivalent female star (and both of them tended to be bimbos). Seat 2 was Brett Somers (Jack Klugman's wife and one of the sharpest wits on the series), Seat 3 was Charles Nelson Riley, Seat 5 was Richard Dawson and Seat 6 was Betty White or Fanny Flagg.
I usually get cast in the Seat 3 position, so it was fun mental gymnastics being in Seat 1. Hope y'all enjoyed it, too.

I used to dread being an auctioneer; it's fun, however, when it's an occasional gig and I was happy to help out Betsy and the Archives. Thanks for playing along.

I was pleasantly gobsmacked to receive the LAA; there isn't much I can say about it that I didn't say on the spot!

There is apparently voodoo about hosting an Evil Genius party at Holiday Inns. Every time we do it, we get a noise complaint. Must be doing something right. Glad everybodyl liked the wine, and happy to share it with CC27 for the Sunday party, too.

Sunday morning came wayyyy too early, but judging the Fashion Show was not a hardship. Back to the table for the rest of the day.

Monday, after two nights of going to bed at 4AM, Andy and I opted to sleep in and skip the field trips. Dinner out at Las Margaritas was lovely, as was the dead dog and the Mousekerade.

One note on that, however -- I remember when it was all spur-of-the-moment and all the critters received an award (and most of them read "Most Humorous"). Bearemy was a bit let down to be one of he
only entries to receive no award at all. It was sweet of one of the mice to present him with their medal as a Miss Congeniality-type thank you backstage afterwards.

So, there you have it -- less a con report and more an assortment of impressions. I had a great time, and I'm still tired and loopy.

Kevin
(see you in April 2008!)

Having successfully found all the bits and bobs of paperwork we need to plug into the tax software, took a break this afternoon and met at a nearby Evil Empire for coffee/iced tea and snackies with the above. Much swapping of con and/or kinky war stories ensued, as well as general hilarity.

A lovely time, and well in keeping with bovil and my plans to stay home and recharge our batteries.

I'll be speaking at the O'Reilly Media Emergent Technology Conference in San Diego on Wednesday, March 28.

You can see me on the speakers listing here.

Of course, this will entail flying down Wednesday morning, flying back Wednesday night so I can repack and catch a flight to St. Louis for CC25 in the morning.

Last weekend at The Eighteenth Amendment of Gallifrey One britgeekgrrl, bovil and I debuted the Saint George Spirits Special Forces TAC* Squad uniforms. A full convention report will be forthcoming, but in the meantime here are some snapshots.

Many thanks to St. George Spirits for letting us use their (copyrighted and trademarked, no doubt) Semper Imbibo artwork for the SGSSF. The Dragon wrapped around the cross of St George included in that artwork is also their legal property. The TAC Squad insignia is copyright KPRoche, as are the Up, Whiskey and Absinthe departmental patch designs

*Tactical Alcohol Consumption.


( Photos behind the cut to save your bandwidth )

I have a package of Costume-Con fliers and brochures that I need delivered to someone at DunDraCon 31 in San Ramon this Friday.

Anyone in LJ-land who could pick them up from our porch in Willow Glen (San Jose) and get them to San Ramon?

The Costume-Con 26 meet and greet last night was wonderful.

Enormous thanks to Carole and Bill for opening their home.

We filled in a few lines and boxes on the orgchart, introduced some people so they can figure out if they can work together for the long haul, ate great food, drank good wine, and generally had a smashing good time. At 8 we raised a glass to Aunt Sallie.

We'll be doing a couple more of these in the course of the next year; our gracious hosts have already said they are willing to host another one.

Thanks to everyone who came out and made last night so wonderful!

And I've managed to hang on as a panelist by the skin of my nails... I'm on the Forever New Frontiers: Future Tech in Doctor Who and SF TV Panel Sunday at 5.

As bovil mentioned in this post, after going to the St. George Spirits open house, we decided to make St George Spirits Special Forces uniforms.

(We're doing this with the full knowledge of the SGS owner and staff, btw).

Ultimately, we're going to want to create embroidered insignia (Semper Imbibo!) but we can start by using our ol' friend inkjet iron-on fabric.

So, here's the list of components:

• A pair of dark grey Propper 65/35 poly/cotton ripstop BDU trousers


• A long-sleeved dark grey Propper 65/35 poly/cotton ripstop longsleeved BDU shirt (the two-pocket with epaulet versoin)


• Black BDU belt
  As you've probably guessed, I ordered ours from the GearZone Propper Megastore, mostly because the dark grey is hard to find.


• olive tank or t-shirt, ideally the St George Spirits Special Forces logo shirt you can get at their tasting room.


• appropriate footwear


• We haven't picked a hat yet, but if we're doing special forces drinking, who wants to worry about forgetting their hat? (maybe this one in black or olive?)

ETAmarquesate has suggested black berets at a jaunty angle, or peaked caps.

We're working on the branch of service patches as well. We're going to go with the patches-on-velcro trick that the real military are using now, rather than ironing them directly onto the shirt like we did for the LiveJournal Commandos, so when/if we get embroidered patches they'll be easy to swap in. They also look better, because even with a printed badge, you can satin stitch around the edge onto the hook patch which gives them a bit of texture.

Who wants to join the silliness?