Potlatch: Saturday

Saturday was the big day for Potatch 19. I arrived at about 10:30 and had a lovely morning catch-up with davidlevine, which morphed into lunch with him as well. We had gyros and a nice walk on the Ave.

We returned to the hotel in time for me to speak on the panel about e-publishing, about which I had more to say than I thought, including some cherce epithets for those who think it costs nothing to produce an e-book. I made a point about the impatience of our generation, which is trying to re-engineer in the space of a couple of years a technology that has evolved and worked beautifully for centuries. This particular remark was well-received; a number of people commented to me about it later. vondanmcintyre was a splendid moderator and, as one of the prime tech people behind Book View Cafe, offered valuable perspective on manuscript prep and the technical challenges of the process. John Berry, editor and typography guru, added a valuable discussion about readability, design and text preparation. He also provided edifying graphics to illustrate his points.

Following that, I stayed in the room to attend the Book of Honor panel (picture), a discussion of Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny. Among others, the panel included author Eileen Gunn, jackwilliambell, author J.T. Stewart, and a diverse group of writers and academics, some of whom were present via the miracle of Skype or represented via e-mail. It was a good discussion, ranging from issues of cultural appropriation (a theme this weekend) to gender politics to pure literary quality. I'm only about 50 pages into rereading it, so the remarks I heard will certainly color my experience of the book--but that's okay, ultimately a goodness, mainly because I've found myself a little impatient with the narrative so far, a reaction I'll discuss here once I finish my reading.

Peggy Ray Sapienza and I retreated to a quiet corner to catch up for a while, then went out to pick up some stuff for the Foolscap soiree that evening. Before departing the hotel, Peggy Ray displayed uncommon cleverness. We stopped in the Registration area and she said, very nonspecifically, "Can I do something?"

"Sure," said I, "whatever you want."

She eyed the t-shirts arrayed on the table. "What size do you wear?"

"Oh no, no, no, you can't do that," I said, suddenly understanding her intention.

"Oh, no, no, no!" said holyoutlaw and juliabata who were staffing the Registration table. "You just said she could do anything she wanted!"

And so I was gifted with a convention t-shirt, which I'll wear today with great fondness and gratitude.

For dinner, we grabbed two of Peggy's friends and Jack, and headed out with the intention of having Caribbean food. Due to long waits, we ended up having dinner at a place inauspiciously but completely appropriately named Schawarma King (50th & University Way), where the food was so good that my main contributions to the dinner conversation were, "My God, this is good. MmmmmMMMMmmmm...yum! Wow, this is good." And so on.

The next big event of the day was the charity auction to benefit Clarion West. It was, as one might expect, an event of great silliness and generosity. jaylake's shorn tresses were auctioned off ( picture ). In a surprise twist, eklages, the auctioneer, auctioned offer her hair as well, which was shaved off later in the evening. davidlevine auctioned off an MDRS mission patch and a simulated moon rock (picture). I couldn't stay much longer after that because I had to hie me up to the Hospitality Suite as one of the hosts of the Foolscap party.

I stayed at the suite the rest of the evening. Most of it was lovely, but I found myself hitting a wall around 11:30ish and retreated to the lobby until Jack finished up leading the scotch tasting. We departed the con tired and ready for sleep.

Check out the complete Flickr set. Follow my Twitter stream (@jesilverstein) or the Foolscap Twitter stream (@flatstuff) for more news of the convention today.

Potlatch: Sunday

Today was really about the banquet. jackwilliambell and I arrived early enough to catch Eileen Gunn reading a short story fresh off the computer, just finished, that was quite entertaining, and then we went in for brunch. The brunch was a good hearty breakfast in the company of davidlevine, kateyule, vondancintyre and several others, followed by davidlevine's presentation about his trip to Mars. David was funny and informative, answered questions with grace and good humor, and just shined. He received a very long ovation afterward.

Brunch concluded, we spent some time in the dealers' room where I complimented Eileen on her story. I also showed great restraint in not purchasing Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter (which I want not only because I love the premise but because the book itself is a fine artifact of the book maker's art) and Simon's Cat, but did purchase a Spider Robinson novel I'd never seen before. It was the least expensive of my choices, and the proceeds will benefit the Jeanne Robinson medical fund, so my dollars are working extra hard there.

We finally headed up to the Hospitality Suite. I had some quality time with nisi_la, klages, and several others. When mcjulie and paulcarp expressed an interest in watching the Oscars, I suddenly had an tiny impromptu Oscar party on my hands...

...and so that's how the evening ended: at my place with pizza, Julie, Paul, Jack and I watching the Oscars.

I've posted the last of my Potlatch pictures to my Flickr set, and tomorrow morning, I'll aggregate my tweets about Oscar night to post here. What a good weekend! I wasn't exceptionally productive, but I had a marvelous time.