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Worldcon and CSTS and Wayward!
Worldcon was awesome! So many fun and amazing things happened that I can't begin to list them all, so I'll hit the highlights.Friday was the most intense day of the convention for me. First of all, I was only able to sleep a couple of hours on Thursday night, so everything I did on Friday was fueled entirely by adrenaline and sheer force of will. The start of my Friday was waking up at OMG:30 to paint Torrey into her Na'vi costume in preparation for the Masquerade competition that night. We had to do the painting work so early in the morning because I was needed for sound check and concerts starting at 11AM, and the painting process takes hours. We were amazed at the service that the Peppermill Hotel gave us; they'd set up a tarped-off area deep in the bowels of the hotel service corridors so that we could paint Torrey. With that accomplished, I left her in Vixy's capable hands for the finishing touches, and dashed off to the convention center, guitar in hand.
The concerts went incredibly well! We played in Katie Tinney's concert, and we were Seanan's backup band for her concert, Vixy sang in the Bohnhoff's concert, then we got to do a few songs for the Kanef parody concert. Through it all Betsy was an absolute machine, being the perfect amazing cellist for practically everyone who took the stage that day. The entire time, smiling and dancing around as she played. I feel honored that she is our friend.
With the Friday concerts successfully slain, it was time for the Masquerade! All of the costume work was amazing, particularly a master-class group dressed as characters from recent Doctor Who episodes, their latex casting work and prop construction was absolutely flawless. Torrey was competing in the journeyman class, but had very stiff competition from a group presentation titled "Night at the Sci-Fi Museum". And in the end, the judges couldn't decide, and awarded a tie! So Torrey won Best In Show at the Masquerade! At WORLDCON! We're so proud! In all, she won three awards:
- Blammy award for best integration of weapon and costume (for the UV-LED longbow that illuminates her UV bio-luminescent dots).
- Journeyman Workmanship Award: Best Make-up
- Best In Show - Re-Creation (Tied with Best In Show - Original which went to Night at the Sci-Fi Museum).
To see Torrey's costume in action on video, click here for the Masq Halftime Show and Awards and fast forward to the one hour and five minute mark. She accepts the Blammy award at 01:05:00, the makeup award at 01:23:00, and the Best in show award at 01:35:30. (I'm told that they don't post the actual masquerade presentation itself online because of concerns about the commercial music that's used in each performer's act.) There's also some pictures of her here in the Learn Na'vi forum. Updates: Another picture of Torrey accepting the Best in Show award here, and a good set of the entire Masquerade here.
Torrey and Lauren also had some other good costumes during the week, too, here's Torrey in her TOS Trek miniskirt and Lauren in her Tardis Dress that she and Fishy made.
Then Saturday, we watched and participated in Sooj's and Alec's concerts, and of course did our Vixy & Tony concert. Having gone to bed early and slept a bit better, I wasn't hallucinating so much on Saturday, so the day went much more smoothly.
Saturday night was the Hugo awards! I got to go to the pre-Hugo party and hobnob with some amazing people. I had a brief conversation with Joe Haldeman about Torrey's costuming work, which he had been impressed with, and I got to chat a lot with Phil and Kaja Foglio and Cheyenne Wright. Then we got to go to the Hugo ceremony itself, which was huge and opulent and amazing. Our wonderful friends Betsy, Alec and Sooj (as special guests Tricky Pixie) got to present the hugo for Best Graphic Story. I was so thrilled when Girl Genius won! Tricky Pixie's schtick was hilarious and was delivered perfectly. have a peek at this video stream of the Hugo ceremony and fast forward to the 1 hour and 39 minute mark to see their presentation of the award.
Seanan didn't win the Hugo for Feed as we had all hoped, but as far as I'm concerned, she WON ALL OF WORLDCON with her performance in the Masquerade half-time game show "Just A Minute", on Friday night. Here is a video stream of the show, which is probably one of the funniest things I've ever seen at a convention. I know Seanan well enough to predict that she would mop the floor at that particular competition, but to do so with such confidence and quick witted humor was sublime. She even namedropped Vixy at one point, and it was perfect.
Oh hey, here's a quick reminder about something we've got coming up: We're playing a concert on September 17th at Can't Stop The Serenity just like we did last year! Slightly different member lineups, as Marian Call will be in Europe and Sooj will be playing the Faerieworlds Harvest Festival, but it's still going to be an amazing day! Here are the details!
And I'm very excited to report the following news:
The Wayward Coffeehouse is coming back!They have secured a new site in the Ravenna area at 6417 Roosevelt Way NE #104, and are hoping to open by late October. They're still looking for donations to the Wayward Phoenix Fund to get them back on their feet, so go help!
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Maybe that was some other Na'vi costume...
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Anyway, awesome costume.