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SoonerCon Redux
Actually, I'm being imprecise here -- I am not adding to my SoonerCon post, I'm echoing other people's posts.
This was the second year of the new SoonerCon, run by a new group. (The previous one, a nice convention but not huge, apparently died when a founder left the state and smaller groups started infighting. Others have tried to launch a con in the area, but this is the first one to end up with a profit as seed money for next year.)
I think the convention should be viewed as a success. Something like a thousand people showed up and bought memberships. There were three media guests, and I did my part by buying Claudia Christian's Geeks & Freaks book. (The convention had a deal with the media guests where they would make up the difference, up to their standard fee, if photo and book purchases did not hit a certain $$$.) Claudia was scheduled across from panels I attended pretty much across the board, but from occasional brushes in her direction, she is a no-nonsense, sharp lady, as physically lovely in person as she looks on-screen, and a trooper. If she was scheduled to be in the dealer's room at her booth, she was there. When the convention held "Sinnercon" after hours and carded the world to get in the door, she apparently was there, having someone try an S&M prong on her arm. She'd get the tiniest touch, scream "OW! OW! OW!" and they'd move the device, she'd check out her arm, and then said, "Okay let's try that again." So -- like the late and lamented Richard Briggs, she was willing to be silly on a moment's notice.
Claudia also had a "handler" with her, Holly, who is apparently the type of person who handles bookings and appearances for 5-6 different celebrities. I didn't see her without Claudia, so never got to ask her how long she'd done it, etc. But Holly seemed extremely competent. The other two media guests were guys who had done guest shots on a lot of SF shows, including ones I've scarcely seen, like FARSCAPE.
I would call this currently a media convention, since the panels with writers seemed to be lightly attended except when there was no competition. I managed to have an event in every single room, so I got the nickel tour. This was fine except when I let![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bevhale lead the way to a panel. Bev has **many** strengths -- figuring out North and planning accordingly is not one of them. Do not follow her unless she's been where she's leading you! [GRIN]
How lightly attended, you may ask? (I can't use readings as a gauge, since people attend them at whim, depending on what occurred against them, time of day, etc.) But I did not see a full writer's event, although the audience for the Sunday panel on culture and creating worlds was close. I walked in Friday am with two books for Stephen Donaldson to sign, prepared to stand in line, and found Stephen in the entry hall (a lousy place to have signings, if people had been lining up for them) by himself, smiling, media fans and costumers swirling around and past him. No one at that moment was there for the autographing. He was scheduled for two autographing sessions total, so the next one may have been busier, but it's rare to find Stephen with no one at an autographing!
There was a Yard Dog Press panel, against one of my panels, and also time allotted for The Merlene Show, a YDP Production (a post-apocalyptic descendant of Martha Stewart's show), which proves just how crazed the feral puppies at YDP can be when they want to entertain a group and sell books. Bev had volunteered us for a skit about the Stonebender Sisters (we were quads, except for that thing about having different mothers) and their crafts segment (yes, Martha Stewart turned into a yumbie and is no longer doing HER show.) If Bev had told me she had stage fright, it might have gone smoother, but we did our best to show folks what they can do with all those extra beer cans and bottles, after they've built the can tree in the window and insulated the house with bottles and concrete.
I built a bunch of the manger scene, using Shiner Bock bottles for the shepherds, kings and Mary and Joseph. Bev made a Spam can into a manger, with a little spud to play the baby Jesus, and animals, plus many other Bubba holiday decorations, like a cake topper for Elvis’s birthday. Cary Osborne did a white shotgun wedding decoration, andhudson was in there making special event ornaments, as well, like a NASCAR topper, complete with blood. We even had a cameo item by Maggie Bonham – a "rat" accidentally squashed by Billy Whoever while he was crushing cans for us. It’s so good, we all fought over keeping it.
With code names Berly Ann, Katie Ellen, Carrie On, and Ruby Sue, and rhinestone-studded tee shirts (made in an Oklahoma City sweat shop, according to the friend who was lured into helping Bev decorate the shirts. Turns out it take forever to decorate one – who knew?) we were ready to take The Merlene Show by storm.
I had the usual dilemma -- how far to go? I hate to make it seem like it's open season on Bubbas, so I tried to straddle the line between glitz and "MAYBE not..." Half of YDP may say they have Bubbas in their families, but I don't, so I was trying to be respectful. I put way too much effort into it, but I never know when to quit. I especially liked my wise man with his queue, being one of those Kings from Orient Are, and the last king bore a strange resemblance to Emperor Ming in Flash Gordon. Also – I didn’t realize until the night before the skit that my Mary looked a bit like Dolly Parton, but no boobs. Totally unplanned, but I was working on the stuff until 4 am, so there you go – you’ve heard of night terrors? I was terrifying...)
Writer/Artist Sherri Dean was Merlene, in the most magnificent wig I’ve seen in a long time. She had a constant bubba fashion show between acts and her “educated cousin Billy Dee” challenging her pronunciation every time she tried to say “apocalypse”. (Billy said it wrong in another way!) So the Stonebenders did holidays; another YDP puppy (Glenn Sixbury) demonstrated how to find a “divining rod” to find water (and of course other things, too.) He had a huge branch cranked into a holiday tree stand, which he attacked with hedge clippers, showing how to go about the creation of your perfect divining rod. Writer Susan Satterfield did her “beer can, chicken bones and shotgun shells” wind chimes, and her costume about brought down the house before she even opened her mouth.
All was well until the coda of a continuous skit that was running behind our skit -- the two women working as show security guards (writersshadowhelm and riesheridan) had stolen artist David Lee Anderson, “ravished” him and brought him back in, tied up in his tie and his shirt flying like a flag. Well, David apparently thought he'd jump over the middle table in the table formation the hotel usually sets up in such rooms.
He miscalculated on the height and distance.
Yes, you guessed it – we’d left the assembled crèche on the far left table (for safety!), and David’s hit took out the center and left tables, in a magnificent slow-motion fall that almost gave us heart failure.
Once I realized that no one was bleeding, I started yelling “You made the baby Jesus cry!” Bev just sank down to the floor and said: “You’re goin’ to Hell, you killed the baby Jesus.” And of course all the kings and shepherds lost their heads (only hot glue of a burr acorn to a bottle) so we went on and on about the heads. Why? Because they were supposed to be filming for a possible YouTube segment. So I figured, what the heck, stay in character. We all did – I was still in the mild form of shock known as “We #$%#@ didn’t plan on this, OMG pull yourself together!” And Bev was Berly Ann-ing her little heart out. We ignored the audience, as Merlene closed out the segment of her show.
Apparently, the audience was laughing so hard they nearly ruptured something, individually and collectively. But we were too busy mourning for the crèche to notice – which just made it funnier, of course.
The important things were, David wasn’t hurt from landing on the tables, none of the bottles broke, so no flying shrapnel, and the audience loved it. We sold a bunch of books in the Dealers' Room.
Of course, we may need audience release forms for the next show.
Should you attend? Well, rumor has it the baby Jesus will be played this time by a Twinkie, since the spud got mashed. Go to Conestoga and find out!
And this is enough of a report! Apologies for the ghastly spelling and grammar. I stayed an extra day or so with Bev, recouping, as we tidied up after the horde of houseguests (three of us) and wrote notes on books in the wee hours of the night.
And now to do some actual writing before other activities interfere.
This was the second year of the new SoonerCon, run by a new group. (The previous one, a nice convention but not huge, apparently died when a founder left the state and smaller groups started infighting. Others have tried to launch a con in the area, but this is the first one to end up with a profit as seed money for next year.)
I think the convention should be viewed as a success. Something like a thousand people showed up and bought memberships. There were three media guests, and I did my part by buying Claudia Christian's Geeks & Freaks book. (The convention had a deal with the media guests where they would make up the difference, up to their standard fee, if photo and book purchases did not hit a certain $$$.) Claudia was scheduled across from panels I attended pretty much across the board, but from occasional brushes in her direction, she is a no-nonsense, sharp lady, as physically lovely in person as she looks on-screen, and a trooper. If she was scheduled to be in the dealer's room at her booth, she was there. When the convention held "Sinnercon" after hours and carded the world to get in the door, she apparently was there, having someone try an S&M prong on her arm. She'd get the tiniest touch, scream "OW! OW! OW!" and they'd move the device, she'd check out her arm, and then said, "Okay let's try that again." So -- like the late and lamented Richard Briggs, she was willing to be silly on a moment's notice.
Claudia also had a "handler" with her, Holly, who is apparently the type of person who handles bookings and appearances for 5-6 different celebrities. I didn't see her without Claudia, so never got to ask her how long she'd done it, etc. But Holly seemed extremely competent. The other two media guests were guys who had done guest shots on a lot of SF shows, including ones I've scarcely seen, like FARSCAPE.
I would call this currently a media convention, since the panels with writers seemed to be lightly attended except when there was no competition. I managed to have an event in every single room, so I got the nickel tour. This was fine except when I let
bevhale lead the way to a panel. Bev has **many** strengths -- figuring out North and planning accordingly is not one of them. Do not follow her unless she's been where she's leading you! [GRIN]How lightly attended, you may ask? (I can't use readings as a gauge, since people attend them at whim, depending on what occurred against them, time of day, etc.) But I did not see a full writer's event, although the audience for the Sunday panel on culture and creating worlds was close. I walked in Friday am with two books for Stephen Donaldson to sign, prepared to stand in line, and found Stephen in the entry hall (a lousy place to have signings, if people had been lining up for them) by himself, smiling, media fans and costumers swirling around and past him. No one at that moment was there for the autographing. He was scheduled for two autographing sessions total, so the next one may have been busier, but it's rare to find Stephen with no one at an autographing!
There was a Yard Dog Press panel, against one of my panels, and also time allotted for The Merlene Show, a YDP Production (a post-apocalyptic descendant of Martha Stewart's show), which proves just how crazed the feral puppies at YDP can be when they want to entertain a group and sell books. Bev had volunteered us for a skit about the Stonebender Sisters (we were quads, except for that thing about having different mothers) and their crafts segment (yes, Martha Stewart turned into a yumbie and is no longer doing HER show.) If Bev had told me she had stage fright, it might have gone smoother, but we did our best to show folks what they can do with all those extra beer cans and bottles, after they've built the can tree in the window and insulated the house with bottles and concrete.
I built a bunch of the manger scene, using Shiner Bock bottles for the shepherds, kings and Mary and Joseph. Bev made a Spam can into a manger, with a little spud to play the baby Jesus, and animals, plus many other Bubba holiday decorations, like a cake topper for Elvis’s birthday. Cary Osborne did a white shotgun wedding decoration, and
hudson was in there making special event ornaments, as well, like a NASCAR topper, complete with blood. We even had a cameo item by Maggie Bonham – a "rat" accidentally squashed by Billy Whoever while he was crushing cans for us. It’s so good, we all fought over keeping it.With code names Berly Ann, Katie Ellen, Carrie On, and Ruby Sue, and rhinestone-studded tee shirts (made in an Oklahoma City sweat shop, according to the friend who was lured into helping Bev decorate the shirts. Turns out it take forever to decorate one – who knew?) we were ready to take The Merlene Show by storm.
I had the usual dilemma -- how far to go? I hate to make it seem like it's open season on Bubbas, so I tried to straddle the line between glitz and "MAYBE not..." Half of YDP may say they have Bubbas in their families, but I don't, so I was trying to be respectful. I put way too much effort into it, but I never know when to quit. I especially liked my wise man with his queue, being one of those Kings from Orient Are, and the last king bore a strange resemblance to Emperor Ming in Flash Gordon. Also – I didn’t realize until the night before the skit that my Mary looked a bit like Dolly Parton, but no boobs. Totally unplanned, but I was working on the stuff until 4 am, so there you go – you’ve heard of night terrors? I was terrifying...)
Writer/Artist Sherri Dean was Merlene, in the most magnificent wig I’ve seen in a long time. She had a constant bubba fashion show between acts and her “educated cousin Billy Dee” challenging her pronunciation every time she tried to say “apocalypse”. (Billy said it wrong in another way!) So the Stonebenders did holidays; another YDP puppy (Glenn Sixbury) demonstrated how to find a “divining rod” to find water (and of course other things, too.) He had a huge branch cranked into a holiday tree stand, which he attacked with hedge clippers, showing how to go about the creation of your perfect divining rod. Writer Susan Satterfield did her “beer can, chicken bones and shotgun shells” wind chimes, and her costume about brought down the house before she even opened her mouth.
All was well until the coda of a continuous skit that was running behind our skit -- the two women working as show security guards (writers
shadowhelm and riesheridan) had stolen artist David Lee Anderson, “ravished” him and brought him back in, tied up in his tie and his shirt flying like a flag. Well, David apparently thought he'd jump over the middle table in the table formation the hotel usually sets up in such rooms.He miscalculated on the height and distance.
Yes, you guessed it – we’d left the assembled crèche on the far left table (for safety!), and David’s hit took out the center and left tables, in a magnificent slow-motion fall that almost gave us heart failure.
Once I realized that no one was bleeding, I started yelling “You made the baby Jesus cry!” Bev just sank down to the floor and said: “You’re goin’ to Hell, you killed the baby Jesus.” And of course all the kings and shepherds lost their heads (only hot glue of a burr acorn to a bottle) so we went on and on about the heads. Why? Because they were supposed to be filming for a possible YouTube segment. So I figured, what the heck, stay in character. We all did – I was still in the mild form of shock known as “We #$%#@ didn’t plan on this, OMG pull yourself together!” And Bev was Berly Ann-ing her little heart out. We ignored the audience, as Merlene closed out the segment of her show.
Apparently, the audience was laughing so hard they nearly ruptured something, individually and collectively. But we were too busy mourning for the crèche to notice – which just made it funnier, of course.
The important things were, David wasn’t hurt from landing on the tables, none of the bottles broke, so no flying shrapnel, and the audience loved it. We sold a bunch of books in the Dealers' Room.
Of course, we may need audience release forms for the next show.
Should you attend? Well, rumor has it the baby Jesus will be played this time by a Twinkie, since the spud got mashed. Go to Conestoga and find out!
And this is enough of a report! Apologies for the ghastly spelling and grammar. I stayed an extra day or so with Bev, recouping, as we tidied up after the horde of houseguests (three of us) and wrote notes on books in the wee hours of the night.
And now to do some actual writing before other activities interfere.