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I'm a bee-liever!
Nov. 26th, 2002 11:27 amMidwest Furfest has come and gone. I had an adequately good time, worth my time and energy.
A few highlights:
-Though table sales were overall poor, my cost and energy input was low since Jeff Eddy of Sofawolf Press was kind enough to let me crash his table. The most amusing part was the two young boys who kept coming back to the table every hour or so over the course of Friday and Saturday to buy the dice I’d mostly brought for table dressing, two state quarters at a time, until they’d bought the whole container.
-I got to meet Stalking Cat, who finally decided to check out the furry community and go to a con. It tickled me silly that *he* kept wanting to be in pictures with *me* when I was in tigress garb. I found that I got used to looking at him quickly, and that his face wasn’t actually incongruous. He was fun to talk to.
( “Tigers!” )
-Gaming was poorly organized, but happened anyway. I ended up running the new WT demo “Good Neighbors”, and seeing the usual fan crowd (Hi, Loxley, Leto, and Sean!). The demo definitely needs tweaking, but we had a good time. I also got to play Chez Geek/Chez Greek and hang out with Fran and Shadowcat.
-Costuming was definitely my favorite part of the con. I wore modern Bumblebee on Friday and Classic Bumblebee on Sunday, but Saturday night I did the actual bee-Bee. Heather put together a most magnificent mask for me, which really made the difference in making the costume work. The whole outfit had something of a sensory-deprivation feel to it, between the restricted breathing in the corset and the limited vision in the mask, and I really enjoyed having Heather lace me up. Nemet, Bunnidoll, and Lupus MacLeod were really helpful in spotting me so I didn’t walk into too many people or fall down the stairs. I found it a bit discouraging to not be able to see people’s reactions, but also very freeing to realize I was attracting a lot of attention I couldn’t actually perceive. Rumor has it that although in my mind I was dancing with myself, that the bee in stillettos on the dance floor was very amusing. And I hung around a bit with the fursuiters, the first time I really felt appropriate doing so. The fans meant to cool down people in full-body fur were pretty chilling in cotton/spandex, though!
( “Bzz!” )
Out of costume, I found myself feeling a bit lonely, most of the time.
-I didn’t go to a lot of panels, but a few were interesting. Dali’s panel on Women in the Fandom ended up in a discussion about supporting teens in the fandom who may be overwhelmed or making bad choices, one that may actually manifest in new programming. The other was Kage’s panel on talking to the public. He made a huge number of good points, about only offering people the information they ask for, in terms they can understand, about not giving media hawks the material they need to continue (such as sending mail to Dan Savage), and about the fact that any interview can be turned to any point of view by a skilled interviewer. He continues to give the impression of being extremely embarassed by the more out-there, less socially-acceptable pieces of the fandom, and expresses that in a way that I find pretty upsetting. I don’t think anyone should be allowed to use the phrase “swishy she-male” unless they are referring to themselves.
-Krispy Kremes in the con suite. 'Nuff said.
A few highlights:
-Though table sales were overall poor, my cost and energy input was low since Jeff Eddy of Sofawolf Press was kind enough to let me crash his table. The most amusing part was the two young boys who kept coming back to the table every hour or so over the course of Friday and Saturday to buy the dice I’d mostly brought for table dressing, two state quarters at a time, until they’d bought the whole container.
-I got to meet Stalking Cat, who finally decided to check out the furry community and go to a con. It tickled me silly that *he* kept wanting to be in pictures with *me* when I was in tigress garb. I found that I got used to looking at him quickly, and that his face wasn’t actually incongruous. He was fun to talk to.
( “Tigers!” )
-Gaming was poorly organized, but happened anyway. I ended up running the new WT demo “Good Neighbors”, and seeing the usual fan crowd (Hi, Loxley, Leto, and Sean!). The demo definitely needs tweaking, but we had a good time. I also got to play Chez Geek/Chez Greek and hang out with Fran and Shadowcat.
-Costuming was definitely my favorite part of the con. I wore modern Bumblebee on Friday and Classic Bumblebee on Sunday, but Saturday night I did the actual bee-Bee. Heather put together a most magnificent mask for me, which really made the difference in making the costume work. The whole outfit had something of a sensory-deprivation feel to it, between the restricted breathing in the corset and the limited vision in the mask, and I really enjoyed having Heather lace me up. Nemet, Bunnidoll, and Lupus MacLeod were really helpful in spotting me so I didn’t walk into too many people or fall down the stairs. I found it a bit discouraging to not be able to see people’s reactions, but also very freeing to realize I was attracting a lot of attention I couldn’t actually perceive. Rumor has it that although in my mind I was dancing with myself, that the bee in stillettos on the dance floor was very amusing. And I hung around a bit with the fursuiters, the first time I really felt appropriate doing so. The fans meant to cool down people in full-body fur were pretty chilling in cotton/spandex, though!
( “Bzz!” )
Out of costume, I found myself feeling a bit lonely, most of the time.
-I didn’t go to a lot of panels, but a few were interesting. Dali’s panel on Women in the Fandom ended up in a discussion about supporting teens in the fandom who may be overwhelmed or making bad choices, one that may actually manifest in new programming. The other was Kage’s panel on talking to the public. He made a huge number of good points, about only offering people the information they ask for, in terms they can understand, about not giving media hawks the material they need to continue (such as sending mail to Dan Savage), and about the fact that any interview can be turned to any point of view by a skilled interviewer. He continues to give the impression of being extremely embarassed by the more out-there, less socially-acceptable pieces of the fandom, and expresses that in a way that I find pretty upsetting. I don’t think anyone should be allowed to use the phrase “swishy she-male” unless they are referring to themselves.
-Krispy Kremes in the con suite. 'Nuff said.
