Con Report: General Happenings

[lierdumoa]

I will be making separate posts for panels I went to and for the vidshow. Note that I didn't go to that many panels, so most of my pseudointellectual debates over fandomish things occurred while simply talking to people.



Left Friday morning after sending off finished Simon!vid (Which, btw, I felt the need to tweak just a bit more, so turned out not to be finished after all -- please don't kill me for not having it posted yet). Took a taxi to the airport, got in the tiniest plane ever, flew to LAX where a shuttle drove me to the Ventura Beach Mariott. After a three hour drive, arrived and moved in.

Met up with morgandawn and got settled. Looked for names I recognized. Saw Bren Antrim by the refreshments table and said in my most ridiculous fangirl voice, "You're Seeker! You're so cool!" If I had more shame I'd have run away in embarassment. Instead I only walked away with something approaching dignity.

TF&TF people! TF&TF people are cool! Met up with maygra who immediately hugged me. Met up with khaleesian, who really does look just like her icon. khaleesian showed me a preview of the end of her Trouble series (OMGYAY!!!). Had a TF&TF watching party up in maygra's room.

Met blackmeow, who wasn't a member of the con, so couldn't attend any panels or whatnot, but came to visit khaleesian. Also very cool, ended up spending most of the watching party having a very interesting conversation with her discussing the movie from a feminist and racially conscious point of view.

Main points of that conversation: the sort of patriarchial atmosphere we're presented with in TF&TF. That whole "the cook doesn't clean where I come from"/"I'd like to go there" conversation. Cars being representative of their drivers (notice Vince's car doesn't work quite right?). The fact that Vin Diesel is so obviously of mixed background and the politics of people of mixed race being unfairly expected to pick one (something I can vouch for from personal experience). The fact that Dom in the movie is essentially treated as a white man and for nearly killing someone gets a much shorter sentence than Rome, who is very very black, who gets was convicted for stealing cars. We talked about the starcrossed lovers theme in the movie, and how Dom essentially does lots of stupid things that totally fuck up his life and drags Brian down with him -- What do you do if your soulmate is, well, kind of a loser?

Khaleesian drew out the interesting parallel of Dom losing the person who meant the most to him, then destroying his life on that person's behalf, and Brian, who essentially did exactly the same thing for Dom.

There was some talk of improbable crossovers. Namely maygra's TF&TF/Riddick crossover -- but Brian totally looks like an elemental, now that you mention it! Yeah, we know, we're all on crack.

And man, but khaleesian really knows cars. She was actually able to tell us why the engine Brian brought in was supposedly so cool in the whole "pop the hood" scene and how she was kind of annoyed at that one race scene where they go through the engine's insides because she knows that engine and there's no convenient camera shaft that would make that shot plausible.

Now me, of course, I know nothing about cars. I can't even drive. I read her engine babble and I don't know what the fuck it means, but by God it sounds like porn, and that's good enough for me.

So that was the afternoon/evening.

That night, there was a PotC watchign party with a bunch of big Norrington fans. That was fun, as I've never gotten to watch it with people of that particular viewpoint before. We pretty much snarked our way though the entire thing, where me and this lovely woman whose name I can't recall decided that if Will Turner were alive today he'd have gamer's calluses instead of blacksmith's calluses ("My hands...I know they're rough" ::gigglesnort::). He has the most adorable attitude throughout the whole movie of, "This is't how it goes in the game!" that just makes me want to pinch his cheeks. Elizabeth, of course, knows all her pirate trivia, and you just know that back home she'd have her "Pirates: The Gathering" card deck tucked in one of her bedside drawers. They end up together because they are both giant nerds.

Then there were, of course, the continuity debates. The apple that mysteriously appears in Barbossa's hand at the end of his death scene.

Uhm...other tidbits I don't remember.



Woke up Saturday morning, ate breakfast. I feel kind of like I basically didn't stop eating for the entire weekend. That's what happens when you put a table of hors d'oeuvres in front of me and keep it stocked for three days straight. Wah, too much food. I put in some hours making sure non-con people didn't get into the panel rooms. I looked around the art show, which had some really lovely pieces, and the dealers room as well. I went to the Vidding panel on lyrics (Which I will go into at length in my panels post). I had a great conversation with hippediva. We vaguely recognized each other and couldn't figure out why until I realized that she knew my roommate, adrienne2. Shen knew me because adrienne2 had on multiple occasions given her feedback on my computer and forgotten to sign me out of LJ first.

Our conversation basically consisted of her talking about Star Wars and OUATIM and me talking about Saiyuki and comparing notes on fandoms that are "the good crack" emphasis on crack.

maygra got me a zine to entertain me while I was putting in hours. She is lovely like that.

I was supposed to join the TF&TF crew for a sushi dinner, but unfortunately spent too long in the shower and missed the shuttle. I took a nap instead. I then went up into the lobby where the free food was and watched an episode of House with a bunch of House fans. Great show. Too bad I have no tv.

Then, of course, vidshow! vidshow! which was lovely and will get its own post. I got to meet killabeez. After the show, met up with Janis, who was also a vidder in the show, and elke_tanzer, with whom she is friends.

After that, met up with khaleesian and had a very nice chat wherein I went on about my vid ideas and she listened to me go on about my vid ideas. Yeah, I'm kind of conversationally useless after a night of vid watching. Had a nice chat with my roommate, whom I didn't get to spend much time talking to. She had to leave Saturday night, but we had a nice talk on things I can't remember right at the moment.



Big group breakfast. Sat with _par_avion. They made the con DVD's early so we got them as a surprise the morning after. Yay! I can't stop watching. I love vids. So much!!!

Uh, yeah. Talked more with elke_tanzer. Was very surprised to find out she knew who I was. Am basically surprised whenever I find out people who are not close friends actually read my journal. It's a necessary self delusion I impose on myself so I don't freak out and stop posting altogether.

Got in a rather depressing conversation with people about President Bush. No need to go into that.

Attended the vid review and the PotC panel. Went to the Jay/Silent Bob panel (the love that cannot spell its name) and had a nice conversation with smutcutter, but when no one seemed to be showing up I went to the Jeremiah panel instead.

Ate more. Chatted with more people. Watched some softcore porn. Chatted more. Met up with _par_avion again and we watched vids and more vids and more vids, then threw in some flash animations for good measure (I showed her how she could save them to her computer).

Went to bed. Woke up in the morning and left for home.



permetaform, I have your copy of the BASCon DVD, as well as the new Escapade DVD and the Escapade DVD's for the previous two years.

Comments

[permetaform]

VIDS! w00t!

oh, and I think Janis = tanacawyr who also made that 2001 Space Odyssey vid (Hallo Spaceboy), ne? AND YOU GOT TO MEET ELKE!! AND KILLA!! AND HIPPEDIVA AND SMUTTCUTTER AND PAR_AVION AND KHAL AND MAYGRA AND OMG ::ENVIES::

we must meet to splurge on vids. (tho not on Gattaca weekend.) you free sunday?

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

Yes! I am free Sunday.

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

BTW when is Gattaca weekend again? And for that matter, Gotta Get Through This weekend?

::really needs to buy a planner::

[permetaform]

gattaca is sat 12th, I don't think we'd scheduled gotta get.

planner = helpful =D

Loved our conversation, too

[blackmeow.livejournal.com]

and I was barely getting warmed up. Could talk ethnic studies speak for hours, beware of goth girls with M.A.'s in Ethnic history and specializations in the representation of said ethnicities.

Hapa issues are go.

I think I need to host a salon in Echo Park to discuss all matters TFATF this summer....

Re: Loved our conversation, too

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

Ethnic studies are way cool. So rarely do they intersect with fandom, what with all the most interesting characters usually being white. TF&TF needs meta on this, man. I've seen stuff on Brian and Dominic and dom/sub dynamics, but nothing really on, like you pointed out, the patriarchy the movie takes place in and how all the different races are presented.

While we were watching it all together in the other room, they got to that early scene where the Asian gang comes along to blow up the car. Before that the camera pans down on the rilly Asian restaurant with the rilly Asian statues and it's like -- yes, we get the message. They're Asian. Thank you for telling us. And just, like, man. I didn't think about these things before, but it's really fascinating how some parts of the movie are so embedded in stereotype at the same time as other parts of it go right against stereotype.

Re: Loved our conversation, too

[blackmeow.livejournal.com]

"And just, like, man. I didn't think about these things before, but it's really fascinating how some parts of the movie are so embedded in stereotype at the same time as other parts of it go right against stereotype."

That's Rob Cohen, in both XXX and TFATF. He has strong female characters that are a little different than the norm, and then he has tasteless, gratuitous sexism. Very original characters, then embarrassing stereotypes. I can't tell how much is the writer, the producer or the director himself.

He got the multi-culti thing that goes on in LA down effortlessly, by being original enough to not call attention to the multiple ethnicities of Dom's team and the racing scene in LA, then he comes up with the scene you just described, which is kind of heavy handed.

The 'character' he never stereotypes of course is Los Angeles, the city I love. In spite of Brian's wry, "Even the cops are Hollywood in Hollywood," Cohen does a pretty good job of showing the real LA, or at least part of it.

Although I still have issue with why Brian wasn't shown as being part of the infamous Rampart Division instead of passed off as a Hollywood cop. When you think about what he actually did at the end of the film, he is both the opposite of Rampart (he lets Dom go) and exactly the same (the implication is he's going to fake the evidence). Rampart of course is the division policing Echo Park and infamous for their anti-gang suppression unit, a group of cops who planted evidence on gang members to frame them. Some of these cops ended up in jail themselves, and the anti-gang unit is no more.

But that's a looooong tale of urban 'justice' more fitting for a private email or another party than your lj! Sorry for this over long post!

[hippediva.livejournal.com]

:::major hugs:::: It was so great meeting you! First of all, you're so damned cute I wanted to squeeze you to death! And I was so thrilled to find out you were the Escapade scholarship winner! Go you! Loved the vid, btw...I've never seen the movie, but I really liked the movement theme you had going in it...and WAY COOL graphics!

yeah.....Will....gamer's callouses.....can we say PoTC version of the Sith Academy? *G*

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

Loved the vid, btw...I've never seen the movie, but I really liked the movement theme you had going in it...and WAY COOL graphics!

Yaaaay! Movement is my favorite thing about vidding. I'm so glad you liked it!



yeah.....Will....gamer's callouses.....can we say PoTC version of the Sith Academy? *G*

o.0 Your brain is so evil. And beautiful. And evil.