If anyone wonders why I haven't posted since Thursday, it's because I
spent the weekend at RavenCon, a con in Richmond, Virginia. This was
its third year, its first in its current hotel.
Attendance was about 300, including plenty of younger people. It
had a huge but full 24-hour game room, a small art show, and a con
suite that was once again way too small. There was no movie or video
program except for a single showing of "Frankenstein vs. the Creature
From Blood Cove," a low-budget 2005 movie made in a retro style.
There was a masquerade.
There were several open parties on Friday and Saturday nights. An
award for best party was, however, won by a closed party that was
playing fast and loose about whether it was open or closed.
There were plenty of panels, including several intended for aspiring
authors and several about podcasting.
I didn't see any rasff regulars whom I recognize. There were a great
many bloggers there, as proven by the fact that Google finds 89 blog
pages mentioning RavenCon in the past week, but no messages except mine
in this or any other newsgroup mentioning it in at least the past year.
I stayed up overnight both nights, as I did last year. There were
people up at all hours.
There was an incident about 4 am on Saturday night in which someone
whom I don't know was kicked out of a party, possibly for being drunk.
He then threatened suicide, the police were called, and they used a
Taser on him and took him away. Other than that, there were no bad
incidents at the con.
It was easier to get to than last year's hotel. It was only about a
two-hour walk from the downtown bus terminal. It will be at the same
hotel next year, then will probably move to Midlothian in 2010, which
would be a bit of a hike from that bus terminal. I haven't yet
checked other transit options.
I plan to be there again next year. Until then, I'll be attending
Balticon, Gaylaxicon, and Philcon. I don't plan to attend Capclave
this year or next. I don't plan to attend any Worldcons outside the
northeast corridor for the duration of the War on Tourism, and no such
Worldcons are currently pending or bidding.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html
before emailing me.
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