NASFiC So Far: Saturday

[filkertom]

Not much sleep Friday night. Got over to the Convention Center just in time for my concert.

As I was near the elevator getting ready to go down to Ballroom B, someone approached me to recommend BBQ. The Pit, he said, was good, but Holy Smokes was way better, and he seemed adamant about talking me out of The Pit (which has a world-wide reputation, and I've tasted the stuff because Pitmaster Ed Mitchell taught Zingerman's how to make whole-hog BBQ). I said I was open-minded about it, and I'd find out, which was true because I did know what I would get at The Pit, and if there was someplace better I'd sure be interested.

The concert went very well, I thought, good crowd with some fresh meat (and a LOT of groans at "Spoiler Alert" and that wonderful nervous tittering laughter after "Honey-Glazed Ham"). And I made some pretty good sales and tips. And I hung out with several very fine people after. And I was movin' kinda slow at the junction, and just not feeling all that physically great. My sprained wrist is allowing me to play guitar, but otherwise it just freakin' hurts, no matter what I do to alleviate it.

And I didn't get to my 5:00 panel.

I feel bad about that, up to a point. I shouldn't just blow off a panel. But I was so damn tired, throwing myself into the concert, and it was so frickin' hot outside, and and and.

I did have a brief talk with Pat Henry of Dragon*Con, and we both confirmed that we were quite happy with each other. He thinks that having Robby Hilliard shift the emphasis to filk rather than comedy music will bring in people; I hope he's right. As long as we get treated like musicians, I haven't got a problem with it. It should be pretty cool this year, with me, Leslie Fish, and the Bards' reunion concert.

Back here at NASFiC, there have been problems with the filk track, and they have been talked about. The biggest problem, as far as I can tell, is one Danny Birt (the guy running it) had nothing to do with: Attendance is far below what the con organizers expected. I have it on good authority that the con will end up more-or-less in the black, or at least not hideously in debt; but they were hoping for, and Danny programmed for, about four times as many people as they have, and the place looks like that scene in The Lathe Of Heaven when George Orr's power has solved the problem of overpopulation by killing off three-fourths of humanity in a plague.

Also, I admit I don't think it was the best idea to put filk panels up against dementia concerts. We're trying to bridge between the two communities, not separate them.

Anyway. I went to the Marriott and hung around for awhile, because I'd wanted BBQ, and Rob had got Liana (I believe that's her name, either that or Laina, cbhd) to make reservations. She found out that this "Holy Smokes" apparently didn't exist anymore. Guess they weren't as good as all that, then. Unfortunately, The Pit wasn't taking reservations, and it was an hour and a half wait.

And I said Heck with it, and went back to the Super 8.

I'm going to pack up and check out soon, and head over to the Convention Center. I've got a 1:00 concert, opening for Juanita Coulson. :) I am also going to see if I can't arrange for some of that Pit BBQ to be brought my way. Likely on the road by 5:00.

What's up with you today?

Comments

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

I think one of there problems has been advertising. Outside of a few fans mentioning the cob, I've seen ZERO about it. Haven't encountered any flyers, nore posts on fannish websites and such. I honestly didn't even know the con was this weekend and I couldn't tell you the name of it. Someone dropped the ball.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

I knew about it but mainly was reminded it was coming up by a friend who it there asking me if I was going.

[sdelmonte]

Finally getting to see Inception today, so I can start talking to all my friends who want to know what I think of Inception.

Wish I could say I surprised that Nasfic is doing so poorly, but there was just no buzz about it, as far as I can tell. It seems that even in flush times, Nasfic is the orphan stepsister of Worldcon. I always see lots of "who's going to Worldcon?" posts when it's stateside, and didn't see anything about Nafic. Add in that even Worldcon seems to be suffering between the economy and Dragon*Con's immenseness, and you have a recipe for disappointment.

I really wonder what will happen with Worldcon in Reno next year. My guts tells me that it will struggle, too.

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

I'd agree with you on that, sdelmonte. I hadn't heard much as far as NASFiC hype at all, but have heard a bit about Worldcon in Australia (and I'm miffed that I can't go, but my boss is being a real pain in the rear right now).

I'm thinking the economy is still the problem and it'll be a couple years before things return to some semblance of normalcy.

[sdelmonte]

It's not just the economy, given that SDCC sold out months in advance. Though I really wonder if fan-run cons are losing attendees to the big media-driven hype machines.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Like the cons I mention below, SDCC is a "destination" con. Big mutha, lots happening.

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

But is it as expensive as, say, Worldcon?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Far more so, from what I can tell.

[wrenn.livejournal.com]

SDCC IS far more expensive than a Worldcon. (I do/tech staff Worldcons. Keith's publishers pay for him to do SDCC.) Not only is SDCC sold out months in advance, the hotel rooms in the area are long gone too. Lines upon lines for panels, and the dealer/promo/convention floor is a madhouse. The jury is out as to whether I will ever want to go to it.

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

Question for you, Tom: you said that having Robby Hilliard shifting emphasis back to filk from comedy was a good thing. Who had shifted the filk track to comedy in the first place? Granted, the last time I was there was 2006 when Heather was there, but I didn't see any "comedy music" as part of the filk track, and I was doing the track page back then!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

That would've certainly been 2004, when Luke Ski managed to get Dr. Demento to go to D*C. The emphasis for the next few years, up to the point where I ran the track, was trying to get funny musicians in there. I'm pretty sure I had too many, and it all got watered down some, but everybody wanted to get to Dragon, and I tried, I tried.

A lot of the rationale on my end, at least, was simply trying to get acoustic performers to be treated as actual musicians rather than red-headed stepchildren. Behind the scenes, I have continued to emphasize that aspect, and it finally seems to be paying off some.

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

That's good. I didn't know about the situation between when Luke got Dr. Demento to show and when you ran it because I simply didn't go. It's still a morass (and it's growing, from what I've been told).

[controuble.livejournal.com]

Having the Nasfic the same weekend as GenCon probably isn't helping with the attendance.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I'm sure. There's also the fact that GenCon, Star Wars Celebration next weekend, and Aussie WorldCon are "destination" cons, huge events where the whole weekend is either A Big Thing or A Once In A Lifetime Trip To A Foreign Land. Money's tight this year, and there are too many choices. NASFiC got the short end of the stick.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

I actually saw way more buzz for Readercon this year on LJ. Almost none for NASFIC.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

As I said, my original plan was to go to both NASFiC and GenCon, as GenCon is usually next weekend. They moved to avoid conflict with SW Celebration, I didn't hear back from GenCon in time, and here I am.

[roman-mclaze.livejournal.com]

...and those of us who did go to GenCon are the poorer for it.

[roman-mclaze.livejournal.com]

(by which I mean your absence, not the con itself.)

[jannyblue.livejournal.com]

Yesterday I went to a birthday party and played a tabletop RPG for the first time in probably 5 years. (AWESOME!)

Today I am weed-whacking an overgrown garden. (Yes, there are some people who let me play with power tools. *evilgrin* )

Regarding the BBQ place: Maybe the guy who told you NOT to go to The Pit was the guy who owned Holy Smokes, and he's mad at the other place for putting him out of business... </conspiracy>

[caligogreywings.livejournal.com]

Hey Tom-

Any idea when you and Leslie are playing? Separately or together, but I can only day trip and I need to know the best day.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Friday night, 7:00 or 7:30, is the big main concert -- me, Leslie, the Bards. They're also putting me on with Leslie starting at 10:00 p.m. Sunday. I have asked them to change this, as I need to drive home the next day dammit. :)

[caligogreywings.livejournal.com]

Ooh, yeah, I can see that would be really late. Yikes.

Thanks!

[danceswthcobras.livejournal.com]

Holy Smokes does exist, is easy to find, and is better than The Pit by an order of magnitude. The locals who know better eat at Holy Smokes. Foodie tourists visit The Pit and get shortchanged, IMO.

[solarbird]

Since people are saying it's closed, you might post location, hours, directions, something like that.

[danceswthcobras.livejournal.com]

I'm still at Nasfic on my cell phone, in Tom's concert, but I'll ask someone who isn't to check up. I was there not too long ago, but if it did indeed close recently I will be both shocked and saddened.

[danceswthcobras.livejournal.com]

Fuckmuffins. Another local confirms its closing. Tragic.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

I got my pictures developed from DucKon and the Bristol Ren Faire. Went past the veggie fest and thought about going in, but there were too many people! A convention who got half as many would be considered a major success. There were overflows in 2 parking lots! Well no big loss for me. I went last year and got some free swag. Most of it was OK. There wasn't anything there that I couldn't learn online anyhow. Plus it rained here. Oh it's stopped but it's only going to be humid this afternoon. So glad I went to the Ren Faire yesterday.

[tcgtrf.livejournal.com]

Kathi and I took Lily up to meet my mother and explore the places that we grew up around Tonica, Illinois, yesterday. They got along fine, as a matter of fact, Lil and mother talked non-stop for about an hour and a half, giving us a much needed break.

After supper, we went to the Dreamwave wrestling show, where they had a crossover event with the Ring of Honor promotion. Damn fine action, to the point where I was worrying about the need for, perhaps, more padding on the hard floor in the upstairs of the LaSalle Knights of Columbus.

Today Lily went to her BFF Raven's ninth birthday party and had a fun two hours. Raven's dad works at Rental City, where the big blow-up bouncy rooms come from, so they had one in their side yard.

My computer got viruses, so it too a couple of hours for Sean to debug it--nasty infection that switched me to a proxy server and fed me false data about its condition.

Tonight, we've got recordings of TNA and Smackdown so that we can scan highlights of matches we want to see. After that, we've got the first disk of Dr. Who's season four from Netflix.

I smell pork roast and homemade bread wafting in from the kitchen....yum!!

Tom

[dragonmakr.livejournal.com]

I had wanted to go to NASFiC (ReConStruction) this year, and had had high hopes after talking with folks running their table at various conventions this spring. But there were communication problems with the dealer's room folks, so I didn't manage to get a space. Seems like it's just as well, I probably would have lost a lot of money.

Glad to hear sales and tips were pretty good for you, Mr. Tom!

[bryanp.livejournal.com]

I spent the weekend purging stuff and moving things around and between my house and my fiance's house. (she has the larger nicer home, so we'll be selling mine) I'm on track to drop my book collection by about 30-40%, getting rid of things I know I'll never read again. Giving excess stuff to friends, relatives & Goodwill. Finding things tucked away in cabinets and drawers that I have no friggin' idea why I kept.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

We went to Barataria Faire, which had its share of first-year problems. But the people putting it on seem clueful, so we have hopes that it will improve.