Live from MarsCon
Words Hannah Serrano
Saturday, January 15th, 2011 at 5:19 pm
At MarsCon today, live blogging…ironically it took a little while to finally get connected. But I guess with all the gaming going on, it shouldn’t be so much of a surprise.
But we’re now good to go. I’m holed up in a room at the Holiday Patriot Inn in Williamsburg, in the “City of Heroes” room, about to catch you up on everything I’ve seen so far. (Hint: lots of furries.)
So when we first got here (“we” being Whitney Metzger, the lady who brought you Survive Norfolk in the fall; Jason Bayless, founder of zombie-popcorn.com; and myself), we decided to count how many Princess Leias and how many pairs of kitten ears we’d see while we’re here today.
Princess Leias: 0
Kitten ears: countless
The party everyone's looking forward to.
And let me tell you right away, there truly are many more furries here than I would’ve possibly expected. Jason’s comment: “Wait until they get together in Room 103 together at 11:00 tonight. You’ll claw your eyes out.”
And truly, strange as it seems, this convention is one big hotel party. Later tonight, there will be 5 after parties going on, including the big Furry Fest. FIVE. According to Michael Khandelwal–who is MarsCon’s Toastmaster this year, and who many back in Norfolk may know as the director of the writing workshop, The Muse–the best one is going to be the “Fishnet Inc” party, which is hosted by the people whose panel is called “Everything Rocky Horror: the Panel.” Says Khandelwal to me: “Those Rocky Horror kids know how to throw a party.”
Unfortunately for us, our panel (which is “Survive Norfolk–Zombie Tag Gone Wild: How It Started, How the Virus Spread, and How We Survived”) is up against “Everything Rocky Horror.” So we’re not expecting too many people to show up to ours. I’m wagering there will be 7, not including people we know. Jason is wagering there will be 3.
We speak at 6 pm (it’s now 5:45), so I’ll be offline for a minute doing that. Then I’ll get right back on to fill you in. Until then, here are some pics to tide you over:
I'm not even sure who these guys are. If you know, please comment below.
Me with a storm trooper.
The gaming room. Intense.
***
Just got out of the panel. Guests in attendance: 20. (Woohoo!) And everyone in there was very much into what we did with Survive Norfolk. Couple people in attendance actually ran in the game in October and came to the panel to express how much it meant to them to be a part of it. In fact, just at this moment, two different people walked by and said to me “Thank you. Just thank you.”
Looking back even three months later, the memories still give us all goosebumps. In case any of us forgot how awesome that turned out to be, here’s the picture that says it all:
Photo by John Cachero. johncachero.com
Now, back to MarsCon. There’s a lot more karaoke here than I’d expect. Right now, a group of Harry Potters and Hermione Grangers are singing “We Are Family.” They’re not bad, but most of it is cringe-worthy; like, truly painful. The bar is JUMPIN. Maybe 20 minutes ago, they were line dancing in droves. And lots of people seem to be sauced around here right about now. (It’s 7:30.) Jason and I have decided to hunker down in here with these:
Trust me, the beers are bigger than this picture makes them look.
What I love about the scene in here is the lack of inhibition. In the lobby right now with me is a man cloaked from head to toe in black velvet watching the football game with two older women dressed as Elvira. (Jason has vowed to take his picture with them before we leave this event. Stay tuned.)
Cosplay in general has such a weird dichotomy: On the one hand it’s kind of innocent. These people just want to play.
But in the other hand it’s totally sexualized–and in fact, fetishized. The idea of fantasy. The idea of roleplay. The idea of obsession and worship that are inherent in fandom. The Ren Fair girls and the dominatrixes with their boobs all shoved up and out, and the guys ogling them. At 11 there’s going to be a panel called “The Men (and Women) in Black: A Guide to the World of Fetish Clothing”–it’s an adults-only room. Earlier tonight Jason sat down near me and simply said, “There’s a woman walking around with no pants on.”
Some of the other things I’ve seen and enjoyed here tonight:
Renaissance? Colonialists? I'm not sure what era these people are from. If you do, comment below.
An example of Renaissance done hot.
A typical costume around here. Note the kitten ears.
Suzanne, purveyor of leathers.
Nice little Valentine's Day gift: stuffed dolls, representing STDs. In the assorted heart-shaped box: Herpes, Penicillin, Syphillis, HPV, and Chlamydia.
Overall, my experience today can be summed up by a few salient points:
- Vampire LARPs are scary. On the second floor of the hotel today, people pretended to eat and suck each other to death.
- There are a lot of trannies that get into this whole thing. Which I think is part and parcel of the incredibly accepting, nonjudgmental atmosphere here. Which I LOVE.
- A lot of people in this world, whether they need to or not, travel with walking canes.
- Apparently, no matter how much broadband you buy, a few dozen gamers and a few dozen more Facebookers and Twitterers and bloggers in one hotel can make a network crash over and over and over, no matter what you do.
- People in costumes love to sing to strangers.
- The women who come to these things are HOT. From 20-somethings to 50-something–just HOT.
- Steampunk is huge around here.
- Nerding out is freaking fun. These people are sweet and fascinating and so into their fantasy worlds that I envy them.
As I close out the night, Whitney and Alfredo Torres (who arrived just in time to round out our Survive Norfolk panel) have taken to the karaoke stage. Whitney’s singing “I Want to Rock and Roll All Night.” Torres is singing “Some Kind of Wonderful.” And both seem absolutely fitting.
I would honestly consider coming back next year, I was so delighted by my experience this time around. I grew up going to comic cons with my dad actually, but although this shares some of that tradition, the fantasyland that is MarsCon is a whole world of its own; and simply put, I enjoyed visiting.
Now, before I close this out, a couple pictures that bring the whole MarsCon experience full-circle:
Whitney is on the far left, with one of the aforementioned Elviras to her immediate right. The other is the blonde on the far right. Jason obviously didn’t get the picture he aimed for, but Whitney and I jumped right in when we got the chance. Even better: the two to my immediate left, though you can’t tell so much in this picture, are decked out in skin-tight head-to-toe leather, and they call themselves “Skanks from Space.” Skanks. From space.
And just before we left, we got this Princess Leia–a dressed up “zombie pickle” with Elizabeth Pasieczny, owner of Pickleman Productions. [picklemanproductions.com. Youtube: 1bigdill.]
Everything we looked for, we found. And more.
G’night, folks. Thanks for following.
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It’s 12:57 a.m. at Marscon, and I thought I’d continue Hannah’s post. While they were singing karaoke, I was MCing the charity auction, where, I think, the convention (con) raised more than $2000 for the Heritage Humane Society.
I smoked a Cuban with some steam punkers, and then headed to the Crosstime Saloon/Endless Time party, which has been going on since Friday at about 6 p.m. Lots of good drinks there. Which is important as I am the “toastmaster” or something like that. (It’s really Drunk Guest of Honor).
Like Hannah said, there’s 5+ parties going on, and I’ve been wandering between them. The Rocky Horror folk (the cast we can see at the NARO) are hosting a great throwdown, with a very friendly bar full of very friendly drinks. And another convention from Richmond is having a room party as well (good pizza, lots of rum).
The real fun for me at the con is ocassionally hanging out in the lobby where if you sit for five minutes, you’ll see 100s of very cool people. And I said to some of them… “hey! My friend Hannah was blogging, let’s look it up on this lobby computer… and now it’s 1:06 a.m. and it’s time for a refill.
HAHA! That was Me, Sisco and Jenn showing the Blog to!!!
2:26 a.m.
Finished the Cohiba and hung out with a cool dude who is a home brewer. The Rocky Horror folk are disbanding to room parties, and that scene is full of toasting and reflexologists. In the lobby, the hang out time is just beginning. It’s like brainstorming plus nice couches that are swimming toward the future. At 2:32, the nice front desk lady just asked where the best party was. The folks in the lobby say it’s the Crosstime Saloon (room 317). I’m going there next, after I try to convince them that next year we should go ’till Monday.
4:08 a.m.
A while ago, some people in the lobby were missing Robin Welch (area classical guitarist) who is playing in Russia right now. He had been a big regular here and was basically my mentor, con-wise. So, there are not as many sea chanties as usual, but the Cross Time party features jewelers and drunk people.
I didn’t comment again Saturday night because I was busy having fun… went to bed at 6 a.m., only because I was starting to experience micro-sleep, not because people weren’t hanging out. Jack, who hosted the Endless Party, and I wandered the hotel and function area for the last hour or so (he left a bunch of rowdy pirates at his party to watch over the place). We saw people still gaming, people still talking, and discovered various backdoors to function rooms. A little hijinkery ensued…
Sunday was great! I hosted the art auction and then took in the generious con-suite, where they were encouraging everyone to fuel up before they left. Bought a couple things in the dealers room (Star Wars PEZ!) and talked to a lot of people. People were still there as late as 6 p.m. when I headed out.
The thing about this convention: everyone here is completely accepting of everyone else for all the big things that matter (race, age, weight, sexuality, intellect [though most here are Very smart], ability/disability, appearance, etc.). This is because many of them have been made to feel a bit ostracized in the world. This is a welcome breather for all who attend from the hassles and struggles of the world. A chance to live in our own imaginations and see where they lead.
Well Said Michael!!