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lobelia321Beanfest in London / Slashsib meeting extraordinaire:
The good
- I met some wonderful, lovely people and re-met some other wonderful, lovely people and gossiped about yet another set of lovely people. Definitely good. I came back on a complete high.
- I was given a tube! I am still beaming with ridiculous joy.
- The big bash before the Beanfest was fun but nicest were the more intimate interactions in smaller groups, such as over lunch, over breakfast/lunch the next day, late into the night at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
viva_gloria's very cosy flat, with alisahlov and the lovely, lovely jenfr. There was even face-to-face time on the tube, incl. with azewewish and ukcalico!
- Hooking up with my fan-in-crime,demelzagirl, was an unmitigated and hootable good. Ceaseless Wainthropp chatter at the rate of more than 100 characters per minute nice complement to ceaseless Wainthropp txts.
- The play. I did not think it was fantabulistic (although I takeukcalico's points about stage composition) but Lady Macbeth (Samantha Bond) was very, very good and Bean was good when he was on stage with her. Macbeth in bed with Lady Macbeth also very nice scene, and Lady Macbeth easily cut-and-pastable in head... *g* Also: I get out so little and haven't been to a play in years, so who cares if it wasn't the world's best performance -- I still had a really good time.
- Noting the emergence of closet Wainthroppers into the open! Yes, and that includeslazulus and especially poornapoleon!
The bad
As soon as you try and get more than five people to congregate in the one place at the one time, you run into heavy-duty logistical problems. And we had about twenty people...
We should have had rules! (Take heed, anyone involved in other bash!)
Rules:
1) Make sure bash takes place in small, provincial town with everything reachable on foot. Logistics of transporting lots of people across large distances defy sanity.
2) Strap mobile phones to the bodies of anyone under the age of 20.
3) Beg, borrow and steal to provide all guests from other mobile zones with mobiles for purposes of continual communication and organisation and herding of the wandering sheep.
4) Double-check arrangements at least 1 week in advance and have contingency plans in pocket. Avoid venues with louder-than-footfall-of-mouse noise level.
5) Hire man with van to follow slashsibs around and provide them with periodic changes of clothing at regular intervals throughout day.
6) Do same with man-with-bed-in-van for those who are seriously flagging.
7) Meditate for a week in advance to ensure calm, Zen-like demeanour in all situations. Alternatively, attach calm though not exactly Zen-likelazulus to your flank.
Also bad (or rather sad): Not everyone I would like to meet was there, *sniff*.
The interesting
- I learned a lot about fandom! As someone who came to fandom via male/male fic and who is still bamboozled and agog at own fannish involvement, it was very interesting to listen to people who'd been in fandom for "only" two years or "only" since 1993. Lots of people treat fandom as the most normal thing on earth and talk in complete nonchalant way about this and other fandoms. Has given me endless self-confidence!
- The fandom can be a "meat market" -- a circumstance already suspected but nevertheless highly interesting to me. Even more interesting kissing scenarios apparently occurred but outside my range of action, alas. *g*
- Talking to authors about their fics. I just relished that!
- Noting the existence of two factions: those who club and those who don't! Those who deck themselves out in mean-and-lean mini-skirts and hot pants and those who plop onto knitted blankets in pjs and satin robes!
Am still dazed from my two days in London. Lounged around all weekend, watching Hetty Wainthropp, courtesy ofdemelzagirl. News of radical revelations within the Wainthropp fandom rock our foundations. Demelza has already posted a bit about exciting new developments on that front - the Wainthropp fandom entails non-stop frenzy!
And that, folks, is all for the moment. :-)
The good
- I met some wonderful, lovely people and re-met some other wonderful, lovely people and gossiped about yet another set of lovely people. Definitely good. I came back on a complete high.
- I was given a tube! I am still beaming with ridiculous joy.
- The big bash before the Beanfest was fun but nicest were the more intimate interactions in smaller groups, such as over lunch, over breakfast/lunch the next day, late into the night at
viva_gloria's very cosy flat, with alisahlov and the lovely, lovely jenfr. There was even face-to-face time on the tube, incl. with azewewish and ukcalico!- Hooking up with my fan-in-crime,
demelzagirl, was an unmitigated and hootable good. Ceaseless Wainthropp chatter at the rate of more than 100 characters per minute nice complement to ceaseless Wainthropp txts.- The play. I did not think it was fantabulistic (although I take
ukcalico's points about stage composition) but Lady Macbeth (Samantha Bond) was very, very good and Bean was good when he was on stage with her. Macbeth in bed with Lady Macbeth also very nice scene, and Lady Macbeth easily cut-and-pastable in head... *g* Also: I get out so little and haven't been to a play in years, so who cares if it wasn't the world's best performance -- I still had a really good time.- Noting the emergence of closet Wainthroppers into the open! Yes, and that includes
lazulus and especially poornapoleon!The bad
As soon as you try and get more than five people to congregate in the one place at the one time, you run into heavy-duty logistical problems. And we had about twenty people...
We should have had rules! (Take heed, anyone involved in other bash!)
Rules:
1) Make sure bash takes place in small, provincial town with everything reachable on foot. Logistics of transporting lots of people across large distances defy sanity.
2) Strap mobile phones to the bodies of anyone under the age of 20.
3) Beg, borrow and steal to provide all guests from other mobile zones with mobiles for purposes of continual communication and organisation and herding of the wandering sheep.
4) Double-check arrangements at least 1 week in advance and have contingency plans in pocket. Avoid venues with louder-than-footfall-of-mouse noise level.
5) Hire man with van to follow slashsibs around and provide them with periodic changes of clothing at regular intervals throughout day.
6) Do same with man-with-bed-in-van for those who are seriously flagging.
7) Meditate for a week in advance to ensure calm, Zen-like demeanour in all situations. Alternatively, attach calm though not exactly Zen-like
lazulus to your flank.Also bad (or rather sad): Not everyone I would like to meet was there, *sniff*.
The interesting
- I learned a lot about fandom! As someone who came to fandom via male/male fic and who is still bamboozled and agog at own fannish involvement, it was very interesting to listen to people who'd been in fandom for "only" two years or "only" since 1993. Lots of people treat fandom as the most normal thing on earth and talk in complete nonchalant way about this and other fandoms. Has given me endless self-confidence!
- The fandom can be a "meat market" -- a circumstance already suspected but nevertheless highly interesting to me. Even more interesting kissing scenarios apparently occurred but outside my range of action, alas. *g*
- Talking to authors about their fics. I just relished that!
- Noting the existence of two factions: those who club and those who don't! Those who deck themselves out in mean-and-lean mini-skirts and hot pants and those who plop onto knitted blankets in pjs and satin robes!
Am still dazed from my two days in London. Lounged around all weekend, watching Hetty Wainthropp, courtesy of
demelzagirl. News of radical revelations within the Wainthropp fandom rock our foundations. Demelza has already posted a bit about exciting new developments on that front - the Wainthropp fandom entails non-stop frenzy! And that, folks, is all for the moment. :-)