LOSCON 35! Oh, we had fun we had fun we had fun!!!!
Another LosCon… my first was 1984, after which I visited the LASFS clubhouse in North Hollywood and eventually became a lifetime member. The LASFS (Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society) is the world’s oldest science fiction club, and every year they hold the convention LosCon the weekend right after Thanksgiving. This year was LosCon 35, and we already bought our memberships for next year, LosCon 36!!
Bill and I met at LosCon in 2005, so for us, at least one LosCon was a major life changing experience. It’s a great time to see old friends, make new friends, participate in lots of panels, see movies and TV shows, eat too much, go out for dinner with old and new friends and eat even more, get autographs, buy stuff in the dealers room, admire and bid on science fiction and fantasy artwork, buy memberships for other conventions at a discount, find out what’s happening in the sci fi world of fandom, meet famous people, hang out at room parties and eat and drink even more, wear costumes, watch the masquerade and other shows and ceremonies, don’t get enough sleep, hang with friends some more in the con suite, oh, and for me, watch Bill do magic tricks.
However, we are book people first and foremost, so we were found hanging out at the autograph tables. Here was some of the Friday fun:
Will Shetterly & J. Michael Straczynski
Magic guys Bill and Ken Estes
David Gerrold and John Scalzi guest of honor
John with his Coke Zero
This year’s LosCon guest of honor was John Scalzi and he, Bill and the guys ended up having their own panel right next to the autograph table. Yep, it got a little rowdy at times!
We left a little early on Friday, as we were still recovering from Thanksgiving and my brother Ron’s excellent cooking (he’s a musician too). Really, the best way to do a con is to stay in the hotel and maximize your fun, but we live so close to LAX we couldn’t justify the cost, even though attendees get a big discount.
Saturday was AWESOME. We even had a visit from a remote control R2D2! In between hanging around the hotel, the dealer’s room, the con suite and the art show, we got to the signing table and met:
David Gerrold
Larry Niven
Rick Sternbach
Geoff Mandel
After we were done with signings for the day, we changed into our True Blood costumes and grabbed dinner in the Champions Sports Bar and Restaurant in the LAX Marriott where our friend Ken joined us. Ken is a fellow magician and a photographer (you’ll see one of his photos in the About Us section). So he and Bill pulled out the cards and they were off and running for the rest of the evening!
Magicians Mark Anthony, Ken Estes and of course Bill Wu
Dueling cards
Ken thought it would be cool if we had a shot of the vampires in front of the mirror, of course, casting no reflection…
Vampires in the mirror
Peggy vampire
And we played games too…
Bill shooting pool with our friend Sandy
Tricky shot
The Saturday night room parties on the 17th floor rocked. The halls were packed with everything you can imagine – goth babes, anime chicks, warriors, aliens, Ren Faire garb, other world royalty, wild tattoos and piercings, silly hats, crazy makeup, boots, lights, robots, vamps and zombies and werewolves… you name it, it was somewhere on the party floor. Even little kids were all dressed up. Bill and I marched up and down with our true blood bottles, restraining ourselves from feeding on anyone. Each party presented a variety of refreshments and all of them offered memberships or bids to upcoming conventions or were promoting some other science fiction or fantasy organization. It’s hard to describe the electric atmosphere – you just gotta be there! And we recommend you go online and get your membership for next year right now and join the fun with us! Here are some shots of us hanging out in the Writer’s of the Future party.
Bill baffles Tim Powers with magic
More magic for Tim and Craig Miller
Bill shows Larry Niven and Tim more tricks
In fact, it was in the Saturday night ConDor room party three years ago where Bill and I met. He was sitting on the bed in the back room, flipping cards in the air, and we started talking. Okay, Bill was too shy to actually TALK to me, but the cards were a convenient ice breaker. So the running joke now is that we met while Bill was doing tricks on a bed. Ha ha. Whatever, it worked!
Sunday we had to be back relatively early since Tim Powers was signing at 10 am. So we made the short drive home, slept fast and were back the next morning at the signing table.
Larry Niven, Emma Bull and Tim Powers
Harry Turtledove
Will Shetterly and Emma Bull
John Scalzi and Barbara Hambly
We sat in the con suite for a while, watching episodes of Jonny Quest and drinking diet soda until Ken caught up to us again. After a bit we grabbed lunch at Champions and hung around as the con began breaking down later in the afternoon. First the art show was dismantled and the art auctioned off. The panels wind down and the fan tables and halls begin to empty. The lobby next to the Starbucks seemed to be the final gathering place for the die-hards and Bill and I sat for over an hour, reluctant to leave and have LosCon really be over. As Bill sat in the comfy chair I took shots of him flipping cards in the air.
Bill flips card in the air
Bill flips card and catching it
Guest of honor John Scalzi had a healthy crowd still gathered around him, but we were tired and had to get ready for work the next day. So we finally admitted defeat and headed out to the parking lot to find our green Pathfinder. At last a long fun adventure came to a close and we made the final trip home.
Until our next adventure.
P~
PS: our buddy Chaz Baden has WAY more photographs of LosCon (and many other cons) on his site than we do. Give him a little time to get them all posted and check it out. He also covered our wedding reception in 2007.
