So. Portus

[pegkerr]

It was wonderful. It was distinctly peculiar to be there without delivering a paper. But that gave me a little more freedom to attend panels myself. The programming was multi-track, so I wasn't able to see everything that caught my eye, but on the other hand, that meant that there was usually something interesting going on. One panel (on Severus Snape) was a disappointment. It turns out that none of the four panelists (all fans rather than primarily academics) had done much preliminary thinking or planning about the topic at all. They simply said, "Well! Let's talk about Snape." And then made no attempt to moderate the audience at all. I left after a half an hour of frustration.

I caught two of three of the panels that Barb Purdom (psychic_serpent) held, as well as Catherine Schaff-Stump's (awelkin) panel on Neville Longbottom. Professor Ed Kern continues to please, with interesting panels on postmodernism, and the King's Cross chapter in Deathly Hallows (the two of us got into a fun and lively debate as to whether the Potter books demonstrated Tolkien's concept of eucatastrophe or not; he thought they didn't, whereas I thought they did). I had a great talk with him at the small HPEF reception, where we discussed the influence, among other things, of Jane Austen's work on Rowling's writing. It is always a pleasure to speak with Ed.

It was so much fun to see so many of the people I've been corresponding with online for years. Met all the snapecast crew and sat through the live snapecast podcast. I spent time with flourish, and got really excited discussing the preliminary planning of a new RPG. And I finally (FINALLY!) got to meet moony! We met first on line when her Snape was tormenting my Neville when we were on nocturne_alley together.

We enjoyed Jim Dale's presentations hugely; he was SOOO delightful and funny. We heard his Saturday morning program, and then we were also at the special dessert event--I have pictures of him sitting next to the girls, which I hope to post later. We also attended the luncheon with Monique Trotter. Wish we could have attended the one with Dr. Henry Jenkins, but couldn't swing that one financially.

I caught a few of the acoustic wizard rock sets, but the highlight of the weekend for me was the ball. Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls was first up, and then Ministry of Magic. They were just as great live as I hoped they would be, and we had a great time being dancing fools. My hips are still hurting, days later, I danced so hard. So many people said to me afterwards, "OMG Peg, you were right about wizard rock! It's fabulous!" Which felt really good.

Both girls had a wonderful time, too. They bought stuff in the huckster's room, played Quidditch (and unfortunately, both as Seekers on opposite teams, managed to crash each other when chasing the snitch; Delia was icing her leg for a 1/2 hour afterwards). They made mosaics at the Smashing Times art event; they danced to wizard rock; they brainstormed RPG with flourish; they sang along to "The Mysterious Ticking Noise" with moony; they volunteered at the Common Room, they were everywhere. So many people were so kind and friendly to them (after reading about them for years in my journal) that they felt very welcomed.

bekkio and the rest of the Portus team, you did a wonderful job. Excellent conference.

It was really tough to come home. (And Rob, true to form, practically gave me a heart attack on each leg of the trip. On the trip out, he was so late from his interview that I feared we'd miss the plane. When we were ready to leave to come home, he realized at the last minute that his driver's license was missing, so we feared that we wouldn't be allowed on the plane. He finally found it in a frantic search through the sofa cushions in our hotel room.)

If you saw us (or have pictures!) leave a comment. Wasn't it fun?

Comments

Real-Life Quidditch

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

What are the rules modifications for real-world play?

B

Re: Real-Life Quidditch

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I wasn't there, actually, so I'm not entirely sure. I'll have to ask the girls.

Re: Real-Life Quidditch

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I'm interested, as the game really doesn't make sense as a game. That, and it requires semi-sentient balls.

B

Re: Real-Life Quidditch

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Fiona says: it's the same as in the books, except the balls don't fly, and the snitch is a person (called the snitch-runner) and there are about ten snitches, all sitting in a box by the sidelines. The snitch-runner picks one and starts running with it. The seekers chase a snitch runner and when you catch them, you see if they have the right snitch (the "real" snitch). If they do, the game ends with points. If they don't, the snitch-runner returns to the sidelines to get a new snitch, and the play begins again. To "catch the snitch," the chasers would pull a tag from the snitch-runner's waistband (like flag football). The beaters were people with hockey sticks that lobbed little foam balls around--if one hit you, you had to freeze for ten seconds. Chasers and keepers act as in the books, passing and scoring with/defending the hoops from the quaffle "except not on brooms."

Re: Real-Life Quidditch

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Interesting. That does solve the semi-sentient snitch problem.

How are the balls moved around? Are they carried, dribbled, hit with brooms kind of like field hockey?

B

[bohemianspirit.livejournal.com]

Welcome back! I'm glad you had a good time.

One panel (on Severus Snape) was a disappointment. It turns out that none of the four panelists (all fans rather than primarily academics) had done much preliminary thinking or planning about the topic at all. They simply said, "Well! Let's talk about Snape." And then made no attempt to moderate the audience at all. I left after a half an hour of frustration.

I wouldn't care if they were academics or had other, "layperson" backgrounds, but I would expect a presentation to be ORGANIZED around a specific theme and a few talking points. With a broad subject like "Severus Snape," it should go without saying that one needs to narrow the focus a wee bit to fit a one-hour slot. ;-) Good grief, with all the Severus-scribbling I've been doing this past year, maybe I should propose a workshop for a future conference. I'm not an expert, but I certainly know how to prepare my material.

I'm curious: What was frustrating about how that workshop turned out? Were you looking for a more technical, academic focus? Was the panelists' part of the discussion disappointing? Was it the audience discussion that bothered you? Did it turn into a chaotic free-for-all? Was it Severus-lovers and Severus-haters getting into a live-action flame war? Or was it just disorganized and pointless?

Anyway, I'm sorry that panel was a disappointment, since I know Severus is one aspect of the books you enjoy thinking about and discussing. But thanks for the report; it sounds like it was a good break for you, on the whole! I'm so glad you were able to attend.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

What was frustrating about the workshop was, as I said, no one attempted to moderate at all. They refused to even call on audience members, telling us to just shout out when we had something to say. So someone would raise a point, but no one would follow up on it, because four different people in four different parts of the room would be simultaneously shouting out four completely different points that had nothing to do with the first point; there'd be seven or eight different people trying to talk at once, trying to take the discussion in an entirely different direction. Which meant that the discussion went nowhere at all. Describing the mayhem that followed as "disorganized and pointless" barely touches the annoyance involved.

Snape would never have tolerated it for a minute. He would have taken a hundred points from all of our respective houses and put us to work disemboweling horned toads for our stupidity in disrupting his classroom.

But that was really the only disappointment of the conference.

[bohemianspirit.livejournal.com]

Good grief. I thought by "no attempt to moderate," you meant maybe that the discussion was not organized around any particular flow of conversation, just randomly going from one thing to the next, or that it wasn't going in a direction that interested you. I didn't realize you meant total chaos with everyone talking at once. I'm used to discussions that meander and take sidetracks, and can tolerate a fair amount of that (being guilty of it myself), but "mayhem" would have had me following you out of the room, if I hadn't left already. ;-)

As I said, how hard is it to sketch out a few talking points and direct the discussion along those lines? Or at a minimum, call on people one at a time, even if they can't manage to connect their comments to the ones that preceded them?

Snape would never have tolerated it for a minute. He would have taken a hundred points from all of our respective houses and put us to work disemboweling horned toads for our stupidity in disrupting his classroom.

LMAO. Mean Old Teacher Snape, expecting any semblance of order in his classroom!

And yes, I did gather that you otherwise enjoyed the conference, and am glad you did. Are you aware that there will be a con in San Francisco next July? I am thinking of attending that one, since My Son! lives out there. ;-)

And just to prove I can walk my talk...

[bohemianspirit.livejournal.com]

O.K. Going by the title, "Severus Snape: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," a simple panel-and-audience discussion could be structured thusly:

Starting with each person on panel giving her/his short answer on each point, then opening to audience for a fixed amount of time (say, 10 min per point)

1. The Good - Severus as good guy; the evidence, the inferences, whatever basis you have for saying "yep, he was good." List your examples. Discuss.

2. The Bad - Severus the bad guy; mean old teacher, snarky bastard, former Death Eater, whatever. List your examples. Discuss.

3. The Ugly - WTF the emphasis on Sev's appearance? How horribly ugly was he really, to an objective party? List examples supporting pro/con, and discuss.

Not the one true holy way, but better than cacophony. :-P

[aome.livejournal.com]

I'm so jealous, on so many levels. But also SO happy for all of you, that you all had a blast, as individuals and as a family.

[irinaauthor.livejournal.com]

I once got on a plane without a driver's license. They just searched my bag extra and patted me down, is all. Nobody gave me a hard time about it. You'd have been okay. :-)