Peg Kerr's Journal

I've been thinking about Minicon, which I attended last week. And I've been thinking about the concept of a palimpsest:

a manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain.

I have been going to Minicon for forty years (well, aside for the years when it wasn't held due to Covid). That means a lot of memories. Minicon has long been a joy and a delight, an event to which Rob and I looked forward every year. We brought our kids--Fiona went to her first Minicon when she was only ten days old. We always got a hotel room. Many years, we worked on the convention committee. Rob was the Head of Operations when Minicon was in its heyday, when Minicon attracted more than 3,000 people. I cut my writing teeth at Minicon. I made so many friends, so many personal and professional connections. It was a cherished family ritual.

Now, I am the only member of my family who still goes. And as much as I still love it, and as much as the familiar soothes and comforts, it is also painful. Going to Closing Ceremonies and not seeing Rob there is so, so painful.

I didn't go to Closing Ceremonies this year.

I wandered around the con and took pictures of all the signs hanging up. They put those signs in storage and pull them out again every year. The memories are the same, yet different. I see a sign, and I see the sign again in my memory, in all the different Minicons in my mind.

So I created the collage from the signs seen around the convention, and over them, I placed ghostly memory images of Rob and myself. Back when we were young, when Minicon was nothing but joy, a string of dazzling conversations and fascinating interactions. I still feel ghostly echoes of that joy, but it's not quite the same. Minicon is not the same.

I attend Minicon, and I see traces of all the previous Minicons.

I don't see Rob.

Image description: logo for Minicon 57 March 29-31 2024. The rest of the card is made up of tiled signs seen around the convention (Consuite, Bar, Art Show, Dealer's Room, Programming This Way, Opening Ceremonies, Minicon Volunteers). Semi-transparent black-and-white images of a young man on a telephone (Rob, working as the Head of Operations on the Bridge) and a smiling seated woman (Peg) hover over the signs.

Palimpsest



Click on the links to see the 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.

I like these pictures, which were taken at Infinitus in 2010. Rob found them poking around the HPEF Flickr website.






© 2010 HPEF, all rights reserved. Free for private, non-commercial, use only. Please credit Jenn Racek and HPEF if photos are printed, published or reposted in any form.

I've been asked to pass along word on this by kate_nepveu:

As you may know, I organize con_or_bust, a fundraiser to help people of color attend Science Fiction and Fantasy conventions, which in the past has been principally WisCon, but we're looking to expand. This year's auction is currently live, and will end Sunday the 6th.

I don't know if you've anything you might donate--signed books, food or craft things, blog posts, etc.--but in any event, I'd be really grateful if you could spread the word about the auction. The announcement post is designed to be linkable, and has information on how to bid, offer items, and request assistance.

Sounds like a worthy cause, so I am passing the word along. Check out the community, and make an offer or donation.

I am going to be at Infinitus!

How many of you will I see there?

To get us all in the mood, here's the new trailer, in case you haven't seen it yet.

pennswoods shows off her Spectral Specs:



( Acoustic wizard rock jam )

( Me with the Ministry of Magic )

( Snapecast Live )

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?

I didn't think we were going to do it. But despite our bad news, in the last 24 hours the universe has all sort of aligned itself in extremely surprising and generous ways, and gee, Rob doesn't have to ask for time off from his job anymore, does he?

So here's the news, and I hope people will be happy to see it:

Rob and I are going to Portus. And I'm going to have a lot of fun dancing to Ministry of Magic at the Ball.

So. How many of you will we see there?

And can we convince any more of you to go, given this news? We REALLLLLY need to see more people there!

I asked for and got permission to get tomorrow afternoon off. With that extra time, I think I'll be able to finish it.

I still don't think it's very good. I probably should cut it: I have another couple of sections to write, and it's already 4200 words.

I am not sure which days I'll be attending. Saturday, certainly, but other than that I'm not sure.

It is not going particularly well. In fact, it's barely going at all. Much pacing and hair pulling is involved.

Argh.