Norwescon 32: My (Preliminary) Schedule

While I’m not at all happy to be unemployed, I have to admit that it does make some things pretty convenient. I’m making a decent houseboy, dealing with the dishes and housecleaning, which Prairie appreciates. Since Prairie and I are both here in the mornings, we’ve been really enjoying having nice leisurely breakfasts together. And this weekend, it means that for the first time, I’ll be hitting three days of Norwescon, adding a few hours today (Thursday) to my usual Friday/Saturday run.

My basic plan:

• Thursday: drive in, arrive sometime around noonish, leave around 5:30 to pick Prairie up from work.
• Friday: bus in, arrive sometime around noonish, leave and bus home sometime in the evening (probably sometime between 6-8pm or so).
• Saturday: drive in, arrive sometime around noonish, stay until I get exhausted. This counts as my “going out” night for the month.

I’ve gone through the Norwescon programming grid and identified the panels that I’m most interested in possibly checking out. What follows is a rough idea of where I might be over the next few days, though for most of these, there’s no way I can guarantee exactly where I’ll be at any given moment. Since a lot of the fun I have is grabbing photos and socializing, there’s a lot of mutability in my schedule.

Click through to see where I may (or may not) end up over the next few days…

• Thursday
  • 2pm: Thursday Movie Matinee: “Journey to the Center of the Earth”
  • 3pm: Antique Power Sources: How did our ancestors generate their power?
  • 4pm: Have Vampire Novels Jumped the Shark?: Are there any cross-over vampire stories that haven’t been written?
  • 5pm: Science Made Sexy: CSI made police forensics glamorous and hip; if you were a TV executive,what branch of science would you like to make the next sexy frontier of “hard” science?
• Friday
  • 12pm: Lost and Found (If You‘re Not Sure, Just Call it a Religious Artifact…): Come enjoy some of the most outrageous and/or amusing interpretations of historical artifacts made by historians and archaeologists, from Ancient Greek times to the present. Then fire up your imagination to give us your best shot at interpreting a selection of obscure artifacts. A great creative exercise for SF&F writers, as well as Humanities Students.
  • 12pm: Magic Realism vs. Fantasy — Fight!: Magic Realism is showing up more and more each year in the United States, usually thanks to foreign films and literature, but we finally seem to be getting it right for a change. Movies like O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Big Fish, and TV show Pushing Daisies all are excellent examples of magic realism gone right. What differentiates magic realism from fantasy? Why do we perceive them as being different in the first place? We’ll talk about the nature of each, give examples of each, and debate about which side of the scale we think different films fall on and why.
  • 1pm: Women in Horror: Over the last several years the roles of woman in horror films has changed significantly, in some ways. How have woman’s roles in film changed since Ripley politely told the alien queen to get away from her…
  • 1pm: Steampunk Fashion Show: While journeying to the center of the earth or taking a flight to the moon, what does the well dressed steampunk wear? Join us and see the fashions of future past. Sky pirates, Chrononaughts, and more will strut their stuff and show off the latest technology. Feel free to bring your own steamy styles as well!
  • 2pm: Backups: Eternal Life or Eternal Death?: Let’s say we could record a person’s mind and play it back into a new body, so that the new person couldn’t be told from the old. Would that lead to immortality? Or would it lead to an endless series of deaths followed by the creation of a new person who just thinks he’s the old one? Essentially, what does it mean to be oneself?
  • 2pm: The Indie Film Factor: Everybody knows about the blockbuster movies that come out and thanks to the internet we’re in touch with all of the fan made films and shows that are being made, but what about the Indie film industry? More and more filmmakers are taking on fantasy and science fiction films on a shoestring budget and making amazing movies that hardly anyone ever hears about. Come learn about some fantastic indie films that you may not know about, or share some that you’ve seen with the rest of us!
  • 2pm: Star Trek: Phoenix: Star Trek: Phoenix began as an ambitious fan film and is now the largest production in the Seattle area and is the only series ever to be shot entirely in our region. Chat with Captain Avari and crew about everything from Trek history to life on the set of the upcoming Pilot episode.
  • 3pm: Fairy Tales — Deconstructing Life Lessons: Fairy tales have been a centuries old tradition to pass along vital life lessons to our children. Today we can reexamine these tales through many filters and find new truths. See what happens when classic tales are viewed from a post modern, feminist, Freudian or even Marxist point of view.
  • 3pm: From Purple Crayon to Magic Wand: From Harold and his Purple Crayon to Harry and His Wand – magical themed books have unlocked the imaginations of children around the world. Share your favorite authors and titles for children’s fantasy reading – from Early Readers to Young Adults –and tell us why they should be considered vital parts of a child’s Fantasy Syllabus.
  • 3pm: Costumes of The Rebel Alliance: A Star Wars show and tell. The ball’s in their court now and the Rebel Scum get in their fashion shots.
  • 4pm: What is Goth?: Why is denying that you’re Goth the most Goth thing you can do? What is up with all you freaks in black anyway? Are you really as spooky as you look?
  • 4pm: Myths, Legends and Fairy Tales: We generally think these stories form the basis of fantasy stories, but are they also the basis for science fiction and horror stories, too?
  • 4pm: (SciFi/Fantasy) Films that Time Forgot: B-movie classics and special effects that were cutting-edge for their time – what are your favorite Sci-Fi and Fantasy Films that everyone else might not have heard of? What elevates a genre flick to “classic” status?
  • 5pm: The Science of Superheroes: From the mild to the wild, what are humans really capable of? Can a mutation make someone fly, or do we need jetpacks for that? What about controlling things with the mind or gaining super strength? Come find out what superheroes will really look like when changing our DNA and adding personal modifications into our bodies becomes a possibility.
  • 5pm: The Pyramid Builders: Sonic waves, hydraulic lifts, ramp, etc. Just how DID they build those pyramids?
  • 6pm: Online Journaling: Why do we live our private lives in public places? Are we merely emotional exhibitionists or are we continuing (in a different form) the venerable art of journaling? Sure, it’s also a great way to network but what can journaling do for you? Or, to you? As more and more people do it everyday, is it turning into a problem?
  • 6pm: Gender Roles Redefined by SciFi and Fantasy: Genre literature freed up women long before the ERA – how has Sci-Fi and Fantasy literature redefined gender roles, both for men and women? Is Dr. Frankenfurter the Man of the Future?
  • 7pm: Influence of Goth Subculture on Mainstream Media: The Goth aesthetic has moved out of the horror realm and become more prevalent in other genres the past two decades. Join us for a discussion of how this developed and the impact it has had on media and culture.
• Saturday
  • 1pm: TV Forensics: Real or Fake Technology?: Those TV forensic shows have a lot of great technology. How does the lab at CSI or NCIS stack up against an actual law-enforcement forensics department? Do they really have that many large flat-screen TV’s everywhere? Does the technology of crime-solving really work that way?
  • 1pm: Living Upside: Orbital Platforms: Will we create a society of long term residents in low Earth orbit? How will people live, what will the platforms be like, and what are the problems we need to overcome? Can we create a self-sustaining system that succeeds better than Biosphere did?
  • 2pm: Exoskeletons: Ripley beat the Alien Queen with a strap on forklift, exoskeletons have come a long way since then. Join us for a review of some of the latest work.
  • 3pm: @norwescon/@seattlegeekly/@EMPSFM Tweetup in the Open Gaming area.
  • 4pm: Using SF&F to Engage the Next Generation: With the competition presented by computers, TV, and the myriad of animated gaming devices, K-12 educators are intensely interested in finding new ways to engage their students’ interest. Members of fandom are invited to take part in brainstorming ways to improve educational approaches for the future using Science Fiction and Fantasy themes as a jumping-off point.
  • 4pm: The Strangest Life on Earth: Scientists have recently discovered hundreds of new creatures that even the most creative science fiction writers hadn’t dreamed of. From inch long single celled blobs that leave tracks across the bottom of the ocean to gorgeous new forms of jellyfish, come learn about the “aliens” that live on our own planet and what they might have to teach us about evolution and the possibilities of life elsewhere in the universe.
  • 5pm: Building the Giant’s Beanstalk: The Japanese have announced a major research project into the infrastructure necessary to build and support a space elevator. Can we really do it?
  • 5pm: TV and Movie SciFi Costume Review: Join us as we review our favorites and duds from this past year. Is Creativity dead? Does Shatner still fit into his lawyer costume?
  • 6pm: Heroic Women Martyrs: Is the heroic woman martyr (virtuous, dies saving the person or land she loves) a comforting myth for men threatened by strong female empowerment? Can a woman be strong, vital and live and not be an anti-hero (a la Red Sonja)? Review classic archetypes from Joan of Arc, Wagnerian Opera to modern media icons in Japanese anime and the sci fi realm like Ripley and Padmé.
  • 6pm: The Robots are Here!: From the Asimov servants to the cloned professor, humanoid robots are just getting better and better. What’s next?
  • 7pm: Tolkien Has a Lot to Answer For: With The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien established the fantasy genre and many of the current fantasy traditions. Has this now hindered the growth of the fantasy genre?
  • 7pm: Cutting Edge Technology: There has been a recent rash of cool technologies that might eventually lead to practical applications. From invisibility cloaks to new ceramics that don’t shatter to real successes in gene therapy, come learn more about where science and science fiction are beginning to cross over in the real world.
  • 7/8pm-ish: Sometime around here I’ll have to start hovering in the main lobby to make sure that I can get a respectable spot in the photographer’s pool for the Masquerade photo session, and I’ll be there for a good couple hours, at least.
  • 10:30pm: Saturday Night Hoedown: This ain’t your parents’ square dance! Stomp your feet until the cows come home to new wave, alternative rock, electronica, goth/industrial and much more with DJ mc300baud.