The comma, the context, the collector, the green

[sovay]

I am home from Arisia. I am on a couch. All three panels of my last day went well. The Bellairs panel was scantly but alertly attended, the Bradbury panel packed them in at standing room and ran much more like a communal roundtable than anything with an audience, and the panel on supernatural literature in New England promptly fractured into about eight related micro-panels, which frankly agreed with our take on New England as a dense geography of literal and cultural microclimates providing fertile terrain for all kinds of different stories, although crime and horror seem disproportionately prominent, I blame the Puritans. I talked afterward with an engineer about sea levels and the Charles River Dam, only had to wait about ten minutes for the Red Line with nineweaving and ron_newman, and met spatch for a burrito on his dinner break. Then I attained this couch and haven't moved since.

Yesterday I bailed on a program item for the first time I can remember: I could either make the morning's chantey sing or I could manage the rest of the weekend and I wanted the rest of the weekend, so I went back to bed. I made it to the hotel in time for my panel on the resurgence of horror fiction, skillfully moderated by Gillian Daniels, and then I actually had dinner at a convention at a reasonable dinner time with kate_nepveu, a_reasonable_man, Nine, and Merlin Cunniff, plus drive-by from choco_frosh and child. (I had fish and chips and we talked about Little Women a lot.) The panel on anthropomorphic fiction with Rebecca Maxfield and genarti was fun and so wide-ranging I feel it could use at least two different sequel panels beyond the obvious one in which we all process our feelings about Redwall. I came straight home afterward because I had to get up early this morning to moderate Bellairs, which paid off in that I am merely flat exhausted at the moment, not actually hallucinating.

(I got into the dealer's room exactly once for ten minutes, but I came away with a copy of Barbara Hambly's Crimson Angel (2014), which is my second favorite of the later Benjamin January mysteries, so it was worth it.)

I enjoyed the traditional ballad bingo on Saturday: I did not win overall, but I did bingo a leopard-print scarf. I enjoyed the Kipling song circle, even if it was peculiarly less participatory than in previous years; we talked a lot about different settings. My reading as part of a triptych of weird New England went sufficiently well that people were asking me about the story even this afternoon, which would have been great if it were published anywhere yet. I am given to understand that the panel I moderated on box-office bombs went much better than I thought. I am still never doing four panels back-to-back again. In Arisia time, that's five hours onstage—fifteen-minute green-room/restroom/transit intervals do not downtime make. It wiped me out. It lost me the chantey sing the next morning. It helped nothing with my mood. And it made it so that I could attend no programming that wasn't mine—I couldn't even make the PMRP show on Saturday night because by Saturday night, despite a sandwich at the bar with Schreiber' and child, Nine, and Matthew Timmins, I was in no shape to do anything but go home and implode. Three panels in a row, I can manage; that was this afternoon. Four, I am going to ask Arisia programming never to schedule me for again, no matter who wants me on what. The results were not worth it.

Tomorrow is Rob's birthday and also our local Burns Supper, which feels awkwardly close to an extra day of Arisia: it means more people and more performing, although one of the performances will be Rob reciting McGonagall's "The Tay Bridge Disaster," which I figure should give Cats a run for its money. I expect I will enjoy it. Nonetheless, on Wednesday I may see what I can do about evaporating.

Comments

[moon_custafer]

The title of this post reminds me of the song Kevin MacDonald keeps interpolating into this monologue about bass-players: “the Father, the Mother, the Serpent, the Priest; the Foreman, the Woman, the Widow, the Beast” https://youtu.be/Sx7eqdkwxEw

[sovay]

“the Father, the Mother, the Serpent, the Priest; the Foreman, the Woman, the Widow, the Beast”

I hadn't seen that; thank you. "He's balding . . . spiritually."

I am now reminded of the mnemonic jingle for the zodiac used in Elizabeth Goudge's The Valley of Song (1951):

"The Ram, the Bull, the Heavenly Twins,
And next the Crab, the Lion shines,
The Virgin and the Scales;
The Scorpion, Archer, and Sea Goat,
The Man that holds the Waterpot,
The Fish with glittering Tails."

[a_reasonable_man]

I'm glad the panels today went well! And the Burns dinner does look like another day of Arisia--a lot of the same people I know seem to be attending.

[sovay]

I'm glad the panels today went well!

Thank you! Me, too. Moderating the Bellairs was actually a lot of fun.

And the Burns dinner does look like another day of Arisia--a lot of the same people I know seem to be attending.

Will you be there?

[reconditarmonia]

<3 I'm glad I got to be on that panel with you.

It's nonsensical that programming would even consider scheduling people on four panels in a row. "Human beings need food and rest" should be taken as a given.

[sovay]

I'm glad I got to be on that panel with you.

Very much same!

It's nonsensical that programming would even consider scheduling people on four panels in a row. "Human beings need food and rest" should be taken as a given.

I expressed some concern when the fourth consecutive panel was added to my schedule. In hindsight I should have expressed a lot more. I don't even know.

*hugs*

[gwynnega]

I'm glad the rest of the con was fun. I would have liked to hear the Little Women conversation!

Even if I attended a convention with my clone, I couldn't manage four panels in a row.

[sovay]

I'm glad the rest of the con was fun.

Thank you. I'm glad I didn't burn out for the rest of it.

I would have liked to hear the Little Women conversation!

I would love for you to have been there! Are you coming to Readercon this year? (How is your vertigo doing?)

Even if I attended a convention with my clone, I couldn't manage four panels in a row.

I don't think it was a good call on the part of programming and I should not have agreed to it. It might have been emotionally sustainable if my brain had not decided to combust on me, but I'm not sure about the physical part at all.

[gwynnega]

I am coming to Readercon! I think my vertigo is a little better. I'm in the middle of neurofeedback treatment, and with any luck that will start to improve things further.

[sovay]

I am coming to Readercon!

Yay!

I think my vertigo is a little better. I'm in the middle of neurofeedback treatment, and with any luck that will start to improve things further.

I'm really glad to hear it. May it keep up.

[selkie]

Happy birthday to him and happy Burns Supper to all! *hugs*

[sovay]

Happy birthday to him and happy Burns Supper to all!

Thank you!

*hugs*

[dramaticirony]

Glad you had an interesting, if intense, Arisia.

Four program slots in a day really is a lot! I've only attempted that sort of thing when I've been able to splurge on a hotel room, and even then it is a crashworthy evening, despite my being an endurance animal.

[sovay]

Glad you had an interesting, if intense, Arisia.

Thank you!

Four program slots in a day really is a lot!

It was the back-to-back nature that was really murderous. I believe I have successfully done four program items in a day, but they've come in pairs, or I've otherwise had time between them. This was just relentless and I don't want to do it again. (And I never stay at the Arisia hotel, so I always have to factor in travel time.)

[dramaticirony]

Arisa panels also vary in length. Which can be fine, moderating the "year in games" across video games, tabletop, and RPGs would have felt rushed at less than 1:15. But it's certainly not like Readercon or Boskone, where the norm is 50 mins and then out (with prompting). Not having the predictable assurance of a time buffer can make any back to back transit feel tight.

[sovay]

Not having the predictable assurance of a time buffer can make any back to back transit feel tight.

That wasn't an issue: with the exception of the Ig Nobel Dramatic Readings, all of my program items were scheduled for 75 minutes. There was no uncertainty as to the amount of time I was either on a panel or heading to the next one. It was just too long a block of programming without respite. Fifteen-minute breaks, like I said earlier, do not count.

[genarti]

I was at the chantey sing, and I can report it went well in any case, and that the room was overflowing! (I sang "Donkey Riding" and finished us out with "The Last Shanty.") I'm sorry that you had to miss it, but I'm very glad you chose as you did and went back to bed.

The anthropomorphic fiction panel was so fun, although we definitely did all do our best to fit at least three panels into one. But all three panels were delightful!

Four panels back-to-back is RIDICULOUS. Far too much, let alone on top of commuting. I understand the temptation on Programming's part, because you are a wonderful panelist who consistently says interesting things, but temptation is not reason to load anyone up with a schedule that would flatten anybody, and I think telling them to never schedule you for that many again is a very, very reasonable thing. Panelists should get to do things like eat and sleep and enjoy the con as spectators at reasonable intervals, is my firm opinion.

[sovay]

I'm sorry that you had to miss it, but I'm very glad you chose as you did and went back to bed.

Thank you! I'm glad you were there and it went so well. I had been really looking forward to it, but I do in fact think I would have burnt out for the rest of the weekend if I'd tried to start my day on two hours of sleep and no emotional reset.

But all three panels were delightful!

They were! I would absolutely sign up for—or even attend—any of the sequel panels. I believe Arisia already ran one on companion animals once, but that doesn't mean there's no room for a re-do, especially since we somehow managed to have that entire conversation without once falling down the rabbit (snow leopard, golden monkey, pine marten) hole of Pullman's daemons.

I understand the temptation on Programming's part, because you are a wonderful panelist who consistently says interesting things, but temptation is not reason to load anyone up with a schedule that would flatten anybody, and I think telling them to never schedule you for that many again is a very, very reasonable thing.

Thank you. I like being on programming, but I do not like winding up feeling like Bilbo Baggins describing himself as too little butter scraped over too much bread.

Panelists should get to do things like eat and sleep and enjoy the con as spectators at reasonable intervals, is my firm opinion.

A revolutionary opinion!

[oracne]

I have never done more than two panels back to back, and even that is so hard for me I've only done it a few times.

You have to take care of yourself, because Programming cannot possibly know us as well as we know ourselves. Being able to say no is important. Sometimes, you have to bag one at the last minute. It happens. It's okay.

[sovay]

Being able to say no is important. Sometimes, you have to bag one at the last minute. It happens. It's okay.

Thank you. I have just finished communicating with someone from Programming about my desire not to spontaneously combust next year!

[sandrylene]

Four panels back-to-back is unreasonable. Yikes!

one of the performances will be Rob reciting McGonagall's "The Tay Bridge Disaster," which I figure should give Cats a run for its money.
Bwahaha, this sounds amazing.

I hope you get some restful downtime soon. Certainly you've earned it!

[sovay]

Four panels back-to-back is unreasonable. Yikes!

I am not doing it again!

Bwahaha, this sounds amazing.

It was appalling, by which I mean it was great. He introduced it by explaining that McGonagall, on hearing the news of the Tay Bridge Disaster, understood at once that he had been slapped upside the head by a Muse of Poetry and dashed off to write his magnum opus, "not realizing that it was Crapula, the Muse of Shitty Poetry . . ."

I hope you get some restful downtime soon. Certainly you've earned it!

Thank you! Today has been composed primarily of work, but at least I also slept until three in the afternoon.

[imagine_that]

Traditional Ballad Bingo was the big thing that I wanted to get to buy had to miss due to child kaboom. But that's an improvement over other years when I have missed much more!

I am glad you mostly made it through your really packed schedule. It sounded like a LOT. I don't think I could attend 4 panels back to back, let alone be *on* them! a

I am also working through a bunch of vertigo crap, but my doctor has no idea why or what to do about it. She seems to think it will go away on its own if I wait a few more weeks. Since it has been about 4 already, I am less sure of this plan..Ah well.

[sovay]

But that's an improvement over other years when I have missed much more!

I'm glad you managed to make it to stuff with children! It is extremely likely that the traditional ballad bingo will run again; it's not quite perennial at this point, but it's popular.

I am glad you mostly made it through your really packed schedule. It sounded like a LOT. I don't think I could attend 4 panels back to back, let alone be *on* them!

Thank you! I agree with you. It is too many panels.

Since it has been about 4 already, I am less sure of this plan..Ah well.

I know a couple of people who deal with vertigo, but it seems to have different causes, so I have no suggestions other than hoping that you can get some pointers soon to a solution that does not involve merely waiting for it to pass off.