Conestoga 11: Day Two: Sat.
Wolves, and gators, and birds; oh my!
Birds of Prey (not Klingon) from Royal Gauntlet Educational Birds of Prey and Rehabilitation Center, and wild animals -on leashes of course- from Safari’s Sanctuary roamed the hallways of Conestoga among invisible LARPERS, Klingon’s, vampires, musketeers, and Anime characters dressed in Japanese attire. Not to mention all the women in Kimonos -bought at the convention- made by Butterfly Creations. My daughter and her best friends made it to the convention. Children always so sweet when they want money. There was even a Crow T. Robot look-alike rolling along the hallways’ video taping the events.
Sword fighting, film critiquing, gaming, writing workshops, readings, and book signings; oh my! So much to do, so little time. Dion, Lisa and I considered splitting up, attending separate programs, then sharing notes later.
We managed to catch a fantastic reading, in a Haitian accent, by Linda Donahue, of her short story -sorry I don’t recall the title- from the Loving the Undead Anthology, From the Asylum Books. Yard Dog Press’ Production of the Merlene Show was just as funny as at Sooner Con, sans injuries to the cast. David Lee Anderson avoided the table.
After a long, busy, entertaining day Dion and I sought refuge -in the bar- with Leonard Bishop, Beverly Hale, Bill Allen, and Sally Allen. During the appetizers we were joined by Tim Chessmore, Neil Mavis, and briefly by Adrian Simmons before he wandered off to raise a class to Jim Baen along with almost everyone else attending Conestoga. We raised our glasses too, from our table, but we were too busy eating, visiting, and resting to make the climb up two stubby steps and across the bar to join the crowd. They didn’t seem to miss us.
I never made it to the open Filking in spite of the fact that Frank Bielowicz wrote a filk just for me, about Klingon Honor, to the tune of Greensleeves. During the filking in the con-suite at Sooner Con I had asked if anyone knew a filk to that tune. None of the filkers there knew of any, so Frank promised to write one for me by Conestoga. I was an extra surprise that he made it about Klingons. He did sing it for me after the Musketeer Demonstration where I learned a few important lessons about the art of sword play that will show up in at least one story some time in the future -if I ever finish the dozen I’m currently working on.
I did win a K’doack mom’Ment award for my Klingon Tourist visiting Earth in the Masquerade. The prize included a very attractive award certificate and a bag full of brownies. No! Not that kind of brownies.
The Play: Lost Heroes of Battlestar Galactica was hysterical heresy. Selina Rosen made a perfectly type casted Star Buck, Randy Farran, looking way fine, sang a collection of TV land theme filks, played the mandolin and performed multiple speaking roles in multiple accents. I missed the name of the Dude, that played the Dude, that always says Dude, on Lost but he was a really cool Dude. And little Jack ? nearly stole the show with his roll as a fleet of cylon fighter ships.
By the time we reached Beverly Hale’s room, for some sex on the beach in the bathroom with Leonard, a crowd of artist, authors, and Conestoga staff gathered in the room spilling out into the hallway and right into the FenCon party next door. The prominently absent Bill Allen was off playing bouncer at a local night club.
Dion and I pooped out much too early, rushing back to our room, like a couple of Cinderellas at the stroke of midnight. I do wish I had taken pictures of Dion falling asleep, while watching wrestling, sitting straight up in bed with the channel changer in her hand. Unfortunately I was so sleepy the idea never even crossed my mind until the next day.
I know I’m a day behind. I seldom do anything in real time. I’ll tell you all about Sunday at Conestoga tomorrow.
Oh one more thing. I made a mistake yesterday. The title of Bill Allen’s super funny story in Houston: We’ve Got Bubbas! is Planet of the Hill Apes.
