bohemiancoast

probably a less exciting post than you would think from the title.

A month or so ago there was a little flurry about the number of bondage items at the Eastercon. I pointed out that the issue wasn't that the number of panels, it was the lack of relevance to SF/fantasy. I suggested that it would be quite wrong to have that many knitting items, and gave the example of a sock knitting workshop as the sort of specialised event that would be quite inappropriate to have at the Eastercon.

I then was informed first that there are in fact as many knitting items as bondage items, and second that there will be a sock knitting workshop at Eastercon. I expressed some surprise at this and was told that items of this kind were there because con members had volunteered them.

Today I was reading, on another site, a thread about knitting at the Eastercon. In that thread a knitter explained that she had been approached to do a sock knitting workshop, but had declined -- and she was glad that the committee had found somebody else.

Sock knitting -- like the specialist bondage ties they're having workshops on -- is not a beginner skill; this isn't a 'have a go and try out something new' workshop, it's a specialist workshop for established knitters to develop their skills.

How many SF/fantasy items do you think you will find at a knitting convention? (There might well be one -- a knit a dalek/tardis/clanger type thing, which the Eastercon is also having and which I think is entirely appropriate).

You know, there is scarcely any fannish programme, fan history programme or fanzine programme at this convention. I've talked to fans who are equally concerned about areas of SF/fantasy that they are interested in and that are under-represented. And yet we have dozens, perhaps hundreds of items on topics that have no relevance to SF other than that 'fans like to do them'. And yet, the same committee members who are ignoring swathes of the core of the hobby are going to considerable lengths to develop programming relating to non-SF hobbies.

We need to take some action here, chaps. This group of people have asked to run the Eastercon again in 2012; some of them are influential in the 2014 Worldcon bid (I should stress that I have no concerns about programme for that convention). This isn't a 'general way for geeks to hang out with agreeable company and do interesting geeky things', it's the National SF convention. We should ensure that it is so; that it reflects, in an ecumenical way, the broad SF/fantasy interests of the membership, and that the non-SF items represent an interesting alternative to the main events rather than the main activity.

We went to see Avatar at the BFI IMAX. I really enjoyed it; I had a fantastic time, and am now thinking about what I did and did not like.

( spoilers for a movie that has been rather meanly called 'Dances with Smurfs'  )

OK, the Giant Printing Presses of Doom are churning out our 2009 Christmas card. Would you like one? Comment -- and if you suspect we might not know your current address, do let me know that too. Comments screened natch.

Next stage, the Simon-Hoggart-irritating Round Robin Letter.

Having a bucket of fun. Fun larking about with the family and not worrying about scores, fun learning to drum, and then fun sitting quietly obsessing over exact bass riffs and so on.

I thought vocals were dodgy at first. It seemed entirely wrong that I could sing a Beatles song which I am not remotely familiar with, and score five stars on Expert the first time out. But it turns out, after a couple of hours of play on vocals, that I have top ten global scores (on Wii) on four or five different tracks, none of which I've sung more than three times. So I think it's just that it is calibrated so easy that anyone who can actually sing cleans up. (Songs with a single melody line are much easier for me than the harmony songs; turns out I've been singing one of the harmony lines all these years! Who knew?)

Marianne is much better, has been sprung with only pills to take. Looks like we're going to head out to Towersey -- except probably not camping.

Forehead slapping moment; I realise from the Metro that Economy Gastronomy (which I've not yet watched) is the work of Allegra McEvedy, the chef 1/3 of the partnership that founded Leon. Leon is the one local amenity I really, really miss from the office I used to work in; if I can't manage to take lunch with me I would rather buy it there than anywhere else.

Happy birthday darling frostfox! Now tell me three things.

1. How long is your foot from toe to the back of the heel?
2. How much is it round the ball of your foot?
3. How much round your leg just a tad above the ankle?

Thank you!

One and Other remains compelling, but I was delighted to discover that my personal plan for an hour on the plinth -- English traditional music played on the melodeon -- had been delivered in fine style by the bagman of Aldford Morris on the very first day. Patrick Purves is the chap's name. He is the brother of journalist Libby Purves, who wrote the whole thing up for the Times. One of the nicest and best articles in the national press about melodeon ever I think. "Can he keep it up for an hour?" "Only thing that stops him is closing time".

Who out here has an academic gown they could bring to plokta.con? We need it by 11am Saturday.

As drplokta says, please let us know if you're coming to <plokta.con> but haven't got round to joining us.

We're also twittering; follow @ploktacon and tag #plokta to find out what we're up to.

The con is 23-25 May in Sunningdale Park, Sunningdale, Berks (a train ride out of Waterloo, quite close to Heathrow), and our guests are Diana Wynne Jones on Saturday and Paul Cornell on Sunday.