How can you know up without down? High without low? Beauty creates ugliness; there is no shadow without the light.
One percent of our year has come and gone in Atlanta. We have seen the Dragon, danced within its lair. But at the end of that encounter, I am uncertain whether we are the slayer or the slain.
The year was marked by good and bad in equal measure. Nothing catastrophic, but not quite the heights we scaled in years before. The line at registration, the six panels we left early, the hike down twelve flights of stairs with suitcases, the mild food poisoning (if those three words ever go together), the three missed concerts, the war game I wanted that disappeared, those were lows. The highs were the record number of panels and concerts we attended, the nine CD's by six groups we brought back home, the short-story I sketched out on the plane, the photographer from Twitter we touched base with again this year, and the lead singer of the Cruxshadows remembering Karen. A full and busy weekend marked by marginal frustrations.
This year was typified by our trips to the dealers' room. I saw a used SPI war game from the 70's called Musket and Pike that intrigued me, though it was expensive so I wanted to think about it. The more I thought, the more I decided I would buy it. By the time I went back, it was one of the few that was gone. That's how this year felt, promising but disappointing.
Some changes we noted from previous years: fewer Goths, fewer kids, less skin, more people, more costumes, more sponsors, more folk and Celtic music.
I'm sure people wonder what we do for five days in Atlanta. How much science fiction can occupy our time? Panels for us tend to divide into four basic food groups, the inspiring, the thought provoking, the entertaining and the complete waste of time. I'll give the highlights and teasers from each day.
Thursday started with two and a half hours in line at registration. I'm not sure we'll use Ticket Master again. It's always understaffed. This year, I heard the convention website crashed so a LOT of people went to Ticket Master. And they sent 2 people to handle them all. After that we met another couple at an Indian restaurant for dinner and a great chicken curry. We topped the night with a concert by the Spider Lilies, a band formed by the former guitarist of the Cruxshadows. Decent music poorly mixed.
Friday started on a hot streak. William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy on DCTV in the hotel. No lines, no crowds, great seats, fun interaction between them. Our first panel was a talk on the I Ching, complete with a handout, by a bio-anthropologist who had no trouble resolving his science and his personal (not professional) use of it. Next was a great presentation on biophages, viruses that infect bacteria sometimes killing them in the process, perhaps the solution to antibiotic resistant strains of disease. A contribution we've ignored from the former Soviet Union. The day peaked with two hours of instruction by a director and editor on lighting and framing in film which we translated into still photography. They went over a standard three light arrangement, the law of thirds and crossing the line. Then, a discussion of an unexplained gravity anomaly discovered in the data from the Pioneer probes as they exit the solar system. After that, the evening fell apart with two aborted panels, one a no-show by the primary speaker. We used the opportunity to peruse the music tables and pick up the first load of CDs. We opted to forego the 1:30 a.m. performance by Abney Park, a band we'd seen before, to start fresh the following day.
Saturday dawned promisingly enough with a thought provoking panel about viewing art on the Internet called the Low-cut Blouse Phenomenon by the photographer who did the Myth of Photographic Truth last year. How do you entice people to examine or contemplate art in 100 x 120 pixels? After that, Karen and I briefly parted ways with her sitting in on a so-so instruction on how to draw monsters and aliens while I sat through an ok authors panel on what women want in science fiction. Then a panel on pandemics with two authors and a scientist from the CDC that was informative and not much more. The day started to degraded with another two aborted panels, though we used the time to crawl the dealer's room the first time, hit the music tables again and get some dinner (bad choice, my friend). It briefly peaked right after with a fascinating discussion of synesthesia, the cross-talk between senses from the same input ("Fours are red, sevens are green, and green tastes funny") by a neuroscience clinician, a doctor of cognitive psychology and a doctor of psychology and neurobiology. That was followed by yet another aborted discussion where two authors confused economics with social engineering. We salvaged the night with the Cruxshadows concert which was eminently danceable until almost 2 a.m. Once again, we got in easily by waiting until the line had passed.
Sunday we slept in. About noon I realized someone had slipped a little something extra into the our salad the night before, which left me at about half power through the remainder of the weekend. If you starve a cold and feed a fever, what do you do when you feel dizzy and flushed? Apparently, sit in panels until it clears on the flight home thirty-six hours later. Or maybe the two lemon wedges I ate in the airport did the trick.
First that day, we hit a great demonstration on how to draw wings complete with a handout and website references wing exhibits in museums. Next was an entertaining presentation of how much longer humanity will have the resources needed to support our current lifestyle. Turns out 25-100 years for things like aluminum, copper, lead, oil, gold and silver and platinum, not to mention those nice little exotics that run your laptop and cell phone. Followed by a solid discussion of military attitudes and personal interactions by a retired USAF officer. After a short break, there was a good presentation on decomposition of bodies by a forensic anthropologist, though perhaps the slides weren't dinner fare. Then an interactive life art drawing panel modeled by three local dancers. Karen did really well. I played to my strengths and focused on one of the model's eyes which were striking with their makeup and the strands of hair crossing them. The day ended on a sour note with a writing panel hijacked by five authors who chose to waste our time with war-stories rather than discuss the topic listed. We opted out of the Faith and the Muse, and Ayria concerts that night in favor of sleep and early panels the next morning. Listening to the CDs, I'm sorry with missed the first but perhaps not the second.
By Monday morning I felt a little better. Just in time for perhaps the best presentation of the convention on Darwinian dating: the biological basis of beauty, or what we look for and gauge in prospective mates based solely on appearance. Did you know women can smell not only good genetics but symmetry in men? Cologne doesn't help guys, it only annoys them. This one was delivered by the anthropologist from Sunday (who had ditched out on two of our aborted panels). We checked out of our room and followed up with an illustration demo that was more of a discussion by two artists, one digital, one traditional, but still fascinating as I could apply many of their observations from painting to writing. We rounded out the day with an overview of digital forensics and anti-forensics by a Georgia lawyer and an electronic investigation consultant. Is everyone out there is practicing safe wifi on their iPhones? Probably not judging by the number of passwords they picked off in the room. After a quick run through the dealers' rooms and the art show, we crawled for the airport and headed home. It's good Monday was short as I was lucky to be standing by the time we got on the plane.
If I had to pick the three most outstanding or inspiring panels this year, the would be Lighting and Framing, Darwinian Dating and a tie between Biophages and Synesthia. So the Science track wins out again this year even for the two we walked out of. Art put in a solid, consistent performance again with notables in Film, Writing and Silk Road, though the latter two had more losers than winners.
The business cards disappeared regularly from tables, transparencies first even though they were interleaved with the paper ones. Unfortunately, several stacks got cleared out by the cleaning crews in a game of mouse and mouser before it became apparent where they would and wouldn't allow information to linger. About 200 went into people's pockets, with some still disappearing on the last day. We'll see if anything comes of them.
A reasonable trip, though it didn't quite live up to the anticipation. This year felt a lot like being on the outside looking in. In a month, we'll reserve a room or two for next year, and decide next summer whether it has moved beyond us, we have moved beyond it or we just had an off year. The Marriott is definitely the place to be for us, on a low floor where we can use the stair. Karen is trying to convince her boss to provide a USGS presence next year with a panel or two, which I think would be good for him and his book, the Survey and the convention. We'll let you know if that works out.
Until then, we'll be listening to CDs, writing e-mails, checking websites, compiling a list of good and bad speakers, and trying to digest what we learned. And enjoying Nyala and Mara's affection now that we are home.
© 2009 Edward P. Morgan III
