dancin! and some other stuff

[jinian]

Last post was Saturday night before dinner, so. At dinner I felt crummy, so I came back to the room and relaxed instead of going to parties or even the Tiptree auction (which I am sorry to have missed). I slept well and woke feeling fine.

Sunday morning panels:
Science Writing. Lots about how lay readers (with the implication of likely SF writers) can find trustworthy sources for science news and learn to read scientific papers. Ed Yong was highly recommended, as were news stories linking to the actual publications. I suggested people check out Julie Libarkin's work, which seemed to interest people.

Fumi Yoshinaga's Ooku. OMG YAY OOKU PANEL (ETA link to futuransky writeup). So much great analysis: the concepts of consent and implications of the history matching our own so closely were my favorite parts. I think it's meant as a secret history, so the history has to match (and thus I think the end will be the end of the plague and the Meiji/male restoration), but coffeeandink and others pointed out first that it says something about the structures of power -- just because women are in the country-running roles, they aren't all suddenly happy communists or something.

After failing to connect with pameladean and Eric, I wound up having a good conversation with two of my roommates at lunch in the hotel restaurant. Also tortellini with peas and prosciutto, yum.

There was an outing to clothes-shop for the Genderfloomp Dance Party, which wound up being smaller than I'd hoped: just me, the two organizers, and one other person. I guess most people were more prepared or didn't particularly cross-dress, but I found a men's shirt that fit at the clothing swap and decided to do drag so I wanted some help. We went to the Goodwill at the far end of State Street, where I found a great tie and !!wing tips!!, and we got makeup at the drugstore. (I figured that it would take some major underpinnings not to look biologically female, so I wanted to mix in a stronger femme element as well.)

Sunday afternoon panels:
Deconstructing Doctor Who. Not sure this deconstructed all that much, but talking about DW is always fun. I guess we got a bit into Amy as cipher-protagonist a la Chrono, which as usual when this comes up no one admits to liking; I think it was a totally misguided idea that this would cause self-identification, as personally I would say a lot more than dot dot dot through a whole game's adventures. (Some people did admit to liking Amy, but no one really said why.)

I'd Object If I Weren't Invisible. Bisexuality panel! It was all affirming and stuff, and we got to hear different people's problems and (such as they are) solutions.

Sadly I once again failed to connect with P & E, so I wandered around the Capitol Square familiarizing myself with new bits of Madison and looking for something that sounded good to eat. I found a sushi (and pasta) place called Red, where I was powerless to resist a roll called Ultimatum Crawfish. As far as I could tell, no actual crawfish was harmed in the making of this roll: avocado, cucumber, and crab were inside, then several white-to-red rainbowy fish slices were on top. Pretty and tasty, but no claws, no tail, no idea. I could see a lake from the street by Red, yet as so often happens couldn't get to the water as there was a building in the way.

I genderfloomped myself up: men's gray shirt, dusty-green brocade tie in a half-Windsor knot, my bias-cut black hemp pants, wing tips, hair in a bun, bangs to the side, eyeliner, and hot pink lipstick. I am told that I looked hot. Roommates dancingsinging and jnanacandra dressed up too. jnanacandra needs to send me our pictures! We went to the guest of honor speech and Tiptree ceremony, where Nisi's speech was excellent (obvsly) and the song about Baba Yaga Laid an Egg was to the tune of Clementine.

Afterward we repaired to the Broad Universe party, since the dance party was waiting on AV equipment, talked to various people, and drew tiny pictures on Kat's checked shoes.

Then: dancing! OMG dancing! So much dancing! Some people were amazing (such as the very cute DJ) and everyone was having so much fun. dancingsinging danced with Geoff Ryman and a hot pink feather boa briefly, and there was a dance contest, and it was SUPER FUN. I stepped on a Hugo award pin (damaging neither of us) that someone had dropped, so I turned it in to the DJ table. Some people dressed up amazingly, some people dressed up with the silly kit at the party door, and some people didn't dress up at all, and we all had a great time together. My outfit's "I moved some and therefore am blazingly overheated" iteration excluded the tie and all but one shirt button, yay for the sexy plunge bra. (I do not believe there are photos of this stage. Make me very happy by playing lots of Monae, Gaga, Prince, and Madonna, and you will have your own chance to see it.) Aaaaand I danced until basically I could dance no more, my knees were all weak and my hips were not happy with me and my lower back started bitching also, and it was 2:30am. I wanted a shower more than I wanted to keep dancing, and by my very good luck they played a song that didn't compel me to remain, and I slipped out. An utterly marvelous time.

I had the sense to take aspirin before going to sleep, too, and felt mostly okay this morning.

Comments

[dancingsinging]

You did look hot in your outfit. And indeed yay sexy plunge bra! And awesome, awesome wingtips.

I had planned to go on the shopping trip, just wasn't organized enough to figure out the when/where in time. Maybe next year!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Pix or it didn't happen!

[jnanacandra.livejournal.com]

Pictures will be in your email Real Soon Now :)

I wish I'd been able to stay at the dance longer!

[eub.livejournal.com]

(I'm just curious, had the two of you met before being roommates or is it a small world?)

[jinian.livejournal.com]

We hadn't met. I take it you two know each other?

[jnanacandra.livejournal.com]

Nope, never met before last weekend :)

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

I am told that I looked hot.

I'm not sure how this could NOT be the case.