#pemmi-con

[glowingskull]

I didn't post this to Tumblr when I made it last year, I don't think?

This is the jacket of a Blacksleeve Servicer from Perhaps the Stars, the fourth book of Dr. Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series. (Don't worry about the "Blacksleeve" portion if you haven't gotten there yet.)

The armband is made from a pair of Romanovan flags that Dr. Palmer was handing out at Worldcon in Chicago in 2022: I sewed them into an armband on the spot. This is why you bring your sewing kit to cons, kids.

I've been told by a lefty American friend that it looks quite fashy (laughing in spoilers), which is why I tend to pair it with either the matching camo bottoms and brown hiking boots (more military at a glance), or with dingy stained cargo shorts and sneakers (not a Proud Boy).

But this last weekend, at the North American Science Fiction Convention "Pemmi-Con" in Winnipeg, Canada, I got no strange looks at all while wearing this outside con spaces. This wasn't really something I noticed, until it became obvious in retrospect when a Canadian friend noticed the Romanovan flag flown from a city building nearby:

Romanova is located in Canada!

[irradiate-space]

Notes on Rebuilding Fandom

(a condensed write-up of my notes from a Pemmi-Con NASFiC panel)

The greying of fandom. Falling attendance. Conventions closing or going on "temporary" hiatus post-pandemic. This discussion tries to examine the issues and come up with some solutions. Should we even try and consider just bowing out gracefully?

I think the major irony of this session was where it was held. The 2023 Pemmi-Con North American Science Fiction Convention was, people tell me, quite poorly run. The panel discussion included many specific actions that other cons commonly do, which Pemmi-Con did not do.

(The question of whether it was this con specifically, or whether this con-running crew is competent to run any con, is a conversation that I'll leave to correspondents more embedded in the Canadian SFF fandom scene. I'm relatively new to the organized SFF fandom, and I'm lacking context.)

So let's talk about the state of the Speculative Fiction Fandom:

Fans today are more often interested in specific fandoms, not general-content or genre fandom

Fanzines are dying out; there's a history of bad-apple editors and editors who retire

Yet there are many conventions which are topical to Speculative Fiction, or topical to Fandom-writ-large, which are growing rapidly and drawing record crowds.

The question opening the panel was, "how can we get kids-these-days to be the sort of fans we were?" which I added 🤔😅🙃 to, and so did many members of the audience and panel.

The response question was, "how can we adapt organized fandom to meet kids-these-days where they are?" Many expressed the sentiment that fandom changes over time, so the organized fandom must change to adapt.

Also raised was the question of demographics. Yes, Fandom is greying. It will continue greying, one year per year, until we defeat death and become immortal. To keep the average age low, recruitment is necessary. But how do you recruit younguns to get interested in the Traditional Speculative Fiction Fandom events?

A number of strategies were identified in the panel:

Rebuild mutual support: It used to be the case that con-organizing organizations were many. Now they are few. With this dwindling in number has come a dwindling of mutual-support opportunities. It used to be the case that different orgs would help each other run events. This is a dwindling case. Someone has to offer first; let your org do it.

Make in-person events attractive: Before the Internet, it was harder to be a Fan. Without an established in-person fannish presence, you were a loner. Fandom conventions were the sole way to sate your urge for fannish socialization. Nowadays, Fandom is like any other niche social group: It's really easy to find compatriots from the comfort of your home, and you don't have to travel to have a meeting of the minds. Look at the successful in-person events to determine what draws people: novelty, merch sales and swaps, in-person competitions, event exclusives, photoshoots.

Outreach: You're running a generic con? Great! Find all the specific cons and specific fandom groups and ask them to panel and attend. If you're running a scifi con and haven't invited the local chapters of the 501st, the Rebel Legion, the 405th, the Royal Manticoran Navy, the 1701st, Mandalorian Mercs, cause-players, any local university clubs, and any local anime or furry conventions, then you're doing organizing wrong.

Advertise: This one is multifaceted, and had a lot of comments in response to Pemmi-Con. Notable points: Publish your schedule early enough that people can buy tickets and book a hotel room because they know there's a panel they want to attend. Publish your schedule early enough that your panelists know they're going to be paneling. Do badge swaps, table swaps, and pamphlet swaps with other cons, so that you can advertise at each other's con. Do this especially at cons local to your city, and at Big Cons. Continually expand your comms infrastructure until every attendee has a reasonable chance of seeing every important update.

Multimedia: If you're going to have hybrid panels, make sure that the remote panelists have good audio before the session starts. Provide slide deck editing services, to make sure that text can be read from the back of the room. Position your projectors so that the display is large enough and not canted.

Experiment with format: Not everyone wants to go to spend a weekend in panels getting lectured by grey-haired white people, or sing the same filk songs again. Mix it up. Pemmi-Con had a legitimately interesting innovation: a pinball tournament. One of the most-popular John Scalzi events at Chicon 8 was the dance he DJ'd. Anime con photoshoots are hugely attended. Board game conventions are similarly popular. Host an AMV contest. Run a room that's just a TV clip show. Have a library room, like the Carolina Manga Library. In addition to Masquerade, run a cosplay critique panel, and run it on multiple days so that people can bring different costumes to it. Do the fukcing Ribbon Game.

Look to the future: A lot of Traditional SFF Fandom is about the past. But some of the most-highly-attended panels at Anime and Games cons are about the future: things which are in the pipeline for next season or next year. Already-funded Kickstarters. Already-signed series. Do that at your Traditional SFF panels.

Train the next generation: Recruit volunteers, and when they tell you they have a better way to do things, don't turn them down immediately. If there's a reason, explain the reason. If their idea is good, adopt it. They're trying to make things better. If you drive out the next generation of con-runners, there won't be a next generation of cons.

[man-and-atom]

Big news!

I am now Head of Static Exhibits for Pemmi-Con, the 15th occasional North American Science Fiction Convention, being held in Winnipeg, Manitoba, 20―23 July this year. (The NASFiC is held when the World Science Fiction Convention is outside North America, as it is this year in Chengdu, and will be next year in Glasgow.)

This gives me almost complete freedom to present a large display about the peaceful uses of atomic energy. I have a number of snazzy things in preparation, including two pay telephones set up to play audio clips originally produced for radio broadcast.

Of course, given the dates of the convention, I will also have a space display, and I plan to make souvenir badges using US 10¢ “First on the Moon” postage stamps.

To make all this happen requires money, and at this time I will be especially appreciative of recurring or one-time gifts of support. In fact, thanks to a timely contribution, I have just ordered two more table drapes. I do try to find nifty ways of showing my appreciation.

[savantefolle]

Pemmi-Con 2023

La Pemmi-Con est une grande réunion d’amateurs et d’auteurs de Science-fiction. Quand la convention mondiale de science fiction (la WorldCon) se déroule dans un pays éloigné, comme en Chine cette année, les fans nord-américains organisent une convention alternative, la NASFIC. Et celle-ci se tenait à Winnipeg cette année. J’adore les conventions mais je n’y allais plus très souvent, meme avant la…

[man-and-atom]

It’s a national holiday for me.

And I’m going to have a display about it at Pemmi-Con, the 15th occasional North American Science Fiction Convention, which coincidentally runs 20―23 July 2023. Yes, the convention is in Winnipeg, which is not in the USA, but being out of the country isn’t going to stop me from celebrating.

Hey. Why isn’t the moon landing a national holiday in the US. Isn’t that fucked up? Does anyone else think that’s absurd?

[scifi4wifi]

NASFIC Site Selected - It's Buffalo NY

Today the winner of the site selection process for NASFIC was announced a business meeting held during Pemmi-Con in Winnipeg. There was only one bid. Buffalo NASFiC 2024 will be held July 18-21 at the Hyatt Regency Buffalo and the Niagara Convention Center. The con will be chaired by Wayne Brown The WSFS Constitution provides for a NASFiC (North American Science Fiction Convention) to be held…

[david-d-levine]

Pemmi-Con NASFIC schedule

Well, my flight from Minneapolis to Winnipeg was canceled, so I missed my first scheduled panel. But I will be there soon! In fact, I am on a plane to Winnipeg right now! So here's my remaining schedule:

10:00 AM, Saturday 22 Jul 2023 CDT - 1 hour 15 minutes Kaffeklatsche: David D. Levine Delta Hotel - Fort Garry

11:30 AM, Saturday 22 Jul 2023 CDT - 1 hour 15 minutes Editors are Sort of Human Too, You Know! Convention Centre - York 2

4:00 PM, Saturday 22 Jul 2023 CDT - 1 hour 15 minutes The Next Pandemic Convention Centre - York 4

1:00 PM, Sunday 23 Jul 2023 CDT - 25 minutes Readings: David D. Levine Delta Hotel - St. James

[heyimflorence]

Gracias a Mr. Ruru (on Wattpad) https://my.w.tt/cKgvqTzK6S Keyla López desde muy temprana edad desarrolló un amor incondicional hacia los gatos. Aunque siempre deseó tener un gato de mascota, jamás pudo, a causa de tener a una madre alérgica. Pero eso no disminuyó su admiración por los felinos sino que lo intensificó al punto de auto-proclamarse admiradora número uno del Mr. Ruru, un gato de pelaje grisáceo que suele pasearse por el colegio junto a la compañía de su dueño, Teo Díaz, un chico común y corriente que apenas le conoce el nombre por los concursos de arte. Tanto Keyla y Teo, apenas se conocen, a pesar de compartir diversas clases. Relación que cambia cuando extrañas situaciones los envuelven alrededor de Mr. Ruru. © Todos los derechos reservados. © Dorian Márquez, 2016-2018. [Borrador] ➼Logros: ✧Mención Honorífica en el concurso "Crazy Love" de @Nozomi7 ✧Ganadora en la categoría «Selecciones de Personal» en los #Wattys2016 de @WattysES ✧2° Lugar en «Historia Corta» en los "Premios Cielo 2016" de @FamiliaCielo ✧2° Lugar en «Historia Corta» en los "Carrot Awards 2017" de @CarrotFamily ✧2° Lugar en «Humor» en los "Premios Prime 2017" de @PremiosPrime ✧1° Lugar en «Humor» y «Mejor Personaje Secundario» con Mr. Ruru en los "Carrot Awards 2018" de @CarrotFamily ➼Ranking: #740 en Humor (03/10/17) ✎･Participando en los concursos: #PremiosAwards2017 - #PEMMYS - #PinkAndBlueC - #PremiosRoyalePrice2018 - #Warmyawards2018 ✎･Grupo de Lectores: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1693665570952864/

[glowingskull]

Check out this Baba Yaga Hut costume

This hut won Best in Show at the 2023 North American Science Fiction Convention in Winnipeg, and entirely deservedly. The costume-maker walked this across the stage backwards to a mix of Mussorgsky's "The Hut on Hen's Legs" and the Chicken Dance. Complete with pop-out flapping wings.

The costume was supposed to have a rear-view camera, to let the wearer see where they were going. It didn't work on this venue's wifi.

So the wearer (who made the costume!) did the entire dance backwards, blind, on a stage with a 4' drop-off. Did the Hut nearly walk off the stage? Yes! Did a gofer save the Hut with a hand applied directly to the butt? Yes! Was it hilarious and a crowd pleaser? Yes!

The most amazing thing? The total bill of materials, including camera, was less than USD $100.

[savantefolle]

Get a taste of my fiction at the Pemmi-Con !

the 15th North American Science Fiction Convention opens today at the RBC Convention Center at Winnipeg, 20-23 July 2023. Meet me at the dealer's room with my indie publishing house Echofictions.

The Pemmi-Con, the 15th North American Science Fiction Convention opens today at the RBC Convention Center at Winnipeg, 20-23 July 2023. Meet me at the dealer’s room with my indie publishing house Echofictions. Short and sweet chocolate SF stories for the busybodies! (Echofictions’ corner table at the back of the Dealer’s room) “Echofictions provides short and sweet books for readers living…

[irradiate-space]

Last week:

Ordered some badge ribbons for Pemmi-Con

Today:

Swap play laptop for work laptop.

Find a new gluestick for the scrapbook. added to shopping list

Werk werk werk werk werk werk werk werk werk (9)

Send cards

Make a phone call postponed to tomorrow due to timezones

Maybe grocery and ink and filament shopping

Re-tin wires for speaker

Vakama: Thicken the face bars on the snout to 2x width, deepen indents

Vakama: Restart head modeling by setting up a different Huna base model

Vakama: Look up Adaptive Armor designs of masks to see if there's one with good grilles for P100 filter designs; search also Thingiverse for fan-made mask designs with grilles

Do a GIS for the one historical project

NEW: Vakama: staff head

NEW: proofs of NASFiC ribbons

Tomorrow:

NEW: Vakama: Print staff head

Vakama: Import some grille parts into Blender

Read rules of Salvage Union

Skim past DND notes for major plot arcs

[irradiate-space]

Tuesday Typings

I came back from the North American Science Fiction Convention with so many books. Notes on costume stuff, one giant costume todo list, and recent reads/watches as well.

Books acquired recently

The Archive Undying, Emma Mieko Candon, 2023, bought

This is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, 2020, bought — finished and enjoyed

The Sng of Achilles, Madeline Miller, 2012, bought

Translation State,, Ann Leckie, 2023, bought

Francis: The People's Pope, Ted Rall, allegedly autographed, 2018, bought

The Stars Like Dust, Isaac Asimov, 1996 paperback printing, gifted

The Courier, Gerald Brandt, 2016, free pile

Alliance Rising, C. J. Cherryh and Jane S. Fancher, 2019, free pile

Foundryside, Robert Jackson Bennett, 2019 Broadway promo printing, free pile

Mica, fille de Transyl, Michèle Laframboise, 2012, free pile — I do not read the French; this is going on a gift pile for a Francophone friend

To Climb a Flat Mountain, G. David Nordley, 2009?, bought after the author gave me an answer to a worldbuilding problem

Burning Days, Glenn Grant, 2011, free

This Virtual Night, C.S. Friedman, 2021, free

To Each This World, Julie Czerneda, 2022, free and signed

The Complete Smoke Trilogy, Tanya Huff, 2019, free

She Who Became The Sun, Shelley Parker-Chan, 2021, free

All of the free books are from Pemmi-Con; half are from DAW Publishers who were really, really generous.

Recent Reading and Watching

This is How You Lose the Time War surprised me with the identity of the Seeker; mid-book I thought there might be another operative tailing them, or a Purple child, or a third side to this war. That last prediction was quite close!

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn - Bande Dessinee Episode: 0 wasn't particularly thrilling, but I value it because it fills out the characters of Full Frontal and Angelo Sauper, and how the Zeonist public sees things before the initiation of the Third Neo Zeon War, aka The Laplace Incident.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars has been good through season 7; I ned to track down season 8 to see if they later appearance of Ashoka in Star Wars Rebels makes any sense.

Legend of Galactic Heroes: I have finally finished this. RIP to a legend, but we all knew that the death flag for the last person to die was waved at the end of the third season. Rubinsky's end was also fitting: reflecting of how he was no longer part of the plot, he was also no longer part of politics. His last gasp felt irrelevant, and really was.

Pacific Rim: The Black is a 3dcg film that's reminiscent of RWBY and Dragon Prince in style, but with the same Ramin Djiwadi soundtrack, and some neat twists that really delve into the fridge horror of the setting. But this is a kids' show, so there's little blood, the decapitations happen out of frame, and the heads don't roll too far. Episode 7 has a nice "it's dangerous to go alone; take this" moment.

Computing

A 2.1A powerbank is not enough to stably power a Pi 1 B+ with a 4.0" square Hyperpixel Touch display and a wireless keyboard. Big Sad. Next question is if a PiSugar 3 battery controller will work with a Pi 1 B+ or if I should splurge $75 on a Pi 4 for this device.

I'd like to have a mobile compute terminal that's smaller than a 13" laptop, but still has USB ports. Scrollwheel and a button to toggle the OSK would also be nice.

Primary nonwork laptop's keyboard continues to degrade; It's becoming a desk item. Its degradation is the primary driver of the new palmtop development.

Actually, wait, I have a spare CM4 from a StereoPi 2 device. I could use that, with a compatible breakout board maybe. Or I could test the Hyperpixel screen on the Stereopi board directly. Then I'd have a 4" touchscreen mated to a … 5" wide board? Well, it'll at least let me test some things, like whether the CM4 works for this use case. Bonus dual cameras is a questionable bonus.

Crafting

KInda burnt out on crafting, tbh. Last two weeks were full of crunch before Pemmi-Con/NASFiC, which netted me a "Judge's Choice in Novice Class" award and "Best Use of Modern Tech" in the Masquerade competition.

Next up, over @glowingskull, I plan to post rundowns of the stuff I made, and maybe some shapefiles, but there's a lot of work left in this costume and I plan to redo large parts of the headgear.

Because, let's be honest, the post-con todo list for that costume is basically:

Better photographs?

Write up the project

Print off a holder for these parts, because I'm retiring them to mount on the wall

Redesign snout, again, to remove grilles and double-thicken all the parts

Resculpt temples and ears of skull

Put a visor in the eye holes

Eye-lights in visor?

Enclose head: back of skull, ventilation, neck sock

Redo the flame staff's camera monopod mount attachment point for durability (may require welding?)

Sculpt a model for the chestpiece, so it's plastic instead of foam

Sculpt a model for arm bracers

And then on top of that I also want to:

Document the Servicer outfit

Sew on a Masonic patch for the Servicer outfit

Build some DIY NVGs for use in costume projects like this one

Write up the Baba Yaga's Hut costume which won Best In Show

I think my next costume goal, after the revised Turaga Vakama, will be an Earth Federation Space Forces officer uniform, so I can give the planned "WTF is Zeon" lectures in character.

The next head goal will be a Deinonychus head with articulated jaw, which requires advancements in augmented reality. Need to get the StereoPi working, or ditch/sell it and switch to paired NVG monocles.

Music

I think it's time for Pacific Rim soundtracks. Pacific Rim: The Black sounds somewhere between the Pacific Rim movies' soundtracks and the tense violin work from the 2009 Sherlock Holmes movie with RDJ and Jude Law, soundtrack by Hans Zimmer. Not particularly Australian, unfortunately.

Lego Stuff

Gotta merge the two submarine kits, and build the Emperor's Throne Room that I won at pinball at Pemmi-Con.

[man-and-atom]

Greetings from Pemmi-Con, the 15th occasional North American Science Fiction Convention, in Winnipeg, Manitoba!

[irradiate-space]

I have returned from the Pemmi-Con NASFiC.

More comments later.

[savantefolle]

Fall, already?

My new French SF book, Rose du désert, Éditions David, follows a very pessimistic, troubled teen living on an hostile planet.

First, a big, warm thank you to all of you that I met at the Winnipeg Pemmi-Con and other occasions of celebrating science-fiction. September – new book! I am launching a French SF book this fall, Rose du désert, Éditions David, about a very pessimistic, troubled teen living on an hostile planet. Rose can’t relate to other teens, is painfully aware of her cognitive lapses and waits for the end.…

[irradiate-space]

Today's list:

groceries

hardware store

test non-SLP Raspbian on a CM4 on a StereoPi 2: passed

test PostmarketOS Phosh on the same board: failed to register USB keyboard inputs

draft case for HyperPixel 4 Square on StereoPi 2

roomba

work emails

nonwork emails

fandom emails

family emails

dinner prep

write a letter

draft post-Pemmi-Con checklist for @glowingskull

post one (1) Pemmi-Con write-ups

photograph Turaga Vakama

scan things

make a spreadsheet or something to track my to-read list

print stuff for tomorrow; distribute