MediaWest, the Short Version

Got back from MW last night (to a very happy little girl, let me tell you) having had a very enjoyable con.

The con's a lot smaller than it was in it's heyday, but it's always been about the people for me, and I still get to see a lot of my favourite people there. In fact, it was a bit less stressful than when there were a bazillion UNCLE fen there and no way to spend quality time with all of them. (I am kind of sad to realize that UNCLE really is no longer my home fandom. That place has definitely been assumed by Pros, though Holmes & Watson could give the lads a run for the money if I had a wee bit more spare time.)

I was completely insane and signed up for six panels this year: four Pros, one Holmes, one Top Gear. Which was probably too much, but is usually the only way I can convince myself to attend panels. (Otherwise I'll just hang out with friends, hall crawl, and find other non-panel type things to do.) My favourite panel was probably the Holmes one. The Pros ones were small, which also meant they were nicely intimate, but the Holmes one was packed, and full of people who, like me, have been reading the Holmes stories since they were kids, have watched every adaptation, and loved the movie. There was just so much energy in the room!

FJBryan and I also hosted the Pros party, with awesome assistance from krisserci5 and her amazing Pros Bingo game, and sc_fossil and her fabulous prizes. We had a smallish attendance, but that just meant that everyone got to participate fully, and everyone got to talk to each other.

I sort of bid on rather a lot of art, and won it all. I got two pieces by obelix's other half, a yummy Holmes/Watson, and a ST: TOS & Reboot that was inspired by my Old Friends vid. Well, I had to bid on that. And I got two of artconserv's pieces: The Letter, which was one of the last original's she had of illustrations of my zine, and a portrait she did of Watson. You can see them both here.

And speaking of my zine, the last copies of Exile were long gone by the end of the first day of the con. So, yay!

The vid show was really good this year. (Well, the slash vid show, anyway. I heard the gen show was good, but never managed to catch it.) There was nearly an hour of slash vids, all well done. My Holmes vid went over nicely. And at the request of the vid show organizer, I also brought a compilation DVD of a bunch of my vids. I put it together in the very little time I had before the con, so the playlist was as much of a surprise to me as to anyone else. I ended with Old Friends and then Bohemian Like Me. Every time I show Old Friends at a con, I end up hearing lots of sniffling behind me, and this was no exception. (Is it bad I get a little thrill from making people cry?)

There was lots of other fun: dinner with gulffire and lcorn, the ride to and from the Detroit airport with st_crispins, sitting with artconserv at her table and giving her copies of all the good Holmes art I've tracked down. I'm sad it's over for another year, but looking forward to next year. Even if the con continues to grow smaller, there's still a lot to enjoy.