Friscon/Convention Reports

1997

In 1997, Jane Mailander sent the following convention report to the Virgule mailing list. It is reposted here with permission:

FRISCON, OCT 6-8 1997: Yee Haw! a report by Jane Mailander

Since this slashcon is now in my backyard I thought I'd give it a look once again (it had been four years since my last visit). I will say the Doubletree Hotel in Burlingame was a much nicer venue than the motel used for the '93 con (I didn't see any blood-spots on the concrete here).

Because of a scheduling conflict with the hotel, the con was held from Saturday to Monday rather than the traditional Friday to Sunday. I arrived bright and early Saturday morning, and immediately kicked myself for not bringing my bicycle -- there was a path along the bay and it was a gorgeous day out. During a morning walk I saw either a big sparrowhawk or a small peregrine falcon, as well as the usual sea and shore birds.

Friscon is a small, intimate and friendly get-together, reminiscent of Escapade -- a place for women to kick up their heels on the bed and talk about Methos. (I'm sure they talk about other guys, too, but as I shared a room with two confirmed Methosians the topic of discussion was kind of a foregone conclusion.)

This year's theme (The Wild Wild West) was carried through our treats at registration; they included cowboy hats for everybody, toy cowboys and Indians, a compass, a sheriff's star, a bag of trail mix, and (smartest of all) a notepad and pen. The caption contest featured stills from various Western TV shows and films, as did the Media Blitz during Video Night; pix of various media cowboys festooned the public areas, and lifesized figures of Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels greeted everybody as they entered the con suite.

This con had a slightly smaller attendance from previous years, no doubt because the biennial Z-con will take place on Halloween weekend; approximately 90 people showed.

Because the hotel was remodeling during our con (forcing the concom to switch meeting and art rooms around at the last minute, which proved a tad annoying for attendees), the hotel cut a deal on meals. The Concom offered Frisconites one complete meal each day -- a taco party Saturday night, hot dogs Sunday night, and brunch Monday morning. Very neat idea; this saved many people from spending valuable zine-money on food, or trying to subsist on diet Coke, Cheetos and chocolate-chip cookies.

The Wild Wild West theme popped up in Saturday night's entertainment -- a charity carnival of casino-style entertainment and a costume party held in the Library Room (a lovely adjunct of the hotel lobby full of shelves and books and comfy chairs). Tickets were $1 for 10, and western-style saloon games (blackjack, roulette, ring-toss, horseshoes, slot machine and the like) paid winners in tokens that could be exchanged for gold pieces; the 3 largest collections of gold coins netted the prizes -- two plush horses and a coyote. It was great fun. Concom members and attendees milled around the tables in appropriate dress; standout costumes included a saloon girl, a madam, Nicodemus Legend, a Plains Indian chief, Zorro, a cow -- but the favorites were an adorable gay couple (2 of the 3 token men at the con) who were dressed as a cowboy (in see-through vinyl vest and chaps) and an Iroquois Indian; they won for Best Group, and many hotel employees thought they were our hired entertainment! They certainly got the undivided attention of a pair of elderly couples sitting on a couch, all four expressionless old people staring and staring at these two gorgeous young men. Looks like a couple of elderly libidos got kick-started.

Because of the small size of the con, all the panels were half-hour discussion groups -- fans sitting in chairs eagerly talking about Methos. Okay, there were other topics of discussion too... *The Sentinel* is so popular now that there was a panel about it every day of the con, and the last day's panel morphed into a full hour, with everyone eager about the stronger emotional turn the new season was taking. *Due South* fans waxed eloquent about the high quality of the shows so far in this David Marciano-less season, and how they were rapidly warming up to the New Guy (however, so far there is little mention of slash with this new guy). Discussions about film-inspired slash centered around *The Crying Game*, Val Kilmer (*Batman Forever,* *Tombstone*) and *In and Out*.

The video room moved from the consuite to the downstairs ballroom. More room to see stuff as it was happening (nothing pre-programmed -- if you didn't watch the board every day you'd miss something). This left the suite free for chatting, but I did miss flopping on the consuite couch with a few cookies or potato chips to watch vids.

Late Saturday night I headed back to the room I shared with my roommates, Kari M. and Shari R., and we all stayed up till 1 a.m. watching the latest new episode of *Due South,* all of us shrieking in amazement at a physical impossibility on the screen (Fraser got *dirty!* While he was wearing the Mountie uniform!).

On Sunday various fans made their way via public transit to the Castro Street Fair. As I work in The City and often make my way to the gay center of the universe to go book-hunting or fine-dining, I declined the trip.

The actual new videos shown Sunday night numbered only six, all by Stacey D - including a couple of cute *Nash Bridges* ones. Another traditional Friscon treat was the Media Blitz (you're shown a string of 1-second clips from media in keeping with the theme, and try to write down as many as you can remember). As a treat for *Sentinel* fans a special vid was put together of all of Richard Burgi's topless scenes, to "The Stripper."

The art show was small, a combo of Lovett prints (her sultry Mulder caressing his own nipple won Best of Show), Warren Oddson portraits, Maureen B. pix, some nice 3-D artwork by Debbie Rojano (loved that beaded butterfly!), a few of my cartoons (I actually sold two of them for minimum bid). But it was the charity auction that brought in the most entrants, and the most money (for AIDS organizations); a lot of *Sentinel* stuff donated by Pet Fly Productions -- publicity packages, autographed stills, baseball caps -- helped the con to rake in over $1600 for charity during the weekend.

Monday morning blew in like a lion -- fierce winds across the Bay, whipping up whitecaps and shrieking around tottering flagpoles. When someone *my* size staggers getting across a parking lot because the wind nearly knocks me over, we're talking gale-force winds. I kept expecting to see Pooh and Piglet flying past.

At brunch we announced the winners of the caption contests, and held the charity raffle. During the Dead Dog session held over our ham-n-potatoes, the concom and the surviving fans discussed what worked (the meals, the discussion groups) and what didn't (switching the rooms around, a Monday instead of Friday con-day), and next year's Friscon venue was announced as well as its theme (Disco Inferno -- God help us all). A few last panels and a little last-minute zine-buying kept the holdouts at the hotel till late in the afternoon, as we headed for home by twos and threes.

A good slash relaxicon, a good deal of fun. I'd have liked to have seen more videos or vid treats scheduled, and I really should have brought my copy of the *Due South* third-season opener for all the locals who got half a Giants game instead. And my bike. But I had a good time, and

enjoyed my stay and meeting everybody.

1998

Jane Mailander

In 1998, Jane Mailander sent the following convention report to the Virgule mailing list. It is reposted here with permission:

FRISCON '98: WHERE DISCO LIVES FOREVER! a report by Jane Mailander

My little apartment...turned into Auntie Jane's Fangirl B&B for a week before Friscon; I hosted one out-of-towner, dined out with others in San Francisco several weeknights (serious hardship, I'm telling you), and had two others crash on the floor Sunday night after the con. A good time was had by all. Dyevka, who graciously picked me up and dropped me off at Denver Airport for Mountain Media Con this year, proved an equally gracious guest, and spent a blissful week reading her way through my Pros zines (once the airport located her missing bag and shipped it [home] ... from SFO). I had to pass on the Thursday night group viewing of "Like a Vampire," the naked-gay-vampire play, as there were six of us and only five tickets left for that night's performance, but I was able to watch it later in the week -- the theatre is a 15-minute walk from my office. (One word: yum.) I provided directions to Ghirardelli Square, Castro Street, and Good Vibrations. Chocolate, gay guys and sex toys. Must be slash fans or something.

The con itself was located at the Four Points in Pleasanton (30 miles south of Concord, 30 southeast of San Francisco). Nice-looking hotel, but awkward for the dealers and the wheelchair-bound -- the hotel was two floors high, spread all over like a space station, stairs only, stairs all over, and narrow paths to the ground-level rooms. They did have an elevator to the upstairs banquet room where the Sunday Brunch was held, however.

Con theme was Disco Inferno -- tie-dyed everything, smiley faces everywhere -- I had some bad junior-high flashbacks.

FRIDAY:

I woke up in at the hotel where I'd spent Thursday night, had the hotel's buffet breakfast, then unhooked my bike and went for a pedal down Hopyard to get my bearings (and find cheaper dining establishments). When I came back I dropped off my art at the room and began to attend panels and greet people.

Friscon panels are very loose half-hour affairs that become informal non-moderated discussions about various shows and aspects of fanfic. Friday morning, four panels fused into a talk on Toon Sex, Blake's 7, Net fic, and Beauty and the Beast all at once. (I still don't think Avon and Egon would do it.)

The Dealer's Room opened at noon and the zines flew, along with travelers' checks and the new scary $20 bills. After picking up one contrib I wandered out of the room looking for lunch, and joined a group headed to In & Out -- after which we headed to the Video room to watch In & Out.

The Art Show wasn't big, but a nice collection: Marilyn Cole, Suzan Lovett, Jean Kluge and myself seemed to be the biggest contingents. Again, *The Sentinel* dominated the scene. The charity items outnumbered the art pieces, and many congoers cast far more covetous eyes upon the Sentinel tee autographed by the cast and crew than at the naked Lovett boys.

Evening was the Friday Night Pizza Bash at Ann & Dar's room -- piles of pies, gallons of fizzy wet stuff and lots of fans eating drinking and talking. Eventually everyone migrated to the main room for Friday night fun. Fannish Jeopardy was a hit, as was the traditional Friscon [[Memory Blitz]] -- a video packed full of 1-second clips of various film and TV offerings, where we had to remember as many of them as we could.

Finally the videos were shown. We laughed, we wept, we went "oooooooh..." at good stuff, we voted.

As a final video treat, Stacy provided the traditional theme compilation vid; this year it was "Shall We Dance?", a collection of men-dancing-with-each-other scenes from various shows and films. Alas, this vid didn't include one of my personal favorite dancing-men scenes in the cinema -- Gomez and Fester dancing the Mamushka in *The Addams Family.* It did feature the Fraser/Vecchio "Heart of Glass" disco from DUE SOUTH.

SATURDAY

Poured buckets. Shades of Escapade. I had to drive to Starbucks for my morning pick-me-up rather than pedal over.

More zine sales, more art ogling, more vid-watching, more panels. In the Video Room I entertained a small clump of people with the animated short "Sex Toy Story" from *MAD TV* and the South Park ep "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride." (Say what you want about his Batman, George Clooney is *the* definitive gay dog.)

The single best comment I heard at any panel I went to: At one of the two Sentinel panels, the question was asked: "Is Jim Ellison a Top or a Bottom?" Answer: "Whatever Blair says."

At dinner break I introduced Mysti Frank to the glories of a Round Table chicken-and-garlic pizza. Take that knowledge back east, spread the word!

Saturday night was Carnival Night! After watching the concom's rendition of "Y.M.C.A" in full Village People regalia, we recuperated enough to hit the games of chance and tests of skill at the tables. (I was a whiz on the roulette wheel; others had better luck throwing the frog or baseballs, playing blackjack or the slots. ) Winners received adorable stuffed animals for winning the most gold coins. We stuffed the ticket jar full of proceeds for AIDS patients. (A few people came in 70s-themed costume, but not too many; most paled beside the ConCom's tribute to the gay disco icons.)

A bunch of us spent the balance of Saturday night in a room eating munchies and watching bad gay porn films, every now and then playing Ask Mr Gay Man (aka Minotaur) for real-life info on certain practices, and fast-forwarding the tape for giggles. (Best comment, by Minotaur: "I'm in a room full of women, some of whom are *lesbians*, watching my gay porn films. I feel like I'm in an episode of *Sliders.*") Afterward people played a tape of Media Cannibals music vids, which were much better received by the partygoers. Then the sheepcake came out -- a white cake decorated with an alluring ewe in a black teddy. (Some sort of ST:VOY online joke regarding Paris, Kim and a sheep named Gloria.)

SUNDAY BRUNCH

We showed up at nine and were fed at 9:30. The raffle tickets were called off and the winners drew numbers for the prizes they took home; everyone seemed more envious of the woman who won the box of Ghirardelli candy bars than the one who won the free Friscon '99 membership. The music-vid winners were announced -- Dyevka's "Behind Blue Eyes" won for Most Dramatic, "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" for Most Humorous, "Macho Man" for Most Matching Theme, and Gayle F.'s "The One" for Overall Favorite and Most Romantic. In the Art Show awards, Jean Kluge's adorable "Have You Hugged Your Guide Today?" won for Favorite Portrait, Lovett's steamy "Running with the Jaguar" took both Favorite Illustration and Overall

"Running with the Jaguar" by Suzan Lovett -- an art show favorite

Favorite, and my Sentoon "The Truth About Cats and Dogs" carried off Favorite Humorous; I won a watercolor paint set. The amusing photo captions were read aloud and voted on by applause; the winners (myself included) got some groovy pencils. The woman who correctly guessed the murderer in the ongoing Murder Mystery also stepped forward to take home a prize. (The murder victim was Balki from *Perfect Strangers*; the Concom correctly judged that no one would be upset at his death.) After the awards came the feedback session where conventioneers voiced suggestions, complaints, compliments and the like.

The Art Auction followed, and this reporter was tickled to have two cartoons go to auction. The Sentinel tee sold for $260.

Among the charity items I blew my art earnings on was a gorgeous naked-boy photo calendar that's begging me to write a story per month inspired by the poses -- starting with the cover photo of a guy who looks just like Jim Ellison...

(Frankie, if you're on the list I can get that "Passion" calendar you wanted -- contact me.)

Everyone wandered off afterward to finalize checking out, buy a few last-minute zines to read on the plane, or sit in clumps and talk.

Sunday from 3-5 was the Dead Dog party aka the Pool Party. The water was cool, but serviceable. (No one reported seeing any anthropologists floating face-down.) Due to the cold weather and fans heading off to the airport, the party consisted of a group of fans at one table passing photos, and me and one other person swimming in the pool or soaking in the jacuzzi. Worked for me.

I loaned a hand to Mysti and Connor who were breaking down their tables in the dealer's room, and they wound up caravaning back to Concord with me to spend the night on my floor.

Between one guest and another, I made the con stretch out to a full week. Not a bad achievement.

Friscon itself was a good time, well-run and organized, and a great meeting place for fans from all over who want to talk slash and nothing but.

Next year's theme is Spies. Get ready.

From The K/S Press

Another 1998 con report, this one from The K/S Press #27 -- Woo hoo hoo!! Hey there, all, how ya doin'? Just got back from FriscoN and I'm still tryin' to reboot my brain. Not working, though... Well, let's see. Had a wonderful time. Haven't been to a con since 1976, when I had the privilege of watching Harlan Ellison court death by teasing enraged fen. That little bugger clanks when he walks, fershure* Nothing like that, this time. I did sit in on a K/S panel, not a lot happened. Not many folks there and a bunch of them left when us netfen came in, but hey, that's life. Been an outcast before, doubtless will again. Eventually, we'll learn how to observe IDIC, I expect. Anyhow, those of us who stayed had rather a fun discussion, so there ye go.

Watched a couple of musicvids; one was a Disney spoof the other was a Trek K/S vid, to the song "Let's Give Them Something to Talk About"... Mmmmm, tasty. First one of those I've seen, yum. Wanna see more!! Tripped out on the art gallery - especially Linda Wan's art - grrrl, you go, with them drawings, whoo yeah!! Spock in a tux, titled "Too Sexy..." Uh-huh. you betcha! Not to mention the Boyz snuggling on a couch, sleeping, curled up together - Spock wrapped in a blanket and Jim just lettin' it all hang out --whoo. yeah! Gimme some of that! Broke my heart I didn't have enuff money, this year, anyway. Wait for it!! Quite a bit of other tasty K/S art as well, in amongst the Sentinel and so on stuff. Spent a very enjoyable half hour just wandering about and drooling... Met Gayle F, too! Nice lady. Thanked her for all the yummy art she used to do, and left it at that. Figure, folks like her probably get tired of bein' gushed at after a while. But still, 'twas fun to meet the lass.

Had a delightful convo with [R H], spent some time drooling all over her table, and she very graciously declined to notice the drool. Now that's a class act! Also hung out a couple times with Kathy Resch - we've been trading email for a while, but now I've a face to put with it. Various interesting plans are afoot, as they say. I'll no tell ye more, but you'll like the results. I'll wager. Tis for Kathy to say more, or not.

And many thanks to the lovely petite lady who had all the marvelous used zines for sale. She told me her name at least three times, and of course I can't remember it -but my $25 got me a copy of Fever Number 2, which has a gorgeous cover, and also Scattered Stars #1. which also has a gorgeous cover. What can I say. I'm really really into the art, ok? But I was happy - had me all kindsa fun reading those, on the train ride home again.

And I met a whole bunch of nifty folks I've been buddies with for a while, on-line, but never before met face to face. Took a field trip to the Good Vibrations store in Berkeley, home of the Antique Vibrator Museum. Hmm! Makes one thankful for modern technology, lemme tell ya!

And generally, really enjoyed the chance to be around other folks who understand and share my preferences, and just relax, and feel at home, among friends. Aaah... I needed that!!

Hope to meet more of you. one of these days. Many thanks to everyone who helped make this real (ye know who ye are). Blessed be. Live long, and prosper.

From a K/S Mailing List

Ah, Friscon! What a lovely con. If you've never been to Friscon, you're missing a nice fanzine con.

This year, Friscon moved from San Francisco to Pleasanton, due to problems with the hotel. The new location is very nice - right off the freeway, with plenty of restaurants around, accessible by BART, etc. The rooms were nice and clean, the staff ok.

It's fun seeing people you haven't seen in a while. Friday night is music videos, and we had a very good selection this year! 29 song videos! The fandoms represented were: The Professionals, Wiseguy, Star Trek (just 1 though), Sentinel, Forever Knight, The X-Files, Babylon 5, La Femme Nikita, Man From UNCLE, In and Out (the movie), and Nash Bridges. There were also 3 multimedia videos that covered a broad range of fandoms.

The winners were [Gayle F's]] "The One" by Elton John as overall favorite and most romantic. It was a multimedia fandom selection, and it was beautiful. Started out with a scene from "Lawrence of Arabia". Included K/S.

The most dramatic was "Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who, for "The Professionals" fandom. Very well done.

Most humorous was "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" by Fred Astaire, for "Babylon 5" fandom, and primarily Lando/G'Kar! It was very funny. This song is the one that goes "I call it potato, and you call it potatoh", etc. and the clips would alternate from Lando to G'Kar.

Noel Silva again made her two videos - the compilation of clips from fandom - there were 64, for the "countdown contest", and the "theme" video of clips this year the theme was dancing, and the video was filled with clips of men dancing from various movies and TV shows.

The dealer's room was well represented. We had Robin Hood and Robyn Button, Kathy Resch, Jim and Melody Rondeau, Irene Dieke (representing Counterpoint and Kaleidoscope), Bonnie Vitti, Cathy Siebert, Debbie Rojano, Pat Diggs and Jackie Beeman, "Agent Style", and one booth with fannish merchandise (photos, videos, trading cards, t-shirts, etc.)

Caught up on my K/S zines - both current and some older ones I had been looking for!

There were quite a few new members this year - at least 40, the last I heard, that were recruited from the Internet.

Looking forward to next year's!

TSU Member Con report

On October 28, 1998 a member of TrekSmut University posted the following con report to alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated. Since access to Usenet archives can be intermittent, it is included below. To read the report, along with the subsequent discussions go to Friscon report (long):

"First of all, I'm not sure this is a con report. I attended only two con events. The rest of the time I hung out with ASCEM/L or TOS folks. This is probably more like Jungle Kitty's Memoirs of a Fabulous Weekend. I hope others will feel like sharing their experiences.

This is a very small, informal con, compared to Shore Leave (my only frame of reference for cons). The panels don't have moderators or speakers. Just people in a room chatting and only half an hour long, due to the large number of fandoms represented. This is a slash con, not just Star Trek. A bunch of us went to the K/S panel, which drove the other people right out of the room, with a couple of exceptions. And we hadn't even said much of anything yet. Well, let's not get into that.

And now... the Scifi Channel is proud to present...

JOURNEY TO GOOD VIBRATIONS, OR TERROR AT 20 MPH

The TSU Faculty had planned a field trip to "Good Vibrations," a very friendly, non-sleazy sex toy store in Berkeley....

LATER THAT NIGHT...

Screened CptnsWoman's K/S music video, "Something to Talk About." (Also did this the next day in the con video room.) Everyone loved it, and I encourage you to send her your thanks and feedback. Her email addy is [redacted]...

Also watched "Operation: Annihilate." The following observations were made:

• Contrary to popular fanon, Sam (played by WS) looks like he could be as little as 3 years older than Jim.
• Sam looks kind of like Richard Dreyfuss, who was probably filming his bit part in "The Graduate" right about that time.
• After they bring the creature back to the Enterprise, it is kept in one of the following (your choice):
  • a food processor
  • a cake saver
  • a salad spinner
• Shatner is fabulous in this episode.
• Nimoy is fabulous in this episode.

Tried to show Shatner doing the "Dagger of the Mind" speech from Macbeth, but JK's VCR had a nervous breakdown.

BEDTIME STORIES, OR "I'LL SHOW YOU MINE IF YOU'LL SHOW ME YOURS"

Greywolf read the bit I brought to read for the group. Says it's really hot.

He brought a short piece from Killa to share with the group, but I got a sneak preview. Ahhhh... Pleasant dreams.

SATURDAY

Woke to pouring rain and promptly resigned as TSU Weather Girl....

Left Greywolf drooling over zines in the dealers' room and attended the Whys & Wherefores of Writing TrekSmut, run by our own List Mom. Saw some lovely photos of action toys, which featured Riker in bondage in almost every shot. Also quite a few with sheep. Not sure who took these, but they were great. Ruth vainly attempted to keep us on topic.

Screened "Something to Talk About" again, followed by "Requiem for Methuselah." ...

Folks, when Sci Fi shows Requiem for Methuselah, fire up the VCRs. As a Kirkologist, I was of course happily aware of JTK's EVE. But after watching it with our bunch, I must say this ep is Hard-on Heaven. And the main ingredient in Saurian Brandy is obviously Viagra. K, S, & Mc take one swig, the M4 robot flies in and drops a bag of Ritalin crystals on the table (pretty contemptuously, too, I might add--this is one pissy robot). Anyway, the camera is at waist height. And BAM! BAM! BAM! McCoy & Spock dress to the right, Kirk to the left. Also, when Spock first comes up to the table, he's standing in such a way that it looks like he's going to whip it out on the table. Thud thud thu-thump!

Throughout the rest of the episode, I don't think there's a single scene in which someone isn't Very Happy. Naturally, we were giddy with joy and were even convinced that, in one scene, you could see double ridges. Using impeccable but illution-shattering logic, Robin proved that it was trouser bulge. 8-(

She also stood by the TV the rest of the time and stroked everyone's naughty bits. ;-p

Other than Stiffies, Stiffies, Stiffies, the following observations were made:

• This ep is rampant with Bat Science. I'm surprised Doc Science can watch it.
• Doc Science's theory is that this ep is a dream. The question is whose. After the extremely slashy scene in which the M4 almost fries Kirk, I decided it's M4's. I may write a Kirk/M4 story. Right after Kirk/Wiggly Fish. (More about that later)
• My theory is that they were running out of money and didn't want to hire actors to play a musicologist and an art historian, so they made Spock do their lines. As my pompous fart of a theatre history prof

used to say, "I was moved to incredulity."

• It appears that JTK is rubbing his Throbbing Manhood against the pool cue.
• In one scene, Kirk holds the pool cue at the exact same angle as his other stick. What an actor. Every detail exactly right.

THE TSU FACULTY TEA

Graciously hosted by jonk and raku, with appropriately smutty food.

Mary Ellen wore a charming ensemble, a floral print dress with white gloves and picture hat. She could have gone to a garden party at Buckingham Palace. Very nice.

Greywolf was in a full clannish rig, kilt and all. He was asked about boxers or briefs, but I don't remember the answer.

jonk had a very cool fedora, but wore it through the entire con, so I'm not sure if that counts as a special costume for Tea.

Heather was promoted from Intern to Plush Toy, due to her lovely silver velour shirt.

Yours truly wore her cat ears, but decided the tail was Too Much.

anne received her very own box of Halloween peeps. These were orange, shaped like cats, and bore a striking resemblance to Hitler. The nutritional info indicated a serving size of 4 cats. The box included suggestions for craft projects (i.e., jewelry) and the uses of peeps as condiments. Shudder.

Learned that JK and Robin can hear sounds that other humans can't.

After the tea, Laurel was kind enough to share with me a priceless gem. A magazine (a REAL magazine, not a zine) from 1968 which featured articles on all the Trek folk. Lovely pictures of WS recording the infamous "Transformed Man." Yeah, I know, too bad he wasn't transformed into someone who could sing, but DAMN he looked good! Also hot Hot HOT pictures of Nichelle Nichols. (Incidentally, at one point, it was unanimously agreed that, out of everyone who went to the Mirror Universe, she was the one who looked the best there.)

THE BIG PARTY, OR "YOU MEAN I CAN HAVE TREKSMUT WITHOUT TYPING OR EYESTRAIN?"

Live and in person -- ASCEML! Well, at least some of them. And we really, really, really missed the rest of you. Fascinating convo, mass LOL-ROFLMAO, magical baked goods, booze, and a deluge of TrekSmut. Everyone is as wonderful (if not better) in RL as in cyberspace.

And food, glorious food. If I'm ever in a sh*ttl*cr*ft crash and end up stranded on a hostile planet, I want Judith with me because I wouldn't need a food replicator. This woman prepared a gourmet feast in her hotel room, which had no kitchen-like appointments other than a mini-fridge. <Deafening round of applause for Judith>

Door Prizes! Heather won the Garak/Bashir folio (which I believe was contributed by Jen), Greywolf won the Vegemite (flown in from Australia--WARNING! Do not use as a lubricant!), and JK won the Wiggly Fish (donated by our illustrious president). At last, inspiration for a sex toy story! ....

So on to the TrekSmut. A few days before the con, when we were all hopping up and down with excitement, jonk suggested that it might be fun to bring things to read to each other. <Deafening round of applause for jonk>

We had everything: serious, funny, hot, poignant, works in progress, old favorites... Here's a partial list, not in any particular order. I've listed title/reader/author where I can remember them. I won't give details of any of the stories, since some were works-in-progress. And I know I've left things out, but I was in a state of euphoric bliss. Others present, please jump in with corrections and additions.

• Rampant Love Prongs...
• Scream...
• Odo story...
• Better than Coffee...
• Garik/Bashir story...
• Inhale...
• Watching Me...
• Herc/Xena story...
• The Uneasy Dancers...
• Round Robin...
• Round Robin...
• Strong Coffee....
• Release from Bondage....
• Kurk & Spok Fuck...
• Kurk & Spok Get Over It and Fuck ...
• Doctor's Log #? ...
• Rafi love poem ...

As you can see, the TOS crowd was hogging the spotlight. ;-D

Once we got Robin reading, we almost never let her stop. She does all the facial expressions and body language. And I personally prefer Janeway with an Australian accent.

Judith didn't read but told us the plot of her Legends of K/S story. It will blow everyone's doors off when it's written.

And just to put the whole thing over the top, Robin and Judith read and *acted out* Robin's "Bedtime Story."

Also had fun shop talk, like "Tell us the story that's on your hard drive that will never be finished."

Never did get around to listening to the various selections of Music to Write Treksmut By. The party went on til 3 or 4 in the morning, depending on whether or not you remembered to set your clock back.

This incredible bash was hosted by Judith and Mary Ellen. <A deafening round of applause for our hostesses>

SUNDAY

Hanging out until folks had to leave. Had a rather fruitful discussion about the Gaywolf the Wonderer thread, which will probably result in a TSU story. Not sure who will write it, but it sounded like a jonk-raku sort of thing to me. I gave jonk some software advice, so I may be able to write this off as a business expense. Yeah, right.

A private reading of Wildcat's "Isle of Joy" for Judith, Mary Ellen, Greywolf, and anne.

Judith and a non-ASCEM/L K/Ser sang a couple of verses of "Banned from Argo" for us. More gourmet food courtesy of Ms. Gran."