RevelCon/RevelCon 16 (2005)-RevelCon 20 (2009)

RevelCon · RevelCon 01 (1990)-RevelCon 05 (1994) · RevelCon 06 (1995)-RevelCon 10 (1999) · RevelCon 11 (2000)-RevelCon 15 (2004) · RevelCon 16 (2005)-RevelCon 20 (2009) · RevelCon 21 (2010)-RevelCon 25 (2014) · RevelCon 26 (2015)-RevelCon 30 (2019) · RevelCon 31 (2020)-RevelCon 35 (2025)

RevelCon 16 (2005)

March 18-20, 2005.

Panels:

• Firefly, Atlantis, Lost and Other New Fandoms – What is it that Makes Us Love Them So?
• Medicine Matters – Getting the Medical Details Correct
• Jim and Blair in the Amazing Race?! – Propose a Duo for this Show and Prepare to Debate
• Writing Sex Scenes – Exploring the Ins and Outs of Great Sex
• Mechanics of Good Writing - How to Cope with Research, Editing and Deadlines
• Why We Care Who We Pair – Slash versus Het Pairings
• The Demise of the Buddy/Buddy Show – What’s the Appeal of the Ensemble Show?
• What’s It All About – A Guest Panel Exploring the BDSM Lifestyle
• Are Things Getting Out of Hand? – What Should/Shouldn’t We Be Telling the Stars at Cons?
• Squicked and Squished – How to be Genner in Slash Dominant Environment
• Exploring PNS (Pre-Net Syndrome) – Personal Stories of Pre-Net Fandom Goddesses
• Panel on Revelcon 17 Panels

"Erika F. and Jamie Ritchey, two of Several Unlimited’s song vidders, will hold a song vid workshop at RevelCon on Saturday March 19 from 10 am until noon. The workshop will concentrate on the nuts and bolts of creating songvids on the computer, and will describe how to get the videos from tapes or DVDs onto a computer, how to create the video, and finally how to save the video onto tape or DVD. The workshop will include an explanation of techniques, some specifics on ‘how it’s done’ and (we hope) an actual demo on the computer. If you're always wanted to know how to create your own song vid, make sure you attend this workshop! And if you can’t attend, email Erika ([address ommitted]) for a copy of the class notes and a CD that she’s burned with useful programs for you to try."

2005 Convention Reports

[Friday]: The 4:45 panel was on The Ins and Outs of Good Sex Scenes, and it was relaxed and fun. J.M. Griffin, akite, and I were the panelists. At J.M.'s request, the panel began with the panelists and the audience talking about sex scenes they had recently read and enjoyed, which was useful in providing examples for later discussion. It was interesting to hear what different people liked to read in sex scenes; for example, J.M. mentioned that her latest kink is stories involving capitulation, whereas both A.K. and I like to see a snarky relationship between the slash couple. We also talked about what makes a sex scene good overall. Legion, a writer from Sentinel fandom, was supposed to be on the panel but was too shy, but she sat up front and contributed a lot of helpful insights. I especially liked what she said about the importance of balance in a sex scene, that is, balance between describing the emotions and interpersonal dynamic of the characters and describing the logistics of the sex act itself. There was also a discussion I followed with interest concerning "fade to black" stories – one fan said she doesn't like them because the story feels incomplete. Another fan, however, said she doesn't mind not getting the actual sex scene as long as there's a reference later in the story that makes it clear something happened, something like, "That was good last night." This led a few of us to suggest similar lines that would make it clear; mine, which was rather well received, was, "No thanks, I'll stand." In addition to being a panelist, A.K. was in charge of wrangling the panels, i.e., making sure the panelists were present and making sure that panels started and ended on time. After a time that seemed all too short, she let us know that our time was up. "Well, all right," J.M. said reluctantly. "Hey!" I said. "You're capitulating!" She grinned at A.K. and me. "And you two are being snarky!" she replied...

We returned to the con in time for the vid show/contest. There were seventeen entries, quite a healthy number, and some awesome vids among them. Most of the vids were new to me; the only ones I remembered having seen before were Recycled Media Station's delightful multi vids, "Passenger Seat" and "Redneck Woman." It hadn't really occurred to me before, but while "Redneck Woman" was well-received at Econ in New Jersey, with laughing and cheering, it was an even bigger hit in Texas, where people stomped and sang along!

I was especially impressed by a Firefly video by Llama Boy to "My Heart Will Go On," even though I dislike the song. I couldn't think of the word for the vid's genre at the con - I kept thinking "forced reality" - but I think the name is actually "constructed reality," in which a vidder creates a whole new storyline of events that didn't happen in the show. (Other examples would be the Media Cannibals' "Opportunities" or T'Rhys' "In the Air.") The vidder used not only clips of Kaylee and Inara together, but also clips of Kaylee being shot and Inara attending a funeral to make it look as if Inara is mourning the loss of her lover Kaylee and remembering their romantic relationship. As Dee observed later when we were discussing the vid in the con suite, the song was very well chosen because the vast majority of viewers will immediately recognize the storyline that the song is associated with (i.e., a woman recalling a lover who has died).

There were a number of Sentinel vids; no matter how well they are done, I get tired of seeing the same scenes over and over, so I was pleased with Jamie's new vid "No Matter What," which took a fresh approach and used a lot of shots I'd never seen in a vid before. There were a couple of unusual vids by Azonia and Ms.3M that I enjoyed; an instrumental called "Sakura" with scenes from the battle between Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu in the movie Kill Bill, and a heavy-metal piece called "Whisper" with the battles between Luke and Darth Vader from ESB and ROTJ. The latter, which used some creepy effects in a spare and effective manner, was particularly edgy; I hope I get to see it again soon. [I had a chance to tell Ms.3M later, "Wow, that was really disturbing – I loved it!" Fortunately she recognized that as a sincere compliment.]

The last video was absolutely hilarious, a Stargate vid to the tune of a filk called "Star Wars Cantina." I loved the multiple layers of recontextualization: the song itself was a parody of Barry Manilow's Copacabana, and then the video mapped the SG-1 characters and situations onto the Star Wars characters. It was also very well-crafted. I don't think anyone was surprised to learn later that it won for best vid of show!

[Saturday]: In the morning we headed back to the con in plenty of time to attend the demonstration given by Jamie and Erika on making songvids on the computer. It was fascinating and informative, and I learned a lot....At 3:15 Lorelei talked me into attending the BDSM panel with her, and I have to say I enjoyed it very much. A very brave fan not only outed herself as a partner in a BDSM relationship, but brought along three of her friends from the local BDSM community (not fen) to talk and answer questions. It was fascinating. The "scene" they described reminded me very much of fandom, especially when they talked about how it had changed since the advent of the Internet, which brought a large influx of new people and changed what had been a small, close-knit dynamic where everyone knew everyone else. They also reminded me of folks I know in the martial arts community, where the highest-ranked, most powerful people are also the gentlest and most compassionate. They spoke of control and power issues, but emphasized the importance of trust and responsibility, consent and negotiation.

Another Houston Ratty fan, Linda, came in around the middle of the panel and sat with Lorelei and me. It was good to see her; I wish we could have spent more time together, but I lost track of her afterwards. I did some shopping in the dealers' room and went up to the con suite to hang out for a while, then went to the Several Unlimited pizza party. This was fun and relaxing; we sat around, ate pizza, and talked about Monty Python and Saturday Night Live.

I skipped the cabaret and worked on stories for a while. I found myself getting sleepy, but I really wanted to stay up for the Slashers' Pajama Party. Lorelei had gone home to check on her dog and do some chores, but she came back to the hotel and we went out to the IHOP together. I had bacon and eggs and hot chocolate, and found the combination of warmth and protein very helpful.

We got back just as the pajama party was starting! I got my bathrobe out of my suitcase and wore it to the party, and was surprised to find I was the only one in anything resembling pajamas. But that's okay - I got some nice compliments on it, anyway. The party was simple; folks took turns reading their stories, mostly short, and the rest of us enjoyed them. I got to hear a very touching Sentinel story by Legion called "Perpetual Rain" and a snark-filled Due South interlude by A.K. featuring the two Rays together. I read the Barney Miller piece that I did for ZebraCon a few years ago, "In Flamingo Delicto," and people seemed to enjoy it. J.M. Griffin read a yummy Firefly story she wrote called "Of Books and Boots and Rolling Stones." Glenda read a sidesplitting scene from a Sentinel story by Bone and Aristead called "Out of Whack" - even though I'm not into Sentinel, I'm now tempted to try to find and read the rest of the story.

[Sunday]: Lorelei drove me over to Dee's house at 9:00, and then Dee and I went over to Erika's house, just a couple of blocks away, to see a LOTR vid and meet Gollum. The vid, about Aragorn, Boromir, and the Ring, to a song by A-Ha called "You Wanted More," was very good; I also saw a vid Erika did for MWC about Helm's Deep, to a song by Bob Catley, a sort of original filk, about Helm's Deep. And I met Gollum - that is, a lifesize figure of Gollum that Erika bought from a friend who won it in a raffle. Startlingly realistic, he would have been pretty scary if Erika hadn't added a Santa hat!... Because Leah couldn't make it from Austin, I was asked to fill in for her on a Sunday panel, "Pre-Net Fan Goddesses." My co-panelists were Candy, the originator of REVELcon, and Beth. I was afraid the panel would devolve into an attack on the evils of the Internet, but I was pleasantly surprised that it turned out to be a very enjoyable hour of reminiscing about fandom in the olden days. I was transported back to the days of scouring Universal Translator, Datazine, and GAZ (Generic Ad Zine) to find out about new zines and used-zine sales; the days of writing actual letters and waiting for the Post Office to deliver responses; the days when fandom was smaller and harder to find, but closer-knit.

[Concom Report]: "We had so many zines to sell this year at Revelcon that we bought an additional table to display everything. For the first time we barcoded sodas, so next year we’ll know which varieties sell best. Our sales at Revelcon were lower than usual--we sold about $1940 worth at the convention. The new committee hopes to expand con membership, which should increase sales not only for us but all of the dealers."

RevelCon 17 (2006)

flyer

• In 2006, also with the blessing of Candace, a new group took over running the convention. The concom that year - Judy Echezuria, Jan Meek, Eileen Pearlman, Jamie Ritchey, and Sue Wells.

"Three different groups expressed an interest in taking over the responsiblities, including our club, but ultimately Merc chose to pass the reins on to a group of five Houston fen that have been a part of Revelcon through most of its existence. The new con committee that will debut with Revelcon 2006 are Judy Echezuria, Eileen Pearlman, Jan Meek, Sue Wells and myself. This eclectic group calls itself the FunFabFemFenFive, and Revelcon is going to be the "Little Con with the Texas Size Heart". We've divided the responsibilites among us for running certain areas of the con. Since we have run the Orphan Zine Table so well for years, they gave me, or rather the Several, the entire dealer's room to organize for 2006. At a meeting held in December, the members were very enthusiastic and had lots of ideas for generating publicity and hopefully boosting memberships. We like Revelcon pretty much as it is, so there are no plans for sweeping changes. We just hope to give it an energy boost. Ideas from anyone will be most appreciated. All the concom's email addy's are available, so feel free to pass along suggestions. We do not have the same philosophy as previous con chairs. We are eagerly looking for all the volunteers, help, ideas and suggestions we can get"

and as to why the local fan club did not take over the event:

"Revelcon lost money most of the time, sometimes as much as $2000."

• The theme for the con that year was "Ensembles." "There will be prizes given out for great "Hall Costume" Ensembles at the Sat. Night Cabaret and Costume Contest."
• The Charity that year was "Fan Fund Donation (for a local fan in need)"

• Friday Night after the B-day party and Song Vid Contest: THE GENNERS PAJAMA PARTY! Wear your Cowboy jammies, bring your teddy bears, and come join with other genners and hear some authors share short pieces of their recent or not so recent work.
• Saturday Morning in the Video Room 10 a.m. to 12 noon: HOW TO MAKE SONG VIDS -- A Demonstration of video making
• Saturday Night after the B-day party and Song Vid Contest: THE SLASHERS PAJAMA PARTY! Wear your Cowboy jammies and your whips and spurs, and come join with other slashers and hear some authors share short pieces of their recent or not so recent work.

2006 Convention Reports

Friday, March 17, 2006

I woke up about 8:30 a.m., so I was awake when John called about 9:00 with a request: could he borrow my little TV/VCR to use as a monitor in the vid room? Of course, said I, and brought it down about 9:20. Was he ever in his element down there! Computers, DVD players, a mixing board, two monitors – video geek heaven.

I had brought my boxes of songvids (I’ve been collecting them for about fifteen years now) in case they were needed; it turned out they weren’t needed for the vid room, but I was able to show John the original version of “Data’s Dream,” a gorgeous older vid impaired by technical problems that he told me was recently redone. He had the new one, so we watched both and compared. It was cool to see the old clips without the copy-protection interference, but it was strange to see new clips in several places.

I got my badge and registration packet, but it was still too early for the con proper. So I took my travel journal (a pretty LOTR journal that Keikokin gave me for Yule one year) and sat in the lobby and finished writing up an account of a recent excursion to a winery; I also got to chat briefly with sidewinder about her recent adventures troll-hunting in Stewart Copeland fandom. I went into the dealers' room shortly after it opened at noon and touched base with Barbara, who was selling things for my old friend Ann Johnson in Austin, and promised to come back later and help her price artwork. Across from her table, the San Antonio group was setting up. One of their number, Mary Helm, died of cancer last year. Jacquelyn Sykes asked me up to her room for a bit, so I did, and we visited until about 1 p.m. She told me about Mary's memorial service and a little about her last days and how things had gone since she passed away. I showed her the picture I had brought for the Remembrance Party and she was pleased because she didn't have a chance to bring any. It seems so strange to see Jacquelyn without Mary, and I truly missed seeing Mary.

Jacquelyn and I went back down to the dealers' room, where I bumped into Dee Beetem. By this time I was ravenous, having skipped breakfast, and asked if she had plans for lunch – we eventually walked over to the little strip of shops near the hotel for barbecue. We got back in plenty of time for my panel at 2:15. akite did a terrific job wrangling the panels, making sure everyone was there and that the topics were announced in time for folks who wanted to attend to get there. In this panel, "From Firefly to Serenity," Liz Knauel, TerriTrek, and I led a discussion on how the movie Serenity carried on the plot, characters, and other aspects of the series Firefly. On the whole, the panel and the audience all seemed to agree that the movie captured the spirit of the show and the characters, and we mostly wished, if we could have asked for anything more, that the movie had given us more backstory on some of the characters, like Book, whose intriguing past was never explained, or Inara, whose entire Companion subculture was something that would have been fascinating to explore. We also agreed that Jayne was a character whose early development would have been nifty to see, and that his mother was someone we’d like to meet – but not (I said) in a dark alley. We got a big compliment on the panel later from someone who observed that it seemed to stay 99% on topic, a rarity indeed with panels at conventions!

After the panel ended, I went back and helped Barbara price artwork. I mentioned that I would try my best to be fair and resist the conflict of interest when there was a piece I might want to buy. Barbara told me that she had had a conversation with Ann on that very topic:

Ann: Get Amedia to help you. She’ll be fair.

Barbara: But what if there’s a piece she’s really jonesing for? It would be so tempting to mark it low.

Ann (very firmly): No, she’ll still be fair.

I felt very warmed by this, and did my best to strike a balance between trying to get a good price for Ann and wanting to set a price where the pieces were likely to sell at this convention, trying not to even think about what I might want to buy. sockii had the table next to Barbara’s and kindly agreed to help out; she’s been involved in convention art shows much more recently, frequently, and directly than me, as she is a fine artist, and I appreciated her input.

While I was pricing the artwork, some McCoy pictures really caught my eye, so I finally gave in to temptation and asked Barbara to hold them for me, along with a Tholian Web snowglobe that I had already arranged to buy. Then I drifted to the next table and bought some gorgeous amber earrings from sockii and we visited a while. She told me that she hadn’t had a chance to make a copy of the Chinese version of Legend of Drunken Master for me yet (we had talked about it before the convention) – I figured I would just give her postage money to send it to me when she had a chance, but to my astonishment she pulled out her original for me to borrow! I was very grateful and impressed.

After shopping, I took my photos for the Remembrance Party over to registration, where they had supplies set up to put the pictures on construction-paper backing prior to hanging them on the wall. J. M. and Eileen were really pleased with the pictures I had brought, and I was glad they had turned out so well; I had made 5 x 7” enlargements, often cropping the original considerably, on the Kodak machine at CVS. I brought one picture each of Mary Helm, Jackie Horgan, and Susan Beasley, three pictures of Ann McKannan, and one of Ann participating in Ann(e) Squared, a musical routine she used to do at conventions. I wasn’t sure about the last picture since her partner in the routine is still alive, but they said it was okay. While I was choosing colors of paper to use as backing, one of the concom was using a color printer to print out a very nice picture of Carol “Mac” McGuire that a family member had emailed; it turned out great...

Shortly after we got back, the Remembrance Party began. It was a truly lovely idea, celebrating the lives of fans who are no longer with us. I was glad I had brought so many pictures, because there were only a few others. J. M. Griffin had done a lovely collage poster of Laurie Haynes, and Keikokin brought a picture of a fan named Shelley Anderson. There was the nice picture of Mac, and someone else had brought a wonderful picture that I had never seen before, of Ann McKannan in her Silver Alpha costume from around 1990...

Nine pieces went to auction this year, which was a REVELcon record. Six were by Suzan Lovett, including the Master & Commander piece , which I was very excited to win! The highest price was fetched by a Lovett picture entitled The Swordsman and the Scholar, featuring Jack and Daniel from Stargate:SG-1 in gorgeous medieval garb; it went for $100. Next came the charity auction, which benefited the American Heart Association. I had brought a couple of items and was glad they both went for a respectable amount. One of them wasn’t actually from me; it was the DVD player used at a couple of Eclecticons until we realized it would only play purchased DVD’s, not the homemade ones on which so many vidders now submit their work. Agel wanted it donated to a charity, so I brought it here, where it fetched $20 for the AHA (and some nice publicity for Econ). I also brought a Star Trek Monopoly game that was given to me by a student at the Evil Empire during that last awful semester before I walked away. I had never opened it; kindly as the gift was meant, it reminded me too much of bad times. So I donated it and was tickled when John wound up winning it! If I’d known he would want it, I would have just given it to him, but this way the Heart people wound up benefiting, so it was all good.

Please note that this was my own personal experience of the con, your mileage may vary.

Friday:

I got to the convention hotel a little before 9AM to help with the set-up. I found the concom (convention committee, my friends that took over the organization of the convention this year) hard at work. I signed in and found that they had made me a special badge. The theme for the con this year was Ensembles. The concom went for a CSI look with lab coats with their names just a bit mixed around. As an example, I was Kita A. Nite, Chief Lab Technician. I put up the special CSI signs they made for each of the meeting rooms: Ballistics on the panel room, Morgue on the video room and so on. Then I went and helped set up the table where registration would be once the convention actually started at noon, and where members of the committee were selling their own zines and things.

Moving on, my main job was to run the panels. Make sure the moderators for each were there, that the panels started and ended on time, I also made announcements in the dealer's room just before each panel started, and introduced the panel and the moderators at each one. Revelcon only has two tracks of programming, one panel room and one video room, so this is not a difficult job, most of the time. Each panel is one hour long, with a 15 minute break between panels. I think this works very well. If one panel runs a little long, you don't have people standing impatiently out in the hallway waiting for the next one. I'm all about panels, so that's mostly what this is going to be about.

The first panel of the day at 1PM was Has All Been LOST? Which, I didn't attend. While it was on, I did a little Gopher work and checked badges for the dealers' room and directed new arrivals to the registration desk. The second panel at 2:15PM was From Firefly to Serenity, which I did attend and very much enjoyed. The main discussion was whether anyone that hadn't seen the series would understand and enjoy the movie. The consensus was yes, it was possible.

The 3:30 panel was one that I was a moderator on along with keikokin and Lorelie: Slim vs. Bulky, Sweet vs. Snarky, Hair vs. No Hair - What floats your boat about those TV demigods. We had a very fun hour talking about which characters floated our particular boats. I even brought visual aids; meaning pictures of Paul Gross and Callum Keith Rennie to illustrate both slim vs. bulky and sweet vs. snarky.

The last panel of the day was The Sentinel: Alive and Well on its Tenth Anniversary at 4:45PM, for which one moderator didn't make, but no problem, another person stepped up and offered to take her place. I found out later that Linda, the one that didn't show up, never made it to the con at all due to a migraine. :(...

Friday night at the con, we had a remembrance party; usually we pick a month and celebrate the birthday of everyone in that month. This year we chose to remember fellow fans that are no longer with us. People were asked to bring photos to share, and there was fresh fruit, cake and ice cream. Eileen, one of the con comm. got up and thanked all the people who helped. She asked whom she had forgotten and trying to be facetious, I called out, "Me!" Of course, I was thanked profusely. *blush* After that came the video contest. You'll have to forgive me here, there were several really good ones, but I couldn't tell you now their titles or anything. I was starting to flag a bit at this point.

After the vids were the pajama parties. Up on the third floor, the convention had two sleeping rooms off the hospitality suite. One side was the Gen party and the other side was the Slash party. You can guess which side I was on. *g* I went up and changed into sleepwear and awaited the arrival of a few more people. I volunteered to go first and read aloud my story, Tootsie Pop. I'm really not very good at reading explicit sex out loud, believe me. I got through it and stayed for a couple of more readings before I put back on my regular clothes and beat feet for home.

Saturday:

I woke up way too early for not going to bed until 1AM, but I drank some coffee, got dressed and cooked breakfast for me and the hubby. Thankfully, nothing got going at the con until 10AM. First up at 10:30 was a Gen panel: It's all in the Chemistry. I got a little annoyed at one of the moderators. It was time for the panel, and she was just showing up at the convention and snapped at me when I tried to hurry her up. I said (to myself) to hell with her and went on and introduced the panel and moderators and got it going. I guess she made it there eventually because I didn't stay for that one. I took the time to cruise the dealer's room and art show and talk to people.

The second panel was Pimp Your Fandom. Yes, I took an opportunity to use my visual aids and pimp Due South. All the moderators and most of the audience got a chance to do a bit of pimping. *g*

The next panel at 1PM was It's All About the Alchemy, a slash panel. My mind is a total blank on this panel. I'm sure every slash pairing ever was discussed, but I couldn't tell you now what was said. I'm sure it was fun, though.

Sometime during the day I poked my head into the Morgue (video room) where they were showing pilot episodes all weekend. The Due South pilot was playing, and it was the scene right after the airport where Fraser walks into Chicago.

That brought us to probably the most informative panel of the con: Gun Technique on TV and Movies. We were asked to bring videotapes of our heroes shooting to be critiqued by Judy Dugas. Judy competitively shoots high-powered rifles and has, in the past, shot pistols in competition. Judy explained what good gun technique was and showed us as an example, a clip from Stargate: SG1 of Jack O'Neill firing an M5. I brought a clip from Due South, Call of the Wild of the shoot out with Muldoon at the mall, with the Ferris wheel and all, if you recall. She said David Marciano did very well. He didn't blink or flinch when he fired his gun. With Callum Keith Rennie, she couldn't tell. In the clip I showed, he was wearing his glasses and you really couldn't see his eyes. OMG, she showed us Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon. The man flinched every time he fired. It's guaranteed that in Real Life, he never would have hit a thing. Also, if you throw your gun at the target like they did in the old Westerns, you know what I mean, jerk your hand toward the target, your bullet will strike the ground about 10 feet in front of you. It was a very fun, very enlightening panel. I'm sure I'll be checking out how the actors do in everything I see now.

Crossovers in the Crosshairs at 3:30PM is another panel that I'm totally blank on. I do know it was the panel with the most moderators, five of them. They were all there on time. I remember that I mentioned a couple of the crossovers that I've written. It's all about me then, huh? Other than that, I just don't remember.

The last panel on Saturday was Stargate SG-1 vs. Stargate Atlantis, this was another one that I didn't stay for...

Back to the con then for the Saturday night Cabaret and Costume Contest. I was very flattered to be asked to help judge it. There were only five entries, so judging wasn't as big a job as it might have been. Instead of awarding first place, second place, etc., everyone got a prize, and we judges made up funny names for the winners, like best plumage and best decaying pig snout. (You had to be there, trust me.) I bugged out after that, went home and had a beer before I collapsed into bed.

Sunday:

The first panel of the day was Wussification, on which I was one of the moderators, along with Territrek and Lady Angel. We defined wussification as when a writer so changes a character that they are no longer recognizable and gave an example of a Star Trek Voyager fanfic story, in which Tom Paris was turned into a woman. Literally. A really girly woman that knew how to croquet and weave and tried to hurt herself when she realized her penis was gone. Then we threw it open to anyone else that had an example of wussification in their fandom. Basically, everyone agreed that wussification of a character was a bad, bad thing.

The 11:45 panel was a repeat of the previous day's Gun Technique for those that missed it with some new clips that people brought.

Then it was the last panel of the con, Panel on Panels for Revelcon 18 2007. Jan and I took suggestions on what people would like to have next year. We got some really good ones too. *g*

So came the end of Revelcon 17. Tally for me: two zines, one mug with the con logo on it, one pair of earrings, two t-shirts: one with the con logo and one with the cast of Firefly on it, a gopher button, a wonderful, wonderful good time, and best of all, an invitation to be on the convention committee next year. That was a delightful surprise.

2006 Vid Show

• I Need A Hero (Hercules)
• Days Go By (Sentinel)
• Holy Water (Witchblade)
• When You Lie Next To Me (Multimedia)
• How Far (Sentinel)
• Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Supernatural)
• Devil's Party (Supernatural)
• Life is a Highway (Supernatural)
• The Stroke (Harry Potter)
• Who Wants To Live Forever (Lord of the Rings)
• Gollum's Song (Lord of the Rings)
• I Need a Hero (Lord of the Rings) same song as above but different version and singer
• Interplanet Janet (Stargate SG1)
• Double Feature (Stargate SG1)
• Up There (Real Ghostbusters)

One year after the 2006 vid show one attendees posted her review of the vids. You can the full review here here., ^{Archived version}

Way back when I wrote up my con report on REVELcon 2006, I didn't include a report on the vid show because I had actually kept a copy of the ballot and copied my comments over to it as I went along, and I meant to type it in separately, and didn't get around to it.

The recent request for me to post the vid show comments from this year's report separately so vidders could see it really made an impression on me, enough that I dug out the ballot copy and typed it in.

Notes: I tried to say something about every vid, as giving feedback is a way to thank the vidders for sharing their vids, although I wasn't always able to say much. I had recently rewatched some vids from the olden days before seeing this show, and I had mixed feelings about some vids simply because I'd seen the songs vidded before, but I tried to set that aside and watch them as if they were completely new to me. I also tried to add additional comments as I typed them in.

RevelCon 18 (2007)

March 16-18, 2007.

The concom for that year was Judy Echezuria, Anita Kite, Jan Meek, Eileen Pearlman, Jamie Ritchey, and Sue Wells. The 2007 website is archived here.

The charity that year was "The American Heart Association (in memory of Beth Arganbright)"

Panels:

• Shows We Loved and Now Hate (Or Vice Versa)
• Sentinel– Beyond the Bull Pen
• Supernatural – Sam, Dean and the YEDemon
• Good Kids – Bad Parenting
• Mag 7 – On the Edge of the Law
• Heroes – What Will They Toss Out Next?
• RPS – Slide to the Dark Side or "Hey, They Aren't Brothers"
• Starsky and Hutch – The Ultimate Partnership
• Supernatural – Brothers as Partners (The Boy-Boy Melodrama)
• BDSM – The Woman's POV
• Sentinel – Who's in Charge Here?
• SG-1 and Atlantis – What's Coming and Going
• Medical Experts – The Awful Truth About the Beating (Your Hero) Just Took
• Baby Fen – Find Out Where the Future Leads
• It's a Wrap – Tell Us What You Think, Want, Feel about Revelcon
• Remakes -- Good, bad, or are we indifferent?
• Supernatural -- Season 3 Finale Speculation (yeah, yeah, this one might change due to the strike)
• Meet the Writers (We are going to try to convince the many writers who come to the con each year to sit and kibbutz with us!!)
• Original Characters: Good or Bad?
• Captains R Us -- Captain Jack this and Jack that, a discussion of command styles
• Sam and Dean Cataloguing the Owwies
• The Real Deal -- A look at guns, not roses
• BDSM -- Toys and Joys
• Cross-overs -- What makes 'em work
• The Law Review -- real lawyers with real answers
• Men and the Cars -- What does what they drive tell us? (a clips panel -- held in the vid room)
• Martial Arts on Television -- Is it good, bad or ugly? (a clips panel)
• Annual wrap panel on panels

2007 Convention Reports

This is not as in-depth a con report as I usually do since this was not my usual kind of con :P But I'll try to remember as much as I can... Got to Houston around 11PM and got our car upgraded, with all the wonderful fees that includes, since we had a whole lot of luggage. Jen drove us to the hotel and we managed to check in and got to our room around midnight. Plans to see CC and Molo failed since the airport situation came about. Slept soundly.

Checked in the dealer's room and went upstairs to get our stuff. Jen set up her table while Moon and I set out our cookbooks and I set out my extra stuff to sell (TS zines, videos, books, etc). All will go on sale at the online zine sale later in April. Went through the lobby in hopes of finding CC around somewhere and with our power of positive thinking she appeared in the doorway. And Molo appeared behind us. We all joined Molo as she had a breakfast of an "omlette" and coffee. Then we retired to the gazebo area for some relaxation. Dealer's room opened (and Keri showed up:) but all attempts at finding SH stuff was sadly tiny. I got an older zine I had never heard of before and one of Keri's zines that I somehow skipped over in my previous buying. Art show opened and there were some great reprints of Suzan Lovett's stuff (SH, ST, SG1, etc) I bidded on a Suzan Lovett Star Trek limited edition print and an SH original by TACS, though this would not be the last time I rolled into the art room. Lunchtime rolled around and we went to the local barbeque joint behind the hotel for some "Texas Food" and SH talk. Umm...there was meat and bread and sides, but there were no plates. There was wax paper. Very civilized, uh huh. More hanging out in the gazebo. Attempts to write turned into "if I turn the laptop a certain way and catch the wind, the wireless will work." And...there was dinner. Seafood place behind the hotel. I didn't eat, but Jen and Moon did. Luau time was at 8PM and we monitored Jen's eating and were concerned that the fruit was gonna kill her. Vid show was super awesome. Out of about 23 vids, half of them were SH vids. We blitzed them! I showed an old vid from earlier last year, my Cartoon Heroes vid from October, and then a new vid which I'll have to send to Sel to put up soon. And we bowed out of the official pajama party so that we could instead watch SH on the big screen up in Molo's room. It's amazing what a laptop, a projector, and a white hotel wall can do for the boys :) I want one of those set-ups at my house now. To bed around 1AM.

Up at 8AM on Saturday...I was one of the panelists for the Heroes panel. Yes, the first panel of the con for me. It was very strange not to go to 7 or 9 panels like other cons. Anyway, panel was a great success and many questions were raised, much discussion, shared love of Heroes. After some not-so-hard arm-twisting, I put a bid in on the limited edition Boston Legal print Suzan did. Yes, apparently I'm creating a misc fandom art wall to replace my Sentinel art wall. Time for a change. Anyway, our SH panel was at noon and we love the boys...alot. No other partnership compares to them. We win! There was lunch, but if you ask me where I probably couldn't tell you. At 3PM they were showing Coffin for Starsky in the vid room, so I sat in on that. Wandered around the dealer's room and art room and our room for a while and then the SH crew arranged for a trip to Pappa's Burger place and The Container Store. It was proven that Keri really does have a use for said store ;) Shared some of CC's peanut butter drink from Jamba Juice and headed back to the hotel for a quick shower in preparation for "SH On the Big Screen: The Second Showing." Well, actually, we headed down to catch the tail-end of the talent show since they were giving out the results of the vid contest and feedback to the vidders. Moon won second place overall with her vid and GK won first with her multi-fandom vid which featured SH. Like I said, we win. Up to Molo's room for some vids and discussion and then another SH ep on the wall. Jen informed me that I got some of the art pieces, so I figured I'd find out in the morning what they were. More discussion, laughter, fun, and to bed at 2AM.

The Friday night vid show:

The most-represented fandoms among the vids were Starsky and Hutch, Sentinel, Stargate SG-1, and Supernatural, with a good mix of serious and humorous vids. My favorite was a mixed-universe mixed-pairings vid with a wide range of couples, including Janeway/Chakotay, Fraser/Ray2, Mulder/Scully, Kirk/Spock, and more, with some very clever scenes repeating surprisingly similar actions from different universes, set to the tune of "A Little Less Conversation, a Little More Action" (vid by Gianduja Kiss). I was also very struck by a vid set to Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name Of," also by Gianduja Kiss, depicting violent scenes from La Femme Nikita in a way that managed to combine both horror and beauty. I thought the Sentinel vid "Three Time Loser" by Jamie Ritchey was a particularly interesting Sentinel vid; even though it wound up being slash, the contents of the song enabled the vidder to use usually un-vidded clips of the guys with guest female characters as they reminisced about failed relationships. There were some fun Starsky & Hutch vids – I think Moon's "If I Had a Million Dollars" was my favorite, followed closely by Morgan Logan's "Lovecats." Some of the serious ones, while well done, didn't seem to say anything new or interesting and tended to draw on the same clips; I thought KimberlyFDR's Starsky & Hutch vid "Secret in your Eyes" was a nice introspective change of pace that avoided this problem. Although I could not follow the Supernatural vids, being unfamiliar with the show, I was enchanted by the music for Grif Ink's video "My Son John"; the song was a Celtic-style round entitled "Cannonball" that reminded me of "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" or "Fighting for Strangers" in content. I thought the group that did the song, Clandestine, must be a very fine professional group I hadn't heard of; we were all astonished to learn that it's a local group and that there was a member at the convention! [ETA: I have since learned that it's BOTH a very fine professional group that has toured internationally AND a homegrown band from Houston. How cool is THAT!]

The Saturday afternoon Pimp-Your-Vids hour:

Next I went to the video room for my two-hour stint. Laurie showed me how to use the video setup, which worked quite logically and easily (much with the yay). For the first hour, I showed the pilot of Heroes, which I have to admit was very interesting and contained at least one surprising moment. Next scheduled was an hour of "Pimp your Favorite Vids." That was fun! Jan, who was leaving for the Supernatural panel, had left instructions to start with a new disk of Supernatural vids. We dutifully watched the first one even though all the Supernatural fans were at the panel, and then I popped it out and we watched what people brought, including some excellent vids by PR Zed, both serious and funny, such as "The Soldiering Life" (Sharpe) a nice romantic Pros vid whose name I have forgotten (something about "I love your this" and "I love your that," with really nice cut selection and timing), and "Bohemian Like Me" (multi). We also saw two vids based on things no one there had seen except Kat, which were therefore kinda hard to follow (the movie "Equilibrium" and the British TV show "Spooks"). Then we saw vids both by, and brought by, oneofarcadia. Hers included a very sweet SG-1 team vid to "Seasons of Love" and a Jack/Daniel vid to "Something to Talk About" (a song that I always identify with Kandy Fong's multi vid from the old days). She also showed some Buffy vids and Forever Knight vids by other folks. I forget who did the Buffy vids, but they were cute and funny. There was a romantic one for Xander to the tune of "Happy Together" showing him with a different girl for every verse, playing ironically against the line "the only one for me is you." The Forever Knight vids, including "Sunglasses at Night," were technically well done but I thought the gimmickiness got in the way of the story. Last, Jamie brought a non-fannish vid by Killa and Tzikeh to "Puttin' on the Ritz." Kandy Fong was there and as I left she was talking with oneofarcadia about options for posting vids online and about Vividcon – it was great to see the very first vidder encouraging a new talent.

"I had fun on Saturday. [livejournal.com profile] wyrdfae and I went to most of the panels (had a blast with the Supernatural, RPS, Heroes, and bdsm panel) Well okay those were the panels that I remember. Stargate Atlantis/SG-1 panel was frustrating because not everyone, actually I don't think anyone had actually seen the endng of SG-1 or the rest of season 3 Atlantis and yet the topic was "where is SG-1 and SGA going from here?" but mostly we just talked trash about Carter (well not season 1-3 Carter because everyone agreed she was great until season 4). I think it was agreed by most that M&M are incapble of writing women or their way out of a wet paper sack.

Anyway, this was a small low key con, mostly women fan fiction readers and writers it seemed like. I was able to browse the dealers room. (the only problem for me is that I'm trying not to buy zines anymore because I don't have room on my bookshelves) I had a lot of fun going through the photos but didn't buy anything. I didn't get a chance to see the music videos entered for the contest because I was at the Heroes panel..I was a bit dissapointed about that.

Oh and I think I managed to maybe convince a few people to check out Torchwood. :)

I'm not a zine maker but I gotta wonder if people are really buying zines the way they used to?"

2007 Vid Show

Source: kimberlyfdr's Revelcon - The Return convention report, dated March 20, 2007.

• A Little Less Conversation - Gianduja Kiss (MM)
• If I Had A Million Dollars - Moon (S&H)
• Three Time Loser - Jamie Ritchey (Sentinel)
• Unwell - Jamie Ritchey (Sentinel)
• Jim Dandy - Sally Seymour (Sentinel)
• Our Way - Audrey Lynne (SG Atlantis)
• Tonight I Wanna Cry - Oneofaradia (SG-1)
• Love Hurts - Sally Seymour (Sentinel)
• The Lovecats - Morgan Logan (S&H)
• Cartoon Heroes - KimberlyFDR (S&H)
• Meet Me In The Dark - Oneofaradia (SG-1)
• You Make Me Feel So Young - Morgan Logan (S&H)
• I’m Not Wearing Any Underwear - Merc (Supernatural)
• Never Say Goodbye - Oneofaradia (S&H)
• Cold As It Gets - Morgan Logan (S&H)
• Throw Them All Away - KimberlyFDR (S&H)
• Bitch - Audrey Lynne (Sentinel)
• Captain Jack - Audrey Lynne (SG-1)
• Waterloo - Sally Seymour (Sentinel)
• Killing In The Name - Gianduja Kiss (La Femme Nikita)
• My Son John - Grif Ink (Supernatural)
• Demon’s Desiring - Grif Ink (Supernatural)
• Harder To Breathe - Merc (Supernatural)
• Secret In Your Eyes - KimberlyFDR (S&H)
• Liar - Merc (Supernatural)

Amedia wrote up a lengthy vid show review, the full report can be read here., ^{Archived version}

Excerpt:

The most-represented fandoms among the vids were Starsky and Hutch, Sentinel, Stargate SG-1, and Supernatural, with a good mix of serious and humorous vids. My favorite was a mixed-universe mixed-pairings vid with a wide range of couples, including Janeway/Chakotay, Fraser/Ray2, Mulder/Scully, Kirk/Spock, and more, with some very clever scenes repeating surprisingly similar actions from different universes, set to the tune of 'A Little Less Conversation, a Little More Action' (vid by Gianduja Kiss). I was also very struck by a vid set to

Rage Against the Machine's 'Killing in the Name Of,' also by Gianduja Kiss, depicting violent scenes from La Femme Nikita in a way that managed to combine both horror and beauty. I thought the Sentinel vid 'Three Time Loser' by Jamie Ritchey was a particularly interesting Sentinel vid; even though it wound up being slash, the contents of the song enabled the vidder to use usually un-vidded clips of the guys with guest female characters as they reminisced about failed relationships. There were some fun Starsky & Hutch vids – I think Moon's 'If I Had a Million Dollars' was my favorite, followed closely by Morgan Logan's 'Lovecats.' Some of the serious ones, while well done, didn't seem to say anything new or interesting and tended to draw on the same clips; I thought KimberlyFDR's Starsky & Hutch vid 'Secret in your Eyes' was a nice introspective change of pace that avoided this problem. Although I could not follow the Supernatural vids, being unfamiliar with the show, I was enchanted by the music for Grif Ink's video 'My Son John'; the song was a Celtic-style round entitled 'Cannonball' that reminded me of 'Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye' or 'Fighting for Strangers' in content. I thought the group that

did the song, Clandestine, must be a very fine professional group I hadn't heard of; we were all astonished to learn that it's a local group and that there was a member at the convention!

RevelCon 19 ( 2008)

March 14-16, 2008

flyer for 2008

The concom for that year was Judy Echezuria, Anita Kite, Jan Meek, Eileen Pearlman, Jamie Ritchey, and Sue Wells.

The charity that year was "Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure"

Panels:

• In the Aftermath of the Strike: Discussion of our favorite shows and how the have been affected by this strike.
• Loners, Partners, and Teammates--A look at Motivation and Characterization
• Supernatural Season 3 ~ What (a mess?!) Kripke has Wrought
• LJ 101 ~ How-tos and Wherefores of Live Journal
• Mag 7~ Stories and Shows We'd Love to See
• Current Slash Issues: Gay in canon, Trend toward incest, Rise of RPS beyond the bands and More
• Sentinel ~ Stories and Shows We'd Love to See
• Writing and Researching Fan Fiction ~ Notes on how to write good Fanfic: Three fanfic writers discuss ways to tell a darn good story—Description, Characterization, Dialogue, Point of View and Research
• It's a Formula ~ What makes a Great Buddy Show (Idea stolen from Mediawest -- served up RC style)
• What makes a Great Songvid? ~ Two Houston vidders will dissect and discuss great (and not so great) vids through-out the fannish ages

2008 Vid Show

• Rock Star (Torchwood)
• Savin' Me (Torchwood)
• Meet the Pros (The Professionals)
• I'm Free (The Professionals)
• Standing Outside the Fire (The Professionals)
• Bad Day (The Sentinel) - Best Humour Vid & Best Gen & Best In Show
• Lightning Does the Work (Stargate SG1) - Best Drama Vid
• My Loverman (The Sentinel)
• Rioting in Africa (Stargate SG1)
• On the Prowl (The Sentinel)
• Will the Wolf Survive (The Sentinel)
• Better Days (Due South) - Best Slash Vid

RevelCon 20 (2009)

The concom for that year was Judy Echezuria, Anita Kite, Jan Meek, Patti Prevett, Jamie Ritchey, and Sue Wells.

The charity that year was "Best Friends (animal rescue and rehab)"

Panels:

• Big arguments in fandom -- Would Blair have become a cop? and others…
• Characterizations of Sam and Dean in fan fic -- A discussion of character nuances, pleasures and pet-peeves
• RPS, why some fandoms and not others? -- This and other crunchy, slashy questions…
• From Lost & Battlestar Galactica to Smallville & ER -- is a limited number of seasons better for a show overall or should shows go on and on and…?
• River DeNile -- Ever felt betrayed by a show due to character death or a plot twist?
• Torchwood: sex, drugs, rock 'n roll and more – How do the Brits get away with IT?
• TPTB, do they manipulate the way fans think? Does what the fans think really matter to them?
• Kid fic in fandom -- What's the appeal?
• Stitch and Bitch -- Bring your knitting, crochet or cross stitch and talk about your favorite shows and/or pet peeves.
• Mag 7 ATF -- the best show that never existed, but should have. When the fanfic creates its own series…
• Brit Speak- What's this with British and other non-American actors playing leads in American shows?
• Characterizations of Jim and Blair in fan fic -- A discussion of character nuances, pleasures and pet-peeves
• Wee-chesters -- School and other realities in growing up Winchester
• Issues in Fanfic -- What shows don't generate fanfic/zines and why?
• When is the fanfic is better than the show that originated it? AND Does fanfic bring life to barely seen shows?
• Slash Fic/Ship Fic -- How does a sexual relationship change the team dynamic and therefore the writing?
• Bromance -- Is this the network’s word for Slash? Or are they just messing with us…?
• Cast Chemistry -- Which new shows have it, which don’t?
• Wrap panel – Come tell us what you think about the con and what you want to see for next year…

2009 Vid Show

Gen Entries

• New Math - Riptide - Catyah (Winner: Best Humor/Gen Vid)
• Happy Jack - POTC - Lesley
• Pretty Fly For A White Guy - Chuck - Lesley
• I'll Be For Your - POTC - Romanse
• Red Headed Woman - Sentinel - Jamie Ritchey
• It's The End Of The World As We Know It - SGA - Lesley (Hon. Mention: Best Humor/Gen Vid)
• You Can't Lose Me - Sentinel - Jamie Ritchey (Winner: Best Drama/Gen Vid)
• In The End - Sentinel - FreyaKendra
• Solemn Hour - Supernatural - OneofAradia (Hon. Mention: Best Drama/Gen Vid)
• Bookends - Tour of Duty - DC
• Coventry Carol - Tour of Duty - DC

Slash Entries

• Lies of Handsome Men - MM - Diana Williams
• The Whole Freakin' Platoon is Gay - Tour of Duty - DC (Winner: Best Humor/Slash Vid)
• Sex Bomb - MM - OneofAradia
• If I Ever Lose My Faith In You - Donald Stachey Mysteries - Diana Williams
• Jolene - Riptide - Catyah
• All We Are - MM - Romanse
• Still The One - Riptide - Catyah
• Yes I Do - SG1 - OneofAradia
• Every Little Kiss - Pros - Katbyrd
• I Know You're Out There - Pros - Katbyrd
• Don't Let Us Get Sick - S&H - Katbyrd
• Dirty Little Secret - TW/DW - Diana Williams