Zebra Con/1993

Zebra Con 11 (1993)

Some convention facts:

the cover of the 1993 program book, artist was Suzan Lovett

• the Pros VHS tape that sold during the charity auction was a rarity: a NTSC format tape of the Pros episodes "Wild Justice" and "Involvement". It sold for $37.
• The skit , Pair 'o Strokers, was a MUNCLE-themed con skit written by Paula Smith. It was a takeoff on the zine Perestroika. The skit begins with Kuryakin having been declared dead, and Solo mourning at his grave in Moscow. The caretaker at the cemetery turns out to be Illya in disguise, and Solo sweeps him grandly back to the States, and installs him at his palatial mansion. After a few plot twists and turns, with Solo nearly losing Kuryakin at one point, true love between partners is achieved, and everyone lives happily ever after.
• The art show featured a twelve-part series of drawings called Harlequin Errs, a parody of Harlequin Airs.
• ZebraCon shared some space with a up-tight, up-right children's dance convention, and there was conflict. A filk called "The Nasal-Sprayin', Tylenol Carryin', Smack Shootin' Lesbian Blues" by Michelle Christian was written in honor of the convergence of these two planets. The filk was published in Chalk and Cheese #12.
• The convention raised $800 for the Pediatric Aids Foundation, which was also chosen as the charity for 1995. Items donated for auction at this ZebraCon included Starsky and Hutch action figures, posters, books, magazines, games, and the record album recorded by David Soul). Media artist Suzan Lovett donated a commission piece that sold for over $200.
• Writers Contest Winner: Alexfandra for "Hotel Sweet" (Professionals) (a copy of the story was printed in the post-con progress report)
• Karen Eaton won the Best Cartoonist Huggy Award via a write-in vote. She submitted a thank you message to the post-con report"

"To All My Fandom Friends— Thank you so much for fulfilling one of my "Secret Fantasy Wishes" - to receive a Huggy Award. This wish was one I never believed could happen, especially since I would be the first to physically assault anyone who voted me as "Best Artist" over the many incredible portrait artists and illustrators in fandom. Thank you for creating a new category and voting for me. You'll never know, because I haven't the words to explain, how incredibly moved I was and am by your love and support."

• 

  first page of filk by Michelle Christian, published in Chalk and Cheese #12

• 

  second page of filk by Michelle Christian, published in Chalk and Cheese #12

Vid Show

Playlists and vid show reviews from the 1990s and 2000s are being collected at ZebraCon/Vid Show.

Art and Fiction Awards

See Huggy Awards.

Art Show:PROFESSIONALS

• Best Portrait to Kate Nuernberg (Bodie)
• Best Illustration to Suzan Lovett (Phoenix Wheel)
• Best Cartoon to Karen Eaton (Harlequin Errs series)
• Best Erotica to Suzan Lovett (Liaisons Dangereux)

STARSKY & HUTCH

• Best Portrait to Suzan Lovett (Firefall)
• Best Illustration to Suzan Lovett (Firefall)
• Best Cartoon to Jean C. (stick Torino)
• Best Erotica to Suzan Lovett (Firefall)

OTHER

• Best Portrait to Suzan Lovett (Flowers for Dil)
• Best Illo to Michele Amason (Knight of Swords)
• Best Cartoon to Jane Mailander (Mid—Leap Crisis)
• Best Erotica to Pat Cash (Candle—Lit)
• Best THREE D to Tacs (Young Lovers)
• Best IN SHOW to Suzan Lovett (Liaisons Dangereux)

Convention Reports

Here's my tired con report, purely subjective and hasty. Anything good I've missed, someone else send in!

Thursday: arrival.

Sandy actually said on Thursday night, "I could leave now and have had a good time." And have spent a lot less than by the end of the con, huh. Trying to find each other on Thursday night was an adventure: Sue managed to spot Sandy and Nicole and Tina on her shuttle from the airport, since they mentioned [M C], which was a dead giveaway... Lynn got picked up by some nice S/H fans (described her as "an orphaned waif") when the hotel failed to find her reservation and no one answered in Sandy's hotel room. But it all worked out in the end.

Friday: dealer's room feeding frenzy and the one Pros panel.

Alex was too busy feeding in the print shop to attend the panel, amazingly enough. Sue was buying food for us. Where was everyone else?? At the panel everyone agreed that they hate seeing Doyle feminized, hate elves, and hate teddy bear stories... so WHY are there so many of the damned things??? People started to relent on the bears thing and admit to liking *some* of them. Yucky poo.

The discussion all sounded familiar to me, and when I realized why I said to Sandy, "It's just like the list," and she said "Yeah, except slower, and you can't hit the delete key." That about summed it up.

Sandy's "I'm Gonna Be" vid got watched compulsively many times after the vid contest, to a chorus of groans for all those luscious Doyle struts. (Forgot to tell you, Sandy, you left it in our room and Tina and I took advantage of the fact, right after we found all those people we didn't know having a party in our room after the art auction.)

For the list party, we played the drinking game and took many photos for the fen who weren't there. The drinking game was a big success, but since we picked the one intellectual episode (Mixed Doubles), we had to make some additions to the list of drinking points, like "drink when you see a gun." Sue had most of a bottle of white Almaden plonk and was drunk enough to enjoy the crotch action, if not sober enough to appreciate the intellectual quality of the show. The Bullshitters followed, and we still drank, and then we did Hunter, Hunted, and drank some more... and it's all a big blur from then until the fire alarm at 6.45am the next day. The intermittent air raid sirens all Sat morning made for good moods all around. We should do a tally of the number of painkillers that were consumed Saturday.

Saturday: Party and awards

Party: Jane Mailander's cross-dressing routine was amazing. The play was incomprehensible from our table. I laughed to be polite. Alex won the writing contest, for a revised version of her "But it's July" story posted here earlier (during the thread on "excuses to get into bed together." Lynn was jealous and can't believe a story with the verb "wriggle" in it won anything.) [Note: Sue, who was sleeping on our floor on Thursday night, says she was afraid to say "it's really cold in here" lest it be taken the wrong way. We all know what comments like THAT can lead to.]

Megan Kent and Charlotte Hill almost managed to throw their trousers into the con party and shout "Cover me!", but Karen B nixed the idea, since it might embarrass the wait staff (mostly male). Oddly enough, at the art auction, where the pieces were being run around by hunky guys in tight jeans and leather jackets, it was not considered embarrassing to ignore the artwork and yell "How much for the runner?!" [Where did Karen find those guys, anyhow?]

Tina walked off with a spinning head and two Harlequin Airs Lovetts from the art auction. She had to be guided back to the room. Alex went crazed and bid and won the tote bag with B and D painted on it in regency drag. No, they were NOT on their way to a costume ball, they were in a 4th wave AU. Impure!!

Sunday: charity auction.

Alex won the "Future Fantasy, a drawing by Suzann Lovett" that she gets to specify. We all promised to inundate her with suggestions for the drawing. And some of us promised to move to Seattle to look at it a lot. Best suggestion so far seems to be an illustration for a "future fantasy, a story by Alex" based on the strippers at Escapade last year. Doyle taking it off for Bodie, big sigh... (NB!!!: the story will not feature B and D at the con, stripping for a load of randy women. It will be a pure CI5 story. Alex has her limits.)

Ruth bid against Carol for the NTSC mystery Pros video tape in the charity auction... tsk, tsk. List strife.

Overall:

Lynn represented several characters at the con, Morgan Dawn for largest chunk of time (due to trying to avoid a guy she didn't want to meet), and Tris-the-bitch for a brief wine-soaked moment, as prop during Megan Kent's rendition of Alex (!! not ATM, she was there too, but she was busy doing self-slash, not rock-star slash). Lynn also thought she was Erszebet at one point, when she had an erotic dream about Sandy and MFae (writer slash?).

Lezlie's inner child was appreciated by all. The wave theory was well represented by us, since Megan Kent and Charlotte Hill made up buttons for us to wear with our waves on them. Alex got sick of explaining what the "first wabe" [sic] was. The buttons led to some segregation at meal-times, with first wavers sticking to their own at table, and the rest sloshing into a separate booth. Prejudice dies hard.

I had a terrific time, it was so good to meet people at last.

... Zcon was a wonderful weekend. One of the fun parts for me was wearing my three buttons (2nd Wave, And Proud of It--3rd Wave, And Proud of It--4th Wave, And Proud of It) discussing the wave theory with the other cognescenti (hmpt), and explaining them to people who hadn't heard of the theory. I wish someone had kept transcripts of some of our attempts to explain the waves--I know some of the distinctions we were coming up with (especially between the 2nd and 3rd waves) didn't exist in the original essay, but I don't remember them now. Another cool think about the buttons: they were a bridge of sorts between people in the Strange Bedfellows apa and our more virtual Apa...people from either group, seeing someone they didn't recognize wearing one of the buttons started conversations and got to know each other all weekend. Thanks Megan Kent (even though you can't hear me) for making them and bringing them--thanks Lezlie for the original theory.

For everyone Z-con is different. For me it is special because I have been to all of them.

I arrived Friday morning and checked in, meeting people at the hotel desk even as I waited in line. Old friends. Nice. After checking out the room I shared with Paula Smith (the only other one to be at all Z-cons) and Pat Massie, who publishes the SH letterzine FRIENZ, I headed for the Dealer's Room to set up my table. This year I only had used zines until Marge came with Kari's copies of Fruit Cocktail #3 and some of Cathy Schlein's latest DREAMS AND SCHEMES. #8, I think. She also had a Kung Fu new gen zine called SPLINTERS OF LIGHT. It must have been good because people bought them all. As usual I sold copies of Teri White's SH novels so new fans would not be deprived of them just because they were written long ago.

I didn't see many panels, but everyone at the con came by my table and seeing people is what I like best. I would have liked to catch some of the better songtapes, and hope I can catch up with them later. Prince Charming?

Friday evening I stopped in at the SH party, then went on to the Pros party at [Sharon F's] room for awhile before trudging to the ends of the earth, otherwise known as 2nd floor C section for the e-mail list party for fun and pictures. Even Sue was watching MIXED DOUBLES as everyone played the game, spotting guns and struts and poses. I missed Sandy's "I'm Gonna Be'vid. Want to see it. Anyone got it?

I spent time with old friends like Chris and Jeanne and Jean and lots of others, but hit the sack early -- for a con. I didn't realize how tired I've been lately and was not as lively at this con as I've been in the past.

Saturday Pat and I caught the coffee counter for breakfast, then I went back to my table in the Dealer's Room where fire alarms went off constantly, probably due to the leaking ceiling the day before. A tile broke away and we reported it. Hah! (Finally on Sunday morning someone cdame in to change a halogen light that had burned out and we tgalked him into pulling down the hanging tile. Cheers around the dealers' room!)

Saturday evening was Paula's play A PAIR OF STROKERS, a takeoff on the UNCLE zine PERISTROIKA. Excellent as usual. Luckily I was up front and had read the script. it will probably be published by Paula or someone in a zine. Paula always gets in a lot of satire and fun.

Afterwards was the art [auction].

I almost forgot to mention all the awards which Suzan Lovett ran away with. Deservedly.

Afterwards was the art auction. I bid on a lot of things, but was pretty much left behind fairly soon on it all. After a summer of painting my son's house and fixing his roof, and getting tons of dental work done, I was broke. No problem. i got things I wanted in the dealers' rooms.

I went up to my room after the auction "to read awhile" and promptly fell asleep, something I do a lot lately. God, I remember cons where I never slept. Oh well.

Sunday morning was the charity auction. i bid on lots, but got outbid on everything. Just as well this year. Sara's SH fanday donation, a lovely piece of needlepoint, went to Suzie Lovett for $30. Suzie's beautiful artwork went well, as usual, but I have seen it go MUCH higher. Nobody seems to be rolling in dough this year. The best prize was a "whatever you want" by Suzan, won by a Pros fan (our net friend, who will, of course, do something absolutely wonderful with it!!!) which was a great relief to Suzie as the charity auctioneer Shoshanna, was coming up with lots of strange possibilities and combinations, trying to raise the bid. It was wonderful to have Stew Bozza from Australia there, as well as the Tanglewood Aussies. I had met Stew, her husband, and her sister Bryn Lantry in Oz last fall. Nice to have two of the three in the States.

Sunday afternoon I sat in plain sight in the hotel lobby bar so I could say goodbye to everyone who came by while I was watching the Cleveland Browns play the L.A.Raiders. By the time I had to leave for the airport my Browns were down 13 to 3. After checking in I heard people talking and quickly checked the video near the gate. I watched those amazing last 5 minutes when they came from way behind and scored with only 2 seconds left on the clock. A happy bunch of Cleveland fans got onto that airplane. Okay, you have to be a football fan, but it was a GReat ending to a lovely weekend. Ruth

Meeting Sandy and Nicole and a couple of the other slash listers was the only reason I went (I heard there wouldn't be much B7 stuff), and they were worth it...even if they did make me watch an entire Pros episode. Well, all right, they bribed me with the drinking game. All I remember is yelling "crotch shot" and then chugging cheap white wine. Several times. And something with men in bikini underwear and leather jackets...no, I must have hallucinated that...