tzikeh

Saturday morning, after enjoying a wonderful oatmeal breakfast at the free breakfast bar and hanging out with, jeez, everyone, I hit the Professional Inspiration panel, run by

melina123 and Thing 1. It was energizing to have the kinds of discussions we all have about vids applied to professional editing and to hear the folks in the room pick apart what worked for them and what didn't in pro stuff, not just in our stuff. Slowly, slowly, we develop a shared vocabulary which allows us to be more specific about vids when we critique or help edit them.

Off to the Character Study show, because I can never ever pass up a chance to see "So Pure" with an audience, or on a big screen. Mmmmm, Frank. From what I could tell, the show went over really well - another example of not needing to know the fandom in order to appreciate the vids, for the most part. There were one or two vids in the collection I thought were kinda weak, where the song was doing all of the heavy lifting, but overall I was really pleased with this year's shows. The VJs did a great job balancing everything the concom asked them to balance and still put up some terrific entertainment.

Lunch break! I grabbed

lanning,

merryish, and

meri_oddities and we took a quickie road trip up the highway to the Woodfield Mall, where

merryish and I took the other two into the Apple Store and proceeded to hook them on Mac products. Mmmm. Mac. Then

lanning and I went to Marshall Field's and bought swimsuits for Sunday night. (Confidential to L: Red. Trust me.)

After our little shopping jaunt, I got back to the hotel in time to co-moderate the comedy panel with

cesperanza, who was kind enough to step in for me at the last minute. I was supposed to run this panel solo, and then you know, things, and Retro, and other stuff, so Cesca was gracious and funny and smart and I got to stand behind her and nod a lot. (It has been suggested that Cesca and I take this act on the road.)

Then on to the Narrative show - which had some of my favorite vids from my long history of watching vids - Hotel California, You'll See, Lives in the Balance... all good. Again, lots of audience appreciation, and murmurs of "where can I get a copy" permeated the breaks between vids.

I think at this point I wandered down to Con Suite again and just hung out, watching some vids, chatting, eating (mmmm, tasty banana bread!). The wonderful

amilyn baked homemade stuff for the con suite, for which the concom is eternally grateful. I think I also may have made a run to Walgreens for more duct tape and a power strip. It all starts to blur. I know I should have done a report earlier, but man, I had to recover first!

Then - dinner! A large number of us wandered next door to the steakhouse at the Holiday Inn (I'm amazed at the split in reaction to the food here - either people loved it or hated it) and placed our orders and chatted the time away. Little did we realize that we'd been sitting there almost an hour before the food came and we weren't gonna get seats for the Premiere show if we didn't hustle back to the con. Cesca was kind enough to hang back and deal with the bill while the rest of us went to get seats.

The Premieres show - what can I say that hasn't been said. One amazing vid after another - shocking, hilarious, moving, exquisite, bam, bam, bam, and then the Earth blew up. I was prepared for Premieres to be the most uneven show in terms of quality, because while the vids in the themed shows are selected by the vjs and therefore subject to a certain amount of quality control, Premieres is simply a submission-based show, which means anything can get in. But holy guacamole, what a set of submissions. If you haven't ordered your dvd, do so. Your order and your $10 (PayPal) must be in by September 7, so that gives you five days to place your order. You won't be disappointed.

After Premieres, most folks went to different rooms and (guess, seriously, no, guess) watched vids! And ate crap - crap like you would not believe. Man, did we eat some crap.

More to come...