Dress and Textiles I: Representing Textiles and Dress
Sponsor: DISTAFF (Discussion, Interpretation, and Study of Textile Arts, Fabrics, and Fashion) Organizer: Robin Netherton, DISTAFF
Presider: Robin Netherton
The Banners in Beowulf M. Wendy Hennequin, Tennessee State Univ.
Had dinner at the usual favorite Indian place with a delightfully cozy group of just four. Dithered about whether to take in an evening session after that, but this roundtable about onomastics was impossible to resist.
What’s in a Name? A Roundtable on Names, Nicknames and Identity in the Middle Ages
Organizer: Elizabeth Archibald, Durham Univ.
Presider: Elizabeth Archibald
There weren’t any sessions that called strongly to me in the after lunch session, so I went to the book-room and browsed through a bit over half the publishers’ displays. I have another un-planned period Saturday morning when I can finish the shopping. I chose this session in part because I’ve been poking at my 10th century Viking/Welsh romance idea, and in part because of the textiles/clothing-themed paper.
Living and Dying in Viking-Age Ireland
Sponsor: American Society of Irish Medieval Studies (ASIMS)
Organizer: Rachel E. Scott, DePaul Univ.
NOTE: I'm sorry about the formatting. I'm having some sort of weird interaction with the website display which isn't giving me any control over fonts or formatting. I'll fix it later, but for now, it's a wall-o-text. UPDATE: OK, evidently I have to handcode everything in source code.
Hey, look! I actually got my BayCon schedule up on the blog a month before the convention starts! I'm going to be on some really intriguing panels. The one about "What did it look like when our ancestors created and wore costumes?" looks particularly intriguing and a refreshing take on historic costuming.
I know I've mentioned it before, but I do love having a local book-centered convention that is literally a ten minute drive away. Bonus points for the Walnut Creek Marriott having a lobby-cum-bar that is absolutely ideal for socializing in. Except for one brief, minor bout of social anxiety when I didn't have a dinner group lined up for Saturday evening. ot was all good. (Note: I will leave some meals deliberately not pre-arranged to give myself the opportunity to meet up with people spontaneously who I might not feel comfortable approaching for specific arrangements.
I guess it doesn't help to have an "upcoming events" feature on my website if I don't fill in my schedule until I'm actually at the event! (Only remembered to make my hotel reservation two days ago, for that matter.) Fortunately, when you're dealing with a convention that's literally 10 miles down the road, being a bit discombobulated has fewer consequences.
I'm drafting this up while sitting in the Helsinki airport Monday morning but don't plan to post it until Tuesday (to avoid bumping the week's LHMP entry off the front page). But then, I don't figure much of interest will happen for the rest of the day except travel and convention recovery. Sunday morning, having no panels of interest until 11am, I stopped by the WSFS business meeting and helped skate through the remaining agenda items (mostly various housekeeping votes) in record time.
Two days at once! I had the podcast blog to post yesterday, so here you get caught up on both Friday and Saturday at the con. I've fallen in with a regular breakfast group at the hotel (some of them even came to my historic fantasy panel, though maybe they would have anyway), so that initial sense of disconnection is falling away. The first Friday panel I wanted to attend was at noon so I spent the first couple hours of the day participating in the business meeting.
The photo is of the Belge Cafe where I had dinner in company with a number of other denizens of the File 770 blog, once more including my first face-to-face meeting with someone I've known online since Usenet days (Anna Feruglio Dal Dan). The cafe has a "library" theme, which was part of the attraction, though the food was also excellent. But I get ahead of myself.
