Arisia writeup, the good parts
Jan. 24th, 2016 09:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catherineldfLast weekend, we went to our second trip to Boston and Arisia. Boston kicked off splendidly with a trip to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. On the way, we ran across a terrific hurdy-gurdy player in the train station who proved to be the famed Donald Heller of the Hurdy-Gurdy Band. We didn't know he was famed, precisely, at first, but we had acquired a taste for the hurdy-gurdy when we went to the late, lamented Nordic Roots Festivals at the Cedar Cultural Center. And he's very good and very charming and we geeked about hurdy-gurdies and such and bought a CD. Good stuff!
From there, we went on to the Museum, where a nice man stopped us on the steps and handed us two tickets to the Museum, thereby saving us $50. He said it was too crowded for him that day and was headed for quieter pastures so we got to celebrate part of our 22nd anniversary trotting around a lovely museum. Amongst our discoveries, actress Sara Bernhardt was also a sculptor! This is a fabulous self-portrait of herself as a sphinx.
After that, we were off to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, with its glorious interior courtyard. Lovely furniture, art, tapestries and other sundry pretty things to look at, plus a nice cafe and good gift shop. Definitely going back there again next time we're in town. Then we went back to the con, and things went awry for a bit (see next post).
Saturday's panel on Founding Mothers of SF and F went pretty well. We covered a lot of genre territory, from Mry Shelley and Margaret Cavendish to the Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain to Shirley Jackson, Zenna Henderson, Naomi Mitchison, Octavia Butler, Elizabeth Lynn, Angela Carter, Marge Piercy, Joanna Russ and others. The audience was very involved and interested so there were a lot of good additions and questions. I went on to a very entertaining talk on bad cover art while Jana went on to various art programs. After that, I tracked down the fine folks at the Broad Universe table and roamed around with one of my friends. Then Jana and I wrapped up our evening by enjoying dinner at a local restaurant with author Jude McLaughlin and her lovely wife. And we got back to the hotel in time for the Worldcon 75 (Helsinki) Party and I got to meet Crystal Huff and we both sampled reindeer pate and pine tar soda, as you do.
Sunday was miscellaneous stuff, then lunch with the fabulous Julia Rios, followed by a very nice party/discussion for the Outer Alliance. I haven't had the opportunity to sit around with a group of queer-identified folks of different ages and backgrounds and identities and chat. Plus, there were really good munchies. Sacchi Green gives good party, just saying. And we got to hang more over dinner after that.
The masquerade was impressive (we watched it on TV) and the rest of our time was spent working on sundry projects until we had to head home. Overall, people were pleasant, the programming we went to was decent to good and the hotel was quite nice.
In the next post, I'll talk a bit about what didn't go as well.
From there, we went on to the Museum, where a nice man stopped us on the steps and handed us two tickets to the Museum, thereby saving us $50. He said it was too crowded for him that day and was headed for quieter pastures so we got to celebrate part of our 22nd anniversary trotting around a lovely museum. Amongst our discoveries, actress Sara Bernhardt was also a sculptor! This is a fabulous self-portrait of herself as a sphinx.
After that, we were off to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, with its glorious interior courtyard. Lovely furniture, art, tapestries and other sundry pretty things to look at, plus a nice cafe and good gift shop. Definitely going back there again next time we're in town. Then we went back to the con, and things went awry for a bit (see next post).
Saturday's panel on Founding Mothers of SF and F went pretty well. We covered a lot of genre territory, from Mry Shelley and Margaret Cavendish to the Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain to Shirley Jackson, Zenna Henderson, Naomi Mitchison, Octavia Butler, Elizabeth Lynn, Angela Carter, Marge Piercy, Joanna Russ and others. The audience was very involved and interested so there were a lot of good additions and questions. I went on to a very entertaining talk on bad cover art while Jana went on to various art programs. After that, I tracked down the fine folks at the Broad Universe table and roamed around with one of my friends. Then Jana and I wrapped up our evening by enjoying dinner at a local restaurant with author Jude McLaughlin and her lovely wife. And we got back to the hotel in time for the Worldcon 75 (Helsinki) Party and I got to meet Crystal Huff and we both sampled reindeer pate and pine tar soda, as you do.
Sunday was miscellaneous stuff, then lunch with the fabulous Julia Rios, followed by a very nice party/discussion for the Outer Alliance. I haven't had the opportunity to sit around with a group of queer-identified folks of different ages and backgrounds and identities and chat. Plus, there were really good munchies. Sacchi Green gives good party, just saying. And we got to hang more over dinner after that.
The masquerade was impressive (we watched it on TV) and the rest of our time was spent working on sundry projects until we had to head home. Overall, people were pleasant, the programming we went to was decent to good and the hotel was quite nice.
In the next post, I'll talk a bit about what didn't go as well.