So it’s been a while since I’ve even opened my LJ’s pages and follow up on what people are doing.
Over the past 2 days I have done just that, and it’s fun to watch things develop and happen, things that I had no idea about, no clue and then try to piece together reality again.
I did not make it to iCon this year, for a couple of reasons, which I won’t elaborate on here. If you know why, good for you.
I did, in fact, miss seeing everyone, even though I got a post-con visit from a couple of friends who particularly missed me. That was pleasant.
Thanks to the technology of this Internet thingie, a lot of people have posted pictures and videos, but I don’t know if anyone has seen this one. And yes, I do believe the main focus silhouette is .
It is my feeling that the annual iCon Festival has turned into jsut that. It is no longer a “convention” – where like-minded people convene and meet and discuss, explore and disagree loudly about any topic under the sun. (Yes, I’m sure this still happens, but is no longer the focus.) It is a full-blown commercialized event, and is now a film festival, like we don’t have any of those ever.
My image of iCon was a large meeting of people from different backgrounds, different streams of life, different preferences of entertainment media and genres, and a common place where one can be exposed to more that what they are used to, other sides of a similar or dissimilar concept, a place that no matter how weird you are, there’s bound to be someone weirder right around the corner.
Some of you remember the early con’s. Some of you were there, active and kicking to make it bigger, better. The sheer amount of background chatter I have heard about the pre-con preparation, the suring-con stuff, and not much of post-con issues have been written about yet, make me wonder wht the future will bring. For the past 2-3 years, the organizations have been struggling to find people that will take on the enourmous responsibility of running such an event. It seems to pretty much everyone that no matter what, at least one person will continue to be a major part of the game. Is this a good thing? Yes and no. Experience teaches you a lot, but once a bad habit has set in, it’s much harder to break.
I don’t know where this rant is going. All I know is that I used to be a major player and I am in no longer. I can sleep easier, but there’s a certain amount of “oomph” that seems lacking.
WTF.