Another year, another ICFA ....
Mar. 23rd, 2007 12:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
d_aulnoyI'm late updating this year, I know. I blame this entirely on the process of getting-a-job, finishing-a-dissertation, teaching, etc. It feels like a juggling act involving working flamethrowers and ripe pomegranates and live peacocks and sharp damascene blades - all things that I adore, but not necessarily things that go well together, if you see what I mean. In that blend, LJ is the pomegranate: liable to expire, but not necessaily apt to turn on me.
ICFA was, as always, glorious, despite, not only the removal of the Glorious Tropical Booze-Hut (see entries from past years - apparently, they are now transforming it into showers), but also the substitution of salt for chlorine in both the pool and hot-tub: this resulted in at least one apocryphal (well, don't get me wrong, I trust my source, but it literally is "friend of a friend") story of someone who had once swam in a salt-infused pool, only to have an otherwise innocuous shaving nick swell into an ominous cluster of gangrenous blisters. So, alas, I avoided the watery deeps in favor of the panels.
And, what panels they were! I attended some really gorgeous papers/panels - on Alison Bechdel, and Tony Stark (a.k.a. Iron Man - the line that has made me want to veer from my otherwise total X-fidelity is the (probably misquoted) "I don't know if you dislike me for my wealth, my intelligence, or my overwhelming good looks ... but I'm not apologizing for any of them), on "Battlestar Galactica"(which I do not watch, but which had paper titles good enough to lure me in), on representations of Gypsiness (unfortunately, I mistimed on this one - teach *me* to think that I can make a paper as opposed to a panel, even if it *does* start at 8:30 - and the discussion really was worth the early rising time), on good girls and bad women in fairy tales (I may have moderated, but it was the discussion from the audience that made it), on clever mothers and fairy godmothers ... on everything under the sun that a reader of this journal might be attracted to.
On top of all that, I got to see some of my favorite people, both new and old - to chat withvschanoes and Liz Hoeim about "The 300" before going to bed, to ponder the nature of the fantastic with swan_tower in the little tiny smoking area that I only discovered thanks to the auspices of Bryan Dietrich at the last minute (6 years! 6 years, and I never knew where this was?!?), to have countless gorgeous conversations with Judy and Mack and ombriel and A.P. by the pool, to watch prosewitch and a cohort of mysterious bellydancers out by the pool after the banquet in the company of ninja_turbo (which, seriously? surreal and magnificent and completely enticing me to take lessons in my copious spare time next year), and to make the acquaintance of heyiya at the last minute.
As always, ICFA was marvelous and thought-provoking.
Alas, I booked my flight late, just in time to catch a 7:45 flight which necessitated a rising-time of 5:00 a.m. ... just in time to get back to NYC forschrodingersgnu's next-day flight at 6:00, necessitating a rising time of 4:00 in the damned morning. It has been a week of little sleep ....
... despite which, I have graded all of my papers, finished my last chapter, and gotten excellent feedback from my advisors. Living on the edge is fun, kids ....
P.S. -papajoemambo? ROCKS. Man sent the X-Men fairy tale retelling's along with Greer Watson (one of my favorite presenter's at ICFA). I know what I'm doing, once I finish my revisions ....
P.P.S. - Did I mention that I am now one of the proud possessor's of![[info]](https://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
desayunoencama new offprints of Fairy Tales For Writers? Well, I am. Among other glorious purchases ... look for a resurrgence of reviews, coming soon to an LJ near YOU.
P.P.P.S. - It's a good life, Charlie Brown.[Unknown site tag]
ICFA was, as always, glorious, despite, not only the removal of the Glorious Tropical Booze-Hut (see entries from past years - apparently, they are now transforming it into showers), but also the substitution of salt for chlorine in both the pool and hot-tub: this resulted in at least one apocryphal (well, don't get me wrong, I trust my source, but it literally is "friend of a friend") story of someone who had once swam in a salt-infused pool, only to have an otherwise innocuous shaving nick swell into an ominous cluster of gangrenous blisters. So, alas, I avoided the watery deeps in favor of the panels.
And, what panels they were! I attended some really gorgeous papers/panels - on Alison Bechdel, and Tony Stark (a.k.a. Iron Man - the line that has made me want to veer from my otherwise total X-fidelity is the (probably misquoted) "I don't know if you dislike me for my wealth, my intelligence, or my overwhelming good looks ... but I'm not apologizing for any of them), on "Battlestar Galactica"(which I do not watch, but which had paper titles good enough to lure me in), on representations of Gypsiness (unfortunately, I mistimed on this one - teach *me* to think that I can make a paper as opposed to a panel, even if it *does* start at 8:30 - and the discussion really was worth the early rising time), on good girls and bad women in fairy tales (I may have moderated, but it was the discussion from the audience that made it), on clever mothers and fairy godmothers ... on everything under the sun that a reader of this journal might be attracted to.
On top of all that, I got to see some of my favorite people, both new and old - to chat with
vschanoes and Liz Hoeim about "The 300" before going to bed, to ponder the nature of the fantastic with swan_tower in the little tiny smoking area that I only discovered thanks to the auspices of Bryan Dietrich at the last minute (6 years! 6 years, and I never knew where this was?!?), to have countless gorgeous conversations with Judy and Mack and ombriel and A.P. by the pool, to watch prosewitch and a cohort of mysterious bellydancers out by the pool after the banquet in the company of ninja_turbo (which, seriously? surreal and magnificent and completely enticing me to take lessons in my copious spare time next year), and to make the acquaintance of heyiya at the last minute.As always, ICFA was marvelous and thought-provoking.
Alas, I booked my flight late, just in time to catch a 7:45 flight which necessitated a rising-time of 5:00 a.m. ... just in time to get back to NYC for
schrodingersgnu's next-day flight at 6:00, necessitating a rising time of 4:00 in the damned morning. It has been a week of little sleep ....... despite which, I have graded all of my papers, finished my last chapter, and gotten excellent feedback from my advisors. Living on the edge is fun, kids ....
P.S. -
papajoemambo? ROCKS. Man sent the X-Men fairy tale retelling's along with Greer Watson (one of my favorite presenter's at ICFA). I know what I'm doing, once I finish my revisions ....P.P.S. - Did I mention that I am now one of the proud possessor's of
desayunoencama new offprints of Fairy Tales For Writers? Well, I am. Among other glorious purchases ... look for a resurrgence of reviews, coming soon to an LJ near YOU.P.P.P.S. - It's a good life, Charlie Brown.[Unknown site tag]