Sometimes a cigar is just a doutnik

Typepad seems to be really acting up, so I will post this to LJ as well. It's a report of sorts, of last weekends Parcon.

--

I’m back from Plzen and Parcon. And let me tell you, I had fun. Parcon is the Czech and Slovak national SF-convention. Named after the very first such occasion in 1982 which was (or should I say were, as the first few were) held in Pardubice, then Czechoslovakia, now Slovakia.

This year the gathering took place in Plzen, which is the world famous home of pilsner, namely Urquell, pretty much one of the proper kings of beer. Plzen is the 4^th biggest city in Czech Republic and has about a) 30-50 000, b) 150 000 or c) 300 000 inhabitants. These were the figures we got from three different local fen. The one closest to actual number of about 170 000 was the young femmefan, Teresa, who was also Hal Duncan’s minder.

Yes, Parcon had Guests of Honour! Hal Duncan, Jeff and Ann VanderMeer (special guest), Ian R. MacLeod and Les Edwards/Edward Miller were all there, nicely fitting to the theme of the con: New Weird. Fancy me going to a con where focus is on new weird? What this really meant, was that every GoH had a presentation called “New Weird”, where they pretty much did what they wanted: read fiction, gave interviews, gave a speech and so on.

( Longish ramble )

This was a good con. Not great, but interesting and fun. As always, Jeff, Ann and Hal were great Guests and we hanged a lot with the, maybe too much? If I’d been a Czech, I might’ve taken offense that the bloody foreigners come and steal Our GoH’s! But I might be wrong, too. It seemed like most of the Czechs were more than happy to be among themselves and get the autograph and listen to the GoH-interviews etc. They didn’t try to chat with Hal or Jeff, and Ghu knows, those guys are willing to talk to anyone, about anything!

Thanks Peter and all the rest of you guys& gals! Marta, Jolana, Tomas, Pagi, Lukas and the Unpronouncable (hope to see you some day at the Rally Finland)! I enjoyed this a great deal!