Thursday, August 03, 2006

Mafia Evening

Mafia seemed a bit slow at first—I thought that the Fantasy Feast which starts tomorrow had perhaps taken its toll on participants. It turned out a couple of regulars were setting the feast up, but quite a lot of folk came nonetheless. It was hot in the bar, so we had to drink lots of fluids to keep cool.

A natural topic for discussion tonight was, of course, Finncon. The program book has been published, and quite a book it is too! 64 pages, with the program, introductions of the guests, some background on sf and fandom, a (very) brief history of Finncons and short stories by Jeff VanderMeer and Justina Robson. Wow! I really liked the way they had brought out the themes of the con, with excerpts of the associated program items put together. And the very funny “meaning of Isomäki”—explanations of many familiar-sounding terms in the vein of The Meaning of Liff. Did you know, for example, that a bester is “a book that is advertised as a nominee for an obscure award; also used of a book that has blurbs by complete unknowns,” or that clute means, “a blow instrument band put together impromptu after a night of heavy drinking,” or robson, “a drink that nobody has claimed and thus anybody can take for themselves”?

Many ideas for future fandom activities were thrown around, for example to be used at the book fair (held in October). Some obligatory YouTube mentions were made (such as Darth Smartass and Vader Sessions) before degenerating into British and Japanese quiz shows. There was also a new issue of the mafia zine, with info about upcoming events, some Finncon stuff and a review of Keeping It Real by Justina Robson.

I had to leave early today, so I hope everybody fills in the comments the parts I missed!

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