The Vandercon tour culminated in the Tähtivaeltaja Day minicon, held in Helsinki this Saturday. Twelwe hours of fantastical programming, starting with more serious panel discussions on new sf trends, translating sf, etc. and gradually gearing towards the more silly side of underwater nazi zombies, quiz shows, and comics karaoke.
The GoH of Vandercon, and Tähtivaeltaja Day, were of course Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. Happily discussing books, authors, writing, weird, the weird, odd (or was it the odd?), squid, mushrooms, bears, and other weird tales, Ann and Jeff had spent the week touring Finland, but were still lovely as always.
Before Ann & Jeff’s cryo couch interview, Jukka and Juha interrupted the program for a quick announcement.
Jeff had been taunted for the whole week about having to give a repeat performance of his interpretative dance. You can see from his expression he was expecting the worst.
However, Juha started talking about the hockey team in their home town of Tallahassee. And not the one they had heard about before…
…but the Tallahassee Tentacles! The team shirts feature a gorgeous logo designed by Ninni Aalto.
The very familiar star players of the team.
The Weird fiction today panel
After navigating the maze of twisting passages to find the basement of the basement, the Domus Academica was a pretty good place for a minicon such as this. The program room was just large enough, there was enough room to hang out and talk with friends, and the bar prices were extremely wallet friendly.
The program items that I managed to catch were very good. The “sell a book” contest was once again extremely entertaining; poor Jeff had to read aloud an excerpt of a book… in Finnish. He did very well, considering. The quiz show was pretty unusual this time: you got points for correct answers, and the team with the most points actually won the game. Jeff got shanghaied into once again practicing his Finnish. In the tight match between Finland proper and the rest of Finland, the team comprising Shimo and me was victorious. And there were actual prices too. Yay us!
After a great day catching up with friends, discussing much science fiction, fandom, and plenty of other things, smoking a couple of doutniks in good company, and general merriment, it was time to say teary-eyed goodbyes, send the guests home, and go catch some sleep. A big hand to the organizers of the day—the con was a success and I had a blast! And once again huge thanks also to Ann and Jeff, tirelessly traveling to educate and entertain. You guys are the best!
Go Tentacles!
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