Silliness. No Harm In It, Right?
Oct. 13th, 2008 10:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fangrrl_squeesI've been reading Blog for Gallifrey and, inevitably, got to thinking about little landmarks in my fannisih life.
There's not too many of them, really.
My first fandom was Doctor Who. Being a kid in the 1970s in England, with a sci-fi fan for a father, it was inevitable. Blakes 7 and The Hitch Hikers' Guide To the Galaxy followed soon thereafter, but Doctor Who was there first.
I wrote my first fanfic when I was 13. Of course it was a Doctor Who story. It was something painfully contrived featuring the Fifth Doctor and an alliance between The Master and the Daleks. Actually, not all that contrived, in hindsight - hm. I even posted it on line, on some long-lost Prodigy Online forum. Any record of it is long gone and, for that, I'm both grateful and a little sad.
The first SF fanclub I joined: DWFCA. I stayed with them 'til the bitter end. Indeed, I came within a hair's breadth of offering to take over the Whovian Times or whatever the newsletter was called - as an online project, on my own nickel - but my mother got wind of the idea and talked me out of it. In hindsight, this was a very smart thing for her to do. I might have been bright when I was 14, but I wasn't that bright. Nor was fandom quite ready for an online-only newsletter in 1987 or whenever it was...
My first convention - well, the first convention I chose to attend, rather than being taken to because dad couldn't find a sitter - was the infamous Biting the Hand That Feeds You Creation/PBS sponsored tour featuring Colin Baker. Weathersfield, Connecticut I think it was. It was a typical Creation event: just the star, a meager dealers' room and an autograph line, but I loved it. My dad was boggled by Baker's behavior when he spoke - he tore into the Beeb pretty hard - and rightly predicted that Baker and the BBC would be parting ways sooner rather than later. That event featured, of course, the first autograph I acquired. Believe it or not, I found it just the other day, buried in a box in the storage shed. That was a nice little surprise.
The first SF costume I wore, I bartered for. I didn't make it. It was a middle-of-the-run Star Trek TNG rig in gold/black. I loved it to bits, but the bloody sempster thought it would be 'funny' to make it fit me very snugly, so I didn't have it for long. I think I gave it away to some skinny wench, in the end...
The first SF costume I made for myself was a Bajoran uniform from DS9, in dark green. It was fairly awful but, heck, I was still 120lbs and stacked in all the right places in those days. I don't remember any complaints. Then again, given that I first wore at at a convention (in hip, happening Visalia - think Fresno without the nightlife) that coincided with my 21st birthday, I don't remember much of anything, that weekend. This was also the first time I made the mistake of trying to keep up, drink for drink, with a media pro. Ow. (You'd think I'd learn...)
The first time I made a complete ass of myself in front of a convention guest was upon meeting Paul Cornell at Gallifrey One in 2007. Before then, I generally didn't go within a hundred feet of con guests - I was too self-conscious and you can quit laughing, any time. Fortunately, Mr. Cornell was a luv and didn't back away slowly whilst wishing for tear gas. I, er, squee'd a bit, you see... It was all a bit embarrassing, but I simply lost it for a second. Well, three seconds. Five at the most.
Come to think of it, Gally 18 was the first time I realized that the little dears - er, convention guests - are generally nice, regular folks, too. Enlightenment comes to us all, eventually. Heh.
There's not too many of them, really.
My first fandom was Doctor Who. Being a kid in the 1970s in England, with a sci-fi fan for a father, it was inevitable. Blakes 7 and The Hitch Hikers' Guide To the Galaxy followed soon thereafter, but Doctor Who was there first.
I wrote my first fanfic when I was 13. Of course it was a Doctor Who story. It was something painfully contrived featuring the Fifth Doctor and an alliance between The Master and the Daleks. Actually, not all that contrived, in hindsight - hm. I even posted it on line, on some long-lost Prodigy Online forum. Any record of it is long gone and, for that, I'm both grateful and a little sad.
The first SF fanclub I joined: DWFCA. I stayed with them 'til the bitter end. Indeed, I came within a hair's breadth of offering to take over the Whovian Times or whatever the newsletter was called - as an online project, on my own nickel - but my mother got wind of the idea and talked me out of it. In hindsight, this was a very smart thing for her to do. I might have been bright when I was 14, but I wasn't that bright. Nor was fandom quite ready for an online-only newsletter in 1987 or whenever it was...
My first convention - well, the first convention I chose to attend, rather than being taken to because dad couldn't find a sitter - was the infamous Biting the Hand That Feeds You Creation/PBS sponsored tour featuring Colin Baker. Weathersfield, Connecticut I think it was. It was a typical Creation event: just the star, a meager dealers' room and an autograph line, but I loved it. My dad was boggled by Baker's behavior when he spoke - he tore into the Beeb pretty hard - and rightly predicted that Baker and the BBC would be parting ways sooner rather than later. That event featured, of course, the first autograph I acquired. Believe it or not, I found it just the other day, buried in a box in the storage shed. That was a nice little surprise.
The first SF costume I wore, I bartered for. I didn't make it. It was a middle-of-the-run Star Trek TNG rig in gold/black. I loved it to bits, but the bloody sempster thought it would be 'funny' to make it fit me very snugly, so I didn't have it for long. I think I gave it away to some skinny wench, in the end...
The first SF costume I made for myself was a Bajoran uniform from DS9, in dark green. It was fairly awful but, heck, I was still 120lbs and stacked in all the right places in those days. I don't remember any complaints. Then again, given that I first wore at at a convention (in hip, happening Visalia - think Fresno without the nightlife) that coincided with my 21st birthday, I don't remember much of anything, that weekend. This was also the first time I made the mistake of trying to keep up, drink for drink, with a media pro. Ow. (You'd think I'd learn...)
The first time I made a complete ass of myself in front of a convention guest was upon meeting Paul Cornell at Gallifrey One in 2007. Before then, I generally didn't go within a hundred feet of con guests - I was too self-conscious and you can quit laughing, any time. Fortunately, Mr. Cornell was a luv and didn't back away slowly whilst wishing for tear gas. I, er, squee'd a bit, you see... It was all a bit embarrassing, but I simply lost it for a second. Well, three seconds. Five at the most.
Come to think of it, Gally 18 was the first time I realized that the little dears - er, convention guests - are generally nice, regular folks, too. Enlightenment comes to us all, eventually. Heh.
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no subject
Date: 2008-10-14 05:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-14 06:15 am (UTC)There was another fan there that he had desperately been trying to avoid and extricate himself from that was in our vicinity. It totally wasn't You he was Backing Away Slowly from.
no subject
Date: 2008-10-14 01:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-14 01:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-14 02:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-14 03:54 pm (UTC)Paul was flatteringly nice about the incident, bless 'im.
(and that reminds me about something I have to set up for Chicago. Heh.)
no subject
Date: 2008-10-14 02:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-14 03:55 pm (UTC)