Con Report: LaLaCon - Raiders of the Lost LaLa

This con is a 2-day relaxicon at the LASFS clubhouse, and this was the 9th
running. The title of the Con implies the theme - Our co-chair is a real
working achaeologist Dr. Susan "Arizona" Gleason.

GoHs were:
Karen Anderson (Philthy Pro)
Obi-Shawn Crosby (Artist and Star Wars fan)
Brett Achorn (Fan-boy)

Panels I went to:

"Lost Treasures of SF", where the majority (including me!) wanted the
Winston Juveniles reprinted.

"Fictionados readings" - the Fictionados are the writer's group that meets
at the clubhouse every monday. This was their first actual reading, since
they always do their critiques in writing and then discuss them.

"Ancient Cooking" where Karen Anderson displayed her cooking skill and
explained where most authors get their medieval food wrong. She provided us
with the world's oldest written recipe (from the Sumerian Cuniform), and
provided a Lentil dish made with the three basic flavor agents - onins,
leeks and garlic. very yummy. Dr. Arizona provided info on the feeding
habits of Northern California precolumbian indians (her specialty).

"What would you pack for an expedition?", where half of the panel time was
spent deciding what type of expedition it was - finally, it was decided that
it would be on an extra-solar planet - first landing. I (gasp!) volunteered
to be part of this panel (broken into two parts) for Loscon:
Part 1: the audience is given the parameters of the planet, and as the
sponsoring Goverment (or corporation) must choose the landing site and come
up with a list of what the explorers will take with them. Part 2: The
audience is the landing team - they have to face what the planet offer with
whatever the first audience chose as their equipment. Anything not on the
list will be unavailable, unless they can build it in some fashion.

Brett Achorn's panel was a game, where teams from the audience go through
the steps necessary to create an anmated movie. This is right up his
alley - his day job is an animation director at Disney.

The highlight for Day 1 was the annual chili cook-off. For the fifth time,
my chili came in second (always the bridesmaid) - but the big pot of chili
dissapeared faster than any other, so I must done somethng right.

The highlight for Day 2 was the banquet, where Indiana Jones style
mideastern food was served (there werre no monkey brains involved). The
kabobs were delicious.

A lot of fun was had - I thouroughly enjoyed myself!

--
---Mike---
Agent of the dancing barbarians (+apprentice)
Member of the Guild of Free Pedants
High priest of liquer-filled chocococolates