Steamcon 2009 - PART 2

Woke up, grabbed some breakfast at the hotel restaurant, and then headed to Saturday's first panel...

Saturday
9-10 a.m.
Gentle Art of Modding
Anthony Jon Hicks, (artist) Moderator
Jake Von Slatt

Anthony and Jake traded a mixed slide presentation of their work. A lot of Anthony's examples included modified candle stick holders, merged with incense holders, and ringed metal bearing sets (called a runner) to make stylish weapons.

Jake shared some details into a modded Strat guitar, going through the copper plating process he used. He also displayed a tricked out tube guitar amp, a project for violinist Nathaniel Johnstone of Abney Park. (Nathan was in attendance to listen in on the panel...I think to also make sure the amp got safely back to the band's equipment stash, probably under lock and key on some high atmospheric zeppelin station set to make their Air Invasion on Seattle that evening!)

Jake also went into some topics surrounding:
- Use of copper sulfate solution
- Green art, Electro chemical tools
- Etching
- Using Boing Boing to distribute information and pictures
- And some supply/sources , mentioning Sequential Glass, Crylon Paint (color Crystal Clear) for aging, Tomiya models/paints, E6000 Adhesive, and Homer Formby's products.

10-11 a.m.
Girl Genius Radio Theatre (on the web at girlgeniusonline.com)
with Phil and Kaja Foglio, Cheyenne Wright, and five audience volunteer cast members

Cast
(also see their web page of full cast members, here)
Girl Volunteer #1 - Zola "Heterodyne"
Kaja Foglio - Agatha Heterodyne, "SCIENCE!"
Cheyenne Wright - Othar Tryggvassen, "Gentleman Adventurer!"
Girl Volunteer #2 - ...can't recall her name I was laughing so much.
Girl Volunteer #3 - Vocal special effects person. Gotta have FX!
Guy Volunteer #1 - Krosp I--Emperor of all Cats
Guy Volunteer #2 (Dave from Ontario) - Narrator
Phil Foglio - Various and sundry monster rabbits and killer robots "Bizzzzt" (Robot sound)

This panel session was probably the most fun portion of the Con, due to its lively format--the audience participating and listening in to a simulated radio broadcast series of skits--complete with eight voice actors and special effects.

At the beginning of the panel, Phil, Kaja, and Cheyenne worked with the packed room audience to employee a handful of voice voluteers to come up front and participate in the Girl Genius Radio Theatre. Reading scripts were provided. A Narrator was initially chosen from our audience and the guy was absolutely fantastic. (Later that evening I had a chance to chat for a few minutes with the person, Dave, and he explained he did a lot of radio in college, up in Ontario, Canada.)

During the panel session, the radio troupe performed two full episodes from the series. The thing I found hilarious was every time Agatha Heterodyne (voiced by Kaja Foglio) was mentioned by name, Kaja would passionately ball her fist and evoke the word, "SCIENCE!" And whenever Othar Tryggvassen's (voiced by Cheyenne Wright) name was stated, the whole audience would voice out, "Gentleman Adventurer!"

Episodes performed:
1. *Some episode that (to me) introduced the characters, me not being familiar with the story at all!
2. Revenge of the Weasel Queen

I highly recommend taking some time to go check out GirlGeniusOnline.com. You can listen to recorded podcasts (audio recordings) of these shows by going to the Radio Theatre link, here.

After recovering from so much laughing, I grabbed some lunch and spent the afternoon browsing the vendor and art display areas, finally settling on some items to buy for some friends.

A few vendors I bought some items from:
Velvet Garden (see their necklaces)
Studio Foglio
Sarah Dungan

- - - As the sun went down - - -
Later on, after a short nap and dinner, I headed over (about 8 PM) to the lo-o-o-o-ng line awaiting the doors to open for the Airship Invasion concert, featuring Unwoman, Vernian Process, and Abney Park. Directly behind me, I struck up what turned out to be an all evening long chat/conversation with three folks from the Washington and Idaho states. (You must understand when people can get together and talk about Dungeons & Dragons, Society for Creative Anachronisms, period costume designs, and sling out Monty Python/Star Trek/Blade Runner/ and other notable cult classic quotes, you get a sense you are part of the world-wide tribe of the profound.)

A clip from the concert, from Capt. Robert's blog pointed to Youtube. "The Wrong Side"

Two of my favorite songs Abney Park performed are: Airship Pirate and Stigmata Martyr. (links go to Youtube.)

Called it a day around 1 a.m. (Sunday)