Day 5

[kayshapero]

Relatively cool weather nice while it lasted - it's warmed up again. Still not as bad as day 1 though.

Went to the Charity Auction today. There were several auctioneers, including same guy who was at the Maskerade - alas, I still don't know his name though he's brilliant, Bernard Pearson (aka The Cunning Artificer)and others. There were lots of books, mostly but not all Terry's; there were other autographed books as well by folks present (Esther Friesner) and not (Neil Gaiman), also Discworld stamps and first day covers and all those nifty stamp collector thingies: apparently these are legitimate stamps (though you can't mail anything with them off the Discworld) and traded by stamp collectors and such. There was also an entire sheet of what are usually called printer's errors, though in this case the artist (the Artificer himself) put the wrong flag on a set of stamps issued in honor of the convention. It was supposed to be an American flag, and instead it... wasn't (I didn't get a close enough look to see what he DID use). I gather this thing is scary valuable; goodness knows it went for a lot. Not being into stamps, I stayed out of this one.

Upon rereading, I realize this post is kinda large even for my recent ones, so I'm sticking the rest of the text as well as some pictures behind a LJ cut.


There were a number of movie props, mostly from the upcoming Going Postal, notably posters and things. There was also a "gold" rhinu used in The Color of Magic (one of a handful - the mass in the Luggage was one-sided plastic) that went for an amount that would’ve been impressive if it had actually BEEN gold. Nearly the silliest lot was from Color of Magic, mostly because of the story attached. One scene in Color of Magic took place on a road, which was modern and paved, but which was covered over with bits of tanbark or something like that to disguise this. The MC (the one whose name I don't recall.) had picked up a couple hands full and decided they would make a good lot for the Charity Auction, complete with a “Soil from the Homeland” Box.

So far, so good. Of course if he was to bring plant material all the way from Great Britain to Arizona, there were some formalities to be observed. Hence the stack of forms on top of the box, starting with an affidavit from the source of the bark as to its composition (spruce), an import license for the item in question, various forms from various places for various things all of which had me - and everybody else for that matter - laughing FAR too hard to make note of the exact details. Then, of course, there was actually GETTING them here. He made up three packets, then mailed one of them to a committee member a two or three months before the con. He waited awhile, then mailed the second (from a second post office) to a different committee member. He brought the third packet with him. This, of course meant having to get it past airport security who for some odd reason didn’t quite seem to comprehend exactly what he was doing and why. The delay nearly made him miss his connecting flight. It went for a fairish amount, and a delighted cry of "It’s out of my life at last!" I hope whoever bought it is a local.

Someone else donated a jar of honest to Vermont maple syrup. There was a Thud game set which was won by the little girl sitting next to me (ok, technically it was her parents, but...). There was a knitted throw with Discworld sayings on it. There was a huge basket of lavender bath goodies, potpourri and things that I bid on myself until I realized there was noplace in the car to put it in when driving back. There were the various standup figures that were around the convention (including The Luggage seen in my last post). There were various table decorations like a really priceless Death on a motorcycle, animated, playing rock music; a most awesome object. Last and... silliest... yeah, I guess that's the word... A friend of Terry's (I think actually it was Bernard but I could be wrong) had been talking to him at a table, and when they got up noticed that Terry had sat on a leaf. Anybody else would have taken no note, but Our Hero scooped up the leaf, traced the outline on a card, wrote "Terry's bum was here", put it with the leaf and donated it to the auction! Hey, it was for charity and this was the absolute last item up.. it went for $25.

I finished out the evening by going to the Discworld Filk circle. Turned out to be a bardic circle, sing-along with the result that I sang for almost an hour and a half until it occurred to me that I probably shouldn't this soon after my vocal troubles. I guess my throat is working again. Next, vocal lessons: I want to get rid of some bad habits I seem to have picked up. No, not singing at filksings. :)

Sorry folks, no new pictures today, you'll have to settle for some older ones. I'm beginning to fold a mite.

Here's a shot of some of the winners at the Seamstress Guild party.



Left to right, Cheery Littlebottom in a dress(!), Twoflower, The Bursar, Nanny Ogg and Terry Pratchett waltzing about the stage (this was taken during the presentation of her ribbon), Moist Lipvig, and Adora Belle.

And not to leave out the rest of the winners:


Left to right, The Death of Rats, a Nac Mac Feegle kelda, and of course Nanny Ogg with wine in hand and cigar in mouth. Oh, and Terry Pratchett crossing in front of them to present another award.

Last but not least, since the Luggage isn't in either shot, here's Twoflower walking onstage with it.



G'night, all!