w00t! Wiscon day 1

In hotel. In Madison. c 3.40 am my time and been travelling since 10.30am. Slightly wiped:)

But all v smooth. Immigration at Minneapolis is paradise compared to JFK - I was thru in c 10-15 mins. Even retrieving back, customs, and going through security again was ok. And what did I first see but a TEQUILERIA!! With Gran Centenario, Guy!! (But actually I had a strawberry margarit and a chalupa con barbacoa.) NW Plane turned out to be small and bijou - with per-seat not only videos ( saw Jumpers which wasn't half as bad as everyone said)but also games so I spent a happy hour remebering how to win at Bejeweled. You coukd even send email at $2.50 a pop!! I resisted, but only because I couldn't face unearthing my credit card.. Also was sat next to someone who was apparently UK and Europe no 1 at some kinda post-speedway motor cycling sport - you do it on dirt courses in parks?? Apparently I should have heard of him - Pete? Liam? - but was very amiable (and off to race tomorrow in St Louis. He trains during the week with the guy who's going to win at Isle of Man apparently..)

And,now having unpacked and found water and been hugged by sevral people who I'm not TOTALLY sure who they are, it occurs to me - it's 20 years, near as dammit , since I first came to the US in 1988, with Christina, on our TAFF trip, when we marvelled at the miracle of being in the mythical transatlantic world and got pissed on v cheap wine.

But 20 years on, America STILL never fails to give me a buzz:)

Madison

Awaiting thai noodles, in sun . With Tsingtao beer. Already bought black chinos, purple , black and green tops for almost nothing. I love America.:-) next: actual convention!

Fri 23/05/2008 18:07 23052008207

Only in America

Suzy McKee Charnas has read my tarot. It still read just what it always says when I do it tho :( However Suzy's approach to tarot was kinda different than mine. She abhorred the Rider_Waite pack with all it's detail and fussiness of meaning. "I just pull meanings out the air" she said expansively, turning over the 6 of Pentacles. "Look - that's the card of unearned gains, of trickery. What does that mean?"

"Well plucking a meaning out the air," I say, "it means I got work to pay for my trip to Wiscon.."

Over at the BPAL stall, cynthia1960 was displaying for our olfactory pleasure her vast collection of cutely labelled perfumes from Black Phoenix Alchemy. There was a series of cute bottles based on Neil Gaiman novels, several based on maths and physic problems (Schrodinger's cat in art deco) and various on B movie riffs. I marvelled at how cunningly they'd found a market niche which combined geek obsessions, perfumerie and relentless collect-the-set-ism. I wished I was on the Apprentice right now and could copy this as a branding opportunity for the UK. Bearing in mind my Tarot reading, I took a free sample of Fallen, and Love Lies Bleeding. You can't be too deep when there aren't many freebies left.

Wisocn appears to be in some parallel universe to all the cons I've ever been to in the last 20 years. Not only do i hardly recognise any of the names of panellists - hell there are British fans here I swear I've never seen or heard of! Perhaps I've gone through some Philip Pullmanesque window into a feminist knitting convention where everyone has daemons shaped like cats? Everywhere there are cookies. But where is Spike??

I think I need more sleep :-)