Thanks for Playing

Lisa and I had tickets for Saturday night's performance of Thanks for Playing the Game Show Show at the Retrodome, so we skipped Saturday night of BayCon and instead headed out to see the play. As many of you know, I was one of the on-stage contestants (five audience members participate in the play as contestants) in an early "preview" performance of the show. I was interested in seeing what adjustments they'd made to the play. Lisa was interested in seeing it for the first time, but her severe tinnitus makes her terrified of anything that makes noise, because anything can set off her ear and make things worse. She enjoyed some of the play, but indeed the sound was just enormously bad for her and basically she had to hold her hands over her ears much of the play to muffle it just enough to keep from being driven mad with sound overload. Within that severe restriction, she liked what parts she could hear. I had a good time as well, aside from my worry over Lisa's hearing.

I didn't realize that they use different Match Game-style questions for each performance, as they asked the contestants different questions than the ones I had during my turn on stage.

After the show, I was able to make up for missing my photo opportunity from my previous appearance, as Lisa, trying to recover her hearing, was able to snap this photo.

( With your host, Tripp MacMurray! )

Lisa, her ears vaguely returning to what passes for normal with her, took the opportunity as we left to thank the technical crew for their work making the magic happen, which in this case included co-Producer Scott Guggenheim. She did express her continued worry about our ECM-51A microphone, including the fact that the cord had tied itself in a knot during this performance. Although it's only used as a prop during this show, it is of course an important functional part of our own Match Game SF shows (which we expect to return in 2013 in Sacramento at least) and we want it to return in working order.

It's very sad that Lisa's hearing makes it really difficult or impossible for her to really enjoy these shows as much as she would like to do. We both appreciated the acting and hard work that went into making this show a fun evening for all concerned. Lead Sharon Guggenheim said at the end of the show that next weekend's performance is the last of what they're calling the "workshop" stage, and that they intend to retool it and bring it back for another run later this year. I look forward to seeing it a third time, which will make only the second stage production I've seen more than twice live on stage. (The other is 1776.)

Medical Time Out

Lisa has had a minor infection in her foot for some time now, but last night it started getting worse. It wasn't bad enough to need a visit to the ER, but by this morning, she decided it was bad enough to require a visit to Urgent Care.

( Possible TMI warning )

Because of the time we had to spend at PAMF today, I was unable to attend my scheduled 1 PM panel at BayCon about the Future of Westercon. When we finally did get to the convention, I went and apologized to Programming and to the other panelists, but nobody faulted us for having a family medical emergency.

BayCon Day 3

After our unwanted medical adventure, Lisa really wasn't up to much more than sitting at a table with her foot propped up — doctor's orders. So we spent the rest of the afternoon behind the Westercon 66 table talking to people about Sacramento and Westercon.

( Kuma Bear helps Lisa sell memberships )

The Fan Tables area had pretty good traffic, and we saw many people in costume. I was a little slow on the draw for most of them however, except for this lovely girl who stopped long enough to let me take a photo.

( Thank you, Alex )

Most of the fan tables closed out around 4:30 or 5, but Lisa and I, having little better to do, hung around until 7, after which we closed up shop. I took our stuff out to the van, and we had dinner in the bar, since you can order from the main restaurant menu from there and you can sit out in the open and socialize with people as they passed, which we did.

After dinner we headed up to the "Ordinary Hotel Room" where we were seeking "Agent 66," the shadowy agent we were told had something to to with Westercon in Sacramento. There had been room party flyers up insisting that Room 336 was an "ordinary hotel room," and there Westercon 66 had the room decorated with signs reassuring everyone that "This is an ordinary hotel phone," "this is an ordinary wall," and, least convincingly, "this is an ordinary bartender" next to Kevin Roche's ThinBot, a martini-mixing robot. (The name is inspired by the "Thin Man" films.) As usual with Kevin and Andy's parties, the place was packed, and while I enjoyed it (and ThinBot is really cool, even for a non-drinker like me), I had to flee across the hall to the less-crowded Fanzine Lounge. Lisa, who is more allergic to crowds than me, had already done so. We hung about for a while, talking with all comers and enjoying ourselves, but about 10:30 or we made our way out of the hotel and back to the Atrium Gardens.

Once again as I approached home, we saw people in anime costumes having just disembarked from light rail at Gish Station. We gave the girls the thumbs-up sign as we passed them, although I don't know if they saw. I helped Lisa out of the van and we turned in for the night.

It's a lot more work commuting to the convention, even when it's only a short distance. We'll be back over at BayCon tomorrow to help staff the table, but not necessarily very early.