FenCon VI in Addison: Science leaves plenty of room for the imagination

by Sarah Crisman

"Fen" is plural for "fan." That may explain why Crisman fit in so well among the sci-fi/fantasy crowd (the eight years she spent homeschooling didn't hurt, either).

ADDISON — I jumped at the chance to cover a sci-fi convention (what else would a girl possibly want to do with her Saturday?) As soon as I pulled up to the Crowne Plaza, a space pirate wandered out of the lobby. Therein began one of the longest, most amusing afternoons of my life.

The crowd was friendly, enthusiastic, and inexplicably donning bowler hats -- I guess I've just never seen so many wizards in one place before. There were plenty of witches, too. In fact, there were more women at FenCon than any given jazz concert, where the boy-girl ratio generally runs a good 6-1. We were surprised to find more pagans than Trekkies, which was interesting and perhaps explains the wealth of buxom wenches milling about, picking over the crystals and potions. It was like Diagon Alley, only with more nachos.

Fencon 2009 from Pegasusnews on Vimeo.

Having spent the late hours of the previous night reading up on Filk music in anticipation for my sci-fi afternoon, I was anxious to catch a glimpse of the sci-fi/fantasy-inspired music. A two-hour Battletech game occupied most of the afternoon, but the 7 minutes I spent in the ballroom watching a Filk band was more than enough to fully experience a cover band dressed like gypsies. (I prefer original gypsy music, honestly.) I stuck around nearly ten minutes because I didn't want to be rude to all the bowler hats. Apparently the real party didn't happen until later that night, when the bardic filk circles took over the second floor. Decorum prevents me from publishing further speculation as to what went on after the "chaos circle."

I'd like to thank the lovely conventioneers for telling me about their hobbies and quirky business models. I am slightly tempted to build a model of the Enterprise. I bought my jazz buddies a shriveled gypsy hand for good luck -- maybe a wench or two will wander over to their shows now -- or maybe they just need to play more music about Dr. Who.