Women With Refrigerators

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 23:51:42 GMT

I'd totally forgotten to call the hotel and check about the group AND AAA rates. Doh! rachel_edidin's post reminded me, so I finally did it and they said the two rate discounts don't stack and that the group rate would be the better deal anyway.

Did we ever finalize a decision on who's putting the payment in for the tekanjioliemoonseayacostumegoddess_ room?

Looking for a fourth

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:26:16 GMT

Betty, Miles, and I are still looking for a fourth roommate...anyone know of someone trustworthy and okay with co-ed living space looking for a roomshare?

What's the word on the rooming situation?

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 07:10:10 GMT

There are at least two Iris peeps who are looking to shack up with us (one of whom y'all should know: costumegoddess). I know that there was some talk of a G-W suite as well.

Since this is where we organized last year, I'm thinking it might not be a bad place to organize from this year, even if we end up having too many people to get a suite and end up going with multiple rooms.

Thoughts?

logistics

Tue, 22 May 2007 19:34:42 GMT

We should figure out when/where to meet up and how to get in touch once we arrive...

My flight comes in at 4:21 PM on Thursday, and I should be at the hotel sometime between 5:00 and 5:30. I don't have any recent photos, but I have buzzed hair with bright purple bangs, and I'll wear my extremely green CBLDF t-shirt.

My cell phone number is 503-545-8089.

Wigs for Everyone!

Tue, 01 May 2007 02:54:16 GMT

I got wigs! I'm not going to post pictures, because I want to leave them neatly packed in their boxes 'til WisCon, but suffice to say, they are damn nice. And they cost not too terribly much, which is nice, as is the fact that I got them locally and so didn't have to pay for shipping.

Andrea, I have a potential wig for you, but here's the deal: I didn't know your price range, so I wasn't sure what to look for. HOWEVER, I was there with my friend Katie, who fell madly in love with and decided to purchase an extremely Huntress-appropriate wig, which she says that you are welcome to borrow for WisCon. I went ahead and got a wig cap for you, and I can vouch for Katie's hygiene, but if the idea of wearing a borrowed wig sketches you out, I'd be happy to look for a different one--just let me know your price-range.

TWENTY-FOUR DAYS TO GO!

Final Programming Schedule

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 16:06:23 GMT

Yay! Mine's finally all fixed. And insanely busy!

Sarcasm and Superheroics: Feminism in the Mainstream Comics Industry.
Saturday, 4:00-5:15 p.m.
2006 has been declared the year of Women in Comics. Alison Bechdel's "Fun Home" was one of Time's 10 Best Books, best-selling authors Jodi Picoult and Tamora Pierce were signed up to write for DC and Marvel, and DC announced a new "Minx" line for girls. However, 2006 was also a year of increased feminist activism in mainstream comics. New websites When Fangirls Attack and Girl-Wonder.org collected and encouraged feminist debate on issues of diversity and sexism in comics, and there seemed to be plenty to talk about. Moreover, the Occasional Superheroine confessional memoir recounted a disturbing tale of abuse and misogyny within the superhero industry that was reflected onto the pages of its comics. What has improved in the comics industry? What is yet to be done? What challenges are posed by the industry's peculiar institutional structure? How can women break into the comics mainstream? How can we critique it? And what comics *can* you buy for your kids?
M: Lori A. Selke, Jenni Lauren Moody, Catherine Lundoff, Karen Elizabeth Healey, Charlie Anders, Rachel Edidin

The X-Women
Sunday, 1:00-2:15 p.m. Sunday, 1:00-2:15 p.m. Sunday, 1:00-2:15 p.m.
The X-Men comics are well-loved and have a disproportionately high number of female fans (and strong female characters). X-Men: The Final Stand was nonetheless widely interpreted as quite sexist (out of control sexual women must be destroyed for the good of the world, etc.). Did the problems originate in the adaption to film, or the source material, i.e. the comics themselves? What attracts women to the X-Men story no matter what format it's told in?
Jenni Moody, Karen Elizabeth Healey, M: Rachel Sharon Edidin, Jennifer Dunne, Charlie Anders

Fun Home
Sunday, 4:00-5:15 p.m. Sunday, 4:00-5:15 p.m. Sunday, 4:00-5:15 p.m.
Time magazine named Alison Bechdel's graphic novel "Fun Home" as its top book of the year, and it spent a good chunk of 2006 on the NYT best-seller list. Bechdel is an artist/writer best known for her syndicated comic strip "Dykes To Watch Out For". It's pretty rare for (a) autobiography, (b) lesbianism, or (c) a graphic novel to be at the top of ANY critical list of best books of the year; hitting the trifecta is unprecedented. Which of these 3 aspects is most surprising? Does this bode well for the future?
Vicki Rosenzweig, JJ Pionke, Jenni Moody, Janet Lafler, M: Rachel Sharon Edidin

"Wait and See What I Become": Gender and Performativity in James Robinson's Starman/The Woman's Superpower: Ghosts, Empaths, and Psychics in Contemporary American Prime-Time Television (Academic Papers)
Monday, 10:00-11:15 a.m. Monday, 10:00-11:15 a.m. Monday, 10:00-11:15 a.m. in Conference Room 3

Wigs

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 18:36:47 GMT

I am shopping for WisCon costume wigs for Karen and me, which is turning out much more difficult than I had anticipated: those things are expensive, and many of them are also horrid. Most of the wig design industry seems to have ground to a halt sometime in the late 80s or early 90s. Fortunately, Karen's Canary wig is in a style that everyone stocks (with some variations, anyway), but finding something Zinda-appropriate for myself is proving difficult.

I'm leaning toward this one, simply because it looks about right and it's from the same place that has one of the nicest-looking Canary-style wigs, which'll help cut shipping. $40 each seems awfully spendy, though.

Does anyone have good advice about where to find good, cheap costume wigs this time of year?

Jacket Pattern

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 19:04:13 GMT

At long last, I've found a pattern that I'm pretty sure I can use to make my Zinda jacket: http://www.burdamode.com/8022_Coat_Jacket,1000003-1275114-1128998-1003469-1392338-1392340,enEN.html .

Now, the question is whether my sewing skills are up to par and whether I can find a buttonhole foot for my sewing machine in time...

A question about academic paper audiences at WisCon

Sat, 31 Mar 2007 21:11:07 GMT

So, I'm in the throes of hacking out the basic content of my paper (I know--waaaay behind), and I'm trying to figure out a)how much background on comics theory--specifically idealism vs. deconstruction in the superhero genre--I should give to make Starman's context make sense, and b)just how academic I want to get. The more Butler I read, the more theory-driven I'm wanting to make this puppy, but I'm wondering if that's going to fly with the audience at WisCon: If I start going off on patriarchal clan-based marital exonomy and poststructuralist feminism and Lévi-Strauss and Irigaray, am I gonna lose 99% of the people there? Should I stick with more concrete material, and just pull the theory in to back up points?

And how much do the people at WisCon know/care about comics, anyway?

*panic*

Huntress images at revena's request

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 06:32:00 GMT

Picture 1
Picture 2

Superhero PJs for women

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:45:32 GMT

I decided recently that a) there aren't enough really good superhero pyjamas for grown-ups (at least not any with capes!), b) there aren't enough really good female superhero pyjamas, period, and c) since superhero-style pyjamas are insanely easy to sew, I'm going to try to rectify this shortage, at least on a small scale. Because these are in the very experimental stages, I'm offering WisCon roomies free grabs at the first few prototypes (also 'cause having people who are expecting 'em by a certain date will force me to get my ass in gear and actually sew them).

So far, I have basic designs and patterns that I think will work for Robin (Steph Brown version), Batgirl (Barbara Gordon version), and Misfit, but I'm willing to try my hand at others, too. If you want a set, let me know ASAP which hero you want to sleep as and what sizes of shirts and pants you wear (if you don't know your sizes, measurments in inches or centimeters will work, too--fortunately, PJ sizing is pretty forgiving, so estimates should be fine). I'm planning to make them out of jersey cotton (t-shirt material), so fabric sensitivity shouldn't be an issue.

Costume Update

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 19:15:32 GMT

Whee! We're gonna be Birds of Prey!

Karen - Black Canary
Robyn - Barda
Andrea - Huntress
Me - Lady Blackhawk (with a Misfit costume in my backpack, in case I lose my nerve)

I'm willing to offer scrounging / sewing help; I have a machine, awesome local thrift shops, and leotard/unitard patterns...

Costumes!

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 01:01:17 GMT

Rachel and I were just talking about the fancy-dress party, and I looked up the announcement from one of the newsletters:

Join us in Tir na Nog... Shangri-La... the Elysian Fields... for a utopian evening of festivities. The Fancy Dress Party returns to WisCon in 2007 for A Night of Myths And Legends. Will you come as Baba Yaga? Loki? Helen of Troy? Quetzalcoatl? All the mythology of the world is open to you... or, if you like, just come in whatever is Fancy for you!

Myths and legends, woo!

What do you think you'll wear?

ETA: Now that I've actually seen Rachel's post, discuss this at that one.

Costuming?

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 00:51:07 GMT

I'm scared silly of this costume ball thing and have been absentmindedly worrying about how to dress ever since Karen told me about it. But then, I saw this: easy, practical, lots of reusable elements, and a character I like. Hmm. This is promising.

Aaaanyway, I'm starting this thread for costume brainstorming and troubleshooting, 'cause it's fun!

In the meantime

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 02:18:27 GMT

...pation!

I want it to be May now. NOW! I'm so excited about WisCon that the idea of waiting four whole months makes me want to cry.

So, I suggest that we start making plans: what we're gonna bring, what we're gonna do, and anything else that strikes our fancy. Anything to keep me from getting out my spray-paint and stenciling matching t-shirts!

Starters: What booze and/or movies do you like? Any costume plans/ideas?

More Media

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 10:46:11 GMT

Here's another one: What comics do you read? What are your all-time-favorites, and why? And if you could take over writing duties on any current series, which one would it be?

Small Green Pieces of Paper

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 04:44:32 GMT

I've just found out that contrary to my initial hopes, Dark Horse will probably not be covering any of my travel expenses for WisCon. They'll be paying me for the time I'm there, so I won't have to take vacation days (unfortunately, I also won't be able to do any nude table-dancing at official con panels if I'm on the clock), which is really nice, but I was really, really hoping they'd help with the airfare.

I know I shouldn't bitch about this--it's pretty miraculous that I'm getting paid to go to a con in the first place--but I'm still deep in debt from the cross-country move, and if you don't count the free comics, my job pays terribly, so I'm a little panicked about where I'm going to find the money to fly to Madison. I know I can figure it out somehow--if worst comes to worst, I can always borrow it from my parents, who would probably just buy the tickets if I'd let them--but it's going to take a lot of number-crunching, and I feel like a twit spending so much on travel when my partner and I are still scrabbling to pay off credit cards.

Fuck.

Sorry for the whining. Just needed to get that out of my system, and I wasn't sure where else to put it.

Guaranteed to Get us Talking

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 09:32:42 GMT

Here's a question that'll surely spark some chatting with people like us:

What are some of your favorite books, and why?

No limit on the number of times you can answer - read each other's answers and comment on them, too. We can all make recommendations to each other, or celebrate good novels and/or commiserate over bad ones.

One of my very favorites evar is The Gate to Women's Country, by Sheri S. Tepper. Which is actually kind've flawed in some ways, and has a central premise/assumption that I totally disagree with - but it was one of the first feminist sci-fantasy novels I ever read, and it was such an amazing experience that I always re-read it with that same delirious "people actually think these things, and write them down!" glow as the first time.

What're some of yours?

Icepicks

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 22:15:31 GMT

(for cracking-the-metaphorical-ice purposes, not stabbing-Leon Trotsky-through-the-skull purposes)

So, we've done the basic introduction thing, but that doesn't go very far in terms of getting to know each other as people.

Now what?

<--introvert who isn't very good at this sort of thing

Karen, introduction, go!

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 11:33:11 GMT

Hello roomies!

My name is Karen Healey, and I think I do occasionally snore and talk in my sleep, but I don't believe it's to any filthy degree and you can just poke me. Wait, Robyn, do I snore?

I have good hygiene! I shower every day! I will, depending on weather and degree of skin exposure, shave legs and armpits, but I am more than happy to fit my depilitations around everyone else's ablutions. I don't wear make-up.

It is possible that I will slide into bad-roomiedom on account of tiredness and my tendency towards social introversion and I'm a little worried about that. However, Robyn and her fiance and I managed to survive a week at close quarters, so I think it's probably manageable. If I wander away for a bit with a book, it's not because I hate you; it's because I don't want to be an asshole.

Here is a picture of me!

The most important question, of course, is WHAT ARE WE GOING TO WEAR TO THE COSTUME BALL?

Yo roomies!

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 10:05:07 GMT

Hi everyone! I will now do my duty and present you with a self introduction.

My name is Andrea Rubenstein, I come from America, and my favourite food is... wait, this isn't Japanese class! Thank goodness for that. I go by either Andrea or Andi, and I've been trying to get people to call me Ruby (or Rubi) but no one seems to like that name. :(

To my knowledge I don't snore except when I'm ill and can't breathe out of my nose. I only get sick once every couple years, so hopefully that won't be a concern. There is only one known case of sleeptalking, and I'm not sure how much of it is true and how much of it my family perpetuates because it makes a nice story. I don't sleepwalk.

I don't have good hygiene because being healthy is for losers. Despite that, however, I do shower once a day (fairly longish, though if other people shower in the mornings I have no trouble keeping it short). I also wash my hands constantly and try to avoid germs (germs are also for losers, ha!). I don't use makeup.

I wouldn't say I'm chipper in the mornings, but it doesn't take me long to wake up and so I'm not overly grumpy. I'm a decently deep sleeper and if I do get woken up it's usually easy for me to roll over and go back to sleep.

I try to be an accommodating roommate so if I do something that bugs you, please talk to me about it.

Hi

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 01:00:27 GMT

UPDATE: I have learned the esoteric secret of the

(Although it seems that I still have a few kinks to work out. Argh.)

I'm Rachel. I've never actually had a nickname, although I s'pose I'd be alright with Rae.

I rarely snore, but I occasionally grumble in my sleep (it's not really articulate enough to be talking). At home, I'm a pretty heavy sleeper; less so when I'm away. Like Robyn, I tend to default to nocternal. And if I'm tired, I'll have no problem falling asleep over talking / TV / nearby cannon barrages, so no need to worry about keeping me up, either.

I also have good hygiene, but I'm quick in the shower--a perk of short hair and not shaving. I wear little-to-no makeup and can put it on without a mirror (hooray for years of theater), so I won't be hogging the bathroom.

I'm deadly allergic to peanuts and would like to survive the con, so It's really important that there be no peanuts or peanut products (candy, cookies, peanut butter, etc.) in the room at any time. I'm sorry for any inconvenience that causes, but there's nothing like anaphylactic shock to put a crimp in a weekend...

The Roommate Rachel Action Figure comes with a large box of free comics, so please let me know if there're any titles you want me to pull for you (no guarantees, but I'll do my best).

Howdy!

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 21:22:07 GMT

Well, here we are. A bunch of women (with fridges, presumably), goin' to WisCon together.

This will hopefully serve as a place where we can make plans for the Con, and get to know each other a little bit better before we have to sleep in the same room for several nights in a row. I've made membership moderated, so that if you want to post semi-sensitive information locked to the community (using the friendslocking feature), you won't have to worry that just anyone will be able to walk in off the wider internets and read it.

On that note, I suppose our very first administrative question could be: Do we want to keep this comm to the four of us who are sharing karenhealey's hotel room? Or should we invite other people who we personally know that are also attending WisCon this year to join us here? Your thoughts?