speaker-1: to the Incomplete WorldCon podcast. I'm Isabel.
speaker-2: I'm so
speaker-0: And I'm Sarah. Thank you so much to everyone who listened to our first episode and gave us feedback. We'd love to hear from you. So please keep in touch.
speaker-2: We actually have some great listener questions we're going to get to a little later in this episode. So if there's anything you'd like to know, just reach out. You can connect directly with us on Instagram at Incomplete WorldCon Pod or email us at incompleteworldcon pod at gmail dot com and we'll do our best to get back to you with the answers that you're looking for.
speaker-1: Only two months until WorldCon. We have so much to talk about. So let's get started with WorldCon news.
speaker-0: Next WorldCon is LA Con five, August twenty seventh to thirty first, twenty twenty six in Anaheim, California. Interested in volunteering at WorldCon? Whether you're attending virtually or in person, LA Con is looking for folks to work two to four hour shifts daily or occasionally. You can sign up at the volunteers desk at the con or at LACON.org slash volunteer.
speaker-1: We have a lot of program items to look forward to, including something called Star Wars Mostly Original Slideshow. That's all we know for now, but I am sure that Sarah is gonna find out and get back to us as soon as she knows. There's also gonna be game shows with a world con twist, including Taskmaster and Just a Minute. There's also Improbable Research, ⁓ Ignoble Award Dramatic Readings.
speaker-0: ⁓ yes.
speaker-1: With Toastmaster Ursula Vernon, also known as T Kingfisher, and fan guest of honor Jerry Sullivan.
speaker-0: I'm just so excited to read this because okay, first of all, I love Jerry, she's a dear friend. Also, I love Ursula. And if you've heard her like sea cucumber or sly mold Hugo Acceptance Award speeches, you should be looking forward to this too.
speaker-1: Slime mold and sea cucumbers. Yeah, that was that's gonna be good. yeah. Yeah, I've read I've read some of her stuff as T Kingfisher, ⁓ and I really liked it. So that ought to be interesting. There's also the anime juke jam. ⁓ LA Con has announced that there's gonna be a special performance on Friday, the twenty eighth, by the LA chapter of South Side Symphony, which is a predominantly black orchestra. Anime Juke Jam is a celebration of the cultural exchange between black American and Japanese cultures, specifically in the realms of anime music, hip hop, Japanese jazz, funk, house, and soul.
speaker-0: I'm also really looking forward to this. ⁓ do you guys know who Yoko Kano is?
speaker-2: I don't off the top of my head.
speaker-0: She's a composer who ⁓ composes for video games and anime. And she's like the iconic composer for those arenas. And one of the things she composed is Cowboy Bebop, which they're gonna be covering in this con in this concert. Yes, you know that one. Yeah.
speaker-2: ⁓ yeah, I'm I'm pretty familiar with Cowboy Bebop. I am a a massive, massive fan of Japanese jazz. ⁓ and ⁓ a lot of a lot of the Japanese sort of like takes on different ⁓ music genres are always very interesting to me as a as a lover of music. ⁓ but Japanese jazz especially is like so heavily influential in a lot of video game music. You hear it a lot in things like Mario Kart, ⁓ and ⁓ and a lot of the ⁓ video game like big massive video game properties that come out of Japan. But when I think about Cowboy Bebop, ⁓ the song that immediately comes to my mind and and I think most other people's is the song Tank from the Seatbelts, which is just a massive, massive hit and one that like I I I will absolutely throw down at an anime party in a heartbeat. It hits every single time.
speaker-0: Like I feel like if I was having a classy cocktail party, I would put on the soundtrack to Cowboy Bebop. Cause it's just that good.
speaker-2: Yeah, no, it's it's it's really, really good stuff. And so if Yoko is is responsible for any part of that, then this is gonna be ⁓ an incredible presentation.
speaker-0: 100% agree. Isabel, should we s answer some questions? All right, let's get started with dear Sarah Bell.
speaker-1: Absolutely. Page ⁓ asks, what's the actual scale of WorldCon? How is it different from larger, more commercial conventions like Comic-Cons?
speaker-0: So WorldCon is smaller than most of the large Comic Cons we're used to in larger cities. LA Con's expecting seven thousand or more attendees versus like a hundred and thirty five thousand attendees at San Diego Comic Con, or like sixty five or so thousand attendees at Rose City Comic Con here in Portland.
speaker-1: me the big difference is the I guess the for-profit or commercial aspect of the big the big shows like Comic Con and all. The, you know, when you go to WorldCon, it's not about standing in line and paying money to take a picture with somebody. It's about hanging out with people. It's about going to some really fun panels. ⁓ you know, I mean there's been crazy, crazy different panels on all sorts of weird subjects. You never know what you're gonna get. ⁓ you know, there's the freebie room, there's the con suite where, you know, it's it's a hospitality suite and you hang out with people and it's it's just a family reunion for a bunch of of geeks. So I I really that's like my favorite.
speaker-0: Yeah, I I really enjoy both. I go to both kinds of cons all year long. ⁓ for me, yeah, it's similar. Like Comic Con is a business. ⁓ I enjoy it because I still see my friends there and we all dress up and all of that. but to me, world con is more like a friend get together that metastasized.
speaker-1: ⁓ huh.
speaker-0: 'Cause it really is. We all pitch in and put it on together, ⁓ for the lowest cost possible because no one's trying to make money off of it. Just so we can get together with our people and talk about the things we love.
speaker-1: Yeah, I I love the fact that like I was saying about standing in line to to take a a picture with somebody, you can get your book signed, you can potentially get a photo with somebody, and you don't have to pay extra for that.
speaker-0: Yes, which leads us into Paige's second question questions. Do book readings require separate tickets? Do author signings require separate purchase? Are the author signings large enough that they run like celebrity photo ops?
speaker-1: And the answers are no, no, and no. ⁓ yeah, readings are free, ⁓ which is great. You get to to hear authors read their their stuff. You can bring your own books to get them signed. You don't have to buy books at the convention. And then, you know, yeah, you have to to wait in line, but that's just, you know, taking your turn. You don't have to to pay for the privilege of standing in line.
speaker-0: Yeah, and there are usually multiple autograph sessions during a world con. And each one you have several authors sitting at tables and you just get in the lines for whichever aut whichever authors you want to get an autograph from. ⁓ the only exception I've seen is when Game of Thrones was still on TV. And so so many people wanted to get George R. Martin's autograph that they would have a special autograph signing just for him. And that line would be like hours long, but you just, you know, you talk to the people around you, you pass the time.
speaker-1: Yeah, that's a lot of fun.
speaker-0: I was actually in line in Spokane in twenty fifteen, n next to a life coach, like an executive life coach, and she basically gave me a free session while we were in line to get George R. Martin's autograph and changed my entire life. So yes, talk to people while you're in line, it's fun.
speaker-1: Okay.
speaker-2: Wait, so the life coach thing is like not a scam? Like it's it's a real thing?
speaker-0: This lady was amazing. Really? I came home. I quit Yeah, no, she talked to me while we were waiting to meet him. And I came home and I quit sugar. I quit a seven year ambient habit and I quit my job. And in hindsight, I probably should not have done all of these things on the same day. Right. But it was all for the better.
speaker-2: I don't think I've heard this story from you. Yeah.
speaker-0: ⁓ and I totally cracked up George R. Martin because instead of having to sign a book, I brought an engagement card from my friends and the front had a wedding cake with a bloody knife stuck in it and you opened it up and it said, Hope it's not another red wedding and got George R. Martin to sign it and gave it to my friend.
speaker-1: Not that. ⁓ That's great. That is awesome. Okay. So last week we traveled in time to Seattle in 2025. And today we're gonna go to Glasgow in 2024 with the WorldCon Wayback Machine. It's August 8th through 12th, 2024. The number one movie is Deadpool and Wolverine. The number one song is a Bar Song, Tipsy, by Shabuzi. The most popular SFF book on Goodreads is A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher, who we said earlier was Ursula Vernon. And the 82nd World Science Fiction Convention was held in Glasgow, Scotland, with approximately 7,300 attendees. Now, I was not at Glasgow 2024, but Sarah was. So we're gonna have her mostly talking about this, ⁓ especially since she was the TAF delegate, which is the Transatlantic Fan Fund. So Sarah, tell us, tell us more about that.
speaker-0: Yes. ⁓ so each year one TAF delegate is elected to go to either WorldCon or a different convention because we try to switch and go East one year, west one year, east one year between North America and Europe. so I finally got elected in twenty twenty four. That was the third time I ran. normally a TAF winner spends a few weeks in the host country and then travels around the surrounding areas and spends time with fellow fans, but Because I can work from anywhere, I ended up spending three months in the UK. So
speaker-1: Tell us about the con itself. What was the venue like? What was the vibe?
speaker-0: The vibe was great. so you know how we just all learn from the World Cup about like Scottish people and traffic cones on everything?
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: So Glasgow is actually where that started. Interesting. So yes, that's the vibe. Also, the con had its own tartan created in this really pretty purple color. Yes. And you just saw it everywhere. I know they were selling all kinds of goods before the con, including fabric. So people showed up with entire outfits that they had sewed out of this fabric. Yeah. It was so much fun. the venue was your average convention hall, to be honest. the large events were held in the armadillo. Which looks kinda like the Sydney Opera House. You know, it kind of has that armadillo look to it. and then they had a few events at nearby hotels. ⁓ I really liked that it was connected to the train station by a covered walkway and there were lots of restaurants and grocery stores in the area. I didn't spend a lot of time in the convention center bar, but I did hang out in the bar at the main hotel a few times, and I can't remember what hotel that was, but that bar was huge and it was full of world con people the whole time.
speaker-1: That's fantastic. That's a lot of fun. I I love the informal aspect of the convention like that.
speaker-0: So what is
speaker-1: What was your experience like as the Taft delegate at the con, as opposed to the your usual experience?
speaker-0: ⁓ first of all, they gave me a hotel room, which was really nice. ⁓ I had a whole page about me in the souvenir program and they blew it up and displayed it in the exhibit hall. I got to participate in a few special events like the opening ceremonies and fan fund Jeopardy, where Kat Clay, who was the guff or get under fan fund delegate from Australia, and I like competed against each other kind of, but mostly we just kept ⁓
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: Smacking our little buzzer things that were Mario cubes that went ding and lit up. Cause then you had to ding in again to turn it off. And so mostly we just ignored the questions and ding
speaker-1: Just kept ⁓ thinking.
speaker-0: I really need one of those cubes. And also I went to my first fan fund auction because one of the things about TAF is after your trip, you become the new administrator for North America or Europe. So I knew I was gonna have to run this going forward. So I decided to see what am I getting myself into. I ended up buying the doctor's underpants, Colin Baker's boxer shorts.
speaker-1: I'm sorry, y what?
speaker-0: Yes. they had Doctor the Doctor's underpants, Colin Baker's underpants, framed with the photo of him holding the underpants, so the boxer shorts. So you knew that they were the real thing. ⁓ so I got that. I and ⁓
speaker-1: Just have no words for that. I'm just yeah, I got nothing.
speaker-0: ⁓ wait.
speaker-1: Well and I'm I'm a Doctor Who fan, but I just I j yeah, I got nothing.
speaker-0: I also bought a copy of an original copy of the oldest Star Trek slash zine in the UK. So I bought Star Trek porn.
speaker-1: You know, I didn't know it existed, but had I known, I would have bet money that you would have bought it. you know, anything Star Trek I can just see you buying. ⁓ I porn would not have been the first thing that I would say that you would buy, but but okay, sure, yeah.
speaker-0: I remember someone someone bit against me on that and I was like, nope, more.
speaker-2: So to be clear, you went all the way to Scotland as a delegate on someone else's dime and came home with someone else's underwear and porn.
speaker-1: That's about right.
speaker-2: No.
speaker-0: Because I gave the underwear to a friend as a thank you for hosting me on my trip. Somebody else was so unimpressed.
speaker-1: Okay, so So okay, so now Colin Colin had the underwear, you had the underwear, and then your friend had the underwear.
speaker-2: Where is the underwear now?
speaker-0: not sure where it is now. How should they run and don't know where your underwear is?
speaker-1: Do we really wanna know?
speaker-2: I think we need to get our best people on this. Someone needs to find the doctor's underwear. It's gone missing. And we're looking for the best sleuths in the WorldCon community to help us find it.
speaker-1: God. ⁓ I think we need to I think we need to have an entire episode devoted to people calling in saying the last time I saw the underwear, it was running down the street in, you know, some some mall. And then another person saying, Yeah, I saw it. It was at the mall. And then it got into a into a bus and it w went to the zoo. And I don't even know. I could just see this whole episode, like a scavenger hunt throughout the city to try and find Colin Baker's underpants.
speaker-0: Right. So you never you never know what you're gonna find at the fan fund auction. So be sure to come to the fan fund auction this summer in LA.
speaker-1: Hold on, we need to tell people. There are other things there besides people's underwear, right? And porn.
speaker-0: ⁓ And porn.
speaker-2: Yeah, don't forget the porn. You can't forget the porn. This is a this is an audio show, but I will find a way to record this that makes it sound like it was shot in black and white. ⁓ my gosh. We're gonna go full more Detective Mystery. What has happened to the doctor's underwear? Tune in to find out.
speaker-1: Okay, so leaving that behind
speaker-2: I see what you did there.
speaker-1: Shit, no, I didn't mean to do that. ⁓ my god, I I hate puns. I hate them. I didn't realize I did that. ⁓ yes. Okay. And what were some of the other fun things you did at the con?
speaker-2: Let's move on.
speaker-0: ⁓ I hosted a panel on Mist, the computer game from nineteen ninety three, and I hosted the Star Trek meetup. Great.
speaker-1: What? You did a Star Trek thing? I'm shocked.
speaker-0: I know, right? Like who You folks can't see it at home, but I'm wearing a Star Trek shirt right now. ⁓ and that reminds me, I got into one coffee clash because they were run by lottery, which I think is a good thing. But it was the one I really wanted to get into because it was with Derek Tyler Atticow, who wrote the autobiography of Benjamin Sisko. ⁓ and he is also he is also and this is so weird to me, he is the first black man to write for the Star Trek books.
speaker-1: What'd thunk? Wow. Yeah. I I will I will fight and I will die on the hill that DS9 was the best of all the Star Trek. And Cisco, like, ⁓ my God, I love him so much. I seriously, I will die on that hill. I will beat you up because that was the best one.
speaker-0: Yeah, I'm actually really excited because ⁓ if you're interested in reading it, Derek will be at the Star Trek convention in Vegas in August. But also, I was a th third time Hugo loser.
speaker-1: About the loser part, but the fact that you were nominated.
speaker-0: You know what? It's an honor just to be a loser.
speaker-1: Ha.
speaker-0: And also, ⁓ T Kingfisher, aka Ursula Vernon, I met her right at the beginning of Con by Registration, told her how much I enjoyed her slime mold speech in Washington DC. And so in Glasgow, she won again and she went up there and she gave the most horrifying speech about sea cucumbers, who are the most terrifying creatures who have ever existed. And I will let you look that up on your own because I don't want to repeat the things we learned.
speaker-1: Okay, I am not going to go look it up. If it's that terrifying, I will just take your word for it, and I am not going to look it up.
speaker-0: Two words, two words, anal teeth.
speaker-1: ⁓ God, why you gotta tell me ⁓ my God.
speaker-2: This whole show has gone off the rails. I don't know what to do with you two.
speaker-0: Blame Ursula.
speaker-1: ⁓ my god. ⁓ my god.
speaker-0: In all seriousness though, ⁓ Ursula is wonderful. I adore her. She's such a talented writer. I hope she wins again. I'm just scared of her next speech.
speaker-1: Not everything went smoothly in Glasgow, however. It definitely had its share of controversies. For example, the Hugo voting fraud.
speaker-0: On July twenty second, the Glasgow 2024 Hugo Administration Subcommittee and Hugo Administrator Nicholas White disqualified three hundred and seventy-seven Hugo votes that were cast fraudulently out of three thousand eight hundred and thirteen total final ballot votes.
speaker-1: As reported by CNN, these included a run of voters whose second names were identical except for the first letter was changed in alphabetical order, and a run of voters whose names were translations of consecutive numbers.
speaker-0: The committee also received a report that someone was sponsoring the purchase of Wisfus memberships by large numbers of individuals who were refunded the cost of membership after confirming that they had voted as the sponsor wished.
speaker-1: Committee said that the finalists these votes favored did not appear to know about or be involved in the vote stuffing scheme, so they were not publicly identified or disqualified.
speaker-0: This is just bonkers to me because ⁓ yeah. In order to vote, you have to have at least a supporting membership, which was forty five pounds times three hundred and seventy seven votes is almost seventeen thousand pounds, which is almost twenty two thousand dollars that someone spent to try and buy someone a Hugo.
speaker-1: Yeah, that's a lot of money and a lot like clearly these people were determined.
speaker-2: ⁓ we did not spend anywhere near that much on this podcast and it shows.
speaker-1: Ha ha. Yeah. And then there was also the fallout from the Shangdu Hugos, which we'll be getting into next month. So Sarah, on a brighter note, what was your favorite thing at Glasgow?
speaker-0: Okay.
speaker-2: Please say the boxers.
speaker-0: Okay, first the porn, then the boxers.
speaker-1: ⁓ my God. ⁓ my God. We're back to that.
speaker-0: But third, ⁓ most random thing happened at the opening ceremonies. So Kat and I were had a little bit where we talked in the opening ceremonies about fan funds and stuff. ⁓ so we're sitting in the front row before it starts, waiting to begin and and the guy next to me compliments my Star Trek dress. And I said, Thanks, who are you? Blah, blah, blah. And he said he worked at ⁓ Hasbro on Dungeons and Dragons. And I'm like, ⁓ my God, let me tell you my Star Trek Dungeons and Dragons story. And so I told him how ⁓ I was in line for a Star Trek autograph in Pullip, Washington, at the Washington State Summer Fair or SummerCon. And the guy in front of me turned out to be Chris Perkins, the senior story architect for D D.
speaker-1: Okay then.
speaker-0: And then at this point, the guy on the other side of the guy I'm talking to leans over and waves and says, Hi and it's Chris Perkins in Glasgow, Scotland. There to receive an award on behalf of D D and wearing a goofy wizard hat, and that's why I didn't recognize him.
speaker-1: Yeah, see, and that's that's one of the fantastic things about WorldCon, right? Like you go and it you don't have to be one of the cool kids ⁓ in order to to hang out and meet people and and have a good time, right? You don't have to pay extra. I keep going back to that, but it's like it's so true, you know? There's nothing about like, ⁓ my God, one of the things that people always say is, ⁓ I'm just a fan. There is no such thing as just, right? There just there isn't. You show up and you're just if you're gonna use the word just, fine. You're just like everybody else, right? You're all standing in line and you're all talking and some of you happen to be famous and some of you are less famous. ⁓ but you're all fans.
speaker-0: And there are so many writers that I don't know about you, but I frequently get asked, Are you a writer? And I say, No, I'm a reader. And if the person's an author, they're always like, Well, we like those. Yeah.
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-2: Yeah, I'm absolutely I gotta be honest. I am fangirling a little bit because I am such a huge, huge fan of Chris Perkins. ⁓ if anyone's ever seen like any of his live like actual play work, like for example, every single edition of Acquisitions Incorporated from the Panty Arcade guys, ⁓ their live their live actual play that they do at the Penny Arcade Expo, ⁓ DM is always Chris Perkins. ⁓ any of the stuff that he's done with Critical Role, any of the stuff that he's I mean The guy is a straight up legend. And actually, speaking of Critical Role, after leaving Hasbro, ⁓ he went over to work with Critical Role and has been working with them on their Daggerheart stuff, and they're about to launch an entire Daggerheart actual play. And ⁓ Matt Mercer is going to be taking the DM chair again after after giving that chair up to Brennan Lee Mulgan for the last like year or so. So like The fact that you like not only get to like hang out for a minute with Chris Perkins, but also that like he recognize you and that you guys like you kinda know Chris Perkins, which is super sick.
speaker-0: Only reason that I started talking to him in the first place was we were both in line for Terry Metalis, who produced Star Trek or yeah, Star Trek Picard season three. And then Todd Stashwick was at the next table and he kept yelling over, Hey Chris, blah, blah, blah, because he's a huge D nerd. And so I was like, ⁓ hi, what do you do?
speaker-2: I I gotta be honest, as somebody who's never been to WorldCon, this is breaking my brain a little bit. So
speaker-1: So this is the kind of thing that you're gonna get to experience ⁓ in in August, right? This is gonna be your your first world con and you're going to hang out with people virtually, but you know, still you're gonna hang out with people and you're gonna talk to people, you're gonna see all the things, right? You're gonna see the Hugos, you're gonna see the opening ceremonies, you're gonna see the closing ceremonies, you're gonna see a whole bunch of other stuff in between. ⁓
speaker-2: Little bummed I don't get to travel this time, but but before we sat down to record this episode, I did sign up officially. I am gonna be attending virtually. I am now a Wispus member, like legitimately.
speaker-0: One of us.
speaker-1: Yeah. One of us.
speaker-2: Paid paid for and everything. They got all my financial details and information. Like it's it's it's a done deal at this point. So I am now a virtual member of of El Econ Five and ⁓ I'm looking forward to it. I think it's gonna be a really good time.
speaker-1: Yeah, you're gonna have awesome time. Next time on the Incomplete WorldCon podcast, we'll have more news, more advice, and we'll be traveling back in time to twenty twenty three for the Shengdu WorldCon and all of that drama. So be sure to tune in. New episodes are available on the first of the month.
speaker-0: Also be sure to tune in for our mid-month news flash for the latest WorldCon related updates. Sign up for reminders at our website, incompleteworldconpod.riverside.com, or email us at incompleteworldconpod at gmail.com.
speaker-1: If enjoyed today's discussion, please follow us on Instagram at IncompleteWorldCon Pod or on Facebook at the Incomplete WorldCon Podcast. Please review the show on your podcast platform of choice and share the show with your friends. Thanks for joining us, and we'll see you again next time. Bye-bye.
speaker-0: Everybody Mm-hmm.
speaker-2: If you'd like your question to be featured on a future episode of the Incomplete WorldCon podcast, please send your questions or thoughts to incompleteworldconpod at gmail.com or leave a comment on our socials. This episode was produced in 2026 by DJ Switch PDX.
speaker-2: I'm so
speaker-0: And I'm Sarah. Thank you so much to everyone who listened to our first episode and gave us feedback. We'd love to hear from you. So please keep in touch.
speaker-2: We actually have some great listener questions we're going to get to a little later in this episode. So if there's anything you'd like to know, just reach out. You can connect directly with us on Instagram at Incomplete WorldCon Pod or email us at incompleteworldcon pod at gmail dot com and we'll do our best to get back to you with the answers that you're looking for.
speaker-1: Only two months until WorldCon. We have so much to talk about. So let's get started with WorldCon news.
speaker-0: Next WorldCon is LA Con five, August twenty seventh to thirty first, twenty twenty six in Anaheim, California. Interested in volunteering at WorldCon? Whether you're attending virtually or in person, LA Con is looking for folks to work two to four hour shifts daily or occasionally. You can sign up at the volunteers desk at the con or at LACON.org slash volunteer.
speaker-1: We have a lot of program items to look forward to, including something called Star Wars Mostly Original Slideshow. That's all we know for now, but I am sure that Sarah is gonna find out and get back to us as soon as she knows. There's also gonna be game shows with a world con twist, including Taskmaster and Just a Minute. There's also Improbable Research, ⁓ Ignoble Award Dramatic Readings.
speaker-0: ⁓ yes.
speaker-1: With Toastmaster Ursula Vernon, also known as T Kingfisher, and fan guest of honor Jerry Sullivan.
speaker-0: I'm just so excited to read this because okay, first of all, I love Jerry, she's a dear friend. Also, I love Ursula. And if you've heard her like sea cucumber or sly mold Hugo Acceptance Award speeches, you should be looking forward to this too.
speaker-1: Slime mold and sea cucumbers. Yeah, that was that's gonna be good. yeah. Yeah, I've read I've read some of her stuff as T Kingfisher, ⁓ and I really liked it. So that ought to be interesting. There's also the anime juke jam. ⁓ LA Con has announced that there's gonna be a special performance on Friday, the twenty eighth, by the LA chapter of South Side Symphony, which is a predominantly black orchestra. Anime Juke Jam is a celebration of the cultural exchange between black American and Japanese cultures, specifically in the realms of anime music, hip hop, Japanese jazz, funk, house, and soul.
speaker-0: I'm also really looking forward to this. ⁓ do you guys know who Yoko Kano is?
speaker-2: I don't off the top of my head.
speaker-0: She's a composer who ⁓ composes for video games and anime. And she's like the iconic composer for those arenas. And one of the things she composed is Cowboy Bebop, which they're gonna be covering in this con in this concert. Yes, you know that one. Yeah.
speaker-2: ⁓ yeah, I'm I'm pretty familiar with Cowboy Bebop. I am a a massive, massive fan of Japanese jazz. ⁓ and ⁓ a lot of a lot of the Japanese sort of like takes on different ⁓ music genres are always very interesting to me as a as a lover of music. ⁓ but Japanese jazz especially is like so heavily influential in a lot of video game music. You hear it a lot in things like Mario Kart, ⁓ and ⁓ and a lot of the ⁓ video game like big massive video game properties that come out of Japan. But when I think about Cowboy Bebop, ⁓ the song that immediately comes to my mind and and I think most other people's is the song Tank from the Seatbelts, which is just a massive, massive hit and one that like I I I will absolutely throw down at an anime party in a heartbeat. It hits every single time.
speaker-0: Like I feel like if I was having a classy cocktail party, I would put on the soundtrack to Cowboy Bebop. Cause it's just that good.
speaker-2: Yeah, no, it's it's it's really, really good stuff. And so if Yoko is is responsible for any part of that, then this is gonna be ⁓ an incredible presentation.
speaker-0: 100% agree. Isabel, should we s answer some questions? All right, let's get started with dear Sarah Bell.
speaker-1: Absolutely. Page ⁓ asks, what's the actual scale of WorldCon? How is it different from larger, more commercial conventions like Comic-Cons?
speaker-0: So WorldCon is smaller than most of the large Comic Cons we're used to in larger cities. LA Con's expecting seven thousand or more attendees versus like a hundred and thirty five thousand attendees at San Diego Comic Con, or like sixty five or so thousand attendees at Rose City Comic Con here in Portland.
speaker-1: me the big difference is the I guess the for-profit or commercial aspect of the big the big shows like Comic Con and all. The, you know, when you go to WorldCon, it's not about standing in line and paying money to take a picture with somebody. It's about hanging out with people. It's about going to some really fun panels. ⁓ you know, I mean there's been crazy, crazy different panels on all sorts of weird subjects. You never know what you're gonna get. ⁓ you know, there's the freebie room, there's the con suite where, you know, it's it's a hospitality suite and you hang out with people and it's it's just a family reunion for a bunch of of geeks. So I I really that's like my favorite.
speaker-0: Yeah, I I really enjoy both. I go to both kinds of cons all year long. ⁓ for me, yeah, it's similar. Like Comic Con is a business. ⁓ I enjoy it because I still see my friends there and we all dress up and all of that. but to me, world con is more like a friend get together that metastasized.
speaker-1: ⁓ huh.
speaker-0: 'Cause it really is. We all pitch in and put it on together, ⁓ for the lowest cost possible because no one's trying to make money off of it. Just so we can get together with our people and talk about the things we love.
speaker-1: Yeah, I I love the fact that like I was saying about standing in line to to take a a picture with somebody, you can get your book signed, you can potentially get a photo with somebody, and you don't have to pay extra for that.
speaker-0: Yes, which leads us into Paige's second question questions. Do book readings require separate tickets? Do author signings require separate purchase? Are the author signings large enough that they run like celebrity photo ops?
speaker-1: And the answers are no, no, and no. ⁓ yeah, readings are free, ⁓ which is great. You get to to hear authors read their their stuff. You can bring your own books to get them signed. You don't have to buy books at the convention. And then, you know, yeah, you have to to wait in line, but that's just, you know, taking your turn. You don't have to to pay for the privilege of standing in line.
speaker-0: Yeah, and there are usually multiple autograph sessions during a world con. And each one you have several authors sitting at tables and you just get in the lines for whichever aut whichever authors you want to get an autograph from. ⁓ the only exception I've seen is when Game of Thrones was still on TV. And so so many people wanted to get George R. Martin's autograph that they would have a special autograph signing just for him. And that line would be like hours long, but you just, you know, you talk to the people around you, you pass the time.
speaker-1: Yeah, that's a lot of fun.
speaker-0: I was actually in line in Spokane in twenty fifteen, n next to a life coach, like an executive life coach, and she basically gave me a free session while we were in line to get George R. Martin's autograph and changed my entire life. So yes, talk to people while you're in line, it's fun.
speaker-1: Okay.
speaker-2: Wait, so the life coach thing is like not a scam? Like it's it's a real thing?
speaker-0: This lady was amazing. Really? I came home. I quit Yeah, no, she talked to me while we were waiting to meet him. And I came home and I quit sugar. I quit a seven year ambient habit and I quit my job. And in hindsight, I probably should not have done all of these things on the same day. Right. But it was all for the better.
speaker-2: I don't think I've heard this story from you. Yeah.
speaker-0: ⁓ and I totally cracked up George R. Martin because instead of having to sign a book, I brought an engagement card from my friends and the front had a wedding cake with a bloody knife stuck in it and you opened it up and it said, Hope it's not another red wedding and got George R. Martin to sign it and gave it to my friend.
speaker-1: Not that. ⁓ That's great. That is awesome. Okay. So last week we traveled in time to Seattle in 2025. And today we're gonna go to Glasgow in 2024 with the WorldCon Wayback Machine. It's August 8th through 12th, 2024. The number one movie is Deadpool and Wolverine. The number one song is a Bar Song, Tipsy, by Shabuzi. The most popular SFF book on Goodreads is A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher, who we said earlier was Ursula Vernon. And the 82nd World Science Fiction Convention was held in Glasgow, Scotland, with approximately 7,300 attendees. Now, I was not at Glasgow 2024, but Sarah was. So we're gonna have her mostly talking about this, ⁓ especially since she was the TAF delegate, which is the Transatlantic Fan Fund. So Sarah, tell us, tell us more about that.
speaker-0: Yes. ⁓ so each year one TAF delegate is elected to go to either WorldCon or a different convention because we try to switch and go East one year, west one year, east one year between North America and Europe. so I finally got elected in twenty twenty four. That was the third time I ran. normally a TAF winner spends a few weeks in the host country and then travels around the surrounding areas and spends time with fellow fans, but Because I can work from anywhere, I ended up spending three months in the UK. So
speaker-1: Tell us about the con itself. What was the venue like? What was the vibe?
speaker-0: The vibe was great. so you know how we just all learn from the World Cup about like Scottish people and traffic cones on everything?
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: So Glasgow is actually where that started. Interesting. So yes, that's the vibe. Also, the con had its own tartan created in this really pretty purple color. Yes. And you just saw it everywhere. I know they were selling all kinds of goods before the con, including fabric. So people showed up with entire outfits that they had sewed out of this fabric. Yeah. It was so much fun. the venue was your average convention hall, to be honest. the large events were held in the armadillo. Which looks kinda like the Sydney Opera House. You know, it kind of has that armadillo look to it. and then they had a few events at nearby hotels. ⁓ I really liked that it was connected to the train station by a covered walkway and there were lots of restaurants and grocery stores in the area. I didn't spend a lot of time in the convention center bar, but I did hang out in the bar at the main hotel a few times, and I can't remember what hotel that was, but that bar was huge and it was full of world con people the whole time.
speaker-1: That's fantastic. That's a lot of fun. I I love the informal aspect of the convention like that.
speaker-0: So what is
speaker-1: What was your experience like as the Taft delegate at the con, as opposed to the your usual experience?
speaker-0: ⁓ first of all, they gave me a hotel room, which was really nice. ⁓ I had a whole page about me in the souvenir program and they blew it up and displayed it in the exhibit hall. I got to participate in a few special events like the opening ceremonies and fan fund Jeopardy, where Kat Clay, who was the guff or get under fan fund delegate from Australia, and I like competed against each other kind of, but mostly we just kept ⁓
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: Smacking our little buzzer things that were Mario cubes that went ding and lit up. Cause then you had to ding in again to turn it off. And so mostly we just ignored the questions and ding
speaker-1: Just kept ⁓ thinking.
speaker-0: I really need one of those cubes. And also I went to my first fan fund auction because one of the things about TAF is after your trip, you become the new administrator for North America or Europe. So I knew I was gonna have to run this going forward. So I decided to see what am I getting myself into. I ended up buying the doctor's underpants, Colin Baker's boxer shorts.
speaker-1: I'm sorry, y what?
speaker-0: Yes. they had Doctor the Doctor's underpants, Colin Baker's underpants, framed with the photo of him holding the underpants, so the boxer shorts. So you knew that they were the real thing. ⁓ so I got that. I and ⁓
speaker-1: Just have no words for that. I'm just yeah, I got nothing.
speaker-0: ⁓ wait.
speaker-1: Well and I'm I'm a Doctor Who fan, but I just I j yeah, I got nothing.
speaker-0: I also bought a copy of an original copy of the oldest Star Trek slash zine in the UK. So I bought Star Trek porn.
speaker-1: You know, I didn't know it existed, but had I known, I would have bet money that you would have bought it. you know, anything Star Trek I can just see you buying. ⁓ I porn would not have been the first thing that I would say that you would buy, but but okay, sure, yeah.
speaker-0: I remember someone someone bit against me on that and I was like, nope, more.
speaker-2: So to be clear, you went all the way to Scotland as a delegate on someone else's dime and came home with someone else's underwear and porn.
speaker-1: That's about right.
speaker-2: No.
speaker-0: Because I gave the underwear to a friend as a thank you for hosting me on my trip. Somebody else was so unimpressed.
speaker-1: Okay, so So okay, so now Colin Colin had the underwear, you had the underwear, and then your friend had the underwear.
speaker-2: Where is the underwear now?
speaker-0: not sure where it is now. How should they run and don't know where your underwear is?
speaker-1: Do we really wanna know?
speaker-2: I think we need to get our best people on this. Someone needs to find the doctor's underwear. It's gone missing. And we're looking for the best sleuths in the WorldCon community to help us find it.
speaker-1: God. ⁓ I think we need to I think we need to have an entire episode devoted to people calling in saying the last time I saw the underwear, it was running down the street in, you know, some some mall. And then another person saying, Yeah, I saw it. It was at the mall. And then it got into a into a bus and it w went to the zoo. And I don't even know. I could just see this whole episode, like a scavenger hunt throughout the city to try and find Colin Baker's underpants.
speaker-0: Right. So you never you never know what you're gonna find at the fan fund auction. So be sure to come to the fan fund auction this summer in LA.
speaker-1: Hold on, we need to tell people. There are other things there besides people's underwear, right? And porn.
speaker-0: ⁓ And porn.
speaker-2: Yeah, don't forget the porn. You can't forget the porn. This is a this is an audio show, but I will find a way to record this that makes it sound like it was shot in black and white. ⁓ my gosh. We're gonna go full more Detective Mystery. What has happened to the doctor's underwear? Tune in to find out.
speaker-1: Okay, so leaving that behind
speaker-2: I see what you did there.
speaker-1: Shit, no, I didn't mean to do that. ⁓ my god, I I hate puns. I hate them. I didn't realize I did that. ⁓ yes. Okay. And what were some of the other fun things you did at the con?
speaker-2: Let's move on.
speaker-0: ⁓ I hosted a panel on Mist, the computer game from nineteen ninety three, and I hosted the Star Trek meetup. Great.
speaker-1: What? You did a Star Trek thing? I'm shocked.
speaker-0: I know, right? Like who You folks can't see it at home, but I'm wearing a Star Trek shirt right now. ⁓ and that reminds me, I got into one coffee clash because they were run by lottery, which I think is a good thing. But it was the one I really wanted to get into because it was with Derek Tyler Atticow, who wrote the autobiography of Benjamin Sisko. ⁓ and he is also he is also and this is so weird to me, he is the first black man to write for the Star Trek books.
speaker-1: What'd thunk? Wow. Yeah. I I will I will fight and I will die on the hill that DS9 was the best of all the Star Trek. And Cisco, like, ⁓ my God, I love him so much. I seriously, I will die on that hill. I will beat you up because that was the best one.
speaker-0: Yeah, I'm actually really excited because ⁓ if you're interested in reading it, Derek will be at the Star Trek convention in Vegas in August. But also, I was a th third time Hugo loser.
speaker-1: About the loser part, but the fact that you were nominated.
speaker-0: You know what? It's an honor just to be a loser.
speaker-1: Ha.
speaker-0: And also, ⁓ T Kingfisher, aka Ursula Vernon, I met her right at the beginning of Con by Registration, told her how much I enjoyed her slime mold speech in Washington DC. And so in Glasgow, she won again and she went up there and she gave the most horrifying speech about sea cucumbers, who are the most terrifying creatures who have ever existed. And I will let you look that up on your own because I don't want to repeat the things we learned.
speaker-1: Okay, I am not going to go look it up. If it's that terrifying, I will just take your word for it, and I am not going to look it up.
speaker-0: Two words, two words, anal teeth.
speaker-1: ⁓ God, why you gotta tell me ⁓ my God.
speaker-2: This whole show has gone off the rails. I don't know what to do with you two.
speaker-0: Blame Ursula.
speaker-1: ⁓ my god. ⁓ my god.
speaker-0: In all seriousness though, ⁓ Ursula is wonderful. I adore her. She's such a talented writer. I hope she wins again. I'm just scared of her next speech.
speaker-1: Not everything went smoothly in Glasgow, however. It definitely had its share of controversies. For example, the Hugo voting fraud.
speaker-0: On July twenty second, the Glasgow 2024 Hugo Administration Subcommittee and Hugo Administrator Nicholas White disqualified three hundred and seventy-seven Hugo votes that were cast fraudulently out of three thousand eight hundred and thirteen total final ballot votes.
speaker-1: As reported by CNN, these included a run of voters whose second names were identical except for the first letter was changed in alphabetical order, and a run of voters whose names were translations of consecutive numbers.
speaker-0: The committee also received a report that someone was sponsoring the purchase of Wisfus memberships by large numbers of individuals who were refunded the cost of membership after confirming that they had voted as the sponsor wished.
speaker-1: Committee said that the finalists these votes favored did not appear to know about or be involved in the vote stuffing scheme, so they were not publicly identified or disqualified.
speaker-0: This is just bonkers to me because ⁓ yeah. In order to vote, you have to have at least a supporting membership, which was forty five pounds times three hundred and seventy seven votes is almost seventeen thousand pounds, which is almost twenty two thousand dollars that someone spent to try and buy someone a Hugo.
speaker-1: Yeah, that's a lot of money and a lot like clearly these people were determined.
speaker-2: ⁓ we did not spend anywhere near that much on this podcast and it shows.
speaker-1: Ha ha. Yeah. And then there was also the fallout from the Shangdu Hugos, which we'll be getting into next month. So Sarah, on a brighter note, what was your favorite thing at Glasgow?
speaker-0: Okay.
speaker-2: Please say the boxers.
speaker-0: Okay, first the porn, then the boxers.
speaker-1: ⁓ my God. ⁓ my God. We're back to that.
speaker-0: But third, ⁓ most random thing happened at the opening ceremonies. So Kat and I were had a little bit where we talked in the opening ceremonies about fan funds and stuff. ⁓ so we're sitting in the front row before it starts, waiting to begin and and the guy next to me compliments my Star Trek dress. And I said, Thanks, who are you? Blah, blah, blah. And he said he worked at ⁓ Hasbro on Dungeons and Dragons. And I'm like, ⁓ my God, let me tell you my Star Trek Dungeons and Dragons story. And so I told him how ⁓ I was in line for a Star Trek autograph in Pullip, Washington, at the Washington State Summer Fair or SummerCon. And the guy in front of me turned out to be Chris Perkins, the senior story architect for D D.
speaker-1: Okay then.
speaker-0: And then at this point, the guy on the other side of the guy I'm talking to leans over and waves and says, Hi and it's Chris Perkins in Glasgow, Scotland. There to receive an award on behalf of D D and wearing a goofy wizard hat, and that's why I didn't recognize him.
speaker-1: Yeah, see, and that's that's one of the fantastic things about WorldCon, right? Like you go and it you don't have to be one of the cool kids ⁓ in order to to hang out and meet people and and have a good time, right? You don't have to pay extra. I keep going back to that, but it's like it's so true, you know? There's nothing about like, ⁓ my God, one of the things that people always say is, ⁓ I'm just a fan. There is no such thing as just, right? There just there isn't. You show up and you're just if you're gonna use the word just, fine. You're just like everybody else, right? You're all standing in line and you're all talking and some of you happen to be famous and some of you are less famous. ⁓ but you're all fans.
speaker-0: And there are so many writers that I don't know about you, but I frequently get asked, Are you a writer? And I say, No, I'm a reader. And if the person's an author, they're always like, Well, we like those. Yeah.
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-2: Yeah, I'm absolutely I gotta be honest. I am fangirling a little bit because I am such a huge, huge fan of Chris Perkins. ⁓ if anyone's ever seen like any of his live like actual play work, like for example, every single edition of Acquisitions Incorporated from the Panty Arcade guys, ⁓ their live their live actual play that they do at the Penny Arcade Expo, ⁓ DM is always Chris Perkins. ⁓ any of the stuff that he's done with Critical Role, any of the stuff that he's I mean The guy is a straight up legend. And actually, speaking of Critical Role, after leaving Hasbro, ⁓ he went over to work with Critical Role and has been working with them on their Daggerheart stuff, and they're about to launch an entire Daggerheart actual play. And ⁓ Matt Mercer is going to be taking the DM chair again after after giving that chair up to Brennan Lee Mulgan for the last like year or so. So like The fact that you like not only get to like hang out for a minute with Chris Perkins, but also that like he recognize you and that you guys like you kinda know Chris Perkins, which is super sick.
speaker-0: Only reason that I started talking to him in the first place was we were both in line for Terry Metalis, who produced Star Trek or yeah, Star Trek Picard season three. And then Todd Stashwick was at the next table and he kept yelling over, Hey Chris, blah, blah, blah, because he's a huge D nerd. And so I was like, ⁓ hi, what do you do?
speaker-2: I I gotta be honest, as somebody who's never been to WorldCon, this is breaking my brain a little bit. So
speaker-1: So this is the kind of thing that you're gonna get to experience ⁓ in in August, right? This is gonna be your your first world con and you're going to hang out with people virtually, but you know, still you're gonna hang out with people and you're gonna talk to people, you're gonna see all the things, right? You're gonna see the Hugos, you're gonna see the opening ceremonies, you're gonna see the closing ceremonies, you're gonna see a whole bunch of other stuff in between. ⁓
speaker-2: Little bummed I don't get to travel this time, but but before we sat down to record this episode, I did sign up officially. I am gonna be attending virtually. I am now a Wispus member, like legitimately.
speaker-0: One of us.
speaker-1: Yeah. One of us.
speaker-2: Paid paid for and everything. They got all my financial details and information. Like it's it's it's a done deal at this point. So I am now a virtual member of of El Econ Five and ⁓ I'm looking forward to it. I think it's gonna be a really good time.
speaker-1: Yeah, you're gonna have awesome time. Next time on the Incomplete WorldCon podcast, we'll have more news, more advice, and we'll be traveling back in time to twenty twenty three for the Shengdu WorldCon and all of that drama. So be sure to tune in. New episodes are available on the first of the month.
speaker-0: Also be sure to tune in for our mid-month news flash for the latest WorldCon related updates. Sign up for reminders at our website, incompleteworldconpod.riverside.com, or email us at incompleteworldconpod at gmail.com.
speaker-1: If enjoyed today's discussion, please follow us on Instagram at IncompleteWorldCon Pod or on Facebook at the Incomplete WorldCon Podcast. Please review the show on your podcast platform of choice and share the show with your friends. Thanks for joining us, and we'll see you again next time. Bye-bye.
speaker-0: Everybody Mm-hmm.
speaker-2: If you'd like your question to be featured on a future episode of the Incomplete WorldCon podcast, please send your questions or thoughts to incompleteworldconpod at gmail.com or leave a comment on our socials. This episode was produced in 2026 by DJ Switch PDX.
