This was the last Philcon to be held in Philadelphia proper before moving across the river to New Jersey. As always, it was a fun experience – Philadelphia is a great city, and the PSFS fans are knowledgeable and great people to be with.
The convention tends to have a good mix of panels, gaming, and fannish activities. I was mostly restricted to the first two. Eric Flint was guest of honor, and looked pretty beat by the end of it - Philcon keeps its pros busy. (Which, incidentally, is how I like it.)
Met and Greeted
- Eric Flint. Eric and I have crossed paths several times in the last few years; he's primarily a Baen Books author, but his politics are . . . shall I say . . . at variance with those of some others in that stable. He is an excellent writer and responsible for the creation of the 1632 book series (of which I had read none at the time of this convention – shame, shame!) and numerous other works.
- Karl Kofoed, whose work I first encountered with Galactic Geographic, an album of art and writing for the 30+th century tourist. If you have not looked at it, run (do not walk) over to the Galacric Geographic Theater to see some samples of that work. We have a copy of it and I really enjoy looking at it.
Panels and Con Activities
- The Friday Night Luau was tremendous fun. I've been in Hawai'i but never attended an actual luau – I suspect that what's on offer these days is much more oriented toward haole tourists, so god luck finding the real thing. Poi supposedly tastes like library paste anyway. Not that I know what that tastes like.
- The "Why Galactic Empires?" themed panel made yet another comeback during the con, with John Wright and Chris Weuve on the panel. (John's a high-powered thinker, by the way: check this journal post where he takes apart Philip Pullman.) Chris is a friend who gets to teach wargaming. How cool is that?
Eating and Drinking
- Philadelphia is nothing if not a great city to eat. The presence of the Reading Terminal Market alone makes it great – there is a hell of a lot more dining experience in Philly than just cheese steaks. The Down Home Diner is not to be missed (Jack McDevitt took me there at my first Philcon).
Unstuck In Time and Space
So it was described in the convention book. At the time of Philcon 2007, the committee had no idea where the next con would be. It wound up not in Philadelphia at all.
