Longklaw.com

While I was at LeakyCon, I spent a lot of time thinking about fandoms. I’m a major Star Trek fan. More specifically, I a major Star Trek: The Next Generation fan. I’ve seen every episode and movie many times. If I came across a rerun, I used to be able to recognize an episode and tell you the title and season within seconds. I haven’t put that to the test in a while since you don’t see reruns on TV anymore. I know there are people who are more obsessed with it than me, but I’m pretty obsessed. Star Trek: TNG is definitely the series I’m the most obsessed with, even more than LOST.

I thought that I was fairly knowledgeable about Doctor Who. I’ve seen every episode since the relaunch at least once. I spend a decent amount of time chatting with people about it. At the Doctor Who meetup at LeakyCon, we sat around in the circle and discussed the show. I knew there would be people who knew a lot more than me. I was just hoping to be able to contribute to the conversation. As the discussion went around the circle on different topics, I was just happy that I knew what people were talking about. At one point, I was having trouble hearing what was going on when all of a sudden pretty much the entire circle of 50 or so people burst into some Doctor Who-related song. Later, I remembered hearing “Pandorica” and “Amy” and “River”. When they finished, I had no idea what had just happened. It blew my mind. They all knew the song word for word, but I had never heard of it before. Earlier they had all sung a Harry Potter song, but I figured that was from the Harry Potter musical that I have refused to watch.

Later on, with the help of Google, I discovered that the Doctor Who song is by a UK band that writes songs inspired by Doctor Who. They write songs INSPIRED BY DOCTOR WHO. I had no idea this kind of thing existed, but I shouldn’t be surprised. These guys are big on YouTube apparently. The Internet wasn’t around when Star Trek: TNG was on, much less YouTube. I wonder how it would have been different for me if I had the Internet when that show was on. I don’t do a lot of general web surfing these days, but I did when I was in college and had more free time (I didn’t get Internet access until my freshman year of college in 1997). I’m hardly ever on YouTube, but if I had it in 1990, I probably would have spent hours watching Star Trek videos. Most of the people in the Doctor Who discussion were at least 10 years younger than me.

I already knew that the Internet has changed fandoms. I’m already a part of several online communities. This Doctor Who discussion made me realize that I’m not utilizing everything that I could. I have to step up my geek game if I want to keep up with these young people. Or maybe I don’t need to. I’m doing fine the way I am now.

The Leaky Cauldron, a Harry Potter news site, has a annual fan conference called LeakyCon in different cities across the country. This year is the first year 2 conferences will take place: LeakyCon Portland and LeakyCon London. LeakyCon Portland has been going on since Thursday and today (Sunday) was the last day. Now, it’s not just a Harry Potter convention. They cover all kinds of fandom from Buffy to Doctor Who.

I LOVED the Harry Potter books. I started reading them after the 4th book was released and went through them quickly. I remember reading one book on Thanksgiving day in between helpings of turkey. Whenever a new book was released after that, I was always at the midnight Friday night release and I finished it before the weekend was over or on Monday. I enjoyed the movies as well for what they were. I saw all of them at the theater except the first one and sometimes I’ll watch a few minutes of them if I stumble across them on TV. That said, I know I’m not the biggest Harry Potter fan in the world. I’ve only read the books 1 time each. I don’t know a lot of minute details. I know that there’s a musical out there, but I’ve never seen it. When I found out LeakyCon was coming to Portland, I wanted to go. I wanted to go mostly because I listened to PotterCast, the official podcast of the Leaky Cauldron, and I figured it would be a lot of fun. I know someone who goes every year and she has a good time there. Also, I try to do as much as I can in Portland, especially the type of things that I wouldn’t be able to do if I were still in Mississippi.

Overall, I enjoyed LeakyCon. At times I felt like I was too old and too male to be there. Most of those in attendance were young girls and ladies. There were a few older adults there, but a lot of them were with their children. No one did anything to make me feel weird though. I’m sure it was all in my head.

Because of work, I ended up missing a lot of cool things I wanted to do during the day Thursday and Friday. I decided not to go Thursday to the official opening ceremony on Thursday night. Apparently, that was one of the highlights of the show. Anthony Rapp from Rent did a parody of “La Vie Boheme”. That part is online, so I don’t feel too bad about it. Friday night I sat in on a trivia competition. The first round was Doctor Who questions. They were so easy. I wish I had decided to compete. I ended up leaving after the first round. Saturday morning I got there early for a Doctor Who fan meetup. The room was full when I got there, but they did have an overflow meeting outside the room. I went to panels the rest of the time I was there that day. I got to see the girl that played young Lily Potter in the last Harry Potter movie, Tom Lenk from Buffy and Angel, and Anthony Rapp. On Sunday I went to a Buffy sing-a-long followed by a Doctor Horrible sing-a-long. After that I went to the last ever PotterCast, which was the closing event of the conference.

I started listening to PotterCast a few years ago. I think it was around the time they interviewed J.K. Rowling. After the last book and movie were released, they slowed down on releasing episodes. It’s been almost a year since they released an episode. I’m glad they were able to end the show this way instead of just fading away. I know I’m going to miss it, because I was already missing it. Hopefully, there will be more Potter books and they can bring this show back. Maybe they’ll do a new show together.

I’m glad I went to LeakyCon. I had fun there. Like one speaker said, even though the Internet can make us distant, cons prove that it’s important to come together in person from time to time. My biggest regret is not seeing Devon Murray, who played Seamus Finnigan, one of my favorite characters from the books and the movies. What I loved the most was something that I love about all cons: the feeling of inclusiveness. Despite the age difference, it was great being around fellow nerds/geeks, and feeling like I belong, and not being judged. I’ll at least consider going back if LeakyCon is in this area again.

Update, 7/1/2013
I added a link to the “La Vie Boheme” parody from LeakyCon.