MediaWest*Con 17 - Memorial Day Weekend 1997
Excerpts from Convention Report by Anne Collins Smith

Until I moved from Texas to Pennsylvania last year, attending MediaWest*Con always meant flying. This year was different, as I was invited to ride with a carpool from New Jersey. One of the women, Dorothy Hartel, borrowed her Dad's enormous old Chevy, into which the four of us and our luggage fit quite comfortably. I was tickled to learn that some of my carpool mates were associated with that group of music video mavens known as the Bunnies from Hell. Now, in order for me to attend MWC, my husband had to chaperone a field trip to the Smithsonian with our ten-year-old and his class, so while I was enjoying a road trip to MWC with the Bunnies from Hell, my husband was experiencing an eight-hour bus ride with the Fifth Grade from. . . er, St. Monica's.

When I got to the dealer's room Friday morning it had just opened, and Orphan Zines was in the midst of the traditional feeding frenzy. Linda and Peg asked if I could help, and I pitched in restocking zines on the table as they were purchased. After a while I got to know where things were, and was able to answer some of the customers' questions or fetch specific zines they wanted. It was quite a privilege, I thought, to see how this operation worked from the inside, and when the feeding frenzy had abated I left to do my own shopping, with new respect for the people who ran the table.

Around midnight on Friday I remembered something I'd heard about on the Man from U.N.C.L.E. mailing list I belong to, and set off to find it. And am I ever glad I did! A group of U.N.C.L.E. fans, consisting of Jessica Ross (a.k.a. "Bingo"), Judi Toth, Amanda Thomas, Dorinda Hartmann, Kelly Wilson, James South, Melissa Jerves, and Tara O'Shea, had selected a goofy 2-part third-season episode, "The Five Daughters Affair," sat down with copies of the script and a pro tape of the episode, and carefully drafted, timed, and rehearsed a running commentary. What they created was a Mystery Science Theater 3000 Man from U.N.C.L.E. presentation! Bingo, Judi, Amanda, and Dorinda did the actual commentary with microphones at the front of the room as the episode played. They bounced off of U.N.C.L.E. clichés and MST3K conventions, throwing in pop-culture references from Gilbert & Sullivan to Young Frankenstein, pointing out continuity and production errors with glee. The time and effort they had put into it made for a smoothly delivered and hilarious presentation. It was altogether delightful and greatly enjoyed by a packed roomful of fans.

Although I was running the Rat Patrol party Saturday evening, I also got a chance to stop in at the U.N.C.L.E. party and visit with some fans. It was a huge party that spilled out of its room and up and down the hallway, and it was full of friendly people! Indeed, the greatest compliment the Rat Patrol party received was when someone popped in and said, "Wow! This is the biggest party next to the U.N.C.L.E. party!"

I got to be one of the "runners" at the art auction Sunday evening: that is, I carried pieces of artwork through the audience so that people could get a close look at the item that was up for bids. Usually, runners work in pairs and trade off running and filling out the bid sheet. I much prefer running to paperwork, and by sheer luck I was paired with a fan who was just getting over the 'flu and didn't want to run. So she did the bid sheet every time and I got to run every time, and we were both happy. There were four pairs of us, so we were not constantly on our feet. Just before the auction began, the auctioneers introduced the runners and an audience member solemnly pointed to us and said, "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy." That was not only a handy sign of the growing resurgence of interest in Star Wars this year, but a description we wore proudly!

What else was popular this year? A lot of Sentinel art went to auction, as did a lot of Xena and X-Files. Native American crafts, such as dreamcatchers and beaded pouches, were very popular. Wild animals were big; I carried several pieces with tigers or wolves. Unusual media are beginning more common, such as Christmas ornaments, slate clocks, stained glass, and painted plates. The highest bid for a single piece was $575 for a beautiful Jesse McClain Highlander painting. A gorgeous set of three Man from U.N.C.L.E. pictures by Suzie Lovett, auctioned separately, went for a total of over thirteen hundred dollars to one very determined and joyful fan. The auctioneers had fun as usual. A partially-clothed Mulder from X-Files earned the new title, "The Tush is Out There." They also got the audience to "yiyiyiyiyiyi" for the Xena pictures.

One very touching thing happened during the art auction. A fan was deliberately called and kept out of the room by an imaginary problem with her registration, and while she was gone, one of the organizers came up and explained that this fan, a longtime helper at MWC, had experienced several disasters just before the convention and then had her car throw a valve on the way to the con, a potentially catastrophic financial problem on top of all the others. A collection was taken up for her; the organizer suggested that we all put in the price of a cup of coffee, but as the runners collected the baskets I saw that some people had put in as much as a twenty-dollar bill. Later on, the fan was called up to the auction platform and presented with over a thousand dollars to help with her repair bill. There was much rejoicing among us all, and more than a few tears of joy.

Our carpool left Monday morning; we might have left the convention hotel, but we brought the convention along with us. At our first rest stop at a service plaza, we found two other groups of commuting MWC fans and briefly considered holding a mini-con right then and there! As we drove along the Ohio and Pennsylvania Turnpikes, I was initiated into a tradition of this carpool: we went through a batch of newly-purchased fanzines, chose the shortest and funniest stories, and took turns reading them aloud! It certainly made the trip go a lot more quickly.