jhkim (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} jhkim) wrote,@ 2008-04-09 14:54:00 |
|
Solmukohta 2008
So I'm back from my trip to Finland, where I was attending Solmukohta, an international larp convention with a focus on analysis and discussion. I'll give a detailed report on the gaming side of things in my role-playing journal,jhkimrpg -- right now I just want to give the social report.
First of all, the Finnish reputation for drinking is now confirmed in my mind. I drank more during that week than I had for several months prior. Unfortunately, I think I am becoming more of a loud drunk, and I did some foolish things. Though for the record, when I ran naked up the apartment building stairs in response to a dare, I wasn't very drunk at all. That's just me.
I had a lot of fun in the four larps of the week -- run by Santtu, Andreas, Marthe & Martine, and J. Tuomas. There weren't enough larps for everyone who was there at AWiF, but then really I should have volunteered to run one. I'd have to pick a depressing one to fit in with the mood: one about suicide, one about refugees fleeing Croatia after their village was destroyed, one about a future world war where we were asked about whether to lower the draft age from 16 to 14. The fourth by J. Tuomas was the brightest -- it was just about hungover people who may have killed someone being mean to each other. I think this is telling me something about Finnish psychology. :-)
My pattern for the week was sightseeing in the mornings (mostly by myself), larps in the afternoon, parties in the evening. A lot of thanks to the people organizing. At the parties, I got to hang out more with people I knew from earlier conventions like Claus, Sofia, Martine, and Marthe -- and I got to know some better like Trine and Janetta -- and I got to know new people like Nathan, Santtu, and Brett.
Still, I think my favorite times were the quieter times. I enjoyed a lot going out to the "end of the world" country house following the sauna party -- with interesting discussions that night with Itamar and Trine, along with an unexpectedly nice walk to the lake after being woken up by a fire alarm in the morning. It was very nice countryside, but I'm very glad I didn't have to hike out there every night.
It was only at the hotel on Friday that I got to see the whole crowd. In general, the crowd was now more international than two years ago in Sweden -- big blocks of guys from Germany and Israel, a scattering of Eastern Europeans, and a handful of others. Also, probably not coincidentally, the average was a little older, with more men. I had estimated a little over one-third women at Knutpunkt 2006 (fifty-something out of 147), while it seemed under a third this time.
I enjoyed all the talks and workshops I went to -- props to lots of people here: Malik & Matthijs on educational role-playing, Agnese & Diana on larp in Latvia, Anna-Karin's workshop excellent as always (plus her meta-technique talk), Tor and Even's fascinating split-identity workshop/larp, Anna's workshop on management, and the whole panel on Eastern Europe (though I had trouble focusing Sunday morning).
I enjoyed the evenings there, too. There was a nice impromptu singing session in the stairwell Friday night - kudos to all the singers there. The retro-futurist gala dinner was fine and had a nice show, though I came dangerously close to a wardrobe malfunction as my old metallic grey rubber shirt started to split at the shoulder. And afterwards, dancing the pornapolka with a huge crowd and contributing to the ancient German punch ritual, along with a bit of karaoke. I was starting to get sick by this time, though.
Sunday was a bit of a haze as I was low on sleep and starting to get sick. And mostly there were a lot of goodbyes.
Advice to myself for next time: pick a few times to wander about drinking, dancing, flirting, and singing -- but set aside more time for reflective conversations with people (which may involve a certain amount of alcohol as well).
(Again, more role-playing-specific thoughts will show up onjhkimrpg.)
So I'm back from my trip to Finland, where I was attending Solmukohta, an international larp convention with a focus on analysis and discussion. I'll give a detailed report on the gaming side of things in my role-playing journal,
jhkimrpg -- right now I just want to give the social report. First of all, the Finnish reputation for drinking is now confirmed in my mind. I drank more during that week than I had for several months prior. Unfortunately, I think I am becoming more of a loud drunk, and I did some foolish things. Though for the record, when I ran naked up the apartment building stairs in response to a dare, I wasn't very drunk at all. That's just me.
I had a lot of fun in the four larps of the week -- run by Santtu, Andreas, Marthe & Martine, and J. Tuomas. There weren't enough larps for everyone who was there at AWiF, but then really I should have volunteered to run one. I'd have to pick a depressing one to fit in with the mood: one about suicide, one about refugees fleeing Croatia after their village was destroyed, one about a future world war where we were asked about whether to lower the draft age from 16 to 14. The fourth by J. Tuomas was the brightest -- it was just about hungover people who may have killed someone being mean to each other. I think this is telling me something about Finnish psychology. :-)
My pattern for the week was sightseeing in the mornings (mostly by myself), larps in the afternoon, parties in the evening. A lot of thanks to the people organizing. At the parties, I got to hang out more with people I knew from earlier conventions like Claus, Sofia, Martine, and Marthe -- and I got to know some better like Trine and Janetta -- and I got to know new people like Nathan, Santtu, and Brett.
Still, I think my favorite times were the quieter times. I enjoyed a lot going out to the "end of the world" country house following the sauna party -- with interesting discussions that night with Itamar and Trine, along with an unexpectedly nice walk to the lake after being woken up by a fire alarm in the morning. It was very nice countryside, but I'm very glad I didn't have to hike out there every night.
It was only at the hotel on Friday that I got to see the whole crowd. In general, the crowd was now more international than two years ago in Sweden -- big blocks of guys from Germany and Israel, a scattering of Eastern Europeans, and a handful of others. Also, probably not coincidentally, the average was a little older, with more men. I had estimated a little over one-third women at Knutpunkt 2006 (fifty-something out of 147), while it seemed under a third this time.
I enjoyed all the talks and workshops I went to -- props to lots of people here: Malik & Matthijs on educational role-playing, Agnese & Diana on larp in Latvia, Anna-Karin's workshop excellent as always (plus her meta-technique talk), Tor and Even's fascinating split-identity workshop/larp, Anna's workshop on management, and the whole panel on Eastern Europe (though I had trouble focusing Sunday morning).
I enjoyed the evenings there, too. There was a nice impromptu singing session in the stairwell Friday night - kudos to all the singers there. The retro-futurist gala dinner was fine and had a nice show, though I came dangerously close to a wardrobe malfunction as my old metallic grey rubber shirt started to split at the shoulder. And afterwards, dancing the pornapolka with a huge crowd and contributing to the ancient German punch ritual, along with a bit of karaoke. I was starting to get sick by this time, though.
Sunday was a bit of a haze as I was low on sleep and starting to get sick. And mostly there were a lot of goodbyes.
Advice to myself for next time: pick a few times to wander about drinking, dancing, flirting, and singing -- but set aside more time for reflective conversations with people (which may involve a certain amount of alcohol as well).
(Again, more role-playing-specific thoughts will show up on
jhkimrpg.)
