Convergence 4 Memories

Originally posted on:

From silentq@interlog.pas_du_spamme.com Fri Aug 28 17:23:32 1998

Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 16:58:39 -0400

From: silentq 

Newsgroups: alt.gothic

Subject: C4 - a local's perspective [long]



August 20-24, 1998.



Well, here I am, after a day to recuperate, rabidly scanning for C4 posts

so I can hold on to the weekend just a bit longer. I found that my

nefarious plan to get people to recognise me by posting more before C4 had

worked and I'm feeling just egotistical enough to think a few might like

to see my thoughts on the matter. :)



First off, many kudos to the organisers, you did good, kids. :)



It wasn't as hard this year, since everyone came *here*, and I didn't have

to leave after it was done, but it still hurt to say good bye to everyone.

I know I'll hopefully see most of you in New Orleans, but still... 



I'll attempt not to name drop, but be assured that everyone I met is still

a vivid memory and I'm ever so glad you came. The ones I didn't get to

meet, well, next time. :)



I started C4 a bit early, since &ru came a bit early and crashed with me,

then I had V.Endure for a couple of days before her hotel reservation

started. I picked them both up at the airport, from their respective

flights, but they seemed to have picked down times to fly in, since we

never did spot any other Convergers. We bopped around the city, did the

Bat Walk and saw a play in High Park. I killed my VCR on a new copy of The

Princess Bride and had to pay $100 to get it fixed. 



Then Thursday arrived. I bounced out of work, anticipating four days of

fun and frolic, and wasn't disappointed.



I really didn't think so many people would arrive early. We walked into

the hotel and ran into Boo and Thess and Xthlc checking in, then wandered

upstairs to the C4 room to see if we could convince anyone to come for $2

Marguaritas at Tortilla Flats. I scammed a giant pixie stick and managed

not to poke anyone's eye out with it over the course of the evening. We

managed to gather a good sized gaggle, and I think we confused the other

patrons a bit. Despite the football on the TV, the drinks were nice. :)

One thing I learned this weekend is that going out to dinner with more

than 8 people means that it takes forever to get served and get your bill,

but hell, we just kept talking and taking up space. :) 



Off to Savage Garden for my first ever time going there on a Thursday. It

was nice to have the excuse of visitors to get me doing things I don't

usually do. (a general shut up to those who wish to make of that what they

will :) ). It started late so we wandered towards the hotel to see what we

could see, and found a few more stragglers to drag back to the club. 



I kept muttering "what the hell are all these people doing in my club???" 

all night, but enjoyed the feeling of dislocation. I felt I was back in

Chicago or Boston again, with the familiar faces and newly met people, but

it was odd knowing that I could go home at any time. I enjoyed the

readings, though Nancy Baker's words seem to come across better in text

than spoken. Nancy Kilpatrick pre-apologised for not having any sex or

dark stuff then proceeded to read a scene that featured sex on a

headstone. I felt a bit bad for them both since the mike was noisy and

they didn't manage to compete very successfully with the lure of meeting

and greeting net.goths, but I did grab a few words with both of them to

let them know they were appreciated by one person at least. Got a book

signed to silentq, not sure what to do with it now, as it's sort of a

silly thing to have, but she couldn't hear my name and my laminate was

easy to read. :) Ended up back at the official hotel for a while.



Then &ru, Gabriel and I decided that a walk along the lake was a good idea. 

An hour later and we're at my place with very sore feet. Ouch.



Friday, got woken up by a phone call, but I didn't mind, really, since I

was expecting it. :) Finished (mostly) my dress for the tea and then

headed over to the Royal York. Got stuffed and socialised a bit, but

didn't feel up to mingling and meeting everyone. Decided that the dress

didn't fit as well as it should, since I had started it over a year ago,

so went home to change. Took, as always, longer than expected and got back

to the hotel where two random net.goths (who I spent an enjoyable

afternoon with the next day as they posed and took pictures in

compromising positions with Toronto landmarks) accosting me (monk haircut?

who came up with that description of me?)  in the parking lot and saying I

was being awaited.  Sushi was to be had. 



We made a reservation for an hour or two hence and then shopped away the

time before dinner. Managed to put my foot in my mouth big time since

someone (who's teddy bear I'm holding hostage) neglected to explicitly

introduce Metamorph to me - we were chatting away and I made a frustrated

comment about not being able to find her, when she said, "That's me!". :)



At dinner, it again took forever and a day to be served. We finally

managed to escape from the restaurant and ditched the Americans so the

Can.goths in the party could head to the venue to volunteer and buy tix

and stand around in peace. :) Hopefully no one was too confused by the

detour of the street car, though I was. :)  Proceeded to stand at the door

and sell tix and only got names of those who were picking up pre-orders. 

Missed Masochistic Religion, but it seems that wasn't a big loss. :) 

Escaped with Axel and headed to the C4 hotel where the nazi desk clerk

wouldn't let us in to visit, though a few sneaked by when someone was

yelling at him to give them another key to their room. Took a cab home

where I proceeded to be depressed about missing out on the hotel parties

and wash my C4 shirt. Oops. *sigh*



Saturday was not a good day for me, well, okay, it was, in bits. I began

to be overwhelmed by people and had to hide and cry for a while. I skipped

the CNE since I'd have taken a machete to anyone who got in my way at that

point, and spent my last volunteer hours in the C4 hotel room. Wandered

out to see if I could find anyone to hang out with and got drafted as one

of two local guides to go shopping and scavenger hunting. Copious pictures

got taken here, on the quest for new boots and death head pez. We ended up

at Java House just in time for our regular list meet so we went ahead and

had it, though Axel and I were the only locals. Wandered off to the hotel

to find people to go to the venue with. Bad pizza was had and the line

negotiated to bring us into the Opera House. My Scarlet Life was already

on stage when we arrived, and I had a crisis through most of their set

anyways, so I missed most of it. The Changlings rocked. Rhea's I missed

as I was being cheered up by watching all the flirting going on, but they

made great background music. :)  Faith and the Muse were wonderful, as

usual. Almost got stomped on by the band as they left after their set, and

decided to vacate at that point. 



I seem to have ended up in cabs an awful lot this weekend, I tend to take 

the TTC on my own, but everyone else seemed to have money to burn. :) 



Back to the hotel where we walked past the door man as if we belonged

there and so made it in. Enter second last crisis of the night as I got

really cranky due to lack of sleep and overcrowding (Ron and Ed, I'm not

forgiving you for the elevator crush, you do realise this? :) ) and ended

up walking home. I got blisters and had to deal with two guys shining a

laser pointer at my ass - gotta love Parkdale. Luckily they didn't make an

issue of it when I turned on them.  And to finish off my day, my car was

gone when I got home. I'd parked it for the weekend, since the CNE was on,

and apparently it got towed from someplace I don't remember parking it. My

unending thanks to Char for finding Casper and to Nate for driving him

over to help me deal with the police and the impound yard. Met my

neighbours who were out on the porch at 4:30am drinking and smoking. Got

offered hash but turned them down as I was already shaking and stuff by

then. Finally got to bed and sleep after tracking down the yard with my

car. 



Sunday I slept in enough to be able to deal with getting my car out of the

impound yard. I did use a JtHM tshirt, army shorts and a collar as a

uniform to bolster my tenuous resolve to get my car back whatever it took,

though the big boots [tm] were left off due to not feeling up to dealing

with the excruciating pain of my blisters. My landlord was a saint and got

me out of the impound fee and gave us a ride over to pick it up. Decided

that I didn't want to let it out of my sight just yet, so drove over to

the hotel and to the dinner at Movenpick. 



More crowds, but the food was pretty good, if a touch expensive. After

that I felt calmed down enough to go change into something a bit more

classy.  Since I knew that I had to bring my skull buckle boots as an item

for the scavenger hunt, I decided to dress up to match them a bit.

Apparently it worked since I had a few pics snapped of me at Clinton's in

my gothic flapper finery - copies or URLs are appreciated, I never did

find my camera all weekend, it seems to be lost after the move back

downtown. silentq racking them up, by Moses.  Had an ice cream thanks to Coffin's team and settled in

to enjoy a low key evening. Despite being totally sober, I managed to get

licked at pool by all the drunkengoffs downstairs. I think this was my

favourite night, and it was great to see that so many people were able to

stay, though Eileen was missed. :( Ended up at the Day's Inn for a tiny

room party and late dinner - I'm still hoping no one remembers exactly how

much money they gave me and Ron to go get food with. :) 



We said our goodbyes just before dawn, since people had to get up to drive

home the next day. I was still horribly tired on Monday, but drove &ru to

the airport to create a sort of closure on the event, since he was the

first I picked up on arrival.





I hope that you all enjoyed our fair city, and that having a non USA

Convergence wasn't too traumatic for you. :) Come back anytime!



silentq, still missing everyone but planning to go to Whitby in October

then C5 in NOLA and then be broke for a while
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