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Webmaster's Note: The text below differs slightly from the version published in the hardcopy edition of the Odyssey.

Martian Cake and a Didgeridoo, Too!

Convention Party Planning - Not for the faint of heart.

by David Bliss

Party goer at 2004 OASIS party at Loscon. Photo courtesy Robert Gounley.

OASIS hosted another successful party at the annual LOSCON science fiction convention over Thanksgiving weekend. Our theme this time was "Samples From Settled Space". Planning began back in August when I tried contacting the Loscon Party Maven and started buying supplies. Part of the themeing this year entailed only serving drinks available in glass bottles. The assumption being that glass will be easier for early colonists to recycle than aluminum. On Earth bottles are now expensive so an early start allowed me to keep an eye out for sales.

As the date approached other things such as food and decorations where added to growing pile of party supplies. No word yet on the rules for parties on at the new hotel the convention moved into this year. But I did have a room reservation. I still had a life size stand-up of Buzz Aldrin on the Moon from the previous year. Also a good collection of NASA photo prints fit for decorating. To this were added various glittery silver garlands and cut out stars from a local party store.

In the kitchen it was time to experiment. The centerpiece for the party food definitely had to be something different to make the party memorable. Thoughts turned to dessert, and recent discoveries on Mars. Thus was born our Mars Sample Return cake topped with Martian blueberries. Other edibles were much simpler but by now Loscon was almost upon us and after repeated emails still no word on Party Rules oo getting booked into the right area.

Mars Sample Return Cake. Click here for recipe. Photo courtesy Robert Gounley.

Finally with two weeks to go the first glimmer of hope. Seams someone forgot to inform Janis Olsen that she had been volunteered as party maven until several months after listing her on the con's website. But the party rules where now in hand along with a request for my room reservation number to get blocked into the party wing. Hopes where dashed a couple days later however when word came back that the LAX Marriott was restricting open parties to one floor of their tower and there were more people wanting to throw parties than there were rooms available. Emergency mode! Not time to give up after all the planning (and purchasing) I'd already gone through. Last year I hosted two parties at Loscon. Responsibility for the second had been passed to someone else this year so contacting him an arrangement was made through Janis whereby I would check into the room Friday, hold the party, then relocate to a non-party room by noon on Saturday so the other group could move in.

So, last minute cutting, slicing, baking and packing late into the night on Thanksgiving put off my arrival the day of the party until about 12:30 in the afternoon. Barely taking time to register and say hello to those manning the OASIS information booth down in the convention area I headed upstairs to decorate. Stringing garlands and taping up pictures was easy but time consuming. Kat Tanaka stopped by for a bit to help. The most elaborate set piece was the tub decoration. Lined from the ceiling down in black plastic a second clear plastic table cover kept a series of blinking lights safely dry under the ice cooling the drinks. Above floated an inflatable gas giant lit from within by a glow stick and circled by a glittering foamcore ring. Spread through out the other two rooms of the suite were our themed munchies such as chunks of Moon Cheese, MEAT-eor bits (sausage), sugar free Dark Matter (chocolate), Solid Solar Flares (dried fruit), and a large platter of Assorted Space Debris consisting of an interesting looking snacks picked up at an oriental market. And Earth was not ignored. A chilled platter of shrimp and artificial crab gave people a Taste of the Ocean Planet.

The party was set to begin at 8PM but when I had heard nothing from downstairs by 6:30 I called to find the rest the OASIS crew out to dinner. My request for someone to pick up ice had been misplaced so I had to head to a local supermarket and managed to grab a sandwich their deli before returning to start drinks a-chillin'. At a quarter too everyone piled into the room with enough posters, inflatable rockets, rover models and other decorations to choke a whale. An info/membership table was set up in the front room while I started an XCOR DVD playing in the back. We managed to open less than half an hour late and the hordes began to decent.

Chapter president Steve Bartlett gives out the door prizes at the party. Photo courtesy Robert Gounley.

At last I could sit down and relax a while. It didn't take long for a good crowd to gather. We raffled off a variety of space memorabilia provided by Steve Bartlett every half hour or so and shoved discs into the player such as Destination Moon, October Sky and Dragonfly. The conversation and entertainment lasted well into the night and just as other people were thinking thoughts of bed in wandered Mitch Walker at around 1:30 to provide us with a live concert on a pair of beautifully hand painted didgeridoos. The low tones reverberated up and down the hall drawing other partygoers to our room. At last it was time to start breaking down and packing things away to be set up again at our table down stairs in the morning. I kept the airlock open until around 3:30 making us the last open part on Friday night. Eventually even the stragglers had cleared the hall so I drained the tub and packed away the last of the leftovers (Budget next year, budget!) and decoration so I could finally crawl into bed by 6 in the morning. To dream of next year.