Terminus – An Overview

Aug 17, 2008

Posted by: John Admin

Uncategorized

“I wish you peace and love and happiness in everything you do/I pray that everywhere you go someone will be in love with you./And I know that if you stay within these loving arms of mine/That every single one of these dreams will come true.”
~The Mudbloods – A Pensieve Full Of Unrequited Love

OK, so the video isn’t from Terminus, but I think it’s the best live recording of that song I could find. And, seriously, the times I’ve heard Adam, Kyle and Tyler play this song live, I cry. Correction: sob. Hot mess. The song is just so incredible. But I will get to that in a moment. I’m getting ahead of myself

I arrived in Chicago on Tuesday, August 5, 2008. I had tickets to see Stephenie Meyer and needed to get to Chicago for that. However, after reading Breaking Dawn, I decided not to go. (That’s a completely different blog entry that will never happen here). So, I got to spend the whole day with some pretty incredible people. Some people I had met, others I had not. All in all, I was happy to be there before all the festivities began to have an evening of “chill” with my peeps. It was incredible to see people come in, the the roar of excitement and anticipation that met each and every one of them. Those are some of my favorite memories of the week…when my eyes were full with the visions of people I love dearly, and too rarely get to see.

Wednesday was Wrock Chicago. Sadly, I only got to see one show. That’s right, of the 30 shows, I saw one. FAIL. However, it was the Mudbloods, and it was incredible. Wednesday was full of talk about LeakyCon and the future of our conference…worked out some issues, got some insight, and became completely reenergized and refocused on the prize. Something I tend to forget when I deal with people so much in an online environment…inspiration is as close as a phone call or an e-mail…but there is NOTHING that compares to having that person within arms reach.

Thursday was supposed to be a “day-off” as well, but it ended up being utter insanity. It was preparation for the chips to fall perfectly for my day of insanity that would be Friday. The LeakyCon Board of Directors met up after the Welcome Feast to put together our panel: “Community and Consciousness: Applying Lessons Learned in Harry Potter To Create Everyday Magic”. I was also helping to organize a Wizard Rock/Dance Party at a club in Chicago called “Reggie’s”, which was to also take place on Friday. Yes, I packed my day on Friday…which meant that Thursday was a day to prepare.

Jump to Friday. Hit the ground running. Put on my amazing new LeakyCon 2009 t-shirt and busted out of my room to get to the panel…only to realize that my name badge was MISSING from the place it belonged: around my neck. God love one of my roomies, Pascal…for if he hadn’t been willing to go up to our room and pick it up, I would have missed the panel. *rolls eyes at own stupidity* I was, frankly, glad that forgetting the name badge was NOT a sign of things to come. The panel was flawless…we had a great turn-out for our discussion (despite the fact that Melissa Anelli and Amy Tenbrink were hosting a panel about the JKR/WB vs. RDR Books at the exact same time!) I was told that, when answering my question about “How planning LeakyCon has changed my day to day life?” I made people cry. It was totally unintentional, but I get kind of passionate about the fandom, in general, and LeakyCon specifically…so when I started to choke-up, I knew it was bad news.

Cheryl Klein did her keynote in the afternoon on Friday, which was SUPERB! If you didn’t have the opportunity to see it firsthand, you can read the transcript here. It was such a pleasure to meet her, to hang out with her a bit, and to be there when her flight home got cancelled NOT ONCE, but TWICE! Talk about the Harry Potter convention Gods sending a strong signal! “These people are just too awesome! You cannot leave!!” In all seriousness, her speech was inspired, and the macaroni and cheese was divine.

Wrock Wreggie’s was Friday night…and this was the thing I was the MOST concerned about the entire weekend. Not that it hadn’t been planned well…it had. However, we weren’t “sold out” when the door’s opened, and I was worried about not only disappointing the bands, but not recouping our initial investment. Um, I should have known better than to worry. Harry Potter fans, Nerdfighters (yes, Hank Green from Brotherhood 2.0 on YouTube came to play 2 songs, and John came to support him and DANCE!), Wizard Rock fans…Hell, even people who were walking by and couldn’t resist the awesome that was going on had that place jam-packed about 25 minutes after the doors opened. And the night was a rousing success. I had the privilege of emceeing the event, which meant that I got to introduce all the bands (Hank Green, The Dreary Inferi, The Chocolate Frogs feat. Bryce Cone, Swish and Flick, DJ Paul DeGeorge and The Whomping Willows). Like I said, it was incredible. I walked around and looked around me all night, and there wasn’t one person in attendance what wasn’t having a riot…myself included. It wasn’t until I saw THIS video days later that I realized how the event tipped the scales of amazing and toppled right over into epic. If you were there, thank you. If you weren’t, don’t miss LeakyCon.

The week kind of blurs for me at this point. All my “assignments” were done…so I got to follow the crowds and go to some amazing programming. The live PotterCast was great, and after that, Melissa Anelli read from her book, “Harry: A History”. It was amazing to see the support she had in that room. There wasn’t a person in attendance whose life she hadn’t touched, no matter how directly or indirectly. The emotion of that moment was too much for a lot of people. Through my tears, I could see that she was overcome, as well as several people on Leaky’s staff and even, yes, some of the Wizard Rock guys. It was incredible. I look forward to having that book in my hands November 4, 2008.

So, this was my indirect sales pitch as to why you should come to LeakyCon. The people in this fandom are amazing, the times we spend together are too few and far between. But, when we do get the opportunity to get together, epicness ensues. This video pretty much sums it up. The song, which totally sums up my feeling toward my friends and family in this community. The Mudbloods are great, and the sentiment in the chorus rings true to how I feel about each and every one of the people I’ve met on this outstanding journey of both self-discovery and friendship. Enjoy.





The Leaky Cauldron is not associated with J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., or any of the individuals or companies associated with producing and publishing Harry Potter books and films.