Panmankey

I have neglected to write about my adventures at Pantheacon and Convocation.  I should probably fix that.  Both festivals were fantastic, had a great time, hung out with friends old and new, etc. etc.  The Steeler Super Bowl run put me behind with a great deal of things, including writing in this blog.  Sorry about that (not sorry about rooting for the SIX time Super Bowl champs!). 

Pantheacon was a again great this year, if a little more subdued than last year.  It began with a horrible travel experience, flight delays, and lost luggage.  Fortunately for me, I had my luggage and Morrison stuff back by friday night, which was the evening of Pconn's Dionysian Revel.  Morrison this year was great, and if I could write great five more times it would only begin to describe how awesome it was.

There was much, much wine, and everyone there was ready to pay homage to Jim.  There was the usual 100 plus folks on hand, and they  made noise like 500 folks.  The energy was just so strong . . . . . walking into the lobby where people waited I was greeted with an ovation that would have made Jimmy Page blush.  It was freaking sweet.  I had people showing me their beads from the first Morrison out West, and let me tell you, that stuff means a lot to me.  It's flattering, and reaffirms why I do this stuff.

My high priestess for the evening, April Morrison, was a breath of fresh air.  After not having a priestess last year, it was nice to have someone to share the night with.  It was her first job as a Morrison Priestess and she was fantastic.  Stepping into the Morrison Priestess role is a tough one, those are big shoes to fill between Moonchild and Ash Morrison.  Just a lovely evening, I can't stress that enough, and there was a whole lot of sexual energy in the air too.  I'll let you fill in the blanks, but it was a wild night.

I had no workshops on saturday, so it was nice not to really do anything.  I slept late, and ended up mostly wandering around the festival.  I drank some good scotch, hung out with Kenny and Anna Klien (a festival tradition at this point) and ended up in the Green Fairy Room(s) drinking absinthe.  Love the absinthe, and the cider, and managed to make it through the whole weekend hangover free.

Sunday was workshop day, and I rocked.  I did the Pan Workshop (my favorite by the way) to about 100-some people, and sold out of all the Jason-stuff I had brought with me (which was very little, I need to get more stuff out there).  The crowd laughed, I told dick jokes, it was about all you'd expect from a Pan workshop.

The big surprise of the evening was the debut of my Aphrodite workshop.  Due to weird scheduling issues it was shoe-horned into an 11pm sunday night slot.  I thought I'd have 14 people there, I had over 60.  I was amazed, and it went well.  It was rough, being the first time I presented it, but people seemed to enjoy it, and I was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly it went.

(When the workshop was said and done I had a bunch of people come up to me to say that "people always go to you workshops" and that "it doesn't matter what time you present, people will be there."  While I'm not sure I totally buy that, it was amazing to hear.  One of the things I notice every year is that there are groups of people who come to everything I do, which is amazing considering the amount of weird off the beaten path things I come up with.)

As always, Pconn was amazing, great people, great drinks, great times.  I love being out West so much, I can't put it into words.  To everyone out there, thank you from the bottom of my heart.  You make the trip worth it, year after year.  I enjoyed some wonderful hospitality from the Golden Dawne folks, the various groups in Sacramento, and everyone who hosted a party on the second floor.  Thank you, thank you thank!!!

Convocation is rapidly becoming one of my favorite festivals.  It's not just because I'm treated like a rock star, but because I've got so many friends there.  It was weird that for so long I knew more people in New York than I did in Detroit Michigan (an hour and a half from my house) and I'm glad that's getting rectified.  Convocation is the most organized festival in all of Pagandom, and while it's not as big as Pantheacon or Starwood, they bring in stellar presenters every year.  I'm blessed that I get to go to all of these festivals!

Socially I thought Convocation was a triumph, but workshop wise it didn't compare to last year.  I had good crowds, but not the big big crowds that I had last year.  My Pan workshop got eaten up by a Michelle Ballenger workshop on saturday.  I still had 40 people in there, but her crowd seeped into the hallway.  Ten bucks says I'm funnier.

Yeah, so I did Pan there, Aphrodite too, and a workshop on the history of the Devil.  I liked the Devil workshop quite a bit, so did the people there.  I was unsure of that one.  I'm not sure I'll be presenting it very often, but it was an interesting little journey to take. My interest in early Christianity is a hard sell at Pagan festivals, but there are always people who show up to that stuff.  

Aphrodite went better at Convocation because I was able to make changes to it.  There were "order" issues the first time I did it.  Sometimes the order in which you present things make sense to you on paper, and then doesn't work as a lecture.  Everything always gets better the more I do it, Aphrodite was no exception.

I didn't get to do a Morrison at Convocation, but I did do a ritual in honor of Pan.  I've never done a public Pan ritual before, and coming up with something to do in his honor was kind of a trick.  (They asked me to do something for Pan, I didn't volunteer.)  The problem with doing a Pan Ritual is that most of what I want to come up with is "R Rated," and Convocation is definitely a "PG-13" festival.  Eventually I compromised on some stuff and came up with a decent enough ritual.  The only thing I didn't like about it, was that it was too short.  When I do it again, I'll have those problems fixed.  

I did hear a lot of good comments about it afterwards though, and I felt like we raised some really good "Pan Energy."  You could feel the energy sort of buzzing around, and since the ritual was at 7:00 pm, I envisioned it more as a way to start the evening than to end it.  Morrison is definitely an end to the night, or at least a prelude to lots of debauchery.  A ritual at 7:00 pm didn't have that kind of feel to me so we toned it down.  At that ritual I was blessed with some great maenad help, specifically my lovely wife Ari, our friend Katelyn, and my friend Galatea from out in Ann Arbor (a fellow Panhead).  

Thank you Convocation for another great weekend, and big thanks to Michael and Jeff in the Scotch Room, twenty bottles of scotch were shared with friends new and old.  What a great place to spend a few evenings.  (Check out their podcast scotchcast at www.thescotchcast.com)  So thanks to everyone in Motown for a terrific weekend, especially MEC for putting on such a great festival.

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In Other News . . .

People keep asking me about the book, I'm working, I promise I'm working.  At the request of an esteemed publisher I'm adding a bunch of stuff to it, hopefully it will be done by the end of the summer.  

Talk to you all soon.

bright blessings,

-jason