Friday, October 07, 2011

Winkies 2012

Okay, David Maxine announced next year's Winkie Convention in more detail today. And do I plan to go? ... I think I've already said yes.

Again, it's a triad of book celebrations with Baum's Sky Island, and Thompson's Kabumpo in Oz and The Purple Prince of Oz, celebrating their 100th, 90th, and 80th anniversaries respectively. So we have Sky Island and Pumperdink! Pink, blue, and purple. ... Hey...

Also, my little "discovery" of Susan Morse will be there. If you don't remember, she sang Dorothy's songs for the 1964 Return to Oz, and has also appeared in many musicals such as The Sound of Music and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. And we have another "half-Dorothy" in Caren Marsh-Doll, Judy Garland's stand-in for MGM's The Wizard of Oz.

Other events are pending announcement, but so far, Eric Shanower will be doing some sort of presentation, and—get this—I've signed up to do a presentation about Thompson's Oz. (Yes, this is one of those things I said I wasn't telling you about quite yet a few blogs back.) I just finished Thompson's books a few months ago, and now I'm giving a talk about them!

And of course there'll be the Winkie Quiz (again, I'm presenting the standard quiz, so study Sky Island), the Costume Contest (or Masquerade, either works... it's not always the costume so much as the "act" behind it!), and the Auction. And there'll also be the dealer's room with many tempting Oz oddities from the past and present, and it sounds like the swap meet was a success and will be repeated. (I'm already stocking up on stuff to bring!)
You never know who'll show up...

The cost has had to rise this year, just like everything else has just about, but David and Peter Hanff worked hard to minimize it. For a shared room, it'll be $339, only a $14 increase over last year. So, it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to cover this increase.

And remember, that covers just about everything you'll need at the convention: your hotel room, your meals, and you'll get the Winkie Convention 2012 program book, which has proved to be quite a hit with convention goers (it's a keepsake, a guide, and something fun to read in one package!) and Oz collectors!

So, how's about it? Will we see you at Winkies 2012?

2 comments:

Angelo Thomas said...

No.

David Maxine said...

Thanks for the plug, Jared. I did want to clarify that the $339 Shared room convention rate includes hotel room, all six meals at the con, all programming, the 150 page program book, and all taxes and gratuities.

It's a pretty good deal all in all :)