STARPODLOGPODCAST: MidSouthCon 38

Thursday, April 21, 2022

MidSouthCon 38

The city of Memphis, TN is widely known for ribs and Graceland. What other reason would you go there? If you’re a sci-fi/fantasy fan, you would go there for MidSouthCon. It’s the longest running fan-run multi-genre convention in the midsouth. They just had their 38^th after taking two years off for Covid. They came back with a blast! March 25-27, 2022.

Nayr and I were thrilled to attend. We started out by visiting the vendors’ room. A few of the guests were there signing autographs, while were a variety of vendors filled the room. You could get all the anime memorabilia you wanted, or get some medieval jewelry, or anything else in between. There was a vendor selling CDs of space music that was out of this world. We listened to some samples and bought a couple of them.

There was an art show that had spectacular fantasy paintings. Celtic and fantasy musician Marc Gunn, known for attending many cons in the southeast, did a wonderful concert. He had great songs, and was just as funny and friendly as ever. There was a huge gaming area that was open all night. They had a large collection of table top games, some of them quite rare. We stopped in and played a few games. Nayr even signed up for one of the RPGs. The masquerade contest was a sheer delight. There was a con suite where you could cool off and get some goodies. The con suite had soft drinks and juice and water, and a few snacks like cookies, chips, and crackers.

The Toastmaster was writer John Jackson Miller. He was the person we most wanted to see, as he has written both Star Trek and Star Wars novels. He was very friendly both at panels and in casual conversations. The con had panels on many subjects. There were sometimes five panels going on at one time! Panel subjects were things like cosplay, podcasting, science, movies, comics, or any nerdy thing you could want. Scientist Don Lincoln gave a panel on the theory of everything, which was very intriguing and informative. It even reminded me of the TV show Big Bang Theory, having used some of the same science buzz words.

It was a pretty laid back con. We did some roaming around and just meeting random people. It was a fun fan-run con, and there were probably more people there in the hallways than anticipated by the show runners. They may need more space next time. But that’s a great problem to have. All the folks were friendly. As always, we ran into old friends and made some new friends. We even met some people who started a Star Trek fan club in Memphis in the ‘70s. This was most definitely a con we would like to attend again!

-by The Honorable Kavura