RAIN 1

Dates: February 16^th-18^th, 1979
Venue: Rembrandt Hotel, Vancouver
Party Guests: F.M. Busby, Susan Wood, & Mildred Downey "Bubbles" Broxon

(Sponsored by the Vancouver in 1984 Worldcon Bid Committee.)

Members card shows Chuckie the Beaver with propellor beanie & tiny umbrella (Chuckie the official mascot of the Worldcon bid – similar to the Fannish Ghod Roscoe – art by Tim Hammell.)

Friday, 16^th:

• Registration & Party!

Saturday, 17^th:

• Panels:
  • "The Neofan Slide Show & Panel" with John Thomson & friends
  • "Science Fiction On Television" with Jim Welch, Michael Walsh, Barb Dryer & Gordon Armstrong
  • "Messianic Pretensions in Contemporary SF Cinema" with Michael Walsh, Susan Walsh, Ed Hutchings & Alex Strachan
  • "Creating an Alternate World" with authors F.M. Busby, Mildred "Bubbles" Broxon & Crawford Kilian
  • "Fanpubbing Workshop" with Dale Hammel, Hen Flanders & Fran Skene
  • "Armageddon in SF" with Jo-Anne McBride, Debra Simms, Stuart Cooper, & Peter Hackett
• "Amateur Art Auction" by attendees, to raise money for Worldcon bid. Archive preserves 2 pieces: "Tonguewalker" by F.M. Busby, & "The Rain Financial Statement: '0'", by Gerald Boyko.
• Masque Ball, with cash bar. Judged by Bubbles Broxon, F.M. Busby & Susan Wood.
• Dance, with disco tapes supplied by Ed Beauregard.

Sunday, 18^th:

• Brunch, sight seeing

Both days:

• Movie & TV videos

Comments by:

Hen Flanders:

I'd like to report on Rain, but all I saw was the inside of the blog pail, the dance floor (I think I rested my nose on it at one point), and George Giguere's loincloth. I don't even want to think about Michael Dann and his ethyl ketone punch...

Alex Strachan (of the Vancouver Sun):

Yes, Virginia, at Rain it rained. Even so, or perhaps because so, I enjoyed myself at the con. Not too many people, an informal atmosphere, and intelligent programming. I think my favourite panel was the fanpubbing, because it must have been the hardest to do, because it started slowly and yet ended in a way that made you wish it would last.

Fran Skene:

In our flyers we emphasised the "party" aspect of RAIN... It started in the convention suite on the 24^th floor Friday afternoon with an ongoing party that continued until sometime the following morning and featured blog (with a warning sign) and Unblog (for them as can't handle liquor.) On Saturday there were panel discussions in one room, television movies in another, and people continued to party and drink blog in the con suite. The blog in particular began to get a little strange, as more and more things were added, including cinnamon, a coconut and part of a crab shell...

On both Friday & Saturday people created Great Works of Art (art materials supplied) at one table in the con suite. These were displayed on one wall, then taken to the programming room Saturday evening for the (in)famous amateur art auction. And this is how RAIN made a profit, as people bid for the amateur art produced by such as authors Bubbles Broxon & F.M. Busby but also by a lot of other amateur artists including two-year old Pauline Walsh. Everything sold, for prices ranging from 5¢ to $25 (a Tim Hammel work drawn with his left hand)...

After the auction the masked ball happened, with rather strange prizes being awarded to the winners in the costume contest... meanwhile partying was continuing upstairs in the consuite and in the hotel rooms of various people and a tape of The Rocky Horror Picture Show album was played both in the program room and con suite (no con is complete unless you've danced the Time Warp at least once!)...

After the program room was shut down at midnight and yet more people headed for the con suite, a typewriter materialised and a one-shot got started in the hall outside, with five or six of us passing the typewriter around while sitting on the floor. This time we composed a long science fiction poem, parts of which looked good even later...

Portion of said poem, "In Toto", authored by "Fran, Dani, Thom, Joyce, Rick, Tom & Jo-Anne" at Rain:

Yea! The sonic sensors were divising
schemes of infinite distraction unto the fourth generation.
The tight trans-clockwise spiral
heed unspinning, enthalcic
and well-fed, on tubes and transistors
mapping the convolutions of human desires
and cataloguing bottles
and metal tokens
games, frames and fantasies
structured lights
unsprung nights
swelling flights, and fear
hand swung gates
neutron hate
final, late & near
the night black streaming in.

The one programming event on Sunday (except for television tapes) was the Brunch Banquet at 11:30, held in a room in the hotel restaurant. Party guests Susan, Buz, & Bubbles gave short, entertaining talks and RAIN and Vancouver in '84 chairperson Jo-Anne McBride announced that RAIN had made money (cheers). Finally we all trooped back to the con suite for more conversation and to finish up the blog before packing up at 3 pm.

Chairperson: Jo-Anne McBride
Masque organizer: Cara Elrod
Master of Ceremonies: Paul Simms
Art Auctioneer: Edmonton fan Georges Giguere
Suppliers of movies, tapes & A/V equipment: Al Betz, Ed Beauregard & Ed Hutchings
Information sheet: Fran Skene

Image credits: Chuckie the Beaver artwork (in this case, created for the Worldcon bid, rather than for RAIN itself) by Tim Hammell.

Chuckie the Beaver: Mascot of the Vancouver Worldcon bid

F.M. Busby