SMOF News, volume 1, issue 18
Taiyou Con boycott, more Worldcon, and acknowledgements.
Taiyou Con Boycotted Over Alleged Assault
The director of Taiyou Con (January 7-9, Mesa, Arizona) has stepped down after a Facebook post from another fan accusing him of sexual assault and calling for a boycott of the convention.
The Arizona Republic has the story:
On Dec. 15, Arizona resident Allie Heady, 25, detailed in a public Facebook post that she had been sexually assaulted by someone known within the anime and cosplay communities as Gackto in December 2017. Gackto also was the name of the director of Taiyou Con, an annual anime convention scheduled for Jan. 7-9 at Mesa Convention Center.
Gackto, real name Kato Tan or Kato Tam, followed up with his own Facebook post acknowledging a relationship with Heady but denying that the assault happened.
In addition to stepping down from being in charge of the con, he’s been booted from the corporation running it:
As of Dec. 20, the information for Taiyou Convention LLC has been updated to exclude Kato Tan, according to the Arizona Corporation Commission. Current members are listed as Rida Son and Beskar LLC.
Taiyou Convention LLC was incorporated in 2016 and has a separate identification number from Taiyou LLC, which was created in 2010 and lists Kato Tan.
The convention announced that Jai Son, who "has been with Taiyou Con since the beginning," has been elected as the new director.
At least one vendor has pulled out of the con.
Worldcon Leftovers
A clarification
Last week’s issue said:
The landslide for Chengdu was a surprise to many because DisCon III did not follow the common Worldcon practice of posting membership statistics by country. They were provided to File 770 on two occasions, but do not appear to have traveled far beyond there.
Mike Glyer of File 770 would like to clarify:
File 770 took the initiative to ask for them. Otherwise they'd never have been released.
Raytheon sponsorship and apology
Aerospace company Raytheon provided sponsorship for the official “red carpet” photos at the Hugo Awards ceremony. The sponsorship was not announced in advance, and some nominees and attendees were surprised and upset by the presence of a company which provides technology to the United States military.
DisCon III issued a personal apology from the con chair, which included suggestions for future Worldcons:
Future conrunners can avoid our mistakes by:
Developing a sponsorship policy for your organization that reflects the values and concerns of our community.
Creating a robust plan for doing due diligence on potential sponsors.
Creating a mission and value statement against which to measure actions.
The amount of money involved is not known, but the Hugo budget was also the talk of fandom earlier this year, when DisCon III implemented and then immediately reversed a policy limiting the number of individuals who could be included in the ceremony for each finalist work.
COVID-19
Over 30 people have reported positive tests after attending DisCon III. Most report that they were masked in convention spaces but took their masks off to eat in restaurants.
Washington, DC is currently recording the highest COVID rates in the United States, so in-person attendees should probably assume they have been exposed if they ever took their masks off in a public setting, regardless of whether other members of the convention were present or not.
Chinese language resources
For English-speaking fans with plans to attend the 2023 Chengdu Worldcon either virtually or in person:
The most-recommended general language-learning app is Duolingo. (Note that speaking exercises are only available through the mobile app or the Chrome browser.)
The most-recommended Chinese-specific learning app is Hello Chinese.
Interactive Pinyin pronunciation chart with audio and video
Instructions are available on how to enable Chinese input on:
Linux users will need to look up instructions specific to their distribution.
For deeper information on Chinese ideographs, look for Tecknens rike by Cecilia Lindqvist (English title: China: Empire of Living Symbols).
End-of-Year Acknowledgements
Thank you to each and every one of my subscribers. I will always be overjoyed to realize that someone thinks this newsletter is worth reading.
Convention listings have been compiled from a variety of sources. The largest one has been my old notes for a previous fanzine, Picofarad. I also pick up some on an ongoing basis for news searches. But I have also picked up at least one thing to add to my list from each of these pages:
ConRunner’s sf convention list
FanCons.com’s worldwide convention listings
Convention Scene’s full convention calendar
SF2 Concatenation’s natcon and film festival calendar
Meeple Mountain’s worldwide gaming convention calendar
Steve Jackson Games’s convention and trade show schedule
Paizo’s convention calendar
filk.de’s convention list
Ansible’s event list
Southern Fandom Resource Guide’s convention calendar
The Carolina Nerd’s North and South Carolina calendars (now on hiatus and pointing to SFRG)
This is a very unbalanced list. It especially needs sources for non-English conventions. I had a few reliable places to look back in the day, but every one of them has been discontinued. Suggestions are welcome.
Event Calendar
Weekend of December 31-January 2
Comic Market 99 (amateur comics), Tokyo, Japan
Painted Desert Fur Con: Neo Tokyo (anthropomorphic), Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Ikkicon (anime), Austin, Texas, USA
OKiCon (anime), Norman, Oklahoma, USA
Weekend of January 7-9
Shadowcon XXV (relaxacon), Memphis, Tennessee, USA
GAFilk 2022 (music), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
SuperMAGFest (gaming/videogame music), National Harbor, Maryland, USA
OrcaCon 2022 (gaming), Bellevue, Washington, USA
Animé Los Angeles 17, Long Beach, California, USA
Taiyou Con 2022 (anime), Mesa, Arizona, USA
Anime-ZAP!, East Peoria, Illinois, USA
Fan Expo New Orleans (media), New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
St. Pete Comic Con, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA
Weekend of January 14-16
Chattacon XLVII, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
Na Meji Nevidnega, Ljubljana, Slovenia
GenghisCon, Perth, Australia
Arisia 2022, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
MarsCon 2022, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA
COSine 2022, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
DeCONpression 17 (relaxacon), Columbus, Ohio, USA
Waypoint Norwescon (relaxacon), online
HexaCon (gaming), Broomfield, Colorado, USA
Midwinter Gaming Convention 2022, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
SCARAB 2022 (gaming), Columbia, South Carolina, USA
Siege of Augusta XXXI (miniatures gaming), Augusta, Georgia, USA
SaltCON Bryce (boardgames), Bryce Canyon, Utah, USA
Further Confusion 2022 (anthropomorphic), San Jose, California, USA
Anime Impulse, Pomona, California, USA
Ichibancon 12 (anime), Concord, North Carolina, USA
OtakuFest (anime), Miami, Florida, USA
Central Florida Comic Con, Lakeland, Florida, USA
Puerto Rico Comic Con, San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA
Wintercon (media), Jamaica, New York, USA
Weekend of January 21-23
Rising ConFusion, Novi, Michigan, USA
AnthroExpo: CasinOwO Royale (anthropomorphic), Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
KapCon 31 (gaming), Wellington, New Zealand
Polar Vortex 6 (gaming), Lisle, Illinois, USA
ConTingency (gaming), Hunstanton, UK
Rocket City Gamefest, Huntington, Alabama, USA
Cascade Games Convention, Bellingham, Washington, USA
Cancon 2022 (gaming), Canberra, Australia
Niagara Boardgaming Weekend, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
TBRCon (literary/gaming), online
Wilkes Comic Con, North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, USA
Fan Expo Portland (media), Portland, Oregon, USA
CONsole Room (Doctor Who), Bloomington, Minnesota, USA
My Hero Convention: TX Smash (My Hero Academia), Irving, Texas, USA
Weekend of January 28-30
Conflikt (music), online (usually Seatac, Washington, USA)
Game-iToba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
MeepleCon (gaming), Melbourne, Australia
Platypus-Con (gaming), Juneau, Alaska, USA
Winter War 2022 (gaming), Champaign, Illinois, USA
Protocon ‘22 (gaming), online (usually Kearns, Utah, USA)
AmberCon NI (diceless RPGs), online (usually Belfast, UK)
Setsucon 2022 (anime), Altoona, Pennsylvania, USA
UChi-Con 2022 (anime), Chicago, Illinois, USA
Mouse-Con Bakersfield (Disney), Bakersfield, California, USA
Coda
Lickable TV screen (Reuters)
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