Gee, Now I'm REALLY Sorry That I Missed It. No, I'm Not.

I have a general rule about what goes on in the Pagan community: If Hecate didn't spend her time organizing it (and she didn't) she should shut the fuck up and not criticize. Because I've been on the other side of the spectrum, having spent a cauldron-full of hours doing the work, just to have someone who didn't do anything criticize. And it doesn't exactly inspire me to work even harder next time.

But I'm going to make an exception to my general rule, although I hope this offering will be accepted in the spirit of friendly suggestion, rather than criticism.

Contrast the TED Talks, or Ehrenreich's talk before the Chicago Humanities Festival with the two, count them, two YouTubes that show up if you do a search for YouTubes this month under "Pantheacon."

I'm not trying to pick, per se, on the very young woman who went there to get hit on by Otherkin and to buy a new tail, nor on the folks, above, who took pictures of their friends dressed up in fun costumes. But I'm given to understand that there were wonderful, serious, informative speeches and panel presentations. And they're nowhere to be found on one of America's most influential forms of new media.

A search of last year's Pantheacon offerings would have you believe that, other than the GreySchool of Wizardry and some musical performances, nothing was going on. So it's not as if the problem is that folks just haven't had enough time to get home and load things up onto YouTube.

I'd love to see some of the more serious presentations show up, not only for the many Pagans who, for reasons of family responsibilities, work responsibilities, disabilities, and poverty can't travel to San Jose, but also for those who are curious about us. Others seem to be able to figure out how to do this.