{"id":3349,"date":"2025-04-07T19:23:33","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T00:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/armadillocon.org\/d47\/?p=3349"},"modified":"2025-04-07T19:23:33","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T00:23:33","slug":"why-armadillocon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/armadillocon.org\/d47\/why-armadillocon\/","title":{"rendered":"Why ArmadilloCon?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Someone at a <a href=\"https:\/\/fact.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">FACT<\/a> gathering asked recently, &#8220;Why ArmadilloCon? What&#8217;s the SFF connection?&#8221; (FACT is the group that sponsors ArmadilloCon.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>At the time this thing was started, the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Armadillo_World_Headquarters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Armadillo World Headquarters<\/a> was still active. So maybe &#8220;armadillo&#8221; was probably pretty trendy? And, hey, <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/ngrams\/graph?content=armadillo&amp;year_start=1700&amp;year_end=2022&amp;corpus=en&amp;smoothing=3&amp;case_insensitive=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according to the Google Books Ngram Viewer<\/a>, there was a spike in the usage of the word &#8220;armadillo&#8221; in 1978!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are some cool Austin things older than ArmadilloCon, for sure. <a href=\"https:\/\/peterpanminigolf.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Peter Pan Mini Golf<\/a> has us beat (1948). Willie Nelson&#8217;s first <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Willie_Nelson%27s_Fourth_of_July_Picnic\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Willie_Nelson%27s_Fourth_of_July_Picnic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fourth of July Picnic<\/a> was in 1973. The first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.austinchronicle.com\/daily\/food\/2015-01-12\/culinary-ladies-of-the-eighties-amy-simmons\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Amy&#8217;s opened in 1974<\/a>. The Austin City Limits TV program <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Austin_City_Limits\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">started broadcasting<\/a> in 1976. ArmadilloCon didn&#8217;t show up until 1979, when it convened at the once-swanky, long-gone Villa Capri Motor Hotel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But we have been around longer than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sjgames.com\/ourgames\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steve Jackson Games<\/a> (1980; also, Jackson was a FACT officer), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wholefoodsmarket.com\/company-info\/whole-foods-market-history\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Whole Foods<\/a> (1980), the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.austinchronicle.com\/features\/2001-09-07\/82873\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Austin Chronicle<\/a> (1981), the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.austinfilm.org\/our-story\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Austin Film Society<\/a> (1985), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sxsw.com\/about\/history\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SXSW<\/a> (1987) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.austinnewsstory.com\/ACL2002MusicFestvalReview\/ACLMusicFestival09282002.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ACL Fest<\/a> (2002). Wow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do join us this September for the 47th edition of ArmadilloCon, and help us keep this thing going and growing!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-image uagb-block-31cfe5c4 wp-block-uagb-image--layout-default wp-block-uagb-image--effect-static wp-block-uagb-image--align-none\"><figure class=\"wp-block-uagb-image__figure\"><img decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/armadillocon.org\/d47\/wp-content\/uploads\/Villa-Capri-Hotel-1024x1024.avif ,https:\/\/armadillocon.org\/d47\/wp-content\/uploads\/Villa-Capri-Hotel.avif 780w, https:\/\/armadillocon.org\/d47\/wp-content\/uploads\/Villa-Capri-Hotel.avif 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 150px\" src=\"https:\/\/armadillocon.org\/d47\/wp-content\/uploads\/Villa-Capri-Hotel-1024x1024.avif\" alt=\"\" class=\"uag-image-3350\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1080\" title=\"Villa-Capri-Hotel\" loading=\"lazy\" role=\"img\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Someone at a FACT gathering asked recently, &#8220;Why ArmadilloCon? What&#8217;s the SFF connection?&#8221; (FACT is the group that sponsors ArmadilloCon.) At the time this thing was started, the Armadillo World Headquarters was still active. So maybe &#8220;armadillo&#8221; was probably pretty trendy? And, hey, according to the Google Books Ngram Viewer, there was a spike in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"mailpoet_newsletter_max":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Jennifer Juday","author_link":"https:\/\/armadillocon.org\/d47\/author\/jjudaygmail-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Someone at a FACT gathering asked recently, &#8220;Why ArmadilloCon? What&#8217;s the SFF connection?&#8221; (FACT is the group that sponsors ArmadilloCon.) At the time this thing was started, the Armadillo World Headquarters was still active. So maybe &#8220;armadillo&#8221; was probably pretty trendy? And, hey, according to the Google Books Ngram Viewer, there was a spike in&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/armadillocon.org\/d47\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/armadillocon.org\/d47\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/armadillocon.org\/d47\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armadillocon.org\/d47\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armadillocon.org\/d47\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3349"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/armadillocon.org\/d47\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3351,"href":"https:\/\/armadillocon.org\/d47\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3349\/revisions\/3351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/armadillocon.org\/d47\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armadillocon.org\/d47\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armadillocon.org\/d47\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}