221B Con 2015. A visit to the Three Patch Podcast suite.

Having ventured out into the city enough to get some walking in and find out that Altanta's MARTA is not some ultra-chic department store (Hey, blame the way the Marriott map portrayed it), I returned to 221B Con central this morning determined to find something to blog about. One feels a certain blog-journalist obligation, after all. And though I am a decided introvert, not usually fond of walking into situations where I don't know anyone, I decided to wander down to the suite of the Three Patch Podcast, as their Twitter feed was being very welcoming.

Okay, let's get the hard part of 221B Con out of the way: Being a aged and graying male and wandering around a con inspired by BBC Sherlock, you don't exactly blend in. In fact, one might as well be wearing a sign that says, "Old school Sherlockian, raised by Conan Doyle himself." Which is pretty much true.

But the thing that exploded in my head two years ago at the first 221B Con was the wonderful energy of this new age of fans. Yeah, they're not all going to fit into the old "Baker Street Irregulars" model, but, hell, I don't fit into that model, and that's one of the things that I think is so cool about them. They're going places with Sherlock Holmes that nobody ever did before. (And, yes, to me at least, Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock Holmes is a true incarnation of that deity in human form.)

When I arrived at the Three Patch Podcast suite, they were trying to install a reverse-engineered replica of the Speedy's Cafe awning. The already had their fireplace up. (Luckily Sherlock fandom trends female -- it wouldn't take much for a drunken male counterpart to take a Magnussen tribute of a piss on such a prop in a moment of "Aren't I hysterical?" excess. Boys! Pfffft!) But back to that Speedy's awning -- it was very impressive. And that was just part of the room's cool decor.

Two of the consulting podcasters, B and Caroline, were kind enough to answer all my questions about the Three Patch production, and again the energy and thought that the group has brought to the table was admirable. I love that they break out their spoiler episodes as clearly marked specials and enforce a definite spoiler policy on their site. They change their format up, which is always nice, and the sorting hat bit from their recent shows sounded like the fun sort of fan stuff we used to do in the Sherlockian 1980s. (We liked to crossover Spock and Sherlock back then, instead of Harry Potter and Holmes, but still.) See, that's what I like most about this generation of Sherlock Holmes fans, even when they are totally focused on the BBC show -- they remind me of the energies we had at a younger age, but boy do they have a lot more toys. (Man, if I had Photoshop in 1982? Yikes.)

I kind of wish I had my drive from Peoria to do all over again, so I could chain-listen a bunch of Three Patch, having only caught an impressive twenty minutes worth before I passed out late last night. But a live Three Patch Podcast is coming as a part of 221B Con (along with the Baker Street Babes as well, I hear -- hope they don't get into an Anchorman-style gang fight), so that should make one heck of a start.

The actual start of 221B Con is still hours away. Tick. Tick. Tick.