drpaisley: (Default)
Still recuperating from Renovation, plus the usual (or not) entertainments of the week. These included the battery in my car dying* and a short power outage due to dead branches blowing out the fuse on the pole (not several euphemisms). Working on a Reno report, including The Big Reception and cracking Scalzi and Silverberg up (seperatly). But for now, back to the music.


1) The Lions And The Cucumber, Manfred Hubler & Siegfried Schwab

2) Biko, Peter Gabriel (Orpheum Theater, Boston, Mass. July 8, 1980)

3) Tall Cool One (Extended Version), Robert Plant

4) Rough Knuckles, Supergrass

5) Thank God It's Not Christmas, Parenthetical Girls

6) The Loved One, INXS

7) Feed the Fire, The Cracker Cats

8) Vampire, Pink Mountaintops

9) Come Together, Invisible

10) Suite III Overture, Janelle Monáe


plus


11) The Richest Kids, This Is Ivy League

12) Black Eyes, Shearwater

13) L.A. Getaway, Joel Scott Hill


Other than ramping up the PR work for Chicon 7 (join now! Memberships go up at the end of September!), the only scheduled activity for the weekend is the Ralphie Fantasy Football League draft on Sunday. Can the Romosexuals rebound from last year's horrible record? We'll find out. And while there is the Baconfest on Saturday, I can't afford the $45 entry fee, or even the $10 to enter the bacon eating contest, which I most assuredly would win. Such is life.

*Made more fun by the placement of the battery, which requires the removal of a tire to access. Nice job, Dodge!
drpaisley: (Default)
Worldcon was way fun, as always. Saw lots of folks we hadn't seen in too long, drank lots of beer and generally had a great time. Cats are happy to see us. More later.
drpaisley: (mickey)
Thirty three years ago today, I drove to a large house just south of Wellsville, Kansas, where [livejournal.com profile] dragonet and I said the magic words and combined our two lives into one. Two weeks later, we honeymooned at Iguanacon, the Worldcon that year, in Phoenix. I think this just might last a bit. So let's have some tunes, eh*?


1) I Must Be In Love, The Rutles (live)

2) Beat It, Señor Coconut & His Orchestra

3) Cold Kind And Lemon Eyes, Margot And The Nuclear So And So's

4) Balloon Man, Robyn Hitchcock (2010-06-12 - The Drake)

5) Black, Steve Wynn (1998-02-13 - Husets Musikteater)

6) Down to the Wire, Landon A.R. Coleman

7) Day Tripper, The Jimi Hendrix Experience

8) Cinnamon Girl, Neil Young & The Stray Gators (January 10, 1973 Arie Crown Theater, Chicago, IL)

9) This Girl Taught Me A Dance, Strange Boys

10) Goose Step Mama, Shonen Knife


and the bouquet . . .


11) The Lover's Hymn, Ken Stringfellow

12) World Turning, Leo Kottke

13) Wi' Nae Wee Bairn Ye'll Me Beget, The Magnetic Fields


Given my dodgy access to the intertubes while in Reno, I will be back to regale everyone with tales of my adventures, including serving as the Official Ray Bradbury Impersonator of Renovation. See ya next week.


*Canadian Content™
drpaisley: (Default)
Water falling from the sky! What a concept! Let's play music loud and splash about in it!


1) Up Against The Wall Red Neck Mothers, Jerry Jeff Walker

2) Spider, TMBG (Live 11-29-08 Le Poisson Rouge)

3) You're Only Lonely, Micah P Hinson

4) Rescue Me, World Party

5) Is It Any Wonder, The Shortwave Set

6) Insane In The Membrane, Cypress Hill

7) Arc (Mookie Blalock), Eddie Vedder (4.7.2008)

8) 2000 Miles, The Pretenders

9) C'mon Levi, Occult Detective Club

10) Daydream Believer, The Monkees


say wha'?


11) Children of the Polka, Children of the Wave

12) Hotel California, Gipsy Kings

13) January, Ravens & Chimes


Dinner with Steve and Sue Francis tonight, who are driving to Reno for Worldcon and passing through KC. Since the KaCSFFS meeting is next Saturday, we have somewhat more opportunity to check out the Monet exhibit at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art before it goes bye-bye (the exhibit, not the museum).
drpaisley: (Default)
I am off to Chicago for the weekend, for a meeting of Division Heads and other such important people for Chicon 7, the 2012 Worldcon. Via a series of unfortunate events I do not fully understand, I have become the Division Head of Marketing for Chicon, and will be working to spread the word of the wonders of this event to people who have never heard of a Worldcon, much less considered attending one.

But before we leave (I am hitching ride with Fireguarder, her partner Bill and NPulsifer), Rohanna and I will brave the steady rain to check out the annual Pem-Day Clothesline Sale. It's a fundraiser for a local private school for the children of the overprivileged, and always a source of fun and entertainment. And now some tunes for a gloomy Friday.


1) Surfer Joe And Moe The Sleaze, Neil Young & Crazy Horse

2) A Kind Of Magic, Queen

3) Nightmares, John Lennon and Paul McCartney

4) Clear Sky, March Rosetta

5) Tally Ho, The Clean

6) Shy (Courtesy of Mis Ojos Discos), A Sunny Day In Glasgow

7) The Night Before The Night Before Christmas, The Bobs

8) Two Hearts Beat As One (DreamTime Mix), U2

9) Unwed Fathers, John Prine

10) Death Valley Is Half Way To My Home, Lonnie Johnson


onward, into the fog!


11) Handshake Drugs, Wilco (2010-04-02 Wellmont Theatre, Montclair, NJ)

12) Tourism, Massacre

13) Grey Seal (Bonus Track), Elton John


And off we go, to the sale, and then the wilds of Chicago. Everyone play nice while I'm gone, Mmmmkay?
drpaisley: (Default)
As some of you may be aware, I was one of the many people who worked on Anticipation, the just-ended WorldCon. My main job was that of doing the layouts for the Souvenir Book, which had the added entertainment value of being in English and French. The coommittee didn't want an Ace Double-style book with French on one side and English on the other; noooo, that would have been easy! Instead, they wanted the English and French to run side by side. This presented certain difficulties, since French is 25% wordier per average chunk o' text than English. So I played with various fonts and weights, and eventually settled in ITC Weidemann, medium weight for the English and book weight for the French. Overall, it balanced out pretty well. It was a lot of work, but an engaging and (in the end) fun challenge, and I am looking forward to seeing the final product at some point.

My other job (since no one ever does one thing for a WorldCon) was working with NPulsifer on the Hugo Administration Committee. My main activity was, once again, design: I created the nominating and final ballots (bilingual? Mai oui!), and the items related to the awards ceremony: the certificates of nomination, the envelopes with the nominees printed on them, and the "Winner is" cards. So I was one of the five people on the planet who knew the winners for the last month, which made things interesting, particularly when I read that Charles N. Brown had died on the way home from Readercon in July. Especially with the vote on eliminating the Best Locus Semiprozine coming up at the Business Meeting (it failed, by the way, before the Hugo Awards ceremony).

But that's not what I want to talk about. The person running the ceremony, Ian Stockdale, had asked for dummy winner cards for the presenters to practice with. I asked Ian how much fun I could have with them, and he mentioned the GoHs would be reading them, so I sadly abandoned my plans to give the short fiction awards to Ernst Hogan's classic trilogy (only two of which are real, as far as I know): "The Frankenstein Penis," "The Dracula Vagina" and "The Werewolf Rectum (Rectum? Killed the Sumbitch)" and came up with a mostly harmless set of cards, with fake titles and dead authors (though I did give Proud Flesh the Best Fanzine nod).

But there was one Easter egg. I had no idea how it would work or be received, but NPulsifer let me know earlier this evening:

So we all were at the rehearsal of course. They were blocking some
stuff and what not, then Neil showed up so they rushed forward so he
could practice his bit.

He pops open the the first envelope and reads Award for best
professional artist is: Amanda F. Palmer. About half those in the room
(100 people or so) laugh. He just stare dumbfounded at the card.

He then read out the best editor card (Some guy who I didn't
recognize, but who had been dead for a long time and somebody shouted
that fact up to him. Very nice.) Dumb luck that he got the best
artist one, but...

During the ceremony Diane, Ruth and I were back stage. Ruth handing
cards and Diane and I staging trophies. (Tanya was back there as well
and because of the glut of trophies for BDP long and short, she got to
carry one of the trophies on stage.) So best Graphic Story comes up
and Neil is kind of pacing around. I sidled up to him and said,
"Promise this one won't say Amanda F. Palmer." and he replies "That
was so funny!"



For those who don't know, Neil is currently dating Amanda, who is the co-founder of the band Dresden Dolls, and an incredibly talented singer/songwriter/performer. She refers to herself on her blog and elsewhere as "afp," which stands for "Amanda Fucking Palmer." I do hope he was able to get that particular card and take it home as a souvenir. Just wish I could have been there to see it.
drpaisley: (Default)
During the 2:30:14 phone conference between myself, the editor and the division head concerning the Anticipation Souvenir Book, the celebrity deaths today came up. I stated that while Farrah Fawcett would be included in the "In Memoriam*" list in the book, Michael Jackson would not. One of the others asked why, and I pointed out that Farrah had credits in the genre ("Logan's Run," "Saturn III"), as well as "Charlie's Angels" for a very broad definition of "fantasy." The editor metioned the Moonwalk, and I said that didn't qualify, and neither did Mr. Jackson's general domination of the category of Freakazoid.

My list, my rules. And Bettie Page and Spacebat will be on the list.


*Yes, "memoriam" is spelled with an "a," not a "u," no matter how many times it's misspelled everywhere else.
drpaisley: (Default)
Got the latest Anticipation Progrerss Report (Rapport préparatoire) in the mail today. Included was the Hugo & John W. Campbell Nominating Ballot (Bulletin de monination pour les prix Hugo et Joun W. Campbell de 2009), which I had the privilege of designing. I believe it's the first fully bilingual ballot (Nippon had separate ones, and I won't make the obvious jokes about about the UK and Australia).

The French text was provided to me by the fine folks at Anticipation, and it was an interesting excercise in layout. It was the first time I'd seen it in printed form (thank Ghu for pdfs!), and I have to say it looks pretty damn good.

The pdf is available for download here, and there should be an online ballot in the near future. Nominate well; I want to have a great list of works to format for the final ballot.

I have to admit I did try to sneak a little bit of fun in. In the form where the voter fills out their information, I had changed "Name/Nom" to "Name/Om nom," but it was spotted during the proofing stage, damn it.
drpaisley: (Default)
Got the latest Anticipation Progrerss Report (Rapport préparatoire) in the mail today. Included was the Hugo & John W. Campbell Nominating Ballot (Bulletin de monination pour les prix Hugo et Joun W. Campbell de 2009), which I had the privilege of designing. I believe it's the first fully bilingual ballot (Nippon had separate ones, and I won't make the obvious jokes about about the UK and Australia).

The French text was provided to me by the fine folks at Anticipation, and it was an interesting excercise in layout. It was the first time I'd seen it in printed form (thank Ghu for pdfs!), and I have to say it looks pretty damn good.

The pdf is available for download here, and there should be an online ballot in the near future. Nominate well; I want to have a great list of works to format for the final ballot.

I have to admit I did try to sneak a little bit of fun in. In the form where the voter fills out their information, I had changed "Name/Nom" to "Name/Om nom," but it was spotted during the proofing stage, damn it.
drpaisley: (Big O'Pimpin')
Cheryl Morgan liveblogged the Hugo ceremony, and here are the winners (my first place vote in parentheses, if different from the winner)

Special awards to NASA on its 40th Anniversary, and NESFA Press

Keith Stokes Presents the First Fandom Awards

Hall of Fame Awards to Mike Ashley and Isaac Asimov

The Sam Moskowitz Award for Excellence in Collecting: Frank Robinson and Bob Peterson (tie)

Big Heart Award: Suford Lewis


And now the voted awards

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer: Mary Robinette Kowal

Best Fanzine: File 770 by Mike Glyer (PLOKTA)

Best Fan Writer: John Scalzi (Steven Silver)

Best Fan Artist: Brad Foster (Taral Wayne)

Best SemiProzine: Locus (NY Review of SF)

Best Professional Artist: Stephen Martiniere

Best Professional Editor, Short Form: Gordon Van Gelder, F&SF

Best Professional Editor, Long Form: David Hartwell (Patrick Nielsen Hayden)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: "Blink," Dr. Who (saw none of the nominees, didn't vote)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: Stardust

Best Related Book: Brave New Words, the Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Jeff Prucher (Breakfast in the Ruins, Barry Malzberg)

Best Short Story: "Tideline," Elizabeth Bear ("A Small Room in Koboldtown," Michael Swanwick)

Best Novelette: "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," Ted Chiang ("Finisterra," David Moles)

Best Novella: "All Seated on the Ground," Connie Willis ("Memorare," Gene Wolfe)

Best Novel: The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Michael Chabon (Brasyl, Ian McDonald)

Commentary: the Chiang and Willis wins were a given (his first story in several years, and, well, it's Connie in her hometown), as was Locus for Best Locus (h/t, Teresa Nielsen Hayden). Several old hands won after a drought, but the big surprises to me are Stardust and Chabon. I'm betting the former benefitted from a split vote between Heroes Season One and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I must say I am impressed that Chabon won for novel. He is marketed as a "mainstream" author, even though almost all his work has been sf/fantasy by any reasonable definition of the term. He was present to accept the award, and said "I have wanted to win a Hugo all my life." We'll see if this affects his marketing in the future.
drpaisley: (Big O'Pimpin')
Cheryl Morgan liveblogged the Hugo ceremony, and here are the winners (my first place vote in parentheses, if different from the winner)

Special awards to NASA on its 40th Anniversary, and NESFA Press

Keith Stokes Presents the First Fandom Awards

Hall of Fame Awards to Mike Ashley and Isaac Asimov

The Sam Moskowitz Award for Excellence in Collecting: Frank Robinson and Bob Peterson (tie)

Big Heart Award: Suford Lewis


And now the voted awards

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer: Mary Robinette Kowal

Best Fanzine: File 770 by Mike Glyer (PLOKTA)

Best Fan Writer: John Scalzi (Steven Silver)

Best Fan Artist: Brad Foster (Taral Wayne)

Best SemiProzine: Locus (NY Review of SF)

Best Professional Artist: Stephen Martiniere

Best Professional Editor, Short Form: Gordon Van Gelder, F&SF

Best Professional Editor, Long Form: David Hartwell (Patrick Nielsen Hayden)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: "Blink," Dr. Who (saw none of the nominees, didn't vote)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: Stardust

Best Related Book: Brave New Words, the Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Jeff Prucher (Breakfast in the Ruins, Barry Malzberg)

Best Short Story: "Tideline," Elizabeth Bear ("A Small Room in Koboldtown," Michael Swanwick)

Best Novelette: "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," Ted Chiang ("Finisterra," David Moles)

Best Novella: "All Seated on the Ground," Connie Willis ("Memorare," Gene Wolfe)

Best Novel: The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Michael Chabon (Brasyl, Ian McDonald)

Commentary: the Chiang and Willis wins were a given (his first story in several years, and, well, it's Connie in her hometown), as was Locus for Best Locus (h/t, Teresa Nielsen Hayden). Several old hands won after a drought, but the big surprises to me are Stardust and Chabon. I'm betting the former benefitted from a split vote between Heroes Season One and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I must say I am impressed that Chabon won for novel. He is marketed as a "mainstream" author, even though almost all his work has been sf/fantasy by any reasonable definition of the term. He was present to accept the award, and said "I have wanted to win a Hugo all my life." We'll see if this affects his marketing in the future.

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