Tag Archives: Fan

Philcon!

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I’m very excited to have been invited to participate as a guest at this year’s Philcon. The convention is taking place next weekend and I’m very excited to be headed there. It even looks like I got all panels I was interested in / am qualified to talk about. That reduces my anxiety a great deal. It should be a great weekend. IF you can, get out to the convention!

Here is my schedule:

Fri 9:00 PM in Plaza III (Three) (1 hour)
TECHNOLOGICAL DEPENDENCE (1867)

[Panelists: Bernie Mojzes (mod), David M. Axler, Mark Wolverton,
Daniel Grotta, Eric Hardenbrook]

Is our society too dependent on technology? Are we becoming
cybermen? From smartphones and tablets to online communities and
relationships, have we become unable to function without our
mechanical assistants

Sat 12:00 PM in Plaza III (Three) (1 hour)
ART AND COMPROMISE (1953)

[Panelists: Eric Hardenbrook (mod), Robert Kauffmann, Mike McPhail,
Ray Ridenour]

Discussing the differences between approaching art as a hobby versus
art as a professional career

Sat 2:00 PM in Plaza III (Three) (1 hour)
ART IN THE DIGITAL AGE (1951)

[Panelists: Ray Ridenour (mod), Eric Hardenbrook, Robert Kauffmann,
Luke Stelmaszek, Brian Thomas]

The blending of art and technology is more and more common. Can
artists even work without their computers anymore? Has the digital
world overtaken the traditional paintbrush? Artists discuss the
latest trends of these two world colliding into each other, and what
techniques they use now to create their art

Sat 3:00 PM in Crystal Ballroom Three (1 hour)
HOW LONG IS TOO LONG? (1739)

[Panelists: Tom Purdom (mod), D.L. Carter, Eric Hardenbrook, Neal
Levin]

Is anyone really going to start a 14-volume bug-crusher fantasy
series? (Not mentioning any names, of course). At what point does
the sheer size of a series discourage new readers

Sat 9:00 PM in Plaza III (Three) (1 hour)
BOOK INTO GAME (1777)

[Panelists: Robert C Roman (mod), Eric Hardenbrook, Anna Kashina,
Joan Wendland]

How is a literary work made into a game? Are there some books that
just aren’t suitable or can gamers game everything

Sun 10:00 AM in Plaza III (Three) (1 hour)
FAN WRITING IN THE INTERNET AGE (1840)

[Panelists: Anastasia Klimchynskaya (mod), Eric Hardenbrook, Berakha
Lana Guggenheim, Diane Kovalcin, Deborah Stanish]

There was a time when paper fanzines were the dominant source of fan
writing. Now, with the internet and the World Wide Web, other forms
of fan writing have taken the stage, such as blogs, vlogs, websites
and podcasts. What has fan writing become and what might it be like
in the future

Old News?

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On the off chance that I catch a reader here that isn’t connected to me via Watch The Skies where I posted this originally – how original is Hollywood?

Hollywood is unoriginal. Shocking to hear I’m sure. Somebody’s gone and done a study to try to back that up. I linked it below, but I question how the whole thing is broken down, grouped and quantified. I’m not opposed to a movie based on a book (or comic) if it’s something that hasn’t been done 3 times before (rebooting Spiderman again anyone?). I’ve got something all written up and ready to take on SyFy for this month’s Watch The Skies Fanzine, but I saw this and thought I’d see what others had to say on the subject a little ahead of this month’s meeting…

Study

Old Timey

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Do you like old time radio shows? If you do, there’s a podcast out there you should dig up and listen to. Hidden Harbor Mysteries. I’m going to cheat and let them do the description part:

Hidden Harbor, a small city with big problems. The criminal element strikes by night and blends into the population by day. One woman has the guts and the power to stand up to the enemies of Hidden Harbor, both foreign and domestic.

Hiidden Harbor Mysteries is a full-cast audio drama serial that uses modern technology to re-create a sound and feel from the golden age of radio.

The vocal talent here is great. I love listening to the voices. The story is neat and different from things I’ve heard before. It’s fun – and most importantly, it’s in bite size chunks. The episodes run in the area of about 20 minutes – so you can always squeeze one into your day someplace.

They’ve even got sponsors:

EagleBrand_VintageAd

Intervention 5

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Normally I would keep a convention review and publish it in Watch The Skies, but this convention happened to fall the weekend directly after this month’s publication. Rather than wait out the weeks between I’m going to put my notes up here first.

This year was the 5th for Intervention and the 5th for me as well. While I wasn’t on staff every year, I have always been at least a volunteer. I really do think the folks in charge of this convention are doing it right. It has been as smooth and uncomplicated as I’ve seen for any event I’ve been involved with. Behind the scenes prep work shows clearly.

The Friday of the convention as I arrived at the hotel genuinely felt more like a finish line than a starting line for me. My personal schedule had me on the run and busy for what felt like weeks before the convention. It took conscious effort to get into the right mind set. The convention itself, the atmosphere actually helped with that.

I would give a review of other parts of the convention or talk about the panels, but I didn’t really see a lot of those. I spent some time in the stand-up arcade playing some old school games and did get the chance to squeeze in a board game right before we headed home, but the vast majority of the time I was in the children’s programing room. That was where the fun was happening. Coloring, creating, building steampunk dinosaurs, creating homemade glow in the dark slime along with a bunch of other stuff. Making, making a mess and enjoying the work (or the destruction of the work) at the end were all parts of the fun. I give credit to Corinne as the head of the program – she really pulled together some great stuff for this year.

Whatever other details there were about the convention, this was posted on Facebook by the convention creator and I think it sums up the weekend better than anything else I can say,

READ THIS: If you don’t know what we do, why we are different, and why you should support us with donations and registrations, Monica Marier just summed it up: “Something amazing happened today. I brought my daughter to Intervention today and she made an LIFE-CHANGING discovery.
Since she started school, this kid had been told that she was weird, and wrong, and an outcast because she was a girl who liked things like skeletons, and steampunk, and Dr. Who, instead of American Girl Dolls and Horses.
Today she saw and met a ton of women and girls who liked all those “geek” things that she liked and that they were proud of it. And she realized:
SHE WAS NOT ALONE.
She was a part of something. And she was among people who thought that she was wonderful. IT’S SO GREAT that her first great con adventure was in such a safe, warm, friendly convention like Intervention and it was everything I hoped it would be and MORE. She’s already bouncing up and down in anticipation of ReGeneration Who.
THANKS SO MUCH, to Oni Hartstein, James Harknell , Pete Abrams and all the staff and artists that made this a truly fantastic weekend.
You guys put this smile here.”
Http://www.interventioncon.com

Balticon Follow Up

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The title here is a bit of a tease honestly. I don’t have enough of my thoughts pulled together to write anything even remotely coherent about the convention just now. I want to do the review justice. It was a short week back at work, but I suspect they crammed more into the schedule just to be certain they made up for Monday’s lost time. This has put the squeeze on my writing time.

Short version – it was a really good convention that once again flew past far more quickly than it should have. IF you’ve not been out to a local convention and you’re a fan, you’re missing out.

I normally hold off until the next WTS fanzine, but I think the number of weeks beyond the convention we’ll be at that point would lose some of the impact.

So – more to follow – starting with my first panel this year… the one where I was sitting next to Brandon Sanderson. Yes, that Brandon Sanderson.

Wil’s new show

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I’ll start with the blasphemy just to get it out of the way – I don’t like Star Trek that much. I enjoy it, but I’m not a fanatic. For a long time I’ve said, “That’s not MY science fiction”. It was a part of a certain ensign’s career that landed him in fandom’s collective memory however, so I do understand the need for credit where it is due. In the past couple of years I’ve come to enjoy reading Wil Wheaton’s blog. I admire a lot of things about the way he approaches life in general. I love the fact that he’s so into games and gaming. I watch Table Top as soon as it comes out whenever I can (and when I can’t… it’s the internet, I can go back for it).

In case you missed it, Wil has a new show on cable. I won’t lie, I have a naked hatred for the channel he’s on. I don’t want to advertise for them. I couldn’t just ignore the new show though, so I went and watched the first episode. If you’re interested, go and check it out here.

I have decided it must be me. I’m old or something. The show was OK, but it didn’t wow me. I was hoping for at least a little insight or a segment that really worked for me. What I got was essentially talk soup for stuff I don’t watch. I wanted to like this show so much and I’m totally indifferent to seeing it again. There were some bits that made me chuckle (the dragon was very funny, but it was like 3 seconds and a totally juvenile joke) and some bits that made me wonder (signing Hugh was too long) and some stuff that was just lost on me (haven’t had cable for a long time now).

I won’t give up on the show, but I don’t know how many episodes I’ll last. I suppose all I really have to do is last a handful of episodes – if the show becomes popular I suspect it will be cancelled right away (or maybe I’m projecting toward this channel I don’t like).

An object at rest

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I enjoy reading a good story. I particularly like it when I can read something I like and pass that along to friends so they can find something new. It’s an extra boost when they like something as much as I do.

I’ve been using a web site called Goodreads for a while now. I know there are questions about it – my understanding is it was gobbled up by Amazon or something. I know there are others out there like Library thing but so far I am comfortable where I am.

That thought just reminded me of a great line from the cartoon The Tick,

“An object at rest CANNOT BE STOPPED!”

That was from the midnight bomber what bombs at midnight. If you haven’t seen The Tick vs. The Tick, go look it up. The midnight bomber is my favorite.

Anyway – Goodreads. I’m on there and I like to share my views on the books I’ve read. I am only posting reviews of books I’ve read since I signed up on the site. I’m not going to go back and just give star ratings to things I’ve read in the past – with one notable exception. I started with the Hobbit. That was the book that kicked everything off for me. I give that book the full 5 stars without hesitation. It changed things for me. It was amazing. That is the 5 star standard. It’s amazing and/or really changes something for me.

If you’re interested (and not already there) pop on over and look me up. Maybe we can talk about a good book!