“You got to take the crookeds with the straights.”
Wednesday August 30th 2006, 2:16 pm
I am an ignoramus. I admit this with joy and gusto, because there’s a hell of a lot of life and culture and stuff out there, and it’s tough to absorb it all in the short amount of time I’ve been allotted on this goofy little planet. Being ignorant in itself isn’t bad, as long as one is willing to overcome that ignorance (and, God knows, I’m trying).
Especially when it comes to other people’s stories. The more people I meet, the more I know, and the more I can do. Sometimes those stories come straight from someone’s mouth over beers or milkshakes, and sometimes they come off a page through squiggly bits of black ink. Sometimes they’re through recordings of songs or through bits that rearrange themselves into pictures. And sometimes, those stories are told out loud by people who are borrowing someone’s life for a few hours and giving you the opportunity to watch. And that’s what I did last night.
I’d heard of August Wilson before he died last year, but it wasn’t until August of 2005 when he announced he had terminal liver cancer that I learned about the Pittsburgh Cycle. And even an ignoramus like me who thinks that modern theater drifts more toward wankery than storytelling could appreciate the scope of Wilson’s work. Ten plays about the African American experience in the 20th Century? Hell, I’d go see that.
I missed out on seeing Radio Golf at the Mark Taper, but I sure as hell made up for it last night with Fences at the Pasadena Playhouse.
In a word? Go. (more…)
Here’s what rocked about Worldcon
Monday August 28th 2006, 8:06 am
1) Catching John Scalzi’s reading of the first chapter of The Android’s Dream. Any book that starts with an extended fart joke is gonna be nothing but awesome.
2) Tearing around the wastelands of Orange County with Jason Stoddard, Andrew Tisbert and Daryl Gregory and subjecting them to the dueling vocals of Henry Rollins and William Shatner. I don’t think Andrew has recovered yet.
3) While manning the bar at the Interzone party, a man stuck his head around the corner and said, “What’s a limp-wristed liberal got to do to get a glass of white wine around here?” “Well, just how limp-wristed are you?” I ask, and he puts his hand at a ninety-degree angle. And as I pour for this well-deserving limp wrist, I see the man’s name badge an realize it’s Kim Stanley Robinson. I put down the bottle, ask for his pardoning my oncoming fanboy moment, and burble about Pacific Edge and how cool it was to read since I grew up in Costa Mesa. And he thanked me for liking what he called “one of his favorite forgotten novels,” and we talk a little about how ridiculous Orange County’s changed (he grew up in Tustin), and I give him his wine, and everything was great until later that night when I got lost in the parking structure while trying to find my car.
Now, did anything blow? The hotel food. The hotel beer prices. And the thought that the next Worldcon will be in Yokohama, which means it’s probably going to be trickier to have all these cool people assembled in the same place again. But the idea of karaoke with this crowd? I can get behind that.
On Notice!
Thursday August 10th 2006, 12:41 pm
On Notice!
If you haven’t tried out the On Notice Generator, then you’re On Notice, too!
One more thing…
Wednesday August 09th 2006, 9:12 am
I never liked Joe Lieberman. Never. I didn’t like him the first time I heard of him in an article in Next-Gen magazine where he talked about controlling the content of video games. I read the interview and thought, “This fucker’s a Democrat?”
And when Al Gore chose Holy Joe as his running mate, I was pissed. That jackass who sounds like the Dad from “Alf” is going to be up on the bully pulpit? Gargh.
But you know what? Today’s news from Connecticut sweeps all that aside. Go, Ned, go!
The Right to Refuse Service
Wednesday August 09th 2006, 8:37 am
Dear Convention Organizers:
I know that I’m new to the whole con thing, and that it’s a culture that’s been humming along on its own for quite some time, so please forgive my ignorance when I ask this:
Why in the hell do you let people like the Fan From Hell into your cons?
If I ran, say, a restaurant, and a customer came in, swiped food off people’s plates, wiped his ass with the tablecloth and announced he was going to sodomize his entree as it was being served, I don’t give a stony rat’s ass if that person is the restaurant critic for the New York Times, he’s getting tossed out and barred from returning. You can’t please everyone, but, as a business owner, I damn well better make sure I please the vast majority of my customers, people who are trying to have a nice meal without worrying about the ravings of a steakfucker.
You know who this woman is, yet you allow her to show up, harrass the guests, annoy the vendors and bring down the place, all in the name of…what? Having an open and friendly environment for all to express themselves? Listen: putting on an Imperial Stormtrooper outfit with kitty ears is self-expression; using your daughter as a way to finagle your way into the company of actors, artists and writers is fucking child abuse. And you let it happen.
The con circuit is small enough that people know who the bad apples are. And I don’t mean the people who are a little off; the beauty of science fiction conventions is that everyone is a little off. I mean the stalkers, the harrassers, the gropers. The steakfuckers.
Geeks, of course, don’t like conflict. They’ve been bullied and put down all their lives, and cons are the place where they can feel free of that. You’re still running a business, folks, and that means you not only have the right to refuse service, you have the responsibility to do so. That’s no excuse to allow the kind of awful behavior Colleen Doran and company talk about in the comment thread. These aren’t kids we’re talking about, but grown adults, people who should’ve learned about things like manners and personal space and proper goddamn hygiene.
Show some spine, organizers. Toss out the steakfuckers. You’ll be making cons better places.
Love and kisses,
Adam Rakunas
Worldcon Member
True love is colored pewter gray
Tuesday August 08th 2006, 9:20 am
For the past week, I’ve been walking out the front door and admiring the way the porch looks. Cracks are patched, bubbled paint is gone, and everything looks fresh and clean.
The second anniversary is supposed to be cotton, but I really think it should be skid-resistant paint. Because it takes team work and a solid marriage to redo a porch and still want to go out for sushi afterwards. I love you, babe.
Your word for the day…
Friday August 04th 2006, 6:28 pm
…is “Aynleinian.”
Aynleinian (orig.: a portmanteau of the names of authors Ayn Rand and Robert Heinlein):
1) A society ruled by rugged individualists who possess a broad range of technological and cultural knowledge
2) The analogue to Maoist/Lenninist/Stalinist/Jesus Christ But This Is A Nasty Society-ist government
3) The hospitality suite at any science fiction convention
