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Worldcon anticipated
Caroline and I fly off next week for a joyous two weeks of driving around California, followed by a joyous five days or so of the science fiction Worldcon (which this year is known as L.A.Con IV), including the Hugo Awards ceremony. I’m packing my tux, ready to put that brave losers’ smile on my face and applaud any of the several entrants in my category who thoroughly deserve to win.
I’m happy to find that the organisers took me at my word when I said I wanted to do loads of stuff, and have put me down for fifteen panels. I love it. I revise for it. There’s something life-affirming about waking up hungover and having to spout, semi-eloquently, on a subject someone else has assigned to you, three times a day. Add that to a couple of business lunches, drinking on a mission with old friends like editor Lou Anders, salonista Tara O’Shea, authors Fiona Avery and Chris Roberson and artist John Picacio, appointments to have drinks with a number of other fine folk, and a programme that has at least ten other things going on at the time of any of these panels, and that sounds like a lifestyle to me. Did I mention the drinking? The Hugos feature a nominees party, a winners party and an, obviously much larger, losers party. And I want to see the Masquerade too. And they’ll be showing so much new anime. I’m sure I mentioned the drinking.
Here’s a list of my panels. These times are all vastly subject to change, depending on how the schedule shifts before it settles.
Wednesday 23rd August:
2.30pm: WHY DO SF FANS LOVE THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES?
(With Tom Galloway, Priscilla Olson, Chris Weber.)
‘Even fans who read few or no other comics seem to find something in The Legion of Super Heroes to keep them buying and reading the comic, some of them for decades. Just what is there about the Legion?’ I’m a big fan, particularly of Mark Waid’s current version, and of the Legion circa ‘The Great Darkness Saga’, when there were dodgy beards aplenty.
4pm: READING.
I’ll be reading from my current novel in progress, and hopefully from a variety of other work down the years. And at 5pm: AUTOGRAPHS.
Thursday 24th August:
10am: JUST A MINUTE
I’m running this SF version of the classic British radio game show. The aim of the game is to talk for one minute on a subject given by the Quizmaster, without hesitation, deviation from the subject or repetition. It’s usually very funny, and gives the guests a chance to shine with their quick wit. I’m in the process of securing four celebrity guests. I’ll let you know who they are as and when. New: our first signed-up guest is the great comics writer Mark Waid!
1pm: WRITING SF FOR TELEVISION AND MOVIES
With D.C. Fontana (writer on the original Star Trek), Robert Gordon, Melinda Snodgrass and J. Michael Straczynski (creator of Babylon 5).
4pm: BRITISH SF TELEVISION TODAY
(With Simon R Green, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Scott Alan Woodard.)
‘With the new Doctor Who, there's a resurgence of Science Fiction on UK television. Hear what it is we're missing on this side of the pond.’ I’m moderating this one. With a fire extinguisher and a lump of small change in a sock.
Friday 25th August:
10am: RE-IMAGININGS
(With Mary Ann Johanson, Shaun Lyon, Lee Whiteside.)
‘More than just a euphemism for "remake" and "cashing in", some TV series are actually well-thought out new adaptations of the same material. Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who are two good examples of high quality shows that respect their antecedents but bring much that is new and good to the material. What changes get made and why? Are the audiences and commercial pressures different now than for the original?’ And I’m moderating this one. I get to talk onstage about Galactica. Last time I did it was just a delighted fannish love rant. A fan of the old version of the show got up and left with a cry of disgust, slamming the door on his way out. It was like a sighting of a rare beast, say, the Yeti, there and gone in a moment. I hope he finds someone else who prefers the old version, out there somewhere. Then they can breed.
1pm: SCIENCE FICTION IN COMICS
(With Harry Harrison, Greg Pak, Christopher Young and Doselle Young.)
And I’m modding this one. They must trust my moderating skills. But how and why would one ever hope to moderate the creator of The Stainless Steel Rat?
10pm: THE MORALS OF FUTURE SEX
(With Pat Cadigan, Cecilia Tan.)
I have no idea why they picked me. I’m just glad my mate Pat is going to be there to hold my hand. ‘What's going to happen with sex in the future? Sex with not just dolls but androids? With specially created clones? Are there any rules? Should there be? What about moral issues? (This will be a late evening panel.)’ I hope they’re ready for a stream of double entendres from this direction, rather than, you know, actually talking about… stuff. I shall just have to stick it out and see what comes up.
Saturday 26th August:
10am: ANIME GIRLS
(With Rachel Manija Brown, James Hay, Fred Patten, Tom Schaad.)
‘How did Japan's male dominant culture produce so many kick-butt female characters? Did Japanese anime creators develop the concept themselves, or did they all watch lots of Avengers episodes when they were young?’ Even the blurb makes me want to say about eight different things. I don’t think the heroine of Fruits Basket would ‘kick one’s butt’ if one bent over and painted a target on it. Perhaps if it was to save one from a life-threatening illness, or to reunite one with an estranged sibling, but even then she’d only daintily tap it while apologising and looking the other way with one hand over her mouth.
1pm: TV & THE FAN COMMUNITY
(With Jane Espenson, Gillian Horvath, Shaun Lyon.)
‘Some showrunners are now reading fan boards & fanfic sites to gauge reaction to what they're doing on their shows. Others avoid sites in order to keep "untainted". Writers and producers talk about the effect the fan community has on how a show develops.’ (Another subject close to my heart, and with Buffy’s Jane Espenson on there.)
2.30pm: COMICS TODAY & TOMORROW
(With Steve Englehart, Josef Rubenstein, Christopher Young, Doselle Young.)
Steve Englehart! And they expect me to be able to speak? How can I do that when I am not worthy?
4pm: HORROR AND THE CATHODE RAY
(With Simon R Green, Eric L. Hoffman, Charles Lee Jackson II, Bill Warren.)
‘Horror on television, from 1949 to today, including The Twilight Zone, Thriller, One Step Beyond, The Outer Limits, etc..’ I’m on there to talk about the original version of The Outer Limits, a subject very dear to me, and maybe Doctor Who.
Sunday 27th August:
10am: KAFFEKLATSCH
That is, a one to one between me and anyone who wants to show up. (I think there’s a sign-up system in place.) There is often coffee involved. But not always.
1pm: THE NEW DOCTOR WHO
Let’s see if Rob Shearman makes it across the Atlantic to join me and Shaun Lyon.
What a lovely prospect. My only regret is that it’s all media-related and I don’t get to talk SF books a bit more. If you’re going to be there, do say hello. But you may have to repeat it a few times.
Announcements:
ITEM! Mags Halliday informs me of this call for academic papers on the subject of Veronica Mars. I for one welcome this.
Link
ITEM! New from Argos, the shop not the planet, this handy TARDIS 'zipperobe'. So that would be a Zipperobe from Argos, sounding neatly like an alien from one of the annuals. Product not bigger on the inside than the outside. Will not take you on adventures in time and space.
Link
ITEM! On the right you'll see a new link to my agent's mad Oblivion-related blog. Which is, erm, named after me. It's on it's second version of that name now, after I complained.
I’m happy to find that the organisers took me at my word when I said I wanted to do loads of stuff, and have put me down for fifteen panels. I love it. I revise for it. There’s something life-affirming about waking up hungover and having to spout, semi-eloquently, on a subject someone else has assigned to you, three times a day. Add that to a couple of business lunches, drinking on a mission with old friends like editor Lou Anders, salonista Tara O’Shea, authors Fiona Avery and Chris Roberson and artist John Picacio, appointments to have drinks with a number of other fine folk, and a programme that has at least ten other things going on at the time of any of these panels, and that sounds like a lifestyle to me. Did I mention the drinking? The Hugos feature a nominees party, a winners party and an, obviously much larger, losers party. And I want to see the Masquerade too. And they’ll be showing so much new anime. I’m sure I mentioned the drinking.
Here’s a list of my panels. These times are all vastly subject to change, depending on how the schedule shifts before it settles.
Wednesday 23rd August:
2.30pm: WHY DO SF FANS LOVE THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES?
(With Tom Galloway, Priscilla Olson, Chris Weber.)
‘Even fans who read few or no other comics seem to find something in The Legion of Super Heroes to keep them buying and reading the comic, some of them for decades. Just what is there about the Legion?’ I’m a big fan, particularly of Mark Waid’s current version, and of the Legion circa ‘The Great Darkness Saga’, when there were dodgy beards aplenty.
4pm: READING.
I’ll be reading from my current novel in progress, and hopefully from a variety of other work down the years. And at 5pm: AUTOGRAPHS.
Thursday 24th August:
10am: JUST A MINUTE
I’m running this SF version of the classic British radio game show. The aim of the game is to talk for one minute on a subject given by the Quizmaster, without hesitation, deviation from the subject or repetition. It’s usually very funny, and gives the guests a chance to shine with their quick wit. I’m in the process of securing four celebrity guests. I’ll let you know who they are as and when. New: our first signed-up guest is the great comics writer Mark Waid!
1pm: WRITING SF FOR TELEVISION AND MOVIES
With D.C. Fontana (writer on the original Star Trek), Robert Gordon, Melinda Snodgrass and J. Michael Straczynski (creator of Babylon 5).
4pm: BRITISH SF TELEVISION TODAY
(With Simon R Green, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Scott Alan Woodard.)
‘With the new Doctor Who, there's a resurgence of Science Fiction on UK television. Hear what it is we're missing on this side of the pond.’ I’m moderating this one. With a fire extinguisher and a lump of small change in a sock.
Friday 25th August:
10am: RE-IMAGININGS
(With Mary Ann Johanson, Shaun Lyon, Lee Whiteside.)
‘More than just a euphemism for "remake" and "cashing in", some TV series are actually well-thought out new adaptations of the same material. Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who are two good examples of high quality shows that respect their antecedents but bring much that is new and good to the material. What changes get made and why? Are the audiences and commercial pressures different now than for the original?’ And I’m moderating this one. I get to talk onstage about Galactica. Last time I did it was just a delighted fannish love rant. A fan of the old version of the show got up and left with a cry of disgust, slamming the door on his way out. It was like a sighting of a rare beast, say, the Yeti, there and gone in a moment. I hope he finds someone else who prefers the old version, out there somewhere. Then they can breed.
1pm: SCIENCE FICTION IN COMICS
(With Harry Harrison, Greg Pak, Christopher Young and Doselle Young.)
And I’m modding this one. They must trust my moderating skills. But how and why would one ever hope to moderate the creator of The Stainless Steel Rat?
10pm: THE MORALS OF FUTURE SEX
(With Pat Cadigan, Cecilia Tan.)
I have no idea why they picked me. I’m just glad my mate Pat is going to be there to hold my hand. ‘What's going to happen with sex in the future? Sex with not just dolls but androids? With specially created clones? Are there any rules? Should there be? What about moral issues? (This will be a late evening panel.)’ I hope they’re ready for a stream of double entendres from this direction, rather than, you know, actually talking about… stuff. I shall just have to stick it out and see what comes up.
Saturday 26th August:
10am: ANIME GIRLS
(With Rachel Manija Brown, James Hay, Fred Patten, Tom Schaad.)
‘How did Japan's male dominant culture produce so many kick-butt female characters? Did Japanese anime creators develop the concept themselves, or did they all watch lots of Avengers episodes when they were young?’ Even the blurb makes me want to say about eight different things. I don’t think the heroine of Fruits Basket would ‘kick one’s butt’ if one bent over and painted a target on it. Perhaps if it was to save one from a life-threatening illness, or to reunite one with an estranged sibling, but even then she’d only daintily tap it while apologising and looking the other way with one hand over her mouth.
1pm: TV & THE FAN COMMUNITY
(With Jane Espenson, Gillian Horvath, Shaun Lyon.)
‘Some showrunners are now reading fan boards & fanfic sites to gauge reaction to what they're doing on their shows. Others avoid sites in order to keep "untainted". Writers and producers talk about the effect the fan community has on how a show develops.’ (Another subject close to my heart, and with Buffy’s Jane Espenson on there.)
2.30pm: COMICS TODAY & TOMORROW
(With Steve Englehart, Josef Rubenstein, Christopher Young, Doselle Young.)
Steve Englehart! And they expect me to be able to speak? How can I do that when I am not worthy?
4pm: HORROR AND THE CATHODE RAY
(With Simon R Green, Eric L. Hoffman, Charles Lee Jackson II, Bill Warren.)
‘Horror on television, from 1949 to today, including The Twilight Zone, Thriller, One Step Beyond, The Outer Limits, etc..’ I’m on there to talk about the original version of The Outer Limits, a subject very dear to me, and maybe Doctor Who.
Sunday 27th August:
10am: KAFFEKLATSCH
That is, a one to one between me and anyone who wants to show up. (I think there’s a sign-up system in place.) There is often coffee involved. But not always.
1pm: THE NEW DOCTOR WHO
Let’s see if Rob Shearman makes it across the Atlantic to join me and Shaun Lyon.
What a lovely prospect. My only regret is that it’s all media-related and I don’t get to talk SF books a bit more. If you’re going to be there, do say hello. But you may have to repeat it a few times.
Announcements:
ITEM! Mags Halliday informs me of this call for academic papers on the subject of Veronica Mars. I for one welcome this.
Link
ITEM! New from Argos, the shop not the planet, this handy TARDIS 'zipperobe'. So that would be a Zipperobe from Argos, sounding neatly like an alien from one of the annuals. Product not bigger on the inside than the outside. Will not take you on adventures in time and space.
Link
ITEM! On the right you'll see a new link to my agent's mad Oblivion-related blog. Which is, erm, named after me. It's on it's second version of that name now, after I complained.
|
Zipperobe. Pah! Oh for the days of old TARDIS playset tent.
I can enjoy the campness of the old Galactica, but its underlying message that all politicians were decadent and untrustworthy and that everything would be better if the military was in charge were pretty dodgy though.
1pm: SCIENCE FICTION IN COMICS
(With Harry Harrison, Greg Pak, Christopher Young and Doselle Young.)
I Love Harry! Not in the naughty way. Also loved Carlos Ezquerra's visual interpretations of the Rat. Ezquerra's habit of making heroes look like James Coburn was still in evidence though.
A panel with Straczynski? You're a brave man...
I envy you the panel with Jane Espenson though.
Didn't realise you were a Legion fan? 5 Years Later is the LSH stuff that will never be beaten in my mind. We can annoy people about this at the weekend.
You'll have to say hello to Doselle for me too.
Mark P
But Paul? Will there be drinking?
I've been eyeing up the zipperobe for my niece but she seems quite happy in my old play tent (and you know no kid is going to use the zipperobe to keep their clothes in! I know I wouldn't!)
You lucky... lucky... bastard. :)
I was there when the Original Galactica Fan stormed out! I've met and spoken to him, briefly! He had a strange, brute nobility, this Original Galactica Fan in the mist... Sorry, obligatory moment there. Good luck in the Hugos - I still say you're in with a good chance.
Have a great time in LA Paul, and good luck with the Hugo's. It seems the convention have heard of your 'loose change in a sock' routine though, from the convention website :
"It is the policy of L.A.con IV that no real or realistic projectile weapons may be carried anywhere within the convention except during the masquerade or specially approved events. "
Although they then go on to provide you with a workaround :
"Dealers who sell weapons must securely wrap each item at the point of sale and provide each customer with a printed copy of these rules"
Have a good one !!
In the new Galactica, that debate is a faultline, they actually play it, which is one of the joys of the show. Harry was the first SF author I read as a kid. Much respect here. He can do what he likes on that panel! I think a panel with JMS is going to be fun, he's a decent guy. I'm rather a patchy Legion fan, as I say. I asked to be on the panel because the new version is my current favourite comic, so I'm sure I'll be speaking up for the new in the face of the old, comics fandom loving a bipolar debate as we always do. I make take the piss, but I'd also loudly defend the lesser spotted Original Galactica Fan: there's nothing braver than to be the one guy who's got a different opinion. Storming out might not be the best way to represent that, but I do admire folk who do that. I love it that we run events that have weapons policies. Do you reckon, say, the Chelsea Flower Show has one? And if not, could we put pressure on them to fix this worrying anomaly? Thanks for the good wishes, all. I'll be logging in while we're away, even blogging if I feel like it.
I've altered the blog to note that I have pleasure in confirming current Legion writer Mark Waid as our first guest on Just A Minute!
I too prefer the original BSG but I don't want to breed with your man, thanks :D
Well, there you go, another proud upstanding rebel. You'd have to catch him first, too. He was going quite fast, last I saw him. (He's going to post here soon, isn't he?)
Is Bouncing Boy still in the Legion of Super Heroes? And Saturn Girl? I seem to remember Bouncing Boy had trouble getting into the Legion; probably the first super hero with teenage anxieties as a result of being rejected.
Your comment regarding Anime Girls: I've long since speculated about the ultimate icon of contemporary Japanese horror being a skinny school girl, with long straight black hair. (The Ring, Audition, the Grudge, etc.) What's going on there? Godzilla in its original state (which was just the ONE black and white movie) made perfect sense in the post-Hiroshima post-war years. So what has brought about this current horror icon, Sadoko?
Outer Limits: Still scarey! (No doubt you've got the two boxed sets). I always thought Twilight Zone was over rated. Havn't seen Thriller since it was broadcast; must order the boxed set for Christmas. I remember one in particular with two guys in coffins, and Boris Karloff keeping them artificially alive... (Shudder).
I just want to post a "big up" to Jerry Uelsmann, avant garde photography artist, who provided much of the imagery (uncredited on-screen, so far as I can recall) for the more recent "Outer Limits" title sequence. Just 'cos I love his work. No idea what the original "Outer Limits" title sequence looked like.
Bouncing Boy appeared a couple of issues back, Saturn Girl is still in there, looking foxy. (Everyone has new hair.)
I think Sadoko is part of the whole generation gap thing over there: it was once the 'newtypes' that unsettled the older generation, but now it's older ghosts come back to get the kids. And there's how close she (and the villain of Audition) are to the hand-over-mouth perfectly well mannered fantasy housewife figure, like that might turn round and bite you (so she *is* feminism, a new attack on the old also, as current ghost stories in whatever culture are always *every* faultline at once). But there's also the way that Japanese culture, rather like British culture in the 1970s, consciously feeds off itself, so she's omnipresent now not just as an archetype, but also as a cultural meme, something to be parodied and rejigged many times. (My favourite being those slow turn of head moments from Osaka in Azumanga Daioh.) But hey, making generalisations about a country that big and complicated, always dodgy.
The original Outer Limits always kicked Twilight Zone's arse. It's so genuinely nightmarish, and the lighting and set design and artificial dialogue (just in season one, really) take you out of consensus reality just as the Control Voice threatens to do. And John, we'll have no talk of that new show with the same name here. Chalk and... not cheese, because I like cheese.
Don't get your hopes up about being the only one on the panel enjoying the current Legion; your friendly neighborhood moderator is also enjoying it. :-)
Oh, hello! Look forward to meeting you, first panel of the weekend.
Well, I didn't say Outer Limits:TNG was any good, Mr C, just the title sequence... ;)
I can only dream of an Outer Limits where the story didn't slip down the well-worn runnel of whatever was a) most obvious, b) most "cute", or c) the biggest opportunity for a He-Man-esque end-of-episode voiceover moral for the week.
Well, you should watch the original series then, where none of those things happen, well, maybe a bit in season two.
"Professor Spacebat learned something very important today. He was so wrapped up in his work, trying to do something good for humanity, that he just didn't think about the consequences of fooling around with nanotechnology. You see kids, nanotechnology can be a great force for good, it can do wonderful things, but sometimes it goes wrong and turns you into a big old freakish monster. It's just not worth the risk - isn't that right, Orco?"
Cut to a floating purple hat with spinning "concussed" eyes. All laugh in a very forced way; fade out.
Having seen the Tardis zipperrobe at the Cardiff exhibition I can attest than you could just about sit inside it but jumping around with a sonic screwdriver would be a no-no (unless you're 5 or VERY small for your age).
Another classic BSG fan here! It was not only about Boxey and that Bloomin' dog (both of which still make me want to throw up). But I am also not interested in breeding opportunities at present (despite being occasionally of the female persuasion)
Have a ball at Worldcon, there will be multiple fingers crossed for you. Moffat can't have it all his own way...;-)
Hi Paul. Have a great time at WorldCon. Buy Lou a drink from me, would you? I'll buy it you back next time we meet.
Oh, and on the subject of Saturday evening telly, I want to see the return of It's a Knockout, hosted by Ant and Dec, with Boris Johnson doing the snickers (sorry, marathon). The old series are re-run on UK Challenge - those were the days...
"salonista" huh? Sounds like I'm about to forcibly take over a government...
omg, I haven't seen Gillian Horvath in a decade or more. I didn't even realise she was still con-going fen.
Hello from Calistoga, C.A.. A few Worldcon panels have changed moderator and other guests, but all times remain the same. Skeeter, you guys should form some sort of OBSG club, which sounds like a fetish thing, and maybe is. And thank you! I will say hello to Lou many times, until he tells me I'm repeating myself. Look forward to seeing you, Tara. There are hot springs here, we are having a lovely time.
OMG, Paul - I saw Tara last weekend and realized you're going to be at WorldCon! Color me fallen off the face of the planet. :-> Felicia and I will be there too, so we'll make sure to find you and say hi.
Enjoy the trip through California -- we don't have magic roundabouts, but we do have plenty of craptastic traffic!
It'll be good to see you two again, do find me.
Drat! And double drat! Original Outer Limits isn't eligible for Amazon's DVD rental scheme. And I'm too tight to spring for DVD boxed sets on the off-chance, so it's unlikely I'll be able to judge for myself the quality of original OL. Buns. On the other hand, I can if I wish rent the original Twiglet Zone.
Good luck with the Hugo next week.
I loved the original series of Battlestar Galactica, but always thought the concept could have been better executed. Which is probably why a think the new version is just about perfect.
Ah, the Twilight Zone's nowhere near as good. And thanks JCR, and I think that's how I feel about BSG too. Some of the Marvel BSG comics of the time are much better than the show they spun off from. The concept always had potential.