Here I am singing “Me” from Beauty and the Beast in an impromptu concert in the hall outside the con-suite at ConVersion XXI in Calgary. That’s Hugo (and Nebula) Award-winning author Robert J. Sawyer on the right.
Category: Blog
I’m back!
On the job, that is; vacation over, Con attended, zoo visited, child swum, etc. Blogging will now resume its usual highly erratic “pattern.”
ConVersion: The Column
What do you call an event where costumers mingle with bestselling authors, artists hang out with scientists, the Arrogant Worms perform, and the sight of knights in chainmail whacking each other with swords draws scant attention? A science fiction convention, of course—specifically, Calgary’s ConVersion XXI. This year’s guest of honour was best-selling SF and fantasy …
Conversion Part 3: Sunday (a Monday retrospective)
Too busy yesterday afternoon and evening to blog about the final day of ConVersion, but here I am now to fill you in on the finale. Sunday began with the brunch that all ConVersion members were encouraged to buy tickets for because it helped the con meet the food and beverage requirments set by the …
ConVersion Part 2: Saturday night
I realize one is supposed to crawl back to one’s hotel room in the wee hours of the morning when one is attending an SF con, but that’s never been my style. It’s not even midnight yet, and here I am virtuously blogging before bed–although I did spend the last hour with Rob Sawyer and …
ConVersion Part 1: Friday Night
ConVersion is off and running. Registration was only half an hour late opening today, which isn’t too bad by short-handed volunteer-run standards. I was second in line, and although the person-in-charge didn’t seem to have a clue that I was, in fact, a program participant, nor did my name appear on any list he had, …
Waiting for ConVersion
Which is not the same as waiting to be converted, thanks. ConVersion is the annual SF convention in Calgary, which is where I am now after a long drive yesterday (made less stressful than it might have been by the fact that my three-year-old daughter Alice was a wonderful traveller and didn’t whine at all, …
Writing Diary: August 3, 2004
Had a pretty productive day yesterday; no fiction, because I’m trying to get ready to go on vacation, but I wrote a new column (on a new technique for recovering old analog recordings) and finished Chapter 4 of the Orson Scott Card biography. Today I have to try to wrap up some exhibit copy for …
First contact within 20 years?
That’s the projection of astronomer Seth Shostack from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute in Mountain View, California. I hope he’s right!
My favorite de(con)struction of The Day After Tomorrow
It’s by William Hyde, a paleoclimatologist from Duke University. Enjoy!
Giving the past back its voice
Technology for recording sound has been around a lot longer than many people realize, long enough that some very interesting people we now think of as distant historical figures made recordings of their voices–people like Queen Victoria, Alfred Tennyson and Florence Nightingale. We seldom hear those recordings, though, because they’re so fragile that playing them …
Reading Diary: August 3
A slightly delayed reading diary, because I wanted to be able to report that I had finished The Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen–which I have. Highly recommended, a fascinating bit of popular history that points up the largely forgotten impact that the Chicago World’s Fair had on everything from popular culture to …
My latest live walk and vlog
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