The follow is the most outrageous comment I heard during Westercon 62.
From the panelist Jacqueline Lichtenberg
The arrival of Star Trek on national television is the most important event in the history of civilization since the invention of agriculture. It is a paraphrase but she said it.
yesh I like Star Trek but this is really creepy stalker fandom territory.
About a week and a half ago I was in a spirited debate with a friend of mine about Conspiracy Movies. We had just seen a film that used a conspiracy as a central element of the film and that provoked the debate.
The energy levels of the debate increased when I took the position that The Manchurian Candidate (1962)was NOT a capital ‘C’ Conspiracy film.
On further reflection i realize that I was wrong in my position. Now I will admit that it does not feel like a Conspiracy film to me, but what it feels like and what it is are two different things. For many people the film 28 Days later is a Zombie film, even though the infected are not undead. Based upon the three criteria I outline in an essay on Zombie movies (1-Mindless, 2- communicable 3-Vast Numbers) this was a Zombie movie.
This incident brought to mind for me the importance of detachment in any form of analysis. Because I did not feel that The Manchurian Candidate was a Conspiracy Film like The International for example, I blinded myself to the sound arguments that it was in fact a Conspiracy Film. (Although The Manchurian Candidate is a rare GOOD Conspiracy Film.)
When you are getting emotionally involved in an argument, when it is close to your heart or feeling more than at any other time it is important to step back, draw a breath, and try to be objective.
This, I have learned, and I am sure I will have to re-learn too as I am only human.
So this site has been up and active since about the end of May and I am little surprised at the amount of traffic I am getting. I really expected nothing until at least I sold a story to a national market of some kind, and even then I expected no traffic for a while.
I am right now averaging about 30 unique visitors per day. Now in terms of the internet that is nothing. It is not even a speck on the google-dar, but it is a lot more than I expected before any sales.
To those people dropping in, Welcome! Please feel free to poke around and read the stories in the trunk it is why they are there.
The more I think about it the more I think there’s something we do not know about what is going on with Sarah Palin.
The resignation from the Governor’s desk makes no sense unless somethings else is going on. I think it comes down to a few scenarios.
1) Scandal. There’s some big terrible scandal coming down the way and the only way Sarah could avoid it was by quitting. The problem is that quitting doesn’t help. She loses the pulpit of the office and the services if the government lawyers if it is legal trouble. For the life of me I can’t figure out a scandal that would be improved by quitting.
2) She really is tired of the personal attacks. But if that is the case she’s not going to get away from them by campaigning for others and remaining in politics. The nature of modern politics is that lots of nasty personal attacks are hurled and you better be able to stand up to them. Again, without the bullhorn of the job she’s disarming herself in that fight.
3) She’s gotten a better offer. Some sort of TV show or other major media spotlight that pays better and flatters her ego better. This is credible if that’s what she really wants. To be the conservative Oprah would be a gig she is well suited for — but then again I don;t a high opinion of Oprah as a thinker either. If this is the case we’ll hear about it soon, otherwise why quite now?
4) The job’s not fun anymore. With Oil prices crashing and the economy in a shambles it’s no longer fun being in charge of Alaska. Suddenly there are lots of problems and the money’s much tighter. Perhaps she was never suited for a job that required real decision making and when it started to happen, she bailed.
5) She wants to head up a new party. There’s some talk from the Tea Party folks that they;d love Sarah as the head of their movement. Frankly I think it would kill all serious consideration of their cause. She’d be posion.
or finally–
Maybe her ego wasn’t getting stroked enough. The sort of ties into the criticism angle except instead of running away from attack she’s running toward adoration. Places where people pay $150 a dinner to hear her speak and won;t ask any questions that can’t be responded to with a pat answer.
Honestly, I would not rule out that last one.
We’re home and safe from westercon 62.
I will return to regular blogging Monday July 6th.
We’ll be leaving about 2pm today. I had a lot of good lit panels yesterday meeting with editors and authors and getting good advice for my writing career.
I have several panels lined up for this morning and expect to have a good time before our 2 pm departure.
The fireworks last night were very good but watching them in a room packed full of punsters trying top each other was quite an experience.
In the hub-bud of the convention we should not forget to observe our nation’s birth.
It hard for those of us more than 233 years distant understand the enormous challenge and risk that our forefathers undertook. More than just our Country has benefitsx from that bold declaration of independence. All of humanity profited from our gamble. Freedom is sought throughout the world and it is in that direction that mankind has been moving.
Things have turned for the better here as Westercon, Tempe. I had better luck with panels in the afternoon and the parties worked out really well. I was more outgoing than usual and had a decent time.
There are lots of eateries near the hotel so there isn’t any problems in finding food and usually at a good price near by. The biggest problem there is that Tempe is really hot in July. (Today they expect 106) Even a jaunt of just a few blocks can be quite an expedition.
Today a Friday before the 4th of July weekend, Govenor Sarah Palin of Alaska announced she would not only NOT seek re-election but she will be stepping down as Govenor before the end of the month.
I don’t doubt we’ll hear from her a lot, but forget her as a serious contenter for the nomination in 2012.
I for one will not miss her.
We’ve arrived at Westercon in Phoenix adn I’ve started forming opinons. Sadly these are no good opinions. The organazation of the convention is as though it was put together by epileptic monkeys working a jizsaw puzzle that was missing a few pieces while aboard a storm-tossed steamship.
We checked into the hotel, and then went to registration to pick up our badges. Ha! That’s what we thought we were going to do. We paid for our memberships on line (Paypal) more than a week ago, but they had no listing for us in the membership roles. It was a clusterfuck getting them to recognize we had membership and issuing them.
The program grid does not match up with the Programming booklet so good luck on finding the panels. The programming booklet lists the panels by TRACK. So you have all the Lit stuff together, all the Media Stuff together, but it’s only partially arranged by alphabet.
The size is the convention is small. Sort of like a suped up ConDor or a downgraded LosCon.
I’ve attended a few interesting panels and there’s lots of places to eat.