A friend of mine recently said: "I became an EMT in Reno just to piss off Johnny Cash."

It took the rest of us a minute to figure out what he was talking about.

See you there!

Luckily, Google is pretty good at explaining this.

I remember Tammy Wynette better: "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" is a real earworm, and much parodied

Quoting Serve on the Open Thread:

About the Gathering of Light... We'll still be meeting on Wednesday, starting at 6pm, but at the Milano instead. If you can't make it from the beginning, we expect to be there for quite some time.

Seems worth a mention here...

Re the Gathering of Light, for clarity:

- "The Milano" is Cafe Milano, at the Peppermill. The prices aren't bad for a hotel facility, and they have a good menu.

- I think a bunch of potential attendees may not have been involved in the Yahoogroups polls. I will personally make sure that the name "Fluorosphere" is on the Voodoo Board. If you're there, and you think you might attend, and you haven't voted in the polls, leave a note! This will be important when we go to reserve tables.

- Or, of course, you can comment here with your intention to attend.

I'll be in Reno next week... but not until the 23rd, alas.

Yours truly won't be in any masquerade presentation this time around, but he'll be helping with the Hugo Ceremonies. Not sure yet in what capacity.

Count me in for the art tour.. and who knows what else. I guess I better take some time to plan out my time during the convention a bit.

I'm not getting in until Thursday evening late, BUT.

We are having a "KC is thinking about bidding again" party on Friday. Not sure what room but it's the one Texas is using for their parties at the Atlantis.

I'm just helping, not running it. thank ghu.

I'm still puzzling over a question Brad DeLong raised once: Why was the guy in Folsom Prison (CA, north of Sacramento) if the murder took place in Reno, NV?

Brad's theory was "Federalism."

I believe I will be attending the GoL. I do not know if Evil Rob will, though.

Linkmeister (#10): We know he shot a man in Reno, but we don't know what other crimes he might have committed. He might actually be in prison for shooting a local sheriff (presumably having avoided the death penalty by sparing the life of the deputy). The Reno PD might not even have pinned the crime on him.

I sure wish I could be there. Looks like quite a collection of great panels, for one thing, and the Russ ones are unlikely to be repeated (at least at the same level of intensity/participants).

Adam @ #12, "presumably having avoided the death penalty by sparing the life of the deputy"

Now that would be an interesting mash-up: Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" with Clapton's "I Shot the Sheriff."

Or maybe Folsom's a regional SuperMax facility.

"We hit the sherrif."
"But we didn't hit his deputy."

- Brisco County Jr after accidentally slugging some of the local law enforcement and finding himself facing the irate remaining law enforcement

Linkmeister, #14: Speaking of mashups with Folsom Prison Blues... this one is my all-time favorite. Earworm warning!

Linkmeister @ 10: That very question came up on a music-related mailing list I'm on, and a resident lawyer gave a Cecil-Adams-worthy answer listing (IIRC) eight different reasons you could end up in a Calfornia state pen for shooting a man in Reno. Unfortunately, neither the list's archives nor mine go back that far, and she's not on the list any more.

The only one I (think I) remember was that the victim might have crossed the state line before expiring.

Say 'hey' to Tim Powers -- I'm sorry I won't be able to see him....

I hope to attend the Wed. GoL dinner at the Milano, and should arrive by 6:30.

I probably won't get to PNH's or TNH's panels due to other simultaneous events.

iamnothing... To help you recognize our group, go to the "Making Light and Faces" gallery.

Lee: Outstanding, and duly sidelighted, and credited to you in the rollover.

Lee @16:

Our regional filkstar Eric Coleman gets you going on the original before he twists it. I've heard him do more verses than this, but it's a fair sampling. I love seeing who in any given filk circle hasn't been exposed to this particular bit of sickness before-- we usually lose at least one to helpless fits of giggles.

OT: I keep seeing the title to this thread and expecting it to be about architectural progress or perhaps website redesign.

Carry on.

Scalzi has the Online Community panel (same participants, slightly different title) as being at noon on Wednesday in room A03. Yours makes more sense, and I suppose I'll find out when I get there. (It just makes my spreadsheet twitch, is all.)

Zelda, #22: Y'know, it is close enough to ballad meter to work like that! Oh, dear...

Lee @25:

I think he has several dozen texts (some slightly modified) ready to go at a moment's notice.

The verse that haunts and hounds me is "It's a Small World." To the tune of "Folsom Prison." Two earworms in one-- aieeeee!

#20, Thanks, Serge.

I'm pretty sure our time for the internets-vs-fandom panel is more up-to-date; they moved it, partly because we won't have arrived yet by Wednesday noon.

Count me in for GoL on Wednesday, please... noting that it will be occurring at 2 am according to my internal clock. (I will be arriving from London the night before.)

That is, of course, why God gave us coffee. And, having given us coffee, clearly He wants us to do astronomy.

I'll be at the Gathering of Light as well.

Brother Guy @ 29... That is, of course, why God gave us coffee

"Give us our daily grind..."

:-)

You realise that this might mean you can sing "Folsom Prison Blues" to the tune of "Pinball Wizard".

A consummation devoutly to be wished.

I aim to join you at the GoL, but I won't be there until (at least) 6:30pm, so I'm reluctant to ask you to save me a seat.

In the famous live recording of Johnny Cash singing "Folsom Prison Blues" to the occupants of Folsom Prison, the line about the man in Reno is followed by approving audience noises. This is a case of what would nowadays be called reality TV editing: the audience noise is actually from elsewhen in the concert, and was spliced in during post-production.

I expect I'll be at the fan tables area until it closes at 6pm; I expect I'll arrive a little late for the GoL unless other dinner plans materialize with some friend who are arriving Wednesday evening. I think we're probably meeting Thursday or Friday evening instead because some of them won't arrive till late Wednesday.

Linkmeister #14: That's Marley's "I shot the Sheriff" if you please. Clapton merely covered it.

Fragano, sorry. The version I'm most familiar with is Clapton's. I did know Marley wrote it.

Re: GOL...given the location (restaurant), and my bandwidth where I am right now (thin), I think virtual attendance won't be an option this year.

Veel plezier, allemaal. Enjoy it, everyone.

Dave @ #4 & Lee @ #5 - I'll be attending, joining as soon as I can after the dealer's room closes. Thanks for posting about it here.

Fragano probably knows this because duh.

But do all the rest of us know what "I shot the sheriff but I did not shoot the deputy?" is about?

In Kingston the guys with guns would taken them with them to the movies -- westerns were their favorite, in which they literally shot the sheriff when he came on-screen. So the song's narrative pov did shoot the sheriff, but he didn't bother to shoot the deputy up there on the screen. The movie houses' screens were all full of holes.

Keith Richards writes about this in his Life -- Keith spends a lot of time in Jamaica with the bad yard boys, which ain't easy to do -- he likes 'em.

Love, C.

Constance @ #41, I have a similar tale. My next-door neighbor back when I was a teenager was a few years younger than I, but his parents allowed him to have a BB gun. One evening he was watching Combat! and a Nazi was about to shoot one of the American soldiers. Harry got a little carried away and shot the Nazi on the TV screen with his BB gun.

Fortunately the tube didn't explode. There was a helluva hole in it thereafter, though.

I'll be arriving on Wednesday in the afternoon (if all goes well), so I should be able to make it to the GoL without any trouble. (In order to make that more likely, I've added it to my GCal....)

Abi @ 39... Some other year, one can hope...

Speaking of ballad meter mashups, The Blind Boys of Alabama sing "Amazing Grace".

Lee left Houston later than she'd planned this morning so, instead of her original plan to stop in Gallup, she asked if she could stay here in Albuquerque. She called not long ago, she'd just made it to Amarillo, which means she's still in Texas. She said she'd soon pull over for the night at a hotel.

Serge @ #46, Ah, Texas, the state which can take three days to drive across. I remember doing that in 1962.

Linkmeister @47 -- I had a car like that once, too. (Obligatory old joke)

Maybe Lee's car runs with what was called a Ulysses Engine in "Girl Genius" - the kind that takes forever getting you anywhere even though the distances aren't that great. Meanwhile, I wonder how TexAnne's travel to the East Coast is going.

Linkmeister @ #42:

I can't find a source right now, but I recall hearing a similar story told about a group of Aborigines in northern Australia having their first experience of cinema. The main feature was a Western, and at a climactic moment one of the fellas decided to enter the fray and chucked his spear (for of course they had insisted on retaining their spears) at the treacherous bloke who was about to shoot the hero...

Paul A @ #50, that has a The Gods Must Be Crazy flavor to it.

Glad I checked in over here, or I'd have missed the Fluorosphere meetup! I've been completely unable to keep up with things this past week...I really need this vacation!

I'll be at the GoL. I have responded to the Yahoo!Group poll via the ever-intuitive handle "vortxae".

I ought to be getting into town fairly early on Wednesday. Amtrak is being remarkably optimistic about an on-time arrival (8:36 AM) given that it's currently about 4 hours behind schedule, and that without having reached the flooded parts of Nebraska yet. But even with much lateness, I expect to be in town by midday or early afternoon.

I'll most likely be tweeting a lot (@nicolejleboeuf).

Lee @16 (and because I noticed it in the Sidelights):

Is Bill Kirchen influenced by Billy Bragg, or the other way round, or is it just a huge coincidence?

Paul @54

"One Song to the Tune of Another" has long been a staple of I'm Sorry, I haven't A Clue" on BBC Radio. So I don't think either guy has to be the single source

Which reminds me: Raadhuisstraat

Serge #49--When I talked to Texanne on Sunday afternoon, she sais she was planning on checking e-mail regularly during the trip, partly as a way to make sure she took reasonable breaks.

I plan to drop by the Gathering of Light, but probably not eat; uncertain schedules, as usual.

Dave @54:

No doubt you are right.

When a bar near me had jam nights I tried to work "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers" in to most things. My favourite, if no-ones elses, was "Smoke On The Water".

Come to think of it, that's probably why the jam nights stopped...

Depending on traffic, we expect to arrive between 7 and 8.

I'm here! I won't make WorldCon registration in time for the night, but I'll be at the GoL dinner. After that, who knows?

Afterthought.

So. I'm staying at the Peppermill. Having just had occasion to walk the full length of the 4th floor hallway, I'm wondering if there's any room in Teresa's busy schedule for an extracurricular docent walk over here. The paintings that hang between the hotel room doors are just begging for that special commentary that only she can provide.

They're clearly reproductions of something -- some of them are reproductions of each other -- of some particular style, Italian Renaissance I suppose? I am uneducated in these things -- but they miss the mark in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.

Towards the ballroom end of the hall, up by room 400 or 404 or so, there's one I've taken to calling Lady Thunderfist because of her oddly asymmetrical hands. And there's a series that appears to mimic the old Laugh-In skit that takes place on a park bench. And in the one that appears to depict Mama teaching Daughter how to dance, what precisely is the young girl in yellow doing in the corner there? I'm not sure if she's bored, or pointing something out, or ridiculing her sibling, or what the heck. It seems to differ for every version of that painting, and there are at least three on this floor alone. And over by the ballroom-end elevators, the gargoyle's faces are just wrong.

Thankfully, the one on my room is fairly innocuous. I suspect it of anachronism, but it is not creepy. So OK.

After too many years of not playing, I now have a cheap electric guitar, with software to use it with my PC.

There's either a poor connection in the thing, or the software needs the buffering adjusting...

After too many years of not playing, I now have a cheap electric guitar, with software to use it with my PC.

There's either a poor connection in the thing, or the software needs the buffering adjusting...

My many thanks to Siriosa for organizing last night's Gathering of Light at the worldcon! I had a wonderful time. I was quite amused when Brother Guy said that his Boss was very impressed by his MIT ring. I guess he sees Cardinal rings a lot.

Speaking of guitars... As we were driving thru Arizona's Flagstaff on the way to the worldcon, I thought of our very own Bill Higgins when the radio station played a ukulele rendition of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody".

Ditto what Serge said - it was fantastic to see everyone last night! It was a delight and an honor and a pleasure. I'm sorry I had to cut out so early, but I was positively turning into a pumpkin.

Writer/puppeteer Mary Robinette Kowal is doing a puppet show tomorrow. The performances are at 4:00 and 7:00pm in room C01.

B Durbin... What is the name of that famous artist that you and others were talking about last night, the one who made dogs look like monkeys?

Serge, that was Canaletto's nephew -- sometimes also called Canaletto, but actually named as Bernardo Bellotto.

Tom Whitmore... Right. I still think that the way you were all talking about the affair made it sound like a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta although B Durbin said the possible murders wouldn't have fitted into a G&S work.

The masquerade was good. While judges were deliberating, a game show was held and my favorite bit was when the subject became Space: 1999 and Seanan McGuire said she used to dress up her kid sister as one of the show's monsters, and she had to call her mom to confirm she wasn't deviating from the subject.

Being involved in the Hugo Ceremonies, I got to see the backstage reactions of the winners, and it was quite an eye-opener.

The award matters VERY much to them.

Having been involved in presenting them a few times, I'd agree, Serge.

Tom Whitmore... By the way, during the post-Hugo photo session, I got to see Cory Doctorow wearing goggles and a red cape.

72
I was watching the frontstage via Ustream.
The guy who got best fanzine was really, really surprised and overwhelmed. (Sitting on the floor, speechless, is not the usual reaction to being told you just got a rocketship for your mantlepiece.)

PJ Evans... 'Overwhelmed' is an understatement.

Yah -- perhaps "hyperwhelmed"? Chris Garcia is a good guy, and enthusiastic even at the worst of times....

I also enjoyed the Gathering of Light; even though I didn't get to meet everybody, it means a lot to be able to go to a group dinner.

iamnothing... Again, I want to thank Siriosa for organizing the dinner.