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Check out the third link from this unsigned editorial. Wait, you don’t need to, you’re already there.
Hello from Loncon, which is going very damn well.
Linked to from The Guardian?
I suppose we'll have to be on our best behaviour.
And damnit, I bet we're expected to wear pants all day.
huff
But seriously, cool.
Everyone o'er there, have a tonne of funne.
On the internet, nobody can see that your pants are unzipped.
I am wearing a kilt. If I am not wearing pants, it's none of your business.
On the internet, nobody can tell what you're panting at....
Seriously good short article. Thanks for sharing it (and I'm hoping Sasquan shares it more widely).
It's a British paper, guys. Whether or not you're wearing trousers (I'm not), the chances are fairly good that you're wearing pants.
Depending on how traditional Terry is being about that kilt, of course.
Terry @3
Old Joke Warning.
Is anything worn under the kilt?
No, it's all in perfect working order.
Dave Bell @ #6:
Alternatively...
What's worn beneath the kilt?
Shoes and socks.
See what vegetables wear under their kilts, apparently.
The Guardian now has pictures -
http://www.theguardian.com/film/gallery/2014/aug/16/world-science-fiction-convention-2014-in-pictures
And here's some regular reporting, including interviews with Paul Cornell, Mary Ann Mohenraj and Connie Willis. It was on the front page of the print edition:
And so do others -
http://file770.com/?p=18273
http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/72ndworldsciencefictionconvention/Interesting
The Grauniad does seem to get it.
Terry #3 - it most certainly is other peoples business if you decide to fall head over heels or do very vigorous dancing when wearing a kilt with no underwear (Unless you're doing it very traditionally and have a long and large linen shirt which will do enough of the job anyway). But if you avoid that then nobody can tell anyway and it'll be fine.
And anyway, they had pants in post-medieval times too, I suspect the no underwear idea came from military service and disease issues rather than original civilian use.
"They were fractious, opinionated and quarrelsome."
Wrong verb tense. :-)
guthrie #14; I suspect the no underwear idea came from military service and disease issues rather than original civilian use.
Which is why they call it "regimental."
Or, perhaps, "going commando."
My great-grandad was in the Black Watch and he (apparently) liked to tell a story about trench warfare in a kilt. He would say that the trenches were filled with mud and other muck, up to the soldiers' knees and even waists. The men who wore pants didn't have much of a chance to take them off and get clean, and there would be mud caked between the pant legs and their skin which led to awful skin infections. But the men in kilts - well, he said the kilts sort of "floated" on top and at the end of their watch, they could rinse off more easily and stayed healthier. I am not sure how accurate that was but I always liked the image of the kilts floating on top of the mud, and tried not to think about what (if anything) lay between their bits and the mud and muddy water.
It was mustard gas which killed off the kilt as tactical clothing.
Hee hee hee *snrk!*
I have to wonder at the impression garnered by J. Random Public following links from the article into this thread. Not least because this is absolutely classic ML (and fannish in general) topic drift, albeit a bit, um, especially telescoped.
::giggle::
Dave Bell @20, I'd like you to clarify, please; what makes mustard gas especially bad for men in kilts? Did a layer or two of fabric really protect mucus membranes? Enquiring minds, and all that.
Cassy B @#22
It's heavier than air (and an oily liquid at low temperatures) so pools on the ground. A gas mask and treated clothing will protect against it fairly well, but walking around in a kilt with lots of exposed skin is a really bad idea.
Cadbury Moose @23, ok, that makes sense. Thanks.
The above-linked editorial was read aloud at the Hugo awards. Kinda cool.
Have the Hugo Awards started? I'm a little fuzzy on the time difference....
Yes, they have started. Hashtag on Twitter is #hugoawards.
Is it just me, or does anyone else get all sniffly and tight in the throat over the Hugos?
Jacque @ 28... yes, and I've seen some of the winners backstage being quite emotional.
They also have a nice write-up of the Hugos
The speech Randall Munro wrote to be read was my favorite silly moment until the poor presenter for the next bit dove into Geoff Ryman's jacket during the mic malfunction. :-)
Elliott Mason @31, is the text of Randall Munro's speech available?
Good stories from the Guardian -- but IIRC they have a pretty good record. I don't know whether leftish journalism generally "gets" fandom better than centrish or rightish; however, I remember the best story about Noreascon Two coming from the Boston Phoenix, which at the time was more of an alternative newspaper and less a collection of reviews and hookup ads than it now seems.
I'm puzzled by the Cornell quote; he gets the basics right but then says any net is "distributed among the panelists". I suppose that's not totally removed from most cons' refund policies -- but it leaves out the point that usually \everyone/ who works gets post-comped. He's new; he's probably heard about this already at-con, hopefully not too many times.
Jacque, #34: I think commenter "numinous" over there was on one of the contentious threads here not very long ago, making the same argument that character diversity was "just checking ticky boxes". Ptui on that.
And speaking of British Worldcons getting good press coverage:
Dave Nee just sent me this link to a BBC program on the Brighton Worldcon in 79. Some nice shots of both pros and fans, and Peter Weston gets some excellent screen time. There's also video of folks I miss a lot.
It needs someone to go through it and add names to the people who are shown, however, as it's really lacking in captions -- not even Anne McCaffrey nor Diane Duane gets pointed out, nor Don Wollheim. I could identify some, but nowhere near all of the people who spoke onscreen.
Tom: Well, here's my stab at it: I think: Poul Anderson, ?, Hal Clement, Arthur Clarke, Brian Aldiss, Fred Pohl—OMG Filthy Pierre!, (Dunno guy polishing his [sword?], Peter Weston, Fritz Leiber, ? signing autographs, Christopher Reeve, Tom Baker, ? doing a reading, ? auctioning art, Ted Sturgeon, ? & ? drawing and voicing art on the overhead, ... Is that Bruce Pelz standing behind the huckster table at ~11:02? Mike Glickson at ~12:00?, some fans I don't recognize ... Mike Glyer (no, a Brit)? ... SilverBob! (Robert Silverberg), Thomas Endish, Judith Merril? Lots of folks I don't recogize....Vonda Macyntire accepting a Hugo @23:45....
The second person was Greg Benford, IIRC without rewatching it -- the person signing autographs was Harry Harrison, yes that was Bruce, Jane Hawkins gets significant airtime in two segments, the writers party features Anne McCaffrey, Diane Duane, Don Wollheim, and many others; Fritz was presenting the Hugo to Vonda; that's Thomas M. Disch, not Emdish; one of the Masquerade judges is Peggy Kennedy. So, yeah, there's a lot more to fill in!
It's sad to hear Silverberg pushing the "us vs them" line, considering how he came from fandom. Poul wouldn't have said that.
37
The art auction - the woman on the far right of the table full of art is Elayne Pelz.
And the guy in the orangish shirt at Bruce's table is Rotsler.
I think the person alternating with Jane Hawkins is Jim Freund, but I'm not sure. I think one of the people in the background in the Fan Room is Dave Nee, but he hasn't confirmed it yet. I did notice Rotsler, the second time through. Don't know any of the people in costume offhand. I believe the auctioneer in the Art Show was Ron Bounds, and the runner was Jane Hawkins again (even though we never see her face there).
Tom Whitmore @38: Jane Hawkins
That's who that was. I had a nagging feeling I should recognize her.
that's Thomas M. Disch, not Emdish;
::facepalm:: It was late. That's my excuse.
Don Wollheim
Oh, that's who that is.... Recognized the face, know the name, never put the two together.
That's Norman Spinrad, in the Gollancz trade party saying: "I came to London after France, but everybody was in Los Angeles! So I came back to London now, because now everybody is here..."
41
Yes, Bounds was the auctioneer - at least for the close; I wasn't at the art auction. (The banner: sold to the crazy American who upped his own bid')
Terry Hughes is in the audience in the fan room scene. I am about 85 percent sure that Kent Bloom is in the audience during the auction scene.
Martian Moose Worship*: If you can give some descriptive pointers, I'll add them to my crib-sheet before I put it up.
* Sorry, couldn't resist. Don't remember the story behind this nickname; only that I heard it from Jon Singer.
Jacque: Have people missed Harry Harrison at about 8:10?
I THINK Kent Bloom is the fan sitting in the second row of the fan auction scene at 9:29 with a trim brown beard, thinning brown hair and black glasses. I'm going to identify him with 85 percent certainty.
Mike GLICKSOHN (note spelling) is the very hairy fan with a "man purse" and white shirt at 11:47.
Terry Hughes is at 12:51. He has long, shoulder-length thinning light-brown hair and a purple shirt.
Jacque -- when you get the cite sheet done, I'll try rewatching. I know there are half a dozen more people I can identify at the author party -- but that'll take some serious attention and probably some step-frame watching.
Okay, here's my cribsheet (Sorry, it's a ginormous PDF.) It'll be at least Monday before I can update from the notes here. (If I'm feeling energetic, I'll try to add time stamps to the thumbnails.) (Argh. I thought I got Norman Spinrad's name added; he's the first face, second row, third page, right?)
...extra credit for emailing screencaps showing time stamps with names attached...
..."dramatis personae", that's the phrase I was reaching for...
(psst, Jacque)
Jacque, it's a funny joke, but I think MMW would rather be called by his real name.
Here's a few more identifications, Jacque: (Notation: page; line; picture # in line, from left)
1;3;5 Fred Pohl again
1;4;1 Middle person looks like Marsha Elkin Jones
2;1;1 Dave Nee? unconfirmed
2;2;2 Frank Denton (definite)
2;2;6 Rebecca Lesses?
2;6;2 Middle person is Hal Clement
3;2;1 Person on L is Norman Spinrad
Confirming Peggy Kennedy and Ron Bounds. Note spelling on Vonda McIntyre and Mike Glicksohn.
More later, perhaps. Need to watch again.
Idumea @54: Yes'm.
Teresa @54: Yes, I believe that is what is known in the vernacular as a "funny once." Does anyone remember the genesis fo that joke? It's escaping me.
Jacque:
He used to do convention listings for one of the SF magazines, and ended "Look for me with the musical keyboard and the Filthy Pierre nametag".
Jacque @56, my referent for "funny once" is from Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress when Mannie is trying to explain humor to Mike, the recently self-aware computer.
Jacque: Terry Hughes is the guy with the long light-brown hair who is on the second row, fifth from the left (right above Robert Silverberg and diagonally down on the right from Mike Glicksohn.
I was confused (I'm still confused). The guy who had the Filthy Pierre nametag wasn't MMW?
If not, who was Filthy Pierre?
Filthy Pierre is Erwin Strauss, the guy who runs the Voodoo Boards.
@55: 2;2;6 in Jacques PDF is only moderately similar to Rebecca Lesses when I knew her -- but she was young enough the last time I remember seeing her that she might have changed by 1979. I'd forgotten the Space Invaders machine she's playing and how generally fascinating it was -- I wonder what (if any) newish tech would attract that much participation today, especially at a dollar or more (guess at inflation adjustment) a shot.
It's fascinating looking at these snaps; one forgets how much some people changed, and how little others did.
@55 (add'l from watching video):
1;4;1 middle is definitely Marsha -- she ran the art show, which this shot is a piece of.
1;4;3 \might/ be Rick Katze. (If so they missed a better shot -- him and Terry McCutchen skipping down the Masquerade runway to stress-test the added bracing it needed).
1;5;3 looks more like Rebecca Lesses than 2;2;6 does.
2;2;5 Terry Jeeves? (Not sure I have the name right, but I've got a mental hook to the distinctive face.)
2;3;2 -- from the voice/face pairing (video 13:28ff) I'd swear this is Josh Shaine. (Very little known outside Boston -- fandom isn't even a hobby for him.) Would Seacon '79 have been only Freund's 2nd Worldcon? OTOH, I remember Josh as Caine in a group Amber ]costume[ at Suncon, so this couldn't have been his 2nd either -- maybe he memory-lapsed on-camera?
Not on Jacque's PDF (cited by approximate times):
Is that Moshe Feder at 11:10?
I remember \what/ 19:40 was (Teela Brown at Louis Wu's birthday party) but not who. (I do remember her saying she wouldn't be able to do such costumes again as she was about to get married -- just one of the culture shocks I got from that trip.)
I also ... remember ... 20:25 (a massively implausible Avluela [Flyer] from "Nightwings") as we had to move the stage stairs for her (note the everyone-but-her stage-management direction a little later); interesting that British mainstream media didn't fuss about bare breasts on-screen, or was BBC-2 expected to be more raffish?
Is that Bob Shaw holding the mike for Leiber at 23:30? He would have been an obvious choice for Hugo MC, but I've forgotten who did the job.
Overall, massively saner and more-respectful coverage than U.S. conventions were getting then (when they got video coverage at all).
OtterB @58: "funny once" is from Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress when Mannie is trying to explain humor to Mike
Yes, that would be the correct referant. I've found it to be a useful guideline.
That's interesting. I've never read TMIAHM, but I've been using "funny-once" for decades. I think it's far too obvious, and convenient, a locution not to have been independently invented by bunches of people.
Lee -- you may not have read it, but a lot of people in fandom have (it was Heinlein's last Hugo-winning novel, after all). And it's a very useful locution, I agree. I'm pretty sure it's original in MIAHM, though, because I definitely remember noticing it as a new idea when I read the book shortly after it came out.
In Chapter 11 of Then,* his history of British fandom, Rob Hansen reviews Seacon, drawing on many fanzine accounts. It's a good companion to the BBC Time out of Mind video. Might jog some memories.
*Good title, but arguably it could be slapped onto any work of history.
I got some of my describing-what-is-funny-and-how terminology from a tiny Little Big Book (about three inches square, paperback, about an inch thick) whose main characters were Pebbles Flintstone and Bamm-Bamm Rubble. One of them told the other (in that 'telepathic babies understand each other but grownups don't conceit) that something looked funny, and the second asked the first, "Funny ha-ha or funny peculiar?"
And now I'm trying to run down the title of the Flintstones tie-in story in question, and having no luck. Even a fairly fanatical-looking fan bibliography list has no sign of it. It was in the same publication-line and form factor as Lassie: Adventure in Alaska (where the doggy hero finds a mammoth half-melted out, and to my memory, the mammoth corpse ends up on fire before the end of the book: good times).
photo IDs: 2;3;2 confirmed by the subject (Josh Shaine).
photo ID comment: 1;4;1 should probably be listed as "Marsha Elkin [Jones]"; IIRC she dropped "Jones" quite a while ago.
Lee: With a publication date of 1966, if it took 5 years for "funny once" to percolate into fandom, you could still have been hearing it for over 4 decades. It is a damn useful concept.
Now I wonder when did "funny ha-ha or funny peculiar" first become an idiom, and whence? A quick Google finds it attributed to the 1936 play Housemaster by John Beith. Google, you spoil wondering about things.
Clifton, #75: Part of my point is that you can't be sure Heinlein didn't get it from somewhere else. One thing I hear over and over again from etymology people is that by the time something makes it into print, it's frequently been around for a while orally. This is especially likely to be true for a common concept -- and how often do people say things like, "well, it was funny the first time"? (The same reasoning applies to your second example. That's the first citation in print, but did the author invent it from scratch?)
Lee, this time around I got your point. Good question!
Clifton, #75: I first encountered "funny ha-ha or funny peculiar" in Dick Orkin's radio parody Chickenman. Guess the idea had become a staple of comedy writing by then.
Elliott, #71 & #72: Try this trick: Image-search on "Big Little Book" with strings like "Pebbles," "Flintstones," the canonical "Bamm-Bamm," or the variant "Bam-Bam." "Whitman" was the publisher.
Maybe cover art will turn up that looks familiar.
Also check Ebay. Maybe set a search that e-mails you when new items turn up.
Tom Whitmore @55: 2;1;1 Dave Nee? unconfirmed
??? Orange shirt, longish blondish hair with glasses? That doesn't look like the Dave Nee I remember....
CHip @66: 1;5;3 looks more like Rebecca Lesses than 2;2;6 does
I've labled 1;5;3 Rebecca Lesses and left 2;2;6 with ???, as they are clearly not the same person.
2;2;5 Terry Jeeves? (Not sure I have the name right, but I've got a mental hook to the distinctive face.)
MMW tagged him as Terry Hughes; does that sound right?
I remember \what/ 19:40 was (Teela Brown at Louis Wu's birthday party)
Actually, I parse those costumes and Cutter and Leetah from Elfquest, but I wasn't there. :-)
(a massively implausible Avluela [Flyer] from "Nightwings")
Well, to lift a human-mass body in a 1-G field with 1 atmosphere, I think you'd need about that wing area.... Driving those wings is gonna take...a bit more muscle (cf. Heinlein's calculations for a "flying" versus "decorative" pegasus in "Jerry Was a Man).
Okay, I've updated the cribsheet; will upload this evening when I get home.
Oops, typo: 2; 1; 2 for Dave (dark hair, some facial hair). That's why we have others proofread stuff!
I'm quite sure at this point about both Ron Bounds and Peggy Kennedy. Is 1;2;3 jan howard finder (Wombat)? Looks like him in the still, and looking at the video I really think it is. The woman on the right in 3;2;1 doesn't look like Diane Duane to me (and her hair is a completely different color from the other identified pic of Diane).
The worldcon was before my time, but...
(a massively implausible Avluela [Flyer] from "Nightwings")
a.k.a. "Katie with the wings" is Kate Davies. (Long since married and still in fandom - she was at Loncon 3.)
Jacque @ 79:
* "Terry Hughes" sounds correct for 2;2;5; "Jeeves" was my weak recollection.
* 1;5;3; should have "??"; I'm not certain about who that was, just of the distinction.
* My objection to Avluela was not the size of the wings (they were just one of the things that made the masquerade ... fun), but that Kate had a figure and Avluela seriously does not. (That (and IIRC gliding as much as flying) was how Silverberg handled the mass/area issue.) My mind's eye remembers an early illustration showing a butterfly-winged form that would make Twiggy look well-nourished; IIRC, both of these match the story. (There would have been room for butterfly wings on stage, but making such that would fit through the passage from the dressing space would have required serious mechanics.)
* You might want to clarify 1;2;2 as
"Filthy Pierre"
(Erwin S. Strauss)
Tom @ 82: looks like finder to me also -- damfino how I missed him, since he spent most of his fannish life in my part of the continent. (Jacque: note lower-case -- someone else will know the backstory, but that was how his name was always rendered.
Jacque PS: I'm thinking of posting your link to NESFA, which has a number of people on it who might recognize more of the people; do you mind, and if so where should captions be emailed?
Also: does anyone know whether Rob Hansen, Dave Langford, and other UK Ancients have looked in here? I suspect they could provide a lot of IDs, especially for the long sequence in the fan room.
Tom Whitmore @82: 1;2;3 jan howard finder (Wombat)
Yes, I think you may be right. It's been ages since I saw him, but I thought that guy looked familiar. (Though I'm reaching that age where everybody looks like everybody else.)
3;2;1 doesn't look like Diane Duane to me (and her hair is a completely different color from the other identified pic of Diane).
I'm confident they're not the same person; I'm just not confident 2;4;3 is Diane. The woman in 3;2;1 looks much more like what I remember of the one time I met her, and even she doesn't ring a strong bell. Your @36 calls her out explicitly; is 2;4;3 who you were thinking of?
CHip @84: Jacque: note lower-case -- someone else will know the backstory, but that was how his name was always rendered.
Yup. I crossed paths with him, possibly as far back as Iggy, and noted the capping. I remember him fondly as someone who always made me feel welcome in his company.
CHip @85: I'm thinking of posting your link to NESFA
Please do! My email address is displayed on my home page (chop "words"&seq off the cribsheet URL). Or they could post IDs here! I'll provide that link, as well. (Note, updates won't appear until after 7pm MST tonight.)
I've added a link to the video at the bottom of page 1, for handy access to the video, if anybody has any additional IDs they can provide.
Jacque: You should take the question mark off of your photo of Bob Shaw on page 3. That definitely is Bob Shaw.
More identifications:
Page 2, row 1, number 5, is Jeremy Morgan
I thought that page 2, row 2, number 2, was the late Howard Rosenblum; but I see it has now been tagged as Frank Denton
CHip @85: I believe Dave Langford is aware of this, but has had a lot to do since Loncon, and so may not have had chance for a thorough perusal as yet.
And in the middle of an active conversation.
Hi, Rebecca here. Morris Keesan sent me a pdf of the pictures of people at Seacon, and that's definitely not me. I didn't go to the con.
Rebecca confirms my opinion that she's not in any of the pictures. In addition, I'm convinced that none of the "three ???" on page 3 bears any resemblance to Moshe Feder. 2;5;3 looks slightly more like Moshe, but could also be John Douglas (two people whom I would not normally confuse with each other, if not in a fuzzy profile shot).
I concur with the identification of jan howard finder next to Filthy, and Ron Bounds and Rick Katze two rows below.
I'm sorry I was wrong about it being you, Rebecca!
Speaking of John Douglas, 2;5;3 might be him. It's hard to tell.
Sorry haven't gotten around to adding updates yet from the last week. Will try to do that today.
For the cases where the still frames are hard to recognize or hard to confirm, may I suggest viewing the video again? (At some point, I'm going to go back through and affix timestamps to the images.) For me personally, I find that moving images are commonly easier to place than stills, especially with bad image quality.
For convenience, here's the link to the video again.
Prefab editorials? no, wait.
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