It's been a Yankee Doodle Dandy of a week, actually. An Ig meeting brought me over to Cambridge on Tuesday. Thanks to the luxurious hospitality at debgeisler and benveniste's in Middleton, I was able to stay in the Boston area for a mini-vacation through the holiday.

Pleasures included:
— an increasingly rare Wednesday night visit to the NESFA Clubhouse. Tim Szczesuil brought the Boskone 46 flyers, which arrived from the printer last week. Yay! (I've been somewhat over-committed on fannish projects of late. It's good to have one done, printed, and delivered.)
— a thought- and emotion-provoking afternoon at the Wedded Bliss exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum with Deb
— modest bits of work both professional and fannish
— the easy company of good friends
— apricot sweetroll; blueberry coffeecake; tabbouleh; fresh mango, peaches, and cherries; Italian beef; wicked pissah peppers; fresh French fries…yum. Serious yum.

Yep, it's a mini-vacation all right. One I'm treating more like a real vacation. It's a good one.

We're already talking about plans for next year. The Boston Pops Fireworks are well beyond anything I've previously experienced in the realm of exploding pretties that fill the sky with sparkle, smoke, and sound. And here I thought I knew from fireworks….

Being there in person does seem to be in order. Better yet, there's Sail Boston, part of the Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge 2009. Sail Boston runs shortly after the 4th, from July 8-13.

This is the first Independence Day that I've spent in the Boston area. Usually, I'm at Westercon. Last year, carnyjack and I spend most of the day leaving the country, heading north into Canada as we drove up for Baggiecon and the Winnipeg Folk Festival. I never really gave it any thought -- Boston is a great place to celebrate America's independence. I look forward to doing so again next year. With sweetrolls, and friends.

Coupon that came in the mail yesterday for Toppers pizza:

"Boneless wings are fly!"

Um, yeah.

Well, off to Convergence. Only one panel left, then I can play...

Ed Rom hangs the Krushenko's banner
Convergence, 7/3/08

Krushenko's, for literary discussions, has been a mainstay at many Mpls conventions for decades. Eric Heideman runs the room and leads (or nudges) the sercon room in many locales. Convergence made him his own banner.

Convergence 101
Gypsy (in black) takes neofans on a tour
Convergence, 7/3/08

By 4pm on Thursday, when this picture was taken, Convergence was in full swing. This is Convergence's 10th anniversary (9 years, 10th con, as only Tim Wick got right at Opening Ceremonies) and so the con has expanded to five days. Yeah, five: In honor of the late Micheal Sheard, there will be an event at 12:01 Monday, officially slipping into the fifth day.

Neofan panels are a mainstay of large conventions, and I like the ones that take people out of the programming room for a boots-on-the-ground tour. I'm not sure what the rest of the panel was like, but as Gypsy got to the hotel's Cosmic Spot he was warning people about the elevators...

Here are my known superpowers to date, in no particular order. Some are cool; some are lame:

• Seeing blond where it doesn't really exist


• The ability to sleep anywhere, under any circumstances


• A surprisingly good (although not 100% accurate) internal clock


• Catherding, literal and figurative (I can also say my name in Kitten)

What are yours?

How do you define "superpowers" for the sake of this conversation? ( My definition is here. )

It's kind of a miserable day so far. Kitty had to go to the vet this morning, and the AC is both out 'til Saturday and going to be X-Pensive. We've put the chocolates up in the refrigerator so they're not damaged by the heat. Gah.

Missing scenes from Fritz Lang's Metropolis turn up after 80 years, Guardian 7/3/08

The cinematic world was today celebrating the rediscovery of missing scenes from German director Fritz Lang's legendary silent film Metropolis - thought lost for 80 years, until they were found in the archive of a museum in Argentina.

Key scenes cut from the science fiction picture - either because they were considered to be too brutal or too long - will now be available for the first time since May 1927, when the original version was last shown in Berlin, where it flopped badly.

I never had too much problem following the movie, though there were parts that you had to make fairly broad leaps to fill in. I figured it was just German Expressionism. Maybe yes, maybe no. I look forward to seeing the uncut version (at the proper speed, tinted, with good music).

For those of you who come to Convergence to see me on panels (you know who you are), here is my schedule:

Thu 5-6pm A8 Fanzines Invented the Internet
Everything anyone does online today was basically invented by fans in zines and apas well before most people even had even heard of a personal computer. We'll also look at some zines from 1999 and illustrate how things have changed since then.
Holly Day, David Emerson, Scott K. Jamison, Greg Prickman, David E. Romm, Joan Marie Verba

Thu 9:30-10:30pm A8 History of Local Twin Cities Fandom
While this may be CONvergence's 10th anniversary, the history of local fandom extends much further back. Come with us as we see just how deep the rabbit hole goes.
David Emerson, Virginia Jensen, Philip Kaveny, David E. Romm, Video Team

Yes, two panels in a row with David Emerson! And I get to find out who the Video Team is! And I get to cross out the period in my namecard!

Thu 11:00-11:59pm A2 Loving the Loathing
Do you play Kingdom of Loathing online? If not, you are missing out. Grab some meat and join us!
Tamyra DeWandeler, Melissa Kaercher, Jen Manna, David E. Romm

It's all ericcoleman's fault.

Fri 8-9pm A4 Beyond "Weekend Update"
There was a time when SNL's "Weekend Update" was our only source for sarcastic takes on news events. Now, we've got fake news in multiple media, including newspaper, blogs - The Onion, Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, and others. What are your favorites and what makes this sub-genre so appealing to SF&F fans?
Ben Ellis, Terry Faust, Paula Fleming, David E. Romm

We should make stuff up.

Notice that all my panels are early in the con. Friday night, I'm done. I'm not even sure how many people will be there on Thursday. Then, it's time to party! Or do Ops shifts, whichever is easier.

wcg pointed to this one:

...Communist interrogation methods that the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations both by the military at the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and by the Central Intelligence Agency.

http://tinyurl.com/5a9bxv

*whew*

It was a long struggle, but I wrestled it to the ground. Minicon 2008 Galleries finished and attached to the rest of the world. These are the same pictures from the previous announcement, but now the annotations are done. I hope... just a day before the next event.

This time, cross posted to minicon43.

Anthony Hopkins is amazing (as usual), but Ryan Gosling holds his own.

The former is a man who kills his cheating wife (we know that from the beginning); the latter is the assistant district attorney assigned to prosecute the case. The killer manipulates everything; the key evidence has, impossibly, disappeared.

J and I both liked this a lot. The problems that we thought we saw were explained. I sort-of guessed the solution, but it didn't affect my enjoyment. To me, this featured a classic case of hubris and a case of salvation.

SPOILERS: There may be some in comments.

housematehorror
Horror stories from the world of shared living spaces. EEK!

...an exceptionally warm winter.

I received my annual fuel oil budget statement in today's mail. ( Scary numbers behind the cut )

I'll have to figure out something. I'll simply have to.

I feel like I'm in an episode of Tom Corbett, Space Cadet.

And I feel like the rest of the country, and much of the world, is here with me.

Yessir, more and more people realize that I'm world famous. Alerted by Brian, I saunter over to tallonnews.com and encountered this:

June 30, 2008
Papoon Supporters Change Middle Names To "Not Insane"

BILLVILLE: Supporters of Surrealist party candidate George Papoon have come up with a novel way to show their support: changing their middle names to "Not Insane".

Brian Westley, the city dogkiller in Hellmouth, is now officially Brian Not Insane Westley. "The judge thought I was crazy, changing my old middle name (Forbes) to Not Insane. But once I explained Papoon's party platform shoes for industry, he not only granted my name change, he's now a Papoon supporter himself!"

David Romm, an apprentice bookbaker from Heater, has likewise changed his monicker to David Not InsanE Romm. "I spell Insane with an ending capital E, in honor of my old middle name, 'E'" explained Romm. "It's great to finally have a real middle name, but now I have to go re-monogram all my towels."

George G. Papoon's middle name, for the record, is 'Orwell'.

Someone has been following Shockwave Radio, and our association with the Firesign Theatre. Still, they don't know me very well: I'm more of a Monty Python supporter and I don't have any monogrammed towels.

Playing with the settings on my camera and delving into aspects of PhotoShop never before used by this demi-maven, I made a moving .gif of fredcritter playing, accompanied by tesla_aldrich while minnehaha K looks on. Not quite a movie, it's 15 shots looped three times. It's a large file, 836K even with various compressions, so behind a cut.
( Refresh if the gif isn't moving )

kalmn tagged me back on this one.

If you want me to ask for an explanation of 7 of your interests (listed in LJ info), comment on this.

advertising collectibles--I love advertising "characters," and have a collection of figures and stuffed animals representing them. The collection isn't on display at the moment, but I might put away something and get them out soon.

cowboy poetry--I like to read it; occasionally I try my hand at writing it. Some cowboy poetry is as bad as any amateur poetry can be; some of it is a little gem of a western short story in a few lines.

editing--My main work is copyediting, though my regular clients depend on me to expand that as far as it needs to go, so sometimes a project is closer to substantive editing. I think that this is pretty much the perfect job for me; fortunately, most of the authors I work with seem to think so, too.

mysteries--my favorite relaxation reading. I like (and dislike) some of everything from cozies to hard-boiled. As should surprise no one, I have a particular liking for mystery series set in the Southwest, such as those by Tony Hillerman, J.A. Jance (her Joanna Brady), Allana Martin, and Bill Crider.

Santa Anas--These are the hot, dry winds that blow down through the desert canyons of Southern California, often fanning raging wildfires. Some people attribute strange human activity to them, as they do to other unusual winds in other places. I love the wind.

vintage Mexican jewelry--When American tourists went to Mexico in the 1940s-60s, one common souvenir for women to bring back was silver jewelry. I started picking this up at garage and estate sales several years ago, as that generation's possessions were passed on. It tends to be bold in design, sometimes quite large, and since I am a sizable woman, it suits me--and silver has always been my favorite.

western short stories--(I did this one already; this is a repeat)I'm fond of the short-story genre in general, but only in westerns is it my favorite form. I'm always looking for collections of western shorts, and these are among the limited categories of books that I keep after I've read them. (Sigh, another collection.)

dwseason4
A journal where the alternative fourth season of the TV show Doctor Who is being written.