 Nostalgia, DVDs, old movies, television, OTR, fandom, good news and bad, picks, pans, cute budgie stories, cute terrier stories, and anything else I can think of. Contact me at theyoungfamily (at) earthlink (dot) net . . . . . . . . . .
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» Tuesday, September 08, 2020
The Final Frontier
 Once the interviews were over, they did more memorable episodes. So it was like having an extra day at DragonCon. Labels: anniversaries, DragonCon, television  » Friday, August 30, 2019
DragonCon, Day 1 (Or "What Time Does the Orville Dock?")
 The most difficult part of DragonCon is Friday.Not only do we have to get downtown early to pick up our membership badges, so we can then eat, and go thence to a 10 a.m. panel, but we have to drive in rush hour traffic. So the first day is always the worst. However, after we'd remembered to tuck our chicken sandwiches into the already otherwise packed backpack, loaded up the power chair, and head toward the freeway, we discovered the traffic wasn't as frenetic as we'd feared and we made it to the Courtland Garage unscathed. As we arrived at the Sheraton, it was just eight o'clock and time for registration to open, with the regular line already around the hotel, so we got into the Disability Services line, expecting the door to open any minute, but instead it took twenty, and it turned out the DS people were wondering where everyone was—someone had neglected to unlock the doors! We had our stickers in about twenty minutes, and then went to a remodeled Peachtree Center for breakfast at our restaurant of choice, Café Momo, which is a buffet of goodies. I try for a mix: French toast, potatoes, fruit, oatmeal always, and, for a treat, bacon. This is like the once or twice a year I eat bacon unless it's at a party. Peachtree Center is...wow! white! now. They cleared a lot out, and some con favorite eating places, like Subway, were gone, but they put a wheelchair ramp up to the other level from the second concourse, which is a real help. As we left, waved at Ken Spivey from his seat behind us. James was off to the Westin at quarter to ten, I was off to the Marriott to see how long the line was for the David Tennant panel at 11:30. The seats in the "seat in line" area weren't full, so I went to check out a portion of Rick Goldschmitt's Rankin-Bass panel. Rick is the author of several books about the Rankin-Bass "animagic" productions, including The Making of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and is the guru of all things RB. He was showing a partial video of a special called The Enchanted World of Danny Kaye, which has him narrating and appearing as a a voice in The Emperor's New Clothes. It only reminds me how much I miss Danny Kaye! Alas, I tarried too long. Hurrying back to the Tennant site 50 minutes before the panel was to start, they'd already loaded the disability folks and weren't letting anymore DS folks in. I went to wait up against the wall where they'd told the other latecomer DS people to congregate. We might could get in after the crowd in the line finished loading, but there were so many people in line they had to turn them away as well. My bad. I would get there early tomorrow. Good thing I usually have several panels picked for each hour: instead I walked (or rather limped after 20 minutes of standing) to the Hyatt to the Sci-Fi Lit track panel "Being a Fan." Aubrey Spivey was on this panel, and I sat next to Alice (her mom) on one side and Phyllis Boros on the other, with Ken in the back of us. I love the smaller panels just as much as the larger ones, and we had a nice discussion about what makes a fan and how fandom has changed with the internet (loss of fanzines, but much more communication with other fans). Even addressed negative aspects: how some fans think you aren't a "real fan" if you don't know every detail about the comic or book series or the television show or movie; toxic fans who write hate mail to show creators because they don't like where their favorite characters ended up, etc.). I can't remember where I intended to go next, but Alice said she was going to see The Orville cast. Really, I don't keep track of who's attending the con, unless it's been announced as a big deal, as David Tennant was, so I had no idea anyone from The Orville series was coming to the con. So...hey, Orville, and attending with a friend—a no brainer, and a very fun panel: the guests were Peter Macon (Bortus), Chad Coleman (Klyden), Mark Jackson (Isaac), and J. Lee (John Lamarr). The latter, Alice observed and I had to agree, is pretty much playing himself in space! He has a very dry sense of humor and wry outlook. Macon looked tired (he said to excuse him; he has small children 😉 ) and Coleman was very "up." Jackson comes, of course, with a very pleasing British accent. Someone asked him if he can see out of the Isaac mask and he said in the pilot he couldn't, but now it is painted with a special paint which enables him to see out, but you really can't see in, unless the camera is very close and the light is shining in the right direction. His actual eyes are located under Isaac's "electric" eyes in the mask. They all agree that, no matter what director, this is Seth McFarlane's baby and he has the last word on everything. So if the director says it's good and Seth says it's not, they do it again. There were no hints about what's up for next season, but with their move from Fox to Hulu, they will be able to "push the edge of the envelope" even more. Went back downstairs to Sci-Fi Lit with Alice for "Why We Read." Well, because it's like breathing, isn't it? How can you not? But there were many answers: one person I know, with a terrible job, said "escape" (which I expected), others read to learn, or for research, or to encounter an opinion different from their own. It was a lively discussion and a very short hour, after which I decamped from the Hyatt and strung my way outside toward the Westin. Of course it was crowded with thousands of congoers, so many in costume, plus downtown workers, and the sidewalks were "bumper to bumper." However, I arrived at the hotel in just a few minutes for the Babylon 5 anniversary panel, where James joined me. The main panelist was John Hudgens, known so long ago online as "Fenn Shysa," the guy who made a Babylon 5 video and sent it to creator Joe Straczynski and was then asked to make more (and get paid for them!) to use in promoting the series! He asked if anyone wanted to see any of them and I immediately popped up with "Holding Out for a Hero," the (mainly) Michael Garibaldi video. So that lead off the panel, to my delight. But much other talk, including how TNT picked up the show for its fifth season and then was disappointed that it didn't garner the wrestling crowd, and the novelty of the "five-year-novel-for-television" format back then (and how incidental events in a first season plot suddenly made sense two seasons later). There was much chatter about Straczynski's new autobiography and how hard it was to get through the first quarter of the book due to his horrible childhood; have Amazon points and must think about ordering it. [Later: I did, and gave it to James to look at. He read it in two days, and was agog at the terrible facts it revealed.] James went off elsewhere afterwards, while I traipsed to the Marriott for the Earth Station One podcast folks' panel celebrating the 20th anniversary (already?!) of Galaxy Quest. This was truly fun because what we mostly did was recall all the best lines and all the best scenes, from the convention scenes to the earnest but daffy Thermians to the running gags about Guy getting killed and how chill Fred Kwan was to the really sinister aspect of villain Sarris to the fannish kids who saved the day. There were two cosplayers in the audience as well, one guy dressed as a Thermian, and the other as Dr. Lazarus carrying "a miner/minor." And of course we mourned the fact that a sequel was never made while Alan Rickman was still with us, and ended the panel in unison with the Galaxy Quest motto, "Never give up! Never surrender!" And suddenly the day was over and I was reuniting with James at the Hyatt Centennial I ballroom for tonight's Atlanta Radio Theatre Company performance. They were doing three humorous pieces tonight. The first was about the reaction of fans and authorities when a flying saucer lands in Centennial Olympic Park and everyone waits to see what the aliens want. Of course, they are here to attend DragonCon! This was very funny. The second piece was a new installment of Ron Butler's spoof of 1950s kids' space dramas, Rory Rammer, Space Marshall. In this tale, Rory and his young sidekick "Skip" Sagan must rescue a young reporter named Kyrie Eleison, who is determined to prove there are space pirates, and who has been kidnapped by men posing as space pirates to get a ransom from her uncle. Skip's renegade uncle and some pirate robots figure in her rescue. The third piece was funny but overlong; a spoof of The Maltese Falcon called The Maltese Omelet, with the supporting characters all nursery rhyme characters (Humpty Dumpty, of course, still takes the great fall). The first two acts elicited many chuckles, but the last needed picking up a bit. Then we headed home to perambulate the puppy and get ready for Saturday.
Labels: anniversaries, Atlanta Radio Theatre Company, books, conventions, fandom, food, podcasts, television, traffic » Saturday, July 20, 2013
Moonbeams and Thunderbooms
We have a get-together once a month with friends that we all call "Hair Day" (for the obvious reason that we all get our hair cut by Lin's friend Sheri). Lin and Sheri usually decide on the date after the previous month's event.Back in June we got an e-mail announcing the date for July as being the 20th. I've never forgotten July 20...specifically July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed and then walked on the moon. At age twelve I followed all the space missions and this was indeed what all the others had been building up to. The moon walk itself happened to coincide with an annual neighborhood event, the St. Mary's Church feast, which is a great weekend celebration (there are dozens of these feasts all over Rhode Island during the summer at all the Catholic churches: St. Bartholemew's, St.Rocco's, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, etc.); on a Sunday night when we usually would have left the main feast venue at Itri Square (the corner of Park Avenue and Cranston Street), air sweet with the scent of hot doughboys and pizza strips and freshly-popped corn, and the sound of the sideshow games and the band concert, and trudged up Park Avenue to Atwood Avenue behind the police station to watch the grand finale fireworks presentation, we were hurrying home to sit in front of our 19" Magnavox black and white television to watch the first moonwalk. Our friends are of similar interests, so I immediately began plotting some way to celebrate the event with the food contribution everyone usually brings. We had brought the main dish last month, so my easiest option for a moon shape was, of course, a cake. One triple chocolate cake mix (with chocolate chips in it) baked in a springform pan, one container of chocolate frosting, one small bottle of silver sugar chips to act as moondust, one bottle of edible "moonrocks" (we found these at Michael's, in the cake-baking section; they're like M&Ms), and one play kit from Hobbytown to supply an astronaut, a command module and lunar module, and a gold moonrock, and we came up with this: our "One Small Step" cake.  Everyone enjoyed it, and it was tasty as well. A fun little project, and a fun morning and early afternoon! The Butlers supplied sandwich fixings and we also had cheese, a fruit and cheese tray, and a relish tray (black olives! yum!). James had no meetings today, so we were able to stay a lot later than usual, talking with Charles about his new cat, and giving Alex and Pat some advice about their upcoming vacation (like not to drive through New York City—take the Tappan Zee Bridge!). So we were not home until three, having blown off stopping at Kroger because I didn't have the coupons for yogurt. Trouble was, since we went to Barnes & Noble and JoAnn last night and had no other coupons, there really wasn't anywhere else to go. Meanwhile the sky got darker...and darker. We changed clothes and, in the process of tidying, I wandered by the dark and cool and slumbery looking futon in the spare room, and just the look of it suggestively called my name. I couldn't resist its siren song, and just stretched out on it, just for a few minutes, you understand. "Soft and snoozy, warm and woozy..." as Hilary Booth would say, and off I was in Dreamland. Soon there was a sound of thunder. The next clap of thunder shook the house so that the handles on the dresser rattled. The third sounded like cannons on the Somme. Next something furry touched my hand. I opened my eyes and found myself looking in a pair of liquid brown eyes that looked very anxious, belonging to a small dog who was desperately trying to join me on the futon. By the time she had tried several times to get on the futon with me, I figured there was no use trying to get back to sleep; besides I had to clean up the bit of wet carpet next to the futon. Apparently one can scare the piss out of someone, especially a small dog who's afraid of thunder. Turns out James had felt sleepy, too, and being disinclined to just doze off on the recliner, had actually climbed into bed, put on his C-PAP, and finally fallen asleep, all to be woken up again by Willow trying desperately to get into bed with him. Having struck out with him, she had come to try me! Schuyler, meanwhile, was just pissed off because the rain had taken out the satellite dish. :-) We'd had so many carbs at lunch between the sandwich breads and potato salad and the slices of cake that we just had some wings tonight, delivered from a Chinese place. Thankfully, they were very lightly sauced; that's the only thing wrong with Zaxby's wings—they're always glopped up with sauce. We got wonton soup, too, but I pretty much saved most of mine as the wings were very filling. We saw a new Britcom on GPB tonight—incidentally, we didn't have to look out a window to tell that the weather was bad; GPB was coming in flawlessly on broadcast TV, where usually when the sky is clear the signal is so weak we can't get it.at all—So Haunt Me, about a couple who has had to downsize due to the husband losing his job. They and their teenage daughter and young son move into an older house that happens to be haunted by the former owner, a Jewish woman who died after her daughter left home with an inappropriate boyfriend. I see Jewish stereotypes are just the same in England: the ghost is a kindly but meddling type who appears to both wife Sally and the son. (They also have the cutest Corgi.) The Good Life (Good Neighbors) is also back on, followed by Keeping Up Appearances, Are You Being Served, and two helpings of As Time Goes By. Labels: anniversaries, birds, dogs, food, friends, pets, television, weather » Sunday, January 27, 2013
Challenger
WPBA showed the short film based on the story told here last night:
Greater Heights: Video Recalls Shuttle Victim Who Touched the Stars I can remember that day like it was yesterday Challenger Disaster Live on CNN Labels: anniversaries, history 46 Years Ago Today » Sunday, July 22, 2012
On the Go
Hark, hark, the dog did bark. At least she waited until 9:30.The usual morning shopping. Publix had Ranier cherries two-for-one. They can only be better than the Bings I bought last week, which I will throw away. Mother would think it was a sin, wasting food, but they don't taste good at all. Not sour...just blah. One almost tasted like it had been frozen at one time. Then off to Kroger, but we didn't get milk as we were planning to go to BJs for more sale omeprazole. We set off on that errand after we had put up the yogurt and other perishables, listening to a "Splendid Table" from last month. I must have read the expiration date of the sale incorrectly, though, because the omeprazole was no longer on sale. We did get some other things, though, including a 32GB thumb drive at an insanely inexpensive price (they weren't even this cheap on Black Friday), and seasons two and three of Big Bang Theory. They didn't have season four, and Amazon has season one cheaper. (No, for the person who's going to ask, we didn't get the Blu-Ray version. I couldn't see spending more on a TV sitcom if the extras were the same.) After all that, when we got to the checkout, we forgot the milk. That was okay, because James wanted to stop at Hobbytown on the way back. We found a parking spot next to a tree which provided a sufficient breeze so I could sit and read behind the windshield reflectors while he was in the store. Then, since it was on the way, we stopped for the milk at Aldi, where it's cheaper anyway. We spent what was left of the afternoon watching Big Bang (second season on DVD and first season from WPCH). Turkey pot pie and a salad for supper, with watermelon for dessert. Very satisfying. My mom's been gone seven years today. Wonder what she'd make of Schuyler... Labels: anniversaries, errands, food, television |
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