Science Fiction Conventions

The weekend of the 10th and 11th (weekend before last) was the weekend of Shore Leave.

Shore Leave is a Star Trek/science fiction convention that I started going to around the time it started, but I haven't been to lately, and I miss it!

There was an odd sort of convention that John and I went to not long after I met him. It wasn't open to fandom, you had to be an invited guest, and everyone who went was someone who was normally a guest at Star Trek/SF cons. It was kind of a relax-a-con for people who were normally guests at cons. And John was one of the people invited, and he brought me as his guest.

I got to see some people I already knew and got to meet more, and it was fun. It was in New York state, and held in the winter, and I don't think it got above, or even near 60 degrees inside the house the entire time we were there, so there were a lot of chilly people.

I had wrapped myself up in a blanket, and was sitting on a couch waiting for the Star Trek episode that was scheduled to start, and a guy came in and sat on the floor. He was nearly turning blue, and was trying not to shiver. I sat down on the floor next to him and wrapped the blanket around both of us, announcing that I didn't believe that anyone should have to be cold. That's how I got to meet Alan Asherman.

I also got to meet Howie Weinstein there, and John tried to introduce me to Joanie Winston, but Joanie told him that she already knew me. Howie wrote one of the Star Trek animated episodes, which involved tribbles.

At a later con, a bunch of Howie's friends showed up wearing T-shirts that said "Howie Weinstein Fan Club" on the front, and "Howie Who?" on the back.

Joanie was one the people on the con committee of the very first ever Star Trek convention. She said that she realized that the people she had designated to answer phones had been at their posts too long when she walked into the phone room and hear one woman answer the phone with "Lieutenant Uhuru speaking!" What she couldn't hear was that on the other end of the phone was Leonard Nimoy who said, "Spock here!" then proceeded to describe his problem with finding the hotel.

Anyway a few weeks ago, I called my friend, Nancy, and she was getting ready to go to Shore Leave, and I realized that I'd missed it. Holly and I had been discussing things and wanted to get back to going to SF cons, so I was disappointed. It's the weekend after the 4th every year, and so is the trip to Clinton Bay, and she doesn't seem to want to miss that, so she may miss it next year, too, but I'm determined to save some money and go next year.

Which brings us up to this weekend, which is San Diego Comic Con, something I've always wanted to go to! But, being on the wrong coast for it, and considering that it's already started, that's not likely this year or next.

But to keep in the spirit of things, I'm going to be retweeting everything I can find out about it from the tweets of people who are actually there. Lots of the tweets will include photos, so it's worth while to check the tweets in the sidebar all this weekend!

John is already there, and I'm insanely envious of him! Reports, updates and vicarious thrills when I get them!

Here's a photo of two of my friends at a vintage con:

That's Bill Hickey on the left, and Bruce Rauscher on the right. Bill was in the first Star Trek movie as an extra in a crowd scene, and Bruce was in Twilight of the Dogs and will be starring in Tim Davis' movie, Nudist Camp Zombie Massacre, currently in post production.

Have a great weekend!

Shore Leave Sunday

If you've been following my Twitter posts over in the sidebar, you've had a small taste of the Shore Leave experience, and I have to say, I enjoyed it. There were rumors of who was drunk, who attracted more than half the female population of the con, the second most popular person at the con being a 'droid, who called who what, who missed out because they were at the filk sing, which guests sang karaoke, and reviews of local Chinese restaurants (traditional at cons).

It wasn't the same as being there, but if you missed it, you can catch up here. There are links to photos of Klingons and 'droids as well as people just having fun.

I'm hoping to do the same thing for Pennsic later this month.

This will be short because I want to get back to watching Harry Potter movies on ABC Family. If you're a fan, you should check it out because they're showing a large assortment of trailers for Half Blood Prince during the commercials.

While watching BBC in America last night, I found that we're going to have one really amazing week later this month, starting on the 20th! The first thing up will be Children of Earth (Torchwood), shown over 5 consecutive nights from Monday through Friday, the premier of Being Human on Saturday,  and the Premier of the Doctor Who episode, Planet of the Dead.

My DVR is having a hernia this weekend, but it'll be bleeding internally after that week!

Speaking of watching BBC in America last night, they reran the episode of Primeval that was inevitable, and that I had been waiting for: the one where a dinosaur goes to the Middle Ages and is chased by a Knight through another anomaly into the present.

I really have to go watch Harry now!

I hope you've had a great weekend!

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Addition:

This whole thing with Shore Leave has started me down memory lane as far as SF cons are concerned. Which led me to discover something interesting. For years, at every con I went to, there was another con-goer called Filthy Pierre. He was in evidence sitting in hallways, playing wonderful songs on a keyboard. Well, my discovery is that he has an entry in Wikipedia! Yes, everybody's friend, Filthy is immortalized in their pages!

What started me off on this is that I wanted to find out the dates and places of upcoming cons with an eye toward maybe going to some of them, and, as everyone knows, Filthy is the person to contact about that.

Wow!

Well, Children of Earth, the whole-third-season/mini-series of Torchwood, has finished showing in England. Us poor Yanks have yet to see it, but you can find out more about it here, and here. It will be on BBC in America starting on the 20th of July, and will run each evening for five nights.

I wish I could comment with authority on this, but I can't because I haven't seen it yet. It sounds like it will be chilling, though.

Shore Leave, the science fiction/Star Trek convention, continues through this weekend. I can't be there, but I'll be retweeting stuff in the side bar, so check back for updates, or follow me on Twitter by clicking in the sidebar under the tweets.

ABC Family will be showing most of the Harry Potter movies all weekend. The first movie, Sorcerer's Stone  is about halfway through as I write this, so get on over there if you don't have the DVDs, or if (like me) you can't watch them because the input for DVD on your TV is broken.

Sorry there isn't some knitting input today. I'm finishing up some boring stuff that's not worthy of photos or conversation, but I'll be finishing up a neat project later today, and starting another project later today, and both of them will be photo and discussion worthy, so there will be more to see soon.

Hope you're having a great weekend, and that the weather where you are is as stunning as it is here!

Science Fiction Review

Well, I watched Warehouse 13 last night, and felt it was the best I could have reasonably hoped for.

A series needs a lot of establishment, and this had all it needed, and got into the action right away. It will just get to be more fun as the series goes on and we get to know the characters better. Io9 says it best and at great length in this review of the first two-hour episode. I should mention that it's not a wishing lamp, but a teakettle, and it's not Pete who makes the wish. If you missed it last night, it'll be on several times during the coming week. Check it out!

As an artist, I was drawn in by the steampunk theme of the warehouse and it's contents. There's an interesting juxtaposition of modern tech and antique stuff, such as Artie's computer, which is sleek and modern, but has an old typewriter keyboard. It makes me feel better about my old iMac.

I also liked some of the references to the inventors of some of the tech. Oh and Renaissance buffs will be interested to note that this week's artifact (in the second half of the episode) was (supposedly) once owned by Lucrezia Borgia, and made by an alchemist. So there's some heavy Ren vibes, too. At least in the second half of this episode.

As you may, or may not be aware, Torchwood is currently airing it's third season mini-series in England this week. One episode of the five-part series, Children of Earth, will be shown each weeknight, starting on Monday. So two parts of the story have already been shown. Io9 has a review of it here. Since I live in Virginia, I haven't seen it, so can't really say much about it. It will be on BBC in America starting on July 20.

As many of you know, there was an episode of Dollhouse that was filmed, but never aired by Fox. Little by little, more information about this episode is leaking out. It will, or course, be on the soon-to-be-released DVD.

Io9, once again, has some information on this for all you fen who are waiting with baited breath.

You can get to see the actual episode on the DVD when it's released later this month on the 28th here:

Which leads me right into Comic Con. There will be a special, limited edition of Dollhouse available there, also later this month.

Comic Con in San Diego will be starting on the 23rd, and running through the 26th. John has plans to go, and I'm so envious! I'm going to try to get him to gather some information for you on the con. Wish I could go.

Oh, and speaking of SF Cons, someone on Twitter was talking about getting ready to go to Shore Leave, which is apparently this weekend. I'm going to have to be more alert and plan for something like this so I'll have the likelihood of possibly going.

I was just reading over the page, and Howie Weinstein's going to be there! I haven't seen him in ages. I met him at a private party also called Shore Leave in the '70s.

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There has been lots of knitting going on, but not a lot that's worth photographing. There will be photos soon, though.

Sorry this post was so heavy on SF and light on knitting!

Have a great Wednesday!