CONvergence Programming - Grid Lock!

I may not be the programming head -- but the programming head will be reporting to me starting next year as part of the events division, and as I'd previously been a head, it's important for me to promote the schedule.

The schedule has started to solidify now, and to quote the current programming head:

And please, please, please - if you are attending the convention and see some panels you would like to be on - follow the email instructions at the top of the webpage and let me know. Usually we have a limit of six people per panel, so if you see a panel that already has six people on it, then it's full - pick some that have 0-4 people instead, you can really help the programming dept. out!

Likewise, some panels are just for guests of honor or are gameshow style panels that have certain panelists who are running the event (again, should be pretty clear which these are from the panel description).

We recommend a limit of eight panels per person to avoid burnout (but if you can handle more and I have personal knowledge of that - then we can make exceptions).

So, if you are attending the con, please sign up for some (more) panels and pass the message along!

It's going to be an exciting year -- and I'm really excited to see the schedule come together.

CONvergence: Best of the Twin Cities

I'm astonished that CONvergence was chosen by City Pages as Best of the Twin Cities. Not because we were picked -- but that the category was even created this year.

It is a great compliment to the hundreds of people that have been involved in putting the event on, especially since the publicity was not searched for.

True, they had a typo and changed Marv Wolfman's gender (to Mary) -- but otherwise it was a very nice description and something I'm happy to point to.

Lost Again

I'm really enjoying this season of Lost. I know that some people find the never-ending mysteries of the series frustrating -- but I think that is part of the fun.

It is amazing that a series over three series has been able to avoid explaining even some of the most basic rules of the universe that it is in. It is obvious that it is some sort of fantastical premise -- but it is not clear whether it is a science fiction or fantasy series, or "how much" of either of those it is. It is not always clear who the good guys are and who the bad guys are -- and certainly people do bad things for good reasons, and may do good things for bad reasons.

But despite being so vague about the rules -- I rarely feel that this is a show that "cheats" -- it seems to be consistently playing by the rules that they've set out. Even though we don't really know what those rules are.

On Day Passes for SF Conventions

As I'll probably be getting day passes for Marscon - provided I get over this virus I've been fighting for the last couple of days -- I thought it was interesting to think about the reasons to have or not have day passes for your science fiction convention.

Day Passes make sense for some conventions and don't make sense for others. I think you lose some of the community aspect of a convention if you have people drop in for only one day. One of the appealing parts of a convention is that community aspect -- and day passes are more appropriate for the "show" events where people get tickets to see a celebrity, as opposed to the user-generated content of my favorite fan run conventions and the attendees are members and active participants.

I'd generally be against day passes for a convention like CONvergence -- if you have a large enough attendance that you don't need the additional people to make your budget, or if you were in a position where you need to cap membership (like Anime Detour) -- Day Passes make much less sense.

I can see where Day Passes would be useful for other conventions -- especially if you're looking to get as many people as possible. I can see it as being sensible if you've got certain sorts of entertainment guests -- this is why I think it makes more sense for Marscon, because they tend to have more celebrity actors, and their Dementia music track has a "show" quality that may have an appeal for day people.

The interesting thing is that Day Passes aren't really just an economic decision -- but one that can end up reflecting the kind of convention that you put on.

CONvergence/MISFITS Future

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I was a candidate for the CONvergence Events Division Coordinator position, and I got the most votes, so I'll be running the events division for the 2009 and 2010 CONvergence. (I just realized that was 2010. Can I be scared now?)

It's a bit daunting looking at the nine ring circus an event with 3000 science fiction and fantasy fans can be But it'll be an exciting challenge -- and I hope you check it out, and if you're willing to help -- I'm sure we'll need it.

Getting Enterprise Right

One of the interesting things about the Star Trek teaser is that it looks like this is actually trying to do the same thing that it looked like Enterprise was doing -- bringing something like the 1960s Star Trek into the present day.

I think there is certainly an open question about how accepting a fan audience would be to see a new cast play the same characters -- I'm happy with the cast, and I would like to see the definitive dream of a better future for mankind be revitalized for the present day.

You wonder if this will fall apart because it's tied to tightly to the original series -- Nimoy's involvement makes this a concern --- or that it'll end up so different than the Star Trek we have grown up with that it'll be difficult to accept. I don't think it's impossible to recast; after all, characters like James Bond and Batman are reguarly recast.

It'll be interesting to see -- I know I certainly plan to.

io9

Gawker media -- which brings you some of my favorite blogs like Lifehacker, Valleywag, and Wonkette -- has launched a new blog about science fiction. So obviously I've subscribed...

Still the Geekiest Show On Televison

Last year I had observed that Heroes was the Geekiest show on televison. And we now know that Heroes:Origins will absolutely follow in that geek supergroup tradition as well.

judge me by my size?

I wish that we had seen this image last year when CONvergence's theme was all about space ships.

Dreamhaven

Neil Gaiman reported some alarming news about one of my favorite stores, Dreamhaven. They suffered a break-in, and it has been rough for their business.

The small bookstore is a very rough business, especially in our internet and big box bookstore age -- but one of the nice things about stores like Dreamhaven or Uncle Hugos is that they provide a center of gravity for our local fandom. They are the heart of our community. When out of town visitors that are science fiction fans come into town, I've always made sure that they visit these stores.

The Minnesota Science Fiction and Fantasy Search Engine

Are you searching for information about clubs, conventions, stores, or whatever in Minnesota for Science Fiction and Fantasy? What follows is a tailored google search engine. It's still early days, and if you've got a suggestion for a site that is appropriate for Minnesota area science fiction fans to have weighted a little higher, let me know.

The Minnesota Science Fiction and Fantasy Search Engine

Free SF e-Books

There's a good list of DRM-free science fiction here. I think it might be a good source of books to read for Geeks Read. (Found at Boing Boing.)

Of course, any time there's a discussion of free science fiction it's time for me to mention Escape Pod, which has excellent audio short stories each week. I can't recommend this podcast enough...

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

I'm in the middle of reading Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom -- and while you can down load it for free, I'm perhaps old school enough that having the physical book to read is nice, and worth paying for.

I'm really, really intrigued by the Whuffie concept. It strikes me as putting a numeric value on something that really does drive people in their hobbies -- a numeric tally of your egoboo. We sit bits of it already -- I've seen it on Linked In, sort of, and there are lots of other reputation-based systems out there. And in it's own way, the ranking system of Google is sort of like that as well.