By Jan S. Gephardt Last week I wrote about the artists. Now it’s time to write about the authors of Archon 44. Followers of this blog know that I recently attended Archon 44. As the “44” at the end indicates, this is a science fiction convention with a long history in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Their most recent venue is the Gateway Convention Center in Collinsville, IL. My focus at conventions is mostly split between artists and authors. I…
By Jan S. Gephardt I am happy to report that I’m going to Archon 44 after all. Why? Because—and only because—Archon’s doing it right. The Email That Changed Everything You may recall that a few weeks ago, I very reluctantly decided to withdraw from this year’s FenCon, a Texas science fiction convention that my son and I have come to love. I had been watching the COVID-19 trends in the St. Louis area and growing more and more convinced I’d…
By Jan S. Gephardt One schedule-change. That’s all it technically boils down to. One simple scratch-out on a calendar. I’d planned on going, but now I’m not. Except, it’s not a simple thing at all. Not simply one schedule-change. No, it’s actually a whole end-of-summer tipped upside-down in a cascade of if-this-then-that change, after change, after change. Deciding not to go to FenCon, it turned out (as I knew it would), led to way more than one schedule-change. I Love…
By Jan S. Gephardt I’ve been making ARCs recently. What does that mean? It means I’ve been assembling an assortment of documents into an early version of my latest book, to create Advance Reader Copies. It’s not exactly parallel to a dress rehearsal for a stage play, but for me it’s a necessary step in the publicity rollout for my science fiction mystery novel A Bone to Pick. I’ve been blogging a lot in this space recently, about A Bone…
At FenCon XVI, I unexpectedly became an after-the-fact part of a mutual inspiration society. These things happen sometimes, and it’s rarely because they are planned. More often, it’s a matter of spontaneous combustion: all the elements come together in one place, and creativity happens. I mentioned this story in passing, in my blog post from last Friday. I’d received permission to take pictures of my friend Peri Charlifu’s artwork. Then I learned the story behind one particular bowl. It is the culmination of one mutual inspiration event,…
The Artdog Image of Interest Today’s opening video offers a short (approximately 1-minute) glimpse of what was once a famous part of Disney’s “Tomorrowland” at the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, CA. The video clip offers a sampling from a much longer video, for viewers in a hurry. Below I’ve embedded what seems like a much more complete version, which is not quite 13 minutes long, for those who have time to view it. Created by Monsanto, largely as a way of showcasing innovations made possible…
The Artdog Image of Interest In my research of videos about past views of the future, I wasn’t surprised to find that futuristic cars formed a favorite category. The one I’ll share today doesn’t feature any flying cars, but I still think you may enjoy seeing what General Motors did (and did not) predict. It also represents a category of “musical production long-form commercial videos” from the period, of a sort we don’t see much, today. As ever, the assumptions about gender roles, and the extreme “whiteness”…
The Artdog Image of Interest When I was researching videos of ways the past viewed the possibilities of the future, I found that most seemed to fall into repeated categories. Futuristic kitchens (especially as envisioned by contemporary makers of kitchen appliances, imagine that!) formed a major subcategory. Oddly enough, the makers of these videos rarely envisioned men as the ones who’d be cooking. Here’s a classic “future kitchen” from sometime in the 1940s-50s: My Images of Interest in October are videos, all of them drawn…
The Artdog Image of Interest My Images of Interest in October are videos, all of them drawn from a panel discussion, “Yesterday’s Tomorrow,” moderated by Kathryn Sullivan, in which I participated at FenCon XV. I shared these videos with the audience, and they generated enough interest that I thought my blog-readers might like them too! I’ll start with one from the 1920s. VIDEO: Many thanks to YouTube and Aaron1912 for this video!
It’s hard to believe it’s been almost two weeks since Ty and I left for FenCon XV at the Westin DFW in Irving, TX. It was our first FenCon, but we certainly don’t want it to be our last! Those Texans really know how to put on a great science fiction convention! The Royal Manticoran Navy made a strong showing at FenCon XV, both with its information booth and at parties and other events. I deeply regret that I had a brain glitch and didn’t remember to get the names of…