The Crotchety Old Fan

This is going to be one of those round-up posts – but please pay attention as everything here today is important to someone, and some of them are probably important to a lot of someones.
First:  Gary Farber is in need of some assistance.  You can read the detail here.  If you can spare a few [...]

Got an email from someone who suggested that I put out my own list of things I’ll be voting on when it is time to nominate for the Hugo Awards (to be given at Aussiecon 4).
I’ll do that, sure. But first I have to figure out what those nominations are going to be.
I know [...]

Balticons back in the 70s/80s had good attendance.  Haven’t been to one since them so I don’t know where they are at now (Balticon promoters/comittee feel free to jump in) – but I seem to remember attendance in excess of 800-900 (873? is the number that springs to dim mind lo these many years later.)
What [...]

Over on the LTSNBN, there’s a lot of discussion regarding what “real” conventions are and are not.  (I am ego gratified to see that my articulation of the “experiencing vs participating” difference is holding up fairly well.)
One point of distinction is that of the presence or absence of “actors” offering signed photos of themselves for [...]

HAL is still in hibernation and floating about somewhere in Jupiter’s moon system. Meanwhile, I’m down here on Earth, still waiting for them to build Moonbase Clavius so they can discover the Monolith and get that whole story arc kicked off.
Waiting for that to happen doesn’t waste nearly enough time and, while I can think [...]

The minions over at TLTSNBN are in a posting uproar following Mike Resnick’s, ummm, polemic?, over at Baen’s Universe, in which Mike castigates WSFS and shows favoritism towards (shudder) commercial cons over fannish cons.
The commentary by the (suspected, rumored and not self-appointed) lords of creation runs the gamut from simple outrage over the fact that [...]

Because it pisses me off that one of the major media faces for genre is such an unfannish, disconnected, seemingly profit-oriented, low-brow, least-common-denominator, appeal-to-prurient-interests, 1984ish thought-control piece of…
None of which would matter any more than the proverbial hill of beans if they weren’t successful at what they do.
Which pisses me off even more.  If our [...]

According to Mike Glyer’s File 770, the Niagra of all internet cataracts descended upon poor little old Google Books, once it was revealed that they’d (probably mistakenly) included a scan of the May 21, 1951 issue of Life Magazine.

Over on the Pogo post, Mike Glyer (of File 770 fame) commented that:
“The late Ross Pavlac was such a fan of A. Bertram Chandler that after the author visited his apartment Pavlac wouldn’t empty the ash tray he had used.” (Ross Pavlac – 1951 – 1997)
Ross (here, here, here, more here, here and all over [...]

DOWN UNDER FAN FUND 2010
Nominations are now open for the 2010 Down Under Fan Fund a.k.a. DUFF.  Prospective candidates will have until January 31st 2010 to file the documents required to have one’s name placed in nomination and added to the ballot. The ballots will be published and distributed in early February, 2010. The voting [...]