Con Report: Renovation Day 2
Aug. 29th, 2011 08:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
valoiseOn Thursday I discovered a great breakfast restaurant at the Peppermill and over the next few days I had a heavenly frittata, a rich and flavorful short rib hash and an unbelievably good huevos rancheros on a bed of black beans and masa corn cake. Well fortified, I walked to the convention center and browsed the dealer’s room until the 11:00 panel.
1960s 60 years on
The panel included Robert Silverberg who started by considering the work of J. G. Ballard by saying that perhaps Ballard was not typical of sf of the period. This started a comparison of the writers of the British New Wave v. American writers of the time. Someone asked if there was there an Amercian New Wave? For yes - someone gave the example of Harlan Ellison’s antholology Dangrous visions. The England Swings SF anthology was infliuential. There was a UK cultural invasion in music and other areas at that time, too. Innovative writers like Roger Zelazny & Ellison existed alongside more traditional stuff. US writers didn't necesarily feel they were part of a movement or school. Brit New Wave term comes from French cinema. Editor of Astounding was a proponent of New Wave in US. Young writers coming into sf with broader literary background (like Zelazny and Samuel R. Delany) brought new world view. Phillip K. Dick.
Editors were more tolerant of experimentation so established writers like Ellison and Silverberg took it up. This was not especially popular with readers, but very liberating for the writers. The old guard used New Wave to attack the new style writers.
Fans felt the stories reflected the changes and chaos in society. Women writers now free to start writing as women under their own names. Writing more complex and challenging. Kicking out the old rules (which was also happening in society) was happening in literature.
Moorcock has stated that traditional sf lacked passion, subtlety, irony, and original characterization. New readers were more diverse. Shift in SF from magazine centric to paper back centric expanded the opportunities for experimentation since you didn't need to satisfy the editorial slant of the magazines. Readers were loyal to authors not specific publishers of books.
At it’s essence science fiction is always really about the present.
Photographing a Masquerade
There are two places to take pictures. Fan photography area for good posed shots & flash allowed. In the hall there is no flash allowed, so the quality might not be so great. There’s often no room for a tripod in the fan photo area so a monopod can be great, also useful for taking pictures seated in the audience.
If you don’t want to take pictures in the fan photo area, hall costumes can offer a great chance to take good shots. Ask first & thank afterwards
At this point I had to get some lunch and spent some time talking to people hanging out in Hall 2.
Miles Above: A Short Film About the Columbia
I wanted to get some films in this weekend so I sat in on this one, a documentary of the 2003 loss of the shuttle on reentry. Made of NASA footage of the shuttle and mission control, amateur video footage and some interviews conducted by the filmmaker, this was a beautifully edited movie. There were a lot of eyes being dabbed at the end.
One thing that was interesting was the amount of technical knowledge in the audience. There were people who were experts about the investigation of the accident, people who were knowledgable about standard reentry operations, and people with a good detailed knowledge of the structure of the shuttles in general.
Devo Spice concert
After the last panel, I decided to take in something a bit more upbeat, so I sat in on a short performance by sf, nerdy hip hop artist Devo Spice.
Chesley Awards and Art Show
Until this weekend I had absolutely no idea what the Chesley awards were. If you want to know more about it, there’s the link for it below, but basically the members of the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists nominate and vote on this award every year. The only artist I recognized in the room, was Boris Vallejo. He and his wife, Julie Bell, were presenting awards that evening and Boris also won a lifetime achievement award.
Chesley Awards
After the awards I went to the art show where they were having a Meet the Artists session. There was a lot of really great stuff, but I was definitely going to wait to buy art until later at the art auction on Sunday. One of the artists did fantastic wood sculpture pieces of dragons that I would loved to have bought for a Christmas present for someone, but they intricate and delicate and a bit more than I’d budgeted for the weekend.
1960s 60 years on
The panel included Robert Silverberg who started by considering the work of J. G. Ballard by saying that perhaps Ballard was not typical of sf of the period. This started a comparison of the writers of the British New Wave v. American writers of the time. Someone asked if there was there an Amercian New Wave? For yes - someone gave the example of Harlan Ellison’s antholology Dangrous visions. The England Swings SF anthology was infliuential. There was a UK cultural invasion in music and other areas at that time, too. Innovative writers like Roger Zelazny & Ellison existed alongside more traditional stuff. US writers didn't necesarily feel they were part of a movement or school. Brit New Wave term comes from French cinema. Editor of Astounding was a proponent of New Wave in US. Young writers coming into sf with broader literary background (like Zelazny and Samuel R. Delany) brought new world view. Phillip K. Dick.
Editors were more tolerant of experimentation so established writers like Ellison and Silverberg took it up. This was not especially popular with readers, but very liberating for the writers. The old guard used New Wave to attack the new style writers.
Fans felt the stories reflected the changes and chaos in society. Women writers now free to start writing as women under their own names. Writing more complex and challenging. Kicking out the old rules (which was also happening in society) was happening in literature.
Moorcock has stated that traditional sf lacked passion, subtlety, irony, and original characterization. New readers were more diverse. Shift in SF from magazine centric to paper back centric expanded the opportunities for experimentation since you didn't need to satisfy the editorial slant of the magazines. Readers were loyal to authors not specific publishers of books.
At it’s essence science fiction is always really about the present.
Photographing a Masquerade
There are two places to take pictures. Fan photography area for good posed shots & flash allowed. In the hall there is no flash allowed, so the quality might not be so great. There’s often no room for a tripod in the fan photo area so a monopod can be great, also useful for taking pictures seated in the audience.
If you don’t want to take pictures in the fan photo area, hall costumes can offer a great chance to take good shots. Ask first & thank afterwards
At this point I had to get some lunch and spent some time talking to people hanging out in Hall 2.
Miles Above: A Short Film About the Columbia
I wanted to get some films in this weekend so I sat in on this one, a documentary of the 2003 loss of the shuttle on reentry. Made of NASA footage of the shuttle and mission control, amateur video footage and some interviews conducted by the filmmaker, this was a beautifully edited movie. There were a lot of eyes being dabbed at the end.
One thing that was interesting was the amount of technical knowledge in the audience. There were people who were experts about the investigation of the accident, people who were knowledgable about standard reentry operations, and people with a good detailed knowledge of the structure of the shuttles in general.
Devo Spice concert
After the last panel, I decided to take in something a bit more upbeat, so I sat in on a short performance by sf, nerdy hip hop artist Devo Spice.
Chesley Awards and Art Show
Until this weekend I had absolutely no idea what the Chesley awards were. If you want to know more about it, there’s the link for it below, but basically the members of the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists nominate and vote on this award every year. The only artist I recognized in the room, was Boris Vallejo. He and his wife, Julie Bell, were presenting awards that evening and Boris also won a lifetime achievement award.
Chesley Awards
After the awards I went to the art show where they were having a Meet the Artists session. There was a lot of really great stuff, but I was definitely going to wait to buy art until later at the art auction on Sunday. One of the artists did fantastic wood sculpture pieces of dragons that I would loved to have bought for a Christmas present for someone, but they intricate and delicate and a bit more than I’d budgeted for the weekend.
