My editor here at Views from Medina Road — that would be myself, reading my own posts the next morning — has raised a few issues that need follow-up response.
Did Russell Letson and wife Cezarija Abartis ever show up? No. I’d thought, the last time I saw Russell (when was that?) that he’d reminisced about Anaheim a decade ago and expressed his plans to be there this year. Apparently he changed his mind, or my memory is mistaken. On the other hand, Locus senior editor Tim Pratt and his wife Heather Shaw arrived over the weekend, having held the fort at Locus HQ in Oakland during the preceding work week. I saw them in passing two or three times, though alas they did not attend the Hugo ceremony, when CNB brought all the attending magazine staff and reviewers up on to stage with him. Tim’s online journal has more.
What was Michael’s reaction? Michael, my partner’s smart, good-looking 15-year-old son, exposed to the hardcore world of SF fandom for the first time Friday night after dinner and Saturday during the Hugo ceremony. Well, he was amused by the antics of the Hugo presenters and recipients, as far as I could tell during the event (I only saw him text-messaging his friends a couple times). He’d never heard of the books or stories or fans, but knew the film and TV nominees; and Connie and Harlan and Robert and others commanded his attention. According to my partner, his reaction later to wandering through the room parties was…. well, this is why I didn’t mention it before… amazement at how many fat, nerdy people there seemed to be there. And how I didn’t seem to fit that pattern. Which indicates how little he knows me, perhaps…
What was my reaction to Harlan’s infamous grope? I didn’t see it. We were sitting in the 6th row but way over on the left side, glancing back and forth between the direct live view of the stage and the screen projection above us, and somehow I didn’t actually see Harlan groping Connie. I did see him mouth the mic. It was gross and embarrassing for Harlan, but I’ve long ago stopped taking Harlan seriously, and my impression was that Connie did her best to handle the situation.
On another note, I should mention that the buzz about next year’s Worldcon in Japan is that the professionals, especially the US publishers and editors, sound disinclined to go. For expense reasons. The buzz is that the hardcore fans will go, to maintain their clannish annual connection, but that the US pro and semipro community will likely choose the ’07 World Fantasy Con, scheduled for upstate New York, to hold their annual convocation.
Myself, I haven’t decided. I’ve attended every Worldcon since New Orleans in ’88, and next year’s event sounds like a good excuse to go to Japan, a place I’ve never been. But I haven’t decided.
