What a Year (or more)!

This past weekend was the 2010 Phoenix ComiCon, which concluded a pretty crazy year and a half for me.

At the start of 2009 was the 2009 Phoenix ComiCon at the end of January, where I helped set up the first ever Wil Wheaton Rock Band event there.  I was vice-chair of FiestaCon, the 62nd Westercon, which happened over July 4th Weekend and helped rebound Westercon after a low turnout one in Las Vegas in 2008.  I chaired the first North American Discworld Convention over Labor Day weekend in 2009, for which our main guest (and creator of Discworld), Terry Pratchett, declared it was the best Discworld Convention ever!  A couple of weeks ago I chaired LepreCon 36, which even though we had a dissapointing amount of attendees, those that did come had a great time.  This past weekend was the 2010 Phoenix ComicCon, which moved to the Phoenix convention center after having outgrown the Mesa Convention Center, and it was definitely bigger than any prior ones.  I oversaw the SciFi programming tracked, helped put together Wil Wheaton Rock Band again this year (which was an awesome event - yes, that is me in my Devo flower pot hat), and helped set up the Super Happy Fun Time panel with Wil Wheaton and John Scalzi which announced a special charity project they are organizing.   For the first time in quite a while, I do not have a major event in the near future I'm in charge of!  However, I am looking forward to LepreCon 37 the first weekend of May in 2011 for which we will be having the first ever Shadow Unit mini-con as part of the convention.  And, for Phoenix ComiCon 2011, I hope we can make more awesome things happen.  I also attended and was on programming for Gallifrey One in 2009 and 2010, LosCon 36, Anticipation (WorldCon 2009), and also attended ComiCon International and the first two Tucson Festival of Books.

Once I get caught back up on real life, I hope to get caught up with my online life as well.

Who Are You...

No, this is not about Doctor Who, but The Who. Seeing them perfrom live (or what's left of them) at the "The Big Game" brought back some memories of The Who, pretty much my favorite band of all time.
I first really became aware of The Who during the summer of 1969 when Pinball Wizard was getting a lot of airplay on AM radio. I remember sitting in the back of my parents car as we drove across Kansas to visit my grandparents in western Kansas and hearing Pinball Wizard a number of times on the radio going out there and back. Simon and Garfunkel's The Boxer was played just as much, but for a 12 year old kid, a song about a "pinball wizard" was a lot more cool.
So, of course, I picked up the 45 of Pinball Wizard, and I quickly became a fan of The Who, getting Tommy, Meaty Big, and Bouncy, and their other LPs. I then found out about all their songs NOT on albums and started tracking down those to get the B sides. Over the years I acquired multiple copies of many of the albums, various greatest hits and rarities collections, and of course, CDs. One time I won a complete set of Who LPs on KY102 in Kansas City when I answered the most questions correctly on a Who trivia contest, missing only one question. However, the station never actually CONTACTED me about it! I found out when a friend of my sister mentioned to her that they'd heard my name mentioned as a winner of a contest on the radio station. Once I finally verified with the station that I had won, I drove over to their offices from Lawrence, KS, to pick up my prize package. It was a complete set of Who LPs (up through The Who by Numbers which had just came out) as well as a nice pair of headphones.
Later that year was my biggest regret related to The Who. I was in my freshman year at the University of Kansas, and The Who were playing Kemper Arena in Kansas City on Dec 1st. I got tickets for it, then later realized it was the same night as my Chemistry 101 final. Now, the class was set up so that for your final grade, you got to throw out the worst test of the semester and the rest would be averaged for your final grade. I had a solid B in the class, but for whatever reason I felt that I had a good chance to do well enough on the final to bring my grade up to an A. So I sold my ticket to someone else, took the test, then did bad enough on it that it was the test that got thrown out. I was upset at the time about it, and several years later, I really had wished I'd gone to the show when Keith Moon passed away.
I did finally get to see the band a couple of times in Arizona in the 1980's, (1980 and 1982) and those were memorable shows. I'm glad I did see them back in those days at least.
One other bit of Who memories:
When I first went to Phoenix for a job interview in late 1979 and stayed the weekend, I ended up catching a double feature at the Valley Art theatre of The Kids are Alright and Rust Never Sleeps.
I still find it somewhat amusing to see that their songs are now mostly known for being used as the theme songs for the CSI shows (which is probably why CBS had them do the halftime show). But it is also fun to play their songs on Rock Band! (Incidentally, they made available a recording of their Super Bowl set on Rock Band right after the game).

Oh, and congrats to Neil Gaiman, who will finally be writing a Doctor Who episode! I figured it was only a matter of time, but he has now officially said he is doing one.

Congrats to Neil and Amanda

Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer announced that they are going to tie the not. See the announcement on Neil's blog.

In honor of the occasion, here's Amanda singing "I Google You", written by Neil Gaiman, at the San Diego Women's Club benefit for the CBLDF during ComicCon last July that I got to see.

A New Pos! and a New Doctor!

Yes, trying to get back into the habit of posting to this blog hasn't been easy. So, here's a short post to get things rolling...

Doctor Who - The End of Time.

Right now, BBC America's having obtained first run rights to Doctor Who is really paying off. Their broadcast of The Waters of Mars two weeks ago set ratings records for the channel and I imagine the two part finale will do even better. We're in the middle of 46 hours straight of Doctor Who leading up to the end of David Tennant's run with The End of Time Part 2 on Saturday night, one day after it was aired on the BBC in the UK. Hopefully, this type of lead time will continue when the new series with Matt Smith debuts in the spring. (Click the link to go to You Tube - the imbedded video is a bit funky on here....)

I Aten't Dead. Just Been Busy with this...

I've gotten way behind on my regular postings at SFTV.org and other websites due in part to being the chair of the North American Discworld Convention, held last weekend in Tempe, AZ. Terry Pratchett told the crowd that "The North American Discworld Convention has been the best Discworld convention ever!" That is a very big complement from the man who created the whole thing! Kudos to all my staff and committee who made it a big success.

Of course, now I have to go back to work in the real world...

Still Alive

Yes, I've not gone underground, just been busy with house hunting, work, convention stuff and way too many things to have much time to actually blog.

I am now on Facebook, but tend to ignore any requests that come my way. I use it primarily to keep an eye on friends, associates, and family.

Thus, a few short bits to tide you over:

SFTV Schedules are almost updated. A mostly updated Season to Date list is up at www.sftv.org.

I bought a Subway sandwhich today to help save Chuck (and it really should not end!)

I saw the Star Trek movie last week and really enjoyed it and plan to see it again.

The last weekend of Star Trek: The Exhibition in Phoenix is this weekend. Make sure to catch it if you haven't yet.

This coming Saturday, May 2nd, is Free Comic Book Day. I've put up a list of comic shops in Arizona (Phoenix and Tucson) over at the AZSF Blog. As far as I've been able to tell, there are no comic shops in Flagstaff (unless there's a new one).

Lee

Dalek Unearthed in UK Pond!

moar funny pictures

Full details at The Daily Mail

Phoenix ComiCon Rock Band with Wil Wheaton

This post on Wil Wheaton's 's blog and the comments pretty much gives you a good idea of how much fun people had. Thanks to the help of various Phoenix ComiCon staff members, Harmonix, the Rock Band Blowout with Wil Wheaton was a big success.

Check out some of the videos some of the fans shot on YouTube.

And edited to add this wrap-up post by Wil...

A New Post of Sorts

Been keeping busy getting things ready for the Phoenix ComiCon next weekend and also trying to keep up with various other things. So here's a few random things to post here...

James Moran has posted his 2008 Gallifrey One Report which is a lot of fun to read. James was a lot of fun to talk to at the con and I enjoyed getting his point of view on it (finally!) Incidentally, the 2009 Gallifrey One convention is less than a month away now!

Coraline, the movie, based on the Neil Gamain story is coming out in a couple of weeks. They've been sending out special boxes to bloggers, but so far I haven't seen one. I guess I should have posted more about the movie beyond my 2008 San Diego ComicCon post of images of the dolls or my 2007 Neil Gaiman SD Comicon report which included the screening of Coraline footage. I've been keeping an eye on the Evil Buttons blog about special Coraline stuff being sent out or made available. I've been also trying to get one of the Coraline Keys up on Ebay (since so far that I know of, none have been distributed in Phoenix and so far, none have been provided to the Phoenix ComiCon. I was able to get three of the four Coraline toys available at Carl's Jr.

For the Phoenix ComiCon, I've been working with Wil Wheaton to set up a Rock Band Blowout with Wil, some of the other guests, and fans playing Rock Band together.

Battlestar Galactica - Catch the Frak UP & New Webisodes

The last half of the fourth and final season of Battlestar Galactica begins on SciFi on January 16th. You can Catch the Frak Up! with the below embedded video and also catch new webisodes over the next few weeks bridging the two season halves.




SciFi.com is releasing new Battlestar Galactica: Face of the Enemy webisodes as a lead up to the resumption of the 4th and final season of Battlestar Galactica. SciFi is also releasing enhanced webisodes with commentary by writer Jane Espenson. They are also being made available on Hulu.com and I have linked the first three below:

Webisode 1




Webisode 2



Webisode 3

Babylon 5 Music Videos Now Available

Back in the day, whenever J. Michael Straczynski made a convention appearance about Babylon 5, he'd usually open with a music video done by John Hudgens, and his Z Team Productions, Aside from a couple of early ones that ended up on some bootleg tapes, they've never really been available to watch online before. Now, with the permission of jms, John has made available the music videos on You Tube at The Z Team You Tube page.

I've enjoyed seeing them at the cons and its great to be able to see them again!

Catching Up After LosCon, Blood on the Satellite of Love

Still catching up a bit following LosCon. Still need to write up a report or two to go with the pictures. I did get the SFTV Schedule lists updated! Lots of changes coming up in the network schedules.

Typing has been slowed down a bit by a cut index finger that happened when I was opening the tin case for the MST3K 20th Anniversary collectors edition. Be careful opening up the back of it to free Tom Servo from his cage! Wow! In putting in the link to Amazon.com, I realized that it is now worth a lot more than what I paid for it at Borders with my 40% off coupon earlier in the week... Maybe I should auction it off complete with blood stains?

LosCon 35 Report is forthcoming. In the meantime, here's some pictures...

Some SF TV & FIlm Writers

Jane Espenson

John Scalzi, Bacon Cat, and Wil Wheaton

Scalzi's Ribbons

Closing Ceremonies with Double Doubles

A COnjunction on the trip home.

Star Trek The Exhibition Comes to Phoenix

Star Trek: The Exhibiton opened in Phoenix at the Arizona Science Center this past weekend. I've put together a report on the United Federation of Phoenix web site. Also reporting on it is Trek Movie Report and Nerdvana.

I Want to be Elected!

Yes, I have the original CD.

Somewhere....

Then there's this guy named Alice that seems to have also done the song with its own primitive music video....

It's Time to Get Political....

I have that same poster set (but alas, I only have five of the original six).

You want a candidate That's a War Hero?

Or Someone who's a real team player?

Or a female candidate with some spunk?

Or someone to help you feel secure about the future?

Or someone who's experienced with dealing with obstacles?

The Choice is yours!

Doctor Who News, Rumors and all sorts of stuff

OK, there's been lots and lots of Doctor Who related news, rumours and what not in the last few weeks. It's made the usual rounds on the internet and in the British papers. Partick Stewart, Tom Baker, Sean Pertwee, Zygons, Ice Warriors, Neil Gaiman, and Paul McGann have all been mentioned. Some of it is rubbish, some of it may happen, some of it may end up not happening. I have no sources (or those that I have emails for I'm not going to email them and ask what's true or not).

Of late, things have focused on who will be the Doctor after David Tennant leaves?

Even The Doctor Who News at Outpost Gallifrey has avoided some of these, but the spoiler threads on the Doctor Who Forum have been very active (and likely the fodder for some of the news articles). The Thoughts in Time and Space blog by Eddie has broken some of the rumors and also pointed out some that were intentional leaks to help them find out who some of their leaks are.

So, according to some people (Rich Johnston in his Lying in the Gutters column), "Paterson Joseph as the prime suspect" for the next doctor and Rich has a link to a video clip from Neverwhere that has Paterson pretty much channeling The Doctor in his role as the Marquis in Neverwhere (written by Neil Gaiman and inspired by Hartnell and Pertwee). A SciFi Wire article on the subject also appeared.

However, Eddie is still insisting that Marc Warren and Sean Pertwee (Jon Pertwee's son) are near the top of the running for the 11th Doctor. Marc Warren most notably was Teatime in the Hogfather movie., and played Dracula in the 2006 TV movie and Elton Pope in the Love and Monsters Doctor Who episode.

Sean Pertwee has been in a lot of stuff over the years, genre and otherwise. In actuality, ten years ago, when we were still reeling from the FOX movie, I saw a movie called Stiff Upper Lips in which Pertwee had a role as George (the dashing young man of sorts) and a pretty silly send up of the Merchant Ivory films (I actually saw it in a theatre in Los Angeles when I was out there for a training session). I could see a bit of his father in that role and thought at the time "too bad the movie tanked, he might make a good Doctor if it ever came back". For a look at a recent picture of Pertwee, this Sun article from November 2007 talks about his desire to play the role.

As indicated in one of the articles on Eddie's blog, Steven Moffat, as he deftly detailed in Silence in the Library, really doesn't like spoilers. But, we've definitely got a few more episodes with David Tennant, and likely a full season after the set of specials in the next year, so lets maybe get a chance to see those before we find out about what's happening afterwards.

Misc SF TV Stuff

We're most of the way into the new fall season with a couple of things left to debut. Here's a few notes about the season so far....

Heroes - NBC is hoping the ratings will return to former heights. Not sure if the time travel and jumping around is doing much for casual viewers.

Chuck - Still good, but not drawing in the numbers. However, NBC is hurting all over the place and already gave the show a full season order.

Knight Rider - About as expected. Ratings have been soft but NBC appears to be sticking with it for now.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has not done very well opposite the Dancing with the Stars juggernaut (which also hasn't helped Chuck or Heroes) and if things don't pick up after the baseball pre-emptions, it may get terminated.

Life on Mars versus Eleventh Hour - In the battle of the Brit adaptations, both did about the same overall in the ratings with their debuts but Life on Mars held on to much more of its lead-in ratings (77% vs 49%) than Eleventh Hour.

Star Wars Clone Wars did very well for Cartoon Network and Sanctuary debuted very well for SciFi. Lets see how they hold up on a week to week basis.

Returning show The Ghost Whisperer has held up with ratings similar to what it did in the past however ABC's Pushing Daisies is definitely down from its first season (but ABC's entire Wednesday is down across the board).

Fringe has done well for FOX and is holding on to most of the House audience (although House is down without American Idol as a lead-in) and The Mentalist has drawn big numbers of viewers for CBS (but Fringe is still beating it in the demos). Also doing well for HBO (and getting a second season order) is True Blood, which has helped to bring all of Charlaine Harris's novels onto the top 20 besteller paperback lists.

Over in the UK, the debut of Merlin has done well for the BBC, with the ratings having gone up despite some really tough competition from ITV. Sarah Jane has also returned to Children's BBC and is doing comparable to what it did in the first series.

Still to come (as I type this) is My Own Worst Enemy on NBC, the Return of Eli Stone on ABC, and Crusoe on NBC. Crusoe actually looks like it might turn out pretty good. It is being show run by Stephen Gallagher, who created Eleventh Hour, and also has James Moran (Doctor Who, Torchwood, Law and Order: London) contributing an episode.

At the start of November is the debut of Legend of The Seeker, based on the Terry Goodkind series of novels starting with Wizard's First Rule.

I've limited the number of links here since the last time I put a bunch of links into a post, Google blocked my acces so they could determine if it was a spam blog or not, but you can get to official show pages and schedule links via the SFTV Schedules page.

Lee

Books Out Now Worth Getting if You're Young or Old

This week sees the release of two "children's" books by two popular SF/F authors, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. You've probably seen more about Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book than Terry Pratchett's Nation. Between Neil's own online journal and a nationwide book tour that started at the National Book Festival (where you can see video of his talk) and has continued on where he is reading a chapter from the new book at each stop and they are putting the video up the next day on his Mouse Circus website.


Terry's novel actually came out earlier in September in the UK where he did two signings, one in a small bookshop on an island and then another (after a helicopter ride) in the big Waterstones store at Picadilly Circus. Since then he's done TV chat shows, spoke at the Tory conference, did an online chat at the Washington Post (who had a good review of Nation, and will also make an appearance in Second Life on October 8th.


Terry also read from Nation at the UK Discworld convention in August, a snippet of which is here on Youtube. The best part was at the end of the reading when he read straight through the part of the book where Mau and Daphne have a tea party that ends with both of them almost drowning and Mau defiantly yelling "Does Not Happen!" Yes, it makes sense.

Both books are very good books, going beyond what is expected for younger readers (Graveyard book is for 9 and up, while Nation is marketed as for Young Readers). Neil's is obviously written for young readers, using simpler grammer and words, but still doesn't pull any punches in the story (it starts with the murder of a family with the son wandering off into a graveyard). Nation reads much more like an adult novel but also deals with loss, starting with the aftermath of a tsunami that wipes out the entire population of an island and kills everyone on a ship except a young girl.

For more information on the various editions of The Graveyard Book, visit this Subterranean Press website. Nation had a limited edition of 275 sold only on the day of the two signings. There is also a Waterstones limited edition still to be shipped. You can also get signed copies of Nation from PJSM Prints, Terry's official merchandise site.

SFTV Updates and more!

Still playing catchup after the Conapalooza at the end of the summer...

The SFTV Page has been updated with updates to current and season to date lists. I've also updated the individual schedule links page listing (which I use in tracking down the various schedules). Also updates to Connie Willis.net.

Over on the BBC, Merlin starts up this weekend on Saturday night. You can check out most of the content on the official page on the BBC website and even more information on the Press Office in the Merlin Press Pack.

Starting up on September 29th on the BBC and children's BBC is the second series of the Sarah Jane Adventures. Check out the official BBC site as well as a Press Office Press Pack.

Be warned that Spaceballs: The Animated series debuts on G4 this weekend. It looks pretty low-brow and treading a lot of ground already tread very heavily by others.

HBO has picked up True Blood for a second season after liking what they've seen in the ratings so far. Press Release at The Futon Critic.