Month: October 2005

Back from Necro, which was a fun regional SF convention with a distinct literary bent. Spent time chatting with Tim Zahn and his wife, Anna, and verbally fencing on panels with Lloyd Kaufman of “Troma” films, who I think believed I was a stick in the mud or something; I’m not sure. At any rate, the fans were great, the programming was very entertaining, and I sure hope the town of Tampa doesn’t go the way of the last town where I attended a regional SF con: Crescent Cit Con in New Orleans.

Good to be home. Kath deftly handled several small crises while I was away, probably better than I would have had I been here. And this evening Caroline–who’d had trouble going to sleep the past few days–clambered up into my lap and promptly corked off with her hand resting atop mine.

The girls go trick or treating tomorrow. They’re going as the Muppet Wizard of Oz, with Caroline as Dorothy and Ariel as Miss Piggy dressed as Glinda.

PAD

So Harriet Miers has withdrawn her nomination, rather than going down in flames and scorching the Bush Administration has a result.

The thing is, I don’t know how to feel about it. I mean, my instinct is to figure that if this is someone whom conservatives feel isn’t conservative enough, that’s good enough to gain my full support. Because Bush’s alternative is to…what? Nominate someone aggressive and openly conservative who’s a guaranteed lock to overturn Roe V. Wade? How is that better?

On the other hand, I bridle at the naked cronyism and the fact that I have an old-fashioned notion that a SC judge should have a demonstrably high-quality legal mind experienced in complex judicial matters, and there’s no indication that Miers is qualified as being anything other than a Bush pal…and we saw how well that worked out with Bush’s head of FEMA.

PAD

I’m reposting an entry from further down because we’re coming up on the deadline for the bus and we haven’t got near enough participants. I’m suspecting this’ll be one of those things where fifty people come up to me at the convention and say, “Oh, if only we’d known about it!” but of course they didn’t bother to read the Necronomicon website (and please, don’t confuse it with the convention that had OJ). I’ll be keeping this posting at the top of the site for the next week to give everyone a chance to see it, although further blog entries will be made.

The following is an excerpt from the website for Necronomicon http://stonehill.org/necro.htm, a convention in Tampa, FL that I’ll be attending October 28-30:

Calling all fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Peter David or (best of all) both. Want to go on a little adventure to kick off Necronomicon. Check this action: The beautiful San Marco Theater in Jacksonville is going to be screening two of the most acclaimed “Buffy” episodes ever at 11 PM Friday, October 28: “Hush,” followed by the karaoke version of “Once More With Feeling.” Organized by none other than Peter’s daughter, Shana, the showing will not only feature Rocky Horror-esque audience participation, but extras including a trivia competition with nifty prizes courtesy of IDW, the publishers of the “Angel” and “Spike” comics.

Now Peter’s going either way, but we’ve come up with a plan if enough hardy souls are interested in going along…”

If you’re going to be attending Necro, and are interested in participating in a small adventure, check out the website and read up on it. And if you’re a Buffy fan, be sure to relay this information to other fans as well.

Hope to see you there.

PAD

So on the spur of the moment, we wound up driving into the city to take in a Broadway show or two. I had promised Ariel I’d take her to see “Fiddler” with Harvey Fierstein and Rosie O’Donnell in the leads, and the hope was that Kath would take Caroline to see her very first show which would be, with any luck, “Lion King.”

Well, no luck there, although it was a long shot at best. We then went for our fallback, which was “Beauty and the Beast.” That they had tickets for, and I’ll let Kath talk about that in her own blog as I’m sure she will.

Ariel and I had no trouble scoring tickets for “Fiddler.” I had no sure idea of what to expect from it. I know that Danny Strong and Adam Busch (Jonathan and Warren from BtVS) went to take in a production of it. The moment that Harvey opened his mouth and growled, “A Fiddler on the Roof,” Adam turned to Danny and said, “Let’s go.” Danny insisted they stay put (interestingly, two of Tevye’s daughters realized that 2/3 of the evil trio was sitting front row. They made eye contact in a fairly subtle manner and there was some serious unspoken flirting going on that naturally the audience didn’t notice since–when Harvey’s on stage–all eyes are on him.

Harvey didn’t make me want to sprint out of the theater, and I liked him better in the role than I did Alfred Molina, who played the role when I saw it as if he had a train to catch. But the problem is that I didn’t feel as if I was seeing Tevye, so much as I was seeing Harvey playing Tevye. His up and down vocal variations were great for “Hairspray,” but here I was wishing he’d pick a voice–preferably in the lower register, since that was the most effective–and stick with it. Rosie, on the other hand, was a delight. Running her family like a drill sergeant, but still capable of displaying tenderness. She missed her calling; she would have made a terrific Jewish mother.

PAD

I’m getting a lot of people asking me if “House of M” impacts on “The Other” and, if not, why not. I answered this extensively elsewhere and am basically reproducing it here so I don’t have to keep saying it. And I stress that this is merely my thoughts on the matter, not Marvel editorial.

Continue Reading “The timing of “The Other”” →

The creators of the novel series “Ghosts of Albion,” Chris Golden and Amber Benson (yes, THAT Amber Benson, from “BtVS”) are doing a contest and have asked me to plug it. I feel a connection to the series since I’m being brutally murdered in the next installment, so…here’s the contest.

Continue Reading “GHOSTS OF ALBION CONTEST” →

Hi, it’s Glenn. As you may know, I run a website called Lot Auctions, and there’s an auction going on now of 30,000+ comics that a lot of you might want to bid on. Every so often, you hear about a collection like this– now you have a chance to get in on it.

This is the personal collection of a long-time employee of the big-two comics companies (we can’t tell you who because of their corporate policy) who has to pay for a college education for his kids– so he’s selling off his entire collection, from Action Comics to Zot!, including complete runs of Avengers, Justice League, Green Lantern, Iron Man, and many others.

Most books prior to 1975 are VG or better, most books after 1975 are VF or better. Many are in mint condition (read once) and many rare issues are to be found, like the Elseworlds 80 Page Giant that includes Kyle Baker’s “Letetia Lerner, Superman’s Babysitter” and which was pulped in the United States– less than 700 copies are suspected to exist.

Covers shown are NOT the actual covers, but used only for display purposes. The collection is available for viewing by appointment, and individual issues are also available for more precise grading information on request. Shipping costs will be paid by the buyer for any and all issues purchased.

Any questions, feel free to ask in comments here or on the Lot Auctions site. Bid heavy– the more money this auction brings in, the less intrusive ads I have to put on the site to pay for all this bandwidth.