I literally cannot remember the last time I went to a Broadway show with pretty much no idea of what to expect. But Kath and I ventured out last night to a brand new musical, still in previews, called “Something Rotten.” We knew that it was basically about the creation of the first musical, but nothing beyond that. But we liked the ads (“The New York Times says: We haven’t seen it yet!”) and tickets were relatively inexpensive for Broadway. So we figured, What the hëll.

Technically since it’s still in previews, we shouldn’t be doing reviews. But I’m not a reporter, and besides, the performance we saw could easily have been opening night. There were no screw ups (at least none that we could see), no stoppages in the performance. It was fully performance ready, and it was absolutely fantastic.

Continue Reading ““Something Rotten” most definitely isn’t” →

A couple months ago, a friend of mine asked me if I could substitute for him at the Great Philadelphia Comic Convention this weekend. He’d committed to going but had to cancel due to family obligations. I said sure. He contacted the convention.

No one called me. Or wrote to me. Or contacted me. No one arranged travel of any sort. No one contacted me about a hotel stay.

So I figured, Okay, they don’t need me, and I forgot about it.

Flash forward to yesterday. Someone tweeted me and asked me where I was, because they couldn’t find my table. I went to their website and, sure enough, there’s my picture. They listed me as a guest.

So I apologize to anyone who might have gone to the convention solely to see me. The good news is that I’ll be at the Wizard Philadelphia convention next month, and also at the Atlantic City convention later that month.

PAD

Many, many years ago, when I was in my early 20s, my then-wife Myra and I were at Penn Station. I’ve no recollection of where we were going, but we were there. And at one point she suddenly said, “Look! It’s Ben Bova!” I turned and looked. “April Fool,” she said.

“Wow, that’s hilarious,” I replied.

She then went off to the women’s room and who should walk past me but Isaac Asimov. “Hi, Doctor Asimov!” I called. “Hi,” he said, waving back.

So Myra returns and I said, “You’ll never guess who walked past! Isaac Asimov!” She said “Yeah, right.” She wouldn’t believe me And because there is a God, at that moment, Asimov walked past in the other direction. I said, “He’s right behind you!” “Uh huh,” she said, refusing to look. I said, “Hi, Doctor Asimov!” And he said, “Hello again!” Her head snapped around and her jaw dropped.

“Don’t go up against me on April Fool’s Day,” I said smugly.

PAD

I was going to put “I’ve had another stroke” in the heading and then the article was going to read “Of genius” and describe some new project or something.

But Kathleen was afraid her phone would explode. And then everyone would get mad.

Okay fine. Happy April Fool’s Day.

Screw it.

PAD

Understand that I generally do not support boycotts.

I suppose that stems from the many knee jerk reactions that various fans have had when I said something they disliked and they announced that they were going to boycott my work, even though my work doesn’t reflect my views. Like the time that I worked on a video game that was associated with Orson Scott Card and gays were declaring I should be boycotted even though I was getting an award from GLAAD at the same time for my comic books.

Mostly I feel that boycotts needlessly punish the wrong people. You dislike Mel Gibson so you refuse to go to his movies, except the ones who are suffering are not Gibson but the movie theater owners.

But seriously: Indiana? WTF?

I can’t in good conscience attend any functions in a state that endorses discrimination in such an overt manner (although the governor apparently can’t actually admit it.) I’ve been to conventions in Indianapolis and such, but sorry, no more. I’m out until they repeal this idiotic law.

PAD

Kathleen has been making puppets of the Doctors for many years, as you know. Back in 1991 a friend of hers managed to get one to Peter Davison.

So this weekend I was at a Wizard convention that David Tennant was at. She gave me her puppet of Tennant’s Doctor and asked if I could try to get it to him.

It took me three days of maneuvering with the Wizard personnel, but finally on Sunday they okayed bringing me over to Tennant to present it to him. They escorted me to the front of the line of about 1000 people (that’s no exaggeration) and I apologized to the young lady they put me in front of, but she seemed fine with it.

I brought the puppet forward to David with the understanding that I’d be as fast as possible. He seemed enchanted by it and immediately put his hand into it and started playing with it.

I said, “It’s a gift for you, made by my wife, Kathleen David. My name is Peter David and I’m–”

I was about to say “a writer for Marvel comics,” but Tennant cut me off. He looked at me wide-eyed and said, “The writer?!”

Astounded, I nodded. I managed to say, “Yeah.”

“I LOVE your work on Hulk!” he said.

I turned to the crowd and shouted, “David Tennant knows who I am!”

PADPhoto copyright Wayne Marshall

If you’re not familiar with the Logan Act, which was been around since the end of the Eighteenth Century, it says this:

Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

Every politician who signed the letter to Iran telling them (falsely) that any anti-nuclear agreements they made with Obama would be set aside once he left office has violated the Logan Act and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

PAD