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July 11th, 2009
birdsedge
 | 12:13 am - Festival Friday
A success. Just home. Need big cup of tea and 8 hours sleep - in that order. Everyone had fun. Tonight was specifically the beerfest and many beer drinkers turned up. Much fun and entertainment from Frumptarn Guggenband and from Harry Rowland. BB is down on the field overnight. Having set up the PA he's got to stay with it, so he's sleeping on the stage - in a tent. Brrr!
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July 10th, 2009
jess_ka
 | 11:24 am - recommended read
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) marthawells has posted an excellent short story for your reading pleasure, The Forest Boy. Previously unpublished.
There's a Paypal tip jar at the bottom of the page; if you like the story, give the author a thank you.
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molly_brown
 | 05:08 pm - I'm so ashamed
Someone just sent me the url for a corporate video promoting a tourist attraction in Germany.
According to the forwarded email accompanying the url: "The Miniatur Wunderland model railroad in Hamburg, Germany is the largest in the world, covering 16,146 square feet of space with more than 10,000 train cars running around its 6.8 miles of HO scale track...."
The email goes on to list several more impressive facts and statistics, before concluding: "Watch the new video above to get the full impact of this remarkable achievement, which has taken in excess of 500,000 working hours to build. There's good reason why this is Germany 's most popular attraction, already visited by more than 5 million flabbergasted tourists."
This model railroad is indeed a wonderful piece of engineering, but to my great shame, all I could do was giggle at the earnest narration detailing such features as the attraction's "over 200,000 miniature inhabitants," including: "thick people, thin people, animals on trips, very strong famous children..." (Wot?!!)
And so on... you get the idea by now. ;)
Go ahead and prove you're a better person than me by marveling at the technical achievement without laughing (even a little bit) at the voice-over.
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birdsedge
| 04:53 pm - Festival
Here. Now. Today. Starts in an hour or two. I could have been down on the field all day putting up tents and stuff but the phone has been going mad and it seems like I'm the only person anchoring it. Field the phone call from BB: 'Why has the stage not arrived?' I pass the buck to Bob: 'I'll be here before eleven.' (Which of course, it wasn't.) HS: Where are the rest of the stillage frames for the beer? Richard has only put up two and buggered off.' Me: 'I'll phone him and find out.' (No answer from his mobile or landline.) BB: 'When Bob phones the marquee company about the stage can you ask him to ask them why there's no door canvas in the foorway? We can't close it up.' Bob:'Yeah they know about that - it'c coming with the stage.'
I'm also still phoning people for promised mobile numbers for the emergency contact list but no one is in. Woman: 'Are there any tickets left for Tanglefoot on Saturday?' Man: I accidentally bought two tickets more than I need, can I get a refund?' Task force parent: 'Sorry James isn't coming he's going to Birmingham with the band.'
Oh great.
Anyway, ready or not doors open in two hours. I'm taking yesterdays batch of cakes (6 cakes, 4 tray bakes and 24 buns), leaving the phone and heading for the field.
www.birdsedgevillagefestival.org
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July 9th, 2009
ericreynolds
 | 08:59 pm - Dennis Bell 1981-2009
Our dear friend Dennis Bell passed away a little over an hour ago. He suffered an unexpected heart attack yesterday morning and never regained consciousness.
Dennis recently graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in Architecture and was just beginning his career with a firm in Kansas City. Just a few months ago at a party he and I were talking about one of his new projects and I could feel the excitement he had with the planning and creative part of his work. But that was how he approached everything in life.
My wife Nancy knew him since he was three where he attended the large daycare/preschool she manages. As he grew up he was a role model for my kids when he worked at the same daycare with my wife part time while attending college.
Dennis was in top physical shape. He had (as I understand it) recently torn a tendon in his leg and had surgery to repair it, and had to wear a "boot" while he waited for some follow-up surgery. Apparently, the heart attack was caused by a blood clot.
There were a lot of people at the hospital with him when he left us. To my kids and many others he was always known as Mr. D.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/sad.gif) sad
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sf_scope
| 03:11 pm - 2009 Sunburst Award Nominees
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sfscope/~3/aynehI5ekrk/2009-sunburst-award-nominees.html http://sfscope.com/2009/07/2009-sunburst-award-nominees.html The shortlists for this year's Sunburst Awards for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic have been announced. This is the first year there will be a Young Adult award. The winners will be named this Autumn. The nominees are...
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sf_scope
| 12:01 pm - Top Box Office Grossers: Fifth Week in June
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sfscope/~3/xP9dQL7Ia1A/top-box-office-grossers-fifth-6.html http://sfscope.com/2009/07/top-box-office-grossers-fifth-6.html Other than transforming robots, sf/f/h films are moving out of the top spots, because most of the recent new flicks aren't ours. We still own the mid-range in the charts, and there are animated dinosaurs and live-action wizards a-comin'…
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la_marquise_de_
 | 04:50 pm - Worldcon and birthdays and questions, Oh My!
First of all, many many happy returns to the wonderful rozk. I hope you have a good day.
I have my programme schedule for Worldcon. It's mow close enough that I'm getting excited -- I've wanted to go to Quebec province since I was eight or nine. My schedule looks like this:
12.30 Thursday The Werewolves of Brigadoon
The appropriation of Scotland, Ireland and Wales as lands of "Celtic fantasy" by North American authors whose Celtic experiences appear to begin with Sir Walter Scott, travel through
Brigadoon, and conclude with bad Hollywood movies. This one could get interesting. I have Views and I can quite genuinely claim to be expert. As most of the popular beliefs are, well, wrong... Hmmm.
Kari Sperring, Peadar Ó Guilín (M), Ian McDonald.
2 pm Thursday Translation Challenges
What are the artistic and professional challenges faced by translators? How do they tackle translating between languages whose grammars are incompatible?
Jetse de Vries, Kari Sperring (M), Rani Graff, Tom Clegg, Fernandes, Eileen Gunn
7 pm Thursday Horror and Dark Fantasy Writers: What Makes the Story "Horror" or "Dark Fantasy"?
Horror and dark fantasy writers tell how they do it, how do they think up the horror and how do they know it when they write it?
Ellen Datlow (M), Kari Sperring, Maura McHugh, Susan Forest, Kaaron Warren
9 am Friday Medieval France: Just another fantasy?
Fantasy authors are often inspired by medieval France, but how much reality actually gets ends up in their fiction?
Edward James, Faye Ringel, Kari Sperring (M), Sean McMullen
2 pm Saturday he Middle Ages: Getting it Right
Description: Professional medieval historians help you avoid howlers and offer you unlikely titbits of information.
Edward James (M), Kari Sperring (The Edward-and-Kari show rides again).
4.30 pm Sunday Kari Sperring Signing
Say what?
7 pm Folk Tales
Description: Listen to some folk tales from around the world. (Children's programme and bilingual)
Josepha Sherman (M), Kari Sperring
(I'd like to tell a really scary Viking folk-tale. Will I be lynched?)
10 am Monday 150 Years Later: The Continuing Exploits of the Three
Musketeers
Description: Kari Sperring (as Kari Maund) is the co-author of The Four Musketeers: The True Story of D'Artagnan, Porthos, Aramis and Athos
My solo talk on Musketeer sequels.
11 am Monday Non-Fiction for SF Fans
What non-fiction should SF fans be reading? The panel recommends and discussed recently published books and perennial classics.
Geoff Ryman, James Cambias, Kari Sperring, Niall Harrison (M), Vincent Docherty
12.30 Monday Author Reading
Patrick Rothfuss; Kari Sperring; Michelle Sagara.
(Eep. I am reading with Important Writers).
Monday morning is going to be rushed, methinks! But I've done worse when I was still teaching in universities. Most of these look like fun, though my translation skills involve mediaeval languages.
Serious question: can anyone on the f'list put me in email contact with Josepha Sherman, please? I've never met her, but I suspect the folk-tale item will need careful advance planning. I can tell a Welsh story in French quite happily, and another Welsh one (or Irish or Scandinavian) in English, but I don't want to overlap and I know little about her interests.
The marquis is on four items -- 3.30 pm Thursday, a discussion of the Hugo-nominated novels; 3 pm Friday, Jedi training workshop for the children's programme; Friday 9 pm, on RPGs and their fictional tie-ins; and 9 am Saturday on Mediaeval Technology.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/busy.gif) busy
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molly_brown
| 01:34 pm - one of my favourite cartoons
It's not recent (it was made in 1988) and it's hardly unknown (I imagine everyone in the world* has seen this multi-award-winning cartoon at least once), but wot-the-heck, it's brilliant.
*Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating about everyone in the world having seen it. ;)
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birdsedge
| 01:00 am - Mad week
This last week has been completely insane.
Still recovering from pulled tooth and pulled back muscle. managed to use the back muscle as an excuse for skipping the gym all week. Bad me.
Got a postal franking machne on trial I hadn't realised that youir postage is actually cheaper, but you do pay a monthly fee. I'll have to see how it balances out. It's certainly easy to use.
Thursday: Spent serious time applying for Certificates of Sponsorship (think 'electronic work permits') for various incoming artists - some with unpronounceable names. Managed to persuade Number One Son to take Granny to the market in Penistone to give me a couple of extra hours at my desk.
Friday: H came and we did a mailshot for the upcoming festival.
Sunday: Had ten Zulus recording a Christmas CD in our living room all day. Not many people can say that.
Monday: Back much improved, so no excuse. Managed to get to the gym in the morning after a week of missing sessions only to find they've moved some of the machines round and it feels weird. Village festival is on Saturday. Lots to do. Tanglefoot's last week of UK touring began with a day off so they all scattered in various directions except for Al who was in the studio putting down a bass part for various tracks on the new Zoe Mulford CD. Made a big curry only to find no one around at meal time. Kept the meat and veg separate until the last moment in case the only veggie of the bunch came home hungry. It got to 8.30 and I decised if veggie hadn't eaten by that time it wasn't my probem. I added chicken to the curry just five minutes before same said veggie came home starving. Took an hour to watch Torchwood.
Tuesday: Gym - then the rest of the day in the office doing day-job stuff. One of my four dance teams from the festival has cancelled. Bummer. No way in Hell I can replace them.) Torchwood again.
Today: Skipped gym again. Mustn't skip tomorrow, Applied seat of the trousers to the office chair all day. Keyboard seems to be a bit faulty. Failing to types some letters. Phone never stopped ringing for tickets for the festival concert. It's Tanglefoot, of course.. Their last-but-one UK gig and the last in the north. I expected it to be busy and I have not been disappointed. Last festival meeting before the big day. (Big 2 days actually.) More Torchwood. Good!
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July 8th, 2009
ericreynolds
 | 08:30 pm - Two Hadley Rille Books events this weekend:
Both are 11 July 2009
Seven Author Event in Wirral in the UK:
The Campbell Conference at the University of Kansas, where several authors and I will participate in the autograph session at 12:45pm. And we'll have our first launch for Footprints!
Hadley Rille Books
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