So, how did Sean spend his Labor Day weekend? I relaxed. I had planned on attending WorldCon a long time ago, but time and money changed those plans, so I decided to attend StarQuest, a science fiction convention at the same hotel as Baycon.
StarQuest had put their schedule on the web, so I was able to figure out very quickly that I could commute each day from Berkeley to the con and save my money. The guests were:
Programming highlights outside of panels included:
There wasn't a lot of programming scheduled, so I knew that this was going to be a relaxed convention. I decided to show up on Saturday to catch the Battlestar Galactica panel. My first shock was arriving at the hotel and finding a parking spot within steps of the doors. This would never happen at Baycon.
The next indication that this con would be lightly attended was that there was no line at the registration desk. I paid for a full membership and was told that my badge would not be ready for a half hour. I could show my convention packet to enter panels and other areas.
I had about a half hour before the panel, so I decided to check out the art show. Outside the art show, Richard Hatch, Anne Lockhart, and Herb Jefferson were signing autographs. I wasn't interested, but I noticed a few things:
The art show had only about 8 panels worth of stuff. The only interesting pieces were not for sale (drat, but they probably would have cost an arm anyway). After I had looked at the pieces it was time to go to the BG panel.
At its height, there were at most 75 people in the room (yes, I could count them). For where are they now...
The rest of the panel dealt with the possibility of a future Galactica series...it would ignore the abomination known as Galactica 1980 and follow Richard's books. Universal owns the rights to Galactica and there are some indications that the folks who produce the Action Pack (of which Hercules and Xena are a part of) are interested. The original cast is interested in returning (this is one reason Armegeddon occurs 18 years after the original series; they wouldn't need to make the characters look younger or recast). Richard wants the series to look more into The Fleet...there are thousands of ships, all with a bunch of story potentials...They wouldn't need to fall into formula like the old series.
There was some other discussion about the original series...how filming on the set sometimes got hectic because they sometimes had very long shoots, or were shooting two episodes simultaneously.
Next, I went over to the Fiction Fundamentals I panel hosted by Lillian Csernica. I had first met Lillian through Kim at Baycon in 1996, and I saw her again at this year's Baycon. When I got to the panel, she said "Hi Sean! This is for you.", as she looked through her handbag and pulled out an envelope. I opened it to find the icon of the Sacred Heart. "Thanks!" "Well, Kim had told me that you were Catholic." (and yes, for those of you who don't know, I am) Then the panel began; but first we had to improvise a stand for Lillian's white board; someone ended up stacking two chairs against the wall, with top chair upside-down.
I won't go over the details of the panel, but Lillian did a great job and is a good teacher. She came up with excellent examples to demonstrate plot and scene, and for tone and setting, had us pick a place and the most unlikely thing to be there, and then determine what kind of story you might end up with:
| Place | Unlikely Thing | Type of Story |
| Taj Mahal | a jewish wedding | comedy |
| Xanadu | a rest home | hero must get rest home out |
| New England countryside | open air fleshpot | alternate history (Kennedys are Kings?) |
| New York subway | Sunday school picnic | it's an alien Sunday school |
This was all quite fun.
After Lillian's panel, I went out to answer a page; I had suggested to Karen O'Mara a friend and fellow Disney wacko) that we get together on Sunday since there wasn't much going on at the con during the day. She had called me back to set up when we could get together. After we talked, it was near time to catch Lillian reading a short story.
there were only about 5 of us in the room, and the previous panel was cleaning up...we ended up sitting in a circle in the back of the room, which to me is the perfect way to listen to a story. Lillian told us that this was her best short story, and then proceeded to tell us of the adventures of Tabor the fisherman and his quest to walk "The Path of the Sun". The story had me fully engrossed and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I'd love to see this story with a lot illustrations, because some the images sounded fabulous. Lillian herself got close to being choked up while reading it, and I can understand that. After she concluded it, I had to agree, it was better than any of the other stories of hers that I've read (granted, I've only read three). She mentioned that it had been sold twice, but both times the magazines went belly up before it was published (drat!).
Next, it was time to relax for a while. Well, one of the best places to relax is the bar. I ordered a martini, which was decent, and did a little people watching. I then noticed Dave Friedman, who also administers gobears, outside at the pool. I took my drink with me out to the pool and chatted with him and a few other Con staffers for a while until it was time to catch the Klingon Opera.
I had no idea what I was going to see when I went to the Klingon Opera panel, but it sounded interesting (no pun intended). The panel was hosted by the opera's author and composer. The author described what the opera was about, while the composer treated us to a few arias (all male ones) from the opera. We were asked not to divulge any details of the opera; so sorry. The opera is still unfinished...I hope it's completed someday and I hope to see it staged at a con someday; but we all know how protective Paramount is of its franchise. From the bits of Klingon Opera I have heard in the various new Treks, the orchestration sounds Klingon and the story seems like something Klingons would turn into an opera.
Following the opera, I caught up with Dave out by the pool and hung out for a while longer before grabbing a bite to eat...since Dave was a staffer, he went to the staff lounge for dinner. I went to the coffee garden. We hooked up again afterwards. (Like I said, this was relaxed) I then took a look into the sky and noticed that the sun was beginning to set, and that there were enough clouds in the sky to give the sunset some color. I said "I'm gonna go watch the sunset; it looks like it's going to be pretty good. Anyone want to join me?" Nope, there were no sunset watchers with me, so I went at it alone.
It was worth it. My grandparents had an apartment on the shores of Manila Bay, so I've been an aficionado of sunsets for quite a long time. Lillian said "There are two things that you can not describe, and one of them is a sunset." Oh well, this one was one of the best for colors I had witnessed in a long time...I wish I could have watched it from the roof of the hotel, because from the parking lot you had a view of most of the sky, and some of the mountains, but none of the sun on the horizon. I watched as the clouds across the sky faded from yellow, to orange, to pink, and finally to violet. I took the time to look back at the mountains and watch the glow of the sunset crawl up their sides.
Following the sunset, it was time for the masquerade. Amazingly enough, they opened the doors only 7 minutes late. There weren't that many entries in the contest, but here were the highlights:
When the judges went to deliberate, I decided to cruise the parties... only there weren't any besides Mara's Bar -- the Con suite.
When the judges returned, the guests also gave out their own awards. Of course, the Galactica guests each gave a personal award to the Cylon. They also had a little fun with Anne Lockhart. It turns out that Anne did the breathing and panting for Lelu in The 5th Element. Everyone persuaded Anne to do this for us...oh be still my beating heart...that was damned sexy breathing ;)
After the conclusion of the masquerade, it was time for the Rock dance. But first there was an interruption. A fire alarm went off, and we were asked to evacuate the hotel. It turns out that the fire alarm was set off by a flambe (oops). Still, it was kinda late, and I had to get up early the next morning, so I decided to go home.
The next day I arrived just in time for some movie previews and handing out of free stuff. The only free stuff I got was an Event Horizon hat and an Alien Resurrection teaser one-sheet. I had grabbed a few Anastasia quarter-sheets and a Space Jam one-sheet the night before, but those weren't for me.
The preview highlights (of stuff that's not in theatres):
After the previews I took off to spend a relaxing afternoon chatting with Karen O'Mara. Did any of you guys feel your ears burning? At one point, Karen's daughter Emily was watching Rocko's Modern Life (a TV show on the Nickelodeon cable network) -- I was surprised to see a parody of the opening of The Lumberjack Song, in which, instead of the character wanting to be a lumberjack, he wanted to be something like a dentist. He didn't sing though.
I eventually returned to the con to catch the Clan MacDude wedding. The groom, bride, bridesmaid, and the Patriarch were dressed in appropriate MacDude garb (picture, if you can, kilts and dresses but in day-glo hawaiian colors) My favorite was Cat (the bride), whose "kilt" included prints of cats in various day-glo colors. (I took some photos, so you will see them eventually, once the roll is finished.) The best man, Buff MacDude was in a regular kilt. For decoration, there were two "cabers" that seemed to resemble surfboards, and two gerbilators.
The ceremony began with the Patriarch asking for two moments of silence, one in remembrance of Robert Switzer (Cal '36) the co-inventor of day-glo paint, and the other for Princess Diana. After that, the groom was escorted in, followed by the bride.
The Patriarch then went through the vows, which were the standard set (to have and to hold, to honor and to keep, ...) plus a vow saying that each would avoid the use of farm animals and other implements (to which the audience responded with "bahhhh bahhhh" and other farm animal sounds). After the farm animal line, the groom had to confer with his best man, and then the bride had to confer with her bridesmaid. Both eventually said "yes" (well, the groom said "I MacDude"). The kiss lasted quite a while and generated a few hoots and hollers from the gallery. Afterwards, the Fairy Garlic Mother blessed the happy couple.
That was not all...next the tossing of the bouquet and garter. At first, no bachelorette went up to try and catch the bouquet, so two bachelors did. They were then joined by the bridesmaid and several others. If I remember correctly, the bridesmaid caught the bouquet. For the garter toss, the groom used his teeth to pull down the garter (woo hoo!) and then took aim; He shot the garter into the wall instead of to the crowd. On his second try he got it right...I forget who caught it.
Members of the clan then grabbed the cabers and the gerbilators and provided a path for the couple to walk through before they reached the center of the room for the toast. For the toast, they held up a matching set of coconut goblets (yes, made of real coconuts) and then they had their first drink as MacDude and wife.
After the toast it was time for a wedding present. They were given a two dimensional wire-framed sheep wind chime. The bride was then ordered to remove her sheep ribbon, which she did by taking it off and wrapping it around the nexk of the Patriarch.
Next came a few photos, so I dashed out to the car to grab my camera. We'll see how they turn out. Following the ceremony, it was time for dinner, and I bumped into Dave at the coffee garden and joined him and we chatted with a few other staffers about past cons. Dave and the other staffers then found out that they had to help set up the Zocalo Casino and Dance Club, so I was left to finish my sandwich.
After dinner there was still some time before the Zocalo opened...so I went outside to enjoy the sunset...It wasn't as nice as Saturday's but there were still enough clouds for some colors. After the sunset I made my way back to the hotel; as soon as I entered the lobby, Lillian greeted me from the bar, where she was sitting with her husband Chris, son, mother, and a few friends. I joined them for a brief chat before we all went up to Mara's Bar for some drinks. During the chat I found out that one of Lillian's friends, Larri, is a big Disneyland fan. She asked me for some information about Tokyo Disneyland. I ended up mailing her the URL for Tokyo Disneyland. At Mara's Bar, you could exchange a strip of "latinum" for a drink 1 strip of latinum could be obtained by donating $1 to the Make a Wish Foundation.
Soon it was time to visit the Zocalo. The Casino featured Blackjack, Roulette, and Craps (what? no poker table?) Donating $10 to the Make a Wish Foundation would give you 500 in chips. At the end of the night, you could cash in your chips for raffle tickets. I ended up shuttling between Mara's Bar (where the drinks were cheap) and the Zocalo throughout the night. The raffle was at midnight. The prizes included a room for the night, 13 strips of latinum, some B5 pins, and B5 patches. No, I didn't win, but several staffers did. When Lillian went to draw some of the winning tickets, I was all set to yell out "Fix! Fix! Fix!", since Chris, her husband had two tickets. Nope, she didn't draw the right tickets. Oh well.
After the drawing, I decided to drive back to Berkeley. I told Lillian that I'd see her at her last panel...and that panel was fun. She continued the lessons of her first Fiction Fundamentals panel; but the best part was at the end. Lillian made the comment that she would never raise her child on Disney, simply because of what they did to Victor Hugo's work (Hunchback of Notre Dame). She complained that giving it a happy ending was just wrong and was a move simply to sell toys. This sparked a pretty lively debate amongst the attendees. Some people brought up the point that other works have been changed (such as The Wizard of OZ), others talked how the Disney heroines seem to be more sexual, and then Lillian's god-daughter compared Hugo's novel with the movie. I wish my brain had been working that day...I would have said
Disney did not release this as "Victor Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris", they just called it "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". In the credits it says adapted from Victor Hugo's "Notre Dame de Paris". Disney never claimed "Hunchback" to be anything other than a derivative work.
Disney changed a lot more than the ending. Most importantly, Don Claude Frollo was the central character, not Quasimodo. The novel's main story was Frollo's descent from innocence to guilt driven by lust for Esmeralda. While Frollo did experience lust in the movie, he did not start off as innocent; He was established as a villain from the opening sequence.
I would have also reminded everyone, that I like Hunchback because they somehow managed to tell the story without getting rid of all of the dark elements. If I had my druthers, I would have chosen one or two alternate paths for the story:
If you wanted to still appeal to kids, have Esmeralda go off with Quasimodo in the end. Since the movie is about Quasimodo, why not have him succeed as a hero and have the strong moral that one's actions can overcome one's physical appearance (rather than "one's actions not one's physical appearance determines whether one is a man or a monster") They just didn't have the guts though.
Otherwise, I'd scrap the kids' story and go all out with the full tragic story (first thing -- lose the gargoyles). Of course, while I'd enjoy seeing the animators do this, I know it wouldn't sell. People are too entrenched with the idea that if it's Disney, it's for kids.
Anyway, after the panel, I hung out a little while longer with Lillian. Long enough to have her give me some chocolate, and to see her point out that the crosses had been removed from tops of the Russian Orthodox Churches in the Anastasia quarter-sheets. When Lillian was ready to leave, she asked I'd be at Silicon (which is over Thanksgiving weekend), but I said that I think I'll be at Loscon (which is in Burbank) instead.
Oh well, after that it was time to go home. When I got home, I decided to log onto AOL and join others in celebrating or mourning the final Light Magic of the season. When 9:15 rolled around, I started playing the Light Magic music on my CD player...other folks in the chat room did the same. We tossed out comments at appropriate moments. At end, I said "Yay! My nightmare is over." We then decided that the park would have been crowded enough for a second Fantasmic to be added. So, at 10pm, I played my Fantasmic CD (and so did others) and tossed out Fantasmic 3-D lines at appropriate moments. After that, I played "I'm Wishing" from the Snow White CD and led a virtual Snow White's coin toss. And before signing off, I listened to the Main Street Electrical Parade to comemorate the "drive home".
All in all, a fun and relaxed weekend.
Thanks go to: