Going back to my roots.
OK, so the first time I went to a Science Fiction convention was around 1976. As I recall there were long lines and a small huckster room, but lots of people who shared my only guilty pleasure at the time. Wow, there were other people just like me!
We stood outside the film room and listened to the last reel of the 1933 film King Kong. Then we were went inside to a packed room and watched the Douglas Trumbull film Silent Running. I was enchanted. I’d of course seen lots of Science Fiction by then (mostly in the old “book” form) but Silent Running was the first “hard SF” film I had seen in a long time. Silent Running is a freaking BEEEEE! Movie, I am well aware of that. So what, I liked it anyway. I went to a lot of cons after that. Most some of my very dear friends at them (ans SCA too but the cons were first.)
One was the Stone Hill launch #1 which was in some seedy church in Tampa. St9one Hill was a budding Science Fiction fan club that was just starting up.
I think George Takei was a this thing but I can’t be sure. (Memory is the second thing to go!) I went to a number of others and served in various capacities on staff. After I left the service I rejoined Stonehill and actively went to meetings for a few years. After I got involved with the SCA and other such things I more or less abandoned the Stone-hillers. I still went the cons from time to time – they simply were not a main focus anymore (getting married and setting up a household was.) I have fond memories of those times though.
I went to Stonehill’s Necornomicon(link) this weekend. It was being held in Downtown Saint Petersburg which was already busy with the Times Reading Festival and the monthly street market. The turnout was only so-so and I expect that they will me moving to a new venue next year. I heard there was some sabotage too, someone is pointedly damaging hotel property during the cons and apparently this has been going on for a few years.
We took E’ Saturday , he didn’t want to go but we “made him” He didn’t know what to make of all the people in the silly costumes. But he soon warmed up to the filmrooms and especially the lan gaming. We say several people that we had not seen for many years (hey Sid!) I got into a couple of deep conversations with folks about writing-and-publishing (and computers.) I watched a couple of films with E’.
We hung out a the con suite for a while and goggled at “Inappropriate-chick in her Red Sonja getup (there is always one Inappropriate chick at every convention, its in the bylaws somewhere.) We watched the costume contest, this was the year of Batman Villains and Zombies for some reason. The troupe of Zombie Girl Scouts won the show. A couple of our friends were doing a Stampunk thing and got honorable mention.
I had a fun moment, I’d wandered by one of the film rooms, they were showing Wall-E, a freaking great movie. Someone was talking about geology “the moon has no Earthquakes” he said, “there is no atmosphere on the moon and that’s what causes quakes.” He was saying al lot more absurd stuff, I finally looked at him and said “cool story bro!” which in some places on the Internet is kind of an insult. Apparently he got it because he shut up and watched.
We enjoyed it, neec to go to more, nuff said!
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