faces on noms-de-blogue

[sergebroom]

Yesterday night was when that Making Light gathering was held in Oakland. First, of course, Sue and I got lost – or rather, I got us lost because I took a wrong turn in spite of MapQuest’s very clear instructions. Fortunately, after some driving around, I recognized some of the street names then my wife the navigator got us to the Pacific Coast Brewing Company. And on time too. After I pulled into a parking spot, I wasn’t sure if there were time limits so I went to another car that had just arrived, and was about to apologize to the lady because I didn’t want to scare her and it turned out to be Lisa Goldstein, who was also coming to the gathering. That being said, it was a nice meeting. Sure the place was a bit loud, but not so loud hat we had to shout to hear each other. Some of the people I had already met, like Tom Whitmore and David Goldfarb, Kathryn from Sunnyvale and her SO, but I finally got to put a face on the noms-de-blogue of Tim Walters, Lenny Bailes, Madeline F, Julie L (who came ith her SO) and Lexica (with hers).

Speaking of putting faces on names, I had planned to post photos of the gathering, but they all sucked very badly. Thus, those who were present can breathe easy.

That being said, Dawno, don’t you wish you had come from the peninsula, in spite of the rain that went on and on until late afternoon?

Comments

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a lot of fun. Of that list, I've only met David Goldfarb (this past September, in Montreal).

[pnh.livejournal.com]

Holy crap, I wish we'd been there.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah... I remember your saying that. As I said on ML, we talked about the cases where a book was actually better in its movie version. It was a very short list that, I think, included North Dallas Forty, Spartacus and The Wizard of Oz. We also talked of when in our lives we decided that a book didn't have to be read to the bitter end even if we hated the whole thing early on, and that's when Delany's Dhalgren came up.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm still hoping that there'll an ML gathering at the Denver worldcon. You and Teresa will have your own professional obligations to handle, but there's no reason that the rest of us can't organize something tthat you could attend without having to worry about running the thing. By the way, one of the things we talked about was how we each discovered ML. For some people, it was a what-if that had started elsewhere before being continued on Electrolite, where one could imagine what LoTR would have been like if written by, for example, William S. Burroughs.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Dhalgren is a book that I've found unreadable. I keep thinking that's a weakness or limitation on my part.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

If so, then you share that weakness and limitation with everybody who was at that gathering.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's good to know. I kept thinking it was just me.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Definitely not. My understanding, from what someone read in Delany's biography, is that Dhalgren had a lot in it that was very personal to the author. Unfortunately, it couldn't resonate for those of us who didn't have inside knowledge.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Ah! That makes sense.

[ohdawno.livejournal.com]

Yes, I really do wish I could have come, but it was much more than rain that kept me away - perhaps someday LJ will let me back in* and I will post about what's going on.

*I've tried resetting my password about a dozen times and it still doesn't work!

[ohdawno.livejournal.com]

Yay! Serge's blog comments were the magic key! Thank you Serge, I'm logged in!

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Foul demons that clog Dawno's blog, begone! That being said, have a Happy Holiday!