Hal O'Brien

Penn & Teller have an interview in the Telegraph, where Penn quotes Jerry Seinfeld this way:

"(Penn) couldn’t care less what (magicians) think. “I have always hated magic,” he says. “I have always hated the basic undercurrent of magic which Jerry Seinfeld put best when he said: 'All magic is “Here’s a quarter, now it’s gone. You’re a jerk. Now it’s back. You’re an idiot. Show’s over”.’ I never wanted to grow up to be a magician. It was never my goal.”"

The lesson from this, fannishly, is that obviously Seinfeld knows D. West.

Seriously. That quote sums up D's career comprehensively. It's why I regard D so boring as to be a, "He puts whole nations to sleep," kind of writer (originally Harlan talking about Wagner) -- because you always know what the punchline is going to be.

“Here’s a quarter, now it’s gone. You’re a jerk. Now it’s back. You’re an idiot. Show’s over.”

Yup. Seinfeld has saved all of fandom from ever having to read a D. West cartoon or article ever again. It'll only be repetition from here on out.

I said something similar to Victor Gonzalez at this past Potlatch. Victor took great umbrage -- mostly, I suspect, because he read D at an impressionable time, before he knew better. Heck, I was there when Victor met D, during a jaunt to outer Yorkshire especially for the purpose right after the Leeds Corflu.

At Potlatch, though, Victor stiffened and said, "He's a better writer than you!"

Which has no bearing whatsoever on D's merits, but as I told Victor at the time, "Victor, everyone in this room is a better writer than I am. If that's your standard, it's very low."

You can see my full photo set here. Some of the pics are by akirlu as well, so full props to her.

First off, the fannishly quasi-historic one. Eight fan fund winners in one place:



Back row, L to R: Stu Shiffman (TAFF 1981), Randy Byers (TAFF 2003), Victor Gonzalez (TAFF 2001), Jerry Kaufman (DUFF 1983), Suzle Tompkins (TAFF 2005)

Front row, L to R: Ulrika O'Brien (TAFF 1998), John D Berry (DUFF 1989), Steve Green (TAFF 2009)

Next up, a solo portrait of Steve at Big Time Brewery in Seattle, 2009-Aug-16:



As I said, more available at the link above.

EDITED: I trimmed out some of the wasted space on the group picture.

I didn't send this out before the cut-off for postmarked mailed votes, which was this past Thursday, Feb 26. That's my fault, and I apologize.

Email voting is open until this Thursday, March 5th.

At this writing, I have only 18 votes in hand. I think we'd all benefit from more votes than that.

On that topic, does anyone know (AKICOLJ) who would be a likely FAAn voter from Palatine, IL? I ask because I have a mailed ballot postmarked from there, but nothing else to identify the voter (nothing on the ballot [design flaw on my part], no return address).

Thanks for your time, help, and participation,

-- Hal O'Brien

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The 2009 Fanzine Activity Achievement (FAAn) Awards Ballot is now on the page for Corflu Zed hosted by efanzines:

http://efanzines.com/Corflu26/index.htm

The categories are:

* Best Fanzine
* Best Fan Writer
* Best Fan Artist
* Best Letterhack
* Best New Fanzine Fan
* Best Online Fanac Site

...all for work made public in 2008.

Voting deadlines are:

* By postal mail: Postmarked Thursday, 26 February 2009.
* By email: The message must have a timestamp no later than Thursday, 5 March 2009, so up to 11:59PM local time. ( corflu.zed.faan@gmail.com )

The winners of the 2009 FAAn Awards will be announced during the banquet at Corflu Zed in Seattle, WA, on March 15, 2009. ( http://www.corflu.org )

Please note there will be no on-site voting during Corflu this year. You are not required to submit the ballot, just your choices if you vote by e-mail. See the instructions on the ballot for further details.

Seeing Alan Ayckbourn's photo in the Financial Times the other day prompted this --

Peter Mansbridge of the CBC, Bruce Gillespie of Australian sf fandom, and playwright Alan Ayckbourn of the UK... A Commonwealth-wide separated at birth?

While gerisullivan didn't put it this way in her post on the topic that I read, still, some Seattle fans will welcome this:

There is now an alternative to the Seattle 2011 Worldcon bid.

For Your Consideration, and all that.

On prompting from holyoutlaw, Ulrika and I went to New Kowloon to meet up with a combination of fannish and LJ folks. marykay was there, as was the incorrectly handled mrhorrible. There was also another woman whose name I'm blanking on right now (though I'm sure Luke will jog my memory)(beachfaerie, sez Luke). The find of the day -- apart from the dim sum, of course -- was the smart, funny, and graciously willing to translate bonvogue.

The dim sum was as one might expect from a good restaurant -- yummy shiu mai, har gow, cha shu bao, etc. Anna ordered a fried squid in salt and pepper for Luke, and he was kind enough to share.

Best moment: Anna somehow dropping something, and apologizing profusely. Ulrika quipped, "I figure you're just trying to make us gwailo at home." Anna blushed brightly, giggled with her hand in front of her mouth in her most traditional and decorous manner, and said at the high end of her soprano, "I can't be-lieve you just said that!"

Me, having long been a student of regional First Nations tribes, I figure the Haida Gwaii have a clan in Seattle, the Haida Gwailo, who are forever in search of tasty chinese-prepared seafood.

Obviously, the New Kowloon is a prime spot for finding this tribe. :)