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# 2445 |
Written by Fred Patten, and intended for Apa L, 2245th Distribution,
LASFS Meeting No. 3693, May 22, 2008.
Golden State Colonial Convalescent Hospital, 10830 Oxnard Street, North
Hollywood, California 91606-5098.
Telephone: hospital(818) 763-8247; personal (818)
506-3159 * eMail:fredpatten@earthlink.net
| Denvention 3 in 2008! | Anticipation in 2009! | Salamander Press #2729 |
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Last Thursday my sister Sherrill took me to the LASFS meeting. There was a delicious birthday cake for Clare Lasby. Matthew Tepper donated a telephone to my care fund. Arlene Satin made impressive announcements for the developing plans for the LASFS Children's Story Reading Program at the local LAPL branch coming closer on June 9th, including Reading Rocketeers T-shirts and visors for volunteers designed by David Okamura; and for the LASFS display at the next West Hollywood Book Fair. Mike Donahue had even more encouraging news about new long-range plans to completely renovate and expand Freehafer Hall that the Board of Directors and SCIFI had approved. Together with the current improvements to the LASFS website, it is the most positive sign in over a decade that the LASFS is starting to move forward once again. The C/FO's 31st anniversary meeting was mentioned in passing.
On Friday, Sherry picked me up at 10:30 a.m. to drive me down to the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Irvine for CaliFur IV. Traffic on the 5 Freeway was stop and go; we did not arrive until 12:30. Glen Wooten was waiting with this convention's caregiver from the Care Plus Nursing Services; Carlos Calizo, a hefty Filipino who said that he had been one of President Fidel Ramos's bodyguards before he came to the U.S. and became a medical orderly. The certified nurse who came to give me my medications on Friday and Saturday evenings, and Saturday and Sunday mornings, was Analen Blancaflor; the same nurse that Care Plus provided me at CaliFur II and III. They chatted together in Tagalog.
The convention was generally a success. Attendance was about 550, up from 450 last year. The newcomers were mainly Furry neofen at their first Furry con, and they were lively & enthusiastic. Most were interested in Fursuiting and there were plenty of Fursuit events at the con. The con was poorly organized for anyone else, however. Events started late or nobody was at them. The Hyatt Regency Irvine was a lot larger than the Costa Mesa hotel where the last two CaliFurs were cramped, but was deficient in other respects. One of the most popular events of past CaliFurs, the Reptile show & tell where fans got to hold live iguanas and snakes, was cancelled on the spot when the hotel would not allow them to be brought in. The only places to eat in the hotel were grossly overpriced and had limited menus that few liked; most fans crossed Jamboree Blvd. to a Souplantation for meals. The Ice Cream Social cost $3.00 and had only commercial ice cream bars. There were lots of other glitches which were probably nobody's fault, such as the Fursuit Parade which was supposed to be outdoors around the pool being moved to the air-conditioned indoors where there was no room for it, due to 110º temperatures outdoors. There were two other events in the hotel at the same time, and while there was no friction, the signs saying CaliFur Attendees Stay Out of the ---- Room did not improve the general atmosphere any.
I mainly wandered around and socialized. Steve Gattuso, an ASIFA-Hollywood officer, gave me the good news that ASIFA has voted me a lifetime membership since I cannot afford the yearly dues due to my hospital expenses. I brought several Furry books & fanzines that I had borrowed from Roz Gibson to return to her. She said that her novel, which I have mentioned here a few times, is currently being considered by an editor at Tor Books. I spent a lot of the con with Michael Burlake, who drove down from Roseville for it. He sends his best wishes to everybody at the LASFS. Other fans I was glad to see again in person included Mitch Beiro and Kjartan Arnörsson from Arizona, Chuck Garofalo from New Jersey, and Mike Susko from San Francisco. Two fans asked for my e.mail so they could interview me about Furry fandom, for a college thesis and for a small pop-culture magazine.
On Saturday afternoon Rod O'Riley and I spent a hour on the telephone participating in the Ursa Major Award presentations at Morphicon 2008, this same weekend in Columbus, Ohio. They videotaped the presentations and are supposed to send us a copy. Next year's presentations will be at Anthrofest 2009 in Montréal, which is not opposite the CaliFur, so we will not do this again.
On Sunday Sherry brought our mother from her home in Mission Viejo for a lunch at the hotel's overpriced 6ix Park Grill with me, Carlos, and Michael Burlake. Glen Wooten took time out from running the Art Show Auction to meet my mother, who especially wanted to meet him and Michael for all that they have done for me since my stroke. It was the first time I have seen Mother in three years, since she will be 96 in September and does not like to leave Mission Viejo any more despite having her driver's license renewed. We had a very enjoyable lunch with the restaurant deserted except for us, so we got good service at least. (I had a $10 cup of chicken soup; my sister & mother had $22 salads.) Afterwards Sherry drove our mother & me back to Mother's house in nearby Mission Viejo, then returned with me to North Hollywood for a brief stop at her apartment and a good dinner at Solley's Deli in Sherman Oaks before returning me to the Golden State Hospital.
As soon as I returned to the hospital and my computer, I sent out this press release:
May 18, 2008
The winners of the seventh annual Ursa Major Awards (formally the Anthropomorphic Literature & Arts of the Year Awards), for the Best in anthropomorphic/"funny animal" literature and art first published during the calendar year 2007, were announced at a presentation ceremony on Saturday, May 17 at Morphicon 2008, held at the Columbus-Worthington Holiday Inn in Columbus, Ohio on May 16 - 18, 2008.
The Ursa Major Awards are Anthropomorphic (a.k.a. Furry) Fandom's equivalents of s-f fandom's Hugo Awards, mystery fandom's Anthony Awards, horror fandom's Bram Stoker Awards, and so forth. The Ursa Majors are administered and presented by The Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association, a membership organization dedicated to promoting anthropomorphic fandom-related events.
Nominations and voting on the awards are open to the public. The physical award consists of an illustrated trophy certificate, designed by Heather Bruton.
Eligibility in ten categories is for works featuring intelligent &/or talking animals first published during the calendar year 2007. This can include new compilations of older works, such as a new collection of previously-published separate works. The winners are chosen by popular vote from five finalists in each category.
By popular request, the Best Anthropomorphic Fanzine category has been renamed the Best Anthropomorphic Magazine category.
Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture: "Ratatouille" (Pixar/Disney, released June 29, 2007)
Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short Work or Series: "Gridlock" (Doctor Who, Series 3, Episode 3; produced by BBC1, first broadcast April 14, 2007)
Best Anthropomorphic Novel: "Life's Dream", by Bernard Doove (CreateSpace, December 2007)
Best Anthropomorphic Short Fiction: "Don't Blink", by Kyell Gold (in "Heat" #4, Sofawolf Press, July 2007)
Best Anthropomorphic Other Literary Work: "All the Newshounds Fit to Print", by Thomas K. Dye (Lulu.com, January 2007)
Best Anthropomorphic Comic Book: "Gargoyles", by Greg Weisman, Gordon Purcell, Dustin Evans, and Greg Guler (Slave Labor Graphics, #4 to #6)
Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip: "Ozy and Millie", by D. C. Simpson (Internet, Monday to Friday, January 1 to December 31)
Best Anthropomorphic Magazine: "Heat" (Published by Sofawolf Press, one 2007 issue, July)
Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration: "Blotch" (Kenket and Black Teagan); cover painting for the Fur Affinity: United 2007 convention souvenir book, August 10-12, 2007.
Best Anthropomorphic Game: "Sam & Max, Season 2, Episode 1: Ice Station Santa" (Designer: Telltale Games; Publisher: Game Tap; released November 8, 2007)
201 ballots were received: 145 were from the U.S.; a dozen or more each from Australia and the U.K.; a half dozen or more each from Canada and Germany; and one or two each from countries as diverse as Austria, Bulgaria, Italy, Laos, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Russia, Spain, and Sweden.
For further information, contact The Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association (ALAA), at http://www.ursamajorawards.org/
This news is already announced on Wikipedia and on the Science Fiction Awards Watch sites.
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-- Comments on Last Week's Distribution:
Cover - (Gold) Is the skeleton driving the truck, or stuck on the windshield?
De Jueves #1583 - (Moffatts) Chess is extremely popular in Russia, which is probably why it was added to the Russian cartoon about the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow. ## I want to show the exact Loscon history, so if Loscon 35 is using Arabic numerals instead of Roman numerals, I want to follow that. ## I do not like the way Florence is currently being treated in Freefall either, but I suspect that she will come out in charge of her own controls. I am more concerned by the extremely slow pace of the strip lately. One or two days are taking months to relate. ## Yes, the quocovers of Apa L's golden age were taken from single dist'ns.
Godzilla Verses #191 - (DeChancie) Thanks for the old photomap of Culver City. ## Yes, and Southern California smelled sweet in the areas full of orange groves, too - better than the areas around the dairy farms like Fountain Valley. ## Paul Norris, yes! The art style is identical to your previous mystery panel that we suspected was by him. ## You should try some of the comic strips that are published on the Internet. Freefall by Mark Stanley is a good example. So is Lackadaisy by Tracy J. Butler; Gunnerkrigg Court by Tom Siddell is a good full-page color comic. For a slower paced, beautifully drawn graphic novel, try The Phoenix Requiem by ArtsAngel (Sarah Ellerton).
How Do I Set a Laser Printer to Stun? - (Cantor) By your definition, science fiction fandom does not really exist; it is all part of fantasy fandom. This seems similar to the argument that comic books are not really comic books because most of them are dramatic narratives instead. Nobody has been able to come up with a better name to replace comic books. Similarly, Furry fandom and filking fandom and horror fandom and anime fandom all come from what is called science fiction fandom, whether it should be called fantasy fandom or not. They may all be siblings but the parent is "s-f fandom" by longstanding tradition, not "fantasy fandom". We seem to agree that all fandoms are not congruent with each other, but "s-f fandom" is the umbrella term that they all fit under and the fandom from which they came.
I Vitrify Moccasins - (Gold) Yes, I read H. Allen Smith's The Age of the Tail when it came out. It is almost forgotten today. I consider it Furry.
