1 00:00:48,410 --> 00:00:53,130 The first ever World Con, AKA the World Science Fiction 2 00:00:53,130 --> 00:00:58,410 Convention, was in 1939. It understandably took a few 3 00:00:58,410 --> 00:01:03,730 years off from the years 1942 to 1945 because of some World War 4 00:01:03,730 --> 00:01:06,610 or something. Yeah, there was, like, Nazis and 5 00:01:06,610 --> 00:01:07,810 other issues. Yeah. 6 00:01:07,890 --> 00:01:12,450 In the world of fiction written, spoken on screen storytelling, 7 00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:15,680 Nazis are perhaps the most recognizable human villains of 8 00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:17,600 all time. I use the word human pretty 9 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:20,360 lightly there. But apart from rude 10 00:01:20,360 --> 00:01:23,120 interruptions by the Nazis, World Con has continued to 11 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:25,760 unabated. It's fitting that it has lasted 12 00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:30,240 so long and dates back so far. After all, fantasy is the oldest 13 00:01:30,240 --> 00:01:32,240 literary genre, Something I love to point out. 14 00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:34,280 It was original. That concept was originally 15 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:37,240 introduced to me by Mateo Barbagallo, who will be 16 00:01:37,240 --> 00:01:38,920 mentioned a couple times in this episode. 17 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:41,560 Hey, Mateo. And George RR Martin himself 18 00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:44,360 pointed that out during one of the panels, so I'd love to hear 19 00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:46,440 that from him. He obviously agrees. 20 00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:51,280 Seattle World Con 2025 was the 83rd World Con. 21 00:01:51,880 --> 00:01:55,160 So many, there's probably no one living that attended that first 22 00:01:55,160 --> 00:01:58,600 one because that's 86 years ago. So if you were 14 years old and 23 00:01:58,600 --> 00:02:01,880 went to World Con in 1939 and you're still alive, you're 100. 24 00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:05,480 So, well, if you are alive, Congrats, that's amazing. 25 00:02:05,840 --> 00:02:08,000 You're a great person and we Revere you. 26 00:02:08,639 --> 00:02:10,400 Less likely to be still going to con. 27 00:02:10,400 --> 00:02:12,400 Yeah, and less likely to be listening to our podcast, 28 00:02:12,400 --> 00:02:15,200 perhaps. But still, if you're out there, 29 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:18,720 the world has changed in the meantime, right? 30 00:02:18,720 --> 00:02:21,760 Technology has changed. More things that I could name 31 00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:24,320 have changed you, you know that I don't have to list them. 32 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:28,240 But people still love stories. As much as the world has 33 00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:32,440 changed, that has not. The format maybe has changed, 34 00:02:32,440 --> 00:02:37,000 the way people intake stories maybe has changed a bit, but not 35 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:39,240 that much. Fundamentally, we all still love 36 00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:40,840 stories. And that's the bottom line. 37 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:42,440 That's what World Con is all about. 38 00:02:42,440 --> 00:02:44,880 Not just the stories, but the community around them, the 39 00:02:44,920 --> 00:02:48,640 authors, the fans, everything in between, the artists. 40 00:02:48,640 --> 00:02:51,680 Yeah, all that. They loved stories back in the 41 00:02:51,680 --> 00:02:53,960 time of Gilgamesh. They love them now. 42 00:02:54,200 --> 00:02:55,920 We love them now. You love them now. 43 00:02:55,920 --> 00:02:59,000 So yeah, World Con, it's a celebration of that long running 44 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:01,960 tradition. So in this episode, we've got 45 00:03:02,280 --> 00:03:05,520 lots of love for World Con and the things we did there, 46 00:03:05,720 --> 00:03:07,440 including hanging out with George. 47 00:03:07,920 --> 00:03:11,200 We had some, we have some reports on Brandon Sanderson, 48 00:03:11,200 --> 00:03:13,800 Rebecca Roanhorse, Robin Hobb, those are other authors that 49 00:03:13,800 --> 00:03:18,360 were there, the Hugo Awards and just more of our adventures out 50 00:03:18,360 --> 00:03:21,680 West, pictures included. So all that and more on this 51 00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:24,280 episode of History of Westeros Podcast. 52 00:03:27,360 --> 00:03:31,200 Hello and welcome everybody. It's another episode for you, a 53 00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:34,560 bit different one this time. We do a couple of these a year, 54 00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:38,040 I suppose, reporting on conventions or things that 55 00:03:38,040 --> 00:03:41,640 aren't directly related to a Song of Ice and Fire content in 56 00:03:41,640 --> 00:03:45,240 terms of what's in the books. But this is this is meta textual 57 00:03:45,240 --> 00:03:49,120 here every Sunday, just about every Sunday, that is we are 58 00:03:49,120 --> 00:03:51,440 live at 3:00 PM Eastern. You can catch us on YouTube 59 00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:56,480 there, or you can catch us on YouTube afterwards after the 60 00:03:56,480 --> 00:03:59,680 fact, or on Spotify. You can find the video there as 61 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:04,320 well or on any podcast platform. You can listen to us and we're 62 00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:06,880 ad free if you listen to us on Patreon. 63 00:04:07,440 --> 00:04:09,920 If you have questions for us, I know this is an episode that 64 00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:13,960 might inspire particular questions, feel free to hit us 65 00:04:13,960 --> 00:04:15,000 up. And if you're catching this 66 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:17,120 later after the fact, you can e-mail us at 67 00:04:17,120 --> 00:04:20,680 westeroshistory@gmail.com or any of our socials. 68 00:04:20,680 --> 00:04:22,920 We're pretty much on all the big sites. 69 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:26,280 Let's start with a trivia Question 3 parter. 70 00:04:26,280 --> 00:04:28,480 These are three different years all about George. 71 00:04:28,640 --> 00:04:32,160 What year was George RR Martin the guest of honor at World Con? 72 00:04:32,600 --> 00:04:35,920 What year was George RR Martin's first World Con? 73 00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:39,920 And what year was George RR Martin's first panel at World 74 00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:42,360 Con? If you listen carefully, I will 75 00:04:42,360 --> 00:04:44,240 reveal all the answers during this episode. 76 00:04:44,520 --> 00:04:47,040 If you already know them, go ahead and drop your guesses and 77 00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:48,840 I'll reveal the answers at the end. 78 00:04:49,360 --> 00:04:52,320 Super chat from Corn Emperor. I love that nickname, Corn 79 00:04:52,320 --> 00:04:53,600 Emperor. You know, it's like Corn King, 80 00:04:53,600 --> 00:04:56,280 but this is Corn, like the band. So that's funny. 81 00:04:56,760 --> 00:04:58,960 Super Chat says love. You all have an amazing show. 82 00:04:59,040 --> 00:05:02,280 Thank you very much. We fully intend on doing that 83 00:05:02,280 --> 00:05:06,200 and thank you again for that. I will read our section headers 84 00:05:06,280 --> 00:05:07,920 today. They're pretty basic. 85 00:05:07,920 --> 00:05:11,240 It's just world.com 2025 Seattle by day. 86 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:13,720 We'll talk about our first day arriving, which is traveling on 87 00:05:13,720 --> 00:05:16,520 Tuesday, then our first day there in full, which was 88 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:19,640 Wednesday and we do Thursday, then we'll talk about Friday, 89 00:05:19,720 --> 00:05:23,360 then Saturday, then cap it off with the Hugo Awards, which was 90 00:05:23,360 --> 00:05:25,720 also Saturday. And then we're going to describe 91 00:05:25,720 --> 00:05:28,560 a little bit about next year's World Con, which will be in LA. 92 00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:31,720 So that's that's exciting in terms of people's ability to go 93 00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:33,960 there, at least for most Americans anyway. 94 00:05:34,560 --> 00:05:38,080 And then we'll cap off with a little preview for Dragon Con in 95 00:05:38,080 --> 00:05:40,520 a couple weeks or not a couple weeks a week from us. 96 00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:42,600 So pictures included in that as well. 97 00:05:42,600 --> 00:05:44,000 We'll talk about what we're going to do. 98 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:45,960 So stay tuned. We've got a lot to come. 99 00:05:46,480 --> 00:05:49,640 Let's get to it. It's our 4th world con. 100 00:05:50,120 --> 00:05:52,520 Michelle and I have tried to go to other world cons and we 101 00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:57,760 started in 2018-2019. We went to Dublin. 2018, I'm 102 00:05:57,760 --> 00:06:00,760 sorry, was San Jose. We weren't able to go in 2019 or 103 00:06:00,760 --> 00:06:02,000 2020. That was the COVID year. 104 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:03,840 It wasn't. There was no live event then. 105 00:06:03,960 --> 00:06:08,760 20/21 was Washington, DC. We did go to that. 1/20/22 was 106 00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:12,320 what was 2022, Chicago, Chicago. We weren't able to attend that 107 00:06:12,320 --> 00:06:16,680 one, which was a bummer. 2023 was in Chengdu, China, no one. 108 00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:18,160 So understandably we didn't go to China. 109 00:06:18,160 --> 00:06:22,760 That's outside of our budget. And yeah, yeah, other issues was 110 00:06:22,760 --> 00:06:28,840 going to China, but people have been going that we have met, 111 00:06:28,840 --> 00:06:31,960 that we know that have been going since the 70s, possibly 112 00:06:31,960 --> 00:06:35,120 earlier. Some of our closer friends have 113 00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:36,720 been going since the early 2000s. 114 00:06:37,280 --> 00:06:41,720 And I'm curious if there's any BWB members out there who have 115 00:06:41,720 --> 00:06:43,520 been going since before the year 2000. 116 00:06:43,520 --> 00:06:45,080 That would be fun to know. I bet there's a few. 117 00:06:45,160 --> 00:06:48,680 Dave Axler and Mark Holloway have been going since before 118 00:06:48,680 --> 00:06:50,280 2000. That's a safe guess. 119 00:06:50,600 --> 00:06:53,760 Yeah, some BWB are people that knew George before A Song of Ice 120 00:06:53,760 --> 00:06:55,200 and Fire. That's true. 121 00:06:55,280 --> 00:06:56,360 That's very true. Yeah. 122 00:06:56,360 --> 00:06:59,680 There's a couple of of people in the BWB, which of course BWB is 123 00:06:59,680 --> 00:07:02,880 the Brotherhood Without Banners. It is the long running fan group 124 00:07:02,880 --> 00:07:05,080 dedicated to the Song of Ice and Fire. 125 00:07:05,080 --> 00:07:07,680 And it started with George in person. 126 00:07:07,680 --> 00:07:13,160 Would he would give quests to prospective members like go find 127 00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:15,680 me this particular food item in whatever? 128 00:07:15,680 --> 00:07:17,640 City they're in. Burnt Ends in Kansas City was a 129 00:07:17,640 --> 00:07:20,240 good example and people would get knighted. 130 00:07:20,240 --> 00:07:22,000 He would knight them with a sword and everything. 131 00:07:22,200 --> 00:07:24,720 Now the group got too big for that. 132 00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:26,920 Song of Ice and Fire got too popular over the long term. 133 00:07:27,160 --> 00:07:31,040 So the dubbings don't happen anymore individually now they 134 00:07:31,040 --> 00:07:34,120 happen in in groups. Shaya and I were inducted in 135 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:37,960 2018 into the company of the Green Leaf because that was the 136 00:07:37,960 --> 00:07:42,720 first world con in a city with legal marijuana. 137 00:07:42,720 --> 00:07:46,320 So that was the, hence the name. People are inducted into the 138 00:07:46,320 --> 00:07:48,760 free companies. There's been a Free Company of 139 00:07:48,760 --> 00:07:52,600 the Fireworm and a Free company of the Greenleaf when George 140 00:07:52,600 --> 00:07:57,160 attends the BWB party and is there to witness their 141 00:07:57,160 --> 00:08:00,360 induction. So not every world con or every 142 00:08:00,360 --> 00:08:05,200 George Con has a free company. Just if you're wondering, you 143 00:08:05,200 --> 00:08:08,200 know what, what was Glasgow or what was Seattle? 144 00:08:08,200 --> 00:08:11,960 They didn't have them so. Now George was at the BWB party, 145 00:08:11,960 --> 00:08:13,480 but they just didn't have the ceremony. 146 00:08:13,480 --> 00:08:15,240 Just no, he was not at the BWB. Party. 147 00:08:15,240 --> 00:08:16,440 Oh, he went to dinner. You're right, He was. 148 00:08:16,440 --> 00:08:19,800 At the BWB dinner, Paris, his wife attended the party, but he 149 00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:21,520 didn't. Yeah, my bad. 150 00:08:21,560 --> 00:08:23,880 Yeah. So shout out to all those long 151 00:08:23,880 --> 00:08:25,920 standing members. You guys are really special. 152 00:08:26,720 --> 00:08:31,320 We you keeping the community lore together very well, passing 153 00:08:31,320 --> 00:08:34,039 down what we want to know and and the the community values and 154 00:08:34,039 --> 00:08:35,280 all that. You know, one of my favorite 155 00:08:35,280 --> 00:08:37,360 things to do at ABWB. Party or dinner. 156 00:08:37,520 --> 00:08:40,039 What's that? Ask members what their quest 157 00:08:40,039 --> 00:08:42,039 was. Oh yeah, they always have a 158 00:08:42,039 --> 00:08:43,440 funny story. Great stories. 159 00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:44,600 Yeah. Those veterans have some great 160 00:08:44,600 --> 00:08:47,520 stories from back in the day. And, you know, they're loving it 161 00:08:47,520 --> 00:08:49,480 because they're still coming now even, you know, some. 162 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:52,760 Doesn't matter how how old we get, as long as we can still 163 00:08:52,760 --> 00:08:55,080 move and get there. You're going to We're going to 164 00:08:55,080 --> 00:08:58,920 keep doing that. So throughout this episode, I'll 165 00:08:58,960 --> 00:09:00,960 have the occasional world con factoids. 166 00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:04,120 It's fun to to learn the history of it, but I don't want to drop 167 00:09:04,120 --> 00:09:06,240 all that at once. It gets a little, it's a little 168 00:09:06,240 --> 00:09:08,480 much to handle all at once. So we'll we'll space that out a 169 00:09:08,480 --> 00:09:10,400 bit. We flew out on Tuesday. 170 00:09:10,680 --> 00:09:13,320 We got lucky. We got our flights really far in 171 00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:15,720 advance and they were only 250 bucks each, which we live in 172 00:09:15,720 --> 00:09:18,040 Atlanta. So that was that's crazy. 173 00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:21,400 So we got very lucky there. We try to, we travel a decent 174 00:09:21,400 --> 00:09:24,400 amount, but it's expensive. And when, you know, this show 175 00:09:24,400 --> 00:09:26,200 doesn't exactly make us a killing, you know, we're very 176 00:09:26,200 --> 00:09:28,800 grateful to be to do this. But it is a sometimes we we do 177 00:09:28,800 --> 00:09:31,560 have to do our best to save money. 178 00:09:31,920 --> 00:09:34,440 And luckily, as podcasters that have been around in this 179 00:09:34,440 --> 00:09:36,840 community for a while, we generally are able to get press 180 00:09:36,840 --> 00:09:39,200 access, which means we get our badges for free. 181 00:09:39,400 --> 00:09:40,720 So that also helps save us some money. 182 00:09:40,720 --> 00:09:42,000 So that's good. That was very handy. 183 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:44,360 We got this is our was this our second time having press badges 184 00:09:44,360 --> 00:09:46,480 at World Con or this is our first time? 185 00:09:46,480 --> 00:09:47,240 OK, cool. Yeah. 186 00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:51,040 I was muted. This was our first time with 187 00:09:51,080 --> 00:09:54,160 press for World Con and they didn't approve us until couple 188 00:09:54,160 --> 00:09:56,280 weeks out. So I mean, we just had to just 189 00:09:56,280 --> 00:09:58,400 trust and I mean, we would have bought a pass at the last 190 00:09:58,400 --> 00:10:00,400 minute, but yeah, it took a while. 191 00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:02,920 Yeah, it was really, it was like, huh, we weren't sure we 192 00:10:02,920 --> 00:10:05,680 would get it, but we did. So yay, hopefully that sticks. 193 00:10:05,880 --> 00:10:08,960 We've gotten press at other cons before and that's obviously, 194 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:11,600 well, part of what we're doing here is reporting on it and that 195 00:10:11,600 --> 00:10:13,880 is falls right under the umbrella of press coverage. 196 00:10:14,240 --> 00:10:16,400 So here you guys are hearing our coverage. 197 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:19,000 So Wednesday was our first full day there. 198 00:10:19,080 --> 00:10:21,520 Not much to report on Tuesday other than we flew out there, 199 00:10:21,520 --> 00:10:24,120 you know, Huh, I had not much to say about that. 200 00:10:24,680 --> 00:10:27,600 We went to our Airbnb, which is a little outside of town. 201 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:30,920 I think it was Tukwila, and it had really nice scenery. 202 00:10:30,920 --> 00:10:33,680 Seattle was just so beautiful. A lot of you know that already 203 00:10:33,680 --> 00:10:36,320 or have heard that, but it's really something to experience 204 00:10:36,320 --> 00:10:38,400 it. I hadn't been there since I was 205 00:10:38,400 --> 00:10:42,560 in college, which was, you know, that's a long time ago, so I 206 00:10:42,560 --> 00:10:46,040 don't remember it super well. And boy, Mount Rainier is just 207 00:10:46,040 --> 00:10:47,720 really spectacular. It's so beautiful. 208 00:10:48,280 --> 00:10:50,720 It's also an active volcano, by the way, y'all, It's one of the 209 00:10:50,720 --> 00:10:53,200 most likely to explode in the entire world. 210 00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:57,320 So, you know, that's a problem, but not a problem for us and not 211 00:10:57,320 --> 00:10:59,520 a problem today. So something to think about, 212 00:10:59,520 --> 00:11:02,560 though. We had a nice set up with a 213 00:11:02,560 --> 00:11:04,600 bunch of our friends. We had an Airbnb with, what was 214 00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:06,440 it like, eight of our friends or seven of our friends? 215 00:11:06,440 --> 00:11:08,640 It was nine of us total, right? Yeah, it was like 9 of us. 216 00:11:08,760 --> 00:11:10,560 Yeah. So a nice big house with great 217 00:11:10,560 --> 00:11:13,280 view, you know, out kind of out there, which would also help 218 00:11:13,280 --> 00:11:15,400 save us a little money. We had a view of Lake Washington 219 00:11:15,400 --> 00:11:18,000 which I've shown on screen here. Super, super nice. 220 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:19,160 Yeah. So immediately we were taking 221 00:11:19,160 --> 00:11:23,920 pictures immediately. Also almost immediately, we went 222 00:11:23,920 --> 00:11:27,360 into town and went to a dispensary. 223 00:11:27,360 --> 00:11:29,600 It was Sean Kemp's dispensary. If you don't know who Sean Kemp 224 00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:35,040 is, he was an NBA player who made the NBA when he was like 18 225 00:11:35,040 --> 00:11:39,640 years old because he was already like 6 foot eight or nine, 226 00:11:39,640 --> 00:11:42,480 really big and talented. And yeah, so. 227 00:11:43,040 --> 00:11:47,200 And now he owns dispensaries. So there's a big picture of him 228 00:11:47,200 --> 00:11:50,000 painting mural on the side of the wall, which we got a photo 229 00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:52,640 of, and it was pretty fun going in there. 230 00:11:53,200 --> 00:11:55,480 Yeah. Anytime we go somewhere where 231 00:11:55,480 --> 00:11:57,960 it's legal, we like to hit a dispensary, but this was like a 232 00:11:57,960 --> 00:12:01,800 celebrity dispensary, so it was just kind of a fun sightseeing 233 00:12:01,800 --> 00:12:04,120 thing, honestly. The celebrity dispensaries are 234 00:12:04,120 --> 00:12:05,480 just becoming more and more of a thing. 235 00:12:05,480 --> 00:12:07,960 And we were in Vegas. It's like all the everything was 236 00:12:07,960 --> 00:12:11,680 Mike Tyson branded there. Even even Mike Tyson's bites, 237 00:12:11,680 --> 00:12:17,800 they had edibles there that the logo was up an ear with a bite 238 00:12:17,800 --> 00:12:20,160 taken out of it. If you don't know, Mike Tyson 239 00:12:20,200 --> 00:12:24,120 bit Evander Holyfield's ear off during a match way back in the 240 00:12:24,120 --> 00:12:28,120 day. Now twist, apparently Evander 241 00:12:28,120 --> 00:12:32,640 Holyfield is a Co investor. So they're cool now, especially 242 00:12:32,640 --> 00:12:35,200 with all this money rolling in that that can make you forget a 243 00:12:35,200 --> 00:12:37,640 lot of bitten ears, I suppose. But it's all. 244 00:12:37,800 --> 00:12:39,640 Anyway, that's a bit of a digression. 245 00:12:39,640 --> 00:12:43,600 It's still funny though. So the Seattle Convention 246 00:12:43,600 --> 00:12:45,880 Center, this was a really spectacular place. 247 00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:49,560 Normally convention centers are, you know, they're big and huge. 248 00:12:49,560 --> 00:12:51,880 They have a lot of different events and there's not much to 249 00:12:51,880 --> 00:12:55,440 say other than wow, that's big. But the Seattle Convention 250 00:12:55,440 --> 00:12:57,520 Center is interesting because it's new there. 251 00:12:57,600 --> 00:12:59,720 Well, there's two parts of it. It's half and half. 252 00:12:59,720 --> 00:13:03,480 There's an old part which is 19 built in 1988, so that's not 253 00:13:03,480 --> 00:13:05,560 that old. And the new part, which is 254 00:13:05,560 --> 00:13:09,080 called the Summit, which is only built less than two years ago or 255 00:13:09,080 --> 00:13:10,840 around two years ago. So that's pretty crazy. 256 00:13:11,080 --> 00:13:15,440 And it this extension, this add on is more than an add on. 257 00:13:15,440 --> 00:13:17,400 It doubled the whole thing in size. 258 00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:22,000 Here's some fun facts because I can't resist fun facts about big 259 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:24,640 buildings or just anything. I can't resist fun facts, 260 00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:27,680 period. The ballroom carpet in this 261 00:13:27,680 --> 00:13:30,720 place is 24 by 90 without repeating. 262 00:13:31,320 --> 00:13:34,560 There's 32 colors. It's crazy to have like a like 263 00:13:34,560 --> 00:13:37,880 an ornate pattern on a rug that doesn't repeat. 264 00:13:38,360 --> 00:13:43,040 So that's really cool. The excavation, total excavation 265 00:13:43,040 --> 00:13:48,520 of dirt and and just digging down there is equivalent to the 266 00:13:48,520 --> 00:13:51,920 distance to Portland, 180 miles of excavation all around. 267 00:13:52,600 --> 00:13:55,640 The total amount of steel used in the Convention Center could 268 00:13:55,680 --> 00:14:00,320 account for three Eiffel Towers. OK, that's an interesting unit 269 00:14:00,320 --> 00:14:05,160 of measure. Eiffel Towers, yes, feet, yards, 270 00:14:05,160 --> 00:14:07,080 miles. Eiffel Towers, yes. 271 00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:10,320 Standard measurements. In this building, there is 272 00:14:10,320 --> 00:14:14,800 enough dishes to serve 13,000 people at once. 273 00:14:15,280 --> 00:14:16,680 Are you starting to think of Harrenhal? 274 00:14:16,680 --> 00:14:19,240 Cause yeah, that's where that's where this is going, isn't it? 275 00:14:19,400 --> 00:14:21,520 One thing Harrenhal did not have was elevators. 276 00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:24,200 This building has 19 of them and 42 escalators. 277 00:14:24,720 --> 00:14:27,080 It also has some cool modern green features. 278 00:14:27,080 --> 00:14:32,240 It has advanced waste disposal. It super dehydrates all the 279 00:14:32,240 --> 00:14:37,680 waste to 90% or it reduces its weight by 90% and then it uses 280 00:14:37,680 --> 00:14:39,880 the rest as fertilizer. It uses that product as 281 00:14:39,880 --> 00:14:42,520 fertilizer. It's pretty cool. 71% of the 282 00:14:42,520 --> 00:14:46,480 tiles, mostly roof and floor I suppose, were made from recycled 283 00:14:46,480 --> 00:14:49,560 material. Also it has storm water catches 284 00:14:50,160 --> 00:14:55,040 which cleans the storm water and then uses it in the toilets, so 285 00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:58,200 that's really efficient and for irrigation also, so that's cool. 286 00:14:58,800 --> 00:15:03,880 My favorite thing about it was that it was just very 287 00:15:03,880 --> 00:15:07,320 accommodating to humans. As you see in the picture here, 288 00:15:07,320 --> 00:15:11,760 they had this whole side steps area with with blankets, pillows 289 00:15:11,760 --> 00:15:14,640 for people to just lay and the natural light everywhere had 290 00:15:14,640 --> 00:15:16,720 natural light. It just had all of these 291 00:15:16,720 --> 00:15:21,200 features that I found more accommodating and homey than the 292 00:15:21,200 --> 00:15:24,840 average Convention Center or average anywhere, frankly. 293 00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:27,960 It's warm, like I don't mean temperature wise, but it feels 294 00:15:28,080 --> 00:15:30,320 like, you know, it's giant building with huge ceilings. 295 00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:34,040 It's somehow it doesn't feel like open and empty and cold and 296 00:15:34,040 --> 00:15:35,560 and heartless. You know, like a lot of 297 00:15:35,560 --> 00:15:37,240 convention centers do feel that way because they're just 298 00:15:37,520 --> 00:15:38,840 generic. They're for so many different 299 00:15:38,840 --> 00:15:40,800 kinds of events. But as a Shaya said, that's a 300 00:15:40,800 --> 00:15:44,400 really big deal to have it more human, you know, like for 301 00:15:44,400 --> 00:15:47,040 comforts and to the benches are comfortable and the seats are 302 00:15:47,040 --> 00:15:49,800 comfortable and there's lots of them and there's lots of things 303 00:15:49,800 --> 00:15:53,400 for accessibility. So, yeah, it's it's a nice 304 00:15:53,400 --> 00:15:57,200 example of a modern building that is doing a lot of things 305 00:15:57,200 --> 00:16:00,880 right, in my opinion. So our first little anecdote 306 00:16:00,880 --> 00:16:02,440 from hanging out with fun people. 307 00:16:03,120 --> 00:16:06,840 I got my badge quickly because of press, and I was waiting for 308 00:16:06,840 --> 00:16:09,280 Naomi Makes Art, who was getting her badge. 309 00:16:09,280 --> 00:16:11,440 It took a little while and we were going to have some have 310 00:16:11,440 --> 00:16:14,160 some food. And I went ahead and sat down in 311 00:16:14,160 --> 00:16:18,440 the cafeteria or the cafe right there, open cafe that can see 312 00:16:18,440 --> 00:16:21,200 the line, can see the entrance right there in the entrance to 313 00:16:21,200 --> 00:16:24,360 the Convention Center. So I'm sitting there, I order a 314 00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:27,360 pizza and I, I'm sitting there thinking like, what am I going 315 00:16:27,360 --> 00:16:28,840 to do? Like, what thing am I going to 316 00:16:28,840 --> 00:16:30,320 do first? What fun things are going to do? 317 00:16:30,320 --> 00:16:32,480 This is all kind of overwhelmed by the possibilities. 318 00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:35,480 It's the first day there. And I'm just like, yeah, what 319 00:16:35,480 --> 00:16:37,360 are all the cool things that are going to happen this weekend? 320 00:16:37,640 --> 00:16:40,360 And I think to myself, you know, I should text Sid, George's 321 00:16:40,360 --> 00:16:42,560 assistant and see what's going on with them. 322 00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:47,560 So I do. And two minutes later, seriously 323 00:16:47,560 --> 00:16:51,480 not 2 minutes later, I see Sid and George walking past the 324 00:16:51,480 --> 00:16:54,680 restaurant, like towards where the entrance is. 325 00:16:54,920 --> 00:16:56,880 And I flagged them down. I say hey guys. 326 00:16:57,360 --> 00:17:00,120 And they and they come into the restaurant and sit with me. 327 00:17:00,200 --> 00:17:02,240 Well, that's cool, right? George and Sid come sit with me. 328 00:17:02,920 --> 00:17:04,839 And so we're chatting, just saying what's up and, and 329 00:17:04,839 --> 00:17:08,200 catching up or whatever. And within 10 minutes, our 330 00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:11,560 friends Mateo and Tafni, who know George and Sid very well. 331 00:17:11,560 --> 00:17:15,720 Mateo I mentioned earlier, he's he's the one that ran the City 332 00:17:16,160 --> 00:17:18,839 of Dragons event in Casseras that we went to in November. 333 00:17:18,839 --> 00:17:21,560 So we've talked about him a few times before. 334 00:17:21,560 --> 00:17:24,599 He a great guy, speaks 11 languages, just a very 335 00:17:24,599 --> 00:17:26,400 impressive man, very charismatic. 336 00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:28,280 Just every minute with him is fun. 337 00:17:28,600 --> 00:17:30,600 His partner Taffney has a great time as well. 338 00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:32,240 They're a great couple and we just have a lot of fun with 339 00:17:32,240 --> 00:17:34,600 them. Also, Naomi got her badge and 340 00:17:34,600 --> 00:17:37,240 came over. So we had a nice group there and 341 00:17:37,680 --> 00:17:40,280 another gentleman was sitting to my left there. 342 00:17:40,280 --> 00:17:42,080 There's two photos of this that a Shay I think has put up. 343 00:17:42,080 --> 00:17:44,400 And if you could barely see the guy on my left, I didn't know 344 00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:47,400 who this guy was at first, but he clearly George knew him and 345 00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:50,280 they were talking. They were, you know, jabbing 346 00:17:50,280 --> 00:17:53,560 back and forth, jabbing, jawing back and forth, telling some 347 00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:54,800 stories. And we were all just kind of 348 00:17:54,800 --> 00:17:57,040 listening because they're talking about the old days. 349 00:17:57,400 --> 00:18:02,000 And turns out this guy is Walter John Williams, AKA John 350 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:05,080 Williams, who is a very celebrated author. 351 00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:09,600 He has been. He was the world con guest of 352 00:18:09,600 --> 00:18:13,200 honor in 2017. He's gotten at least five Hugo 353 00:18:13,200 --> 00:18:17,000 nominations and even more Nebula nominations, including a win for 354 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:19,600 the novel novella. I think it was a novella, 355 00:18:20,040 --> 00:18:23,560 Daddy's World in 2000. So that's really cool. 356 00:18:23,560 --> 00:18:25,440 I'm just sitting by this famous author, didn't even know who he 357 00:18:25,440 --> 00:18:26,960 was. They're talking about, like, 358 00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:29,920 doing panels together. George asked us, like, do you, 359 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:31,480 are you getting bored with panels? 360 00:18:32,120 --> 00:18:35,320 Because it's like, yeah, but we always talk about the same 361 00:18:35,320 --> 00:18:36,840 things. Like, I, I want to talk about 362 00:18:36,840 --> 00:18:38,560 new stuff. So he, George likes doing 363 00:18:38,560 --> 00:18:40,000 panels. But, you know, he, he was 364 00:18:40,320 --> 00:18:42,960 talking like, speaking about how sometimes they get a little 365 00:18:42,960 --> 00:18:44,480 repetitive because he's done so many of these. 366 00:18:44,480 --> 00:18:48,360 And to be fair, George has probably been to 50 world cons. 367 00:18:48,560 --> 00:18:51,720 His first was in 71. He wasn't panelling back then, 368 00:18:51,960 --> 00:18:56,360 but 50 world cons goodness. So that was really neat, just 369 00:18:56,360 --> 00:18:59,280 hearing them talking, talking, talking shop talking, writing. 370 00:18:59,280 --> 00:19:02,600 And Walter John Williams lives not far from George in New 371 00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:04,280 Mexico. George lives in New Mexico, he 372 00:19:04,280 --> 00:19:06,600 lives Walter. John lives South of Albuquerque, 373 00:19:06,600 --> 00:19:08,560 so they'd probably live less than an hour from each other. 374 00:19:09,200 --> 00:19:11,440 His first story was published in 1986. 375 00:19:11,840 --> 00:19:15,040 It's called Hardwired. And he's also done RPGs. 376 00:19:15,040 --> 00:19:18,880 He did a cyberpunk playbook, he did some Star Wars stuff. 377 00:19:19,880 --> 00:19:24,120 He wrote a short story called Diamonds from Tequila which I 378 00:19:24,120 --> 00:19:28,080 bet a lot of you have read because it was in Rogues 2014. 379 00:19:28,320 --> 00:19:36,360 Remember Rogues was a anthology by Gardner Dozois and contained 380 00:19:37,120 --> 00:19:41,520 the first publication of the Rogue Prince as in the prequel 381 00:19:41,520 --> 00:19:44,400 to Sons of the Dragon. So it was Damon or Sorry, 382 00:19:44,400 --> 00:19:47,440 Princess and the Queen, which so it was Damon's first real story 383 00:19:48,080 --> 00:19:52,320 and it won the 2015 Locust for best anthology. 384 00:19:52,320 --> 00:19:55,320 The whole book, of course, not just the Rogue Prince of 385 00:19:55,320 --> 00:19:58,800 interest in that book of that anthology is there's also a 386 00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:01,400 story by Phyllis Eisenstein, one by Lisa Tuttle. 387 00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:02,760 Lisa Tuttle, you might remember her. 388 00:20:02,760 --> 00:20:05,600 She is George's ex. They're still good friends. 389 00:20:05,840 --> 00:20:08,040 She is referred to in some of his books and they've written 390 00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:10,480 books together. Scott Lynch. 391 00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:14,160 Joe Abercrombie. Also had stories in there. 392 00:20:14,160 --> 00:20:17,720 And if you're a fan of Patrick Rothfuss, well, it has the 393 00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:20,920 lightning tree in it, which is Bast's short story. 394 00:20:20,920 --> 00:20:24,120 And this is really interesting. It's quite, quite a story. 395 00:20:24,120 --> 00:20:26,160 It's very different. But also, you know, it has 396 00:20:26,200 --> 00:20:31,240 Rothfuss's style and I believe it's the last thing he wrote for 397 00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:33,200 that world. It's been a while. 398 00:20:33,560 --> 00:20:36,600 I think the Slow Regard of of Silent Things came out before 399 00:20:36,600 --> 00:20:37,960 that, but maybe that was the most recent. 400 00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:39,640 Either way, it's been a while and that's a good one. 401 00:20:39,640 --> 00:20:41,760 If you haven't caught that or weren't aware of its existence, 402 00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:44,840 you definitely should be. There's also one by by Daniel 403 00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:47,640 Abraham who is 1/2 of the Expanse writing team. 404 00:20:48,120 --> 00:20:49,840 James SA Corey is their pseudonym. 405 00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:53,280 Daniel Abraham has written a lot of books and he his short story 406 00:20:53,280 --> 00:20:56,280 in Rogues is called The Meaning of Love Can. 407 00:20:56,280 --> 00:20:59,840 I say a fun fact about World Con Daniel Abraham and George RR 408 00:20:59,840 --> 00:21:03,200 Martin. In. 20 I don't even know what 409 00:21:03,200 --> 00:21:08,640 year the the last LA World Con there was a human chess match 410 00:21:08,640 --> 00:21:12,320 between Daniel Abraham and George RR Martin where I think 411 00:21:12,320 --> 00:21:17,560 BWB and other people played the chess pieces and I believe Elio 412 00:21:17,560 --> 00:21:22,280 Garcia ran of Westworth. Org said they're trying to plan 413 00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:27,760 to to do a rematch for LA World Con next year. 414 00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:29,800 Nice. That's cool. 415 00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:33,800 Very cool. So we had our first BWB 416 00:21:33,800 --> 00:21:35,280 gathering that night. There's several. 417 00:21:35,280 --> 00:21:38,840 It's a big part of the weekend, having lots of events at night. 418 00:21:38,840 --> 00:21:41,880 After all the panels and all the stuff that happens, it's usually 419 00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:45,680 a gathering of friends to go to dinner, have parties or what 420 00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:47,120 have you. This first one was just a 421 00:21:47,120 --> 00:21:49,920 surprise party for one of the guys and it was just a small 422 00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:51,880 gathering because not everybody was there yet, but it was a 423 00:21:51,880 --> 00:21:54,520 really good way to get, you know, get going, you know, get 424 00:21:54,520 --> 00:21:56,960 our feet wet at the con. Wednesday is kind of like that. 425 00:21:56,960 --> 00:21:58,880 It's not a whole lot of official stuff happening, but there's a 426 00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:01,800 lot of people there to hang out with and chat and, you know, get 427 00:22:01,800 --> 00:22:05,680 situated. And Ashea went on a road trip on 428 00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:07,080 that day. It was a good time to do that 429 00:22:07,080 --> 00:22:09,280 while, as I said before, the con. 430 00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:11,360 So why don't you tell us about that a little bit? 431 00:22:12,800 --> 00:22:13,760 All right. Yeah. 432 00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:17,000 As you could tell, I wasn't in the picture from Wednesday with 433 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:18,640 Aziz. That's because I had something 434 00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:21,760 far more important. My best friend from when I was a 435 00:22:21,760 --> 00:22:26,920 teenager lives in Spokane, which is not drivable from Seattle 436 00:22:26,920 --> 00:22:30,480 easily, so we met halfway in between. 437 00:22:30,800 --> 00:22:34,320 We were supposed to meet in a little German Bavarian town 438 00:22:34,320 --> 00:22:39,000 called Leavenworth, but her car broke down an hour before she 439 00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:42,240 got there. So Dom and I had to drive out 440 00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:46,320 further into central Washington, which turned out to be a bonus 441 00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:49,240 because we got to see, as you can see, these like beautiful 442 00:22:49,440 --> 00:22:54,160 desert like plateaus, in addition to like the stunning 443 00:22:54,400 --> 00:22:55,560 Columbia. Oops. 444 00:22:56,240 --> 00:22:58,640 In addition to the stunning Columbia River. 445 00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:02,720 And we did still get to their car, get them a new battery and 446 00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:05,680 go to Leavenworth, which I mean, look at these pictures. 447 00:23:05,680 --> 00:23:10,320 It's this like picturesque town underneath the the mountains. 448 00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:14,520 We got good food. I saw a dog with shoes on, you 449 00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:16,640 know, all the important things here. 450 00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:19,240 But I mean, Columbia River was was just beautiful. 451 00:23:19,240 --> 00:23:22,320 And we wouldn't have seen that if her car hadn't broken down. 452 00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:26,480 You know, look here, I got to take my DSLR out even in the 453 00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:29,080 car. And I took a bunch of pictures 454 00:23:29,080 --> 00:23:31,200 here. So I, I was having the time of 455 00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:35,520 my life taking pictures. It really reminded me of, I grew 456 00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:39,440 up in Northern California. So I felt like I was, I was home 457 00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:41,920 in a lot of ways. Here's me and my best friend 458 00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:43,440 Danielle. Here's us. 459 00:23:43,520 --> 00:23:46,280 We went down by a river. I can't wait to go back to 460 00:23:46,280 --> 00:23:48,880 Washington, frankly. We saw Mount Baker. 461 00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:51,880 We drove all through the Cascades National Forest. 462 00:23:51,880 --> 00:23:54,920 We saw Mount Rainier. Then the next day we went 463 00:23:54,920 --> 00:23:56,520 sightseeing somewhere as these went, too. 464 00:23:56,520 --> 00:23:59,120 We went to Pike Market, as you can see here. 465 00:23:59,360 --> 00:24:03,240 I also took lots of beautiful pictures, beautiful weather. 466 00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:05,760 And I love Seattle. Yeah, Seattle's. 467 00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:07,680 Really beautiful. A lot of you knew that already, 468 00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:10,200 but hopefully you can get there to see it in person. 469 00:24:10,200 --> 00:24:14,360 It really is special in terms of its collection of geographical 470 00:24:14,360 --> 00:24:18,840 features and the just the views pretty much wherever you are. 471 00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:21,040 It looks amazing. I did one other fun thing 472 00:24:21,040 --> 00:24:23,320 Wednesday night, and that was with Naomi Mix. 473 00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:27,480 Art went to the show, Ethel Kane, the performer, and she's a 474 00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:31,600 singer from Tallahassee, which was fun for me because I'm sort 475 00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:33,960 of from Tallahassee. I was born in North Carolina, 476 00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:37,400 but Tallahassee is the place I lived in the longest before 477 00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:39,920 Atlanta, and that's where I went to high school and college. 478 00:24:40,080 --> 00:24:42,720 And my mother still lives there. She's the Viola professor at 479 00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:45,040 Florida State. So I have a big connection to 480 00:24:45,040 --> 00:24:47,640 Tallahassee. And Ethel Cain was really cool. 481 00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:49,560 It was this place called the Paramount Theatre, which is 482 00:24:49,560 --> 00:24:53,480 unbelievably close to the this Convention Center. 483 00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:56,080 It's like literally when I was describing that lunch with 484 00:24:56,080 --> 00:24:59,320 George, you could see the Paramount Theatre through the 485 00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:00,600 glass, through the windows there. 486 00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:04,440 So it's this incredibly close and she's like a Southern Gothic 487 00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:09,160 musician and her singing is very haunting and and really melodic 488 00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:11,320 and it's really good. I had a great time. 489 00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:14,120 That's a really beautiful venue. Used to be in Opera hall, so 490 00:25:14,120 --> 00:25:15,800 very ornate. I didn't get great pictures of 491 00:25:15,800 --> 00:25:18,720 it, but I was mostly taking pictures of the performer. 492 00:25:19,320 --> 00:25:21,400 But I wish I got more pictures of the theater. 493 00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:24,040 But it's beautiful. And every day we were there, 494 00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:27,560 there was a massive line for whatever show was happening that 495 00:25:27,560 --> 00:25:29,280 day. There was a Buddy Guy show 496 00:25:29,280 --> 00:25:33,880 there, and I didn't know. I didn't know Buddy Guy was 497 00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:35,000 still alive. Yeah. 498 00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:37,560 Our friend called him Buddy Gee because that's French, you could 499 00:25:37,560 --> 00:25:41,080 say Gee. So yeah, that was just kind of 500 00:25:41,080 --> 00:25:43,480 fun to learn that that guy's still alive and touring still, 501 00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:47,560 like he must be really up there. But impressive, very impressive. 502 00:25:47,800 --> 00:25:50,720 Most impressive. That was Wednesday. 503 00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:55,400 Let's talk about Thursday. This is when the con really gets 504 00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:59,480 rolling, when more of the official events are started and 505 00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:03,200 there's a lot more to do and it's kind of almost hard to 506 00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:05,800 choose what you want to do because there's so many options. 507 00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:09,720 There's always a bit of an issue at a convention is there's FOMO 508 00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:13,480 can creep in where there's two or three things you want to do, 509 00:26:13,480 --> 00:26:15,000 but they're all happening at the same time. 510 00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:17,080 And you may have, you may also just want to hang out with 511 00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:19,600 friends and that's, that's like a fourth thing and you know, you 512 00:26:19,600 --> 00:26:22,640 can't do it all. So, and while you're in Seattle, 513 00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:24,480 like I say, I said, there's, there's so many fun things to 514 00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:25,840 see. The Pike Market was great. 515 00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:29,200 I, I went there too. One thing I did in a group there 516 00:26:29,200 --> 00:26:32,000 was go to the aquarium. And I love aquariums. 517 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:33,800 I'm a fish guy. I have aquariums here. 518 00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:35,960 Atlanta has one of the best aquariums in the world. 519 00:26:36,360 --> 00:26:39,040 I've been a member there. I was, I'm always posting 520 00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:42,720 pictures every few months of fish stuff on my Instagram or 521 00:26:42,720 --> 00:26:45,520 whatever. And it's on a great location. 522 00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:48,840 It's right there on the coast. So it's like an aquarium on the 523 00:26:48,840 --> 00:26:52,040 water, which is kind of fun. It's, you know, overlooking 524 00:26:52,040 --> 00:26:55,080 Puget Sound, which is the like the little harborish area around 525 00:26:55,080 --> 00:26:56,920 Seattle. There's a lot of just fun 526 00:26:56,920 --> 00:26:58,240 features. It's so beautiful just to walk 527 00:26:58,240 --> 00:26:59,680 around. The scenery is great. 528 00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:03,120 Some of the highlights of the aquarium were the seals, which I 529 00:27:03,120 --> 00:27:06,280 believe Ashea has a photo of, and the orca skull. 530 00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:09,000 There's a skull of an orca, which is just kind of cool for 531 00:27:09,120 --> 00:27:12,360 general trivia or knowledge. I've never seen a skull of an 532 00:27:12,360 --> 00:27:16,240 orca before. And there were some cool rays 533 00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:21,760 and this really weird fun, like see through, like doughnut 534 00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:23,680 almost. And it just kept rolling. 535 00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:26,920 It kept spinning in place. And it was full of jellyfish. 536 00:27:26,920 --> 00:27:30,440 So it was, it was a Jelly roll or a Jelly doughnut if you 537 00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:32,120 prefer. And it was really neat. 538 00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:33,400 I've never seen anything quite like that. 539 00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:35,440 And the light kind of had lights changing constantly. 540 00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:36,200 Blue, purple. Yeah. 541 00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:41,000 They're just the LED standard color spectrum maneuvering. 542 00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:43,800 And. Ashe also encountered this thing 543 00:27:43,800 --> 00:27:46,120 called the gum wall. I didn't see this gum wall, but 544 00:27:46,120 --> 00:27:48,160 this is crazy. Yeah. 545 00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:51,600 First of all, I went, we went with Dom and I, with Eric 546 00:27:51,600 --> 00:27:57,160 Blackfyre down to Pike Market. We split ways and we met Dom's 547 00:27:57,160 --> 00:28:01,400 old roommate who showed us some Seattle sightseeing things that 548 00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:02,760 kind of go under the radar maybe. 549 00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:06,560 And this is this gum wall. It's this whole alley full of 550 00:28:06,560 --> 00:28:10,400 gum on at Post Alley, just kind of near Pike Market. 551 00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:15,160 And I, I find it quite gross, but it was fascinating and good 552 00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:18,800 photos. And then on our walk from from 553 00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:24,040 there to the Convention Center, we're just walking along and we 554 00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:27,920 see a Fluvog store. Now some of you might go, what? 555 00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:31,400 What is Fluvog? Well, Fluvog is a very famous 556 00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:35,440 and very expensive and high quality boot company. 557 00:28:35,840 --> 00:28:38,760 Shoe company. Not just boots as you see on the 558 00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:44,480 screen, like the most stunning, like beautiful boots and shoes 559 00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:47,200 you'll ever see in your life. Anyway, So of course I went in 560 00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:51,520 and I took pictures and I marvelled and I discovered that 561 00:28:51,520 --> 00:28:54,480 Fluvog did the boots for Strange New World. 562 00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:56,840 That's for Star Trek, which is cool. 563 00:28:57,160 --> 00:29:01,320 I bring this up because, well, later that day I see Sid 564 00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:06,000 George's assistant and I spy her boots and I'm like, those are 565 00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:08,400 Fluvox. And I, I strike up a 566 00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:11,360 conversation with her and she says, yeah, it's the only Fluvox 567 00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:13,680 store in in the United States, apparently. 568 00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:17,640 She tells me and she said she went there the day before or 569 00:29:17,640 --> 00:29:23,120 whatever or that week and bought 3 pairs and I saw her in these 570 00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:27,000 this orange pear one day at the con and I was like, Oh my God, 571 00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:30,320 glorious to see them in person. So incredible shoes. 572 00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:32,720 I know that's what you're tuning into here, but really, really 573 00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:35,040 it's if you're in Seattle, you should go look at the Fluvog 574 00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:36,080 store. It's a funny. 575 00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:38,360 Name too Fluvog. Yes. 576 00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:41,680 My afternoon The rest of my afternoon was spent going to 577 00:29:41,680 --> 00:29:43,400 some cafes, having a couple drinks. 578 00:29:43,400 --> 00:29:46,160 It was three of us, me Naomi makes art and our friend's son 579 00:29:46,160 --> 00:29:50,080 and we hung out and she's from the area, son's from the area. 580 00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:53,680 So she knew some good places to have drinks and snacks and this 581 00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:56,320 is really nice to have, you know, experiencing the the Pike 582 00:29:56,320 --> 00:30:00,440 Market area and eating Seattle food while enjoying the view. 583 00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:02,240 That's really nice. The other. 584 00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:07,840 Feature that this convention space had was a music space just 585 00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:13,080 like open for adults and kids alike to to just jam out and as 586 00:30:13,080 --> 00:30:15,560 you can see it was these beautiful different different 587 00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:19,080 styles of instruments. Here is Tom and our friends 588 00:30:19,240 --> 00:30:22,160 Michael and Adrian. Michael's a very talented 589 00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:24,920 musician and you can see him playing on all kinds of little 590 00:30:24,920 --> 00:30:28,720 things. They they also had in the music 591 00:30:28,720 --> 00:30:32,720 space, like just like you have low blood sugar, have these 592 00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:36,320 these little snacks and just like a place to lay down and 593 00:30:36,320 --> 00:30:40,080 just, again, it was just a very accommodating space. 594 00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:42,200 I really very homey. I really liked it. 595 00:30:42,360 --> 00:30:44,680 Yeah, it's the most. Homey, huge building, you can 596 00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:46,720 imagine, like, it doesn't normally seem like it could be 597 00:30:46,720 --> 00:30:51,000 homey when the ceilings are, you know, 50 feet above you. 598 00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:53,280 But they did it. They pulled it off. 599 00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:55,840 It's really quite impressive, and I hope more modern 600 00:30:55,840 --> 00:30:59,480 convention centers follow this blueprint of sorts. 601 00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:01,400 Oh, can I say 1? More thing that the Convention 602 00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:03,160 Center has that I don't see at mini cons. 603 00:31:03,160 --> 00:31:06,240 Of course they have presentation, a presentation 604 00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:10,120 space with posters and such. I have one on the screen with 605 00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:12,120 like 4 that that accompany their panels. 606 00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:15,680 So like academic poster presentations, like what happens 607 00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:19,600 to death after uploading death autonomy and consent in post 608 00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:22,680 singularity virtuality. And it's just like questions 609 00:31:22,680 --> 00:31:24,960 methodology. They have that all all 610 00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:27,280 throughout this whole section. And I just, I found that 611 00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:29,320 fascinating. We really dug in and read a 612 00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:32,080 whole bunch of them, all of them, but they add new ones 613 00:31:32,080 --> 00:31:33,720 every day. Very cool that. 614 00:31:33,720 --> 00:31:38,080 Evening was the BWB annual dinner, World con dinner. 615 00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:42,160 It was held at an Irish pub. The upstairs was all ours. 616 00:31:42,160 --> 00:31:43,800 That was nice. We had the whole space rented 617 00:31:43,800 --> 00:31:49,920 out and there were I guess about 30 or 40 of us and we got to sit 618 00:31:49,920 --> 00:31:53,560 by George again, that was nice. He came in and sat by and funny 619 00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:57,280 story at one point since it's Seattle, can do this anywhere 620 00:31:57,520 --> 00:31:59,640 except indoors. Went outside to have a have a 621 00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:03,800 smoke, came back in and was passing by George and he said 622 00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:06,160 did you just go have unauthorized fun? 623 00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:09,040 And I. Said it's authorized here. 624 00:32:11,280 --> 00:32:13,040 So. But yes, was the answer. 625 00:32:13,040 --> 00:32:14,920 Yeah, so, and that was that was a really good time. 626 00:32:14,920 --> 00:32:17,320 You can see the photos here. There's a nice gang gathering 627 00:32:17,320 --> 00:32:19,440 there. And it was just people hanging 628 00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:23,280 out, you know, telling stories and and meeting each other again 629 00:32:23,280 --> 00:32:27,080 for after a year because that's a lot of us only see each other 630 00:32:27,080 --> 00:32:29,320 once a year, if that, at these world cons. 631 00:32:29,320 --> 00:32:31,480 Occasionally you get to see someone maybe twice a year in 632 00:32:31,480 --> 00:32:33,960 one of these groups, but it's really quite a lot when you 633 00:32:33,960 --> 00:32:36,120 haven't seen someone in a year, a bunch of people in a year, you 634 00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:41,200 have so much to say, so much to, to, you know, catch up on in a 635 00:32:41,200 --> 00:32:43,960 relatively short span of time, can I say? 636 00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:46,840 You can see the pictures where George is sitting and he's like 637 00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:48,320 right by. So we all got there a little 638 00:32:48,320 --> 00:32:50,040 early. We were eager to see everyone. 639 00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:52,880 So we get there and sit down and it's pretty empty. 640 00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:55,920 And George comes in and he's like, oh, is this where it's 641 00:32:55,920 --> 00:32:58,760 happening? And he sat down right next to me 642 00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:02,120 and I was like, I was very startled by that. 643 00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:04,600 Like there's a very big room so you can see there. 644 00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:08,560 But pretty quickly 1, he had a couple of his old friends come, 645 00:33:08,840 --> 00:33:12,520 so he had them to chat with and it got really, really loud. 646 00:33:12,720 --> 00:33:16,720 And so he escaped to outside. Smart choice. 647 00:33:16,720 --> 00:33:18,680 Yes, it did get pretty loud in there too. 648 00:33:18,680 --> 00:33:20,760 The the actual restaurant wasn't separate. 649 00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:23,720 The upstairs wasn't separate. It's like open so the entire 650 00:33:23,720 --> 00:33:27,960 restaurant was it also meant? Every time I wanted to go down 651 00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:31,320 and and hit my vape pen, I got to yap with George. 652 00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:35,920 I talked to him about Superman. I talked to him about hot dogs, 653 00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:39,280 talked to him about upcoming travel trips. 654 00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:42,280 He has things visits to Italy. We talked about a lot. 655 00:33:42,280 --> 00:33:43,560 It was great. Whatever else. 656 00:33:43,560 --> 00:33:46,080 They're doing in Seattle because of course he wanted to do some 657 00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:47,800 sightseeing too. And you know, he's been there 658 00:33:47,800 --> 00:33:51,120 before, but you know, he likes to he likes to check things out 659 00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:53,400 and it's been a while. So that was really fun since 660 00:33:53,400 --> 00:33:55,080 it's all around great evening there. 661 00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:56,960 Ashea mentioned hot dogs, which we'll come back to. 662 00:33:56,960 --> 00:33:59,400 That's another another miniature topic for later. 663 00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:02,040 Ashea has also mentioned Dom several times when a shout out 664 00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:03,720 the the. The channel folk. 665 00:34:03,720 --> 00:34:07,400 Wise on Twitch, that's Dom's channel along with his partner 666 00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:09,600 Daisy there the funny. Thing is, we were out there 667 00:34:09,600 --> 00:34:12,719 talking about hot dogs and Dom's funny, like I should mention, 668 00:34:12,719 --> 00:34:16,000 his PhD is on hot dogs, on hot dog eating contests. 669 00:34:16,199 --> 00:34:19,480 So he brings it up and Mateo's like, oh, we got Doctor hot dog 670 00:34:19,480 --> 00:34:22,120 over here. So that's what Dom got to talk 671 00:34:22,120 --> 00:34:26,679 to George about, was hot dogs, hot dog eating contests, PhDs. 672 00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:29,400 There's Doctor. Frankenstein and Dr. 673 00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:31,520 Frankenfurter. That's right. 674 00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:35,280 Also, so after the dinner there was some Hangouts. 675 00:34:35,280 --> 00:34:38,639 We went up, there was a BWB party room. 676 00:34:38,679 --> 00:34:42,120 Shout out to Tab for that one. That's a good, that's a good. 677 00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:44,800 Funny story. By the way, anyone who knows 678 00:34:44,800 --> 00:34:49,719 Baldur'sgate 3BG3, there's the concept of Tab Tab is just the 679 00:34:49,719 --> 00:34:54,000 generic name for your character. And if you're playing the the 680 00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:56,719 standard playthrough, if you're playing the evil playthrough, 681 00:34:56,719 --> 00:35:00,000 it's called Dirge. There is a BWB member named 682 00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:01,080 Dirge also. So. 683 00:35:01,080 --> 00:35:04,320 And both of these nicknames predate Baldur's Gate by quite a 684 00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:06,280 bit. So there's a Tab and a Dirge in 685 00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:09,320 the BWB, and that's just a great coincidence. 686 00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:12,200 So yeah, shout out again to Tab for hooking us all up with that 687 00:35:12,200 --> 00:35:14,680 room to party in all weekend. It was really great, really 688 00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:19,240 generous and really helps make the socialization pop more 689 00:35:19,240 --> 00:35:21,080 positive. You know, how could we hang out 690 00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:22,920 so much without a a room to gather in at night? 691 00:35:23,320 --> 00:35:28,600 And of course, whenever people of this sort, my sort, our sort 692 00:35:28,600 --> 00:35:31,760 gather in a hotel room and there's a little bit of alcohol 693 00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:35,760 or a lot of alcohol depending, it's not unlikely that karaoke 694 00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:37,200 happens. And of course, karaoke did 695 00:35:37,200 --> 00:35:38,680 happen. Karaoke is always a good time 696 00:35:38,680 --> 00:35:42,600 with with with friends and when people are really cutting loose. 697 00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:46,120 One of the best performances of the evening was the pre 698 00:35:46,120 --> 00:35:48,760 mentioned the aforementioned Eric Blackfyre. 699 00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:51,160 I believe we've mentioned Black Fire before, but a lot of you 700 00:35:51,240 --> 00:35:55,160 maybe haven't heard the story. He has the name Black Fire 701 00:35:55,160 --> 00:36:00,280 because he was the first person ever to learn that George had 702 00:36:00,280 --> 00:36:03,560 created the black fires. George told Eric personally that 703 00:36:03,560 --> 00:36:07,600 he'd created the black fires and then Eric's like, that's a cool 704 00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:08,920 name. I'm taking it. 705 00:36:09,240 --> 00:36:12,560 So before even anyone else really had the chance, he got 706 00:36:12,560 --> 00:36:14,160 that and well, he he deserves it. 707 00:36:14,160 --> 00:36:19,480 He's also has been featured in, I think, Vanity Fair because he 708 00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:22,280 has the largest private collection of A Song of Ice and 709 00:36:22,280 --> 00:36:25,280 Fire art in the world. No, that's known of. 710 00:36:25,280 --> 00:36:27,480 I mean, maybe there's some hidden guy out there that has 711 00:36:27,480 --> 00:36:31,640 more guy or gal, but of people who have made their collections 712 00:36:31,640 --> 00:36:34,080 somewhat public, Eric is number 1. 713 00:36:34,080 --> 00:36:35,960 And that is quite a feather in his cap. 714 00:36:35,960 --> 00:36:40,600 Hell yeah if you. Come to Anaheim slash LA World 715 00:36:40,600 --> 00:36:42,120 Con next year. You will meet him. 716 00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:47,000 He's one of the main PWB hosts because he lives in the area, so 717 00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:50,360 he has some mighty big plans. He's been telling me yes. 718 00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:53,920 Great guy, big member of the community, upstanding member. 719 00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:56,560 There's a lot of things to to facilitate events and you know, 720 00:36:56,560 --> 00:36:58,120 we're really looking forward to see what he does in his 721 00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:00,160 hometown. We got to hang out with him back 722 00:37:00,160 --> 00:37:04,400 in 2022 at the Game of Thrones convention in LA out there and 723 00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:06,040 that was really fun. There's a big group of us out 724 00:37:06,040 --> 00:37:07,320 there. We we talked about it at the 725 00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:10,240 time. Great times soundscapes by 726 00:37:10,240 --> 00:37:13,160 Jordan Reynolds into super chat that says can't TuneIn live, but 727 00:37:13,160 --> 00:37:15,240 looking forward to catching up. Hope your debut's doing well and 728 00:37:15,240 --> 00:37:16,680 had a blast. We certainly did. 729 00:37:17,040 --> 00:37:20,040 Thank you, Jordan. Jordan does a lot of wonderful 730 00:37:20,040 --> 00:37:22,720 soundscapes for Lord of the Rings and The Song of Ice and 731 00:37:22,720 --> 00:37:27,200 Fire, and we'll try to post some links for you to check him out 732 00:37:29,320 --> 00:37:34,960 sometime next year in 2026. It's and you're listening to 733 00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:36,480 this. It's 2025, at least when we 734 00:37:36,480 --> 00:37:40,960 recorded it. We are trying to arrange a field 735 00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:44,520 trip of sorts with the company Geek Nation Tours. 736 00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:48,760 And well, the way that works is we hopefully get about a dozen 737 00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:52,760 of you, maybe a little more. And we go someplace, probably in 738 00:37:52,760 --> 00:37:56,320 Europe where there's filming locations. 739 00:37:56,720 --> 00:37:59,800 And we go for maybe 5-6 days, maybe as long as a week. 740 00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:05,080 And you hang out with us and we go to see the sights and have 741 00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:07,080 meals together and just hang out for a week. 742 00:38:07,600 --> 00:38:11,920 And obviously it wouldn't be cheap, but it's not crazy 743 00:38:11,920 --> 00:38:14,520 expensive either. So we're putting that out there. 744 00:38:14,520 --> 00:38:19,280 Now if you are interested, even just tentatively interested, let 745 00:38:19,280 --> 00:38:21,880 us know because that's going to help us decide how many people 746 00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:26,440 we can include and how to figure out the budgeting and all that. 747 00:38:26,440 --> 00:38:29,320 Because it's, it's not exactly straightforward, but it's really 748 00:38:29,320 --> 00:38:30,640 exciting. We've done these things 749 00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:33,680 obviously privately before and travelled and do these things, 750 00:38:33,680 --> 00:38:38,080 but now it's a, the opportunity to have a few of you along is 751 00:38:38,080 --> 00:38:40,240 something we just couldn't turn down. 752 00:38:40,240 --> 00:38:42,800 It's a really fun idea. I know some other podcasters who 753 00:38:42,800 --> 00:38:45,200 have done this with great success. 754 00:38:45,560 --> 00:38:49,400 Not, not A Song of Ice and Fire, but yeah, Daniele Boli, who has 755 00:38:49,400 --> 00:38:51,640 been a guest we've, I've been a guest on his show a few times. 756 00:38:51,640 --> 00:38:54,360 That's the show History on Fire. He's the one who introduced us 757 00:38:54,360 --> 00:38:57,040 to this. He did a Geek Nation tour to 758 00:38:57,360 --> 00:39:00,360 Japan, I believe it was, and I think they're doing and it went 759 00:39:00,360 --> 00:39:02,320 really well. I think he had about 20 people. 760 00:39:02,520 --> 00:39:05,120 They got to see a bunch of different sites relevant to some 761 00:39:05,120 --> 00:39:06,680 of the things he's podcasted about. 762 00:39:06,880 --> 00:39:09,360 And I think they're going to do another one, but I forget where 763 00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:11,160 it is. Might be Italy, which is where 764 00:39:11,160 --> 00:39:12,640 he's from. And of course there's a ton to 765 00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:16,000 see there. Either way, it's something we 766 00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:18,400 hope you all, at least a few all are interested in. 767 00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:24,040 And looks like it'll be April to May or May, April or May rather 768 00:39:24,040 --> 00:39:27,760 of 2026. We're aiming to be a little bit 769 00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:31,640 after the Dunkin Egg Show comes out, not like right after it, 770 00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:34,320 but we got some news on that, a little bit of news. 771 00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:38,280 It looks like the Duncan Egg Show will be out end of January. 772 00:39:38,280 --> 00:39:40,440 That's not a firm date. Obviously, if it was a firm 773 00:39:40,440 --> 00:39:44,640 date, it would be public news. But that's what we heard from 774 00:39:44,640 --> 00:39:47,080 the insiders that we talked to at the convention. 775 00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:52,640 And we also heard directly from from George that he really, 776 00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:55,080 really likes it. He's, he considers it faithful. 777 00:39:55,440 --> 00:39:59,000 He considers it to have the heart of the show, to capture 778 00:39:59,200 --> 00:40:05,120 the heart of the stories and. We all know George is pretty 779 00:40:05,280 --> 00:40:08,520 unforgiving about adaptations. Now you all know he's complained 780 00:40:08,520 --> 00:40:12,800 a bit about House of the Dragon, but that's nothing compared to 781 00:40:12,800 --> 00:40:15,360 how much he's complained about adaptations since the 80s. 782 00:40:15,360 --> 00:40:17,600 George has been complaining about adaptation since the 80s. 783 00:40:17,640 --> 00:40:19,600 He complained. About adaptations in the panels 784 00:40:19,600 --> 00:40:23,360 we saw one about Starship Troopers and I, Robot. 785 00:40:23,360 --> 00:40:26,040 And I robot. Both that, yeah. 786 00:40:26,680 --> 00:40:29,680 So, yeah, so it's not just. So when you, when we think about 787 00:40:29,680 --> 00:40:32,080 how he complaints about House of Dragon, keep that in mind that 788 00:40:32,080 --> 00:40:35,040 he complaints about almost every adaptation, which on the 789 00:40:35,040 --> 00:40:40,200 positive side, the fact that he is very big on the Knight of the 790 00:40:40,200 --> 00:40:42,680 Seven Kingdoms is a huge, huge plus. 791 00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:44,600 Now, let's not set our expectations too high. 792 00:40:45,040 --> 00:40:47,640 But you can't help but feel good about that reaction. 793 00:40:47,640 --> 00:40:49,760 And they're already filming season 2. 794 00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:54,840 That's nice. So hell yeah, Let's talk a 795 00:40:54,840 --> 00:40:58,120 little bit about what is typical at a world con. 796 00:40:58,240 --> 00:41:01,520 Things that are at pretty much every world con, at least in 797 00:41:01,520 --> 00:41:04,280 recent years, given it's so long running. 798 00:41:04,280 --> 00:41:08,840 As I said earlier, the 86th instance, this hasn't been the 799 00:41:08,840 --> 00:41:10,960 way it has been since the beginning, but it's been pretty 800 00:41:10,960 --> 00:41:12,920 similar the whole way. A lot of these traditions are 801 00:41:12,920 --> 00:41:15,520 very old. There's always, been, almost 802 00:41:15,520 --> 00:41:17,400 always been an artist hall where you show off. 803 00:41:18,040 --> 00:41:20,840 Lots. Of art from different artists 804 00:41:20,840 --> 00:41:23,360 who have contributed to the Phantom, usually professionals. 805 00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:24,800 It's usually that they do for a living. 806 00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:27,200 So it's really, really high quality. 807 00:41:27,200 --> 00:41:29,640 It's really beautiful, original, not just paintings but also 808 00:41:29,640 --> 00:41:32,520 sculptures, just a really huge variety. 809 00:41:32,600 --> 00:41:34,960 I have a picture. Of this one Lee Moyer art 810 00:41:35,160 --> 00:41:40,320 because I'm dying for this person to sell them online. 811 00:41:40,640 --> 00:41:44,320 I I needed a record to find it and message them, and I will 812 00:41:44,320 --> 00:41:49,000 because I really, really, really want this James Tiptree Junior 813 00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:51,680 Alice Sheldon piece. Like, desperately. 814 00:41:53,120 --> 00:41:56,160 They also have related to the artist hall as a dealer hall. 815 00:41:56,160 --> 00:41:59,640 That's where you people sell merch, fun stuff for costumes, 816 00:41:59,640 --> 00:42:04,280 just fantasy attire, jewelry stuff for like a bunch of 817 00:42:04,280 --> 00:42:06,960 different fandoms or just regular artistic stuff. 818 00:42:06,960 --> 00:42:09,080 It doesn't have to apply to specific fandom, but anything 819 00:42:09,080 --> 00:42:12,560 all across the the spectrum of sci-fi, fantasy, everything in 820 00:42:12,560 --> 00:42:15,440 between, whatever falls under that category. 821 00:42:15,640 --> 00:42:18,520 It's a pretty broad umbrella when you're talking about 822 00:42:18,520 --> 00:42:22,800 worldcon. sci-fi is can includes fantasy right? 823 00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:25,680 World science fiction convention that includes fantasy. 824 00:42:25,680 --> 00:42:28,400 The fantasy is considered a sub genre of sci-fi by a lot of 825 00:42:28,400 --> 00:42:30,720 people. I don't care, that's fine, it's 826 00:42:30,720 --> 00:42:32,080 semantics. It's all semantics to me. 827 00:42:32,400 --> 00:42:34,520 Whatever the categories, what matters is what's in the 828 00:42:34,520 --> 00:42:36,360 categories, not so much how they're categorized. 829 00:42:37,040 --> 00:42:39,240 There's a big part of worldcon is autograph sessions. 830 00:42:39,240 --> 00:42:43,880 There's always a lot of famous to semi famous people there who 831 00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:48,200 set up to take to do autographs. That's a lot of fun. 832 00:42:48,320 --> 00:42:50,920 We'll talk about that specifically our experience with 833 00:42:50,920 --> 00:42:53,160 that in a little bit because it was a little later in the 834 00:42:53,160 --> 00:42:55,960 weekend. There's also fan auctions where 835 00:42:56,160 --> 00:43:00,280 a lot of it, not only are the artist things auctioned, there's 836 00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:03,200 like a silent auction. You just write your bids down 837 00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:05,800 and at the end of the weekend, the highest bids win of course. 838 00:43:06,160 --> 00:43:09,560 And there's also auctions for other things, and not just the 839 00:43:09,640 --> 00:43:13,480 art pieces, but there's art, there's auctions for services. 840 00:43:13,840 --> 00:43:16,400 You know, like. Anything that you can imagine 841 00:43:16,400 --> 00:43:19,320 that's fantasy sci-fi related. Some of it's for charity. 842 00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:21,400 Speaking of, there's a blood drive. 843 00:43:21,400 --> 00:43:24,280 There's been a blood drive part of World Con for a super long 844 00:43:24,280 --> 00:43:25,880 time. Gotta love that. 845 00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:28,960 That's a way to give back. Very needed thing. 846 00:43:28,960 --> 00:43:31,240 You got a lot of people gathered there. 847 00:43:31,240 --> 00:43:34,200 You got 6000 people or so showing up to World Con. 848 00:43:34,720 --> 00:43:37,640 Hey, get some of that blood. It's a good time to get them 849 00:43:37,880 --> 00:43:39,280 while everybody's together, right? 850 00:43:39,840 --> 00:43:42,600 There's a bit of a little bit of a fantasy element to that too. 851 00:43:42,680 --> 00:43:44,360 Getting all that blood. What are you doing with all that 852 00:43:44,360 --> 00:43:46,600 blood really? Is it really going to the needy? 853 00:43:46,600 --> 00:43:48,080 I don't know. There might be some blood magic 854 00:43:48,080 --> 00:43:50,280 going on in the background. We'll have to look into that a 855 00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:52,480 little more. If we vanish in a few weeks, 856 00:43:52,480 --> 00:43:54,280 you'll know why we learn too much. 857 00:43:54,920 --> 00:43:57,800 Also for a very long time, the Hugo Awards have been part of 858 00:43:57,840 --> 00:44:00,440 world connably since the 50s. I, I have that in the notes 859 00:44:00,440 --> 00:44:01,840 somewhere else. I'll, I'll get back to that. 860 00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:05,480 Also the Chelsea Awards, the Lodestar Award for the best 861 00:44:05,480 --> 00:44:08,360 young adult book and the Astounding award, which is for 862 00:44:08,360 --> 00:44:12,520 the best new writer. So lots of awards, which is part 863 00:44:12,520 --> 00:44:16,760 of why there are so many famous authors that come regularly 864 00:44:16,760 --> 00:44:19,200 because there's just so much going on. 865 00:44:19,200 --> 00:44:22,240 So many awards are being given out, so much opportunity for 866 00:44:22,240 --> 00:44:25,000 these authors to showcase their work, to schmooze with other 867 00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:28,640 authors, maybe even find agents and things like that. 868 00:44:28,720 --> 00:44:30,960 Some of these are authors are not super established. 869 00:44:30,960 --> 00:44:32,200 Some of them are very established. 870 00:44:32,200 --> 00:44:35,600 You really have the full gamut of George RR Martins to the 871 00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:37,480 people you haven't heard of yet, right? 872 00:44:37,480 --> 00:44:40,600 This is everybody. There's also for a long time 873 00:44:40,600 --> 00:44:42,760 been a costume slash masquerade ball. 874 00:44:43,000 --> 00:44:45,480 I wouldn't say World Con is huge on cosplay, but there's 875 00:44:45,480 --> 00:44:47,760 definitely some. And then the masquerade ball is 876 00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:50,400 when that really comes out more and it's fun to have a 877 00:44:50,400 --> 00:44:52,440 masquerade ball even though neither of us went to it. 878 00:44:52,760 --> 00:44:53,880 Definitely. Some cosplay. 879 00:44:53,880 --> 00:44:57,640 I was in cosplay with Dom. That's right. 880 00:44:57,880 --> 00:45:01,600 I wouldn't say I was in cosplay, but I did do the Alyssa 881 00:45:01,600 --> 00:45:05,120 Targaryen look, which is if you recall Alyssa Targaryen had one 882 00:45:05,120 --> 00:45:07,600 purple eye and 1 green eye. You know, I have two green eyes, 883 00:45:07,600 --> 00:45:12,200 but I wore a purple contact a in my right eye. 884 00:45:12,440 --> 00:45:15,480 So I had the mismatched Targaryen Alyssa eyes there and 885 00:45:15,480 --> 00:45:17,800 that was fun. Actually, it's kind of funny 886 00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:19,680 story. One of them is these are 887 00:45:19,680 --> 00:45:24,000 prescription purple contacts and I just wearing one of them was 888 00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:25,320 it was actually worked really well. 889 00:45:25,320 --> 00:45:28,400 Like when I have both of them on, I can't see my phone because 890 00:45:28,400 --> 00:45:30,600 they're not bifocals. I got to update them so they 891 00:45:30,600 --> 00:45:32,960 are, but with one in and one not in. 892 00:45:32,960 --> 00:45:34,760 I just my eyes would just work properly. 893 00:45:34,760 --> 00:45:36,720 Like my one eye would focus on my phone. 894 00:45:36,720 --> 00:45:38,000 If I look away, I could see far away. 895 00:45:38,000 --> 00:45:40,560 It was actually kind of a, quite a discovery. 896 00:45:40,560 --> 00:45:42,320 I just did it for fun and actually worked really well. 897 00:45:42,320 --> 00:45:44,200 So I might, I might do that more often. 898 00:45:44,200 --> 00:45:46,440 One purple contact, one regular eye. 899 00:45:47,200 --> 00:45:50,880 I'll be a little slightly Uranish, I guess, or more like 900 00:45:50,880 --> 00:45:53,880 a, besides Alyssa, more like a, a little bit like a Tyrion 901 00:45:53,880 --> 00:45:56,160 maybe. There's also a very long 902 00:45:56,160 --> 00:45:59,720 tradition of filks and music there just regular performances, 903 00:45:59,720 --> 00:46:02,600 but also filks, which of course are are are fun versions of 904 00:46:02,600 --> 00:46:05,680 existing songs rewritten with new lyrics. 905 00:46:06,200 --> 00:46:09,240 That's a long standing tradition and great time. 906 00:46:09,240 --> 00:46:12,160 Lots of laughs. Gaming, of course you wouldn't. 907 00:46:12,160 --> 00:46:14,680 No one's surprised that there's lots of gaming at an event like 908 00:46:14,680 --> 00:46:18,000 this, board gaming, role-playing, things like that. 909 00:46:18,000 --> 00:46:21,400 Discussions of They're fighting. Sword fighting, yeah. 910 00:46:22,040 --> 00:46:25,560 All that, all the stuff, all the things you would expect to be 911 00:46:25,560 --> 00:46:28,240 associated with that pinball. Pinball. 912 00:46:28,240 --> 00:46:30,600 Yeah, there's, you know, arcade stuff, you know, good, good 913 00:46:30,600 --> 00:46:32,480 times. They set that up as part of the 914 00:46:32,480 --> 00:46:34,960 event. So it's kind of a like a thing 915 00:46:34,960 --> 00:46:37,760 you can go do if you want to, you know, blow off some steam or 916 00:46:37,760 --> 00:46:39,600 just relax for a minute. You know, you've had enough 917 00:46:39,600 --> 00:46:42,040 socializing for a bit. You need a break, Go play some 918 00:46:42,040 --> 00:46:46,920 video games at night. They often have DJ Ed parties. 919 00:46:46,920 --> 00:46:49,000 Now, this is obviously isn't something that dates back to, 920 00:46:49,000 --> 00:46:53,960 say, the 50s, but it is been a tradition for a little while. 921 00:46:54,360 --> 00:46:58,280 And one of the DJ, the recurring DJs is none other than author 922 00:46:58,280 --> 00:47:00,200 John Scalzi. Yeah, right. 923 00:47:00,280 --> 00:47:01,480 Like some of you knew that already. 924 00:47:01,480 --> 00:47:04,280 But yeah, John Scalzi's a DJ. Yeah, right. 925 00:47:04,280 --> 00:47:06,080 That's cool, huh. I went to. 926 00:47:06,080 --> 00:47:09,000 That I went to it before too, but I went this year briefly. 927 00:47:09,160 --> 00:47:11,600 That's very nice, yeah. He really gets into it. 928 00:47:11,600 --> 00:47:14,600 Yeah, he's I've seen, I've never been, but I've seen footage and 929 00:47:14,600 --> 00:47:16,120 he's just like, yeah, it's it's great. 930 00:47:16,160 --> 00:47:20,480 Yeah, he's a I've never seen an author DJ before, but yeah, he 931 00:47:20,480 --> 00:47:21,760 was just right there doing his thing. 932 00:47:22,040 --> 00:47:23,560 I've seen an. Actor, DJ, because we've seen 933 00:47:23,560 --> 00:47:24,880 Christian Nairn. That's. 934 00:47:24,880 --> 00:47:28,600 True we have seen the Hodor set at that was the LA got con in 935 00:47:28,600 --> 00:47:31,840 2022. Yeah, he is he's good. 936 00:47:32,920 --> 00:47:35,760 So the typical, another typical feature of a world con is a 937 00:47:35,760 --> 00:47:37,920 speeches. There is usually by the guest of 938 00:47:37,920 --> 00:47:41,400 honor gives a speech and some others, big people in the 939 00:47:41,400 --> 00:47:44,280 industry sometimes are offered a chance to do a speech or give a 940 00:47:44,280 --> 00:47:46,480 talk or whatever. The guest of honor this year was 941 00:47:46,480 --> 00:47:48,920 Martha Wells. If you don't recognize that 942 00:47:48,920 --> 00:47:51,720 name, you I bet you recognize the name of what she's most 943 00:47:51,720 --> 00:47:53,960 famous for, which is Murderbot, the Murderbot Diaries. 944 00:47:53,960 --> 00:47:57,080 That is huge right now and I'm watching. 945 00:47:57,080 --> 00:48:00,160 It it's really, really funny and really good and I've I've 946 00:48:00,160 --> 00:48:02,880 decided Aziz is going to watch it with me and I'm just going to 947 00:48:02,880 --> 00:48:05,720 stop and double back and he's going to catch up. 948 00:48:05,880 --> 00:48:06,440 Yeah. She. 949 00:48:06,440 --> 00:48:10,640 Did say that it's true. Also, artist Donato Giancola was 950 00:48:10,640 --> 00:48:12,680 there. He has been doing fantasy art 951 00:48:12,680 --> 00:48:15,040 for a long time. If you've ever played Magic the 952 00:48:15,040 --> 00:48:18,120 Gathering, he was one of the first Magic the Gathering 953 00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:21,160 artists and his art is. A lot. 954 00:48:21,240 --> 00:48:24,160 Featured in older Magic cards. I don't know that he still does 955 00:48:24,160 --> 00:48:27,000 magic cards. I haven't kept up with Magic the 956 00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:31,080 Gathering in quite a long time, but I remember his it was like 957 00:48:31,080 --> 00:48:34,400 one out of every 10 cards in the early days were Dinata Giancola 958 00:48:34,400 --> 00:48:35,840 Art. So that's just, yeah, he's 959 00:48:35,840 --> 00:48:39,200 iconic robotics expert Bridget Landry was there. 960 00:48:39,200 --> 00:48:42,720 So the big part of Worldcon, especially with the sci-fi 961 00:48:42,720 --> 00:48:47,040 element, is getting into future technology and how that, you 962 00:48:47,040 --> 00:48:49,720 know, that affects our world and that affects stories. 963 00:48:49,920 --> 00:48:53,720 And so there's a lot of interest in in technology at Worldcon. 964 00:48:53,720 --> 00:48:56,640 So there's a definitely a, a slot for that. 965 00:48:56,640 --> 00:48:59,160 As you can see with a major guest like this. 966 00:48:59,160 --> 00:49:01,520 I have, of course. Well, not of course I've never 967 00:49:01,520 --> 00:49:04,800 heard of Bridget Landry, but if she's a robotics expert, she's 968 00:49:05,240 --> 00:49:08,800 must be highly intelligent and probably a good presenter too, 969 00:49:08,800 --> 00:49:11,000 because you got It's a lot to explain. 970 00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:13,520 It's tough to explain these difficult technological things 971 00:49:13,520 --> 00:49:15,640 to people who are new to them. There was a Really. 972 00:49:15,640 --> 00:49:19,640 Cool section in the dealer hall for building robotics and 973 00:49:19,640 --> 00:49:22,040 soldering and stuff. And then they had like the 974 00:49:22,040 --> 00:49:23,760 robots fight. They were like robot battles 975 00:49:23,760 --> 00:49:24,840 happening. Did you see that? 976 00:49:24,840 --> 00:49:26,680 I did not see. That happening, it was cool. 977 00:49:26,800 --> 00:49:28,840 Robot fights, that's. Like what's that's that TV show 978 00:49:28,840 --> 00:49:31,480 they have that battle battle bots or robots? 979 00:49:31,480 --> 00:49:33,880 They have robot fights at MAG. Fest too every year. 980 00:49:33,880 --> 00:49:36,760 You should check that out. I always like seeing it Robot. 981 00:49:36,760 --> 00:49:40,640 Fights does same kind of fun. Kind of fitting a kind of 982 00:49:40,640 --> 00:49:43,360 resonant with the second of the short films that we're going to 983 00:49:43,360 --> 00:49:45,520 talk about Mary Margaret Rd. grader yeah we've. 984 00:49:45,600 --> 00:49:46,920 Got some films to talk about in a minute. 985 00:49:46,920 --> 00:49:49,360 That's true. Celtic musician Alexander James 986 00:49:49,360 --> 00:49:51,680 Adams was also a featured guest there. 987 00:49:51,680 --> 00:49:54,040 I'm also not familiar with him but wanted to give him a shout 988 00:49:54,040 --> 00:49:58,000 out 'cause if he's invited to World Con as a major guest then 989 00:49:58,960 --> 00:50:01,360 I want to point that out. Back to Martha Wells, the Murder 990 00:50:01,360 --> 00:50:04,360 Bot author. She's won so many Hugos and 991 00:50:04,360 --> 00:50:07,800 Nebulas that she has started just turning down nominations. 992 00:50:07,800 --> 00:50:10,280 She's like, Nah, take me off the list, let someone else have a 993 00:50:10,280 --> 00:50:13,840 chance. That's a boss right there is a 994 00:50:13,840 --> 00:50:18,000 very confident and well settled individual. 995 00:50:18,000 --> 00:50:21,240 So props to Martha Wells for that. 996 00:50:21,560 --> 00:50:23,800 George was guest of honor in 2003, by the way. 997 00:50:23,800 --> 00:50:27,280 So he, he was, he was the toastmaster, the, the speaker in 998 00:50:27,280 --> 00:50:28,840 2019. But that's not the same thing as 999 00:50:28,840 --> 00:50:32,320 guest of honor. A big part of Worldcon is 1000 00:50:32,600 --> 00:50:35,200 deciding where the next World cons will be. 1001 00:50:35,480 --> 00:50:39,560 Generally by the year of a world con, the next 2 or so years have 1002 00:50:39,560 --> 00:50:43,720 already been decided and then the next three after that 1003 00:50:43,720 --> 00:50:46,000 generally are being bid on. So people, there's already 1004 00:50:46,000 --> 00:50:51,040 bidding and arrangements being made for as far ahead as I think 1005 00:50:51,040 --> 00:50:57,400 2030 or 2031 even. And which is impressive and just 1006 00:50:57,400 --> 00:51:00,400 goes to show how ahead of everything they are there. 1007 00:51:00,400 --> 00:51:04,200 There's this this con is very healthy and it's it's still 1008 00:51:04,200 --> 00:51:06,400 getting bids from cities all around the world. 1009 00:51:06,840 --> 00:51:10,480 What usually happens is a number of cities put their bid forth 1010 00:51:10,480 --> 00:51:14,040 and then year by year some fall off. 1011 00:51:14,040 --> 00:51:17,280 They realize that all you know, everyone wants Montreal and they 1012 00:51:17,280 --> 00:51:18,600 don't want to put their effort in. 1013 00:51:18,600 --> 00:51:21,280 And by the right now, Montreal is running unopposed. 1014 00:51:21,360 --> 00:51:25,560 For example, for 2027, technically enough people could 1015 00:51:25,560 --> 00:51:28,640 vote right in and something else could win. 1016 00:51:28,760 --> 00:51:31,400 And also apparently the committee, the site selection 1017 00:51:31,400 --> 00:51:34,440 committee can also just be like, Nah, we don't want you Montreal. 1018 00:51:34,440 --> 00:51:36,440 And they can just choose their own place, which is kind of 1019 00:51:36,440 --> 00:51:38,720 crazy to me, but that's how it works. 1020 00:51:38,720 --> 00:51:42,240 So right now, Montreal is unopposed, but technically not 1021 00:51:42,240 --> 00:51:46,160 guaranteed not. Yeah, yeah, 2028 looks like it's 1022 00:51:46,160 --> 00:51:50,480 going to be Brisbane and 2029 looks like it'll be Dublin, 1023 00:51:51,000 --> 00:51:54,400 which we're super excited about because we did the Dublin World 1024 00:51:54,400 --> 00:51:57,440 Con, as we said in 2019, so this will be exactly 10 years later. 1025 00:51:57,720 --> 00:52:01,040 We had so much fun there, made friends and saw a lot of filming 1026 00:52:01,040 --> 00:52:02,960 locations. Ireland's just amazing all 1027 00:52:02,960 --> 00:52:04,920 around. So if it, we really hope that 1028 00:52:04,920 --> 00:52:07,000 one happens, it would be just so perfect to have the 10 year 1029 00:52:07,000 --> 00:52:08,440 anniversary of that and hit that again. 1030 00:52:08,840 --> 00:52:10,440 So yeah, that's a big part of it. 1031 00:52:10,440 --> 00:52:11,760 Parties are a big part of this too. 1032 00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:16,760 In other words, what you'll see is each of these locations will 1033 00:52:16,760 --> 00:52:20,880 have a party in a hotel room, you know, to drum up interest in 1034 00:52:20,880 --> 00:52:23,160 that location. We met some folks who were 1035 00:52:23,160 --> 00:52:26,560 trying to drum up interest in the Czech Republic location, 1036 00:52:26,560 --> 00:52:28,520 which I believe is being bid on for 2030. 1037 00:52:28,760 --> 00:52:31,920 So that was neat. We just some woman started 1038 00:52:31,920 --> 00:52:34,080 speaking to us on the elevator and she had an accent. 1039 00:52:34,080 --> 00:52:35,680 I was like, is that Eastern European? 1040 00:52:35,680 --> 00:52:38,760 And certainly she's part of the Czech bid team, Like, oh, OK, 1041 00:52:38,760 --> 00:52:42,360 that makes sense. And so that's pretty cool. 1042 00:52:42,360 --> 00:52:43,840 Well in advance there. So we're pretty excited about 1043 00:52:43,840 --> 00:52:45,600 those locations. We'll talk a little more about 1044 00:52:45,760 --> 00:52:48,440 Laa little bit later, but we hope to see you all at some of 1045 00:52:48,440 --> 00:52:50,880 these other ones. We'll probably go to most of 1046 00:52:50,880 --> 00:52:52,240 them. I don't think we'll go to 1047 00:52:52,240 --> 00:52:54,960 Brisbane, maybe, Who knows, it's a long time away. 1048 00:52:55,160 --> 00:52:58,320 Montreal's very likely. Dublin, if it happens, is almost 1049 00:52:58,320 --> 00:53:01,360 a guarantee in LA. Next year is also 99% I'd say, 1050 00:53:01,720 --> 00:53:04,360 so hopefully you all can join us at one or more of those. 1051 00:53:05,120 --> 00:53:10,080 Of course, a big feature of all world cons is panels, artist 1052 00:53:10,080 --> 00:53:14,640 discussions, author discussions, reader discussions, certain 1053 00:53:14,640 --> 00:53:19,120 fandoms, broad genre of things, like lots of different combined 1054 00:53:19,120 --> 00:53:21,200 fans, just you name it. There are panels on everything, 1055 00:53:21,200 --> 00:53:26,600 whether it's super, super niche to broad categories like just 1056 00:53:26,800 --> 00:53:29,680 how to be a writer or how to succeed as a writer, things like 1057 00:53:29,680 --> 00:53:32,360 that. Lots of literary oriented 1058 00:53:32,680 --> 00:53:36,640 subjects, but occasionally other things like robotics or like 1059 00:53:36,680 --> 00:53:38,360 art. You know, that's a big thing. 1060 00:53:38,720 --> 00:53:41,240 There's a lot. Of of more academic leaning 1061 00:53:41,240 --> 00:53:46,760 presentations and panels to two hour podcast recordings like the 1062 00:53:47,240 --> 00:53:51,280 the science fiction addicts podcast right which we. 1063 00:53:51,280 --> 00:53:53,480 Will discuss in detail in just a minute here. 1064 00:53:54,120 --> 00:53:56,680 That was a really a really excellent podcast event there. 1065 00:53:57,080 --> 00:54:01,040 So panels are more exclusive at World Con compared to any other 1066 00:54:01,040 --> 00:54:03,800 con we've ever attended. And what that means is it's the 1067 00:54:03,800 --> 00:54:08,000 hardest to be a panelist. Like you have to really be well 1068 00:54:08,000 --> 00:54:11,920 known, well established. Every convention ache and I have 1069 00:54:11,920 --> 00:54:15,760 ever been to, for the most part, we could have or have been a 1070 00:54:15,760 --> 00:54:16,880 panelist. World Con. 1071 00:54:17,480 --> 00:54:19,280 I don't think we could get that anytime soon. 1072 00:54:19,480 --> 00:54:22,160 It's just you got to be really, really well known, really 1073 00:54:22,160 --> 00:54:23,680 established. Like George himself. 1074 00:54:23,920 --> 00:54:26,720 His first panel was 761976, so it was fifth. 1075 00:54:26,720 --> 00:54:29,760 At his 5th or 6th World Con, he had been turned down. 1076 00:54:29,760 --> 00:54:32,240 Prior to that, even though he had already been nominated for 1077 00:54:32,240 --> 00:54:35,240 like Hugo and Nebulas like he had, he was pretty well known. 1078 00:54:35,840 --> 00:54:40,120 Not obviously not nearly as well known as he is now, but just by 1079 00:54:40,120 --> 00:54:43,800 comparison, like we've gotten panels at at conventions just 1080 00:54:43,800 --> 00:54:46,080 for having done a podcast, we've been at San. 1081 00:54:46,080 --> 00:54:48,440 Diego Comic Con on the panel. Yeah, I. 1082 00:54:48,480 --> 00:54:50,760 Mean that's a huge convention and we've been on panels there, 1083 00:54:50,760 --> 00:54:54,000 yeah, but George, yeah, they wouldn't even let him on panels 1084 00:54:54,000 --> 00:54:55,920 in the early 70s and it took to the mid 70s. 1085 00:54:55,920 --> 00:54:58,120 So that's just just goes to show it's World Con's about. 1086 00:54:58,120 --> 00:55:00,160 Quality, not quantity. That's right. 1087 00:55:00,680 --> 00:55:03,960 We're just quantity, you know. No, we're not writers. 1088 00:55:03,960 --> 00:55:05,800 That's a big thing. Podcasts don't have a big 1089 00:55:05,800 --> 00:55:07,760 presence at World Con, but it's they're starting to have more of 1090 00:55:07,760 --> 00:55:09,920 a presence there. As we, as we saw, as we're about 1091 00:55:09,920 --> 00:55:12,600 to discuss, let's all all. Of those, podcasters are also 1092 00:55:12,600 --> 00:55:14,320 authors. They all had a book under their 1093 00:55:14,320 --> 00:55:15,160 belt. That's true. 1094 00:55:15,160 --> 00:55:17,040 So. That's a big deal that we 1095 00:55:17,040 --> 00:55:19,640 technically have some books we've contributed to, but we 1096 00:55:19,640 --> 00:55:21,040 haven't written our own books all the way. 1097 00:55:22,160 --> 00:55:23,640 So let's get to that. Let's get to Friday. 1098 00:55:24,280 --> 00:55:27,960 The first thing we did on Friday was attend a panel with George, 1099 00:55:28,120 --> 00:55:30,920 and it also had Isabel Kim, who wrote sublimation. 1100 00:55:31,000 --> 00:55:34,080 The panel was called A Genre in conversation with itself. 1101 00:55:34,520 --> 00:55:37,840 Isabel Kim wrote Sublimation, John Scalzi who wrote When the 1102 00:55:37,840 --> 00:55:40,760 Moon Hits Your Eye and a lot of other things, Becky Chambers who 1103 00:55:40,760 --> 00:55:44,200 wrote the Monk and Robot series, George, and then Neil Clark who 1104 00:55:44,200 --> 00:55:46,240 is the editor of Clark's World magazine. 1105 00:55:46,440 --> 00:55:48,680 They. Won best editor at the Hugos. 1106 00:55:48,960 --> 00:55:49,880 Oh, you're right on. Clark did. 1107 00:55:50,000 --> 00:55:50,880 That's right. Heck yeah. 1108 00:55:51,280 --> 00:55:53,560 Way to go, Neil. So that this was a good panel. 1109 00:55:53,560 --> 00:55:56,920 It was amusing because George was like 5 minutes late and when 1110 00:55:56,920 --> 00:56:00,720 he wandered in, I think it was John Scalzi who said hi, Are you 1111 00:56:00,720 --> 00:56:04,120 lost? That was really funny. 1112 00:56:04,360 --> 00:56:07,680 I wasn't sure it was Scalzi or not because there wasn't enough 1113 00:56:07,680 --> 00:56:08,880 seats. I was sitting on the floor so I 1114 00:56:08,880 --> 00:56:11,280 couldn't actually see who was talking just to hear. 1115 00:56:11,280 --> 00:56:13,840 I can recognize George's voice, but the rest of them I'm like, I 1116 00:56:13,840 --> 00:56:16,320 think that's Scalzi. I don't know, Becky Chambers, 1117 00:56:16,320 --> 00:56:19,680 Neil Clark or Isabel Kim hadn't ever heard them speak before. 1118 00:56:19,960 --> 00:56:21,880 So anyway, that was cool. That was really fun. 1119 00:56:21,880 --> 00:56:23,640 It was a good chat. It was like an hour long and 1120 00:56:23,640 --> 00:56:27,280 there's a lot of authorial stuff they were talking about. 1121 00:56:28,320 --> 00:56:31,600 It really just stuff from their side of things like how artist 1122 00:56:31,600 --> 00:56:36,560 experience rather writer experience and different things 1123 00:56:36,560 --> 00:56:39,920 you have to do as an author and what I found. 1124 00:56:39,920 --> 00:56:42,880 Interesting in it because it's a genre in conversation with 1125 00:56:42,880 --> 00:56:44,360 itself. So it was really about like, 1126 00:56:44,560 --> 00:56:49,440 when is something a response, a repudiation? 1127 00:56:49,720 --> 00:56:52,560 When is it in conflict? When is it in, you know, adding 1128 00:56:52,560 --> 00:56:57,840 on, you know, like, how can we tell what current modern fiction 1129 00:56:57,840 --> 00:57:01,600 will be responded to? What fiction coming out now is 1130 00:57:01,600 --> 00:57:06,440 what will set the tone for another generation to respond 1131 00:57:06,440 --> 00:57:08,680 to? So that was really interesting. 1132 00:57:09,320 --> 00:57:12,880 And to clarify what we mean by to respond to a response is 1133 00:57:12,880 --> 00:57:15,760 like, for example, George told the story about, I can't 1134 00:57:15,760 --> 00:57:18,440 remember the guy's name, the first writer, it was a Czech 1135 00:57:18,440 --> 00:57:20,480 writer who invented the concept of a robot. 1136 00:57:20,480 --> 00:57:24,400 In other words, the first sci-fi author to mention a robot, and 1137 00:57:25,320 --> 00:57:29,800 in that story the robots turned on humanity and, you know, robot 1138 00:57:29,800 --> 00:57:32,360 revolution. So for 30 years or so, that was 1139 00:57:32,560 --> 00:57:34,120 all. Pretty much every story 1140 00:57:34,120 --> 00:57:37,600 involving robots involved it. Was Carol Kopeck? 1141 00:57:37,760 --> 00:57:38,600 Carol Kopeck. Thank you. 1142 00:57:39,040 --> 00:57:41,400 Every story involving robots for something like 30 years, George 1143 00:57:41,400 --> 00:57:44,440 said, was about the robots revolting against humanity. 1144 00:57:45,080 --> 00:57:48,320 As a Moff's story. I, Robot was a response to that, 1145 00:57:48,680 --> 00:57:52,000 He said. Hey, why not have the first law 1146 00:57:52,000 --> 00:57:55,880 of robotics where you have the first law is the human robots 1147 00:57:55,880 --> 00:57:57,520 are programmed. The most important thing that 1148 00:57:57,520 --> 00:57:59,360 they're programmed is never harm humans. 1149 00:57:59,720 --> 00:58:01,640 And then these are a couple other laws that go in there as 1150 00:58:01,640 --> 00:58:03,520 well to support that. You get the point. 1151 00:58:04,120 --> 00:58:08,240 So, so this is basically you have 30 years of people writing 1152 00:58:08,240 --> 00:58:09,840 it a certain way and then someone says, hey, why don't we 1153 00:58:09,840 --> 00:58:12,400 do it this way? And it's if someone that does it 1154 00:58:12,400 --> 00:58:13,800 really well. And then all of a sudden a lot 1155 00:58:13,800 --> 00:58:15,320 of people are writing that style. 1156 00:58:15,320 --> 00:58:17,280 They're all lots of people writing the first law of 1157 00:58:17,280 --> 00:58:21,040 robotics starts to appear in dozens if not more sci-fi. 1158 00:58:21,040 --> 00:58:23,400 You all all know that concept, right? 1159 00:58:23,400 --> 00:58:28,320 So what you didn't probably know is that it was a response to 30 1160 00:58:28,320 --> 00:58:30,280 years of robot revolution stories. 1161 00:58:30,520 --> 00:58:35,440 That's lost in the midst of time to most people who haven't paid 1162 00:58:35,440 --> 00:58:39,560 attention or researched or had someone like George tell you 1163 00:58:39,560 --> 00:58:41,440 this because it's kind of obscure. 1164 00:58:41,880 --> 00:58:44,080 Unless you're like his age or something, you wouldn't know 1165 00:58:44,080 --> 00:58:46,080 this. So this is actually before his 1166 00:58:46,080 --> 00:58:47,040 time even. So then you. 1167 00:58:47,040 --> 00:58:51,640 Kick off this cycle where people are now responding, I'm like, I 1168 00:58:51,640 --> 00:58:53,120 want to do it different. You're like, well, actually 1169 00:58:53,120 --> 00:58:56,280 you're different is what the standard was that he was 1170 00:58:56,480 --> 00:58:57,240 repudiating. Yeah. 1171 00:58:57,240 --> 00:58:58,320 Anyways, because we're back to the. 1172 00:58:58,480 --> 00:59:00,520 AI taking over now that's starting to come back where 1173 00:59:00,520 --> 00:59:03,120 robots are dangerous again. You know, robot revolution. 1174 00:59:03,120 --> 00:59:06,840 That's that's a big part of like the resurgence of Dune as an 1175 00:59:06,840 --> 00:59:09,080 idea, which was like no robots can do anything. 1176 00:59:09,080 --> 00:59:12,360 We banned all robots. Or what are some other examples? 1177 00:59:12,680 --> 00:59:14,520 I'm spacing out. But there's, you all know, 1178 00:59:14,520 --> 00:59:18,760 there's lots of the, yeah, boom, the Super clear example. 1179 00:59:18,840 --> 00:59:21,320 So people think, oh, this is a response to Isaac, Isaac Asimov. 1180 00:59:21,760 --> 00:59:24,320 Well, kinda, yeah. But it's, it's just back and 1181 00:59:24,320 --> 00:59:26,160 forth. It's like how trends repeat. 1182 00:59:26,160 --> 00:59:28,160 You know, it's like fashion is cyclical. 1183 00:59:28,160 --> 00:59:31,160 So are so is response fiction, which is fine. 1184 00:59:31,160 --> 00:59:32,520 It's not a problem. It's not a bad thing. 1185 00:59:32,520 --> 00:59:34,400 I mean, you get 30 years of great stories, and then you get 1186 00:59:34,400 --> 00:59:37,200 30 years of great stories that are approaching it differently, 1187 00:59:37,200 --> 00:59:40,680 and then they come back again and do it again, but from a 1188 00:59:40,680 --> 00:59:44,080 different modern perspective. Because it's been 50 years or so 1189 00:59:44,080 --> 00:59:48,000 and the technology has changed and thus people's imaginations 1190 00:59:48,000 --> 00:59:49,560 have changed and other things have changed too. 1191 00:59:49,560 --> 00:59:52,080 So it's really just kind of neat to watch these patterns evolve. 1192 00:59:52,360 --> 00:59:54,960 And that's where this panel is really valuable because you have 1193 00:59:54,960 --> 00:59:57,560 people like George who have the really Longview experience, 1194 00:59:57,560 --> 01:00:00,080 someone who's been in the industry for a long time who is 1195 01:00:00,080 --> 01:00:02,840 maybe a little out of touch with how it is for new authors. 1196 01:00:02,840 --> 01:00:05,280 Because George hasn't been a new author and so long, he doesn't 1197 01:00:05,280 --> 01:00:07,960 know what it's like to be a new author in 2025. 1198 01:00:08,240 --> 01:00:10,080 He knows what it was like back in the day. 1199 01:00:10,160 --> 01:00:14,560 He still understands a lot about the business, but he's just been 1200 01:00:14,560 --> 01:00:18,640 successful for so long that he's doesn't know what it's like to 1201 01:00:18,640 --> 01:00:20,880 be getting started in these days. 1202 01:00:20,880 --> 01:00:23,560 I agree. With you, I think give we should 1203 01:00:23,560 --> 01:00:26,320 give George some credit for the amount of work he puts into 1204 01:00:26,400 --> 01:00:30,520 fostering new voices. And I'm sure he does ask what's 1205 01:00:30,520 --> 01:00:32,040 it like and he hears a lot of that. 1206 01:00:32,040 --> 01:00:34,960 You can hear that in his panels that he definitely is a little 1207 01:00:34,960 --> 01:00:37,600 tapped in more than you might think because of that like 1208 01:00:37,800 --> 01:00:39,880 mentoring and fostering work he does. 1209 01:00:40,400 --> 01:00:42,120 That's a great. Point yeah, you're totally right 1210 01:00:42,120 --> 01:00:45,320 he is definitely someone who gives back to the community he 1211 01:00:45,320 --> 01:00:48,520 encourages people to write he helps teach people to write he's 1212 01:00:49,040 --> 01:00:50,840 our very. Own McCall Schick is part of the 1213 01:00:50,840 --> 01:00:54,320 George RR Martin Writer's fellowship in Chicago. 1214 01:00:54,320 --> 01:00:56,720 She just did that that's right. Quotes and who? 1215 01:00:57,040 --> 01:01:00,240 Who has done podcasting with Aziz and Yeah? 1216 01:01:00,240 --> 01:01:01,560 So. That's really cool. 1217 01:01:01,560 --> 01:01:03,880 So that was really neat to hear. And these these these trends are 1218 01:01:03,880 --> 01:01:06,200 really interesting to hear about and these these stories about 1219 01:01:06,200 --> 01:01:07,800 how the publishing industry works. 1220 01:01:07,920 --> 01:01:12,880 And we heard some more of them in this next panel, this podcast 1221 01:01:12,880 --> 01:01:17,600 episode, the sci-fi Addicts podcast, which was along with 1222 01:01:17,600 --> 01:01:21,040 Dragon Steel Productions, which is Brandon Sanderson's company. 1223 01:01:21,360 --> 01:01:25,320 The podcasters were Adrian M Gibson, MJ Kuhn and Greta Kelly. 1224 01:01:25,560 --> 01:01:27,520 And as a Shaya mentioned earlier, all three of them are 1225 01:01:27,520 --> 01:01:29,160 published authors. So they're podcasters and 1226 01:01:29,160 --> 01:01:32,200 authors. The rest of the panel included 1227 01:01:32,240 --> 01:01:37,280 Brandon Sanderson, Robin Hobb, Ryan Cahill, Rebecca Rowanhorse 1228 01:01:37,480 --> 01:01:40,160 and George. So it is a big panel of heavy 1229 01:01:40,160 --> 01:01:43,320 hitters and it was diverse in terms of age. 1230 01:01:43,320 --> 01:01:45,080 You got. George is the older, oldest one 1231 01:01:45,080 --> 01:01:47,440 there. Ryan Cahill's the youngest I 1232 01:01:47,440 --> 01:01:49,480 would like. To say, as he said, it's Cahill, 1233 01:01:49,640 --> 01:01:51,880 it's oh, I'm sorry. Cahill, I'm sorry, he. 1234 01:01:51,880 --> 01:01:54,880 Said he has patience for it because Americans say it one 1235 01:01:54,880 --> 01:01:57,760 way, but he did make a point. Good correction there. 1236 01:01:57,760 --> 01:02:00,200 Thank you. So this was also a lot about 1237 01:02:00,200 --> 01:02:04,080 industry insights, less about how genre responses and more 1238 01:02:04,080 --> 01:02:05,800 about the. Business. 1239 01:02:05,800 --> 01:02:08,040 Of being an author and how some of these trends have changed. 1240 01:02:08,040 --> 01:02:12,040 For example, what authors have to deal with a lot, all these 1241 01:02:12,040 --> 01:02:15,000 authors talked about, even George has talked about this, is 1242 01:02:15,000 --> 01:02:18,400 that something does well, a certain thing does well and then 1243 01:02:18,400 --> 01:02:21,320 all the publishers tell the authors to do that. 1244 01:02:21,680 --> 01:02:23,320 And a good example of that is Game of Thrones. 1245 01:02:23,720 --> 01:02:26,440 A lot of like, for example, Brandon Sanderson in this 1246 01:02:26,440 --> 01:02:29,400 podcast, he said he wrote his story or his for one of his 1247 01:02:29,400 --> 01:02:30,720 first stories. I don't know which one it was, 1248 01:02:30,960 --> 01:02:33,800 but he presented it to I think Del Rey. 1249 01:02:34,040 --> 01:02:35,560 And they were like, yeah, this is pretty good. 1250 01:02:35,880 --> 01:02:38,080 Have you read Game of Thrones? Go write that instead. 1251 01:02:38,640 --> 01:02:42,440 He's like, I, I can't do that. I'm not George. 1252 01:02:42,440 --> 01:02:44,480 I like, I write my stories. You know, these are my this is 1253 01:02:44,480 --> 01:02:45,920 how I write. I don't write like him. 1254 01:02:46,120 --> 01:02:47,200 Nothing wrong with how he writes. 1255 01:02:47,200 --> 01:02:49,080 Nothing wrong with how I write. But we are different. 1256 01:02:49,160 --> 01:02:51,840 You know it. Which is highly relevant to 1257 01:02:51,920 --> 01:02:54,200 people out there who think Sanderson should finish George's 1258 01:02:54,200 --> 01:02:56,720 books. Even Sanderson doesn't think 1259 01:02:56,720 --> 01:02:58,760 he's fit for that. So that conversation needs to 1260 01:02:58,760 --> 01:03:01,080 die. Other examples, really. 1261 01:03:01,080 --> 01:03:05,640 Like, Cahill gave an example of how, oh, maybe it wasn't him, 1262 01:03:05,640 --> 01:03:07,760 but one of them gave an example of no, I think it was Sanderson 1263 01:03:07,760 --> 01:03:10,320 again. It gave an example of how he was 1264 01:03:10,320 --> 01:03:14,400 told, do bring me anything, just not vampire stuff. 1265 01:03:14,400 --> 01:03:16,200 Like, that's dead. Like, he made a joke. 1266 01:03:16,200 --> 01:03:18,080 Yeah, Like, dead. Like the vampires themselves, 1267 01:03:18,080 --> 01:03:20,080 like, don't do vampire stuff. Anything but that. 1268 01:03:20,760 --> 01:03:23,920 The next year, The Vampire Diaries came, no, no, Twilight, 1269 01:03:24,160 --> 01:03:25,880 Twilight, sorry, Twilight came out the next year. 1270 01:03:26,400 --> 01:03:29,520 So Sanderson's like, don't listen to the publishers. 1271 01:03:29,520 --> 01:03:32,840 They may tell you what to do, but you, you got to ignore that 1272 01:03:33,400 --> 01:03:36,360 the, all the authors, every single one of them on the panel 1273 01:03:36,360 --> 01:03:40,400 was adamant that you should write what you love to write, 1274 01:03:40,800 --> 01:03:43,280 because if you don't, you'll get stuck in doing things you don't 1275 01:03:43,280 --> 01:03:46,600 like. You'll lose enthusiasm for it, 1276 01:03:46,760 --> 01:03:50,120 Ryan said. If you do well with one and 1277 01:03:50,120 --> 01:03:52,400 they're going to make you do another one, and you won't want 1278 01:03:52,400 --> 01:03:54,360 to do that 'cause you already struggled to do the first one, 1279 01:03:54,360 --> 01:03:56,040 'cause you didn't like it. You were writing something that 1280 01:03:56,040 --> 01:04:00,600 was outside of your enjoyment. So it's really important. 1281 01:04:00,720 --> 01:04:02,280 One of the bottom line points here is that you have to be 1282 01:04:02,280 --> 01:04:04,600 enthusiastic about your own work 'cause that shines through in 1283 01:04:04,600 --> 01:04:07,640 your work and that is a big draw in the 1st place. 1284 01:04:07,640 --> 01:04:12,320 It's really hard to bring people in via a work of art that the 1285 01:04:12,320 --> 01:04:16,480 artist isn't excited about or that they they themselves don't 1286 01:04:16,480 --> 01:04:18,240 love, right? That's it's really hard to 1287 01:04:18,240 --> 01:04:20,920 succeed with those conditions. You just got to be like the most 1288 01:04:20,920 --> 01:04:25,240 ultra talented type person to overcome art in a place that you 1289 01:04:25,240 --> 01:04:26,680 aren't enjoying it. One of the. 1290 01:04:26,720 --> 01:04:28,960 Points I thought was really interesting was they talked 1291 01:04:28,960 --> 01:04:32,880 about how their inspiration, what was what was like their 1292 01:04:32,880 --> 01:04:35,400 model when like what how they their introduction, their 1293 01:04:35,400 --> 01:04:38,360 inflection point into fantasy and science fiction. 1294 01:04:38,600 --> 01:04:41,640 The scope of the the panel was epic fantasy, so they were 1295 01:04:41,640 --> 01:04:43,240 really focusing on the epic fantasy. 1296 01:04:43,400 --> 01:04:46,640 But of course, you can't help but bring up epic science 1297 01:04:46,640 --> 01:04:48,280 fiction, space opera and stuff like that. 1298 01:04:48,440 --> 01:04:52,960 So anyways, obviously George had had Tolkien and, you know, had 1299 01:04:52,960 --> 01:04:55,160 his own influences. It's talked about a lot. 1300 01:04:55,400 --> 01:04:58,600 I found it really fascinating that Brandon Sanderson brought 1301 01:04:58,600 --> 01:05:02,000 up Dune as his big model and dragon Lance. 1302 01:05:02,000 --> 01:05:02,840 So did Rebecca. Yeah. 1303 01:05:02,920 --> 01:05:05,440 And that's what I'm about to say is that Rebecca Rowanhorse 1304 01:05:05,440 --> 01:05:09,000 brought up Dune and A Song of Ice and Fire, and I think that 1305 01:05:09,000 --> 01:05:12,880 rings through in her series. And like I read in Black Sun, 1306 01:05:13,200 --> 01:05:16,520 there really is a lot of political intrigue and you can 1307 01:05:16,520 --> 01:05:19,600 tell the influences that A Song of Ice and Fire had on her and 1308 01:05:19,600 --> 01:05:22,720 how you know. So that's my pitch to read 1309 01:05:22,720 --> 01:05:25,240 Rebecca Rowanhorse because her, she's a very good author. 1310 01:05:25,400 --> 01:05:26,360 She's on my. Short list. 1311 01:05:26,360 --> 01:05:30,080 I really have been meaning to read her series for a while and 1312 01:05:30,080 --> 01:05:31,760 now it's just one best that you go for best series. 1313 01:05:31,760 --> 01:05:34,520 So it's like, Oh yeah, that's even more incentive. 1314 01:05:35,000 --> 01:05:38,360 So yeah, that to add on to what Shay was saying, all of them 1315 01:05:38,360 --> 01:05:41,480 except Rebecca Rowanhorse said like Tolkien was the first one 1316 01:05:41,480 --> 01:05:43,920 they read, but she hasn't read. Tolkien she hasn't read. 1317 01:05:43,920 --> 01:05:47,400 And Sanderson said that he read Tolkien, but he was more like 1318 01:05:47,400 --> 01:05:50,440 chip on his shoulder about it. Like, I don't want to write like 1319 01:05:50,440 --> 01:05:51,800 this. Like everyone writes like this 1320 01:05:51,800 --> 01:05:55,000 because of the when he was coming along, Tolkien had been 1321 01:05:55,000 --> 01:05:58,360 the the thing for so long. He wanted to do something 1322 01:05:58,360 --> 01:06:00,680 different. And so he also said that Dune, 1323 01:06:00,680 --> 01:06:03,440 like Shea said, was the the one that really affected him more, a 1324 01:06:03,440 --> 01:06:05,280 lot more than Tokyo and and then Game of Thrones. 1325 01:06:05,840 --> 01:06:09,240 So even though he doesn't write at all like Frank Herbert or 1326 01:06:09,240 --> 01:06:13,400 George R Martin, the ideas, the genesis for so much of his world 1327 01:06:13,400 --> 01:06:17,400 building and characters and just everything started a lot with 1328 01:06:17,880 --> 01:06:22,080 with these influences. Some other interesting takes. 1329 01:06:22,080 --> 01:06:24,320 They discussed magic systems. This was interesting because you 1330 01:06:24,320 --> 01:06:26,840 also have and it's funny that George R Martin and Brandon 1331 01:06:26,840 --> 01:06:28,840 Sanderson were sitting the farthest apart. 1332 01:06:29,200 --> 01:06:30,880 Now, of course, they're very respectful to each other. 1333 01:06:30,880 --> 01:06:32,400 They're they're colleagues and all that. 1334 01:06:32,760 --> 01:06:36,200 So there wasn't any like there's never any, nothing negative 1335 01:06:36,200 --> 01:06:38,040 here, but they definitely had different approaches. 1336 01:06:38,040 --> 01:06:40,400 It was it was your debate. Yeah, it was more of a debate 1337 01:06:40,400 --> 01:06:43,440 like people like like Robin Hobb and and George are more on the 1338 01:06:43,760 --> 01:06:48,880 magic should be mysterious. It should have consequences, it 1339 01:06:48,880 --> 01:06:53,240 shouldn't work the same always. And Sanderson often prefers this 1340 01:06:53,560 --> 01:06:56,280 strict magic systems which are very outlined and very detailed. 1341 01:06:56,560 --> 01:07:00,080 And Robin Hobb had the most insightful, succinct comment 1342 01:07:00,080 --> 01:07:03,680 about this dichotomy. I think most of you out there 1343 01:07:03,680 --> 01:07:07,960 have heard the phrase any advanced technology is 1344 01:07:07,960 --> 01:07:11,440 indistinguishable from magic. Probably all heard that before. 1345 01:07:11,440 --> 01:07:15,600 It's just something common like tropish statement made about 1346 01:07:15,880 --> 01:07:17,680 usually applied to sci-fi settings. 1347 01:07:18,440 --> 01:07:24,280 She turned that around and said any repeatable magic, if you can 1348 01:07:24,280 --> 01:07:27,920 do it over and over get the same results is indistinguishable 1349 01:07:27,920 --> 01:07:31,120 from science. If it has repeatable results, 1350 01:07:31,800 --> 01:07:34,920 then it's it's, it's not like you can still call it magic. 1351 01:07:34,920 --> 01:07:37,880 But if it just works the same, if the same exact process 1352 01:07:37,880 --> 01:07:42,840 creates the same exact results every time, then it's, it's very 1353 01:07:42,840 --> 01:07:45,080 straightforward. You can analyze it and study it. 1354 01:07:45,080 --> 01:07:49,160 And that mystery element doesn't exist because other than what 1355 01:07:49,160 --> 01:07:51,040 hasn't been discovered yet, I love. 1356 01:07:51,040 --> 01:07:54,760 This especially because in Brandon Sanderson's works, it is 1357 01:07:54,760 --> 01:07:59,960 all working towards a future series where magic is being 1358 01:07:59,960 --> 01:08:05,040 harnessed in a real scientific way for planetary travel. 1359 01:08:05,040 --> 01:08:07,560 Like we haven't reached that point yet, but that's what he's 1360 01:08:07,560 --> 01:08:10,080 working towards. And so like that is what's going 1361 01:08:10,080 --> 01:08:14,240 to hit that they are going to be using their magics and 1362 01:08:14,240 --> 01:08:16,439 harnessing them in a reliable way. 1363 01:08:16,600 --> 01:08:18,720 And they, I mean, you see that in Stormlight Archive, they do 1364 01:08:18,720 --> 01:08:22,160 have magic used as science regularly that is like used to 1365 01:08:22,160 --> 01:08:27,920 make machinery, used to make, you know, ways to travel, things 1366 01:08:27,920 --> 01:08:29,520 like that. And, and I love that. 1367 01:08:29,520 --> 01:08:32,479 I love that. But it is definitely scientific 1368 01:08:32,479 --> 01:08:35,279 magic. Yeah, which so that's a really, 1369 01:08:35,279 --> 01:08:38,479 I thought there's a really clever way of of describing the 1370 01:08:38,479 --> 01:08:41,080 difference there. And so it's just very insightful 1371 01:08:41,080 --> 01:08:42,439 all around. But I thought Robin Hobb's 1372 01:08:42,439 --> 01:08:45,319 comment was particularly insightful on that one, if you. 1373 01:08:45,359 --> 01:08:47,080 Listen to this podcast. I don't know how they're going 1374 01:08:47,080 --> 01:08:48,680 to release it. I don't know how they're going 1375 01:08:48,680 --> 01:08:50,760 to edit it. There's something that people 1376 01:08:50,760 --> 01:08:55,040 live when people who watch live streams of it were harsh on 1377 01:08:55,040 --> 01:08:57,120 George about. But I need to point this out. 1378 01:08:57,479 --> 01:09:01,319 There were multiple times where they said to answer this Robin 1379 01:09:01,319 --> 01:09:04,560 and they asked Robin a question or they asked Rebecca or Brandon 1380 01:09:04,560 --> 01:09:08,960 a question and George answered. You might be like, oh, how rude. 1381 01:09:09,120 --> 01:09:11,840 No, you guys, he can't hear them. 1382 01:09:12,040 --> 01:09:14,520 He he uses a hearing aid these days. 1383 01:09:14,600 --> 01:09:16,760 It's very hard when you're on stage. 1384 01:09:16,760 --> 01:09:19,960 I know from first hand, having been on panels and from seeing 1385 01:09:19,960 --> 01:09:22,800 George on panels, having heard him have to have questions 1386 01:09:22,800 --> 01:09:25,399 repeated every one of those times. 1387 01:09:25,520 --> 01:09:29,720 He did not hear them adding the name on to the end. 1388 01:09:29,720 --> 01:09:31,840 He was not just bulldozing someone. 1389 01:09:31,840 --> 01:09:33,960 He wasn't just, yeah, he wasn't just being a jerk. 1390 01:09:33,960 --> 01:09:36,160 I, I, I just, I really need you to realize that. 1391 01:09:36,160 --> 01:09:38,840 I hope you listen to this podcast and I hopefully they 1392 01:09:38,840 --> 01:09:41,840 edit it so that it doesn't sound so so rude. 1393 01:09:43,000 --> 01:09:44,439 Like 2 like. Two or three times he did that, 1394 01:09:44,640 --> 01:09:46,439 yeah. But yeah, as I say, I said 1395 01:09:46,439 --> 01:09:47,880 that's. Yeah, it was. 1396 01:09:47,880 --> 01:09:50,800 It was certainly no, nothing more than just, it's hard to 1397 01:09:50,800 --> 01:09:54,240 hear up there. And so, yeah, again, every 1398 01:09:54,240 --> 01:09:57,240 single one of them was just overwhelmingly adamant about 1399 01:09:57,240 --> 01:09:59,080 writing what you love. And if you want to be an author, 1400 01:09:59,080 --> 01:10:00,640 you have to write. You have to have stuff out 1401 01:10:00,640 --> 01:10:02,440 there. You can't just, you have to have 1402 01:10:02,440 --> 01:10:04,320 something to show to people because if the opportunity comes 1403 01:10:04,320 --> 01:10:06,280 along, you need to be prepared for that. 1404 01:10:06,280 --> 01:10:09,720 And they all had some really funny stories about how this 1405 01:10:09,720 --> 01:10:12,040 worked for them. Like Robin Hobb talked about, 1406 01:10:12,040 --> 01:10:15,240 like, she was asked by somebody if she had this story. 1407 01:10:15,240 --> 01:10:17,440 She's like, yeah, I'm working on a novel, which wasn't true. 1408 01:10:17,960 --> 01:10:20,760 She just said that. And they were like, then the 1409 01:10:20,760 --> 01:10:22,600 person was like, will you show it to me? 1410 01:10:22,600 --> 01:10:24,880 And then she's like, so she had to take two of her existing 1411 01:10:24,880 --> 01:10:26,960 short stories. She just, she just hammered them 1412 01:10:26,960 --> 01:10:30,360 together into one. And it worked and it was good 1413 01:10:30,360 --> 01:10:33,280 and it was successful. So do what you got to do. 1414 01:10:34,200 --> 01:10:37,160 Cahill said that he was the youngest on the panel. 1415 01:10:37,160 --> 01:10:39,480 He's like in his and he does indie. 1416 01:10:39,480 --> 01:10:41,480 Publishing. He was an indie author on the 1417 01:10:41,480 --> 01:10:42,680 panel. That's important to know. 1418 01:10:42,760 --> 01:10:43,520 Yeah. So that was. 1419 01:10:43,520 --> 01:10:45,200 Yes, the publishing was a big part of the discussion. 1420 01:10:45,200 --> 01:10:48,400 This is one of the things that that George didn't was is a 1421 01:10:48,400 --> 01:10:52,840 little beyond his scope because indie publishing, Internet 1422 01:10:52,840 --> 01:10:54,880 publishing, that's he doesn't do that so much. 1423 01:10:54,880 --> 01:10:58,240 And if he what bits of that he does is done by other people 1424 01:10:58,240 --> 01:11:01,600 handling it for him. So these modern trends and 1425 01:11:01,600 --> 01:11:03,800 George said that he's like he he was complimenting Brandon 1426 01:11:03,800 --> 01:11:06,040 Sanderson was like, you are clearly the master of this 1427 01:11:06,040 --> 01:11:13,160 Internet thing because Brandon is absolutely astonishing almost 1428 01:11:13,160 --> 01:11:15,040 in his ability, his business management. 1429 01:11:15,040 --> 01:11:17,600 Like as far as all these authors, Sanderson is the most 1430 01:11:17,600 --> 01:11:20,960 impressive in terms of his his own personal brand, I would say. 1431 01:11:21,160 --> 01:11:24,640 And the fact that he basically talked for a minute about this, 1432 01:11:24,920 --> 01:11:29,680 about how nowadays, in the in the old days, literary agents 1433 01:11:29,680 --> 01:11:33,280 were their own thing. Nowadays, every agent basically 1434 01:11:33,280 --> 01:11:36,120 works for Amazon or Barnes and Noble, not literally, but 1435 01:11:36,120 --> 01:11:38,640 basically because those are the platforms that matter. 1436 01:11:39,000 --> 01:11:41,920 He said specifically, there's been lots of authors with great 1437 01:11:41,920 --> 01:11:44,880 books that Barnes and Nobles is like, Nah, it doesn't fit our 1438 01:11:45,000 --> 01:11:46,840 our what we want on the shelves right now. 1439 01:11:46,840 --> 01:11:48,440 And that kills the book. They can't. 1440 01:11:49,160 --> 01:11:51,040 There's nothing you can't with with Barnes and Nobles isn't 1441 01:11:51,040 --> 01:11:52,800 going to put it on the shelf. It's really hard to sell it. 1442 01:11:53,040 --> 01:11:55,320 And so that's what Sanderson decided he was like. 1443 01:11:55,320 --> 01:11:59,040 He realized that he's beholden to Amazon and Barnes and Noble. 1444 01:11:59,040 --> 01:12:01,440 He didn't want to be. He's like, I want to be 2003. 1445 01:12:01,440 --> 01:12:02,840 Right. I think there's a long time ago 1446 01:12:02,840 --> 01:12:04,080 where they turned off the spigots. 1447 01:12:04,080 --> 01:12:06,120 Maybe it was like 2013. Yeah, I think it was 20. 13 1448 01:12:06,120 --> 01:12:07,800 Yeah, Where they. Turned off like they they just 1449 01:12:08,280 --> 01:12:10,640 his publisher could not sell on Amazon. 1450 01:12:10,640 --> 01:12:12,320 He just was not. There was a dispute. 1451 01:12:12,320 --> 01:12:14,280 Yeah, there was a dispute and then Amazon just turned him off 1452 01:12:14,480 --> 01:12:16,000 and so his books couldn't sell for a while. 1453 01:12:16,120 --> 01:12:17,960 And he's like, well, I just don't ever want that to happen 1454 01:12:17,960 --> 01:12:19,360 again. I'm never going to put myself in 1455 01:12:19,360 --> 01:12:20,360 a position for that to happen again. 1456 01:12:20,360 --> 01:12:23,720 So he worked super hard to start his own company and mailing. 1457 01:12:23,720 --> 01:12:24,760 List mailing list. So he. 1458 01:12:24,760 --> 01:12:26,760 Has a direct connection to his fans. 1459 01:12:26,960 --> 01:12:28,360 He can sell directly to his fans. 1460 01:12:28,360 --> 01:12:31,080 He publishes to his fans. He doesn't have need obviously 1461 01:12:31,080 --> 01:12:33,440 the he uses these other distribution networks, but 1462 01:12:33,440 --> 01:12:35,800 doesn't need them. If they if they kick him out or 1463 01:12:35,800 --> 01:12:38,480 he has a problem with them, a dispute, he has leverage. 1464 01:12:38,480 --> 01:12:40,160 He's like, well, fine, I'll just do it on my own. 1465 01:12:40,160 --> 01:12:44,320 They can't force him into it by leveraging. 1466 01:12:44,320 --> 01:12:47,880 We're the only game in town. So and Cahill is doing a similar 1467 01:12:47,880 --> 01:12:49,080 thing. He's not as established. 1468 01:12:49,080 --> 01:12:53,600 He's not as nearly as big as Sanderson, but he's younger too 1469 01:12:53,600 --> 01:12:55,440 and is on maybe on a track kind of like that. 1470 01:12:56,040 --> 01:12:57,520 So that that was really interesting. 1471 01:12:57,520 --> 01:13:00,200 It was really fascinating. Like I said, I encourage you to 1472 01:13:00,200 --> 01:13:01,920 to listen to this podcast when it comes out. 1473 01:13:02,320 --> 01:13:06,920 It was over 2 hours and we've probably only covered maybe 1/3 1474 01:13:06,920 --> 01:13:08,880 of it at most. Maybe maybe a little, whatever, 1475 01:13:08,880 --> 01:13:10,360 not, not a whole lot. There's a lot of other 1476 01:13:10,360 --> 01:13:13,160 interesting things said by these highly intelligent, experienced 1477 01:13:13,360 --> 01:13:16,760 authors. There was some reporting on an 1478 01:13:16,760 --> 01:13:20,800 incident during this podcast. Reporting was a little off on 1479 01:13:20,800 --> 01:13:22,720 this as things tend to be, but we were there. 1480 01:13:22,720 --> 01:13:26,960 We know what happened. There is an audience Q&A and 1481 01:13:26,960 --> 01:13:29,280 there was going to be 8. They allowed eight people to ask 1482 01:13:29,280 --> 01:13:31,600 a question. Our friend Mateo was 9th. 1483 01:13:31,600 --> 01:13:33,840 So it's too bad that this happened because he would have 1484 01:13:33,840 --> 01:13:36,560 gotten to ask a question and Ashea would have been like 11th 1485 01:13:36,960 --> 01:13:39,480 so. And I got a good look at this 1486 01:13:39,480 --> 01:13:41,400 person in person too. They're very crazy. 1487 01:13:41,400 --> 01:13:43,240 We don't really want to give them the attention that they 1488 01:13:43,240 --> 01:13:44,840 want. They definitely want this 1489 01:13:44,840 --> 01:13:46,760 attention. They posted this stuff 1490 01:13:46,760 --> 01:13:49,000 themselves, you guys. They've also been booted from 1491 01:13:49,000 --> 01:13:52,400 the Tolkien fandom from Lord of the Rings for harassing Royd 1492 01:13:52,400 --> 01:13:55,240 Tolkien. So you just it's not worth 1493 01:13:55,240 --> 01:13:58,120 giving them the attention. It's, it's what they want it. 1494 01:13:58,120 --> 01:14:00,960 I will say Worldcon did not do a background check. 1495 01:14:00,960 --> 01:14:05,320 They did not vet them because this person was on a panel and 1496 01:14:05,320 --> 01:14:08,440 in their description, like they had a reading and it said they 1497 01:14:08,440 --> 01:14:11,040 would do a reading as Visenya Targaryen. 1498 01:14:11,320 --> 01:14:14,240 And let me say that their question had them tell George 1499 01:14:14,480 --> 01:14:17,920 they're the person who's been harassing him to be cast as 1500 01:14:17,920 --> 01:14:20,640 Visenya Targaryen. This is someone who goes by he 1501 01:14:20,640 --> 01:14:23,320 they pronouns and does not look like Visenya Targaryen. 1502 01:14:25,280 --> 01:14:30,040 So the the reason this became like national? 1503 01:14:30,800 --> 01:14:33,240 Solitary. News is because the question 1504 01:14:33,240 --> 01:14:36,280 they asked or tried to ask. Was. 1505 01:14:36,280 --> 01:14:39,840 Started off with the bit about the Senya and some other just 1506 01:14:39,840 --> 01:14:42,600 rambling, and then it went to George. 1507 01:14:43,000 --> 01:14:45,600 We all know you're not going to be with us much longer. 1508 01:14:45,600 --> 01:14:51,560 And then, of course, with that intro, half the audience was 1509 01:14:51,560 --> 01:14:55,320 stunned to silence. The other half went oh, whoa. 1510 01:14:55,320 --> 01:14:58,840 And then the podcast host or one of the podcast hosts just went 1511 01:14:58,840 --> 01:15:03,080 no and just shut them down. It was like, show some respect. 1512 01:15:03,400 --> 01:15:05,040 That's it. That's the end. 1513 01:15:05,400 --> 01:15:07,480 Now, some people. So, so a lot of the reporting 1514 01:15:07,480 --> 01:15:09,320 says the event was cut short by this. 1515 01:15:09,440 --> 01:15:11,920 No, not really. This was the last question 1516 01:15:11,920 --> 01:15:13,800 anyway. It was already gonna be the last 1517 01:15:13,800 --> 01:15:15,240 question too, is it was saved by cut short. 1518 01:15:15,240 --> 01:15:18,720 It was cut short by like 2 minutes or one minute, you know? 1519 01:15:18,720 --> 01:15:20,400 So technically it was, but not really. 1520 01:15:20,880 --> 01:15:22,360 I liked what the host. Adrian said. 1521 01:15:22,360 --> 01:15:25,760 He said that was not nice. That was not a nice question. 1522 01:15:25,760 --> 01:15:27,640 I really liked how mild he was. Yeah. 1523 01:15:28,880 --> 01:15:30,760 And. And the person was still trying 1524 01:15:30,760 --> 01:15:34,280 to like standing there, like still trying to get like some 1525 01:15:34,280 --> 01:15:37,560 response and and they were just still like, no, no. 1526 01:15:38,240 --> 01:15:40,640 People were already. Leaving, you know, and of 1527 01:15:40,640 --> 01:15:43,600 course, basically hold. Mateo back from like confronting 1528 01:15:43,600 --> 01:15:45,840 this person anyways. Yeah, yeah. 1529 01:15:47,040 --> 01:15:48,840 Daphne held him back. Like, just don't. 1530 01:15:48,840 --> 01:15:50,320 Just don't. Yeah, He's like, all right, 1531 01:15:50,320 --> 01:15:51,600 fine. Because he just wanted to know, 1532 01:15:51,600 --> 01:15:53,240 like, why would you do that? Why would you say something? 1533 01:15:53,240 --> 01:15:55,520 He wasn't going to like, you know, attack her or something, 1534 01:15:55,520 --> 01:15:57,400 but he just really wanted to know why you would say such a 1535 01:15:57,400 --> 01:15:58,280 thing. Attack them. 1536 01:15:59,640 --> 01:16:01,480 We want to use their pronouns even when they're crazy. 1537 01:16:01,480 --> 01:16:02,400 Oh yeah, attack. Them My bad. 1538 01:16:02,400 --> 01:16:05,960 Yes, my bad. So that was just quite an 1539 01:16:06,080 --> 01:16:09,080 incident and yeah, you probably, many of you have probably 1540 01:16:09,080 --> 01:16:11,440 already seen that because it was it's been all over the news 1541 01:16:12,120 --> 01:16:13,920 anyway. So that's the real story, 1542 01:16:13,920 --> 01:16:16,000 because we were there for it, yeah. 1543 01:16:16,440 --> 01:16:18,840 To be clear, the the crazy part wasn't even the question. 1544 01:16:18,840 --> 01:16:21,400 The the second part, the crazy part is the fact they like 1545 01:16:21,400 --> 01:16:22,840 George. I think it's a restraining order 1546 01:16:22,840 --> 01:16:25,040 to keep this person from Jean Cocteau. 1547 01:16:25,040 --> 01:16:28,640 And like, there was a lot of other crazy stuff beyond how 1548 01:16:28,680 --> 01:16:31,880 callous and heartless the question became, right? 1549 01:16:32,160 --> 01:16:33,920 Just so you know, 1000%. Yeah. 1550 01:16:33,920 --> 01:16:38,200 And one last tidbit on that too. They said that or or Shaya 1551 01:16:38,200 --> 01:16:41,160 mentioned Roy Tokian. It's also a restraining order 1552 01:16:41,560 --> 01:16:45,040 against her or them for that because it's they sexually 1553 01:16:45,040 --> 01:16:47,520 harassed Roy Token, apparently. So it's like, whoa, this is 1554 01:16:47,760 --> 01:16:48,720 quite a person. Yeah. 1555 01:16:48,920 --> 01:16:52,480 Anyway, enough of that. Then we went to the signings. 1556 01:16:52,480 --> 01:16:55,000 The signings were Next up, and we got some good photos of that. 1557 01:16:55,000 --> 01:16:57,520 And there's this particularly great photo of me and George 1558 01:16:57,680 --> 01:16:59,840 that I believe Shay will put on screen here in a SEC, if it's 1559 01:16:59,840 --> 01:17:02,040 not already there. We both have this kind of goofy 1560 01:17:02,040 --> 01:17:04,120 grin that we're doing together. Compare the. 1561 01:17:04,120 --> 01:17:07,480 Face of George with with the Z's where he's laughing because 1562 01:17:07,520 --> 01:17:10,520 George Z's made a joke. 2 Oops, wrong way. 1563 01:17:10,640 --> 01:17:14,640 His face here where I just think this is like a memeable face and 1564 01:17:14,640 --> 01:17:18,400 he looks really disturbed. It's just a silly giant. 1565 01:17:19,120 --> 01:17:20,920 Someone messed me like, is George OK? 1566 01:17:20,920 --> 01:17:23,040 And I'm like, yeah, it's just a funny photo. 1567 01:17:26,240 --> 01:17:29,320 It makes me laugh. So I got my copy or a copy of 1568 01:17:29,320 --> 01:17:31,720 Knight of the Seven Kingdoms signed my copy. 1569 01:17:31,720 --> 01:17:36,000 No, it's our copy. I got Michael Clarfeld's reach 1570 01:17:36,000 --> 01:17:39,120 map signed right next to George's Garth Green hand. 1571 01:17:39,120 --> 01:17:41,560 This is the big final cloth version we have. 1572 01:17:41,560 --> 01:17:43,200 Like the one behind us. Yeah. 1573 01:17:43,640 --> 01:17:45,720 So there's a nice group of us getting stuff signed. 1574 01:17:45,720 --> 01:17:48,560 That was fun. We had just got to hang out in 1575 01:17:48,560 --> 01:17:49,760 line together. That's fun. 1576 01:17:49,760 --> 01:17:52,600 Good way to pass the time. And George is his signings are 1577 01:17:52,600 --> 01:17:55,240 always very efficient. They, they're really nice too, 1578 01:17:55,240 --> 01:17:57,120 the way they take your picture while you're getting it signed. 1579 01:17:57,120 --> 01:17:59,000 So you have some keepsake that's usually Sid taking those 1580 01:17:59,000 --> 01:18:00,680 pictures. She's got a lot of experience at 1581 01:18:00,680 --> 01:18:02,360 that because George's done a lot of signings. 1582 01:18:02,680 --> 01:18:08,040 George is so automatic with his signings that they told us to 1583 01:18:08,040 --> 01:18:10,800 mark what page you want signed. But George is he just 1584 01:18:10,800 --> 01:18:12,680 automatically goes to the title page and signs it. 1585 01:18:12,680 --> 01:18:15,280 Like if you he just it, it's just so ingrained. 1586 01:18:16,040 --> 01:18:17,920 He's talked about like you put a book in front of me, he's 1587 01:18:17,920 --> 01:18:19,480 probably just going to sign it. And he's like, oh, wait, I 1588 01:18:19,480 --> 01:18:21,480 wasn't. I wasn't asking you to sign that 1589 01:18:21,480 --> 01:18:27,760 George in front of him. That's the best thing to do is 1590 01:18:27,760 --> 01:18:29,520 just put restaurant bills in front of him. 1591 01:18:29,520 --> 01:18:31,160 He'll just sign that. No, I'm just kidding. 1592 01:18:31,160 --> 01:18:32,320 Actually, he did pay for my pizza. 1593 01:18:32,320 --> 01:18:34,320 That was nice. It was from that, from that 1594 01:18:34,320 --> 01:18:36,000 Wednesday. So yeah, that signing was fun. 1595 01:18:36,280 --> 01:18:38,800 Really. Randomly, my friend Joe, who 1596 01:18:38,800 --> 01:18:42,120 I've known since I was 19, I didn't know he was going to be 1597 01:18:42,120 --> 01:18:43,400 there. And again, I live in Atlanta. 1598 01:18:43,400 --> 01:18:46,080 We live in Atlanta. Joe lives like 10 minutes from 1599 01:18:46,080 --> 01:18:49,040 us here in Atlanta, Roswell, GA, technically the suburb. 1600 01:18:49,320 --> 01:18:52,240 And he was there with his, with his father and mother and they 1601 01:18:52,240 --> 01:18:55,000 were in line before us. They like they scoped it out. 1602 01:18:55,000 --> 01:18:57,000 They were the fourth people in line for the George signing. 1603 01:18:57,240 --> 01:18:58,600 And then after the George signing, they went to the 1604 01:18:58,600 --> 01:19:00,520 Brandon Sanderson signing. So that was pretty cool. 1605 01:19:00,520 --> 01:19:03,560 So they, they got their some good signatures done there and 1606 01:19:03,560 --> 01:19:05,440 it was really cool to see my friend randomly. 1607 01:19:05,520 --> 01:19:07,200 I was the best man in his wedding long ago. 1608 01:19:07,480 --> 01:19:08,640 Good times. So that was fun. 1609 01:19:08,640 --> 01:19:13,640 A little bonus that evening was the BWB party. 1610 01:19:14,040 --> 01:19:15,720 The previous night was the BWB dinner. 1611 01:19:15,720 --> 01:19:19,360 This was the BWB party, same room where the karaoke and the 1612 01:19:19,360 --> 01:19:21,960 other partying was happening, the same room rented out by Tab, 1613 01:19:22,200 --> 01:19:24,880 and there were a lot of fun people there. 1614 01:19:24,960 --> 01:19:27,440 Shay already mentioned that Paris was there, George's wife, 1615 01:19:27,800 --> 01:19:31,000 she was there. John Pacaccio, the great artist, 1616 01:19:31,000 --> 01:19:34,040 was there, and we got to hang out with John off and on all 1617 01:19:34,040 --> 01:19:35,680 throughout the weekend. He's such a nice guy, 1618 01:19:35,680 --> 01:19:38,600 charismatic dude. He and Lee Bardugo, the artist 1619 01:19:38,600 --> 01:19:41,720 of Shadow and Bone, have finished a book together, a 1620 01:19:41,720 --> 01:19:44,120 children's book about death, which is a very unusual thing. 1621 01:19:44,120 --> 01:19:46,320 It's beautiful. The illustrations are amazing, 1622 01:19:46,720 --> 01:19:49,400 the story is really good that Lee wrote the story and John 1623 01:19:49,440 --> 01:19:52,320 wrote the did the art comes out August. 26th and the title. 1624 01:19:52,320 --> 01:19:53,920 Is the invisible. Parade. 1625 01:19:53,920 --> 01:19:56,320 Invisible parade. Yeah, really. 1626 01:19:56,320 --> 01:19:58,680 I highly suggest you at least take a look at it. 1627 01:19:58,880 --> 01:20:02,280 The centerfold piece on is by itself is unbelievable, John 1628 01:20:02,280 --> 01:20:03,320 said. He took him, it was two months 1629 01:20:03,320 --> 01:20:06,240 of his life to make that and it shows. 1630 01:20:06,240 --> 01:20:08,520 It's just, it's stunning, I think a beautiful. 1631 01:20:08,520 --> 01:20:11,440 Book for adults and kids alike. If you have kids that are 1632 01:20:11,440 --> 01:20:15,600 grappling with loss and death or or anything like that, I think 1633 01:20:15,600 --> 01:20:18,960 it's a a great gift to give to kids of a certain age. 1634 01:20:19,640 --> 01:20:21,760 And John said that this was a real risk they were taking 1635 01:20:21,760 --> 01:20:24,960 because publishers are, like, death books for children. 1636 01:20:25,440 --> 01:20:28,400 Yeah, we don't do that. That's not a big seller, John, 1637 01:20:28,400 --> 01:20:30,640 But they're like. But they really wanted to do it. 1638 01:20:30,640 --> 01:20:33,520 You know They're famous and that will help it get promoted. 1639 01:20:33,520 --> 01:20:36,560 They're doing A8 city book tour. Unfortunately, Atlanta is not 1640 01:20:36,560 --> 01:20:38,160 one of the stops, so we would totally go to that. 1641 01:20:38,160 --> 01:20:40,760 But anyway, you might want to check your city. 1642 01:20:40,760 --> 01:20:43,760 If you live near a big city like New York or Chicago, they will 1643 01:20:43,760 --> 01:20:45,960 probably be in your area very soon. 1644 01:20:46,240 --> 01:20:47,880 Lee Bardugo. If you don't realize is the 1645 01:20:47,880 --> 01:20:50,520 author of the Shadow and Bone series. 1646 01:20:50,680 --> 01:20:53,560 That's right, Netflix series and very popular among. 1647 01:20:53,720 --> 01:20:56,200 We have a bunch of friends who cosplay from that series. 1648 01:20:56,200 --> 01:20:59,120 A lot of crossover with some A Song of Ice and Fire fandom I 1649 01:20:59,120 --> 01:21:00,600 got to. Chat with Lee for quite a bit. 1650 01:21:00,600 --> 01:21:02,520 She was super nice, very friendly. 1651 01:21:02,520 --> 01:21:05,680 We got to chat for a while and she was very down to earth. 1652 01:21:05,680 --> 01:21:07,840 She had like a whole squad of her friends there, a bunch of 1653 01:21:07,840 --> 01:21:09,800 girls. They were all cool, Leonard. 1654 01:21:09,880 --> 01:21:13,480 Dugo wasn't a Song of Ice and Fire fan and a member of the 1655 01:21:13,480 --> 01:21:18,280 Westeros org boards like a She's a BWB member and so she met John 1656 01:21:18,280 --> 01:21:21,520 at a World Con BWB party. I don't know how long ago. 1657 01:21:21,680 --> 01:21:24,080 Yeah, quite a. While back and they have been 1658 01:21:24,080 --> 01:21:26,280 friends ever since and that's why they're collabing now 1659 01:21:26,280 --> 01:21:28,240 because they've had that relationship and they work well 1660 01:21:28,240 --> 01:21:30,720 together and this idea came along. 1661 01:21:30,720 --> 01:21:33,320 I'm not sure exactly the genesis of the idea, but they both have 1662 01:21:33,320 --> 01:21:34,520 been running with it for a while. 1663 01:21:34,640 --> 01:21:36,520 John had a. Post just the other day about 1664 01:21:36,520 --> 01:21:38,040 it. If you look at his Instagram, he 1665 01:21:38,120 --> 01:21:39,840 did post about the genesis of it. 1666 01:21:39,840 --> 01:21:40,520 OK, cool. Yeah, it. 1667 01:21:40,520 --> 01:21:42,160 Just occurred to me just now that I was like, oh you know, 1668 01:21:42,160 --> 01:21:45,240 how did that even get started? So funny anecdote, I might have 1669 01:21:45,240 --> 01:21:48,400 told this story before from an ice and fire con years ago and 1670 01:21:48,400 --> 01:21:50,960 this was my ice breaker to approach Lee in the 1st place. 1671 01:21:51,560 --> 01:21:54,880 I was walking down the hall at Ice and Fire Con with David J 1672 01:21:54,880 --> 01:21:59,800 Peterson, the language guy. And we walk by the front room of 1673 01:21:59,800 --> 01:22:03,800 the hotel, and there's four of our friends dressed as Shadow 1674 01:22:03,800 --> 01:22:05,320 and Bone characters. Even though it was Ice and Fire 1675 01:22:05,320 --> 01:22:07,400 Con, they decided one evening they do Shadow and Bone. 1676 01:22:07,560 --> 01:22:10,720 That's cool. And David notices them. 1677 01:22:10,720 --> 01:22:13,760 And he, of course, having done languages for every show that 1678 01:22:13,760 --> 01:22:17,000 needs languages, he has done work on Shadow and Bone the TV 1679 01:22:17,000 --> 01:22:19,320 show. And so he saw them. 1680 01:22:19,320 --> 01:22:21,520 He's like, hey, you guys doing Shadow and Bone cosplay? 1681 01:22:21,520 --> 01:22:24,920 And they're like, yeah. And he goes, I'm going to take 1682 01:22:24,920 --> 01:22:27,480 your picture and send it to Lee. And they're like, what? 1683 01:22:28,920 --> 01:22:33,800 They just like died. So I told Lee that story. 1684 01:22:33,800 --> 01:22:35,800 I was like, I was standing right next to David when he sent you 1685 01:22:35,800 --> 01:22:37,600 that photo. He's she's like, oh, that's so 1686 01:22:37,600 --> 01:22:40,160 cool. And I said, those girls, they 1687 01:22:40,160 --> 01:22:42,400 just loved it so much. And so at the end, when we were 1688 01:22:42,400 --> 01:22:43,760 done talking, she was going to leave. 1689 01:22:43,760 --> 01:22:45,560 I was like, Hey, let me get your a selfie. 1690 01:22:45,560 --> 01:22:47,720 And then I was able to send it to those girls so they could, 1691 01:22:48,160 --> 01:22:50,680 you know, full circle everything there. 1692 01:22:50,680 --> 01:22:53,240 And I got to tell them that that I approached her using that 1693 01:22:53,240 --> 01:22:56,280 story as my icebreaker. So that was. 1694 01:22:56,280 --> 01:22:57,520 Great. I had a great time with her. 1695 01:22:57,520 --> 01:23:00,480 She's super nice and I hope this book is a big success for them 1696 01:23:00,960 --> 01:23:02,800 you're getting. Compliments on your Blackwood 1697 01:23:02,800 --> 01:23:06,920 shirt, which I will say is a compliment to me because I made 1698 01:23:06,920 --> 01:23:08,680 it. That was my design. 1699 01:23:08,680 --> 01:23:12,960 And you can see in this picture, Dom has a a Baratheon shirt. 1700 01:23:12,960 --> 01:23:16,680 I made him as well as he's also has some others like a Lannister 1701 01:23:16,680 --> 01:23:18,760 and a Targaryen. Targaryen, a Golden Company, 1702 01:23:18,760 --> 01:23:20,600 Golden Company. I have a Golden Company too. 1703 01:23:20,840 --> 01:23:24,720 And our friend Mateo humbly requested I make him a a Stark 1704 01:23:24,720 --> 01:23:27,440 shirt. So I I have something I think I 1705 01:23:27,440 --> 01:23:28,960 did. I make Joe Magician one too. 1706 01:23:29,360 --> 01:23:30,240 Yeah, I did. I did. 1707 01:23:30,240 --> 01:23:31,240 Wait. Which one was it? 1708 01:23:31,240 --> 01:23:33,280 Was it also Blackwood or it was also? 1709 01:23:33,280 --> 01:23:34,320 Blackwood. He'll have to. 1710 01:23:34,320 --> 01:23:35,680 He was in the chat. He'll have to tell me. 1711 01:23:35,680 --> 01:23:38,680 I can't quite remember but I made him one on request too. 1712 01:23:39,640 --> 01:23:43,440 So we managed to not get, you know, hungover or anything. 1713 01:23:43,480 --> 01:23:45,720 Neither of us are big drinkers. I didn't. 1714 01:23:45,720 --> 01:23:46,960 Drink at all? Yeah, I think I had. 1715 01:23:46,960 --> 01:23:50,120 One he doesn't normally. Drink, but I swear he was more 1716 01:23:50,120 --> 01:23:51,800 tipsy than I've seen him in a long time. 1717 01:23:51,880 --> 01:23:53,160 I think I had. Yeah, well, which is weird 1718 01:23:53,160 --> 01:23:54,760 because I only had, I think I only had three drinks. 1719 01:23:54,760 --> 01:23:59,520 But anyway, you told me the. Same story like 3 times, yeah. 1720 01:23:59,520 --> 01:24:00,640 That's a sign. That's a sign. 1721 01:24:00,680 --> 01:24:02,400 I was like you told me, like, I'm not drunk at all. 1722 01:24:02,400 --> 01:24:04,760 And I'm like, Aziz, I've heard the same story. 1723 01:24:04,760 --> 01:24:06,400 This is the third time you're drunk, OK? 1724 01:24:06,440 --> 01:24:08,160 You're drunk. No, I'm not. 1725 01:24:08,160 --> 01:24:12,840 No, I'm not. So first bit on Saturday, Ashaya 1726 01:24:12,840 --> 01:24:14,600 has a story. Take it away. 1727 01:24:16,600 --> 01:24:19,640 Sure. Do This was a big day for me and 1728 01:24:19,640 --> 01:24:23,880 Dom because we were cosplaying and like because he said it's 1729 01:24:23,880 --> 01:24:26,280 not like the biggest cosplay con in the world. 1730 01:24:26,280 --> 01:24:30,840 It's really few and far between people do I did a cosplay of 1731 01:24:30,840 --> 01:24:35,840 Poison Ivy from her current comics run, which is by G Willow 1732 01:24:35,840 --> 01:24:40,720 Wilson and starts and heavily features Seattle. 1733 01:24:40,840 --> 01:24:43,480 So I got a bunch of really great pictures of that. 1734 01:24:43,840 --> 01:24:48,200 This Is Us with Willow. The G is silent as she she said 1735 01:24:48,640 --> 01:24:53,400 she did a panel with Rebecca Rowanhorse on writing commercial 1736 01:24:53,400 --> 01:24:58,320 IP for fun and profit 'cause she does a lot of comic stuff. 1737 01:24:58,440 --> 01:25:00,240 She did Miss Marvel. She's done a lot. 1738 01:25:00,760 --> 01:25:03,720 She she's currently doing Black Cat in addition to Poison Ivy, I 1739 01:25:03,720 --> 01:25:04,200 think. Yeah. 1740 01:25:04,600 --> 01:25:07,360 And Rebecca Rowanhorse has done a lot of commercial IP stuff 1741 01:25:07,360 --> 01:25:11,320 because she did Star Wars, she did Resistance Reborn, She's 1742 01:25:11,320 --> 01:25:16,000 doing a Andor book that's coming out, which was pretty exciting 1743 01:25:16,000 --> 01:25:18,240 to hear. And she's also done stuff in the 1744 01:25:18,240 --> 01:25:20,920 Predator world. And so that was really just 1745 01:25:20,920 --> 01:25:26,640 interesting to hear about how one gets into to working on 1746 01:25:26,640 --> 01:25:30,200 commercial IP, what you get out of it, what the trade-offs are. 1747 01:25:30,360 --> 01:25:32,920 But really we went because we wanted to meet Willow and show 1748 01:25:32,920 --> 01:25:35,080 her our cosplay. The other person you see in 1749 01:25:35,080 --> 01:25:39,120 this, the faceless person is Dom, who is cosplaying another 1750 01:25:39,120 --> 01:25:41,720 Poison Ivy character called Peter Undine. 1751 01:25:41,920 --> 01:25:47,800 He's this flower faced man and Willow freaked out when she saw 1752 01:25:47,800 --> 01:25:53,000 us and she posted to her Blue sky at All Caps Undine cosplay. 1753 01:25:53,000 --> 01:25:56,360 She said it was the first Peter Undine cosplay she's ever seen. 1754 01:25:56,520 --> 01:25:59,400 She sent it to her editor and the artist. 1755 01:25:59,600 --> 01:26:03,960 And then later that day, Dom ran into her on the escalator and 1756 01:26:03,960 --> 01:26:08,440 started talking to her and he told her he's my new favorite 1757 01:26:08,440 --> 01:26:10,840 weird little guy. And she, she shared that she 1758 01:26:10,840 --> 01:26:12,760 tweeted or not tweeted, she skeeted whatever. 1759 01:26:12,760 --> 01:26:15,160 She posted a direct quote from him. 1760 01:26:15,280 --> 01:26:18,920 So she really appreciated us and I really appreciated her. 1761 01:26:19,160 --> 01:26:23,720 And I highly recommend the Poison Ivy comics run if you 1762 01:26:23,720 --> 01:26:25,680 like comics or you like Poison Ivy. 1763 01:26:25,680 --> 01:26:30,120 It's really cool, beautiful art, meaningful, moving, made me cry 1764 01:26:30,120 --> 01:26:32,240 at points. Really, really good. 1765 01:26:32,520 --> 01:26:37,720 So yeah, that was why I had Moss and mushrooms glued on my face. 1766 01:26:38,360 --> 01:26:39,600 I. Had to stay away from Michelle a 1767 01:26:39,600 --> 01:26:42,160 lot that day because I'm very allergic to Poison Ivy so I 1768 01:26:42,160 --> 01:26:44,080 couldn't couldn't take any risks there. 1769 01:26:44,480 --> 01:26:46,240 No seriously, I am very allergic to Poison Ivy. 1770 01:26:47,200 --> 01:26:50,160 Next up was the Song of Ice and Fire fan meet up run run by 1771 01:26:50,160 --> 01:26:52,280 Laura Antonio who we met at Ice Fire Conch. 1772 01:26:52,280 --> 01:26:54,280 He's great and is in the chat. Right now, the chat. 1773 01:26:54,320 --> 01:26:56,320 Hey, Laura, how are you doing? Yeah, so that was fun. 1774 01:26:56,320 --> 01:26:59,240 We got to gather in there. I'm in the 5th floor, 4th floor, 1775 01:26:59,240 --> 01:27:00,680 up in the pretty high up in the Summit building. 1776 01:27:00,680 --> 01:27:04,120 It was good, nice open space. I just seen a lot of people we 1777 01:27:04,120 --> 01:27:06,920 are mostly familiar with and met a few new people and had a good 1778 01:27:06,920 --> 01:27:08,640 time. Yeah, it's a great thing to do, 1779 01:27:08,640 --> 01:27:11,320 having the keeping the community vibrant by having meetups like 1780 01:27:11,320 --> 01:27:12,600 this. I always appreciate people who 1781 01:27:13,120 --> 01:27:16,240 take it upon themselves to arrange events like that, meet 1782 01:27:16,240 --> 01:27:19,440 up to conventions, you know, like unofficial slash, semi 1783 01:27:19,440 --> 01:27:22,600 official, things like that. They are such an important part 1784 01:27:22,600 --> 01:27:24,760 of the convention experience and what makes them good. 1785 01:27:25,080 --> 01:27:28,200 Next up, we attended movies. That's was great because these 1786 01:27:28,200 --> 01:27:30,200 are George's movies. Well, George's movies. 1787 01:27:30,320 --> 01:27:32,960 He produced them that he didn't write them. 1788 01:27:33,240 --> 01:27:37,280 These are Howard Waldrop short stories that were adapted to 1789 01:27:37,280 --> 01:27:39,240 film. And this is this is a little 1790 01:27:39,240 --> 01:27:40,960 sad. He introduced these films by 1791 01:27:40,960 --> 01:27:43,800 talking about Howard Waldrop. And Howard Waldrop was one of 1792 01:27:43,800 --> 01:27:46,320 his best friends. And Howard Waldrop died only 1793 01:27:46,320 --> 01:27:49,640 about a year and a half ago. And he told lot he spent quite a 1794 01:27:49,920 --> 01:27:52,240 few minutes, several minutes talking about Howard, talking 1795 01:27:52,240 --> 01:27:54,240 about their friendship. They known each other since they 1796 01:27:54,240 --> 01:27:57,920 were teenagers, really like when they were both trying to become 1797 01:27:57,920 --> 01:27:59,360 authors. They know they've known each 1798 01:27:59,360 --> 01:28:02,560 other that long ago. So he was a bit melancholy. 1799 01:28:02,560 --> 01:28:05,120 He was very obviously loved Howard and talking about him, 1800 01:28:05,360 --> 01:28:08,360 you know, it was a little bit sad, but very meaningful, very 1801 01:28:08,360 --> 01:28:11,200 positive, even though it was sad because it's this is a friend. 1802 01:28:11,200 --> 01:28:16,040 This is a man who loved his friend and has extra money and 1803 01:28:16,040 --> 01:28:18,120 is willing to make these movies even if he takes a loss on it, 1804 01:28:18,120 --> 01:28:20,120 even if he takes a substantial loss, He's just like, you know, 1805 01:28:20,120 --> 01:28:21,440 I want my friends movies to be out there. 1806 01:28:21,440 --> 01:28:22,600 I want I want him to be remembered. 1807 01:28:22,600 --> 01:28:24,640 So it was really touching and the movies are good. 1808 01:28:24,800 --> 01:28:27,560 Like this is like this is these are good stories like this. 1809 01:28:27,960 --> 01:28:29,880 Howard Waldrop wrote like 100 short stories. 1810 01:28:29,880 --> 01:28:32,920 He never wrote long form short stories was his thing. 1811 01:28:33,560 --> 01:28:38,680 And George picked out a few of these to make into films. 1812 01:28:38,960 --> 01:28:41,000 One of these we've discussed before. 1813 01:28:41,320 --> 01:28:43,640 Ashay and I attended the premiere of Night of the 1814 01:28:43,640 --> 01:28:46,480 Cooters, which is the first short story, Night of the 1815 01:28:46,480 --> 01:28:47,880 Cooters. Yeah, that's the name of it. 1816 01:28:48,080 --> 01:28:51,480 And we, I think we mentioned this in the prior previous 1817 01:28:51,480 --> 01:28:52,400 podcast, we tend to the premiere. 1818 01:28:52,400 --> 01:28:53,800 It sounds so fancy. The premiere was here in 1819 01:28:53,800 --> 01:28:55,040 Atlanta. So it was we just drove 1820 01:28:55,040 --> 01:28:56,680 downtown, you know, and it was easy. 1821 01:28:57,240 --> 01:29:00,840 But it was cool because Vincent d'onofrio was there with George 1822 01:29:01,000 --> 01:29:04,400 and Vincent was the lead actor and Co producer. 1823 01:29:04,480 --> 01:29:05,760 Oh, no director. He was the director, right? 1824 01:29:05,760 --> 01:29:07,720 Yeah, he was the director. Yeah, he was the director. 1825 01:29:07,720 --> 01:29:08,600 And Star. Yeah. 1826 01:29:08,600 --> 01:29:10,720 So that's really. Good we so Shay and I had seen 1827 01:29:10,720 --> 01:29:13,480 it already, but it was really fun seeing it again It's. 1828 01:29:14,080 --> 01:29:16,320 War. Of the Worlds fan fiction. 1829 01:29:17,200 --> 01:29:20,000 Essentially it takes place 10 years after the Civil War. 1830 01:29:20,000 --> 01:29:22,000 Hysterical. Giving George's opinion on fan 1831 01:29:22,000 --> 01:29:24,560 fiction, I just got to say I'm like, it's it's war. 1832 01:29:24,560 --> 01:29:26,840 It literally is War of the Worlds fan fiction. 1833 01:29:26,840 --> 01:29:28,040 Come on. Yeah. 1834 01:29:28,360 --> 01:29:31,040 And it's really good. So the idea is this, the setup 1835 01:29:31,040 --> 01:29:32,760 is simple. This is not a spoiler. 1836 01:29:32,760 --> 01:29:35,800 It's a very simple setup. In War of the Worlds, there's 1837 01:29:35,800 --> 01:29:40,720 five pods that come down from the aliens, 5 alien pods that 1838 01:29:40,720 --> 01:29:43,920 land on Earth. Three of them land in London. 1839 01:29:44,200 --> 01:29:45,480 The other two are just never mentioned. 1840 01:29:45,560 --> 01:29:47,840 The war of those just ignores the other two. 1841 01:29:47,840 --> 01:29:50,360 You can just assume they like went into the ocean or they just 1842 01:29:50,960 --> 01:29:52,000 blew up. Nothing happened. 1843 01:29:52,000 --> 01:29:53,200 It wasn't important to the story. 1844 01:29:53,920 --> 01:29:55,680 Howard Waldrop didn't notice that. 1845 01:29:55,680 --> 01:29:58,600 He's like, what if we write a story about those other two 1846 01:29:58,600 --> 01:30:01,080 pods? There's a great line with 1847 01:30:01,080 --> 01:30:03,600 Vincent D'onofrio in in the movie where he says, you're 1848 01:30:03,600 --> 01:30:07,760 telling me that the aliens landed in London, England and 1849 01:30:08,160 --> 01:30:09,160 Pachuco, Texas. Yeah. 1850 01:30:11,680 --> 01:30:14,320 So it's like an old South southern town. 1851 01:30:14,320 --> 01:30:16,800 There's like a little some Civil War vibes because it's only been 1852 01:30:17,280 --> 01:30:20,560 10 years after the Civil War. So there's another great line 1853 01:30:20,560 --> 01:30:23,280 where they're they're all joining together to fight the 1854 01:30:23,280 --> 01:30:27,640 cooters, the aliens. And they're one of the guys is a 1855 01:30:27,640 --> 01:30:29,560 Union soldier. And he's like, let me man this 1856 01:30:29,560 --> 01:30:31,760 weapon, you know, let me take, let me take over this gun for 1857 01:30:31,760 --> 01:30:33,520 you guys. He's like, you're a Yankee. 1858 01:30:33,520 --> 01:30:36,760 And he's like, yeah, but we won. He's. 1859 01:30:36,760 --> 01:30:40,840 And he's like, good point. Like, all right, go ahead. 1860 01:30:41,680 --> 01:30:43,720 Really funny. Short film and really 1861 01:30:43,720 --> 01:30:46,400 aesthetically striking because it's filmed in a rotoscope 1862 01:30:46,400 --> 01:30:48,320 method called trioscope. Trioscope. 1863 01:30:48,400 --> 01:30:50,200 Yeah, Which is the. Name of the company Trioscope is 1864 01:30:50,200 --> 01:30:52,320 A and they were they're an Atlanta based company and that's 1865 01:30:52,320 --> 01:30:55,120 part of why the premier originally was in Atlanta and 1866 01:30:55,280 --> 01:30:58,320 one of the other stars of the movie, Vincent Dionofrio's 1867 01:30:58,320 --> 01:31:03,360 deputy was Hopper Pen. If you think that's the son of 1868 01:31:03,360 --> 01:31:06,200 Sean Penn, you'd be right 'cause he is the son of Sean Penn and 1869 01:31:06,200 --> 01:31:08,840 Robin Wright. They almost named him Steak. 1870 01:31:09,720 --> 01:31:11,520 Steak pen. Steak Pen. 1871 01:31:11,640 --> 01:31:13,840 He's named for Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson. 1872 01:31:13,840 --> 01:31:16,200 I don't know how Jack Nicholson gets in there 'cause Hopper is 1873 01:31:16,200 --> 01:31:18,160 just Maybe he's Hopper, Jack. Hopper. 1874 01:31:18,160 --> 01:31:19,560 Jack Nicholson, Hopper. Jack Penn? 1875 01:31:19,560 --> 01:31:22,400 Yeah, Maybe so, yeah. He looks like Sean Penn a bit. 1876 01:31:22,600 --> 01:31:24,600 Yeah, he did. Yeah, and that name was like, I, 1877 01:31:24,760 --> 01:31:26,880 you see that name, I'm like, that's got to be Sean Penn's 1878 01:31:26,880 --> 01:31:28,320 kid, and he's probably named after Dennis Hopper. 1879 01:31:28,320 --> 01:31:30,000 And I looked it up and that's exactly what it was. 1880 01:31:31,080 --> 01:31:34,720 So there you go. So the next film was called Mary 1881 01:31:34,720 --> 01:31:35,920 Margaret Rd. Grader. 1882 01:31:36,320 --> 01:31:41,480 It's also fan fiction in the Mad Max world and it's Native 1883 01:31:41,480 --> 01:31:44,440 Americans, the Native American setting, how they adapted to the 1884 01:31:44,440 --> 01:31:47,320 specifically. Mad Max, it's just in that tone, 1885 01:31:47,320 --> 01:31:48,920 it's not, it's not as explicitly. 1886 01:31:48,920 --> 01:31:52,040 This is fan fiction like, you know what I mean? 1887 01:31:52,440 --> 01:31:53,120 Yeah. I I. 1888 01:31:53,120 --> 01:31:55,120 Don't know if I agree with that. It was very Mad Max. 1889 01:31:55,120 --> 01:31:58,120 I mean, it was blatantly mad. Max in town, but I don't think 1890 01:31:58,120 --> 01:32:02,360 anything explicitly because it was in a world where basic right 1891 01:32:02,360 --> 01:32:04,080 they don't. Mention like it's not like that 1892 01:32:04,080 --> 01:32:06,480 character is famous in that world, it's just the other one 1893 01:32:06,480 --> 01:32:08,400 was. Explicitly War of the World, 1894 01:32:08,400 --> 01:32:09,520 this one. Yeah, it was. 1895 01:32:09,520 --> 01:32:12,680 It was more of in the in the conversation with it, yeah. 1896 01:32:13,160 --> 01:32:15,480 So it was really good. You see the the Native American 1897 01:32:15,480 --> 01:32:18,280 culture is adapted to the setting, the post apocalyptic 1898 01:32:18,280 --> 01:32:19,840 setting. They're they're, they have a car 1899 01:32:19,840 --> 01:32:22,440 culture. It's a, they do a lot of tractor 1900 01:32:22,440 --> 01:32:23,800 pulls. That's one like one of the sport 1901 01:32:23,800 --> 01:32:25,760 sporting events that they gather for. 1902 01:32:26,120 --> 01:32:30,120 And it's told like a traditional Native American story in a lot 1903 01:32:30,120 --> 01:32:33,120 of ways, as a, as a story within a story, like a person is 1904 01:32:33,120 --> 01:32:37,400 relating their version of events with the narration style and 1905 01:32:37,440 --> 01:32:38,880 from their earlier days or what have you. 1906 01:32:39,200 --> 01:32:42,040 And it's just really good. It's just, it was fantastic. 1907 01:32:42,320 --> 01:32:45,280 We loved it. And during the movie, Naomi 1908 01:32:45,280 --> 01:32:47,920 leans over to me and said, this should be a full length movie. 1909 01:32:48,280 --> 01:32:50,600 And then at the end when George is talking about it, he's like, 1910 01:32:50,880 --> 01:32:54,040 this one might be adapted for a longer full length. 1911 01:32:54,040 --> 01:32:59,760 And we're like, oh, and it's got more, a better chance than you 1912 01:32:59,760 --> 01:33:02,480 might think of being made into a full length film because there's 1913 01:33:02,480 --> 01:33:05,280 a there's a very positive reaction from the Native 1914 01:33:05,280 --> 01:33:07,160 American community, at least as far as we were told. 1915 01:33:07,600 --> 01:33:12,560 And there's occasionally more grant money available for films 1916 01:33:12,560 --> 01:33:15,520 being made if they have, you know, if they're mostly or 1917 01:33:15,520 --> 01:33:18,680 entirely native so that they have a chance for extra funding 1918 01:33:18,680 --> 01:33:20,240 for that. So there's a decent chance that 1919 01:33:20,240 --> 01:33:21,520 happens. It's really it was really good. 1920 01:33:21,520 --> 01:33:25,480 Also Trioscope filming, so also really interesting looking. 1921 01:33:26,360 --> 01:33:30,880 The third film was live action. It's called the Ugly Chickens. 1922 01:33:31,280 --> 01:33:33,960 The original version won Howard Waldrop and Nebula awards. 1923 01:33:33,960 --> 01:33:37,680 It was really good. And when we asked or somebody 1924 01:33:37,680 --> 01:33:40,000 asked, which was George's favorite? 1925 01:33:40,000 --> 01:33:41,120 Me. I was you. 1926 01:33:41,240 --> 01:33:41,960 Was that you? OK. 1927 01:33:42,120 --> 01:33:45,120 We were at the. BWB dinner and I was just trying 1928 01:33:45,120 --> 01:33:48,800 to strike up conversation with him that it was not like trite 1929 01:33:48,800 --> 01:33:50,960 and I don't like things that he would care about. 1930 01:33:50,960 --> 01:33:53,640 And so I was like, I I was like, oh, I saw Night of the Cooters 1931 01:33:53,640 --> 01:33:55,840 in Atlanta. I'm so excited to see the Which 1932 01:33:55,840 --> 01:33:57,320 is your favorite? You know, And he was like the 1933 01:33:57,320 --> 01:33:59,160 ugly chickens really quickly. Quickly, yeah. 1934 01:33:59,640 --> 01:34:02,720 And by the way, as an aside, it was George Shay talking about 1935 01:34:02,720 --> 01:34:04,360 like how to have a conversation with George. 1936 01:34:04,360 --> 01:34:07,040 That's not trite. That's a secret that I'm going 1937 01:34:07,040 --> 01:34:10,640 to let you all in on right now. I've, I've had a lot of success 1938 01:34:10,640 --> 01:34:12,240 approaching famous people and talking to them. 1939 01:34:12,600 --> 01:34:14,880 Why? Because I don't treat them like 1940 01:34:14,880 --> 01:34:16,400 a famous person. When you're at a party, if 1941 01:34:16,400 --> 01:34:19,000 you're a famous person at a party, you don't want people 1942 01:34:19,000 --> 01:34:20,960 coming up to you and telling you how great you are. 1943 01:34:20,960 --> 01:34:22,440 And they, they, they're there to have a good time. 1944 01:34:22,440 --> 01:34:23,760 They don't want to, they're not in work mode. 1945 01:34:24,200 --> 01:34:27,800 Handling fans is work mode. They're there to be among 1946 01:34:27,800 --> 01:34:30,040 friends, hang out. So you got to treat them like 1947 01:34:30,040 --> 01:34:32,320 that and they, they will generally will respond well. 1948 01:34:32,320 --> 01:34:35,680 If you act fanish, it puts them in work mode and they don't want 1949 01:34:35,680 --> 01:34:37,200 to be in work mode when they're at a party. 1950 01:34:37,400 --> 01:34:39,840 If you approach them at their artist table and say things like 1951 01:34:39,840 --> 01:34:42,320 that and say, hey, I'm a big fan, you've inspired me, that's 1952 01:34:42,320 --> 01:34:44,400 the right time for that. But if you're just trying to 1953 01:34:44,440 --> 01:34:47,400 strike up a conversation with an artist, don't be starstruck. 1954 01:34:47,760 --> 01:34:51,040 It's off putting to them because they they deal with that all the 1955 01:34:51,040 --> 01:34:52,560 time. You know, you might think that 1956 01:34:52,560 --> 01:34:55,440 you're giving ping them a great compliment and you are, but it's 1957 01:34:55,440 --> 01:34:57,880 the wrong time for that. So that's my secret. 1958 01:34:57,960 --> 01:35:00,000 Hopefully it works for you. Hopefully you get a chance 1959 01:35:00,240 --> 01:35:02,400 anyway, beginning with The Ugly Chickens. 1960 01:35:02,960 --> 01:35:05,000 It the star of The Ugly Chickens was Felicia Day. 1961 01:35:05,200 --> 01:35:07,000 That's really cool. So it's a famous person. 1962 01:35:07,320 --> 01:35:10,280 And to her credit, it took a long time for the movie to get 1963 01:35:10,280 --> 01:35:11,840 made. It was in stasis for quite a 1964 01:35:11,840 --> 01:35:13,200 while. And she stick with it. 1965 01:35:13,200 --> 01:35:15,760 She's like yeah, even though it took like 5 years from inception 1966 01:35:15,760 --> 01:35:18,600 to being made, it was longer. He said she went from being a 1967 01:35:18,600 --> 01:35:22,680 single woman at the inception to having a like, I think 9 year 1968 01:35:22,680 --> 01:35:24,160 old or 8 year old, Oh my God, way. 1969 01:35:24,160 --> 01:35:26,640 Longer OK, a child. A child. 1970 01:35:26,640 --> 01:35:30,120 A child, yeah. So it was a very simple 1971 01:35:30,120 --> 01:35:32,880 adaptation because the original main character of the ugly 1972 01:35:32,920 --> 01:35:34,840 Chickens was a man. So they switched it to Felicia 1973 01:35:34,840 --> 01:35:36,520 Day. Didn't really affect the story 1974 01:35:36,520 --> 01:35:38,760 that much. A couple of small details had to 1975 01:35:38,760 --> 01:35:41,720 be changed. That's it. 1979 is the setting. 1976 01:35:42,120 --> 01:35:44,080 And the ugly chickens refers to the dodo bird. 1977 01:35:44,280 --> 01:35:47,800 I will say no more. It's a really fun story about 1978 01:35:47,960 --> 01:35:50,360 dodo birds. And the character Felicia Day is 1979 01:35:50,360 --> 01:35:54,200 is obsessed with the dodos. And yeah, it's it's very 1980 01:35:54,200 --> 01:35:56,280 touching and fun and quirky and unique. 1981 01:35:56,520 --> 01:35:57,080 Yeah. The thing that's. 1982 01:35:57,080 --> 01:36:00,800 Really unique about it is that it shows science fiction in that 1983 01:36:00,800 --> 01:36:04,360 it's alternate history, science fiction, one which is is already 1984 01:36:04,360 --> 01:36:08,160 a thing. But science that is not, it's 1985 01:36:08,160 --> 01:36:10,720 fantastical. It is science fiction that is 1986 01:36:10,720 --> 01:36:14,440 like science is, you know, birds, Ornithology. 1987 01:36:14,720 --> 01:36:16,440 Yeah, that's that science. Science it is. 1988 01:36:16,440 --> 01:36:18,240 It's not. Technology science, which is 1989 01:36:18,240 --> 01:36:21,560 what we 99% of the time association sci-fi involves. 1990 01:36:21,560 --> 01:36:23,080 It's the technology that's the science there. 1991 01:36:23,080 --> 01:36:25,120 That's the science This is. Well, what if it's just 1992 01:36:25,120 --> 01:36:28,320 Ornithology? It's like, Oh yeah. 1993 01:36:28,520 --> 01:36:29,640 That's science. That's absolutely. 1994 01:36:29,640 --> 01:36:30,800 That's science. Of course it is. 1995 01:36:30,800 --> 01:36:31,640 Yeah. Geology. 1996 01:36:31,640 --> 01:36:33,600 That's science. Like geology, by the way, that's 1997 01:36:33,600 --> 01:36:36,040 a big part of NK Jemison's Broken Earth. 1998 01:36:36,040 --> 01:36:38,320 That's a, you know, it's fantasy, but there's a little 1999 01:36:38,400 --> 01:36:41,960 sci-fi element to it as well. Anyway, it was adapted by a man 2000 01:36:41,960 --> 01:36:44,520 named Michael Cassutt who was there and he was with George. 2001 01:36:44,520 --> 01:36:46,720 And they spoke a lot about the production and how it was made 2002 01:36:46,720 --> 01:36:48,680 and all that. And it was great hearing them 2003 01:36:48,680 --> 01:36:51,320 talk about it, you know, the the internal workings of all that. 2004 01:36:51,320 --> 01:36:54,120 And, and George is very open about the fact that he wants to 2005 01:36:54,120 --> 01:36:55,920 make more. He wants to make more of Howard 2006 01:36:55,920 --> 01:37:00,320 Waldrop's stories into movies. And even if he's going to take a 2007 01:37:00,320 --> 01:37:02,840 loss, he's willing to do that check about how hard it is. 2008 01:37:02,840 --> 01:37:05,040 To market and sell them because they're short films. 2009 01:37:05,320 --> 01:37:08,200 I thought someone in the audience had a great answer for 2010 01:37:08,200 --> 01:37:10,800 that, which is getting up together and sell them to 2011 01:37:11,040 --> 01:37:14,160 somewhere like a Netflix or somewhere is anthology. 2012 01:37:14,240 --> 01:37:15,640 Anthology are big. These days, true A. 2013 01:37:15,840 --> 01:37:18,560 Whole season of it and you have six of seven of you know, 2014 01:37:18,560 --> 01:37:21,400 whatever, that's enough. 3 is a little light. 2015 01:37:21,680 --> 01:37:23,800 I mean, we could. Probably name several anthology 2016 01:37:23,800 --> 01:37:26,400 style series that are involved and some of them are involved 2017 01:37:26,400 --> 01:37:28,600 with like major production like Star Wars does Visions, which is 2018 01:37:28,600 --> 01:37:30,920 an anthology yeah and even. There's even short film 2019 01:37:30,920 --> 01:37:33,560 anthologies because Love Death and Robots are really short, 2020 01:37:33,560 --> 01:37:36,120 because the other anthologies, you know, Star Wars Visions is a 2021 01:37:36,120 --> 01:37:37,360 normal length. Yeah. 2022 01:37:37,480 --> 01:37:39,480 Black Mirror is a long length, say Black. 2023 01:37:39,480 --> 01:37:42,320 Mirror, yeah, but a love. Death and Robots is the closest 2024 01:37:42,320 --> 01:37:44,440 one I could think of on Netflix. Is it an American? 2025 01:37:44,440 --> 01:37:46,000 Horror Story anthology as well. It is. 2026 01:37:46,040 --> 01:37:47,920 It is but. It's a season long anthology. 2027 01:37:47,920 --> 01:37:49,400 Oh. OK, that's different. 2028 01:37:49,400 --> 01:37:50,440 Yeah. It's kind of like like a, like a 2029 01:37:50,440 --> 01:37:52,440 Fargo, like a White Lotus or. A Fargo, Yeah, yeah. 2030 01:37:52,440 --> 01:37:54,600 OK, anyway. So there you go. 2031 01:37:54,600 --> 01:37:56,800 That's that. Let's move on to the Hugo 2032 01:37:56,800 --> 01:38:01,000 Awards. Yeah, basically the last main 2033 01:38:01,000 --> 01:38:05,200 event of the convention. The program started off with the 2034 01:38:05,200 --> 01:38:07,920 line Many Both and spies died to bring you tonight's list of 2035 01:38:07,920 --> 01:38:09,920 finalists. We. 2036 01:38:09,920 --> 01:38:12,600 Attended the actual award show. A lot of our friends just went 2037 01:38:12,600 --> 01:38:14,560 and watched it on closed circuit TV, which is something you can 2038 01:38:14,560 --> 01:38:15,800 do at Worldcon. It's kind of fun. 2039 01:38:15,800 --> 01:38:17,320 You can hang out and have drinks with your friends. 2040 01:38:17,560 --> 01:38:19,320 But we got dressed up and wanted to see there. 2041 01:38:19,320 --> 01:38:20,960 We had newbies. With us we had newbies with. 2042 01:38:20,960 --> 01:38:24,360 Us, Yeah, it was me, Ashaya, Dom, Naomi Makes Art and our 2043 01:38:24,360 --> 01:38:27,000 friend Michael G And it was really fun. 2044 01:38:27,360 --> 01:38:30,640 They won shtick. They repeated. 2045 01:38:30,640 --> 01:38:34,200 The two hosts had a song, but they kept repeating with each 2046 01:38:34,680 --> 01:38:37,240 each time a new award would be announced, or a new little skit 2047 01:38:37,240 --> 01:38:39,040 or whatever they were doing in between awards. 2048 01:38:39,280 --> 01:38:44,680 And it went something like down, down, down the road, down the 2049 01:38:44,760 --> 01:38:46,320 Hugo. Road. 2050 01:38:46,520 --> 01:38:48,000 And it was. Every time. 2051 01:38:48,000 --> 01:38:51,000 So it started to like, eventually particularly me and 2052 01:38:51,000 --> 01:38:53,640 Dom started singing along loudly, like eventually about 2053 01:38:53,640 --> 01:38:55,520 1/3 of the crowd was singing along and that was very 2054 01:38:55,520 --> 01:38:56,880 gratifying. They at one point they said, 2055 01:38:57,160 --> 01:38:58,760 Michael said. The person next to him was 2056 01:38:58,760 --> 01:39:02,560 annoyed. Too bad for him or them. 2057 01:39:03,680 --> 01:39:04,880 Because it was. A lot, yeah. 2058 01:39:05,800 --> 01:39:07,040 So that's one of. Those things where if you're not 2059 01:39:07,040 --> 01:39:08,680 having a good time with it, yeah, you might be annoyed by 2060 01:39:08,680 --> 01:39:11,200 it, but because it was constant. But we, I loved it. 2061 01:39:11,200 --> 01:39:12,320 We were singing along. It was great. 2062 01:39:12,320 --> 01:39:14,320 I went through. A bit of a roller coaster with 2063 01:39:14,320 --> 01:39:16,520 it myself where the first one was like, oh, how nice. 2064 01:39:16,680 --> 01:39:19,120 And the second time I was like, Oh no, it's happening every 2065 01:39:19,120 --> 01:39:21,040 time. And then like third or fourth, I 2066 01:39:21,040 --> 01:39:23,440 was like, OK, I just beat you. Down into submission, you're 2067 01:39:23,440 --> 01:39:24,920 like, OK, this is fun. You didn't have like a. 2068 01:39:24,960 --> 01:39:27,240 Brief moment I was like no every time. 2069 01:39:27,640 --> 01:39:31,480 But that was because the Hugos in that experience have been too 2070 01:39:31,480 --> 01:39:33,600 long. But I was worried it would make 2071 01:39:33,600 --> 01:39:34,880 it longer, and it did. But it wasn't. 2072 01:39:34,880 --> 01:39:36,240 It was short. It was great. 2073 01:39:36,320 --> 01:39:37,720 Yeah, they did a good job keeping it shorter. 2074 01:39:37,760 --> 01:39:39,760 It was 15 minutes. Shorter than the runtime. 2075 01:39:39,760 --> 01:39:42,040 I was so proud of them. Great job. 2076 01:39:42,280 --> 01:39:46,600 Folks yeah, so that was fun the song and and a pivotal moment 2077 01:39:46,760 --> 01:39:48,720 with the song came from our friend Michael. 2078 01:39:49,160 --> 01:39:54,640 The best long form on screen winner was Dune too. 2079 01:39:54,720 --> 01:39:58,640 So you know this this the Hugo spans like pretty well known to 2080 01:39:58,640 --> 01:40:01,440 like massively popular things like Dune to. 2081 01:40:01,720 --> 01:40:04,040 Lesser known, you know, short stories and and authors were 2082 01:40:04,040 --> 01:40:09,080 kind of up and coming. Michael Sang Dune, Dune Dune 2083 01:40:09,080 --> 01:40:12,080 Part 2. Danny Villeneuve. 2084 01:40:12,280 --> 01:40:16,760 That was good. So yeah, O'Shea mentioned 2085 01:40:16,760 --> 01:40:19,320 earlier that many times during the weekend we heard Rebecca 2086 01:40:19,320 --> 01:40:22,160 Rohnhorst say that she was going to lose to Brandon Sanderson for 2087 01:40:22,160 --> 01:40:25,120 best series. She did not. 2088 01:40:25,120 --> 01:40:28,200 She won Between Earth and Sky won best series. 2089 01:40:28,320 --> 01:40:31,560 It's pre Columbian fantasy. I mean Columbus with lots of. 2090 01:40:31,560 --> 01:40:35,440 Political intrigue and like supernatural magic, I would say 2091 01:40:35,440 --> 01:40:37,920 like it's on the supernatural side on when it comes to magic. 2092 01:40:37,920 --> 01:40:38,640 Yeah. So I I. 2093 01:40:38,640 --> 01:40:40,480 Haven't, like I said I haven't read it yet but it's on my short 2094 01:40:40,480 --> 01:40:42,880 list so this is just more more incentive to read. 2095 01:40:42,880 --> 01:40:44,360 I love the idea. That's so pretty queer. 2096 01:40:45,080 --> 01:40:47,520 For for what what it's worth, which I liked non. 2097 01:40:47,520 --> 01:40:50,080 European based settings like. Nothing wrong with that, 2098 01:40:50,080 --> 01:40:53,840 obviously, but that is the fit. Too much of what we have. 2099 01:40:54,000 --> 01:40:57,720 You know, it's good to have other styles of world building 2100 01:40:57,720 --> 01:41:00,400 than, you know, quasi European or quasi Middle Ages. 2101 01:41:00,600 --> 01:41:01,880 Obviously we love that it's game. 2102 01:41:01,880 --> 01:41:03,720 That's where Game of Thrones falls for some part. 2103 01:41:03,880 --> 01:41:05,200 But yeah, but we do have a lot of it. 2104 01:41:05,200 --> 01:41:07,720 So it's good to have a variety. One of the. 2105 01:41:07,720 --> 01:41:12,360 Panels, I saw they were talking about cultures that you could 2106 01:41:12,360 --> 01:41:15,880 mine and, and represent and stuff and how how to make things 2107 01:41:15,880 --> 01:41:18,920 fresh and real and all of that. And they're like yeah, instead 2108 01:41:18,920 --> 01:41:21,480 of just doing generic European, maybe be like slot like 2109 01:41:21,480 --> 01:41:24,040 specifically Czech, you know, like stuff like that. 2110 01:41:24,040 --> 01:41:25,560 Yeah, yeah. That's not yeah, because generic 2111 01:41:25,560 --> 01:41:27,600 you're like which you get a little bit like stories like the 2112 01:41:27,600 --> 01:41:29,800 Witcher, which are a lot more Eastern European and there's a, 2113 01:41:30,360 --> 01:41:34,400 if you're not from that part of the world, a lot of like the 2114 01:41:34,400 --> 01:41:38,720 monsters and lore are Polish or Czech or whatever, and you might 2115 01:41:38,720 --> 01:41:40,200 not know those. So that's a good example like, 2116 01:41:40,240 --> 01:41:42,320 but that it's still European. But that's a good example of 2117 01:41:42,320 --> 01:41:43,880 something that's like a little off the beaten path. 2118 01:41:43,880 --> 01:41:46,960 Whereas this Black Sun sounds like it's even more off the 2119 01:41:46,960 --> 01:41:49,960 beaten path of European stuff. It was a lot more different 2120 01:41:50,480 --> 01:41:52,360 because it's pre Columbus so they wouldn't even have contact 2121 01:41:52,360 --> 01:41:54,120 with Europe by then. So that's really cool. 2122 01:41:54,120 --> 01:41:57,720 The best novel winner was Robert Jackson Bennett's The Tainted 2123 01:41:57,720 --> 01:42:01,840 Cup, which brings us back to that podcast because this was a 2124 01:42:01,840 --> 01:42:05,040 topic that they discussed on the current trends in fantasy and 2125 01:42:05,040 --> 01:42:08,120 how high fantasy is kind of epic fantasy is kind of ebbing right 2126 01:42:08,120 --> 01:42:11,280 now, but it's also being mashed up with other genres. 2127 01:42:11,280 --> 01:42:14,640 The big one being romanticy. There's a lot of romance mashed 2128 01:42:14,640 --> 01:42:17,640 up with fantasy. 4th Wing, Sarah J. 2129 01:42:17,640 --> 01:42:20,640 Moss, all that stuff that's that's huge right now. 2130 01:42:21,040 --> 01:42:25,320 And none of these, none of the authors on that panel right in 2131 01:42:25,320 --> 01:42:27,760 that genre, none of them really want to. 2132 01:42:27,920 --> 01:42:31,080 But they also recognize that it's probably just like all 2133 01:42:31,080 --> 01:42:32,280 these other things. It's just a trend. 2134 01:42:32,320 --> 01:42:34,360 You know, it'll be, it doesn't mean it, it doesn't mean it's 2135 01:42:34,360 --> 01:42:37,520 going to die. But it may not be the most 2136 01:42:37,520 --> 01:42:40,160 popular thing in a few years, but it's really big right now. 2137 01:42:40,480 --> 01:42:42,920 And that's back to Robert Jackson Bennett's The Tainted 2138 01:42:42,920 --> 01:42:44,200 Cup. Rebecca Rohnhorst thought it was 2139 01:42:44,200 --> 01:42:47,840 brilliant in part because of these, this genre combination. 2140 01:42:47,840 --> 01:42:50,400 It's a little unusual. Murder mystery, epic fantasy. 2141 01:42:50,640 --> 01:42:52,920 I've never heard of such a thing because murder mystery seems 2142 01:42:52,920 --> 01:42:55,280 kind of small scale. Epic fantasy is obviously 2143 01:42:55,600 --> 01:42:58,360 anything but small scale, so that's an unusual combination, 2144 01:42:58,360 --> 01:43:00,880 but it but it it won the Hugo, so it must be really good. 2145 01:43:01,000 --> 01:43:03,440 That's what George. Wants to do with his If he were 2146 01:43:03,640 --> 01:43:06,400 ever able to do a story set in Bravos, he wanted to do a murder 2147 01:43:06,400 --> 01:43:07,920 mystery set in Bravos, which we did. 2148 01:43:08,720 --> 01:43:12,200 Set in an epic fantasy world. Yeah, that's a good point. 2149 01:43:12,680 --> 01:43:14,720 Another thing from that pocket that was really interesting is 2150 01:43:14,720 --> 01:43:19,280 how world building is in demand. Even though epic fantasy is kind 2151 01:43:19,280 --> 01:43:21,200 of ebbing right now, it'll almost certainly come back at 2152 01:43:21,200 --> 01:43:22,920 some point. Even with that world building is 2153 01:43:22,920 --> 01:43:25,000 huge. You can't get away with one of 2154 01:43:25,000 --> 01:43:27,160 the points I think Robin Hobb and George RR Martin both made 2155 01:43:27,160 --> 01:43:29,920 was you can't get away with just, you know, a long time ago 2156 01:43:29,920 --> 01:43:33,480 in a Galaxy far, far away, or you know, did a long time ago, 2157 01:43:33,480 --> 01:43:35,560 you know the. The the you know the. 2158 01:43:35,560 --> 01:43:37,440 A long time ago kind of start. You can't. 2159 01:43:37,440 --> 01:43:38,400 You have to describe the setting. 2160 01:43:38,400 --> 01:43:40,360 People want to know what you're dealing with. 2161 01:43:40,360 --> 01:43:43,240 That's a change in the audience. They also talked. 2162 01:43:43,240 --> 01:43:46,600 About things have to be kind of rooted in some realism for them. 2163 01:43:46,600 --> 01:43:49,160 You know you to believe it. Like if you have a horse, the 2164 01:43:49,160 --> 01:43:52,320 horse can't just travel for three days without dying, right? 2165 01:43:52,760 --> 01:43:55,880 And it made me think of a really funny scene in the show Mythic 2166 01:43:55,880 --> 01:43:58,480 Quest for any of you that have seen that, where there's like an 2167 01:43:58,480 --> 01:44:02,080 A fantasy author, you know, a science fiction fantasy author 2168 01:44:02,320 --> 01:44:05,000 and he's like being critiqued on his work. 2169 01:44:05,280 --> 01:44:06,560 And they're like, it just doesn't make sense. 2170 01:44:06,560 --> 01:44:07,480 Like, why would this be the case? 2171 01:44:07,480 --> 01:44:10,600 And he goes, well, it is a fantasy after it is. 2172 01:44:10,880 --> 01:44:14,760 Fantasy after it's like, no. Even if it's. 2173 01:44:14,760 --> 01:44:17,920 Fantasy, you gotta, like, you believe the fantasy parts 2174 01:44:17,920 --> 01:44:20,080 because of what it's rooted in. Yeah, it still has. 2175 01:44:20,080 --> 01:44:22,240 To have a sense of like humans would behave that way. 2176 01:44:22,680 --> 01:44:23,720 Yeah. Or they would do that. 2177 01:44:23,720 --> 01:44:25,360 Yeah. So that was really cool. 2178 01:44:25,360 --> 01:44:27,960 So it's interesting to see these trends and hear them discussed. 2179 01:44:27,960 --> 01:44:31,240 And then to see that playing out on the on the award stage there 2180 01:44:32,000 --> 01:44:35,560 during the BWB party or that actually, sorry, post Hugo party 2181 01:44:35,560 --> 01:44:38,440 that was in the same room that we were partying in all weekend. 2182 01:44:39,080 --> 01:44:44,480 I met the director of the Hugo winning Star Trek Lower Decks 2183 01:44:44,480 --> 01:44:46,120 episode, The New Next Generation. 2184 01:44:46,200 --> 01:44:48,560 Her name was Megan Lloyd, and it was cool. 2185 01:44:48,560 --> 01:44:50,000 She was carrying her Hugo around with her. 2186 01:44:50,360 --> 01:44:53,280 She was holding it there at the party and I was like, oh, we 2187 01:44:53,280 --> 01:44:54,360 could look at that. It was nice. 2188 01:44:54,640 --> 01:44:57,640 And so that was cool just meeting her briefly and and she 2189 01:44:57,640 --> 01:44:58,920 talked a little bit about it. Star Trek. 2190 01:44:58,920 --> 01:45:01,040 Lower Decks won two Hugos, so Star Trek. 2191 01:45:01,040 --> 01:45:04,400 Also won for for best graphic novel. 2192 01:45:04,720 --> 01:45:05,880 That's right. Yeah, I believe so. 2193 01:45:05,880 --> 01:45:07,520 Yeah, so Star Trek cleaned up this year. 2194 01:45:07,520 --> 01:45:09,640 It's. Interactive like choose your own 2195 01:45:09,640 --> 01:45:11,160 adventure, Star Trek? Oh, I didn't know that. 2196 01:45:11,160 --> 01:45:11,960 That's neat. Yeah. 2197 01:45:12,080 --> 01:45:14,720 So Star Trek franchise still doing quite well is if this is 2198 01:45:14,720 --> 01:45:16,560 any indication. I mean, a lot of people say 2199 01:45:16,560 --> 01:45:18,680 Strange World is really, really good too. 2200 01:45:18,800 --> 01:45:20,360 And we're not going to go through every award. 2201 01:45:20,440 --> 01:45:22,920 That would be a little much. You can just look up the list if 2202 01:45:22,920 --> 01:45:24,240 you want to. If you're curious who also won. 2203 01:45:24,240 --> 01:45:25,400 Some of you may have already done that. 2204 01:45:25,560 --> 01:45:29,280 It's a really good way to find a list of suggestions to read. 2205 01:45:29,400 --> 01:45:33,160 I mean, these are voted on by sci-fi fans, people and fantasy 2206 01:45:33,160 --> 01:45:36,800 fans have been in this industry for as fans slash business 2207 01:45:36,800 --> 01:45:40,000 people slash, you know, luminaries within the industry 2208 01:45:40,000 --> 01:45:41,920 for a long time. A lot of people with a good 2209 01:45:41,920 --> 01:45:44,680 taste, a lot of people who read a lot of different books and 2210 01:45:45,560 --> 01:45:48,120 they're good to listen to. So the world Con is a well, the 2211 01:45:48,120 --> 01:45:50,720 Hugo Awards rather, is a great place to look for new things to 2212 01:45:50,720 --> 01:45:52,000 read. You just just look at all the 2213 01:45:52,000 --> 01:45:55,760 finalists and there. Here's my segue to a great pitch 2214 01:45:55,760 --> 01:45:57,840 for y'all. When you vote for the Hugo's, 2215 01:45:57,840 --> 01:46:01,440 and when you nominate for the Hugo's and you join the World 2216 01:46:01,440 --> 01:46:05,440 Science Fiction Society, which costs $50, you get the Hugo 2217 01:46:05,440 --> 01:46:11,120 voting packet, which is this digital packet full of of 2218 01:46:11,120 --> 01:46:16,120 examples of the artwork of ebooks and audiobooks of all the 2219 01:46:16,120 --> 01:46:19,920 things nominated. They provide you with everything 2220 01:46:19,920 --> 01:46:23,560 you need to vote with the knowledge that no one is blocked 2221 01:46:23,560 --> 01:46:27,520 out by not being able to afford all of the things nominated. 2222 01:46:27,640 --> 01:46:32,960 So this is a great value. For $50, you get a lot of books. 2223 01:46:32,960 --> 01:46:35,680 You get all this like art in PDF form. 2224 01:46:35,680 --> 01:46:37,320 You get some wonderful stuff, OK? 2225 01:46:37,640 --> 01:46:40,360 And so that's for $50. You join the World Science 2226 01:46:40,360 --> 01:46:43,760 Fiction Society to nominate and then to vote. 2227 01:46:44,000 --> 01:46:48,440 And this is my pitch for y'all. Looking at it over the years, 2228 01:46:48,440 --> 01:46:52,360 we've noticed the nominees. It's really low numbers. 2229 01:46:52,600 --> 01:46:54,440 It's really low numbers. I have it on the screen right 2230 01:46:54,440 --> 01:46:58,040 now for best fan Cast, which is the category we would be in the 2231 01:46:58,040 --> 01:47:02,240 lowest range to be nominated, 24 nominations. 2232 01:47:02,440 --> 01:47:07,160 If we'd gotten 25 nominations, we would be Hugo nominees. 2233 01:47:07,440 --> 01:47:12,280 The highest range was 64. Now we're going to Anaheim. 2234 01:47:12,320 --> 01:47:15,680 We know a lot of people going. We've decided that we're going 2235 01:47:15,680 --> 01:47:18,880 to just make a point to mention it to y'all periodically mention 2236 01:47:18,880 --> 01:47:22,360 it to our friends, nominate history of Westeros and we'll 2237 01:47:22,360 --> 01:47:24,440 get nominated. I really believe that we can 2238 01:47:24,440 --> 01:47:27,400 get, I believe we can get well over 3050. 2239 01:47:27,400 --> 01:47:30,080 I think we can easily get a nomination and I would be 2240 01:47:30,080 --> 01:47:32,840 honored to get a nomination. I don't really care about 2241 01:47:32,840 --> 01:47:34,840 winning. I just think just just being on 2242 01:47:34,840 --> 01:47:36,880 the ballot would be would be such an honor. 2243 01:47:37,120 --> 01:47:40,480 And so we'll bring this up again, but I just want to point 2244 01:47:40,480 --> 01:47:43,800 that out. It's really a very low bar. 2245 01:47:43,800 --> 01:47:46,720 And it really all it would require from y'all is to join 2246 01:47:46,720 --> 01:47:50,280 the World Science Fiction Society, nominate us and you 2247 01:47:50,280 --> 01:47:53,040 will get a lot, a lot of value from that. 2248 01:47:53,040 --> 01:47:55,440 You will get so many books so. Many. 2249 01:47:55,440 --> 01:47:57,280 Yeah. And of course, helping us out is 2250 01:47:57,280 --> 01:48:01,120 a nice benefit as well. And we it would definitely do be 2251 01:48:01,120 --> 01:48:03,560 good for our show to be able to say, you know, Hugo nominated 2252 01:48:03,560 --> 01:48:06,200 podcast or something like that. That would be nice for us. 2253 01:48:06,200 --> 01:48:07,200 I would love to. I would love. 2254 01:48:07,200 --> 01:48:11,120 To mention the the best fan cast category and read off every fan 2255 01:48:11,120 --> 01:48:14,200 cast for y'all there's the Coud St. podcast. 2256 01:48:14,560 --> 01:48:20,040 There's 8 days of Diana Wynne Jones Hugo Girl which is fun. 2257 01:48:20,360 --> 01:48:23,040 Hugo's there. So two different Hugo specific 2258 01:48:23,040 --> 01:48:27,120 podcasts. A meal of thorns and world 2259 01:48:27,120 --> 01:48:30,480 building for masochists. So those were the nominees. 2260 01:48:30,640 --> 01:48:33,280 And so hopefully next year we're saying history of Westeros. 2261 01:48:33,480 --> 01:48:36,720 Yeah. Let's go 2026. 2262 01:48:37,160 --> 01:48:41,160 Come on y'all, help us out. The Hugo awards not quite as old 2263 01:48:41,160 --> 01:48:44,680 as World Con World Con 1939's first year Hugo awards first 2264 01:48:44,680 --> 01:48:47,040 year 1953. So quite old. 2265 01:48:47,040 --> 01:48:51,320 Been around quite a while, that's what is it 472072 years. 2266 01:48:51,800 --> 01:48:56,000 They've also started doing retro Hugos, which are Hugo awards for 2267 01:48:56,240 --> 01:48:58,600 works before 1953. They're trying to like, well, 2268 01:48:58,600 --> 01:49:00,560 they deserve awards too. Even though some of these are 2269 01:49:01,360 --> 01:49:03,560 the authors that aren't around anymore, they still want to 2270 01:49:03,560 --> 01:49:05,880 honor those works. They they're no less relevant, 2271 01:49:05,880 --> 01:49:07,680 and a lot of them are quite relevant because they were 2272 01:49:07,680 --> 01:49:12,320 fundamental to forming the OR influencing authors that came 2273 01:49:12,320 --> 01:49:15,160 after. Worldcon has been and the Hugos 2274 01:49:15,160 --> 01:49:18,680 have been in Seattle one other time, 1961, long time ago. 2275 01:49:18,680 --> 01:49:22,200 So the 8th or 9th year of the Hugos, and that would be the 2276 01:49:22,200 --> 01:49:25,120 year the Space Needle was built in 1961 in Seattle. 2277 01:49:25,120 --> 01:49:28,000 So that that's happened at the same time it was built in 2278 01:49:28,000 --> 01:49:31,600 advance of the 1962 World's Fair, which doesn't exist 2279 01:49:31,600 --> 01:49:33,480 anymore, but the Space Needle still does. 2280 01:49:33,560 --> 01:49:35,160 It's funny because the time Space Needle was like one of the 2281 01:49:35,160 --> 01:49:37,960 tallest buildings not only in Seattle, but of the West Coast. 2282 01:49:37,960 --> 01:49:39,200 Now it's like kind of swallowed up. 2283 01:49:39,640 --> 01:49:42,360 It's actually kind of hard to see from certain angles because 2284 01:49:42,360 --> 01:49:45,160 it's it isn't that stand out anymore in terms of size. 2285 01:49:45,160 --> 01:49:46,560 It's a cool building because it's unusual. 2286 01:49:46,560 --> 01:49:49,480 But yeah, it doesn't the height isn't as impressive as it might 2287 01:49:49,480 --> 01:49:54,160 have been a long ago. So yeah, of course with the with 2288 01:49:54,160 --> 01:49:57,160 all this talk of the next year, let's talk about that a little 2289 01:49:57,160 --> 01:49:59,560 bit now. World Con 2026 LA get you all 2290 01:49:59,560 --> 01:50:01,040 excited for that. Hopefully see some of y'all 2291 01:50:01,040 --> 01:50:02,960 there. It's actually not LA as the 2292 01:50:03,000 --> 01:50:06,240 chance it is Anaheim. In fact, this is the seventh 2293 01:50:06,240 --> 01:50:11,320 time that it has been in LA, but actually five of those seven are 2294 01:50:11,320 --> 01:50:12,960 Anaheim. So it's actually going to be the 2295 01:50:12,960 --> 01:50:15,600 fifth time in Anaheim. Only twice in LA properly but 2296 01:50:15,600 --> 01:50:19,960 they just call that LA. Even the owner of the Anaheim 2297 01:50:19,960 --> 01:50:23,040 Angels Major League Baseball team tried to brand his team as 2298 01:50:23,040 --> 01:50:27,400 the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, which is weird but I 2299 01:50:27,400 --> 01:50:30,280 guess you kind of makes sense to attach yourself to the much 2300 01:50:30,280 --> 01:50:35,480 bigger market but I digress. 7th time is not the most that world 2301 01:50:35,480 --> 01:50:38,360 con has been and in the city 6 times it's been in San 2302 01:50:38,360 --> 01:50:41,680 Francisco, so one last there eight times in Chicago which is 2303 01:50:41,680 --> 01:50:43,480 the most. Chicago has had the most world 2304 01:50:43,480 --> 01:50:46,560 cons 8 times. Melbourne has had it four times 2305 01:50:46,800 --> 01:50:49,320 and Brisbane is probably 2028, so that's another one. 2306 01:50:49,680 --> 01:50:52,560 And as we said before, Montreal 27, Dublin 29. 2307 01:50:53,200 --> 01:50:57,280 If you want to join the WSFS, you can register through LA Con 2308 01:50:57,280 --> 01:50:59,440 for 50 bucks. Ashea is going to post the link 2309 01:50:59,760 --> 01:51:02,280 in the chat and the description, I guess at least the 2310 01:51:02,280 --> 01:51:03,640 description. Yeah, I'll hold the description. 2311 01:51:03,640 --> 01:51:07,240 Too, But it is really simple. It's a it's LA con.org/register 2312 01:51:07,320 --> 01:51:08,720 I can also say it. Aloud too. 2313 01:51:08,720 --> 01:51:11,680 LA con.org/register Yeah and like. 2314 01:51:11,680 --> 01:51:16,280 I said you only need the $50 Society membership to vote and 2315 01:51:16,280 --> 01:51:19,480 then you can upgrade to a full World Con membership if you 2316 01:51:19,480 --> 01:51:21,680 decide to attend. Right on. 2317 01:51:22,360 --> 01:51:26,440 And there's also generally going to be other news from us. 2318 01:51:26,440 --> 01:51:29,160 We'll always keep you up to date on our travel plans and what 2319 01:51:29,160 --> 01:51:31,040 we're going to be doing at conventions when we're there. 2320 01:51:31,160 --> 01:51:35,080 A quick note here, the first world con outside the US was in 2321 01:51:35,080 --> 01:51:38,720 1948, Toronto. The first outside North America 2322 01:51:38,720 --> 01:51:42,040 was London 1957. The first in a non-english 2323 01:51:42,040 --> 01:51:45,400 speaking country, non-english, not the main language, was 2324 01:51:45,400 --> 01:51:47,080 Heidelberg, West Germany in 1970. 2325 01:51:47,080 --> 01:51:48,280 Yes. They actually had to specify 2326 01:51:48,280 --> 01:51:50,120 West Germany because it was 1970. 2327 01:51:50,640 --> 01:51:52,280 So there was an East and West Germany then. 2328 01:51:52,440 --> 01:51:55,560 The first in Asia was Yokohama, Japan in 2007. 2329 01:51:56,120 --> 01:51:58,480 Atlanta had a world con, our own hometown here. 2330 01:51:58,480 --> 01:52:03,200 We didn't live here then. It was 1986, but World Con 2331 01:52:03,200 --> 01:52:07,840 Atlanta became Dragon Con going forward and it became a 2332 01:52:07,840 --> 01:52:09,880 permanent event in Atlanta on the same weekend. 2333 01:52:09,880 --> 01:52:12,280 So they kind of stole World Con's weekend, and World Con 2334 01:52:12,280 --> 01:52:14,880 actually moved backwards to a previous week because of that 2335 01:52:14,960 --> 01:52:17,600 the first time. I heard about this was talking 2336 01:52:17,600 --> 01:52:20,880 to George, and this was probably back in like 2015. 2337 01:52:20,960 --> 01:52:23,160 It was like a long time ago. We were talking about like 2338 01:52:23,160 --> 01:52:26,480 conventions and Abby, I made the mistake or someone made the 2339 01:52:26,480 --> 01:52:28,480 mistake of asking about Dragon Con. 2340 01:52:28,760 --> 01:52:31,920 And George goes, I will never attend that convention. 2341 01:52:31,920 --> 01:52:35,080 They stole World Con's weekend. And we're like, please tell us 2342 01:52:35,080 --> 01:52:37,360 more. And he says it started as a 2343 01:52:37,360 --> 01:52:40,720 World Con in Atlanta. And they were like, that's fun. 2344 01:52:40,720 --> 01:52:43,080 Let's do it again the same weekend next year. 2345 01:52:43,080 --> 01:52:44,560 And then they became more successful. 2346 01:52:44,560 --> 01:52:46,320 And eventually World Con was like, well, we're not going to 2347 01:52:46,320 --> 01:52:48,080 fight you over this. We're just going to not do the 2348 01:52:48,080 --> 01:52:51,840 same weekend. So George is not such a fan of 2349 01:52:51,840 --> 01:52:54,400 Dragon Con? It's under different. 2350 01:52:54,400 --> 01:52:56,720 Management now, but the the sting is still there. 2351 01:52:56,720 --> 01:53:00,480 It's been a long time, but yeah, that was, you know, 39 years ago 2352 01:53:01,040 --> 01:53:03,600 or 40 years ago anyway. Yeah. 2353 01:53:03,600 --> 01:53:07,240 And like I said, Dragon Con is just way, way, way bigger than 2354 01:53:07,240 --> 01:53:09,400 World Con now. It it's a very different 2355 01:53:09,400 --> 01:53:10,960 convention. But yeah, size wise, it's not 2356 01:53:10,960 --> 01:53:13,800 even Dragon Con is literally more than 10 times larger. 2357 01:53:14,440 --> 01:53:18,400 So let's talk about Dragon Con briefly as our, as our outro, 2358 01:53:18,400 --> 01:53:21,400 basically here we are going, we live in Atlanta. 2359 01:53:21,400 --> 01:53:25,400 I've been going to Dragon Con since the 90s and we do have 2360 01:53:25,400 --> 01:53:27,760 some A Song of Ice and Fire content as part of it because 2361 01:53:27,760 --> 01:53:30,440 it's cosplay. Ishia is going to run back the 2362 01:53:30,440 --> 01:53:33,480 Muppet Tullys. Yeah, the squad returns for 2363 01:53:33,480 --> 01:53:36,880 Muppet Tullys again thanks to Chuck Lazarow and his great 2364 01:53:36,880 --> 01:53:40,640 costume designing abilities. Shout out to Chuck, he is the 2365 01:53:40,640 --> 01:53:44,240 Kermit. Ishia is the Oscar and I believe 2366 01:53:44,240 --> 01:53:46,400 Michael is going to be the Elmo again. 2367 01:53:46,400 --> 01:53:49,760 I'm not sure who the the Grover will be this year, but we'll 2368 01:53:49,760 --> 01:53:51,000 tell you later, I think. Tommy. 2369 01:53:51,000 --> 01:53:52,760 Pappas is Tommy. Gonna be Tommy. 2370 01:53:52,760 --> 01:53:54,160 'S gonna be Grover. Yeah. 2371 01:53:54,160 --> 01:53:55,560 Here's a picture I just realized. 2372 01:53:56,200 --> 01:53:58,960 But here we are. So Grover would be much taller. 2373 01:53:59,360 --> 01:54:01,400 I think he was in in previous years. 2374 01:54:01,400 --> 01:54:05,040 But no, I love being a Muppet. I love I love wearing the mascot 2375 01:54:05,040 --> 01:54:09,680 suit and and head so much so that I may or may not have made 2376 01:54:09,680 --> 01:54:12,560 my own mascot head with Dom for dragon con. 2377 01:54:12,560 --> 01:54:15,360 So that's a surprise, but very excited about it. 2378 01:54:15,360 --> 01:54:18,280 No, no one heard that. Yeah, but I'm very excited to 2379 01:54:18,280 --> 01:54:21,000 wear it. Ashaya and I and several friends 2380 01:54:21,000 --> 01:54:23,920 will be dressing up as Ongo Goblogian, from which is Danny 2381 01:54:23,920 --> 01:54:25,960 DeVito, one of Danny Devito's character from It's Always Sunny 2382 01:54:25,960 --> 01:54:30,040 in Philadelphia. The the the art collector Ongo 2383 01:54:30,040 --> 01:54:35,600 Goblogian charmed I'm sure derivative we've got. 2384 01:54:35,600 --> 01:54:39,040 Like 10 plus of us doing this. So it's really very derivative. 2385 01:54:39,160 --> 01:54:40,400 It's very. Yeah, we're derivative of each 2386 01:54:40,400 --> 01:54:40,880 other. We are. 2387 01:54:40,880 --> 01:54:44,720 We also have a plan to have another Ongo on the phone 2388 01:54:44,720 --> 01:54:47,920 waiting so that we can all like argue about something and just 2389 01:54:47,920 --> 01:54:51,160 say, hey, let's call Ongo to get his opinion and then call him, 2390 01:54:51,160 --> 01:54:55,920 put him on video call and he'll say derivative and we'll all 2391 01:54:55,920 --> 01:54:58,840 have a good time with that. So that's really fun. 2392 01:54:58,840 --> 01:55:02,120 We're excited about the Ongo squad rampaging through Dragon 2393 01:55:02,120 --> 01:55:05,640 Con. My Friday costume is going to be 2394 01:55:05,680 --> 01:55:09,280 a mash up. I will be Damongo Targlobian, so 2395 01:55:09,280 --> 01:55:12,040 I will be Ongo Gablogian mixed up with Damon Targaryen. 2396 01:55:12,040 --> 01:55:14,880 I have one of Damon's suits. I'll have the hair. 2397 01:55:14,880 --> 01:55:19,640 My hair will be blonde and of the purple eyes and yeah, so 2398 01:55:19,640 --> 01:55:22,080 I'll be half and half and half. On Saturday. 2399 01:55:22,280 --> 01:55:26,560 We have the actual World of Ice and Fire photo shoot, which 2400 01:55:26,560 --> 01:55:29,000 happens every year. It tends to be on Saturday. 2401 01:55:29,000 --> 01:55:32,080 Shout out to our good friend Britt for running the shoot. 2402 01:55:32,320 --> 01:55:35,600 She is dressing as the Realms Mcfuckin Delight, as she says, 2403 01:55:36,040 --> 01:55:39,360 which is Rainier, and that's awesome. 2404 01:55:39,360 --> 01:55:41,360 I'm going to do something I haven't done before. 2405 01:55:41,360 --> 01:55:43,080 I'm doing a new costume. I'm going to be Baylor the 2406 01:55:43,080 --> 01:55:45,240 Blessed. Yeah, I'm going to have bite 2407 01:55:45,240 --> 01:55:48,480 marks on my bare feet. I'm going to have a robe with a 2408 01:55:48,480 --> 01:55:51,000 rope belt. I've got purple eyes and a 2409 01:55:51,000 --> 01:55:53,840 flower crown and A7 pointed star necklace. 2410 01:55:54,280 --> 01:55:57,640 And our friend Meg is going to be Dana the Defiant alongside 2411 01:55:57,640 --> 01:55:58,960 me. So that's going to be awesome. 2412 01:55:58,960 --> 01:56:01,040 We'll give you guys some pictures later of that. 2413 01:56:01,840 --> 01:56:04,160 We will report back with fun. So if you're going. 2414 01:56:04,160 --> 01:56:07,200 To Dragon Con, the place to 1st sure find us and meet us is 2415 01:56:07,200 --> 01:56:08,920 Saturday at the World of Ice and Fire. 2416 01:56:08,920 --> 01:56:11,960 Shoot, we will always be there, every year, every single year. 2417 01:56:12,080 --> 01:56:16,000 This is an Evergreen ad, no? Matter what year you're hearing 2418 01:56:16,000 --> 01:56:19,880 this, we will be at the World of Ice and Fire shoot and almost 2419 01:56:19,880 --> 01:56:22,040 certainly dressed up as something relevant. 2420 01:56:22,040 --> 01:56:25,120 Last year I was the red Kraken. This year Baylor the bus my 2421 01:56:25,120 --> 01:56:26,800 great. Disappointment at Dragon Con is 2422 01:56:26,800 --> 01:56:29,800 that the World of Ice and Fire shoot is cross scheduled with 2423 01:56:29,800 --> 01:56:34,480 the X-Men shoot and I also do Madeleine Pryor cosplay that I 2424 01:56:34,480 --> 01:56:37,880 would love to wear to the X-Men shoot, but obviously this takes 2425 01:56:37,880 --> 01:56:41,000 precedence. I will simply do it at night, so 2426 01:56:41,000 --> 01:56:42,880 we thank you. Very much for listening to this 2427 01:56:42,880 --> 01:56:45,440 episode. We enjoy getting to do something 2428 01:56:45,440 --> 01:56:46,800 a little different every once in a while. 2429 01:56:46,800 --> 01:56:49,240 Talk about our adventures at conventions and with George and 2430 01:56:49,240 --> 01:56:53,000 with these other luminaries of the literary world and fantasy 2431 01:56:53,000 --> 01:56:55,800 and sci-fi and just talk about our trip. 2432 01:56:55,800 --> 01:56:57,400 It's fun. It's a it's a privilege to get 2433 01:56:57,400 --> 01:57:00,560 to speak to you all about that and to have you actually listen 2434 01:57:00,560 --> 01:57:03,040 and care about it. We appreciate the feedback. 2435 01:57:03,040 --> 01:57:04,720 A lot of y'all were excited for this episode. 2436 01:57:05,240 --> 01:57:07,880 We'll be back with regular content starting again next 2437 01:57:07,880 --> 01:57:08,800 week. Or not next week. 2438 01:57:08,920 --> 01:57:10,840 Sorry, not next week, because the Dragon Con is next week. 2439 01:57:10,840 --> 01:57:12,960 The week after, yeah. And then the rest of the year is 2440 01:57:13,320 --> 01:57:16,840 mostly smooth sailing with episodes, except for perhaps 2441 01:57:16,840 --> 01:57:18,080 around the holidays, but that's it. 2442 01:57:18,080 --> 01:57:20,840 So we'll have quite a bit more content this year, as you would 2443 01:57:20,840 --> 01:57:23,800 expect. But before we go, our trivia 2444 01:57:23,800 --> 01:57:26,840 answers. What year was George RR Martin 2445 01:57:26,840 --> 01:57:30,320 the guest of honor at Worldcon 2003? 2446 01:57:30,600 --> 01:57:33,120 You may have been thinking of 2019, when he was the 2447 01:57:33,480 --> 01:57:36,800 Toastmaster, The presenter, which is not the same thing as 2448 01:57:36,800 --> 01:57:42,600 the guest of honor. His first World Con was 1971, so 2449 01:57:42,600 --> 01:57:46,600 a good 55 years ago. Whoa. 2450 01:57:47,680 --> 01:57:52,240 And what was George's first panel at World Con 1976? 2451 01:57:52,240 --> 01:57:54,640 Sorry, what year? Not what was, but what year? 2452 01:57:54,760 --> 01:57:57,640 1976 I would actually love to. Know what the panel topic was? 2453 01:57:57,640 --> 01:57:58,640 I wish we knew that. I think we used to. 2454 01:57:58,640 --> 01:58:01,960 Know and forgot, Yeah, and. Well, one, that and two take 2455 01:58:01,960 --> 01:58:03,840 about 5 years before he got out of panel. 2456 01:58:03,840 --> 01:58:06,000 Yeah, and. That's also around the time he 2457 01:58:06,000 --> 01:58:08,160 met Paris. They met at Worldcon, his wife, 2458 01:58:08,160 --> 01:58:09,320 they met at Worldcon. So that's cool. 2459 01:58:09,840 --> 01:58:12,760 And it's another happy story, which is something that we've 2460 01:58:13,320 --> 01:58:18,720 seen a few times, which is for some of us going to a 2461 01:58:18,720 --> 01:58:21,320 convention, a Song of Ice and Fire, convention or otherwise, 2462 01:58:21,320 --> 01:58:24,120 is sometimes it's a revelation. For some people, it's like, wow, 2463 01:58:24,120 --> 01:58:27,800 I've found my people. I am an introvert who doesn't 2464 01:58:27,800 --> 01:58:30,160 feel introverted around people like me. 2465 01:58:30,720 --> 01:58:34,000 That's not uncommon. And from that, you occasionally 2466 01:58:34,000 --> 01:58:37,640 see relationships form because of the shared love of this 2467 01:58:37,640 --> 01:58:41,280 fandom in this community, we have witnessed a lot of couples 2468 01:58:41,280 --> 01:58:44,640 form from at conventions. Occasionally we even see 2469 01:58:44,640 --> 01:58:48,320 marriages happen at the conventions themselves in honor 2470 01:58:48,320 --> 01:58:50,680 of the fact that that's where they met and that's where their 2471 01:58:50,680 --> 01:58:52,400 most of their best friends will be. 2472 01:58:52,640 --> 01:58:55,040 Makes it a good place for that. In fact, one of our friends is 2473 01:58:55,040 --> 01:58:56,880 getting married to Dragon Con. Well, two of our friends are 2474 01:58:56,920 --> 01:58:58,360 getting married to Dragon Con. Yeah. 2475 01:58:58,400 --> 01:59:00,120 Because, yeah, obviously. Her fiance is our friend. 2476 01:59:00,120 --> 01:59:01,160 Yeah, we're. Friends with both of them, yeah. 2477 01:59:01,160 --> 01:59:03,320 I was like, Nah, screw that guy. That's just kidding. 2478 01:59:03,320 --> 01:59:04,400 Some of the biggest? Advice. 2479 01:59:04,400 --> 01:59:08,560 I tell people who expressed to me this loneliness to express to 2480 01:59:08,560 --> 01:59:12,000 me that they don't have anyone around them that they can share 2481 01:59:12,000 --> 01:59:14,800 this with. I say, well, go to a convention, 2482 01:59:15,080 --> 01:59:18,440 find your fine people and you will find friendship, 2483 01:59:18,440 --> 01:59:21,040 camaraderie, maybe love. I don't know. 2484 01:59:21,320 --> 01:59:23,680 I did like I, I, I, you know, like it worked for me. 2485 01:59:23,680 --> 01:59:27,960 You mean you find so much deep connection at these conventions? 2486 01:59:27,960 --> 01:59:31,360 All of my closest friends and loved ones, essentially, with 2487 01:59:31,360 --> 01:59:35,840 few exceptions, I met at a convention or I met online and 2488 01:59:35,840 --> 01:59:37,440 then met in person at a convention. 2489 01:59:37,480 --> 01:59:40,520 Yep. Classic story of friendship and 2490 01:59:40,520 --> 01:59:44,160 community from our community. That's how it works a lot of 2491 01:59:44,160 --> 01:59:45,800 times. And no doubt most of my friends 2492 01:59:45,800 --> 01:59:48,560 are in the community or met through the community. 2493 01:59:48,600 --> 01:59:49,160 So that's. Yeah. 2494 01:59:49,200 --> 01:59:50,520 It's our life. It really is. 2495 01:59:50,520 --> 01:59:52,640 It's it's everything. It's everything. 2496 01:59:52,880 --> 01:59:56,640 I want it. We're all just air conditioners. 2497 01:59:57,080 --> 01:59:58,400 Yeah. All right, friends. 2498 01:59:58,400 --> 02:00:00,760 Thank you very much. We'll see you next time. 2499 02:00:01,240 --> 02:00:04,000 Thanks to everybody that we saw at the convention. 2500 02:00:04,000 --> 02:00:07,400 All the names, everybody. The BWB George. 2501 02:00:07,680 --> 02:00:10,720 Sid, Mateo, Taffney, everybody. We mentioned all the great 2502 02:00:10,720 --> 02:00:13,480 authors who gave us content and things to talk about, all of our 2503 02:00:13,480 --> 02:00:14,960 friends that I didn't mention just now. 2504 02:00:15,560 --> 02:00:18,960 On behalf of Ashea, I'm Aziz. Thanks to Joey Townsend for our 2505 02:00:18,960 --> 02:00:20,840 music. Thanks to Michael Klarfeld for 2506 02:00:20,840 --> 02:00:23,440 our opening video. And of course, Ashea got a 2507 02:00:23,440 --> 02:00:25,280 Klarfeld map, map sign by George. 2508 02:00:25,280 --> 02:00:27,600 That's fun. You can get your own by going to 2509 02:00:27,600 --> 02:00:32,000 his website, KLARADO x.de. I showed it to George. 2510 02:00:32,000 --> 02:00:35,080 And he goes, hey, I know these. And Sid goes, yeah, we own them, 2511 02:00:35,080 --> 02:00:38,040 George. That's right. 2512 02:00:38,360 --> 02:00:41,560 So until next time, my friends, you know what to do. 2513 02:00:42,120 --> 02:00:43,960 Valar Riridis.