Theatre Night

I had the opportunity on Saturday night to, along with David Clark and Linda D., to attend The People in the Picture, a musical being staged at 3Below Theatre (brought to you by the folks who ran the late lamented RetroDome).

( Worldcon 76 and 3Below: A Good Match )

As Linda, David, and I were walking over to the 3Below box office to collect our will-call tickets, David asked if we'd need some ID or something and I said that probably wouldn't be necessary. Shannon Guggenheim, part of the ownership team, was working the Box Office. As Shannon put it when I told her the story, "Yeah, it's okay; you're friends with the show's producers" as she issued us our tickets.

It was a wonderful show, which, as Ken Patterson describe accurately, "You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll laugh some more, and you'll cry some more." I was certainly tearing up at the finale, and that's a good thing.

On the way out, I stopped to thank both Scott and Shannon Guggenheim for their hard work, congratulate them on finding a new home for their theatre, and to say that while I'm not in the Bay Area anywhere near as often as I used to be that I'll try if possible to make their future live shows, because I can say truthfully that none of their productions has ever disappointed me and all of them have been fine entertainment.

The People in the Picture has one more weekend to run. If you can make it to San Jose, I heartily recommend that you try to attend this show. It ran on Broadway for a short run a few years ago and as Shannon put it when she introduced the show, after next weekend, it goes back into the vault and who knows when it will come back out again.

StaffCon Concludes, and I Don't Get All the Way Home

Today was the final day of the Worldcon 76 "StaffCon," which started with a general session of reports from the division heads.

( Slightly Smaller than Saturday )

As a favor to me, we did the divisions for a change in reverse alphabetical order so I got to go first instead of last.

The session lasted, somewhat surprisingly, almost exactly to time, and we broke for lunch at 12:15. Initially I'd planned to leave immediately thereafter, but I did go ahead and go to lunch, which was possibly my undoing, because by the time I said my goodbyes and left San Jose, it was a lot later than I originally planned. By the time I got as far as Lodi Junction, I knew that trying to drive all the way home to Fernley could prove hazardous to my health. I checked and found that the Holiday Inn Express near my sister's nursing facility in Sacramento had a pretty good rate tonight (much better than I paid going the other way on Thursday night), so I booked in there and left a message for Lisa.

My sister telephoned me just after I checked in to my room because she knew I said I was coming by this afternoon and she was worried about me. I drove over and saw her (and also delivered a few things to her that I'd promised to pick up for her this weekend). She was happy that I'd bailed out rather than trying to tough it out and drive through. I used to do that back in my twenties making day trips from Chico to San Jose for con committee meetings. It was a bad idea back then (I had a few near misses back then), and a worse one now. Having had friends die from falling asleep at the wheel, I am more cautious than I once was.

It's just as well that I stopped and got online anyway, as some pieces of my employer that I support had questions for me this evening from Asia, so I'm already logging some time for this week. But soon I'll get some sleep before rising early and working from the hotel for as long as I can stay in the hotel Monday morning (probably Noon).

StaffCon is over (except for a few people staying over until tomorrow who are presumably doing the equivalent of the Dead Dog gathering tonight). It was a very productive gathering. We're entering the home stretch for Worldcon 76, and I'm looking forward to a great Worldcon this August in San Jose.