Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

This morning after the big English Breakfast, the sun came out and the wind sort of died down, which gave me a chance to walk for a little while along the Brighton Promenade. It didn't last, and I was getting rained on by the time I got back to the hotel, but it was wonderful just to get out and look around at places I've never been and might never be again. The weather came back strongly, and by afternoon the wind was howling away at the windows while I sat in an interview (one of two I've done while I'm here in Brighton, which is an interesting experience for me).

One of the huge advantages of not working on WFC nor having any particular thing I have to promote here is that I have had time to have meals. Not just grab something cheap from the food court or whatever I can make up in my hotel room like at Worldcon, but real, proper, sit-down, excellent meals. This evening I went out to Graze Restaurant in Brighton with Scott Edelman, Ellen Datlow, and Cheryl Morgan. We had their "tasting menu," (a series of small dishes, each spotlighting their specialties) with a nice cheese platter to end the evening of good conversation about many subjects, with all of us enjoying each others' company. It wasn't something I can afford to do that often, but £68 (about $111) is something I can manage for a rare occasion with an excellent meal.

By the time I was back at the hotel, it seemed best to me to head for the barn and try to get some sleep tonight, because I'm heading up to London on Sunday afternoon, not staying over for the Dead Dog aspect of WFC. I'll get one full day in London before my flight back to San Francisco on Tuesday.

I'm not being flippant; it just came to me that for today, that title above would be sadly appropriate.

( Income Taxes Filed )

( Now the Bad News: Erlinda Hallock RIP )

This morning, I drove down to near my old haunts off of Blossom Hill Road (I lived near there for a year in a "Slan Shack" with some other fans) to help gridlore and kshandra with their urgent de-cluttering-because-we-must-move job. I carried bags and boxes of stuff from their upstairs apartment to their pickup and to the dumpster for a couple of hours, as directed, with useful results.

Then it was back up to Fremont where I was able to get haircut that I should have had before Westercon. (I wouldn't have been able to do so then, it turns out, as my regular barber had closed the shop for vacation.) Then I had some groceries I needed. I had bigger goals for today, but I find myself still more tired than I would have though from Westercon. It takes longer than it once did to recover from those sorts of trips.

On the bright side, for the first time in a long while, there are no drips under my van. We may finally have managed to seal off all of the things that dripped at the same time. *knocks wood*

I have posted some photos from the St. George's Distillery Open House "Prom Night."

I have a camera full of photos from our group expedition to see Spamalot last night as part of kproche's birthday. dsmoen has already posted about it along with photos, so that will do for now until I have time to deal with my camera.

In group shots, being one of the tall people, I'm usually at the back and therefore you can't see my costume; however, I am in one of dsmoen's group detail shots (behind the cut below), for which I thank her.

( Feeling Tensor? )

We had great seats -- right in the middle in rows 8/9/10 -- and our group of people in our "Knights of the Log Table" costumes caused a fair bit of stir and curiosity from the audience. I was amused at the range of reactions to our explaining what our group name was. Some people cracked up, while others gave us a completely blank look, saying, "What's a 'log table?'"

After the show, we gathered outside the theatre in front of the show's trailer, where several of the actors, including "King Arthur," Christopher Gurr, came out and talked with us and told us they could easily see us from the stage and that they really appreciated our enthusiasm. After that, we went to a nearby bar/restaurant, only to learn that it was booked up for a private cast party for the cast, crew, and sponsors of the show we'd just seen! But the manager was very nice and said we could sit outside in the patio area, which worked out just fine: first, it had been pretty warm in the theatre and I was happy to cool off, and second, it meant that those people from the production who wanted to come out and talk to us could do so without being obliged to do so. We had a number of very nice conversations with people out there.

I very much enjoyed the show. I'm not going to talk too much about the specifics, because there are actually spoilers involved and other people might want to see it without having the surprises revealed. But I was very amused by a point in Act 2 where they'd worked in a local reference and the audience went wild and stopped the show for at least a minute, and maybe longer, because it did seem like we'd managed to crack up the cast on stage, and you could see King Arthur working hard to re-compose himself and wait for the pandemonium to die down so he could continue, which just encouraged the audience to keep going. This, of course, is one of the reasons you need a live orchestra for these things -- you have to be able to adjust for what's happening in real time.

Anyway, happy birthday once again to kproche and thank you again for inviting us and for organizing the Knights, and thanks to you and all of the others who worked to make our costumes. I was delighted to be part of the group!