Belated post about the Hugo announcements, I am on the list for Fan Artist again this year – which is lovely. The other finalists are Sara Felix, Richard Man, Terri Ash, Geneva Bowers, and Yummei. Some new, some previous winners, some old friends and some folks I’ll hopefully meet for the first time in LA! This is the first year I haven’t submitted any folding fans to the packet, which I guess might be a surprise, but none of my 2025 fans were what I consider fan art. My personal criteria for what constitutes fan art in the Hugo sense …
Category: Art
Enchanted City
Newcastle has been trying to make itself into a Christmas destination in the last few years, rebranding, making maps and signage available all over town, expanding the Christmas market itself, and adding on satellite events. Its not perfect, and not for everyone, but overall it seems to be working. One of the additions this year is Northumbria University’s Enchanted City. We went on the first night, a Thursday, and in the last entry at 7:45pm, so it was pretty quiet. There were just shy of a dozen exhibits, all space-themed and using a nice range of art including projections, music, …
Last and First Men
We went to see a dance/multimedia production of Last and First Men last week, which was pretty cool. Dance is one of those areas that I’m interersted in, but know very little about and have actually not seem a whole lot of, outside of your standard musical. Contemporary dance even less. I’ve also not read any Stapledon, as it turns out, so I fully intended to do that before the show, but of course got distracted by Hugo reading and other shiny objects The production is itself an adaptation, or maybe expansion, of a film by Jóhann Jóhannsson which Wikipedia …
Belfast: The Sights
When Belfast was announced as the Eastercon 2025 location, we were excited about getting to explore the city and maybe do some more general touristing. I had never been to Northern Ireland at all, and of course the Giants Causeway is a UNESCO World Heritage site so I knew we definitely wanted to see that. During the convention I had a chance to pootle around town, walk along the river getting to and from the hotel, explore St. George’s market, see some murals, and generally get a feel for the centre of town, which is lively and full of interesting …
Hugo Finalist
The list is out and I’m delighted to be on there for fan artist again, along with a really solid roster. Most of the categories look really strong, and even some of the ones I usually pass over (out of lack of knowledge, primarily) have some interesting things – and look at Tchaikovsky inching up the charts! First time in novel and he manages two slots, what a machine! Sadly we won’t be traveling to Seattle, for the obvious reasons. In the scheme of things I’m aware it’s a small thing, but it makes me sad and angry all the …
I Went to Worldcon and All I Got Was These Excellent Friends – Part Two
(And a bunch of stuff I bought in the dealers room too, I guess) We were staying at the Village, across the bridge from the SEC and Crowne Plaza, which had a decent breakfast buffet but more importantly was also where Liz Batty and several Third Row folks were staying – meaning the days started with a nice little breakfast hangout. It was also the hotel where the business meeting was taking place, which was convenient for John who wanted to look in on a few of those sessions. I made a brave attempt to see a panel on Saturday …