Balticon 42, Hunt Valley, Maryland — Sunday, May 25, 2008
We over slept today — and boy did we need the extra sleep. So, we made it to the Singularity presentation at noon. This was a presentation of the fourth episode of Stranger Things called “Latchkeeper”. First there was an interview with the author of the episode (Matt Wallace). Then a couple of acts of the episode, a break for some announcements, and the rest of the episode.
I was really amazed at the production values of the episode. The story was immediately engaging, had a bit of humor to the dialogue, and definitely got you to that moment when everything changes and nothing will ever be the same. For me the problem was the ending — it should have ended 1 minute before it did because the ending ruined the whole thing (at least for me). I hadn’t seen the video podcasts before and it was obvious that most of the people there were fans of the show and/or the writer and producers. At times the presentation had the feeling of an Amway sales talk but it didn’t need the hard sell — the product is good enough to sell itself — and they should let it. We left after the finish of the episode while they were gearing up for more rah-rah.
Next we searched for a meal. Back to the mall/restaurant area and this time pizza and coffee. We took everything back to our room to eat. After looking over the programming for Sunday, we found there really wasn’t anything to go to until the interview of Connie Willis at 4 p.m. So we cleared up email, visited with some friends and off to the interview.
Connie Willis is one of those people who if you ask her a question and just sit back and listen will keep you interested and entertained. I wrote down a lot of authors to check out along with a few movie titles and book titles. The interview was followed by a reading from her newest book. She’s been working on it for six years and it’s done and being tweaked and will soon be off to the publisher/editors. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing All Clear when it comes out.
The last time I listened to Connie be interviewed I went away with a list of authors and books and found some that I’ve really liked. For example, I don’t think I’d have every read Three Men in a Boat without her recommendation. I then went on to read another book by Jerome K. Jerome. I also tried P.G. Wodehouse and found delight in his humor and writing. Again not an author I probably would have tried without a recommendation mainly because he’s not an author that comes up much among my circle of friends. I still haven’t read H. L. Mencken but he’s now on my radar and I’ll get to it soon.
There’s really not much for the rest of the day and evening. Maybe we’ll find something just to have something to report on but maybe we’ll spend some time just relaxing.