Sunday, July 09, 2006
WESTERBLOG
We spent the Fourth of July weekend in San Diego, attending Westercon, the Western Regional Science Fiction Convention, and for the first time in years it was actually fun! Lots of neat panels and I got to play a show there. I also sold about $200 worth of CDs, and I performed my song "Baby Boomer" for a bunch of people to great applause in a "filk" (sci-fi folk music) circle. One of the appreciative crowd was none other than world-renowned author Larry Niven, who doubled over at one point. He also made a point of telling me how much he enjoyed the song, which was pretty neat.
On July 4 proper, with the con over, we headed a bit north to Torrey Pines Beach right around sunset, then drove a little FURTHER north, through Del Mar to the town of Solana Beach. There, we found a FANTASTIC Thai Restaurant, called Bangkok Bay. Yummy!
Heading back after dark, we drove down I-5 and witnessed about 6 separate fireworks shows at the same time.
We actually headed to the beach a few times while we were there, usually at night. One night we took Adam's girlfriend Heather along with us:
Trust me, they're at the beach. That big black area behind them is the Pacific Ocean.
------
I attended my 30th High School Reunion last night.
Oh. My. God.
Many of us have reached the point where we no longer look like our high school selves. There was a lot of peering at name badges to match the yearbook face on the badge with the badge-wearer.
While I wanted to go, to catch up with a few people, I was also there to hopefully make some money, which I did. See, five years ago there was an impromptu, find-who-you-can party at the home of one of our alumni. They didn't reach everybody but they did a pretty good job.
That year, the party was in October, and coincided with the Prescott Folk Festival, which I played at late in the day, so I couldn't get to the party until after dark, after most people had left, and after those still there had been drinking big time.
So I pulled out the guitar, and eventually left the party at about 2 a.m. with a couple hundred dollars from CD sales.
This year, I was specifically ASKED to bring my guitar. So I brought the CDs too. And when the stragglers retreated to the hotel bar to reminisce, I played a bunch, sold a bunch, and made another nice dent in my CD supply.
But back to what people looked like.
Some of us look like 50-year-old-plus men and women, which is sad because none of us are 50 yet.
Some of us, including a former co-worker in the ad biz, look EXACTLY THE SAME. I don't know how they do that.
Some of us look like 30-year-old women. They must hit their knees at night and pray to their plastic surgeons.
Others look like 60-year-old women. One girl in particular. I felt kind of sorry for her. (Some skinny people tend not to hide wrinkles very well.)
And some of us (I'd like to think I'm in this group) just look like we're somewhere in our 40s, which is fine.
It was nice to see that one particular fella, who was hitting the juice pretty hard at the 20th, had apparently given that up.
With all that aging going on, my song "Baby Boomer" went over big time.
TT
We spent the Fourth of July weekend in San Diego, attending Westercon, the Western Regional Science Fiction Convention, and for the first time in years it was actually fun! Lots of neat panels and I got to play a show there. I also sold about $200 worth of CDs, and I performed my song "Baby Boomer" for a bunch of people to great applause in a "filk" (sci-fi folk music) circle. One of the appreciative crowd was none other than world-renowned author Larry Niven, who doubled over at one point. He also made a point of telling me how much he enjoyed the song, which was pretty neat.
On July 4 proper, with the con over, we headed a bit north to Torrey Pines Beach right around sunset, then drove a little FURTHER north, through Del Mar to the town of Solana Beach. There, we found a FANTASTIC Thai Restaurant, called Bangkok Bay. Yummy!
Heading back after dark, we drove down I-5 and witnessed about 6 separate fireworks shows at the same time.
We actually headed to the beach a few times while we were there, usually at night. One night we took Adam's girlfriend Heather along with us:
Trust me, they're at the beach. That big black area behind them is the Pacific Ocean.
------
I attended my 30th High School Reunion last night.
Oh. My. God.
Many of us have reached the point where we no longer look like our high school selves. There was a lot of peering at name badges to match the yearbook face on the badge with the badge-wearer.
While I wanted to go, to catch up with a few people, I was also there to hopefully make some money, which I did. See, five years ago there was an impromptu, find-who-you-can party at the home of one of our alumni. They didn't reach everybody but they did a pretty good job.
That year, the party was in October, and coincided with the Prescott Folk Festival, which I played at late in the day, so I couldn't get to the party until after dark, after most people had left, and after those still there had been drinking big time.
So I pulled out the guitar, and eventually left the party at about 2 a.m. with a couple hundred dollars from CD sales.
This year, I was specifically ASKED to bring my guitar. So I brought the CDs too. And when the stragglers retreated to the hotel bar to reminisce, I played a bunch, sold a bunch, and made another nice dent in my CD supply.
But back to what people looked like.
Some of us look like 50-year-old-plus men and women, which is sad because none of us are 50 yet.
Some of us, including a former co-worker in the ad biz, look EXACTLY THE SAME. I don't know how they do that.
Some of us look like 30-year-old women. They must hit their knees at night and pray to their plastic surgeons.
Others look like 60-year-old women. One girl in particular. I felt kind of sorry for her. (Some skinny people tend not to hide wrinkles very well.)
And some of us (I'd like to think I'm in this group) just look like we're somewhere in our 40s, which is fine.
It was nice to see that one particular fella, who was hitting the juice pretty hard at the 20th, had apparently given that up.
With all that aging going on, my song "Baby Boomer" went over big time.
TT
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