Tag Archives: Taral Wayne

A Century of Taral Celebrated in Drink Tank

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By Taral Wayne: So many issues of The Drink Tank, so little time to fill them.  However, as of this issue, I’ve filled 100 of them!  To commemorate the event, Chris Garcia and I collaborated on a Special Issue!  I began my appearances in DT way back in 2007, with a two part interview conducted by Frank Wu.  I was a little slow reappearing, but once I got into the habit, it was a hard one to break.  In the 187 issues since, I’ve added to the pages somewhat more often than once every other DT.  Most of the pieces I contributed were moderately short, but that’s still a lot of writing any way you slice it.  Somebody should have told me it was habit forming.

There has been a lot of careless talk about the zine’s “golden touch,” as though to be a regular contributor was a punched ticket to the Hugo Ceremonies, right up front where the other nominees sit.  It has won Chris the Rocket for Best Fanzine, along with his co-editor, James Bacon.  It has also won DT’s frequent cover artist, Mo Starkey a Hugo for Best Fanartist.  But I recommend caution before throwing around irresponsible theories like that.  If it were so … where’s my Hugo?  I am the living proof that Chris and Mo earned their Hugo some other way than by merely appearing in Drink Tank.  Bribery perhaps?

Drink Tank 340 was finished a couple of days ago, and ought to be posted on eFanzines just before this issue of Broken Toys.  Oh … and by the way.  As a Special Celebration of the Special Issue, I have ceased writing for Drink Tank.

It is said that the best way to create a demand is to limit supply, you see.  Now that my writing in Drink Tank will be in very short supply, perhaps it will stimulate voter interest, so that I may someday – finally – have my very own silver rocket to cradle in my arms!

Amateur Martian Photo Analysis

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Years ago someone claimed the Viking mission had taken pictures of a Face on Mars, proving with geometric logic it was a monument created by sentient beings. NASA eventually got a new batch of photos that showed it was merely a natural formation. But now we have a new body part to speculate about – the robotic finger of Mars!

And is there anyone left who believes there were canals on Mars? Then you should talk to Taral. He knows where all the water went –

Did I mention that I’ve discovered a bath drain on Mars? There’s the plug, over on the right. Somebody must have taken the chain.

Taral’s Martian Ice

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By Taral Wayne: Here’s something odd for you. While downloading photos from NASA’s Curiosity site (some 200 from Sol 137), my eye was caught by a strange white patch deep in the shadow of one overhang. I’ve seen some other whitish rock or glaze in other photos, but this looked completely different. It looked, in fact, like snow or ice. There’s even a dark area beneath it as though it was slowly melting. I suppose it could be ice — why not? So far we’ve discovered ice in a number of places. This particular overhang might just be cool enough to sustain a patch, at least temporarily.

I immediatey emailed the website and identified the photo. One other also shows the patch, though it’s much harder to see it — so it doesn’t appear to be a glitch in the first photo. No word from NASA, naturally…

Do you think it possible nobody had spotted it? If they have, they’ve been rather close mouthed … or could they deem it something of no interest, I wonder?

I’ve dubbed it “Saara’s Icebox,” somewhat whimsically. I’d love it to stick, but I don’t imagine there’s much chance of it.

Although, oddly some names I suggested to NASA by e-mail for highlands on Titan have appeared on one NASA map. Nobody mentioned adopting my suggestion … so it might be a coincidence.

Brittanum, Gaul and Hispania

Great Britain

Great Britain and Gaul

Postscript: Another photo of the overhanging rock formation has turned up in Sol 170′s photo cache. The white stuff, whatever it was, doesn’t seem visible. The view is distant, though, so it’s hard to see if there might be just a little left. Perhaps significantly, the dark stain that had been below the white stuff is also gone or going. Seems that it’s too late to investigate anything now. Good one, NASA!

Going, going… gone! (Sol 170)

Taral: Three’s A Charm

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By Taral Wayne: It had gotten so difficult for me to get to SFContario that, when November rolled around and it was time for the third year’s con, I had decided not to attend. My plans were thwarted, however, by the announcement that Chris Garcia was the Fan Guest of Honour in 2012. I had always wanted an opportunity to spend some time with Chris, since both times I’ve met him it was impossible to make him sit still long enough to talk to. So, I went to SFC anyway, despite expecting to have a thoroughly miserable time.

In fact, I did have a thoroughly miserable time … but it was the travel to and from the convention that was the source of it. Two hours each way, with three connections. By day the traffic getting downtown was impossible. The driver actually warned the passengers, still quite some distance from the subway entrance, that progress would be so slow and that we might prefer to get out and walk the rest of the way!

All in all, I spent one hour in transit for every one I was at the con.

Under the circumstances, I think you’ll understand why I skipped Sunday. Anyway, people customarily leave early Sunday, and all I was likely to miss was the dead dog. Compared to the prospect of a long sleep, and no public transit, there was no doubt in my mind I made the right decision.

For the first two years, I felt SFContario was a little too small and maybe a bit pokey, but this year I enjoyed myself virtually every moment. Whether that’s entirely because the con had reached critical mass or not, I’m not sure. Partly, I may just have been in a more receptive mood. But I felt welcomed from the start, recognized more faces and found more things to say to them. I ran into one of the guests, Jon Singer, almost immediately and caught up with many, many years since we had last seen each another. I had arrived late enough to miss all the programming, thankfully, and could ease into partying mode right away.

Saturday was much the same. I arrived late, in spite of trying to arrive earlier. But among other delays, that day there was a police incident on the streetcar. I barely walked into the con in time for my scheduled program event at 6.

The panel was on fanzines and fanzine writing, and the other participants were Chris Garcia (the moderator), Neil Jamieson-Williams and myself. Colin Hinz joined us late, after the panel began. The audience wasn’t large, but it was attentive and friendly, which is half the battle. When I posted photos on Facebook that night, I described Chris as “The Wild Man of Fandom” — which is too self-evident to need explanation. Neil I described as the “Punk Academic of Fandom,” which does need explanation. Neil is a sociologist who feels a duty to describe fandom to itself in ways that make anthropologists happy, using words like “matriliteral,” “polyfrenetic,” and “diverse etherealcentrism,” which mean little more than we already know about ourselves but are vastly more educated. But he also publishes a fanzine using a type font that literally cannot be read, and consciously rejecting any illustration or layout tricks that would make the experience of reading “Swill” more pleasurable – a “punk” attitude if ever there was. I captioned myself in the photo as “Supreme Being of Fandom,” a truism you need not question. Since Colin came late, he wasn’t in the shot and has no caption.

I thought the panel was more successful than most I’ve been on. We seemed to know what we wanted to say, said it, didn’t repeat each other, but avoided name-calling and fisticuffs throughout. Afterward, the audience had a few questions that we did our best to answer.

Someone else will have to write about the other programming. I believe there was some. Arriving as late as I did, I never saw the artshow or dealers room either, though the program book assures me that SFContario had one of each. For me, it was once again party time.

Highlights among the parties were the Detroit NASFiC bid, the Kansas City in 2016 and Spokane in 2015 Worldcon bids, the birthday bash for Yvonne Penney and the festivities in Robert J. Sawyer’s room (both nights). Also notable, but not for everyone, was the Mike Glicksohn Memorial poker game. I found Chris Garcia, David Clink (a poet), Carolyn Clink (rob Sawyer’s wife) and several others deeply immersed in their poker faces when I arrived to take a picture. Okay … in reality they were laughing and gesticulating like madmen, and I didn’t see a poker face among them.

For me, the highlight of the con was Saturday night, when I bought a funny hat from the Kansas City bid people. It was a dapper little number in black and pinstripes just like Sammy Davis Jr. used to wear, and was supposed to remind one of gangsters in the 1920s. It was too modern for that – real gangsters in the Roaring ‘20s wore snap-brimmed Fedoras, or even Derbies. I was able to convince myself I wouldn’t look too silly in one, though and since I had sold a small number of my CD-ROMs, I felt I could afford an extravagance that weekend.

Also, Diane Lacey had brought my Hugo pin to give me. At last, I had all eleven!

This year Geri Sullivan ran the con suite and was present almost around the clock. She did step out at least once, and when she returned I collapsed at her feet and whimpered something like “Where were you, I had to fill the coffee machine with water myself” … which she seemed to find excruciatingly funny for some reason. Geri had had bought about 6 flavours of gourmet potato chips and a Canadian cheese to put out. There was hot pulled pork, candies and soft drinks as well, keeping everyone well fed. Unlike some cons I remember, there didn’t seem to be a mass exodus of fans from the hotel around dinner time, leaving a few broke unfortunates or alienated loners behind. This was a good thing, as I am both kinds of fan.

I don’t want to appear wildly optimistic, but having had a surprisingly good time at SFContario 3, I may have to consider returning next year … The guests will be Seanan McGuire (author), Dave Kyle (fan) and Chandler Davis (science). Dates are November 29 to December first. http://sfcontario.ca

Friday photo montage: 1. Jon Singer (background Jo Walton); 2. Geri Sullivan; 3. Jo Walton; 4. Chis Garcia; 5. Cathy Specht, Ctein, and Jon Singer in the background, right; 6. Diane Lacey

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Saturday photo montage: 1. Chris Garcia, Neil Jamieson-Williams, Taral Wayne; 2. Hope Leibowitz & Chris Garcia; 3. Chandler Davis; 4. Mike Glicksohn Memorial Poker Game; 5. Penney Birthday Party; 6. Catherine Crockett (co-chair)

A Get-Well Card for Stu

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Taral Wayne has produced a one-shot, The Slan of Baker Street [PDF file], that he hopes friend and fellow fanartist Stu Shiffman soon will be reading:

I don’t remember my first thoughts when I learned of Stu’s stroke. I doubt it was until the second day, or even the third, that I decided Something Ought to be Done. Since I was unable to perform miracles, I decided that perhaps a one-shot, get-well zine would help cheer Stu up, and aid his convalescence.

The Slan of Baker Street contains memoirs from Taral, Andrew P. Hooper and Rob Hansen, and artistic tributes by Taral, Sheryl Birkhead, Kurt Erichsen, Alan White, Steve Stiles, Brad Foster. Its grand finale is a gallery of Stu’s work from the Seventies and Eighties

I’m a big fan of the writing of Andrew Hooper: his contribution to The Slan of Baker Street shows why you should be, too:

The flights are as safe as one can make a ride in an antique airplane, but I feel just a little uneasy as I peer between the trees and clouds to see the tall tailfin float by again. Another flying B-17, Liberty Belle, made a forced landing in Illinois last year, and was totally destroyed by the fire that followed. Aluminum Overcast drifts overhead so slowly that it gives an impression of searching for something, like an aircraft lost in an old Twilight Zone episode, confronted with the 21st Century landscape below. These anxious fantasies come easily to mind this week, because I’m waiting for someone to get well, someone whose condition seems analogous to an aircraft trying to make its way home through a persistent fog. Stu Shiffman is one of my oldest friends in fandom, a longtime collaborator, correspondent and colleague.

Rooms With A View

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The Haggard Room.

Chicon 7 will recreate as an exhibit the Haggard-themed room from the home of GoH Jane Frank and her husband, Howard.

The Franks’ admiration for H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines, She and his other lost world stories inspired them to design a room in their house to showcase specifically commissioned art based on Haggard’s work. Decorated in Victorian-era furnishings, the Haggard Room displays thematic art by Michael Whelan, Don Maitz, and Bob Eggleton, Gary Ruddell, Donato Giancola, Ian Miller, Jeffrey Catherine Jones, Richard Bober, and Steve Hickman.

Chicon’s exhibit will be the most opulent room recreation ever presented by a Worldcon, a real peek into how “the other half lives” when you consider what has gone before.

Anticipation, the 2009 Worldcon in Montreal, used large graphic photos to reproduce the apartment of its Fan GoH Taral Wayne, the visuals as intricately detailed as a Taral fanzine cover because of all the collections on display.

Entry to Taral's apartment at Anticipation.

Collections on display in Taral's apartment at 2009 Worldcon.

Previously, Chicon 2000 decorated its Fan Lounge to resemble the living room of a typical Chicago fan in the ‘80s, furnished with an ill-assorted bunch of old couches, lamps and end tables. One couch was occupied by two crash-test dummies dressed as Neil Rest and Phyllis Eisenstein – bearded “Neil” wearing sandals, jeans and a Windycon 7 t-shirt, and “Phyllis,” attired in black, a goth ahead of her time. Poor-fan’s bookcases made of boards and cinder blocks lined the perimeter of the room.

Roger Sims and Dave Kyle with “Neil” and “Phyllis” in the Chicon 2000 Fan Lounge.

These room recreations make innovative use of the exhibit space and have all been fun. I wonder if there been any others than the ones I remember?

Update 07/27/2012: Corrected identification of Chicon 2000 Fan Lounge crash-test dummy to Neil, per comment.

Now, a Word To Our Sponsors

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Taral Wayne posted about the unwonted notoriety he’s gained thanks to the internet scavengers at Betascript. Since then he’s corresponded with them:

In response to my email they claim they have used no copyrighted art of mine in the publication.  I can’t tell if this is true or not… I can only say one online service described it as “b/w, 68 pages, illustrations.”  But it might have been generic stuff, similar to the “cover.”  In any case, the only way I could find out is spend $45 to buy the book.

Taral wondered how this outfit gets away with cluttering up booksellers’ databases:

Who’s going to buy a book about me, the guy who invented the pretzel, or the second monkey on the right in a Planet of the Apes sequel? Makes it harder for customers to find what they’re really looking for.  I’m expecting the dealers will eventually refuse to list crap by outfits like Betascript.

Robert Lichtman hopes to accelerate that outcome with KTF reviews of Betascript’s Taral book on Amazon Canada, UK and Germany, plus Blackwells, Alibris and the DEA Store (Italy):

Don’t buy this book. Betascript Publishing is a pirate organization, and stole writing and artwork *copyrighted* by Taral Wayne for their sleazy little overpriced efforts. Yes, per the production description he is a well-known and honored artist, but please don’t support his hard work being ripped off by this disreputable publish-on-demand gang of thieves! Thank you.

Back to the Drawing Board

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Taral’s blog, launched in May, has bitten the dust. Not enough of you were clapping your hands and saying you do believe in it:

I deleted my Blog at Blogger — total freaking waste of time.  Seven followers and mabye five or six views per week.  I think the problem was that it was Blogger — which likes viewers to join to get full access to blogs.  People complained to me that they couldn’t leave comments, and one or two said they couldn’t even access what I’d posted.  One may have said, also, that an internet search didn’t turn up the Blogger page.

An undeserved fate for one of fandom’s most productive writers.

SFContario 2 Photos

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Taral Wayne sent along a few snapshots from SFContario 2. Click on the thumbnails for full-sized pictures. Here are his captions:

(1) “In Memorium – remembering Mike Glicksohn”. (L to R), Diane Lacey in back, Colin Hinz, Catharine Crockett, Hope Leibowitz, John Mansfield, Murray Moore, stranger to me, Ken Smookler.

(1)

(2) The other members of the panel. Andy Porter (R) showing 1960s photo of Mike at some east coast con. I was sitting left of Andy.

(2)

(3) Other members of panel — photo taken by Colin Hinz for me. (L to R), Yvonne Penney, Lloyd Penney, David Warren, Andy Porter. Colin took another shot that cut Yvonne out but included me. Unfortunately, Colin moved and the photo was badly blurred.

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(4) Registration area just after Glicksohn panel. Facing the camera, (L to R), is Eugene Heller and Rene Walling. The “crowd” you see quickly broke up. Registration is long closed, but an unknown staff member is taking a seat There is an enclosed walkway between buildings in the immediate rear. It connects registration as well as a L/R oriented hallway to the part of the hotel where the ball room, and dealers area were.

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(5) Hallway in front of registration area. A set of spiral stairs to the left leads down to the lobby. An elevator off camera also to the left takes people to the 3rd. floor con suite. At the back of this arm of the hall are two panel rooms. The Glicksohn panel was in the left hand one. That’s the Penneys… um… possibly counting their pennies.
 

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(6) The spiral stairs in front of the registration area. Neil Jamieson Williams L, Diane Lacey (staff) center, CUFF winner Kent Pollard R. Although this is staged, Kent actually did take Neil’s photo in just this situation only seconds before.

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(7) Diane got out of the view of the camera so I could take a second shot.

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