Tag Archives: Denvention 3

Proposed Hugo Award Changes

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The Hugo Awards are presented annually by the members of the World Science Fiction Convention, to be held this year in Denver, August 6-10.

Two proposals have been made to change the Hugo Award categories by amending the World Science Fiction Society constitution.

Farewell Semiprozine Hugo: Chris Barkley and Ben Yalow propose to delete the Best Semiprozine Hugo category.

Title: One less award

Moved: To amend Section 3.3.11 (Best Semiprozine) by adding a new last sentence:

“No award shall be made for this category.”

Discussion: This removes the semiprozine category, while still leaving the definition in to stop former semiprozines from dropping back into fanzine. Since the Best Editor-Short would now allow the editors of those publications to compete in that category, there is still a category to recognize those works.

Adding a Best Graphic Novel Hugo: Chris M. Barkley and Steve Barber propose to add a category to the awards:

Best Graphic Novel: A science fiction or fantasy story told in graphic form, of at least sixty-four (64) pages in length, published in book form or as a series of consecutive, continuous issues through an online medium as a complete story.

Discussion: Eligible works for nomination are to be any publication devoted to graphic science fiction or fantasy themes, whose story lines end and are published or distributed by the end calendar year.

Hugo Voting Deadline: July 7 at Midnight

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Better speed-read those nominees NOW if you’re ever going to. The minutes are dwindling away — Denvention 3 members have until midnight tonight to cast an online Hugo ballot.

You also will need your PIN – and can get a reminder, if needed, by e-mailing [email protected].

All ballots (electronic or paper) must be received by midnight (2400hrs) Pacific Daylight Time at the end of Monday, July 7, 2008.

Longest and Shortest Hugo Award Ceremonies

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Hugo Award ballots must be received by Midnight, Pacific Daylight Time, on July 7. Denvention 3 members are eligible – do your online voting soon and beat the rush. The imminent deadline also means that about a month from now another audience of nominees will be sweating out the results. Diana and I will be there.

I said in “Silverberg and Resnick: That’s Entertainment!” in File 770 #153 that I’m no fan of the Hugo-Ceremony-as-100-Yard-Dash. The ceremony’s purpose is to honor the best in our field, and to me the clock is not the tool to measure how well that’s done. But I’d agree that some of the shortest ones have been great fun.

When the fans who love speedy Hugo Ceremonies start honoring people on a Mount Rushmore for toastmasters, Marta Randall will be right up there in Washington‘s place. She always did an admirable job of making haste as entertainingly as possible. And no wonder people were moving. The funniest moment of the fast-moving 1982 Hugos came when she goosed presenter Bob Tucker as he left the stage. Marta’s 90-minute 1982 Hugo Ceremony set a record unequalled for 23 years.

Chicago brought her back for 1991 and the Hugos sped by in 100 minutes, a brisk pace if not a record. Tucker presented again and when he started to leave the stage covered his butt with both hands. But Marta came over, gave him a big hug, and winked to the audience, “Now I know why he was kicked out of the Garden of Eden.”

Only in 2005 did Paul McCauley and Kim Newman turn in the second 90-minute performance with Interaction’s Hugo Ceremony.

All people who yelp like they’re being tortured when the Hugos last two hours should pay silent tribute when in the presence of anyone who endured the 1968 Worldcon banquet. It was Toastmaster Bob Silverberg’s baptism of fire — a baptism of live steam for everyone else. Fans endured dinner and speeches in 95-degree heat, in an unventilated ballroom without air conditioning, for five hours and fifteen minutes before the first Hugo was presented. As Mike Resnick recalled in File 770:100:

[At 8:00 p.m.] Phil Farmer got up to give his speech…. [When] he paused for a drink of water more than 2 hours into it, we all gave him a standing ovation in hope it would convince him he was through. It didn’t. He finished after 10:30. Time for the Hugos, right? Wrong. Randy Garrett gets up, takes the microphone away from Toastmaster Bob Silverberg, and sings about 50 verses of ‘Three Brave Hearts and Three Bold Lions.’ Finally, approaching 11:15, Silverberg gets up to hand out the Hugos.

Denvention 3’s Classics of Science Fiction

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Denvention 3 accepted John Hertz’ suggestion to program discussions of the “Wonders of 1958,” selected classics of science fiction. Read up and join in! The list of books and John’s notes appear on the Denvention 3 website. But let me save you a click —

Mile Closer to the Stars – Classics of Science Fiction
Book discussions led by John Hertz

We are in the golden-anniversary year of 1958, a golden year for science fiction. We’ll celebrate with five Classics of SF book discussions on books published that year and still famous, often reprinted, worth re-reading or first reading now. Look for them in the program grid as “Wonders of 1958.”

James Blish, A Case of Conscience and The Triumph of Time
Some call Conscience Blish’s finest book. Is it science fiction? Is it a story? Is its best moment when the Pope says “What did you do about it?” In the same year came the last of the four Cities in Flight novels. Is it a success standing alone? How does Time compare to Conscience?

Algis Budrys, Who?
This penetrating study of identity, loyalty, uncertainty may be both more bleak and more hopeful than it seems. If there is a sermon, it is preached by silence. Budrys is known for his deftness and timing; here too are poetry, a fundamental grasp of tragedy, and the surprises of love.

Robert Heinlein, Methuselah’s Children
By painting portraits Heinlein repeatedly asks the next question.  What if your lifespan was two hundred years?  What if you didn’t care?  If you are hunted, should you run?  Where should you go?  Here too is the first and perhaps best of Lazarus Long.  Extra credit: compare the carefully rewritten 1941 version in the July-September Astounding.

Fritz Leiber, The Big Time
Spiders are the good guys, and our hero is a woman.  The first Hero was a woman too, go look up Leander.   Indeed this is a very classical book; it preserves the unities of time, place, and persons, which is mighty strange, considering.  There’s slashing drama, and if you’ve never been a party girl, it might not be what you think.

Jack Vance, The Languages of Pao
With four worlds in the spotlight, one populated by fifteen billion, this is a story of one boy and one man.  Knowledge may be power.  Concentration and diversity may each be extreme.  The characters say linguistics is the science here; perhaps it is really cross-cultural study, or patience.  Vance’s own language is the gold.

Funky Hotel Added by Denvention 3

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The Curtis' 13th FloorDenvention 3 Housing has added a new hotel — The Curtis, which received a $30 million upgrade before reopening under its new name in January 2007. The Curtis is just two blocks away from the Colorado Convention Center. Singles/doubles are $159 per night, triples are $169 and quads are $179.

The committee’s press release calls The Curtis “an independent hotel with a sense of humor.” That turns out to be a good thing in this case. (“Humor” at some con hotels means the staff laughs at us). Fun is designed into The Curtis, from a robot that greets you in the lobby, to the quirky pop-culture theme of each floor. Some will like the sci-fi theme on the 8th floor. But I know some of you will want to reserve rooms on the 13th floor and be greeted each morning by the leering face of Jack Nicholson from The Shining.

Check the Denvention facilities page for more information.

Rooms for Denvention are currently available in all of the following hotels: The Curtis, Crowne Plaza, Westin Tabor Center, Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center, Grand Hyatt Denver.

The only one of these I’ve stayed in before is the Crowne Plaza, because it’s convenient to the offices I was visiting across the street. The Crowne Plaza in Denver is okay. My experience with the chain’s hotels in some other cities has not been so good (one in Philadelphia, and another in Houston).

Denvention 3 has also added information on how to handle room transfers.

Lee Kuruganti Wins Hugo Base Design Contest

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(Denvention 3 Press Release) Lee Kuruganti has won Denvention 3’s competition to design the 2008 Hugo Award statue base.

Lee Kuruganti is a professional, digital artist based in Colorado. Her fantastic art has been published by Baen, Static Movement Online, Withersin, Spacesuits and Sixguns, the Lorelei Signal and Sorcerous Signals. She created the poster for the recent film Extinction. Kuruganti reports that “One of my favorite moments was being selected as an artist for an international mural project for Olympic Games Seoul.”

Kuruganti was a semi-finalist in the L. Ron Hubbard Illustrators of the Future Contest. She’s also done several solo shows, and has exhibited in many galleries.

Click to read the rest of Denvention 3’s press release

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