Filling the Well

Okay, so I’ve had Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated” stuck in my head for two days, which is rather horrifying. But the really horrifying part is I didn’t figure out what it was until this morning. That’s because the version playing in my head isn’t Avril Lavigne, but some version that doesn’t exist. The version I came up with sounds like it should be part of a recent musical, a really peppy version sung by someone like Kristen Chenoweth.

The thing is — I think that version would actually really work.

Quite the exciting weekend, I must say. Yesterday I went to the Colorado Renaissance Festival, an event near and dear to my heart. I worked at a food booth there for two and a half summers during college. I’d spend all day behind a counter hawking in a bad English accent (until I came back from living in England, after which I couldn’t do an English accent at all) and come home smelling like grease and cleaning dirt out of my nose. (see faire boogers.) And I loved it. I loved just being at the festival, hearing the music, eating the food, gawking at the wares, meeting the people. I worked right across from one of the stages and learned all the songs (I was at a pub in Dublin and when the band played “Whiskey in the Jar” I started singing along, and the other Americans I was with were like, “How the hell do you know this?”), Ded Bob’s entire act, and could see the royal procession pass. The Festival is all the best parts of pretending to be in a pseudo-historical fantasy world.

I still love it. Only now instead of working I run around and spend money. This year, I listened to more musical acts and even picked up a few CDs, which I’ve never done before. But the music was very good. A drum and bagpipe group called Celtic Legacy did a danceable version of “Amazing Grace” that seriously kicked ass.

It’s fun seeing what’s changed in the 15 years since I worked there. One big thing: “Pirates of the Caribbean” has changed the Festival forever. There’s even a guy dressed like Captain Jack Sparrow running around, singing “A Pirate’s Life For Me” at the pirate tavern. Beowulf clothing used to have basic pants, shirts and vests (basic guy Ren Faire outfit) hanging on display out front, with fancier doublets and such tucked away inside. Now, it’s all frock coats and poet shirts out front. And then at another booth, shaped like a pirate ship, I saw this:

Can someone tell me the difference between real pirate costumes and fake pirate costumes?

The Sci Fi Channel Saturday night monster movie has become an institution. They’ve picked up the tradition of movie house creature features and run with it. They’re formulaic, they’re silly, they’re bad. But there’s just something about them. Something alluring.

Behold: Warbirds! The tagline: “Before the Allies could drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, they had to get it past the Japanese fleet…and its island of deadly pterodactyls.”

BWAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!! This is so awesome. This is better than awesome. This is like that crazy role playing game where the GM started us out in Shadowrun then shoved us through a dimensional door into Space 1889. The last Sci Fi Channel movie I was intrigued enough to actually watch: SS Doomtrooper. Because wow.

But I really wanted to see “Warbirds” because the main characters are all WASP — Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II. Stories about these women are few and far between, but they’re kinda my heroes. I even wrote a story featuring them myself. I felt obliged to give this flick a look.

For all its flaws, someone on the film did some research. The main character had a Fifinella (the WASP mascot designed by Walt Disney) patch on her flight jacket. That was cool. Also, Japanese Zeros battling giant dragons? Very very cool.

The whole making sense thing? Not so much. This aired a couple months ago now, but Sci Fi reruns these things all the time. I recommend watching with popcorn and a big bottle of merlot in hand.

So, what’s your favorite bad monster movie? Sci Fi Channel or otherwise.

I mentioned about a month ago that I was trying to grow mint. Fine folks assured me that this was easy. But I have a bit of a brown thumb, so I was skeptical. It turns out, even I can grow mint. Here’s the little fellow now:

It’s just about enough to do something with. So what do I do with my fresh mint? Some lovely sauce or marinade? Nope. Mojitos!

I might have made it a bit…strong. Hee hee. So, with my mojito in hand, I popped “Serenity” in the DVD player and relaxed for the evening. (I’ve taken to stopping the movie before the really traumatic bits.) That’s another very well plotted flick. A question for all you Browncoats: the opening classroom scene: Does anyone know if it was filmed at the Huntington Gardens in California? Because it looks just like the Lily Pond area.

Update: Lookee! I was right! Huntington Gardens is on the list of filming locations!  Don’t know why I didn’t figure that out before…

Rob is in town for a high school friend’s wedding. (Yay, Holly and Tim! For those of you keeping score, Tim here is the Tim in the dedication to “Kitty Takes a Holiday.”)

To give you an idea about Rob’s and my high school friends, these are the kinds of people who sit around playing Rock Band on the PS2 the night before the wedding. I’d never seen it before (I scoffed at Guitar Hero. Scoffed, I tell you!). But they managed to rope me into it. Here’s Rob on “guitar” and me on “drums.” We look very serious, don’t we? I found it helped to not actually listen to the music…

I’m awfully excited. My brother is coming to visit today. I haven’t seen him in a year. I’m bouncing. So, posting may be spotty the next few days during his stay.

For entertainment in the meantime, I leave you with this, via YouTube: one of my favorite classic sketches from Sesame Street.

So. I was going through some old pictures when I found this one. It’s my vampire hunter Halloween costume from 1999 or 2000. I’d forgotten all about it. But now I look at it and think, “Wow, this could be the cover of a stereotypical urban fantasy novel!” Mind you, this was a few years before the current blazing popularity of novels with such covers. As I said, ahead of my time.

I have a couple of video links for you.

Joseph Kittinger free falls from space.

A longer version, with a lot of really cool footage of the preparation and balloon ascent, but with a cheesy soundtrack.

This is my favorite story from US aerospace history. In 1960, as part of a set of tests designed to record the effects of high altitude on the human body, Air Force test pilot Joseph Kittinger rode a helium balloon to an altitude of 102,000 feet. (For reference, most commercial airplanes don’t get higher than about 40,000 ft.) That’s 20 miles up. Then, he jumped. He wanted to prove pilots and astronauts could bail out safely, using a special multi-stage parachute. This feat hasn’t gotten nearly the press as the Mercury 7 or the Apollo moon landing. In fact, not many people know about it at all. But I think Kittinger’s jump is mind-blowingly unreal. And it’s never been equaled, in almost 50 years.

I encountered the story through Craig Ryan’s book The Pre Astronauts and only found film clips of the jump later. But ooh, boy. The film is MIND BLOWING. He’s jumping. FROM SPACE. Falling at over 600 mph! He’s high enough to see the curvature of the Earth. And HE’S FALLING. According to Kittinger, he couldn’t feel himself falling. He had to look back at the balloon to realize he was moving away from it. The image of this tiny human body (captured by a remote camera in the gondola) falling against the backdrop of far distant clouds makes me catch my breath every time. The longer clip has a bit I hadn’t seen before: a little further into the fall (about the 5:18 mark), Kittinger pulls himself into a jackknife, to better control his freefall. There’s a test pilot for you.

As you might imagine, this went into my idea file, and I wrote a story, “This is the Highest Step in the World.” (It’s in an anthology called All-Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories.) I got the title from the sign placed on the door of Kittinger’s balloon gondola. You can see it in the longer video.

My favorite costume seen at Star Fest: the kid must have been about 7, and he had on a great Harry Potter Quidditch outfit in Gryffindor colors. Film perfect. But the real cast on his real broken arm made the costume. Now that’s a badass Quidditch player.

Tomorrow, April 19th, I’ll be at Starfest / Horrorfest in Denver. Woohoo! At 1 pm I’m running a panel discussing “Why are horror characters so stupid?” I’ll try not to rant about “The Blair Witch Project” too much. I’m signing from 2 -4. Which means I’ll miss Adam Baldwin on the main stage at 3. NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Convention Murphy’s Law strikes again.

This is the latest incarnation of the very first SF con I ever went to (Starcon in the fall of 1988). I always have fun here.

Other conventions I’ll be hitting this year:

Denvention, the World Science Fiction Convention, right here in Colorado! Aug 6-10

Bubonicon, in Albuquerque, Aug 22-24

Mile Hi Con, Oct 24-26, where I’ll be the Toastmaster. Toast mistress. Toast person. Yeah.

World Fantasy Convention, Oct 30-Nov 4, in Calgary.

I might add a couple of last minute dates as well, so stay tuned.