Norwescon IV – Supplemental

Here are my last cosplay pics from Norwescon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This girl won a ribbon for her costume. She is quite young. I only took the picture because her father was okay with it.

 

Torrey Stenmark fooled me again! When I took her picture earlier, I didn’t realize it was her as Padme.

Here she is with her winning ribbon.

 

So that’s it for Norwescon. I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Norwescon III – Supplemental

I’ve been delayed in doing this supplemental post because I was sick for a while, but here is the penultimate post, which is mostly cosplay.

Before we get to the costumes, I appreciate how Norwescon had the front rows of each panel session marked off for handicapped/disabled/differently abled people. Here is one of the typical signs for the seats:

If you don’t get it, ask someone who is devoted to comic books.

Okay, here we go. First we have these two friends. The sign reads: “Will debate Star Wars v. Star Trek for alcohol.”

Here are a few more costumes. Just to let you know ahead of time, a number of women protested that they had no makeup on because they had been wearing masks.  

 

 

Not to bias anyone, but this fellow was greatly praised for his Witcher costume.

 

 

 

Here is a young woman dressed as Padme. 

 

 

 

 

I had to choose from a number of poses. I just couldn’t choose between these two. 

 

My next post should have the last of the cosplay pics I took.

Norwescon II – Supplemental

I attended an interesting panel on how AI is portrayed in fiction. One of the panelists was Eva L. Elasigue, who wrote about AI and has a scientific background in botany.

 

 

In a panel on the biology of monsters, I spoke up, saying Star Trek once portrayed a silicon-based lifeform—the Horta—as opposed to carbon-based. I recounted how as a child I snuck out to the living room past my bedtime and saw the Horta incinerate a man. I ran out of the room screaming.

As I recounted this, the speakers simply stared at me without changing expression. I thought I was coming off as weird, but they were just concentrating. They went on to comment on the possibility of silicon-based life.

I had a nice conversation after the panel with Charlotte Lewis Brown, a paleontologist. I knew that either Allosaurus or Tyrannosaurs was considered barrel-chested, while the other was not. She confirmed that Allosaurus had been the one considered barrel-chested (my term, not hers). But more recently with the discovery of Tyrannosaurus collarbones, they are both considered barrel-chested.

 

Charlotte Lewis Brown has a series of books for children

 

People enjoy walking around in their costumes. Here is Victoria Schaeffer.

 

Her dress was rich in detail.

Here is another lovely dress.

 

 

Notice the masks can be chosen to match the rest of the material. 

On the theory that if a person stays in one place long enough, the whole world will pass by: I was standing on the second floor of the convention hotel lobby when I heard a woman’s voice floating up from the first floor saying she had once dressed as Captain Marvel. I went down and found Torrey Stenmark in her floor costume. (Some people have one costume for walking around on the floor, and another to show off for judging.)

 

She definitely did appear as Captain Marvel one year.

 

To make sure, I asked her if she had once been Power Girl. She had to think a moment before saying yes.

 

So I’ll see what she comes up with this year. 

Norwescon 1 – Supplemental

Norwescon is the largest science fiction and fantasy convention in the Pacific Northwest with an emphasis on writing. They capped their in-person membership at one thousand this year, less than half their usual. This was much better than last year, when it was all virtual—obviously. And it was much better for me, since I could find parking spaces at the hotel and pay the convention rate instead of the sky-high prices in the parking garages.

As usual, a Dalek was hanging around.

I assume it could exterminate its way into the parking lot.

And Iron Man could always jet in.

Cat Rambo was the Writer Guest of Honor. She has given me helpful advice in the past on writing. She actually remembered me, which was surprising.

They also started the Norwescon Speculative Film Fest, which they hope to make an annual event. They showed short films from around the globe. I stayed long enough to see one from Japan about virtual reality and one from France about something mysterious killing sheep—is it human or something else? 

Star Trek: The Next Generation—Animated!

What do you mean, you don’t remember the animated version of Star Trek: The Next Generation? Here is a snippet.

 

Doesn’t that bring back memories?

Worldcon—War Memorials

This will be the last of the Washington, DC photos from my Worldcon trip for a while. You may wonder why I’ve strung them out over time. If you are familiar with The Hobbit (the book), you might review why Gandalf introduced Bilbo and the dwarves gradually to Beorn.

Here is the World War II Memorial for the war in the Atlantic.

You can get a feel for the scale of it by seeing the pedestrians near the curved wall.

Here is the memorial for the war in the Pacific.

When I was on my way back from the Jefferson Memorial, my driver took a detour near the Lincoln Memorial. On the way out, I saw figures for what I recognized as the Korean War Memorial, so I planned to visit there.

While approaching, it became obvious how lifelike the statues were.

Immense research was put into getting the soldiers’ garb correct.

Remember that much of the war was fought under extremely cold conditions.

Here are the statues for the Vietnam War Memorial. They startled me with their realism.

As many of you know, the Vietnam War Memorial is in the form of a gigantic black V. Here is one side of one branch of the V.

 

The people in the center are a camera crew setting up. They interviewed a couple of elderly men who were obviously veterans. I kept a respectful distance.

This is a different shot, including the Vietnam War Memorial and the Washington Monument in the distance.

 

I don’t take many selfies. But here is one, to show I was really there.

Kind of a Review—Death on the Nile

I don't know if I can recommend Death on the Nile. It's a sumptuous movie with beautiful people wearing beautiful clothing in beautiful locations. They were able to film at the location portrayed on the cover of the book by Agatha Christie, Abu Simbel. (But when they show the characters walking between the sculptures or climbing behind them, it may be clever digital compositing.)

 

Gal Gadot looks fantastic in any movie she's in, and there is a standout scene of her as Linnet Doyle walking much of the length of the Karnak, obviously recorded by a drone just outside the ship and keeping pace with her. (The director, Kenneth Branagh, definitely knows how to play around with drones.) There is a similar scene with Branagh as Poirot pacing around on the deck towards the end of the movie, probably also done with a drone. And there are unusual closeups of the pyramids, also probably by drone. 

 

Having said all that, the movie is strikingly different from the book. (I haven't read the book, but I saw the 2004 version with David Suchet, which is supposed to be very accurate.) This new version made significant changes to the plot and the characters, even changing one of the murder victims! 

 

If you really love the book or the 2004 version, you may be puzzled or even disappointed. If you do not care about that, you might enjoy it. However, you will have to click below for my note of caution.

 

Worldcon—Supreme Court, Capitol, and Washington Monument

As I mentioned before, my itinerary for Washington, D.C. was a little different. One of the top two sites I wanted to visit was the Library of Congress. But the top site I wanted to visit was the Supreme Court of the United States!

If you don’t know why this third branch of government has been so important in the past few years, and what is going to happen in the next few months, maybe you should watch some news.

To get some perspective on how large the statues up front are, notice the black railing in back of one. It is waist height. That’s right, they are much bigger than life size.

Here is the statue on the right, looking at the court.

I know there is a lot of symbolism here, but I don’t know how to interpret it.

The one on the left also has a mini-statue.

I wasn’t there at a time when I could get in, but a friend who does tours says the inner chamber looks like a church, complete with wooden pews.

Here are the bronze doors at the front of the Supreme Court.

I was surprised the Supreme Court was across the street from the Capitol, where Congress meets. The back of it faces the Supreme Court.

As usual, I’m not satisfied with the typical tourist shot. Here is a forced perspective view of it.

Trying to get a nice angle, I ended up walking around the whole building. It is gigantic, and I tired myself from the huge walk. I told this to Cass Morris during the Kaffeeklatsch at Worldcon, and she said that on some occasion she decided to just walk up to the Capitol from some other site. She misjudged the distance because she didn’t know how large it was, and ended up doing quite a hike!

                                                          

Now here’s the Washington Monument, across the Tidal Bay on a sunny day.

I visited it on a less sunny day. You know by now I like unusual perspectives. Here it is when I stood three feet away from the base.