Rob Callahan's Blog, page 5

Weekend Schedule

I'm at Arcana 41 this weekend. Yeah. Forty-One. It's actually a little hard for me to envision cons that were going on before I was born. I know there are a few. MiniCon, which was the only annual con I really knew about as a kid, was going on when my parents were kids. But I digress…

On Saturday, I'm doing:

Monster Culture (2:00-2:55 p.m., Mainstage) Universal and RKO classics on Shock Theater; Famous Monsters of Filmland; Aurora Monster models; AIP, Hammer, and Toho Studios; The Munsters and The Addams Family; "The Monster Mash"—what it was like Growing up Monster. Eric M. Heideman, mod.; Pam Keesey, Greg Ketter, Roy C. Booth, Rob Callahan

And on Sunday:

Splatterpunk vs. Traditional Horror Fiction (11:00-11:55 a.m., Mainstage) What are the merits and demerits of splatterpunk compared to more traditional horror/dark fantasy fare? And beyond the splatterpunk movement, what are the pluses and minuses of gore in general in horror fiction? Brian K. Perry, mod.; Greg Ketter, Rob Callahan

Apocalypse (and Post-Apocalypse) in Fact, Folklore, Fiction, and Film (Noon-12:55 p.m., Mainstage) With the world's end due again on 12/21/12, it seems like a good time to survey imaginative portrayals of the end of the world (as we know it). We'll also include a bit of post-apocalyptic fiction and film, and religious end of the world scenarios (the rapture, the Book of Revelation, Norse mythology), and the Apocalypse in today's political/cultural discourse. Rob Callahan, mod.; Pam Keesey, Greg Ketter, Edward E. Rom

After the con, I schlep over to Bryant Lake Bowl in Uptown, where I'll join my comrades the Rockstar Storytellers at 7pm for our Annual Scary Halloween-type show: Tellraiser (A Nightmare on Lake Street)

Then it'll be back home for the week, where I'll wrangle performers and polish the rough edges out of the first Live presentation of Nightmare Fuel - A Musical Storytelling Phantasmagoria. Once that's done, I'm going to start pitching another ongoing project.

Perception is Everything

When I show up at a literary event in anything shy of an Edwardian gentleman's eveningwear, people get upset. This morning, I'm sitting in a day labor office in old jeans, a coat I've sewn back together half a dozen times and a sweater I bought five years ago. People here think I'm dressed up.

So I'm guessing that, even among the generally broke and frugal artist set here in the city, there's an inflated sense of fashion's importance in daily life. And yes, I realize that this is an unusual stance for a fashion writer to take.