Mark L. Van Name's Blog, page 50

On the off chance that I'm not the last person in the world

to see this video, I just have to share the wonderful Christopher Walken dancing to Fatboy Slim's music.

Stay all the way, because it gets weirder (and better) as it goes.



I'm a longtime fan of Walken's work, so I'm both surprised and embarrassed that I'd never before seen this video.

Signs of my age for which I refuse to apologize

I prefer physical books to ebooks.

I want to own my media--CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, physical books, if it's a source of media, I want to own it, not rely on some company letting me rent it or stream it.

For movies, the bigger the screen, the better.  Yes, I can watch films on my phone, but I'd rather sit in front of my enormous TV.

For audio, quality counts.  I do rip music I own, but always to a lossless format (typically, WAV).  I use high-end headphones and high-end speakers.  I care how my music and my films sound.

For video, quality counts.  I have a 4K TV and look forward to more 4K content.  I love high resolution.

I have nothing against people who make other choices, but many of them do seem almost religiously determined to convert me away from physical media and my obsession with quality.

Good luck with that.

What bothers you the most about this ad?

I saw it at a gas station complex on the drive back from DragonCon yesterday.

Click the image to see a larger version.
You can certainly make a strong case that the world does not need a maple bacon milkshake, but I would argue that until we try one, we cannot be sure.

You could also argue with conviction that companies do not have to alter every word to include their brand and thus that "milkshake" would have served better than the lamentable "Quikshake."

For me, though, the most annoying aspect of the entire ad is the fact that some marketing genius decided that the word "bacon" just wasn't sexy enough, so, hey, why don't we drop the "o" and put in an apostrophe?  Apostrophe abuse is already rampant in America; must we now add to the problem with constructions that save almost no space?

No, I say.  No.

For those who know me well enough to wonder, no, I did not try it.  Yes, I admit to being tempted, because, hey, maple and bacon and milkshake, but, no, I did not sample this particular concoction.

Home

Getting out of the hotel was tricky.  Getting out of Atlanta was annoying.  Getting out of Charlotte's rush-hour traffic was nearly disastrous, as we came as close to being involved in an eight-car accident as I've ever been.  Yet, our car escaped untouched, and we were shaken but fine, so in the end I can't complain.

The energy and enthusiasm of the tens of thousands of DragonCon attendees is a refreshing reminder of the joy that fans of all aspects of the sf/fantasy genre share.

More quick hits from another DragonCon day

I awoke unreasonably early on a Sunday morning for a fun brunch at PittyPat's Porch, courtesy of Publisher Toni.  Quite a few Baen writers and staffers ate, talked, and generally had a good time.

After a second tour of the art show, I ultimately decided not to buy any art.  Half a dozen pieces nearly persuaded me to bring them home, but none of them succeeded.

I next toured two more floors of dealers' rooms.  One even contained an arcade area.


I enjoyed one quick game at a Ms. PacMan machine.

Next up was a signing at the booth of The Missing Volume, run by the redoubtable Glennis LeBlanc.  To my happy surprise I signed some books, sold a few, and had some pleasant conversations with fans of the Jon & Lobo series.

After work and rest, dinner took me to Kevin Gillespie's new, second restaurant, Revival, in Decatur.  Wow, is it good!  It and Gunshow are the best of all the Atlanta area restaurants I've tried.

We opted for the family-style dinner, in which each person selects an entree and everyone at the table shares an appetizer and sides.  If you want to know how good Gillespie's chefs are, consider that the salad course was kale, which I despise.


Here's that plate after we finished.


Yes, I had seconds of kale salad!  They used grape seed oil as a dressing, put bits of asiago cheese on top, and included four small peach slices.  Wow, was it good!

The crowds in the Hyatt lobby were smaller than last night's, but the people watching there was still decent.


Over at the Marriott, the crowds were more intense, as usual, but not as huge as last night's.


Tomorrow, I head home.

A few DragonCon Saturday snippets

Toured the art show today.  Multiple pieces tempted me, but I'm not sure any will end up going home with me.  Tomorrow will tell that tale.

Ate a reasonably healthy Mediterranean lunch at the nearby Aviva by Kameel.  Long lines, but that's true everywhere near the con hotels.

Attended the Baen Traveling Road Show.  It's always fun, and it was today.  I learned there that my friend, David Drake, had won Baen's readers' award for the best military SF story for "Save What You Can," his Hammer's Slammers story in Onward, Drake!  As the one who commissioned that story, I was quite happy to hear the news.  Well done, Dave!

Dinner took me back to Gunshow for another excellent meal, with dessert afterward at a nearby Jeni's.  Great food all around.

Tonight's people-watching was both the best and the most intense yet.  The Hyatt lobby was tough to navigate and full of spectacle.


The Marriott lobby was even more crowded than last night and featured an amazing assortment of people in costumes--as well as hundreds and hundreds just socializing and looking.


Tomorrow, a publisher brunch, a signing, and time in the art show and dealers' rooms!

Barbecue and dealers and sushi, oh my

I suppose I should consider it a sign of age or failure that one of the good things about this con is that I'm sleeping at least eight hours a night, but I don't see it that way.  I normally sleep so little that I'm quite happy whenever I get to catch up on my rest.

I should also consider it a failure that I'm working multiple hours each day when I had planned to be offline, but again, I don't see it that way.  I'm working way less than usual, and I'm choosing to do the work, so I'm mostly okay with it.

For lunch today, I headed to a local barbecue institution, Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q.  I enjoyed everything I tried, but honesty compels me to report that the brisket wasn't even in the vicinity of Texas brisket, and the pulled pork simply wasn't up to North Carolina standards.  The food was tasty, but it didn't meet those benchmarks.

The most fun dish I sampled was the Frito pie, which they served the traditional way:  in the Frito bag.

Click an image to see a larger version.
The chili was a little too heavy with tomatoes and a bit too sweet for my taste, but it was still quite good.

After lunch and some work, I wandered through the first of the multiple floors of dealers' rooms.  The sheer variety of merchandise on offer is stunning.  Books are definitely a minority, but you can find them, as well as comics, clothing, anime, posters, weapons--you name it, and if it's related to science fiction or fantasy, it's here.

Dinner was a delicious mix of sushi and an amazing piece of Kobe ribeye steak at Tomo.


Every single bite I tasted was at least very good, and many were better than that.  I recommend this one and wish I could make it back for their omakase menu; alas, I cannot.

The people watching tonight predictably was the best yet.  The Hyatt's lobby was hopping.


The Marriott's was, as always, even busier and more full of amazing costumes of more types than I could count.


The energy and enthusiasm of the fans here is so much greater than what I experience at more traditional SF cons that the cons I normally attend look almost dead by comparison.  I do not worry about the future of our genre, but I do fear for the end of the cons I grew up loving.

DragonCon starts roaring

The con really doesn't crank up until tomorrow, but you couldn't have told that from the crowds tonight in the lobby of the Hyatt


and the Marriott.


The costumes here make for wonderful people watching.  I love that all the folks I've encountered are completely accepting of the many and varied passions of the people around them.

Cakes & Ale has topped a few past "best of" lists for Atlanta, and it's almost always in the top ten of such lists, so I had to give it a try.  I'm sorry to say that the food was underwhelming given all the praise the place has garnered.  The dishes I sampled were tasty but never excellent; the worst dish from last night's Gunshow dinner was better than the best one I tried tonight.  Cakes & Ales is a good enough place to visit, but for my taste it is nowhere near Gunshow.

DragonCon warm-up

The drive to Atlanta proceeded largely uneventfully, for which I was grateful.  The only exception was the usual terrible traffic that hit about ten miles from the hotel, but I've come to expect that.

Dinner was another wonderful meal at Kevin Gillespie's great restaurant, Gunshow.  All the dishes we shared were very good, but two were particularly delicious.  The first combined housemade pasta they infused with saffron and lemon, a sauce made from fish stock and uni, and both heirloom tomatoes and local butter beans.

Click an image to see a larger version.
Wow, was it good (and way smaller than the picture makes it appear: almost all the dishes are the size of traditional appetizers).

The other standout was a dish that mixed Thai peanut sauces and various vegetables and peppers with Kobe beef tartare.


The peanut sauce base meshed perfectly with the meat.  I was amazed at how good the combination was.

I took a late-evening stroll from my hotel down to the Hyatt and Marriott.  Though the con hasn't officially started yet, hundreds of people were already filling the Marriott lobby, chatting and modeling their costumes and having a great time.


The most popular costume by my count was, to no one's surprise, Harley Quinn.

Tomorrow, I expect a much bigger crowd.

I'm heading in the morning to DragonCon

Entirely too early tomorrow morning--in the single digits, in point of fact--I will get in a car bound for Atlanta and DragonCon, the biggest con I regularly attend.  I'm hoping to chat with a lot of folks, see some cool stuff, and have some fun--and some great food in Atlanta.

If you're going to be at the con, the easiest way to find me is to come to the Baen Traveling Road Show on Saturday.

I'm hoping for hotel bandwidth good enough to let me upload pics, but with a con this large, you never know.