Virtual panelist at Glasgow 2024 WorldCon!

 I'll be a virtual panelist on two hybrid discussions at #Glasgow2024 ! Both are on Saturday, Aug. 10.

"30th Anniversary of Stargate" 17:30 BST, 12:30 EDT
with Eric Choi (moderator), Inge Heyer, and Barry Tilton, who will all be there in person.
"Ancient Egypt with Aliens! It's been 30 years since the Stargate movie launched a franchise on to the world. Our panellists discuss the influence of the film and the franchise and how it may have impacted the wider SFF landscape."

"The Conclusion of the Retro Hugo Era"  19:00 BST, 14:00 EDT
with David E. Hook (moderator), Cora Buhlert, Mark Plummer, and Perianne Lurie, who will all be there in person.
"The Retro Hugo Awards, a tradition where Worldcons retrospectively awarded prizes for years prior to the establishment of the Hugo Awards, have had both avid supporters and vocal critics. The last two Worldcons eligible to grant Retro Hugos opted not to do so, and Glasgow is following suit. Does this signify the demise of the Retro Hugos? And if so, is this necessarily detrimental?"

I have not been greatly impressed by hybrid panels at other conventions -- even without technical difficulties, the virtual panelists tend to get short shrift. I am hoping the Glasgow organizers can make it work better than I've experienced before.

This year, Glasgow's programming lists 34 online-only events and 301 total events that have online components (online only, hybrid panels, or just events that will be streamed, with Discord discussion channels).The price for an online membership is less than in-person membership, but still significantly greater than a mere supporting membership (the level required for voting for Hugo Awards, and getting the Hugo Voters packet). I know that a lot of people have been working very hard to make this con a success, and I hope that after it's over, the virtual members will feel that they got their money's worth.
To find out more, visit https://glasgow2024.org/ 

Anyway, it's an honor to be selected for two panels. I know of at least one Hugo finalist who was only selected for two panels, and I'm not even nominated for any group awards this year.

UPDATE 8/19/2024:
I was very pleased with how both my events went. It was slightly irritating that I couldn't see the other Stargate panelists, but after a little struggling with technology, I could hear them, and they could both see and hear me. The tech went fine for the Retros panel.
More importantly, the moderators for both events were mindful of my presence, including me in question rounds and discussions. I've certainly seen hybrid panels in the past where the remote participant was treated as a mere afterthought.
Also, as a frequent Twitch stream guest, I was able to keep an eye on the Discord chat for each event while being a panelist, occasionally commenting in those channel discussions. One person even said how thrilled they were that a panelist was participating in the chat, so I gather that was unfortunately rare.

UPDATE 9/23/24:
Dave Hook, who was on several panels with me at ChiCon 2022 and who chaired "The Conclusion of the Retro Hugo Era" panel this year, wrote up the panel here. As he stated, there were some good arguments for and against the Retros, but the day after the panel, the WorldCon Business meeting voted to end the Retro Hugos, with Seattle's biz meeting in 2025 expected to ratify that decision. Dave has written to Seattle WorldCon people to suggest that they could still run Retro Hugos in 2025, before the ratification; alternatively, he suggested that they could run a Retro track of panels (without awards), like ChiCon did.
I look forward to hearing what comes of these suggestions.

Audio/Video/Gaming Roundup, 2024 Part 2

Scroll down this post for the most recent updates (latest is 12/12). For roundups of the first half of 2024 and my 2023 activities in podcasting, gaming, videos, etc., please see here, here and here. Activities from before then are listed further back in my blog.

AUDIO:
The Stargate SG-Fun podcast I do with David Schaub and Andrew Pontious has cleared its backlog with the publication on July 21 of our 15th episode. That means I have to watch 4 S3 episodes before we record again on Saturday!
https://sgfun.space/threading-the-needle-with-a-hammer/

AUDIO/VIDEO:

The Skiffy and Fanty Mining the Genre Asteroid discussion between me and Paul Weimer of Suzy McKee Charnas' Walk to the End of the World (https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2136600063) was released as Skiffy and Fanty podcast #776:
https://ia600401.us.archive.org/34/items/sand-f-776-charnas/SandF_776_Charnas.mp3
Also, here's the YouTube video, which came out in June:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xBPZ7zU9dU

June 21: I streamed/recorded Skiffy and Fanty Mining the Genre Asteroid: Diadem from the Stars (see 9/23 update) with Shaun Duke and Paul Weimer.
June 28: I streamed/recorded Skiffy and Fanty Torture Cinema: From Hell It Came with Shaun Duke and David Annandale.
(Update 12/12/24: video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg0gYZ9pVV0
podcast: https://skiffyandfanty.com/podcasts/787fromhellitcame/ )
July 26 I streamed/recorded Skiffy and Fanty Torture Cinema discussion on Demolition Man (see 8/19 update)

GAMING:
June 29: Ninefox Gambit one-shot, run by Andrew Pontious!
July 4: Private Delta Green: Last Things Last
July 10: Private RPG: The Cawdor Complex (stranded time-travelers make dinosaurs into partners)
July 28: Private Call of Cthulhu game: Swamp Song, Part 1. This is the first time I ever built a character on Foundry VTT. Part 2 is on Aug. 4. UPDATE: My character, Eulalia, survived and didn't even lose a lot of sanity!

UPDATE 8/19/24:
AUDIO:
August 4: Skiffy and Fanty 784. Demolition Man (1993) — Torture Cinema #144, with Shaun Duke, Julia Rios, and me. https://skiffyandfanty.com/podcasts/784demolitionman/ and 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka9ggrCSJGY&t=1s

This Saturday, Aug. 17, I recorded another Stargate SG-Fun podcast, discussing some more SG-1 S3 episodes, so that should be out in a week or so. https://sgfun.space/

GAMING: August 16: Private Call of Cthulhu game, part 1 of 3, with keeper Morpheus. I'm playing Carson Webber III, a self-made millionaire, a Patreon of the Debunker Bunker, which is sort of like Mythbusters. They've created a mysterious machine and invited me and a select few others to witness its activation.

UPDATE 9/3/24:
GAMING: Aug. 23: Finished the Call of Cthulhu Inversion game. This 3-session adventure went on a bit long for me; there were six players so it took forever to go through people's actions, round by round. Interesting stuff happened, but stretched over too much time. 

AUDIO/VIDEO: On Friday, Aug. 30, I streamed on Skiffy and Fanty for what will be Torture Cinema #145, discussing Space Camp (1986). There will be a podcast and a YouTube video. Spoiler: I haaaated Kate Capshaw's character, Andie.

On Saturday, Aug. 31, I participated in a discussion about H.G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau. Very wide-ranging, interesting and cordial! On The Good Friends of Jackson Elias Discord.

UPCOMING: I'll be playing a Call of Cthulhu one-shot tonight, set in the 1920s at Mammoth Cave, Ky. My pregen is a Dilettante archetype. On Thursday afternoon (9/5), I'll finally get to play Jason Thompson's Dreamlands RPG, on his Discord channel. And on Friday (9/6), I'll be on Shaun Duke's channel, streaming and recording about the 2024 Hugo awards, finalists and longlist.

UPDATE 9/23/24:
I enjoyed the Dreamlands game, which ended up being postponed to 9/12.
The Hugo Awards discussion was also postponed, and I'll post a link here once the YouTube and podcast are up.
Skiffy and Fanty posted the Mining the Genre Asteroid episode where Shaun Duke, Paul Weimer and I discuss Jo Clayton's Diadem from the Stars. My take: This had some interesting stuff, but the series got much better later. The show is available on YouTube and as a podcast.

UPDATE 11/16/24:
Oh my, it's been a while! Arvan Eleron held his Arvathon mini-marathon seeking new subscriptions on Aug. 20 and 21, but since this was basically him playing a video role-playing game for 6 and 12 hours, I didn't have to organize anything; I just moderated and participated in the flash fiction Infernal Salon.
AUDIO/VIDEO:
On Oct. 11 I discussed "The Mummy" (1999) plus "The Mummy" (1932) and "The Mummy" (1959) with Shaun Duke and David Annandale for Skiffy and Fanty's Totally Pretentious subcast. I love the 1999 version, of course, but I was joyfully surprised by how good the 1932 version was. The heroine was temporarily possessed by a revived spirit, but she ended up effectively saving herself by praying to Isis. It was incredibly satisfying! Neither the video nor the podcast of our discussion has been released yet, but the Twitch stream is here.
GAMING:
On Oct. 31, Halloween, I played a private game on Discord, run by Groundhoggoth (but he also played) and joined by one other player. Foretold: In Its Shadow is a prompt-based, cooperatively told narrative-driven game. The public goal was to defeat a monster, but the players also each had their own agendas. I played Celia, "whose lover was a victim of the Beast and had come to Herb to get his professional assistance in building a trap for the killer she believed was something inhuman." Celia blamed Herb for not helping her in time to save her lover. The other player acted as Lee, a Hunter with their own TV show, but ended up being a mole for the Beast. Herb used himself as bait to immobilize the Beast mid-transfer, and Celia killed them both (with Lee left catatonic). Celia fled to escape the police (and loan sharks). It was great fun playing off each other.
On Nov. 11, I began a new campaign GMed by Groundhoggoth, run on The Good Friends of Jackson Elias server on Discord. Thunderchild is set a month or so after H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. This was a Session Zero for world-setting plus character creation and development. All the players are working at a project called Thunderchild that focuses on studying alien tech and ways to defeat the Martians if they come back. But we all have our own agendas, too! I'm playing Iris Worthington, the daughter and sister of industrialists, ordered by Papa and Ronny to steal some secrets for Worthington Chemical Corp., but I'm also a suffragette (secretly, a really RADICAL suffragist). One player is a journalist who's secretly working for the Diogenes Club, and another is openly secret service but secretly an anarcho-communist; the last player is a distant heir to the throne who wants to be a lot closer to the throne.
On Nov. 15, I played another private Discord game on Groundhoggoth's server: Down the Witches Road. Taking inspiration from the recently finished Marvel show "Agatha All Along" for thematics, it used the Blood & Water system but G took care of the GM details; all we had to do was make cases for advantages (or disadvantages) and roll a d6. This was possibly the best oneshot I've ever played for cooperative play and yes-and-ing each other, building off each other's suggestions. I and the other 3 players all had different powers/specialties. I was a witch who'd had a great secret stolen from her, and had trouble hanging on to apprentices; it turned out that the secret had been stolen by my first apprentice, so I was self-sabotaging all the apprenticeships that followed. Groundhoggoth said later that it was one of those sessions that was just on fire. We all had a great time!

UPDATE 12/12/24:
GAMING: I've played two more sessions of Thunderchild and am having a great time with it! I continue to be really pleased with the yes-and cooperative storytelling that everyone is bringing to this game.
AUDIO/VIDEO: 
On Sept. 24, Skiffy and Fanty released the video (https://youtu.be/R28Cx3NWASU?si=OgzIAgJ2Qh2FlCka) and podcast (https://skiffyandfanty.com/podcasts/786edenroyce/) of a Skiffy and Fanty interview with Eden Royce, focusing on her newly released YA book, The Creepening of Dogwood House.
On Nov. 22, Shaun Duke and I interviewed K.B. Wagers about her new book, And the Mighty Will Fall, billed as a stand-alone in her Near Earth Orbit Guard (NeoG) series, on Shaun's Twitch stream, for Skiffy and Fanty. The Twitch stream is here, for now: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2308665562 and I'll post links whenever the podcast and YouTube video are posted.
On Dec. 1, Skiffy and Fanty released the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_08FRbB99-Q) and podcast (https://skiffyandfanty.com/podcasts/788adapalmer/) of a Skiffy and Fanty SF at School interview about the broad topic of The Renaissance that Shaun Duke and I had done with historian/author Ada Palmer.
On Dec. 9, Skiffy and Fanty released the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2w1iZJYSwY) and podcast (https://skiffyandfanty.com/podcasts/791loveaftertheend/) of a Reading Rangers review/discussion of Love After the End, edited by Joshua Whitehead, between Daniel Haeusser and myself.

On Dec. 9, I participated in a Skiffy and Fanty discussion on Shaun Duke's Alphabetstreams Twitch channel, about the most iconic SFF of the 21st century, following posts on Reactor.com and other genre sites about that topic. This will eventually be released as a Patreon-exclusive Speculative Dispatch podcast.
On Dec. 13, at 8 p.m. EST, I'll participate in a discussion about Leigh Brackett's The Long Tomorrow on Shaun Duke's channel, https://twitch.tv/alphabetstreams, for Skiffy and Fanty.