Quack!

[randy_byers]

Yesterday was a good day. I wrote my little book review, then finished editing the lettercol for Chunga. It's chock full of great stuff, thanks to the many lovely people who wrote to us this time. Andy's theater piece brought everybody's theatrical memories out of mothballs. Then I wrote the Curt Phillips and Corflu Fifty publicity, which seemed to go down very well. I was supposed to write it last weekend, but, well, yeah. A shark ate it.

What was next on the list? "Worldcon supporting mems." Ah. Printed out the membership form for Anticipation in Montreal. $55 for a supporting membership? Ouch! Somehow I had it in mind that it would be $40. Well, if I attend it will be $210, so what the hell. Then I looked at the Australia in 2010 website, and it appears they aren't selling memberships at the moment. Is that strange, or is that the way it usually is in the immediate aftermath of winning a bid?

Got out and busted sod in the front yard for an hour. Still have a long way to go on that project. Decided I had been productive enough for the day, so I watched another Fox Technicolor musical, That Night in Rio (1941). This is the fourth of them I've watched, all with Carmen Miranda. This one was surprisingly close in tone to an Ernst Lubitsch pre-Code film in its joking about adultery. As the rake says when asked why he doesn't get married, "If I can't be happy with other men's wives, how could I be happy with one of my own?" I was really surprised that the Hays Office let the sacred institution of marriage be treated so lightly. Anyway, I find myself really enjoying these Fox confections, which is also surprising. The colors are just gorgeous, for one thing.

After all that was the grand finale: University of Oregon vs. University of Washington in college football. One of the great rivalries on the West Coast, with real animus between the two teams. Part of it, as a lifelong UO fan, is that the Huskies always beat us like a gong as I was growing up. They have the lead in the series by over twenty games. But the Ducks had won the last four in a row, and they had never won five in a row in the series ... until last night. The first half was tight, as both teams struggled with jitters and inexperience, but in the second half the Duckies laid the hammer down and pulled away to win 44-10. Very, very satisfying to my inner child. I'm tempted to wear my UO cap to work on Tuesday, but I'd probably be run out of town on a rail.

Today I'm brewing beer with jackwilliambell. At least if the weather cooperates. Brewing in the rain? I guess it would be appropriate in Seattle.

Comments

Australia in 2010

[fishlifter.livejournal.com]

Are you perhaps still looking at the bid website?

Try here and related links: http://www.aussiecon4.org.au/index.php?pageNum=1&subNav=1&pageID=mem

Re: Australia in 2010

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

$40 supporting memberships seem to have gone the way of the dodo. One of the main reasons for this is due to the conversion restriction -- Worldcons can't charge more than 2x the advance supporting membership ("voting fee") charged for their election for people who voted to convert their memberships to attending. They also can't charge less for new supporting memberships than they charged as their voting fee. Consequently, in order to keep their flexibility to charge what they consider a safe amount for their initial attending memberships, bids have been pushing the voting fee up in recent years.

Also, you're seeing the effect of exchange rate differences. Anticipation will have to pay most of its expenses in Canadian dollars, but will get most of its income in American dollars. In recent years, a USD was worth up to CAD1.20, but now the rates are close to parity, which means that USD rates have to increase in order to get a Canadian Worldcon the same revenue as before.

Regarding Aussiecon 4: Their membership page lists rates. There's a membership form page, or you can use PayPal. I presume you didn't realize they'd set up a new site for the Worldcon itself because they haven't put a link from the bid site saying "we won! now go here!" to the convention site. I've never seen a Worldcon not be immediately selling memberships as soon as they win. (They will sometimes shut down advance sales a few days before the convention, but that's all.)

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Kevin. I was looking at the old site for Aussiecon 4, which was what came up first on Google. Damn these confusing intertubes! (Couldn't be user error, of course.)

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

By the way, does Anticipation have a PayPal option that I'm not seeing?

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Alas, no, not yet. Yes, they know they need it. There is some issue the details of which I'm not privy to holding things up. One of the co-Chairs said "soon" when questioned about it at the Business Meeting, but gave no other details.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Not a big deal, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking it.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

You need to write the lyrics for the song, "Brewing in the rain." "What a glorious feeling / I'm sozzled again"

I could never take very seriously a team that calls itself the Ducks. Of course, Dawgs isn't much better.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

That's the Fighting Ducks to you, mate.

Um, yeah. But not quite as good as whichever school it is (in California?) who call themselves the Banana Slugs.

[mrhedgehog.livejournal.com]

So, are you going to Montreal?

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

It's not for sure for sure, but I really want to. And with Sharee saying she wants to go too, the chances go even higher. Did you go to Denver?

[mrhedgehog.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was there. You were missed.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm sorry I missed it too. I wanted to go, but somehow I just never got sufficiently motivated to follow through. But I've always wanted to see Montreal.