I.A.M. Musing About…

Merely because one is a penniless, debt-ridden, depressive, ex-actor struggling to get a publishing venture off the ground with little capital to back up one’s efforts doesn’t mean that one cannot have the wherewithal to venture onto the World Stage and attend an historic event in the United Kingdom! No no! Which is exactly why I’m attending World HorrorCon 2010 in Brighton; the 20^th time it’s been held, but the first time a World HorrorCon has been held off the North American continent! The following weekend, I’ll be at EasterCon: Odyssey 2010, the annual Science Fiction event for the UK, which is being held in Hayes, Middlesex… or “Heathrow” as most call it. Both events will see me standing behind a Dealers’ Table promoting my wares: four different, brand-new books from Atomic Fez!

How is all this possible, given the previous mention of my penurious state? It’s quite simple: VISA, and a loving, supportive wife.

Why this is being trumpeted here and not in a post on the Atomic Fez site is because much of this trip’s musings will have little to do with the books themselves, ‘Official Statements’, or the like. Yes, declarations of successful events engaged in at World HorrorCon – such as pitch sessions or panel discussions, for instance – will be found there, for it is appropriate for them to be there. On the other hand, statements such as my father’s question last autumn “why does every breakfast involve baked beans here?” or my own surprise that “not only can I wander anywhere around the hotel carrying a pint, people don’t understand my surprise that it’s allowed even after I explain about BC liquor laws” aren’t really something that has anything to do with the book trade. Some might suggest that alcohol of any sort has a great deal to do with the book trade, but that’s another matter entirely.

The trip involves me being there from the 23^rd of March to the 8^th of April, during which I check into hotels on a total of five different occasions. Granted, occasions number three and five involve the same hotel, but there’s still the ‘registration and settling’ period which takes a period of time to accomplish. Hardly much of a help, then.

There are a few things I’ve planned to accomplish while there, but most of the ‘big goals’ were accomplished last time London was viewed. That said, there are things to be done:

• the other 95% of the British Museum which wasn’t seen due to over-dosing on the Enlightenment Gallery
  • especially important is seeing The Staffordshire Hoard display
• the other 66% of the National Gallery and all of the National Portrait Gallery that were missed last time
• possibly chunks of The Tate Modern as only the Turbine Hall was viewed in the autumn of 2008
• it might be good to see Piccadilly Circus / the Houses of Parliament / Hyde Park / the Lloyd’s Building (at night this time) in order to say one had done so
• if there’s some sort of exciting music gig I might check it out, but the following being held at Royal Albert Hall are unlikely to be seen:
  • The Who, performing Quadrophenia and other ‘classic rock’, mostly due to it being sold out and more expensive than can be comprehensible
  • The Specials, re-formed – unless you listen to Jerry Dammers – and on their 30^th Anniversary tour, because the tickets are £35 and up, plus it just doesn’t seem the right venue to be listening to those up-beat, 2-tone, dance-happy Ska-legends, really, does it…?
• Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club doesn’t have anything exciting scheduled even, which is a shame.
• there are a few pubs which haven’t been seen yet… for their historical merit, obviously.

Mostly, however, the principle thing I want to do during the few ‘off days’ while there is exercise my skills as a flâneur, do things as the mood strikes, and see what happens by chance. This is probably the best attitude to have during any travel, but one of the Major World Cities it’s easy to make lists of THINGS ONE MUST SEE WHETHER YOU HAVE TIME TO APPRECIATE THEM OR NOT. Understandable, yet not something enjoyable in the end, as all one ends up with is a piece of paper with check-marks and little memory of the things they’re marking have been accomplished.

As most of the time will be spent endlessly standing in a large, airless hotel convention room encouraging people to part with their cash in return for books, the few occasions one can do something ‘fun’ oughtn’t to be filled with too much work or ‘expected results within the following time frame’. So it won’t.

It’s certainly hoped that this is the beginning of actually making something of myself as a ‘real adult’. As I’ll be hitting 44-years-of-age the same day of the return flight, that may seem an odd statement, but it’s not. To be this old, yet never having been particularly successful in any of one’s previously chosen professions, and now be seemingly un-able to hold down ‘a real job’ (owing to varying levels of ability on a day-to-day basis), as well as equally relying on one’s partner for supporting oneself… well, it makes one rather sad, even if one wasn’t dealing with chronic and clinically diagnosed depression.

Given the amount of time one has left, plus the amount of money and time spent leading to this particular campaign of accomplishment, there’s a lot riding on this. Good or bad, it’s all up to me.

Having proved last week that we don’t have winter, and our Spring is both incredible, as well as just as incredibly unpredictable as anywhere else in the world, let us reaffirm the stereotype that Canada is nought but wind-swept tundra with today’s photos, preceded by a topical quotation from A.E. Housman [1859 – 1936]:

About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow

–“A Shropshire Lad” [1896]; Nº2, st. iii

I wonder what the people in the Canadian Maritimes are doing right now…? Probably giggling at us, I suspect.

Having proved last month during the Winter Olympics that February around here is as unpredictable as anywhere else in the world (Calgary also had to truck-in snow in 1988), let us put to rest the stereotype that Canada is nought but wind-swept tundra with today’s photos, preceded by a topical quotation from the Bard of Avon:

Daffodils
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty.

–“The Winter’s Tale” [1610 – 1611]; Act IV, sc iii, 118

I wonder what the people in the Canadian Maritimes are doing right now…?

Many of you reading this have suddenly encountered far more information about Vancouver than you’ve previously had available, and have heard all sorts of things that never cropped up here (due to my somewhat ‘unique’ viewpoint and particular passions shaping the contents thereof). The Winter Olympics have opened officially last night, proving once and for all that Canada has more than Mounties and Inuit making up the cultural mosaic.

Yes, we have fiddlers with wild tatto’oing and kids who can fly over fields of grain… but we have no snow, at least not here in Vancouver, which is why the Men’s Alpine Ski Competition has been postponed (they’re shipping snow from 150 miles away to several venues using dump trucks… no, honestly, they literally are doing that very thing).

Anyway, I may feel that building a transit corridor, re-building a highway, and constructing a convention centre collectively costing well over three billion dollars (for those of you in the UK, that’s $3,000 million, not $3 million million; the Canadian dollar hasn’t fallen that badly), yet the government responsible refusing to count the work required for the bid to be accepted as an Olympic Expense – all the while slashing arts, health, education, and community works funding, claiming “there’s no money” when asked for justification – is not only absurd but inhumane. I may resent the current PM, BC Premier, and a host of other politicians using the Olympic Games as photo opportunities for their ‘non-campaign’ for re-election (the party at both levels of power was different when the games were sought and awarded), and the fact that the PM has dissolved parliament at a time when it was politically wise to not be questioned in a public parliamentary forum about his every decision (and he refuses to engage in Q&A through press ‘scrums’). I resent a great deal of this nation’s attention, efforts, and volunteer labour being focused on a bunch of under-paid athletes doing something truly amazing that is held under the auspices of what amounts to a Multi-National Entertainment Corporation which claims to be altruistic about ‘the celebration of the pure sporting achievements’. Given the insane amount of cash that gets shovelled through the IOC from people like IBM, M^CDonalds, VISA, Omega, RBC-Dominion, NBC, Coca-Cola, and the rest, I’ve no idea how the IOC recently acquired an Observers Chair at the United Nations; especially given the UN’s stated policy that they do not engage with, represent the interests of, or liaise between corporations.

Anyway… beyond all that…

The Opening Ceremonies here in town brought tears to my eyes more than once, and it was stunning (pity about only three of the legs for the cauldron working, though).

Meanwhile, outside…

Well, frankly, SmuttySteff covers the whole local protest issue far better than could be even imagined within my capabilities, frankly. For as start, I’d probably be more sweary. Read her take on the matter right here. Honesty do it: you’ll be glad you did.

Stunningly, the CNIB and other Braille-formatted books in Canada receive no financial support from governments at the Provincial or Federal levels as I had thought they did.

No, honestly, none. All they get is money from the generous individuals who send it in on their own.

Needless to say, making books in the format of little bumps is a tad pricey.

Doing something decent today will only take about one minute. Go here: http://righttoread.cnib.ca/default.aspx

Thank you.