I had a fun time at Starfest over the weekend. There was so much to do; I barely had time to catch my breath. This was different from conventions I have attended in the past. I knew far more people, and there were a number of friends there. The hotel that hosted it was nice. There was some controversy over the autographs. Starland, which puts on the convention, was charging for the autograph, and then you needed to buy the picture on top of that. There was objections to spending $40-$50 on it. In response, some of the guests were signing pictures without the ticket, so on Saturday every guest was watched over by a convention employee.
Another task I had set for myself was to observe what they were doing as far as activities, what sort of problems they encountered, and generally, how everything was laid out. I attended all four Star Fleet Academy courses. The person that gave this did an excellent job of combining an impressive amount of knowledge on the subjects with a good sense of humor. Each one included audience participation. When approached, he was interested in coming to Salt Lake City, but if not, I think we could provide an alternate. The courses were well attended, so I think they would be well received here. I was told some of the guests were very interested in doing an appearance in Salt Lake.
The panel by the ENTERPRISE project was enlightening. I kind of knew that UPN was not reaching as many cities as other networks, but I didn't realize the rating were not taking into account fans tend to tape the show or watch in groups. We tape shows to watch later all the time, and I am sure many others do. I now wonder how many shows were canceled because people were not 'watching' them. I suppose they assume if you tape it you fast-forward through the commercials. I read an article in the newspaper that said networks have little patience for shows to take off. If it is not an instant hit, it gets canceled. They author speculated that famous shows such as 'M*A*S*H*' and 'All in the Family' would not have made the cut if they were to premiere now.
They did show the TOS episode "The Doomsday Machine" with the 60's special effects redone with CGI. I missed the first part of it, so I did a search on the web to see if I could watch it there, but the web site is gone. I'll have to see if anyone has a copy of the MPG. And because I stayed to watch it, I missed getting into the family feud style trivia contest.
Friday I rode up the elevator with Richard Hatch of "Battlestar Galactica" fame. He seemed like a nice guy. I missed seeing Sean Astin (Samwise Gamgee of "Lord of the Rings"). Dominic Keating was funny. The costumes were great. Some of the people were trying to voice lines, but unless you were in the first three rows, you couldn't hear what was said. I was also pleasantly surprised to find kid oriented things had been added to the schedule. I think this is important for Utah, where large families are not unusual. .
It was good to see Ray Meyer again. He is struggling with getting the Hudson up and going, but I am sure he can do it. He was great for new, interesting ideas here.
I bought a couple of Darth Maul double lightsabres for the boys, and a poster of Captain Jack Sparrow. Rachel was much harder. She is not interested a lot in this stuff. I finally settled on a bookmark with the "One ring rule them all" on it, and a gold ring attached. I told her that it was the One Ring, and asked if she remembered what happened when someone put it on. She immediately replied that they turn invisible, paused to think about it, and said "Wow! Thanks, Dad". The only problem was that Patrick heard it as well, and pestered her the rest of the day to see it.
It was 75 degrees and sunny in Denver, and cold and raining in Salt Lake. I was expecting it to be much colder in Denver. Due to a lack of players on the Jayhawk team last Saturday, Rachel ended up playing three soccer games. Patrick has decided after playing that day he likes soccer again.
End of Entry
No comments:
Post a Comment