Five Questions From the Incomparable vickisilverwolf
1. What was the most fun you ever had at an SF convention?
I have to kind of break this into two parts. In recent years, I've performed a series of SF/fantasy comedy/parody shows with some friends of mine as a theatre group called Soylent Theatre. We've had a standing show as a part of the Masquerade at CONvergence, the big local fan-run convention here in the Twin Cities. Those shows have gone over very well, and have been high points of my con experiences.
However, so much preparation goes into the show that I wind up missing a big chunk of the convention itself. I don't get to many of the panels and other programming. The con sort of doesn't start for us until our show is over, at which point the con is 75% over.
As a result, most of my favorite con experiences involve the partying that goes on late Saturday, and the Dead Dog party that usually occurs Sunday night, after the con is formally over. In 1999, during the Dead Dog party after the first ever CONvergence, my friend Joe and I lucked into two two-liter bottles of pale ale (someone had brought a keg, it didn't get drunk up, so they were filling empty soda bottles and handing them out to whomever would take them). We went down by the pool and started drinking. There were some kids playground stuff near the pool, a small slide, a kiddie picnic table, a small playhouse. Joe and I thought it'd be fun to go sit in the playhouse for a bit. As we did, various people came up to talk to us, either crawling in with us, or leaning in the window like some sort of wacky neighbor from a bad sitcom. We just spent the night in there, drinking our very large beers and having various funny conversations with a wide number of people. That still stands out as my favorite con memory.
2. I can't stand the taste or smell of beer; is there some kind of brew that I might like?
You might consider trying a lambic. These are fruit flavored Belgian style ales, and yes, they taste more fruity than beery. I personally like the kriek (cherry) and the framboise (strawberry), but there are other varieties. Just expect a drier taste, rather than something sweet like certain types of wine.
Some dark German beers have a distinctly fruity quality. Friends of mine who dislike beer have tried them and liked them. Unfortunately, I can't think of any specific varieties or brands offhand.
3. What's the funniest thing you've ever seen on stage?
Oh man, that's a tough one. I'll go with Punk Rock Revisited a partially improvised, partially scripted show that the local two-man improv group Ferarri McSpeedy performed in the 2003 Minnesota Fringe Festival. It was sort of a broad satire of music fandom and teenage angst. I laughed continuously and loudly.
4. What's the weirdest dream you ever had?
Hoo boy. You might want to get something to drink. This will take a while. I had this extremely long, detailed dream while in college.
I was sitting in the back seat of my parent's car, Dad was driving, Mom in the passenger seat. We're driving down some vacant highway, when a nuclear mushroom cloud erupts on the horizon. My mom sort of sighs and comments "oh great, they went and did it, didn't they?" Dad and I start arguing about whether or not it's a real nuclear explosion (I make the case that, if it was real, we'd be dead already). Suddenly a message appears across our windshield, like those news scrawls that get displayed in Times Square. It's an official message confirming that the nuclear explosion we've witnessed is in fact real.
We pull off the highway to an old railroad depot. Several people are standing around, looking and pointing at the mushroom cloud, like it's a mild curiousity. We go inside the depot, more people are standing around, waiting for more information on the nuclear war that seems to have suddenly erupted. There's a woman who pulls me aside and shows me her idea for a staging of Romeo and Juliet. She has a diorama set up, with little dolls for the actors. Her idea involves staging the play out in the woods someplace, just using the natural setting for the set (for example, Juliet would be up in a tree sitting on a branch for the balcony scene). The costuming could best be described as shiny gold swimsuits. And the cast was all African American. Somehow in the dream, this ridiculous production seems like it'd be really cool.
I go into another room, and dream takes a turn towards the completely absurd. There is a group of nuclear scientists who are suffering from radiation poisoning, and are waiting to die. For god knows whatever bizarre reason, they are dressed in strange costumes, and all baked up to the waist in a giant bundt cake. Each scientist has planned a strange act they want to perform as their last act on Earth. Onescientist wants his final act to be cutting his ex-wife's birthday cake. The scientist is played by Dabney Coleman, and he's wearing a fez. Dabney grumbles "y'know, I bet this is just the way she'd want me to go." A birthday cake is presented to him, he cuts it, dies, falls face first into the cake, and then is absorbed into the giant bundt cake, as if it were quicksand. Another scientist wants his final act to be answering the phone, he answers a phone, says "hello?" , dies, and is absorbed into the bundt cake as well. This happens several more times (I don't remember this part). Finally, there are two scientists left. One of them is played by Eddie Murphy. They are both dressed up like English judges, with the wigs and robes. They're psyching each other up the way football players do before a big game, lots of punching each other in the shoulder, fist pumping, shouts of "we're gonna die! Yeah! Let's Rock!", stuff like that. They both spontaneously combust, and turn into two smoldering Ken dolls.
At this point, the viewpoint sort of pulls back, and I realize I've been watching all this on a movie screen. I'm in a movie theatre, empty except for me and my college friend John who was sitting next to me. John has this look of pure awe on his face, and he mutters "y'know, that just the way I always thought it would be." Suddenly, Eddie Murphy, now conventionally dressed, runs up the aisle and into the lobby. He despirately tries to get someone to sell him a candy bar, but the lobby is vacant.
Then I woke up.
5. What's the best novel by Philip K. Dick?
Oy. That's a tough one. Based on what I've read, I think A Scanner Darkly affected me the most on an emotional level, but I think Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? had the best combination of artistic merit and fascinating ideas.
I have to kind of break this into two parts. In recent years, I've performed a series of SF/fantasy comedy/parody shows with some friends of mine as a theatre group called Soylent Theatre. We've had a standing show as a part of the Masquerade at CONvergence, the big local fan-run convention here in the Twin Cities. Those shows have gone over very well, and have been high points of my con experiences.
However, so much preparation goes into the show that I wind up missing a big chunk of the convention itself. I don't get to many of the panels and other programming. The con sort of doesn't start for us until our show is over, at which point the con is 75% over.
As a result, most of my favorite con experiences involve the partying that goes on late Saturday, and the Dead Dog party that usually occurs Sunday night, after the con is formally over. In 1999, during the Dead Dog party after the first ever CONvergence, my friend Joe and I lucked into two two-liter bottles of pale ale (someone had brought a keg, it didn't get drunk up, so they were filling empty soda bottles and handing them out to whomever would take them). We went down by the pool and started drinking. There were some kids playground stuff near the pool, a small slide, a kiddie picnic table, a small playhouse. Joe and I thought it'd be fun to go sit in the playhouse for a bit. As we did, various people came up to talk to us, either crawling in with us, or leaning in the window like some sort of wacky neighbor from a bad sitcom. We just spent the night in there, drinking our very large beers and having various funny conversations with a wide number of people. That still stands out as my favorite con memory.
2. I can't stand the taste or smell of beer; is there some kind of brew that I might like?
You might consider trying a lambic. These are fruit flavored Belgian style ales, and yes, they taste more fruity than beery. I personally like the kriek (cherry) and the framboise (strawberry), but there are other varieties. Just expect a drier taste, rather than something sweet like certain types of wine.
Some dark German beers have a distinctly fruity quality. Friends of mine who dislike beer have tried them and liked them. Unfortunately, I can't think of any specific varieties or brands offhand.
3. What's the funniest thing you've ever seen on stage?
Oh man, that's a tough one. I'll go with Punk Rock Revisited a partially improvised, partially scripted show that the local two-man improv group Ferarri McSpeedy performed in the 2003 Minnesota Fringe Festival. It was sort of a broad satire of music fandom and teenage angst. I laughed continuously and loudly.
4. What's the weirdest dream you ever had?
Hoo boy. You might want to get something to drink. This will take a while. I had this extremely long, detailed dream while in college.
I was sitting in the back seat of my parent's car, Dad was driving, Mom in the passenger seat. We're driving down some vacant highway, when a nuclear mushroom cloud erupts on the horizon. My mom sort of sighs and comments "oh great, they went and did it, didn't they?" Dad and I start arguing about whether or not it's a real nuclear explosion (I make the case that, if it was real, we'd be dead already). Suddenly a message appears across our windshield, like those news scrawls that get displayed in Times Square. It's an official message confirming that the nuclear explosion we've witnessed is in fact real.
We pull off the highway to an old railroad depot. Several people are standing around, looking and pointing at the mushroom cloud, like it's a mild curiousity. We go inside the depot, more people are standing around, waiting for more information on the nuclear war that seems to have suddenly erupted. There's a woman who pulls me aside and shows me her idea for a staging of Romeo and Juliet. She has a diorama set up, with little dolls for the actors. Her idea involves staging the play out in the woods someplace, just using the natural setting for the set (for example, Juliet would be up in a tree sitting on a branch for the balcony scene). The costuming could best be described as shiny gold swimsuits. And the cast was all African American. Somehow in the dream, this ridiculous production seems like it'd be really cool.
I go into another room, and dream takes a turn towards the completely absurd. There is a group of nuclear scientists who are suffering from radiation poisoning, and are waiting to die. For god knows whatever bizarre reason, they are dressed in strange costumes, and all baked up to the waist in a giant bundt cake. Each scientist has planned a strange act they want to perform as their last act on Earth. Onescientist wants his final act to be cutting his ex-wife's birthday cake. The scientist is played by Dabney Coleman, and he's wearing a fez. Dabney grumbles "y'know, I bet this is just the way she'd want me to go." A birthday cake is presented to him, he cuts it, dies, falls face first into the cake, and then is absorbed into the giant bundt cake, as if it were quicksand. Another scientist wants his final act to be answering the phone, he answers a phone, says "hello?" , dies, and is absorbed into the bundt cake as well. This happens several more times (I don't remember this part). Finally, there are two scientists left. One of them is played by Eddie Murphy. They are both dressed up like English judges, with the wigs and robes. They're psyching each other up the way football players do before a big game, lots of punching each other in the shoulder, fist pumping, shouts of "we're gonna die! Yeah! Let's Rock!", stuff like that. They both spontaneously combust, and turn into two smoldering Ken dolls.
At this point, the viewpoint sort of pulls back, and I realize I've been watching all this on a movie screen. I'm in a movie theatre, empty except for me and my college friend John who was sitting next to me. John has this look of pure awe on his face, and he mutters "y'know, that just the way I always thought it would be." Suddenly, Eddie Murphy, now conventionally dressed, runs up the aisle and into the lobby. He despirately tries to get someone to sell him a candy bar, but the lobby is vacant.
Then I woke up.
5. What's the best novel by Philip K. Dick?
Oy. That's a tough one. Based on what I've read, I think A Scanner Darkly affected me the most on an emotional level, but I think Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? had the best combination of artistic merit and fascinating ideas.