CHRIST in a CHRYSLER, people!!
When are you guys going to stop paying out hundreds of dollars to fly-by-night corporations for the questionable privilege of sharing space with genre celebrities who don't really want to be anywhere near the public and will only do so if they are paid exhorbitant appearance fees funded by the fanaticism of a handful of devotees?
I have been involved with science fiction/fantasy/comic book conventions for nearly three decades. Most of the events I attended were fan-run, not-for-profit, and the actors, writers, artists and other notables who attended did so not for a fee, but with only their expenses paid. (Hotel room, travel fare, etc.) The convention organizers and workers didn't get paid for their efforts. Maybe the really big names (with the attendant really big egos) weren't attracted by that concept, but the celebs who actually wanted to interact with their fans would flock to these venues. Tickets were ten or twenty dollars for the weekend and of course you paid your own hotel and travel expenses. That's what a convention should be.
When you get charged upwards of $100 a ticket just for the little admittance badge and have to stand in long, tedious lines to get a book autographed or a picture taken? When the celebrity guests only appear with bodyguards and never, ever "mingle" with the fans at all? That's where you start getting into trouble.
And then something like this happens.
I feel deeply sorry for the people who wanted to attend this event and only found out an hour before it was to begin that it had been cancelled. I feel nothing but deep and abiding love for Adam Baldwin, who decided to show up anyway (and is trying to convince other Firefly celebs to do the same). And I feel nothing less than bitter, black contempt for the organizers who took people's money and then pulled this absolute bullshit without even giving fair warning. They deserve whatever they get and then some.
I hate for-profit conventions and I would not attend one even if I was the main guest of honor. Which I will never be. But still.
I have been involved with science fiction/fantasy/comic book conventions for nearly three decades. Most of the events I attended were fan-run, not-for-profit, and the actors, writers, artists and other notables who attended did so not for a fee, but with only their expenses paid. (Hotel room, travel fare, etc.) The convention organizers and workers didn't get paid for their efforts. Maybe the really big names (with the attendant really big egos) weren't attracted by that concept, but the celebs who actually wanted to interact with their fans would flock to these venues. Tickets were ten or twenty dollars for the weekend and of course you paid your own hotel and travel expenses. That's what a convention should be.
When you get charged upwards of $100 a ticket just for the little admittance badge and have to stand in long, tedious lines to get a book autographed or a picture taken? When the celebrity guests only appear with bodyguards and never, ever "mingle" with the fans at all? That's where you start getting into trouble.
And then something like this happens.
I feel deeply sorry for the people who wanted to attend this event and only found out an hour before it was to begin that it had been cancelled. I feel nothing but deep and abiding love for Adam Baldwin, who decided to show up anyway (and is trying to convince other Firefly celebs to do the same). And I feel nothing less than bitter, black contempt for the organizers who took people's money and then pulled this absolute bullshit without even giving fair warning. They deserve whatever they get and then some.
I hate for-profit conventions and I would not attend one even if I was the main guest of honor. Which I will never be. But still.