Pre-KGB, I went into the city early to hang out with David Barr Kirtley. I took the NJ Transit train from Metropark to NY Penn Station for the first time. It’s a nice ride; a much better option for commuting into the city from home. I think discovering it as an option will make me much more likely to go into Manhattan on a day off. For instance, there’s a big event on Sunday for Jeff VanderMeer’s Shriek movie (a short film based on his new novel, Shriek). There’s all kinds of other stuff going on too: some readings by other writers, and there’s even “godzilla burlesque.” Not sure what that is exactly; I understand the terms separately, but I don’t grok gozilla being used as a modifier for burlesque. I’m kind of curious to find out though.
But anyway–like I said, I went in and spent the day hanging out with Dave. We went to see A Scanner Darkly. It was pretty good, but I didn’t really understand it. It’s very much a drug movie and not much of an SF film, but it was entertaining (if overly puzzling), and the animation was awesome, even if I didn’t really see the point of it (they could have just as easily just filmed the movie).
After the movie, we headed down to Central Park to play some Frisbee. If you read my Readercon report, then you may recall that we played Frisbee then too (and also, perhaps, you might remember that I suck at Frisbee). I was much improved from our Readercon toss, however. I still had some really crap throws, but overall, I was much more competent.
Once exhausted from Frisbee, we started heading toward KGB after a brief rest on some benches. During our rest, I called back Carol Pinchefsky, who had called during our game. She skipped KGB in favor of attending a party for people of a similar haplotype or something. She said she got her father a genetic screening for his birthday, to help identify their family’s roots or something, and as a result some group contacted them to invite them to this haplotype party. Is that strange, or what? We both agreed that it might be interesting, and would surely be the seed of an article of some kind. I mean, have you ever heard of a haplotype party?
So eventually, we get to KGB, after a brief stop off at Chickpea, which is some kind of Israeli restaurant, so Dave could grab something to tide him over til the after-KGB dinner. This may have been a mistake, as he got ill later and had to bail on dinner, citing a pressing urge to vomit. I guess that’s what he gets for being an adventurous eater. I’d never even heard of the thing he ordered.
But anyway, we showed up pretty early, around 6PM, and the doors to KGB don’t open til 6:30. But Jim Freund and his wife Barbara were already there sitting out front on the steps, so we chatted with them for a while. Shortly after our arrival, Dave’s friend Rob Bland showed up with his friend Andrew in tow. Shortly after that, Devin Poore showed up. Once we got inside, we were able to secure good seats since we were so early. One of the readers, Elizabeth Bear, got there
bright and early, so I got a chance to chat with her for a bit and we both lamented how we never got to say hello at Readercon. Bear had a crew in tow–two friends who came a long way to hear her read (one from Ohio: Jamie Voss, and one all the way from Texas: Amanda Downum). The other reader was William Shunn.
Much of the regular crew was present, though Andrea Kail was off in Maine. Doug Cohen was there, as was Chris Cevasco, still glowing from Clarion. At dinner, my crew usually sits at what we call “the kid’s table,” because it’s usually just us regulars, and none of the readers or other occasional visitors tend to join us. However, this time, Elizabeth Bear sat at our table, mainly because she’s good friends with E, who is part of the crew. At dinner, E-Bear (as Elizabeth Bear is known to her e-friends) told us about the research she did about penile tatooing. Never really thought of getting tattoo there. Seems kind of painful, no? I guess I’ll be reading all about it, as she said there’s penile tatooing in the new story she’s sending to F&SF.
We all usually linger after dinner, but E wanted to hit the road and asked if anyone wanted to share a cab to Penn Station. Since Doug and I were both headed there, we hopped in a cab with her and headed out a bit early. Which was fine with me since I had to work the next day, and I wasn’t sure what the return commute home would be like on the train. It was also handy to have them with me to make sure I got to the right place, because I had no idea how I’d find my train. As it happened, we were discussing it, and a gentleman waiting for the train told me what I needed to know. Turns out it’s pretty easy to figure out (much easier to figure out than which train is which at Metropark).
I really enjoyed taking the train–I got a lot of reading done both to and from, so that’s good. I’m in the middle of reading Paragaea by Chris Roberson, which I’m really digging, so it was cool to do a bunch of reading during the commute.
Got home around midnight, which is good for a KGB night. It’s good that it wasn’t too late, because I had to drag some “big garbage” down to the curb for pickup the next morning. See, you can’t just put out big garbage whenever you want; you have to make an appointment. So if you’re throwing away a bed or something, you have to call first. And it takes like a month to get your appointment. I guess a lot of people in Perth Amboy throw away a lot of big garbage. What I had to throw away was an old bed, which I had to dispose of to make room for my fancy new Tempur-Pedic bed. Shortly after dragging the bed to the curb, I collapsed into said fancy new bed, and thus was well-rested for a full day of slushing on Thursday.
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