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Confluence: Convention Summary
30 July 2012 07:48 pmAs to the bulk of the convention, I have almost nothing to say about it as I spent the vast majority of my time in the video room and only emerged from the cave to do a quick run through of the dealer’s room or a quick run up to the con suite to stuff my face and return to the shadows from whence I came.
Atypically, I only purchased one book; "Beyond the Gaslight: Science in Popular Fiction, 1985-1905" by Hilary and Dik Evans (1977)
I picked up a copy of "Devil’s Tower" by Mark Sumner (1996) from the freebie table. Seeing that people set out a bunch of stuff I remembered that I have a bunch of videos, DVDs and books that I want to get rid of and this would be a great way of doing that. Many won’t be touched by a place like Half Price Books and, even if Half Price did take them, I would expect almost nothing in return so I might as well just give them away to anyone who will take them. Nothing to loose.
The video room went reasonably well but I did have some technology failures. The first was that I forgot a grounded extension cord. With that I had to string together two power strips to back up the projector far enough and, even then, it could stand to go back another foot. My daughter stopped by the house at some point and brought an extension cord but the one she brought was also non-grounded and thus unusable. Thankfully, she also brought another power strip so I could get the extra foot I needed.
The real problem was sound related. I downloaded many of the films I was showing as torrented AVI files. I then ripped them to DVD so that I could play them with the DVD player. However, most of them developed an audio drift as the film went on. I did not pay attention enough during the burning process to tell if this was a problem with the AVI files I initially downloaded or if the audio drift appeared in the process of ripping the AVI files to DVD. It wasn’t so bad as to render the movies unwatchable but it was noticeable. For next year I will need to take better care to ensure quality. I may have to show things directly from the PC.
As to the films, there were a number I hadn’t seen previously and others that I hadn’t seen for quite a long time.
Anyone who thinks of Fred Astaire as merely a tap dancer should watch "On the Beach".
Near the end of "Day the Earth Caught Fire" the combined Earth militaries set off nearly all the Earth’s nuclear weapons in an effort to keep the planet from spiraling into the sun (caused by an accidental confluence of two nuclear tests at the beginning of the film). At the moment, the camera rotates slightly, almost imperceptibly, to represent the change in the tilt of the Earth. It was very subtle but was a marvelous piece of direction.
My favorite part of Toho’s "Prophesies of Nostradamus" are the flamethrowers against the giant slugs, or rather, foot long Slugs of Unusual Size. The JSDF clearly has experience with addressing these sorts of issues immediately.
Watching "Day of the Triffids" had me thinking, would eating a carnivorous plant be considered vegan?
The scientific explanation of how the lead ore in the mountains protected the isolated home in Roger Corman’s "Day the World Ended" was still more plausible than the neutrinos causing the Earth’s core to heat up explanation in "2012". And it was also a better love story than “Twilight.”
What sort of moron would fund "Colossus: The Forbin Project".
And "WALL-E" is one of the best romantic comedies ever made.
Of the 16 films I showed, Seven of them pretty thoroughly destroyed the Earth. Three of them started with the destruction of the Earth but it got better. Three of them narrowly avoided the Earth’s destruction and three were somewhat ambiguous as to whether the Earth survives or not.
I haven’t decided on next year’s program yet. I’m tending towards Lost Worlds: "Land that Time Forgot", "Journey to the Center of the Earth", that sort of thing.
Atypically, I only purchased one book; "Beyond the Gaslight: Science in Popular Fiction, 1985-1905" by Hilary and Dik Evans (1977)
I picked up a copy of "Devil’s Tower" by Mark Sumner (1996) from the freebie table. Seeing that people set out a bunch of stuff I remembered that I have a bunch of videos, DVDs and books that I want to get rid of and this would be a great way of doing that. Many won’t be touched by a place like Half Price Books and, even if Half Price did take them, I would expect almost nothing in return so I might as well just give them away to anyone who will take them. Nothing to loose.
The video room went reasonably well but I did have some technology failures. The first was that I forgot a grounded extension cord. With that I had to string together two power strips to back up the projector far enough and, even then, it could stand to go back another foot. My daughter stopped by the house at some point and brought an extension cord but the one she brought was also non-grounded and thus unusable. Thankfully, she also brought another power strip so I could get the extra foot I needed.
The real problem was sound related. I downloaded many of the films I was showing as torrented AVI files. I then ripped them to DVD so that I could play them with the DVD player. However, most of them developed an audio drift as the film went on. I did not pay attention enough during the burning process to tell if this was a problem with the AVI files I initially downloaded or if the audio drift appeared in the process of ripping the AVI files to DVD. It wasn’t so bad as to render the movies unwatchable but it was noticeable. For next year I will need to take better care to ensure quality. I may have to show things directly from the PC.
As to the films, there were a number I hadn’t seen previously and others that I hadn’t seen for quite a long time.
Anyone who thinks of Fred Astaire as merely a tap dancer should watch "On the Beach".
Near the end of "Day the Earth Caught Fire" the combined Earth militaries set off nearly all the Earth’s nuclear weapons in an effort to keep the planet from spiraling into the sun (caused by an accidental confluence of two nuclear tests at the beginning of the film). At the moment, the camera rotates slightly, almost imperceptibly, to represent the change in the tilt of the Earth. It was very subtle but was a marvelous piece of direction.
My favorite part of Toho’s "Prophesies of Nostradamus" are the flamethrowers against the giant slugs, or rather, foot long Slugs of Unusual Size. The JSDF clearly has experience with addressing these sorts of issues immediately.
Watching "Day of the Triffids" had me thinking, would eating a carnivorous plant be considered vegan?
The scientific explanation of how the lead ore in the mountains protected the isolated home in Roger Corman’s "Day the World Ended" was still more plausible than the neutrinos causing the Earth’s core to heat up explanation in "2012". And it was also a better love story than “Twilight.”
What sort of moron would fund "Colossus: The Forbin Project".
And "WALL-E" is one of the best romantic comedies ever made.
Of the 16 films I showed, Seven of them pretty thoroughly destroyed the Earth. Three of them started with the destruction of the Earth but it got better. Three of them narrowly avoided the Earth’s destruction and three were somewhat ambiguous as to whether the Earth survives or not.
I haven’t decided on next year’s program yet. I’m tending towards Lost Worlds: "Land that Time Forgot", "Journey to the Center of the Earth", that sort of thing.
