OK, this will sound like a rant , BUT I'm going back to an earlier idea . Book discussion groups sound good in theory but in reality not so much . IOW , when you first bring up the topic of a discussion group everyone says 'oh yeah great idea ' but when you actually schedule discussion time and book the same people say ' OMG , you expect me to read the book and discuss it with other people well you must expect a pound of flesh too ' . It's frustrating . YMMV

So this will turn out a bit more meta than I thought it might. Additionally, it relates to a discussion session with JohnScalzi at L.A. Times Festival of Books in 2012. During the discussion Scalzi was commenting on a difference between geeks and elites, and Scalzi said that when two geeks meet they'll sayto each other 'OMG, you like Dr. Who, Star Trek" and then go off and wgeek each other out. Hwcontrasted when an elite will meet someone and finds out they like this thing that they're into they'll need to retool and rethink their own value of the thing, since they're to elite to mingle with the hoi polloi.

So now I'm considering what the elites of fandom (and I'm not necessarily speaking about SMOFs or BNFs) consider when assessing a convention? To the my knowledge these elites do not go to discussion sessions since they're so above discussions with the common fen, they don't go to masquerades or the film tracks for the same reason, and is filk hip enough for this crowd?

Previously on my FB I put up a short message about Drive throughs, I don't get it.  I don't get drive through service at all, I mean get out of your car if you want something, or what is your malfunction that you expect service to be delivered to your car?  Are you all so indolently self indulgent and self centered that you cannot get out of your car for two minutes and wait your turn, like a normal person at service with the hoi polloi.  I've seen over the years a few instances of how car absorbed some are with their automobiles, but REALLY,.  

http://www.salon.com/2012/08/16/5_people_who_bravely_fought_the_christian_takeover_of_america_salpart/  This is excellent if you're  asking.

When I lived in Chicago I had a friend, J, who was staff of an area convention for some years.  Later I met folks, at least three people on separate instances, who were also staff of the same convention, and I would ask naively, "Well, then you might know J?"  The replies were all "No!".  Of course, now we move to present day and most of the answerers are on my Facebook Flist, and J is on their Flists too.  WTH!  Was it just easier to tell me 'No' then to tell me correctly, I think so.  And naive me I thought I might get a accurate answer to an innocent, inocous, harmless question.

This is going to sound like a cranky ole fogey's message.  But it's on my mind anyway.  Some years ago when I still a member of the Chicago Dave and Buster's meetup http://www.meetup.com/Chicago-sf-org/ a visitor came to the D&B event and while there they commented to several others that the group seemed to be the SF TV and movie meetup and there seemed to be noone there really interested in books.  After that comment myself and Jason Robertson http://pyropyga.livejournal.com ,along with one or two others started the group's 'closed reading group' and it turned out to be whole lots of fun, but never attracted a large following but had a very loyal group of readers who showed up to each session.  Regarding the D&B visitor's comment, it made its way around the community and the collective reaction was the lady had a lot of gall and nerve to say what she did, without knowing the community better than just visiting.  IOW, one might say many of the D&B regulars took some issue with the comment and were not pleased it had been made.  

Now it's February 2012 and there's a large Dr. Who convention in L.A.  We come upon a community that eschews, actively denigrates, is collectively hostile and diminishes any heritage that has existed and continues to exist in common with more known fen.  Additionally, one might want to argue the position that media fandoms (Whedonist, Browncoats, Trekkers, film geeks, gamers, otaku, Whovians, Colonials, etc.) have only marginal heritages with conventional fandom; however, I'd offer Fred Patten's Reading Manga, Watching Anime as some counter evidence.  

I don't think this message can be reduced to those crazy kids just don't read enough books anymore.  But that might be true.  

A second point that might have some relevance to the topic at hand.  in the Fall of 2010 I went to a well known meetup in Orange County, called O.C. Geekdom.  A few days before I had suggested LosCON as potentially relevant and related event for their meetup.  When I met myself with the group's organizer, she asked me (and I did not know) why the convention's website as so messed up; IME, messed up websites are fairly common for convention websites?  My short answer was sort of, 'I don't know, and are websites what conventions and fandom are about?'  A longer answer is her question presumes some things I know might not be necessarily true; examples, the ConCom member in charge of the website knows anything about computers or websites, owns a computer or has interweb access.  There remains a a contingent in fandom that still goes around as if printed and mailed fanzines and APAs will be making a comeback of popularity, and that this internet is a temporary fad that all the kids will grow out of real soon now.

Maybe I'm an ole fogey, too!  YMMV 

EPIC FAIL!!  Saturday, February 18, 2012, I went to Gallifrey 2012 at the Marriott by LAX.  Knowing from FB that the author Nancy Holder would be there I brought several of her books to sign.  Arrived at LAX right around 11.45 and after going through the convention's FRACKED UP registration (OMG, it was worse than ACen's foulup from a few years back and that was because ACen was maliciously hacked, this was because the registration people were not on the ball), I get my badge and stuff.  Hang around folks who are there including Mike Tax from Chicago, Sara Jackson from Riverside SciFi http://www.meetup.com/riversidescifi .  After attending a few things and scoping out the dealers room.  I go to the autographing areas expectjng to find Ms.  Holder and there I'm told that her signing time was earlier in the afternoon.  EPIC FAIL; BTW, I suck, too!

Yesterday, left for Riverside SciFi http://www.meetup.com/riversidescifi book group with about $6.00 on my person.   And by the evening, I bought and consumed at Back to the Grind http://www.back2thegrind.com/ coffeeshop a medium Americano and a large white chocolate chip cookie, bought myself a Riverside Library Friends of the Library bookbag; additionally, at the Eastside branch of the Riverside Library, I go to use free WiFi and borrowed four manga.  For the day I consider that's a fair amount of swag, and yes, I know the borrowed manga has to be returned, BUT they're mine temporarily.  

It seems like it was when we used "Continental's" as paper currency, but it goes back to when I worked in retail.  One of the first lessons I was taught when I worked in retail was to face your currency in the cash drawer.  BTW, 'face currency" means take your paper currency and make all of it face side up and turn them so all the bills are facing the same way; if you're asking, it makes counting out the cash drawer about twice as easy as it could be.  :)  YMMV So this practice is now an artifact of the prehistoric past, because at least two or more instances in the last few weeks, I gotten change back and the bills have been every orientation one could imagine.   Anyone?