I spent yesterday at Balticon, doing a shared reading with Danielle Ackley-McPhail and John Mierau (you can see me and John in Adam Corbin Fusco‘s photo below) and taking part in a panel on The Walking Dead, in which we compared the two seasons so far and speculated on what’s to come in season three. We also gave our opinions as to how long the series would last and theories as to how it would end.

While at the con, I broke bread with Karen and Charlie Newton, Sandy and Risa Stewart, and Patrick Darby, and chatted with the rest of the usual Balticon suspects.

I find myself surprisingly worn out from having spent one day at what I generally consider a relaxicon, especially since last weekend’s Nebula Awards, at which far more partying and schmoozing went on (as captured below by James Patrick Kelly), didn’t leave me a fraction as tired. John Ordover speculated over on Facebook that I’m older now, but … by one week?

Am I deteriorating that quickly?

And that word “deteriorating” makes me think of zombies again, so I’ll toss out what I’d presented yesterday as my thoughts on how The Walking Dead would come to a conclusion, which should only be read by those who don’t care whether I might accidentally spoil something for you. (more…)

Last weekend, when I wasn’t schmoozing with friends at SFWA’s Nebula Awards weekend, I was off at the nearby Artomatic, an arts installation I’d heard about in years past but had never managed to attend. Since the last Artomatic was in 2009, and who knew when I’d ever be spending a couple of nights just a few blocks away from one, I knew I had to sneak over.

What is Artomatic? It’s 1,300 artists taking over an 11-story building that’s soon to be demolished, and surprisingly, amid the tens of thousands of works of art, plenty of science fiction, fantasy, and horror turned up. In an effort to get those who come here to read about those sorts of things to drop by—Artomatic runs through June 23—I thought I’d share a fraction of the art of the fantastic that I spotted.

(To my great horror and regret, after I got home, I discovered that I’d misplaced some of the artists’ names, so in the event you do head on over to Artomatic and see some of the paintings I’ve included below without attribution, could you please let me know the names of the creators. Artists need all the publicity they can get! All artists have now been identified. Whew!)

Dana Ellyn

“Darth Vay-Deer,” by Isaac Otto Lange

(more…)

Balticon 46 will take place May 25-28 at Marriott’s Hunt Valley Inn, and as usual, I’ll be there. Here’s where you’ll be able to find me officially; that is, when I’m not simply wandering the dealers room or con suite and schmoozing.

Reading
Saturday, 1:00 PM (Pimlico)
with Danielle Ackley-McPhail and John Mierau

The Walking Dead
Saturday, 6:00 PM (Parlor 1041)
with moderator David Silverman, Chris Evans, Michael D. Pederson, Ethan H. Wilson and Robert E. Waters
Panelists discuss the show whose success took AMC completely by surprise. Was Season 2 as good as the first season? What direction would we like to see the third season take?

Once that Walking Dead panel is over, I plan to head for dinner to the Man v. Food-recommended Chaps Pit Beef, which is about half an hour away (but worth it!), so if you want to tag along, let me know.

Why, yes, I did record Saturday night’s Nebula Awards banquet, but as the file is larger than six gigabytes, which in my neck of the woods would require about 20 hours of my total bandwidth to upload, making it impossible for me to use the Internet for any other purpose, like, say, earning a living, you won’t get to vicariously experience that night until the weekend, when I can start it uploading and then wander away from my keyboard for the day. (On the other hand, if you want to relive last year’s ceremony, you can watch a video of it right now.)

Meanwhile, here’s a different, hour-long video which might appeal to you—though not if you’re looking for long speeches from writers thanking their editors, agents, critique groups, and spouses.

Back at the beginning of our recent Peru trip, on April 29, 2012, our first morning in Cuzco, our tour guide took us to the main square, the Plaza de Armas, to watch what she said would be a military parade. But it proved to be much more than that. Also marching were trade unions and university students, who made up the majority of the participants. I enjoyed most watching the faces of the thousands of those who marched. Some were deadly serious, some bored, some joking, some weary.

And now, prepare to travel to Cuzco, and see a microcosm of a country’s future in the faces of its students …

Also—I have uploaded all of my photos of Peru to Flickr. Haven’t had time to caption them appropriately yet, but perhaps you’ll find them interesting anyway.

And that should be the end of my Peru posts. We now return you to our regularly scheduled program of posts about writing, comics, science fiction, food … and, of course, the ukulele.

It occurs to me that since I’ve told you what I ate in Peru, from multiple servings of guinea pig to a marvelous meal of octopus and goat, I should also tell you what I didn’t eat.

So … where did I draw the line?

At a crowded food stall in Cuzco’s main market, I found people slurping away at bowls of soup beneath the following sign.

And why not? Who wouldn’t want to be cured of epilepsia or dolor de cabeza?

But the problem was … well …

You know the old saying that if you eat a live frog first thing in the morning, nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day?

You do? Then you’ll know what I saw beneath that sign, eagerly waiting to be dropped into my soup.

That’s right. (more…)

My culinary adventuring in Peru earlier this month went far beyond guinea pigs.

When I learned that we would have an evening free in Lima at the end of our week spent exploring Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo, Sacsayhuaman, and other awe-inspiring sites, I was determined that I wouldn’t permit exhaustion to cause us to fall back on room service or a hotel restaurant. I wanted more than a meal. I wanted magic. And after a bit of research, I decided the best place to ingest that magic was at Astrid y Gaston, voted one of the 50 best restaurants in the world. I sent emails to our Lima hotel, hoping that the concierge would have luck snagging us a table, but by the time our trip began, I’d heard nothing back. So I started to worry.

And then, as I boarded our American Airlines flight in Miami, I saw the name of the chef, Gastón Acurio, on the cover of the inflight magazine, and a lengthy article inside touting the wonders of his kitchen. And I worried some more.

Because though I couldn’t understand Spanish, I did understand that such a piece might increase the already high demand for tables at Astrid y Gaston. So the first thing I did when I saw our tour operator after landing was to ask if he could help get us a reservation later that week. He did, and so on Friday night, we cabbed over, along with a few friends we’d made on the trip, to the restaurant one food critic called, “my favorite restaurant in Peru.”

When we arrived a few minutes before the 7:00 p.m. opening, the door was locked, the shutters were closed, and except for the small sign on an exterior wall, we had no way of knowing we were in the right place. But exactly at 7:00, the door was flung open, and we were warmly welcomed and shown to our table near the kitchen. (more…)

Remember how miserable I was when I found myself ukulele-less in Salt Lake City? My withdrawal symptoms gave me the shakes. I was determined not to let that happen again, and yet, I didn’t want to lug my concert-sized uke to Peru.

Luckily, one of my new UK friends, found through George Formby fandom, recommended that I purchase a tiny Kala pocket ukulele, created just for that purpose.

Which I did!

And so if you were in Peru the first week of May, you’d have found me holding my uke aloft at Machu Picchu …

… along the Inca Trail, in front of a backdrop that seemed perfect for a performance of “When I’m Cleaning Windows” … (more…)

As our Peru trip tour bus made its way through the streets of Ollantaytambo last week on its way to the Inca site known as the Fortress, I spotted … the Batmobile!

Well, not the Batmobile. More like a Batmobile—a small taxi with a rear window in the shape of the Bat symbol. I wasn’t quick enough with my camera to snap a photo, however, and when we headed back after our climb, even though I was vigilant, I didn’t spot it again as we meandered through the small town. And that, I thought, was that.

But later in the week, as we bussed toward Cuzco after our stay in Machu Picchu, I spotted five other similar vehicles with Batman decorations in small towns along the route. I was only fast enough snap a shot of this one, but it’ll give you an idea of what I mean.

But those half dozen vehicles weren’t all. (more…)

It’s that time again, though slightly delayed by our Machu Picchu trip. Let’s see what poetry last month’s dreams might achieve when my daily tweets are gathered together in one place.

April’s night-time guest stars included Woody Allen, Paul Witcover, Stubby Kaye, Nick Nolte, Tom Disch, Gene Wolfe, and … well, you’ll see.

APRIL 2012

I dreamt I was on a bus heading toward Machu Picchu. Oddly, the mountains were as snowy as Everest. Good thing I’ll find out for real soon! 28 Apr

I dreamt an actor took ill in a Shakespearean play my friend Allan was directing, and I had to suddenly fill in. Also subbing — Janis Ian. 27 Apr

I dreamt I woke from a nap in my 1976-1982 Brooklyn apt., sunlight streaming through the windows. But when was it? I reached for my iPad! 26 Apr

I dreamt @Annaleen and I were walking across the Golden Gate Bridge on the way to our jobs as copywriters at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. 26 Apr

I dreamt I wandered Avenue P with Irene, pointing out all that changed since I was a kid. But then I blinked, and everything was as it was. 25 Apr

I dreamt I searched for someone in a hospital along with @EllenDatlow. Don’t remember who we were looking for but we never found him or her. 25 Apr

I dreamt I delivered a satchel filled with cash, and once I made the handover, was accused of stealing one of the $10,000 bundles. I hadn’t. 24 Apr

I dreamt old friend Kate Stone handed me a file to underwrite a mortgage application, and I thought — do I still remember how to do that? 24 Apr

I dreamt I followed deer tracks along the soggy bottom of a riverbed … until the water rose and the tracks could no longer be seen. 24 Apr

I dreamt I was an old black man interviewing black kids while Woody Allen watched through one-way glass deciding which to cast in new movie. 24 Apr (more…)

Sure, Peru—and especially Machu Picchu—was a magical, mystical experience. But I know what you’re really interested in.

How did all those guinea pigs taste?

And before you accuse me of barbaric behavior for dining on animals which have been domesticated as pets in the U.S., all I can say to that is, when it comes to guinea pigs—or cuy, as they’re called in Peru—the question I always ask myself is … what would Jesus do?

And what Jesus would do is—eat the guinea pig!

Want proof? Check out this 1753 painting by Marcos Zapata from the Cathedral of Cuzco showing Christ and the Apostles about to dig into some cuy. And if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me.

I ended up eating cuy four times over the course of our week in Peru. Which restaurant prepared it the best? You’ll find that out below. (more…)