| I was somewhat disappointed in the program presented over the hotel
cable system. The following comments don't have anything to do with
the quality of the picture, only the quality of the presentation.
On Saturday night I tuned in to watch Laserblast and found out that
Andromeda Strain was on instead. I wasn't there for the beginning of
the movie, but I think it had been on for an hour or so. Ok, so I
figure we'll watch Andromeda Strain. Very near the end of the movie
someone figured out that the wrong movie was on, so they stop
Andromeda Strain and put on Laserblast. Well, you say to yourself
you expect to have a few problems here and there and you settle down
to watch the movie. Ten or fifteen minutes into the movie some
problem occurs and the movie is blanked out for a minute or so, and
when it comes back on, you have backed up to a point a few minutes
earlier in the movie. And this just doesn't happen once, it happens
a second time. A few minutes later the movie is stopped again and
you are waiting to see what happens next. Well, when the program
continues, you find out that a new feature is starting, namely Liquid
Sky. You check the schedule and find out that, sure enough, this is
the movie that is supposed to be on in this time slot (I believe it
was 11 pm). Out of curiosity, you stay to see what will happen.
After 10 or 15 minutes it looks like this movie is going to run ok.
At this point we left the room to go out for an hour or so and when
we returned the movie was still on and was almost over, so I assume
it ran all the way through without a problem.
Now don't you think that this is somewhat poor, even considering the
fact that this program is run by amateurs? I did.
In general, I was somewhat disappointed with the "public" film
presentation, that is, the films shown in the function rooms.
Metropolis, Omega Man, Cat People and one or two others were worth
watching, but why weren't some of the ones on the cable put on?
Also, I didn't go there to see Popeye cartoons! One or two cartoons
between features would be ok, but at one point there were about 3
Popeye cartoons and several others in a row. I realize that there
are a lot of young people and children there, but do you have to
cater to this age group? If so, I'm afraid I can't be bothered.
Mike Augeri
|
| The shorts at Boskone had little or nothing to do with SF. I can handle
Bullwinkle and Popeye in small doses, but I could see NO purpose in running
the "erotic" shorts <the ones I saw were on in the wee hours>. I did like
the horror film clips put to Frank Sinatra. "Hardware Wars" and Jitlov
shorts are great!
The art show was run very well, until the close of bidding. We were next
to a man watching his bid when the call came that bidding was closed. A
minute or so later a woman came and put a bid on the piece he was guarding.
We told her that bidding had been closed, but she wouldn't listen. The
man exercised restraint and didn't put another bid down because he assumed
that bids written after bidding closed would not be counted. He had
witnesses that the last bid should be invalid. When the human chain <of
staff members> came around and blocked people off from the art the man
was informed that bids were accepted until the chain was in front of the
piece. By then, of course, it was too late for him to put down another
bid. If bidding is not actually closed, no one should announce that is
closed.
The lectures I attended were well run and interesting. Thank you very
much for the no stinking sections!!
All in all it was a good Boskone.
Barbara
|
| Another Boskone has come and gone. This year's debriefing has already
happened, but planning for the next Boskone is just beginning. So if you
have any comments, I suggest you write to NESFA at
NESFA, Inc.
Box G, MIT Branch PO
Cambridge, MA 02139-0910
Please comment on things that you think worked especially well and
especially poorly.
Your feedback could make a difference.
Comments left as further replies in this note will be given to the
Boskone XXIII Committee.
Thanks,
Dave C.
|