#rob callahan

[s-n-arly]

Diversicon - Day 3

Originally planned to do this yesterday, but it was a good day for the paying gig, and I had LOTS of editing to do there.

I’ve been trying to attend a fiction reading by Rob Callahan for roughly five years.  He’s a really nice guy and we’ve been on panels together several times.  He was also  kind enough to talk to me about freelancing when I first started my own business. Once again, something got in the way, and I missed his 10 am reading, dangit.  I’m beginning to suspect a curse, and I will break it one of these days.

We had the honor of taking @charliejane-anders to lunch, which was a nice opportunity to get to know her better.  We picked up sandwiches from Nelson Cheese & Deli (if you haven’t been there, it’s a fantastic little local place) and found a table with some shade in the nearby, and mostly vacant, Minnesota State Fairgrounds. It was lovely time. In an effort to combat the odd genderfication of all things, we are trying to replace “guys” with “moops,” when used for groups of people not necessarily of a specific gender.  Eg: Come on moops, let’s get this done.  I’ve been trying to switch to “peeps” for a while, and it hasn’t quite stuck, so my brain clearly has some work to do.

I attended a panel on the use of fairy tales in science fiction and fantasy.  Much of this ended up being a platform for apologizing for past cultural appropriation and warning against future offenses.  Not quite what I was hoping for, but there were a couple of really good points that I hope to explore further in the future.

I spent most of my downtime tweaking stuff for my Midwest Mythologic Creatures panel with Bryan Thao Worra and Brian K. Perry.  Bryan and I had come up with this idea last Diversicon, and it’s always a ton of fun to be on a panel with him.  It took a little longer than anticipated to get through my intro questions on the creation and use of mythological creatures, so we didn’t get through even a quarter of our possible monsters and beasties.  Since I did a bunch of research, and found some wickedly cool North American creatures, I’m going to be posting some sort of series here with that information in the near future.  I just need to figure out the best way to share this information without it becoming an overload.

[skjam]

Latest review at my blog!

Brain spiders!

http://www.skjam.com/2019/10/06/book-review-a-wish-upon-a-fallen-sky/

[letoilemagazine]

by Rob Callahan

Every summer, patrons and players alike descend on the stages of Minneapolis for the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Last year, over 46,000 people bought tickets to 829 shows, spread over more than a dozen venues and 11 days. For most of those people, the Fringe Festival begins on day one and ends on 11, but for the staff, volunteers and performers, it’s a much longer process.

The 2013 Fringe lottery randomly selected 176 of 419 to take part. Once those spots were full, the waiting list was compiled via the same random process. In order to assure fairness and complete randomness, the festival’s selection process employs the tried and true method of pulling numbered ping pong balls from a giant hopper.

When lottery night closes, you don’t know a lot about the shows you’ll see six months later. You know the producers or production companies, the sizes of their respective venues and their past records. From there, you can hazard a guess as to who will do what and how. If they get in, Joking Envelope and Ferrari McSpeedy will produce big shows that are dense with wit and peppered with brief and serious moments. Joking Envelope are far down on the wait list for a venue this year, though, so that may not come to pass. There will be enough spoken word shows from various members of the Northstar Storytellers, Rockstar Storytellers, local upstarts Story City and a plethora of local solo acts to keep you in storytelling from opening day to encore night. Those include Laura Bidgood, phillip andrew bennett low and Paula Reed Nancarrow to name a few. You’ll see companies made up of Vilification Tennis alumni, RenFest veterans, Guthrie regulars, local literary legends and random dudes off the street as well.

If you go to enough shows, you’re guaranteed a certain rough mix: There will be a handful of great shows that no one else sees. A few other great shows will sell out every night. Mostly, you’ll see a lot of pretty good shows with pretty good audiences. Every so often you’ll catch a bomb, and some of those bombs will get great reviews anyway.

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