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Part of a Con report, and more about today, with news...
I admit it: while at Con*Cept I was spending a fair amount of time in my room, more than I usually do at a con. This was not because I was a avoiding people, but because the ancient Toshiba, powered by Linux, let me stay in touch with Rolanni via IM and we made good use of the collaborative process, even across international borders.
While I was not collaborating electronically... I was at a con. A good con, as it turns out.
Friday night, having wandered the streets of nearby Montreal much of the afternoon, I was part of a ... Space Opera panel. Later in the weekend I was part of another Space Opera panel. Umm ...and Space Opera just kept coming up, for some reason. In any case, any panel with David Weber will be fun, and if we settled anything at all on these panels is that we're going to keep writing and reading Space Opera, and hope you will too.
After the space opera panel, like get up and rush downstairs after, I shared a wine/beer/bar talk with Claude Lalumiere; that turned out quite nicely even though not a lot of fans had yet found the bar. A question came up when collector Peter Halasz objected to the concept of public collections of art and collectible science fiction... the topic arising out of my former occupation as Curator of Science Fiction for the UMBC SF Research Collection.
So what do you think: should collections of art and rare literature be ceded to private collectors? Do they do a better job of keeping what's worthwhile than public institution do? Good discussion and I was sorry when the time was up... but then, hey, I ended up back in the same seat not 20 minutes later when Tanya Huff and some others decided that it was too early to sleep and we couldn't find any parties open...
An aside -- Peter Halasz was a treasure on the weekend: witty, intelligent, and even when not on the same side of an idea, very willing to discuss. He was part of several events I was on and helped make them enjoyable for me as well as the audience, I'm sure.
Another question: is gin dead? The hotel bar had no gin, and this is the second or third time I've run into the "no gin here" where alcohol is served. Is vodka taking over? Just as well I mostly drink wine, I guess...
Alas, the blogging panel came off to me as ... bland. Maybe I was tired... the moderator did a good job of trying to keep it moving, but as what seemed to be the only discussion of electronic publications issues at the con it was carrying a lot of freight and couldn't keep up to speed with it.
More about the con as I think it over or get to it... in the meantime, today I updated
the SRM catalog page at http://www.korval.com/srmcat2.htm where I also included a link to the pre-order for our coming holiday chapbook, Dragon Tide, (Adventures in the Liaden Universe #13) ... http://www.korval.com/dragontide1.html.
Also today we confirmed the signing at Childrens Book Cellar in Waterville (10 to noon, Saturday the 27th of October)-- you're all welcome to visit, you know!, were dissuaded from a signing at a college too close to the Watervilel signing, and we agreed to do a talk for a "Writing for Publication" class taught by local SFWA member Jean Ann Pollard near the end of the month.
While I was not collaborating electronically... I was at a con. A good con, as it turns out.
Friday night, having wandered the streets of nearby Montreal much of the afternoon, I was part of a ... Space Opera panel. Later in the weekend I was part of another Space Opera panel. Umm ...and Space Opera just kept coming up, for some reason. In any case, any panel with David Weber will be fun, and if we settled anything at all on these panels is that we're going to keep writing and reading Space Opera, and hope you will too.
After the space opera panel, like get up and rush downstairs after, I shared a wine/beer/bar talk with Claude Lalumiere; that turned out quite nicely even though not a lot of fans had yet found the bar. A question came up when collector Peter Halasz objected to the concept of public collections of art and collectible science fiction... the topic arising out of my former occupation as Curator of Science Fiction for the UMBC SF Research Collection.
So what do you think: should collections of art and rare literature be ceded to private collectors? Do they do a better job of keeping what's worthwhile than public institution do? Good discussion and I was sorry when the time was up... but then, hey, I ended up back in the same seat not 20 minutes later when Tanya Huff and some others decided that it was too early to sleep and we couldn't find any parties open...
An aside -- Peter Halasz was a treasure on the weekend: witty, intelligent, and even when not on the same side of an idea, very willing to discuss. He was part of several events I was on and helped make them enjoyable for me as well as the audience, I'm sure.
Another question: is gin dead? The hotel bar had no gin, and this is the second or third time I've run into the "no gin here" where alcohol is served. Is vodka taking over? Just as well I mostly drink wine, I guess...
Alas, the blogging panel came off to me as ... bland. Maybe I was tired... the moderator did a good job of trying to keep it moving, but as what seemed to be the only discussion of electronic publications issues at the con it was carrying a lot of freight and couldn't keep up to speed with it.
More about the con as I think it over or get to it... in the meantime, today I updated
the SRM catalog page at http://www.korval.com/srmcat2.htm where I also included a link to the pre-order for our coming holiday chapbook, Dragon Tide, (Adventures in the Liaden Universe #13) ... http://www.korval.com/dragontide1.html.
Also today we confirmed the signing at Childrens Book Cellar in Waterville (10 to noon, Saturday the 27th of October)-- you're all welcome to visit, you know!, were dissuaded from a signing at a college too close to the Watervilel signing, and we agreed to do a talk for a "Writing for Publication" class taught by local SFWA member Jean Ann Pollard near the end of the month.
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A lot of bars are not set up to do classic cocktails tho, so they probably skimp on the gin supply. Some "vodkas" are really a light on juniper gin, but getting a drink made with those is likely to encourage them.
Collectors
The biggest problem with private collections is that some collectors are proud to show off what they own, but others are hoarders. Those last acquire only for their own satisfaction and could care less about the rest of us.
There's a logistic problem even with the people who are willing to share.
Unless they are rich enough to have their own museum the general public will get few chances to see the collection. If they even realize it exists.
Re: Collectors
Of course, we haven't reached the point where I can easily read over your shoulder as you turn the pages of your prized volume in the privacy of your home, but we aren't that far from it, either. Of course, you might prefer to have your reading bot turn the pages.
Interesting point. We may end up with open-to-public access collections, open-to-digital access collections, and closed collections (for the true hoarder).
Oh, and on the original question - I'm not sure how funding model, selection model, and access model interact. I suspect that public funding tends to drive archival approaches that grab more stuff and public access, but I've known publicly funded archivists who were prissy in their selection methods and didn't particularly want the grubby public touching their precious volumes. I don't think the question is as simple as private versus public collections.
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No -- if anything, gin is making a comeback. Even moderately good hotel bars stock several brands, and the quality is improving. I note with approval the Mariott Garden Inn in Portsmouth (NH), which stocks Hendricks' and serves it quite nicely. I have no idea what can be happening in Montreal.
Now _Geneva_ gin, that's hard to find. I'm hoping for a return to fashion before my bottle of Bols empties out completely, but...
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I don't generally drink things with gin, but British bars in hotels always seem to have it. Perhaps you should come over here to a convention *g*.
Collections: the only one of which I have personal experience is the Sciene Fiction Foundation (http://www.sf-foundation.org/) in the UK, which is a registered charity. It seems to me that this falls somewhere between the 'public' and 'private' methods, and may be a good compromise model.