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This file from Adra, http://www.mhada.info.
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The following is my notes and observations about a few meetings and conventions that happened recently, or that I expect to happen within the next year or so.
I list an event here because I think it is or ought to be of general interest to people like myself; because I'm a program participant; or for some other reason. (PR, maybe.) Thus this listing is not complete for any topic or region, nor is it a Calendar. It's a collection of expectable meetings whose topics have caught my attention. Some entries here may include links to other sites or to more extended discussion here.
My writings here will usually be saying something about space settlements, and if you don't see some immediate connection to Adra's overall topic, think again. Us humans expanding our domain from local out to the rest of our Solar System, is a large topic. Why it's not happening is a large topic. ...Lots of large topics around here!
I do not know which of these events upcoming I'll attend, beyond the local Arisia and Boskone cons. At my age 78, travelling begins to look like something that, if I'm rational about it, might belong entirely in my past. This reality, taken with other realities of travel in America, adds up to ...a lot. As I write, I can't see how much that turns out to be.
ISDC 2009 in May 28--31. I mention this event because the Omni Orlando Resort Hotel in Championsgate, FL where it was held, is of all the Hotels I've visited, the last I'd want to ever see again. My Hotel experience shows a reverse correlation between room rates and atmosphere, and general goodness of the place to be in. That sure worked for this Omni Orlando Hotel.
Arisia 2010, in Cambridge MA. http://www.arisia.org/, http://2010.arisia.org/. Thursday Jan 15 -- Monday Jan 18. I expect to do a brief reading at this Arisia and to participate in five panels. See my Arisia 2010 notes.
Boskone 2010, in Boston MA. http://www.nesfa.org/. Friday Feb 12 -- Sunday Feb 14. I don't care for the garish and pricey Hotel, but it's a good Con.
Readercon 21 in 2010, in Burlington, Ma. http://www.readercon.org/. Thursday July 8 -- Sunday July 11. This is a Con for readers. In past years it's been an excellent Con to go to. However.
Browsing around cyberspace for Readercon info, I see a story that the 2010 Readercon is reduced to a single track, one-room event. The materials I find in their Web pages (above) don't support this. Thus as I write, I have two different stories, both believable, about what this upcoming Readercon will be like. If you're thinking of going to this one, do your research early on.
The Next HOPE, at the Hotel Pennsylvania in NYC. http://www.thenexthope.org/, or, http://www.hope.net/. Where, HOPE = "Hackers On Planet Earth." The upcoming dates I see are Friday 2010 July 16 thru Sunday July 18.
This event seems to be closely associated with 2600 Magazine. In 2010 early January, I get an impression things around this conference are in process and unsettled yet.
Philcon 2010, in Cherry Hill, NJ. http://2010.philcon.org/, or, http://2009.philcon.org/, or, http://www.philcon.org/. Some time in 2010 October?
While Philcon was held in downtown Philadelphia, I attended it regularly; and every time at Philcon I also visited the Reading Market there. (See down this page.) But Philcon is now moved out to New Jersey, and there seems no simple way to get out from the Philadelphia Amtrak station to this new Philcon site. (I suspect those living in Philadelphia can meet the challenge, but as an outsider I just don't want to get into that stuff.) For which reason I'm pretty sure Reading Market, in the opposite direction from the Amtrak station, is not usably accessible from the new NJ Philcon site. For me, that's too much lost from my Philcon trip as I'd like to do it. Philcon was good in the past but now I'm waiting for its return to Philadelphia, as I hope it does in my time.
Reading Market in downtown Philadelphia. http://www.readingterminalmarket.org/
Philadelphia seems to have accomplished a well-done urban renewal (for counter-example, see downtown Springfield MA). Reading Market started out decades ago in Philadelphia as Reading Terminal, the meeting point of several area transit systems. Apparently, as part of the urban renewal project, it was made over into a very nicely done flea market for foods. Today, Reading Market makes downtown Philadelphia an exceptional place to visit. Certainly I've not seen anything to match it anywhere else.
Venice Beach, outside Los Angeles, is a tourist trap. I love it! I'm ready to return there any time, maybe even permanently. See the Venice Beach Camera at http://www.westland.net/beachcam/. If you're there, right under that white and red striped awning is a nice place for a meal.
Regarding the social character of Venice Beach, some tourist literature makes it a wild place, perhaps even dangerous. This exaggerates how things are there, and I'm not sure that's good PR. Elements of the Venice Beach environment reflect a valuable human reality severely lost from most of today's America. I think it's ok, and I'd like to see much more of it around now. America needs it badly but I don't expect the appropriate social healing to happen in my time.
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