Recently in maryann buzz Category

I’ll be a guest at the science fiction convention Arisia in Boston next weekend, Friday, January 18, through Monday, January 21. I’ll be talking about movies and TV and being a geek (a full schedule of my panels follows after the jump), and I’ll be hosting a room party on Saturday night: expect genteel refreshments; a chance to buy a copy of my book, The Totally Geeky Guide to The Princess Bride, and get it signed by me in person; and other general merriment.

I’ll be around the con the whole weekend: if you can’t find me, check the bar.

Oh, crap, the world is literally falling apart:

How’s a geek to cheer up? LOL cats!

The first book I've shepherded as editor from manuscript to finished book for Cosimo, the boutique publisher I freelance for, has just been published. It's called The Power of Yin, and it's all about the connection between spirituality and feminism and eco-awareness and saving the humans and all that cool geeky stuff. It's a really interesting book, and I know I'm supposed to say things like that, but it's actually true in this case.

More info on the book at the Cosimo Blog.

(Technorati tags: Power of Yin)

According to Technorati, somebody tagged a blog post with my name.

It’s a posting about Doctor Who. Figures.

(Technorati tags: Technorati)

A Technorati tag about Technorati. Shouldn’t that cause the universe to implode or something?

I’m at the science fiction convention Boskone, in Boston, this weekend, Friday through Sunday. Most of my panels are on Saturday, so if you can only attend one day and would like to say hello, that’d be the day to stop by.

My con roommate -- my friend, artist and writer Bonnie-Ann Black -- and I will be hosting a room party on Saturday night. Look for flyers around the hotel announcing the Bronx Babes' Traveling Creative Salon -- that’ll be us.

Of course, the hotel bar is always a good place to look for me, too.

Hope to see you in Boston!

PANELS:

I bought a new pin recently for my bag -- the one I haul all my crap around in everyday, the way we New Yorkers do because we don’t have cars to haul all our crap around in -- because if I’m going to dress like a teenager on a day to day basis, why not go whole hog and extend the motif to my bag? The pin says, “I will not obsess, I will not obsess, I will not obsess,” which I like because, as a geek, I tend to obsess about stuff, and it tends to make me miserable as much as it helps me get all my shit done. I’m the kind of person who can fall into a habit rather quickly and then get stuck in that rut, but once I decide to shuck that habit, I can... and then I find something new to obsess about.

I’d love to say that the reason why Geek Philosophy has been fallow lately is because I’ve been taking a break from it. But that implies a deliberate choice to step back and have a breather, and that is not, in fact, the case. Nope, every night as I collapse into bed for a few brief hours of sleep, one of the last things that crosses my mind before I lapse into unconsciousness is, Oh, crap, I didn’t update Geek Philosophy again.

Pathetic, ain’t it?

Anyway, you can pick and choose, if you like, from the reasons why I haven’t blogged in a while, a hilarious roundup recently at the f blog -- something there will work. Mostly, I’ve just been incredibly tied up with blogging at places where they’re actually paying me to blog, like Film.com -- between that and the usual year-end insanity of being a film critic and keeping FlickFilosopher.com updated, that’d be more than enough. But I’m also working on launching a blog for Cosimo, the boutique print-on-demand publisher where I freelance as an editor. That will be of great interest to geeks, actually, since we geeks love to read. All this week, I’m going to be making suggestions for Cosimo books that make great gifts, so if you’re shopping for a geek on your list -- or for yourself -- check it out.

And I do hope to be back to geek postings very soon...

Here's what I'll be up to at Philcon next weekend:

Fri 9:00 PM in Parlor B (1 hour)
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE FEAR? (262)

Recently, Showtime refused to air the "Masters of Horror" segment filmed by Takaski Miike, because it was too disturbing. What is the purpose of the horror film, if not to disturb? Why does the American film industry equate action with horror? What happened to psychological horror?

Sat 12:00 PM in Salon 10 (1 hour)
REVENGE OF THE BEST FILMS YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF (264)

Our annual look at some of the treasure of genre film and TV that American audiences may be overlooking. Bring your note pad.

Sat 7:00 PM in Parlor B (1 hour)
LOST: JUST SIT RIGHT BACK AND YOU'LL HEAR A TALE... (103)

The Hatch. The Others. Polar bears. Black smoke. Strange visions. Flashbacks. And more coincidences than can be deemed coincidental, all on a small, uncharted island. All of this and more has combined to make LOST one of the most compelling shows on TV today. We’ll examine some of the theories about the show, its plot, and the characters, and see if we can determine what it us that sucks us in every week.

Sun 3:00 PM in Logans 1 (1 hour)
MANSQUITO VS. BOA IN THE ALIEN APOCALYPSE: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SCI-FI CHANNEL? (183)

Are we losing the sci-fi on the Sci-Fi Channel to wrestling and police shows? Discuss with panelists the future trend of the Sci-Fi Channel. Will Friday night programming, shows like Eureka and Sci-Fi Pulse be the answers to save the Channel even after cancelling Stargate SG-1?

I may also be doing a reading from my book The Totally Geeky Guide to The Princess Bride at some point during the weekend, but I haven't heard about a schedule for that yet. But I will be carrying copies of the book around with me all weekend to autograph and sell, so feel free to stop me in the hallways or at a party or wherever if you'd like one.

Man, I never even finished my WorldCon reporting and now more conventions are upon me. I’ll be at Philcon in Philadelphia next weekend, November 17-19, doing panels about science fiction/fantasy film and TV, hanging out at the bar and parties, and generally making a public nuisance of myself. I won’t be hosting a party, alas -- the party rooms were all booked by the time I was invited to the convention -- but I will be carrying around copies of my book The Totally Geeky Guide to The Princess Bride to sell and autograph.

Folks are wondering, in comments for the latest Geek/Dork/Nerd, about how I came to suddenly love Battlestar Galactica after being down on it for so long. Get the story here, in a posting at the new Film.com (I'm one of the site's new regular bloggers.)

Commenting isn't turned on yet at Film.com, so feel free to comment here about the BSG posting...

(Technorati tags: Battlestar Galactica)