Chicon 2000: Progress Report 3, March 1999 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Inside front cover: San Francisco in 2002 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 3 Table of Contents Color Cover Art copyright Bob Eggleton San Francisco ad .............................. 2 Table of contents ............................. 3 Art Credit: Bob Eggleton ...................... 3 Aussiecon Three ad ............................ 4 Thoughts of Chairman Tom....................... 5 Photo credit: Terry Patch ..................... 5 Photo credit: Bob Blackwood ................... 6 Art credit: Mike Cole ......................... 8 Volunteer Form ................................ 8 Interview with Ben Bova ....................... 9 Photo Credit: Bob Blackwood ................... 9 Photo Credit: Bob Blackwood ................... 10 Art Credit: Mike Cole ......................... 11 Timeline: Future Progress Reports ............. 12 In Memoriam: Richard Wright ................... 13 Photo Credit: Michael Citrak .................. 13 Photo Credit: Michael Citrak .................. 14 Art Credit: Mike Cole ......................... 15 In Memoriam: Buck Coulson ..................... 16 Photo Credit: Terry Patch ..................... 16 Facilities Report ............................. 17 Art Credit: Mike Cole ......................... 17 Da Mob: The Unfathomables ..................... 18 Art Credit: Mike Cole ......................... 19 Letters from Chicago: To Jim Baen ............. 20 Photo Credit: Terry Patch ..................... 23 New Memberships ............................... 24 Photo Credits: Bob Blackwood .................. 27 Art Credit: Mike Cole ......................... 27 A Dose of Reality by Bob Eggleton ............. 29 Childcare Information.......................... 28 Art Credit: Mike Cole ......................... 28 Lost Souls .................................... 30 Ad Rates for PR 4 ............................. 30 Toronto in 2003 ad ............................ 31 Public Domain Clip Art Photos of Chicago ...... 17 21, 22, 23 25, 26, 29 Design, editing, and production of this PR were done by Terry Patch (aka WordWitch) on a Power Macintosh 9600/200 using Pagemaker 6.5 and MS Word 5.1. Fonts used: Demian and Demian Bold, Charcoal, and Binner Poster MT. Printed at Davon Press, Fargo ND, and mailed from The Mail Center, Fargo ND. Publisher: Diane Miller Blackwood. Thanks is given for all those who help me to keep up my obligatory mistake count. Thanks are given to the Wizard of Odd for bread and space and much more. Chicon E-mail Infobot address: info@chicon.org; e-mail chi2000@chicon.org and website http://www.chicon.org/ "World Science Fiction Society" "WSFS", "World Science Fiction Convention", "Worldcon", NASFiC", and "Hugo Award" are registered service marks of the World Science Fiction Society, an unincorporated literary society. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 4: Will it be stranger than your imagionation? Aussiecon Three ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 5-7 What's A Worldcon For? Thoughts of Chairman Tom This year the World Science Fiction Convention is 60 years old. Like many institutions, it has grown and has altered vastly in growing, the tree bearing less than an obvious resemblance to the sapling. If anything is nearly certain, it is that none of those who attended (or tried to attend) the first Worldcon foresaw that the convention would become an annual event drawing thousands of fans from around the world and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to cater to their desires. A few of them are still around, and perhaps they remember what they did foresee. For the rest of us, attempting to look at the future of SF conventions through the eyes of overliterate, undersocialized teenagers of the late 1930's is a fascinating intellectual challenge, to which I shall return at the end of this column. More through happenstance than design, the first Worldcon, in New York, was followed by a second, in Chicago, and a third, in Denver. By an immutable law, the third occurrence turned the event into a fannish tradition - a lucky break, since World War II then imposed a four-year hiatus. Curious to note is that this original succession precisely foreshadowed the current East-Central-West zone rotation system. The unimaginative will regard that fact as a mere coincidence. But, in this conspiratorial age, who is so naive as to believe that coincidences arise of their own accord? The revived Worldcon, held in Los Angeles, took place a few months before I was born, so I won't favor you with my personal reminiscences. In fact, my recollections of the next several years' cons are slightly blurry. Accounts by those with more acute memories agree, however, that the World Science Fiction Conventions of the 40's and 50's and early 60's were intimate affairs. According to the canonical statistics, 190 fans showed up for the legendary Nolacon I (New Orleans, 1951), site of fan history's most famous party, and the 870 attendees at TASFiC (Chicago, 1952) set a record that was not broken, and rarely approached, for 15 years. Then came Tricon (Cleveland, 1966), to which a reported 850 fans repaired, tied for the largest attendance since TASFiC and well above the recent trend line. Just why Cleveland drew what then seemed like an anomalously large crowd, I don't know. The cause may have been nothing more than pent-up demand in the Midwest, which hadn't seen a Worldcon in four years. Whatever the cause, the unusually high attendance at Tricon changed fannish history. Well, maybe it didn't. The ensuing train of events was arguably inevitable. But, in this age of spin doctoring, who is so naive as to believe that inevitable events happen of their own accord? One of Tricon's special events was a presentation by a little-known Hollywood producer - his previous series, "The Lieutenant", was as obscure then as it is now - of the pilot for his next effort, called "Star Trek". At the conclusion of the episode, the film room erupted with a standing ovation. And next year's Worldcon drew 1,500. The days of the small Worldcon, where every fan knew every other one (or at least exchanged ishes with them), were over for good. Was that a Good Thing? There is a school of fannish snobbery that shouts, NO!, and a school of fannish anti-snobbery that shouts, YES!! The chairman of the 1967 Worldcon famously berated Gene Roddenberry for having "exploited" fandom at Tricon. He didn't, however, do anything visible to counter the impact of that exploitation on his own Worldcon, and not one of his successors, so far as I know, ever took a single step to reduce the presence of "fringe fans" and return the convention to its small-scale roots. So the Worldcon "just growed". Speeches by whichever pros happened to be in attendance developed into a twenty-track program. Displays of black-and-white prints, leavened with bargain-priced paintings by artists who needed to pay tomorrow's rent, transmogrified into the world's largest science fiction and fantasy art exhibition. A few guys selling back issue fanzines became 200-plus tables of SF book dealers and ancillary hucksters. The "masquerade ball" - fans wearing funny costumes - inspired what is now an independent art form. When I first got involved in Worldcon running, in the early 1980's, a few pundits anticipated, with either glee or loathing, that the convention would soon be attracting ten or twenty thousand people. The basis for their forecast was the "mainstreaming" of SF. Once it was "a proud and lonely thing to be a fan". Now, albeit on the most superficial level, fans are everywhere. Glance at what your seat mate on the plane or bus or train is reading. The chances are good that it's a science fiction or fantasy novel. With so many readers (not to mention the even larger horde of movie goers and TV watchers), with so much attention to the genre, how could science fiction's premier event fail to be at least as popular as, say, the National Square Dancing Convention? Those hopes and fears did not come to pass. Since 1980 Worldcons have remained in the 5,000 to 7,000 thousand range, with deviations on the high end (L.A. Con II) and the low end (most overseas Worldcons) explicable by special circumstances. Arrival at this plateau suggests that an equilibrium has been reached among countervailing forces. But it is not easy to figure out why. The first difficulty is to discern what the consistency in attendance really represents. There are, broadly speaking, three possibilities: 1. Both the "pool" of potential attendees and the percentage of that pool that go to any particular Worldcon have remained stable over the past 20 years. 2. The pool has been growing, due to generally increasing public interest in science fiction and fantasy, but the Worldcon-attending percentage has declined, due either to inept publicity or a more-or-less conscious decision by Worldcon committees to shun the less "hard core" SF audience. 3. The pool has been shrinking, as fandom grows less open to additions to its ranks, but, as the remaining fans grow older and more affluent, a higher percentage have the leisure and money to travel to Worldcons. [photo] Chairman Tom, Director of Publications Diane Miller Blackwood, and Associate Chair Becky Thomson view the art work for this issue's cover. The first hypothesis is the simplest but the least plausible. Too much has happened in two decades, both in the small world of science fiction and the larger world in which the science fiction world exists, to make it believable that the factors pointing toward and away from going to the Worldcon have mysteriously balanced out, resulting an unchanging potential audience with an unchanging propensity to attend. Let us begin with the second half of the equation. Supposing that someone has the characteristics, whatever those may be, that make him susceptible to Worldcons; have developments since 1980 made him more or less likely to go? A number of factors quickly come to mind on the "more likely" side. The country has grown more prosperous, and SF fans have grown more prosperous to a disproportionate extent, thanks in large part to the emergence of computer programming as a well-paid vocation that attracts people with the stereotypical "fannish" personality. Furthermore, the World Science Fiction Convention is a better known event than it used to be. Growing up as a voracious SF reader in the 1960's, I barely knew what it was. I doubt that many enthusiastic, or even moderate, readers suffer comparable ignorance today. Then, too, convention going of all types has increased markedly, and the expansion and improvement of convention-oriented facilities have made the experience more attractive and pleasant. There are, naturally, a few considerations on the other side. Fans may have more money, but many of them also have less leisure, not only because their jobs are more demanding but also because more of them have family responsibilities. Also of importance, but hard to weigh on one side or the other, is the skill and energy that concomms put into publicizing the event. If there had been any noteworthy improvement or decline over the years in this regard, it would doubtless have drowned out all of the other factors alluded to above. But here change is so far from noteworthy as to be undetectable. Once in a while, a Worldcon committee tries some new technique for spreading the word, but those efforts are sporadic and marginal. More often, the concomm is lax in pursuing traditional means, which usually leads to some fall-off in attendance, though no one has so far managed to do a truly wretched job. Attendance in the low end of the standard range is often due more to economic conditions and geography than to any failure of publicity. All in all, the available data, scanty and underanalyzed though they are, suggest that the propensity to attend Worldcons has been rising. From the general stability in attendance, one infers that the pool of potential attendees must be shrinking, a conclusion that, taken in isolation, sounds alarming. To decide whether it really is, one must look more closely at the Worldcon "audience". Conventions come in many shapes and colors, and mere interest in the subject matter is not necessarily sufficient to draw someone into the attendance pool. Relatively few medieval historians (I suspect) contemplate for an instant heading off to gatherings of the Society for Creative Anachronism. About an equal proportion of SCA'ers consider signing up for academic conferences on Medieval Studies. There is almost as wide a range of people with an "interest" in science fiction and fantasy. For most, SF is another form of light entertainment, one of the branches of what is commonly called "popular culture". There's nothing wrong with that. As Bob Eggleton pointed out in our last issue, popular culture is popular because it is vibrant and alive. Being "entertaining" is not some shameful deformity; it is the first duty of authors and artists and even auteurs. Nevertheless, the broad popular audience is not a promising recruiting ground for a convention like the Worldcon, which is more expensive than rival entertainments, features few star turns and devotes the bulk of its daily program to "talking heads" - often talking about recondite subject matter. The group that can enjoy what a Worldcon actually does is, one can safely hypothesize, that fraction of readers and art fanciers and film buffs to whom science fiction goes beyond being "just" entertainment. The original cadre of fans, whose zeal to talk about and read about and write about science fiction (and often nothing much else) gave rise to fandom, fell preeminently into that category. Nowadays only a minuscule proportion of the people who go to Worldcons share the SF zeal of a Sam Moskowitz or a Forrest J. Ackerman, but the great majority do find in science fiction a deeper delight than the mere thrill of turning with the next plot twist or gazing vicariously at cataclysmic special effects and exotic local color. That is why they care about such arcana as fidelity to real or extrapolated science and consistent logic in fantasy, issues that are of minimal importance to the surface reader or viewer. It is also why they want to learn how literary and artistic and media magicians pull off their magic tricks, to appreciate the skills by which an author first pulls a rabbit out of a hat, then reveals that the real point is what is in the hat worn by that rabbit. Finally, it is why they are interested in the materials that science fiction and fantasy quarry for building blocks: science, folklore, religion and the like. If such is the segment of society to which Worldcons appeal, the shrinkage of the convention's base is not surprising. Serious thought (outside the work place, where economic necessity compels intellectual awareness) is palpably on the decline throughout the civilized world. This is not the place to marshal evidence for that proposition or to debate why such a descent has occurred. The clearest evidence is that the defenders of current cultural trends hardly ever defend the quality of what they champion; instead, they labor to obfuscate the distinction between the serious and the trivial. Still, one should not be full of gloom and despair. General trends do not cover a multitude of specific cases. The fact that the World Science Fiction Convention survives and flourishes demonstrates that the kind of deeply interested and serious (which patently does not mean solemn, pompous, petty or dull) devotee to which it appeals is nowhere near extinction. Perhaps fifty years hence, it will be, but I find it hard to be that much of a pessimist. And now, lest the last couple of paragraphs sail too near to being solemn, pompous, petty and dull, let me conclude on a lighter note. Imagine, if you will, that the members of the first Worldcon had taken up their typewriters and pens and hectograph stencils to record their predictions of what the event would be like in 60 years' time. What would they have said? Enter the contest on page 8 and tell us! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 8 Contest!! Veal's Deal! Send us one of those prophecies that could have been indited sixty years ago. There is no limit on the number of words! The deadline is June 15, 1999 We will print the most amusing and enlightening submissions in PR number four. Judging and any additional prizes are in the sole and arbitrary discretion of the chairman of Chicon. Come on!!! There must be a few fen out there who haven't lost the knack of thinking like overliterate, undersocialized kids! Volunteer Form Please complete this form as fully as possible, and re-turn it to Chicon 2000, Attention: Volunteer Coordina-tor, P.O. Box 642057, Chicago, Illinois 60664. Alternatively, you can e-mail the information to volunteers@chicon.org. Please bear in mind that most positions at the convention will not be filled immediately, so you shouldn't be surprised or offended if you hear nothing more for a while. Name ___________________________________________________________________ Address ___________________________________________________________________ City ______________ State/Country __________Zip______ Phone _________________ E-Mail___________________ Date of Birth _______________________ (optional unless you were born after August 31, 1982. Note: Anyone who will be under 18 at Chicon must have parental permission to work on the convention.) YOUR AREAS OF INTEREST: Check the areas in which you are most interested, and attach a description of your pertinent fannish and other experience. [_] Accounting [_] Advertising Sales [_] Art Show [_] Computer Services [_] Con Suite [_] Daily Newszine [_] Dances [_] Dealers' Room [_] Facilities Liaison [_] Fan Organization Liaison [_] Fanzine Lounge [_] Films [_] Gaming [_] Green Room [_] Guest Liaison [_] Guest of Honor book(s) [_] Handicapped Services [_] Hugo Award Admin. [_] Hugo Award Ceremony [_] Information Desk [_] Internet Lounge [_] Legal/Tax Matters [_] Logistics [_] Masquerade [_] Office (at-con) [_] Office (pre-con) [_] Operations [_] Pocket Program Editorial [_] Pocket Program Production [_] Press Relations [_] Pro Organization Liaison [_] Program Book [_] Program Operations [_] Program Planning [_] Progress Reports [_] Publicity [_] Purchasing/Procurement [_] Registration (at-con) [_] Registration (pre-con) [_] Restaurant Guide [_] Security [_] Signmaking [_] Special Exhibits [_] Staff Lounge [_] Technical Support [_] Theatrical Events [_] Treasury [_] Volunteer/gopher coordination [_] Web Site [_] Worldcon Site Selection [_] WSFS Business Meeting ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 9-12 An Interview with the Author Guest of Honor by Jeremy Bloom Ben Bova [photo] Ben Bova's new non-fiction book explores one of the most exciting scientific arenas that just a few years ago was the exclusive domain of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Immortality. In it, the multiple-award winning author, editor, scientist and Chicon 2K GOH takes a look at the breakthroughs in medical science that may soon allow people to recover fully from even major illness and injuries, neverage, and with luck avoid death completely. Bova believes some of us alive today may never have to die, and considering how the ranks of SF's grand masters have been thinning, that's a very good thing. I asked if he considers that he himself may have a shot at being among that elite group. Bova: I think I may be on the cusp. If the research goes fast enough, I could hang in there and get to do it. J.B.: In 66 years of life, you've seen some major changes in the world, from the development of RADAR and nuclear weapons in WWII to the cold war and the space race, and now the advent of tiny computers, biotech, nanotech, and the Y2K problem. What would you say was the most significant change? Bova: The biggest was the advent of nuclear power. It obviously changed world politics. Atomic bombs ended WWII and saved millions of American and Japanese lives. And then the atomic bomb fostered a stalemate in the cold war for nearly half a century. That probably prevented WWIII. With nuclear weapons, both East and West feared going to war directly. When you stop to think that WWII ostensibly began over control of the city of Danzig, and WWI began over the assassination of an Archduke who wasn't even in the line of succession.... The US and USSR both had wonderful excuses to go to war. But they steered clear. Nuclear weapons prevented global catastrophe - but it was a real tightrope path. J.B.: And we went into other forms of rivalry, like the space race. Bova: The space race was really a front. What happened was this: In the 1950s the USSR was developing long-range ballistic missiles. The US was not, thanks to our wonderful scientific advisors from MIT who said that making long-range missiles was impossible.The scientists in the Soviet Union said the same thing to Stalin, and Stalin said "I don't care. Build them." So the Soviet engineers went out and built rockets that worked. Then American intelligence woke up to the fact that the Russians were flying missiles over 5,000 mile test-ranges. So then there was a secret crash program. During the Hungarian revolt in 1956, Krushchev had sent telegrams to every capital in Europe, saying, "Don't intervene; we have rockets that can reach your cities."A year later, Krushchev decided to use space as a means of advertising - to a disbelieving world - that the Russians really had those rockets. Sputnik was an advertisement that said "We have missiles that can drop a hydrogen bomb down your chimney." The US was desperate to show that we could do the same thing, and in our inefficient capitalist way we made a bumbling start, and then finally under Kennedy we got some direction - to go to the Moon. J.B.: And you started with the space program in the pre-NASA days. Bova: I never worked directly with NASA. Early on, I worked with what was then the Glen. L. Martin Company, subsequently Martin-Marietta and now Lockheed-Martin. In 1956, Martin was building the launcher for what was supposed to be the world's first artificial satellite, the Vanguard. It turned out to be the third, after Sputnik and Explorer I. We finally launched on St. Patrick's Day, 1958. I'm sitting here beside a scale model of that incredibly flimsy rocket. J.B.: I understand you took some of your engineering colleagues to your first Worldcon? Bova: That was 1957, I believe, in NYC. I dragged the two top engineers from the Vanguard project to talk to the assembled SF community about REALLY going into space, which was what we were doing. And unfortunately, the first thing we saw was Forrest J. Ackerman with a giant poster for Famous Monsters of Hollywood. And they turned tail, and I had to literally grab them by their coattails to keep them from running out. They ended up on the panel with Arthur Clark and Willy Ley, and really loved it. But science fiction has many faces, and one of those faces nearly queered the deal. J.B.: It is a big tent. Bova: With many holes in it. J.B.: You were also involved in promoting defenses against those rockets. Bova: Yes. For many years I worked with a research lab that did pioneering work on re-entry physics, and then went on to invent high-powered lasers that ultimately broke the back of the cold war by providing the possibility of a defense against ballistic missiles. J.B.: ...another thing you had predicted in a story. Bova: Yeah, in my Novel Millennium, in 1976. In 1966, I arranged the first top-secret briefing in the Pentagon, to tell our military that lasers of virtually any power could be built. Our lab did the basic work, understanding the physics. From then on it was just engineering. J.B.: But there has always been that corollary of the missile gap: what you might call "the engineering gap". The time it takes between the knowledge, and the ability to put it into practice. Bova: I would call it a political gap. Because it's the political decisions that tell the engineers what to do. J.B.: Like the difference between Truman's and Stalin's orders to their engineers. Bova: Exactly. [photo: Ben Bova chatting with Albert Berger] J.B.: And on the subject of immortality, there's a major political gap. Bova: When I was writing "Immortality", I saw that all through history, whenever there was a major medical breakthrough, it was first met with cries of disbelief, and then cries of "We've never done that before, so it must be wrong." Organ transplants, as late as the 1960s, were met by cries of "They're playing God. This person's heart is giving out, he's supposed to die." Even lightning rods. Churchmen strongly believed that lightning was god's way of showing displeasure, and putting up a lightning rod was a satanic way to avoid God's wrath. Churches in New England were among the last places to put up lightning rods, and for a while the ONLY buildings being hit by lightning were the churches! All those nice tall steeples, with no lightning rods.... So the churchmen had to change their opinion about why lightning struck. Cotton Mather, that fierce Puritan preacher, inoculated his son against smallpox, and was roundly castigated by the other preachers for trying to avoid the wrath of God. To try to avert the wrath of God was wrong - someone even threw a bomb into Cotton Mather's house. Every time you take an aspirin, you're playing God. Every time you put a Bandaid over a cut to avoid infection, you're preventing the natural course, and playing God. J.B.: Are you a believer? Bova: No. J.B.: You were raised Catholic. Bova: That's why I'm not a believer. J.B.: You and the Pope have major areas of disagreement. Bova: The Pope hasn't said anything about immortality. But he did come out against cloning. And somebody in the Vatican even said that clones wouldn't have souls - either the result of lunacy, or watching too many bad science fiction movies. How can anybody say whether a creature has a soul or not? J.B.: Do you see this as being an issue that will possibly lead to violence? Bova: Possibly. The issue is real right now, in that some of the research requires human fetal tissue, and there's a government ban. So that research is being supported privately - which means the corporations that support it will have the rights to the results. J.B.: So the government is missing the boat? Bova: Worse, they will end up having to sue the companies to break their monopolies, spending money on lawyers instead of on research. J.B.: In your novel Moonwar, you write about a similar problem when nanotech has become feasible, and is the subject of witch hunts. Bova: There are real fears about nanotech, and I share them. You could make some very nasty bugs that would be truly weapons of mass destruction. But I don't think banning it is the answer. J.B.: And the technology to do that doesn't exist yet... Bova: No. But wait ten years. Technology just keeps on going. Banning is one of the first things people think of. "I don't like it, so let's pass a law." But that won't stop it. The world doesn't work that way. In my novels, I use the Moon as a far away place to show that even when you ban it, technology can be developed elsewhere, where the law doesn't apply. As far as I know, there is still a law on the books in Boston, banning people from holding hands on a public street. J.B.: Sounds like a good idea. That stuff might lead to dancing.... What other predictions have you seen come to fruition? Bova: One of the things that I predicted in a couple of early stories was the idea of virtual reality - the idea that with computers and electronics, you could create a real-seeming hallucination. That was "The Next Logical Step." It appeared in Analog in May, 1962. J.B.: When computers were the size of hotel rooms. Bova: Yeah. J.B.: Could you have foreseen a palmtop computer? Bova: Sure, I wrote about that. I foresaw small portable computers - to the point that you could actually have a direct implant as an extension of your brain. J.B.: ... Which would make crashes much more frustrating. Would you want a Microsoft product in your head? Bova: Sure. J.B.: You would trust Bill Gates that far? Bova: Why not. Who else you gonna trust? [artwork - winged lady] J.B.: You've also written about the prospect of space tourism. Do you see that coming in your lifetime? Bova: Well, if the work I see coming to fruition in "Immortality" comes soon enough, my lifetime may be long enough to get to Alpha Centauri. J.B.: Did John Glenn's return to space encourage you? Bova: I don't think I needed encouragement - I'd love to go. I do think it was a wonderful piece of public relations for NASA. And it showed you don't have to be a tough young jet jockey - you can be an actor or a journalist, or an old jet jockey. J.B.: In a way, science fiction has been providing good PR for NASA for years. Can you point to any one SF book or film that has made a real difference? Bova: The impact on the world has been very subtle. I think SF has influenced a lot of kids to get into science, and then they have changed the world. But I don't see any direct effect from any one book or film - with one exception, perhaps. In the 1950s George Pal made a film with Robert Heinlein called "Destination Moon." That hit with the impact of Star Wars at the time, with people lining up around the block. That film, I think, prepared the general public for the idea that going to the Moon was practical. Everything they did was wrong, as far as the actual technology that NASA ended up using, but it showed that the technology was doable, it wasn't fantasy. And I think that prepared the way for Kennedy, and for the public acceptance of his decision. J.B.: Do you think if friendly aliens ever show up on our doorstep, films like ET will have helped to create a public acceptance? Bova: No, I doubt it. I don't think those aliens will be anything like ET. J.B.: ...even so, in the way that Pal's rocket's were all wrong, but still helped the psychological preparation? That we're not alone? Bova: I see what you mean. I don't know... those films are so fantastic, so out of touch with reality. ET was really about an alien truck driver who didn't understand what was really going on. Watching a truck driver stumble across a landscape isn't Science Fiction. An SF novel would have begun at the point where Spielberg ended the movie - what happens when he gets inside the spacecraft, THAT is science fiction. J.B.: I understand you may have some interesting things happening on the media side of SF yourself... Bova: The novel Mars is in development with Columbia-Tri Star. Whether anything comes of that... There are also people looking at developing a TV series based on Orion, and also a series based on Sam Gunn. That would be fun - sort of a "Maverick" in space. But of course, nothing may come of any of this. I cannot predict what Hollywood will do.. J.B.: What are you travel/convention plans over the next year? Bova: I'm not really that big a convention-goer. I write. Going to a Worldcon takes up a lot of writing time. I do go to local conventions here in Florida, where I can drive up on Friday and come home on Saturday. And if I'm invited as guest of honor I'm too embarrassed to say no. [He'll be GOH at Millenicon in Cincinnati March 19-20, and ConVersion in Calgary July 23-25]. I'll be in London for the British release of Return to Mars in mid-June. And I intend to go to Australia, largely because I love Australia. I'll probably show up at Chicago. [laughs]. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 12, bottom Time Line for Future Progress Reports * Progress Report 4 to be issued in August 1999, deadline 30, Jun, 1999 * Progress Report 5 to be issued in January 2000, deadline 30, Nov, 1999 * Progress Report 6 to be issued in April 2000, deadline 29, Feb, 2000 * Progress Report 7 to be issued in July 2000, deadline 30, May, 2000 A note about the Progress Reports and the web site: all of the articles printed in the PRs will be incorporated into the web site under the appropriate department headings. We also have the complete original text of each PR available on-line in a plain ascii text file and/or a pdf file, but please remember that older PRs may contain out-of-date information. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 13-16 Richard Wright May 26, 1943 Dec 26, 1998 [photo] Goodbye to an Old Friend by Tom Veal Richard Wright, a friend for over twenty years and one of the best known Pacific Northwest science fiction fans, died unexpectedly last weekend. A coroner's inquest determined that death was due to natural causes. Ironically, the heart problems that necessitated quadruple bypass surgery several months ago apparently played no role in Richard's passing. Richard was not only a personal friend (I am one of the few who knew him when he was young and thin and had hair) but an early and enthusiastic supporter of the Chicago in 2000 bid. Had the race come down to a vote, he would have been a strong influence in our favor among Seattle fandom. He volunteered very early to help with the convention, and his assistance will be missed. He and I had worked together many times before, notably at MagiCon, where he was my principal assistant for site selection balloting, and at Bucconeer, where he was one of the con office supervisors. He always worked diligently and intelligently, and his calming personality helped defuse many of the tensions of a hyperactive Worldcon weekend. Northwest fandom will remember Richard as one of the pillars of Norwescon and the Northwest Science Fiction Society. All who have followed the fortunes of those institutions will agree that, as the last of their founders to remain active in local fandom, he provided both the continuity and the leadership needed to meet the challenges of a turbulent era. He was most recently a leader of the Seattle in 2002 Worldcon bid, which was so unfortunately derailed by hotel intransigence. When I last spoke to him (at SMOFCon, where he looked healthy in body and was certainly more than healthy in spirit), he was undiscouraged by this setback and was looking forward to a new Seattle Worldcon or NASFiC bid. Richard was, to my knowledge, the fourth member of Chicon to die. As an amateur actuary, I should like to point out that our mortality rate is below what would be expected in an average population of the same size and composition. But the fact that others have not died does not diminish the sadness over the loss of those who have. I ask those of you who pray to remember Richard in your oblations and those of you who do not to commemorate him in some way that will do him ease and grace. Flowers for Richard It's hard to describe my sense of loss at this news. It's just so difficult to believe that a person so full of life could be taken so suddenly. Of all the people I've ever met in Fandom, Richard has always been the most sincerely inspired and truest to his ideals. And he's always been a true friend in every significant meaning of the term. I know I will miss his generous spirit, his kind words and gentle humor for the rest of my life. In many ways he was the best of what we're all about. There's a lot more to think about and to say. Just not right now. Larry Baker That first year that Norma and I were putting together Radcon, Richard helped us more in about two conversations than about any other person. He just smiled and listened to our harebrained schemes and pointed out things we hadn't thought of but most of all he believed we could do it. Edgar and Norma Barrett-Lincoln I know Deborah feels the same as I about the tremedous loss of Richard Wright. He was a great friend and an influence and guiding light as us "East Siders" bid for and plan for Westercon 52. Deborah and Daron Fredericks There are few people in fandom who mean more to me than Richard. I know I'm not alone here. Mary Higdon Ever since I heard about Richard's death, I have been trying to think what to say about him. It isn't easy to put two decades of Northwest history in one or two paragraphs. This evening, I was paging through my e-mail files from this year's MosCon and found a message from Richard that really says it all: "I will be pleased to do those panels for you." ... "I will be pleased to help you." Richard was always willing to lend a helping hand. Whether it was doing panels for a convention, offering advice to those of us foolish enough to try starting our own conventions (yes, back in the Dark Ages, I got some of my first lessons on attending conventions, running conventions, and fandom from Richard -- all at the same Norwescon), pitching in to help someone out in a crisis, comparing notes on how to run our conventions better, or throwing the best party around, Richard was always there for his friends. His enthusiasm, his wide knowledge and experience, and especially his friendship will be greatly missed. Vicki Mitchell [photo] It's difficult for me to imagine NW Fandom without him. George Nyhen Richard Wright was a key member in the search for a second Seattle Worldcon. His willingness to spend his time and money was a big reason why the bid almost made it in 2002. The parties held in his room, his schmoozing with SMOFs (and anyone else who would listen), and his enthusiasm made Seattle a player in the Worldcon selection process. He has left a hole in Northwest fandom that will be impossible to fill. Pat Porter In addition to the science fiction credentials Tom mentions, Richard was a key player in organizing the Seattle Artemis Society and played many roles in the Northwest Science Fiction Society and its regional convention, Norwescon, including serving as chairman of both the society and the convention for many years. Richard was the first business manager for NWSFS, and taught me most of what I know about how to organize and run a non-profit corporation. So all members of Artemis Society International have unknowingly benefited from his dedication and wisdom. He worked in the Boeing Information Systems department for several decades, and was among my mentors in using computer technology for team communication. His passing is a great loss, indeed. Even if you didn't know Richard, please take a moment to reflect on the fact that everything we do builds on those who have come before us. We stand on the shoulders of titans, and Richard Wright certainly earned his place among those titans. Greg Bennett Richard Wright was loved by so many of us in the Pacific Northwest SF community for many reasons, but perhaps the foremost was his welcoming nature. He went out of his way to make people feel at home in our community, whether new to the area or to fandom, or literally born into our group. Richard supported SF fandom in its diversity, at local, regional, and national and international levels. As an administrator and guide to decades of neofen, he encouraged fellow enthusiasts to create clubs, conventions, and friendships which promoted not just the interests of the moment, but an enthusiasm for the possibilities of our lives and our futures. His appreciation of speculative literature, fantasy and SF art, and creative gaming was infectious -- Richard enjoyed many ways of having fun, but even more he enjoyed introducing others to those same joys of life. Those introductions could equally well take the form of guiding first-time convention planners through the maze of concerns they needed to be made aware of, to pointing out the subtle artistic touches which contributed to his and friends' enjoyment of Disney World rides, when he vacationed with us just a few weeks ago. Despite his recent medical problems, Richard never lost his joy in life. He was both an administrator and a Romantic, a serious student of the history of speculative literature who delighted in costume and spectacle, and a dear friend to many, many people. They, including us, will miss him terribly. Leroy and Susan Berven NW fandom will miss one of the most helpful, friendly and encouraging people that we ever had and I will miss a mentor and a friend. Richard has meant so very much to so many that the hole left from his passing will never be filled. Bobbie DuFault My fondest memories of Richard was that when I went to my first con (Norwescon 7) he taught me the Time Warp and Paradise by the Dashboard Lights. He was my first con friend.. I'll never forget his goofy smile and his warm hugs.. Sheila Green I knew Richard for many years, enough so I am not sure when I first met him... it might have been at Norwescon 1, for all I know. He struck me from the very beginning as a caring person, one who would be willing to put another's interests before his own. That impressed me. He later impressed me with his knowledge of conventions and fannish politics (and his love for art), and I looked to him more than once for input in those areas. To list all that he did for Northwest fandom will take someone far more astute than I; for me to tell of what he meant to me would take better words than I'm capable of writing. I'm going to miss him a lot, of that I am sure. And I won't be alone. Jon Gustafson While having strong opinions, he was never contentious and worked for consensus and the good of fandom. He will be sorely missed by all fandom. His behind-the-scenes advice and mentoring helped both con coms and individuals. During the 10 years we have been in the area, we came to value him as a friend. Conrad & Jane Larsen - Lady Jayne's Books. [artwork - man in vest studying globe] I will remember Richard for the enthusiasm, dedication and energy that he brought to fandom. His loss is a blow to us all but his life should inspire us to his level of achievement. 'Til the next party my friend. Dave Quackenbusch When I think of Richard, I remember his warmth, caring, and supportive hugs. To say that I will miss him is inadequate. I loved him. Jodi Scanlon Richard was one of the best. We need to keep him in our hearts. Hold on to and continue the many good things he did, so that his memory will be with us for as long as we all are around. I also remember him as Jodi did. Michael Scanlon Many people may have heard the strange tale of the 1995 NASFiC site selection election held at the 1992 Worldcon in Orlando. Richard Wright was an unsung hero of that strange election. When a "snap" election became necessary, he stepped in and volunteered to assist me running the site selection table as he previously had been doing for that year's Worldcon site selection. It was only because of him quietly taking charge of the "grunt work" of keeping site selection running that I was able to deal with the more-visible issues of the strange circumstances of that election, where a write-in bid for the median strip of Interstate 95 finished second, ahead of one of the "real" candidates, and giving the eventual winner (Atlanta) a serious challenge. Richard's very valuable contribution as my assistant has been, until now, overlooked, but not unappreciated by me. It was because of his good work and quiet competence in Orlando that I asked him to be one of my two assistants running the 1998 Worldcon site selection in Glasgow. He took all of the morning shifts, allowing me and Tim Illingworth to cover our other jobs as officers of the WSFS Business Meeting. His dedication contributed to a well-organized and uneventful election. Richard and I were often in opposite camps for site selection purposes, due to the fact that fate (and WSFS and Westercon rules) conspire to have Seattle and San Francisco oppose each other for Worldcons and Westercons. This political opposition was never personal, and we always remained friends. I'm sorry we won't have the chance to work together again. Kevin Standlee In reviewing one of my articles of a somewhat sensitive nature for the 1993 Westercon committee-zine "Voice of the Clam," he was able to look at a sentence and realize how to reword it slightly so as to keep the essential message while changing the tone to be far less abrasive. Roger Wells Editor's note: This is what fandom is all about: people. Honoring those we love, loving in a way that mundanes will never understand. Richard exemplified that kind of love, what Rogers called "unconditional positive regard" and the world seems just a little bit colder for the lack of Richard's shining smile and healing hugs. I too will miss him greatly; he was my big brother (and a whole year older!) and what I owe him could never be paid in this lifetime. The advice and support and help he gave me when I needed it the most should be passed on to others, a living legacy of his love and committment to Fandom, so my flower to him is that I will pass it on. Terry Fowler Patch ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 16, bottom Buck Coulson May 12, 1928 February 19, 1999 [photo] by Gene DeWeese Anyone with less discipline -- or stubbornness, he would probably say -- would've been dead a decade or two ago. One of his standard jokes was that he scared life insurance salesmen away by answering "Yes" to what the salesmen intended as a multiple choice question about what diseases he suffered from. In addition to adult-onset diabetes and lifelong asthma, he had two heart attacks, but, according to his doctor, his heart was in better shape the second time, largely because he had had the good sense to, among other things, pay attention to Juanita and her constant strict monitoring of his diet, not only at home but at the hundreds of cons they attended. He long had the reputation -- often purposely cultivated -- of being the ultimate fannish curmudgeon. It started, I suspect, because he was simply the most honest person I've ever known and didn't suffer fools easily. And he didn't hesitate to let you know, as I found out on a couple of occasions when he thought, quite rightly, that I'd slipped into that category. But I wouldn't trade the last half century of friendship with him for anything, from the days of the two-headed Thomas Stratton in EISFA and Yandro to the U.N.C.L.E. novels we resurrected him for and the hundreds of miniature golf games back when he and Juanita and my wife Bev and I seemed to spend almost every weekend together. I just wish it could've gone on a few more years -- although I'm sure he'd be the first to grouse about such maudlin sentimentality. He'd probably shorten up a few of the preceding sentences, too. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 17 [artwork - lady with swordfish tail] Facilities by Dina S. Krause Our Hotels, the Hyatt Regency Chicago (our main hotel), the Swissotel, and the Fairmont are all very excited about us and we are all working together. We have decided NOT to use a Housing Bureau and you will be able to make your own arrangements with the hotels. We will however be coordinating the rooms and suites for the parties. Reservations will be able to be made about 8-10 months out from the convention (about Jan. 2000), at which time ALL the rates and other pertinent info will be available. Please do not try to make reservations before then, as the hotels will not be ready to take your reservations at the conventions rates until then. [photo - Chicago at night] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 18-19 Da Mob: the Unfathomables Please note that it's still early and positions, titles and duties are subject to change. Without notice. Send in your volunteer application and fannish resume so we can assimilate you. You can see that we have a number of places open, so step forth before we have to go raid the graveyard again! (vote early and vote often!) Office of the Chairman Chairman Tom Veal Associate Chairmen Mike Jencevice, Becky Thomson Budget Director Bruce Farr Committee Secretary Terry Patch Worldcons Liaison Yoel Attiya Guest of Honor Liaison Kelley Higgins Staff Dave Ratti General Counsel Administration Division Director Brendan Lonehawk Information Systems Director Rick Waterson Insurance Internal Communications Mail Room Procurement Sponsorships Jackie Paciello At-Con Office Condiments Division Director John Donat Committee/Staff Lounge Con Suite Joan Palfi Sketches and Skits Filking Jan DiMasi Film Program Dave Hoshko Video Program Anime Program Gaming Internet Lounge Ben Liberman Special Media Projects Liaison Glen Boettcher Convention Services Division Director Bill Krucek Assistant Director Madrene Bradford Gopher Chiefs Communications Operations Logistics Security Volunteers Secure Storage Signage Terry Patch Headquarters Jim Green Events Division Director Kathleen Meyer Kathleen's Second Kt FitzSimmons Opening Ceremonies Hugo Award Ceremony Carol Lynn Other Award Ceremonies Closing Ceremonies Masquerade Nancy Mildebrandt Receptions Dramatic Presentations Alice Medenwald Dances Exhibits Division Director Bill Roper Assistant Director Bonnie Jones Art Show - Manager Todd Cameron Hamilton Associate Manager Michael Fortner Art Auctions Print Shop Dealers' Room Manager Larry Smith Assistant Manager Sally Kobee Autographing Concourse/Standing Exhibits Dick Smith, Leah Zeldes Smith Sales to Members Offworld Designs (Ray and Barb VanTilburg) Facilities Division Facilities Liaison Dina Krause Member-Hotel Liaison Staff-Hotel Liaison Hyatt-Regency Jill Eastlake Staff Pat Vandenberg, Bridget Boyle Staff-Hotel Liaison Fairmont Maria Pavlac Labor Union Liaison Meetings Coordinator FIAWOL Division Director Donald Eastlake III Fan Program Fan History Fan/Bid Tables Fanzine Lounge Hugo Awards Administrator Worldcon Site Selection Tim Szcsesuil Administration SFWA Liaison George Alec Effinger ASFA Liaison 'Zanne Labonville Fan Funds Liaision WSFS Business Meeting WSFS Mark Protection Committee 'Zanne Labonville Delegate Finance Division Director and Comptroller Alexia Hebel Treasurer Maria Gavelis Pavlac At-Con Treasury Tax/Legal Compliance Officer Member Services Division Director Randy Kaempen Registration (Pre-Con) Randy Kaempen Registration (At-Con) Registration Staff Melissa Clemmer, Gloria Dill Badge Design/Procurement Data Library Foreign Agents Martin Hoare (U.K./Europe) Information Desk Child Care George Krause Staff Linda Jencevice, Sandy Kaempen Handicapped Access Program Division Director Steven H Silver Deputy Directors Quinn Jones, Rikk Mulligan Main Program Tracks Science Tracks Academic Track Fan Program Special Interest Tracks Program Operations Manager Green Room Pat Sayre McCoy Readings Kaffeeklatches Publications Division Director Diane Miller Blackwood Associate Director Terry Patch Progress Reports: Publisher Diane Miller Blackwood Editor Terry Patch Paparazzo Jeremy Bloom Advertising Sales National Publicity Local Publicity Steven Metzger Webmaster Chaz Boston Baden On-Line Representatives George Brickner (CompuServe) Press Relations Program Book Pocket Program Daily Newszine Chaz Boston Baden, Mike Glyer Guest of Honor Publications [art: mermaid] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 20-23 Letters from Chicago To: Mr. Jim Baen Editor Guest of Honor c/o Chicon 2000 The World February 1999 Dear Jim, In my last letter, I wrote about Chicago's slogan, urbs in horto (City in a Garden), and focused on Grant Park, which is just down the street from the convention hotels. Chicago has several other parks of various sizes, as well as forest preserves. In fact, if you so desire, you can bicycle from the Wisconsin border, through Chicago, to the Indiana border and almost never leave forested area except to cross the street. Another great park is located along the lake front a few miles north of Grant Park: Lincoln Park. Lincoln Park began its existence as City Cemetery. In 1864, the city council decided to turn the cemetary into a park. Permission was received from all descendents to move graves with one major exception. The Couch family, who owned a small mausoleum in the cemetery, refused to give their permission. To this day, the Couch mausoleum can still be seen, standing amidst trees, behind the Chicago Historical Society. Ira Couch, who is buried in the tomb, was one of Chicago's earliest innkeepers, opening the Tremont House in 1835. Couch is not the only person to still be buried in Lincoln Park. In 1852, David Kennison, who claimed to have been born in 1736, died and was buried in City Cemetery. Kennison claimed to have been the last survivor of the Boston Tea Party. As recently as 1986, construction in the park revealed more bodies left over from the nineteenth century. Lincoln Park is, perhaps, best known for the Lincoln Park Zoo, a free zoo which is open yearround. The zoo was founded in 1868, when the Lincoln Park Commissioners were given a gift of a pair of swans. They became the first occupants of the zoo. In 1874, the swans were joined by a bear cub, the first animal purchased for the zoo. The bear became quite adept at escaping from its home and could frequently be found roaming Lincoln Park at night. The first bison ever born in captivity was born in Lincoln Park. Now, Lincoln Park Zoo is home to a wide variety of animals. The zoo includes polar bears, penguins, koalas, reptiles, monkeys, and other species totalling nearly 1,250 animals. Also located in Lincoln Park Zoo is a Burr Oak Tree which dates to 1830, three years before the city was founded. There are two sections of Lincoln Park Zoo which have been set aside for children. The first is the Pritzker Children's Zoo. The Children's Zoo contains small animals which children can pet. Zookeepers describe the animals, such as ferrets, hedgehogs, tarantulas, and their habits to children. In addition, baby animals born at Lincoln Park Zoo are kept in the Children's Zoo if their parents can not care for them for any reason. The second special area of the zoo is The Farm in the Zoo. This small farm contains pigs, cows, horses and other animals which can be found on farms. Children can feed and pet the animals. In addition, the cows are milked in public for children to see. Near the southern end of Lincoln Park Zoo, you can rent a Paddle Boat for a spin around the Lincoln Park Lagoon. The Lagoon is surrounded by trees and offers a relaxing time (as, of course, you get your paddling exercise). Kayakers and canoers also take to the lagoon and you can often see scullers as well. [photo] Lincoln Park is known for its statuary. As you walk through the zoo and the park, you'll see many of Chicago's great works of art. Just as there is a statue of Abraham Lincoln in Grant Park, there is a memorial to Ulysses S. Grant in Lincoln Park. It overlooks Cannon Drive at the south end of the zoo. The sculpture was created in 1891 by Louis Rebisso. Actually, there is also a statue of Lincoln in Lincoln Park, the Standing Lincoln (1887), by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the same sculptor who created the Sitting Lincoln in Grant Park. Standing Lincoln can be seen behind the Chicago Historical Society. The only other person who is immortalized by statues in both Grant and Lincoln Parks is Alexander Hamilton (1952), the Lincoln Park statue sculpted by John Angel. John Gelert's Hans Christian Andersen (1896) on Stockton Drive provides a tribute to the Danish storyteller. The Eugene Field Memorial (1922) designed by Edward McCartan remembers the Chicago Daily News columnist and poet who wrote "Little Boy Blue" and "Winken, Blinken and Nod." William Ordway Partridge's statue of William Shakespeare (1894) provides a third great story-teller in Lincoln Park. This seated Shakespeare provides a lap for children to climb onto. A bust of Sir Georg Solti, the former conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra can be found just to the west of the zoo. Finally, a statue of John Peter Altgeld (1915), the nineteenth-century Illinois Governor who pardoned the Haymarket Square rioters, can by seen just south of Diversey. This statue was created by Gutzon Borglum, whose name may be familiar as the sculptor of Mount Rushmore. Founded in 1857, the Chicago Academy of Sciences is the city's oldest museum, although not the most visited. The museum specializes in ecology and the natural history of the Midwest. Located at 2060 N. Clark Street, the museum is currently undergoing major renovations, but it's new Nature Museum is scheduled to open in 1999, in plenty of time for your visit for the Worldcon in 2000. The new museum will include a butterfly farm covering more than 4,000 square feet. Another exhibit will show what animals live inside a standard urban dwelling. Other exhibits will focus on water usage, environmental preservation and a nature walk. Located on the South side of Lincoln Park, at the corner of Clark Street and North Avenue, is the Chicago Historical Society, founded in 1856 when Chicago was only 19 years old. Most of the early collection was lost in the fire of 1871. The museum contains several standing exhibits, on Chicago topics like Fort Dearborn, Life during the Civil War, and Chicago History. The museum also features special exhibits ranging from popular culture, such as the television show "Kukla, Fran and Ollie," to architecture and fashion. The society's permanent collection includes items as diverse as the bed Abraham Lincoln died in, Al Capone's mug-shot and Michael Jordan's uniform. Second City, located at 1616 N. Wells St., is one of the country's premiere comedy clubs. Alumni include Alan Alda, Alan Arkin (whose football at University of Chicago is a classic bit), Dan Akroyd, Jim & John Belushi, Bill & Joel Murray, Harold Ramis, Tim Kazurinsky, John Candy, Paul Mazursky, Richard Kind, Joan Rivers, Martin Short, Bonnie Hunt, Gilda Radner, Ed Asner, Linda Lavin, Robert Klein, George Wendt, Valerie Harper, Mike Nichols & Elaine May, Jerry Stiller & Ann Meara, Peter Boyle, Joe Flaherty, Chris Farley, Shelley Long. . . and many more. Showtimes are 8:30 Tuesday-Thursday, 8 & 11 on Friday & Saturday and 8 on Sunday. While most of the shows are semi-improvisational, following the late show on Friday and Saturday, the company does an improv based on ideas shouted out by the audience. Opened on December 16,1959, the group took its name from a derisive article written for The New Yorker by A.J. Liebling. In 1974, a second Second City opened in Toronto, Canada's second city, which created the television show "SCTV" (1976-1981). [photo] The Old Town School of Folk Music has recently (1998) moved into a new and larger space at 4544 North Lincoln Avenue. Long a training ground for folk singers such as Bonnie Koloc, John Prine and Steve Goodman, the school also presents concerts and has a store filled with folk music, instruments and recordings. The new location includes a 425 seat concert hall which doubles as a cafÄ. Listening to some of their alumni on CD before coming to Chicago can really get across what this city is like. Special attention should be paid to Goodman's Chicago songs: "Lincoln Park Pirates," "Daley's Dead," "Pat Powell," and "A Dying Cubs Fan's Last Request". [photo] R.J. Grunts, located at 2056 N. Lincoln Park West, provides a nice place to stop for a meal while visiting the park. Grunts is the flagship restaurant of one of Chicago's premier restauranteurs, Rich Melman, whose Lettuce Entertainment Chain now includes such restaurants as Ben Pao, Shaw's Crab House, Scoozi, and Tucci Benuch. Past Melman restaurants which have graced the city include Fritz, That's It, Jonathan Livingston Seafood, and Lawrence of Oregano. All the craziness started here. This was the first restaurant in Chicago to feature a salad bar, and their Gruntburgers are just as good now as they were when the restaurant opened in 1971. When Melman and his partners announced that Grunts would close in 1997, diners from across Chicago came to the restaurant's aid and Melman decided to keep the doors open. Traditionally, one of the Chicago figures whom everyone asks about is Al Capone (1899-1947). I bring him up now because, although he wasn't a Northsider, one of his most famous hits occurred in Lincoln Park. The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre was immortalized in the movie "Some Like It Hot." On February 14, 1929, seven members of Bugs Moran's gang and an ophthalmologist who happened to be in the wrong place were lined up against a wall and shot by five members of Capone's gang dressed like policemen. When one of the dying men, Frank Gusenberg, was asked by two real policemen, "Who did it, Frank?" he replied, "Nobody shot me." Capone was conveniently on vacation in Florida at the time. The garage, which stood at 2122 N. Clark Street, was demolished decades ago. For years, Al Capone's name was the name most identified with Chicago. Recently, he has been supplanted by a much more positive name. . . Michael Jordan. [photo] Another gangster who is associated with the Lincoln Park area is John Dillinger. Dillinger was listed as Public Enemy Number One by the FBI. On July 22, 1934, he was killed by FBI agents in an alley just south of the Biograph Theater at 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue. Dillinger had only burst onto the scene as a major gangster in 1933, but several jail escapes and bank robberies had cemented his reputation. Ana Cumpanas, a brothel madam who was facing deportation charges, agreed to help bring down Dillinger and notified the FBI that she would be attending a movie with Dillinger and his girl, Polly Hamilton. Each year on July 22, the Biograph shows "Manhattan Melodrama," the last film Dillinger saw before his death. The area of Lincoln Avenue near the Biograph contains several live theaters as well as many great cafes and bars. Across from the Biograph is the Crimson Lion (2446 N. Lincoln), a British style pub which offers poetry readings and Twilight Tales (a horror/fantasy reading series) and has even produced Shakespeare's history plays on its roof. Down the street is also John Barleycorn Memorial Pub (658 W. Belden). Some of the theaters in the area include Victory Gardens (2261 N Lincoln Ave), The Organic (2851 N Halsted St), which premiered production of "The Bleacher Bums" by Joe Mantegna and Dennis Franz and "The Forever War" based on Joe Haldeman's novel, The Apollo Theater Center (2540 N Lincoln Ave) and Steppenwolf (1650 N Halsted St), with which actor Gary Sinise is associated. Sincerely, Steven P.S. All my letters from Chicago, and more, can be found at http://www.ameritech.net/users/shsilver/letters.html. [photo] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 24 [Map of USA showing breakdown of members by state] AL 17 ID 4 NC 13 TN 27 AP 3 IL 415 NE 10 TX 105 AR 2 IN 50 NH 12 UT 6 AZ 26 KS 12 NJ 51 VA 55 CA 300 KY 29 NM 17 VT 1 CO 34 LA 19 NV 2 WA 55 CT 23 MA 95 NY 120 WI 77 DC 8 MD 79 OH 72 WV 2 DE 4 ME 2 OK 14 FL 45 MI 107 OR 17 GA 34 MN 53 PA 54 HI 1 MO 34 RI 9 IA 14 MS 8 SC 4 [Map of world, showing breakdown of members by country] Australia 5 Austria 1 Belgium 1 Canada 109 Denmark 1 France 1 Germany 7 Ireland 1 Israel 2 Japan 13 Mexico 1 Netherlands 2 Norway 3 Qatar 2 Russia 2 Spain 1 Sweden 2 U.K. 20 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 24-26 [list of members] [art: woman draped over arm of armchair] "If only i had upgraded my membership when I had the chance!" [photo: Waterfront of Chicago at night] [photo: Field Museum of Natural History] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 27 These are just a few whose souls were captured by the camera; there are many others hiding be-hind the page. If you would like to become one of THEM, please fill out the volunteer form and send it in as soon as you can! [artwork: creature with tentacles and wicked looking implements] "Yes, dear Fen, the con comm is alive and well, and work continues -- at least they call it work!" [photo] Brenden Lonehawk and Bill Roper discuss logistics and procurement. It turns out that "procurement" does not mean what Brenden thought it meant... [photo] Don and Jill Eastlake discuss facilities and fan programming ie. serious fun! [photo] Our New Programming Team: Steve Silver, Quinn Jones, and Rikk Mulligan ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 28 ChildCare A child must be 12 or under at the beginning of Chicon to qualify for the first three child categories: K: ChildCare membership for full time ChildCare is currently $135, and will advance in line with the Attending membership price. When the child is registered, it must be specifically noted that this is a ChildCare membership, prior to June 2000. There will be NO at the door memberships for this category. It does include publications and voting rights. C: Child membership is a flat fee of $50 with no rights to voting or baby-sitting. This membership can be upgraded to attending, OR to ChildCare for the difference between $50 and the amount in effect at that time and pre-registered by at least June, 2000. A: The child could also buy a full attending (adult) membership with full voting rights and access to programming. The price is the current adult attending price, subject to the same escalating rate. This membership can be purchased at the door, with the at-the-door prices. This does not include ChildCare at any time. T: Children 8 and under may be a Kid-in-Tow for free but must be registered with the responsible adult's name and hotel on the back of the badge, and must be kept in the presence of a responsible adult at all times. Casual babysitting does not need a specific membership as long as usage is minimal. Availability based on space and staff. Price and rules will be spelled out closer to convention time. [art: felinoid woman with mouse] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 29 A Dose of Reality by Bob Eggleton My Father, Earl R. Eggleton, passed away from this life on November 17th l998. He was a Great Man in every sense of the word. A hero of The Battle of the Bulge, perhaps WWII's bloodiest conflict, he went on to do many great things, not the least of which was being "co--creator" of Yours Truly. He went on to show me how to draw and introduced me to this little program called Star Trek. So, if you like my art, you can also thank my Dad. Like me, he did not need a college education to prove his abilities. He learned by watching -- and doing. And he invented the process by which teflon is laminated to a metal frying pan -- you can thank him for those easy to wash pans, folks. He was almost 76 years old, when suddenly one day last September, his health went into a serious decline. His mind began to go, then it was discovered he had lung cancer. By this time, and two hospital stays, he was only a whisper of the man I once knew. And then, without warning, he was conspired on by something not quite of the body: an HMO or the government's "brilliant" idea of micro-managing health care so that it makes "economic efficency" for an insurance company. He was literally railroaded into a so--called "Nursing Home" which was nothing more than a repository for what profit minded insurance companies would label "the living dead". He declined even further due to inadequate care and then was re-admitted, comatose, to the hospital with pneumonia, nitrogen narcosis and renal failure. After a small improvement, he died on November 17, l998 at 11:45 pm. The whole sad affair was one of the most horrible things I have ever seen happen to a human being. The reality I was shown--and not just in my Dad's case -- was one of a living Hell for many of the elderly and terminally sick in this country. We are the richest country on earth but health care is something not considered any sort of priority. We spend billions on bombs we'll never use yet if a person becomes sick they seem to be on their own with regard to the greed of insurance companies and so--called health care givers. The government spends money on flighter planes it doesn't need and yet they micro-manage every pill a doctor might prescribe for a sick person. While our dreams take us to the stars, which, I am sure, some far day in the future, humans will inhabit, the reality of caring for those who will not live to see even next year must be something we have to pursue with equal zest. Medical science fascinates me. Every achievement we make in medicine--for whatever -- AIDS, Arthritis, Cancer, Spinal Injury -- is something that makes US as a race of humans, better than we were before. Hopefully, aboard the now--under--construction space station Freedom, we will find more medical advances that we can only dream of. I think a space station is a GOOD idea. It's a nice stepping off point..to Mars??? l998 was not a great year with regard to those we lost. Paul Lehr, a legend in SF art circles, also passed from this Earth, in l998 because of cancer, as did Ian Gunn, a great artist whom I met once. I wish I had known him more, but I know lots of people who knew him. Almost everyone I know has lost someone--or several someones--they were close to. At one point, for me, it was one after another. I was not in a very good frame of mind through most of l998, as you might be able to tell. But all experience changes us and builds character. I have changed a great deal in l998. I believe, if you want to change the world, change yourself. Impatient to go to Mars? Read a good book (Bova or Burroughs) or go look at a Chesley Bonestell painting. Whether your science is Earth/Medicine based, or Space based, it takes a bit of both for anyone to dream. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 30 Lost Souls If you know of a current address for any of these, please contact us at reg@chicon.org, or write to us: Chicon 2000 Registration P. O. Box 642057 Chicago IL 60664 P0232; Adams; Kathy; Oak Lawn; IL; USA; 06/17/1998 A2065; Allen; James; St Louis; MO; USA; 11/13/1997 P1173; Bard; Alan; Eugene; OR; USA; 11/16/1997 P1342; Borland; Jay; Des Plaines; IL; USA; 11/13/1997 A2677; Bouler; Betty; Atlanta; GA; USA; 10/04/1998 A2678; Bouler; John; Atlanta; GA; USA; 10/04/1998 P1389; Boutin; Louise; Ottawa; Ontario; Canada; 12/26/1998 P1573; Brayfield - Guest of; Kathy; Joliet; IL; USA; 11/09/1997 P0790; Brown; Bevin; Elk Grove; IL; USA; 11/09/1997 P0575; Carroll Grace; Joyce; Philadelphia; PA; USA; 10/04/1998 P1096; Council; Bridget; Framingham; MA; USA; 10/04/1998 A2316; De Vore; Carl; London; ON; Canada; 07/28/1998 S2222; Doss; Stacy; College Station; TX; USA; 05/18/1998 P1578; Ducett; Colleen; Mount Prospect; IL; USA; 11/09/1997 P0275; Elliot; Floyd; USA; 10/12/1994 P1220; Fulton; C. 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Custom artwork, layouts, typesetting or special positioning and other services are available at an additional charge. The deadline for advertising and other copy for Progress Report #4 which will be issued in August 1999 is 30-June-1999. Mail all ads and payment to the Chicon 2000 post office Box (PO Box 642057, Chicago IL 60664) or call Diane Miller Blackwood at (773) 202-8081, or fax to (773) 202-8082. Per Issue Rates Fan Professional Quarter Page 5 1/2" x 3 1/2" $25 $80 or 4" x 4 5/8" Half Page 40 125 7 1/2" x 5" Full Page Interior 70 200 7 1/2" x 10" Full Page Inside Cover $200 $300 7 1/2" x 10" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 31: ad, Toronto in 2003 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ back cover: Who? Author Guest of Honor: Ben Bova Artist Guest of Honor: Bob Eggleton Editor Guest of Honor: Jim Baen Fan Guests of Honor: Bob & Anne Passovoy Toastmaster: Harry Turtledove Where and When: August 31 -- September 4, 2000 Hyatt Regency, Chicago IL - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - CHICON 2000 Bulk Rate Permit the 58th Worldcon P.O. Box 642057 US POSTAGE Chicago IL 60664 PAID FARGO ND Forwarding and return postage guaranteed PERMIT NO 2000 Address Correction requested -END-