I know this was a short week, but it didn't really feel like it. I'm certainly ready for my weekend. I haven't been to Los Angeles in, oh, twelve years or so. I'm going to relish two peaceful nights' sleep without cats or dog to insist we rise at the usual ungodly hour. There is much fun planned, including dinner with Chuck, Steve, Diane, and our respective spouses. I'm going to check out the Getty Museum, scope out Rodeo Drive, and visit our cousins in Santa Monica. John will be hitting the movie memorabilia shops while I mosey around Robertson and Melrose Avenues looking for funky accessories. I've already been to 20th Century Fox, the La Brea Tar Pits, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and up to the Hollywood sign on previous trips. Mainly, my purpose in going is to reacquaint myself with a city I sell a lot of travel to.
We here in the Bay Area were recently treated to the revelation that Gordon Getty, founder of the museum, had an entire second family living in Los Angeles. The funniest response to this was an op-ed cartoon of "The Getty Bunch" with scathing lyrics based on "The Brady Bunch." How did he do it, people wondered? How does a well known person get away with having two families? He didn't, of course. But the interesting thing is San Francisco society's reaction, which was to shrug insouciently and turn a shoulder to the impertinent, inquisitive media. Instead of it being a horrendous scandal it was merely an unusual arrangement. I thought this curious. Have our collective morals changed? I doubt it. I think the rest of America was titillated and surprised and disapproving. High society found it acceptable, in the way that the rich always excuse their excesses and eccentricities as acceptable simply because they are rich.
You know what they say about the rich, you, and me.
The new pet sitter has come by to meet the pets. Our regular pet sitter is also going to L.A. this weekend, oddly enough. I'll bet she's not going to camp out at the Emmys hoping to get some good cleavage shots of starlets, I mean artistic photographs of tv stars, like we are. Our timing is good re Emmys and bad re meeting a boatload of web diarists. The Southern California Web Diarists ConExpoFestarama, or whatever they're calling it, is being held the weekend of October 2nd so I can't crash it. We northern Californians exhibit no similar inclination to meet en masse.
Speaking of which, San Jose has won the right to hold the 60th World Science Fiction Convention in 2002. I knew all along it was a sure thing since there was no competing bid, but I'm filled with foreboding. All, and I do mean all, of my local friends will be working on it. It will suck up their free time, their extra brain cells, and all of their good humor for the next three years. These 4000-6000 person conventions called Worldcons are logistical nightmares routinely handled entirely by dedicated amateurs. It's not something I look forward to being around. And yes, I'll be doing my share even though I have no interest in running cons. It's just how it is. When the going gets tough, the tough get going and the rest of us cower behind our computers hoping no one notices we aren't busy. I'm not looking forward to this. Though the con itself should be excellent.
See you in four days.
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