ISSUE #14 This Here... “...sucked all the creative air out of the rooms...” (H Waldrop) into seeing this latest epic asap, especially given the good EGOTORIAL buzz surrounding it. But no, not in this case. I was vaguely reminded of my unwillingness to go see the original Star BB complains that we rarely sit and watch anything on TV Wars, in that case primarily because I was put off by the together (with the possible exceptions of TNA Wrestling, relentless hype. When The Empire Strikes Back came out, I which I’ve managed to get her into, and the local news at saw both in a special double feature at the local flick nearest dinner time). This isn’t really surprising, since when I’m to Tufnell Park, where I was then living, and reflected working (most of the time since September, but sadly not so afterwards that I was glad I hadn’t given in on the first one, much this month), I’m ready for bed around 8 since I get up since although I liked Empire a lot, the first one, eh, not so at 4am or so most days, and in any case whereas her taste much, since it suffers from the same problem as the later runs to whatever is on the Hallmark or Lifetime channels, Lord of the Rings epics, in that the central character, be it mine is an eclectic mix of rasslin’, MSNBC and Family Guy Frodo Baggins or Luke Skywalker, is an insufferable little tit. reruns. Overall I thought Nevertheless, the newest this Valentine’s incarnation of weekend I was Star Trek was persuaded to bloody good! I participate in the especially liked purchase of a the neat, if pay-per-view obvious movie for explanation for Saturday night, the continuity which is how I differences between this and finally got to see Spot the insufferable tit the J.J. Abrams’ Roddenberry’s Star Trek. original. The recreation of each character’s younger version was also for For those who may have forgotten why I rarely tend to see the most part spot-on, and Nimoy’s turn as the older Spock all these blockbuster epics when they come out, I dislike was integral rather than distracting. The sequel, possibly out going to the theater primarily because I have a strong in 2012, presumably before the end of the world kicks in, aversion to the smell of popcorn, at least the stuff they sell in may actually get me into the theater again, though I’m the ciné parlors, which always reminds me of warmed-over probably due maybe one more theater movie before then. cat sick. There are very rare exceptions, the most recent Crank 3, maybe? being Watchmen, which we saw after Corflu Zed during our sojourn in Hollywood in a rather upscale joint with little overt evidence of feline regurgitation. You might have also It’s all good. thought that given my notable history as a Star Trek fandom Nic Farey, February 2010 refugee, having run ST cons back in the day, that I’d be well THIS HERE... 1 THIS HERE... #14 given ahead of time) has been top-notch - these people like THE COMPANY OF DOGS to make sure you’re as well-informed as possible about your pet’s condition. Firstly, thanks to all those who expressed sympathy (in locs and elsewhere) on the loss of the wonderful Bosstone. After six months or so, we were chatting to Lindsey, top bartender at our awesome local Aces & Ales, and it transpired that due to a forced move into an apartment, she and her husband were no longer able to keep their dog and were looking for a home for her. “I’ll take her!”, I offered, only then adding “Er - what kind of dog?” BB has been banging on for years about wanting a lapdog of some description, which it quickly turned out that this one transparently isn’t. Lulu is a shepherd mix of some stripe, We retrieved a nicely groggy beast after a couple days, we think possibly Akita and maybe even a dollop of mastiff. bringing her home all the while singing “Did I Shave My She weighs in at 50 pounds or so (23 kilos in French money) Leg for This?” Although short-haired, her coat is still not and appears to have fairly boundless energy interspersed quite fully grown back in after three months. The surgeon with periods of recuperative sleep . tells us that it will be something like six months before she’s back to full trim, although the way she boings about the place right now you couldn’t tell. We managed to get all BB’s progeny here for the Xmas hols, and one of our projects was to try to get to the animal shelter and rescue some kind of tinier mutt for her. The fairly thorough website gives you a decent list to look through, but of course that’s no substitute for actually going to see the animal. We’d picked out a couple of likely prospects - there weren’t really that many since she’s a terrier fan (Yorkies especially since future Oscar-winner son Dan has one) and almost everything round here seems to be some kind of chihuahua mix. The assumption has to be that not only are LULU there a lot of chihuahuas around, but they also apparently like to fuck a lot and aren’t too fussy about who with. (Several fannish pet names suggest themselves at this point.) We took her to the local vet for an update of shots, and Almost all the puppies we went to look at were already asked them to check out the fact that she appeared to be gone, and the one that wasn’t was obviously much too favoring one back leg somewhat. Having checked her out aggressive. Somewhat disappointed, we browsed the rest of thoroughly, the X-Rays showed she had a condition which, the kennels, at least the smaller dog parts, in a fairly cursory despite having some intense sports-sounding descriptor way before coming back outside, since Dan and Joe wanted (patellar luxation), basically meant that her knees are to get over to the Strip for some bar-hopping. fucked. The simple description of this condition is that the kneecap jumps out of place. In Lulu’s case this was because As we walked toward the exit, past the rather small exercise the usual “groove” in which the patella resides was pens, we noticed a woman with a small, chocolate-colored extremely shallow - this is a condition that tends to affect dog which was a little oasis of calm amid the expected smaller dogs more frequently, I’m told. Corrective surgery is cacophony. We asked the lady walking this little mutt what the solution: they go in and make a new groove for the the story was, and it transpired she was waiting for her kneecap. Ah well, lucky for the poor pooch that I still had daughter (who works at the shelter) to confirm that, money (apart from fixing the knee, the surgery also excises although originally interested in adopting the dog, wasn’t $1300 from the wallet). This having been said, I have no now going to do so. “I’ll take her!”, I cried, in a flash of déjà complaints about the Mountain Vista Animal Hospital, who vu. are a concerned, caring and able bunch and, compared to what I would have likely paid back in Maryland, pretty It took a minute to get all this sorted out, as there’s fuckin cheap actually. Also I have to say the quality of understandably a bit of paperwork involved, and as the dog information given there (including the quote for the surgery hadn’t yet been spayed we’d have to wait until that 2 THIS HERE... THIS HERE... #14 procedure was carried out, meaning we’d be able to collect And so it came to pass that we collected “Godiva” (who her on Boxing Day (26th December for you heathen would of course get a new name), all the while a little colonials). trepidatious about how BB, not to mention Lulu, would take to the new arrival, and moderately ceremoniously dumped We’ve been accredited by no less than the great luminaries in her in BB’s lap. Bill, of course, took a bunch of photos, this area, the Katzes, as fine and willing party hosts - a chore including this one in which he swears she’s smiling! which isn’t so bad when you got a bob or two. BB loves being the thoughtful hostess, although the party lead-up is when she tends to become Martha Stewart, causing the rest of us to hide in the office/under tables/up the pub etc. As 2009 Boxing Day fell on a Saturday, and we’d been encouraged to throw fan bashes on Vegrants “off weeks” (meetings are first and third Saturdays of the month, barring special visits by out-of-town luminaries eg Steve Green), and I thought back to my Hitchin days when my good friend Tony Russell and his much-missed late wife Erika always had open house on Boxing Day. Dubbed “Waifs and Strays” by Erika, who was German, there would be a hot dish of some kind in a crockpot, but mostly meats, cheeses, bread and pickles, and of course a suitable amount of drink. Both as a kind of thank you to our Vegas friends and in part as a small tribute to Erika’s generosity of years past, the invitations to “Waifs and Strays” at the Farey house were pinged out.