Chris Garcia

I’ve been bad. I knew Challenger was out, I knew I should be running over to LoC and I failed to do so. I’m ashamed and have brought further shame upon my fannish family. Forgive me.

I had a bleak idea of what New Orleans is like today. Greg Benford’s view is even bleaker, and he has it first hand. It’s depressing that I never made it to New Orleans when it was still New Orleans and not whatever it has become. I did spend time in Alabama, mostly Mobile, and more than a little time in various parts of Mississippi (though much of it was in Tupelo) and I’ve been to many parts of the Gulf Coast and I’m certain that the great memories I have will not be conjured up again if I were to visit. Don’s look at rebuilding the city one party at a time is wonderful and it reminds me of the tradition of my people. When Mexico City was devastated by the 1984 Earthquake, large numbers of the barrios weren’t rebuilt and there was no central support. A group of folks in one of the poorest areas in Mexico City got together and threw a party. They only provided tables. The tables were made from pieces of the rubble, and for six weeks they partied and sang and danced and people from all over Mexico came and brought with them food and eventually they managed to make some money and feed more than ten thousand people and get their neighborhood back up and new, better shanties erected! Well, I didn’t say it was the perfect ending.

Ah, good ol’ James Bacon! I got to meet him at LACon and I quickly grew to like him. He’s a great panel guy too, as we were on a panel together about zines and he actually brought researched facts with him! That’s just nuts. I’m a huge mark for Alan Moore. Not only the best comic writer in the World for more than twenty years, but the perfect vision of the grumpy comic writer, secluded in his warren producing material that forces one to tell their mind to prepare for a good stabbing.

Joe Major’s look at “Tony” is a good one. I love hoaxes. I’d have gotten on well with Twain and Barnum I think. I love it when writers will pass off fiction as fact and sometimes get away with it. My personal fave is the story of The First Church of George Herbert Walker Christ. That was a ripper. The Tony story is a great one and I’ve been on the side of ‘‘exceptionally good hoax’’ for a number of years. I remember the article coming out in 1993 and the minor fury around it.

Richard Lynch, one of my all-time favourite fan writers/FanEds, has an article on the strange coincidences that exist in this world. I’m a gambler so I believe in God and karma. Those gamblers that don’t are forced to adhere to the ‘‘win some, lose some’’ rule while the rest of us are being punished/rewarded for good/bad actions. I’m one of those weird people who has the strangest of luck. I’ll give away a dollar and I’ll end up a dollar short at the checkout with a line of forty people behind me. It’s interesting to see that I’m not the only one.

I was really enjoying Mike Resnick’s piece until I got to the part where he said that The Elephant Man movie was a cut above mediocre. I just started turning it over and over in my head. David Lynch, restraining himself and having more actors that could power a film with incredible work and an awesome combination of mood and more texture than any other film of the 1980s and it’s only slightly above mediocre? Heresy.

David Williams talks about lots of zines that I love. There’s never been a zine quite like Mimosa in my eyes. I’m a historian and I really loved it. I remember it from my stint in fandom in the 1990s and I had just returned when they folded up the sign out front and there were no more. It’s still an incredible resource. I love Dick Geis zines. I’ve exchanged a few emails with him over the last couple of years and he’s a good guy. I sometimes try to emulate The Alien Critic in The Drink Tank but it inevitably fails. David, if you want, there’s always space in the various zines of Christopher J. Garcia for ya!

Really good issue! I must run and read the LASFS minutes where apparently I am a running joke!