Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Vegas Fandom Weekly #86
Vegas Fandom Weekly #86 / Arnie Katz, 909 Eugene Cernan St., Las Vegas NV 89145 / "Bob Tucker Dead" -- the words slam at us from a box on the front page of this zine from e.Fanzines.com. The impact is stunning, the tone unbelieving, as if those three short words bespoke an event utterly beyond possibility. So it seemed. Arnie's next issue will, he says, properly memorialize Tucker, but here, the enthused, reenergized normal fare: musings on a possible name change, worldcon reports by two newcomers to the big con, the very attractive Teresa Cochran and James Taylor, who has seen fire and rain and now, Hugos. There's a photo of the great Ross Chamberlin, whom I was honored to meet at the Katzenhaus ten years ago, and lots of LOCs from other members of "Core Fandom". Core fandom, the defiant zine-oriented Corflu crew, is at the heart of this issue's central piece, Katz's imaginings of their future, perhaps taking over a small town a la the TV series Eureka, turning it into Fan Town, with Earl Kemp as Mayor and old mimeographs auctioned to raise funds. (The photos of mimeos illustrating this insanity remind me of a storefront I passed once on the Bowery, rusty Gestetners and A.B. Dicks stacked to the ceiling.) A fund is touted to bring Harry Bell to the Austin Corflu. Wish we'd seen the Katzes at worldcon, or afterwards, in Vegas.
