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I was contacted by Mark Olson, a Boston-area fan who does a lot of things related to fannish history, re Dave Romm's legacy of fannish photos. Mark oversees the Fancyclopedia 3, which is just what it sounds like, and would like to use some of Dave's photos. Of course I told him yes, and am working with DDB and others to get him access to something better than the puny little versions of the photos on Facebook. 

Mark would also like some help updating Fancy3's pathetically incomplete entry on Dave. Yes, I would say that it does need some work. I started out by sending him Dave's full name and dates, and I see that he has already updated the entry with that info. I'm trying to get together some further notes on Dave's fannish career, but could use a little help. I have a pretty good idea of what he did for Minicon through the years, but I'm a little fuzzy on the dates. And I have only a vague idea of other cons he worked on. I know he did a lot with Marscon and Convergence and I think he played an important role in a few Worldcons, but I'm vague on the details. Here's what I've got so far, in no particular order. Dates may be a little off, but should be close.
  • Moved to Minneapolis - 1979, I think. I don't believe he actually lived in the Bozo Bus Building, but was definitely Bozo Bus Adjacent.
  • Hosted Shockwave Radio Show (originally co-hosting with Jerry Stearns, then solo)  1981-2009
  • Co-inventor of microprogramming at Minicon 15 (1979) 
  • Master of Ceremonies for Minicon from about 1981 - 2015   
  • Presented Shockwave Live at Minicon Opening Ceremonies 1981-1999   
  • Fan GoH at Minicon 25 (1990)
  • Fan GoH at Marscon 2004
  • Co-editor of the revived Bozo Bus Tribune (1993-1999) with intermittent reappearances thereafter.
  • Helped run many fallcons, sometimes as official chair or co-chair, sometimes behind the scenes (e.g., Conscription). It's kind of pathetic that I have only a vague idea of which fallcons these were, especially considering that we ran many of them together. I'm pretty sure they included Flashback (1998) and the Millennium Fallcon (1999). One or more of the NotAnokons? Maybe some Maxicons? Wait, didn't Dave, Rick Gellman, and I START the run of Maxicons? Man, I have a terrible memory. 
  • Coedited the Minicon Moderator Tipsheet, Minicon 25 (1990). With me. That one I remember.
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 As some of you may know, local fan Terry Garey was hospitalized about a week ago, suffering from muscle weakness, nausea and vomiting, and mental confusion. She was treated for a Urinary Tract Infection (and yes, untreated UTIs can indeed progress to all of those symptoms). Her condition was stabilized, and on Tuesday she was transferred to Walker Methodist Health Center for rehab and recuperation. It seems likely that she will be there for quite some time, and would appreciate visitors.

Walker Methodist 
3737 Bryant Avenue, Room G303
Mpls, MN 55409

Direct room phone: 612-821-7168 (but note that Terry can't really converse on the phone yet)
Front desk number:  612-827-5931


Karen Schaffer and I have set up a Caring Bridge page for her.  Well, Karen, actually. But I'm a co-author, so I have editing privileges also. If you want easy access to updates on her condition, I recommend following her page on Caring Bridge. You have to create a login to access the page, but it is a free, legitimate, non-profit service.


 

AFT?

Sep. 18th, 2019 12:02 pm
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 While cleaning my attic (did I mention that I'm renovating the attic?) I found a large cache of cassette tapes. And since the old stereo system I'm using to keep me company happens to have a cassette player in it, I'm checking them out (partly hoping to discover a bunch that won't play at all so I can throw them away). 
 
So I find this apparently home-recorded tape labeled "Complete AFT Vol II."  It plays beautifully, and it is GREAT!  It's clearly one of the local fannish bands, but I don't remember one with the initials AFT. It sounds a lot like Cats Laughing, but less tricked out. Steve Brust and Nate Bucklin are there, and at least two female voices. One of the women's voices has a wide range and a slight, well-controlled vibrato - possibly Jean Messer?  The other one is more alto register - possibly Emma or Kate? 
 
Songs include Run Come See Jeruslem, that song about extreme cabin fever in the Northland, and a bravura performance of Witch of the Westmorland (introduced by Nate and Steve doing a short "Who's on First" routine over which/witch that wears out its welcome quickly). 
 
Who remembers this band? Are there any more "Volumes" of their recordings out there? I'm loving this one!
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 Dave's family will be having a private memorial gathering over Thanksgiving and has asked for some written memories to read aloud or make available for reading at their memorial.
 
Laramie was kind enough to gather together some of the early outpourings from social media into a Google Doc. I edited the document slightly to remove threads like, "What happened? How can I help?" and so on. The edited document is on my Google Drive right here:
 
I still don't understand Google permissions very well. I think that anybody can view this document if they have the link, but only I can edit it.  If you have a remembrance you would like to add, please send it to me ASAP and I will add it to this document. 
 
I also have the card that we signed for Ethel at Fallcon and will be sending that to the family shortly. 
 
Laramie, I would love to include your anecdote about the Asian Buffet. If you can't find it, could you please just tell it again and send it to me and I'll add it? I don't really want another version of the original document at this point since I have already spent time editing it. If you look at my version and see that I accidentally deleted something that should be in there, please let me know. Thanks.
 

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