TSUNAMI OR NOT TO SALAMI —
THAT IS A LAME QUESTION ...
or
A TALE END FLIGHT BETWEEN
TWO SIN CITIES


Tomorrow, the PP Guru will be off for the next five days, as he will be boarding on a early morning Southwest Airlines (safest fleet in the aviation business) flight to Las Vegas. This little extended weekend jaunt the PP Guru is undertaking is strictly looking on into family affairs - the PP Guru's real life biological father, aka the Purple Papa Guru has been having some atrophic trouble with his plumbing of late and has had to go into the ER for a little liquid drano removal - so the PP Guru is going to help out with any laborous tasks that the Purple Papa Guru can't perform physically.

Of course, that doesn't mean that all the pretty leggy showgirls aren't immune from the PP Guru powerful firm and scrutinous ass grabbing attacks.

However, The PP Guru is reluctant to leave, as the PP Guru will be missing a worthwhile event taking place at the UCLA campus while the PP Guru is busy being incapacitated groping slinkly nylon garbed buttocks - er, I mean, helping out with the PPapa Guru's medical and various arduous needs.

From what the PP Guru has read or about EnigmaCon 2005 has been all good- most notably that all the proceeds from the price of admission, under the auspices of the World Trust and Hollywood Artist Alliance is going to be donated for tsunami relief in Indonesia, India, Sumatra, and Sri Lanka ( hey, someone's got to pitch in and drain the bathwater out of Arthur C. Clarke's basement). According to the home web page, the organzation was originally founded by a former UCLA graduate student in astrophysics, Robert Hurt, now fondly referred to as Doctor Hurt and so realizing there wasn't too many swinging physics cats around to party with, he expanded the club to those of like mind including a few Sci-Fi and Fantasy afficionadoes and has been going strong for twenty years.

Regardless, this is the first that the PP Guru has ever heard of the club.

However, that doesn't excuse him from a impressive array of guests who will be attending. Here is a sample of the roster: Berni Wrightson, Brad Dourif, Teen Titans director ' Ciro Nieli, Enterprise's Connor Trinneer, Babylon 5 creator and current Amazing Spider-Man scribe J. Michael Straczynski ( which reminds the PP Guru; he needs to Sparky to reprint my Greenteabagging the Gobin column which rags on the offspring of Gwen Stacy that Joe concocted. It's one of his favorites. Besides, it's summer hiatus time and reruns are supposed to be in order.) , Len Wein and Marv Wolfman (like those cats are everywhere in LA ), new Battlestar Galactica producer Ronald D. Moore, Walter Koenig, Elfquest's Wendy Pini (who will be doing caricatures of attendees for a modest fee of $40.00 for Tsunami relief.

The event that is really kicking soprano underneath the tunic of the PP Guru's well concealed nutsac for missing is:

Harlan Ellison Birthday Celebration
1:00, Ackerman Grand Ballroom Celebrate another great year of Harlan!



and: A Black and White World? The Early Days of Genre Television

3:00, Math Science 4000 AEarly sci-fi television tackled many important social issues and taboos. By dealing with issues of race, technology, and jingoism, did shows like The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone help spark the American cultural revolution of the 60’s and 70’s.David Gerrold, George Clayton Johnson, Marc Scott Zicree

or:

Telling the Story 2:00 (90 minutes), Moore 100

Storytellers from different media and genres come together for a discussion. What are the hurdles writers must overcome in 2005 to keep speculative fiction viable and engaging?Harlan Ellison, Chris Metzen, Ronald D. Moore, J. Michael Straczynski, Len Wein

So there's just a smattering of the PP Guru will be sacrificing for the...um, sake of family and cocktail waitress cheek palming.

The PP Guru is curious as to why the city of Los Angeles constantly kowtows to Las Vegas advertising. Billboards, giant circular sections in all the Los Angeles newspaper, including the alternative ones like LA Weekly and Valleybeat, TV commercials- it's like the whole city breathes Las Vaginas - oops, I mean Las Vegas. BUT yet- when you get to Las Vegas - nowhere is there any advertising for the city of Los Angeles , Universal City or even Disneyland?

The PP Guru would appreciate any theory that his reading audience has to share.

In between any required duties that the PP Guru has to perform, he will be working on some drafts for this blog's first worldwide sweepstakes. Also the PP Guru will be making pitstops in the LV area at the local area comic book shops to peddle his alter ego's (pssst - that's Cary Coatney, for those not on the intel) Deposit Man series - specifically - Alternative Reality Comics out on the Maryland Parkway.

Sparky will be taking over the com while the PP Guru is away.

As told to:

~ Coat