Hello, gang! A few notes and the top 10 Science Fiction/Fantasy books of all time. Shall we begin?

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CONVENTION NOTES
Ah, the good old days of conventions. No cover charge, cool celebs, lots of goodies at decent prices.

My earliest memories of conventions include having my own table of goodies (I sold a butt load of "The Gauntlet" posters. Stupid me thought there were a lot of Clint Eastwood fans out there. I didn't even realize the art was by a little known artist named Frank Frazetta!) and a convention that was held, I want to say, in Tampa Bay Center. It was at that con that Rick Sousa gave me the moniker "Omnipresent Master of Space, Time and Dimension."

Of course, as it became "cooler" to go to cons, the atmosphere became pricey. $25 for a weekend, overpriced dealers rooms and celebrities charging an arm and a leg for a signature. NOTE TO ROBERT VAUGHN: I LOVED YOU ON "THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E," BUT I WOULDN'T PAY $35 FOR YOUR AUTOGRAPH EVEN IF YOU SIGNED IT ON DAVID McCALLUMS' FOREHEAD! I can remember back as early as 1983, sitting in a bar with Jimmy Doohan, who was in town doing a Trek Con. He was going on about how he was really going to stick it to Paramount when the time came to do "Trek 3." "Let them do a movie without Scotty," he said. And I remember thinking, what do you do except do cons and wait for the next Trek film? Back then I almost balked at paying $10 for an autograph. But hey, it was Scotty! But to show there is a bright side to every story, this past weekend I attended an event that had Paul LeMat (John Milner in "American Graffiti) and Verne Troyer (Mini Me in the "Austin Powers" films). LeMat sold color photographs, which he would then autograph, for $10.00 Troyer sold his for $5.00. But what was great was that both actors signed anything else you may have had at no charge. And you didn't have to buy anything first. I was so surprised that I mentioned it to Paul LeMat, who told me that if people cared enough to get his signature on something they treasured he sure wasn't about to charge for it. After he signed my "Graffiti" DVD (which has also been signed by Candy Clark and Bo Hopkins), it dawned on me that the movie is now 30 years old! Phew!

Incidentally, I will be signing for free at NOLANCon (LOL, i.e., the convention I first mentioned to Mike as a possiblity about a year ago. I think I may have said something in PCR, but have played it down because circumstances were different back then--I had the public access show, the economy was better, and we weren't on the edge of war. We'll do it sometime, tho.---N).

OSCAR BEWARE
Congratulations to Rob Marshall, who was awarded the Director's Guild of America award for his work on the film, "Chicago." Don't know what this does to my Oscar choice, Martin Scorsese's, chances. Only five times in history has the DGA winner not gone on to win the Oscar.

ANOTHER TOP 10
This week the Science Fiction Book Club released its top ten Science Fiction/Fantasy books of all time, as voted on by the club editors. I'm ashamed to say that I've only read #10. They are:

1. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. (The editors call it the "most significant" science fiction and fantasy book of the past 50 years.)
2. The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov.
3. Dune by Frank Herbert.
4. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein.
5. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin.
6. Neuromancer by William Gibson.
7. Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke.
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. (Does it count that I saw "Blade Runner?")
9. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
10. Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.