One thing. The gut punch GRRM refers to may have been the death of a friend. Someone on Twitter made the same inference, then deleted the Tweet, and apologized for it after finding about the death of GRRM's friend. I saw this happening live on Twitter and have no citations to show you, but I thought you might want to know. That being said, GRRM did do a poor job as Hugo MC. I thought he would have been good since he was younger than David Gerrold who MC'ed the Hugos in 2015 and did a pretty good job. IIRC Gerrold did not do a long look back as GRRM did. As Hugo MC, you should as either be quick as you can like John Picacio (2019) or really prepare for something innovative like Karen Lord (2017) or Afua Richardson and Michael Scott (2019).
Thanks — I'd been speaking with another group of folks, and we sort of jumped to the conclusion that his gut punch was related. I've updated the link to something that's a little more illustrative of what I was intending.
I spent the night pretty appalled at what I as seeing, for the sheer "read the room, man" vibe. I think that in Martin and Rowling's case, there's an element of filtering going on that isolates them a bit from the rest of fandom. Hopefully, folks will take it as a lesson for future WorldCons. And hopefully, they'll also make the entire ceremony ... shorter.
I made a mistake. John Picacio was MC at the 2018 Hugos.
Long can be good if it is entertaining like Lord and Richardson did. Lord brought groups from other countries to discuss SFF in their region. and Richardson performed with a band. I have heard from Finalists waiting for your category can be excruciating. The winners should be allowed to take as much time for their acceptance speeches. Its the winners' moment. I am glad the Emmys and Oscars seem to phasing out playing people off.
One thing. The gut punch GRRM refers to may have been the death of a friend. Someone on Twitter made the same inference, then deleted the Tweet, and apologized for it after finding about the death of GRRM's friend. I saw this happening live on Twitter and have no citations to show you, but I thought you might want to know. That being said, GRRM did do a poor job as Hugo MC. I thought he would have been good since he was younger than David Gerrold who MC'ed the Hugos in 2015 and did a pretty good job. IIRC Gerrold did not do a long look back as GRRM did. As Hugo MC, you should as either be quick as you can like John Picacio (2019) or really prepare for something innovative like Karen Lord (2017) or Afua Richardson and Michael Scott (2019).
This was a great look at a bad year.
Thanks — I'd been speaking with another group of folks, and we sort of jumped to the conclusion that his gut punch was related. I've updated the link to something that's a little more illustrative of what I was intending.
I spent the night pretty appalled at what I as seeing, for the sheer "read the room, man" vibe. I think that in Martin and Rowling's case, there's an element of filtering going on that isolates them a bit from the rest of fandom. Hopefully, folks will take it as a lesson for future WorldCons. And hopefully, they'll also make the entire ceremony ... shorter.
I made a mistake. John Picacio was MC at the 2018 Hugos.
Long can be good if it is entertaining like Lord and Richardson did. Lord brought groups from other countries to discuss SFF in their region. and Richardson performed with a band. I have heard from Finalists waiting for your category can be excruciating. The winners should be allowed to take as much time for their acceptance speeches. Its the winners' moment. I am glad the Emmys and Oscars seem to phasing out playing people off.