An Update on My Ozzy Wanderings

The past few days have been busy but boring, as both Erica and I had to work much of the last three days. The nice thing, with remote jobs like we have, is that we can be anywhere and still work with our colleagues and students in Washington state. But today we left Beech Mountain at last and headed back to Charlotte. But first, we stopped in Statesville to encounter the "Twist of Oz" escape room at Keys to Escape. That was a lot of fun, frankly, and I hope Oz fans can come and try this out—but with what's going on right now, I can understand not wanting to leave Charlotte. We're on the northern fringes of Hurricane Helene, and while it looks unlikely we'll get hit by the center of the storm, we are definitely feeling the effects. Much of the state is on a tornado watch, and all this rain proves it. Already, most schools around here have been closed for tomorrow, including UNC Charlotte, which is hosting most of the events for both CharlOz and Oz: The National Convention. I suspect we're going to have a huge shake-up in the schedule. Fortunately, at least at the moment, it looks like we'll get a break in the weather on Saturday. I will keep you posted!

Back from Oz

Saturday was travel day, as we flew from Seattle to Charlotte with a layover in Dallas. Well, there were mechanical issues with the plane we were supposed to get on in Dallas, and we ended up getting a new plane, which meant an exodus to another terminal, and an overall four hour delay. It was about 10:30 at night by the time we landed in Charlotte, and what with deplaning, baggage claim, getting our rental car, going back and getting another rental car when the one we were first assigned wasn't there, and getting some food, it was nearly midnight by the time we hit the road. And hit it we did, because our condo for this first part of our week was another two hours away! But Erica had had plenty of rest and caffeine, and we made it at about 2:00 and crashed. All in all, from leaving Sunnyside to getting to Beech Mountain, I was on the road for just about twenty-four hours straight.

We set the alarms for 7:00, and got going right away. We had a big breakfast, and then we were off to Oz! Our timing was impeccable, as we pulled into the parking lot at about 9:30, and our entry tickets were for 10:00. I think I'm going to save the big report for later in the week, when I have a little time to properly write it up and access all the photos (from three sources!), but the weather was spectacular, if maybe a little on the warm side, and the so-called mountains* of western North Carolina are gorgeous. We got back to our condo, decompressed, went out for some amazing barbecue for dinner (checking off another item on this week's bucket list), bought some groceries, and called it a night. Thanks to the all-day travel and sleeping on the plane on Saturday, my body's rhythms seem to have already adjusted to a new time zone, as I woke up this morning at my usual time. The problem with this is that my workday still has to synch with Washington time, so I'll be officially working from 11:00 to 7:00! And we can both work remotely, which is what allows us to take this trip and see both The Land of Oz Park and attend the combined CharlOz/Oz: The National Convention this coming weekend. We may have to make some accommodations when we have meetings that overlap (this condo is definitely set up for leisure travel, not business), but it should be fine.

Okay, I think I've nattered on long enough for now. My top priorities the next few days are work, getting ready for my presentations in Charlotte, and posting my Land of Oz report here. I hope I can do it justice!

* See, they claim to be mountains, as the Blue Ridge Mountains, where we are, are in the High Country here, and include some of the highest elevations in the eastern United States. But back home, these would be called foothills.

Celebrating Fifty Years of Being an Oz Fan

My life has been crazy busy the last few years, dealing with both Laura's health and my career finally taking off in a very good way. This poor blog has been neglected, being little more than a repository for the latest Oz cartoons.

That changes now—at least temporarily. This has been in the works for well over a year, and the time has finally come. It all started with an invitation by Dina Schiff Massachi to pitch some panels for CharlOz, a big interdisciplinary conference about The Wizard of Oz. I figured nothing ventured nothing gained, and sent in about a half dozen proposals. I knew Dina was aiming at a more general crowd than the usual Oz convention, and especially wanted material that would appeal to teachers, so I sent in a few ideas, and two were accepted.

Oh, shoot! Now I have to go! And since it's in September, that means going during the school year! But my bosses not only told me to go for it, they gave me their blessing and even got the company publicity department involved. (More on that later, I suspect.) I also crunched the numbers, and found that my new job gave me enough room in the budget to do something wild like this. So I was going to North Carolina! My first trip to the east coast! (Sadly, too far away to actually see the Atlantic Ocean.) And hey, I thought to myself, I can probably even go to the old Land of Oz Park in North Carolina for one of their Autumn in Oz weekends.

But a problem arose: The Land of Oz wasn't going to be open that weekend. CharlOz was a week later than their last weekend! But this was too good of a chance to pass up. Why would I go that close, in both time and location, and not go to the park? So I did some more number crunching and figuring things out. Yes, I could make it that last weekend, spend a few days in North Carolina (I work remotely, so I can do my job anywhere), and even miss one day less of work. I went for it, and got a ticket for the final Sunday of Autumn in Oz, which is now in only two days. The Oz trip of my lifetime (so far) was on!

There are a few other surprises coming up this week, and I will do my best to tell you about them as the come up. But tonight I'm heading to Seattle to get my flight to Charlotte, via Dallas-Fort Worth (incidenally, my first ever trip to Texas). But a few weeks ago, I realized that this was an especially appropriate year for me to go on this trip. It was in 1974 when my third grade teacher, Mrs. Hanford, read The Wizard of Oz to us in class, and I got interested in the collection of Oz books in her room. I picked up the Rand McNally paperback for myself, and got a bunch of the rest of the books at Christmas. So 1974 was the year I became an official full-fledged Oz fan, which means I have now been an Oz fan for fifty years.

You get to celebrate with me! I am going to be busy this coming week, but I will do my best to share what I'm doing. I am really excited, and I don't have to wait much longer!

OzCon Now Has a Video!

Yes, I really want everyone to know about OzCon International, and so do the people who are putting it on this year. To that end, here's a promotional video!

This will be the con's first time in the Los Angeles area in nearly fifty years, so it should be a good one. For more information, go to www.ozconinternational.com, of course!

The Latest Oz Reading

I've started my latest batch of Oz reading. In this case, I will go in the reverse order I've read them, from most recent to furthest back, for a very good reason that I will get to at the right time. But I may not quite get them all blogged tonight, so there may be a continuation tomorrow.

• A Baffling Book About Bunnybury of Oz by Marin Elizabeth Xiques, illustrated by S. P. Maldonado is the latest case for Oz's premier rabbit detective, Brewster Bunny, and for once he doesn't have to travel very far, as it all takes place in his home town of Bunnybury. Brewster's friends, Hamilton and Elsa, are visited by their long-lost uncle Norbert, who seems particularly interested in a locked green door in Elsa's house. But what's so secret about the room's contents, and why are they so interesting to Norbert? This was a short, fun read that shows us a lot about how the civilized rabbits of Oz live. And naturally Brewster solves the case, too.
• Captive Hearts of Oz Volume 2, by Ryo Maruya, illustrated by Mamenosuke Fujimaru, translated by Angela Liu. This manga adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz continues, from the party's first encounter with the Kalidahs to their arrival at the Emerald City. But a new member joins them, Zero, and Dorothy seems to be strongly drawn to him, to the point of wondering if she even needs to go back to Kansas. Also, the mysterious figures behind the scenes wonder if the alterations made to Dorothy's story will have major long-term affects, and Glinda involves herself the adventure long before she's supposed to. This is turning into a fun little series that's not quite as straightforward as it first appeared. I'm glad I've already ordered volume 3!
• The program book for this year's OzCon International, which you had to attend to get a copy of, or at least have some connections. Lots of essays about things being celebrated at this year's convention, notably the centennial of The Lost Princess of Oz, it's dedicatee, Ozma Baum, and the 1933-34 Wizard of Oz radio show. But I already know all that, as I was the editor of this book.

And the rest, and most interesting part, will have to wait until tomorrow.

C-Oz-play!

Besides writing the fabulous blog Cake Wrecks (all about bad cake decorating), Jen writes at EPBOT, a more personal blog about crafts and geekery and Disney and other things in her life. Well, today she showed off a bunch of cosplay pictures from last year's Dragon Con. Dragon Con is a huge convention that covers multiple genres and takes over much of downtown Atlanta for a weekend. As you can imagine, the cosplay is fantastic. And what does she open with? Post-apocalyptic Oz characters, of course! Go, my job here is done, go see!

Oz Costumes at DragonCon

DragonCon is a huge many-medias convention held every summer in Atlanta. How big is it? They have something like thirty-seven (!) tracks of programming, they take over FOUR huge downtown hotels, and they have their own parade on Saturday through downtown. And a MAJOR part of this convention is cosplay. Well, my friend (who I've never actually met, talked to, or otherwise communicated with, but I suspect we'd get along just fine if we ever actually do meet) Jen, who runs a number of blogs (notably Cake Wrecks) always goes, and always takes lots of pictures, and always highlights the best on her Epbot blog. This year, part four of this year's best cosplay features two sets of Oz costumes. And these are not the type you normally see at the various Oz conventions I've been too. So go take a look!

The Latest Oz Reading

I just finished another book in my current spate of Oz-related reading. That book was Techniques of Writing Fiction by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, the final piece in my McGraw collection. Yes, I now have every book she wrote, and this one tells you how she did it. She gives some very good, common sense advice for how to write fiction, with all kinds of tips and tricks, most of which still hold up well today. Having talked with her a few times before she died in 2000, and read her articles in The Baum Bugle about how she wrote, I could clearly hear her style and sense in her writing, which is witty and charming and folksy, just like Eloise. Even though this was four years before the publication of Merry Go Round in Oz, there's a passing mention of Oz in her tale of how she first learned how to tell a story to a young audience. She also brings up examples from her earlier works, most of which I recognized (but now I'm starting to think that I should go back and reread some of her books). There's a lot of talk about writing for magazines that isn't terribly germane today, and absolutely nothing about using a word processor — plenty about making copies on your typewriter with carbon paper, however — but if you're a fan of her work, or just interested in getting some straight advice on writing from a good one, even though this was early in her career, you may just want to get this one.

The comics order also came yesterday, and since there were only two Oz comics, I read them both right away:

• Fables #139. Part 1 of a two-art story about Boy Blue's band going back to the Fable version of Scotland. No Oz in it, however.
• Tales from Oz #3. Okay, let's see how badly Zenescope messes up the Scarecrow's origin. (At least it can't be much worse than the origin revealed in The Royal Book of Oz.) Hmm, intriguing, and more in keeping with the Scarecrow's origin in the musical version of Wicked. Bartleby is a good man who has the trust of the people of Oz, so when he is summoned by the Wicked Witches of the East and West, it is to recruit him as an ambassador. The witches give him their word that all they ask for is loyalty, and that the people and their lands and livelihoods will not be harmed. Bartleby is successful with most (but not all) groups, then returns home to find that there is a reason they're called wicked witches. It does not go well for Bartleby or much of anyone else, including his fiancée Tessa, and the Scarecrow is the result. This book also contains the final part of "Good Dog", the story of what Toto was doing for much of the main Oz miniseries. One extra special plus to this issue is that Zenescope was selling an exclusive edition just for Emerald City Comicon while I was there last week, so I now have my first limited variant cover of a Zenescope Oz comic.

I'm working on a bit of non-fiction right now, and it's a little slower going than I'd like, but I should be able to review it some time next week at the latest.

A Litte Request

Hey, are any of you, my faithful readers, planning to be at the Autumn at Oz Party at the site of the old Wizard of Oz theme park on Beech Mountain in North Carolina? I've got a little proposition for you! Drop me a line (go ahead and leave a comment, or e-mail me if you know my address), and I'll give you the details.

Correspondents needed!

Anybody out there going to either the San Diego Comic Con or the National Oz Convention in Banner Elk, North Carolina? I would like to get some information from those events, and so I need some correspondents who will be going to help me out with this blog and my website. Leave me a comment or drop me an e-mail at whatever address you can find for me (and I've got a bunch now). Thanks!

How are you going to celebrate this weekend?

I've been meaning to pass along this message for a while now, and a recent re-send has spurred me to finally do so. This is from Jane Albright, one of the leaders of the International Wizard of Oz Club and a pretty darned good Oz fan to know. She's also coordinating events for the National Oz Convention this summer at the site of the old Wizard of Oz theme park near Banner Elk, North Carolina. So, take it away, Jane!

This weekend, please take your photo, showing something of your personal Oz interests, and send it to IWOCEvent@aol.com. The Oz Club's Banner Elk event this summer will be celebrating Oz fans — not just IWOC members or those fans whose names we all know, but all Oz fans — so we need to put together a look at...all of us! That includes you.

Think about "Oz fans" for a minute ... we have favorite collectibles, create our own artwork, wear sparkling red sneakers, and train our little dogs, too. We unpack cookie jars we got on eBay, produce our own Oz films, blog our Ozzy wisdom, travel great lengths to see our Munchkin friends, and appear in costume as favorite characters. Love of Oz leads us to organize events, write stories, loan materials to displays, plant poppies, sing, dance, solder and sew. With one thing in common — Oz — we are no two fans alike. Yet collectively we are the fans of Oz.

Consider this weekend is "A Day in the Life of Oz." Grab your air brushed Oz jacket, stand in front of your Oz collection, or sit down on that Yellow Brick path in your garden and get photographed. And if you're around other fans, get a picture of them, too. It's L. Frank Baum's birthday; let's make him proud.

Send photos to IWOCEvent@aol.com before the end of June to be sure you corner of Oz is part of the big picture.

What Jane failed to mention in there is the actual date, so I'll add it: May 15. That's this coming Sunday and, as she mentioned, L. Frank Baum's birthday. I have some thoughts about what I will do that day...

This weekend's con

This weekend, I'm all alone as Laura goes off to this year's Emerald City Comic Con. The logistics for me to go just didn't work, so I'm staying behind. That's okay, however, as comics are more Laura's thing than mine anyway. However, there are always lots of Oz things going on there, even if it's not a specifically Oz convention. This year:

• Take a look at the cover of the exclusive edition from Monsters and Dames
  
• Skottie Young is there. I sent along my hardbound copy of the comic book adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that he illustrated, and Laura also got a sketch from him (which I haven't seen yet).
  

Er, and that seems to be about it, actually. If I'd realized Skottie would be there, I might have made more of an effort to be there. Perhaps if the job situation clears up a bit in the next few months, I can go with Laura next year.

Steampunk Oz

Jen, who runs the always entertaining Cake Wrecks blog, has another blog that's about whatever else she wants to talk about. This past weekend, she was at Dragon*Con, an annual convention in Atlanta that's one of the most well-respected cons in the country. Jen took lots of pictures. Today, she has up her steampunk costume gallery (she's a big fan of steampunk). Go, take a look, and make sure you keep looking even after you think you see why I pointed it out to you. Yes, lots of Ozzy steampunkiness there!

The Ballad of Ozzy McTavish

I actually got to wear a costume at the Winkie Convention this year. But it's going to take some explanation as to how it all came about, so I'd better start explaining...

It all started at the 2009 edition of Seattle's premiere comic book convention, Emerald City Comic Con. As I've become a bit of a coattails comics collector (Laura's the real comics geek in the family), I've always had a good time there, and not just because of the name. I mean, Seattle has been called The Emerald City for almost thirty years now. But last year's con had an item I really, really wanted: a specially commissioned "Emerald City" baseball jersey. So of course Laura and I asked around, but found that they were only available to long-term convention volunteers. So I was out of luck. "Hey, wait a minute," I thought to myself, "if I can't get one, maybe I can at least borrow one for the convention." So I sent off some e-mails of inquiry, but didn't get a reply until after last year's Winkie Convention. But at least they were promising, and Jim, the ECCC organizer, promised he'd get it to me for 2010 if I reminded him in time.

This year, our timing was much better, we got it all figured out, and I was able to borrow Jim's jersey for the weekend. My first thought is that I would just wear it for some time during the convention, and that would be it. "Hey," I then thought to myself, "what if I had a hat to go with it?" I poked around and looked at the website for the Eugene Emeralds, thinking one of their caps might work, but nothing semed quite right. Then, just a few days before the convention, I remembered a cap I bought many year ago from Books of Wonder that would be perfect. It's black with Denslow's lion intertwined with the "O-Z" logo in emerald green (sadly, no longer for sale there), and it would go great with the green-on-black jersey. Trouble is, most of my Oz collection is still in boxes after the move, and it took me a little while to find it. But find it I did, and everything got packed away for the trip.

You'd think that would be it, wouldn't you? Well, so did we. But if you're doing nothing but driving for a day and a half, you tend to think of things you'd never thunk before. Somewhere in southern Oregon, the name "Emerald City Green Sox" popped into my head, and I decided I wanted to turn it into a full-blown costume. Fortunately, all I needed was a bat and a pair of green socks. And how hard could it be to find either one?

We'd driven so far that first day, and had no time when we arrived to go shopping. But we were far enough into California that we found we had plenty of time before we had to get to Asilomar, so we made a few stops along the way. One national name-brand chain department store had a nice, inexpensive plastic bat and some promising socks on sale in many colors — except green, of course. Hmm. Well, we had a way to go, and we knew there was at least one more branch of this store near Asilomar, so we decided not to get anything there but move on to the other one. Good news, they had a better bat! This was a big, wide fungo bat, which would make for a more comical prop (and, unlike the one I found earlier, didn't also have a ball, which I really didn't feel it needed). But still no green socks in the men's department. So Laura dragged me to the women's department, and we found a pair of green socks, in a pack with a bunch of other colors. Well, I hemmed and hawed a bit, but finally decided to give it a shot. They weren't quite as bright green as I was hoping for, but as a spur-of-the-moment last-minute costume accessory, they did the trick. And sure enough, they had enough stretch in them that they fit (although I didn't find that out until the morning of the costume parade).

All my character needed now was a name! "Ozzy" came naturally, of course, as that's a not at all uncommon baseball knickname, particularly Ozzie Smith. But I didn't come up with a last name until very late when "McTavish" popped into my head. So, Ozzy McTavish, center fielder and power hitter for the Emerald City Green Sox, was born. And here's what he looks like!

Photo courtesy Jared Davis

Here's an action shot, better showing off the hat:


Photo by Laura Gjovaag

It is an extrememly good thing that I came up with Ozzy, too, since there were only two other costumes! What has happened to the proud Winkie costume tradition? Ah, well, at least I was there. Now all I need is for someone to actually write Ozzy into an Oz story of some sort.

We're back!

Well, Laura and I got back from the Winkie Convention last night, after a very long drive. We're hot and tired and exhausted, but we had a great time, and are looking forward to it next year already. We're going to start saving now, because it's less than fifty weeks away now! The 2011 Winkie Convention will be at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove again, July 8-10. I'll try to remember to keep you up to date here.

Today's Oz comic

The kid in today's installment of Six Chix (this one is by the great Stephanie Piro) definitely has the right idea of what to do over the summer!

And speaking of summer, I'm at the Winkie Convention right now, after a couple of days of driving and spotty internet access. Now I have access, but I'm going to be too busy to say much. If you want to follow the convention, however, my wife is tweeting about it on Twitter. Take a look at twitter.com/search?q=%23winkiecon.

A quick Oz news update: Eric Shanower and Skottie Young's comic book adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz won two Eisner Awards last night, for Best Limited Series or Story Arc and Best Publication for Kids. Way to go, guys! (Last year's huge Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz was also up for two Eisners, but didn't win either one.) For the complete list of winners, check out www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_eisners_main.php.

More Tips to Surviving the Winkie Convention

I know a whole lot of you are looking forward to meeting Laura and me at the Winkie Convention this weekend, so here are a few more tips to make your experience that much more pleasant.

SHOES: Definitely bring a good, comfortable pair of walking shoes, because you will be walking a lot. The Fred Farr Forum, our main meeting room, is quite a ways from the dining hall and the beach. Odds are, your room will also be a ways away from the Forum, in the opposite direction. The walks are, however, quite pleasant, and you may spot some of the local wildlife. One year, I think I spotted six deer just on the way to breakfast. Then there was the raccoon butt sticking out of a trash can. (If, however, mobility is a problem, you can arrange for little electric carts to zip you around.)

MONEY: Bring as much as you can, because I can just about guarantee that you will find some treasure to buy that you would be hard pressed to find elsewhere. Like any fan convention, the dealers' room has all kinds of stuff. The auction also yields the inevitable bargain that, in recent years, has made me smack my head and say, "I wish I could have gotten that." (Money has been tight recently, else my head might not have gotten quite so sore.)

FOOD: If you are trying to cut back on your calorie intake, go back to doing that Sunday afternoon, because you may want to just go with the flow for this weekend. We all end up eating our meals together in the Crocker Dining Hall, most of them in our own private dining room. While not five star, the meals are quite good and as well prepared as one can expect at a state-run facility with something like five hundred guests at a time (and yes, we won't be the only group there). The staff is extremely friendly, and will often go out of their way to accommodate special needs or refill coffee or bring a special request, usually with a smile. And we try to give Saturday dinner a sense of style and occasion by dressing up. While some folks bring suits and gowns, nobody will look down on you if you just wear a nice shirt and tie, or a snazzy blouse, or even if you didn't know and show up in t-shirt and jeans.

COSTUMES: It's probably too late to do much about it now, but if you can, bring a costume of some sort for Saturday morning's costume parade. It has been a very big deal in the past, but the past few years it's been less so, with fewer and fewer costumed characters in attendance. But the ones that are there have some fun with it. (Sad to say, for the first time in many years, I will not be taking part, as I just couldn't come up with an idea.)

And that, coupled with an open, friendly attitude where you talk to as many of your fellow Oz fans as you can, is about it. It's a fun time for everyone, so I hope this helps you enjoy yourself. Anything else you need to know about Asilomar can always be found on their website.

Where I'll be during CCI in San Diego

A lot of folks I know, or at least whose blogs I read, will be at the big Comic Con International in San Diego this coming weekend. So of course they've been posting notices of where, within the San Diego Convention Center, they will be. So, here's mine:

Another common blog post at this time of year is tips about how to deal with the San Diego con. So I will do the same for the convention I will be at this weekend. Starting with...

THE WEATHER! Pacific Grove and the Asilomar Conference Center are right smack dab on the Pacific Ocean, and there's a lovely beach there, and sand dunes. But it is far enough north, and close enough to San Francisco, that you do not want to go thinking that it's southern California, and you'll need your swimsuit and sunscreen the whole time. This is not the case! It's usually pretty misty, or even downright foggy, particularly in the mornings. Bring shorts and t-shirts, but also sweats to layer over them. You'll probably need the long stuff in the morning for sure.

Of course, there are the few exceptions. The costume contest is the first event Saturday morning, and so it's usually pretty cool. So in 1989, when I took a gray suit and lots of gray make-up and gray gloves and a top hat and black umbrella to dress as Benny the Public Benefactor from The Giant Horse of Oz (a Boston statue that had been brought to life), I thought I'd do fine. But that turned into the first Winkie Convention at Asilomar with a beautiful, bright, sunshiny — and hot! — Saturday morning. Needless to say, under all the dark clothes and make-up, I was not doing so well. Good thing I won the contest, at least!

Later this week, more Dressing for Winkies tips!

Ungh, part 2

Still not doing well. I should be over this by now. And the Winkie Convention starts one week from today, and I still have a lot to do...

Ungh...

Too sick to focus or say much of anything today. Except a week from today, Laura and I will be off to the Winkie Convention! This will be my thirtieth consecutive Winkie Con!