Philip K Dick Festival

Praise be to Lord Running Clam (aka David Hyde) for putting together the first-ever [ooops, first American] Philip K Dick festival later this year in Colorado! I can't count the number of times I've been up past closing time lamenting the fact that nobody can ever get it together to put something like this on, then a little later, I make promises to myself to finally try and put some kind of conference together, this finally descends into a solitary spitball session consisting of overly grandiose speculations... 'what we ought to do is rent the hotel at Disneyland..' But somebody stood up against the forces of entropy and chaos, now it's up to us to make this thing great.

Some details from the festival's website:

I've asked Patrick Clark, publisher of PKD OTAKU and a friend of many years to be our Festival Fan Guest of Honor and he has graciously accepted! Patrick is a PKD fan of many years standing. He has contributed articles to the Philip K. Dick Society Newsletter, For Dickheads Only, Radio Free PKD and has published his own PKD zine PKD OTAKU since at least 1996. His occasional PKD-related zines (like Simulacrum Meltdown and Interference On The Brain Screen) are a welcome find in one's mailbox. Particularly noteworthy to Philip K. Dick fans is Patrick's discovery of the PKD papers held by the Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Also, his definitive resolution of THE UNTELEPORTED MAN problem (uncertainty once reigned over what, exactly, constituted this novel - until Patrick came along) and his work on DR. FUTURITY are noteworthy. PKD OTAKU can be found online here.

Another likely attendee is Jason Koornick who operates www.philipkdickfans.com. When we needed a PKD website Jason stepped in and delivered. He has been operating PKDfans.com for ten years now and is up on all the Hollywood doings and everything to do with Philip K. Dick in this new millenium. Jason's knowledge will be a great asset for all who attend the Festival and have the opportunity to talk to him.

I'm also very happy to announce the probable presence of PKD expert John Fairchild. John lives in California and has contributed to The Philip K. Dick Society Newsletter, For Dickheads Only, Radio Free PKD and PKD OTAKU. John assisted in the editing of THE SELECTED LETTERS OF PHILIP K. DICK (Underwood-Miller Press) and his knowledge of PKD minutae is second to none! We look forward to seeing you all at the Festival (once we set a final date). I am also contacting PKD fans around the world and inviting them to come to Colorado for this PKD celebration -- and i have a few more experts in mind! I'm excited things are shaping up so well at this early date! Watch this space for more breaking news -- Lord RC


I'm really hoping I can make it. Lord RC has graciously offered me the chance to give a lecture. If it's early in August, I can make it before the Fall semester begins, but we're not exactly swimming in bread over here at TDH, far from it. My options are fairly limited and may involve camping on someone's floor. But, somehow, that feels right. And I have a good feeling about this.

In other news, I've got at least three more posts to write, and am falling behind. And it's likely to get worse, mostly because we had a baby boy Monday night, Thomas Walter, pictured below.