Sharee Carton, an Australian fan, left a copy of her latest fanzine with Avedon. Right Up There #2, published 20 years after #1. Sharee had never met Avedon but a Letter of Comment (LOC) from Avedon on #1 had a big influence on the next issue. Avedon suggested that a fanzine should have staples. (Evidently #1 was a one sheet.) Given the current state of the fanzine world and Ansible, I don’t think that is a truism any more. Although it may be argued that Dave is just distributing a very thick fanzine one page at a time just to avoid stapling.

I read RUT#2 and Sharee covered her fannish life and what she has been doing for the past 20 years. Working trawlers out of Cairns; not for me.

Sharee and I knew a lot of fans in common from long ago but never met. We even didn’t meet at the 1984 LACON. She went to Corflu #1 and #2; I went to #3. She was a West Coast, Canadian fan; I hung out on the East Coast, until she had gone back to Australia.

Music was a big influence on her life and for RUT #2 she asked a number of correspondents to give a “Desert Island Disks” compilation of what music they would want to have on a desert island. 10 Disks. And, to some extent, how have the choices changed in 20 years.

This got me to thinking of my own musical influences and what my DID would be. I was traveling with my entire record/CD collection on an iRiver device. What would I take if I had to pare down the 3900 songs (450+ albums) already on the player?
Continue reading BLOC for RUT #2 →