Wedding
Arthur and Pam got married yesterday!
It was a lovely ceremony (performed by Tad; I've never gone to a WorldCon function hosted by the WorldCon toastmaster, but this year I intend to go to as many such functions as I can manage, because Tad's such a great speaker), out in a park-like area in the Santa Cruz mountains. The occasion was slightly marred for me by an embarrassingly injudiciously timed remark I made, and by an unrelated minor altercation I got into with an old friend (I was going to say contretemps or imbroglio, but those turn out to have more specific meanings than I thought, neither of which is quite right; I was also tempted by donnybrook, but I think that has connotations of physical violence that weren't present in this case) on the subject of dancing, which I may go into more in a future entry. And I made some bad choices or ill-thought-out decisions at a couple of moments during the course of the day. But all of those things were minor, and none in any way inconvenienced (or even caught the attention of) the bride and groom, so that's all right.
In addition to the ceremony itself, and the great company (Arthur told us that the secret to having a good party was having good guests), and the fact that it was a nice (if a bit hot) day in a lovely place, there was also good food, olallieberry pie (in addition to the wedding cake), and great music. The Cats & Jammers are a longtime Bay Area swing trio, who perform songs from the '30s through the '50s (or thereabouts); I've liked them ever since Arthur first introduced me to their music some years back. And the group is disbanding (I think one of them is moving to another state), and they've already held their final public performance, but Arthur & Pam hired them to perform at the wedding, which they did with their usual charm, talent, and savoir faire. (aplomb? poise? I don't seem to be doing so well on subtle connotations today. Forgive me; I'm exhausted.) I'm sad to see them go, but very pleased to have gotten a last chance to hear them live.
Afterward, a few of us got together for a brief dinner, and then went to see Minority Report, which we all thought was remarkably good. Don't go in expecting brilliance, and don't be surprised by moments of Spielbergian sappiness, but all in all I'd say it's one of the best science fiction movies released in recent years. Even the basic premise was not nearly as goofy as the previews had led me to believe. It's also worth remembering that it's based (loosely, I assume) on a Philip K. Dick story, and it retained a bit of Dick's usual quasi-pulp approach; for example, the fact that victims' and killers' names are embedded in the grain of polished wooden spheres, instead of (say) appearing on a computer screen, is all part of the movie's somewhat retro charm. Go in with relaxed (in every sense of the word) expectations, and it's well worth seeing. Some very tight plotting and even some quite good acting. (And I personally like Tom Cruise, but I realize I'm in a small minority among persons of taste.)
Anyway, the result of all of this is that I've been socializing pretty much nonstop since early Wednesday morning, and haven't had enough sleep in the past week or so, and I'm all tuckered out. I put Mary Anne on a plane an hour or so ago, and intend to spend the rest of the day sequestered at home, trying to recharge social batteries in preparation for work tomorrow.
But it really was a lovely wedding; certainly among my favorites of those I've attended. (And possibly the only one so far in which the bride and groom promised, among other vows, to be each other's alibi.)