Strandbeests

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You've probably seen this already.  How could you not?  But even if you have, you're most likely not adverse to seeing it again.  And if by some perverse miracle you weren't aware of Theo Jonsen's Strandbeests, then the universe is about to become a better place for you.

Jonsen is one of those people, like Andy Goldsworthy, whom I believed I would grow up to be, when I was a boy.  Completely mad.  But in a benign way.


And in case you're wondering how Capclave was . . .

Terrific fun.  I got to hang with friends like Brenda Clough and Bud Sparhawk.  I glanced at the schedule and saw there was a panel on Murray Leinster conducted by notables like Ted White and Lawrence Watt-Evans and wound up getting drafted onto it, was on a number of well-received panels and one (on flash fiction) where every single one of the panelists was brilliant.  And I came home happy and exhausted.

But you want to know about Terry Pratchett.

Yes, the Great Man was there, for all of an hour, during which he spoke to a kneeling-room-only crowd (the room was so crowded that toward the end you had to crawl in through a sea of legs).  Most of which I missed because it was held at the same time as one of my panels and I am nothing is not faithful.  Still, Sir Terry was recognizably himself, a man who not only takes great joy in his intellect but in setting standards for intelligence.

And at this point, I hardly know what to say because, as we all know, the man has contracted early onset Alzheimer's.  Luckily, however, Pratchett dealt with the topic of his mortality head-on.  You can find out what he had to say in the following video, kindly taken and posted by Scott Edelman.

Thank you, Scott.

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