Nebula Weekend 2000
May 19–21, 2000 in New York City.
Toastmaster: Scott Edelman
(editor, Science Fiction Age, 1992–2000)
* Rough & Ready Schedule
* Sheila & Terry’s Mostly Moderately Priced Neighborhood Restaurant List
* Live Chat from the Banquet
* Hotel
* Tickets
* Registering
* Banquet
* Mega Book Signings
* Program & other activities
o (If you’re interested in any of the activities that require signing up, please email the contact person as soon as possible!)
o Theatre
o Tours & Outings
o Advance TV & Movie Screenings
o Panels
o Fighting Dinosaurs
o NY Baseball
* Contacts
* Useful links
You need not be a SFWA® member to attend the Nebula banquet and parties—anyone with an interest in science fiction is welcome.
Hotel
Crowne Plaza Hotel
1605 Broadway at 49th Street, New York, NY 10019.
This is right in the middle of New York’s theater district, and easily accessible by all forms of mass transit.
Room rates: $210 a night if reserved by April 18.
Reservations: 1-800-243-6969
(mention that you are with the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America)
Room sharing: Terry McGarry will be coordinating requests from SFWAns and others who wish to share rooms at the hotel during the weekend. Please e-mail her at Terry_McGarry[at]sff.net, or phone at 212-286-5687, if you’d like to share a room (and please specify gender, smoking, etc preferences).
Tickets
Banquet: $99 (includes entrance to the parties)
Parties only: $39.
Checks should be payable to SFWA
Send them to:
Terry McGarry
PO Box 2479
Grand Central Station
New York, NY 10163
Registering
For those who have registered: Although we often refer to banquet “tickets,” there are actually no tickets to bring with you; a badge will await each registered attendee at SFWA® Nebulas check-in. Email Terry_McGarry[at]sff.net if you’re registered and you haven’t received information about where to check in with SFWA at the hotel.
If you haven’t registered but would still like to attend, email Terry_McGarry[at]sff.net right away.
Awards Banquet & Cocktail Reception
Saturday May 20.
At the Crowne Plaza Hotel.
6-7 pm: Cocktail party
7-11 pm: Dinner and presentation of the Nebula Awards, Grand Master, Author Emeritus, and Service to SFWA® Awards.
11 pm—2 am: Post-awards party.
Live Nebula Banquet Chat
SCIFI.COM will host a live chat from the banquet hall of the Nebula Awards® ceremony, starting at 7 p.m. EDT. SFWA® members are invited to join us in a private chatroom that will be projected onto a screen in the banquet hall so that real and virtual attendees can mix and mingle.
* To chat, visit http://www.scifi.com/chat/chatnow.html, enter any of the rooms listed in the drop down menu, then join the private room #2000Nebulas by typing “/join #2000Nebulas”. Requires a java-capable Web browser.
* IRC users can connect their chat clients to events.scifi.com, port 6667, and join the private room #2000Nebulas by typing “/join #2000Nebulas”.
* WebTV users, see http://www.scifi.com/chat/chat.faq.html for more information.
Banquet Menu
Five-Star Broadway Salad
with Balsamic Vinaigrette.
An array of crisp Wild & Domestic Greens Garnished with a five point star of Cherry Tomatoes
***
Grilled Boneless Game Hen
with Wild Rice Blend
and Apple Bourbon Demi-Glace
***
New York Cheesecake
This smooth and creamy New York classic
is always a favorite.
Immediately Post-Banquet:
Sarah Zettel will be doing cell-phone call-ins to the West Coast bookstores that are hosting Nebula signings that night. Also look for the SCIFI.COM folks, who will be running an online chat, and say hello to the virtual audience. Jim Freund will be recording the awards event for his long-running New York City-based science-fiction radio show, Hour of the Wolf, and he’ll be very happy to chat with you.
Other Programming
Parties, panels, book signings, screenings, and theatre outings and tours are being arranged at the hotel and around New York City throughout the weekend. There will also be activities on Thursday evening—May 18—for those who wish to come early. SFWA’s general business meeting will be on Saturday morning. Please watch for further announcements and details here and in the Forum. Here is a Rough & Ready Schedule.
Mega-book-signing:
Friday, May 19th, at the Barnes & Noble superstore on Union Square (33 East 17th Street) starting at 7:30 pm. Click for full info. Note revised time.
Theatre
Featured play, highly recommended and genre-appropriate:
Copenhagen, by Michael Frayn, at the Royale Theatre, 242 West 45th Street.
The ghosts of physicists Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr, and Bohr’s wife Margrethe, meet again to try to make sense of Heisenberg’s mysterious 1941 visit to Bohr in Nazi-occupied Copenhagen. Heisenberg was then the leader of the Nazi atomic program; within a year Bohr would flee to the Allies and be spirited to Los Alamos. Was Heisenberg actively pursuing an atomic bomb for Hitler or was he leading the German effort toward peaceful nuclear reactors? What message was he trying to convey to Bohr and why was Bohr horrified? What might have happened if...?
The ghosts also recall their happier days together in 1926, when Bohr and Heisenberg were putting together the “Copenhagen Interpretation” of quantum mechanics, and they reflect on the nature of “uncertainty” in its physical and human guises, and on the puzzle of trying to understand one’s existence in the world. Critically acclaimed, intellectually challenging, emotionally moving… Close kin to science fiction and alternate history.
Graham Collins is organizing a group outing to see this play at its 2 pm performance, Saturday May 20. (There is also a 3 pm Sunday performance. A group trip to that show will also be organized if there is enough interest.) Ticket prices may be as high as $70 including surcharges. Some on-stage seating may be available! If you are firmly interested in joining this group, contact Graham ASAP at gpc[at]sff.net.
Other shows:
Rent, Nederlander Theatre, 208 West 41st Street (off Seventh Avenue), a ten-minute walk from the hotel. If you’re from outside the city and interested in a good blast of contemporary New York City flavor, this show will provide it. The best deal currently available is same-day $45 orchestra tickets purchased online (http://www.siteforrent.com). Contact Terry_McGarry[at]sff.net or if you’d like to hook up with some other attendees and see the show Thursday night, Friday night in lieu of the signing, or Sunday afternoon.
Blue Man Group: Tubes, Astor Place Theatre, 434 Lafayette Street, Friday night after the book signing, 10 pm showing. Tickets $45-$55, though if we get as many as 20 people we might get a break, if they have room for us. This show does tour, so New York isn’t your only opportunity to see it, but it’s gonzo and speculative in its way, the timing works well with the signing, and the theatre is an easy stroll from the Union Square bookstore down to Astor Place. More information is available on the show at http://www.blueman.com and http://www.playbill.com. Contact Terry_McGarry[at]sff.net if you’d like to go with some other Nebula Weekend attendees.
Tours and Outings
Tour of the theatre district, led by author Josepha Sherman, Saturday at 11:30 am (start gathering right after the business meeting). A chance to stretch your legs between the business meeting and the banquet, enjoy the spring weather, and learn about the historic Broadway theatres, all in the vicinity of the hotel. If we’re lucky, we’ll get a peek inside the New Victory, the New Amsterdam, or the Belasco (which is haunted!). Group size is limited to about 20. Contact Josepha, jsherman[at]worldnet.att.net.
Tour of the Financial District and historic downtown Manhattan, led by Nebula nominee Constance Ash, Sunday afternoon. This walking tour will end at the South Street Seaport, where there are shops, museums, and restaurants. The itinerary is flexible, depending on interest, but can cover anything from Water Street to Canal Street, including the very oldest parts of the city. Contact Constance Ash, constance[at]sff.net.
Tour of Central Park and environs, led by author and editor Gordon Linzner, Saturday 2-4 pm. Further opportunity to stretch your legs and take the air before the evening’s festivities. Gordon is a professional tour guide, and this should be a wonderful walk. (Central Park is only about ten blocks from the hotel.) Contact Terry_McGarry[at]sff.net to sign up.
A group visit to the brand-new Rose Center for Earth and Space and Hayden Planetarium, Sunday afternoon. Group size is limited. Contact Laura Anne Gilman, lauraanne.gilman[at]sff.net. Even if you decide not to join the group outing, try to get up to the planetarium at some point during the weekend. There’s more information at http://www.amnh.org/rose/ (the Rose Center--this page has a seriously cool sparkling cursor trail) and http://www.amnh.org/rose/haydenplanetarium.html (the planetarium).
A writerly pub crawl of historic Greenwich Village taverns, Thursday night. Informal. I (Terry) was hoping to trailblaze this, but other commitments for Thursday have made that impossible; still, I think it would be fun, and a few people have expressed interest. If you’re in New York or coming in early, and you’d like to raise a glass with some other SFWAns in creativity-steeped quarters, email me at Terry_McGarry[at]sff.net; I’ll have a list of the spots to hit, and I’ll put you in touch with the other folks.
Screenings
**New Special Addition**
The Invisible Man: The Sci Fi Channel/USA Networks is organizing an advance screening of their brand-new series The Invisible Man, tentatively scheduled for Friday night about 10 in the SFF Net-cosponsored SFWA® Suite (Room 3727), after the B&N book signing. For more information, email Terry_McGarry[at]sff.net, or watch this space.
The Possible Future: A special preliminary screening of The Possible Future by filmmaker Eric Solstein, Sunday morning, 10-11 am, in the SFF Net-cosponsored SFWA® suite at the Crowne Plaza. No signup required. Eric Solstein has already spent two years in collecting rare films, stills, and artwork, as well as interviewing the leading writers in science fiction, in his effort to create the first authoritative documentary history of the twentieth century’s most important literary genre. While The Possible Future is still over a year away from completion, Eric would like to share some of the exciting material he has gathered as well as give Nebula Weekend attendees an opportunity to provide feedback on this important project.
Panels
Friday night at 7:30 pm, to kick off the Barnes & Noble book signing, there will be a public panel and reading featuring the awards nominees and this year’s special honorees. Paul Levinson will introduce eighteen authors—Daniel Keyes (Author Emeritus), Constance Ash, Michael A. Burstein, Octavia Butler, Adam-Troy Castro, Esther Friesner, Joe Haldeman (last year’s Nebula novelist winner). Brian A. Hopkins, Ken MacLeod, George R. R. Martin, David Marusek. Jerry Oltion, Bruce Holland Rogers, Pamela Sargent (Service to SFWA), Stanley Schmidt, Frances Sherwood, George Zebrowski (Service to SFWA), Brian Aldiss (Grand Master)—who will read very short selections from their work. More than 70 other SFWA® authors will be hand for this event and the mega-signing that will follow. The SciFi Channel will be videotaping the panel and the signing, and other media will be present. No need to sign up; just come to the store (33 East 17th Street, north end of Union Square) about 6:45 and make your way to the 4th Floor. Contact PaulLevinson[at]compuserve.com or click here for more information.
Other panels and/or discussion groups are still being arranged. If it works out, they’ll take place in the SFF Net-cosponsored SFWA® Suite at the Crowne Plaza, Saturday and/or Sunday afternoon. No signup is required for attendees--you can just come up to the suite (Room 3727).
Fighting Dinosaurs!
Opening on May 19th at the American Museum of Natural History is Fighting Dinosaurs: New Discoveries From Mongolia. “Dinosaurs like you’ve never seen before! Spectacular new specimens from the Gobi Desert, many on view for the first time in the US, are showcased together with models of feathered dinosaurs.” The “fighting dinosaurs” are a famous fossil of a velociraptor and a protoceratops that died locked in combat. We don’t have a group visit planned for this, but the timing’s certainly right. Check out the image of a feathered velociraptor on the exhibit’s web site!
NY Baseball!
Mets are at home, go to http://www.mets.com. Yanks are at Cleveland, sorry!
Contacts & Credits
Awards Weekend Coordinators:
* Paul Levinson: Media, NYC book signing, panels, screenings
* Terry McGarry: Banquet and party tickets, room sharing
* Sheila Williams: General hotel, special events
* Sarah Zettel: regional book signings
* Shane Tourtellotte: NYC book signing
* Laurie Mann and Ben Yalow: local Nebula Weekend arrangements
Publicity, etc:
* Greg Costikyan: SFWA® Publicity
* Sandra Morrese: SFWA® Bulletin advertising for Nebula issue
* Graham Collins: Nebula Awards® Web pages
