The Okal Rel Universe in evolution and in the world.

 

Couldn't even think of going to Con*Cept in Montreal in early October this year. Too expensive. :-( And a direct conflict with VCON. But I am cheered to hear from Con*Cept organizer Cathy Palmer-Lister that she received my soul-touch package of donated ORU books and buttons. My version of the next best thing to being there. :-) The ORU also got credited as a sponsor on Con*cept's sponsorship page which a lovely way to say "thanks".

Labels: Cathy Palmer-Lister, Con*Cept, Soul Touch

posted by Lynda at 22:12   0 comments permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments links to this post

 

Soul touched Mark Sadler (met on Sci-fi Talk) this month and struck up a connection. He has a writing background, although he hasn't done any for years, so I am recommending him to the current editors of ORU titles: The Okal Rel Anthology 4 and Cats in the Okal Rel Universe -- if he 'takes' to the ORU of course. Below is a quote from one of his e-mails that struck a chord.

> Thank you for the wonderful package of reading that you sent me ...
> Books, for me, and I suspect for you -- as they are to most avid readers,
> are friends and companions that we always have. They are markers, too. 
> I go to a book in my library and not only can I look at the title and
> remember the tale, the characters, but also where I was in my life 
> when I read it, the state of mind I was in, what season of the year,
> and my life, it was...
> I look forward to getting to know the characters and
> their triumphs, loves, heartbreaks and disappointments. After the
> present book I'm reading, I promised to myself I'd read The Story
> of Edgar Sawtelle (for some reason, probably because stripped down 
> to its elements, it's a boy and his dog story, it's calling to me).
> And then I'm going to plunge into the Okal Rel Universe and be
> swept away in your imaginings and a new world.

Labels: Mark Sadler, Soul Touch

posted by Lynda at 07:55   0 comments permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments links to this post

 

I connected with Martin Simons over a picture from a UCLA event I wanted to use as a jump hallucination on the ORU site. He wrote this week to say "thanks for the books" -- which he will pass along to good homes -- and to answer my questions about Burning Man. I guess I live under rocks but I'd never heard of this counter-culture phenomenon before. Martin pointed me at the TV Free Burning Man 2008 site where footage of the 2008 event is available. SF Cons are about as "out there" as I can see myself getting, at my age, unfortunately. But I think Burning Man is further evidence of our growing need to find meaning through art, to share powerful social experiences, and to explore what it means to be human. Here's an excerpt from his letter:

"I enjoyed reading your paper on virtual identities and the way you have worked things out through fictional characters. Our moral education was similar, with an additional helping of WWII, Hitler, holocaust, from a Jewish perspective. I was/am interested in politics as the intersection of moral philosophy and society. But politics has been a race to the bottom, rather than an enobling human endeavor. There is always hope, but not much evidence, that things will improve." - from Martin Simon e-mail Sept 2008.

Labels: Art and meaning, Soul Touch

posted by Lynda at 23:16   0 comments permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments links to this post

 

Sent home a set of Okal Rel universe books with Christa Ovenell of the exciting new Masters of Digital Media program just starting up at the Great Northern Way Campus - an joint manifestation of UBC, Emily Carr, BCIT and SFU. Christa came to UNBC to talk about the program. I am keeping my fingers crossed that there might be some creative outcomes of the connection, or at least that we might achieve soul touch with one or two new people if the book are shared around on campus. :-)

Labels: Christa Ovenell, Masters of Digital Media, Soul Touch

posted by Lynda at 07:42   0 comments permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments links to this post

 

A big ORU thank you to Dr. Lisa Yaszek of the School of Literature, Communication and Culture for placing books from a "soul touch" package in the Bud Foote SF Collection at the Georgia Institute of Technology and making Kaleidoscope Illustrated online graphic novel flyers available to students.

Labels: Bud Foote Science Fiction Collection, Library, Soul Touch

posted by Lynda at 07:56   0 comments permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments links to this post