Saturday was the famed Sci-Fi [sic] Night at the NM Scorpions hockey game. It was a lovely late afternoon for a drive – welcome to the actual beginning of New Mexico spring.
I’d downloaded directions to the Santa Ana Star Center and they seemed clear enough. I got a bit of a shock, however, when I came upon the Santa Ana Star Casino far short of where the map told me I was going. In my simple naïvete, here I thought the Center would be attached to the Casino. Nope.
At least the map was clear enough to give me confidence. On I drove. And on.
Later fellow attendee Jane Lindskold told me she’d called to ask for directions. She asked specifically what the Center was near. There came a pause, and then the reply, “It’s not really near anything.”
No, it’s not. It is, in fact, way out in the weeds.
Still it was hard to miss, rising out of the desert pretty much by itself. I got there with my box of books right before the doors were to open and joined my fellow writers at our table on the concourse. Two tables, actually, as well as another table for Bubonicon staffed by con chair Kristen Dorland and her sister-in-law (whose name I never manage to get; sorry.) I got slotted in between Walter Jon Williams and Gerald Weinberg. Out on the ends were Jane and Robert E. Vardeman.
The Center is relatively new, and a very nice, clean facility. Things started out fairly slow. Over the course of the evening, though, we got a fair amount of interest. A lot of kids came by to check us out, always a good thing – we need that rising generation of readers to keep us from having to get actual jobs.
The other writers all sold books. I had a small selection of mine on display but not for sale, including all my Rogue Angel books, even the one that’s not due out for ten more days – a feat that impressed my fellow authors, who posited time travel as an explanation. Two different people offered to buy my Star Trek novel, From the Depths
Walter moved several copies of his hardcover Star Wars novel, Destiny’s Way
(The guy wearing one of the outfits I couldn’t identify, a very spiffy black version of Storm Trooper armor, came by to say hi to me. Turned out I used to work with him when I was driving delivery for Pizza Hut, back in the terrible summer of 2000. Not that delivering pizzas contributed much to the “terrible” part. I actually mostly had fun delivering pizzas. Not incidentally, the income also saved my cheese.)
I told Walter the Scorpions were unfairly advertising his book when they kept playing the “Imperial March.” The music was, in fact, kind of loud, even out on the concourse. I liked most of it, not at all abashed it wasn’t the newest stuff – Van Halen’s “Runnin’ With the Devil,” Guns’n'Roses’ “Night Train” (I think.) Jane started dancing to “Mama Said Knock You Out,” of all things, not exactly what I’d expect of her. I asked if she were an LL Cool J fan; she grinned and said, “Why try to fight the music?”
A couple of college aged women visited us, holding the hands of a little tanned blonde five-year-old girl. She didn’t resemble either in the slightest, and neither of them was her mom. We never established exactly how they came by her, but she was a happy child and pretty clearly not a kidnap victim. She did, however, become what I theorized aloud was the first person in history ever to perform a twirl to Alice in Chains (“Man in the Box,” again of all things.)
It turns out there’s a surprising overlap between hockey fans and SF readers. For me, anyway, that came as sort of a “who knew?” Along with selling books we steered a fair number of people to Bubonicon as well as to the monthly ASFS meeting. It’ll be great if we draw some new people in.
To my surprised delight Scott Phillips and his partner Jenn turned up. Always fun to see them. Scott’s wrapping up his scripts for the Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight TV series. He’s also going back to doing comics, which is cool; in fact he’s scripting two issues for a book from either Marvel or DC, I misremember which. As it happens, Jane’s also got a graphic novel deal going with Marvel. Lot of that going on.
We also got to watch such of the game as we desired. Supposedly two tickets were left for me as well as the basic pass; they weren’t given to me, but Jerry kindly let me borrow his spare. Not that anyone asked to see a ticket when I went up into the actual arena. Walter turned out to be a hockey fan of sorts. So did Jane’s husband Jim Moore, an archaeologist whom I’ve known a lot longer than either of us cares to remember. He was explaining the game to Walter’s wife Kathy when I went in to watch the last 15 or so minutes of the game. He was kind enough to include me in the explanations.
Walter’s definitely right that hockey’s more interesting seen live than on TV. I’ve never been to a game before. It certainly held my interest, despite the fact the Scorpions got roughed up to the tune of 5-2. For one thing the second Scorps goal and two Colorado Eagles’ goals were scored when I was watching. Jim said the visitors played well (as reflected in the score), while the home team … let’s just say, played less well. I did notice the Eagles showed a dab hand at hooking Scorpions players with their sticks without getting whistled for a foul.
We also observed that while the Scorpions’ mascot, a guy in a green plush-toy scorpion suit, is mildly terrifying, his name – Stanley – is not.
In all, it was a very good time. The local writers are always a pleasure to hang with. And as I said, we got a surprisingly good response from the crowd. And hey, it was fun to get to see a pro hockey game for the first time.
Many thanks to the Scorpions and Melissa Gomez, their Director of Special Events, for having us out and supporting the NM SF community – fandom as well as the pros. Which was appropriate, since in no other fiction genre are the fans and authors so immediately intertwined. I don’t know that we drew in any extra attendees, except maybe Scott and Jenn; nothing showed up on the team or venue’s website to announce the event. But a fair number of their paying customers seemed to enjoy our presence, and I’m pretty sure all of us did too.
As we were headed out carrying our boxes of books, everybody else’s much lightened, Jane told me about asking what the Center was near and being told, basically, “nothing.” She claimed that was a “codger moment”: that ten years from now, when we’re presumably all codgers, we can sit around telling people, “I remember when that there Santa Ana Star Center was way out in the middle of nowhere,” thereby boring them stupefied.
I said I’d have to codgertate over that. To the accompanying chorus of groans we all went our separate ways and the evening drew to its end. Always leave ‘em laughing, say I; and barring that, leave ‘em glad to see the back of you.
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There is a HUUUGE overlap between geekery and hockey. A fact that San Jose really capitalized upon when they brought in the Sharks. The previous hockey tema had been up in Oakland, land of the A’s and the Raiders. They were a thug team known strangely enough as the “Golden Seals” and sported an abstract drawin of a seal on their uniforms as drawn by Charles Shultz who was, astonishingly enough, a total puck-head (aka hockey nut). As pansified as this mascot looked, the team was rough-and-ready, but crummy and the East Bay folks lost interest because the Raiders were meaner and the A’s could win, so the Seals folded in 1976.
Fast forward to 1990 and the beginning of Silicon Valley. Some BRILLAINT marketing guru (in the pre-gerbil days of marketing) realized that people of an intellectual ilk were much more attarcted to niche sports and brought a hockey team to San Jose. They also support a professional soccer team and a professional Lacrosee team. (For the record, lacrosse is actually the official national sport of Canada, not hockey.)
Anywho, yes, hockey fans and by and large geeks. And most geeks who are exposed to hockey usually turn out to love it!
Like me. ^_^
Glad you had a good time. Now that you have seen the game live, the televised version should make more sense.
Indeed. Thanks for the excellent capsule history, Sara. I knew nothing of this.
So Charles Schultz was a puck-head, was he? Interesting to know.
Um … “pre-gerbil days of marketing”? Care to elucidate a bit?
And indeed, having watched a good chunk of an actual live game it does make more sense to me now. I’m not sure how soon I’ll repeat the experience, in part because the Center really is Way the Hell Out There. Were I already a dedicated fan, it would not deter me.
So I like to think, anyway. Then again I am a big fan of baseball, and used to be heavily into AAA ball, when the local team was the Dukes. Since they decamped to Las Vegas and were eventually replaced by the generically-named Isotopes (yes, it’s appropriate in a rather grim fashion; yes it’s actually just a lame attempt to capitalize on The Simpsons] I’ve not been back to a game. Even though the stadium’s much more conveniently located for me. I do intend to remedy that this year. Then again, I’ve intended that every year…
Certainly the fact that the game attracts Smart, Hot Babes such as yourself as fans is a big mark in its favor.
Re: Marketing gerbils. It was a remembering of something you said at Archon one year. And I agree. But at times, the gerbils get it right. And marketing in general seemed to have been better done in the 80s and early 90s than it is now.
You’d be amazed how many hot, intellectual babes love hockey. All my hockey-loving female friends are unanimously attractive.
We have a minor-league baseball team here in Nashville. Matt also says that we are going to go every summer. I like baseball alright, but it does get a bit dull after a while. I never liked sports (except the Olympics, especially the equestrian events!) until I was introduced to hockey in 2000.
And Schultz was a Seals season ticket holder. ^_^
What may remain of their fan-site is here: http://www.sealshockey.com/
Don’t get me started on the Nashville Predators!