I’m still working on a couple of additional entries about CONduit, but I wanted to note that the last of the Salt Lake movie theaters I remember attending as a kid, Trolley Corners, quietly closed its doors on Thursday after 27 years of business.
I didn’t know what to expect from CONduit. I was looking forward to satisfying my curiosity about a large, general-interest science fiction convention, but I was also apprehensive. I feared that the con would be lame, that I would end up feeling like I’d wasted my time and money. Even worse, I feared that I would feel ashamed of myself for being associated with something so… geeky.
I was in the art gallery, peering closely at a painting of Hobbiton as reflected in the brass doorknob of Bilbo Baggins’ home at Bag End, when a sniggering, adolescent voice intruded upon my thoughts. The owner of the voice was trying to sound Evil and Menacing, but he reminded me more of Beavis than Beelzebub.
What the would-be Dark Lord Beavis said, in melodramatic, B-movie fashion, was, “I will rule your world with fear and pain, heh heh heh.”
He paused for dramatic effect, then added, “Pull my finger.”