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This summary was originally written by CD Skogsberg, but I've edited in some of my own and Patrik's comments to it as well.
Patrik have copies of the mini-survey and the cast list compiled during the social.
Take a look at a picture from the social!
The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In an Age, called the Nuclear Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose over the frost-coated trees of Gothenburg. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.
From the frozen river it blew, past the Central Station, underneath a sky not the color of a TV set to a dead channel, but that particular shade of gray that can only be achieved by snow lying for a couple of days near a busy road.
The people gathered were, in non-alphabetical order (AFAIK):
Karl-Johan Norén, Johan Klockars, Sören Stenermark, Ole Anders Bae, Martin Wohlert, Fredrik Strandberg, CD (Carl David) Skogsberg (your humble non-Novak narrator), Carin Wesslau, Oskar Brandt, and Patrik Montgomery. I was only formally introduced to: Karl-Johan (whom I was somehow expecting to be taller), Johan, Carin, Ole Anders ("call me Ole"), and Oskar.
[Karl-Johan: What I lack in height, I make up in speed of talk.]
I, having mistaken the date for the Social, did visit the decided-on restaurant, and found no one there. Worrying, I had my lunch/dinner there, got home and found it was the day after. Quoting Homer Simpson: D'oh!
[Karl-Johan: A nice lady working at the restaurant even remarked about it to us during the coffee. I guess we managed to leave at least some impression, even though we were a remarkably well-behaved group.]
Assembled at the Central Station (the pre-planned site) were most of the Social. Somewhat scattered. We proceeded to the restaurant, and found that It Was Good. (I, of course, knew this.)
[Karl-Johan: The trip from the Central Station to the restaurant, a small Greek one named _Den Lilla Tavernan_, also proved a culturally opening for some of the visitors from Stockholm (Martin, Carin and Fredrik), who never had traveled with a tram before.
(And to forestall any remarks about my origins, I traveled from Alvesta via Halmstad, not from Stockholm. I also had had prior experience with trams from earlier visits to Gothenburg.)]
Much discussion ensued, and lo and behold, it was all (or almost all) about the books. Many looney and not so looney theories were spun forth over a rather nice (and not very expensive) meal. Except for Carin's lamb cutlet, which was charred. A number of beers were consumed, but I doubt we reached the semi-mythical $37 of it.
[CD: After a week or so of trying to ream my memory, I remember some speculation on the eventual nature of Lan's and Nyn's children, as well as the Power Divison of RandLand (Rand to the South-east, South, and East, Nyn and Lan to the North-east, Perrin to the North-west and centre/West, Mat to the extreme West (eventually), and so on), and Karl-Johans revelation that he's tried to memorize *every* interesting chapter number and name.]
[Patrik: You missed the main point! The important part was what Nynaeve would be like pregnant. She is not the most stable person under normal cicumstances...]
[Karl-Johan: Nope, I don't memorise the chapters. Patrik did ask me if I memorised all chapter names after I named the chapter where Pevara appeared, but it was only a side-effect of my re-readings when I wrote my analysis of the White Tower conflict.]
We then proceeded to a movie theatre, having decided to watch some flick. Where I found out:
I'm invincible, er, invisible...
[Karl-Johan: Actually, we found that out during the trip to the restaurant. After Sören, I and the travelers from Stockholm had managed to form up Johan, Ole and Patrik all approached and presented themselves with little hesitation. We knew that Oskar waited at the restaurant, and thought CD would take himself there independently, him being an aborogine^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hnative^H^H^H^H^HGothenburger.
Alas, he didn't do that, but valiantly went with us first going to the tram, then riding with us in the tram, using the same narrow door as us, and then going with us from the tram stop to the restaurant - without being noticed until we were going to seat ourselves at the table!
Besides, I did see you during the trip, but somehow my mind never seemed to place any significance on the visual data, despite your slightly conspicious headwear.
Any conclusions on the real nature of CD are, of course, left as an exercise for the reader.]
[CD: I'm just...er...shy. Yep, that's it. I'm shy. (Now, Emmet mistook my father for me at the first ever UK DFS, but that's a whole other thing.)
And I ain't in the least gray. Except for my gloves. So there.]
...or so it seemed. That's what the rest of them claimed, anyway. I, having to go rob a bank to afford the movie tickets ($10, or near enough), returned to the cinema, seeing a few of them, hurring to a counter, finding, dang, no tickets left, well, I'll wait. And then, ten minutes later, they burst in, and proclaim that, apparently, our patronage of the arts was to be conducted at another flesh pit^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hcinema. So, I followed, got a ticket, and then we proceeded to a coffe-house, where much discussion, some of which is tabulated below, followed.
At this coffe-house we talked about splatter movies and movies in general, which brought on ... the casting thread, but in reverse at first, deciding on an actor and then fitting him into a role, then who would be *totally* inappropriate for the role (eg. Michael J. Fox as Rand), and finally who we thought would make good (or not so good) personages for all and sundry parts. Among them were: Sharon Stone as Lanfear, Max von Sydow as Dashiva, Ernst-Hugo Järegård as a Forsaken, Alicia Silverstone as Elayne, Dolph Lundgren as Perrin, John Cleese as the Voice of Lews Therin (ok, not so good), and Robert De Niro as Padan Fain. A list will hopefully be done soon.
This also brough out the only really good quote of the evening:
"With the aid of computer technology, we could have an entire battlefield of Aiel, all fighting, all played by Clint Eastwood."
[Karl-Johan: Oh, there were a few other quotes:
<people start talking about getting some coffee and dessert>
Me: "But I haven't finished eating yet!"
Patrik (I think): "That's because you talk so much more than everyone
else."
And I was considering asking for some more potatoes at the time!
Or someone asking (again Patrik, I think) during our jaunt in
search of a coffee-house: "Is everyone still around?"
Mr X: "I'm here, so I guess everyone is around."
[-1pt for not realising the identity of mr X]
Or at the movies right after we bought our tickets:
The ticket seller: "I have one ticket left!"
Us sans CD: "What? Aren't we all here?"
After counting of heads and some great confusion we then realised that CD was missing.
Somehow (though it might not be that much a coincidence), Patrik and Carin managed to spend most of the evening close to each other and talking a lot. We'll see what happens...]
We saw Ransom, which I considered an appropriate title, considering the ticket price, which wasn't too bad a movie, if what you're looking for is suspense and a Sam Peckinpah ending.
We gathered for discussions of where people would crash, if we'd do it again (Stockholm next time!), and generally patting each others' backs.
In Conclusion, it was nice to meet you people, hopefully we'll do it again, and so on. Someone else will probably post a better report, but I was probably first.
[CD: Well, it's not *too* bad. I mean, it's not even a little bit Loy-ish.
That was back at _den Lilla Tavernan_, when someone remarked "everone's moaning in this series."]
Karl-Johan Norén,
kjnoren@hem3.passagen.se