Chaz Boston Baden

Picture Gallery Recovery Fund What's this?
Rev. 19-Jan-2004

Chaz Boston Baden[1,2,3] is the proprietor of Hazel's Picture Gallery, an online repository of 18,000-plus photos, most of them fans; the index lists about 3500 names. He is also the custodian of the Fan Photo Gallery, one of the continuing Worldcon exhibits. He is known for his attempts to collect "complete sets" of photos, that is, trying to shoot pictures of every single person attending an event (such as a party, a wedding, or a convention).[4]

Apart from digital photography, Chaz is also interested in daily newsletters (his idols are Langford, Glyer, and Filthy Pierre[5]) and web pages.[7] Bruce Pelz once called him "L.A.'s Electronic Octopus," and that was ten years ago. In addition to science fiction and convention-related web pages, he operates a web page to generate Celtic knotwork, just for fun. He created another adult use for Lime Jell-O (using tequila, but no bathtub) circa 1992. His website of Jell-O recipes has been cited in print a number of times, most recently in the February 2004 Playboy Advisor column.

Chaz once organized an ice cream social with a "Hell Freezes Over" theme, which by all reports was quite convincing. (It was co-sponsored by Good Intentions Paving Company and Handbasket Tours & Travel.) He invented "blue boards"[8] to keep the hotel happy by giving fans an alternative place to post signs for parties etc., and also originated the Registration Apron.[9] One of his current projects is the launch of a new fannish animé convention in Los Angeles.

He has been spotted baking fresh home-made cinnamon soft pretzels at some recent conventions in the midwest. Chaz and his teddy bear ears[10] were seen at a number of cons in the last few years on behalf of the L.A. in 2006 "Space Cadets" Worldcon bid, but Armadillocon will be his first Texas convention. He looks forward to it, and hopes to host a party of some sort during the convention.

Footnotes

  1. My home page is on www.boston-baden.com. Among the personal material you'll find there is the story of when I once lost the use of an eye, my hands, and my back. (I got better.)
  2. These footnotes aren't on the version of the bio they posted on the Armadillocon website.
  3. "Boston" is a middle name, not part of my last name. And I've only been in Boston Massachussetts once, in 2002. So now you know.
  4. I've actually achieved a "complete set" at one convention, the Smofcon in 2003. I've also done it (or come awfully close) at three weddings. (Parties are easy, not counting the people I have to skip because they don't want their pictures online.) At one wedding, my photos were the only ones they had from one of the low-numbered tables at the reception. The official photographer had managed to miss all the bride's out-of-town cousins, or something like that. At conventions, sometimes I set up my laptop in the Con Suite at the end of the weekend and run a slide show with all the photos I've taken.
  5. See also Dave Langford's article "You Do It With Mirrors," first published in Mimosa and then reprinted in Let's Hear It For The Deaf Man and The Silence Of The Langford. Among other things, he emphasized the importance of putting funny bits in the newszine to entice people to read the whole thing. Mike Glyer's style of journalism does an excellent job of conveying what it was like to be at the event, whether it's at a convention or a 4th of July parade in Sierra Madre. And Filthy Pierre, way back in 1984, advocated the multiple distribution point newsboard system, the great big watermark issue numbers, the party list (or program change list) on the front page, and using a checklist to make sure something important isn't accidentally omitted.
  6. There is no footnote 6.
  7. I wrote out a complete list of websites that I maintain, but unfortunately the margins of this page are too small to include it.
  8. To create a set of Blue Boards, buy three or four 4'x8' sheets of hardboard cut in half (i.e. pegboard without the holes), some primer, and some light blue semi-gloss latext paint. Primer the 4-foot squares and then paint them. You might want to give them two coats. Position them at key intersections, junctions, and traffic bottlenecks at your convention, for example in the elevator lobbies, at Information, and by the Con Suite. If you can't get easels from the hotel (and you don't have a bunch of your own), then just lean them against the wall.
  9. The "Registration Apron" is an apron with pockets for blank badges, a black marker, and cash received, for selling one-day memberships (or night badges) at the door of the big evening event. I introduced this when I was chair of Loscon 28. As an added bonus, the apron can be locked up in Con Ops late at night, giving Con Ops the ability to issue badges as well.
  10. I made the teddy bear ears for myself in 1994. I realize they're not very realistic, from the point of view of what actual California Brown Bears look like, but that's because they were modeled on a teddy bear.