Adventures in Georgia

Thursday 4/25/2019

It’s been a week since my last Journal entry. I’ve been fairly stationary at Maureen’s in Marietta. Mostly I’ve been spending my days doing routine email, Facebook, and various to-do items of business, graphics, etc. Evenings Maureen and I have been catching up on our favorite TV shows, which I’ve been unable to watch while I’ve been on the road: Sense8 (which gives a whole new meaning to the term “clusterfuck”), American Gods, Project Blue Book, Star Trek Discovery, and Strange Angel.

Last Friday evening we went to see the movie Shazam! which we thoroughly enjoyed. I remember fondly the comic book, Captain Marvel, from when I was a kid. Originally created in the 1930s by Bill Parker and C.C. Beck for Fawcett Comics, “Shazam” is an ancient wizard (Whiz Comics #2 gives his age as 3,000 years) who gives young Billy Batson the power to transform into the grown-up superhero Captain Marvel-“the World’s Mightiest Mortal”-by saying the magic word SHAZAM (acronym for SolomonHerculesAtlasZeus, Achilles, and Mercury).

Captain Marvel comic

Fawcett, publishers of the original Captain Marvel/Shazam comics, stopped making them in the ’50s. In the ’60s, Marvel Comics trademarked the name Captain Marvel for their own Kree alien superhero, which meant when DC licensed the Fawcett characters in 1972, they had the Fawcett character named Captain Marvel, but couldn’t call the comic Captain Marvel, so they used his transformation cry “Shazam!” for the title.

This extended to other media as well – DC could not promote the character as Captain Marvel anywhere, even though the character’s named was Captain Marvel. So when Billy Batson made his TV debut in 1974, his show was titled Shazam (okay, The Shazam/Isis Hour, but you get the point). https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-captain-marvel-ms-marvel-shazam-clusterf-ck-explai-1251423862 

Saturday the 10th I attended Frolicon, at the Atlanta Sheraton Hotel, where I shared a room with Talyn, Maggie, and Holly. That was a blast! The con tagline was “Where Nerdy meets Naughty.” Hundreds of happy fanboys’n’girls wandering the halls in a wide variety of outrageous costumes, from the very elaborate to the very little. Many workshops, panels, vendors, burlesque shows, costume contests, stand-up comics, and a huge fully-equipped dungeon. Plus the hotel pool and hot tub. Lotsa fun, and many old friends.

OZ at Frolicon

Monday morning I got a doctor’s check-up; I seem to be in excellent health, pending results of the blood work.

Last night we held our first Grey School Faculty meeting on Zoom, arranged and facilitated by our marvelous new Dean of Faculty, Ambika Devi, whom I’ll be visiting in a couple of weeks. Zoom is a great video conferencing platform-a vast improvement over Skype, which we’ve been using up ’til now. Goodbye, Skype!

This evening I’m having dinner at the Hawg & Ale, “The best BBQ in the Southeast!” with the Songdog Family; Talyn, Maggie, Holly, Tam, Fayth, Ruffio. Afterwards, we’ll go hang out at the Viking Alchemical Meadery ’til they close.

Dinner with the Songdogs

Clockwise from front: Tam, OZ, Maggie, Talyn, Holly, Faith, Ruffio

Early Saturday I’ll be heading off to Belfire at Lake Hartwell, SC w. Talyn and the gang. The first of several Beltaine celebrations I’ll attending in the next week or so.

Then on Sunday the 28th, from 4:00-6:00pm, I’ll be doing a book-signing and talk at Phoenix & Dragon Bookstore in Atlanta. Morning Glory and I have done business with them for decades, but this is my first actual book-signing there.

For previous Journal entries and more, be sure to check out my personal website:  www.OberonZell.com

#pagan #roadtrip #wizard #bucketlist #adventure #ozpatreon