Icon - Day 0

Icon had a great start for me, the day before it even started.

Met my fellow "official OSC escorts", Asaf Asheri and Rani Graf, in Tel Aviv, and went to pick Card up at the airport. Got held up by traffic, which whittled our safety margin to almost nothing. We got there only about 10 minutes before the man himself emerged.

Card turned out to be an extremely nice man. Refused help with luggage ("It's too heavy for me to let anyone else carry it), and only grudgingly allowed a trolley.

Went to Card's hotel, the Carlton (and a big thanks goes to City Hall for paying it, and for the indomitable Dubi for setting it all up). Check in was quick and easy, and the shift manager came out to welcome the honored guest. Nice.

Asaf and I helped OSC get his luggage to his room, untill he noticed and chided us. We aren't his porters, says the guest, and takes the luggage away. Nice room. Terrific view of the beach.

After OSC freshened up a bit (while we smoked and had coffee in the hotel lobby), set out to Jerusalem for OSC's tv interview (Check it out tonight at 23:30, on Channel 1). On the way to the car, OSC informed us that he's taking us out to dinner after the interview. Protests that it is we who should be taking him out to dinner fell on deaf ears.

We were supposed to be there at 18:30. We were there about 50 minutes later, thanks to horrific traffic. OSC remained incredibly gracious throughout the traffic ordeal. Oren Nahari, the interviewer, and SF's best friend in the big leagues of Israeli's news media, waited patiently, and conducted what he called a great interview. As I said, check it out on TV. On out way out, OSC made the security guard at Romema take our picture. Expect to see it in his website :)

Then it was off to Cavalier, one of Jerusalem's finest restaurants. Where the non-drinking mormon all but forced us to have a bottle of wine with dinner. So we did. Dinner was great, and the conversation was even better. Oh, and have I mentioned that this all took place after OSC has been traveling for about 24 hours? The man was dead tired, and he took us to dinner!

After dinner, we dropped Asaf at his Jerusalem home, and a dead-on-his-feet-tired OSC at his hotel. And then we headed off to the Cinemateque, to drop off some stuff. It was nearly midnight.

Of course, about a dozen of the con management crew were still at the Cinemateque, including the afore mentioned Dubi, as well as Hadas. Those con managers of ours don't make anyone else work harder than they do, and they make everyone work hard!

Tomorrow, OSC should arrive at Icon fairly late, as he's going to see the Kineret. But I'll be there at around 1PM. Hope to see everyone there, and come back late at night for another con update.