A Spacefest Odyssey

A few months ago I attended Spacefest, a wonderful conference for space exploration enthusiasts. I had a fantastic time, as I did at the first one in 2007, and got to say hi to a bunch of astronauts – including some Moon walkers – that I had met at the first one.

Lockwood and Dullea in “2001: A Space Odyssey”.

But I met a few new people as well, and two of them were Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood in “2001: A Space Odyssey”. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. They were there to talk to folks and sign autographs, and they were very colorful and fun. I had the pleasure of hanging out with them for a little while at their booth, and enjoyed it immensely. They were very different men; Lockwood was blustery and rambunctious, while Dullea was more quiet and intellectual. They’re clearly friends, having traveled extensively together for events like this (at one point Keir offered to get coffee for both of them, and much to my delight they dickered over it like an old married couple).

Seth Shostak, SETI astronomer and host of the “Are We Alone” radio show, interviewed them for the program, and it’s now live on the AWA website. The whole show is great, as usual, and the interview starts about 28 minutes in.

While he talked to them, I was able to get video of it. The audio from Seth is much cleaner (oddly enough, people at SETI have access to software and equipment that filters out digital noise from a signal), but I figure you might enjoy the video, too.