Live Music and Film: Nash the Slash performs The Lost World

This year's Ad Astra science fiction convention in Toronto is going to have a very impressive guess line up. Among others, Ray Bradbury will be attending by video-conferencing, and special effects legend Ray Harryhausen will be there in person.

Ray Harryhausen is the stop-motion genius behind the special effects spectaculars from the '60s and '70s such as Jason and the Argonauts and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. He learned his trade from Willis O'Brien, who is best known for his stop-motion work in the original 1933 King Kong.

Before Kong, O'Brien did the special effects for the 1925 film adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World and, as it happens, The Lost World is one of the silent films that Toronto musician Nash the Slash has written a live-performance soundtrack for. The folks at Ad Astra realized this, and have invited Nash to perform his The Lost World set at the convention on Friday, March 31st, with an introduction by Ray Harryhausen.

That's sort of like getting invited to a convention to give a talk about 1930s Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon serials and being told, "Oh, and we'll have George Lucas introduce you."

And I'll be there to photograph it! Some photos to go with my shots of Nash with George A. Romero.

Evening admission to the con for Friday only is $25. If you're interested in SF, you might want to go for the whole weekend for $60.