Richard Geis, who had cataract surgery on his left eye, recently wrote online:
My eye surgery seems to have gone well, but must wait weeks for the eye to fully heal before getting new glasses.
[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]
Geis Has Successful Eye Surgery
March 9th, 2010When LASFS Saluted Bradbury’s Star
March 9th, 2010John Hertz saw the separate posts about Bradbury’s Walk of Fame star and Ed Green and experienced a kind of déjà vu – remembering when LASFS President Ed Green sent Ray this letter on behalf of the club:
Congratulations on your being awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I appointed John Hertz to attend for the Club. He is only a 30-year member, which I realize is paltry in your case, but he duly reported everything to our 3,372nd meeting, Thursday, April 4th [2002].
We rejoiced to hear of Mayor Hahn and Councilman Garcetti speaking in your honor, as well as Stan Freberg, Charlton Heston, and Rod Steiger. Any of your readers would concur with Mr. Steiger that what makes your work last is its humanity, and with Mr. Garcetti that a story like Fahrenheit 451 inspires us not to take liberty for granted. When the Mayor named this book as the one he asks all Los Angeles to read for the sake of community, it showed how an author with your imagination could reach people with science fiction.
It was surely right that the star was placed outside Larry Edmunds’ bookshop, where you have been a customer for 50 years, and many of us go as well. If Hollywood Chamber of Commerce President Johnny Grant pretended it was you, not your father, who went to school with Jack Benny in Waukegan, Illinois, that could not have been wrong for April Fool’s Day. And the day was surely right for you, in the highest sense a dreamer and a fool, who can spark the minds of princes, who as Shakespeare knew needs no little art to use his folly like a stalking horse, and under the presentation of that, to shoot his wit.
On this occasion we applauded you again.
What Heinlein Believes
March 9th, 2010Edward R. Murrow did a series of audio essays called “This I Believe” on CBS for four years in the 1950s. Lately the Bob Edwards Show on the Sirius Satellite Network has been shining a spotlight on Murrow’s old program, replaying one of the essays every week.
Murrow introduced the concept with the first installment in 1951:
This I Believe. By that name, we bring you a new series of radio broadcasts presenting the personal philosophies of thoughtful men and women in all walks of life. In this brief time each night, a banker or a butcher, a painter or a social worker, people of all kinds who need have nothing more in common than integrity—a real honesty—will talk out loud about the rules they live by, the things they have found to be the basic values in their lives.
On Friday, March 12 Bob Edwards will be airing Robert A. Heinlein’s contribution to the series, “Our Noble, Essential Decency.” But you don’t have to wait until then to hear Heinlein speak his own words — the thisibelieve website provides free and immediate access to a digital recording, and a full transcript.
Heinlein’s essay begins:
I am not going to talk about religious beliefs but about matters so obvious that it has gone out of style to mention them. I believe in my neighbors. I know their faults, and I know that their virtues far outweigh their faults.
I found the following line particularly interesting:
I believe that almost all politicians are honest. For every bribed alderman, there are hundreds of politicians—low paid or not paid at all—doing their level best without thanks or glory to make our system work. If this were not true, we would never have gotten past the Thirteen Colonies.
I think he really did believe it, but after reading his characters define an honest politician as one who stays bought it was reassuring to hear him say so.
[Via Gerald W. Page and Andrew Porter.]
Not So Blue Monday
March 9th, 2010The Crotchety Old Fan sure was crotchety today, cheering Avatar’s loss at the Oscars.
What especially intrigued me was his reminder that an sf movie has already won an Oscar for Best Picture.
Back in 1956, Around The World In 80 Days took best picture. Does anyone need a reminder that the movie (with David Niven) was based on the novel by JULES VERNE? and that the novel itself was just as much a speculative fiction of speculative technologies when written as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was?
Hey, that’s right! Now tell me, am I allowed to call something ”steampunk” if it was written when steam power was the state-of-the-art technology?
Crotchety adds that a mythopoeic fantasy film has already won Best Picture, too. It’ll come to you in a moment. Or if it doesn’t check his little list of genre nominees to jog your memory.
Star Man
March 8th, 2010
Ray Bradbury, who was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2002, has like all the other honorees received extra attention lately because the Los Angeles Times is creating a database of features about them. Apart from Ray’s photo his entry is still generic but it should be one of the easier ones to research.
Bradbury’s star is at 6644 Hollywood Boulevard, which is on the south side of the street in front of Larry Edmunds Bookshop.
Bradbury received his star in a ceremony attended by Mayor James Hahn of Los Angeles, Johnny Grant (the “honorary Mayor of Hollywood”), Charlton Heston and other dignitaries. It was the kickoff event for “One Book, One City LA,” built around Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.
Bradbury with Mayor Hahn, Johnny Grant and Charlton Heston.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian for the link.]
Ed Green, a Really Good Bad Guy
March 8th, 2010
Ed Green
The other day I called someone “Fandom’s working actor” as if there were only one. Diana asked, “‘Fandom’s working actor’? What about Ed Green?”
Let’s fix that today, now that Ed has made it easier than ever to follow his blossoming acting career through his new page on the Internet Movie Database.
That’s where I learned Ed played “The Bad Guy” in Steve Bartlett’s 15-minute crime short Wife of the Bad Guy. The story concept is: “There’s someone for everyone – even the bad guy. But how much does she really know about her husband’s business?”
Bartlett’s film has been accepted for showing at the Fear No Film Festival in Utah and the Delta International Film & Video Festival in Massachusetts. Hopefully the short will play at a lot of other festivals throughout the year.
In the meantime, keep looking for Ed in new features, commercials and music videos. Or else.
The Bad Guy
Whedon’s Med Cred DOA
March 7th, 2010Dr. Grasshopper’s blog How to Kill Your Imaginary Friends isn’t on a crusade to restore the preeminence of hard science fiction, but anyone longing to see that happen should feel encouraged to see an sf-writing medical student chastising producers who disdain scientific accuracy in pursuit of gaudy effects.
The genre’s most popular tv producer was the target of the doctor’s recent post titled “Joss Whedon, I’m calling you out!”
I was watching the Dollhouse episode entitled “Hollow Men” (2×12) the other day. And there was this scene. You probably know the one I’m talking about. It involved lots of needles. It involved cerebrospinal fluid. And it involved absolutely indefensible pseudo-medical ridiculousness.
[Via David Klaus and SFWA.org]
Update 3/8/2010: Took a hint from Gary Farber and corrected the spelling of the name.
Flaming Youth
March 6th, 2010Chris Garcia set his beard on fire while cooking yesterday. Apparently he was uninjured apart from his beard needing to be trimmed and Chris has been mourning his blighted sartorial splendor on Facebook.
Chris has promised to tell the complete story in the next issue of John Purcell’s fanzine Askance.
My favorite among the blizzard of comments by Chris’s Facebook friends was Kate Kligman’s insightful question: “People like that your face caught on fire?”
And the Winner Is…
March 5th, 2010If you bet that the dinosaurs were wiped out by a giant asteroid strike in the Gulf of Mexico and the ensuing global winter – you won!
The theory was advanced years ago but competing theories have gained traction since then that blame the extinctions on volcanic activity or multiple comet impacts. So, explains the LA Times:
To settle the question, European researchers decided to assemble what Kirk R. Johnson of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science called “a K-T boundary dream team,” a collection of 45 internationally renowned scientists in a broad spectrum of disciplines to analyze the possible causes of the extinctions. Funding came from the National Science Foundation in the United States and from similar groups in other countries.Their conclusions will be published Friday in the journal Science.
“The answer is quite simple,” Johnson, a co-author and spokesman for the group, said in a telephone news conference. “The crater really is the culprit.”
The aftereffects from the impact “shrouded the planet in darkness and caused a global winter, killing off many species that couldn’t adapt to the hellish environment,” co-author and Earth scientist Joanna Morgan of Imperial College London said in a statement.
Aussiecon 4 Hotel Booking Begins
March 5th, 2010Aussiecon 4 hotel and booking process information is now available.
Fans immediately observed that the only hotel attached to the convention center is the Hilton. The rest of the con hotels are across the Yarra River from the convention center.
The committee explains that most accommodation agencies in Australia require prepayment but they have created a workaround (see details on the official website.)
[Via Janice Gelb.]
Umpdate 3/5/2010: Took Janice’s copyediting advice and added the much-needed ’m’.
