File 770

Laura Haywood-Cory wants to get out the word about heart disease:

Since my heart attack and angioplasty/stents, I’ve been trying to think of a fannish way to get the word out about heart disease, which as I’m sure my readers are aware, is the #1 killer of men and women both in the US. I volunteered at a health expo last weekend, at the WomenHeart booth, handing out brochures and information.

Well, on my way to work the other morning, a lightbulb went off. Fans don’t want to read brochures, we want to read *fanzines* (duh). So I figured I’d try to solicit as many stories from as many fannish heart patients as I could, put them all together in a one-shot, and distribute it far and wide.

The zine will be called A Change of Heart. She’s looking for essays, poems, letters and artwork from fans who’ve had heart-related illness themselves, or had experience with family members who did.  

Submissions can be e-mailed to <laurahcory [at] yah00> — the deadline is July 24. She intends to have it ready by the Worldcon.

Archon 33 didn’t want to be the guinea pig that tests whether a con can survive without any parties — they simply were given no choice.

Archon is a regional convention held in the Collinsville Gateway Center, across the Mississippi from St. Louis in Southern Illinois.

They cut ties last January with their long-time main hotel (the Hotel Collinsville, formerly the Holiday Inn) because the new management’s refusal to allow room parties was “too stringent.”

However, since January the committee hasn’t been able to convince any of the other hotels in the Center to allow parties, either. Here is the official announcement:

After months of effort, Archon regrets to report that none of the hotels in the area around the Gateway Center are wiling to allow room parties. We are deeply disappointed in this turn of events and sincerely apologize to our members for this situation. Room parties have always been a part of our rich history and one that we wish we could continue.

Surprisingly sober, Archon 33 will take place October 2-4, 2009.

Rogert Ebert is a very fannish writer. Even when he admires a fantasy film his review consists of one grumpy nitpick after another.

Here is an example of the way he served out Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, while giving it just about the highest possible rating on his scale, ***1/2 stars out of 4:

All of our friends are back, and some new ones, including a ferocious T-Rex and a sexy rival for Scrat the squirrel, named Scrattè, accent grave over the è. As befits this land before time, Scrattand Scrattè are sabre-toothed squirrels. No wonder the big teeth died out. They’re of more use to a carnivore than a vegetarian. But logic like this is of no use in a movie where Sid the Sloth (voice by John Leguizamo) adopts three dinosaur eggs and plans to raise the babies.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the link.]

The online voting deadline for the 2009 Hugo Awards is quickly approaching, reminds Diane Lacey of Anticipation’s Hugo Administration Committee. 

You must vote online by July 3rd 23:59PM EST - the deadline has already passed for mailing in a paper ballot.

Diana asks people to vote as early as possible in case of computer problems and to ensure their ballot is received before the deadline.

If you need your membership number or Hugo PIN please e-mail hugofinals@anticipationsf.ca as soon as possible.

Online voting in English ballot is at http://vote.anticipationsf.ca/ , and in French at http://vote.anticipationsf.ca/fr

The announcement of Japan’s bid for the 2017 Worldcon was the month’s biggest story, so it deservedly leads the list of the ten most-viewed posts for June 2009, according to Google Analytics.

1. Nippon 2017 Will Party at Anticipation
2. A Comical Slant
3. Ackerman Auction Takes in Quarter Million
4. John Hertz: Fanzines at the Eaton Collection
5. Harlan Ellison Refuses Cleveland Honors
6. A Quarter Century of Snapshots
7. Jane Badler Joins the Resistance
8. Shame, and Eternal Shame!
9. Fans Converge on Glendale Bookstore For an Escape From Hell
10. Hugo Awards Logo Contest

Union Street Design is renowned fanartist Jeanne Gomoll’s business website. A lot of her past projects are on display there: an impressive collection.

About half of them stfnal or fannish. She’s done several things for the Tiptree Award, the logo and a mascot, the Spacebabe.

The book design for Flying Cups and Saucers: Gender Explorations in Science Fiction & Fantasy,Debbie Notkin, ed. might be her most beautiful project, with a quite gorgeous Freddie Baer cover.

And I greatly liked the invitation she created for the 50th birthday party she celebrated jointly with three other women, with gorgeously patterned autumn colors surrounding their four smiling faces.

When Diana was in Wheaton a few weeks ago to do scholarly research at the Marion E. Wade Center a local radio station contacted her for an interview. Diana couldn’t praise the host enough afterwards for making that such an fun experience:

Enter Joy Curry, host of the morning show at WETN, 88.1 FM and wetn.org.  She’s got a voice built for radio: lively, versatile, thoughtful, quick, sparkling. I talked with her on the air this morning, and she did everything right.

Now their talk about C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien, and creativity, and community is available on the WETN website.

John Hertz’ contribution to Collectingsf.com in June is a review of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889):

Six years before Wells’ Time Machine (1895) this story, operated by time travel but barely exploring it, is placed in the theater of Aristocracy and the Common Man, like The Prince and the Pauper (1882), Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896), and perhaps Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)…

SFWA President Russell Davis has announced that the organization is raising the annual dues for active members to $80, a $10 increase. Nearly all the other membership classes will have their dues raised as well, except for Estates. Davis explained:

Reaching this decision was not easy for the Board, but the realities are simple: if it weren’t for money coming in from the Authors Coalition, many of our activities would have to be curtailed or abandoned entirely. Even with the increase in dues, our regular annual expenses (the salary for the Executive Director, postage, printing, Nebula Awards, legal fees, etc.) substantially exceeds our dues revenues.  

Interesting. Last year LASFS raised its annual dues to $110. So even after SFWA’s dues increase, that organization will be the comparative bargain. Who would have guessed it is cheaper to be a pro?

At Forry Ackerman’s memorial people were reminded that he made more than 200 cameo appearances in films. Doubtless the most-viewed cameo - by far! - was that of him sitting in a movie theater behind Michael Jackson during the “Thriller” music video.

Now Michael Jackson’s sudden and unexpected death has elicited worldwide response, with some of the most-widely reported public expressions taking inspiration from that famous video, and renewed attention to the “Thriller”-themed tribute performed by Filipino prisoners in 2007.

Others have taken less savory inspiration from the video, like those at a local outburst reported by the New York Times:

In Los Angeles, hundreds of fans — some chanting Mr. Jackson’s name, some doing the ‘Thriller’ dance — descended on the hospital and on the hillside house where he was staying.

David Klaus observes: “So, outside the house in which he was stricken, and the hospital where he was pronounced dead, his fans were dancing the dance he created for his role as a zombie, an undead creature come back to a shambling semblance of life, which had climbed out of its grave. Even setting aside the poor taste, that’s way too creepy for me.”