(1) Just finished Ancillary Mercy tonight. What a cast of characters!
“Ohg, lbh xabj, lbh’er nyy bhg bs svfu fnhpr. Naq V qba’g guvax V’ir rire frra n jne orsber!”
“V’z tbvat gbb,” fnvq Fcurar.
“Rkpryyrag!” ercyvrq Genafyngbe Mrvng. “V’yy tb cnpx.”
(2) The ultra-premium all-access pass to the Salt Lake Comic Con is pricey, but not as much as the cost of getting indicted for trying to scam your way into its VIP area.
A federal grand jury has indicted a Layton man, accusing him of impersonating a federal agent to get VIP access to Salt Lake Comic Con.
The indictment, handed down late Wednesday, accuses Jonathan M. Wall, 29, of pretending to be a Special Agent of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. In a statement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Utah said Wall then demanded Salt Lake Comic Con allow him in “under the ruse that he was entering the VIP area to apprehend a wanted fugitive.”
Wall attracted the attention of a retired Salt Lake City police officer who was providing security for the event, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. The officer questioned Wall and notified the Air Force, who also came to question him.
Wall is charged in the indictment with impersonation of a federal officer and making a false statement to a federal agent. If convicted, he faces a combined seven years in prison and a potential $250,000 fine for each count. Wall has not been arrested, but a summons will be issued for him to appear in federal court, prosecutors said.
Incidentally, the indictment reveals that the “false statement” he made was lying about asking for ONE pass when he actually asked for TWO!
(3) And to think no one will be indicted for telling the even bigger whopper that there are people who think The Martian is a true story.
"Is this a true story?" – The woman next to me said to her date at The Martian last night.
— Mike Burns (@pizzanachos69) October 4, 2015
(4) It’s a Big Idea, but it’s also a great news story – how did Ctein and bestselling detective novelist John Sandford wind up collaborating on an sf book, Saturn Run?
That Big Idea led to a Big Problem. How the hell do you get a ship to Saturn in under six months, not to mention building it in under two years? No “wantum mechanics” (Greg Benford’s wonderful term for totally-made-up science shit); it’s not much of a hard bolts-and-rivets thriller if people know you’re faking it. It wasn’t an unsolvable problem. John could research it. In his former life he was a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and has written forty or so thrillers, so he knows research. It’d just take several years of his life to get himself fully up to speed, that’s all.
The hitch was, John’s steady gig is turning out two novels (plus change) each year like clockwork. His readers expect it. He can’t take off a couple of years to explore himself as an author. This led to John’s second Big Idea, the crazy one.
Why not write it jointly with his friend, me?
Ctein includes an entertaining version of his phone call when Sandford talked him into collaborating.
(5) Joe Tonelli on Digg advises about “The Best (And Worst) Movies To Watch On Paramount’s New YouTube Channel”.
Trigger Warning: Splash page has a big movie poster image that looks like Dolph Lundgren auditioning for the role of Aatr’s tits….
Mark no-last-name says, “For some reason the reviewer needs no less than 3 choices for worst SF movie. I can’t argue with him about Masters of the Universe though, even at a young age I could tell how badly that movie stank.”
One of the free sf films in the Paramount Vault is Conquest of Space , which is somewhat hideous despite being based on Willy Ley’s classic book with illustrations by Chesley Bonestell.
(6) SF Site News reports artifacts from the collection of Ray Harryhausen will go up for auction on October 17.
Harryhausen was known for his work in stop-motion animation and worked on films such as Clash of the Titans, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, and Jason and the Argonauts. Auction items include models, paintings, and cameras, many of the objects autographed by Harryhausen.
There are loads of photos of the items at Dangerous Minds.
(7) Congratulations to Taral Wayne for placing his William Hope Hodgson tribute “The Canaries in the Dark” in the second volume of The Yellow Book from Oldstyle Press. There’s no pay, he says. However, I was one of the people that recommended he try it on a fiction market instead of settling for a fanzine appearance, so I say well done.
(8) In “Stephen Hawking answers July questions on Reddit AMA” we are reminded about a truth we already know – these memories are indelible for the fan, not the celebrity.
He responded to just nine questions, taking time to answer one from a Canadian poster who said he’d seen Hawking in 1995 as a boy at a video rental store in Cambridge, England, where Hawking lives. The poster asked if Hawking remembered watching “Wayne’s World 2” on a store monitor while parked for about 5 minutes next to two kids. He answered simply, “No.”
(9) The “Stunning New Mockingjay Part 2 Poster Comes Loaded With Hidden Secrets”.
Non-book readers might want to look away now while we break down the hidden context of the new one sheet.
According to Wired who debuted the poster yesterday, the image serves a dual purpose as a propaganda poster for the District 13 rebellion in the movie, as well as promoting the IMAX release of the film which is actually coming to the UK a day early on 19 November.
(10) A one-minute video about “Guillermo del Toro’s House of Horrors” accompanies the New York Times article.
The director of fantasy and horror films keeps his collection of books, gory props and mannequins where he can see, and be inspired by, them.
The door swings open and there, surrounded by blood-red walls, is a hellhound with four hooded eyes and gaping fangs. The head of Frankenstein’s monster floats, disembodied and huge, a story above it. Peering at you from the living room, his fingers paging through a book, is the early-20th-century horror novelist H.P. Lovecraft. On a Victorian sofa, a demented doll stares down a bronze gargantua, Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie.
Welcome to Guillermo del Toro’s imagination.
Bleak House is what Mr. del Toro, the Mexican filmmaker known for the terrifying fantasy of “Pan’s Labyrinth” and American action-horror series like “Hellboy,” christened this pad, which serves as repository and inspiration. He writes there, and when he is in production, a handful of designers work in the repurposed garage. “We draw, draw, draw,” he said, every frame as detailed as animation.
(11) Here’s a candidate for the most expensive toy of the coming Christmas season — Disney’s $120 attempt to make your kid feel like Iron Man.
The starter pack for Disney’s first line of Playmation toys, based on the Avengers, costs $119.99, and requires 12 AA batteries. The main toy is the Iron Man arm gauntlet, but you’ll also get two action figures and electronic bases for them to stand on while they interact with you.
Skeptic John King Tarpinian thinks, “With twelve batteries the kid could not lift his arm.”
(12) And toys for the grown-ups include HP’s Star Wars- inspired laptop and Stream notebooks.
HP has today in Barcelona announced a number of new devices, including the George Lucas-honouring Star Wars inspired Special Edition Notebook.
While we aren’t exactly short of Star Wars products popping up prior to the big movie release, HP does win our “coolest new laptop of the year award” hands down. And only Star Trek fans will probably disagree.
Featuring a “battle worn” finish which is supposed to remind you of how crummy the Death Star is, the Special Edition is also embellished with Aurebesh typeface. Even the touch pad “mirrors the X-Wing Star Fighter Guidance System” while the keyboard features red backlit keys.
(13) There were quite a few Equicons over the years. The first four, 1971-1974, were run by Bjo Trimble in Los Angeles.
Here is some celebrity footage from Equicon in 1974. George Takei, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, Majel Barrett, Gene Roddenberry, Arlene Martel, Mike Farrell, Robert Foxworth, Larry Vincent, D. C. Fontana, Kirk Alyn, David Gerrold, George Clayton Johnson, and Bjo Trimble.
Mike Farrell and Robert Foxworth are in the Equicon assemblage, because they had just starred in the Roddenberry pilot, The Questor Tapes.
The members of S.T.A.R. San Diego ran Equicon 75 at the El Cortez Hotel, with most of the Star Trek cast attending as guests. The “Captain” in the TV ad is now-famous science fiction author Greg Bear.
[Thanks to Dave Doering, Will R., James H. Burns, John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Will R.]
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Fifth? First? Third? Fifth Third? No, that’s a bank. Hm, I’m confused.
Square root of 2’th.
I happened to see the Marvel Playmation stuff at Target last night, sort of.
There was one box that looked like an expansion pack of some sort, and a whole mess of Black Widow figurines. Everything else was just empty pegs and shelves.
(Quickly checking the site, I think the box was the Prowler Bot.)
(ETA:)
There was also a video screen to show off what the stuff could do, but I didn’t have time to look that closely. It was sandwiched between a couple of the ‘crack is cheaper’ figure-based videogames – Lego Dimensions and Disney Infinity, I think.
Masters of the Univervise, oh my. One of my friends used to train Karate at the same club as Dolph Lundgren and had a secret crush on him, so I gave her the movie as a present. He is half naked after all.
He was a really nice guy as far as I know. When he visited sweden around the time of the movie, he pretended he had forgotten to talk swedish. Later on he said that he was “young and stupid and trusted his manager”. So the manager was clearly an idiot. Which might explain what he did in the movie.
Kevin Standlee: Fifth Third? No, that’s a bank.
Ssshhhhhhhhhhh! You’ll trigger poor Jim Henley’s VATSD*!
* Victim Of Assholes Traumatic Stress Disorder
Also, Fifth.
Buzzfeed Poll: Is The Martian based on a True Story?
¤ No
¤ Yes
Commenter 1: Alright, 6 percent of you assholes clicked yes. Knock that shit off.
Commenter 2: Wait until they find out where plutocrats aren’t from.
Inspired by a true story – there really is a planet Mars, NASA and potatoes. Also you can use poo to grow potatoes. Pootatoes.
As soon as I’m done boggling at the concept of Ctein and Sanford collaborating, I’m going to have to grab a copy. That may take me a moment, though…. 😀
For some reason the reviewer needs no less than 3 choices for worst SF movie
No fewer than 3 choices. Gah.
“Also you can use poo to grow potatoes. Pootatoes.”
I am so telling that one to the poo obsessed five year old next door 🙂
It’s a totally true story. Someone really did make it up.
Clicky.
Consider it a gift 🙂
Ann Somerville wrote: “No fewer than 3 choices. Gah.”
Not exactly true. Contrary to popular myth, the two words, less and fewer, do not complement each other. They are completely unrelated words, which became part of English at completely different times, and their meanings do indeed overlap somewhat. It’s true that fewer can only be used with countable nouns, but the notion that less can only be used with non-countables is utterly without justification. (Although you are allowed to use it that way personally, if you wish.)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/less
There were quite a few Equicons over the years. The first four, 1971-1974, were run by Bjo Trimble in Los Angeles.
Equicon 73 was my first introduction to Fandom (and to David Gerrold’s long wavy hair). By 1974, some of my friends could actually drive and we were hooked for good. Still not sure whether to thank Bjo for that. (Wink)
Still have all my photos from 74, 75, and 76. Time to dig them out and digitize.
LOL!
“(Although you are allowed to use it that way personally, if you wish.)”
That rule is different in British English. And anyway, it reads better. He could have written “at least 3 choices” for even greater economy of verbiage.
4 x fifth – 3(ish)
[ticky]
ETCorrect: – 2ish
Yes, fine, you can copyedit my email to Mike that I didn’t even know he’d be quoting from. My verbiage, it be uneconomic. 🙂
Anyway, I notice no-one is disagreeing about how bad Masters of The Universe was. Admittedly I’m a bit biased. The He-Man cartoon was a childhood favourite. When MotU came out I was a bit older, but still very excited to see what a Big Hollywood Movie would do with it. There is no disappointment like that of an optimistic child.
Mind you, there was a later cartoon version that retconned the whole thing into a SFnal setting. Weird.
P.S. Don’t wonder if anyone has come up with Pootatoes before and then google it. Just sayin’.
I read a book with a cute tribute to Ray Harryhausen. On the surface it’s a straightforward book about a grieving man who lost a woman who finds another one. Completely ordinary story, if you think about just the plot. But the woman who died was a special effects tech who got electrocuted on set. She left behind a cat named Ray Harryhausen. And so all through this book Ray Harryhausen is getting up to cat trouble while a good man and a good woman find each other. Standard, but sweet and geeky.
(This Must Be The Place, Kate Racculia.)
I was flipping channels, caught a few minutes of Masters of the Universe, very nearly kept flipping but then stopped for a very good reason; my cat, who normally ignored the TV, was chasing the flashing lasers. This is proof that I really loved that cat.
@Some Other Mark
We’re everywhere!
You are Stannis Baratheon and I claim my five pounds.
@Mark
Indeed! 🙂
When my best friend, his wife and I went to see the Martian, two people in front of her asked if it was based on a true story. She almost hit them.
And I have an odd… I don’t want to say love, but I kinda like the live action Masters of the Universe movie. It’s not good, but I find it fun. I even watched it on Netflix when it showed up recently.
I swear to Almighty God in His pearly Heaven, if Ancillary Mercy turns out to be written entirely in ROT-13, I am leaving this planet to grow pootatoes with Matt Damon on Mars.
[googles]…I’d like to now disassociate myself from the word…
🙂
@Nigel
Everything based on a true story has to be rot13ed. For the spoilers.
@Camestros
I should have known that saying not to google something is like catnip.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Don't_stuff_beans_up_your_nose
@Mark – That’s it. I’m on the next train to Mars as soon as I get a bag o’ spuds together.
@nigel. Sounds like you’ve been reading Peter F Hamilton’s Commonwealth Universe.
A most civilized way to get to another planet. Trains traveling through wormholes. The prologue to the first novel in the world (PANDORA’S STAR) even involves a manned spaceflight to Mars and a gate opened to Mars.
Say what you will about Masters of the Universe, but at least they didn’t have to trick people into buying it.
Years ago, I was at the mall and saw a PC copy of Street Fighter II for a decent price. It even came with a controller, so I bought it. Later in the day, I went to the food court and opened the package while I ate lunch. Okay, manual, check. Gamepad, neat. Game, of course. VHS tape… huh?
I checked the packaging again, but there was no hint on it that a copy of the Raul Julia movie was inside. Not one word, not even a sticker on the shrink-wrap. It’s like they didn’t consider it a selling point.
Imagine that.
(11)
You think maybe some of those twelve batteries go into the electronic base stations?
@Rev Bob,
Ah, the days when computer game boxes had escalated to gargantuan proportions. They used to shove all sorts of junk in there to justify the size.
I always assumed it had started as a cunning ploy to increase their shelf visibility, and it just got a bit out of hand.
Also the days of copy protection based on photocopy-resistant manuals.
RE: Masters of the Universe.
The “microwave jamming” scene amused me.
@Mark:
Ah, the days when computer game boxes had escalated to gargantuan proportions. They used to shove all sorts of junk in there to justify the size.
Sometimes, they just didn’t bother. I bought a box set of Doom, Doom 2 and whatever the add-on expansions were called, sometime about the turn of the century. The box was over a foot long, nearly as wide, and easily five inches deep. It contained three CDs and a rules booklet.
If You Were a Stop Motion Animated Dinosaur, My Love.
@JJ: I am genuinely touched you remembered my Fifth Third Bank-related woes. 🙂
(1)
What struck me about Ancillary Mercy was how funny and adorable it is in parts. The comic moments really worked for me, especially the banter between certain characters, and the songs. And there is Kalr Five, of course. I think Kalr Five is my favourite.
@rob_matic: “Kalr” actually means “chapter” in Radchaai.
@Jim Henley No fair, now i can’t stop thinking about how awesome two Kalr fives would be.
Breq still has my heart though.
We less, we happy less, we band of copy editors…
Who’s gonna help brother get fewer?
@Stoic Cynic
High (chapters) five.
{clicky}
Also, via Urban Dictionary:
mashed pootatoes
…even greater economy of verbiage.
Or, as Alfred the Great might have said, “mid laes worda”.
Dear Jonathan M. Wall, 29, of Layton.
Shut up!
For God’s sake, do NOT talk to the press without a lawyer.
There is now an Ancillary Mercy spoilered discussion thread on Making Light, for those who don’t want to cipher and decipher entire conversation threads. (Like me!)
Okay, I’m going up to the plate – I liked the Masters of The Universe film, for exactly the same reasons I like Plan 9, you just have to watch the film they *thought they were making* And the film’s Skelator and Evilyne are great.
Ultragotha
That’s a great article by Ken; I am even more privileged than he is, since I live in a country where police officers are not routinely armed, and very rarely shoot people. If they do shoot someone there will at least be an investigation, and sometimes more than one if the first one is obviously biased towards the police officers.
My only quibble is that he shares a common misperception about the nature of risk; determining it is a two part process. Firstly you need to determine the probability of an event, and secondly determine what the consequences of that event would be.
Multiplying the two together gives you a figure in the range between very, very low, and very, very high risk. This isn’t nit-picking; understanding that it is a two part process makes people better at judging risk, and they need all the help they can get because most people are very bad at judging risk. Had Harold been better at it we wouldn’t be occupied by those b*stards the Normans here in 1084…