Pixel Scroll 1/28/16 Groundhugo Day

Enterprise taken apart

(1) QUITE THE MODEL KIT. “USS Enterprise Conservation Begins Phase II” at The Smithsonian’s Airspace Blog gives full details.

The final painting of the Enterprise model will begin in April, using newly discovered reference photos from our appeal to Trek fans in the fall. The team will also build new nacelle domes with LED lights to mimic the spinning effect seen on television. For reference, they will first build a 1:1 mock-up of the original mechanism, which utilized mirrors, motors, nails, and Christmas lights. Conservator Ariel O’Connor explains, “Although the original nacelle dome lights did not survive, we can replicate the original effect in a way that is safe to install on the model.  The LED lights can be programmed to match the original VFX footage while eliminating the burnt-out bulbs, extreme heat, and motor problems that troubled the original lights. It is a wonderful solution to re-light the nacelles while ensuring the model’s safety and longevity.”

(2) OCTAVIA BUTLER. Radio Imagination celebrates the life and work of Pasadena science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006). Organized by Los Angeles-based arts nonprofit Clockshop, the program centers on ten contemporary art and literary commissions that explore Butler’s archive at the Huntington Library. New work will premiere alongside performances, film screenings, and literary events throughout the year.

(3) THERE IS NO NUMBER THREE. The Guardian link to a news item about 500 new fairytales being discovered in a German archive proved to be infested with some kind of code that could not be seen with the text editing tools at my disposal, but overwrote the rest of the post with a busted survey question….! After deducing which entry was causing the problem, I chopped it out. And I’m ready to be done for the night!

(4) WALTON SEMINAR. Out of the Crooked Timber is hosting a “Jo Walton Seminar” using her books The Just City and The Philosopher Kings. (A third book in the sequence, Necessity, comes out in June).

Several posts are already online.

One of the great appeals of the Thessaly series is the implicit invitation: join us in Socratic dialogue beneath the lemon tree, arguing practical philosophy with the best company from all of history.  But I am not a philosopher king, and definitely not a Gold of the Just City. As evidence, between the first and second sentences of this paragraph, I took ten minutes to reassure a baby who’d pinched her finger in a dresser drawer. Over the past couple of days I’ve engaged in crafts and cleaning, cooking and political argument and snarky write-ups of old horror stories.

All of which speak to my soul, and all of which feel like part of The Good Life even if I sometimes wish the temporal ratios were different.

“It was the most real thing that had ever happened.” – Jo Walton, The Just City

Thanks to Jo Walton for writing an SF novel in which people, including a pair of gods, try to realize Plato’s Republic. (I’ve only read the first Thessaly novel, The Just City. So if what follows is premature? That sort of thing happens.)

This is an experimental novel. Succeed or fail, you learn from an experiment. But even well-constructed experiments can be failures. That’s the risk.

Logically such a thing should exist. A novelization of Plato’s Republic, I mean. How can no one have written this already? But can such a damn thing be written ? Surely it will fail as a novel, somewhat, at some point. But how? Only one way to find out.

So Walton’s literary endeavor might be said to parallel Athene’s serene, mortal-bothering, bookish Utopian progress, in the novel. Like Athene, Walton doesn’t crack a smile. (There are some cracks at the end – in Athene’s exterior – but let’s leave those out. Don’t want to spoil the ending.)

Walton’s work is a mash-up: of genres, most obviously, with elements of science fiction (time travel and robots), fantasy (gods), historical fiction (recreation of past society) and the novel of ideas – but also of temporalities. Time-travelling Athene gathers together a bunch of dedicated Platonists from across the following 2500-odd years, helps them collect children and works of art from a more restricted period (unaccountably, no one bothers collecting some Canova or Alma-Tadema), gives them some robots from the future for the heavy work, and dumps the whole lot back in the bronze age, where (in theory) they’re not going to disturb anyone else. In theory (again), this farrago will be held together by a shared dedication to the ideals of Plato’s Republic, whether voluntary (the generation of Masters brought together from across time and space) or instilled (the Children and their descendents). In practice…

One of the reasons this is a neat trick from the novelist’s point of view is that it side-steps most of the boring questions of authenticity that bedevil most fictional engagements with the classical world.

More to come from  Ada Palmer, Leah Schnelbach, Sumana Harihareswara, and Crooked Timber bloggers Maria Farrell, Henry Farrell, and Belle Waring.

Crooked Timber’s past seminars on genre literature have been —

And in May 2015, Crooked Timber organized a seminar on the work of Ken MacLeod with contributions from Farah Mendlesohn, Cosma Shalizi, Sumana Harihareswara, Jo Walton, and Henry Farrell, with a response by Ken MacLeod.

(5) MINI INTEGRAL TREES. Have you seen the Air Bonsai?

Great if you’re wanting to recreate The Hallelujah Mountains from “Avatar” (or a Roger Dean painting) as a diorama.

(6) THE FUTURE IS BACK. Following years of waiting, the DeLorean car made memorable by Back to the Future has returned to production.

After more than 30 years, the DeLorean Motor Company will resume production of the iconic 1982 model DeLorean, made famous by the “Back to the Future” film trilogy.

This marks the first time that the car will be manufactured in America, according to an NBC affiliate.

The car company was previously prohibited from producing the famed model because the futuristic designs belonged to John DeLorean’s estate and not the auto business, which went bankrupt in 1982.

The company was revitalized by CEO Stephen Wynne and moved to Humble, Texas, in 1987. The company operated as a refurbishment facility, repairing and replacing parts for older DeLorean models for consumers around the world.

(7) ZICREE CLASS. Marc Scott Zicree, is running a one-day Supermentors Class – Life Lessons from Rod Serling, Ray Bradbury & Guillermo Del Toro.

Many of you know that with my books The Twilight Zone Companion and Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities and my friendship with Ray Bradbury, I’ve had some of the greatest mentors who ever worked in film, TV and books.

Life Lessons From Rod Serling, Ray Bradbury & Guillermo Del Toro — a One-Day Class I’ll be teaching Sunday, February 21st, both in person here in L.A. and via Skype and audio download, drawn from what I’ve learned from my great mentors. Just $99 (normally $199) if you sign up by the end of the month. Log onto www.paypal.com and indicate you want to pay [email protected] Here’s a video describing the class.

 

(8) MUMY OUT AS OSCAR VOTER. Actor Billy Mumy says he has been purged as an Academy Awards voter under the new rules, and his ”to whom it may concern” protest letter has been posted online.

Like so many other Academy members who have a long history in the film industry, you are now punishing me for a lack of consistent employment, when it is beyond my own ability to cast myself or even find representation who can get me into the meetings and auditions these days for quality roles and films in the first place.

I have careers in music and writing and I chose to stay home for several years when my two children, who have both worked as actors in major studio feature films, were young. I don’t see why that should now render my vote unworthy.

I’m deeply saddened and disappointed by the actions the Academy has taken, without any discussion first amongst the members, to capitulate to a handful of whiners who threaten to “boycott” by not dressing up, walk the red carpet and sit in the audience because they feel the actors branch didn’t do our jobs of nominating candidates for Oscars this year to their personal satisfaction.

The nomination process is not racist. Surely you realize that members of the Academy don’t get together in clandestine meetings to discuss who they’re going to nominate or not nominate. Personally, I was shocked that neither Michael Caine or Harvey Keitel received a nomination for their excellent work in “Youth”, but I certainly don’t consider it a deliberate slight because they’re senior citizen Caucasians.

(9) TODAY IN HISTORY

  • January 28, 1813 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was published.
  • January 28, 1977 – Stephen King’s The Shining is published.
  • January 28, 1986 – The space shuttle Challenger blew up shortly after launch, killing all seven crew members: Christa McAuliffe, a New Hampshire high school teacher, Ronald McNair, Hughes Aircraft Co. satellite engineer Gregory Jarvis, commander Francis “Dick” Scobee, pilot Michael Smith, flight engineer Judy Resnik and Ellison Onizuka.

Soon afterwards, Ray Bradbury discussed the disaster with Nightline host Ted Koppel.

 

Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted a poetic memorial.

https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/692776305411096577/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

A memorial service was held today at the Kennedy Space Center. The “Time of Remembrance” will mark the 49th anniversary of the 1967 Apollo launch pad fire that killed Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee on Jan. 27, 1967; the 30th anniversary of Challenger’s loss on Jan. 28, 1986; and the 13th anniversary of the Columbia shuttle disaster on Feb. 1, 2003, that killed commander Rick Husband, pilot William McCool, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, David Brown, Michael Anderson and Israeli flier Illan Ramon.

(10) NEITHER SNOW NOR SLEET. “How ‘Arrow’ Actor Stephen Amell And His Costars Handled A Canceled Convention”

The “Arrow” cast knows how to make the best out of a bad situation. The snowstorm forced Heroes and Villains Fan Fest to cancel the Saturday portion of their event, but many people were already at hotels near the Meadowlands Convention Center in Secaucus, New Jersey — including several celebrity guests. Cast members from “Arrow” and “The Flash” were nearby, so they didn’t let the snow stop them from meeting with fans.

In the afternoon, the stars wandered down to the lobbies of their hotels to meet their snowed in fans. John Barrowman (Malcolm Merlyn on “Arrow”) posted a video on Facebook with fans in his hotel and said that he and Stephen Amell (Oliver Queen on “Arrow”) were doing the same thing at separate hotels.

(11) WHO SAID THAT? “The Voice Actors of The Force Awakens” identifies the actors’ specific contributions. SPOILERS PROBABLE.

You may have seen a section in the credits of The Force Awakens titled “Additional Voices,” with some familiar names listed. But who or what did all those familiar names play? I’m happy to finally reveal everyone below, running through the film chronologically. (There are also a couple of actor cameos in there that shall remain nameless (for now).)

(12) BE ON THE LOOKOUT. Kate Paulk told Mad Genius Club readers “The List” will be out in March. She also previewed a coming attraction:

Tune in tomorrow for a guest post by the fascinating Ben Yalow with more information about the history of the Hugo categories.

(13) KNOW THE SHADOW. Ricky Whittle of “The 100” has been cast as Shadow in Starz TV’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.

Gaiman said in a statement, “I’m thrilled that Ricky has been cast as Shadow. His auditions were remarkable. The process of taking a world out of the pages of a book, and putting it onto the screen has begun. ‘American Gods’ is, at its heart, a book about immigrants, and it seems perfectly appropriate that Shadow will, like so much else, be Coming to America. I’m delighted Ricky will get to embody Shadow. Now the fun starts.”

(14) HOLY CERTIORI! “Supreme Court asked to consider Batmobile copyright case” reports Comic Book Resources.

A manufacturer of unlicensed Batmobile replicas has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether Batman’s signature vehicle is indeed protected by copyright.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mark Towle of Gotham Garage filed a writ of certiorari today asking the justices to review his nearly five-year-old dispute with DC Comics.

Towle, who produced replicas of  the 1966 and 1989 Batmobiles that sold for as much as $90,000 each, was sued in 2011 by DC, which claimed copyright and trademark infringement, trademark counterfeiting and unfair competition.

[Thanks to Brian Z., Martin Morse Wooster, John King Tarpinian, JJ, Soon Lee, and Steven H Silver for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Will R.]

110 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 1/28/16 Groundhugo Day

  1. But this rule doesn’t address how many movies one has SEEN, it’s all about industry activity, and you very well might have younger actors or filmmakers who have been in or made more movies than someone decades older(a lifetime membership only requires 3 films as a member in 3 separate 10 year periods). At the very least, a younger member might have made more movies sometime within the past 10 to 30 years, better reflecting the current state of filmmaking. It’s not like the older generation are losing their voice, just the voices of those no longer actively involved in the industry. Just as working as a young actor doesn’t automatically mean you become a member. You still have to be invited after meeting qualifications. It sounds much harder to become a member than to remain one.

    For a young actor “To be considered for invitation to membership in the Actors Branch of the Academy, an individual must:
    (a) have a minimum of three theatrical feature film credits, in all of which the roles played were scripted roles, one of which was released in the past five years, and all of which are of a caliber that reflect the high standards of the Academy,
    and/or
    (b) have been nominated for an Academy Award in one of the acting categories,
    or
    (c) have, in the judgment of the Actors Branch Executive Committee, otherwise achieved unique distinction, earned special merit or made an outstanding contribution as a motion picture actor.”

    (Also remember, Star Wars(the original) WAS nominated for Best Film. I don’t think it’s because the membership in 1978 was particularly young.)

  2. The German fairy tales were interesting, but mostly as variants on familiar patterns. I bought the collection when it came out, and there weren’t any that felt really distinctive. There were a few cool variations–the version of East of the Sun, West of the Moon where the prince turns into a stone lion statue during the day, and a Beauty & the Beast where the enchanted prince is a talking crow who gives the heroine one of his quills to use as a pen to write down whatever her heart desires–loved that detail!–but it’s mostly the same stories in different skins.

  3. Just finished reading “A Dark Forest” by Cixin Liu. Loved it, and I’m a little puzzled by those who thought the book was too physics-heavy, there is barely any science at all. Its all about people and nation’s reactions to finding out about the upcoming catastrophe. The writing is clunky, but worth it.

  4. When we talk about the Academy bringing in younger members, that doesn’t necessarily mean people in their twenties. The average age of Academy voters is 63. Can you expect people who were in their late teens when the Beatles broke through in America to be able to judge a movie like Straight Outta Compton? No. The only way to get the Academy inline with modern viewing tastes is to lower that average age, and that means recruiting people in their 30s and 40s, and reducing the power of the gerontracy.

  5. I only realized a few years ago the difference between personal racism and institutional racism, and while there are times and places where they are interconnected (like Southern towns basically run by the Klan), I don’t think the cause is helped by blurring the two. I have a feeling most people have Mumy’s exact reaction, confused because when they hear “racist,” they picture white sheets, red armbands, or blackface–especially confusing since, on the Right, Hollywood is Decadent Liberalism Central.

  6. As a 71-year-old straight white guy, I have to say that the prospect of having anything but my functional professional status be of interest to any membership or voting-status committee is unsettling. And making assumptions about my politics or taste or ability to keep up with the times based solely on inherent traits (age, sex, ethnicity) is more than unsettling. (I thought that essentialism was a Bad Thing.) I haven’t been at the front of a classroom for 30 years, but I believe that my takes on teaching, writing, and literature are not so stale that I couldn’t have an intelligent conversation with some freshly-minted Ph.D. (In fact, I have such conversations at ICFA every year.) There is some value in being able to point out that the Flavor of the Week is actually a rebranded Rocky Road with toasted-quinoa sprinkles.

  7. Sean O’Hara – More ageist prejudice. And all the snickering dismissal of age discrimination is offensive.

    I was in my late teens when the Beatles broke onto the US scene, and I definitely don’t plan to recuse myself from the Compton movie.

  8. Can you expect people who were in their late teens when the Beatles broke through in America to be able to judge a movie like Straight Outta Compton?

    Why wouldn’t a person in their late teens when the Beatles broke through in America be able to judge Straight Outta Compton?

  9. Why wouldn’t a person in their late teens when the Beatles broke through in America be able to judge Straight Outta Compton?

    Let’s see–Roger Ebert was born in 1942, which means that he would have been around 12 when The Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan for the first time–so close to the “late teens” figure. I respected Ebert’s opinions on film more than those of anyone else on the face of the Earth. If he had been alive to review Straght Outta Compton, his would have been the only review I read. (Since Ebert has sadly passed away, I read 0 reviews of Straight Outta Compton.)

  10. Maybe a better question would be “Would you want a majority of people who were in their late teens when the Beatles broke through in America to judge a movie like Straight Outta Compton?” Because cultural touchstones, references, and backgrounds are likely going to be different between varying generations, races, and ethnicities, and right now it’s mostly aging, white, and male. That doesn’t mean that being all of those things makes your opinion worth less, but it shouldn’t make your opinion worth MORE, statistically.

    And these changing rules don’t even address that. It only addresses your working status or your work history. Plenty of people who are older, white, and male will retain their voting status, and plenty of younger/middle-aged, non-white, and/or female members will lose it, because, honestly, it’s harder to maintain a consistent work history with any of those attributes on your resume.

    I do think that these rule changes, combined with an specific effort at recruiting more diverse membership, will make the voting part of the Academy a healthier body overall.

  11. Let’s see–Roger Ebert was born in 1942, which means that he would have been around 12 when The Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan for the first time

    22 in OTL.

  12. (8) MUMY OUT AS OSCAR VOTER. To me, Mumy’s obtuse reaction to the diversity discussion made a pretty good argument why the academy needed to rejuvenate its membership a bit.

    It seems that this is a common problem in awards voted on by professional associations. I remember when a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Performance was instituted… and the first Grammy in the category went to Jethro Tull.

  13. send out DVD screeners instead of a more secure streaming system because too many of their members can’t handle using the internet

    Me, I like the screeners. They’re a lot more fun than getting an e-mail with a link.

    Darren:

    Mumy is old enough (and–I’m guessing–internet un-ready enough) that when he sees the term “racism”, he probably thinks of the long-used meaning–the belief that specific groups of people have specific intellectual capabilities and personality traits because it is biologically ingrained in their race.

    He’s 61. That’s not really old enough to make that kind of prediction about what he thinks with any real confidence. I wouldn’t make bets about his internet-readiness either.

    Kimberley:

    Young does not mean ignorant or stupid, just as old doesn’t automatically mean stodgy and outdated.

    Nor does bringing in new people who are working today mean “kids.”

  14. @ Kimberly K: “cultural touchstones, references and backgrounds”

    This is an important recognition. Critics of Shakespeare plays, for example, used to be much more homogeneous than they are now (e.g. white males) and, as one of them wrote, their primary way to evaluate to female characters, on the page and in performance, was whether they would want to date them (hence their overwhelming fondness for Rosalind and jaundiced view of Paulina). This gave them few tools with which to cope with the arrival of feminist criticism and performance, or color-blind casting. A more diverse group of critics has at least a wider range of views, which in this case has led to more fruitful discussion.
    Sorry not to use an SFnal comparison, but I know much less about trends in SF criticism, apart from real-time exposure to the late unpleasantness.

  15. Oh wow, what is this? #NotAllOldPeople? Trying to open up the field to allow younger people to participate is not agism!

    Frankly, as an old phart myself, who definitely remembers when the Beatles were together, I do not think that I am particularly well suited to judge Straight Outta Compton. I do enjoy some rap and hiphop, which already puts me ahead of a lot of people in my age bracket, but even so, I suspect I’d find the soundtrack somewhat grating if I tried to watch the whole thing. Which probably wouldn’t help me judge it fairly.

    eta: It’s probably somewhat telling that I haven’t seen it! I have friends who are only a bit younger than me who couldn’t wait to see it the moment it came out…

  16. Ahem. I’ve been a Shakespeherian for a long, long time, and my almost-as-ancient spouse is a Shakepeare specialist, and that characters-I’d-like-to-(um) date notion is not one with which I’m familiar, at least in analytical discussions. (Maybe my training was defective. Though I am familiar with the theatrical practice of casting roles of both sexes in accordance with a director’s amatory interests, as reported by our-neice-the-actor.) We both (I am not speaking for but with my wife) relish Paulina as well as Rosalind, or Queen Margaret or Isabella–or Audrey, for that matter, or Lady Macduff. Not that there’s anything wrong with falling for Rosalind or Viola or especially Beatrice–anything less and the actor’s not doing her job.

    “Trying to open up the field to allow younger people to participate” isn’t ageism, but suggesting that older people might be disinvited only because they are no longer young, au courant, and hip to what’s-happenin’-now-baby might reasonably be taken as such. And I’m old enough to remember when “don’t trust anybody over thirty” was a thing. I didn’t like it then, either.

    I keep my windshield clean and headlights maintained, but I wouldn’t want to give up my rear-view mirrors.

  17. “but suggesting that older people might be disinvited only because they are no longer young, au courant, and hip to what’s-happenin’-now-baby might reasonably be taken as such.”

    Except, I don’t remember anyone actually suggesting that.

  18. Wouldn’t someone who was a teen when the Beatles broke out be about mid-30s when the the original Straight Outta Compton was released? Why would they have a problem with the movie? Do people really think you lose all interest in new music when you hit 30?

    And if it’s a problem, how should people who weren’t born when the Beatles broke out be able to judge a movie set in the 60s without a thorough understanding of the times?

  19. Mumy’s on firm ground when he argues that he shouldn’t be kicked out just because he hasn’t worked much lately. He paid his dues, even if it was a while back, and a little respect is due.

    Damn shame that he chose “The nomination process is not racist” as a hill to die on. That’s much less favorable ground.

  20. @ Russell Letson
    Nice to meet you! I wish I could cite the book and the critic, which I came across while writing a paper in the late ’90s on the critical reaction to Isabella, but … . The idea explained a lot to me, especially performance criticism, where critics seemed always to be evaluating Rosalinds for charm (“X is not as charming as Vanessa Redgrave …”). In contrast, I’m very glad to have seen the routine and stereotypical references to Paulina as shrewish or a termagant give way to routine praise for her wit and courage, though A critic recently praised Judi Dench for not being “angry” in the role. And I think having critics with a range of backgrounds helped bring this change about.

  21. For that matter, what’s with the assumption that everyone who was in their teens when Straight Outta Compton was released is fully conversant with hip-hop culture of the time?

  22. Jack Lint wrote:

    Wouldn’t someone who was a teen when the Beatles broke out be about mid-30s when the the original Straight Outta Compton was released? Why would they have a problem with the movie? Do people really think you lose all interest in new music when you hit 30?

    You’ve got it backwards. The question is not “should people who remember the Beatles be allowed to judge Straight Outta Compton?” The question is “should only people who remember the Beatles be allowed to judge Straight Outta Compton?”

    But since you ask, yes, there’s lots of evidence to show that people, in general, tend to lose interest in new music around about the time they hit their thirties. Not everyone, of course, but it’s very common. I tried to fight it myself (and I wasn’t even a teen when the Beatles appeared), but even so, I regret to say that I was definitely starting to lose interest in new music by the time NWA appeared on the scene. I still try to fight it, and try to listen to new things, but even so, I find myself drifting towards either the music of my teens or, at the least, music that’s similar to the music of my teens.

  23. Kimberly K: How else is one to construe the attitudes that generated the following?

    “[Y]oung people who are open to more artistically challenging (and diverse) films.” Or “Having a short career that ended over ten years ago doesn’t make you a bad person. But possibly not a _good_ person to be voting on movies made last year.” Or “Can you expect people who were in their late teens when the Beatles broke through in America to be able to judge a movie like Straight Outta Compton? No.”

    Now, the apparent mismatch between the range of potentially award-worthy films and performances and the nomination-set is worth examining, as are the Academy’s membership and voting rules–I don’t know enough about the latter to have an informed opinion. But implications about the relationship to age and ability to make aesthetic/professional judgments in the above quotations do seem to me to be more general, to suggest that having a long, personally-lived experience of art is less important than being immersed in its nowness and newness.

    I review books, and my response to them is in part conditioned by a lifetime of reading and an education that places this week’s bestseller in a context that includes Beowulf, Hamlet, Go Down, Moses, The Skylark of Space, Beggars in Spain, and “There was a young man from Nantucket.” If I don’t like a book, it’s because I don’t like it, not because I don’t get it. But then, I don’t participate in awards voting or ten-best listings or star ratings–art isn’t a footrace, and if there’s such a thing as a winner, the announcement is made after artist and contemporary audience are both safely under their headstones.

  24. Msb: I see a very big difference between theatre critics (i.e., reviewers) and scholar/analysts of Shakespeare. Responding to a particular performance of a role strikes me as more personal and subjective than a scholarly/critical analysis of, say, Shakespeare’s portrayal of women–the performance is the product of a complex of forces, most of which have precious little to do with Willie’s texts. I’ve watched actors struggle against wonky production “concepts” (or impose their own wonky notions on a text) or just lack the chops or charisma to drive a great role to its limits. And I would probably agree that X is less charming than Vanessa Redgrave for most values of X–because Regrave is a pretty stunning actor, as is Judi Dench, as is Emma Thompson, and a whole list of actors who never seem to get it wrong. And a merely-shrewish Paulina is a less-than-optimal actor in the role. (I’m a John Bartonite: it’s all right there in the text–an actor’s job is to manifest it.)

  25. It’s not just the prejudice-plus-power concept: Mumi seems to be saying that his Oscar votes weren’t racist because he didn’t get together with a bunch of other white people to talk about nominating and voting only for white people.

    Bigots don’t need to go to special “let’s discuss how we’ll discriminate this time” meetings in order to act on their prejudices. Someone who believes that women aren’t as good as men, or that black movies are special-interest and white movies are “universal,” will vote on that basis without first asking their friends “Hey, we still agree that white themes are universal and that there has to be a specific reason to cast anyone who isn’t a white guy, right?”

  26. The question is “should only people who remember the Beatles be allowed to judge Straight Outta Compton?”

    If the average age of the voter is 63, then a good portion of the voters were teenagers when Straight Outta Compton (album) was originally released.

  27. @Microtherion

    I remember when a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Performance was instituted… and the first Grammy in the category went to Jethro Tull.

    That was the last time I ever watched or paid attention to the Grammies. It was an “a-ha!” moment for me. It was crystal clear that whoever was in charge of that award was uninterested in the award they were giving out.

    Re people losing interest in music in their 30s, from what I’ve seen of my generation (I’m in my early 40s), most people’s musical taste cements some time in their late teens to early 20s, and their interest in music is almost entirely gone by their 30s. This isn’t everyone, of course, and I’ve intentionally surrounded myself with a lot of people who are still very interested in music, many of whom still have evolving taste, but even some of the best musicians I know stopped checking out any new music at all at some point in their 40s, and some of them only occasionally listen to even the music they know and love.

    Regardless of that, yeah, I think there’s an important distinction between “people of my parents’ generation shouldn’t be allowed to judge ‘Straight Outta Compton'” and “people of my parents’ generation shouldn’t be the only ones allowed to judge ‘Straight Outta Compton’.”

  28. I have to wonder, how many people here are going to go see Straight Outta Compton?

    For what it’s worth, inviting younger actors in without purging the rolls could be considered a “safe” move. Something where a PR guy could say “look, we have made an effort toward diversity!”, while also diffusing any incoming votes enough that no real chance is enacted. The fact that the Academy is making an effort toward not only bringing new people in, but also towards adjusting the proportions, indicates to me they may be serious about diversity.

    Of course the best thing to do would be to do a major purge of the old, massively sexist producers and moneymen in Hollywood. But they’d noir likely to happen for the rest of this century, do this is the next best thing.

  29. Re #13 (American Gods): I read American Gods recently. It will be interesting to see how well it translates to the screen. Ricky Whittle looks like Shadow to me: potentially scary but not malign. Too bad he’s British, but there are Brits who do amazing American accents.

    In spite of all the wonderful things in that book, my favorite line was from the afterword. He says that he had to tone it down the House on the Rock to make it believable. I don’t have the exact quote, but he then said something like ‘being a real place, it is under no obligation to be plausible.’ This is wonderfully phrased.

  30. Vicki Rosenzweig on January 29, 2016 at 3:37 pm said:

    It’s not just the prejudice-plus-power concept: Mumi seems to be saying that his Oscar votes weren’t racist because he didn’t get together with a bunch of other white people to talk about nominating and voting only for white people.

    Bigots don’t need to go to special “let’s discuss how we’ll discriminate this time” meetings in order to act on their prejudices. Someone who believes that women aren’t as good as men, or that black movies are special-interest and white movies are “universal,” will vote on that basis without first asking their friends “Hey, we still agree that white themes are universal and that there has to be a specific reason to cast anyone who isn’t a white guy, right?”

    Good point, and one that seems to be eluding our Phantom Puppy in the other thread — his (I presume his) contention seems to be that things like an overall prejudice toward male authors in science fiction doesn’t count as patriarchal gatekeeping, because there aren’t literal dragons sitting at literal gates saying “none shall pass!” to literally all the women.

  31. @ rob_matic:

    That doesn’t give people a lot of time to read many of the ‘recommendations’ before making their nominations, does it?

    No, but it is plenty of time for Puppy followers to vote as they’re advised to vote.

  32. (5) Now I really want someone to recreate those album covers. Groovy.

    (8) While I have no sympathy for Mumy over this (has he never heard the term “institutional racism”?), I do worry about the possible expulsion of a lot of women. I like the theory of what the Academy is trying to do, but not sure they’re applying the correct method. Will an attempt to fix racism inadvertently increase sexism? Won’t this penalize not only women, but also minority actors? Maybe just expanding the membership would have been better.

    I can’t say as I’m going to miss all those old white probably grumpy guys who haven’t been in anything for 40 years. But Mother Delores really takes her voting seriously — doesn’t hand it off to someone, she actually watches all the movies. And plenty of old people like new movies. They don’t suddenly lose all their critical acumen and openness to new ideas. People who remember the sea change the Beatles brought can certainly see the parallels to the changes wrought by the men from Compton. It’s a tale of redemption and the little guy making good — I bet Mother Delores would find that kind of story inspirational.

    The Oscar Purge doesn’t seem to have been well-planned. And does it take place immediately? People like Mumy might have already left the house and gone to screenings of the candidates, and certainly participated in the nomination phase. Kinda rude not to let them vote this year (if that’s the case — I dunno. Kyra?).

    (12) Putting up a list more than a month after nominations have started, thereby making it impossible to read all the suggested works in such a short amount of time (let alone other work)? Nah, that doesn’t look like a slate AT ALL, Ms. Impala. Oh, and have fun being a stalking horse (stalking antelope?) and useful idiot for Teddy again! At least have the guts not to put any of his crap on The List.

    (13) Still waiting to see who’s cast as Mr. Wednesday.

  33. I still look for new music, and I’ve said before that I want to make a point of doing so for as long as I have ears – but I must admit that I am less likely than I used to be to pull out the music from the edges of my comfort zone. (I’m turning 40 this year)

    But my mom is in her 60s and she didn’t really stop listening to new things until this decade (And at that she’ll pickup an occasional new group, just ones that have a certain sound) and didn’t stop getting new CDs until the last couple of years. So that gives me an idea where and when I’m likely to do the same.

  34. I’m always puzzled by the phrase “liberal Hollywood.” Perhaps it’s based on donations to the Democratic party? Because I have not seen, in my adult life, how it could be explained by the movies that Hollywood makes or the ones it gives awards to.

  35. @Laura

    But…but… Brokeback Mountain! Utter proof of the perfidy of the liberal Hollywood agenda.

  36. But…but… Brokeback Mountain! Utter proof of the perfidy of the liberal Hollywood agenda.

    Only that it didn’t win, neither in the acting categories nor best picture. Something called Crash did.

    Bill Mumy’s post does come across rather clueless, but I also believe that the Academy would be better served going out there and recruiting new members with a particular focus on minorities than by revoking the voting rights of people like Bill Mumy or Dolores Grant. Never mind that this move will particularly hurt older women and also minority actors, who will have more problems finding work as they age.

    BTW, I was 15 when the album Straight Outta Compton came out. I don’t recall being aware of it at the time and I’m pretty sure neither were my music geek friends. Rap and hip hop didn’t hit Germany in a big way until several years later.

  37. The Shining was the first King book I ever read. To this day, it’s the only horror story to literally make the hair on my neck stand up.
    Happy book birthday!

  38. @Hypnotosov: Does Mumy not understand that racism exists outside the Klan?

    Actually, and depressingly, no.

    A lot of white USAians have universalized Jim Crow racism (as personified by the KKK) as ‘racism’ and resist the latest work on unconscious and aversive racisms that has come out of sociology.

    I suppose they’re marginally better than the white USAians who *praise* the KKK.

    Alternately, they’re part of a whole racist infrastructure that draws on both Jim Crow racism and unconscious racism to perpetuate itself.

    (And, really, saying “I’m not like the KKK” leads me to say, pretty low fucking bar, people.)

  39. I wasn’t quite clear on what was being proposed, so I went a googling.

    Here’s what I found:

    NY Times article I read about the Academy changes

    Responses: holyshit a governing board with 51 members???????

    They will be adding three more seats because, and I quote: Currently, about a third of the board members are women and Ms. Isaacs is its only African-American. Odds are good that there are no American Indian or Asian American members. White mcwhiteyville Whiteness then.

    Am reminded of one of my favorite Heinlein quotes about more than X (3?) people not being able to decide where to go for lunch let alone anything major.

    Apparently: The session ended with a unanimous vote to endorse the new processes, but action on possible changes to Oscar balloting was deferred for later consideration.

    So perhaps they haven’t decided just how to implement it: “may” is used later in the article.

    But they are trying to double “the number of female and minority members by 2020.

    Sigh: that phrase again. As if “minorities” are only men, and all “females” are white.

    But doubling in less than five years? Yeah, I’d suspect that some cutting may need to be done.

    But what they seem to be talking about is “voting status.”

    The quote: Voting status may be revoked for those who have not been active in the film business in a decade. But members who have had three 10-year terms will have lifetime voting rights, as will those who have won or been nominated for an Academy Award.

    The changes won’t affect this year’s awards, and the article says it’s not “immediately clear how” the purging of the rolls will take place.

    You know, I belong to professional organizations, but if I wasn’t actively teaching and doing scholarship, I wouldn’t be maintaining membership. But then, my professional organizations don’t offer the perks that the Academy does: Academy voting rights rank among Hollywood’s more coveted marks of status, not least because of the screening invitations and flattering attention that come with them.

    Note they say VOTING RIGHTS, not membership in general (what other benfits/opportunities does Academy membership confer, I wonder?).

    AHA: it’s not a purge in the sense of removing membership, but an emeritus status: In its statement on Friday, the academy said those members who are moved to emeritus status because they have not met the new activity criteria would not pay dues, but would continue to enjoy the privileges of membership other than voting..

    If I am granted emeritus status as a faculty member, I wouldn’t be able to vote on tenure, etc. and other things in my department—and for good reason. I do not think that this change is quite as drastic as Mumy sees it.

    One of the criticisms noted by some is that this change won’t affect the lack of opportunities for white women (and I suspect people of color) to actually work in the industry.

    “The academy is the endgame,” Ms. Allain said. “But the beginning of the game is the industry responding to the curated talent that comes through programs like Film Independent, the folks that go through the Sundance Film Festival and the LA Film Festival. They just need jobs. That’s how we’re really going to solve the problem — not by more programs or committees, but by jobs.”

    Not quoting the white woman who is complaining about “racism against whites”…

  40. Kimberly K: How else is one to construe the attitudes that generated the following?

    “[Y]oung people who are open to more artistically challenging (and diverse) films.” Or “Having a short career that ended over ten years ago doesn’t make you a bad person. But possibly not a _good_ person to be voting on movies made last year.” Or “Can you expect people who were in their late teens when the Beatles broke through in America to be able to judge a movie like Straight Outta Compton? No.”

    Here’s the thing: we have the Academy’s track record to judge by. It’s consistently safe, middlebrow fare that doesn’t challenge the audience’s assumptions as long as they’re outside the Fox News bubble. Truly transgressive or groundbreaking films rarely get nominated. Actors of color only get nominated when they’re in safe, inoffensive roles (playing a maid is still the best way for a black actress to get nominated). You can talk all you want about how you personally aren’t like that, but it doesn’t change the facts on the ground — the Academy represents an old fashioned, outdated view of films which overlooks movies like Straight Outta Compton because they’re too far outside the life experience of the average voter.

    Or do you have some other explanation for the problems we’ve seen in the nominations?

  41. I have been a member of several professional organizations (I keep changing professions) and in the one that is the most germane to this discussion — the American Theatre Critics Association — I am required to submit clips of my work within the past year plus pay my dues to be considered an active member. Those who are no longer reviewing are considered inactive. Still members, just inactive. I don’t know for sure if the inactive people don’t get to vote for the things ATCA awards, but I suspect that’s what the membership distinction is for.

    I also think Mumy should maybe start whining once the Academy is really talking specifics about what it intends to do, not when they’re floating proposals. To my mind, they’re a trade union and can reasonably decide that people no longer plying that trade should no longer be voting members. But I’m not a member… I did know someone who hadn’t worked in movies in years who still got the screeners. His kid not only filled out the ballot but sold the screeners, which was a definite no no. I think it got the dad kicked out of the Academy.

  42. The Academy was a bunch of out-of-touch olds who hated modern music when I was a teen, and they still are. Some things never change.

  43. FWIW: Mumy is NOT “internet un-ready”. He’s been doing online stuff for at least 20 years back at this point.

    What’s interesting to me looking from the outside is how the ole’ “MOVIE ACTOR” vs. “TV ACTOR” thing is still playing out, while the lines blur and shift around them and YouTube and Netflix eat their lunch. Movie people did this when TV first started, they did it when cable started, they did it when direct-to-video started, they’ll probably do it forever.

    Again: this is not uncommon to anyone watching science fiction and thinking all the activity is in the pulps– gods, none of that tacky media stuff– while they wonder why fewer and fewer people attend their con. A person trying to increase memberships at some conventions* is like being the youth outreach coordinator at the AARP.

    * Admit it. You just thought of at least one con that’s falling into this trap.

  44. Mike Glyer:
    Soon Lee: This could be the start of a new File 770 meme — the Scroll Scavenger Hunt. I describe the article, the Filers bring back the link….

    That could be a neat idea; a Pixel Scroll where all the numbered items are just descriptions without links. Maybe for Easter Egg Hunt?

  45. Age and the Academy: am I the only one who can picture nonvoting emeritus status being proposed for the Nebulas?

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