(1) DRAGON CON STILL ON SCHEDULE. Dragon Con told Facebook readers today they are proceeding with plans for their Labor Day event.
Many things in the world are uncertain right now. One thing isn’t: We are planning to throw one sorely-needed, amazing celebration come Labor Day. We’re moving forward to keep #DragonCon2020 on schedule.
Currently, there are no plans to reschedule or cancel the event, however we’re keeping in touch with the experts either way, and working with our venue partners to make sure everything and everyone stays safe, happy, and healthy.
Rest assured if at any time we feel that cannot be accomplished, we will do what is needed to protect our community.
(2) POPPING OFF. Gideon Marcus used a clever theme to pull together Galactic Journey’s review of the latest issue – in 1965 – of F&SF: “[APRIL 22, 1965] CRACKER JACK ISSUE (MAY 1965 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION)”.
I’m sure everyone’s familiar with America’s snack, as ubiquitous at ball games as beer and hotdogs. As caramel corn goes, it’s pretty mediocre stuff, though once you start eating, you find you can’t stop. And the real incentive is the prize waiting for you at the bottom of the box. Will it be a ring? A toy or a little game? Maybe a baseball card.
This month, like most months recently, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction is kind of like a box of Cracker Jacks. But the prize at the end of the May 1965 issue is worth the chore of getting there.
(3) PATREON’S UNLUCKY NUMBER. “Patreon lays off 13% of workforce” reports TechCrunch.
Creative platform Patreon has laid off 30 employees, which is 13% of its workforce, TechCrunch has learned.
“It is unclear how long this economic uncertainty will last and therefore, to prepare accordingly, we have made the difficult decision to part ways with 13% of Patreon’s workforce,” a Patreon spokesperson said in a statement to TechCrunch. “This decision was not made lightly and consisted of several other factors beyond the financial ones.”
…The startup ecosystem has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, with layoffs no longer the exception, but the rule. Still, it’s peculiar timing for Patreon, given the company touted an increase in new memberships during the first three weeks of March….
(4) VISITOR FROM BEYOND. [Item by Daniel Dern.] Jeff Hecht (who’s sold sf stories everywhere from Analog, Asimov’s and Interzone to Nature and various anthologies — ) has an article in the April 21, 2020 Sky & Telescope on recent interstellar visitors: “The Origins of Interstellar Objects”.
…Comet Borisov was easy to recognize as a comet, but our first interstellar visitor, 1I/’Oumuamua, was like nothing astronomers had seen before. It was elongated, tumbling erratically, porous, moving oddly, releasing only wisps of gas — even evoking thoughts of derelict alien spaceship….
In terms of SF relevance (beyond “we also are interested in science fact stuff”), Jeff notes, regarding this article, “The only SF twist was saying they finally found a way to explain the origin of ‘Oumuamua other than as an alien spacecraft.”
(5) MOORCOCK REVEALED WHEN PAYWALL FALLS. Stacy Hollister’s “A Q&A With Michael Moorcock” is an interview with Michael Moorcock about his novel King Of The City that first appeared in the November 2002 Texas Monthly, which has lowered its paywall for the rest of the year.
texasmonthly.com: What’s your mission as a writer?
MM: I’m very moralistic. I think I bear a certain responsibility for the effect of the fiction I write. Anger at injustice, cruelty, or ignorance is what tends to fire me up. I try to show readers where we might all be wearing cultural blinders. I hate imperialism, so therefore much of my early work was an attempt to show admirers of the British Empire, say, what kind of injustice, prejudice and hypocrisy such an empire is based on. I am very uneasy with current Anglophone rhetoric about responsibilities to other parts of the world, for instance. King of the City deals with some of this, especially the destruction of African society by imperial rapacity.
(6) SMALL SHOW RECAP – BEWARE SPOILERS. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] Last night on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, the time ship ended up in British Columbia in 2020 and ended up in a woods which ultimately led them to the set of Supernatural. They didn’t see any members of the cast, but they did see Sam and Dean’s car and opened the trunk, which was full of monster-fighting equipment. They then used the equipment to fight a bunch of zombie-like creatures, and learn the creatures have killed the crew shooting Supernatural.
“How will they finish season 15?” one of the legends asks.
Well, now we know why Supernatural still has seven episodes left to shoot…
(7) ENTERTAINMENT FOR SJW CREDENTIAL OWNERS. Martin Morse Wooster, our designated Financial Times reader, peeked behind the paywall and found that in the April 17 issue Sarah Hemming reviews fiction podcasts.
Nadia, star of Russian For Cats (created by Pam Cameron), has escaped from prison and is desperately seeking refuge. She discovers it with Brian, a loser who lives in a caravan in a state of great disorder and despondency. When Nadia arrives, he finds a confidante and she finds sanctuary.
The only thing is, Nadia is a cat: a talking cat fluent in Russian. Here’s a story ideally suited to lockdown :a gently absurd thriller, featuring a chatty feline, the chance to learn Russian (a short lesson follows each episode), and a sinister explanation for popularity of cat memes. Is your cat spying on you? Do you need to ask?
(8) MT. TSUNDOKU CALLS YOU. Steven Cooper today made the Asimov biblioraphy that was referenced in the Scroll a few days ago available to purchase as a print-on-demand book from Lulu — An Annotated Bibliography for Isaac Asimov. Thanks to Bill for the discovery.
(9) CASEY OBIT. Past President of the Philadelphia SF Society Hugh Casey died April 21 after a long illness, including a stroke. He is survived by his partner Stephanie Lucas.
In happier times Hugh made File 770 with this humorous incident from 2002:
Philadelphia SF Club President Hugh Casey almost made his show business debut in September. “I was supposed to be checking out an alternate location for meetings, but was unable to make it due to being held up in traffic. In fact I ended up driving into the middle of filming for Kevin Smith’s upcoming movie Jersey Girl – apparently disrupting a shot and getting some crew members very angry at me. I did not see either the director or the stars.”
In 2017, when Casey battled cancer, his friends rallied to raise money for his medical expenses by creating “HughCon” –
…The Rotunda has donated their space, Star Trek-themed band The Roddenberries have donated their time and talent, a number of makers and vendors have donated items for our silent auction, and a lots of people have donated their time and effort
(10) TODAY IN HISTORY.
- April 22, 1953 — Invaders from Mars premiered. It directed by William Cameron Menzies and produced by Edward L. Alperson Jr. from the script written by Richard Blake with the story by John Tucker Battle. It starred Jimmy Hunt, Helena Carter, Arthur Franz, Morris Ankrum, Leif Erickson, and Hillary Brooke. Invaders from Mars was nominated for a Retro-Hugo at Noreascon 4 but lost out to The War of The Worlds. Critics at the time liked it quite a bit, and At Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of 82% among audience reviewers. You can watch it here.
- April 22, 1959 — The Monster Of Piedras Blancas enjoyed its premiere. It was produced by Jack Kevan who started out as a makeup artist on The Wizard of Oz as written and directed by Irvin Berwick who was associate produced later on for The Loch Ness Horror. The screenplay was by H. Haile Chace It starred Jeanne Carmen, Les Tremayne, John Harmon, Don Sullivan, Forrest Lewis, and Pete Dunn. It received universally negative criticism with most calling it amateurish with the script, dialogue, and monster design being noted s being bad. It holds a not terribly bad 33% rating among audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes. You’re in for for a special treat as you can see it here.
(11) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]
- Born April 22, 1902 — Philip Latham. Name used by Robert Shirley Richardson on his genre work. His novels were largely first published in Astounding starting in the Forties, With the exception of his children’s SF novels that were published in Space Science Fiction Magazine. He also wrote a few scripts for Captain Video, the predecessor of Captain Video and his Video Rangers. His Comeback novel starts this way: ‘ When Parkhurst heard the announcement that climaxed the science fiction convention, he found that he’d been right, years ago when he had faith in science-fictionists’ dreams. But, in another way, he’d been wrong . . .’ It’s available at the usual digital suspects for a buck. (Died 1981.)
- Born April 22, 1934 — Sheldon Jaffery. An editor and bibliographer of pulps whose non-fiction Work and genre anthologies are both fascinating. Among the latter are such publications as Sensuous Science Fiction From the Weird and Spicy Pulps and The Weirds: A Facsimile Selection of Fiction From the Era of the Shudder Pulps, and from the former are Future and Fantastic Worlds: Bibliography of DAW Books, The Arkham House Companion: Fifty Years of Arkham House and Collector’s Index to Weird Tales. (Died 2003.)
- Born April 22, 1937 — Jack Nicholson, 82. I think my favorite role for him in a genre film was as Daryl Van Horne in The Witches of Eastwick. Other genre roles include Jack Torrance in The Shining, Wilbur Force in The Little Shop of Horrors, Rexford Bedlo in The Raven, Andre Duvalier in The Terror, (previous three films are all Roger Corman productions), Will Randall in Wolf, President James Dale / Art Land in Mars Attacks! and Jack Napier aka The Joker in Tim Burton’s The Batman. I watched the last one, was not impressed.
- Born April 22, 1944 — Damien Broderick, 76. Australian writer of over seventy genre novels. It is said that The Judas Mandala novel contains the first appearance of the term “virtual reality” in SF. He’s won five Ditmar Awards, a remarkable achievement. I know I’ve read several novels by him including Godplayers and K-Machines which are quite good.
- Born April 22, 1967 — Sheryl Lee, 53. Best remembered as being cast by David Lynch as Laura Palmer and Maddy Ferguson in Twin Peaks and in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, and reprised in the later Twin Peaks. Her other interesting genre role was playing the title role in Guinevere based on Persia Woolley’s Guinevere trilogy. Finally, she was Katrina in John Carpenter’s Vampires for which she won the very cool sounding Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Supporting Actress.
- Born April 22, 1977 – Kate Baker, 43. Editor along with with Neil Clarke and Sean Wallace of the last two print issues Clarkesworld. She’s won the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine twice, and the World Fantasy Award (Special Award: Non Professional) in 2014, all alongside the editorial staff of Clarkesworld. She’s a writer of three short genre stories, the latest of which, “No Matter Where; Of Comfort No One Speak”, you can hear here. (Warning for subject matters abuse and suicide.)
- Born April 22, 1978 — Manu Intiraymi, 42. He played the former Borg Icheb on the television series Star Trek: Voyager. A role that he played a remarkable eleven times. And this Birthday research led me to discovering yet another video Trek fanfic, this time in guise of Star Trek: Renegades in which he reprised his role. Any Trekkies here watch this?
- Born April 22, 1984 — Michelle Ryan, 36. She had the odd honor of being a Companion to the Tenth Doctor as Lady Christina de Souza for just one story, “Planet of the Dead”. She had a somewhat longer genre run as the rebooted Bionic Woman that lasted eight episodes, and early in her career, she appeared as the sorceress Nimueh in BBC’s Merlin. Finally I’ll note she played Helena from A Midsummer Night’s Dream in BBC’s Learning project, Off By Heart Shakespeare.
(12) COMICS SECTION.
- The Argyle Sweater shows why October cannot come too soon.
- Bliss finds the visual that perfectly matches a misreading of a common yard sign.
- The Far Side witnesses a dragon tragedy.
- Bob the Angry Flower finds that with baby aliens the squee fades quickly.
- Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal unpacks the “AI and trolleys” ethical dilemma.
(13) BREAKTHROUGH. In the Washington Post, Michael Cavna profiles Steenz (pseudonym of Christina Stewart) and Bianca Xunise as two African-American comic strip creators who have broken into the world of newspaper comic strips, as Steenz has taken over Heart of the City and Xunise has joined the artists producing Six Chix. “Newspaper comics hardly ever feature black women as artists. But two new voices have arrived.”
“The ‘powers that be’ — white male editors at white publications — have kept folks of color to a minimum on their pages so as not to cause a stir. That’s the case still,” says Barbara Brandon-Croft, whose trailblazing strip “Where I’m Coming From” was distributed by Universal Press Syndicate from 1991 to 2005 — making her the first black woman to achieve national mainstream syndication as a cartoonist.
“You had to go to the black newspapers — as early as the ’30s — to find black characters drawn by black hands,” she says. ”And a black woman lead — what? Jackie Ormes’s ‘Torchy Brown’ was truly groundbreaking.” (Ormes, the first African American woman to have a syndicated comic strip, was elected to the Will Eisner Comics Hall of Fame in 2018.)
(14) KEEP THEM DOGIES MOVIN’. There’s money to be made! “‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Already in the Works at Disney Plus”.
The October premiere date for Season 2 of “The Mandalorian” may still feel like it’s far, far away, but pre-production has already begun on a third installment of the wildly popular Disney Plus series, Variety has learned exclusively.
Sources close to the production have confirmed that creator Jon Favreau has been “writing season 3 for a while,” and that the art department, led by Lucasfilm vice president and executive creative director Doug Chiang, has been creating concepts for Season 3 “for the past few weeks.”
…The Mouse House also has two others series from a Galaxy far, far away in the works, namely an Obi-Wan Kenobi series with Ewan McGregor reprising the iconic role, and a Cassian Andor series starring Diego Luna, which recently added Stellan Skarsgard and Kyle Soller, as Variety reported exclusively.
(15) RELIEF FOR COMICS STORES. “Comic Book Publishers Unite for Fund to Help Stores” — The Hollywood Reporter runs the numbers.
As the comic book industry seeks to rebuild in the wake of store closures and publication pauses caused by the coronavirus outbreak, the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (BINC) is announcing the formation of a new fund specifically aimed at assisting comics, the Comicbook United Fund.
Combining the $100,000 pledged last year to BINC from the Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group to support comic book retailers with the $250,000 pledged earlier this month by DC, the Comicbook United Fund is intended to be the central location for any and all figures and organizations hoping to raise money for comic book retailers.
(16) EMERGENCY. The roleplaying game designer Guy McLimore (FASA’s Star Trek: The Roleplaying Game, Mekton Empire, The Fantasy Trip) says he had to break social distancing for an exceptionally good reason:
(17) STEWARDS OF THE FUTURE. Wil Wheaton penned a visionary essay to accompany his voicing of a C.L. Moore audio story — “Radio Free Burrito Presents: The Tree of Life by CL Moore”.
…I’m sure, in her incredible, gifted, magnificent imagination, she never even considered for a second that, almost 100 years into her future, someone whose parents weren’t yet born would take her work, bring it to life in a unique way, and then distribute that new work to anyone who wants it, in the world, without even getting out of my desk chair.
What amazing thing is sitting just over our horizon? What amazing thing is waiting for our grandchildren that we can’t even imagine right now? Why aren’t we doing more to protect our planet and each other, so our grandchildren don’t have to live in some apocalyptic nightmare?
(18) RELIC. “Hawking’s family donate ventilator to hospital”.
Stephen Hawking’s personal ventilator has been donated to the hospital where he was often treated to help patients diagnosed with coronavirus.
The physicist, who had motor neurone disease, died in 2018, aged 76.
His family donated the medical equipment he bought himself to the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge.Prof Hawking’s daughter Lucy said the hospital was “incredibly important” to her father and Dr Mike Davies said staff were “so grateful” to the family.
(19) SPEAKING IN PARSELTONGUES. “Scientists discover a new snake and name it after Salazar Slytherin” – CNN has the story.
A team of researchers from India, upon discovering a new species of green pit vipers, have decided to name the snake after the one, the only Salazar Slytherin. Their findings were published this month in the journal Zoosystematics and Evolution.
For those not familiar with Harry Potter, a quick history lesson. In a nutshell, Salazar Slytherin was one of the founders of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, along with his pals Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff.
Along with being some of the most powerful witches and wizards of their time in the Harry Potter world, they’re also the namesakes of the four Hogwarts houses.
Slytherin, partly known for his ability to talk to snakes, is linked to the animals — the snake is, after all, the symbol of the Slytherin Hogwarts house. That’s why the researchers chose the name Trimeresurus salazar.
(20) NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH. NBC’s Dallas/Ft. Worth affiliate sent a crew to capture this scene: “Stormtrooper Patrols Richardson Neighborhood With Coronavirus-Related Messages”.
A Richardson man who has had a lifelong love of “Star Wars” and particularly stormtroopers, took to the streets to bring a smile and an important message to his neighbors.
Rob Johnson dressed up as a stormtrooper and patrolled the sidewalks near his home carrying signs reminding people “Good guys wear masks” and “move alone, move alone.”
The stormtrooper shows a sense of humor too, with one sign reading, “Have you seen my droid, TP4U?”
(21) TV TIME. Edgar Wright’s doing a thing on Twitter:
Not specifically genre related but it looks fun. Here’s some relevant replies:
[Thanks to Cath Jackel, Mike Kennedy, Martin Morse Wooster, John King Tarpinian, JJ, Michael Toman, Cat Eldridge, Chip Hitchcock, rcade, Bill, Daniel Dern, N., and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jack Lint.]
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(1) DRAGON CON STILL ON SCHEDULE.
It seems at first look an unwise approach given how rampant COVID19 currently is. But I do wonder how much they may be constrained by heavy penalties for cancelling. Are they working toward a normal con (in the unlikely scenario that it goes ahead) while being prepared to cancel. Are they waiting until they have no choice (when force majeure kicks in)?
(11) I’m not sure I had connected the character in Doctor Who with the Bionic Woman reboot, though I saw both.
[1] Given that Munich is canceling Oktoberfest, for crying out loud, the greedy determination of Dragon*Con (a for-profit corporation, remember, not a fan-run convention) to milk its customers really appalls me.
(19) Uh, did anybody involved in this consider that Salazar Slytherin was himself named for the Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar?
@1: my first reaction is that it’s not surprising given that Georgia is already slacking on lockdown — and to wonder how travelers (if any) will be greeted when they get home. I suspect @Soon Lee has another part of the story, because if the convention didn’t get canceled but was underattended some hotel would sue them for its entire lost bookings (in place of the usual contract penalty) claiming failure of diligence (whatever the proper legal term is).
@Goobergunch: citation?
@Chip Hitchcock: Rowling’s twitter (via Slytherin’s Wikipedia page).
(7) A common enough occurrence
Michael J. “Orange Mike” Lowrey: [1] Given that Munich is canceling Oktoberfest, for crying out loud, the greedy determination of Dragon*Con (a for-profit corporation, remember, not a fan-run convention) to milk its customers really appalls me.
Dude. That’s a huge jump to an unsubstantiated conclusion. They probably can’t get out of their contracts until closer to the time, when hotels cancel events or state or federal orders prohibit them. A whole bunch of cons which have cancelled had to wait until shortly (a month or two) before they were scheduled to occur before making the cancellation announcement, otherwise they would have been legally liable for their financial commitments. Why would DragonCon be any different?
Well, it would make sense that Timothy understands Russian — such a highly developed intellect — even if most other cats are mainly interested in hearing from mice and small, slow-moving birds.
(8) Strictly speaking, Phil Stephensen-Payne took Cooper’s PDF and did the legwork of getting it into the Lulu system (with Cooper’s blessing). But he fully credits Cooper for having done a bangup job of formatting the document so that the work of setting up the printed copy was minimal.
JJ says correctly Dude. That’s a huge jump to an unsubstantiated conclusion. They probably can’t get out of their contracts until closer to the time, when hotels cancel events or state or federal orders prohibit them. A whole bunch of cons which have cancelled had to wait until shortly (a month or two) before they were scheduled to occur before making the cancellation announcement, otherwise they would have been legally liable for their financial commitments. Why would DragonCon be any different?
And Oktoberfest is not even remotely comparable to something like a con. Oktoberfest is sanctioned and governed by the state of Bavaria. There’s no legal liabilities with the State cancelling that festival in the way there is DragonCon cancelling their contracts now with the hotels snd other vendors.
The Oktoberfest cancellation is also at least partly politically motivated, because Bavarian minister president Markus Söder has ambitions to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor and is trying to position himself as implementing particularly strict anti corona virus measures. This is not entirely without reason, as Bavaria was particularly badly hit, but there is a clear political message of “Look how much we’re sacrificing for everybody’s safety” here. Söder is also pitting himself against his internal rival Armin Laschet, who is in favour of moderately loosening measures. It’s infuriating how these two use the crisis to gain political points.
The complete cancellation was also premature IMO, since mass gatherings are banned until August 31 and Oktoberfest is in mid September, so they could have waited a bit longer to see how the situation develops. And while packed beer tents are not a good idea at the moment (and probably not in September either), at least parts of the fair such as rides or outdoor food and drink stalls might have been salvaged. On the other hand, the showmen (who are particularly badly hit by the shutdown) now have the chance to apply to those autumn fairs that may still take place.
However, none of this has anything to do with Dragon Con, unless the Söder-Laschet rivalry is now extending to Georgia as well.
This, too. German fun fairs are always run by the state or city (or in the case of Bremen’s Freimarkt, which I hope will be able to take place in late October, both), so cancellation policies are very different than for privately run events like Dragon Con.
Clickity
(11) It was Bettie Page’s birthday. Nothing really genre in her career as a model, but Dave Steven used her as a prototype for Betty in The Rocketeer.
(21) I think I agree with Wright on “Bambi” for The Young Ones, but some of the other suggestions don’t work for me. The one that I thought of immediately was “Turkeys Away” on WKRP.
Tomorrow is World Book Day, Canada Book Day, and Jo Walton’s International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day if it’s still being observed. And one of the St. George’s Day for those who don’t like dragons.
Though it was filed a long long time ago
Your pixel should scroll, your pixel should scroll
Yay! I just got a notice from Amazon that Walter Jon Williams has a new Praxis novel coming out in December!
Fleet Elements by Walter Jon Williams
6) Supernatural has seven episodes left to air, but only two left to shoot. (I don’t watch the show, but I read the article in Entertainment Weekly Monthly.)
10) When I was a kid, Invaders from Mars was the one of those movies that really scared me. (And the fact that it starred Helena Carter I guess explains why Helena Bonham Carter uses three names.)
11) The anthology – Not the Only Planet – Damien Broderick edited for Lonely Planet travel guides back in 1998 is a very good one, incidentally, and for a long time was the easiest place to find Joanna Russ’ “Useful Phrases for the Tourist” and Robert SIlverberg’s “Trips”.
1) We have some festivals still scheduled for end of summer, because we are waiting to see if there will come more reports on herd immunity and how large a population of Sweden will have been infected at that time.
But I seriously doubt that most of them will take place. Most likely we will have a stable condition in Stockholm then, but the rest of the country is an entirely different thing.
(10) @Jeff Smith: yeah, that sandpit really creeped me out when I was a kid.
(11) The only Philip Latham story I’ve read was “Under the Dragon’s Tail”, in a Terry Carr anthology, On Our Way to the Future. It was quite memorable.
Yesterday r/Fantasy held a really nice “Reddit panel” on the topic of small presses. I really enjoyed it — there were great insights, and some fantastic stories! (Don’t miss Jared Shurin’s description of printing books too heavy to ship or shelve…)
Anyone else watching/watched DEVS?
I watched the final episode last night and loved it! It’s got loads of great ideas, spies, meditations on free will, quantum mechanics and the many worlds theory, San Francisco and the Bay Area, and Ron Swanson. Highly recommended.
I’m watching Devs! I’m halfway through. After one episode I ended up talking thru QM, the double slit experiment, and QM interpretations with my partner, only to have the show cover most of it in the next episode. I shoulda just waited!
The show’s inspiring me to put together a pop sci talk using the show to look deeper at QM interpretations.
Cora Buhlert: Thanks for the background on the reasons why Oktoberfest was cancelled.
Send me the pixel that you scroll on
@ Stephen – that’s so funny – that’s exactly what happened with me and my wife, right between those two episodes. We got into a bit of a heated discussion about the many worlds theory, and she ended up texting her physics prof friend for backup :). (My objection to the theory is: if you can’t construct an experiment to verify it, how can it be considered a genuine theory? Apparently I’m wrong.)
@Cora Buhlert
That’s what politicians do.
@Cliff: to get a bit technical, the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics is not a theory, it is one of several interpretations of the results of QM; arguments over which (if any!) is the correct one are more philosophy than science, as we have no basis for deciding.
There may be some wishful thinking on Dragoncon’s part, as well. Readercon, which would have been in July, only cancelled quite recently.
Almost everyone is hoping that things will get back to, if not normal, at least something resembling it soon. I may not believe it will be possible for me to go to Montreal in October, but I’m still hoping things improve fast enough that I’m wrong. On paper, I have an appointment for a haircut in less than two weeks. Neither I nor the salon really thinks that’s likely, but there’s no reason to cancel it yet. We’re at least waiting to see what the state and city governments do next week.
Nothing really genre in her career as a model, but Dave Steven used her as a prototype for Betty in The Rocketeer.
Bettie’s also a currently licensed line of comics from Dynamite. Most of them look pretty cheesy but I love the vibe of this Scott Chantler cover.
Based on my conversations with my medical care team and fellow food pantry staff, a best guess would be early Autumn before anything gets to the New Normal as several have put it. And no one thinks that events with crowds even as small as fifty will be likely within the next six months.
Our local bookstores are surviving by doing mail order to their local customers. I’m fairly sure that two out of the three new stores won’t make it if this goes on all summer. And one of the two independent comic shops isn’t likely to survive either.
Scroll me by your pixel.
Word went out a few hours ago (I just got to the email): Pennsic 49 has been postponed to next year. This may cascade; word was a lot of past and irregular attendees were going to make an effort to get to #50.
Meanwhile, wrt the discussions about NT [UK National Theatre] Live that have come up here occasionally, they have been putting up a show each week on their YouTube channel. There’s a new show every Thursday and I don’t know how long the shows stay up so this may be too late — but the version of Treasure Island I saw last night was wonderfully weird, keeping the major events but reworking a lot of the rest, including making Jim (and other characters) female. Aside from being generally interesting and from arguments about whether all pirates are genre, this connects due to “Rory Williams” (Anthony Darvill) playing a radically different role: Long John Silver.
This one’s in time: mail from NT tells me that “next week” will include Cumberbatch and Miller in their role-swapping production of Frankenstein. No, I don’t know whether they’ll have two full-length performances, or a meld, or …. Starts at 2pm EDT Thursday, the mail says. (Listed with the above: Ralph Fiennes in Antony and Cleopatra — and started-by-now is Twelfth Night with Tamsin Greig as Malvolia. Getcher fresh hot Shakespeah heah!)
@ PhilRM – the clarifications is appreciated. Thanks!
@Chip et al —
I saw these on live-in-HD broadcasts. In the theatre, they do the whole play all the way through on two consecutive nights — the first night Cumberbatch plays the monster while Miller plays the doctor, and the second night they switch roles. It was really interesting to watch both nights.
If anyone wants to just give one night to the play, I recommend the first night — Cumberbatch is the best as the monster, and Miller is best as the doctor, so it works best all around this way. IMHO.
Oh, P.S. — the Youtube broadcasts of the NT productions are available for a week after they premiere, so the Twelfth Night one should be up til next Thursday.
(8) And now a hardcover version of the bibliography has been set up, again by Phil Stephensen-Payne. http://www.lulu.com/shop/steven-cooper/an-annotated-bibliography-for-isaac-asimov/hardcover/product-24520163.html
Comments, I can wish you
By the Clicking of your Post
And Hugos smiling all along your way
But more I cannot wish you
Then to wish you find your Scroll
Your own true Scroll this day
@Andrew: I can hear the Irish accent on that one — well done!
@Chip: Thanks. I worked hard to type that in an Irish accent…
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