Pixel Scroll 5/14/19 The Ship That Scrolled

(1) EYE ON HORROR. Ellen Datlow posted almost a hundred photos from last weekend’s StokerCon in Michigan.

Ellen Datlow, Gwendolyn Kiste, and Rena Mason

(2) RE: STAN LEE. “Stan Lee’s Former Business Manager Charged With Elder Abuse Against Late Icon”The Hollywood Reporter says an arrest warrant has been issued.

The former business manager for Stan Lee has been charged with multiple counts of elder abuse related to the late Marvel icon. 

Keya Morgan was charged with multiple counts related to elder abuse, including alleged false imprisonment, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Superior Court told The Hollywood Reporter

…Last summer, legal representatives for Lee filed for a restraining order against Morgan, which was granted.

… Morgan, who has long been involved in the pop culture memorabilia scene, was one of the subjects of the investigation.

Last month, Morgan pleaded no contest to filing a false police report. He must stay away from Lee’s family and residence, along with completing 100 hours of community service, according to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office. 

(3) NYT BOOK REVIEW ON MCEWAN. The New York Times Book Review’s Tina Gordon almost reluctantly reports on the speculative fiction community’s response to Ian McEwan’s novel and his dismissal of the genre in the Guardian:

The sci-fi community began calling out McEwan’s genre snobbery on Twitter and in opinion pieces. ‘It is as absurd for McEwan to claim he’s not writing sci-fi as it is for him to imply that sci-fi is incapable of approaching these themes interestingly,” said one ‘Alternative history and nonhuman consciousness are established sci-fi motifs.’ Another wrote, ‘Anyone is entitled to try out ideas. What you can’t do is write a detective story and think ‘the butler did it’ is a world-first clever twist.’

As [NYT Book Review’s] Dwight Garner noted in his review of Machines Like Me ‘people are touchy about genre.’ Kurt Vonnegut famously complained that he was ‘a soreheaded occupant of a file drawer labeled ‘science fiction’ … and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics regularly mistake the drawer for a urinal.’ And Harlan Ellison once said, ‘Call me a science fiction writer. I’ll come to your house and I’ll nail your pet’s head to a coffee table. I’ll hit you so hard your ancestors will die.’

(4) WHEN HEKTO WAS IN FLOWER. Paul Di Filippo reviews The Science Fiction Fanzine Reader: Focal Points 1930-1960 edited by Luis Ortiz at Locus Online.

…This immensely valuable and entertaining volume — purportedly the first of several — captures for posterity a chronologically delimited slice of the subculture of science-fiction fandom — currently dying or healthy; vanished or extant? — in such a manner that even those folks who have no prior inkling of the subculture — assuming they possess a modicum of curiosity and intelligence — should still be able to completely grok the subject matter and derive amusement and pleasure and wisdom from this richly annotated compilation….

… So just be aware that, for the most part, you will not get rehashed literary battles of the day as fought in the pages of these zines, but rather insights into the amateur press people and their publications themselves….

(5) TRAILER TIME. Disney’s Maleficent: Mistress of Evil  is in theaters October 18.

“Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” is a fantasy adventure that picks up several years after “Maleficent,” in which audiences learned of the events that hardened the heart of Disney’s most notorious villain and drove her to curse a baby Princess Aurora. The film continues to explore the complex relationship between the horned fairy and the soon to be Queen as they form new alliances and face new adversaries in their struggle to protect the moors and the magical creatures that reside within.

(6) EATING THE FANTASTIC. Scott Edelman says, “Dare to eat donuts with a dozen horrific creators during the ’StokerCon Donut Spooktacular’” on his Eating the Fantastic podcast.

Regular listeners to Eating the Fantastic know that once a year, instead of serving up the usual well-researched one-on-one conversations which make up most of this podcast’s ear candy, I opt for total anarchy, plopping myself down in a heavily trafficked area of a con with a dozen donuts and chatting with anybody who’s game to trade talk for sugar and grease. It’s totally spontaneous, as I never know to whom I’ll speak until they pass by and their eyes light up at the sight of a free donut.

In 2016, you were invited to eavesdrop on the Readercon Donut Spectacular, in 2017 the Balticon Donut Extravaganza, and last year the Nebula Awards Donut Jamboree. Now it’s time for the StokerCon Donut Spooktacular!

Late Saturday night, I sat down with an assorted dozen from The Donut Conspiracy in Grand Rapids accompanied by the usual sign explaining the setup, and found no shortage of willing guests.

Join us as Michael Bailey describes his novel inspired by a fire which turned his home to ashes in seven minutes, Geoffrey A. Landis shares about the Sherlock Holmes/Jack the Ripper horror story he published in the science fiction magazine Analog, Brian Keene explains why he chose last weekend to finally reappear at an HWA event, Wile E. Young tells why he thinks of the Road Runner whenever a story gets rejected, Anton Cancre reveals which guest that weekend earned most of his squee, and Wesley Southard offers his schtick for selling books when stuck behind a dealers table at a con.

Plus Erik T. Johnson gives an unexpected (but perfectly logical) answer when asked about one of the perks of StokerCon, Patrick Freivald looks back on how his horror career began via a collaboration with his twin brother, Josh Malerman recounts how he replaced readings with full blown Bird Box interactive performances and how an audience of 85-year-olds reacted, Asher Ellis shares how the Stonecoast MFA program made him a better writer, Kennikki Jones-Jones discusses her Final Frame award-winning short film Knock Knock, Eugene Johnson celebrates his Bram Stoker Award win that night for It’s Alive: Bringing Your Nightmares to Life, and much, much more!

(7) DAY OBIT. Her recordings showed up in episodes of Quantum Leap and The Simpsons. Steve Vertlieb writes about “Remembering Doris Day, the ‘Girl Next Door’” who died May 13.

Remembering the wondrously youthful, eternally vivacious Doris Day whose infinite flirtation with joy, music, and film ended this morning with her passing at age 97. She will forever remain timeless in our hearts and memories. She was truly everyone’s favorite “girl next door.” While famously private in her personal life, I was fortunate enough to receive a beautiful response from her several years ago when I wrote her of my life long affection for her. It is reproduced here with love, reverence, and respect. Doris Day will forever remain an integral component of my precarious youth, and coming of age. Rest Well, Doris. I shall always love you.

Some of the Enterprise crew bid farewell too:

(8) CONWAY OBIT. SYFY Wire pays homage to “Tim Conway, comedian and voice of Barnacle Boy on SpongeBob, dead at 85”.

While well-known to the Baby Boomer generation for his comedic work on McHale’s Navy and The Carol Burnett Show, Conway also endeared himself to Millennials and Generation Z, even if they don’t know him by sight. That’s because he voiced the character of Barnacle Boy on SpongeBob, the sailor’s uniform-wearing super-sidekick to Mermaid Man, who was played by Conway’s McHale’s Navy co-star, Ernest Borgnine (1917-2012).

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.

[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]

  • Born May 14, 1933 Siân Phillips, 86. Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam in Dune, Cassiopeia in Clash of The Titans, and Red Queen in Alice Through the Looking Glass.
  • Born May 14, 1944 George Lucas, 75. He created the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchise. (Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade are fine. Several Star Wars films are.) and let’s not forget THX 1138.
  • Born May 14, 1945 Francesca Annis, 74. Lady Jessica in Dune, Lady Macbeth in Roman Polanski’s Macbeth.
  • Born May 14, 1945 Rob Tapert, 74. I’d say he’s best known for co-creating Xena: Warrior Princess. He also produced and/or wrote several other television series including Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, M.A.N.T.I.S. and American Gothic. Tapert also co-created the prequel series Young Hercules which I loved. He’s married to actress Lucy Lawless. 
  • Born May 14, 1952 Robert Zemeckis, 67. So he’s responsible for some of my favorite films including the Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Death Becomes Her. What’s your favorite films that’s he had a hand In? 
  • Born May 14, 1952 Kathleen Ann Goonan, 67. Her Nanotech Quartet is most particularly the first novel, Queen City Jazz. She’s written an interesting essay on the relationship between sf and music, “Science Fiction and All That Jazz”.
  • Born May 14, 1961 Tim Roth, 58. Guildenstern In Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. Gary ‘Hutch’ Hutchens in Twin Peaks, plus several one-offs in such genre series as Tales from the Crypt and Theatre Night.
  • Born May 14, 1965 Eoin Colfer, 54. He is best known for being the author of the Artemis Fowl series. He wrote the sixth novel of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, entitled And Another Thing…

(10) TONOPAH BID. Kevin Standlee says his proposed 2021 Westercon won’t have guests of honor and will have light programming, so he really needs to answer the question “Why Tonopah?”, which he does in this post on the SFSFC website.

Relaxed: We are currently planning a relatively light schedule of programming, giving our members an expanded opportunity to socialize and to explore the community. Rather than running the members off their feet rushing from item to item and constantly protesting that they seem to need to be in three places at once, we want our members to enjoy themselves without running themselves ragged.

(11) RELATED REVIEWS. Steve J. Wright has completed his Best Related Work Hugo Finalist reviews

Related Work

(12) THE WEAPONS SHOPS. NPR discovers “When Technology Can Be Used To Build Weapons, Some Workers Take A Stand”.

On the night of Jan. 16, Liz O’Sullivan sent a letter she’d been working on for weeks. It was directed at her boss, Matt Zeiler, the founder and CEO of Clarifai, a tech company. “The moment before I hit send and then afterwards, my heart, I could just feel it racing,” she says.

The letter asked: Is our technology going to be used to build weapons?

With little government oversight of the tech industry in the U.S., it’s tech workers themselves who increasingly are raising these ethical questions.

O’Sullivan often describes technology as magic. She’s 34 — from the generation that saw the birth of high-speed Internet, Facebook, Venmo and Uber. “There are companies out there doing things that really look like magic,” she says. “They feel like magic.”

Her story began two years ago, when she started working at Clarifai. She says one of her jobs was to explain the company’s product to customers. It’s visual recognition technology, used by websites to identify nudity and inappropriate content. And doctors use it to spot diseases.

Clarifai was a startup, founded by Zeiler, a young superstar of the tech world. But shortly after O’Sullivan joined, Clarifai got a big break — a government contract, reportedly for millions of dollars.

It was all very secretive. At first, the people assigned to work on the project were in a windowless room, with the glass doors covered.

O’Sullivan would walk by and wonder: What are they doing in there?

(13) EGGING THEM ON. Not everyone’s against weapons research, at least of a certain kind: “Jacinda Ardern returns girl’s ‘dragon research’ bribe”.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has rejected a “bribe” from an 11-year-old girl who wrote asking her government to conduct dragon research.

The girl, identified only as Victoria, wanted to be given telekinetic powers so she could become a dragon trainer.

She included NZ$5 ($3.20; £2.50) with her letter, apparently as a bribe.

Writing back on official letterhead, Ms Ardern said her administration was “not currently doing any work in… psychics and dragons.”

But in a handwritten note, she added: “P.S. I’ll still keep an eye out for those dragons. Do they wear suits?”

(14) IT’S EVERYWHERE. Garbage voyages to the bottom of the sea: “Mariana Trench: Deepest-ever sub dive finds plastic bag”.

An American explorer has found plastic waste on the seafloor while breaking the record for the deepest ever dive.

Victor Vescovo descended nearly 11km (seven miles) to the deepest place in the ocean – the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench.

He spent four hours exploring the bottom of the trench in his submersible, built to withstand the immense pressure of the deep.

He found sea creatures, but also found a plastic bag and sweet wrappers.

It is the third time humans have reached the ocean’s extreme depths.

(15) GOOGLE U. During an exchange about JDA’s lawsuit, Steve Davidson told Adam Rakunas “I went to the same law school you did,” So Rakunas replied, “Remember our school’s fight song?”

We’re gonna fill up those search boxes
We’re gonna write out those search strings!
We’re the Fightin’ Queries of Internet U
And we look up all the things!

Oh, we don’t have accreditation
And no one gets degrees
But that doesn’t stop us from sounding off
Go, go, go, Fightin’ Queries!

[Thanks to Chip Hitchcock, Cat Eldridge, Rob Thornton, John King Tarpinian, JJ, Carl Slaughter, Andrew Porter, Mike Kennedy, and Martin Morse Wooster for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]

32 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 5/14/19 The Ship That Scrolled

  1. The Scroll that CircumPixelated Fairyland in a Post of her own making

    Or have we done that alreay?

  2. Reading: Started a bit of Hugo reading — Aliette de Bodard’s Xuya stories. I finished The Tea Master and the Detective and started Citadel of Weeping Pearls. I’m enjoying them so far — at points I’m reminded a bit of Ann Leckie’s Ancillary books and/or Yoon Ha Lee’s Ninefox Gambit novels.

  3. @3: Does either Garner or Gordon think being mistaken for a urinal is fun? Does Gordon think it’s not a fair summary of McEwan’s attitude?
    (Note to anyone wondering whether there was anything more: AFAICT the excerpt in this Scroll is all that was printed — clicking through seems to be a waste.)

  4. (3) “almost reluctantly” is right on the nose.

    (9) don’t forget Sian Phillips as Empress Livia in I, Claudius.

  5. 3) There’s an insightful review in The Guardian here:

    https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/11/machines-like-me-by-ian-mcewan-review

    The reviewer thinks highly of the book, but is also aware of the SF genre and criticises it for its clunky exposition.

    And this quote, taken from an Observer review, suggests McEwan is actually well aware of his predecessors: ‘Charlie realises that his stance regarding his purchase has been shaped by literature. “The imagination,” he says, “fleeter than history, than technological advance, had already rehearsed this future in books…” ‘

  6. 15) Rah rah ree, kick em in the knee
    Rah rah ras, kick em in the other knee

    12) I have helped to design weapons, some were for recreational purposes, others were for training and of the non-lethal and less-than-lethal variety.

    One such less-than-lethal weapon, deployed by the Boston police department, killed a young woman. The weapon was both deployed improperly and used improperly (it should not have been used to begin with, it should not have been used in the way it was used).

    I do take that to heart and feel some degree of responsibility, but if that parrticular weapon had not been available (at the time), only more deadly tools would have been available and it is likely that even more people would have been harmed, some fatally.

    I do know that some of the training systems and ltl systems I worked on have saved lives (often by making warfighters and police more effective, less exposed, better aware of their environment).

    It’s a moral minefield.

  7. Hmmmmmm… Tonopah must win!

    In the Olde Tymes, if a con had no GoH named, whoever could first produce a badge with a ribbon reading “Guest of Honor” was deemed to have won that honor in swag-battle!

    May the con be ever in your favor!
    Chris

  8. Meredith Moment: Player of Games by Iain M. Banks (Culture 2) is available in ebook form on Amazon (and possibly elsewhere) for $2.99. I think this book may be the best way into the Culture series.

  9. Rob Thornton says Meredith Moment: Player of Games by Iain M. Banks (Culture 2) is available in ebook form on Amazon (and possibly elsewhere) for $2.99. I think this book may be the best way into the Culture series.

    It’s good but I’ll hold The Hydrogen Sonata, his final novel, is a far better novel as it’s a work that shows he’s comfortable with the idea of The Culture in a way by that time that he is, I think, isn’t early on in the series.

  10. I agree with Rob that Player of Games is the best entry point for the Culture series. It is very engaging and it explains a lot.

  11. Reading: Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It’s an interesting follow up to CHILDREN OF TIME thus far. Not a direct sequel, but set in the same verse.

  12. @Steve Davidson: IIUC, the weapons being questioned are intended to be more-specifically lethal rather than generally non-lethal. The whole question of non-lethal rifles/ammunition is also arguable (see: Israeli/Palestinian conflicts) but probably separate. I expect I know the case you’re talking about; I suspect that anything intended to subdue an opponent (see Knight, “Tangle Hold”) can become deadly if users (or commanders) are sufficiently entranced by “non-lethal” that they ignore limitations — let alone variables (wrt which, see the NPR story last weekend about lower-power Tasers producing fewer fatalaties and not stopping as many people).

  13. Tim Conway was quite possibly the funniest human being who ever lived, and his work with many other people who also have a claim to that title never fails to cheer me up. I’m going to miss him.

  14. @BravoLimaPoppa3 There are some techniques here that he’s imported from COT, but is also packing in two seperate timelines, first contact and all sorts of things. As he said to me on twitter. “Spiders are the least of it now.”.

    He is so right…

  15. I’ll go with Player of Games as best entry for the Culture-series, but that is based on my history of playing RPG and Board Games. I always recommend that book to other players. But if you aren’t one if those, there might be a better entry point. My own was Excession and it worked out fine.

  16. (10) I’m pleased to announce that Inland Streamliner will commence service on the Reno – Tonopah – Las Vegas – Phoenix route with modern, wheelchair-accessible buses starting July 3, 2019.

    We knew they were organizing a new intercity bus line, but didn’t want to say more about it until they started selling tickets. Sadly, they won’t be operating soon enough for me to make a test trip (they have a stop in Fernley where I live) before SpikeCon, but should we win the bid, you can expect that I’ll make a test trip by riding their bus down to Tonopah to see how it works.

  17. Kevin Standlee, any comment on the discussion elsewhere about Inland Streamliner’s interesting contract of carriage? For instance, the inclusion on their prohibited persons list of persons “Traveling for or in support of a political protest” or “Engaging in political protest or political agitation”? Not to mention the sections further down headed “Prohibition of Social Justice Warriors” and “Restriction of Disgraceful Travelers”. Fun.

  18. Pingback: Pixel Scroll 5/18/19 The Filer Who Went Up A Scroll But Came Down A Pixel | File 770

  19. 10) As of tonight, the next scheduled run for Streamliner is July 3. It’s starting to sound like a hobby, not a business.
    The ‘contract of carriage’ is a hoot. Most of it is unenforceable and unverifiable. I doubt they’ll be around long. But I fail to see how that’s Mr. Standlee’s fault.

  20. Harold Osler: As of tonight, the next scheduled run for Streamliner is July 3. It’s starting to sound like a hobby, not a business.

    That’s because it’s a brand-new business which starts service on July 3.

    My heart goes out to Kevin Standlee and Lisa Hayes, who have worked so hard to put together a good Westercon bid, only to have what should have been a great enhancement to their bid turn out to be something awful instead. 🙁

  21. Dear Mike,

    Found this under FAQs:

    “Please don’t take defamatory (e.g. black-and-white, sepia) photos.”

    Huh?????

    I don’t think that word means what they think it means.

    And this under “prohibited activities:”

    “Refusal to permit a search of person or property for explosives or for deadly, controlled, or dangerous weapons, articles, or substances.”

    pax / Ctein

  22. Since I had never heard of a “California Bus Ban” I went searching…it turns out that it’s a law requiring public agencies to switch to electric buses gradually, starting in 2023. It will not apply to private bus companies.

    “The new rule will only apply to transit buses — meaning privately owned buses and school bans are not included — and will be rolled out over time. The first wave will begin in 2023, during which the agencies will be forced to buy electric buses 25 percent of the time. The number will double to 50 percent in the following year and, by 2029, agencies will no longer be able to buy non-electric buses. ”

    https://www.greenmatters.com/renewables/2018/12/20/6_MVgpK/california-electric-bus

    Oh well.

  23. @Lenore Jones: Late to the party, sorry (but look, I’m less behind on Pixel Scrolls! how’re you doing?), but thanks for the info. Why do I suspect that protest-prohibition bit would be applied unevenly? 😉

    Anyway, since the link you posted (“contract of carriage”) redirects to their home page for me (only 9 days after you posted it; perhaps they regret it?), I can’t read the full terms. So I scrolled down the home page, skimming a bit, and found this gem (emphasis added):

    Managed by legal immigrants and Air Force veterans, all Streamliners are American-made. No one else offers so much legroom for so little money on the most direct routes. Go STREAMLINER!

    As opposed to . . . all the other bus lines that are managed by illegal immigrants? Le sigh. I’m also wondering why I should care that they have Air Force veterans in management, or if I should be angry they don’t also have Army, Navy, and Spaaaace Foooorce veterans. Anyway, I stopped scrolling at that point, after an eyestrain-inducing eye roll.

    @Ctein: LOL/WTF re. the photo thing! More eye-rolling here.

  24. Kendall –
    Keep going in that thread. I posted a Wayback machine link to the CoC.

  25. @ULTRAGOTHA: Thanks. I am reading the 5/18 thread and good grief, someone from the bus company shows up and covers himself with glory.

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