Pixel Scroll 6/1/16 This Scroll Will Self-Pixelate In Five Seconds

(1) HOAX OF THRONES. From Entertainment Weekly, Game of Thrones producers reveal 4 of their epic cast pranks”.

  1. John Bradley’s Ridiculous New Costume.

During the making of season 6, Kit Harington (Jon Snow) and Hannah Murray (Gilly) asked the producers to help them play a wicked trick on their costar and friend, John Bradley (Samwell Tarley). Explains Weiss: “Hannah has long had the sh–tiest costumes on Game of Thrones; she’s been in a burlap sack for five years. She was so happy that she finally gets into a real piece of clothing this year. So Kit and Hannah thought it would be funny to play a joke on John and let him think he’s going to get a new costume too.”

The producers wrangled the show’s costume department to stage a mock fitting for Bradley in a fake costume before shooting began. “We thought it would be great to make the costume ludicrous, but just believable enough to not know it was a gag – so he’d think he would be wearing this on screen,” Weiss says. The result, as you can see in the exclusive photo above, “was all rental stuff, very Henry the VIII, with Tudor bloomers and a massive codpiece that wasn’t even the same color as the rest of the costume.”

(2) CAST PHOTOS. At Pottermore, “A first look at Ron, Hermione and Rose Granger-Weasley as they will appear in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two. Noma Dumezweni ‘gets Hermione inside out,’ according to J.K. Rowling”.

Yesterday, we got a sneak peek at Harry, Ginny and Albus Potter in full Cursed Child costume and make-up. Now, let’s meet the Granger-Weasleys.

Here we see Harry’s two best friends Ron Weasley (Paul Thornley) and Hermione Granger (Noma Dumezweni) in full costume with their daughter Rose Granger-Weasley, who will be played by actress Cherrelle Skeete.

‘It’s 19 years later when the play begins,’ Paul explained. ‘Ron is married to Hermione Granger and they’re now the Granger-Weasleys. Our magnificent daughter Rose Granger-Weasley is about to start at Hogwarts, which is obviously a big day for everyone.’

 

(3) EARLY GRRM. It’s not a hoax, but it may be a hallucination. Dangerous Minds, an underground music and culture site, discusses “’The Armageddon Rag,’ George R.R. Martin’s Rock-and-Roll Occult Fantasy Novel”,

In 1983 Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin published a standalone novel drenched in classic rock that featured the following: a sorceress marshaling a menacing army of loyal warriors, a faithful direwolf cut down in the act of protecting its master, and a scary henchman of well-nigh mountain-ous stature.

The book is called The Armageddon Rag, and a perusal of the synopses of his other pre-Song of Ice and Fire output leads me to the conclusion that the book is Martin’s most realistic novel and surely represents his most sustained homage to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien—unless, of course, the still-uncompleted Westeros/Essos series qualifies.

It also doesn’t really work.

According to the author, The Armageddon Rag nearly sank Martin’s career—and also (HBO subscribers, rejoice) prompted the writer to investigate the possibilities of writing for television….

(4) CELEBRATING WOMEN SF/F ARTISTS. The Society of Illustrators exhibit “Points of Vision – Celebrating Women Artists in Fantasy and Science Fiction” runs June 8-August 20 in New York.

When people think of the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre they often think of it as a male-dominated field, both in authorship and art. However, women have always been a critical part of the genre, and have often brought a slightly different point of view to the way that they create around the themes of myth, heroism, science, and futurism. Mary Shelley wrote one of the first, if not the first science fiction books in Frankenstein. For every Tolkien there was an Ursula K. Le Guin. For every Frank Herbert an Octavia Butler. When we think of Science Fiction and Fantasy Art, it is often the names like Frazetta and Hildebrandt that come first to mind. However, all along through the art history of the genre you have women such as Kinuko Craft, Mary Blair, Julie Bell, and many more who have been creating their own visual worlds and illustrating the worlds of authors, filmmakers, and game designers. For the first time, the work of women in this genre will be exhibited together in Point of Vision: Celebrating Women Artists in Fantasy and Science Fiction at the Museum of Illustration at the Society of Illustrators.

We have chosen to exhibit these women artists together to propose that although both men and women have always created art in the worlds of Science Fiction and Fantasy, women inherently have a slightly different point of view, a unique way of internalizing the themes and stories and then creating visuals imbued with their perspective. However it would be a mistake to say that art created by women is automatically “feminine” — in this exhibit the viewer will see that there are as many different definitions of “woman artist” as there are women creating art.

This exhibit is curated by Irene Gallo and Lauren Panepinto.

(5) PROPHECY REDEEMED. “It’s 2016 — where’s my reusable spacecraft?” demands Chip Hitchcock, setting up the BBC’s reply in “One thing spacecraft have never achieved – until now”.

So a short explanation for why reusable rockets haven’t arrived earlier is simply the technical difficulty. However, the idea of reusable spaceplanes dates back to before World War Two.

Before the Apollo programme, spaceplanes were thought to be the future of reusable spacecraft, says Roger Launius at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air & Space Museum in Washington DC. “The idea has been out there since the Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon science fiction comic strips in the 1920s and 1930s. Every single one of the spacecraft in those strips was a reusable spaceplane. So since before World War Two we always thought spaceflight would be like airplane activity.”

After 1945, captured German rocket scientists revealed they had planned – but never built – a suborbital spaceplane, the Silverbird, with which the Nazis had hoped to bomb the US. A novel design feature was that it was shaped like a wing, so its shape helped add aerodynamic lift. This ‘lifting body’ idea was harnessed by the US Air Force in 1958 when it started work on a reusable winged spaceplane, the X-20 Dyna-Soar – but the Moon program saw that canned in 1963.

(6) SIXTIES BATMAN ACTORS COLLABORATING. CinemaBlend says when they’re not busy collecting Medicare, “Batman’s Adam West And Burt Ward Are Working On A New Project”. (Okay, I made up the Medicare part.)

Although Adam West’s information was sparse, we may already have a clue about what this thing is. Last year, he and Burt Ward mentioned that they would be voicing their versions of Batman and Robin in a 90-minute animated project. It seems unlikely that this would be a movie released in theaters. Instead, it seems like a much better fit as a direct-to-DVD movie, something streamed on an online platform or even as a TV special. However, there’s been no official announcements concerning that particular project, and it’s unclear whether what West is currently talking about is the same project or something entirely different. Either way, having the old guard together again is intriguing.

(7) DEVIL IN A BLUE RAY. The other day Guillermo del Toro praised director John Carpenter in a long series of tweets that included this story:

(8) BIRTHDAY DEITY

  • Born June 1, 1936 – Morgan Freeman, who in addition to playing God in two movies, has performed as a leader of all three branches of the US government, the President, the Chief Justice, and the Speaker. (And you can throw in the Director of Central Intelligence for good measure.)

(9) BIRTHDAY MUPPET

  • Born June 1, 2000 — Oscar the Grouch. [Updated. Oscar has been on Sesame Street since 1969. But the birthday is official.]

(10) STRETCH GOALS. Diana Pavlac Glyer’s Bandersnatch audiobook Kickstarter not only funded, but hit three stretch goals.

And for unlocking the last goal, backers will soon learn if illustrator James A. Owen can really draw a bandersnatch blindfolded.

(11) THE DOORS OF HIS MOUTH. David Brin will speak in Washington DC to Caltech alumni on June 14. Tickets are $10.

Knocking on Doors

What Caltech Taught Me about Self-Education

Join us for a special conversation with Hugo award winning and New York Times bestselling science fiction author David Brin (BS ’73). Brin will speak about how his experience at Caltech prepared him for a three decade career at the intersection of science and imagination.

(12) ONLINE PAYMENT OPENS. MACII opened Site Selection voting the other day, however, today they made it possible to pay the Advance Supporting Membership fee online.

All Adult Attending, Young Adult Attending, and Supporting members of MidAmeriCon II are eligible to take part in the site selection process. Ballots may be submitted by postal mail or in person at the convention, up to the close of voting at 6 p.m. on Friday, August 19, 2016. All ballots must be accompanied by an Advance Supporting Membership fee, which will automatically be converted to a Supporting Membership of the respective convention, regardless of which convention the member voted for. This fee has been set at $40 for the 2018 Worldcon selection and $35 for the 2017 NASFiC.

Full information on the site selection process, including a printable ballot form, can be found on the MidAmeriCon II website at www.midamericon2.org/home/hugo-awards-and-wsfs/wsfs/site-selection/. A copy of the ballot form will also be included in MidAmeriCon II’s Progress Report 3, which will be mailed to convention members in the coming weeks.

In accordance with the requirements of the World Science Fiction Society, each bidder has submitted an official bid filing package. This documentation can also be found on the MidAmeriCon II website at www.midamericon2.org/home/hugo-awards-and-wsfs/wsfs/site-selection/.

(13) 2017 WISCON. The WisCon 41 guests of honor have been named.

  • Amal El-Mohtar – Nebula-nominated Canadian poet and writer of speculative fiction
  • Kelly Sue DeConnick – American comic book writer and editor and English-language adapter of manga

(14) ONE THUMB UP FOR GHOSTBUSTERS. Executive producer Dan Aykroyd praised the new Ghostbusters. Is he an objective critic? You decide!

Dan Aykroyd, who played Ray Stantz in the original Ghostbusters film, has praised the upcoming reboot.

Aykroyd is listed as an executive producer on the movie, which features a female-led cast including Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig.

He commended the “brilliant, genuine performances from the cast both female and male”.

The actor made the comments after seeing a test screening of Paul Feig’s new film.

“It has more laughs and more scares than the first two films, plus Bill Murray is in it!” Aykroyd wrote on Facebook.

(15) FLEXIBLE FLYERS. This picture of posable dragons comes from Patricia Briggs fans FB page.

posable dragons

(16) TIME AND AGAIN. Details about the 2017 season of Doctor Who continue to leak: “Doctor Who Season 10 Is Bringing A Major Character Back”.

Actress Michelle Gomez actually dropped the news herself at this weekend’s MegaCon in Orlando, confirming that she would definitely be bringing Missy back into the Doctor’s life for Season 10, according to Doctor Who News. And it doesn’t appear that she was in character while making the admission, so we don’t have to worry about this being a trick of some kind that she’s playing on humanity. Or do we?

The latest incarnation of the Doctor’s arch nemesis The Master, Missy first appeared in “Deep Breath,” after already being introduced by name in a previous episode. She is more of a trickster than earlier Masters when it comes to playing mind games with the Doctor, and has appeared in a handful of episodes since her introduction. She was last seen in Season 9’s “The Witch’s Familiar,” where she was left on Skaro amidst a huge group of Daleks, remarking on a clever idea she’d just had. Was that idea to show up in Season 10? It fits.

(17) FORGED PROPERTY. Suvudu knows how few can resist a headline like “King Tut’s Dagger Has an Extraterrestrial Origin”.

Conspiracy theorists are fond of pointing to things like the pyramids as proof that the Egyptians were in communication with an extraterrestrial civilization. While that’s very, very, very unlikely, a recent scientific discovery has revealed a surprising connection between Egyptian royalty and outer space. According to the Guardian, Italian and Egyptian scientists have concluded that a dagger found in the tomb of King Tutankhamen was forged from iron extracted from a meteorite.

(18) JUST SAY NO. Steven Harper Piziks shares his social media strategy at Book View Café.

Links I don’t click on:

–Anything that uses the phrase “mind blown”…

–Or “90% of readers won’t share this” (Now we just need to work on the other 10%.)

–Or “This major event in space is happening any second! Click here to learn more about how fake it is!”

[Thanks to Chip Hitchcock, John King Tarpinian, JJ, Rob Thornton, Andrew Porter, and Craig Miller for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day katster.]

114 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 6/1/16 This Scroll Will Self-Pixelate In Five Seconds

  1. PIXEL SCROLL!

    (9) BIRTHDAY MUPPET. I’m confused; Oscar dates back to November 10, 1969, Wikipedia sez. Even if that’s wrong, I know I saw him many, many years ago as a kid, so he can’t have been born June 1, 2000.

    (12) ONLINE PAYMENT OPENS. Oh, bleah, I have to get around to this before I forget. Not now, but soon, I promise!

    (15) FLEXIBLE FLYERS. Woah, that is wicked cool; I want to zoom in to see it better. Okay, I kinda want one; wouldn’t it go great with the tin robots on my desk at work? 🙂

  2. Lise Eisenberg: Well, you certainly have a point. Oscar the Grouch originated on the air in 1969. The Sesame Workshop acquired the marketing rights to the character in December 2000. There are almanac websites that have assigned Oscar the birthyear of 2000, but they don’t give a source. I don’t suppose it would matter if they did….

  3. @Soon Lee back on page 1: LOL re. your blurb & link for Downworthy! I must point out that the first thing Downworthy does is turn “Literally” into “Figuratively”! 😉

    @Various: I’m literally laughing out loud at the amazing blurbs here that Big Pharma doesn’t want me to read! (Yes, I’m late to the party. Still, I really did LOL.)

    @alexvdl: Cool re. Myke Cole, thanks for mentioning it. And wow, that’s quite the beard he’s sporting these days.

    @Paul Weimer: Hey, congrats on the B&N Sci Fi blog gig!

    @Music in Books People: Sean Williams wrote the “Astropolis” series with a character who only spoke in lyrics from Gary Numan songs (whoever Gary Numan is). I think chapter titles were also based on Numan lyrics or song titles. It was a weird series (even apart from the character, Render).

    @JJ: LOL, oh yes, love that quote and movie.

  4. The Balticon program book had so many proofreading errors that it actually became entertaining just for them. Some favorites:

    Three items had two different times listed:
    Monday 9:00 AM PM 1 PM Dreaming for the Future
    Monday 9:00 AM PM 2 PM Real Life or Fantasy
    Monday 9:00 AM PM 3 PM Promoting Literacy Through Writing Graphic Novels

    Many of the readings listings were outstandingly redundant:
    Saturday 6:00 PM Readings: Keith R.A. DeCandido, Christine Norris, Jean Marie Ward, and D.C. Wilson
    Keith R.A. DeCandido, Jean Marie Ward, Christine Norris, D.C. Wilson
    Steampunk and Urban Fantasy Readings by Keith R.A. DeCandido, Christine Norris, Jean Marie Ward, and D.C. Wilson

    One description included an email:
    There’s been an ongoing, but relatively recent literary trend: Authors start novels and stories with a great big bang/at the most crucial moment. Then they backtrack and flash back! […] Panelists cite specific books where this works and doesn’t, and examine the classics for areas where it happens and doesn’t. Ian Randal Strock has agreed to participate on this panel (he said he already sent in his notes to you but I’ve spoken with him since). (get opinions from agents and publishers and writers)

    And my favorite:
    X-COM Demo
    NEED A CATCHY DESCRIPTION HERE.

    I know these have to be finalized in a last-minute time crunch, so I’m perfectly willing to cut them some slack. Hey, despite my best efforts, the preview box is showing the formatting here to be very screwy. So I’m not throwing stones; I’m just being amused.

    The urban fantasy/mythic fiction popularized by Charles de Lint and Terri Windling often contained music, with musicians as either central or peripheral characters. Usually, but not always, folk/acoustic musicians. But de Lint’s novels, Windling’s Bordertown shared world anthologies, and Charles Vess’s graphic novel The Book of Ballads are there for people who like this kind of thing. There was also an excellent anthology, The Horns of Elfland, edited by Ellen Kushner, Delia Sherman, and Donald G. Keller, from Roc in 1997, long out of print but pretty available used. Windling’s story in here. “The Color of Angels,” is one of my all-time favorite stories, and there are a bunch of other good ones, too.

    (Hey, the formatting came out fine!)

  5. Posted review of The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman a couple days ago. Don’t think I mentioned that before, though I might have. Things have been a little disrupted here.

    Would love a posable dragon. Not going to happen, alas.

  6. The urban fantasy/mythic fiction popularized by Charles de Lint and Terri Windling often contained music, with musicians as either central or peripheral characters.

    I believe it was Drink Down the Moon by Charles de Lint (a sequel to Jack the Giant-Killer) which had a faerie musician who was very glad for the punk movement because it meant she could go out in public without having to dye her naturally pink hair…

  7. Re: urban fantasy and musicians, don’t forget Emma Bull’s War for the Oaks. That was–1987, I believe?

  8. Fun fact about War for the Oaks: Prince was one of the inspirations for the Phouka character.

    Also, Tim Cooper got a bunch of genre people to have copies of War for the Oaks and photographed them reading them in Minneapolis locales referenced in the books. Details here:

    http://www.tiredtapir.com/?p=37

  9. “In Dreams”, an anthology edited by Paul J. McAuley and Kim Newman, had some excellent rock&roll themed SF stories including “Dori Bangs” and “Snodgrass”.

  10. Thanks again folks for all the music suggestions, I appreciate it. Here’s a few more:

    Brust’s The Gypsy featured the tambourine, and folk-punk band Boiled in Lead wrote an album featuring lyrics from the book (“Songs from The Gypsy”).

    Elizabeth Hand’s Wylding Hall features a band that seems similar to the British folk-rock bands of the late ’60s and early 70s (Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention).

    A 70s novel named Time of the Hawklords began an incomplete trilogy about the SF-ish adventures of Hawkwind as cosmic heroes. Michael Butterworth wrote the book while Michael Moorcock did the plotting, but the publisher broke an agreement and put Moorcock’s name over Butterfield’s name.

  11. I’m glad to see that people are still discovering and enjoying War for the Oaks. I worry that the music references in it might be getting a bit dated, but I guess it still holds up fairly well overall?

    Rob Thornton on June 3, 2016 at 12:18 pm said:

    Elizabeth Hand’s Wylding Hall features a band that seems similar to the British folk-rock bands of the late ’60s and early 70s (Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention).

    Speaking of Fairport Convention, more sad 2016 musician news: their original fiddler, Dave Swarbrick, just died. He’d been in poor health for quite some time, so this wasn’t exactly unexpected, but it still makes me sad.

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