Pixel Scroll 8/31/20 Inspired By Cordwainer Smith And Seeing
A Sign Backwards

(1) THE BROTHERS STRUGATSKY. “Striving to become: how a former officer changed Russian science fiction” at Pledge Times.

,,,,But it was Arkady Strugatsky who was the first to understand that if they really want to “break out, break through, ah,” then the last thing they need to do for this is to become normal good science fiction writers.

He formulates the credo of the Strugatsky writers back in 1959: “Our works should be entertaining, not only and not so much in their idea – even if the idea has been sucked by fools ten times before – but in a) the breadth and ease of presentation of scientific material; “Down with Zhulvernovshchina”, we must look for very precise, short, clever formulations designed for a developed student of the tenth grade; b) according to the good language of the author and the diverse language of the heroes; c) by the reasonable courage of introducing into the narrative the assumptions “on the verge of the possible” in the field of nature and technology and by the strictest realism in the actions and behavior of the heroes; d) by a bold, bold and once again bold appeal to any genres that seem acceptable in the course of the story for a better depiction of a particular situation. Not to be afraid of light sentimentality in one place, rude adventurism in another, a little philosophizing in the third, amorous shamelessness in the fourth, etc. Such a mixture of genres should give things an even greater flavor of the extraordinary. Isn’t the extraordinary our main theme? “

(2) MAGICAL POWERS. James Davis Nicoll asks the Young People Read Old SFF panel what they think about “The Putnam Tradition” by Sonya Hess Dorman.

Sonya Hess Dorman’s science fiction career lasted about a generation and produced enough short pieces to fill a collection, as a well as a fix-up. I first encountered Dorman via her ?“When I Was Miss Dow”, reprinted in Pamela Sargent’s ground-breaking Women of Wonder (as well as many other anthologies). ?“When I Was Miss Dow” was considered for a Nebula, although it didn’t make the finalist list, and it won a retrospective Tiptree. Odds on the favourite for inclusion in Rediscovery. That is not the call Journey Press made. Journey Press eschews the easy choices.

One wonders, therefore, what my Young People will make of the Dorman Journey did select.

(3) STAND AND DELIVERY DATE. ScreenRant looks for clues to the forthcoming series: “The Stand Trailer Teases the Aftermath of the Modern-Day Plague”. The limited weekly show will debut on CBS All-Access on December 17, 2020. ScreenRant adds:

King has reportedly written a new ending for The Stand, which isn’t surprising considering he has released multiple versions of the novel since its initial release in 1978.

(4) SFF EXHIBIT ARCHIVED ONLINE. “A Conversation larger than the Universe: science fiction and the literature of the fantastic” is a website that provides an illustrated record of the books and other materials displayed at the Grolier Club in New York City from January to March 2018. 

It suggests, among other things, a history of science fiction from its Gothic roots to the present. Items are arranged here chronologically and the labels are keyed to numbers in the exhibition checklist included in A Conversation larger than the Universe. Readings in Science Fiction and the Fantastic 1762-2017, published by the Grolier Club (and available here). 

In the original exhibition, the entries were grouped in four broad periods: from 1762 to 1912 (nos. 1-14); the interwar years (nos. 15-27); the late 1940s through 1980 (nos. 28-49); and from 1981 to the present (nos. 50-70); there are seven chronological headings here, and three additional headings offer new ways of making connections between the works. A very few items displayed at the Grolier Club are not reproduced on this website.

(5) IF YOU EVER ASKED, “WHERE IS MY FLYING CAR?” CNN reports “Japanese company successfully tests a manned flying car for the first time”.

A Japanese company has announced the successful test drive of a flying car.

Sky Drive Inc. conducted the public demonstration on August 25, the company said in a news release, at the Toyota Test Field, one of the largest in Japan and home to the car company’s development base. It was the first public demonstration for a flying car in Japanese history.

The car, named SD-03, manned with a pilot, took off and circled the field for about four minutes.

“We are extremely excited to have achieved Japan’s first-ever manned flight of a flying car in the two years since we founded SkyDrive… with the goal of commercializing such aircraft,” CEO Tomohiro Fukuzawa said in a statement.

(6) IN THE TRASH. Alan Stewart’s report of site selection voting in CoNZealand Progess Report #4, released today,prompted a critical response from Cade. Thread starts here.

(7) SOMETHING NEW. As Variety notes, it may not be big as Hollywood measures things, it’s just the biggest thing going: “Box Office: ‘New Mutants’ Lands $7 Million Debut”

Superhero thriller “The New Mutants,” one of the first major movies to open since coronavirus forced theaters to close in March, launched to $7 million over the weekend. Though ticket sales were on the lower end of expectations, the Disney and 20th Century Studios title marks the biggest debut yet for a new release during the pandemic.

Around 60-70% of theaters have reopened across the U.S. and Canada, according to Disney. However, some of the biggest moviegoing markets, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC, New Jersey and New York, still remain closed. In parts of the country where theaters have resumed business, venues are capping capacity and keeping space between seats to comply with social distancing measures. “The New Mutants” played in 2,412 theaters, making it the widest release in months.

(8) MEDIA BIRTHDAY.

  • August 31, 1979 Time After Time premiered. (It would lose out to Alien for Best Dramatic Presentation at Noreascon Two.)  It was directed by Nicholas Meyer who wrote the screenplay from a story by Karl Alexander and Steve Hayes, and produced by Herb Jaffe. The primary cast was Malcolm McDowell, David Warner and Mary Steenburgen. Reception by critics was unambiguously positive, the box office was good and the audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes currently give it a 72% rating. 

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.

[Compiled by Cat Eldridge and John Hertz.]

  • Born August 31, 1908 – William Saroyan.  This remarkable Armenian American gave us a short novel Tracy’s Tiger and a handful of short stories.  One was in Unknown Worlds!  Outside our field his play The Time of Your Life won a Pulitzer Prize, which he refused, saying commerce should not judge the arts; his screenplay for The Human Comedy, rejected as too long, he made into a novel and won an Academy Award for Best Story.  In 1991 the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. jointly issued postage stamps honoring him.  (Died 1981) [JH]
  • Born August 31, 1914 Richard Basehart. He’s best remembered as Admiral Harriman Nelson in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. He also portrayed Wilton Knight in the later Knight Rider series. And he appeared in “Probe 7, Over and Out”, an episode of The Twilight Zone. (Died 1984.) (CE) 
  • Born August 31, 1927 – Ted Coconis, 93.  Illustrates children’s books e.g. Newbery Award winner The Summer of the Swans.  For us, here is Camber of Culdi.  Here is Labyrinth.  Here is A Matter of Time.  Here is Dorian Gray.  Here is Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14.  [JH]
  • Born August 31, 1941 – Larry Schwinger, 79.  Six dozen covers, a handful of interiors.  Here is The Owl Service.  Here is Star Rangers.  Here is On Basilisk Station.  Here is the Jul 95 Burroughs Bulletin.  Here is Kindred.  [JH]
  • Born August 31, 1942 – Alan J. Lewis, 78.  Member of the leading apas of his day, FAPAOMPASAPS, he famously in the mid-1960s organized the Fanzine Foundation which shipped a ton of fanzines – really; more than 2,800 pounds – to Bruce Pelz, where they became part of his elephantine collection; this at BP’s death went to Univ. California at Riverside.  [JH]
  • Born August 31, 1949 Richard Gere, 71. He was Lancelot in First Knight starring Sean Connery as King Arthur, and  he was Joe Klein in The Mothman Prophecies. That’s it for genre video work. First Knight for me is more than enough to get Birthday Honors, but he also was in live performances of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in the Sixties. (CE) 
  • Born August 31, 1968 – Néné Thomas, 52.  As it happens she was Graphic Artist Guest of Honor at InCon the year I was Fan Guest of Honor; since then, Loscon 29, Windycon 37, MidSouthCon 29, ConQuesT 46.  Artbooks Parting the VeilThe Unwinding Path.  Here is Aveliad: the Forest done as a 1,000-piece puzzle.  Also she makes cross-stitch charts and decorative resin butterflies.  [JH]
  • Born August 31, 1969 Jonathan LaPaglia, 51. The lead in Seven Days which I’ve noted before is one of my favorite SF series. Other than playing Prince Seth of Delphi in a really bad film called Gryphon which aired on the Sci-fi channel, that’s his entire genre history as far as I can tell unless you count the Bones series as SF in which he’s in “The Skull in the Sculpture” episode as Anton Deluca. (CE)
  • Born August 31, 1974 Marc Webb, 46. Director of The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, as well as the forthcoming Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He’s also directed over ninety music videos over the past several decades with the first being Blues Traveler’s “Canadian Rose”.  (CE) 
  • Born August 31, 1982 G. Willow Wilson, 38. A true genius. There’s her amazing work on the Hugo Award winning Ms. Marvel series starring Kamala Khan which I recommend strongly, and that’s not to say that her superb Air series shouldn’t be on your reading list as well. Oh, and the Cairo graphic novel with its duplicitous djinn is quite the read. The only thing I’ve by her that I’ve not quite liked is her World Fantasy Award winning Alif the Unseen novel.  I’ve not yet read her Wonder Women story: should I? (CE)
  • Born August 31, 1984 – Cassandra Khaw, 36.  Her work is horrible – I mean, on purpose.  Or we could call it horrific.  She knows and includes Southeast Asian images.  Hammers on Bone is one of four Re-imagining Lovecraft novellas.  Fifty short stories, half a dozen poems, in ApexDaily SFGamutThe Magazine of Fantasy & Science FictionUncanny; interviewed in LightspeedMithila ReviewNightmare.  Ranks Oor Wombat’s Castle Hangnail above Lukyankenko’s Night Watch and Pratchett’s too.  [JH]
  • Born August 31, 1992 Holly Earl, 28. English actress who was Kela in Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands, and Agnes in Humans. She also played the young Kristine Kochanski in Red Dwarf in the “Pete, Part One” as well as Lily Arwell in the most excellent Eleventh Doctor story, “The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe.“ She was Céline in the “Musketeers Don’t Die Easily” episode of Musketeers, and played Hermia in the ‘18 A Midsummer Night’s Dream film. (CE) 

(10) COMICS SECTION.

(11) DC IGNORES COMICS SHOPS. Cliff Biggers, owner of Dr. No’s Comics in Marietta, GA told Facebook followers today:

DC’s latest slap in the face to comic shops: in all their promotional information about Batman Day, they don’t mention anything about comic shops or what they intend to do for our market (probably because, as in years past, they don’t intend to do ANYTHING for our market). Short of beating us up and stealing our lunch money, there isn’t much more that DC can do to show their contempt for comic shops that would surprise me any more.

(12) BATMAN NEWS. This is from U.S. News: “Batman Prowls Streets of Santiago Delivering Food to Homeless”

There is a masked crusader on the streets of Santiago, Chile this summer.  But rather than fighting criminals, Solidarity Batman delivers hot meals.  Months of lockdown have caused hardship in Chile, where unemployment has reached a record 12 percent.  Recently, an unidentified man has been donning a full Batman suit, plus a surgical mask for coronavirus protection, and travelling through the capital city sharing sympathy and plates of food.  Almost anybody can be like him, the everyday superhero says.  ‘Look around you, see if you can dedicate a little time, a little food, a little shelter, a word sometimes of encouragement to those who need it.

(13) NUMBER FIVE, NUMBER FIVE. James Davis Nicoll counts up ”Five SFF Stories Featuring Truly Terrible Parents”.

Parents! Pesky narrative roadblocks when writing books centred on young people. Common, garden-variety parents want to make sure their offspring are healthy and happy, which is a problem for writers who want to send young protagonists off into danger. Authors can, of course, dispatch parents to a location too distant for them to interfere or simply kill them off—both very popular choices—but there is another alternative: Simply have the parents themselves (or their equivalent) be part of the problem….

(14) STRANGE AUCTION ITEM: Heritage Auctions is taking bids on a fragment salvaged from the Hindenburg wreckage. Current bid is $5,000.

Graf Zeppelin Hindenburg: Large Section of Aluminum Framework. 28″ long section of the strut or framework used to construct the famous dirigible Hindenburg, destroyed in a catastrophic & dramatic explosion on May 6, 1937, while attempting to dock at the Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey. The scene was captured on film and broadcast live via radio. The reason for the explosion remains elusive and controversial, even to this day. It is thought that a spark of static electricity might have ignited the flammable outer skin. Various relics from the event come on the market from time to time, but none are as sought-after as sections of the strut work. This example is covered in deep emerald and black carbon deposits. It is accompanied by a July 14, 2020 Letter of Provenance that indicates a workman in the clean-up crew, Harry Manyc, was permitted to take home a large section of the “ribbing” as a souvenir, from which pieces, like this, were parceled out over the years.

(15) WHERE HE GOT HIS LICENSE. At BBC Sounds, a 9-minute “Witness History” segment: “Inventing James Bond”.

The author Ian Fleming created the fictional super-spy, James Bond, in the 1950s. Fleming, a former journalist and stockbroker, had served in British naval intelligence during the Second World War. Using interviews with Fleming and his friends from the BBC archive, Alex Last explores how elements of James Bond were drawn from Ian Fleming’s own adventurous life.

(16) BE THE ENTRÉE. We ran an item before about what visitors can eat here – now read about something there that’s ready to swallow them: “Godzilla Museum Allows You to Zipline Into the Kaiju’s Mouth”.

The Godzilla Museum located in Japan is now open. The Attraction features tons of Godzilla memorabilia, interactive sections and a themed menu. Most notably, the upcoming giant true-to-size statue that allows you to zipline into Godzilla’s mouth to perform a mission.

(17) UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS. In these homes, it’s not the staff you’ll find below stairs: “Truly, madly, deeply: meet the people turning their basements into secret fantasy worlds” in The Guardian.

…Shron needed the perfect basement because, for nearly 30 years, he had dreamed of building a life-size replica of a 1970s Canadian VIA Rail railway carriage inside his house, the exact train that took him from Toronto to Montreal to visit his grandmother when he was a little boy.

Step inside Shron’s basement today and you will be greeted by a 200lb blue-and-yellow train door. As you pass through it, an MP3 player will hiss the sounds of air circulation accompanied by the squeaking of gangway connections. Inside the carriage there are rows of vintage reclinable red-and-orange-striped seats, luggage racks, a real VIA garbage can removed from a scrapped train and a metal sign instructing passengers that smoking is indeed permitted. What Shron couldn’t find on the scrap heap, he made. He printed out orange litter bags, custom-printed napkins and engraved wine glasses.

“The great thing was it ended up looking exactly as I’d envisioned it,” the 45-year-old says of his basement train, which took him four-and-a-half years to build and cost $10,000 (the scrapped carriage alone cost $5,000). “I fell in love with VIA trains from the age of two – I became madly obsessed, it’s all I would talk about, all I wanted.” Shron recreated the train that he took to visit family to tap into “that very warm, comfortable, positive energy” he felt as a child. “I get a little bit of that every time I go down to the train.”

Shron’s basement is an unusual thing, but it is perhaps a little more common than you’d expect. A number of people have created their own “worlds” underneath their homes. In late May, the listing for a Maryland mansion went viral after a Twitter user discovered a fake town inside the basement. The basement features cobbled streets, 15 shopfronts, fake flowers and real vintage cars. But even this isn’t unusual. More than a decade ago, a YouTube video documented the basement of John Scapes, an Illinois man who had built an 1890s street under his home.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Martin Morse Wooster, JJ, John Hertz, Cat Eldridge, Michael Toman, James Davis Nicoll, and Mike Kennedy for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day James Moar.]

65 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 8/31/20 Inspired By Cordwainer Smith And Seeing
A Sign Backwards

  1. (9) I liked “Seven Days” too. It had the good fortune to end before the real world broke its premise (last episode May 2001).

  2. (6) IN THE TRASH.

    Is ze claiming that Alan Stewart is a Sad Puppy?

    <sigh>

    I am so damned weary of people who don’t understand the Puppy debarkle claiming that all of the straight white people in WSFS were Sad Puppies and the Hugos were “saved” by only LGBTQ and BIPOC members.

  3. Andrew (not Werdna) says I liked “Seven Days” too. It had the good fortune to end before the real world broke its premise (last episode May 2001).

    I think it also has managed to avoid looking seriously dated twenty years on. A very neat trick. Sometime I watch the Trek series from that time period and cringe from how they look.

    Now playing: Leonard Cohen’s “Take This Waltz”

    Now reading: Now reading: Gareth Powell’s Ack-Ack Macaque trilogy

  4. (2) I first encountered “When I Was Miss Dow” in the Judith Merril-edited SF 12, probably my favorite 1960s anthology.

    Edit: Fifth!

  5. JJ says I am so damned weary of people who don’t understand the Puppy debarkle claiming that all of the straight white people in WSFS were Sad Puppies and the Hugos were “saved” by only LGBTQ and BIPOC members.

    I had no idea when I fell madly, deeply in love with A Memory of Empire what the gender preference of the author is, and I really don’t care now that I know. I don’t vote for something based on the gender preference / ethnicity / nationality of the author. I vote for a piece of writing because it was that good.

    I’m now reading as I note in my previous comment, a Gareth Powell trilogy. I know nothing about the author. All I know is he’s a damn great writer. Like I had no idea that Aliette de Bodard was of Vietnamese and French heritage when I first read her work. All I knew was her writing was superb.

    Being LGBTQ and / or BIPOC doesn’t mean a damn thing to me as regards your writing. I’ll vote for you if I like your writing, period. For me, the Hugos are a literary meritocracy.

    Now playing: Marianne Faithfull’s “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan”, written by Shel Silverstein.

  6. I thought the flying car was pretty cool.

    I also enjoyed Mr. Shron’s VIA car in his basement.

    With Ian Fleming it was interesting to hear his voice and the voices of his friends.

  7. I am so damned weary of people who don’t understand the Puppy debarkle claiming that all of the straight white people in WSFS were Sad Puppies and the Hugos were “saved” by only LGBTQ and BIPOC members.

    I noticed that trend in the ferocious post-Hugo ceremony reaction on social media. If somebody hates something related to the Hugos or Worldcon, they claim it is because those entities are controlled by Puppies. The fact that Puppies were so thoroughly repudiated by the community that we voted No Award over every single one of them for two years hasn’t registered with these critics.

    The truth is that the community is full of fans excited about the diversity of nominations and wins and eager to see these trends continue. We’re not Puppies. They left with their tails between their legs.

  8. rcade states The truth is that the community is full of fans excited about the diversity of nominations and wins and eager to see these trends continue. We’re not Puppies. They left with their tails between their legs.

    I’m delighted by the current crop of writers who are adding much to my reading pleasure. That many are not the mostly white male writers that dominated the field for far too many decades is a Good Thing indeed. But again, I emphasize that I’m only interested in an individual if their writing interests me. Otherwise they’re not on my ever expanding TBR list.

    Now watching on the IPad: an episode of Midsomer Murders.

  9. Medical update. Saw my surgeon this morning. He wants six more weeks of healing before the next surgery is done. So the consult boiled down to

    1) Yes I need more surgery. Oh joy.
    2) I need more healing before that surgery.
    3) Don’t fall again and fracture it. Don’t fall, period.
    4) So walking on sidewalks is forbidden.

    Back to another six weeks of apartment based confinement before the surgery followed by several months of the same post-surgery. Oh joy again. And the immobiliser will thereby be on at least eight months.

    Oh and the fractured right shoulder blade got an injection of cortisone. I finally found something more painful as a procedure than a. Covid-19 swap…

    And I got kitted out today for a heart monitor for the next month. The new ones are wireless, so I don’t need to carry the transmitter on me unless I’m out of the apartment. And I can shower with it! Though I can only shower when a Northern Lights staffer is here because of the blackouts. Oh joy yet again.

  10. I suggest it’s not a particularly good look to pat yourself on the back for finding a way to dismiss the concerns of LGBTQ fandom members, by dismissing some particular side issue entirely unrelated to the point they were making.

  11. Jay Blanc: I suggest it’s not a particularly good look to pat yourself on the back for finding a way to dismiss the concerns of LGBTQ fandom members, by dismissing some particular side issue entirely unrelated to the point they were making.

    This is also not what actually happened.

  12. William Saroyan’s cousin was David Seville (Ross Bagdasarian) (as in …and the Chipmunks).

    Besides their separate careers, they wrote several songs together, including “Come On-a My House”, which was recorded by Rosemary Clooney.

  13. John Lorentz: William Saroyan’s cousin was David Seville (Ross Bagdasarian) (as in …and the Chipmunks).

    Besides their separate careers, they wrote several songs together, including “Come On-a My House”, which was recorded by Rosemary Clooney.

    jaw drops

  14. @Jay Blanc,

    That Twitter thread does not accurately represent what happened. The original image was a list of the write-ins (page 14 of this pdf). It was Cade who altered that image to highlight “No criminalizing LGBTQIA participants”. Cade themself acknowledges that most of the write-ins were jokes, but despite that has used it to try to make a point which I think is misdirected. I wholeheartedly agree with “No criminalizing LGBTQIA participants”, and there would few Worldcon members who would disagree (though in any big group, there will be a tiny minority of extreme views).

    This follows on from the 2022 Worldcon site selection because one of the two bids was Jeddicon, located n Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.History shows it lost to Chicago’s bid, 517-33. Many Worldcon members expressed concern for the safety of non-binary fans should Jeddicon have won but the finally tally was unambiguous.

    There were some who voiced the opinion that the Jeddicon bid should not have been allowed in the first place. Thing is, there is no such gatekeeping in place. Anyone who wants to put together a bid is able to do so: you just need to be a member of the WSFS, and anyone can join. The “gatekeeping” happens when the site selection vote is taken.

    In the same way, there is no gatekeeping on anyone who wishes to put forth a Business Meeting proposal to change the WSFS constitution: you just need to be a member of the WSFS & anyone can join. The thing is though, if your proposal is poorly thought through, or can’t garner enough support at the Business Meeting, it’s dead in the water. What you are calling a toxic environment is people trying to tell you why your current proposal is wasting both your time & everyone else’s because you don’t understand how Worldcon, the WSFS, and its Business Meeting works.

  15. Soon Lee: It was Cade who altered that image to highlight “No criminalizing LGBTQIA participants”. Cade themself acknowledges that most of the write-ins were jokes, but despite that has used it to try to make a point which I think is misdirected.

    Yeah, there’s no “contempt” in the Site Selection Admin’s post, it’s just an “FYI, here’s the list of 2nd and 3rd choice votes, which won’t be recorded anywhere else, because they don’t get included on the official Site Selection report”.

    I guess he could have left the LGBTQIA item off the list, as the tweeter demanded — but why would he? Wouldn’t doing so have been dismissive — erasure — of the very valid LGBTQIA concerns? (not to mention dishonest reporting as Site Selection Admin?). Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

    Also, trying to pretend that the Site Selection Admin’s customary duty of destroying the ballots was somehow a gesture of throwing LGBTQIA concerns in the trash is a seriously disingenuous contortion on the tweeter’s part.

  16. 9) William Saroyan
    Might I ask JH which story of WS appeared in Unknown Worlds? I do not recognize his name as one of the authors. Possibly he used a pseudonym?

    Enjoy!

    Frank.

  17. But it’s not much of a contortion to see the jokes about number ones and number twos as in bad taste, while others may see that just as earthy humor.

  18. Meredith Moment: The ebook version of Cory Doctorow’s Radicalized is available for $2.99 at Amazon and possibly other digital publishers.

  19. JJ on August 31, 2020 at 6:33 pm said:
    (6) IN THE TRASH.

    Is ze claiming that Alan Stewart is a Sad Puppy?

    I am so damned weary of people who don’t understand the Puppy debarkle claiming that all of the straight white people in WSFS were Sad Puppies and the Hugos were “saved” by only LGBTQ and BIPOC members.

    Obviously all straight white people are reactionary conservatives. Also, they can’t write as well as LGBTQ folk.

  20. David Shallcross: But it’s not much of a contortion to see the jokes about number ones and number twos as in bad taste, while others may see that just as earthy humor.

    Well, of course that was in poor taste (I am one of those who has never been able to understand why scatological “humor” is even the slightest bit funny) — but it was directed at the list of 2nd and 3rd-place votes as a whole, and not at the LGBTQIA entry in specific.

  21. Cliff: William Shatner has teamed up with Deep Purple/Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. Be warned: it’s bad. Very bad.

    AUUUGGGHHHHH! Ixnay on the atnershay!

    I was fortunate enough to win tickets to see B.B. King with Kenny Wayne Shepherd in NY twenty years ago*. I still consider it one of the most fortunate random blessings of my life.

    Please ignore the Shatner link and enjoy this massive lineup of blues legends in 2010 doing “The Thrill Is Gone”.

  22. rob_matic proclaims: Obviously all straight white people are reactionary conservatives. Also, they can’t write as well as LGBTQ folk.

    I’ve been called a lot of things, some rather nasty, but a reactionary conservative isn’t one of them. (I worked on the Green Party presidential ballot effort in 1980.) His idea that a group of individuals, no matter who they are, saved the Hugos is highly offensive, and I damn well don’t like his attitude. Fandom is supposed to be inclusive, not about your clique taking over.

    Now playing: Rick Nelson’s “Garden Party”

  23. I saw this interesting obituary in the r/printSF Reddit today:

    Vladislav Krapivin died today

    Vladislav Krapivin is an outstanding Soviet children’s writer, poet, screenwriter, journalist and teacher. Many of his works are written in the SF genre.

    Winner of several dozen literary prizes, including the Lenin Komsomol Prize (1974) and the President of the Russian Federation Award (2014).

    His work gave rise to an image-the concept of “krapivinsky boys”.

    Krapivin’s fanatical works are collected in the conditional cycle “the World of the Great Crystal”.

    [ … ]

  24. To me, the significance of having writers of diverse backgrounds is that they bring different perspectives and write stories that are interesting and different because of those different backgrounds.

    And right now, we are fortunate to have a bunch of really good writers of those diverse backgrounds.

  25. @Frank O

    Might I ask JH which story of WS appeared in Unknown Worlds?

    Saroyan’s story, “Locomotive 38, the Ojibway” was reprinted in the anthology Unknown Worlds. Not the pulp. (and for what it’s worth, I don’t think the story has any genre elements.)

  26. bill: Saroyan’s story, “Locomotive 38, the Ojibway” was reprinted in the anthology Unknown Worlds. Not the pulp. (and for what it’s worth, I don’t think the story has any genre elements.)

    Well, the non-genre bit is a bit disappointing, but thank you for at least bringing it to attention. (says someone whose TBR of legacy genre works will likely never be fully plumbed).

  27. Here is Unknown Worlds. It looks like a reader for a middle school or high school English class.

    The Saroyan story is a quick read, but it definitely is not genre (although the book does have a number of genre pieces in it.)

  28. When I check news feeds these days I am becoming more certain that I’ve already read this story. All the last Wars at Once by George Alec Effinger.

    I have to say I prefer the Effinger version. It was funny. This one we’re living in is not funny at all.

  29. 6) ummmm…. wtf?

    Cade’s handle reads “is too grad school to function rn”. Just MHO, but that twitter rant sounds as if way too many all-nighters and way too much caffeine caught up with Cade. I would respectfully suggest some nice deep cleansing breaths and a few nights of sound sleep before tweeting again.

    In recent reading: I’m thinking UF thoughts these days. I’d appreciate any recommendations of your particular favorites.

    I’ve been reading a bunch of stuff since last I reported in. Inspired in part by the recent 770 discussion about romance and mystery, my reading list has included some of both in addition to the regularly scheduled sff. And I’ve been trying to catch up on my UF reading, which fell sadly by the wayside in my reading last year.

    During the month of August:

    Edwards, KD — The Hanged Man — Second book in a new UF series called the Tarot sequence. I like these, though they aren’t perfect. On the angsty side.

    Hall, Alexis — Boyfriend Material — MM contemporary romance. Very sweet story, hit me in all the right spots. Joe Jameson, another old favorite of mine, narrates.

    Marie, Annette — Dark Arts and a Daquiri — Second book in a breezy UF series by a very prolific author who is new to me. Popcorn books — snappy writing, entertaining, no deep thought required.

    Thomas, Will — Some Danger Involved — Historical mystery. Meh. Interesting stuff about the Jewish community in London in the 19th century, otherwise unexciting.

    Harris, CS — What Angels Fear, When Gods Die, Why Mermaids Sing — First three books of another historical mystery series. Mystery written in the romance style — Our Hero is tall, dark, and handsome, and so on. Good prose, good atmosphere, otherwise middling. Romance fans will probably enjoy these more than others.

    Burke, Jenn — Not Dead Yet, Graveyard Shift, Give Up the Ghost — First three books of a new UF/PNR series. I like these very much. The worldbuilding and plots are both pretty simple and straightforward, and not very original (except for the main character); what makes these books worthwhile are the characters and warm heart. When you want your UF with warm fuzzies.

    Penny, Louise — Kingdom of the Blind — A Three Pines story that I accidentally skipped over. Love the writing, love the characters. I never care all that much about the actual plot in this series.

    Aaronovitch, Ben — The Hanging Tree, Lies Sleeping, False Value — The most recent three installments in the Rivers of London series. I’ve been thinking about the characteristics that set UF series apart from each other, and this one I think is set apart by both dense worldbuilding and its air of cool intellect. One of the best narrators out there, perfectly matched with the series — Kobna Holdbrook-Smith.

    Burrowes, Grace — The Bridegroom Wore Plaid — Disposable MF historical romance made much more enjoyable in audio by the Scottish accents of the narrator, James Langton.

    Butcher, Jim — Turn Coat, Changes, Aftermath (vella), Ghost Story — I’m doing a partial re-listen of the Dresden series in prep for reading this year’s new installments. While IMHO the Aaronovitch series is characterized by its cool intellect, this one is definitely about intensity. It’s all-in, all the time, balls to the wall, and it suffers noticeably when that intensity falls off (looking at you, Ghost Story). James Marsters narrating is another example of a great pairing between narrator and series.

    Bardugo, Leigh — King of Scars — I dnfed this one after about six hours. It’s the beginning of a spin-off series from Bardugo’s earlier Grishaverse books, which I haven’t read. Waaaaaaaaay too much telling. According to some reviews it is much better appreciated after reading the previous books, and I may try those some day.

  30. Contrarius: Penny, Louise — Kingdom of the Blind — A Three Pines story that I accidentally skipped over. Love the writing, love the characters. I never care all that much about the actual plot in this series.

    I better check which ones I’ve missed myself. And yes, the need to solve the mystery in a mystery novel often seems like nothing more than an excuse to create interactions we want to see happen between the characters.

  31. And Yet Another Meredith Moment (YAMM): At least in the US, Amazon has an omnibus of Geo. Alec Effinger’s Budayeen Trilogy (When Gravity Fails, A Fire in the Sun, and The Exile’s Kiss), under the name The Budayeen Cycle for $2.99.

  32. @Mike —

    And yes, the need to solve the mystery in a mystery novel often seems like nothing more than an excuse to create interactions we want to see happen between the characters.

    Yup.

    I’m looking forward to the newest Three Pines book, out… jeez, I think it’s out tomorrow!

  33. The domains owned by WSFS came up in a recent discussion. Could someone who knows this information share the domain registrant and address used on thehugoawards.org, wsfs.org, worldcon.org, nasfic.org and any other domains WSFS controls?

    I ask because I was involved in a domain dispute at a volunteer effort between the website publisher and the organization president. The publisher controlled the domain registrar account and it took years to get the domain back. I’m curious how WSFS is protected against that kind of trouble.

  34. My understanding is that domain disputes which actually involve registered trademarks are generally not as hard to resolve as other random domain disputes.

    (It gets tricky with parody or critical domains–for example, WSFS might not be allowed to take over HugoAwardsSuck.com if there were such a thing–but for plain unadorned uses of a trademark, it’s usually pretty straightforward, from what I’ve heard.)

  35. You can use “whois” to start getting that.

    That used to be true, but after the EU’s GDPR took effect in 2018, registration information at most registrars became private. The only part of thehugoawards.org shared on ICANN’s WHOIS lookup is “Mailing Address: Massachusetts, United States”.

  36. Meredith Moment yet again:

    How Much For Just The Planet? by John M. Ford is on sale at Amazon as part of their September sale (though it says “Limited Time Deal”).

    Yes, I bought it.

  37. rcade: In the ideal case, the public ‘whois’ information tells you the domain’s Registrant (owner), Technical Contact, and Administrative Contact — but seldom does so at the moment because of registrar shenanigans I’ll get to in a moment. But for most practical purposes, domain control vests in whatever group of people possess a username/password combo usable to control the customer account at the registrar’s Web site. (Various proposed changes can be vetoed by various of the three listed contacts, with the Registrant having ultimate customer authority as the legal owner. Implementation details differ among registrars.)

    The public whois data have been becoming less useful over the years. Most of the registrars would like public whois to go away, and some have taken various semi-hostile actions like putting it behind a Web interface so they can monetise it with advertising. But the biggest hit happened a few years ago when most registrars blanket switched domains to ‘privacy proxy’ for contact data, claiming that GDPR roll-out required this. Any customer wanting to go back to having publicly available data then needed to jump through hoops to regain that configuration. (I went through that exercise with my domains, and it required some persistent effort.) Most domain owners weren’t even aware of this change, so contact information in the public whois data has been mostly missing, since then.

    WSFS’s domains are a case in point. thehugoawards.org is registered at GoDaddy (ugh!). All of the contact entries show as ‘redacted for privacy’. The other three are registered at (excellent) French registrar gandi.net. For those three, all contacts except for Technical Contact show as ‘redacted for privacy’. Technical Contact gives real contact information for Cheryl Morgan (in Trowbridge, eastern Cardiff, Wales).

    In this other example, you said ‘The publisher controlled the domain registrar account….’ Typically this means that the would-be domain owner delegated the task of registering the domain to another party (in this case the publisher), and the other party made itself Registrant (domain owner of record) — a classic domain mistake that almost inevitably blows up later. Less catastrophic but still harmful is being insufficiently careful about who has login credentials for the domain’s customer account at the registrar. (The means are supposed to be present for the Registrant to assert ultimate control, but mischief can occur until that happens.)

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