Slayage Conference Attracts Whedon Scholars

The fourth Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses will convene June 3-6 at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida.

SC4 is organized by the college in partnership with the Whedon Studies Association. When scholars study a prolific living artist there is barely room to list all the exciting developments that crop up between conferences, as one can tell from the introductory remarks in the conference program (PDF file):

The freshly?minted Whedon Studies Association welcomes you to the fourth biennial Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses . At the first three—in Nashville (Middle Tennessee State University, 2004), Barnesville (Gordon College, 2006), and Arkadelphia (Henderson State University, 2008)—over 400 paper s on the works of Joss Whedon were presented. Last time we met, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog had not yet been webcast and Dollhouse had not yet aired (or been cancelled). So we have much to talk about, including fresh takes on Buffy, Angel, Firefly, and Serenity.

The conference’s keynote speakers (and their topics) are Lorna Jowett (Sex and the Slayer), Dale Koontz (Faith and Choice in the Works of Joss Whedon), and Steve Halfyard (Music, Sound, and Silence in Buffy the Vampire Slayer).

[Thanks to Richard Gutkes for the story.]

Snappy Valentine’s Day

Snapshots #17 brings you seven developments of interest to fans.

(1) Reminiscences about Forry Ackerman by two fans who knew him for years, Alan White and Bill Mills, are featured on “The Wasted Hour” episode #9, hosted by Arnie Katz and produced and directed by Mills. The ‘cast is available on several sites, including the Las Vegrants website, The Fan Video Network (along with all previous episodes), the BluBrry.com podcasting communites and as an iTunes vidcast.

(2) The Los Angeles Times “Hero Complex Blog” carries an intriguing rumor about attempts to make a Jonny Quest movie:

One of the more intriguing popcorn-movie scripts floating around town right now is Dan Mazeau’s rollicking live-action adaptation of “Jonny Quest,” the savvy and sublime 1960s animated adventure series that felt like “Dr. No” for kids or a post-Sputnik version of “Terry and the Pirates.”

(3) This is as wild a piece of technological art as you would ever want to see. Check out the video of the Corpus Clock in action:

At first glance, it doesn’t look like a clock. There’s the giant fanged insect on top. And instead of hands, it uses glowing blue LEDs to tell the time. Called the Corpus Clock—it’s installed at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, England—the timepiece was designed by John Taylor, an alumnus, clock collector, and lifelong inventor who wanted to blend 18th-century tech with a hypermodern aesthetic. The bug is called a Chronophage, or time-eater, and it’s actually a scarier version of the grasshopper escapement, a 1720s breakthrough that transformed clock making. But in this case the pendulum-driven heart is wedded to a silicon brain, which lets the device do surprisingly un-clocklike things—slow down, stop, even run backward. “I wanted a clock that would play with you,” Taylor says. How steampunkeriffic.

(4) I should verify this with Scott and Jane Dennis, but it sounds like Henry the Eighth only wore what we might today call fannish medium size:

Early in Henry VIII’s reign the Venetian Ambassador described him as “the handsomest potentate I ever set eyes on, with an extremely fine calf to his leg . . . and a round face so very beautiful that it would become a pretty woman.”

Six wives, one Reformation and a lot of feasting later, Henry had become, by the time of his death in 1547, larger than life.

The Royal Armouries show, Henry VIII: Dressed to Kill, will be built around five complete suits of armour from the Tower, the Armouries in Leeds and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, as well as incomplete ones. “It will be the one place where you see the king in three dimensions and get an idea of his immense physical presence,” Graeme Rimer, academic director of the Royal Armouries, said. “The armour tells us unequivocally that he was 6ft 1in and that he was pretty enormous but still vigorous at the end of his life.”

(5) Probably not the most romantic Valentine’s Day gift, but you can order a t-shirt captioned “And then Buffy staked Edward.”

(6) Vanessa Redgrave and her daughter Joely Richardson are among the star cast announced for the BBC’s new version of sci-fi classic The Day of The Triffids. “No word on who plays any of the triffids, though,” says Andrew Porter.

(7) Nebula Weekend Registration Now Online:

Some of the highlights include: a mixer with the WGA, Chuck Lorre will be the Keynote Speaker, Harry Harrison will receive the Grand Master Award, Janis Ian will be our Toastmistress and much, much more.

[For links included here, thanks to James Hay, Andrew Porter, Arnie Katz and Darlene Marshall.]