By Hampus Eckerman: File 770 has reported on the Nobel Prize before (with regards to Dylan), so this might be of interest.
First some background. The #metoo is an enormous thing in Sweden now in a way it can’t really be in a larger country. Politicians are forced to resign. TV-personalities. There are groups for collecting information in the church, in the unions, in the healthcare, absolutely everywhere.
A few days ago, the scandal reached the Swedish Academy, the group not only responsible for handing out the Nobel Prize in Literature, but an enormous amount of other prizes. It is absolutely one of the most powerful cultural groups in the country. And now it turns out that the husband of one of the members has been involved not only in abuse and harassment, but also most likely in rapes. And the rapes have taken place in an apartment in Paris, owned by the Swedish Academy. Also, one of the members recommended the harasser for a medal (which the harasser received) and another said he was “a gentleman”. At the same time as he was well-known among the whole cultural elite for who he was since the 80s. In fact, in the 90s, one of the largest Swedish newspaper made long exposé about his harassment. The Swedish Academy did nothing at that time. Neither did any publishers.
At its meeting this evening, the Swedish Academy has unanimously taken the decision to immediately suspend all contact and all further funding of all activities conducted by the person in the media under the name The Culture Person. This is partly about the support given to the man’s cultural scene (since 2010 it is about SEK 126,000 per year – no payments have been made to him personally) and partly about the assignment he had in charge of the Academy’s apartment in Paris .
This is our first action and it is motivated by two things. On the one hand the examination made by the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, which we welcome, on the other hand, when it was found during the meeting that members, daughters of members, wives of members and staff at the Academy’s office have all been exposed to unwanted intimacy or inappropriate treatment by the person concerned. These experiences had not come to light without the recent attention to these problems.
Secondly, decisions have also been taken to review the Swedish Academy’s earlier relationship with this man and, in particular, examine whether this has had any influence, directly or indirectly, on the Academy’s award of prizes, scholarships and other funding, as well as investigating whether he has influenced The Academy’s work in general.
The third measure concerns the future. Work should be initiated to ensure that a repetition can not be done, and determine how our routines and working methods can be improved. We have already found that we have violated our own rules against bias and that they must be tightened.
The Swedish Academy wants as much transparency as possible on this issue. More detailed information regarding the economic collaboration, for example, will be reported shortly.
Note that they say that the man’s harassment would not have come to light if there hadn’t been a newspaper article about it, even though their own members had been among those abused(!).
I do think this link might be interesting when judging the impact of the metoo-campaign internationally. As you see, Sweden is in its own league — https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=Metoo
(1) BEAMING UP OR BEAMING DOWN? How likely is The Orville to stick around? Follow the ratings chart and compare it to the competition. Although interest has tailed off since the first couple of episodes, its audience is comparable to a lot of other shows in its time slot.
Look, I have been waiting years to say this and I just can’t hold back anymore. Science fiction is full of horrible dad figures. We know this. There are so many that we’d be hard pressed to decide the winner of that Battle Royale, particularly given the scope of their terribleness. Anakin Skywalker Force-choked his pregnant wife and tortured his daughter. Howard Stark emotionally abused his son into creating the “future” he wanted to bring about, and never managed to utter the words I love you. Admiral Adama made his eldest son feel totally inferior to both his dead son and his surrogate daughter, and then left him alone on a new world so he could spend three minutes with his dying paramour. Sci-fi dads are generally bad at their jobs.
But you know who it the absolutely worst? Spock’s dad.
Yeah. I’m looking at you, Sarek of Vulcan…
It’s a great hook for an article. It’s even greater if you’re old enough to remember that Jane Wyatt, the actress who played Spock’s mother in TOS, had spent years playing the mother in that ultimate patriarchal sitcom Father Knows Best.
(3) SCARY METER. The “2017 Halloween Poetry Reading” is up at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association website, with soundfiles of the poets reading their works.
Already, poems are available by emerging and award-winning poets such as Melanie Stormm, F.J. Bergmann, John C. Mannone, Angela Yuriko Smith, Richaundra Thursday, Joshua Gage, Adele Gardner, Gary Baps, Celena StarVela, Marie Vibbert, and Deborah Davitt. Others will be added as Halloween comes closer!
Readers have been asking me for a while now about when the next Shadow Police novel is coming out. The unfortunate answer is: I don’t know, verging toward never. I’m afraid Tor UK have dropped the line. Now, this is no cause for anger at them. I serve at the pleasure of publishers. I’m used to the ups and downs. (And I know I have several ups coming my way soon, so I feel strong enough to write about this.)
I might, at some point in the future, consider using a service such as Unbound to publish the last two books in the series. (There were always going to be five.) And if a publisher were to get in touch, seeking to republish the first three, then go forward, I’d have that conversation. But the aim right now is to continue with the flourishing Lychford series, and look to use the next non-Lychford novel to move up a league division or two, and then return to Quill and his team from a position of strength.
I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I’ve loved the reader reaction to the Shadow Police books. I promise I will finish that story when it’s possible to do so. I thought you all deserved an explanation.
(5) AS SEEN ON TV. Today, Jeopardy! obliquely referenced the various Puppy campaigns in a question:
Any member of the World Science Fiction Society can vote for this literary award, which has led to some drama.
Rich Lynch says nobody got it. Steven H Silver called it a “Triple stumper.”
Now that’s what I call “music about aliens systematically wiping out humanity!” This song, bone-deep in its pessimism, explains in some detail why we’ve got this coming: we’re oblivious to everything around us; we’re afraid for reasons we don’t understand; and above all, we’re gonna be a cakewalk for the aliens to conquer. And has there ever been a lyric that crystalized this particular moment in time as well as “At this time, sirs, I recommend that we proceed to Phase Three: Eradicate them all for the glory of our interstellar queen”? Probably. But once the interstellar queen arrives and starts eradicating us, this is going to be the hottest jam of the summer.
(7) DRAGON ART. Hampus calls this a “Meredith painting” – an artist paints an elaborate dragon in one stroke. Apparently this is a thing in Japanese art.
Back in 2015, American startup MegaBots Inc challenged Japanese company Suidobashi to a Giant Robot Duel–a knock-down dragout, totally-not-staged fight between the US and Japanese robot teams. On Tuesday night, the final fight went down. Here’s the breakdown, starting with Round 1:
Iron Glory (MK2) is fifteen feet tall, weighs six tons, has a 22-foot wingspan at full extension, a top speed of 2.5 miles per hour, a 24 horsepower engine, and is armed with a missile launcher and a six-inch cannon that fires 3-pound paintballs. Iron Glory is described as favoring a “Western” combat style, with an emphasis on distance and ranged weaponry….
(9) SAGA FIGURES. Funko is working with Skybound Entertainment to produce figures from the Saga graphic novel series. Nine figures have been announced, which include a couple of variants and one exclusive to Barnes and Noble: “Funko SAGA Pops are Coming!” The figures will be available in February of 2018.
It’s no secret that we here at Skybound LOVE Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples’ Eisner Award winning comic SAGA. We love it so much that in the past couple years we’ve teamed up with Brian and Fiona to bring you a ton of amazing merch for the series. Today, we’re happy to announce that everyone’s favorite space opera is OFFICIALLY get the Funko Pop! vinyl treatment.
We’ve got Marko, Alana, The Will, Prince Robot & Lying Cat coming your way and they’re adorable! These guys will be dropping at a shop near you in February. Make sure to keep an eye out for retailer exclusives (like Izabel at Hot Topic) and chase variants. You can see the first images for the figures below. Let us know in the comments which Funko pop you’re most excited for (the correct answer is: ALL OF THEM. Just fyi).
(10) BIRD UPDATE. In October 2015, File 770 linked to a GoFundMe appeal by science fiction writer RP Bird (RP’s Cancer Survival Fund). Terhi Törmänen has news about a new appeal for help:
RP Bird survived cancer treatment but is not in good health and still suffers from chronic and almost debilitating pain. He’s actually currently quite desperate as you can read from his latest appeal.
He’s been able support himself through a low-paying part time job that he’ll probably lose in very near future.
He’s launched a new appeal to raise money to be able to go trough further facial and dental surgery to improve his ability to e.g. eat properly and lessen the pain and other health issues stemming from the cancer and its treatment. The state will pay for the operations but he does not have any savings to pay rent for his one-room accommodation and other very modest living expenses while he’s going through the operations and recovering from them. His appeal is quite reasonable $ 2000.
I think that if you’d mention his desperate situation in the File 770 the appeal might have a chance to succeed and a life could be saved.
Meet Sophia, a robot who made her first public appearance in the Saudi Arabian city of Riyadh on Monday.
Sophia was such a hit she was immediately given Saudi citizenship in front of hundreds of delegates at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh on 25 October.
But as pictures and videos of Sophia began circulating on social media many started to ask why a robot already seemed to have secured more rights than women in the country
Sophia, created by Hong Kong company Hanson Robotics, addressed the audience in English without the customary headscarf and abaya, a traditional cloak which Saudi women are obliged to wear in public.
“I am very honoured and proud for this unique distinction,” she said. “This is historical to be the first robot in the world to be recognized with a citizenship.”
"It is historical to be the first robot in the world to be recognized with citizenship." Please welcome the newest Saudi: Sophia. #FII2017pic.twitter.com/bsv5LmKwlf
(13) SJW CREDENTIAL RENEWED. Bruce Arthurs tells “My Best True Cat Story”at the Undulant Fever blog.
…Hilde and I exchanged looks as we drove slowly by, but didn’t want to upset Chris before church. So I drove them to church, then came back, retrieved the body, took it home, and buried it in the back yard, with a lot of tears. (He may not have been THE World’s Best Cat, but he was a contender.)…
(14) IT’S IN THE BAGON. “Do you have a hoard that needs guarding? A dragon could be your greatest ally,” says the person behind the Dragon Bagons Kickstarter.
After a successful Kickstarter campaign to launch Bagthulhu’s conquest of the globe, Wayward Masquerade is back with a range of CR10 cuties that want to hoard all your dice. They’ve raised $6,216 of their $18,260 goal as of this writing, with 26 days left in the appeal.
(15) CEREAL JUSTICE WARRIOR. Saladin Ahmed’s tweet in protest yielded an immediate promise from Kellogg’s to change some art.
Kellogg’s will be redesigning Corn Pops cereal boxes after a complaint about racially insensitive art on the packaging.
The Battle Creek, Mich.-based cereal and snack maker said on Twitter Wednesday it will replace the cover drawing of cartoon characters shaped like corn kernels populating a shopping mall. The corn pop characters are shown shopping, playing in an arcade or frolicked in a fountain. One skateboards down an escalator.
What struck Saladin Ahmed was that a single brown corn pop was working as a janitor operating a floor waxer. Ahmed, current writer of Marvel Comics’ Black Bolt series and author of 2012 fantasy novel Throne of the Crescent Moon, took to Twitter Tuesday to ask, “Why is literally the only brown corn pop on the whole cereal box the janitor? this is teaching kids racism.”
He added in a subsequent post: “yes its a tiny thing, but when you see your kid staring at this over breakfast and realize millions of other kids are doing the same…”
Kellogg’s responded to Ahmed on the social media network about five hours later that “Kellogg is committed to diversity & inclusion. We did not intend to offend – we apologize. The artwork is updated & will be in stores soon.”
David K.M. Klaus sent the link along with this quotation:
“Don’t you see, Tommie? I’ve explained it to you, I know I have. Irrelevance. Why, you telepaths were the reason the investigation started; you proved that simultaneity was an admissible concept…and the inevitable logical consequence was that time and space do not exist.”
I felt my head begin to ache. “They don’t? Then what is that we seem to be having breakfast in?” ”Just a mathematical abstraction, dear. Nothing more. She smiled and looked motherly. “Poor ‘Sentimental Tommie.’ You worry too much.” Time For The Stars by Robert A. Heinlein, 1956
Science fiction author and native son Ray Bradbury wrote about 1920s Waukegan as “Green Town” in three books, “Dandelion Wine,” “Something Wicked This Way Comes” and “Farewell Summer.”
Bradbury died in 2012. A park, two arts festivals, and a tavern downtown bear his name
Robert Sobol, owner of Green Town Tavern in Waukegan’s downtown district, originally opened the place under a different name in 2006. His business partner left and Sobol took over the bar two years later. Sobol was looking for a new name, so he held a contest asked his customers to think of one. Green Town was declared the winner with the most votes….
Green Town Tavern offers a Saturday Happy Thyme Breakfast from 8 a.m. to noon and features breakfast dishes like the Green Town Omelette — three eggs, bacon, sausage, onions, peppers and cheddar cheese with hash browns — and “Waukegan’s Finest Bloody Mary.”
Vincent D’Onofrio has been set to reprise as Wilson Fisk for the third season of Daredevil, I’ve learned. As the Kingpin crime lord, the Emmy nominee was the main villain in Season 1 of the Netflix series and made an imprisoned appearance in last year’s Season 2. The ex-Law & Order actor hinted to fans recently that official word on his Daredevil return was in the cards with a banner photo of the Fisk character up on his Twitter page
(19) KARLOFF AND LUGOSI: A HALLOWEEN TRIBUTE. Steve Vertlieb invites you to read his posts about the iconic horror actors at The Thunder Child website.
He was beloved by children of all ages, the gentle giant brought to horrifying screen existence by electrodes and the thunderous lightening of mad inspiration. Here, then, is my Halloween look back at the life and career of both Frankenstein’s, and Hollywood’s beloved “Monster,” Boris Karloff.
Here is my affectionate Halloween tribute to Bela Lugosi…his “horrific” career ascension, as well as its poignant decline…as we remember The Man Behind Dracula’s Cape.
We’ve already found our favorite mashup of 2019: Boyfriend Dungeon, a dungeon crawler from indie team Kitfox Games (Moon Hunters, The Shrouded Isle), which combines hack-and-slash gameplay with very, very cute guys and girls.
Boyfriend Dungeon is exactly what it says on the tin, based on the first trailer. Players are a tiny warrior fighting through monster-ridden areas. Scattered across the procedurally generated dungeons are a bunch of lost weapons — which, once rescued, turn out to actually be extremely cute singles.
That’s when the dungeon crawler turns into a romance game, and it’s also when we all realized that Boyfriend Dungeon is something special. Every romance option has their own specific weapon to equip, from an epee to a dagger and then some. Players work to level up those weapons, but also to win over these sweet babes during dialogue scenes. If this isn’t the smartest combination of genres we’ve seen in some time, we don’t know what is.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Hampus Eckerman, JJ, David K.M. Klaus, Dann, Steven H Silver, Rich Lynch, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Acoustic Rob.]
By Hampus Eckerman: I have counted the number of votes for the different movies nominated by the filers. Now it is time to finalize the list before the bracket begins.
Please take a look at the list below and add your nominations (I’m keeping the old ones in a spreadsheet, so you can’t make duplicates). Note that for some of the nominated movies, there were several movies with the same titles. I have then picked the year I thought most likely. If you want to correct me there, please do so.
In a few cases, the movie did not exist at all because there had been a mix-up in the title. I have then used the magic google search and found movies with names that are very close and added those to the list instead. I hope they are the correct ones.
So without much further ado, here is the current list. Let the nominations continue.
Five votes:
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)
Four votes:
The Black Hole (1979)
The Food of the Gods (1976)
Mazes and Monsters (1982)
Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)
Reptilicus (1961)
The Room (2003)
The Thing with Two Heads (1972)
Troll 2 (1990)
Zardoz (1974)
Three votes:
Attack of the Mushroom People (1963)
Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1992)
Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977)
Eegah (1962)
Glen or Glenda (1953)
Highlander 2: The Quickening (1991)
Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966)
The Master of Disguise (2002)
Prometheus (2012)
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Star Wars: Episod II – Klonerna anfaller (2002)
Teenagers From Outer Space (1959)
The Terror of Tiny Town (1938)
Waterworld (1995)
Two votes:
A Knight’s Tale (2001)
Batman & Robin (1997)
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Battlefield Earth (2000)
The Creeping Terror (1964)
Ghost In The Shell (2017)
The Giant Spider Invasion (1975)
Godzilla (1998)
The Guns of El Chupacabra (1997)
The Happening (2008)
Howard The Duck (1986)
The Human Tornado (1976)
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (1964)
Ishtar (1987)
Leprechaun 4: In Space (1996)
Monster a Go-Go! (1965)
Reefer Madness (1936)
Robot Monster (1953)
Roller Blade (1985)
Samurai Cop (1991)
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)
Scream, Blacula, Scream (1973)
The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising (2007)
Son of the Mask (2005)
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Starcrash (1979)
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
They Saved Hitler’s Brain (1968)
Toys (1992)
Transformers (2007)
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
Vamp (1986)
The Wicker Man (2006)
One vote:
2012 (2009)
A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)
Aeon Flux (2005)
After Last Season (2009)
Against the Dark (2009)
Airplane! (1980)
Airplane II: The Sequel (1982)
Alien vs Predator (1993)
Alien 3 (1992)
All Monsters Attack (1969)
Amsterdamned (1998)
At Long Last Love (1975)
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (1978)
The Avengers (1998)
Disco Godfather (1979)
The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961)
Beowulf (2007)
Beware! The Blob (1972)
Birdemic 2: The Resurrection
The Black Cauldron (1986)
The Black Gestapo (1975)
Blade: Trinity (2004)
Blubberella (2011)
Brain from Planet Arous (1957)
The Brood (1979)
Caligula (1979)
Catwoman (2004)
Central Intelligence (2016)
Congo (1995)
The Creature That Wasn’t Nice /Naked Space (1983)
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
Dracula 2000 (2000)
Dragon Wars: D-war (2007)
Earthsea (2004)
Empire of the Ants (1976)
Ernest Saves Christmas (1988)
Fantastic Four (2015)
Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)
The Flame Barrier (1958)
Frankenstein Island (1981)
Freejack (1992)
Fright Night Part 2 (1988)
Daikyojû Gappa (1967)
The Garbage Pail Kids Movie (1987)
The Giant Claw (1957)
The Giant Gila Monster (1959)
Golden Dawn (1930)
Gonks Go Beat (1965)
Hawk The Slayer (1980)
The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004)
Heaven’s Gate (1980)
Hells Come to Frogtown (1988)
High Tension (2003)
Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party (2016)
The moment in the book released Wednesday comes a week after President Trump ended DACA.
Perhaps it is just a coincidence, but perhaps not.
In the recent issue of Action Comics #987, “The Oz Effect,” released Wednesday, Superman arrives in the nick of time to protect a group of undocumented immigrants from a white man sporting an American flag bandanna, wielding a machine gun, who is going to shoot them for taking his job.
…In an act of Super socialism, once police arrive, our Social Justice Supes orders them to protect the illegal aliens to make sure they are “safe and cared for.”
This latest episode should not surprise anyone.
DC Comics long ago declared that Superman is no longer American. Where once the hero touted the ideals of “truth, justice, and the American way,” like a good leftist, Superman is now a “citizen of the world.”
(2) DISCOVERY NOVEL SERIES BEGINS. I was interested to see the first Star Trek: Discovery tie-in novel is already out, though the timing couldn’t be better — Star Trek: Discovery: Desperate Hours by David Mack.
An all-original novel based upon the explosive new series on CBS All Access Aboard the Starship Shenzhou, Lieutenant Michael Burnham, a human woman raised and educated among Vulcans, is promoted to acting first officer. But if she wants to keep the job, she must prove to Captain Philippa Georgiou that she deserves to have it. She gets her chance when the Shenzhou must protect a Federation colony that is under attack by an ancient alien vessel that has surfaced from the deepest fathoms of the planet’s dark, uncharted sea. As the menace from this mysterious vessel grows stronger, Starfleet declares the colony expendable in the name of halting the threat. To save thousands of innocent lives, Burnham must infiltrate the alien ship. But to do so, she needs to face the truth of her troubled past, and seek the aid of a man she has tried to avoid her entire life—until now.
Kessel’s latest novel, The Moon and The Other, was released in April from Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. He’s a two-time Nebula Award winner, first in 1982 for his novella “Another Orphan,” then in 2008 for the novelette “Pride and Prometheus.” He set a new record with that second award, in that the 26 years between the two was (at the time) the longest gap for a winner in Nebula history. His short story “Buffalo”—one of my all-time favorites in or out of genre, and one which I reread often—won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award in 1992.
We discussed why he suddenly has two novels coming out within a year two decades after his last one, how attending the 1969 St. Louis Worldcon changed his life, the ways in which his objections to “The Cold Equations” and Ender’s Game are at their heart the same, his early days attempting to emulate Thomas M. Disch, the time-travel short story he couldn’t whip into shape for Damon Knight, which author broke his 26-year Nebula Awards record for the longest gap between wins, the secret behind the success of his many collaborations with James Patrick Kelly, and more.
(4) WE’LL ALWAYS HAVE PARIS. Hampus Eckerman is living the sci-fi life while visiting France.
Most hotels have got the bible to read, but my hotel in Paris has got The Island of Dr. Moreau! On the other hand, my TV-set scares me.
Our aim is provide short reviews of short SFF stories that reflect a diversity of voices and opinions from both the authors and the reviewers. Other than a few formatting requirements to ensure the reviews are presented and tagged in a uniform fashion, and one content requirement — don’t be mean! — reviewers are free to write their reviews as they please. Some people will focus on the story; some on the narration; some on the language. Some of the reviews will be more slanted to the factual and the objective; some will be the reviewer’s own personal response to a piece. Some reviews will be longer than others, but don’t be surprised if most come in around 200 words — after all, one doesn’t want a review to be longer to read than the story itself!
HBO has officially closed a deal to grab a new TV show from George R.R. Martin, with Deadline reporting that the network has finalized plans to develop a Martin-produced adaptation of Nnedi Okorafor’s 2010 novel Who Fears Death. Set in a post-apocalyptic Africa, the book tells the story of a young girl who seeks to discover the meaning behind her own magical powers, as well as the nature of the powerful forces trying to end her life.
"Afrocentric"….at least say Afrofuturist, yeesh. Get with it. And *I* wrote the novel being adapted.
(7) POURNELLE OBIT IN NYT. It’s rather remarkable that in “Jerry Pournelle, Science Fiction Novelist and Computer Guide, Dies at 84” the New York Times obituary writer makes only the most minimal reference to Pournelle’s voluminous political writings, which have been deeply controversial within the sf community.
Dr. Pournelle was also known to many through lively columns for Byte magazine in which, beginning early in the home-computing age, he talked about personal computers and the software for them. Much of any given column was about his own experiences at “Chaos Manor” — his name for his home, and for the column — trying out new software products and wrestling with bugs, glitches and viruses.
(8) TODAY IN HISTORY
September 15, 1965 — Beach-horror hybrid The Beach Girls and the Monster opens in theaters.
September 15, 1965 — Mario Bava’s Planet of the Vampires premieres in its native Italy.
September 15, 2015 – Rocket Stack Rank went live.
(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Born September 15, 1940 – Norman Spinrad
Born September 15, 1942 – Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
(10) PLANS FOR X-MEN. Marvel will be producing a six-issue arc revisiting the complete history of the X-Men universe.
Marvel Comics and Eisner Award-winning indie cartoonist indie Ed Piskor are teaming up for an unexpected, unprecedented, and uncanny undertaking. Best known for documenting the history of hip hop with the award winning HIP HOP FAMILY TREE graphic novels, Ed Piskor will sample and distill more than 8,000 pages of superheroic storytelling to create a definitive remix of the first 280 original issues of X-Men comic books and 30 years of complicated continuity into one seamless masterpiece of superheroic storytelling. Piskor will write, draw, ink, color and letter all six 40 page issues of X-MEN: GRAND DESIGN, which Marvel will publish over three years as three separate but interconnected mini-series — X-MEN: GRAND DESIGN, X-MEN: GRAND DESIGN-SECOND GENESIS and X-MEN: GRAND DESIGN-X-TINCTION.
“X-MEN: GRAND DESIGN is a tribute to everything comic book fans love about the X-Men from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s original run and Chris Claremont’s, epic 16-year stint as the series’ writer,” said Piskor. “It’s a compelling and complete story with a beginning, middle and an end, featuring everything from Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, Cerebro and the Danger Room to the Mutant Massacre, the Reavers, Gambit, and Genosha.”
If fans of John Carpenter’s seminal horror classic Halloween (released in 1978) weren’t happy about the planned reboot in the works at Blumhouse, they will be now. The indie powerhouse just announced that iconic Scream Queen and original Final Girl Jamie Lee Curtis has joined the cast and will be reprising the role of Laurie Strode, Michael Myers’ sister. The news came down via Twitter.
Jamie Lee Curtis returns to her iconic role as Laurie Strode in HALLOWEEN, released by Universal Pictures October 19, 2018. #HalloweenMoviepic.twitter.com/6tbbz2W1ZV
The director specifically mentions “City on the Edge of Forever” as an episode that would make a great movie. It’s one of the great Trek classics, but as Quentin Tarantino pointed out, the episode really only focuses on our main three of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, and the rest of the crew would be virtually non-existent. That wouldn’t really work for a modern film adaptation. You’ve got to find something for Zoe Saldana and John Cho to do.
(13) FORNAX 20. Charles Rector has just posted the 20th issue of his fanzine Fornax to eFanzines.
Included in its contents are Bill Burns’s comments on the sad state of the Hugo Awards for Best Fanzines with blogs increasingly being counted as fanzines and winning the awards. Also, an essay about what in Rector’s view is the increasing problem of such pro authors such Sarah A. Hoyt, Larry Correia, Vox Day, and others’ trashing both fans and fandom. Fornax the 20th also has articles about road rage, how to do TV advertisements relating to hiring handicapped people as well as articles and stories by Robin Bright and Gerd Maximovic.
Shapeshifting robots already exist; they either have a centralized “nervous system” that controls where each unit is, or each of the units works by itself and they sometimes link up. But centralized systems are weak and can’t scale, while self-organizing robots are hard to control and clumsy. Researchers created a new robot that has the strengths of both: the individual units can control themselves — but they can also connect to each other and become a single, precise robot. The study was published today in the journal Nature Communications.
In the new system, the robot is made of different units controlled by one “brain,” sort of like the nervous system in our bodies. This brain is the leader of the pack and, using Wi-Fi, gathers data from the other robots and controls them if they come into contact. “The robots in our multi-robot system are autonomous individual robots that, when they attach to each other, become a new single robot with a single control system,” study co-author Marco Dorigo, wrote in an email to The Verge. Then, if they detach, they go back to being autonomous system with their own control systems. Dorigo calls this new method “mergeable nervous system,” and says it is a more precise way to control all the units.
(15) VIDEO OF THE DAY. “Launching Flowers Into Outer Space” is a piece from Great Big Story about a Japanese artist who launches high-altitude balloons from Nevada with flower displays to see what happens to the flowers in space.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, JJ, Moshe Feder, Cat Eldridge, Martin Morse Wooster, Lis Carey, Gregory Hullender, and Alan Baumler for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew.]
By Hampus Eckerman: The Golden Turkey Awards. The Golden Raspberry Award. Awards given to the worst of the worst movies. So this will be The Worst Movie Golden Bracket.
This is about chosing the worst movie ever made. A bad movie is not a boring movie. It is a movie that creates feelings. Astonishment that the movie could ever be made. Fascination over who could create it. Anger over those who participated in it. Enthusiasm over the brilliance needed to make something so bad.
A truly bad movie is the kind where you continue to watch in the same way as at an oncoming train crash.
* * *
The bracket is done in the same way as previous movie brackets. These are the steps of the nomination phase before the brackets begin.
STEP 1: Nomination Phase
I have created a short list of movies considered to be the worst ever made. In the comment section, you will write movies you think should be added to the list. Also write if you want to nominate a movie already listed.
STEP 2: The Finalizing Phase
I will compile all movies mentioned in a separate post. There you will have the possibility to add your nominations to the movies listed (and only those listed at this stage).
STEP 3: The Final List
I will count all nominations and decide which movies has made into the brackets. The list will be published in a separate post. And after that the brackets will begin.
So without much ado, here is my list of truly bad movies.
At Long Last Love (1975)
Attack of the Mushroom People (1963)
Batman & Robin (1997)
Battlefield Earth (2000)
The Black Gestapo (1975)
Catwoman (2004)
Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977)
Eegah (1962)
Empire of the Ants (1976)
Frankenstein Island (1981)
The Garbage Pail Kids Movie (1987)
The Giant Claw (1957)
The Giant Spider Invasion (1975)
Glen or Glenda (1953)
Heaven’s Gate (1980)
Highlander 2: The Quickening (1991)
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (1964)
By Hampus Eckerman: Because of the room situation at Worldcon 75, it is possible that the planned time of a filer premeet before the Hugos would effectively keep all filers from getting seating for the Hugo ceremony.
So the premeet is moved to 18:30, still at Hampus’ Halloween exhibit. We will not wait for longer time than at most 15 minutes, and most likely less, so be there on time. (This is a warning Hampus especially issues to himself as he was the late to the last meeting because of Pokemon hunting.)
Belge Bar & Bistro is placed 2-3 blocks from the main railway station. Train leaves every five minutes from Pasila which is about 500 meters walk from the Messukeskus and the train takes around five minutes to central Helsinki. Let’s meet 17:50 by my exhibit again and then walk together to the train station around 18:00. Also, this is a good way for those that need other means of transportation (taxi?) to coordinate with each other.
For those who arrive early to the Bistro, there is a nice library-themed lounge to rest in.
Let’s go together to the Hugo’s to cheer on our fellow filers that are nominated and to argue with each other about whether Chuck Tingle is placed in the correct category. You’ll notice that I use my own exhibit as a meeting point all the time. That is mostly because it is the only place I know where it will be and where I think it will be easy to find each other.
Another alternate history drama series, which has been in the works at Amazon for over a year, also paints a reality where southern states have left the Union but takes a very different approach. Titled Black America, the drama hails from top feature producer Will Packer (Ride Along, Think Like A Man franchises, Straight Outta Compton) and Peabody-winning The Boondocks creator and Black Jesus co-creator Aaron McGruder. It envisions an alternate history where newly freed African Americans have secured the Southern states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama post-Reconstruction as reparations for slavery, and with that land, the freedom to shape their own destiny. The sovereign nation they formed, New Colonia, has had a tumultuous and sometimes violent relationship with its looming “Big Neighbor,” both ally and foe, the United States. The past 150 years have been witness to military incursions, assassinations, regime change, coups, etc. Today, after two decades of peace with the U.S. and unprecedented growth, an ascendant New Colonia joins the ranks of major industrialized nations on the world stage as America slides into rapid decline. Inexorably tied together, the fate of two nations, indivisible, hangs in the balance.
Daenerys Targaryen has spent the Game of Thrones saga making a name for herself—several, actually: the Mother of Dragons, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and more. She harnesses the power of fire and blood, renowned for her skills as dragonlord and evidenced in the sigil of her house, which depicts a red three-headed dragon on a black field. The silver-haired Targaryens are not alone in their veneration of dragons as ancestral symbols of power and prestige. This gold liang coin depicts a mighty and ferocious dragon flying through clouds toward the viewer, flames protruding from its mouth. The coin was minted under the Guangxu Emperor of the Qing dynasty, where the dragon would have been understood as a symbol for wisdom, power, nobility, and ambition. Such symbolism is literally used by Targaryens and their dragons to claim rule of the Seven Kingdoms.
(3) BOW WOW. The Washington Post’s Karen Bruillard, in “Dire wolves were real. Now someone is trying to resurrect them”, reports on Medford, Oregon dog breeder Lois Schwarz, whose Dire Wolf Project has been going on for thirty years but has gotten national attention with Game of Thrones. Schwarz has been working on wolf-dog hybrids for decades (the term she likes is “American Alsatians”).
“‘Game of Thones’ has given demand a bump, but not in the way Schwarz likes,” Says Bruillard. “The fiction-motivated customers are looking for dogs that resemble the characters Ghost or Nymeria,” while Schwartz wants to breed dogs that are smart and friendly.
Bruillard also interviewed palentologist Caitlin Brown, who did her dissertation on Canis dirus. One quibble Brown has with Game of Thrones: “The wolves of HBO usually lunge at their enemies’ heads, whereas wolves typically drag down their prey from their haunches.”
(4) NEW MCCCAFFREY. A little birdie told me WordFire released “The Jupiter Game (The Game of Stars Book 1)” by Todd McCaffrey (Kindle edition) on July 30. Not about dragons – but aliens.
Jupiter!
The Russians and the Europeans got there first in their fusion ship Harmonie. At least, that’s what they thought.
Aliens!
“They’ve matched orbit with us!”
What do they want? What will they do?
Ooops…
“Ooops?” Jenkins echoed. “Aliens go ‘Ooops’?”
The Jupiter Game: A close encounter with aliens who watch Howdy Doody.
The person in charge has left, leaving someone else in charge. Post on the blog 2 months ago, showing a flyer from the 1981 Worldcon about the Hugo Losers Party, shows how little the people in charge know about SF. “The year of the con?” Really?
“Hi Folks, I want to let you know that Laura Hampton, the librarian doing the actual digitization of Hevelin fanzines and who has masterfully displayed some of the Hevelin treasures here over the last two years, has moved on to a great job in Florida. We all wish her the very best and I am so grateful for all she’s accomplished. We’ll miss her.
“So, it’s just us chickens. And to begin my return to doing Hevelin Tumblr, I introduce this piece of fan art, done on a piece of hotel stationery from the Denver Hilton. Can anybody identify the artist? The year of the con? I’m going to post more mysteries like this so stay tuned.”
It says something that the person does not recognize references to the 1981 Worldcon – where Rusty Hevelin was the Fan Guest of Honor!
According to Google, interest in the eclipse has exploded nationwide in the past few months, mirroring national media attention. The county-level search data above, provided by Google, paints a striking picture: Interest in the eclipse is concentrated in the path of totality that cuts through the middle of the country, receding sharply the farther you go from that path.
(7) SKLAR OBIT. Marty Sklar worked for Disney for 54 years and led the designing and creating most of the Disney rides during this period. He died July 27.
Long after his mentor’s death, Sklar recognized the treasure-trove of wisdom he had started compiling at Walt Disney’s elbow in the late 1950s. He distilled it all into “Mickey’s Ten Commandments,” a widely circulated creed that remains a touchstone in the theme park industry.
The commandments were a cornerstone of Sklar’s own half-century career at Walt Disney Co., where he led the creative development of the Burbank company’s parks, attractions and resorts around the world, including its ventures in the cruise business, housing development and the redesign of Times Square in New York.
Sklar died Thursday in his Hollywood Hills home. No cause of death was given. He was 83.
His retirement in 2006 marked the end of an era: He was one of the last remaining executives to have worked alongside Walt Disney in shaping the company into a global powerhouse. Sklar, who last served as principal creative executive of Walt Disney Imagineering, the storied theme park design and development outfit, was so closely associated with the company’s namesake that he became known as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
(8) TODAY IN HISTORY
August 1, 2014 — Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 1 opened.
Whether opting for indie, traditional, or hybrid, publicity work on behalf of one’s output is less and less optional on the writer’s side of things for everyone except the top tier writers whose fan bases are so established that the publishers know their books are almost guaranteed to sell. Time and time again I have had writers come to me worried that they must create a social media presence because they’ve been told that they must by their agent or publisher. And it’s true that when acquiring books, some publishers look at a writer’s social media, believing that large followings will lead to greater sales.
You can see this pressure to publicize manifest in one form on Twitter, where writers work at projecting their brand as well as writing. It’s a weird balancing act, where they’re working at writing books people will want to read, but also working at attracting readers who might give them a try based on a quip or observation they’ve posted. Sometimes it feels sincere; other times less so. It is undeniable that a strong social media presence will affect sales, but its effect is generally overestimated, in my opinion. Creating consistently good work that brings readers back to look for more will always be the best strategy—although admittedly not one available immediately out of the authorial starting gate.
Plenty of Plunkett scholarships available. Please make use of them or pass the info to someone you know would benefit from the class but can’t afford it.
I am seventeen when I meet Miles Vorkosigan. I’m not ready to meet him then. He startles me, I see myself in him and I don’t want to, because the common narrative told me being disabled was a weakness, not a strength. When I re-read him several years later, I find myself reveling in his glee, his reckless abandon. His energy.
I wish I’d been ready for him sooner. He is what tells me I deserve romance, that I deserve my own narrative. He is also still a boy. I have no women in fiction to guide me.
I am in my mid-twenties the first time the word “disabled” escapes my lips as a word to define myself. I’ve had a white cane for six years, yet I still don’t see myself as disabled, because no one else does.
When I discover it applies to me, it feels freeing.
I have mere days left in my twenties when I start writing a book about a disabled woman, a woman who shares my blindness, though not my conditions. It is rewarding, working through a story that feels right, the weight of the story, the sensory details all mine.
I’ve made a promise to myself, one that I haven’t shared yet. A promise to tell stories about disabled people as often as I can, as many varied stories as I can, because for me, I didn’t get enough of them when they were needed.
I am thirty-one when I take a job as an editor, creating a special issue for a Hugo award-winning magazine where I will, with other disabled people, destroy ableism like the kind that took me years to undo, and will take me more years to untangle and burn away.
That magazine is Uncanny. That issue is Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction. That job is Guest Editor-in-Chief of Non-Fiction. Those disabled people are my co-workers, my co-editors, and the writers I will work with.
It’s been a good year for ads from newspapers and magazines, from The New York Times to the Atlantic. But you have to go back five years for a truly transcendent piece of advertising from a journalistic publication—the Guardian’s “Three Little Pigs” spot by BBH London.
Adweek chose “Three Little Pigs” as the single best ad of 2012. And now, Hill Holliday creative director Kevin Daley has included it among his favorite work of all time in Adweek’s latest “Best Ads Ever” video (see above).
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Cat Rambo, Hampus Eckerman, Jonathan Edelstein, Paul Weimer, Andrew Porter, Martin Morse Wooster, Jon Del Arroz, and Chip Hitchcock for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Nigel.]
By Hampus Eckerman: Less than one month to Worldcon 75. In a couple of days, Worldcon 75 is going to publish a restaurant guide to help those who want to plan a pub meet. The area around the convention center caters mostly to lunch restaurants that close around 19:00, so that guide will be very helpful.
I have tried to list all the major events during the days here and also the panels I have seen filers scheduled to participate in. (See below.) This, so it will be easier to detect possible times for meetups. I have left out filers that uses nicks here. Please, write in the comments if you want to be added. Also, comment if I have missed out on some panels with filers in them.
Based on the schedule below, my recommendation is:
Wednesday:
12:00 – 14:00 Filer Meetup in Convention Center
Thursday:
18:00 – 21:00 Pubmeet (adjustable)
Friday:
Pre-Hugo Meet? For those who want to go as a group or perhaps eat something together first. Or perhaps a after-Hugo Meet. For those who want to discuss the winners.
I do think Wednesday or Thursday are the only good days for pubmeets. Please write in comment if you think you will come, so I get an idea of how many people who might come if I should need to book tables. Of course, at MAC2 we were at least three times as many people as those I had booked for, but I think we will be a bit fewer here.
As mentioned in a previous filer post, I will have my own exhibit and will most likely spend some time around it if people wants to find me and say hello.
Wednesday:
14-15 First Worldcon
15-16 Opening Ceremonies
16-17 Kevin Standlee: How to get the best out of Business Meeting
17-18 Kevin Standlee: WSFS Mark Protection Committee Meeting
Thursday:
10-11 Heather Rose Jones: A Stitch in Time: Historical Fantasy
10-13 Business Meeting
16-17 Lenore Jean Jones: How to Run Your First Convention?
16-17 Greg Machlin: Science Fiction and Fantasy in musical theatre
16-17 Paul Weimer: How to Start a Podcast
17-18 Kevin Standlee: A World of Acclaim: Awards from Around the World
Friday:
10-11 Greg Hullender: Artificial Intelligence in Real Life and SF
10-13 Business Meeting
13-14 Greg Hullender: Short Fiction
13-14 Heather Rose Jones: Signing
17-18 Kevin Standlee: How to Start a Worldcon Bid
18-19: Kevin Standlee: Friends Don’t Let Friends Run Worldcons
18-19:30 Cora Buhlert and Heather Rose Jones: Alien Language in Science Fiction
19:30-22:30 Hugo Award
Saturday:
10-14 Business Meeting
14-15 Cora Buhlert: Digital Hugo – How Do We Adapt the Hugo Categories to an Increasingly Digital Reality?
18-19:30 Greg Hullender and Cora Buhlert: The State of Machine Translation
19:30-22:30 Masquerade
Sunday:
10-15 Business Meeting
15-16 Heather Rose Jones: History as World-building
16-17 Greg Hullender: The Power of the Reviewer: Promoting and Hiding Diverse Voices
