Monthly Archives: April 2008

Corflu Silver D-Day, H-Hour Almost Here

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Peter Sullivan reminds people who want to be at Corflu but can’t that they may be able to find updates about the con at the Corflu LiveJournal community. There’s also going to be a video feed/chatroom at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/corflu-silver-virtual-con-suite.

The Program Book is online. The Corflu Silver Kick-off Party starts tonight (Thursday, 4/24) at 7 p.m. in the consuite. It’s also the Vegrants’ meeting.

Things continue informally all day Friday — in the consuites, out hiking with Ken Forman, and in the meeting room. The Official Opening takes place in the Turf Club at 7 p.m. Although the lure of Vegas ought to be enough to keep fans up late, Marty Cantor’s Chocolate Fantasy at Midnight in the Main Consuite will make sure everybody’s sugared and caffinated far into the night…

Mars Geological Features Named for Williamson, Zelazny, C.S. Lewis & Fredric Brown

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Jack Williamson, Roger Zelazny, C.S. Lewis and Fredric Brown recently had features on Mars named after them by officials of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Mars Rover project.

Patricia Rogers of Albuquerque made the announcement during the 32nd Annual Jack Williamson Lectureship at Eastern New Mexico University. Melinda Snodgrass says that when they heard “the first two were our own Jack Williamson and Roger Zelazny. It had most of us in tears.”

“The features named for Jack and Roger are on Mitchelltree Ridge near the Columbia Hills,” said Rogers. It was her suggestion that led to the naming of craters on Mars after sf writers.

In November 2006, Rogers heard a lecture by Dr. Larry Crumpler at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History. Crumpler is Vulcanologist on the staff of the Museum and also part of JPL’s team for the Mars Rovers.

“He is also one of the folks who get to name features on Mars, especially at the Spirit site,” said Rogers. “During his talk that evening he mentioned a feature named Clovis, then said the Spirit Rover’s next move was to head south. I sat there and thought, ‘Hummm – what is south of Clovis… Portales. And who lived in Portales… Jack Williamson. It sure would be cool if a feature on Mars was named after Jack.'” She spoke to Crumpler after the lecture and he was receptive to the idea.

Whether these names, or any others given to Mars’ features by the JPL scientists, will become permanent remains to be seen. As Dr. Tim Parker, a JPL geologist working on the rover mission, explained in a 2004 interview “We give names to features near the rovers for convenience. But it’s important to remember they’re all unofficial.”

The International Astronomical Union is ultimately responsible for naming land features on planets and their moons. For example, the Gazette of Planetary Names explains, large craters, approximately 60 km and larger, are named for deceased scientists who have contributed to the study of Mars; writers and others who have contributed to the lore of Mars.

JPL previously accorded Williamson and Zelazny a less exclusive honor by including their names among over 1 million placed on a microchip aboard the Stardust spacecraft that visited Comet Wild 2 in 2004.

Meisha Merlin Book Rescue

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A plea for help from book-loving Atlanta locals has been broadcast on several fans’ LiveJournals, including http://eugie.livejournal.com/364858.html.

SF publisher Meisha Merlin, which shut down in November, has tens of thousands of books in its Stone Mountain warehouse (1440 Kelton Drive, Stone Mountain, GA) that need to be rescued or they will be destroyed/recycled.

Sean Wallace, Publisher/Editor with Prime Books/Wildside Press, cited as the source of this announcement, is renting a truck. He has only a pallet jack available to load it, so he has to fill the truck by hand. He’ll be in town Tuesday and Wednesday (4/22 and 4/23) to load up, and he’s desperate for volunteers to help him. Anyone who volunteers can cart off any books they want that don’t fit into the truck. If you can help out, e-mail Sean at: [email protected]

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the pointer.]

Star Trek Re-Animated

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Animated trekFan-produced live-action Star Trek episodes have proliferated on the Internet in recent years.

But it takes an extra measure of love to want to revive Filmation’s (barely) animated version of Trek from the 1970s. Apparently that degree of love is in the hearts of the folks at NEO f/x and Farragut Films: they have announced a two-episode release of Starship Farragut, The Animated Episodes. 

The companies previously have made live-action episodes about the Starship Farragut, sister ship to the Enterprise, in adventures contemporary with the original Star Trek series.

The new animated episodes of Star Trek are the first produced in that format since NBC failed to renew the Filmation production of the original series in 1974. They take place in Star Trek’s hypothetical fourth season. A little foretaste is already online.

Episode one, penned by Michael Struck and Jack Treviño (co-writer of two Deep Space Nine episodes), is entitled “The Needs of the Many.” The second episode, “Power Source,” was written by Thomas J. Scott.

Next to the voices of the classic Trek cast, good writing was the best feature of the original animated Trek series. Writers included David Gerrold, who wrote a Tribbles sequel, and Larry Niven, whose “The Slaver Weapon” was a crossover between Trek and his own Known Space Universe. The series actually won an Emmy Award for the Best Children’s Series for the 1974-75 season, though it was canceled after 22 episodes.

Despite the historians who enthuse about the animation (even the  Wikipedia entry is guilty), I remember its low-budget look being hard to take when I watched the series in first run. Producer Michael Struck of NEO f/x must have thought the same, because he told TrekMovie.com that his team is going out of its way to emulate the style of Star Trek: The Animated Series “right down to the cheese.”

Primary actors from the live-action Starship Farragut series will fill the same roles in the animated episodes. Additional star power will be provided by celebrities like Chase Masterson (Leeta on Deep Space Nine), Tim Russ (Tuvok on Voyager), and Chris Doohan, son of James Doohan.

[Thanks to Bjo Trimble for the pointer.]

Space Magic

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Space Magic, David Levine’s first short story collection, will be published by Wheatland Press in May.

The collection’s 15 science fiction and fantasy stories include Hugo-winning “Tk’Tk’Tk,” multiple-award-nominee “The Tale of the Golden Eagle,” and the previously-unpublished bonus track “Falling off the Unicorn.” See the cover, here.

David will read from, and autograph, his new book on May 14 (7 p.m.) at Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing (3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd.).

Funky Hotel Added by Denvention 3

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The Curtis' 13th FloorDenvention 3 Housing has added a new hotel — The Curtis, which received a $30 million upgrade before reopening under its new name in January 2007. The Curtis is just two blocks away from the Colorado Convention Center. Singles/doubles are $159 per night, triples are $169 and quads are $179.

The committee’s press release calls The Curtis “an independent hotel with a sense of humor.” That turns out to be a good thing in this case. (“Humor” at some con hotels means the staff laughs at us). Fun is designed into The Curtis, from a robot that greets you in the lobby, to the quirky pop-culture theme of each floor. Some will like the sci-fi theme on the 8th floor. But I know some of you will want to reserve rooms on the 13th floor and be greeted each morning by the leering face of Jack Nicholson from The Shining.

Check the Denvention facilities page for more information.

Rooms for Denvention are currently available in all of the following hotels: The Curtis, Crowne Plaza, Westin Tabor Center, Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center, Grand Hyatt Denver.

The only one of these I’ve stayed in before is the Crowne Plaza, because it’s convenient to the offices I was visiting across the street. The Crowne Plaza in Denver is okay. My experience with the chain’s hotels in some other cities has not been so good (one in Philadelphia, and another in Houston).

Denvention 3 has also added information on how to handle room transfers.

First Fannish Enough, Part II

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Robert Madle’s suggestion to purge the membership of First Fandom prompted my observation that it’s impossible to be “fannish enough” for everyone. It’s worth remembering that Madle himself hasn’t managed to do it.

In 1957, Madle won the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund. Immediately, “there was a strident clamor from those who felt that fanzine fans were losing control of what they had started,” wrote Harry Warner, Jr. in A Wealth of Fable. 

Madle, you see, was perceived as being merely a “convention fan.” (Wow, him too?) While his Fantascience Digest had been a leading fanzine in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, in the years just before he stood for TAFF Madle was primarily active in conventions, clubs, and in writing the fan departments of prozines.

Warner says the storm of controversy subsided because Madle made an excellent impression on people he met overseas during his TAFF trip. It also helped that he started writing for fanzines again. What did he write? Con reports.

Corflu Silver Countdown

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Corflu Silver is next weekend. To make sure you don’t have any difficulty getting there, a last-minute Progress Report has been posted online.

James Taylor offers expert advice about choosing an airline, and how to find the con once you get to the Las Vegas airport. He’s also got tips on cheap transportation options for getting around town. Linda Bushyager describes some exciting local restaurant choices, some Downtown within walking distance, others in famous hotels on the Strip.

And don’t miss Corflu Silver’s own promotional video, created by Bill Mills.

First Fannish Enough

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They say you can never be thin enough or rich enough, although I’ve never noticed these being particular concerns of anybody in science fiction fandom. We reserve our anxiety for another subject altogether — any attempt to actually define science fiction fandom. If anyone hints that our fanac might be on the wrong side of the line, our petulance knows no bounds.

You can never be “fannish enough” to suit everyone. You cannot earn enough activity merit badges (fanzine publishing, blogging, conrunning, filking, costuming) to be universally accepted, nor is there any award, office, or fan fund that people can vote to you that will insure no one ever looks down his nose at you.

And, evidently, no amount of time devoted to this field can ever be sufficient to guarantee that kind of respect either. For example, if you had assumed that the founding President of First Fandom, Robert Madle, and the current President, Joan Marie Knappenberger, each thinks the other is “fannish enough” – keep reading.

Robert Madle helped found First Fandom in 1958. “In the beginning,” explains his letter in the latest Scientifiction, using a phrase uniquely appropriate to a fannish elder, “it was decided that membership would be based on being an active fan (reading, collecting, letter writing, fan publishing, et. al.) prior to January 1938. This was quite limiting and was subsequently modified to activity prior to the first WorldCon (Nycon I, July 1939).”

However, he adds, Bob Tucker boycotted the organization for years “as he contended membership should be restricted to fan activity prior to 1936!” Yes, no sooner had First Fandom formed than there was a dispute over who deserved to belong. (Tucker did eventually join.)

Officers rigidly applied the pre-July-1939 activity requirement in First Fandom’s early years. An exception was made to admit Jay Kay Klein as an associate member, then as the years passed, many more fans were recommended as associates. “It soon reached the stage where associate membership was readily available to almost anyone who wanted to become part of First Fandom,” complains Madle. “So we have active members who can’t possibly qualify on the age requirements alone.”

He asserts that First Fandom was intended to be a “last fan” club, with the final pair of survivors destined to consume that bottle of good bourbon Forry Ackerman has been holding. And Madle suggests, “Perhaps an analysis of membership requirements by a committee of active members is a possibility.”

First Fandom may not be exclusive enough to suit Madle, but even the Associate Members have been active fans for 30 years. That apparently is the class of membership held by President Joan Marie Knappenberger, who is understandably incensed by Madle’s suggested membership purge. She answers, “I am only a member because of my admiration of the Dinosaurs, and their desire to keep the memory of their accomplishments alive in fandom. If they wish to eliminate the other classes of membership, I will leave quietly.”

After reading that exchange I am convinced that, as seriously as the participants must feel about the matter, a highly developed sense of the absurd is essential to thrive in fandom. Because if the President of First Fandom isn’t “fannish enough,” Cheryl Morgan and I presumably aren’t – and I’m none too sure about the rest of YOU!