Monthly Archives: May 2011

Hertz: Notes on Japan Fanac

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Over the past year John Hertz has helped honor two late, internationally famous fans in Japanese fan publications:

By John Hertz: My appreciation of 4e Ackerman (Vanamonde 853) was translated into Japanese and reprinted in Uchuujin 202. Uchuujin which means “cosmic dust” or by a typical Japanese pun almost means “space man” was Takumi Shibano’s fanzine (unsure if it will continue now he is gone). Shibano-san said 4e was a great benefactor of s-f in Japan.
 
A short appreciation of Shibano-san by me was translated into Japanese and published in the Shibano memorialzine, including the tanka I gave him at Conolulu the 2000 Westercon (File 770 #138) reprinted in English with a Japanese translation. This was an honor since the only other gaiji (foreigners) included, according to a Japanese here I consulted, were David Brin and his wife Cheryl Brigham, Joe Haldeman, Peggy Rae Sapienza, and Michael Whelan. Brin and Whelan were Guests of Honor at Nippon 2007; I was the only non-Japanese advisor to the concom, and sent to the con by the one-time travel fund HANA (Hertz Across to Nippon Alliance) resulting in On My Sleeve; Sapienza was the immensely helpful North America Agent (who did so much her husband John a wargamer said “She wasn’t in charge of a division, she was in charge of a corps); Haldeman was Shibano-san’s good friend.
 
The Shibano-zine was called Chiri mo tsumoreba hoshi to naru which by a typical Japanese pun changes the proverb “When you gather dust it becomes a mountain” (yama) into “it becomes a star” (hoshi). Note allusions to cosmic dust and to the stars. Shibano-san himself was a star, perhaps becoming so by the gathering of cosmic dust.

Mythcons on the Horizon

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The Mythopoeic Society’s new Annual Report tells about the next three Mythcons.

Mythcon 42 will be held July 15-18, 2011 in Albuquerque, NM. Author Catherynne M. Valente and scholar Michael D. C. Drout are Guests of Honor — and both are past Mythopoeic Award winners. The conference theme is “Monsters, Marvels and Minstrels: The Rise of Modern Medievalism.”

Mythcon 43 will be held August 3-6, 2012, at the Clark Kerr Center in Berkeley, a frequent Mythcon location. Two more past Mythopoeic Award winners will be its Guests of Honor, scholar G. Ronald Murphy and author Grace Lin.

Mythcon 44 will be held July 12-15, 2013, at Michigan State University’s Kellogg Conference Center in East Lansing, Michigan.

[Via Lynn Maudlin.]

Update 05/08/2011: Fixed 2011 Mythcon year – thanks to Michael Walsh for catching the typo.

Giancola Art Featured on Two New Space Stamps

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The U.S. Postal service has released two commemorative stamps illustrated by Hugo-winning artist Donato Giancola. One celebrates the 50th anniversary of Mercury Project astronaut Alan Shepard’s 1961 flight. The other honors NASA’s unmanned MESSENGER spacecraft, which has made two flybys of Venus and three of Mercury since it was launched in 2004.  

Giancola described how the work was done to a reporter for the New York Daily News:

Giancola created small oil paintings for each of them, which were scanned and transformed into stamps by post office designers.

The whole process took about nine months.

“When you’re creating art that’s going to be a historical record like these stamps, there’s no room for mistakes,” said Giancola.

“You’ve got to make sure you get the details right. It’s a lot of work – but totally worth it,” he said.

Giancola’s website is here.

Donato Giancola with his painting of Alan Shepard.

[Thanks to Michael J Walsh for the story.]

Steampunk: Back to the Garden

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Nancy and James Hay in San Diego Citybeat

San Diego Citybeat writer Kinsee Morlan interviewed an array of local San Diego fans for “Steampunks by the sea”, published May 4.  

Leading off the article are Nancy and James Hay from the concom of Gaslight Gathering, a steampunk-themed convention running May 6-8 at that old faithful, the Town & Country Hotel in Mission Valley.

“Steampunk has been around since ’87,” says James, wearing a mad-scientist, Victorian-era costume complete with brass goggles and a futuristic-looking time-travel watch. “But it was just kind of a low-lying thing—not really a big part of science fiction. Then, I eventually heard about the first steampunk convention, and I went, ‘Oh, OK, when did it become a movement, and why the heck didn’t anyone tell me?’”

Next, Ingred Chamberlin and Kim Hutsell talk about the steampunk movement in terms that echo the longings of people in the Sixties who ended up joining communal farms or participating in the Society for Creative Anachronism. Chamberlin is the farmer:

“I have six chickens as of last week,” Ingred explains. “For us, [steampunk] gets back into that whole, What did we leave behind, and is it worth reconsidering? thing. It brings up permaculture and the question, Am I really all that thrilled about buying carrots in a plastic bag from the grocery store when I could be growing my own?”

And Hutsell is stocking the arsenal:

Kim Hutsell’s hands are covered in black grease as he sits in front of his toolbox and puts the finishing touches on a shiny brass hand grenade, just one of his steampunk creations.

[Via James Hay.]

New Orleans in 2018

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A bid to host the Worldcon in New Orleans in 2018 trumpeted its existence in a full-page ad at the back of Chicon 7’s first progress report [PDF file].

This was not another cryptic Worldcon advertisement like the one for Kansas City’s last bid, which otherwise remained under wraps for the following year. The New Orleans ad included an e-mail address – neworleansin2018@gmail.com — and they answer!

Committee member Jessica Styons replied to me:

Obviously we are in the early stages of building support, gauging interest and staking a claim but we are interested in all comments, offers of support and assistance.

Styons is one of the New Orleans bidders Petrea Mitchell at Con-News said was also working on CONtraflow, to be held in November, “the first full-spectrum convention there since Hurricane Katrina”.

Another is Rebecca Smith, chair of CONtraflow, whose broadcast e-mail (courtesy of Andrew Porter) tells more:

New Orleans in 2018 is an effort by myself and a group of others in NOLA to bring Worldcon back to our hometown. As some of you have noticed, the main people behind it, for the time being, are also involved with a new con in New Orleans starting up this year, CONtraflow, of which I am chairman.  It’s a new con, but we’re not new to con organization having worked for numerous other conventions, as individuals, in the past, like Coastcon, Mobicon, Crescent City Con, Vulcon, NOSFFF, Deltacon and others, including Nolacon II, but in a much, much humbler capacity (some of us were only in college then).

We’re still gathering our committee and organizing our nefarious plan for world domination — that is what we’re talking about, right? There’s not much more concrete to say at this point, 5 years out from the voting year. Although the con will, should we win, take place in New Orleans and be led primarily by New Orleanians, it will require a regional effort with involvement from fandom all over the Central Gulf Coast, that area along the Coast, stretching roughly from Lake Charles to Mobile, whose fannish inhabitants commonly attend and give support to each others cons and other activities.  We welcome, of course, support and involvement from all quarters of fandom, especially our fellow Southerners.  

New Orleans has hosted the Worldcon twice, in 1951 (when Roger Sims held the party in Room 770) and in 1988.

Actor William Campbell Dies

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Memorable classic Star Trek guest star William Campbell has died at the age of 87, reports the New York Times. He appeared in two original Star Trek episodes and also one DS:9:

Mr. Campbell was often described as resembling Liberace. (The basis for comparison appears to have been physical rather than sartorial.) He used the resemblance to good effect in a memorable guest role on “Star Trek,” in early 1967. Titled “The Squire of Gothos” and broadcast in the show’s first season, the episode featured Mr. Campbell as a dandified alien obsessed with human history of the 18th century.

In “The Trouble With Tribbles” he played Koloth, the Klingon captain at whose expense Scotty got the last laugh in a highly comic episode. Campbell reprised the role for Deep Space Nine in 1994.

Campbell was lucky enough to work with other Sixties icons – he had roles in Wild, Wild West, Bonanza, and even got to sing with Elvis Presley in the film Love Me Tender.

[Thanks to David Klaus for the link.]

Shape of Capclaves to Come

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Capclave, a Washington D.C. area sf & fantasy con, has announced its Guests of Honor for both 2011 and 2012.

At Capclave 2011 the GoHs will be author Carrie Vaughn, known for her Kitty Norville series; and author, poet, and editor Catherynne Valente, author of the Hugo-nominee Palimpsest and Deathless.

The 2012 GoHs will be John Scalzi, SFWA President, proprietor of the renowned blog, Whatever, and author of the Old Man’s War series; and Nick Mamatas, editor of Viz Media’s line of translated Japanese novels and author of Move Under Ground and Northern Gothic. 

Capclave 2011 will take place at Washington DC North Hilton in Gaithersburg, Maryland on October 14- 16, 2011. Two signed limited edition WSFA Press books by 2011’s Guests of Honor Carrie Vaughn and Catherynne Valente will be available at the con. Straying from the Path by Carrie Vaughn will collect ten of her favorite hard-to-classify stories covering the full range of speculative fiction. Jay Lake is providing the introduction. Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente takes on the folklore of artificial intelligence. A limited run of 500 signed copies will go on sale for $20 each.

Members of Capclave 2011 can pre-order the books for $20 at www.capclave.org from the Registration tab. After the convention, remaining books will be available to the general public for $25. 

The full press release follows the jump.

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Rosenberg Trial Date Set

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Fantasy author Joel Rosenberg reports he will stand trial August 8 on charges related to his bringing a loaded gun into Minneapolis City Hall last November. The trial date was set during his latest hearing on May 2.

Rosenberg is accused of possessing a dangerous weapon in a courthouse, a felony, and contempt of court, a misdemeanor.  This happened when Rosenberg and his wife went for an appointment with the Minneapolis Police Department’s Public Information Officer. Rosenberg has a permit to carry his weapon, however, he is said to have violated a court order that prohibits bringing weapons into City Hall, which houses courtrooms and associated function rooms.

At Rosenberg’s prior hearing, March 18, the court requested briefs on the issue. The gist of the County’s argument [PDF file]is:

The Minneapolis City Hall sits comfortably within the reasonable definition of a courthouse complex (a building in which established courts are held…)

The Chief Judge of the Fourth Judicial District has authority to promulgate a rule or order prohibiting the possession of dangerous weapons within a court facility, such as the Minneapolis City Hall.

Rosenberg’s attorney, David Gross, in his brief [Docs.Google.com document] disputed that City Hall is legally a courthouse, partly by contrasting how the court’s order is posted in City Hall and in Hennepin County’s main court facility:

What is noticeably lacking on or in the Minneapolis City Hall is just such signage. Hennepin County knows exactly what it claims to be a “courthouse” (as that language is used in the sign) or what is a courthouse complex, because it has gone to the trouble of notifying citizens of its claimed applicability of the law to those buildings, perhaps even out of respect for the citizens’ rights under the MCPPA and the requirement of knowledge on the part of the citizen who wishes to conform his or her conduct to the law, as discussed, above. Until it charged Joel Rosenberg, it didn’t even make such a claim concerning the Minneapolis City all, first floor, or otherwise. Surely to make such a claim, now, without notice, after the fact, is to mislead the citizen, to attempt to ensnare him with something about which he had no knowledge.

Sending My Name to Mars

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I unhesitatingly and unthinkingly added my name to a list being sent on a microchip to Mars aboard the Mars Science Laboratory rover later this year. That’s the only way to go. If I stopped and thought about it at all, why would I do it?

Will anybody ever find that chip? Why would anybody read it if they did? And since earthbound operating systems change so often, often ceasing to support previous file types, what are the odds that NASA itself won’t be able to read the chip by the time astronauts go looking for the rover?

Pshaw — only a party pooper cares about those questions. The correct response is, “Yippee! My name’s going to Mars!”  

And a lot of people must feel that way. There were 480,280 U.S. names already on the list when I logged in. Another 644,726 have been entered by the rest of the world.

There are 69,917 from the United Kingdom alone. I assume they’re all real, though I wouldn’t mind discovering they were added by a robotic application authored by that same admirer of Plokta who stuffed the Scifi.com Hugo nominee poll in 2003 and helped Plokta beat Emerald City 10,186 to 643 in the Best Fanzine category.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian for the story.]

Andrew Porter: Traumatized by 9/11

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By Andrew Porter: I wrote this a few months ago—after Congress member Giffords was wounded and that little girl was killed in Arizona. It seems appropriate to share it with you upon the announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden.

I was doing my usual tossing and turning last night while I tried to get to sleep, my mind going its usual rapidfire way, refusing to calm down.

So, why does 9/11 still resonate with me, far more than it does for so many of you?

Maybe it’s because the World Trade Center is about a mile and a half from where I live. I always hated the buildings for being so ugly, but I never thought someone would try to destroy them. On top of that, when Waldemar Kumming was staying with me the week after the 2001 World SF Convention, somehow the WTC towers were always there. They were in the background when we went to the top of the Empire State Building, and when we took the Staten Island Ferry. And on the taxi ride to Penn Station, the driver went around the tip of Manhattan and right up West Street, right next to the WTC.

And then, less than a week later…

On that horrible day, the stench of the burning buildings was heavy in the air, and it stayed there!!! for another FOUR months, because this neighborhood is downwind, usually, from the WTC. I’ve described it as a combination of burning plastic and dog urine. So on those beautiful fall days when the air was crystal clear, everyone here had to shut their windows and turn on their air conditioners, because of the Stench. It was so bad for so long that I ended up escaping at the end of the year to Lyme Regis and London, just to get away. 

On that day, burnt chips of paint and papers were literally raining from the sky in my neighborhood, and thousands of people covered in gray soot walked over the Brooklyn Bridge into my neighborhood, en route home, because the subways were shut down. People here were trying their best to wash them off. It was like that scene in the remake of War of the Worlds where Tom Cruise is trying to shake off the dust of the people vaporized by the Martian death ray.

My local fire station on Middagh Street lost several trucks and a dozen firemen there. They were one of the closest fire stations , so off they went, across the Brooklyn Bridge, to their doom. There’s still a giant mural painted on the doors, showing the WTC. I see it every time I walk on the block, which is every few days. Here.

And even now, when a plane flies over on the way to land at LaGuardia, I still look up, unconsciously. Is it flying the right height? Too fast? Too low? Nope, it’s okay. Nothing to worry about. I remember during the 2002 worldcon, when the convention center was on the flight path in to the San Jose Airport, and all the New Yorkers were ducking when those planes came in — too low, too low! — while no one else cared. Weird NYers. Ha ha. But I was honestly terrified.

And in October 2001, when I went to the World Fantasy Convention in Montreal, with the lobby bars shut down in the Delta Centreville because so many conventions had cancelled out, there, a block away, was the Montreal World Trade Center. 

Every time there’s some sort of TV program on 9/11, I can’t watch. My eyes fill with tears. The memories are still too close to me, bringing everything back. And now, of course, the new Freedom Tower is being built. I can see the top, with the construction cranes, every day, when I go down to the Promenade to take a walk. You can see it from the ground up from the Fulton Ferry landing. It’s already about 50 stories high.

So that’s why the death of 9-year-old Christina Green resonated for me. Born on 9/11, a life so full of promise, so precocious, cut down during another horrible, fateful day which has traumatized so many other people.