Cult Movie Bracket: The Final Final!

Cult Movie Bracket Logo SM

By Hampus Eckerman: For each pair, vote for the top cult movie. Vote for what is rememoralizable, what is fun, what is interesting, what is cult. You will have at least 24 hours to answer, but after that it depends on when I have time to count the votes.

1. QUOTABLE QUAGMIRE
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
The Princess Bride (1987)

2. What movie should have won?

3. Which movies were voted out too early or were never in the bracket in the first place?

4. Which would be your favourite mashup between two of the cult movies?

Updated MidAmeriCon II Business Meeting Agenda

Jared Dashoff, MidAmeriCon II business meeting chair, has released a new version of the agenda, including Lisa Hayes’ motion, 3SV and its various parts, and EPH+. Download the PDF file from the MACII website.

There’s Business Passed on to MidAmeriCon II by Chicon 7 and Sasquan

The following item was ratified at Chicon 7 in 2012 and must be re-ratified by MidAmeriCon II in 2016 in order to remain part of the Worldcon Constitution.

  • A.1 Short Title: Best Fancast

The following Constitutional Amendments were approved at Sasquan in 2015 and passed on to MidAmeriCon II for ratification. If ratified, they will become part of the Constitution at the conclusion of MidAmeriCon II.

  • A.2 Short Title: The Five Percent Solution
  • A.3 Short Title: Multiple Nominations
  • A.4 Short Title: Nominee Diversity
  • A.5 Short Title: Electronic Signatures
  • A.7 Short Title: E Pluribus Hugo
  • A.6 Short Title: 4 and 6

And there’s the submission text of newly proposed WSFS Consitution rules changes, drafts of which have been posted on File 770 over the past few weeks.

Best Series (page 8)

  • Proposed by: Series Hugo Committee

December Is Good Enough (page 9)

  • Proposed by: Colette Fozard, Warren Buff, Nicholas Whyte

Two Years Are Enough (page 9)

  • Proposed by: Warren Buff, Colin Harris

Three Stage Voting (3SV), Or “The Only Winning Move Is Not to Play” (page 10)

  • Proposed by: Colin Harris, Kevin Standlee, Nicholas Whyte, Colette Fozard, Warr en Buff

Additional Finalists (page 13)

  • Moved by: Lisa Hayes, Lisa Deutsch Harrigan, David Wallace

EPH+ (page 14)

  • Proposed by: Jameson Quinn, Claudia Beach, Bonnie Warford, Catherine Faber, Andrew Hickey, Rogers Cadenhead, David Goldfarb, Lee Egger, Tasha Turner Lennhoff, Steven Halter, David Wallace, Oskari Rantala.

Sasquan Financial Report

The latest update to the MidAmeriCon II Business Meeting Agenda includes the financial report from Sasquan, the 2015 Worldcon. (See pages 22-33.)

SUMMARY

Total Income $1,269,690.24
Total Expense ($1,089,320.76)
Net Surplus $180,369.48

The expenses include discretionary reimbursements for program participant memberships and committee meeting costs that collectively amount to slightly more than the declared surplus, which shows that Sasquan did very well.

Sasquan’s report also includes a summary of the amounts spent on each specific Guest of Honor, which I’ve never noticed in one of these reports before (although I’ve never gone looking for it either, so I don’t know whether this is a true first.)

The report also summarizes donations made from the surplus:

Post-Convention Distributions/Grants

Lucy Huntzinger, DUFF Donation $2,000.00
ASFA Donation $2,500.00
Bill Burns, Efanzines Donation $1,000.00
MACII, grant for NASA related costs $5,000.00
2 SMOFCon Scholarships $4,000.00
Worldcon History Organization $5,000.00
Con or Bust Donation $2,000.00
Int’l Costumers Guild Donation $5,000.00
TAFF $2,000.00
Space Agency Fan Fund $15,000.00
FANAC.org $1,000.00
Westercon 69 $5,000.00
Westercon 70 $5,000.00
Total $54,500.00

Top 10 Posts For July 2016

July’s most-read Pixel Scroll got that way with help from everyone who wanted to argue about #GamerGate, plus a side helping of comments from people who’d taken that online vocabulary test Vox Day cited as evidence of his intelligence.

The leading non-Scroll post reported changes to the NEA’S Big Read book list – Bradbury out, Le Guin still in, other sf/f writers added.

These were the 10 most-viewed posts in July according to Google Analytics.

  1. Pixel Scroll 7/13/16 Scroll on the Water, Fire in the Sky
  2. Pixel Scroll 7/12/16 Boys! Raise Giant Pixels in your Cellar!
  3. Pixel Scroll 7/6/16 And She Gave Away The Pixels Of Her Past And Said, “I’ve Lost The Scroll Again”
  4. Pixel Scroll 7/11/16 The Coal Equations
  5. Pixel Scroll 7/5/16 Scrollamagoosa
  6. Pixel Scroll 7/24/16 The Pixel Who Walks Through Walls
  7. Pixel Scroll 7/14/16 I Am the Pixel in the Darkness
  8. Pixel Scroll 7/8/16 Scrolled Pixels Are All Alike; Every Unscrolled Pixel Is Unscrolled In Its Own Way
  9. Pixel Scroll 7/19/16 Dropkick Me Pixel, Through The Scrollposts Of Life
  10. Pixel Scroll 7/28/16 How Many Files Must A Pixel Scroll Down

And, Scrolls excluded, these 10 came next on the list of most-read posts in July.

  1. Just. One. Book. Update
  2. World Fantasy Awards Final Ballot
  3. 2016 Hugo Finalist Review Roundup
  4. Measuring The Rabid Puppies Slate’s Impact on the Final Hugo Ballot
  5. Hugo Voting Rules Proposals Sponsored By Harris, Buff, Standlee, Others
  6. Hugo Voting Proposal Status Update
  7. Announcing The Cult Movie Bracket
  8. 2016 CFLA Book of the Year
  9. The Great Big Juicy Smooch of Death
  10. SFWA Says It Will Admit Game Writers, All Heck Breaks Loose

Lou Anders’ Thrones and Bones Series

Lou Anders

Lou Anders

By Carl Slaughter: Lou Anders started as a Star Trek/Babylon 5 journalist. He wrote over 500 magazine articles. This was followed by the book, The Making of Star Trek: First Contact. Over a period of 10 years, he forged Pyr into one of the most distinguished speculative fiction publishers. Pyr was nominated for a horde of Hugo and Chesley nominations. Plus numerous John Campbell, Arthur Clarke, Philip Dick, British Science Fiction, World Fantasy, and Locus Award nominations.

Then he transitioned into fulltime writing with his Thrones and Bones middle grade series. Anders traveled to Norway to research Norse mythology. The series received positive reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist, and School Library Journal. Goodreads reviews have been overwhelmingly 4 and 5 star. Frostborn came out in 2014, Nightborn came out in 2015, and Skyborn will be out in September. The series includes the Thrones and Bones board game.

INTERVIEW

Lou Anders interviewed by Carl Slaughter at Diabolical Plots (2013)

FROSTBORN

frostborn-3d

Fantasy fans of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and John Flanagan’s Ranger’s Apprentice series will embrace this first novel in an adventure-filled, Viking-inspired series by a debut author.

Meet Karn. He is destined to take over the family farm in Norrøngard. His only problem? He’d rather be playing the board game Thrones and Bones.

Enter Thianna. Half human, half frost giantess. She’s too tall to blend in with other humans but too short to be taken seriously as a giant.

When family intrigues force Karn and Thianna to flee into the wilderness, they have to keep their sense of humor and their wits about them. But survival can be challenging when you’re being chased by a 1,500-year-old dragon, Helltoppr the undead warrior and his undead minions, an evil uncle, wyverns, and an assortment of trolls and giants.

Listeners will embark on a sweeping epic fantasy as they join Karn and Thianna on a voyage of discovery. Antics and hair-raising escapades abound in this fantasy adventure as the two forge a friendship and journey to unknown territory. Their plan: To save their families from harm.

Debut novelist Lou Anders has created a rich world of over twenty-five countries inhabited by Karn, Thianna, and an array of fantastical creatures, as well as the Thrones and Bones board game.

Bonus PDF: Includes a glossary, “Song of Helltroppr” lyrics, and rules for the Thrones and Bones board game.

NIGHTBORN

nightborn-3dFor fans of Lloyd Alexander and Brandon Mull comes Book 2 in the acclaimed Thrones and Bones fantasy-adventure trilogy that began with Frostborn.

Karn Korlundsson is a gamer. Not a riddle solver. But in order to rescue his best friend, Thianna Frostborn, he will need to travel to the faraway city of Castlebriar (by wyvern), learn how to play a new board game called Charioteers (not a problem), decipher the Riddle of the Horn, and tangle with mysterious elves.

Meet Desstra. She’s in training to join the Underhand—the elite agents of the dark elves. When she crosses paths with Karn, she is not all that she appears to be.

Everyone is chasing after the horn of Osius, an ancient artifact with the power to change the world. The lengths to which Karn will go in the name of friendship will be sorely tested. Who knew that solving a riddle could be so deadly?

SKYBORN

SkybornFor fans of Lloyd Alexander and Brandon Mull comes the epic conclusion to the acclaimed Thrones and Bones fantasy-adventure trilogy that began with Frostborn.

Find the Horn. Free the City.

The chase continues for the legendary Horns of Osius. Thianna and Karn’s quest to retrieve the horns from those who wish to abuse their power takes them to Thica, an ancient land where two tyrant queens reign supreme and where years earlier Thianna’s mother was labeled a traitor. Soon the two heroes are caught up in an epic battle for control of the kingdom, one that puts their very lives at stake. The only way to overthrow the queens is to beat them at their own game. But with an entire empire against them, how can Karn and Thianna hope to compete—or better yet, survive?

SOCIAL MEDIA