Pixel Scroll 11/6 Remember, Remember, the Second Fifth of November

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(1) April Carvelli investigates a cancelled media convention for Pop Cult HQ — “IFCon Victoria: Scam or a Simple Mans Dream Gone Wrong?”

This convention was scheduled to occur over the Halloween weekend in Victoria, BC Canada. They didn’t have A-List bookings, but they had some well-known names and a lot of artists. They had booked Richard Hatch from the original Battle Star Galactica, Gil Gerard of Buck Rogers, William B. Davis best known as the Smoking Man on The X-Files and Claudia Christian from Babylon 5. They even had several of the Power Rangers…..

Then suddenly, four days before the con, it was canceled. It was reported that the organizer Bill Code had to be rushed to the hospital after collapsing the weekend before the event. Fans were told that he would be undergoing surgery and there was no way he could continue to run the con.

According to the initial posting, Code had been organizing the con for the last year and a half and had invested more than $84,000 but was no longer able to “handle and direct any part of the convention.”

Many of the exhibitors learned of the cancellation of the con through the Facebook page and most, if not all feel that they have been conned. The exhibitors aren’t alone. Artists, Fans, and even celebrity guests are screaming about how this con was handled and the treatment they received from Ken Twyman, the one who appears to have taken the reigns once cancellation of the con was imminent.

(2) Big Bang Theory producer Chuck Lorre writes a “vanity card” that flashes at the end of every episode. The latest one is a paean to science fiction.

I grew up devouring science fiction books. I was like a little Pac-Man, gobbling up everything I could get my hands on: short stories, novels, and, of course, comic books. Looking back, I realize that sci-fi and, to some degree, fantasy novels, were my first attempt at escaping reality (later attempts would prove to be a bit more problematic). Regardless, I now see that immersing myself in this kind of literature informs my current view of the world. The path of history is, for me, forever seen through the eyes and imagination of Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Roger Zelazny, Frank Herbert, Larry Niven, Philip K. Dick, H.G. Wells, Aldous Huxley, and many, many more. Which is why I consider all efforts to control human behavior through force as ultimately doomed to fail. Sure, they might work for a while. That’s where the cool story is – the resistance and overcoming of authoritarian rule. But at the end of the day, the macro, sci-fi view is always toward greater freedom, regardless of what form it takes. The real evil, the much more insidious method of control, is actually what we do to ourselves. The abuse of drugs and alcohol, plus relentless consumerism and over-exposure to mind-numbing entertainment, are the real chains on the human spirit. Of course this means that I, having produced close to a thousand half-hours of television, am part of the problem. Sorry. I never meant to be a Minor Overlord for the Terrestrial Shadow Masters.

(3) Norman Hollyn has been one of the people helping develop the innovative future film school announced on Friday — “$20 Million to Establish Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts”

Those who want an education at the vanguard of new forms of filmmaking and emerging media — including virtual production, interactive and mobile media, film special effects, augmented and virtual reality, game design and more — will one day get the chance to study at the new Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The university on Friday announced a $20 million gift from the Johnny Carson Foundation…

(4) Joseph T. Major has a theory about a wowser in today’s news.

If you ever played Sid Meier’s Civilization (the original game), you would note that building the Pyramids gave you a Granary in every city in your civilization. Obviously Ben Carson has not upgraded.

(5) Yes, a scientific measure of the science in science fiction! “Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness” at TV Tropes. (via Lela E. Buis).

Example: a character is shown a machine for traveling into the past and asks, “How does it work?”

  • In soft SF: “You sit in this seat, set the date you want, and pull that lever.”
  • In medium SF: “You sit in this seat, set the date you want, and drive to 88 mph.”
  • In hard SF: “A good question with an interesting answer. Please have a seat while I bring you up to speed on the latest ideas in quantum theory, after which I will spend a chapter detailing an elaborate, yet plausible-sounding connection between quantum states, the unified field theory, and the means by which the brain stores memory, all tied into theories from both Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.”
  • In really hard SF: “It doesn’t. Time travel to the past is impossible.”

(6) A. C. Thompson shares “Lessons Learned Editing an Anthology” at Magical Words.

  1. I am your editor, not your mama!! Therefore, it is not my job to teach you to write or completely re-write your first draft. I actually overheard an author tell someone, “It doesn’t matter if I can write. That’s what the editor is for.” WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!! It is your job as the writer to write a great story, polish it up (DO NOT SEND YOUR FIRST DRAFT), and edit– not write a ten page dissertation on why the editor is wrong and you’re right. The editor is an unbiased third party whose only interest is in making your story the best it can be. Don’t fight them every step of the way. If you disagree with something, discuss it. Don’t stomp your feet like a toddler and refuse to change it. Or make up some silly excuse as to WHY you can’t edit. It is worth noting that I did NOT have this problem on the Sherlock anthology. Every single author I have is the picture of professionalism and talent. I may be slightly biased, but seriously… those guys and gals rock!

(7) A modest proposal:

Ro Nagey claims once on a live radio show he answered that question, “By taking a little green pill.”

(8) Ralph Bakshi interview at Salon.

I gotta to ask this—when we meet Fritz in his self-titled film in 1972, he’s in the park and he’s checking out the pedestrians, the people and the scene, and he’s just calling bullshit on everyone, basically. How strong was your personal bullshit detector at the time? Like, could you tell [at that point] when someone was jiving you?

That’s a good question; let me think. Yeah, at that point I had finally gotten very angry and very wise. At that point I suddenly woke up. Everything that I grew up thinking was cool — fighting for your country and all of that — was starting to fall apart. I couldn’t believe that black people [were being restricted from the] vote. My life was changing. I was bored to years with Terrytoons animation. So I was using my life to try to expand my art form. I started to comment and I started to read. I read Ginsberg, I read Howl. I read Kerouac — I didn’t think he was good, but I still read him. I read Henry Miller. I started to read other people that were also happening [and] big at that time. It was just breaking all that stuff.

Did you find that creatively liberating as an artist?

Totally. Incredibly liberating.

Okay, so you go from Terrytoons to making your own films, beginning with the X-rated hit “Fritz the Cat.” And by the end you can do anything you want with animation from a technical standpoint and you have this new attitude.

I learned my craft at Terrytoons. I spent 15 years there, writing, directing, designing — every part of an animated cartoon—

(9) Julia Alexander at Polygon breaks out the new information revealed in the international trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens – click to see her video analysis.

Walt Disney Studios Japan posted the new trailer on their YouTube page Friday morning, and although some of the scenes can definitely be found in the English version that aired a couple of weeks ago, there’s some wild new footage.

(10) Here’s the trailer itself:

(11) Is there really going be an Ice Age 5? *croggle*

[Thanks to David K.M. Klaus, J. Neil Schulman, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editors of the day Will R. and Meredith.]

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156 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 11/6 Remember, Remember, the Second Fifth of November”

  4. Somewhere in the vague vicinity of fifth, I’m sure.

    So, my self-declared DemiWriMo (25k instead of 50k) went off to a bad start. As of yesterday (er, the 5th), I had 1543 words. Which was less than i had expected, even knowing the first few days would be harder and the rest easier (My mother-in-law is here for my son’s birthday)

    Tonight (Er, the 6th plus these 45 minutes past bedtime) I ended on 2,928 words. Not a bad bit of catch-up. I still have a ways to go and am behind par even for my halved attempt, but I feel better about it. And I think I can do it again. Though I may have an odd question or two for some nice police officer. Awkward when the conversation has to start, “First,. I love my kids, and this is purely for fiction.”

  6. Chuck Lorre’s Vanity Cards have almost always been the best things about his shows, even back when his shows were reasonably good, like Dharma and Greg. That one makes me feel better about Big Bang Theory than anything I’ve ever seen on the show.

  7. Chuck Lorre’s “Mom” is a show that is actually as good as his vanity cards–dark and topical and taking on challenging subject matter in a way that honest to good reminds me of Norman Lear. (Full disclosure: I have a friend who works on Mom. But you don’t have to take my word for it–The AV Club raved about season 2.)

  9. Mike! You have to warn people before you link to TV Tropes! Otherwise, they can get lost for days!

    Well, if you warn ’em, they can still get lost for days, but at least that way that can’t say they weren’t warned. 🙂

    It’s a very silly site, but reasonably fun. I’ve contributed a fair amount to the site—mainly in their coverage of written SF.

    edit: semi-ninja’d by snowcrash.

  12. Though I may have an odd question or two for some nice police officer.

    There’s ask-a-cop and little-details on livejournal.

  13. 11) Gawd. Not another Ice Age? The series is growing increasingly infantile, as though trying to pick up where the endless Land That Time Forgot re-treads left off … and that was practically for pre-schoolers!

  14. Experiencing a significant Fifth shortfall.

    Also: not going anywhere near TV Tropes after last time.

  17. Has anyone read The Chimes by Anna Smaill?

    It’s got excellent reviews, it’s made the Man Booker Prize long list for 2015, and it’s on Amazon UK for £1.99. If it’s as good as the reviews say it is then it would be a potential Hugo nomination, hence my interest…

  18. And I’ve just discovered that Amazon has apparently classified it as literary fiction, which probably explains why people haven’t come across it. It’s undoubtedly fantasy -an original and unusual dystopia- so I shall expend £1.99 on it and report back.

  19. (5) Ha, you don’t get me that easily, TV Tropes. But maybe I should just check the examples…

    (10) I’m absolutely definitely not optimistic enough about Star Wars to watch a totally different trailer. Oooh, wait, new scenes?
    —-

    I enjoyed the first issue of Mothership Zeta. According to the editorial, the magazine is officially “dedicated to fun”, which is a rather interesting idea – how do you define a “fun” story? They suggest that it’s a spectrum that along with “humorous” or “amusing” could include “uplifting”. They talk about the difficulty in finding stories that meet “amusing” without being solid.

    I’m not sure how this will work long-term, so the proof of the pudding will be in the reading. The first story in the issue is available online: The Customer Is Always Right by Anna Salonen:

    Performance review, employee #34677, Jobe Wallis.
    Transcript of “The Incident.”
    (Ringing.)
    “Hello, you have contacted the AIs Incorporated customer service. How may I assist you?”
    “This is Private Johnson calling from Arcadia, Bree’s World.
    I’m having trouble with the Annihilator5000 you sent me.” (Sound of explosions, screaming, gunfire in the background.)
    “We are very sorry for any inconvenience you might have experienced pertaining to our product. Customer satisfaction is very important to us, and I will do everything I can to assist you. What is the problem, sir?”
    “I’m in the middle of some heavy shit here, and it isn’t doing anything!”
    “Did you try turning the android off and on again, sir?”

    Quick and clever, so undoubtedly adding up to “fun”, but an entire issue of that sort of thing would get tiring fast. The second story shows what sort of thing they might be aiming for: “Q&A: An AI Love Story” has an AI ship Mind addressing an unnamed (but apparently human) visitor about an AI romantic partner who has apparently done something bad and being imprisoned. It’s clever and amusing without being overtly humorous, and gets in some interesting ideas about AI at the same time. Probably the best story in the issue. Another story avoiding simple humour is “Sleeping with Spirits” by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam which has lots of sex (but isn’t erotica) as ghosts of a woman’s former lovers keeping appearing after sex with her current boyfriend, and the story explores the humour and prejudices of how people’s past sexual history interfere with current relationships. Returning to straight humour I also liked “Tales of a Fourth Grade Shoggoth” by Kevin Wetmore which is a good parody. 8 stories in total, plus some essays and reviews of a decent standard. I didn’t regret paying money for the issue.

    I’m not sure, long-term, whether “fun” can be sustained as a sole criteria, but I’m interested to see them try.

  20. > “Has anyone read The Chimes by Anna Smaill?”

    I have read it and did not like it at all.

    If you’ve already spent the money on it, I’ll withhold my review until we can mutually chat about it, so as not to prejudice your opinion.

  21. The problem with the Ice Age franchise is that even though it’s played out after increasingly diminishing returns, it’s still massively popular outside the US.

    In Germany, every single installment ended up in the top 3 grossing films of the respective year. In 2012, Ice Age 4 even beat the mighty Avengers at the box office and came in second only to The Intouchables.

    So I’m sorry, but I fear my countrymen are responsible for the existence of yet another Ice Age movie. Though in our defence, the German dubbing – particularly comedian Otto Waalkes, the actor who plays the sloth – is really good.

  22. Can I ask someone to help me with my lazyness and give me a link to the first two lists from the TV-Bracket?
    I want to use that to lighten to mode for some familymembers who are a bit down at the moment.

  23. (1)

    The IFCon: Victoria story is sad and a little upsetting.

    It seems to me there have been more examples lately of people trying to organize conventions and getting in way over their heads.

  25. @StefanB

    The results round-ups? Because I can do that! First one and second one. I can also link to the others, if you want them, including the suggestion list and the spreadsheet bracket, but there’s a limit to how many links I can put without moderation.

  27. I’ve always been fond of Barry Longyear’s response to “where do you get your ideas?” You send two dollars and a SASE to a PO Box in Schenectady, NY, and they send you back an idea.

  28. It is occasionally useful to venture into other geeky spaces and see what other Big Debates are happening.

    In one such place – and no, I’m not linking to it – people are Seriously Concerned about two Big Continuity Problems with the new Supergirl show. It seems that the actress playing the title role has pierced ears and a small facial blemish, neither of which is visible on the actress who player her 12-year-old self. The question of how the character acquired those traits in-universe, or whether this is a major oversight by the writers, is being seriously discussed.

    I swear, I feel like I’m living in that SNL skit where Shatner asks if any of these people have lives.

    (For the record, I asked whether anyone has compared the physical traits of the actor playing The Flash to those of the actors who played his parents, to see if he’s plausible as their son. I don’t expect to get a response on that front.)

  29. The question of how the character acquired those traits in-universe, or whether this is a major oversight by the writers, is being seriously discussed.

    Anyone that deep into the weeds should know that Superman shaves by bouncing his heat vision off a mirror. Why couldn’t Supergirl do the same thing to pierce her ears?

  30. I once witnessed a long internet discussion as to whether Superman was circumcised and if so, how.

  31. My reference for all things Kryptonian is Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex, but couldn’t ear piercing be done with the assistance of the right form of kryptonite? It’s not like shaving that has to be done repeatedly. There are all sorts of medical reasons for keeping some kryptonite available.

    Or does the Supergirl show not have kryptonite?

  32. I’ve had Bakshi’s Wizards on dvd for awhile now. His commentary track is interesting, to say the least. Dude also comes off as a bit of a bitter crank, especially towards Disney.

  33. Those who have not heard David Brin’s anti-Wizards rant live must hold their genderhoods cheap who were not there.

    @StefanB: Are you looking for the shows themselves to cheer up your loved ones, or the write-ups? Meredith has you either way, of course, because she’s just that good. I’m merely curious.

  34. Brad J says:

    I’ve always been fond of Barry Longyear’s response to “where do you get your ideas?”

    The Schenectady answer is Harlan Ellison’s, actually.

  36. @Jim Henley

    I stopped linking to the results after the first couple because I didn’t want the reminders to vote to get caught in moderation, but I kept the links anyway in case someone asked for them. /nerd

  38. Rev. Bob on November 7, 2015 at 7:44 am said:
    It is occasionally useful to venture into other geeky spaces and see what other Big Debates are happening.

    In one such place – and no, I’m not linking to it – people are Seriously Concerned about two Big Continuity Problems with the new Supergirl show. It seems that the actress playing the title role has pierced ears and a small facial blemish, neither of which is visible on the actress who player her 12-year-old self. The question of how the character acquired those traits in-universe, or whether this is a major oversight by the writers, is being seriously discussed.

    The actress who plays her twelve-year-old self also has dark gold hair and beautiful “moth wing” dark gold eyebrows, which her older self has miraculously grown out of. So what?

    People are goofy.

  39. Thanks I just wanted to show them the list, the would have been more happy if 1 and 2 were reverse but that’s life.
    Thanks to Meredith and Jim Henley.

  40. @David:

    The show’s Supergirl first encountered Kryptonite as an adult, in the pilot.

    @Peace;

    Pretty much my reaction. I mean, The Flash brought us frozen laser beams earlier this season…

  41. @RevBob

    It seems that the actress playing the title role has pierced ears and a small facial blemish, neither of which is visible on the actress who player her 12-year-old self. The question of how the character acquired those traits in-universe, or whether this is a major oversight by the writers, is being seriously discussed.

    If people want perfect continuity, then they either want CGI actors instead of real unrelated people, or they want to hire only real-life family members (e.g. Kirk and Michael Douglas) to play parents/children or siblings.

    I mean, I can pick a lot of nits, but this borders on the ridiculous.

  42. @Mark – Just grabbed a copy of Mothership Zeta. Sounds like an entire zine of the kind of stories I enjoy as an occasional breather between reading more “serious” works.

  43. This is real now, big continuity problem?
    Because a not so good match between the actors and the characters, lol.
    Sorry we are talking about a comicbookseries. Have those people ever read a comic? There are erors because of the multiple writers that would make their heads explode if they are angry because such a small think.

  44. It pleases me to point out I am mentioned on TV Tropes in a number of places. Here, for example.

    It’s a trap!

  45. I will also point out that a review I wrote for the Tintin book The Castafiore Emerald is used as a reference on TV Tropes.

  46. @StefanB:

    Yeah, for real. Apparently Kryptonians should be completely immune to skin problems on Earth, and despite her cousin keeping in touch as she grew up over the course of a dozen years, the subject of wanting her ears pierced somehow either never came up or must have been an unsurmountable problem.

    Personally, to the extent that I give The Great Earlobe Quandary any thought at all, I figure (a) her cousin and/or adoptive parents found a way to pierce her ears or (b) she uses the magnetic kind that don’t actually go through the flesh. Both look the same to the audience, either works as well as the other, and it’s not going to get in the way of me enjoying the show. I’m certainly not going to look at it as a failure on the part of the writers.

    Chlorine-based DNA, though? Totally snark-worthy fail on that bit. 🙂

  48. Anyone think it is bizarre that the Japanese Star Wars trailer does not use the classic star wars music and uses some generic background score?

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