(1) QUITE THE MODEL KIT. “USS Enterprise Conservation Begins Phase II” at The Smithsonian’s Airspace Blog gives full details.
The final painting of the Enterprise model will begin in April, using newly discovered reference photos from our appeal to Trek fans in the fall. The team will also build new nacelle domes with LED lights to mimic the spinning effect seen on television. For reference, they will first build a 1:1 mock-up of the original mechanism, which utilized mirrors, motors, nails, and Christmas lights. Conservator Ariel O’Connor explains, “Although the original nacelle dome lights did not survive, we can replicate the original effect in a way that is safe to install on the model. The LED lights can be programmed to match the original VFX footage while eliminating the burnt-out bulbs, extreme heat, and motor problems that troubled the original lights. It is a wonderful solution to re-light the nacelles while ensuring the model’s safety and longevity.”
(2) OCTAVIA BUTLER. Radio Imagination celebrates the life and work of Pasadena science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006). Organized by Los Angeles-based arts nonprofit Clockshop, the program centers on ten contemporary art and literary commissions that explore Butler’s archive at the Huntington Library. New work will premiere alongside performances, film screenings, and literary events throughout the year.
(3) THERE IS NO NUMBER THREE. The Guardian link to a news item about 500 new fairytales being discovered in a German archive proved to be infested with some kind of code that could not be seen with the text editing tools at my disposal, but overwrote the rest of the post with a busted survey question….! After deducing which entry was causing the problem, I chopped it out. And I’m ready to be done for the night!
(4) WALTON SEMINAR. Out of the Crooked Timber is hosting a “Jo Walton Seminar” using her books The Just City and The Philosopher Kings. (A third book in the sequence, Necessity, comes out in June).
Several posts are already online.
- Ruthanna Emrys – “Under the Lemon Tree, Distracted by Chores”.
One of the great appeals of the Thessaly series is the implicit invitation: join us in Socratic dialogue beneath the lemon tree, arguing practical philosophy with the best company from all of history. But I am not a philosopher king, and definitely not a Gold of the Just City. As evidence, between the first and second sentences of this paragraph, I took ten minutes to reassure a baby who’d pinched her finger in a dresser drawer. Over the past couple of days I’ve engaged in crafts and cleaning, cooking and political argument and snarky write-ups of old horror stories.
All of which speak to my soul, and all of which feel like part of The Good Life even if I sometimes wish the temporal ratios were different.
- John Holbo — “Walton’s Republic”
“It was the most real thing that had ever happened.” – Jo Walton, The Just City
Thanks to Jo Walton for writing an SF novel in which people, including a pair of gods, try to realize Plato’s Republic. (I’ve only read the first Thessaly novel, The Just City. So if what follows is premature? That sort of thing happens.)
This is an experimental novel. Succeed or fail, you learn from an experiment. But even well-constructed experiments can be failures. That’s the risk.
Logically such a thing should exist. A novelization of Plato’s Republic, I mean. How can no one have written this already? But can such a damn thing be written ? Surely it will fail as a novel, somewhat, at some point. But how? Only one way to find out.
So Walton’s literary endeavor might be said to parallel Athene’s serene, mortal-bothering, bookish Utopian progress, in the novel. Like Athene, Walton doesn’t crack a smile. (There are some cracks at the end – in Athene’s exterior – but let’s leave those out. Don’t want to spoil the ending.)
- Neville Morley – “The Joy of Anachronism”
Walton’s work is a mash-up: of genres, most obviously, with elements of science fiction (time travel and robots), fantasy (gods), historical fiction (recreation of past society) and the novel of ideas – but also of temporalities. Time-travelling Athene gathers together a bunch of dedicated Platonists from across the following 2500-odd years, helps them collect children and works of art from a more restricted period (unaccountably, no one bothers collecting some Canova or Alma-Tadema), gives them some robots from the future for the heavy work, and dumps the whole lot back in the bronze age, where (in theory) they’re not going to disturb anyone else. In theory (again), this farrago will be held together by a shared dedication to the ideals of Plato’s Republic, whether voluntary (the generation of Masters brought together from across time and space) or instilled (the Children and their descendents). In practice…
One of the reasons this is a neat trick from the novelist’s point of view is that it side-steps most of the boring questions of authenticity that bedevil most fictional engagements with the classical world.
More to come from Ada Palmer, Leah Schnelbach, Sumana Harihareswara, and Crooked Timber bloggers Maria Farrell, Henry Farrell, and Belle Waring.
Crooked Timber’s past seminars on genre literature have been —
- Seminar on the works of Charles Stross
- Seminar on Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
- Seminar on Red Plenty by Francis Spufford
- Seminar on The Rise of Ransom City by Felix Gilman
And in May 2015, Crooked Timber organized a seminar on the work of Ken MacLeod with contributions from Farah Mendlesohn, Cosma Shalizi, Sumana Harihareswara, Jo Walton, and Henry Farrell, with a response by Ken MacLeod.
(5) MINI INTEGRAL TREES. Have you seen the Air Bonsai?
Great if you’re wanting to recreate The Hallelujah Mountains from “Avatar” (or a Roger Dean painting) as a diorama.
(6) THE FUTURE IS BACK. Following years of waiting, the DeLorean car made memorable by Back to the Future has returned to production.
After more than 30 years, the DeLorean Motor Company will resume production of the iconic 1982 model DeLorean, made famous by the “Back to the Future” film trilogy.
This marks the first time that the car will be manufactured in America, according to an NBC affiliate.
The car company was previously prohibited from producing the famed model because the futuristic designs belonged to John DeLorean’s estate and not the auto business, which went bankrupt in 1982.
The company was revitalized by CEO Stephen Wynne and moved to Humble, Texas, in 1987. The company operated as a refurbishment facility, repairing and replacing parts for older DeLorean models for consumers around the world.
(7) ZICREE CLASS. Marc Scott Zicree, is running a one-day Supermentors Class – Life Lessons from Rod Serling, Ray Bradbury & Guillermo Del Toro.
Many of you know that with my books The Twilight Zone Companion and Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities and my friendship with Ray Bradbury, I’ve had some of the greatest mentors who ever worked in film, TV and books.
Life Lessons From Rod Serling, Ray Bradbury & Guillermo Del Toro — a One-Day Class I’ll be teaching Sunday, February 21st, both in person here in L.A. and via Skype and audio download, drawn from what I’ve learned from my great mentors. Just $99 (normally $199) if you sign up by the end of the month. Log onto www.paypal.com and indicate you want to pay [email protected] Here’s a video describing the class.
(8) MUMY OUT AS OSCAR VOTER. Actor Billy Mumy says he has been purged as an Academy Awards voter under the new rules, and his ”to whom it may concern” protest letter has been posted online.
Like so many other Academy members who have a long history in the film industry, you are now punishing me for a lack of consistent employment, when it is beyond my own ability to cast myself or even find representation who can get me into the meetings and auditions these days for quality roles and films in the first place.
I have careers in music and writing and I chose to stay home for several years when my two children, who have both worked as actors in major studio feature films, were young. I don’t see why that should now render my vote unworthy.
I’m deeply saddened and disappointed by the actions the Academy has taken, without any discussion first amongst the members, to capitulate to a handful of whiners who threaten to “boycott” by not dressing up, walk the red carpet and sit in the audience because they feel the actors branch didn’t do our jobs of nominating candidates for Oscars this year to their personal satisfaction.
The nomination process is not racist. Surely you realize that members of the Academy don’t get together in clandestine meetings to discuss who they’re going to nominate or not nominate. Personally, I was shocked that neither Michael Caine or Harvey Keitel received a nomination for their excellent work in “Youth”, but I certainly don’t consider it a deliberate slight because they’re senior citizen Caucasians.
(9) TODAY IN HISTORY
- January 28, 1813 – Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was published.
- January 28, 1977 – Stephen King’s The Shining is published.
- January 28, 1986 – The space shuttle Challenger blew up shortly after launch, killing all seven crew members: Christa McAuliffe, a New Hampshire high school teacher, Ronald McNair, Hughes Aircraft Co. satellite engineer Gregory Jarvis, commander Francis “Dick” Scobee, pilot Michael Smith, flight engineer Judy Resnik and Ellison Onizuka.
Soon afterwards, Ray Bradbury discussed the disaster with Nightline host Ted Koppel.
Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted a poetic memorial.
https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/692776305411096577/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
A memorial service was held today at the Kennedy Space Center. The “Time of Remembrance” will mark the 49th anniversary of the 1967 Apollo launch pad fire that killed Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee on Jan. 27, 1967; the 30th anniversary of Challenger’s loss on Jan. 28, 1986; and the 13th anniversary of the Columbia shuttle disaster on Feb. 1, 2003, that killed commander Rick Husband, pilot William McCool, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, David Brown, Michael Anderson and Israeli flier Illan Ramon.
(10) NEITHER SNOW NOR SLEET. “How ‘Arrow’ Actor Stephen Amell And His Costars Handled A Canceled Convention” —
The “Arrow” cast knows how to make the best out of a bad situation. The snowstorm forced Heroes and Villains Fan Fest to cancel the Saturday portion of their event, but many people were already at hotels near the Meadowlands Convention Center in Secaucus, New Jersey — including several celebrity guests. Cast members from “Arrow” and “The Flash” were nearby, so they didn’t let the snow stop them from meeting with fans.
In the afternoon, the stars wandered down to the lobbies of their hotels to meet their snowed in fans. John Barrowman (Malcolm Merlyn on “Arrow”) posted a video on Facebook with fans in his hotel and said that he and Stephen Amell (Oliver Queen on “Arrow”) were doing the same thing at separate hotels.
(11) WHO SAID THAT? “The Voice Actors of The Force Awakens” identifies the actors’ specific contributions. SPOILERS PROBABLE.
You may have seen a section in the credits of The Force Awakens titled “Additional Voices,” with some familiar names listed. But who or what did all those familiar names play? I’m happy to finally reveal everyone below, running through the film chronologically. (There are also a couple of actor cameos in there that shall remain nameless (for now).)
(12) BE ON THE LOOKOUT. Kate Paulk told Mad Genius Club readers “The List” will be out in March. She also previewed a coming attraction:
Tune in tomorrow for a guest post by the fascinating Ben Yalow with more information about the history of the Hugo categories.
(13) KNOW THE SHADOW. Ricky Whittle of “The 100” has been cast as Shadow in Starz TV’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.
Gaiman said in a statement, “I’m thrilled that Ricky has been cast as Shadow. His auditions were remarkable. The process of taking a world out of the pages of a book, and putting it onto the screen has begun. ‘American Gods’ is, at its heart, a book about immigrants, and it seems perfectly appropriate that Shadow will, like so much else, be Coming to America. I’m delighted Ricky will get to embody Shadow. Now the fun starts.”
(14) HOLY CERTIORI! “Supreme Court asked to consider Batmobile copyright case” reports Comic Book Resources.
A manufacturer of unlicensed Batmobile replicas has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether Batman’s signature vehicle is indeed protected by copyright.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mark Towle of Gotham Garage filed a writ of certiorari today asking the justices to review his nearly five-year-old dispute with DC Comics.
Towle, who produced replicas of the 1966 and 1989 Batmobiles that sold for as much as $90,000 each, was sued in 2011 by DC, which claimed copyright and trademark infringement, trademark counterfeiting and unfair competition.
[Thanks to Brian Z., Martin Morse Wooster, John King Tarpinian, JJ, Soon Lee, and Steven H Silver for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Will R.]
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First!
Third, er, I mean fifth, er, I mean, there’s the link for #3. 🙂
Second-ish!
Fifth! True fifth!
(8) On the one hand, Mumy clearly doesn’t get it. On the other hand, kicking him out as a voter doesn’t seem, at first blush, an especially effective way of addressing a problem that is certainly more pervasive than any particular actor.
Or perhaps he was kicked out for more substantial reasons.
Xtifr: Beats me. I couldn’t get that link to work any better when I was formatting the post.
Mike: these things happen. The Computer is Your Friend. *mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!*
😉
eta: Lis Carey: bah, you merely got first fifth. Everyone know that second fifth is the best!
Oh, second fifth! 😀
(4) So pleased to see Crooked Timber tackling Walton’s “The Just City” and “The Philosopher Kings.” I’ve only read “Just City”, but it’s OH SO GOOD, and with lots and lots to merit discussion. So a series of essays and angles from Crooked Timber is likely to be just the thing 🙂
If it’s any consolation, that Guardian article is almost four years old.
Almost double fifth!
actual Double Fifth.
Double non-fat soy fifth with a shot of espresso.
@Lis Carey: Mumy isn’t being singled out; this is a widescale purge of the Academy membership to weed out people who are no longer active in film and make room for younger people who are open to more artistically challenging (and diverse) films. The Anime News Network had a great article summing up the situation:
Mumy’s a pretty good example — for all his television work, he’s been in less than half a dozen theatrical films since Nixon resigned, most of them in bit parts, and none more recent than 1995. (Well, okay, his IMDb lists one upcoming film, but considering it’s funded through Kickstarter and has been in production for four years … yeah.)
There do seem to be problems with the Academy membership changes – not least the fact that removing members who haven’t had a gig in the previous 10 years will at a stroke remove a cohort of women in their 30s, 40s and 50s who struggle to sustain a career.
The alternative qualification, stints of work spread over 3 decades will also have the effect of penalising any member who had taken a break to raise a family or carer for dependent family members.
This doesn’t only have an impact on actors – but also on the directors, editors and technicians. And those groups currently under-represented in the industry and academy are also those whose members struggle to build and sustain a career in the industry.
The key, surely, is to increase the franchise, not simply to continually purge the old and sclerotic, however attractive that seems right now.
(3) But the Guardian link should work right?
(5) MINI INTEGRAL TREES.
Maglev bonsai!
(10) NEITHER SNOW NOR SLEET.
That’s classy.
(13) KNOW THE SHADOW.
He looks the part; Shadow’s been described as looking like someone one doesn’t mess around with. I’m feeling cautiously optimistic.
Soon Lee: This could be the start of a new File 770 meme — the Scroll Scavenger Hunt. I describe the article, the Filers bring back the link….
Mike Glyer: This could be the start of a new File 770 meme — the Scroll Scavenger Hunt. I describe the article, the Filers bring back the link…
… with Bonus Points for bringing back Kevin Standlee or Laura Resnick…
Gaiman tweeted his pleasure that whitewashing the characters was forbidden in casting American Gods. It’s nice to see that working out.
(8) MUMY OUT AS OSCAR VOTER
I hadn’t heard about the rule changes that Mumy is complaining of, but looking it up it appears that they are addressing their diversity issues by pruning their membership lists?
Edit: I swear the various comments answering my question weren’t there when I started typing!
The Academy requirements are hardly rigorous.
Working once in the last ten years gives you membership today
Working in three ten year periods – on one movie in the 70s, another in the 80s, another in the 90s – qualifies you for life. (as does getting nominated for an Oscar)
You don’t get disqualified for being old. You get disqualified for having a short career that ended over ten years ago.
Having a short career that ended over ten years ago doesn’t make you a bad person. But possibly not a _good_ person to be voting on movies made last year.
four lots of fifth
Or don’t have the bandwidth for all those movies.
@ Sean O’Hara oh. so it’s AGEISM now at the Academy, is it? 🙂
On a slightly more serious note: maybe they ought to purge anyone under 60. At least they’d be left with a population that knows what a “movie” is….
(12) BE ON THE LOOKOUT
I can hardly wait.
Wait, I can.
Re: 8: MUMY OUT AS OSCAR VOTER.
Maybe the whole Sad Puppy crap has sensitized me, but I get a little uncomfortable when people start talking about “Purges”.
That said, expanding the Academy electorate, I think, would be healthier and better than just trying to replace it. Although I suppose that would only ameilorate, not remove entirely, the bad feelings.
Crooked Timber also did a Mieville seminar, nearly 10 years ago.
14 should be “holy certiorari.”
[/pedant]
(14) should be HOLY CERTIORARI (correctly spelled in the actual extract). One of the prerogative writs from administrative law, like mandamus and de non procedendo rege inconsulto.
I finished “Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen” yesterday. I liked it a great deal, and like every Vorkosigan book, whether space opera or romance, it’s really about ethics.
Without being spoilerish, it was good to see the focus back on Cordelia, but I also appreciated that Miles made an appearance and we got to see his continued growth through her eyes. A close look at Miles from the viewpoint of the people who have to deal with him can be entertaining.
Does Mumy not understand that racism exists outside the Klan?
And no disrespect to Mumy, but if your last role was a bit part in Swayze feature then maybe it’s time to accept that you are a former movie actor.
A close look at Miles from the viewpoint of the people who have to deal with him can be entertaining.
I did like how Miles came off in CAPTAIN VORPATRIL’S ALLIANCE. Especially when Miles finally really gets a clue Ivan is not such an Idiot after all
Huh, well I find myself in agreement with Mumy. I don’t agree that expelling and ‘purging’ the membership is a way to force diversity. But, then again, I don’t really have another solution. All I know is that if, say, a doctor or an engineer belongs to a national organization (i.e. American Society of Civil Engineers) and you are laid off, quit, change careers, or retire, you are still a member of that society (provided you still pay dues and want to participate). If suddenly I was told I was no longer a member of a society/group/organization that I rightly belong to and that I have belonged to and I spent years belonging to and supporting, etc etc…then I’d be pretty upset.
Warren Beatty has hardly been in anything in 20-yrs…does that mean that he might get the shaft too? (Admittedly, I haven’t read too deeply the rules of how they are purging.)
Warren Beatty has been in movies in three separate ten-year periods.
He is also an Oscar winner.
Both qualify him for life membership
From what I understand, Mumy isn’t even being kicked out so much as losing his voting privleges, because he’s not going to be considered “active” . He’ll still be a member and have other privileges. And honestly, I don’t find the restrictions that stringent. The 3 decade restriction doesn’t even have to be consecutive, from what I understand. And then you have lifetime voting! Hell, that means you could potentially be under 40 to get that, and never have to work another film again, no matter how old you get, to retain your voting privleges! I think it’ll actually hit most with people in their 30s and 40s who have hit a dry spell, than anyone much older.
(8) MUMY OUT AS OSCAR VOTER
It is interesting to note that the BBWAA which is responsible for Baseball’s Hall of Fame voting started a very similar process two years ago since under the old rules, journalists who not only hadn’t covered baseball in decades but also hadn’t worked actively as journalists in decades still had voting privileges while active journalists working in new media did not. The re-alignment has already started to show a very different set of voting patterns, more in line with modern statistical analysis.
[ticky]
As a note, I believe the new rule for the Oscars is you get lifetime voting membership if you are in movies during three ten-year periods *after* you have become an Academy member. Bill Mumy was in movies in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s (for example, Dear Brigitte in 1965, Papillon in 1973, and Twilight Zone: The Movie in 1983), but some of those presumably were before he was an Academy member, especially since he started as a child star.
If actresses over 40 have a hard time getting work, wouldn’t the “at least one role every 10 years” requirement have the unintended consequence of reducing the number of lifetime members who are women?
My favorite Oscar voter is Dolores Hart who became Sister Dolores and is now Mother Dolores. They send out the screening copies of the movies to her convent so she can watch the movies nominated. She was active in the 50s and 60s and was an uncredited child actor in Forever Amber in the 40s. Would she still be eligible?
ETA: Based on what Kyra says above: No.
(12) Another note prospective recommenders should make to avoid being accused of slating: release your list in a time window that makes it plausible that someone could personally check everything out before having to vote.
I’m strongly against releasing “Best Of Year X” recommendation lists before Year X actually ends, but this is going way too far in the other direction.
[8] The Academy thing is old-hat to any aged former SFWA members who can recall the original Requal Wars. But perhaps it will give the New SFWA ideas.
Petrea Mitchell – consider that YB selections are generally made at the end of the year, as is the selection of the Locus recommendation list.
k_choll: All I know is that if, say, a doctor or an engineer belongs to a national organization (i.e. American Society of Civil Engineers) and you are laid off, quit, change careers, or retire, you are still a member of that society (provided you still pay dues and want to participate).
That has not been my personal experience with the organizations I’ve belonged to, so I’m not sure it’s an across-the-board practice with groups of this nature. Two organizations I belong to now require being active in the given field, and in the past, a teaching organization required the same. Once I was no longer teaching, I was no longer a member.
I didn’t pay lifetime dues or anything, just yearly dues, so perhaps that’s a factor.
Jo Walton’s The Just City provokes this response on one of Brad DeLong’s conglomerate of blogs: http://equitablegrowth.org/glosses-on-jo-waltons-plato-fanfic-and-robots-a-brief-pickup-platonic-dialogue-todays-economic-history/
Is this the economists’ equivalent to filking?
That doesn’t give people a lot of time to read many of the ‘recommendations’ before making their nominations, does it?
There is great virtue in calling a trough a trough. What is going on with the Academy is a purge.
A better approach, as implied above, would be for the Academy board charged with evaluating new members to do a better job of identifying and accepting qualified actors from overlooked communities.
Rather than change the qualifications for voting membership, perhaps they should instead reach out to groups that are under-represented to identify qualified new members. As a result, they would increase the size of the voting pool to be more inclusive without sacrificing quality.
Of course, the other problem is that “new” and “challenging” are not the sole determining factors of determining if a movie is worthy of recognition as exemplary. The same thing applies in other endeavors as well.
Regards,
Dann
Mumy is old enough (and–I’m guessing–internet un-ready enough) that when he sees the term “racism”, he probably thinks of the long-used meaning–the belief that specific groups of people have specific intellectual capabilities and personality traits because it is biologically ingrained in their race. He may not be familiar with the new, social-justicey meaning (which I wasn’t aware of myself more than about a year ago) of racism being “prejudice plus power” (conveniently making it so that no minority person can be considered a racist.) So, by his definition (and by mine) the Oscar nominations aren’t racist–they are biased. And they are biased not by a structured, organized effort, but as an emergent property of thousands of individual votes.
Also “young.” Note the high-quality of nominees and winners (and categories) for the Teen Choice Awards, which is more or less The Razzies, but meant seriously.
I think it’s a bit unfair to compare younger voices admitted into the Academy to the open voting of the Teen Choice Awards. Now, I don’t know how young you’re allowed to be to be admitted into the Academy, but anyone admitted is going to be a professional(right?), no matter their age. Young does not mean ignorant or stupid, just as old doesn’t automatically mean stodgy and outdated.
Scalzi and Mad Genius Club both have articles up about the Hugo Awards. So far all is calm.
It’s quiet. Too quiet.
if, say, a doctor or an engineer belongs to a national organization (i.e. American Society of Civil Engineers) and you are laid off, quit, change careers, or retire, you are still a member of that society (provided you still pay dues and want to participate)
That’s what my father did: he paid dues to the California professional engineers’ group for five years after he retired. I think he stopped at that point; they sent a letter ten years after that, asking if he still wanted to be in. (He’d died a few months before that letter arrived.)
I’m not saying that, exactly–what I am saying that age and experience counts for something in tastes. When I was young, I liked lots of movies/TV shows/books that I realize now are crap. (For instance, while I wouldn’t call Star Wars crap, I was unaware of how deeply derivative it was of earlier–and sometimes better–work.) Given the choice between the two, I’d tend to trust the judgment of someone who had seen 10,000 movies in their lifetime more than I’d trust the judgement of someone who had seen 500.