(1) MST3K+PO. Patton Oswalt has agreed to join Mystery Science Theater 3000 as the Forrester’s newest Evil Henchman, TV’s Son of TV’s Frank. Joel Hodgson explains:
I first became aware of Patton around fourteen years ago, when he was doing “commentary” for the MTV Awards – live in the room during the event! I realized right away he was a kindred spirit, and damn funny too. Since then, obviously, he’s bloomed into this amazing comedy/internet dynamo, and I’ve gotta tell you: I’ve seen a lot of stand-ups over the years, but – no lie – Patton really is one of the best ever. And just as important, he’s a very fun, articulate and witty soul – just the kind of person who we’ve always tried to bring onboard for MST3K.
That’s probably why, when I started putting together my dream roster of special “guest writers” for the next season of MST3K, the idea of Patton kept coming back to me. I knew he was a Mystery Science Theater fan from way back – he even moderated our 20th Anniversary Reunion panel at San Diego Comic-Con)–and I thought he’d be terrific at writing riffs. Then I started to wonder if he might be a good fit on camera, too.
Remember last week, how I said my creative process usually starts with visuals, and then I work backward? Well, in this case, I first imagined Patton dressed up like TV’s Frank. I figured maybe he’d be Frank’s son, or at least a clone. But yeah: the idea of Patton wearing black lab assistant’s garb, with a big mound of silver hair and a spitcurl…? It was just really funny to me, in a visual / cross-referential / meta kind of way.
(2) HIGH CASTLE. Marc Haefele, once the editor for some of Philip K. Dick’s later books from Doubleday, praised Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle on an NPR affiliate’s show “Off-Ramp.” BEWARE MINOR SPOILERS.
Juliana (Alexa Davalos) — Frink’s estranged wife in the book, his girlfriend in the series — was that rarest of Dick characters, a strong, positive, effective woman. She is even more so on the screen. The substitution of various film reels for the original fictional novel McGuffin generally works, albeit there seem to be a few too many abandoned operating 16 mm projectors left around.
And there are some clunkers. Like when the Nazi elevated monorail from which-side-is-he-on Nazi/underground operative Joe Blake (Luke Kleintank) descends bears the label “U-Bahn.” Whoops, that’s a subway folks. The elevated is an “S-Bahn.” Or why is “Mack the Knife,” a song by a Communist (Bertolt Brecht) and a Jew (Kurt Weill), being sung at an otherwise terrifyingly well-imagined Aryan Victory Day picnic in occupied Long Island?
(3) BEST STAR WARS MOVIE. Michael J. Martinez marches on: his Star Wars rewatch has reached movie #5 — “Star Wars wayback machine: The Empire Strikes Back”.
In this rewatch, we have the crown jewel of the entire saga: The Empire Strikes Back. Pretty much everything we love about Star Wars is front-and-center here, and this one stands up to the test of time as well as any classic film you can think of. Yes, it’s as good as I remembered.
(4) FICTIONAL HISTORY. Jonathan Nield delivers “A defense of historical fiction” at Pornokitsch.
…Perhaps this introduction may be most fitly concluded by something in the nature of apology for Historical Romance itself. Not only has fault been found with the deficiencies of unskilled authors in that department, but the question has been asked by one or two critics of standing – What right has the Historical Novel to exist at all? More often than not, it is pointed out, the Romancist gives us a mass of inaccuracies, which, while they mislead the ignorant (i.e., the majority?), are an unpardonable offence to the historically-minded reader. Moreover, the writer of such Fiction, though he be a Thackeray or a Scott, cannot surmount barriers which are not merely hard to scale, but absolutely impassable. The spirit of a period is like the selfhood of a human being – something that cannot be handed on; try as we may, it is impossible for us to breathe the atmosphere of a bygone time, since all those thousand-and-one details which went to the building up of both individual and general experience, can never be reproduced….
(5) RIDING HIGH IN APRIL, SHOT DOWN IN MAY. We all have those days.
When you find out a prominent member of the SFF community thinks your work isn't any good. pic.twitter.com/Zi8DeOlUOg
— Paul "Princejvstin" Weimer (@PrinceJvstin) December 9, 2015
(6) BURSTEIN IN TRANSLATION. Michael A. Burstein had a short story in a recent issue of the Chinese prozine Science Fiction World.
I am pleased to announce that my short story “The Soldier WIthin” has been translated and published in the November 2015 issue of [Chinese characters]. (In English, the magazine is known as Science Fiction World.) This is my first time having a story translated into Chinese or published in China. I’d like to thank Joe Haldeman for having purchased the story for the anthology Future Weapons of War back in 2007, and the editor of SF World, Dang Xiaoyu (I hope I have that right), for choosing to reprint the story .
In theory, this means the story will be read by approximately 1 million people in China. That would make it the most widely read story of mine.
(7) THE BILLIONS NOBODY WANTED. Remember when no film buyers wanted Star Wars for their theater chains? Me neither. But several swear it happened in “’Star Wars’ Flashback: When No Theater Want to Show the Movie in 1977”, an article from The Hollywood Reporter.
LENIHAN I was 23 and booking country towns in Northern California for United Artists, which also owned the Coronet Theatre in San Francisco. I tease Travis all the time that the only time I ever won was when he picked The Deep for a theater in Redding, Calif., while I picked Star Wars. On opening day at the Coronet, there were lines around the block. It played there until Close Encounters of the Third Kind opened in December, and we were still hitting our holdover numbers.
(8) FAMOUS COSTUMES. The “Star Wars and the Power of Costume” exhibit will be moving to Denver where it will run from November 13, 2016-April 2, 2017.
Included in the show’s 60 costumes, which will be displayed in the museum’s Hamilton Building Anschutz and McCormick galleries, are such classics as Princess Leia’s bikini, Darth Vader’s menacing black uniform, and the royal red gown Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) wore in 1999’s ” Star Wars: Phanton Menace.”
In addition to featuring costumes and conceptual art, the exhibit includes videos with designers, actors and George Lucas talking about the creative process.
(9) UNHEARD OF. New York Magazine discovered it takes less than 90 seconds to repeat all the dialogue spoken by women other than Princess Leia in the entire original Star Wars trilogy.
(10) STAR CHOW. And if that doesn’t give you a case of Star Wars-related indigestion, here’s a couple more things to try.
You’ll need:
Donut holes
12 ounces white candy melts
Black icing
Blue icing
Orange Icing
Lollipop sticks
- An idea for making Stormtrooper butter:
When it comes to setting up a holiday dinner table, why not make it more festive by incorporating Star Wars! Flavored butter can be made to be savory or sweet. Pumpkin Spice and Cranberry orange butters are warm and seasonal and taste great with breads and scones. Garlic Herb and Sriracha Lime have a kick that goes well with crackers and sandwiches made of leftovers.
By shaping them into stormtrooper helmets the butter becomes a unique and fun way to add Star Wars to your traditional holiday meal.
(11) HOLY ANDY WARHOL! Or failing that, an entire line of Campbell’s products in Star Wars-themed cans.
(12) HOUSE CALL. Should you need an antidote, try paging through Dining With The Doctor: The Unauthorized Whovian Cookbook by Chris-Rachael Oseland.
Your taste buds are about to take a wibbly wobbly, timey wimey adventure through the 2005 Doctor Who reboot. Megafan and food writer Chris-Rachael Oseland spent a year rewatching all of series one through six and experimenting in her kitchen to bring you a fresh recipe for every single episode. There are recipes in here for every level of cook. If you’re terrified of the kitchen, there are things so simple even Micky the Idiot couldn’t get them wrong. For the experienced chefs, there are advanced fish and beef dishes that wouldn’t be amiss on the Starship Titanic. Along the way, you’ll also find plenty of edible aliens to decorate the table at your next Doctor Who viewing party.
This book is a treat for any Whovian who wants to offer more than a plate of fish fingers and a bowl of custard at your next viewing party. Want to host an elegant dinner party to show off your new Tardis corset? Start the evening with a Two Streams Garden Cocktail followed by Baked Hath, Marble Cucumber Circuits with Vesuvian Fire Dipping Sauce, Professor Yana’s Gluten Neutrino Map Binder, Slitheen Eggs, and some of Kazran’s Night Sky Fog Cups for dessert.
(13) PARODY. Ed Fortune wrote and produced a homage to the world of sci-fi fandom called This Is Not The Actor You Are Looking For, the story of an actor from a popular movie franchise with a confession to make.
(14) THEY MIGHT BE. The BFG official trailer #1. A girl named Sophie encounters the Big Friendly Giant who, despite his intimidating appearance, turns out to be a kindhearted soul who is considered an outcast by the other giants because unlike his peers refuses to eat boys and girls.
(15) INSTANT CLASSIC. Kyra’s lyrics to “Old Man Zombie” –
Old man zombie,
That old man zombie,
He don’t say nothing
But won’t stop moving —
He just keeps shambling
He just keeps shambling along.It might be fungal,
It might be viral,
We might be trapped in
A downward spiral,
But old man zombie
He just keeps shambling along.You and me, we sweat and swear,
Body all aching and racked with fear,
Bar that door!
Hide that pit!
I wandered off alone
And I just got bit.I’m infected
Your brain I’m eyeing,
I’m scared of living
And tired of dying,
I’m old man zombie
And just keep shambling along!
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, and Hampus Eckerman for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Josh Jasper.]
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First. Wow
Seconds! (I’m hungry.)
That Denethor dude can go die in a fire
#???
(9) Unheard Of
I never realized how skewed the imbalance was between male and female parts! At the time I noticed, but it was so normal that I didn’t notice notice…if that makes sense, it was just the air we breathed and kvetched about. I was just mostly thrilled that Leia got to do a bit more than look decorative.
Fifth?
Fifth???
ETA: Damn you, thwarted! (Also, I find it hilarious that 3 of us have the exact same timestamp)
I just read VD’s latest and it only had one chapter 5
11:30 – The TIME OF FIFTH!
Three fifths? 0.6?
(11) – I think somebody misunderstood the relationship between Star Wars and Joseph Campbell’s the Power of Myth.
Well that’s disappointing. Proof the man is resting on his laurels, not willing to go that one extra step to greatness?
So, when Pixel Scrolls go up, do you first read the post, or do you jump right to the comments to secure one of the coveted Fifth positions? 😛
I think he realized he hit a peak that couldn’t be repeated.
Also no digs at John Scalzi! Although he does have a go at Orson Scott-Card.
“I just read VD’s latest and it only had one chapter 5”
Clearly not up to his previous Hugo-worthy standards then.
“So, when Pixel Scrolls go up, do you first read the post, or do you jump right to the comments to secure one of the coveted Fifth positions?
Hey, watch it. I resemble that statement.
@ junego
Quite right. Aunt Beru was the Usual Thing (mother and motivation), but Leia was more than a prize; she was a player – thrilling stuff at the time. And then a woman turned up who was obviously in charge of something (Mon Mothma), for icing on the cake.
Of course, we expect more and better today …
It was the time of the Fifther
When the scrolling began
With the Pixel Scroll posted
You can commence comment
How they loved books so dearly
The new stories they’d find
And they’d share their opinions
(With) comments refined
They gushed over stories
They debated their choices for favourites outright
Their most-loved might differ
(But) still keep it polite
It was the time of the Fifther
And the year’s nearly done
Now the readin’ is over
Nominating’s begun
There’s no excuse for me being awake at this hour, so I will limit myself to…
Clicky.
Official third fifth!
That’s a very nice trailer for BFG! I will allow myself: Cautious Enthusiasm.
I’m particularly fond of how a few particular shots remind me dead-on of the Quentin Blake illustrations. Great echoes of the style, while obviously being entirely different. There’s a split-second shot of the BFG running forward, cloaked, that reminded me perfectly of the illustrations, like this one.
And the hand through the window!
I don’t know the odds of them not turning it into a SFX extravaganza, but at least this trailer isn’t focused on that – and the movie logo, with the floating dreams inside, is likewise very encouraging 🙂 This could be really nice!
Attack On BFG.
(9) + (11)
Eight Star Wars cans shown, no female characters…
@Ray:
Maybe they’re too busy being awesome to spend their time posing for ads. I figure there must be a reason they’re not cannin’.
Well played!
There’s a new StoryBundle out, the New Worlds Bundle. Just in case Filers haven’t already shot your book-buying budget to hell. 😉
Ray:
Looks like they took the most popular characters with no human faces.
It’s not the budget. Where do you guys find the time to read everything?
Good point, no additional image rights to negotiate. (but still, all male except R2-D2)
The New Worlds Storybundle:
The names I recognize are:
Melissa Scott–I have all the Roads of Heaven books, admittedly in the form of Ent corpses. Less portable that way…
Craig Shaw Gardner–Nice guy. Bounced off his books.
Kevin J. Anderson–What was that thing I read earlier this year?
I do not recognize the other names. Can anyone advise?
Lis Carey: Kevin J. Anderson – What was that thing I read earlier this year?
I do not recognize the other names. Can anyone advise?
Cally says it was called The Yawn Between the Stars, but I’m pretty sure that my title page said The Snooze Between the Stars.
I’ve read the first Beaulieu and think it’s pretty good (it got a Gemmell Morningstar Award nomination). I haven’t gotten to the others yet. I recommend downloading a sample to see what you think. He’s also got a collection of short stories for $2.99 on Kindle (sample also available).
I can’t speak to the other books in the bundle. As I’ve already got all the Beaulieus, I’m debating whether I want to buy this particular SFF bundle (I’ve bought most of the others). There’s a lot of Urban Fantasy in it, which is not necessarily my favorite subgenre.
NickPheas: Where do you guys find the time to read everything?
Previously, I was actually whittling my TBR pile down.
Then I started hanging out on File770, and started adding 2 books for every one I read. I’m now convinced that I’m going to die — either of old age, or of compression injuries from a collapse of Mount File770 — long before I ever get through all the books.
Mind you, I’m not complaining. 😉
Re: Brackett (as per earlier threads, but a new link for Mike). Tansy Rayner Roberts as part of her SF Women of the 20th Century blogpost series has her newest one on Brackett…
http://tansyrr.com/tansywp/12-leigh-brackett-the-sword-of-rhiannon/
Lis Carey: “Kevin J. Anderson–What was that thing I read earlier this year?”
I think it was called The Dork Between the Stars. Or was it The Dark Between the Ears? Something like that.
I figure the Story Bundles are like a grab bag of books, only it’s a clear plastic bag. You may not want to read everything in the bag, but you see enough you want to justify paying for the entire batch, including the ones you’ll probably never read..
I’m just wondering which one of us will be first to be crushed to death beneath a pile of unread ebooks… hey, even electrons have mass!
Ah, people whose TBR pile is decreasing. I am reading – with quite some interest and pleasure, to be honest – Alistair Horne’s A Savage War of Peace, Algeria 1954 – 1962, and it is immensely quotable and very relevant to our current state of the world, but my GOD IT NEVER ENDS.
And did I click? Did I hell.
(4) FICTIONAL HISTORY
I note by way of contrast that in the visual art world, in the era dominated by the strict European art academies and authorities that controlled what was painted and who got to paint it (roughly the eighteenth and ninteenth centuries), there was a strict hierarchy of importance of subject matter, with paintings of historical scenes at the top.
(11) HOLY ANDY WARHOL!
I had an amusing moment in a public place where an ad for those soups was playing on a subtitled TV set.
Somehow the subtitle writer seemed ignorant of “Star Wars” or its characters, as the titles had an excited child cry “Arturito soup!”
JJ:
I think that’s got more to do with different attitudes towards history than different art forms. The complaint in (4) FICTIONAL HISTORY is that historical fiction is doomed to be historically inaccurate and that’s bad. The typical 19th century painting of a historical scene is totally historically inaccurate but at the time noone cared.
***
Humble Bundle and TBR pile: I have read the preface of 1 antology, and nothing more, of the last three Humble bundles I bought. I think it’s time to realize my limitations (or the limitations of space-time) and pass on this one.
***
Currently reading book three of a Norwegain YA fantasy trilogy, “The Raven Rings”. If anyone here is in the business of acquiring English language rights I recommend them.
That’s more or less what I do. If there’s enough in the bundle that I want to read, for the price, then I’m willing to get the whole lot.
I must admit I didn’t get the point of the Star Wars parody video.
I have shifted from OMG, there’s a new bundle that has stuff I might want to read to the more pedestrian I really want to read that work in the next three months, otherwise I’ll pass.
NickPheas: Where do you guys find the time to read everything?
I don’t. My solution to an overflowing TBR pile was to get a second Kindle.
Obviously I need one for home and one for the commute, and I wanted a Voyage anyway…
There are about 400MB left. (Unread books only – stuff gets archived after reading.)
*sigh*
Left eye on first kindle, right eye on second kindle, read twice as fast?
Sounds like a great idea.
Today’s reading: Uprooted by Naomi Novik. I’m about a third of the way through and I’m enjoying it a lot so far. It’s unfolding in a satisfying way and the characters are engaging (even if the Dragon isn’t quite as lovable as Temeraire).
@rob_matic: Oooh. Uprooted has inched its way high up on my TBR list.
I initially wasn’t interested since I hadn’t enjoyed Novik’s Temeraire books much, but reviews and reactions have made it sound promising indeed, and much more up my alley than I first thought.
Like others, I find myself passing on more. I actually went ahead and suspended my Audible account for a few months, and will reevaluate in March whether to turn it on again. I’ll be happier with a smaller backlog.
“Expect” may be too strong. I suggest “hope for, often in vain.”
Calibre is your friend. Store your books on the PC, and put them on/take them off the Kindle as you read them. That puts the book storage load on the hard drive instead of the teeny tiny Kindle storage.
@Bruce: I just started an Audible account a monthish ago, because my listening time and my reading time are so distinct. I feel like I can get much more reading done when I can do some of it by hearing (plus, yay, another motivator to go exercise!).
…or did you just accumulate enough credit that you can do without for a while?
I’m enjoying it so far, although really, finding a book I like is hard, and then finding a narrator that I also like makes it even harder… I notice all kinds of weird things with narration that I’d have just skimmed by if I was reading.
I still have fond memories of the Star Wars Exhibit that was set up at MidAmericon I in ’76. Not only was that convention when I first met my wife (Fred, have you developed the pictures yet? Can I see the contact sheets?), but this strange future movie filled a room with Vader’s armor and a bunch of other stuff for a movie that would come out the following year.
@Standback: I’ve been an Audible subscriber since…let me check…August, 2002. I’ve listened to a lot of what I’ve bought over the years, but there’s also rather a big unread pile in there.
For what it’s worth, I seem to find it easier to follow nonfiction in audio form than fiction, for whatever reasons. I tend to do novels and stories in print or (more likely) e-book form, most history and such in audio. As long as the nonfiction doesn’t have a lot of charts or some such; anything really data-heavy goes into print or e-book form as well.
Everybody in the known universe will recommend Scott Brick and a few others as good narrators, so I’ll skip that and mention a few others. Clive Shafer’s been an absolute delight with Peter Ackroyd’s multi-volume history of England. Kaylin Heath and Justine Eyre both do swell jobs with T. Kingfisher books, and I get the extra value of giggling at the thought of T.K. sloshed enough to try talking like Eyre for a sustained period. Sean Runnette is fantastic with Fire Season, a guy’s memoir of working as a fire lookout in the Gila Mountains. Stephen Hoye did really well with Marvel Comics: The Untold Story. And Edwin Barnhart does a great job with his Great Courses courses on Central and South American history (which are just bogglingly cool – he’s in the midst of the ongoing archeological revolution).
(I can do some more reader recommendations if you want, or keep my peace. 🙂 )
Conlan Press has a public statement on the Beagle lawsuit. TL;DR: “I know you are, but what am I?”