Pixel Scroll 4/11/17 There’s A File, Over At The Pixel Scroll Place…

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(1) GIVE ‘EM HELL HARRY! Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the new record-holder for winning the most Olivier Awards.

The Broadway-bound “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” shattered records at the Olivier Awards for London theater here on Sunday night, picking up nine prizes, including best new play, and honors for the actors playing Harry, Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy’s son, Scorpius.

The previous record was seven awards for one production.

Jamie Parker took best actor for his portrayal of Harry, while Noma Dumezweni won supporting actress honors as Hermione and Anthony Boyle supporting actor honors as Scorpius.

“Harry Potter” also won for best director (the Tony winner John Tiffany) and for its lighting, sound, costumes and set design. The production had tied the record for the most nominations for any show in Oliviers history, with 11.

The play is expected to open at the Lyric Theater on Broadway in 2018.

(2) BILLIE PIPER TOO. And walking away with the Olivier Award for Best Actress was Billie Piper. The former Doctor Who companion (as Rose Tyler) won for her performance in Yerma.

The extraordinary Billie Piper plays Her, a woman driven to the unthinkable by her desperate desire to have a child. Simon Stone creates a radical new production of Lorca’s achingly powerful masterpiece.

(3) PULITZER WINNING OPERA. Rob Thornton points to another sff work that took a Pulitzer Prize yesterday.

Du Yun’s opera “Angel’s Bone,” about a couple who rescues two angels, clips their wings and exploits them for money, has won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Music. The jury stated that the work “integrates vocal and instrumental elements and a wide range of styles into a harrowing allegory for human trafficking in the modern world.” According to the website NewMusicBox, the opera features a “disturbing supernatural story” by librettist Royce Vavrek.

(4) EARLY ADOPTING. How new tech is showing up first in slums:

Cities need new ways to create energy and cut down on waste, and some of the most innovative – and low-tech – solutions may well be found in the parts of town the city authorities are least likely to talk about.

While some bemoan crowded commutes, for slum-dwellers it is access to basic services such as running water or electricity that is the real issue.

And where there is need, there is often innovation.

So can the technology being rolled out in the world’s most deprived urban areas offer not just hope for those who live there but also lessons for the richer parts of the city?

(5) FURRY CONVENTION LOSES ITS PELT. Furry fan news site Flayrah bids adieu: “Rocky Mountain Fur Con canceled following neo-Nazi associations, tax irregularities”.

Colorado furry convention Rocky Mountain Fur Con has been canceled. Funds collected in advance of this August’s event are to be spent on existing liabilities, and refunding attendees and dealers where possible; any remainder will go to the convention charity.

While their official statement cites rising security costs, the closure follows the controversial issues surrounding CEO Kendal Emery (Kahuki Liaru), and the “Furry Raiders” group. It has also been discovered by Flayrah that the convention’s parent company’s Federal tax-exempt status, obtained in 2009, had lapsed, and it had not filed taxes for a period of seven years, while still claiming to be a registered 501(c) non-profit. In this investigative report we can identify the issues that have contributed to the end of Denver’s furry convention.

(6) CALL OF THE WILD CAFFEINE. This conversation sounds familiar.

(7) STAR WARS CHARITY CONTEST. Deadline Hollywood reports “’Star Wars: Force For Change’ & Omaze Kick Off 40th Anniversary Of Sci-Fi Franchise With New Charity Campaign”.

Over the course of four weeks between April 11– May 11, fans may enter at Omaze.com/StarWars for a chance to win once-in-a-lifetime Star Wars experiences including the chance to appear in the upcoming Han Solo movie, tickets to the world premiere of Star Wars: The Last Jedi in Hollywood, or, an overnight stay at Skywalker Ranch. The grand prize is winning all three of these experiences.

Starlight Children’s Foundation is the newest charity to benefit from Star Wars: Force for Change. Through a $1 million grant, Star Wars: Force for Change supports the foundation’s core programs at 700-plus children’s hospitals, clinics, and camps. Over the last three years, Star Wars: Force for Change and UNICEF have raised more than $9M together and saved the lives of 30K-plus children suffering from severe acute malnutrition through the distribution of over 4M packets of Ready to Use Therapeutic Food Packets (RUTF) around the world.

The contest is here.

(8) DUNNING OBIT. Washington State fan Karrie Dunning died April 11. Dunning had been in fandom since the Seventies. She emceed the masquerade at the first Norwescon in 1978. She was part of the Seattle in 1981 Worldcon bid that lost to Denver, and involved with the city’s Vanguard group.

(9) TODAY IN HISTORY

  • April 11, 1939  — Buck Rogers first aired on radio.
  • April 11, 1970 — Apollo 13 was launched, manned by astronauts James Lovell, John Swigert, and Fred Haise.

(10) WARNING, TANNED PECS AHEAD. Erin Horáková deconstructs Captain Kirk, interstellar oinker, in “Freshly Remember’d: Kirk Drift” at Strange Horizons.

I’m going to walk through this because it’s important for ST:TOS’s reception, but more importantly because I believe people often rewatch the text or even watch it afresh and cannot see what they are watching through the haze of bullshit that is the received idea of what they’re seeing. You “know” Star Trek before you ever see Star Trek: a ‘naive’ encounter with such a culturally cathected text is almost impossible, and even if you manage it you probably also have strong ideas about that period of history, era of SF, style of television, etc to contend with. The text is always already interpolated by forces which would derange a genuine reading, dragging such an effort into an ideological cul de sac which neither the text itself nor the viewer necessarily have any vested interest in. These forces work on the memory, extracting unpaid labour without consent. They interpose themselves between the viewer and the material, and they hardly stop at Star Trek.

….Besides, if Star Trek is going to be part of the conversation whether or not the Left wants to claim it (and look at how SFnal texts are being deployed in the discourse for conversation surrounding the Reprise of Fascism—look at how authoritarian forces are deploying the grammar of Star Trek, and at Nu!Trek’s imperial subtexts), then our memory of the text should not actively derange said text to suit political projects we do not necessarily consent to participate in. For these projects live in us and through us, like parasites that make us their unwitting and unwilling hosts. Like dybbuks that possess and consume us, taking our thoughts, our very eyes, and making them their own.

(11) BRAND NAME COMICS. John Carpenter of movie fame is starting a comics series:

Carpenter and his wife and collaborator Sandy King are bringing us Tales of Science Fiction, a monthly anthology series that will show us the darkness and wonder of everything the genre has to offer. The first three-issue arc is called “Vault” and has been written by James Ninness with art by Andres Esparza. The first issue will be available in July, and we’re waiting with baited breath.

(12) THE ONES FANS’ MOTHERS DIDN’T BURN. Drum roll, please. Here is ScreenRant’s list of “The 18 Rarest and Hard To Find Comic Books”.

  1. Detective Comics #27

Of course, this comic had to make it onto the list. While no single issue of Detective Comics is particularly rare, there’s no denying the appeal of the very first appearance of the character described on the cover as “The Batman” – the inclusion of the word “the” in the hero’s title dates back long before Ben Affleck was set to direct a movie of the same name, and even before the animated series The Batman.

There are less than two hundred copies of Detective Comics #27 remaining in the world today, which would mean that it’s actually fairly common compared to some books on this list. In spite of that, though, thanks to its impressive place in the annals of comics, this is one book that you’re unlikely to ever own, as each of the surviving copies of the book are worth at least a six figure sum

(13) GAME THERAPY. Post-trauma visual games may prevent PTSD.

But it turns out the particular brand of disconnection provided by Tetris may reflect a mental state long sought by healers to treat patients who have lived through a trauma.

I’m referring to the idea that some combination of facing negative memories, but also being distracted from them, might help alleviate the vivid psychological scars of trauma. Clinicians and philosophers have tried countless ways of treating trauma and anxiety through the years — of finding, as Roman stoic philosopher Seneca called it, tranquillitas, or peace of mind. And many of them were, in all likelihood, bunk. But the science now shows that activities as simple as playing distracting video games or focusing on eye movements can help patients cope with a tragic experience.

(14) PROFESSIONAL HELP. Remember SFWA’s resources for topics like event accessibility.

(15) SCHOLARSHIPS FOR WRITING CLASSES. Cat Rambo is increasing the number of Plunkett scholarships she offers for her writing classes.

Something I’m trying to do this year is pay things forward as much as possible. Recent technological upgrades means I can now fit more than 8-9 people in a class (can now handle up to twice that many, which is more suited to some classes than others), so I figured one way to do that is to make more class slots available to people who couldn’t otherwise afford the class.

So, each class now has three Plunkett scholarship slots, the third of which is specifically reserved for QUILTBAG and POC applicants. Everyone is encouraged to apply, but I want to make sure it’s getting to a diverse range. The only qualification for a Plunkett is this: you would not be able to afford the class otherwise. Just mail me with the name/date of the class and 1-3 sentences about why you want to take it.

Classes Offered April-June 2017

(16) PUTTING A CAP ON HIS CAREER. If this is what traditional publishers are making writers do, indie authors have one more reason to be thankful.

(17) TAFF FINAL CALL. Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund voting ends April 17 at midnight GMT. Curt Phillips – TAFF Administrator, North America and Anna Raftery – TAFF Administrator, UK/Europe encourage you to participate.

The Loooong 2017 TAFF voting season is finally approaching a conclusion as voting ends this coming Sunday, April 17 at Midnight GMT (that’s UK time), which time marks the end of this year’s Eastercon.  Voting had been extended to allow in-person voting at Eastercon; a longstanding tradition for TAFF and that convention.  UK TAFF Administrator Anna Raftery will be on hand at the convention to take those votes, so please do keep her busy!  And as a special attraction for Eastercon attendees there will be a League of Fan Funds auction during the convention.  Rare and valuable artifacts of fannish loot and booty have been gathered to entice your pounds from your wallets and purses to benefit TAFF, GUFF, and other fan funds including a new one which hopes to benefit fandom in Brazil!  But there’s room for more, so *please* bring along a little loot and booty of your own to donate to the fan fund auction at Eastercon.  *Many* fans will benefit from your generosity!   On-line and postal voting will continue through that time as well both in North America and in the UK/Europe – and all around the planet, for that matter and you can find a link to the ballot and the candidate platforms at David Langford’s excellent TAFF website found at http://taff.org.uk/

No matter who you vote for, thank you for supporting TAFF.  You are contributing to a life changing experience for a fan, and a very noble and worthwhile tradition for all of Fandom.

(18) PRO RATES. Here’s the SFWA market report for April, compiled by David Steffen.

(19) TRACK RECORD. ComicsBeat brings word that a pair of successful moviemakers will shepherd Invincible to the big screen.

First they kicked things off co-writing the 2011 Green Hornet film.

Then they took on the task of adapting and showrunning the current adaptation of Preacher for AMC.

After that, they opted to bring another Garth Ennis-written comic, The Boys to Cinemax.

And today? Variety reports that writing and directing duo Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg will be writing/directing/producing a big screen adaptation of the Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker superhero saga, Invincible for Universal.

(20) STREAMING SF. Netflix released the SENSE8 Season 2 – Official Trailer

[Thanks to Chip Hitchcock, lurkertype. Cat Rambo, Cat Eldridge, Rob Thornton, JJ, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Soon Lee.]

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59 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 4/11/17 There’s A File, Over At The Pixel Scroll Place…”

  3. Pixel Scrolled for somebody’s sins, but not mine…..

    Because it is the season, and because I have front row seats for Patti’s concert on Sunday!

  8. Y’know, if I had a bit more (time/creativity) at the moment, I’d consider filking a Traveling Wilbury’s song as “Tingle and the Devilman.”

    I think we can all count our blessings now, eh?

  9. What is “QUILTBAG?” I found a couple of different definitions on a google search.

  11. Yay! I contributed (10)!
    It does require a bit of attention, but I figured Filers are smart enough to understand all the big words and have an attention span longer than a Tweet.

    If you do NOT: TL;DR: Kirk not such a slut in TOS as commonly thought

    (5) Neo-Nazi tax-dodging child molester. Seems being a furry was the most respectable and normal thing about this guy. Oh, and a coward too, for closing it up so that nobody could properly investigate. He’s gonna take his ball and his untaxed money and go home, and doxx a woman while he’s at it.

    (13) What if you’re so bad at video games that they give you PTSD — or at least increase your stress and frustration, which certainly can’t help. I’ve been in car accidents and if you’d told me I had to play Tetris afterwards, it would have been worse. Plus then I’d have a bad association every time I saw falling blocks.

    (16) Nobody tell George how long ago that was popular with the young audience. (Wiki sez those ads were on from 1999-2002, which means no teenager remembers them, plus it was uncool even before they ended.)

    (19) Sure you should brag about that first one, boys?

  12. lurkertype: Wiki sez those ads were on from 1999-2002, which means no teenager remembers them, plus it was uncool even before they ended.

    I think that’s the point. 😉

  15. 19) as Lurkertype already noted, The Green Hornet is not exactly a feather in the cap of one’s resume…

    That debate about Marvel and Non-Marvel Marvel movies in another thread does dovetail here: Consider just how many to-me-awful non Marvel comic book movies there have been in the last decade. The Green Hornet? Green Lantern? (Ryan Reynolds has clearly redeemed himself with Deadpool since, but, yipes). The Spirit, which I still can’t figure out what the heck I watched…

  18. 10) is, indeed, well worth reading.

    My own take on JJ-Trek Kirk is that the characterization makes a kind of sense, given that the Jonbar Hinge where the classic timeline splits off from JJ-Trek’s involves the death of Kirk’s father. It makes a kind of sense, to me at least, to assume that JJ-Trek Kirk grew up without a reliable father figure in his life, and that he wound up steeped in toxic masculinity as a result – which is how we get JJ-Trek Kirk in the films, convinced (or, maybe, trying to convince himself?) of his own wonderfulness, promiscuous, disrespectful of rules and authority (all the stuff which TOS-Kirk, as Horáková points out, really, really wasn’t.)

    So, well, the JJ-Trek characterization makes a sort of sense to me. What doesn’t make sense, unfortunately, is why anyone would trust JJ-Trek slacker-horndog-dipstick Kirk with command of a starship, or indeed any position of any responsibility at all. And that’s the writer’s fault, not the character’s.

  19. What is “QUILTBAG?”
    A term made up by someone with too much time on their hands.

  22. 10) I’ve only seen a couple of episodes of TOS, but that doesn’t stop me from having an opinion. Esp. since the article is about the perception of Kirk more than the reality of Kirk. So..
    – Its not my impression that Kirk has lots of sex. Rather, that he was weirdly irresistibly attractive to women, who kept doing the equivalent of giving him the nuclear codes.
    – A lot of the reason for this is that TOS was more central focused and Kirk got most of the screen time. Subsequent Star Trek had episodes focused on different crew members,.so the romance got spread around and wasn’t unrealistically concentrated in one character.
    More generally, the trend on TV nowadays is to ‘grimify’ older characters. Superheroes, Archie’s crew: everyone has to have a dark side exposed, no surprise that Kirk isn’t an exception to the trend.

  23. @Paul Weimer

    19) as Lurkertype already noted, The Green Hornet is not exactly a feather in the cap of one’s resume

    It was reasonably profitable and earned largely mediocre reviews. For a gamble on trying to remake a 70 year old property into a new franchise, they did fairly well even if they fell short of their target. Other similar adaptations it is compared to like The Spirit, the Phantom or the Shadow bombed hard and lost lots of money.

  24. I’ve got an extra copy of Tremontaine, the prequel to Ellen Kushner’s Riverside series, to give away. iThis a share universe affair with a story by Ellen and Malinda, Joel Derfner , Alaya Dawn Johnson, Patty Bryant, Racheline Maltese and Paul Witcover.

    Reply here if you’re interested in getting this. Previous recipients of a galley are not eligible for this galley.

  25. @Cat Eldridge on April 12, 2017 at 8:42 am said:
    Oh. I would like that please!

  28. steve davidson: I don’t think so. Your lyric was “There’s a file, over at the fannish place.”

  30. @Dex

    The Green Hornet was boring which is the worst sin for a movie in my opinion.
    The Phantom and the Shadow were much better pulp movies even if they failed in a lot of other ways.

  32. @Magewolf

    The Green Hornet was boring which is the worst sin for a movie in my opinion.

    Sure, but it made money. That’s what makes them a successful directing pair in the industry. Hollywood ‘success’ has nothing to do with art and everything to do with ROI.

  33. The Honest Trailer for Rogue One is awesome! Lots of spoilers if you have not seen it.

  34. The whole furry contretemps (5) is spawning an amazing amount of follow-on, the best of which is a hilarious post by BoozyBarrister on the Liquor and Lawyers blog. One tiny excerpt:

    “FBI, Agent Smith speaking.”

    “Yeah, there’s someone who’s promoting a shooting at our local event. We think they may be a terrorist.”

    “Who is the suspect?”

    “A six foot tall tasmanian devil.”

    *click*

    I can verify that the above conversation has pretty much happened in the real world, with only the animal type and police agency changing.

    Anyway, the above post has made BoozyBarrister a walking God to the furs, as documented on his twitter feed. If he gets an invite to a furcon the Dorsai are working, I plan to ply him with good scotch and see what happens.

  35. In re the clipped-wing angel opera in (3) – Tom Reamy did a story with a similar theme (“Under The Hollywood Sign”, if I recall correctly). It was one of the most disturbing things I ever read. I can’t imagine an opera along the same line.

    In re (19) about bringing Invincible to the screen – I didn’t see Green Hornet, but Preacher is pretty damned good. If the same folks are doing Invincible and The Boys, I’ll be there. Before seeing what they did with Preacher I would have said The Boys was unfilmable, but now I’m not so sure. Invincible might be harder to do, as so much of it is steeped in comic-book self-reference. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

  36. Given that Green Hornet costs $127 million to make, and pulled in only $220 million at the box office (only about 55% of which goes back to the studio nowadays), I’d be surprised if the film made any real profit. Certainly, whatever profit there might have been was low enough that they canceled plans for a follow-up film.

    (And it was a boring film, although artistically not as outrageously bad as the Green Lantern film.)

  38. Just burst out laughing on reading the prologue for Steven Brust’s Hawk which paraphrases Michael Weston from Burn Notice

    My name is Vlad Taltos. I used to be an assassin until…

    I love that series.

  40. @steve davidson,
    It’s entirely possible. We’ve certainly seen similar title suggestions cropping up, and sometimes they come thick & fast especially when we’re riffing on a theme.

  42. The first rule of Pixel Scroll is you don’t worry about Pixel Scroll

    No, seriously. I’m sure we’ve covered most of the popular tropes/titles/themes/memes/leitmotifs, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun trying a previously used one on for size.

  43. Tremontaine has been claimed successfully by Sylvia Sotomayor. More galleys to follow.

    I should clarify that these are not meant to be reviewed, but are for your reading pleasure. If you do review it, make sure I know you did, so I can tell the Publicist at Saga Press. Especially if you SQUEE about it.

    That said, I do have one here that I’d love to get reviewed — it’s Catherynne Valente’s The Refrigerator Monologues. It’s a series of ;inked stories by her (with illos by ills by Annie Wu) riffing off the Simone meme.

    If interested reply here please.

  45. steve davidson: @JJ: That’s NOT the title of the book

    I’ve got an SJW Credential right here wut sez it is. 🐱.

    Who you think I’m gonna believe? You, or my SJW Credential?

  46. JJ: Who you think I’m gonna believe? You, or my SJW Credential?

    [In my Kevin Standlee voice]: The meows have it….

  48. What the what? I assumed it was literally Naomi Kritzer (maybe under an nom de plume) and the title was literally “Pride and Prejudice and SJW Credentials.” I have so many corrections to make in my hastily typed message to my girlfriend. That’ll teach me to trust anything an SJW says!

  49. Catherynne Valente’s The Refrigerator Monologues.

    Please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please. Please.

  50. kathodus: What the what? I assumed it was literally Naomi Kritzer (maybe under an nom de plume) and the title was literally “Pride and Prejudice and SJW Credentials.” I have so many corrections to make in my hastily typed message to my girlfriend. That’ll teach me to trust anything an SJW says!

    Oh, kathodus, I’m so sorry. I was just making a joke — and it never occurred to me that my confabulation actually sounded quite plausible (which, in hindsight of course, it does). My SJW credential is sending you a catnip mouse in apology.

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