(1) BEA ACCESS ISSUE. Black comic book artist Tee Franklin, an invited Book Expo America panel participant who uses a wheelchair, arrived at today’s item and found there was no ramp allowing her to get on the platform with other panelists. She wrote a Twitter thread about the experience — it starts here:
I want to thank Kat from @ImageComics who reached out to the folks @Reed_POP and told them about what went down during this panel. The VP of ReedPop came down to the booth, apologized & asked how can they do better.
— TEE FRANKLIN IS WRITING. JOIN MY PATREON (@MizTeeFranklin) June 2, 2018
The moderator — who probably should have been aware in advance of the panelists and their backgrounds, who the panelist says knows her, and knows that she’s disabled — wasn’t paying attention and didn’t think as soon as they arrived to call the con management and say “we need a ramp in this room, STAT”.
Here’s one of the many tweets in support.
In the same vein as @intelligentwat, #BookCon2018: REMEMBER YOUR DISABLED PANELISTS. I’m at the Diversity in Graphic Novels panel and there was NO RAMP for Tee Franklin. She rightfully left due to this egregious oversight. Photo: panelists moving their chairs & mics to the floor pic.twitter.com/iEb5ZOFmGi
— Monique Laban (@endorphinique) June 2, 2018
Franklin adds that this is chronic occurrence:
I did THREE PANELS IN A ROW IN 2 DIFFERENT STATES & NONE had ramps!!!! I’m so tired. So quitting was NEEDED. Stop treating me like an afterthought. I am somebody!
— TEE FRANKLIN IS WRITING. JOIN MY PATREON (@MizTeeFranklin) June 2, 2018
(2) YOUNG PEOPLE RETURNS! James Davis Nicoll launches a new round of Young People by having them listen to a radio adaptation of Frederik Pohl’s “The Tunnel Under The World”.
Welcome to the first installment of Young People Listen to Old SFF, an experiment to see if old science fiction and fantasy radio shows aged better than old science fiction and fantasy. Unsurprisingly, my first selection is from that classic old time SF radio show, X Minus One.
To quote from my tor dot com piece: NBC’s Dimension X (1950-1951) and X Minus One (1955-1958) shared a network, some staff and initial source material for scripts. The first fifteen scripts for X Minus One were repurposed Dimension X scripts. Although the shows began by adapting stories from Astounding, X Minus One turned to more sophisticated material from Galaxy Magazine. I prefer X Minus One over Dimension X, so I’ve snagged two episodes from the first and none from the second. As I’ve said before, DX had the all time best ad lib: immediately after a character in one play made an impassioned plea for world peace, the news broadcasters broke in to announce the outbreak of the Korean War.
Among other things, the panel says this show failed the Bechdel Test!
(3) SILENCED, Heather Altfeld explains how “Every Day, Another Language Dies” at Lit Hub.
…Recent broadcast from the terrarium of sadness and destruction: it will take between ten and fourteen days from now for another of the world’s 6,900 languages to die out. So let’s say that today the last speaker of something somewhere is dying.
Exhibit A: Alban Michael. Out of the 7,700,000,000 people on earth, he was only one left who could speak Nuchatlaht. He lived near Nootka Island, he spoke to his parents in dreams, as there was no one left to speak to him. And then one year ago, he was gone, himself a dream, his language buried with him….
(4) POLITICS IN SF? YES. The Village Voice’s Carol Cooper is “Catching Up With the Next Generation of Sci-Fi Writers”.
…Surely in a community that attracts atheists, Wiccans, CIA agents, physicists, semioticians, libertines, libertarians, and unrepentant Trotskyites, one might anticipate a few political debates. More recent controversies have centered on fears that “political correctness” is taking the field too far away from the kinds of themes and characters that ruled SF in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s. Evidently, gay, non-white, and feminist themes and writers were getting too much attention in the 21st century, leaving straight, white protagonists with conservative plot lines unfairly ignored. But gathering to learn and play at regional and national conventions is one way these schisms in the larger SF community are addressed and eventually healed.
At Nebula Con, we discussed these questions of diversity in SF on panels like “How to Decolonize Your Fiction” and “Collaborations: More Than the Sum of Their Parts.” For the former, book agent DongWon Song asked a roundtable of non-white authors if it’s possible to write fiction free of the influence of Western imperialism and white supremacy. Bill Campbell, a middle-class, half-Jamaican author and publisher, described how after a white agent accidentally told him his work “wasn’t ghetto enough,” he reacted by self-publishing the satiric Koontown Killing Kaper, a gumshoe fantasy in which vampire crack babies are accused of murdering local rappers. Frustrated by the overly narrow expectations of existing publishers, he started Rosarium Publishing in 2013 as a home for multicultural SF, comics, nonfiction, and crime fiction that doesn’t pander to the “white gaze” and disregards stereotypical assumptions….
(5) THE COCKY CROWS. Here’s the Authors Guild update on “Cockygate” — “Authors Guild and RWA Prevail in Court Defending Authors in “Cocky” Trademark Dispute”.
The Authors Guild and the Romance Writers of America (RWA) joined forces in this case to defend the principle that no one should be able to own exclusive rights to use a common word in book or book series titles. In ruling against the author Faleena Hopkins, who claimed exclusive rights to “cocky” for romance titles, Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York, stated that he did not believe that Hopkins was likely to succeed on the merits.
…When Hopkins’ trademark registration was issued in April, Hopkins sent notices to multiple authors telling them to change the titles of their books and asked Amazon to take down all other cocky-titled romance books (not just series).
That is when the Authors Guild stepped in to defend the authors whose books were targeted. The Guild and the RWA separately requested that Amazon put the books back up, since the trademark claims were disputed, and it promptly complied. The two groups then jointly hired the Authors Guild’s outside counsel, Cowan Debaets Abrahams & Sheppard, to write a letter to Hopkins on behalf of Tara Crescent, author of another “Cocky” book series (and an Authors Guild member).
In response, Hopkins filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York against three people: Crescent, author and lawyer Kevin Kneupper (who challenged Hopkins’ trademark registration), and book publicist, Jennifer Watson. In doing so, Hopkins asked for a temporary restraining order to prevent the May 26th publication of a collection of stories by different authors, entitledCocktales: The Cocky Collective (Hopkins incorrectly named Watson as the publisher). The Guild’s attorneys prevailed in court last Friday the 25th to prevent the temporary restraining order and again today in a hearing on Hopkins’ motion for a preliminary injunction.
We opposed the attempt to block publication of a book, arguing: “Any order that restricts creative expression in favor of promoting the tenuous (at best) purported rights of a single author is simply contrary to the public interest in freedom of expression.”
Judge Hellerstein agreed and found that Hopkins was not likely to succeed on the merits because the word “cocky” is a common and weak trademark, there was no evidence of actual confusion, and romance readers are sophisticated consumers—meaning that they are not likely to confuse Hopkins’ and Crescent’s books.
You can read our papers here, filed jointly with attorneys for Kneupper and Watson.
(6) GRIDLOCK. The Ogden UnCon takes place June 7-9, 2019 in Ogden, Utah. That means there are three general SF cons scheduled within the same month — UnCon, FyreCon, and Westercon — all within 10 miles of each other.
(7) NOT TAKEI TOO? Washington Post op-ed writer Eric Berkowitz considers “The case against George Takei was always weak. Why were we so quick to believe it?”.
… But there was always a lot wrong with the Brunton story. Unlike Weinstein, C.K. or Spacey, Takei had never been known — even in whispers — for sexual misconduct. And Brunton’s tale didn’t quite hang together. He didn’t accuse Takei of drugging him until days after he first contacted the media, and, as detailed in a recent Observer article , he hadn’t even suspected that Takei had spiked his drink until years after the incident, when he read about the accusations against Bill Cosby. According to Shane Snow’s reporting, if Brunton had been given one of the date rape drugs in use back then, he probably would have no memory of what happened. Finally, Brunton told the Observer that he didn’t recall any touching by Takei. What began as an accusation of sexual assault was now, for Brunton, “a great party story” and “just a very odd event.” Takei responded to the Observer article with relief, tweeting, “I wish him peace.”…
The result is that we are too ready to believe that George Takei committed sexual assault and to assume that gay men are prone to it. We don’t know exactly why there was a rush to judgment against Takei — in the immediate wake of #MeToo, there were so many accusations being hurled, it was hard to keep track — but we can reflect on why so many of us are inclined to think the worst.
(8) DABNEY OBIT. NPR reports “Ted Dabney, Co-Founder Of Atari And Video Game Pioneer, Dies At 81”. He also co-founded the ancestor of Chuck E. Cheese’s.
Dabney, who generally went by Ted, and Nolan Bushnell had been working together at an electronics company called Ampex back in the mid-1960s, and Bushnell had an idea for a “carnival-type pizza parlor,” Dabney recalled in 2012.
“It’s one of these things, you have these ideas and no way you could ever make it happen,” he told the Computer History Museum. “I mean, you could barely afford the pizza, much less buy a pizza place.”
Turns out he was right — they couldn’t afford to start a pizza place, at least not then. But those conversations did start a tumultuous partnership that would, within just a few years, go on to create Atari, introduce Pong as a cultural phenomenon and help blaze a trail for the very medium of video games as we know them today.
(9) TODAY IN HISTORY
- June 2, 1977 — Capricorn One premiered
(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
- Born June 2, 1915 – Lester Del Rey, sf author
- Born June 2, 1945 – Jon Peters, Executive Producer of Batman Returns, Producer of Batman, The Witches Of Eastwick and the Wild Wild West film.
- Born June 2, 1977 – Zachary Quinto, the new Mr. Spock
- Born June 2, 1978 — Dominic Cooper (Jesse in Preacher, Howard Stark in Agent Carter and Captain America: The First Avenger and a role in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.)
(11) HIRSUTE KNOWLEDGE. Camestros Felapton has posted the answers to his sff author beard identification quiz. How did you score?
(12) A FRIGHT AT THE OPERA. Broadway World says a Bradbury-inspired opera will open this summer: “Sci-Fi Opera THE BRADBURY TATTOOS To Premiere This July”.
In the nearly 70 years since late author Ray Bradbury published “The Illustrated Man,” various short stories in the classic science fiction anthology have been adapted for film, stage and television. Now, four of them serve as the basis for “The Bradbury Tattoos,” an ambitious new rock opera, scheduled to premiere July 13 and 22 at Memorial Hall in Cincinnati.
Written by composer Zac Greenberg and librettist Michael Burnham, “The Bradbury Tattoos” will be presented by concert:nova, a contemporary-classical ensemble founded by musicians from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Partial funding for the production is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.
“The opera is in four movements,” Greenberg explained. “The first three movements happen simultaneously, in different rooms. The audience moves from room to room, and then everyone comes together in the main hall for the grand finale.”
Stylistically, the movements range from classical string quartet to avant-garde classical, folk and big band. Though the stories are different, they share a common theme of humans coping with a frightening future:
- “Kaleidoscope” – The crew of a disabled spacecraft reflects on their lives, while drifting toward death.
- “Zero Hour” – Children play a game called “Invasion,” which turns out to be more than a game.
- “The Highway” – A husband and wife who live near a highway help refugees fleeing a nuclear war.
- “The Last Night of the World” – A married couple goes about their normal routines, despite realizing that the world is about to end
(13) CAREFULLY TAUGHT. The BBC asks: “Are you scared yet? Meet Norman, the psychopathic AI” — another demo that data matters when teaching an AI.
Norman is an algorithm trained to understand pictures but, like its namesake Hitchcock’s Norman Bates, it does not have an optimistic view of the world.
When a “normal” algorithm generated by artificial intelligence is asked what it sees in an abstract shape it chooses something cheery: “A group of birds sitting on top of a tree branch.”
Norman sees a man being electrocuted.
And where “normal” AI sees a couple of people standing next to each other, Norman sees a man jumping from a window.
The psychopathic algorithm was created by a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as part of an experiment to see what training AI on data from “the dark corners of the net” would do to its world view.
(14) SCARE THE HELL INTO YOU. The hype machine says “Hereditary: The ‘scariest film for years’ is coming”.
It’s been described as “the singularly most terrifying horror film in years” and “a new generation’s The Exorcist”.
Horror movie Hereditary has become one of 2018’s most eagerly anticipated releases after scaring and impressing critics in equal measure.
Actress Toni Collette is coming in for particular praise as a woman whose family has demons in its DNA.
Bustle said it’s “truly unlike anything you’ve seen before”, while The AV Club called it “pure emotional terrorism”.
The film is released in the US on 8 June and in the UK a week later.
(15) CAT HELP WANTED. In San Diego a “Beloved book store closing after 53 years” – and the bookstore cat, Bartleby, is unemployed!
It’s the end of an era on Adams Avenue in Normal Heights. After 53 years, the Adams Avenue Book Store is set to close its doors.
(16) ROAD ROCKET. Messy Nessy shares its photo album of “Fantastic French Publicity Caravans of Yesteryear”, which begins with this epic vehicle:
My wormhole began with this photo of the world’s first (possibly only) vehicle-shaped pen, the BIC mobile, photographed at the Tour de France in 1953. I’ve never been an avid follower of the annual cycling race that was created in 1903 by a French newspaper as a gimmick to sell more papers– but this? Give me a parade of the wackiest concept cars and publicity vehicles, and you’ve got my attention!
[Thanks to Robin Reid, Chip Hitchcock, Cat Eldridge, John King Tarpinian, JJ, David Doering, Mike Kennedy, Martin Morse Wooster, Greg Hullender, Carl Slaughter, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew.]
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first? wow.
I like the car in 16.
[Edit: Upon thinking about it, the access issue can get frustrating. I push my mom around in a wheelchair all the time, and it seems like there’s always something — a cart blocking an aisle, a store with not enough clearance between furniture, a soap dispenser in the bathroom set above where a person in a wheelchair can reach, those baby change tables in the disabled stalls being down — it’s not a kind world for wheelchairs. Way to go for her to stand up for her rights!]
(14) Do not want.
Clickity
Things hurt.
@katster
You never notice these access issues, until you have regular contact with wheelchair users. I have an aunt who is a wheelchair user and there are a whole lot of restaurants, etc… which are off-limit for birthday parties, etc…, because they are not accessible to wheelchair users. It infuriating, especially since we aren’t talking about buildings that are hundreds of years old here.
I am Fifth!
Speaking as someone with (minor) mobility issues, and a former backup caretaker for my mother who had major mobility issues, I’ve learned never to assume that disability requirements will automatically be take care of – always contact a facility in advance to make sure you can access it! And even then it’s not a sure thing – I’ve been to more than one place that though “wheelchair accessible” meant “only one step” (a 6″ high one in one case).
A conscientious con would contact program participants in advance to ask if they had any special requirements. And those participants shouldn’t assume that people they may never have met know their needs.
(1) BEA ACCESS ISSUE. Good freaking grief!
BTW the last time I remember reading something list this (at an SFF con, IIRC), the other panelists came off the stage to have the panelists sit in front of the stage. Was there something about the BEA setup that made this should-be-obvious solution 100% impossible? (I have no idea what venue they were in, but lots of places have wireless mics.) The answer shouldn’t be for her to leave; it should be for the panel to work together to overcome BEA and/or venue incompetence, even if they can’t get a venue ramp quickly. Ugh.
/Post-Second-Fifth 😉
Kendall: Was there something about the BEA setup that made this should-be-obvious solution 100% impossible? (I have no idea what venue they were in, but lots of places have wireless mics.) The answer shouldn’t be for her to leave; it should be for the panel to work together to overcome BEA and/or venue incompetence, even if they can’t get a venue ramp quickly.
As you can see from Monique Laban’s tweet to which Mike linked, that was exactly what happened. However, after experiencing this at several cons now, Ms. Franklin had finally had enough at that point — based on her tweet thread, she started to make a public statement about such accessibility problems to the audience, and the moderator attempted to talk over her and tell her how she should feel — and decided to leave anyway (for which I don’t blame her).
(4). Politics in SF.
This might be me spotting what everyone knows, but there always used to be conservative politics in SF. Mid period Niven is riddled with it. But it was woven into the story.
Comparing the more modern brands of conservative writers they seem to want me to read straight infodumps, or characters giving lectures to camera about how stupid liberals are. Switch straight off.
Dan Simmons and Gene Wolfe are two of many favourite writers – even when they are bad they are interesting.
There’s compelling fictional perspectives that suit a right wing stance – particularly hyper-individualism, fate, destiny and perseverance through will power. Those themes can be turned to more progressive ends but many core left wing themes don’t suit novels well (broad socioeconomic forces being the drivers of history rather than great people doing great deeds, the merits of collective action arising out of broad social consensus etc).
Also, being interesting and being readable is quite distinct from being right or wrong. I’d much rather read something Plato wrote than anything Aristotle, Kant, Marx or Simone De Beauvoir wrote but then good ideas require work whereas bad ones can be fun.
So, I do temperamentally want to see right wing voices in fiction but as you point out there is a price: they have to be interesting, readable and entertaining. Sympathy for the devil is wholly dependent on the devil not delivering sermons in the style of the virtuous.
Science fiction has pretty much always had a political dimension – whether it’s Captain Nemo destroying imperialist shipping, or various retired colonels prophesying the next invasion by the insidious Hun, or H.G. Wells extolling the virtues of socialism, the genre has politics baked into it from the nineteenth century onwards. (If only because you can’t predict Amazing Technological Innovations without working out what effect they might have on society.)
Also
I appear to be in possession of unallocated FREE TIME tomorrow! I note my local picture house is showing both:
Deadpool 2
&
Solo
Which should I see?
@Lin McAllister:
Sadly, that breaks down for any large-scale con. The much simpler solution is to make sure that every space used can handle accessibility when it comes to mobility, hearing et c.
For what it’s worth, sf cons might be ahead of the curve here. My wife said both recent Swecons and the Helsinki Worldcon have had better accessibility preparation than the large professional conferences she has been to.
@Camestros — I haven’t seen Deadpool 2 yet, but went to Solo for the third time last night and again found it a fun (if sometimes visually murky) way to spend a couple of hours.
@Camestros
If you liked Deadpool, you’ll almost certainly enjoy Deadpool 2 as well. As for Solo, reactions are mixed, though it seems to be better than expected.
4) This is a pretty good overview of current debates in the genre. In the light of the recent discussion about indie SFF, the look inside the Michael Anderle book factory is interesting as well.
And then there’s Astounding/Analog, which gave us subtle passages like this one:
“No. But you wanted to be able to think like a man, and you couldn’t. You think like a woman!
Not to mention stories that dwell on the perfidious natures of those darn, make-up wearing, equal pay wanting feminists.
James Davis Nicoll: And then there’s Astounding/Analog, which gave us subtle passages like this one
Um, could you please put Content Warnings on Randall Garrett links? Ugh.
kthx
@Karl-Johan:
It only breaks down if the con assigns people to programming without asking things like “what are/aren’t you interested in talking about” and “what times work for you?” The same contact that asks “would you like to be on the panel about yellow-bellied sneetches at noon Saturday?” can ask “do you need any access or disability accommodations? If yes, what are they?”
Alternatively, the form that says “here are the panels we’re considering having. Please indicate which you are interested in participating in, and which you would like to moderate,” “when are you available for programming?” and “what is the maximum number of program items you are willing to be on (at all, in one day, in a row)?” can ask about access needs.
The panelist shouldn’t have to wait until they’re told “We want you to talk about the difference between fusion and steam-powered velocipedes at 9 a.m. Sunday” to write back and say “I’d love to, and I will need a wheelchair ramp.” (They also shouldn’t have to be saying “velocipedes are great, but I’m not available before noon Sunday” at that stage.)
This is partly about taking access needs seriously, and partly about making everyone’s jobs easier. Someone may unexpectedly need a ramp at the last minute (injuries are as likely to happen three weeks before a con as in the other 49 weeks of the year), but the sooner the con knows what’s needed, the easier it will be for them to make sure they have enough ramps, and someone to move them as needed.
And then there’s the passage in World in the Clouds (Bob Buckley, Analog March to May 1980) in which the black protagonist is singled for his intelligence and courage , unlike “others of [Roger’s] particular breed”, who are elsewhere referred to as animals.
@Camestros:
I saw both, back to back. Deadpool 2 was first, but only because that’s how the schedule worked out best. (I ended up with about 15 minutes between them.) BTW, DP2 has one early-credits scene. There’s no very-end scene, but there is a little bit of audio fun there. Nothing major, and whether you consider it worth sticking around for is up to you. I got a snicker out of it.
I liked Solo, but because I did not follow Clone Wars and Rebels, I was a bit lost about where it fit into the timeline, particularly when one character showed up. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that the beginning of the movie is 13 years before A New Hope, and most of the film happens three years after that. That still lends itself to an oddity or two, but it answers the big question.
For those who’ve seen it, the oddity I refer to is that Wnoon vf nyernql va cbjre va Gur Cunagbz Zranpr, lrg ur nccrnef gb or gur bar fnvq gb or “chggvat n perj gbtrgure.” Qvq ur ybfr cbjre ng fbzr cbvag?
1) Imma remind people, particularly con and event runners, that SFWA has a frickin’ accessibility checklist that is free to use. We -want- people to use it. http://www.sfwa.org/other-resources/public-relations/accessibility-checklist-for-sfwa-spaces/
Pixel Scroll: “I Am Groot.”
@Rev. Bob — My own interpretation of that was “chggvat n perj gbtrgure” zrnag gung juvyr Wnoon jnf fgvyy ba gbc bs gur urnc, rvgure ur unq n fcrpvsvp wbo ur arrqrq n grnz sbe, be ur jnf ybbxvat sbe arj gnyrag gb xrrc va uvf fgnoyr.
For anyone who might be interested, Marie Brennan’s “Memoirs of Lady Trent” books seem to be about half price on Amazon UK Kindle at the moment.
Cam,
I think the question hinges entirely on how much you enjoyed Deadpool 1.
@Camestros Felapton: “Sympathy for the devil is wholly dependent on the devil not delivering sermons in the style of the virtuous.”
Clearly you’ve never read The Sunlight Dialogues.
(1) This issue is omnipresent–and the answer too often seems to come down the person with the disability needing to do the work (and even if they do the work, individual requests or those forms with requests often get lost in the mess). The answer is universal design or universal accessibility:
https://www.cio.gov/2017/12/20/universal-design-what-is-it/
I’ve been learning more about this in the context of online courses at my university where the ideal is to shift away from “individual student with disability requests accomodation” (often close to when the semester begins) to “all online courses meet universal design/access standards from the start). (This also applies to f/f courses but in different ways). It’s hard to do in institutional contexts especially when administrators don’t see the need to be compliant, but that really needs to be the goal.
The SFWA list is an excellent one: I think I’m going to send it off to the Board for the academic conference I attend every year.
The June issue of Ansible appeared on the first of the month. As usual there’s little actual news that missed Mike’s gruelling schedule of updates, but a few of the sillier items may provoke a reluctant titter.
(14) Heriditary doesn’t show up in an IMDB search for me, so its’s hype machine seems stuck in first gear.
Rich Lynch: Heriditary doesn’t show up in an IMDB search for me, so its’s hype machine seems stuck in first gear.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7784604
1) *SIGH* Maybe, just maybe, before I die, a time will come when I won’t see these types of stories any more.
I’m not holding my breath. Cons/events are a reflection of society at large and the world is designed for the convenience and comfort of the majority. I long ago came to understand that my life would be circumscribed by physical circumstances the average person would never think twice about
But one would think, at this point, that it would be a reasonable expectation for a panel to be accessible to a panelist known to be on wheels.
My head hurts. Can I go home now?
The piece about George Takei isn’t an “op-ed.” It’s a longer piece that appeared in the POST’s “Outlook” section of commentary on June 3.
Aren’t there two parts, separated by a small quantity of credits?
(Bit pedantic, I know, but watching the first bit and leaving before the second would miss some good gags)
As for the two films, I’d say let how you feel about Deadpool and Star Wars movies in general guide you.
(7) In a case of YMMV, it seemed to me that a great many more people chose to be skeptical about Takei than did about most of the other simultaneous accusations. I mean, some did — I knew people who dropped his facebook feed, and the like — but I also saw a lot of doubt, and thoughtfulness, a bit of self-examination of “Am I doubting this because I don’t want to believe it or is it really more doubtful than others?”. Not many were knee-jerking it, and almost all of those still linked or cheered the “Hey, he’s exonerated” when that came out.
OTOH, saying it’s a specific willingness to believe gay men are predatory strikes me as odd… to me it’s most similar to the false accusation against Ringo, who is a straight man, and who also had what felt like similar numbers of people believing it, reluctantly considering it, and doubtful or outright not believing.
@James: “Aren’t there two parts, separated by a small quantity of credits?”
My memory did not register a gap between them. This tells me that if there is a gap, I wouldn’t expect anyone to have time to get up and exit the theater during it, which is close enough for me to call it one scene.
@Lenora Rose: Perhaps it says more about the people around the article writer.
(15) Our big girl (17 pounds of big boned, long haired Mainecoon floof) is a retired book store cat. One of the sweetest SJW credentials you’ll ever meet. Sadly, until we volunteered the day before closing, no one was up to taking her when the store closed: not another store in the local chain, not an employee, and no other customer. Glad we have her. It would have been a damn shame for her to land at a shelter.
(5) THE COCKY CROWS: I have to point out that this was not the entire trial, but a preliminary hearing to see if there was grounds for an an immediate restraining order and injunction against the defendants. While the judge did state that the mark was weak enough to not merit a restraining order, the case is not over. At this point it moves into Discovery and handling the request for summary dismissal; the case will resume in September.
TL, DR: While not exactly good for the plaintiff, this I isn’t unusual, and the case will go on.
By the way, I’ve read the trial transcript, which in parts is utterly hilarious:
Ellen Datlow says they are looking for homes for Gardner Dozois’ cats.
https://www.facebook.com/EllenDatlow/posts/10155740921707075
(1) I seem to recall an event, I don’t know if it was a science fiction convention or a different type, where this happened while I was present. The other panelists immediately jumped down from the stage and formed a semi-circle on the floor, pushing back a couple of rows of chairs with help from the audience. The panel wasn’t too big, so it was doable, but the organizers were apparently annoyed that the furniture had been rearranged. I was not present when they were told off by the panel moderator for not having a ramp available.
(7) I’m one of those people who doubted the accusation because a) there was only one person coming forward and b) the accuser didn’t seem very serious about it. I cautioned waiting for more information or accusers, and struggled with myself over whether or not I was being more lenient because it was Sulu being accused. I felt a huge wave of relief when the news came out that the accuser was, indeed, making up parts of his story and just being obnoxious. But I also felt vindicated earlier when NO ONE else came forward to make accusations against Takei. If that horrid behavior was in his nature, there would have to be more victims.
Look for the patterns, look for the victims to step forward once the first has done so, and try not to judge too quickly. Until the evidence is overwhelming, don’t assume either innocence or guilt. Unless you are someone officially investigating the situation, you don’t know jack squat about it.
@JJ: I got the sequence of events confused, thanks. I probably didn’t check the dates on the Tweet threads I read and read things out of order, because I thought that happened at the first one. ::bow::
@Camestros Felapton: I haven’t seen SOLO yet (maybe today, maybe not), but DEADPOOL 2 was great! But if you didn’t see or disliked DEADPOOL, then go see SOLO. 😉
@Vicki Rosenzweig: “. . . the sooner the con knows what’s needed, the easier it will be for them to make sure they have enough ramps, and someone to move them as needed.”
Yes, plus if they now early on, they can try to schedule rooms-needing-ramps-etc. in a set of rooms, instead of every panel needing a ramp in a different room, which may overrun the number (or feasibility of quickly moving) ramps around. It’s really just good logistics sense to find out early and have it be part of the whole scheduling and room-assignment processes.
1) Regarding accessibility issues at cons, I think it’s also good if the moderator contacts the panelists beforehand and asks about any accessibility issues, because the con might not know or might forget to pass on the information.
At WorldCon 75 I had a panelist using a scooter on the panel I moderated, which I did not know about beforehand. Luckily, the panelist could walk the few steps to the table (which wasn’t raised) and I reseated the other two panelists to make her comfortable. But next time I moderate a panel, I will definitely ask about any accessibility needs beforehand and don’t assume that the con will let me know. And if a panelist has any accessibility needs, I will also double-check with the con.
@JJ
Ah, that’s what it was. No great loss then, especially since I’ve read “The Queen Bee” and have no desire to ever repeat the experience.
Since I’m in Germany, I cannot access any Canadian Project Gutenberg content, because the Canadian Gutenberg page has a couple of copyright violating German novels up and refuses to taken them down or just block access to those novels. Instead, they ban every German user. Coincidentally, the German novels aren’t books I’d ever read voluntarily (I read some of them in high school and university).
I saw “Solo” on Friday night and thoroughly enjoyed it. I agree with Scalzi’s review as to why it’s not getting the love. The acting and action were good. There were no stakes concerning the fate of the galaxy, but the fate of the individual characters was definitely in play, and you were sympathetic to them. The movie would have been stronger with some editing to knock about ten minutes off the length, IMHO. Never saw Deadpool, so can’t make any suggestions there. But Solo is a good summer popcorn movie.
WRT to the timeline, V guvax gur qvfphffvba nobhg gur pevzr ybeq chggvat gbtrgure n perj sbe n ovt fpber ba Gnggbvar pbhyq or Wnoon, -be- pbhyq or fbzrbar gelvat gb zhfpyr va ba Wnoon’f ghes. Rvgure jnl, ol gur gvzr Una naq Purjl trg gb Gnggbvar, gurl zvtug jvaq hc va Wnoon’f fgnoyr.
Also, Donald Glover sounds EXACTLY like Billy Dee Williams. It’s eerie.
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@Cat Rambo
I have some friends in the Philadelphia area, so I shared the homes-needed post of FB with a request that it be reshared. I hope the cats find good homes.
OGH: Thanks for the title credit
@James Nicoll: Have you ever read “Blank Form” by Arthur Sellings? The psychiatrist hero is convinced that the shapeshifting amnesiac alien he’s discovered will be able to regain its memories if only it manages to adopt a form similar enough to its original form – and after a lengthy period of trying all sorts of shapes, the radical notion of suggesting that the alien transform into a female human form finally occurs to the doctor (which of course provides to the solution).
WRT George Takei: I didn’t want to believe it either, and consider it a nonissue at this point.
Like Al Franken, who I think got screwed over and falsely accused by right wing operatives. Not saying Franken never ever in his life didn’t do anything gross, but it’s amazing how all the accusers faded quickly into the weeds when he resigned.
I personally feel he should have let the due process play out. I’m not condoning anything he may have done, but frankly, I don’t think we know at this point.
It’s unfortunate that this issue (sexual harassment and assault) has been ignored for so long that there’s almost like an overreaction at this point. I firmly believe that there is a spectrum, from merely gross to utterly criminal, and that nuance is called for. Otherwise we can be victimized by people with an agenda, an agenda that aims to discredit people who come forward with their experiences.
YMMV of course.
@Techgrrl1972: Interesting speculation, that. Hmm.
With respect to disabilities and panelists and the best way to gather information and make the proper accommodations, one solution does come to mind…
Make sure all the rooms and function areas are accessible, for panelists and attendees alike. Right from the start. Assume going in that your Guest of Honor, who loves to attend random panels, will sprain an ankle right before the con, and design all the function space accordingly.
Sure, the odds are good that you will end up with some rooms having ramps that aren’t absolutely required… and? Is this a problem? I guarantee you that some of the attendees are dealing with some sort of impairment that they don’t want to admit to – maybe even to themselves – and will find it a godsend not to have to actively request some kind of accommodation.
Hell, I’ve been that person. I used to carry a cane as an affectation, but it got to be pretty damned handy a few years ago, and I eventually bit the bullet and started telling the hotel I have a mobility impairment when making my reservation. I’m not in a wheelchair, so I’ll happily settle for a room near the elevators if it’ll free up a wheelchair-friendly room to someone with that specific need – but the shorter the walk, the better off I am. Some of the cons I attended knew I had trouble getting around, and some didn’t, but it’s not the sort of thing I would have been comfortable about proactively disclosing when registering for the event. It’s that “I don’t want to put anyone out” instinct at work, y’see… and I guarantee that feeling’s not unique to me.
Make the event more welcoming to everybody. Nobody should have to beg for access to an event they’ve paid money to attend or been invited to as a guest. Accessibility should be the norm, not an exception to be made “when needed.” Someone will always benefit from it.
SF Hugo Reading: I’m 2/3 into The Black Tides of Heaven (Tensorate #1) by J.Y. Yang and it’s very good! Unless it falls apart in the last third, I’ll continue the series. I’d like to read Sonami’s story at some point; at first I thought I’d get some of that in this book, but no.
There are a few inconsistent and/or poorly-explained worldbuilding bits and “Slack” is a poor name for the magic (mostly due to its actual meaning, but also, we use chat software at work called Slack 😉 ). But I’m enjoying it a lot.
Next up (hopefully tomorrow) will be Okorafor’s and Gailey’s novellas, neither of which I’m looking forward to, unfortunately. (I read Binti the other year.)
@Karl-Johan Norén (and @Rev Bob):
Hotels and convention centers, at least in the US, tend to have very few ramps; my (admittedly not universal) experience is that they’re not commonly rentable. (I poked around a bit the WFC 2015 kerfuffle, which may be the one @Kendall was thinking of.) I suspect most rental agencies think that the hassle of bringing/installing a ramp, plus the liability if the install breaks, make the business not worthwhile. This may be a chicken-and-egg (or worse, a molasses-man) issue: if enough conventions demand this gear, decorators will start carrying it, but the conventions give up because they can’t find sources. My SWAG is that even if ramps become common, putting them in every room will involve enough money to seriously pinch the convention; organizers may just have to include checking-on / allowing-for mobility issues when planning panels, but that’s easy for me to say since I don’t run convention programming. IME, SFF conventions are dealing with this by not using platforms in most rooms; sometimes this is OK, sometimes it’s … suboptimal.