(1) DUBLIN 2019 MEMBERSHIP DEADLINE. They say no at-the-door memberships or day passes will be sold, so join now.
(2) COMPLAINT ABOUT DUBLIN 2019 POLICY REVEAL. KerenL tweeted:
(3) CATS MUSICAL. Ready or not, coming to theaters this Christimas: “‘Cats’ musical drops first trailer with Taylor Swift and people are seriously divided”.
Taylor Swift, whose cat Bombalurina is shown reclining and enjoying Catnip in the footage, announced the trailer had dropped Thursday — a day before it was scheduled to be released.
“I’m a cat now and somehow that was everything #Catsmovie” Swift tweeted.
Directed by Tom Hooper, the first trailer introduces a major cast which includes Jennifer Hudson as Grizabella, Judi Dench as Old Deuteronomy, Idris Elba as Macavity and James Corden as Bustopher Jones.
(4) TIS THE SEASON. Speaking of hairballs, here’s just what everyone’s looking to add to their holiday tree! From Hallmark: “Star Trek™ Tribble Fabric Ornament With Sound and Motion”.
(5) INTO THE HALL. In a ceremony held at Balboa Park just ahead of the convention: “Batman Inducted Into Comic-Con Hall of Fame” – The Hollywood Reporter has the story.
The ceremony inducting Batman into the Comic-Con Museum Hall of Fame — the first fictional character to be awarded the honor — was the crowning moment of “The Gathering,” a special celebration that doubled as a preview of The Batman Experience, a pop-up exhibit in the Balboa Park location that will eventually become the physical home of the Comic-Con Museum running during this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, and a fundraiser for the Museum.
Both “The Gathering” and The Batman Experience are part of DC and Warner Bros.’ wider celebration of the 80th anniversary of the release of Detective Comics No. 27, which introduced Batman to the world, a yearlong event that has already included events at South by Southwest and a USO tour featuring DC’s Lee and Batman comic book writer Tom King.
(6) PITTING HIMSELF AGAINST THE CHALLENGE. The second Ad Astra trailer has dropped. Comes to theaters September 20.
Astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) travels to the outer edges of the solar system to find his missing father and unravel a mystery that threatens the survival of our planet. His journey will uncover secrets that challenge the nature of human existence and our place in the cosmos.
(7) UNIQUE. Who else writes like her? James Davis Nicoll advises Tor.com readers where to find “Five SFF Works Reminiscent of Andre Norton”.
What other authors wrote books with thematic similarities to the books of Andre Norton? Too bad that no one has ever asked me that question. Let’s pretend that someone has asked. Here are five suggestions.
(8) ANIME STUDIO FIRE DEATHS. BBC’s overview: “Kyoto Animation fire: Arson attack at Japan anime studio kills 33”.
At least 33 people died and dozens were injured after a man set fire to an animation studio in the Japanese city of Kyoto, officials say.
Police said the 41-year-old suspect broke into the Kyoto Animation studio on Thursday morning and sprayed petrol before igniting it.
The suspect has been detained and was taken to hospital with injuries.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the incident was “too appalling for words” and offered condolences.
It is one of Japan’s worst mass casualty incidents since World War Two.
Kyoto Animation, known as KyoAni, produces films and graphic novels, and is well regarded by fans for the quality of its productions.
…Reports say the man is not a former employee – but eyewitnesses say he appeared to be angry with the animation studio.
They said he ran away from the building towards a nearby train station after the fire started but fell to the ground. Some reports said he was pursued by employees of Kyoto Animation.
…The Asahi Shimbun newspaper quoted a 61-year-old neighbour as saying she clearly heard the man shout: “You ripped me off.”
The suspect was injured and was being treated in hospital, so police could not immediately question him, NHK said.
This article contains both fan reactions and brief descriptions of the company’s numerous popular creations: “Kyoto Animation: Fans heartbroken by deadly anime studio fire in Japan”
“One of the main things that stands out about Kyoto Animation is the quality of the animation itself,” said Ian Wolf, an anime critic for Anime UK News. “It’s very viewer-friendly.”
The distinctive visual style and level of polish leads to a look that is instantly recognisable, Wolf said.
“The studio makes very little in the way that is controversial… little that is violent or sexual. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to attack it.”
(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]
- Born July 18, 1911 — Hume Cronyn. Way back in the Forties, his first genre role was as Gerard in The Phantom of The Opera. Since then he’s appeared in such well-known films as Cocoon, Cocoon Returns and Batteries Not Included along with the more obscure outing of Richard Burton’s Hamlet. (Died 2003.)
- Born July 18, 1933 — Sydney Jay Mead. Industrial designer and concept artist, best known for his designs for Aliens, Blade Runner and Tron. Mead once said in Borrowing an idea from Los Angeles (NYT 20 July 2011) that “I’ve called science fiction ‘reality ahead of schedule.’” An eight-minute film on him, “2019: A Future Imagined” can be seen here.
- Born July 18, 1938 — Paul Verhoeven, 81. Direction, screenwriter and producer. Responsible for RoboCop , Total Recall, Starship Troopers and the creepy Hollow Man. Mind this is the man who also did Basic Instinct and Showgirls.
- Born July 18, 1943 — Charles Waugh,76. Anthologist and author, whose anthology work up to 2013 numbered over two hundred titles (!), mostly done with Martin H. Greenberg but a handful done with other co-editors as Greenberg died in 2011. Name a subject and there’s likely an anthology on that subject that he had a hand in. I have not read, nor do I have the very least desire, to read his two novels with Deepak Chopra.
- Born July 18, 1952 — Deborah Teramis Christian, 67. She’s an author and game designer. has designed and edited role-playing game materials for Dungeons & Dragons such as Tales of the Outer Planes, Bestiary of Dragons and Giants, Dragon Dawn, and Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms. She also writes fiction under the name Deborah Teramis Christian with genre novel such as The Truthsayer’s Apprentice and her latest, Splintegrate.
- Born July 18, 1967 — Paul Cornell, 52. Author of the Shadow Police series which is quite excellent as well as writing a lot of television scripts for Doctor Who, Primieval and Robin Hood. He was part of the regular panel of the SF Squeecast podcast which won two Hugo Awards for best fancast.
- Born July 18, 1967 — Vin Diesel, 52. His first genre role was as the delightful voice of The Iron Giant. He next shows playing Riddick in Pitch Black, the first in The Chronicles of Riddick franchise. He’s Hugo Cornelius Toorop in Babylon A.D. and he’s the fascinating if enigmatic voice of Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy and other MCU films. He’s apparently in the next two Avatar films but I don’t see his role determined.
- Born July 18, 1980 — Kristen Bell, 39. Veronica Mars. Genre, well not really, but a lot of y’all watch it. She also voiced Jade Wilson in Teen Titans Go! To the Movies which I highly recommend as it’s highly meta.
- Born July 18, 1982 — Priyanka Chopra, 37. As Alex Parrish in Quantico, becoming the first South Asian to headline an American network drama series. Is it genre? Maybe, maybe not, though it could fit into a Strossian Dark State. Some of her work in her native India such as The Legend of Drona and Love Story 2050 is genre.
(10) COMICS SECTION.
- Non Sequitur gets a good laugh by combining a UFO and a cave painter.
(11) THE BUD LIGHTS IN THE SKY ARE STARS. On the theory that everyone can play this for laughs, until someone gets killed, “Bud Light is offering free beer to any alien that makes it out of Area 51”.
The world is ready to finally see the secrets hidden inside Area 51. And if one of those secrets happens to be living aliens, well, we have good news — they’ll be greeted with free cans of Bud Light.
Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Bud Light, initially posted on Twitter, “We’d like to be the first brand to formally announce that we will not be sponsoring the Area 51 raid.”
However, the brand quickly backtracked off that alienating claim, saying, “Screw it. Free Bud Light to any alien that makes it out.”
(12) COMIC-CON BEGINS. And The Onion is there.
(13) LOYAL FANS. Billboards demanding Warner Bros,#ReleaseTheSnyderCut of Justice League appeared where they’ll hopefully be seen by people on their way to San Diego Comic-Con.
(14) ANOTHER SDCC TRAILER EVENT. From The Hollywood Reporter:“‘It Chapter Two’ Trailer Launch Kicks Off Comic-Con”.
The audience got an early look at the new trailer, which debuted online Thursday morning. The presentation, taking place on Comic-Con’s preview night, is dubbed ScareDiego and is held off the San Diego Convention Center grounds, and unofficially kicks off the Con in terms of movie panels. The event, now in its third year, is growing and this year was held at the Spreckels Theatre with comedian and late night show host Conan O’Brien serving as moderator.
(15) CLOSE ENOUGH FOR GOVERNMENT WORK. James Davis Nicoll’s contribution to the Apollo 11 anniversary observance is “Remembering the Moon Landing: Michael Collins’ Carrying the Fire” at Tor.com.
…Collins was the Command Module Pilot. While the Lunar Lander descended to the Moon’s surface, it was Collins’ task to remain with the Command Module in Lunar orbit….
Rather than making any attempt at a dispassionate, neutral history of the Apollo Program, Collins provides a very personal account, a Collins-eye view of the American path to the moon. It’s not a short process, which is why it takes 360 pages before Collins and his more well-known companions find themselves strapped into the largest, most powerful man-rated rocket to have been launched as of that date. Before that…
(16) CHICAGO STYLE DOG. I hate to think I’ll missing out on this: “You Can Now Stay In An Oscar Mayer Wienermobile Overnight With Airbnb”.
Starting on July 24, Oscar Mayer’s iconic 27-foot-long Wienermobile is available to book overnight on Airbnb. Seriously. This is not a drill.
True hot dog fans know that the Wienermobile has pretty much travelled all across the country, spreading positive vibes and love for, well, wieners. And until now, no one has been able to spend more than a few hours in the famous Oscar Mayer vehicle, which makes this overnight camp-out option kind of a big deal.
Per their press release, the hot dog distributer has confirmed that its Wienermobile will be available to those staying in the Chicago area between August 1-4. Just in time for Lollapalooza!
(17) KGB. Ellen Datlow has shared her photos from the July 17 Fantastic Fiction at KGB where Theodora Goss read from her new collection Snow White Learns Witchcraft and Cadwell Turnbull read from his recently published novel, The Lesson.
(18) IT PAYS NOT TO BE IGNORANT. Congrats to Rich Horton who won $66.67 playing last night’s HQ mobile-based trivia contest. One of the questions was:
“Which Hugo-winning writer did NOT write an episode of STAR TREK?”
The choices were:
- Robert Bloch
- Norman Spinrad
- Robert Heinlein
Says Horton, “I’m sure I don’t have to tell many people that Heinlein never wrote a Star Trek episode.”
(19) WHERE’S THE BEEF? Apparently this is another thing you leave behind when you simulate a lunar mission: “Russia’s Sirius Moon project leaves crew hungry for steak”.
What do you crave after spending four months cooped up in a mock spaceship?
“A tasty steak!” was Anastasia Stepanova’s swift reply, when she emerged from her Sirius-19 quarters, along with five other space guinea pigs.
The team of four Russians and two Americans – sent to Moscow by Nasa – were isolated, but stayed on terra firma. So, no weightlessness or cosmic radiation to worry about.
But in other respects the Sirius-19 experiment was designed to imitate conditions on a flight to the Moon.
Ms Stepanova’s colleagues were also looking forward to tasty food, though cosmonaut Yevgeny Tarelkin, commander of this “mission”, said he was missing his family.
They had big fridges and grew their own vegetables under artificial light. But the diet was hardly mouth-watering: mostly kasha (buckwheat porridge), puree and canned food.
(20) FLAME ON. Mashable makes sure we know “Drones with flamethrowers are a thing you can buy now”. (Was this a Prime Day deal I missed?) [Via David Langford.]
As if drones weren’t frightening enough, now they can be equipped with fire-spitting flamethrowers? Oh gawd.
Throwflame’s TF-19 WASP drone attachment is capable of shooting targets with flames from 25 feet away. Every gallon of fuel capacity will get you 100 seconds of firing time.
According to Throwflame, the TF-19 WASP is made from carbon fiber and designed for drones with a five-pound payload capacity or more. In the video above, the flamethrower is shown mounted to a DJI S1000 drone.
[Thanks to James Davis Nicoll, Cat Eldridge, John King Tarpinian, JJ, Lis Riba, Martin Morse Wooster, Mike Kennedy, Chip Hitchcock, Daniel Dern, 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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(18) Heinlein’s episode would have been “The Flat Cat Fiasco” or “Amok Time for the Stars” (or “The Rocketship Galileo Seven”).
@Andrew
Or “Citizen of Part of the Galaxy”?
How about “The Man who Maneuvered in Corbomite”?
Let’s go with that!
@Mike: Why, thank you! I’m delighted.
(4) TIS THE SEASON.
And of course, one must remember the three rules:
Do not expose them to bright lights
Do not let them get wet
Do not feed after midnight
No wait…
18) Norman Spinrad is a Hugo-nominated author, but he has never won a Hugo.
(A more interesting way of asking that question would be “Which Hugo-winning writer DID write an episode of Star Trek?)
@3: I can see some reasons for division, e.g. the rendition of “Memory” is beyond ose. But it looks like they’ve done some effective use of film — there are only so many giant props that can fit in the wings of a theater — so I’m going to wait for more info.
@9: very obscure Hume Cronyn role: narrator in the Christmas Revels’s “quest” show. (Presumably brought in by the writer, Susan Cooper.) I don’t remember exactly which year it was or what the official title was, but it was definitely a plotted genre story, even if it made room for some of the standard pieces.
@9bis: I doubt Waugh’s work with Chopra is much worse than a lot of his anthologies.
(4) @Soon Lee–No, that’s gremlins. I have one right here on my lap.
Or at least, David Gerrold told me that the gremlins in Gremlins were based on Chinese Cresteds, which makes way more sense than you might think.
1) Anyone know why? Do they expect to be near capacity?
2) Or how about enjoy spending fun time with your kid? The annoying and exhausting parts of parenting don’t include the times you share a love you both enjoy.
I do think Dublincon was wrong to make this announcement at the last minute, but it’s not that big a deal.
(2) @bookworm1398–There are not going to be a lot of 14-16yos who will be cheerful and compliant about needing to be supervised 100% of the time at the convention. That’s, like, exactly the age at which adolescents are starting to attempt to separate from their parents to start forming their independent identities. Maybe Dublin could seriously consider not spreading alcohol over the entire convention in ways that force parents to treat adolescents as children in tow.
My understanding is that this is a combination of the rules under which the Convention Center is required to operate and Irish Child Protection laws.
Children (anyone under the age of 18) are only allowed in licensed premises if they are with a parent or guardian, but this provision carries certain restrictions. For example, if accompanied by a parent/guardian, the child may remain on the premises between the hours of 10:30am – 9pm (until 10pm from May to September) unless the licence holder feels this is injurious to the child’s health, safety and welfare. Children aged between 15-17 years may remain on the premises after 9pm where they are attending a private function at which a substantial meal is served. All licensed premises must display a sign to this effect in a prominent place at all times and failure to do so can result in a fine.
https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/justice/criminal_law/criminal_offences/alcohol_and_the_law.html
13- and 14- year old children may be in Programme Spaces unaccompanied as long as their parents are on-site and are with them when they are in uncontrolled communal areas.
Child Protection legislation is in force for under 13’s, and they can only be left in spaces where the adults in the space have been vetted.
This does not explain why Dublin 2019 is only just now finding out about these rules. Surely this should have been something investigated when the venue was chosen.
11) First those poor aliens have to endure experiments and vivisection attempts in Area 51 and all they get is a free can of Bud Light. Haven’t they suffered enough?
9) A strong case could be made that at least the last couple of Vin Diesel’s Fast & Furious movies have become genre, or at least genre-adjacent. (And it looks like Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw is going full-on, but I don’t know if Vin is going to be even making a cameo in that one.)
Kristen Bell is also starring in The Good Place …
2) I presume that the entire convention centre holds an alcohol license, since they also have banquets and the like. As a result, the entire convention centre is a licensed premise, even if in practice alcohol is only available at some pubs/cafés inside the convention centre and at parties, banquets, etc…
From a German POV, banning minors from places where alcohol is sold is a weird practice anyway, because the policy in Germany is, minors are allowed to be present in places where alcohol is sold, but it is not allowed to sell alcohol to them. And 16-year-olds are legally allowed to drink beer, but not harder alcohol. And if there is a parent or guardian present, a restaurant will not check if a young person is old enough to drink alcohol, because they assume the parent knows what they’re doing. Or at least they didn’t when I was at the age where it was relevant.
I remember when I was a teenager, that it was occasionally a problem in other countries (the UK, but also the Netherlands), when my parents took me to restaurants, pubs or even stores where alcohol was sold. It never occured to them that this might be a problem, because it wasn’t one in Germany.
As for why the Dublin committee didn’t inform parents of minors any sooner, I suspect it never occurred to them, because they never considered that the whole convention centre might be considered a licensed premise. Though this is something they should have checked early on or that should have been explicitly mentioned in the contract.
(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS. Deborah Christian’s Mainline was great! (Caveat: That’s the name on the book; I know she uses three names now.) I’m looking forward to Splintegrate and I’m happy it’s finally coming down the pike for real (unless the publish date’s pushed back again, sigh).
Mainlinewas a wonderful random find, a couple of hardback copies (maybe just the one?) on the remainder shelf at Borders or Barnes & Noble. It sounded interesting, so I said “what the heck” and picked it up. I was very pleasantly surprised both by how much I enjoyed it and that the main character was bi – unusual and not expected when I picked it up. Ever since, in case I find “another Mainline” (random remainder book I love), I always check the remainder shelves. Of course, back then, I wasn’t so hooked into what new books are coming out, so these days it’s super-rare for me to be surprised by finding an unknown-to-me SFF book on those shelves.
Memory, all alone in the bookstore
Has the store lost my authors
Oh, wait, here they all are
In fluorescent light
Remaindered books collect at my feet
And a new read
Has begun
(Apologies to T.S. Eliot and Andrew Lloyd Webber!)
ETA: Lordy I’m wordy. I’m bookmarking this one as “Pixel Scroll 7/18 – I rambled.” And I see the URL for this post uses my editor-of-the-day title from a few days ago, though the actual post title is @Andrew’s. 😉 Whee, chaos!
“because the policy in Germany is, minors are allowed to be present in places where alcohol is sold, but it is not allowed to sell alcohol to them.”
I remember way back when I was a kid, if our parents were in a bar, it was no big deal to go in and find them. It was a treat to sit at the bar and have a Coke with a cherry in it. These days, there would probably be an investigation. We also used to be able to run to the store to get my Dad’s cigarettes.
I have no idea if it was against the law. Probably but I grew up in a small town where everyone knew you. (When I go back, I still meet people who know me as “Jim and Evelyn’s oldest boy”.)
@Roger Silverstein
Lessee . . .
Gene Roddenberry
Theodore Sturgeon
Harlan Ellison
David Gerrold
Robert Bloch
Same in Sweden. It is the establishment that needs to make sure that no kids gets a hand on alcohol. But more importantly, you would never be allowed to call a whole convention center a place where you drink alcohol. If we go by the basic regulation (there are always exemptions), alcohol is only sold in conjunction with cooked food (microwaved readymades are not enough) and also only in a well demarcated area. So that means you had to sit at a restaurant to buy your alcohol and not to bring it out in the rest of the convention center.
And this is the part that confuses me a bit more: Does this mean that I can expect people walking around with alcohol in the convention center in non-designated areas?
@Hampus: everybody should be drunk everywhere all the time, so that at least the restrictions on kids won’t be wasted.
@Bookworm:
Yeah, no. “You have a 16 year old, therefore you cannot go to any event that the kids will be bored at” doesn’t make for a “fun” convention for a 40-year-old fan.
Landsman specifically is participating in multiple events, including panels and the launch of her own book. Good luck “accompanying” your kids during that, and having a “fun time.”
@Cora:
I assumed that too, but in today’s update, Landsman says the con has advised her they did know, they just forgot to put it on the site.
…grrrrreat.
(fixed a typo there. If there are any Worldcon events that your kid will be born at, that’s a much bigfer problem)
@Cora
The UK situiation was (and still is) complicated.
If you’re 16 or 17 and accompanied by an adult, you can drink (but not buy) beer, wine or cider with a meal.
If you’re 14 or under, you may be able to go to a pub (or premises primarily used to sell alcohol) if you’re accompanied by an adult. However, that depnds on the pub having the right license that premises. This changed in 1994 – before that no under 14s were allowed at all, and a lot of pubs wouln’t allow obvious under-18s in at all.
@Lis Carey Maybe Dublin could seriously consider not spreading alcohol over the entire convention in ways
That may be beyond them. The convention centre is probably a single licensed premises.
Standback:
Last time I tried that was at a Heavy Metal festival and it ended with me falling asleep in front of the speakers to Megadeth. That at least makes for a better story than me falling asleep to the Meowing Kitten Keyboard of The Doubleclickers. Or wait…
I JUST NOTICED THAT SASSAFRASS ARE PLAYING AGAIN! I AM EXCITE!!!!
Hey, is there not a programme for Worldcon yet?
Do we know when one is expected?
If this rule gad been in effect in the states when I started attending cons, I’d not have been able to attend cons.
Whats more, Suncon, the 35th Worldcon, would not have had a Hugo Awards banquet – because the awards banquet manager would not have been allowed on the premises.
Yeah, of course they’d have someone else do it. My point is, I was 17 when I had that role.
Fanhistory would be seriously altered – this whole grand and glorious thing would probably never have happened with these rules and laws in effect.
How old was Asimov when he joined the Futurians?
Of course, too late to be able to address these issues, if they could be addressed, but that’s kind of the point, no?
(11) Now I’m wondering if any terrestrial aliens (e.g., Canadians with green cards) work at area 51. I’m not sure how hard it is for such people to get security clearances.
(2) I hope they are willing to give membership refunds to parents and children hit by this unexpected rule. And while it is too late to change the venue now, this adds a new question for any future bids to answer.
steve Davidson: I was 17 when I had that role. Fanhistory would be seriously altered – this whole grand and glorious thing would probably never have happened with these rules and laws in effect.
The world was very different 42 years ago. This is not a news flash to anyone. One of the ways it was different was that society ignored, and excused, and refused to believe or act upon a whole lot of child abuse and sexual assault. I’ll take today’s more restrictive laws over that, any day. Women and children are a lot safer in the world, and at our conventions, because of those laws.
Today’s Child Protection laws exist for very good reasons — the Walter Breens of the world being one of them.
3) I first read that as “directed by Tobe Hooper” and lordy, did that send my mind off in a strange direction.
18). bill. Of the three names given in the HQ quiz…
17) It’s worth mentioning that Snow White Learns Witchcraft is really really good. It’s a collection of short stories and poems in which Goss rewrites fairy tales from the perspective of women (similar to Terri Windling’s Snow White, Blood Red anthologies). I think it’s a great addition to the modern fairy tales canon.
With apologies to Robert Plant: “And she’s scrolling a pixel for filers”
@John Winkelman — I think that’s the only thing that might have made me even the least bit interested in it.
@Standback re: Worldcon program – Preliminary individual schedules went out to programming participants 3 weeks ago for approval, so things are on progress. I assume they’re still in the middle of sorting out the second round (fixing conflicts, filling empty slots).
Musings on the Comic Con anniversary…
I’ve never been to one myself, but my older brother (a serious accumulator–if not collector–of comics in his youth) attended regularly in the early years. I’d have to ask him when he first went, but I know it was when the event was held at the U.S. Grant Hotel, and I know he attended multiple times before heading off to college in (…quick calculation…) 1974. My impression was that he primarily went to buy things–I have no idea what the other programming was at the time–though he wasn’t the most talkative person so I may have simply been going by what he came back with.
@Roger Silverstein: IMO, your rewrite leans toward a trick question — or at least a more-complicated one than typical, because it requires filtering on two axes. What they could have done was replace Spinrad any of @bill’s list. (For some reason Sturgeon was the one I thought of first, rather than Ellison or Gerrold.)
@bookworm1398: re (1), I heard (from a moderately reliable source) some time ago that they were not really a Worldcon-sized space. Also, I don’t know whether they think they can avoid Helsinki’s problems by having no at-the-door; I remember hearing about lots of crowded programs, but not whether that could be guessed to have been caused by more people on site than expected rather than not enough seats even for pre-reg.
re @2: what Lis said, doubled. I was roaming amusement parks on my own at age 11; I can’t see any reason either parents or offspring should have to put up with this. It’s also an ugly move because it’s the equivalent of requiring a kid-in-tow membership (which is commonly very cheap but not for anyone this old) after selling an independent membership (currently 170 euros for 13-25yo). I think the committee has some ‘splaining to do — possibly to civil authorities as they aren’t delivering what they sold.
@JJ: it sounds like you’ve parsed the rules; can you point to a clear separation between Programme and licensed spaces? I know some US hotels get separate licenses for separate rooms, but that’s not universal — and it’s not clear whether alcohol will be in a separable space, or in semi-public as at (e.g.) Glasgow II or Seacon ’79; cf also @Cora Buhlert.
@Cora Buhlert: that’s an interesting separation; George Harrison, despite being 17, was deported from the Beatles’ first term in Hamburg because he was too young to perform in a nightclub (per Wikipedia — I’ve seen the age-based deportation mentioned elsewhere, but not the exact ruling). Is performance different from consumption, or have the laws changed?
@Hampus Eckerman: And this is the part that confuses me a bit more: Does this mean that I can expect people walking around with alcohol in the convention center in non-designated areas? e.g., like New Orleans?
@JJ, later: it is true that the world is different — but that is not always an improvement; see the cases where parents have been held up to public shaming or even legal sanctions because they want their children to grow up somewhat as independently as they did. IMO the US attitudes on alcohol are particularly wedged, and not strongly related to direct abuse (e.g. Breen).
@Rob Thornton: +1 on Goss — a number of interesting takes, especially on “The Snow Queen” (which it took me a while to spot) and IMO not a dud in the bunch.
@20: why is this a good idea? Do wasps fly into a flame to attack the thrower?
Also in the category of good-not-good ideas, videogaming while driving a go-kart. The bit where the kart accelerates (“powers up”) when you shoot a monster is especially … something.
@3: The BBC also reports mixed responses — but I’m wondering (a) how somebody can complain that the trailer doesn’t make the plot of a near-plotless musical clear, and (b) how many of the snarkers liked the original? (I know it wasn’t universally popular; I remember Time Out‘s theater summary calling it “the dancing moggie musical”.) For a puff piece with a lot of interesting shots, scroll down to the link “look inside”.
(9) Small correction: if Paul Cornell was born in 1966, he’d be 53, not 52.
@roger silverstein — I think the question is interesting with or without the limitation.
Larry Niven wrote an episode of the Animated Series. Are there Hugo-winning writers in other parts of the franchise?
Also, and this may be old news, but I recently ran across the cover art for an audiobook of Heinlein’s Tunnel in the Sky. It is the first such art that I’ve seen that looks like they were paying attention to the clues in the book.
9) I’m glad ‘Veronica Mars’ was mentioned in Kristen Bell’s birthday note, especially since they are running new episodes on Hulu. There’s almost no point in mentioning her work in the fantasy show ‘The Good Place’ or the animated movie ‘Frozen’ — we all know about that. But who all remembers she did a handful of episodes of ‘Heroes’ after it stopped being good …
If I trust Wikipedia, Peter S. Beagle won a Hugo for the novelette “Two Hearts”, and is credited as screenwriter for TNG episode “Sarek”, although the “story by” credits go elsewhere.
David Shallcross says If I trust Wikipedia, Peter S. Beagle won a Hugo for the novelette “Two Hearts”, and is credited as screenwriter for TNG episode “Sarek”, although the “story by” credits go elsewhere.
Eh? Where do the story by credits go to? I need to tell his lawyer as they’re legally supposed to be credited only to him.
My kids are too little for this to be a concern (they are at an age where it’s a given they need full time supervision/childminding) and I’m not going to Dublincon regardless, but the ways the world has changed aside, this is NOT a case where concerns like Breen are at play.
This is plain old overregulation, of the kind that gets CFS/CPS called on parents whose kids play outdoors or who ride the subway alone at a reasonable age (and with a lot more phone access. This is not “I am abandoning my 10 year old to be creeped on with no supervision and a denial creeping happens” this is “My 16 year old wants to play in the board game tournament (where they would be easy to find in a clear public place and it’s easy for them to contact me if someone does behave like a creep) but they are instead stuck bored on a chair behind me while I sit around doing an author signing.”
And I do understand why local laws and an alcohol license might tie Dublincon’s hands no matter how much they, never mind parents, might wish otherwise, but that doesn’t make it any better or fairer to parents of teens and it doesn’t make this cease to be a strangely late time to be telling people.
The question is: If I dont bring my kids, can I bring the flamethrower drone? Im sur it only affects a fraction of the visitors! (Does this drone has a purpose aside from commiting arson? Is it a hunting weapon? )
A lot of the people griping about the new Cats are creeped out by the way the cat features are molded into the people, so they become cat-human-hybrids, a horribly GMO experiment gone wrong, where the cats dancing on the live stage were humans in cat costumes. Including me. It’s an uncanny valley thing, or possibly a future dystopia thing.
I’m a bit curious about it nonetheless because some of the dancing looks good, but I do not expect this to be a movie I want to see over and over.
About the “Sarek” credits, I was going by a fan site that seemed to have been compressing the credits a bit. IMDB has
Peter S. Beagle … (television story and teleplay by)
Marc Cushman … (from an unpublished story by) &
Jake Jacobs … (from an unpublished story by)
I don’t have a handy way of viewing the on-screen credits at the moment.
Meredith Moment: Octavia Butler’s Seed to Harvest (Patternist) series for $3.99 at Kobo and B&N.
@David Shallcross: That matches the credits, modulo formatting.
(Of the version currently on Netflix, at least.)
Concerning flamethrower-equipped drones at Worldcon, the Irish Aviation Authority says that small unmanned aircraft may not be flown without their explicit permission under a list of circumstances including:
(.c.) at a distance of less than 30 metres from a person, vessel, vehicle or structure not under the direct control of the operator;
(.d.) at a distance of less than 120 metres from an assembly of 12 or more persons not under the direct control of the operator;
That probably rules out flying them at the main Worldcon site this year. But the regulation also explicitly says that a different set of rules applies for fireworks.
Steve Green: 1967 it is. Fixed now.
The Onion is really, really good at what they do.