Pixel Scroll 7/20/18 The Pixie With the Moxie Is The Scroll That Is Droll

(1) JAMES GUNN CANNED BY DISNEY. The director’s offensive tweets were unearthed and have led to him being fired by Disney according to Yahoo! Entertainment “Disney Drops James Gunn From ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Franchise After Offensive Tweets”.

Director James Gunn has been dropped from Disney’s Marvel franchise “Guardians of the Galaxy” over old tweets.

“The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James’ Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values, and we have severed our business relationship with him,” said Alan Horn, chairman of  Walt Disney Studios, in a statement.

Gunn, the writer-director of Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise, apologized late Thursday after a series of old (now deleted) tweets resurfaced in which the filmmaker made what he admitted were “offensive” jokes about taboo topics like rape and pedophilia.

Gunn frequently tweets about his opposition to President Donald Trump, and thus drew the ire of fans of the president such as right-wing provocateur Mike Cernovich, who began posting a series of old tweets by Gunn, many of which were subsequently deleted.

Online sleuths then dug up dozens of old tweets of the sort Gunn admitted were “offensive,” many from between 2008 and 2011.

“Expendables is so manly I f–ed the s– out of the p-ssy boy next to me,” he wrote in one.

“The best thing about being raped is when you’re done being raped and it’s like ‘whew this feels great, not being raped!’” read a tweet from February 2009.

Deadline’s coverage adds these details: “James Gunn Fired From ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ Franchise Over Offensive Tweets”.

Disney and Marvel had never announced that Gunn would direct the third installment of Guardians of the Galaxy, but Gunn certainly declared it on social media. And after Guardians of the Galaxy 2 last summer grossed $863 million worldwide, to the original’s $773 million, there was every expectation he would remain at the helm. After all, the sly humor and tone that just crushed his career trajectory helped fuel the irreverently humorous tone of the Guardians franchise.

Unsurprisingly – “James Gunn Won’t Appear At Comic-Con After Being Axed From ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’”. Deadline has the story.

James Gunn, who was fired today from Disney’s Guardians of the Galaxy franchise after past offensive tweets surfaced, will not make a planned appearance at Comic-Con in San Diego today where he was set to appear on Sony Pictures’ Hall H session to tout an upcoming horror film he is producing.

Gunn has made the following response:

(2) WORST TOWN ON TV. Reason.com’s Glenn Garvin says don’t even stop there for gas — “Stephen King’s Nightmare Town Castle Rock a Distillery of Horrors”.

…Hulu’s new series Castle Rock is clearly an attempt to answer a question that has occurred to nearly every King reader multiple times over the years: Do the folks in this town ever notice the unholy frequency with which their neighbors fall into quicksand pits, get ravaged by their house pets, or are driven insane by mundane household items purchased at pawn shops?

Oh, yes they do, and you’ll have a creepy good time as Castle Rock follows their efforts to figure out why their town is such a demonic piece of crap. One of the lead investigators is even a Realtor, who I imagine faces some serious professional challenges in a town like this. (“It’s very cute little Cape Cod at an owner-was-murdered-by-a-jealous-neighbor-for-having-sex-with-the-ghost-of-Elvis price!”)

(3) CATCHING UP WITH THE PRISONER. It’s news to me! Apparently this sequel came out 20 years ago. Titan Comics is bringing it back.

Cult classic The Prisoner has been captivating audiences and firing imaginations since it first aired in the UK in 1967 and in the US the following year. Now fans can go even deeper into The Village with this official graphic novel sequel set twenty years after the events of the iconic TV series.

Originally published in 1988, Shattered Visage tells the story of former secret agent Alice Drake, whose round-the-world solo voyage is interrupted when she is accidentally shipwrecked and washes up on the shores of The Village. There she encounters Number Six, finds out what has become of Number Two, and discovers the true purpose of The Village.

Titan Comics, a licensee of ITV Studios Global Entertainment, are delighted to release this long out-of-print classic with new material, including character sketches and notes from writer/artist Dean Motter . Fans can finally get their hands on the unmissable next chapter in THE PRISONER saga for the first time in years.

(4) HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOR.COM. As part of Tor.com’s tenth anniversary celebration, Stubby the Rocket chronicles “15 Rituals The Tor.com Office Has Developed”.

Tor.com has existed on the internet for 10 years. And when you work in an office and you also work on the internet, where one day gives you a week’s worth of events to react to, you develop a lot of shorthands and rituals to get through the day….

6.) Dressing Up The Office, Part 1: Unicorn Lamp/Rocket Lamp

We had an in-office fundraiser for our unicorn lamp, and we adore it. (We also gave each color of the unicorn a different name after trying and failing to apply a single name.) Then we had an in-office fundraiser for a rocket lamp as well. It makes the place more homey, particularly during the darker parts of the year, and reminds us that we are all unicorns on the inside and rockets on the outside.

(5) RAMBO ACADEMY. The Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers has posted a new list of classes. Notably, Seanan McGuire will be teaching a new class, an Ann Leckie’s doing her awesome space opera class again. Cat Rambo says if money’s an issue, see the info about scholarships below: “Classes for the Rambo Academy through October”.

Free scholarships: If you cannot afford a class but really want to take one, apply for a Plunkett Scholarship. Each class has a slot reserved for such a student, and the sole criteria is that you can’t afford the class but really think it would be useful for you. To apply, mail me with your name, the class name/date, and a brief statement about why you want to take the class. QUILTBAG and PoC candidates are especially encouraged to apply. The Plunkett Scholarships are named for Edward Plunkett, who wrote as Lord Dunsany. Scholarship recipients will be notified the week before the class.

(6) SCHNEPP OBIT. Jon Schnepp (1967 – 2018): US actor, animator, director; died July 19, aged 51. Animation work includes Aqua Teen Hunger Force (18 episodes, 2000-02), Space Ghost Coast to Coast (eight episodes, 1995-99), Metalocalypse (62 episodes, 2006-12); he has a voice role in The Oracle of Outer Space, due out later this year.

(7) TODAY IN HISTORY

  • July 20, 1969 – How could it be 49 years already?

At 10:56 p.m. EDT, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from Earth, speaks these words to more than a billion people listening at home: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Stepping off the lunar landing module Eagle, Armstrong became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.

  • July 20, 1976 — Viking I landed on Mars to explore the surface of the Red Planet. The first robots on Mars, Viking I and its successor gave scientists their first information about the planet’s surface, including information they hoped would allow people to walk there. Although the Viking probes found no evidence of life on Mars, they returned detailed pictures of the planet and information about the soil’s composition. (John King Tarpinian will eat a Mars bar after he finishes his Moon Pie.)

(8) PROBABLY SOMETHING BUT NOT A TUX. The message Worldcon 76 sent to encourage Hugo nominees to dress up for the ceremony generated a certain amount of resentment, and things were already touchy before Paul Cornell’s tweet threw gasoline on the fire. Cornell soon banished it from Twitter. However, there’s a screencap in Kay Taylor Rea’s response —

Some of these selected tweets were direct comments on Cornell’s, while others addressed the general conversation rippling through the sff community.

Alternatively –

(9) ON THE RUNWAY. Meanwhile, Jodie Whittaker made a fashion statement wearing a hood at “Comic-Con 2018”

In the midst of this year’s Her Universe fashion show, founder Ashley Eckstein stepped forward and apologized for a last-minute addition to the line-up, a model who was late but who really wanted to walk the runway. And since it was the day of Comic-Con in which the new Doctor Who crew had been introduced, it was appropriate that the model would be wearing some new Whovian fashion.

From the moment she stepped on to the runway, though, the model looked familiar. Head down, hair dangling, it was clear she was almost made for the jacket that looked like the 13th Doctor’s. Of course, it’s because she is the 13th Doctor, making a surprise appearance for fans and to talk with an excited Eckstein.

 

(10) TAKEI MEMOIR. A graphic novel about George Takei’s childhood in a California concentration camp in WWII will come out next year: “George Takei Memoir ‘They Called Us Enemy’ Coming in Summer 2019”.

With immigration and the detention of migrant children in the news, IDW Publishing has announced details of They Called Us Enemy, a graphic novel memoir of George Takei’s childhood in American internment camps.

To be released in summer 2019, They Called Us Enemy will be co-written by Takei, Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott, with art from Harmony Becker. Its plot revisits the actor and activist’s childhood as one of 120,000 Japanese Americans held in American concentration camps run by the United States during the Second World War.

According to the publisher’s official description, the book is “Takei’s firsthand account of those years behind barbed wire, the terrors and small joys of childhood in the shadow of legalized racism, his mother’s hard choices, his father’s tested faith in democracy and the way those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future. What does it mean to be American? Who gets to decide? When the world is against you, what can one person do?”

“It has always been my mission in life to raise the awareness of the unjust imprisonment of Japanese Americans in barbed-wire prison camps during World War II,” Takei told The Hollywood Reporter. “But I had no idea how chillingly relevant that dark chapter of American history would be to our times today.”

(11) DOOR DRAGONS. Here’s a chance to avoid missing the party:

(12) HE’S GOT THAT COVERED. Let Boing Boing tell you about the latest nuisance filing: “Trademark troll who claims to own “Dragon Slayer” now wants exclusive rights to book covers where someone is holding a weapon”.

Austin’s Michael-Scott Earle, last seen around these parts when he filed a trademark on the phrase “Dragon Slayer” for use in fantasy novel trademarks, has found a new depth to plumb: he’s filed a trademark on book covers “one or more human or partially human figures underneath, at least one of the figures holding a weapon; and an author’s name underneath the figures; wherein the title/series and author’s name are depicted in the same or similar coloring.”

(13) NIGHTMARE. Charles Payseur connects you with short fiction — “Quick Sips – Nightmare #70”.

The pair of stories from Nightmare’s July issue focus on people trapped in situations where they don’t have a lot of power, mostly because of their age. They weigh in on opposite sides of the specrtum, though, one character made vulnerable because of his old age, put in a home where he might be preyed upon at any moment and aware always of his own approaching death. The other piece focuses on a young person in a stifling household, living with rules that aren’t designed to protect him so much as to make his parent’s life easier. In both situations, the toxicity of the environment manifests in ways great and small (and sometimes furred) and forces the characters to choose if they’ll stay and try to face them or try to escape from a power they might not be able to defeat head on. Let’s get to the reviews!

(14) LEST DARKNESS PALL. Nature has a line on “A planet the colour of charcoal”.

A hot and gaseous planet orbiting a distant star is one of the darkest ever found.

Astronomers led by Teo Mo?nik at Keele University, UK, used NASA’s Kepler telescope to study a star called WASP-104, which lies roughly 144 parsecs from Earth in the constellation Leo. Earlier observations had documented a dimming of WASP-104’s light every 1.76 days, indicating that a planet was regularly crossing the star’s face. But Mo?nik’s team could not detect starlight reflecting off the planet, as scientists usually expect after discovering a new world. That led the researchers to conclude that the planet is nearly pure black in colour.

(15) TOAD IN THE HOLE. That’s what Ellen Klages ordered in Episode 72 of Scott Edelman’s Eating the Fantastic podcast.

Ellen Klages

…And then move on to this episode’s guest, Ellen Klages, who won the Nebula Award in 2005 for her novelette, “Basement Magic.” Her novella, “Wakulla Springs” (co-authored with previous guest of the show Andy Duncan), was a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula awards and won the World Fantasy Award in 2014.

She won the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, the Lopez Award for Children’s Literature, and the New Mexico State Book Award for Young Adult Literature for her first novel, The Green Glass Sea. She has served for twenty years on the Motherboard of the James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award. Her novella “Passing Strange” was one of the finalists for this year’s Nebula award.

Our venue for this episode was the relatively new Whitfield at Ace Hotel. This was certainly the most picturesque setting for a meal I experienced in Pittsburgh, because the building which housed both hotel and restaurant was a century-old former YMCA.

We discussed why it took 40 years from the time she wrote the first sentence of her Nebula Award-nominated story “Passing Strange” to finish the tale, what a truck filled with zebras taught her about the difference between storytelling and real life, how cosplaying helped give birth to her characters, what she finds so fascinating about creating historical science fiction, why revising is her favorite part of writing, the reason she’s the best auctioneer I’ve seen in my lifetime of con-going, what she teaches students is the worst mistake a writer can make, how her collaboration with Andy Duncan gave birth to an award-winning novella, whether she still feels like “a round peg in genre’s polyhedral hole” as she wrote in the afterword to her first short story collection, and much more.

(16) ON THEIR WAY. Tor.com’s Lee Harris promised readers A Pair of Solarpunk Novellas from Becky Chambers without giving a definite date when they’ll come out.

Ever since I read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet I’ve wanted to work with Becky. She has a lightness of touch that makes you want to keep turning the page. So, when I contacted her and she suggested we work together on a couple of solarpunk books I was delighted. There’s a lot of darkness in the world, today, and I can’t wait to bring you Becky‘s trademark adventure style, wrapped up in a bundle of positive SF. It’s what we need, right now.

(17) CAPITAL CATS. In our national’s capital, a credential census is planned: “Washington, D.C., Is Counting All Its Cats. It Will Take 3 Years And $1.5 Million”.

…Various groups are working to spay and neuter stray cats or facilitate cat adoptions. Thousands of cats each year are spayed or adopted.

But groups like the Humane Rescue Alliance “have little sense if their programs are the lion’s share of adoptions in the city, or if their trap-neuter-return program is effective in helping to control the cat population,” Fenston writes.

It’s not easy to gauge a city’s cat population by eye alone.

“Cats are hard to see,” conservation biologist Tyler Flockhart told The New York Times. “You see very few cats when you’re out walking around. And that’s because they’re secretive animals. When you see a cat, there is almost certainly more than one there.”

(18) UNCREDENTIALS AND GAMING. Linda Holmes of NPR made the connection — “Put Your Face In It: How Gaming Helped Me Understand My Dog”

When I am walking my dog around the neighborhood now, I imagine him going boop-boop-boop as he wanders along wondering what he should approach, much as I do when I walk from my Stardew Valley farm to the place where I will once again sell my virtual parsnips. And when he sees an empty Doritos bag lying on its side on the street, I realize that he is having the same experience I did the first time I picked up an imaginary oyster on the imaginary beach. He is saying to himself, “This could be some wonderful and magical key to a benefit yet unrealized! This could be magic! This could taste delicious! This could transport me to another dimension!” Most importantly, he is thinking what I am always thinking any time I fail to investigate anything: “But what if I really neeeeeed it?” And he is pushing the only button he has. His action button.

(19) SUGGEST A NAME. But Spacy McSpaceFace need not apply: “Wanted: Inspiring name for Europe’s 2020 Mars rover”. This time suggestions will go to a panel instead a popular vote.

Here’s your chance to name the European rover that will go to Mars in 2020.

Currently called ExoMars, the six-wheeled robot needs something a bit more engaging and inspiring for when it lands on the Red Planet.

Astronaut Tim Peake is leading the hunt for a great moniker.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steve Green, David Doering, Cat Eldridge, Chip Hitchcock, JJ, Mike Kennedy, Martin Morse Wooster, Carl Slaughter, DMS, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]

67 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 7/20/18 The Pixie With the Moxie Is The Scroll That Is Droll

  1. Speaking of Jodie Whittaker, how do you all feel about the new sonic screwdriver design? To me, it looks like it has been made slender and curvy in a “ladies’ razor” condescending type of way, just one step short of making it pink.

  2. (14) None More Black.

    (8) Yeeeaaah… possibly a SWM of decent income and average size (from a country where everything’s more formal than the place the awards are going to be) should not have said that.

    @Darren: That is awfully girly, indeed. The crystal’s pink, and the whole thing is either “ladies’ razor” or, ahem. Making it smaller to fit a smaller hand is fine, but it didn’t need to look so different from all the other sonic screwdrivers we’ve seen.

  3. 3) ooh, yes, I discovered this on my *first* trip to England in the early 90’s. I was delighted by it.

    4) Happy Birthday Tor.com. I’m so lucky to have gotten to write a few articles and reviews for it.

  4. @jkt: Dressed semi-formal while eating the Moon Pie?

    (1) Why did it take them till now to notice he said problematic things? I heard about them before. I mean, IDGAF if he says rude things about Trump (who’s fair game for insult, being President) but “yay, rape” is… not good.

    Weren’t those online before he got the first job? I suspect there may be a more business-related reason involving money, plans for the next movie, etc. and those, combined with the rude Tweets, were enough. Or maybe he did something else displeasing, for which the Tweets are a good cover story.

    Whatever — people need to think more before they Tweet if they’re a public person. Not that Trump doesn’t tweet stuff much more offensive than Gunn ever did all the time.

  5. @3: @OGH: the sequel graphic novel came out 20 years after the original show — i.e., thirty years ago, not twenty. (I’ll have a beer at a friend’s birthday barbecue tmw.) I don’t know enough about the show to comment in detail, but ISTM that it did present an interesting second rationale for the Village — while also getting into a lot of the scurrying that upper-levels outside it would have been doing (e.g., one of the first explosions is the publication of a memoir supposedly ripping the cover off the Village). At the very least, it is an honest sequel, rather than a “remake” that completely dumps the original rationale like that short TV set some years ago.

    @8: Didn’t Cornell get booted from MCing 2014 because of jackass comments? I like his written work — ISTM that he concentrates more on plausibility in his prose work than some transplanted graphic scripters do — but I wonder why anybody pays attention to what he says in his own person.

    @15: Googling tells me that name has been borrowed for eggs in cutout toast, but I don’t find any references to Toad in the Hole being a sandwich rather than a knife-and-fork dish — how far into the podcast does that term appear?

    edit: super-fifth!

  6. (10) My scoutmaster was Nisei. He fought in Europe while his family was interned. I’ve seen the medals he earned there though he never spoke of it. Not just for his service, but his whole attitude to community and citizenship make him one of the greatest Americans I’ve known. What we did, as a nation, was a crime. Sadly I still see folks defend it intermittently when the subject comes up.

  7. Chip, ix-nay about Paul Cornell being booted from MCing Worldcon 2014 (LonCon 3). You’re doubtless thinking of UK presenter Jonathan Ross.

    Paul is generally IMO a stand-up fellow, and I’ll always remember with great fondness the many ways he went out of his way to help my friend Jay Lake and other cancer patients.

  8. 8) I suspect that it was fine until somebody insisted on it. I was all set to wear my usual Nice Suit, but the minute someone TOLD me to dress formal, I had an intense urge to dig out a T-shirt that said GAS, GRASS OR ASS, because nobody tells me how to dress, you’re not my mom, etc.

    I like Cornell quite a lot, but I think this has rather more to do with “how dare you tell us what to do?!” than anything else. I mean, SF authors are not known for their intense desire to adhere to social norms. Nerd prom was awesome when no one EXPECTED it, but you demand things and it gets our back up.

    …I should see if my formal hatband with coyote baculum is ready.

  9. Since I haven’t seen any reviews of the movie Sorry to Bother You, so let me say a few things about it:

    1) The movie has a very-near-SF feel with plenty of surrealism.
    2) Since the director and screenwriter for the movie is Boots Riley, leader of radical rap group the Coup, it definitely wears its politics on its sleeve. Your local Puppy will probably demand a refund.
    3) I enjoyed it and would recommend the movie for the right audience.

  10. 1)
    I haven’t seen the tweets in questions, so I don’t know how problematic they really were.

    However what really bothers me about this is that the firing of Gunn, regardless of what he may or may not have said ten years ago (and if it was really so bad, then why didn’t anybody notice before this?) was clearly due to a rightwing campaign headed by Mike Chernovich. This is a clear attempt to intimidate creatives and basically everyone. “Say something we don’t like and we will dig until we unearth something problematic about you.” And I’m pretty sure you can find something problematic about everybody.

    Also, this is a common tactic of the right. Here in Germany, we’ve seen the same tactic used in attacks against Green Party politicians, when rightwingers dug up some problematic motions to lower or abolish the age of consent these politicians had signed in the 1970s.

    8)
    Sorry, but this is increasingly feeling like a storm in a teacup to me. I accept that the initial e-mail was worded problematically, not to mention that semi-formal means different things in different cultures. But is it really too much to ask that finalists wear something nice to the awards ceremony, whatever nice means to them?

  11. @8)
    It’s funny how many people upgraded it to formal wear. Not the same thing

    But is it really too much to ask that finalists wear something nice to the awards ceremony, whatever nice means to them?

    That’s kind of what I thought about it–then hearing it in my mother’s voice. ‘Is THAT what you’re going to wear? You need to make an effort–this is a special occasion”. Maybe that’s why so many of them are having a melt-down about it. It’s not like the memo said “No one will be admitted if you don’t”.

  12. 1) Who’s running the pool for “how soon the first SP/GGer shows up to whine about how Gunn’s being railroaded”? Because I want in for “4 to 5 hours”.

    11) Now that’s how to do an advance notice.

    I bought The Ninety-Ninth Bride after seeing the cover art and a blurb here a few scrolls back. I have now finished reading it, and can report that it’s very good. It’s more than just a female-centered retelling of 1,001 Nights; it also has a good strong coming-of-age arc for its female protagonist, and a sub-plot about the various types of supernatural creatures that exist in this world. And a bit of hinted-at romance, but that remains pretty much in the background and definitely does not become any part of the denouement. If you like well-written YA, I recommend this as a fine example of the genre.

  13. 3) I have mentioned that comic a few times in the comment section here. It was my first exposure to The Prisoner! I got it for free together with 10-15 moving boxes filled with comics when an editor at a local comic company quit her job.

    I remember reading it, thinking “what the heck, number six and number two, aren’t those the guys in the Iron Maiden song?”. Then I read the introduction and found ot there was a TV-series. Still haven’t seen it.

  14. @Lee
    Since Mike Chernovich, who is a hero of sorts in those circles, was the one who broke the story, I suspect the Puppy / GG types won’t defend Gunn.

  15. 3) I got this around the time it came out… it explains very little, and throws some completely left-field plot developments at you without notice. In short, it’s a pretty respectable sequel to the series. The dialogue is close enough that you can hear Patrick McGoohan’s voice snarling the lines. I’d recommend this one.

  16. I’m with Cora on this one. The two alt-right goons who made the stink have far worse in their history, much of which is recent.
    This is an effort to screw with Gunn and Disney. It worked.
    I understand that Gunn fessed up to all of this and did penance when he was first tapped for GOTG.
    I’m 68. Thank gnu the internet wasn’t around when I was young and stupid.
    It’s like Bill Hader the baseball player for the Milwaukee Brewers. He had a disgusting twitter feed when he was 16&17. (he’s 24 now)
    JFC, what 16-17 year old boy isn’t an idiot?

    I’m frankly a lot more concerned that we have a sexual predator for POTUS, not to mention the fact that he is apparently Putin’s bitch, and the entire GOP is also apparently subject to blackmail by the GRU. With a true existential crisis taking place in the western democracies, excuse me for not caring about stupid, racist, sexist tweets by people who have apparently grown up since then while every single day babies are being tortured in our so-called Border Control camps.

  17. #1 – I definitely have a problem when someone who, when challenged, was willing to immediately apologise (and he did that already years ago) for things they said longer ago that that and who has shown no signs of repeating said behaviour is sacked for said historic behaviour.
    I also have a problem when someone not only continues to make unpleasant comments but when challenged, doubles-down on said comments or simply dodges the issue, and they continue to get coverage and work, and to ruin other peoples’ careers at seemingly no cost to their own.

    James Gunn fits one of those profiles. Mike Cernovich (and, e.g. Roseanne Barr, although she was at least fired) fits the other. I leave it to the reader to decide which of them I think matches which.

  18. @5, an Ann Leckie’s doing her awesome space opera class again

    Unless there are more than one Ann Leckies (Whoot! Ann Leckie CLONES! More books, faster!), I suspect that was supposed to be “and Ann Leckie’s….”

  19. @Cassy B

    As I understand it, that one is being given by Justice of Ann One Leckie Five. One Leckie Nineteen was originally booked but had a conflict with a tea ceremony…

    😛

  20. Just saw this and thought it was of interest. It seems like good casting, though funny to me that Romijn is a blonde who plays a brunette and Majel Barrett was a brunette who later in ST (unwillingly) played a blonde…link to twitter

  21. 3) DC used to publish this in the US.

    Number Five: Where am I?
    Other Number Five (not identified as yet): In the file.
    Five: What do you want?
    Other Five: Pixel scroll.

  22. That’s kind of what I thought about it–then hearing it in my mother’s voice. ‘Is THAT what you’re going to wear? You need to make an effort–this is a special occasion”.

    I’m still a bit sore over somebody or other’s response to the Nebula photo—I was wearing the female version of sportcoat and dark jeans—which was a rather snotty “I remember when people used to dress up for the Nebulas.” Not “congrats winners!” just “let me judge you on your clothes, that’s obviously what’s important here.”

  23. @RedWombat: “I remember when people used to dress up for the Nebulas.” One answer to that is “Do you remember when people dressed up to go on an airplane?” Whether to add “BTW, this isn’t your lawn” depends on just how irritable the commenter’s tone is.

    @Rick Moen: Thanks for the correction on Cornell.

  24. Our office dress code of “who cares” means I end up in jeans/polo shirt most of the time, I quite like having an excuse to dress up a bit. As a Scot, kilts are always acceptable for anything formal.

    The last society reunion ball I went to ran the gamut from current members in rented tux/kilt, through home made leather kilts, corsetry, a latex ball gown, lounge suits, angel wings, feather boas and plenty of New Rock boots. Well it is a rock and metal society…

    1) What Cora said, also Dave Buatista is now getting flamed for expressing sadness at Gunn’s sacking.

  25. As I understand it, that one is being given by Justice of Ann One Leckie Five. One Leckie Nineteen was originally booked but had a conflict with a tea ceremony…

    And then there were Ann minus one.

  26. Considering James Gunn’s writing contributions to DAWN OF THE DEAD (2004 remake)–which has a zombie baby eating its way out of its mother, I’m not too surprised that he also did rude jokes. But even then, the examples quoted are a bit too tasteless to have merit being very juvenile.

  27. I still have unhappy memories of trying to dress up a little bit for the Hugos at the 2005 Glasgow Worldcon. Though travelling light I’d remembered to bring a tie: what I didn’t know was that my newest and bestest shirt (a present from my mother, bless her) had the wrong neck size and couldn’t actually be buttoned up, a point that does not normally arise. The ceremony was looming and other shirts were a mile away in my rented student room. I struggled awhile with self-strangulation until famous fan Greg Pickersgill passed by, deduced my difficulty, and sympathetically observed: “Langford, you great f*cking pansy.” History, alas, records that I wore no tie at the 2005 Hugos. BUT I HAD ONE IN MY POCKET.

  28. David Langford: So this story doesn’t end with Greg giving you the shirt off his back…?

  29. 1)

    If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.
    Cardinal Richelieu

    Though it didn’t take that much effort here. I think everyone ought to keep this in mind when dealing with social media, much less celebrities. Especially with sh*t birds like Cernovich and his cronies out there.

    8) Anyone know Cornell well enough to remind him of the first rule of holes?

  30. @David Langford: “History, alas, records that I wore no tie at the 2005 Hugos. BUT I HAD ONE IN MY POCKET.”

    For heaven’s sake, don’t let Andy Serkis find out…

  31. Back in the 90s I got sent from Silicon Valley to Des Moines to sort out a software bug for a big financial company (never mind that it had already been sorted…) Had this happened 5 years ago they’d have said “dress like the women in Mad Men”, so we’ll pretend they did.

    I had no dresses anywhere near suitable for a Des Moines finance company, so I dressed up – just not the up they’d expected. Swiped my brother’s Miami Vice style blazer, nice jeans, basic shirt. Got there and sure enough, the lobby looks straight out of Mad Men. The engineers who came down to meet me said they’d looked around and knew immediately that I was the engineer.

    Also, the icon and I are Not A Number.

  32. At one of my husband’s employers (in San Jose, thus appropriate to this discussion), they were purchased by a European firm and the word went down that all employees would heretofore have to wear shirts with collars on them. And no shorts, no flip flops, and no jeans (Maybe. I forget, it was ~25 years ago).

    At least one programmer quit and went elsewhere due to the intolerable working conditions. My mother and I ended up purchasing many shirts for hubby — hers respectable, mine tech nerd geeky polo shirts.

    There was much rejoicing when they were sold again to an American company, and the dress code went away. T shirts and jeans reappeared, comfort was had, morale went up.

    NONE of these people were customer-facing. They were all programmers in their cubicles and machine rooms, never seeing regular humans. It literally did not matter what their collar was. The sales guys wore suits anyway.

    Business attire in Silicon Valley means a polo shirt and khakis or similar trousers. That’s what you wear to job interviews. Suits are for attending weddings and funerals, or if you’re applying for a job that’s legal-related. You will get laughed at for wearing a suit to work at your average place, and asked “So who died?” Tuxedos are a thing you rent if you’re in a wedding party, or on the rarest of rarified social occasions. Kilts are, depending on material and accessories, either every day wear or up to tuxedo level.

    So “semi-formal” in these parts means a suit and tie, and non-athletic shoes. “Formal” is black tie, and anything fancier than that is “Wut? Like a royal wedding? Neat costume, dude.” (Or else you’re John Hertz.) Most of the t-shirt and ratty jeans guys will at least go polo shirt and khakis for awards, parties, etc. Blinky lights optional.

    Women’s wear, of course, follows different rules, but is always more uncomfortable. Thankfully, it’s been illegal for employers to require women to wear pantyhose to work (with a few exceptions) for decades.

    I’d prolly wear a nice pantsuit if I was nominated, with flats. None of us could ever top the sheer elegance of MRK’s award looks anyway.

  33. (8) Well, I certainly disagree with Cornell’s Tweet. Dressing up for the ceremony when you’re a finalist isn’t about showing respect for the winners. They get a trophy and they get to put the words “Hugo Winning Author” on their book covers. Your fashion statement is irrelevant in their evening.

    Dressing up is about showing respect for your AUDIENCE. People are sitting through a 2 hour ceremony instead of spending that time at dinner or a party or doing oher entertaining things. They are spending those two hours at a ceremony honoring YOU (“you” being the finalists and winners).

    In exchange for two hours of their lives spent sitting through a ceremony that honors YOU, it is merely good manners for the finalists to (1) dress in some way that shows respect for the audience, (2) behave well throughout (IOW, not like Kanye West), and (3) spend a few minutes preparing concise, gracious remarks ahead of time, in case you win, so that you do not waste the audience’s time and exasperate their patience with rambling,”Gosh, I didn’t think I was going to win, so I didn’t prepare anything… Wow, it’s bright up here… Um, well, first all…. hee-hee…. Sorry, I really wasn’t expecting this… Hmmm..” And so on.

    An awards ceremony is indeed theatre. And therefore, everyone participating in it should keep the audience in mind, and keep it engaging and professional for THEM. Including dressing like it’s an awards ceremony, not a garage-cleaning day.

  34. Someone who dresses up shows respect. No need to dress semi-formal to do that. Some people can dress up while still wearing torn and patched jeans. And some people can show respect just by being the person we expect and love.

  35. Hampus Eckerman: Some people can dress up while still wearing torn and patched jeans. And some people can show respect just by being the person we expect and love.

    The second, sure. The first…. that’s not making sense to me.

  36. “The second, sure. The first…. that’s not making sense to me.”

    There are torn jeans that are dirty, threads dangling, patches large and ugly. And there are jeans with very specific torn parts, loose threads removed, patches in artfully made shapes, sometimes bought. These jeans together with new and clean clothing on the upper body, perhaps even with a nice jacket, will absolutely be dressing up to me. You can see the effort in how the clothes are combined.

  37. Stoic Cynic on July 21, 2018 at 7:26 am said:

    As I understand it, that one is being given by Justice of Ann One Leckie Five. One Leckie Nineteen was originally booked but had a conflict with a tea ceremony…

    Bravx!

  38. @ Chip: I remember my parents and I all dressing up in our Sunday best to take a trip on an airplane! It was a prop job — jets hadn’t been launched yet.

  39. @Lee: jets hadn’t been launched yet. Just so. I remember nearly those days as a spectator; my grandfather lived near Jacksonville FL but spent a chunk of each summer with us outside DC. I don’t recall him wearing a tie, but I figure at his age he didn’t have to. (This was after some jets, but before they were allowed into National.)

  40. 12)
    Michael-Scott Earle trademark attempt is currently the big topic in the self-publishing world. Coincidentally, Amazon banned Earle’s account and took down all his books earlier this week.

  41. 12- It takes a certain kind of person to see Cockygate and think man I just want that kind of attention as well.

    @Robert Whitaker Sirignano He was also the writer of Tromeo and Juliet. Troma movies are schlocky low hanging shock humor that aren’t known for their nuance. I say that as a person who grew up with Class Of Nuke Em High and Toxie.

  42. 12)
    I especially like how he’s doing this because his fans get confused by covers that look like ones he’s used. Apparently, it never occurs to them to actually look at the name on the cover.
    But then, I don’t do e-books so what do I know?

  43. @Cora, I think the problem is how people treat Twitter, and it has two main parts:

    1) You want posts to get likes and retweets. If you do something that gets that, you’ll do it again. This encourages off-color jokes. You forget that you’re writing for the ages here. “What happens on the Internet, stays on the Internet–forever.”

    2) People take Twitter mobs too seriously, particularly since they’re so easy to manipulate. It’s social media at its most destructive. Does anyone really believe that someone should lose his job over bad jokes he made over 10 years ago and already apologized for and deleted?

  44. 1) This is a perfect example of how the alt-right has weaponized fandom. The current betting odds are that they’re going to be campaigning to get Kathleen Kennedy fired.

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