(1) BRIANNA WU’S BOSTON GLOBE OP-ED. “We can all do something to stop this cycle of violence”.
It feels obscene to stare at these videos of black Americans being killed by police. It feels obscene to ignore them. It’s also vital to honor the police who were gunned down in Dallas, and yet I worry that retaliation will cost even more black lives. I feel overwhelmed by conflicting emotions — a sense of powerlessness and an urge to somehow stop this wave of violence.
But the stakes are too high to indulge in white guilt. This isn’t about our feelings, it’s about our responsibility. As noted feminist Ijeoma Oulo said, white people have to act today, and we have to act tomorrow. We have to act like our lives depend on it, because black lives actually do.
Given the carnage in Dallas, it’s important to note that the vast majority of police are willing to give their lives to protect the communities they serve. Rather than disparage law enforcement as a profession, our anger should be levied at the political systems that continually erase the wrongdoing of the small minority of police who dishonor their badge. Police operate in the framework we the citizens have built. They act in our name, according to the laws we ask them to enforce.
(2) COMMENT ON DALLAS. If not for the title, “4GW in Dallas”, would you have guessed the author of this analysis is Vox Day?
As of November, 1024 people were killed by police in 2015, 204 of them unarmed. For all that the police almost uniformly claimed to have been fearing for their lives, only 34 police were shot and killed during the same period. The public may be collectively stupid, but they’re not incapable of recognizing that statistical imbalance or that the police are trained to lie, obfuscate, and pretend that they are in danger when they are not.
Unless and until the police give up their military-style affectations, “us vs them” mentality, and most of all, their legal unaccountability, they’re going to find themselves fighting a war against the American people. And it is a war they simply cannot win.
What happened in Dallas may be shocking, but it isn’t even remotely surprising. Many people have seen it coming; what will likely prove the most surprising aspect of this incident is how many people will remain utterly unsympathetic to the Dallas police and their bereaved families. The police may consider themselves above the law, but they are not beyond the reach of an increasingly outraged public.
(3) I’M SORRY, I’LL READ THAT AGAIN. However, the post evidently didn’t set well with a lot of his followers, so Vox wrote a follow-up characterizing his position as merely a prediction fulfilled.
In the aftermath of the Dallas police shooting, it is understandable that many Americans are shocked, scared, and upset. The post-Civil Rights Act America has not turned out to be the society they thought it was, indeed, it is becoming increasingly obvious that those terrible racist Southern segregationists were correct all along. Targeted assassinations of authority figures are not a sign of a stable, well-ordered society.
But I have neither patience nor sympathy for those who have been emailing, commenting, and Tweeting to say that they are shocked by my comments with regards to Dallas and the overly militarized US police. I have said nothing I have not said many times before. My position has not changed one iota on the subject for over a decade. I have repeatedly predicted such events would take place, nor am I alone in that, as William S. Lind repeatedly warned about it as a consequence of 4GW coming to America in his book of collected columns, On War.
(4) THE SULU REVEAL. Adam-Troy Castro makes a case for “Why George Takei, Of All People, Is Now Wrong about Hikaru Sulu”.
George is absolutely right to have his preferences, ironic as they are. And I absolutely understand why he takes it so seriously. For an actor to do his job well, the role must hijack some of his gray matter, becoming a virtual person inside the real one; a person who may be evicted when the role goes away and another one must be prepared for. Part of George Takei has been Hikaru Sulu for decades; it is likely impossible, and to a large degree undesirable, for the scrutable helmsman he imagined to be evicted, in any real way, now. This is why he famously took a genuine, personal pride in the revelations over the years that Sulu’s first name (never mentioned on the original series) was officially Hikaru, or that he had advanced in his career to become Captain in the Excelsior, or that he had a daughter who also joined Starfleet. This is why Jimmy Doohan felt violated when the screenplay of a late STAR TREK film required Scotty to do a slapstick head-bonk in the corridor. The actors know the difference between reality and fantasy, but characters that near and dear to their hearts blur that line mightily, and this is for the most part a good thing.
However, he’s wrong on this, and this is why….
(5) CANON VOLLEYED AND THUNDERED. Peter David affirms the idea of making Sulu gay, while offering a lighthearted explanation why that fits the canon.
Some fans are crying foul, including George himself, declaring that it flies in the face of Trek continuity. Well, as the guy who wrote “Demora” in which Sulu is most definitely not gay, I’m here to say:
The fans are wrong. Even, with all respect, George is wrong.
In 79 episodes and all the movies, there is simply nothing to establish that Sulu is hetero. Yes, he has a daughter. Neil Patrick Harris has kids, too, so so much for that argument. He only displayed hetero leanings in exactly one episode: “Mirror Mirror” in which he is coming on to Uhura. But that wasn’t our Sulu. That was the Sulu of the mirror universe, and if the mirror Sulu is aggressively straight, then I suppose it makes sense that our Sulu would be gay, right? He’s the opposite, after all.
(6) A FORCE FOR GOOD? Peter Grant argues against “Publishing’s scary self-delusion” at Mad Genius Club.
I wasn’t surprised (but I was disappointed) to read this statement from Penguin Random House CEO Markus Dohle:
“Publishing is undeniably a force for good. But working in an industry that is inherently a service to society, we risk subscribing to the notion that this is enough. It’s not. We ought to do more—and we can—by taking advantage of our capacity as Penguin Random House to drive positive social, environmental, and cultural change, locally and globally.”
The statement was accompanied by a video message to PRH employees.
The scary thing is, Mr. Dohle undoubtedly believes his statement – yet, equally undoubtedly, it’s catastrophically wrong…..
There’s also the question of why PRH (and, by extension, other publishers) should do more. Surely their emphasis, their focus, should be on increasing their profitability, and thereby the returns to their shareholders and investors? The latter could then use some or all of the profits on their investments to support causes, activities and individuals with whom they agree or are in sympathy. For a corporation to play fast and loose with its owners’ money, in order to undertake or promote activities that have little or nothing to do with its core commercial activities, is, to put it mildly, disingenuous…..
(7) THE MAP OF LOST DISNEY ATTRACTIONS. Yahoo! Movies has a gallery of “22 Lost Disney Rides, From the Maelstrom to Mission To Mars”.
When the new Disney World attraction Frozen Ever After opened at Epcot Center recently in Orlando, eager families waited in line for up to five hours for their turn to see Anna and Elsa in the animatronic flesh. But sprinkled in amongst the jubilant throngs were some unhappy faces mourning the loss of the ride that the Frozen gang replaced: the Maelstrom, a log flume that had entertained visitors since 1988. It’s a reminder that almost every time a new ride debuts at the Happiest Place on Earth, another one twinkles out of existence. From Phantom Boats and Flying Saucers to a World of Motion and an ExtraTERRORestrial Encounter, we’ve assembled this gallery of some rides that are no longer in operation at Disney World and/or Disneyland in Anaheim.
(8) PORTRAIT COMPETITION. Nick Stathopoulos points out that critic Christopher Allan of The Australian predictably hated his entry in the annual Archibald Prize competition. (Can’t figure out why Nick’s link from FB to The Australian works, and the direct link hits a paywall, so I’ll link to him.) Nick has been a finalist several times, and anyway has a thick hide.
At least the massively oversized heads remain, like last year, in retreat. There are a few horrors, such as massive works by Abdul Abdullah, Nick Stathopoulos and Kirsty Neilson, which also reveal the nexus between size and the other bane of the Archibald, the reliance on photography. Stathopoulos’s work is suffocating in its obsessive rendering of the inert photographic image, and Neilson in her portrait of actor Garry McDonald has painstakingly rendered each hair in her sitter’s beard while failing to deal adequately with the far more important eyes.
(9) MY GOSH SUKOSHI. Another conrunner-for-profit has bit the dust, reports Nerd & Tie.
Sukoshi Con’s “Louisville Anime Weekend” was originally scheduled for July 29th-31st at the Ramada Plaza Louisville Hotel and Conference Center in Louisville, KY. With less than a month to go before the convention though, on Tuesday Sukoshi Con deleted their Facebook pages, pulled down their websites, and announced via Twitter that the event (and all future Sukoshi Con events) were cancelled.
https://twitter.com/sukoshicon/status/750419804234756096
It’s been a strange year and a half for James Carroll’s Sukoshi Con. Some of you may remember the weird saga of their Anime Southwest convention (in Denver oddly enough), where the con had to relocate hotels, multiple guests cancelled, and drama abounded — but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In the last year and a half, the organization has cancelled four of their eleven planned events — including last years Louisville Anime Weekend.
We’ve heard rumblings of financial issues within the convention, though they have yet to be confirmed. It’s safe to say though that none of Sukoshi Con’s events are likely to come back.
(10) TWO HERMIONES. Emma Watson posted photos of her with Noma Dumezweni on Facebook of the two Hermiones meeting at a preview of the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child stageplay.
Yesterday I went to see the Cursed Child. I came in with no idea what to expect and it was AMAZING. Some things about the play were, I think, possibly even more beautiful than the films. Having seen it I felt more connected to Hermione and the stories than I have since Deathly Hallows came out, which was such a gift. Meeting Noma and seeing her on stage was like meeting my older self and have her tell me everything was going to be alright, which as you can imagine was immensely comforting (and emotional)! The cast and crew welcomed me like I was family and Noma was everything I could ever hope she would be. She’s wonderful. The music is beautiful
…
Emma Watson met the new Hermione, Noma Dumezweni, and the photos are perfection ???? https://t.co/hd0sixWuBA pic.twitter.com/JZl9BU9Kt6
— MuggleCast (@MuggleCast) July 8, 2016
(11) TODAY IN HISTORY
- July 8, 1947 – The first press reports were released on what has become known as the Roswell UFO incident.
The sequence of events was triggered by the crash of a Project Mogul balloon near Roswell. On July 8, 1947, the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) public information officer Walter Haut, issued a press release stating that personnel from the field’s 509th Operations Group had recovered a “flying disc”, which had crashed on a ranch near Roswell.
The military decided to conceal the true purpose of the crashed device – nuclear test monitoring – and instead inform the public that the crash was of a weather balloon.
(12) STUNT DOUBLE BUILDINGS. “Ivan Reitman Looks Back at the Original Ghostbusters ‘ L.A. Locations”in LA Weekly.
There’s no doubt that the attitude of the original Ghostbusters is inherently New York (though you could certainly imagine the scenario at Tavern on the Green playing out that way at certain Los Angeles restaurants). The truth, however, is that only about 35 minutes of what appears on screen in Ghostbusters was filmed in Manhattan. The remaining 1 hour and 10 minutes of screen time of the beloved movie that asked “Who Ya Gonna Call?” was shot on a Burbank studio lot and at practical downtown L.A. locales, including one of the most famous movie locations of all time: the Ghostbusters firehouse.
Now, before you start thinking, Wait a minute, I’ve visited that firehouse in New York. Yes, you may have stood outside Hook & Ladder 8, that mecca of movie locations on N. Moore Street in Lower Manhattan. The interior of the Ghostbusters firehouse, however, is old Fire Station No. 23, a decommissioned firehouse located at 225 E. Fifth St. in downtown Los Angeles.
(13) THE FUNNIES. The Wizard hits the celebrity autograph line at Wizardcon in yesterday’s Wizard of Id comic strip.
And today, the Wizard got taken in the dealer’s room.
(14) NONE IS THE LONELIEST NUMBER. Critic Jon Jon Johnson’s review implies a play aimed at the general public mentioned the Puppies. “The Greatest Science Fiction Show (No One’s Ever Seen)” was produced for the 2016 Capitol Fringe.
The Greatest Science Fiction Show (No One’s Ever Seen) provides no shortage of giggles, paired with some heartwarming moments. Part love letter to a old-school science fiction, part middle finger to the Sad Puppies of the Hugo awards, and part affection for geek culture, Grain of Sand’s show serves as a pleasant Fringe offering to delight fans of the genre and fans of the theatre.
(15) VANDYKE REPLIES. Peter J. Enyeart ranks the Hugo-nominated novelettes on the Stormsewer LiveJournal. Number Five wrote back.
- “What Price Humanity” by David VanDyke Space pilots fighting a war against invading aliens wake up in a strange simulation. Well, these military SF stories start to blur together after a while, don’t they? This was very Ender’s Gamey, with stylistic hallmarks reminiscent of Brad Torgersen (I’m thinking specifically of “The Exchange Officers,” which has a female character named “Chesty;” this one has a black character named “Token” (just because it was funny in South Park doesn’t mean it will work for you, bud)). It does have a bit of twist- a twist that you can see coming an astronomical unit away. And having an infodumpy prologue to a story this length is just narrative sloth. Boo.
David VanDyke, author of “What Price Humanity,” responded in a comment.
Kudos for you noticing “Token,” which is meant as a piece of deliberately painful, somewhat underhanded satire. My son-in-law of African ancestry, who flies fighters for the U.S. military, was given that nickname in training, as the only person of color in his class.
It’s both an indication of how far our society has come (the class members were well aware of the irony and were supportive, in the usual needling manner of combat operators) and an indictment of how far we have to go (if we could find 992 Tuskeegee Airmen, why can’t we recruit more minorities into the elite strata of today’s military?).
Placing such a subtle and unexplained item in a shorter story has its risks, particularly if a reader is predisposed to believe ill of an author, especially one that happens to have been published through Castalia House, but I try to start from a position of faith in the intelligence, imagination and good will of the reader, and hope for the best.
(16) COMPUTER-ASSISTED COMICS. M. D. Jackson’s wonderful series on comic book publishing technology continues at Amazing Stories — “Why Was Early Comic Book Art so Crude? Part 5: The Digital Revolution”.
Apple’s Macintosh was immediately adopted by graphic artists. With such programs as MacPaint and MacDraw, computer assisted art and design was born. The next year saw the introduction of the very first major comic book to be produced on a computer.
First Comic’s Shatter was created by writer Peter B. Gillis and artist Mike Saenz. Shatter was the story of a cop named Sadr al-Din Morales. The storyline of the comic was much in-line with works like Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner and Gibson’s Neuromancer. Threads of the story, such as distrust of corporations, the Film Noir feel of the project, and especially the artwork, would place it firmly in the genre of ‘cyberpunk.’
More importantly, the comic title, however much of a gimmick it may have started out as, showed that the potential for computer assisted comic book art was real. Using MacPaint and a mouse (this was before the invention of the tablet and stylus interface) artist Mike Saenz created each image as well as the lettering. The resulting pages were printed on a dot-matrix printer and then colored in a traditional way, but only because at the time the Macintosh was strictly a black and white machine.
(17) THE ARABELLA TRAILER. David D. Levine’s new novel, unveiled in a one-minute video.
Since Newton witnessed a bubble rising from his bathtub, mankind has sought the stars. When William III of England commissioned Capt. William Kidd to command the first expedition to Mars in the late 1600s, he proved that space travel was both possible and profitable. Now, one century later, a plantation in a flourishing British colony on Mars is home to Arabella Ashby, a young woman who is perfectly content growing up in the untamed frontier. But days spent working on complex automata with her father or stalking her brother Michael with her Martian nanny is not the proper behavior of an English lady. That is something her mother plans to remedy with a move to an exotic world Arabella has never seen: London, England. However, when events transpire that threaten her home on Mars, Arabella decides that sometimes doing the right thing is far more important than behaving as expected. She disguises herself as a boy and joins the crew of the Diana, a ship serving the Mars Trading Company, where she meets a mysterious captain who is intrigued by her knack with clockwork creations. Now Arabella just has to weather the naval war currently raging between Britain and France, learn how to sail, and deal with a mutinous crew…if she hopes to save her family remaining on Mars. Arabella of Mars, the debut novel by Hugo-winning author David D. Levine offers adventure, romance, political intrigue, and Napoleon in space!
[Thanks to Steven H Silver, Michael J. Walsh, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Stoic Cynic.]
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Furst!
Mirror universe explains everything. What’d I tell ya?
I’m a sucker for the Lost Disneyland stuff. There are some videos on YouTube of tours that take you past the remnants of original rides and attractions from the 50s and 60s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkB5a365x9g
I was always fascinated by the place. Went there twice as an infant, then we moved. Sometimes I dreamed of it. I learned a few years ago that the town we moved to, Fort Collins, was a model for Main Street, U.S.A., due to designer Harper Goff’s having lived there. So we moved from near Disneyland to near-Disneyland.
(3) Color me unsurprised that Beale’s prescription for any ills is to extol the virtues of racist segregationists.
(6) What Grant seems to miss is that if the shareholders Penguin Random House find the way the corporate officers are conducting business to be problematic, they can vote them out and replace them.
Sacrificial ::ticky::
re: (15) David VanDyke and “Token,” I believe the Scalzi definition of satire (‘the failure mode of clever is asshole’) applies.
(2) Huh. Well, leave it to the white nationalist to be right for the wrong reason.
[also ticky]
At the Disney Family Museum in the Presidio in San Francisco, there is an approximately HO scale model of Disneyland back in the day, complete with mine train and rainbow caverns and PeopleMover. I have spent many a happy moment staring at it. If I win the PowerBall tonight I’m going to hire someone to build me one just like it.
My Novella ballot.
I wouldn’t have guessed it but I’m not surprised by it, as it is consistent with his views and style of argument (or at least ‘consistent’ for Vox). He will co-opt left-sounding arguments when they suit his purpose and being contrarian is also part of his MO.
Charon D.
I haven’t been to the Disney Family Museum, though I had an invitation to the opening. When I found the trove of PM (a left-leaning NYC tabloid of the early 40s) at William & Mary, I set out to copy out the political cartoons by Dr. Seuss. I also phocopied anything else that looked interesting in the same years, and that included a bunch of photos and drawings of and by the striking Disney artists in 1941. They’re in this album at Flickr (please tell me if they’re restricted in some way): https://www.flickr.com/photos/kipw/albums/72157594477322717
The Disney Museum folks, before it opened, emailed and asked me if they could use my scans. I suggested they could do a generation better by finding a collection of PM, but that actually gets harder all the time. As I was copying away, the bound issues were actually in a temporary storage closet, having been removed from the shelves, and they were on their way to some kind of off-site deep storage, which doesn’t sound good. Whatever. They asked if they could use my scans, and I was happy to help out. I told them when things were second color (usually red and screens of it) in my black and white images.
And that’s what they had in the museum when they opened it. I don’t know if they’re still there, or how they were deployed. My invitation wasn’t transferable (pity, as I have a friend there who’s a journalist and animation scholar living in SF), and I guess photos weren’t permitted when my friend went. I’d love to see them in context.
(15) VANDYKE REPLIES
It’s…complicated. A friend of mine used to teach at a language school where many Chinese students attended. These students would typically adopt a Western-form name though not all went for the standard names like ‘Nicole’ or ‘Simon’. Some went with random English words that they liked, e.g. ‘Purple’. One student chose to go by ‘Clone’, because all Chinese look alike don’tcha know? In that instance, it mattered that it was a self-chosen (nick)name.
Let’s also not forget that bestowed nicknames often have an element of gentle ribbing that forms part of camaraderie – like when the tallest member is called ‘Shorty’ & so forth. I guess context is important. (I don’t mind if close friends call me a banana, but would be offended if strangers referred to me that way.)
Re 17. I don’t know, I feel up and down about book trailers. Some seem to work for me, others don’t. Just as you rarely saw or see commercials for books on TV, except seemingly as a tactic to tell you that Big Time Author had a book coming out soon.
Tolstoy on the Scroll?
I wonder if SerfPunk has been explored yet as a genre…
@Kip W, the art is visible (and pretty awesome, thank you for linking it!) and I definitely recall sections about the strike and the war at the museum, but not clearly enough to give a good description (too dazzled by the Disneyland model). It’s a nice museum and I recommend it. Last time I was there they had an exhibit about Disney’s friendship with Salvador Dali, with concept art from their collaborative animation that never happened (not in this timeline anyway).
(7) It would be a shame to let this pass without mentioning the enormous collection of ex-Disneyland attraction info at Yesterland.
[tickystalk]
Petrea, thanks for that! I used to go there, and somehow spaced out the link over the years. Bookmarking it again.
Charon, thanks! It’s on my list if I ever get back to my native state. California, I mean.
Re: Peter Grant’s delusion that social justice and profit are non-compatible:
I admit to being shocked in a good way when the corporate sector pushed back against the travesty of legislation in North Carolina: but as this article in the New Yorker says,
To many conservative business leaders, today’s social-conservative agenda looks anachronistic and is harmful to the bottom line; it makes it hard to hire and keep talented employees who won’t tolerate discrimination.
Google “social justice” and “corporations” and a bunch of hits come up including ones that make the argument that social justice is good for business.
And that’s not even taking into account the investors who want to send their money to socially progressive organizations.
And the ongoing information on how blue states send more money to the fed than they get back in federal funding and red states suck more money from the fed than they send back kinda implies that social conservative (read: racist, sexist, homophobic) ideologies aren’t particularly good for business.
(1) BRIANNA WU’S BOSTON GLOBE OP-ED. This is mostly wrong. Yes, white civil society bears major responsibility for what police forces prioritize in the US. But the connivance of the so-called “good cops” at overlooking and even covering up the actions of the “bad cops” plays a big role too.
(6) A FORCE FOR GOOD? Would someone please explain to Peter Grant what “disingeuous” means?
Except it’s been pretty well documented by the likes of Radley Balko that the police don’t so much “serve” minority neighborhoods as act like an occupying army trying to keep down unruly natives. (Balko’s book The Rise of the Warrior Cop makes the point that modern American police forces are doing exactly the things that the Founding Fathers complained about the Redcoats doing in 1776.)
(6)
And there, in a nutshell, is the entire fallacy of late-period capitalism. Think of it like the Laws of Robotics except that some people (a) haven’t discovered the zeroth law yet, and (b) seem to think that they operate the other way around (which is why regulation is necessary and not just an inconvenience.)
(6) A FORCE FOR GOOD?
Strangely, Grant hasn’t looked at what PRH are doing and why it might actually be a net benefit to the more long-sighted of their shareholders.
Firstly, putting some resource into what often gets called “corporate social responsibility” is extremely common across all businesses, so publishing isn’t plowing some quixotic furrow here – their shareholders will consider it a normal tactic.
Secondly, the article he links gives some specific examples, none of which he actually mentions or engages with
So, are they out there sponsoring trendy SJW-tinged projects, or is a company whose business is selling books to literate people trying to increase the number of literate people it can sell books to, while getting publicity, advertising, and name recognition in to the bargain. PRH aren’t doing what Grant describes “to become some sort of corporate social justice warrior” but engaging in typical business practices with clear benefits.
At least Grant had the decency to link to the statement he was talking about, but the strawman he erects of corporate SJWs is nothing to do with it.
(15) VANDYKE REPLIES
“Someone had to put up with this ‘joke’ and the accompanying ‘needling’ in real life in order to achieve what he wanted. Therefore perpetuating the ‘joke’ is totally justified, particularly if I strip it of all context.”
Yeah but no.
(15) – I also got to tick “One of my ______ is _______” on my Casual Racism Bingo card, as well as “It was meant ironically”.
Soon Lee gave a far better explanation without any of the CRB back-pedalling.
Jim Henley: Would someone please explain to Peter Grant what “disingenuous” means?
Those Puppies really do seem to struggle with their vocabulary meanings, don’t they?
David VanDyke: Someone had to put up with this ‘joke’ and the accompanying ‘needling’ in real life in order to achieve what he wanted. Therefore perpetuating the ‘joke’ is totally justified, particularly if I strip it of all context.
Mark-kitteh: Yeah but no.
It certainly smacks of the “I have a black friend, so it’s okay for me to say this” school of justifications, doesn’t it?
@Charon D
I find the idea of a Dali’esque Dianey ride disturbing, images of climbing an endless staircase while the wall melt around you spring to mind.
Also as a long term Linux user and administrator I really love the name Random Penguin
Coming this fall: CSI: Pokemon.
My first Title Credit!!!
(Must use Contributing Editor powers only for good!) 😛
@JohnFromGR
But what about SerifPunk?
@Kip W.
Awesome photo collection!
@Camestros Felapton
Actually I don’t think this is Mr. Beale co-opting the arguments of the left. There are several segments on the right, particularly the hard right, that began seeing the police as an antagonist, not an ally, after Ruby Ridge and Waco. Those incidents where radicalizing catalysts to a degree. The language could have come straight out of World Net Daily (Beale Senior’s rightwing news site) circa the mid-90’s.
Stoic Cynic
You are treading far too closely to Smurfpunk.
Hey, glad you like those pix! There’s a smaller set with some more of the bits and pieces of PM (which also featured offbeat photosets by Weegee that are wholly dissimilar to his crime beat material): https://www.flickr.com/photos/kipw/albums/72157594498688579
(3)
I forgot to tell Mr. Glyer that I got the reference to the UK radio comedy series, “I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again,” or ISIRTA. Mike Webber used to go on about the show at RASFF, and though I won’t assert a provable cause-effect relation between that and my purchasing MP3s of the show from an online vendor, I must say his descriptions of the show did little to dissuade me from it. It’s a wacky half-hour comedy with silly songs, and bears a strong resemblance to the anything-for-a-larf strain of Monty Python, which came shortly after, with horrific puns, arch recurring characters, and a constant feeling of derailment. John Cleese seems to be around for most of it. One or two other future Pythons popped in along the way.
And now, for something completely different:
Jean-Luc Picard is minding his own business when a stumpy alien with a strangely confidential air sidles up to him and addresses him:
Alien: I say, Squire!
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra. Eh?
Know what I mean? Know what I mean, nudge nudge?
At TANAGRA? nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more?
TANAGRA? Say no more, say no more!
Picard: I’m sorry, are you selling something?
Alien: Selling! Temba, with his arms open!
Arms open, Squire? Nudge nudge?
Picard: (taps his chest communicator) Scotty. Safeword is Scotty. SCOTTY.
I was sorry not to see America Sings on the Yahoo list. I did enjoy reading about it on the Yesterland site. Thanks for the link Petrea!
(2) Here’s the thing. Call it stopped clocks, call it oppositional defiance, call it narcissism, but Teddy has a certain logical consistency here (I know, it shocks me too).
Something that’s been noticed is that most USian conservatives will put their gun rights defenses in terms of the need for the citizenry to be able to overthrow an oppressive government. Yet whenever someone is summarily shot by the police for a broken tail-light, or playing their music, or presenting the insurance information the officer asked for, the justification is that anyone displaying anything other than instant and complete obedience to the uniformed agent of the state justifies that person’s death, however in error the person carrying the holy police badge may be.
It seems contradictory, and generally only lines up when you factor in the unstated white supremacism in some corners of the conservative movement (Trump isn’t exploiting anything that wasn’t already there.) It’s kind of curious that someone like Teddy Beale, an ardent champion of overt white supremacism, is choosing to be consistent on state authority with a take on Dallas that is highly radical in favor of a group he loathes (all not white) against a group he likes (police).
(6) Old man yells at clouds. Or, perhaps, emigre South African is uncomfortable with social progression and diversity?
VD in (2) actually makes sense. I do feel kind of dirty for saying that. (Although, and obviously, murdering police (or anyone else, for that matter) is never OK, but I can see why recent events could push someone who was already unbalanced in that direction)
Of course, in (3) he’s back off into full-on right wing racist nutjob, so normal service is resumed after a brief flash of clarity.
Good job really, otherwise they’d be ice skating in hell.
Kip W: Four million million years ago
two galaxies were passing through each otherwhen I was in college, public radio ran the entire ISIRTA series — it was great stuff.My news feed knows I’m interested in Power Rangers, so I saw this late last night:
http://movieweb.com/power-rangers-star-hates-bryan-cranston-casting/
I never knew that Billy Cranston (the original Blue Ranger) was named after Bryan Cranston. Billy was my favourite Ranger because he was an awkward geek who used words that most of the group didn’t understand. His actor, David Yost, is gay, and has revealed that he left the show because of rampant homophobia on the set.
Bryan Cranston was asked about his namesake when he and Vince Gilligan were doing an interview about Breaking Bad:
………well. My interest in seeing the Power Rangers reboot movie (already pretty low) just dropped a couple notches.
@Kip W: @Mike Glyer: ISIRTA is also relevant for SF. Do you remember “Professor Prune and the Electric Time Trousers”?
It is truly sad to consider the many wonderful things I must have forgotten, while my brain makes room for scenes from radio shows I listened to when I was in high school.
The other Nigel said:
“Professor Prune and the Electric Time Trousers” sounds wonderful to me. I’m going to have to track that down now. Thanks for mentioning it.
@Aaron. I’ll go a step further.
What Grant fails to comprehend – or ignores – is that large corporations, especially those beholden to shareholders, do not make large shifts or public pronouncements on a whim.
The thing he should be reading into their embrace of diversity is that they are going that direction because doing so has been researched and vetted, by people paid big buck to do those jobs, as the strategy the company will use to increase shareholder returns.
In other words, big business is coming around to realize that the puppy view of the world Is wrong and, even worse, detrimental to business.
What it means is that their market studies have demonstrated, more than insignificantly, that CONSUMERS want this. That the general public is largely in alignment with traditional fandom in recognizing that diversity is not only a good and fair thing, but a profitable thing as well.
If one approaches the question logically (and we understand that this is difficult for some) then it is pretty obvious that the bigger your potential market is, the more chance you’ll have to make a sale. Why sell, say, comics, only to white cis adolescent males when a few relatively minor changes would allow you to sell them to adolescent females, blacks, hispanics, muslims, gays, transgendered, and green aliens of indeterminate whatever?
How can one look at, say, the continued diversification of well-known comicbook characters and not realize that it continues because it is being successful, which means (logic, sorry) that the dollars are flowing?
@JJ. That’s ok. In their bubble universe, words mean what they think they mean.
I just checked the Puppy Dictionary RandomPenguin Edition, 2016, and under
DISINGENUOUS it says:
[dis-in-jen-yoo-uhs] Adjective: 1. What you think it means. 2. The other thing you think it might mean.
Hm. This seems to work. You can listen to ISIRTA episodes there as you will, or use it as a podcast somehow (Mongo not do podcasts). I note that the Time Trousers story is the longest continuity there, with… good lord, thirteen episodes? (Except that there’s no episode twelve!)
@TYP: It’s kind of curious that someone like Teddy Beale, an ardent champion of overt white supremacism, is choosing to be consistent on state authority with a take on Dallas that is highly radical in favor of a group he loathes (all not white) against a group he likes (police).
It’s internal consistency he can use for false equivalence, later.
7) I wound up at EPCOT on June 28, when the new Frozen ride had been open for one week. The wait was quite manageable so we went on the ride. The mechanics are exactly the same as Maelstrom, it just has a different skin on it with the characters from Frozen. The animatronics are wonderful, but the sound it iffy, great for the music and singing, but muddy and hard to hear for the spoken word portions.
Beale is apparently giving me stomach cramps.
Or maybe it’s The Aeronaut’s Windlass .
Clicky.
Interesting if true: several people have informed me that this year’s Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery nod went to Judith Merril. This thus far seems to have been limited to a verbal announcement at Readercon so I cannot provide an confirming link.
Where it gets interesting is this list of who exactly it is who is on the Smith panel:
We were very fortunate to have the panel of Robert Silverberg, Scott Edelman, Gardner Dozois, and John Clute as our first judges, and currently Martin H. Greenberg, Barry N. Malzberg, Robert J. Sawyer, and Mike Resnick are ably filling that role.
As Gary Farber pointed out elsewhere, Martin H. Greenberg’s death in 2011 almost certainly constrains somewhat his active participation in this award, and may indicate the panel list is not up to date.
James Davis Nicoll: There’s the news biz for you. While I’m running around Twitter trying to nail down what you posted about this on Facebook so I can do a front page post (and finding no confirmation) here you are delivering the story in a comment.
🙁 Did I overstep? You can delete the comments if you like.
My sources:
Merril just won the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award at Readercon.
and this reply to my question about who won.
The idea that businesses must actively commit themselves to profit and nothing else is an outlier. As an articulated notion, it’s the child of Milton Friedman (most directly in his essay “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits”) and Ayn Rand (at great length lots of places). A lot of us are taught, formally and informally, that there is a corporate fiduciary duty to maximize profits, but it turns out this isn’t actually so (one good take on it,, and another).
Further, when people seriously practice Friedman-Rand-style corporate management, it very often ends badly, with examples at hand like the 2008 crisis and the destruction of Sears.
So Peter Grant is mistaken on multiple levels.