When you copy many sources it’s research – or today’s Scroll.
(1) Exhibit #27,837 that science fiction fandom has gone mainstream:
Sasquan is in Alaska Airlines magazine, the copies distributed on Horizon flights! Online at http://t.co/GLFdHSMIac . Bottom of page 9.
— sasquansf (@sasquansf) August 17, 2015
(2) The renovated Clifton’s Brookdale Cafeteria, where LASFS once met, reopens September 17.
Clifton’s Cafeteria after the remodel.
In its prime [in the 1930s] the Brookdale served close to 10,000 people a day, and Clinton went on to open ten more cafeterias, among them the Polynesian-themed Pacific Seas, where a two-story waterfall greeted customers at the entrance and every 20 minutes rain fell over the mezzanine. Clinton’s wondrous environments are said to have inspired everyone from Walt Disney to writer Ray Bradbury, animation pioneer Ray Harryhausen, and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, who gathered at the Brookdale for meetings of the newly formed Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society.
“This is a total playground,” Meieran told me, digging into a crumbling box of old metal nameplates he had just discovered in a corner. “When I get into a project, I love to tear it apart. The first night I get a screwdriver and a hammer and I start opening things.”
Linda Dishman, executive director of the Los Angeles Conservancy, consulted with Meieran on how to overhaul the building while being mindful of its history. “You want somebody who respects what it is—you don’t want somebody who is going to strip that away,” she says. “But then you don’t want somebody to go ‘Clifton’s crazy,’ either. Andrew did a fabulous job. He took spaces that had not been included in the restaurant and made them into a Clifton’s for this century.”
(3) And when they weren’t at Clifton’s, Joseph Hawkins has a theory about how some LASFSians were spending their time. This theory has been around for awhile, but Hawkins’ version sounds nicer than Laney’s.
The stories and commentary in these journals served as incubators for ideas that would lead to political organizing decades later. Sci-fi allowed readers to safely engage with thoughts about alien races with mixed genders or finding love despite their differences. In the 1930s, these messages were actually more overt; by the McCarthy era, the culture’s atmosphere had stifled messages about gay or lesbian themes.
“You have to read between the lines,” Hawkins said. Publications like Weird Tales or other “creature magazines” often featured monsters carrying off nude women — and were being illustrated by female artists. The same was true for some illustrations featuring men. Considering the artists’ sexual backgrounds lends a different context to who these clichéd monsters represented — one that says more about life on Earth than anywhere else.
In the days before the Internet, sci-fi magazines also served as an early precursor to discussion forums. Readers traded letters about space exploration as well as changes in society. They even trolled one another, igniting epic arguments about politics and other subjects.
The readers in these circles include a who’s who of classic sci-fi: Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein and the omni-present L. Ron Hubbard were all highly active. So was superfan Forrest Ackerman, publisher of Famous Monsters of Filmland.
But just like Internet forums, most people wrote using nom de plumes, allowing them to express a side of themselves that was often kept hidden. Kepner himself had about 14 different pseudonyms ranging from esoteric references to unprintable humor.
Some gay and lesbian writers had entire alter egos to go with their names. One of those writers was “Lisa Ben” — an anagram of “lesbian” — who worked as a Warner Bros. secretary and used company equipment to print the first lesbian zine in the United States. But she also was known as Tigrina the Devil Doll, a kind of proto-Catwoman with her own handmade costume.
All those pseudonyms make for intensive detective work. Hawkins and others at ONE Archives have had to sleuth out who is who and what the relationships were between everyone. Those skills are vital to archival research, he said, and have helped to uncover unexpected connections between sci-fi and LGBT communities across the country, and even internationally.
(4) Nancy Kress, guest blogging at Women in Science Fiction, talks about the ultimate sources of stories in “Why This? Why There? Why Now? Or Why I Wrote Crossfire. Maybe”.
So what does all this have to do with science fiction, and specifically with my novel Crossfire? SF writers may name the inspiration for their works (AI research, the battle for Iwo Jima, Star Trek, a dream about ghosts), but that only identifies the rocks and beaches on the surface. Most fiction comes from shifting tectonic plates far underground, throwing up fire and lava from everything the writer has ever experienced. This is what gives fiction depth (and scholars something to write about). Sometimes, even the author is surprised by what emerges from his or her keyboard.
(5) Earl Hamner fans have created a Change.org petition calling for him to receive Kennedy Center honors.
Earl Hamner not only gave us The Waltons but he brought us Falcon Crest and several episodes of The Twilight Zone. He also brought us the animated adaption of Charlotte’s Web (1973 film). He produced great Novels like; Fifty Roads to Town (1953), Spencer’s Mountain (1961), You Can’t Get There From Here (1965), The Homecoming: A Novel About Spencer’s Mountain (1970), and Generous Women: An Appreciation (2006). He also gave us great TV movies like; Heidi (1969), Appalachian Autumn (1969), Aesop’s Fables (1971), The Homecoming (for CBS, 1971), Where the Lilies Bloom (1972), The Gift of Love: A Christmas Story (1983) and more! These are just some of the reasons Mr. Hamner should be an Honoree. We the undersigned call on you to honor Mr. Hamner in 2016 with this WAY OVER DUE recognition!
Go to the Kennedy Center Website and submit Earl’s name directly to them for 2016. Do this even if you have already signed the petition and/or if you submitted for 2015. Look for the button that says “Recommend an Honor“. Click that button and fill out the form.
Join our Facebook Group: Make Earl Hamner Jr a 2016 Kennedy Center Honoree
(6) Keith Kato, President of The Heinlein Society, participated in the latest Take Me To Your Reader Podcast.
Seth was lucky enough to get Keith Kato of the Heinlein Society on the phone to chat about the Society, R.A.H. himself, his work, rumors of future adaptations, and even some tidbits about Predestination, which the Pounders discussed earlier in 2015 and is probably still their favorite episode.
(7) Vox Day in “Negotiation” lists whose skulls “we would be willing to accept in order to bring about a rapprochement in science fiction.”
I believe it is a priori apparent that their skulls would be of far more utility to mankind if they were helping satiate the thirst of the Dark Lord and his guests than any other purpose for which they might be currently used.
Of course you do.
(8) It’s Dave Freer’s turn at Mad Genius Club today – see how you score on “Quizz kid”.
10) Do you believe that comments that disagree with you should be censored, or disemvoweled? a) Yes. We’re protecting the freedom of speech and expressing tolerance. How can we do that if just any old redneck can say what he thinks? We’re looking for a vibrant diversity of opinion just like ours. You won’t get that if you let the scum talk. They need to be deprived of a platform, any platform! b) No. Give them a fair crack of the whip at least. Ask ‘em to be civil, maybe. And if they can’t be they can go and spout it somewhere else.
I believe in quoting exactly what they say. Which is why they can’t stand me.
(9) Have you heard? Someone filed a lawsuit against meal replacement company Soylent because it may contain ingredients it shouldn’t.
(10) What actual science fiction fan can’t think of an answer to this question?
https://twitter.com/TJaneBerry/status/633459482475925504
[Thanks to Jamoche, Michael J. Walsh, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Cubist.]
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@Ann: It’s a puzzle. Only takes one to feed a troll, and the mood comes upon many of us from time to time. I’m always reminded of this thing that we used to do in the second or third grade when it was time to be quiet in the classroom. One kid would make a little noise, and then a few others would shush him. Then other shushers would shush the shushers, and now you’ve got a crowd of kids all angrily shushing one another and you can’t hear a damn thing over all the shushing. I don’t think DNFTT is a great solution. Mocking them sometimes works. Disemvowelling them almost always works. Ignoring them almost never works because it only takes one to break ranks and wreck it. It’s even more complicated because some trolls have brief moments of not-trolling. And opinions about what is or isn’t trolling will vary.
@Cat:
I’m certainly one of those. I bet that’s common.
@RAH:
Mommybloggers, vintage corvette enthusiasts, furries, and tabletop wargamers will seem to have a commonality of opinions toward flat-earthers. That doesn’t make them a side.
@RAH:
I suspect that the reaction you’re getting is partly because people see your comments about people here — particularly Peace — as groundless in fact, and thus personal in nature. You choose terms like “vicious”, based on your gut feelings, without citations, and very much against the perceptions of the other people who have been reading these threads.
It sounds personal to me. I suspect it sounds personal to a lot of us.
To be fair, Blackout (read)/All Clear (didn’t read due to issues with Blackout) is pretty terrible. We invent time travel but forget about cellphones – way too much “oh you just missed them” moving the plot forward. And it needed editing into one book.
Of course there is campaigning in the Hugos. A gentle kind of campaigning, on the lines of ‘Hey, look at this’, goes on all the time, and some people and works have reached the ballot because of it. However, there is a difference between
a. Campaigning among existing voters, or people who already plan to become voters, to draw their attention to particular works.
b. Urging people to sign up in order to vote for a particular work (on which see my previous comment).
c. Campaigning for a slate, which involves urging people not to vote their own preferences, in order to achieve a further goal.
I’m puzzled that people can’t see the difference between these things.
Cat, I can’t recall all the particulars However I do appreciate your view. Personally I think Goblin will take it . I like Dresden files and have read them all. Did not like 3 Body Problem or Ancilliary. I apologize about calling you viscous since I also can not remember the specifics. It was not in reference what you said today. What I have observed is the name calling , slander against SP especially Brad who seems to be foolish but sincere. Larry has not received the same . Probably because he has been less vocal. I do read Sarah Hoyts books and do read her blog at time,but I don’t agree all the time. Her main issue is communism.
What the initial post about File 770 being a bastion of anti puppydom is a reflection of the division and that people tend to only visit or comment on blogs that they share viewpoints. I like seeing other viewpoints. It is dangerous to be in an echo chamber.
I really do like that you clearly state you are biased against slates. That is all right by me. I don’t share the animus, but it clearly exists. I think it will be interesting to see the vote counts. I read GRRM Hugo prediction and I share it to a degree.
Aaron: They designate us as a “side” because we oppose what was done to the Hugo Awards. Why people have stepped forward, though, is really as varied as the reasons Colonel Chamberlain gives for volunteers enlisting in the 20th Maine — “Some came mainly because we were bored at home, thought this looked like it might be fun. Some came because we were ashamed not to. Many of came because it was the right thing to do…” Some hate the effective vandalism of the award. Some dislike having their intelligence insulted by the justifications for it. Some are happy to open another front in the culture wars. And don’t forget, there are even some who wouldn’t have objected if all the writers on the slate had given their permission to be on it.
Cat,
Actually, I didn’t say that, that was from Darren Garrison.
Movies? I like movies.
Favorite Musical: The Blues Brothers, or Zeffirelli’s production of La Traviata
Favorite Science Fiction Movie: Strange Days; Dark City (see note under horror); Star Wars; The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The Eighth Dimension
Favorite (Non-animated) Fantasy Movie: The Secret of Roan Inish; The Water Horse
Favorite Horror Movie: Absentia; Dark City if someone wants to argue that it’s more horror than sf; The Will And Last Testament Of Rosalind Leigh; The Changeling (1980); The Cabin In The Woods; yes, I do think that independent horror films of recent years are among the very best ever
Favorite Post-Apocalyptic Movie: Mad Max: La Dernier Combat
Favorite Cop Movie: Hot Fuzz; Hard Boiled
Favorite Comedy: The Blues Brothers; Raising Arizona; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead; Hopscotch
Favorite Western: Silverado
Favorite Courtroom Drama: Presumed Innocent; A Few Good Men
Favorite Movie About School: Grosse Pointe Blank; The Breakfast Club
Favorite Super-Hero Movie: Iron Man 1; Captain America 1& 2
Favorite Animated Movie: Fantasia; Allegro Non Troppo; Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
Favorite Civil War Movie: Glory
Favorite World War I Movie: All Quiet On The Western Front, with Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine
Favorite World War II Movie: The Great Escape; Casablanca
Favorite POW War Movie: The Great Escape
Favorite Movie No One Else Seems to Like: Joe Versus The Volcano
Favorite Spy Movie: Sneakers; Three Days Of The Condor
Favorite Bond Movie: no particular pick
Favorite Ray Harryhausen Movie: ditto
Favorite Giant Monster Movie: Pacific Rim; Godzilla (2014); Godzilla (1954); Monsters
Favorite King Arthur Related Movie: Monty Python and the Holy Grail; Excalibur
Favorite Movie Adapted from a Book: L.A. Confidential
Favorite Movie Adapted From a Comic: A History Of Violence; Hellboy; Blade 1 & 2
Favorite Christmas Movie: no particular pick; maybe The Blues Brothers
Favorite Low Budget Movie: Absentia; Albino Alligator; Devil’s Pass; Blair Witch Project; Paranormal Activity
Favorite Comfort Movie: The Blues Brothers; Buckaroo Banzai; Casablanca; The Maltese Falcon
Favourite Asian Martial Arts Movie: Kung Fu Hustle; Hero
Favorite Movie of All Time: no way
Aaron and Cat, that’s my read on Best Novel as well. While I would be ecstatic if The Goblin Emperor won, I won’t be unhappy if Leckie or TBP wins.
@Will — I confess, I AM a disaster movie junkie. I get a kick out of movies like Meteors and 10.5. The bad ones I watch for a laugh and the oh-so-rare good ones (where I actually care about the characters) are a delight. And some I just watch for the special effects. (The reporter in Deep Impact, who thinks “ELE” is someone’s mistress breaks me up every time I see it.) The first disaster flick I can recall seeing is “The Devil at Four’O’Clock.”
I also like TEOTWAWKI books — with Stirling’s Emberverse and Island books heading the list. Also the classics: Alas, Babylon, Earth Abides, The Stand, Lucifier’s Hammer. And a couple of old old disaster books by George Stewart, Fire and Storm.
BTW, was it just me who felt the sudden appearance of a character named Ian Banks in PoI was not a coincidence?
They designate us as a “side” because we oppose what was done to the Hugo Awards.
I think the Pups mostly want to designate everyone else as a side because they don’t want to face the reality, which is that they are a tiny circle standing and all facing inwards while they gently stroke each other’s egos. The Pups simply don’t want to deal with the reality that they are the science fiction and fantasy genre’s equivalent of 9/11 “Truthers”.
Chris S: I can’t remember precisely where this comes in the book, so it may be that by not reading All Clear you missed the explanation of the absence of cellphones. And certainly one has to read to the end to see why the constant ‘Oh, we just missed them’ is not accidental.
(Not saying you should have read to the end; obviously if the first volume doesn’t sustain your interest, it’s reasonable to stop.)
I wanted to digress into the two-year-eligibility proposal.
When I was a baby fan, I read all the prozines, because I thought that one had to study up to be a fan. Now, however, it seems unlikely that I will ever get back to reading the original sources of short fiction, either the surviving magazines or the online publications. (At least, not until I am retired.)
However, I do poke at the annual Best-Of-Year anthologies.
Currently, the Best-Of-Year anthologies are pretty much all published after the Hugo nominations are closed. Under a two-year window, however, I speculate: do the anthology editors become a sort of gatekeeper for the short fiction Hugos? If they do become gatekeepers of a sort, I’m not sure this is a bad thing.
@Bruce I cannot believe I left Buckaroo off my list. It goes in my “Best What’s That Watermelon Doing Here?” Film.
RAH, I’m gonna go with charity and think you’re mixing Peace up with someone else (I don’t know who.) Peace is consistently generous, polite, and thoughtful, far more so than I am, and would go on my list of top ten highly decent commenters.
Since you can’t provide any evidence of Peace being unpleasant to you, I am not at all convinced there is any.
In other news, Ladyhawke is brilliant, but the best movie of all time (sez I) is Spirited Away.
Aaron on August 18, 2015 at 2:35 pm said:
One more tactic RAH—and, indeed, the Puppy movement as a whole—shares with Creationists: Asserting that their opponents’ true motives are completely different than their opponents’ explicitly stated motives.
In the case of Creationists, this tactic may most commonly occur in the form evolutionists oppose Creationism because THEY’RE ALL ATHEISTS!!1!—ignoring all the evidence against Creationism, and also ignoring all the devout Christians (and other Believers) who accept evolution.
In the case of Puppydom-in-general, it’s our favorite books don’t win Hugos ‘cuz THE SJWs HAVE RIGGED THE GAME AGAINST US!!12!—ignoring the complete lack of evidence in support of that proposition, and, likewise, ignoring all the evidence against it, as well.
In the case of RAH here, it’s the anti-Puppies are, too, a political tribe, just like the Pups are!!!11!!—ignoring the fact that people opposed to the Pups just aren’t anything even vaguely close to the coherent “side” that RAH wants to paint the Everybody Else quote-faction-unquote up as.
RAH: I apologize about calling you viscous since I also can not remember the specifics.
Are you trying to say someone is “thick” (viscous) i.e., stupid, or were you aiming at “vicious” and missed?
@Cubist
One more tactic RAH—and, indeed, the Puppy movement as a whole—shares with Creationists: Asserting that their opponents’ true motives are completely different than their opponents’ explicitly stated motives.
It may be that the Puppies simply can’t conceive of anyone’s statements about their own motives being reliable. The concept seems to be alien to them.
@ RAH
To be fair, you may have stumbled across me on a day when I had lost all patience; it happens. Thank you for walking back the “vicious” comment, though.
I liked Ancillary very much but not Three Body Problem so much. TBP had some really wild ideas, but I felt it fell down somewhat when it came to having people act in believable ways, and also some of the things with elementary particles just didn’t make sense, and the combination was a bit too much. But other people liked it and it if wins, I’m okay with being in the minority on that.
I suppose there might be people sufficiently annoyed about having the fair Hugo contest disrupted by slating that they have slandered slaters. I haven’t seen any, but I’ve been reading Brad for quite a while and have lost patience with his repeated tendency to paint anyone who dislikes slating or notices when he says homophobic things as a Nazi or a Stalinist or at least an animal abuser. So if someone was similarly unfair to Brad it might pass under my radar. OTOH if it was Brad who told you he was slandered, it might be all of a piece with him being loaded into a boxcar and shipped to Siberia and he’ll write more tomorrow if his fingers aren’t too swollen.
For what it’s worth Larry is much quieter this year and so he doesn’t get talked about as much.
It’s true that I avoid Puppy blogs because people there stand in line to say bad things about people like me. Why would I want to subject myself to that? Sometimes I like to have a glance in to see if they have something sensible to say, but since Mike Glyer started including them in roundups it’s much quicker to just go over to Glyer’s blog–with the added bonus that the comments won’t be full of frothing anti-liberals and feminist-kickers and rainbow-stranglers and people who hate Democrats.
@David W.
Oops; my bad; I apologize for mistaking you for someone else.
Favorite Musical: Not really into Musicals…does The Lion King count?
Favorite Science Fiction Movie: Dark City
Favorite (Non-animated) Fantasy Movie: The Fellowship of the Ring, non extended version
Favorite Horror Movie: Prince of Darkness
Favorite Post-Apocalyptic Movie: Damnation Alley
Favorite Cop Movie: Hot Fuzz
Favorite Comedy: Real Genius
Favorite Western: Not really into westerns.
Favorite Courtroom Drama: 12 Angry Men
Favorite Movie About School: The Breakfast Club
Favorite Super-Hero Movie: Iron Man 1
Favorite Animated Movie: Atlantis the Lost Empire
Favorite Civil War Movie: Glory
Favorite World War I Movie: None
Favorite World War II Movie: Kelly’s Heroes, or maybe Where Eagles Dare
Favorite POW War Movie: The Great Escape
Favorite Movie No One Else Seems to Like: eXistenZ
Favorite Spy Movie: Captain America 2
Favorite Bond Movie: Goldfinger
Favorite Ray Harryhausen Movie: Jason and the Argonauts
Favorite Giant Monster Movie: Godzilla (1954)
Favorite King Arthur Related Movie: Quest for Camelot
Favorite Movie Adapted from a Book: Total Recall
Favorite Movie Adapted From a Comic: Hellboy
Favorite Christmas Movie: Miracle on 34th Street
Favorite Low Budget Movie: Blair Witch Project
Favorite Comfort Movie: When Harry Met Sally
Favourite Asian Martial Arts Movie: Hero
Favorite Movie of All Time: To Catch a Thief
If anyone needs help understanding what makes Buckaroo Banzai one of the greats, I submit the following from one of the writers (I’m not going to Rot13 for a movie that’s 30 years old, but WATERMELON SPOILER ALERT):
I missed the start of this movie list thing so I’m just going to play along and pretend I know what I’m answering, someone please correct me if I’m listing something that’s off limits by the rules.
Favorite Musical: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Favorite Science Fiction Movie: 2001: A Space Odyssey
Favorite Fantasy Movie: Excalibur
Favorite Horror Movie: John Carpenter’s The Thing
Favorite Post-Apocalyptic Movie: Things to Come
Favorite Cop Movie: Prince of the City
Favorite Comedy: The Big Lebowski
Favorite Western: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Favorite Courtroom Drama: A Man for All Seasons
Favorite Movie About School: If…
Favorite Super-Hero Movie: Superman: The Motion Picture
Favorite Animated Movie: Fantastic Mr. Fox
Favorite Civil War Movie: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Favorite World War I Movie: Paths of Glory
Favorite World War II Movie: The Train
Favorite POW War Movie: Empire of the Sun
Favorite Movie No One Else Seems to Like: Joe vs The Volcano
Favorite Spy Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Favorite Bond Movie: From Russia With Love
Favorite Ray Harryhausen Movie: Seventh Voyage of Sinbad
Favorite Giant Monster Movie: King Kong (1933)
Favorite King Arthur Related Movie: Excalibur
Favorite Movie Adapted from a Book: The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Favorite Christmas Movie: Die Hard
Favorite Low Budget Movie: Reservoir Dogs
Favorite Detective Movie: Chinatown
Favorite Movie of All Time: The Elephant Man
@Bruce B
Dark City, great film. Was sorely tempted to put it in somewhere.
@Anna
Yeah, I’m not believing that was a coincidence either.
@Lori Ah, you are a connoisseur. Have you seen The Core? Watched it on Netflix, I think. Riotous.
@Lori Coulson
I assumed RAH meant vicious; that’s the kind of typo I make all the time. It would be cute if I were viscous, I suppose; then I would presumably be thicker in winter and quicker in summer. In actual point of fact, I suspect it’s heat that makes me thick, or at least slow…
Don’t ask me to type the word for the quality of being awake and aware; I just hope to get close enough that spellcheck can figure out what I had in mind.
And it’s just *ugly* when I’m trying to write in Dutch.
Favorite English Language French Action Film Set in Japan*: Wasabi
*This was their advertising slogan.
Favorite Western: Yojimbo
Favorite Low-Budget: With Nails
Favorite Tommy Lee Jones: Adventures of Nate and Hayes
Favorite Science Fiction: The Thing (John Carpenter version)
Favorite Modern Noir: Brick
@Paul eXistenZ rocked. In a virtual world, I love that he keeps bringing us back to the material.
@Lori And bookwise, The Stand really is an archetypal apocalypse.
@Will
Buckaroo Banzai is one of those films I’ve always wanted to watch but have never got around to. Even tried to get it from Lovefilm recently but they didn’t have it.
someone please correct me if I’m listing something that’s off limits by the rules.
No rules. Just post the movies you like.
The Freer quiz excerpts suggest that he’s copying the method and assumptions of Charles Murray’s recent “bubble” quiz from Coming Apart. It was all the rage in 2012.
@IanP I’m pretty sure it’s on Netflix. But I can never remember if it’s the UK one or the US one.
Lori, for EOTWAWKI, you might enjoy a short story, “The Walking Thing” by Marlee Jane Ward, published at Interfictions: http://interfictions.com/the-walking-thingmarlee-jane-ward/
I found it grim but moving, about a plague that makes people literally walk themselves to death, and one Australian teenager who’s not affected, and the subsequent choices she makes.
@Will — don’t laugh, but one of my favorite sections of the Stand has Elvis driving one of his hot cars down the highway…
In case people don’t know it, there’s a great browser plug-in called Hola, which lets you use a VPN to present as if you’re accessing the internet from basically anywhere in the world. And it can be used to switch between US and UK netflix.
Handy when, say Battlestar Galactica is on UK netflix, but all of Star Trek is on the US version.
@Microtherion The sky above the residential college was the color of Earl Grey, poured into a bone china cup.
Wait until you read Ancillary Inheritance. All the pronouns have been replaced with “one.”
@Lorcan Thanks for the tip!
@Lori I love that he really thinks through what would happen.
The only way to get the bandaid off is to rip it, so I’m just going to give the first answer that occurs to me:
Favorite Musical: Thoroughly Modern Millie
Favorite Science Fiction Movie: Serenity
Favorite (Non-animated) Fantasy Movie: Princess Bride
Favorite Horror Movie: The Mist (scary from several directions)
Favorite Post-Apocalyptic Movie: The Road is really hurtful
Favorite Cop Movie: Infernal Affairs (so much better than the English version)
Favorite Comedy: Pod People (Mystery Science Theater 3000 version)
Favorite Western: Once Upon a Time in the West
Favorite Courtroom Drama: A Few Good Men
Favorite Movie About School: Mean Girls
Favorite Super-Hero Movie: Spiderman 2 (the Doc Oc one), Project Ako
Favorite Animated Movie: The Incredibles, Iron Giant
Favorite Civil War Movie: Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter (ie, I’m not big on these)
Favorite World War I Movie: pass
Favorite World War II Movie: A Bridge Too Far
Favorite POW War Movie: The Great Escape
Favorite Movie No One Else Seems to Like: Soldier, Elizabethtown, Elektra, The Lake House, Six Days/Seven Nights (so many guilty pleasures)
Favorite Spy Movie: La Femme Nikita, The Bourne Identity
Favorite Bond Movie: The Spy Who Loved Me
Favorite Ray Harryhausen Movie: The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
Favorite Giant Monster Movie: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974), Gamera: Guardian of the Universe
Favorite King Arthur Related Movie: Excalibur
Favorite Movie Adapted from a Book: Blade Runner (pretty loose)
Favorite Movie Adapted From a Comic: Watchmen (super long version)
Favorite Christmas Movie: The Year without a Santa Claus, The Grinch (original), Love Actually
Favorite Low Budget Movie: Troll 2,
Favorite Comfort Movie: The Avengers
Favourite Asian Martial Arts Movie: Five Deadly Venoms, So Close, Heroic Trio, The Duel, Wing Chun (Michelle Yeoh), Yes Madam, and on and on
Favorite Movie of All Time: Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!
@Bruce Arthurs — that was right down my alley. Ms. Ward writes a nice tight tale. She’s made my “keep an eye out for” list.
There have been articles recently about security issues with Hola. Here’s one: Hola VPN still riddled with security holes, researchers claim.
ObSF: I just finished The Fifth Season and loved it. Dear Ms. Jemisin: may your pencil always have lead, may your word processor never crash, may your muse visit you regularly, and may you be happy and healthy as you continue to WRITE LOTS and QUICKLY. *koff* Sorry, getting a little pushy there…
Well this started out as an attempt at a comment but has falling apart into random *Yay* type babble. Please bear with me.
Yes! I adore Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, and Noises Off! (Forgot who mentioned that one)
LA Story is sublime and I also adore Martin’s Roxanne (I wish he made more movies like that instead of those terrible Father of the Bride things).
Thoroughly Modern Millie! OMG – I know it probably hasn’t aged well at all, but I remember laughing myself sick at that one. And Victor/Victoria! Love Jazz Hot – Robert Preston!
Favorite Christmas Movie: The Lion in Winter (it was Christmas !)
Favorite Animated Movie: Spirited Away or The Cat Returns or sometimes My Neighbour Totoro – or basically what Peace said “Favorite Animated Movie: All of Miyazaki Hayao’s work. Yes, even Lupin III. (his was the best of the lot)” unless I am in a strange mood, in which case it might be Yellow Submarine
@bloodstone75 Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter was surprisingly good _as a Civil War movie_ in addition to being a lot of fun.
I am in the Blackout/All Clear was a total mess camp. Sorry – the horrible grasp of geography, and WWII history, the nonsensical behavior of the characters (he did that why? it made absolutely no sense at all!) and the monster logic/plot holes made the book/s torture. I was mad at Connie Willis for months after finishing them. And I love To Say Nothing of the Dog (I found the warped geography there much easier to ignore). Bah! There was absolutely no evidence of research in that mess.
Oh – for the record, I love the Tube map, but for the streets I always used the A-Z. I love London and have taken my kids twice – it is a great city for kids (free museums, amazing parks!). We want to go back again.
@Bruce “The Walking Thing” by Marlee Jane Ward
Yikes. Wow. That was a story. Hrm. Gonna go find something funny to read now. Wow.
On sides:
Well the Puppies are a side, or two sides, or anyway a loose coalition* of individuals of diverse aesthetic, political and other opinions who happen to agree that the Puppy campaigns are just what SF and/or the Hugos and/or society in general need and/or want and/or deserve. But they all have their own viewpoints being freethinking and intellectually curious people.
Logically it follows that anyone who opposes such a scattered and disparate group and their goals must be part of the monolithic social justice warrior cadre who answer to the secret central cabal of cultural marxists. Therefore anyone who disagrees with the Puppies can be safely lumped together as a side. And unlike the barely connected Puppy side(s)** everyone on the non-Puppy side is responsible for everything anyone who has an opinion on the topic, or might have an opinion, said.
And that’s why File770 is CHORF Central/ Puppy Kicker HQ, except for the Puppies who comment here, who aren’t File770 commenters apart from the fact that they, you know, comment on File770.
* Or two loose coalitions with some overlap, and some other groups even less closely associated.
** Is there anything that actually links them together? Something to do with the Clarke award, or maybe the Prometheus? I’m not sure.
I was about to proclaim ‘Death to all Tyrants’ but realised, in the nick of time, that we are not discussing Plato’s disgraceful attempts at cloaking his aversion to the free citizens of Athens rowing the City’s triremes to destroy their enemies, instead of doing the manly thing wot the Spartan manly men did by fighting manly shoulder to manly shoulder, by pretending that ‘Atlantis’ was a fantasy.
It was, of course, an elaborate political allegory, and by Zeus we can’t have message fiction corrupting those poor innocents who may buy it, unaware of Plato’s political views…
I lack the spoons to give movies a proper treatment today, but here are a few.
Best Bad Movie That’s So Bad It Goes Past Cult And Wraps Back To Awful Again: Naked Space, aka The Creature Wasn’t Nice, aka Oh God Make It Stop.*
Favorite Christmas Movie: Die Hard.
Favorite Fantasy: The Princess Bride, because duh.
Favorite Lovecraftian Movie Not Officially Based On Lovecraft: In the Mouth of Madness.
Worst Adaptation: Peter Pan Live.**
Favorite Robert Preston Movie: The Last Starfighter.***
Favorite Time Travel Movie: the Back to the Future trilogy, only because it’s more fun than Predestination.
That’ll do for now.
* Okay, so the last one isn’t really a title. It’s just what people say. Oh, and it’s a musical.
** Look, Walken phoned this one in and “Peter” was too feminine.
*** Always trust Centauri.
Mike Glyer on August 18, 2015 at 2:49 pm said:
Another reason people have stepped forward by the thousands to defeat the Puppy Slates:
One could construct a case that the field really HAS changed since the Golden Age (…though not everyone sees that as a BAD thing, of course…), that’s reasonable;
one might even have some sympathy for Puppies Who Want Things To Be Exactly The Way I Remember The Way Things Were When I Was Twelve (less reasonable, but conservatives gotta be nostalgic, I guess);
but the Puppies did not slate “good-old-fashioned sensawunda SF” – they slated mostly unreadable garbage by their cronies.
And so several thousand people laid down their forty bucks to join as Supporting Members simply to say “This is completely unacceptable – and the Puppies are assholes for gaming the Hugos.”
(Anybody who put forward “Wisdom from My Internet” as Hugo-worthy has forever forfeited their right to have their taste in SF ever be taken seriously ever again. )
Why do I bother sleeping?
I was hoping to sneak in Brick under hardboiled detective movie before anyone mentioned it. I was also going to surprise and amaze people by suggesting Yojimbo for Best Western- But GSLamb beat me to it.
Many of you have excellent taste! (And some of you are baffling)
Favorite movies, eh? Let’s see …
Favorite Musical:
Well, for the 1920’s, The Jazz Singer is a serious contender, but I’d have to go with THE COCOANUTS. The plot may be almost completely irrelevant, but the movie that introduced the anarchic humor of the Marx brothers to the world of film has too much good stuff in it to ignore.
For the 1930’s, we have a smorgasbord of choices. The Blue Angel, Show Boat, 42nd Street … but I don’t think anyone will object if I hand this one to THE WIZARD OF OZ. I could list dozens of reasons it remains beloved, from Judy Garland’s voice to the innovative use of color, but here’s one that doesn’t get brought up as much as it should — Yip Harburg’s astonishingly clever lyrics.
The 1940’s are not my favorite era of movie musicals. But I can look to early Danny Kaye as a shining light here. His best musical, the Court Jester, alas wasn’t until the 50’s, where it’s going to have more competition. For his 40’s work, The Kid from Brooklyn has its moments, but I’m going to give it to THE INSPECTOR GENERAL, which includes some great examples of Sylvia Fine’s talents.
Now in the 1950’s we get The Court Jester, which is frankly better than The Inspector General, but we’ve got some tough competitors here, and I think I have to give this one to SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN. So much brilliance, and Gene Kelly’s choreography was revolutionary at the time.
The 1960’s, here we get a ton of good stuff. West Side Story is a contender, but, well, Natalie Wood. Sweet Charity is odd and great but not every moment works. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum stars a laundry list of brilliant comedians, but could use a stronger script. The Beatles actually have two strong contenders here in A Hard Day’s Night and Yellow Submarine (which is likely to come back if I ever get down to the animated movies.) The Music Man, a near-perfect musical in every way, almost won this one for me, but was beaten by THE PRODUCERS, which is not at all a perfect musical — it is weirdly structured, awkward, dated, and somehow still blows the competition away.
The 1970’s, hm. I prefer the stage version of Cabaret, although the movie has its moments. Same with Hair. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a great audience participation event but not the world’s greatest movie. Charlotte’s Web is pretty nifty. The Wiz is a strong contender here, as is Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. But I’m going to give it to THE MUPPET MOVIE. Movin’ right along!
People thought the great age of movie musicals had ended by the 1980’s (and the animated musical renaissance only just starting), but looking at the options I’m not so sure. The Blues Brothers! Hairspray! A Chorus Line! Fame! Footloose! And I’m going to give it to … PINK FLOYD — THE WALL. Because, at the age I watched it? Mind. Blown.
The 1990’s lands us in the Disney Renaissance. There were some great non-animated musicals here — Cry-Baby, The Commitments. But Disney here gives us animated musicals like Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Mulan. To my surprise, I find myself giving it to a non-Disney musical: SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER, AND UNCUT. Because it waited until the end of the Disney Renaissance, kneed it in the groin, and did it with a better script.
The 2000’s gave us another great version of Hairspray, a good and underrated adaptation of Sweeney Todd, and a brilliant and underrated adaptation of Chicago. Enchanted is a good entry from Disney, and O Brother Where Art Thou? is a strange but worthy contender here. But I’m going to give it to HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH.
So, looking over that, I’ve got it down to The Cocoanuts, The Wizard of Oz, The Inspector General, Singin’ in the Rain, The Producers, The Muppet Movie, Pink Floyd — The Wall, South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Narrowing that down to the top half of my preferences would give me The Wizard of Oz, Singin’ in the Rain, The Producers, and The Muppet Movie. Taking it down further, The Wizard of Oz and Singin’ in the Rain would be my final two; they’re structurally tighter than the others. That’s a tough call, but I’m going to go with The Wizard of Oz.
So there you have it — my favorite movie musical is The Wizard of Oz. Today, anyway.
Um, what was the second question?
This … could take me a while.