Pixel Scroll 9/12/16 A Friend of the Pixel is a Friend of Mine

Posted on by

(1) NEWS AND VERSE. Ursula K. LeGuin told her blog readers about a recent medical problem:

I’m sorry about not keeping up my blog posts, but everything got interrupted for me this summer when my congenital heart murmur (leaky valve) finally began to exact its toll. I spent a few days in hospital, have been home now for three weeks. Doing fine but not doing very much — and that looks to be the way it will be for a while.

The notice is followed by a poem about her cat, which you wouldn’t want to miss.

(2) COMPETE FOR AUREALIS AWARD. Entries for 2016 Aurealis Awards are open now. Click on the link to get a copy of the entry form — https://aurealisawards.org/entry-forms/

How do I enter a work into the Aurealis Awards process, and where do I send my entry form?

For all regular categories, you must enter using this online entry form by December 7 2016 and supply a copy of the work(s) entered to each judge in the relevant category/categories by December 31, 2016. Once you have formally submitted an entry via the online form, the coordinator will contact you with the postal addresses for the relevant judges and details for electronic submissions. Entries will not be considered unless the entry fee is paid (if applicable – does not apply to short fiction or Children’s entries).

For entries to the Convenors’ Award for Excellence, you must enter using this online entry form by December 31, 2016.

What works are eligible?

Any work of speculative fiction written by an Australian citizen of permanent resident and published for the first time between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2016 is eligible to be entered.

(3) STEPPING FORWARD. Mary Robinette Kowal will oversee Nebula Conference 2017 program.

(4) FUTURE IMPACT. Adam Frank says the news about Proxima Centauri is important – “Why the discovery of an earth-like planet is such a big deal” on NPR.

After all, when the Wright Brothers lifted their rickety plane off the sands of Kitty Hawk, the rest of the world was just out buying their eggs, milk and toilet paper. On that day who knew — or could imagine — that decades into the future millions of people would be sitting in giant jet-planes watching Direct TV and soaring five miles above the planet’s surface.

I’m telling you this because two weeks ago a threshold of discovery was crossed when astronomers announced they found a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri — the sun’s closest neighbor.

Now, you may have heard that news — but did you really hear the news?

(5) CANSMOF SCHOLARSHIPS TO SMOFCON AVAILABLE. CanSMOF Inc. is offering up to three scholarships for convention runners to be used towards the cost of attending SMOFCon 34, to be held in Chicago, December 2-4, 2016. SMOFCon is the annual convention about organizing Science Fiction conventions.

The first Scholarship of up to 500 CAD is open to a Canadian citizen or resident involved in running conventions with a preference for those who have not previously attended a SMOFCon.

The second scholarship of up to 1000 CAD is open to anyone not residing in North America*, involved in running conventions with a preference for those who have not previously attended a SMOFCon.

The third scholarship of up to 500 CAD is open to anyone involved in running conventions, regardless of their place of residence with a preference for those who have not previously attended a SMOFCon. T

he submission deadline is September 18th, 2016 SST (UTC-11). To apply for a scholarship, follow this link: https://goo.gl/forms/l7mun84SZrcTomOw2

(6) TODAY IN HISTORY.

the-blob

  • September 12, 1958: The Blob absorbs theatres!
  • September 12, 1993: Chris Carter’s The X-Files aired.

(7) TWEAKING GEORGE. George Lucas has tried to overwrite all original prints with his CGI additions, but some fans prefer the vintage original: “Star Wars superfans restore unmolested 1977 print, distribute illegally online”.

As reported by Ars Technica, a restored version of the original 35mm print of 1977’s Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars Episode  IV: A New Hope) has hit the web.

A restoration of the pre-special edition of the film — thought by many to have been permanently altered by Lucas himself — was accomplished by a small group of Star Wars purists called Team Negative 1.

The new restoration doesn’t have the blessing of Lucas or current rights holder Disney, and represents the original version of the film that was officially disowned by Lucas in 2004, when he said in an interview with the Today show, “The special edition, that’s the one I wanted out there. The other movie” … “to me, it doesn’t really exist anymore. It’s like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I’m sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it.”

How exactly Team Negative 1 acquired the original print is a mystery, with Lucasfilm having claimed that all original 1977 negatives were given the special edition CGI treatment.

(8) HALLOWEEN STAMPS. A set of stamps with four different Jack-O-Lanterns will be issued late this month in anticipation of Halloween.

usps2016_jackolanternhalloween

According to USPS.com:

Jack-O-Lanterns – In the spirit of Halloween, the Postal Service issues these delightfully eerie stamps featuring photographs of four different jack-o’-lanterns.  These creatively carved pumpkins have been symbols of Halloween in the United States since the late 19th century, not long after celebrations of the holiday began here. These are the first Halloween-themed stamps issued by the Postal Service. Paul Montanari designed and carved the pumpkins under the art direction of Derry Noyes of Washington, DC.  Sally Anderson-Bruce photographed the lit Jack-O’-Lanterns used on the stamps.

Stamp News Now says the first day issue will be September 29 in Anoka, MN

The first day site, Anoka is known as “the Halloween Capital of the World” because it hosted one of the first Halloween parades in 1920, and still holds several Halloween parades.

(9) ANOTHER DUCK IN THE WALL. SFWA President Cat Rambo, having spoken at a conference in China, is now enjoying the essential tourist experiences and sharing them on Instagram.

[Thanks to Chip Hitchcock, JJ and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day RedWombat.]

Discover more from File 770

Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.

107 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 9/12/16 A Friend of the Pixel is a Friend of Mine”

  3. I am jealous of Cat Rambo’s adventures!

    re: Mary Robinette Kowal and the Nebula programming. Whoa. Wow.

  7. …Is it just me, or is the whole “first fifth” “second fifth” thing starting to get a bit tired?

  8. (2) COMPETE FOR AUREALIS AWARD.

    Think I found a typo, and it’s not attributable to OGH:

    What works are eligible?

    Any work of speculative fiction written by an Australian citizen of permanent resident…

    -> or permanent resident.

  12. Pfft. You want Star Wars as a sit as it was intended to be? Two words: Holiday Special. To me that’s what SW is all about, a vast parable on the true meaning of Life Day. Trying to understand the Force without the Holiday Special is like trying to read Shakespeare in a non-Klingon edition.

    (I haven’t had any wine, but I may have had too much coffee)

  13. Just glad Lucas didn’t recut my favorite movie of his, AMERICAN GRAFFITI. Falfa shot first! Dopey extras trooping through all the scenes! All the cars have brighter headlights! Yes, that’s right: Everything You Know is Wrong!

  14. Yep, the fifthing is getting old. But then, I’ve *never* understood the whole “First!” post thing.

  15. @David Goldfarb, it might just be you. 😉

    (6) TODAY IN HISTORY – Here’s where I hop onto the Naughty Step and say that while I’ve seen The Blob half a dozen times, I’ve never watched a single episode of The X-Files.

    In book news, thank you so much to everyone who recommended Ninefox Gambit. I’d start rereading it right away, except my TBR pile is at hazard levels.

  16. David Goldfarb on September 12, 2016 at 7:29 pm said:
    …Is it just me, or is the whole “first fifth” “second fifth” thing starting to get a bit tired?

    Well, yeah, it is – but given how desperately Beale wants attention, it’s good to remind people that he’s been incompetent at every career he’s turned his hand to.

  17. I just posted this on yesterday’s pixel but it’s likely more talk will happen here where there aren’t 2-3 discussions happening.

    Naming the not-Hugo YA award. Thought I’d float the idea before submitting. I wanted to stay away from people’s names/books/series to avoid possible problems (estates, turns out *ist issues, etc.). Wanted a theme which would be both SF & F. Hopefully not controversial. Not tied to any culture.

    Dwarven Pluto Award – let’s you play with a planet and dwarves making a pun on little Pluto the planet that was + science and fantasy

    Thoughts?

  19. If people are going to leave a comment just so as to tick the box, ‘fifth’ is as good as ‘second fifth’ is as good as ‘GOD STALK’ is as good as ‘ticky’ is as good as the people who just write ‘(insert clever comment here)’.

    It’s short, simple, and familiar and skims off the eye without harm.

  20. I’ve seen a copy of the Star Wars fan restoration. It looks pretty good, but it’s pretty obvious that it’s been made from a late-generation release print. Apparently, most of the thing was sourced from an early 80s Spanish-language print intended for the Latin American market. This means that while it’s new enough to be on low-fade film stock (meaning the colors are intact, unlike most prints of the film floating around the collectors market which tend to have faded to red), it’s also grainier and “rougher” than would be ideal because the print was probably made in a hurry from beat up materials.

    The “holy grail” of Star Wars preservation would be a release sourced from one of the Technicolor IB roadshow prints, but nobody who has such a print (at least in good enough shape to be useful) wants to attract the kind of attention that a pirate BluRay might bring to their film collections.

  21. (1) My SJW credential who’s leaning against me right now is much the same pattern as UKL’s. So I love the poem, and hope she feels better soon-ish.

    (3) Stop her before she volunteers again!

    (6) Hey, I’ve seen all of both of those.

    (7) Must go wander the unlegal parts of the intarweb.

    @Mike Kerpan: there’s a guy who’s restored it from a Technicolor IB print, but he’s in the business and has been told he’d never work in this town again. He’s using it to try to get Disney to let him work on an official Original Flavor restoration.

  23. I have my Kindle back!!! Although I won’t be using it until I finish reading my Ballantine Adult Fantasy release of Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword sometime in the next day or two. (I have Broken Sword on my Kindle, but I believe the eBook is the original 1954 version, not Anderson’s 1971 revision.)

  25. I certainly wish all the best mending and resting to Ms. Le Guin, and am delighted by her poetry in the meantime.

  26. Nitpick alert.

    X-Files debuted on Sept 10th, not 12th, on FOX. The 12th might have been Canada. Friday nights paired up with The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. Steampunk and a bit of time travel As far as FOX knew, the X-Files was that quirky show airing after the sure hit Brisco County.

  27. In regards to George and the original versions. If you’ve never seen it, here’s “The Star Wars I used to know” video parody of “Someone I used to know” Note, this was done before Disney bought Star Wars from Lucas.

    “You’ll never get a Bluray of the Star Wars you used to know”.

  30. Reminds me of the joke Dizzy Gillespie told about two beboppers’ conversation: “Are you gonna flat your fifths tonight?” – “No, I’m going to drink mine”.

  31. (7) TWEAKING GEORGE

    I would happily pay for an official, original version – they really should just shut up and take our money.

    There’s some interesting comparisons of old v new, special ed vs not-special ed here.

  34. @Cherl S.:

    (6) TODAY IN HISTORY – Here’s where I hop onto the Naughty Step and say that while I’ve seen The Blob half a dozen times, I’ve never watched a single episode of The X-Files.

    I’ve read about, heard about, seen parodies of, you name it about The Blob, but I wouldn’t swear I’ve ever seen it. (Now, Gog, there was a movie to remember!) But I’m certain I’ve never seen more than five minutes of an X-Files episode. So move over.

  35. David Goldfarb asked:

    …Is it just me, or is the whole “first fifth” “second fifth” thing starting to get a bit tired?

    It’s not just you.

  36. The Fifth thing strikes me as vaguely silly, but nowhere near as annoying as the great twitter excitements one sees

    “ZOMG! #ThisIsTrending is Trending!”

  37. Everything is fifth and fifth is everything. It’s not becoming old; it can never become old. It was always already eldritch. This is probably the most significant contribution the soft devilman will have ever made to any human culture. Let him have his five minutes of fame, forever and ever, throughout eternity. Let him be paid what he is owed.

  38. See, this is my idea of original STAR WARS:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ezeYJUz-84

    (Not that I don’t have a video of the original movie as it existed in ’85—the usual third-generation VHS dub, of course.) They also have the sequel, and all the complete fan-made versions that were edited into the feature. I love it, but can’t watch too much at a time, because my skull starts softening.

    I was looking at Google, where I often just wish they’d knock off the business with the doodle. I don’t know why, but I’m bored with them. Then I thought, hey, they should do one that looks like a Captcha, so clearly I’m no better than anybody.

  39. I was looking at a Halloween display the other day and they were selling underpants (just pants for our English friends) whose design was skeletons wearing stormtrooper helmets. (Or the skeletons of stormtroopers, if you prefer.) I’m still not sure if Star Wars and/or Halloween have gotten out of hand.

  42. David Goldfarb

    …Is it just me, or is the whole “first fifth” “second fifth” thing starting to get a bit tired?

    Just to add to what you, Tom Galloway, ‘AsYouKnow’ Bob, Petréa Mitchell, and NickPheas said. It was kind of funny at first, but it’s been going on for a whole year now.

  43. A question for the people who’ve seen multiple variants of SWIV:ANH on electronic media: how many were converted from film with the correct exposure, so that we don’t see that the eye panels in Darth Vader’s helmet are actually transparent dark red instead of opaque black? Whatever pops up on our cable occasionally (don’t ask me which channel, I’m just a bystander) is always too light.

  44. Doctor Science: Very few substantial changes (maybe only one, really), but some fairly extensive textual emendations, mostly to clean up the original prose (at least, that was Anderson’s intent).

    Ryan Harvey did a pretty extensive comparison of the two versions on Black Gate back in 2007; here’s the link:

    https://www.blackgate.com/broken-in-two-poul-andersons-two-versions-of-the-broken-sword/

    (He finds much to recommend in both versions, but ultimately prefers the original. I’m reading the revised version because that’s what was published as part of Ballantine Adult Fantasy.)

  46. Is it just me, or is the whole “first fifth” “second fifth” thing starting to get a bit tired?

    Jehova, Jehova!

    Currently reading Dark Forrest. Got blown away by Three-Body-Problem. But this… is different…. I guess. Dont even what to make of it yet (halfway through).
    But will definitly carry on to Death´s End, just to see where Cixin Liu will go with that book…

  47. Curses, this Star Wars chat (and that video!) has put me back on my quest to rewrite the prequel movies to be more coherent and worthy of a spin-off like the Clone Wars TV show, which I am halfway through at the moment and loving. That ridiculous Padawan hairstyle is the first thing on the chopping block (trade negotiations are the second).

    Also, seeing as how File 770 isn’t a Lindsay Lohan movie can it not just be OK for people who are enjoying themselves to keep riffing on the “fifth” theme without getting made to feel they’re ~boring because not everybody likes them as much? Especially as commenting for the tickbox is a thing. Sorry it just seems bizarre to me for people to suddenly declare some comments Totally Over in a way that seems to imply they should not be made any more, when 1) that’s pretty clearly not the case for everyone and 2) we already accept that not every comment on this site needs to be a Deep and Thoughtful Contribution to the 770 Narrative…?

  48. Re: Fifth Fatigue. I apologize for any annoyance I have caused. I did help perpetuate it on this scroll.

  49. I don’t mind the fifthing. It’s a constant reminder to a certain lurker here that his only contributions to the conversation are his screwups.

  50. I seem to have the original STAR WARS TRILOGY in Laserdisc form, as well the editions where the originals and the re edits were issued together. But for “Episode 4”, there were several scenes in various editions of the film, which don’t seem to have ever been edited in one film.

    For who’s on first or who made fifth, I growled lightly over that a while ago. If you want to do it, fine.

Comments are closed.