(1) GAME OF THRONES AUCTION, SECOND DAY. Westeros reports huge prices are being paid for props and costumes in “News – Day 2 of the Game of Thrones Auction Recap”.
…A few other notable pieces hit the six-figure mark throughout the day. Oberyn Martell’s trial by combat ensemble was next to break the mark, followed by what to me was probably the most surprising result among the big sellers: the Lannister “family litter” used in season 5. It’s beautifully crafted, but I had no idea it’d draw that much attention. After that, the last item we saw to reach $100,000 before we went to bed was the “Shame” bell, which I recall David Mandel of the The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of podcast expected to do well….
…Eight more items ended up joining the list, all of them in the final third of the auction…
Two of those items are:
- A “hero” Needle from season 6 cleared the bar at $131,250.
- The new price leader then showed up eleven lots later, with the “hero” Longclaw from season 6 charging ahead to a whopping $400,000. The figure was so high that we checked the Heritage Auctions and the Propstore records of past sales; near as we can tell, this is now the most expensive prop sword auctioned by the two biggest auction houses focused on props and memorabilia. The previous holder of that record, according to our research, was a Glamdring from Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King which was actually a WETA replica for Sideshow Toys rather than an actual, screen-used one….
At the end of Day 2 the auction stood at $12.15 million in total sales.
Today’s Day 3 sales were topped by the $1.49M paid for the Touring Iron Throne:
Original touring Iron Throne, measuring approximately 65″ x 86″ x 63″ and weighing 310 lbs. Molded from the original screen-used throne, this replica is expertly crafted from plastic with a painted metallic finish and jewel embellishments to resemble the hilts of once-regal swords…. This Iron Throne was crafted exclusively for promotional events and tours, such as Comic-Con, Hollywood premieres, and the Game of Thrones Touring Exhibition, which visited major cities worldwide, including New York, London, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, and Sydney….
(2) AIMING TO MAKE THEM A LITTLE LESS FREE. According to The Mary Sue: “Utah book banners now want to make Little Free Libraries susceptible to criminal charges”.
Utah book banners have now set their sights on Little Free Libraries, clamoring to make owners of these libraries susceptible to criminal charges.
As conservative parents, educators, and politicians spread the book-banning movement across the nation, Utah has quickly arisen as one of the most dystopian states when it comes to the right to read. The state recently passed a law that allows it to enact statewide book bans. Essentially, if a handful of schools find some kind of fault with a book, it can be banned in every single public and charter school in the state. The Utah Board of Education also suggested adding a stipulation to the law that would’ve required teachers to burn the books banned statewide. Meanwhile, the state’s conservative politicians and educators recently held a book-banning party to celebrate the archaic law and demand that authors “repent” for writing books….
… Conservatives were outraged when Democratic State Representative Sahara Hayes celebrated Banned Books Week by placing Utah’s banned books in Little Free Libraries around the state. A book-banning group on Facebook quickly shared a video of Hayes distributing the books. Member Brooke Stephens made a post stirring hysteria by claiming Hayes was putting “explicit books” in Little Free Libraries “where little kids have direct access to them.” In a separate post, Stephens insisted that book-banning laws should now apply to Little Free Library owners, stating, “Private property doesn’t mean you don’t need to follow the law.” She wants putting books in Little Free Libraries to be considered equivalent to distributing pornography or obscene material to children….
(3) ANNOUNCING WISCONLINE 2025. The WisCon committee today announced plans to hold WisCONline 2025 – a virtual con with no in-person component.
The WisCon Convention Committee is pleased to announce that we will be having an online convention in 2025!
What will WisCONline 2025 look like?
In addition to being fully online with no in person presence, we are currently looking at changes to WisCon to make it more sustainable for our volunteers. This means WisCon may appear to “shrink”, but if we offer less (for example, fewer panels), it’s because our focus is on quality and maintaining WisCon’s values.
While we can’t give exact details this early, more than ever, the capacity WisCon has to do the things we all love will depend on having volunteers step up. We’re committed to avoiding the past burnout we’ve seen come from volunteers taking on too many roles.
When is it?
It will take place Memorial Day weekend as always! (May 23-26, 2025, with some programming possible Thursday evening and Tuesday morning.)
Why online only?
Unfortunately we weren’t able to recruit key volunteers in time to make an in-person con viable. We’re excited, however, to use this opportunity to explore what we can do to engage and reach our community in ways we can’t usually….
(4) EN ROUTE. “Where do you get your ideas” is one of the cliché questions asked of sff writers. Samantha Harvey, author of Orbital and Booker Prize finalist, tells the Guardian about the origins of her novel: “’I was on the way to a funeral when the idea came to me’: 2024’s Booker-shortlisted authors on the moment inspiration struck”.
‘Many novels, I think, have multiple possible origin stories. With Orbital, was it the astronaut/cosmonaut quotes I used to collect in my teens (Alexei Leonov: “The Earth was small, light blue, and so touchingly alone”)? Was it my time spent working in an astronomy museum? Was it a conversation with my partner in the kitchen one day, in which he said I should write a play set on the ISS and I said, “Rubbish idea, can’t do microgravity on the stage”? (I owe him my thanks all the same.) Was it time spent looking at images of the Earth from orbit, the feeling I got when I looked at those images? Undoubtedly all of those things and many more.’
(5) NOT ONLY OF GENRE INTEREST. Nathan Ballingrud tells CrimeReads he’s not enlisted in the war. “Pitting Literary Fiction Against Genre Fiction Is Intrinsically Silly”.
There’s a war on.
This war has been raging for generations. Each side has its warriors, its partisans, its propagandists. Most of the time the fighting is minimal, confined to minor skirmishes in the pages of small magazines or in the backwaters of social media. But from time to time an article will be published in a popular magazine or someone famous will say something scathing, and the fires will burn hot again for a while.
I’m talking, of course, about the war over the values of Genre versus Literary Fiction, the most boring and stupid of all wars.
We hit the ground stumbling over its intrinsic silliness: Can genre not be literary? Isn’t “literary fiction” itself a kind of genre? What does “literary” mean when I say it? What does it mean when you say it? Once we get past these problems of definitions, we must weather the exchange of the same dull arguments: endless variations of “genre fiction lacks psychological depth and polished prose” and “literary fiction is only about old white college professors having affairs.”
It’s all such a headache. And yet the subject – the argument – fascinates a lot of people, enough that in over half the interviews I’ve done, I’m asked about genre and where I think I place in it. I dread the question and try to evade it as much as I can. I usually say something like, “I don’t like to think about genre. Genres make fences, and I don’t like to write feeling like I’m fenced in.”…
(6) SEEKING PASADENA (CA) GHOSTS. Tickets are available for the Haunted Pasadena Walking Tour on October 18-19 and 25-26. The trailer is clever.
Walk Through One of LA’s Most Haunted Cities: Pasadena
As the sun goes down over the buildings and theaters of Old Town Pasadena, things seem a little bit more terrifying. Pasadena is known for its Rose Bowl, historic buildings, and its majestic Tournament of Roses parade. But underneath it all are tales of untimely death, disease, the occult, and the paranormal. A Victorian Hotel, which is now apartments, whose guests never checked out and a phantom stage manager amongst many more. Ghostly tales adorn this 2-hour long tour through the streets and alleyways of the historic district. Join us as we now embark onto our newest ghost tour in Los Angeles County. Wear comfortable shoes as we explore the darker part of Pasadena.
(7) FRAN SKENE MEMORIAL PAGE. As previously reported, Vancouver fan Fran Skene died June 17. There’s now a memorial page where memories and condolences can be left: “Frances Skene Obituary – Port Coquitlam, BC”.
… Fran was a cheerful, witty, and involved volunteer and participant in many groups up until her death and will be missed by the many friends and acquaintances in her writing, amateur press (AWA), science fiction, puppetry, Callanish, women’s camp (PWCA), and other groups. Many still have fond memories of her Canadian Unity Fan Fund turkey readings, where volunteers read, acted out, and illustrated the worst passages from science fiction until paid to stop, please. (No, really, please; here’s another five dollars.)
Fran worked very hard on her craft, especially her storytelling—both written and oral—and her poetry and stories can be found in several publications….
(8) MEMORY LANE.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
Anniversary: Star Trek: the Animated Series (An appreciation) (Last day of its run, October 12, 1974, fifty years go)
No, Star Trek: the Animated Series didn’t debut on this date but it ended its brief run today.
Spock: Consider. Chuft Captain has been attacked by an herbivorous pacifist, an eater of leaves and roots, one who traditionally does not fight. And the ultimate insult, I left him alive. Chuft Captain’s honor is at stake. He must seek personal revenge before he can call for help.
Sulu: That gives us some time. You did plan it that way?
Spock: Of course.
Star Trek: the Animated Series’ “The Slaver Weapon”
We all know that Star Trek: the Animated Series followed the first series and debuted on September 8, 1973. It would end that run a mere twenty-two episodes later on October 12, 1974.
Did I like the series? I think that two aspects of it were done really, really well. The voice cast was stellar, with almost all of the original cast save Walter Koenig voicing their characters. It is said, but this is only rumor, originally Filmation was only going to pay for three actors, that being Shatner, Nimoy, and Doohan.
Nimoy however said that he wouldn’t take part unless the rest of the original cast was included. However the studio stuck to its guns as to how many it would budget for and Walter Koenig was dropped because of what he wanted. However Nimoy did get him some writing gigs for the show.
The other was the stories. Being animated gave them a wider artistic frame to work with than the original show had and they used that to their creative benefit. An example of this was Niven merging his Known Space story, “The Soft Weapon” into the Trek universe. It was wonderful and it was great to see the Kzin visualized.
(Everything here was novelized by Alan Dean Foster. He first adapted three episodes per book, but later editions saw the half-hour scripts expanded into full, novel-length stories.)
I think the animation was at best weak. It looked flat, one dimensional. The characters as if they really weren’t quite there. I’ve never been a fan of Filmation.
I just rewatched that episode on Paramount +. The print is stellar and the voices are great. The animation was, as I thought it was, less than great. Watching characters move is painful to say the least as they don’t walk so as much glide across the screen.
So I’d love to see these stories redone with present animation.
(9) COMICS SECTION.
- Off the Mark depicts a vampiric allergy sufferer.
- Reality Check shows how zombies celebrate the season.
- The Argyle Sweater has monstrous product placement.
(10) NEWS FOR INDIE FILMMAKERS. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] Well over 40% of the 1,260 who responded to Glasgow 2024’s “consultative vote” were supportive of proposed Hugo Independent Film categories but that was not enough to get it across the line, and in any case, it was only a ‘consultative’ survey. But independent SF film lovers, don’t worry, here is some good news.
Pinewood Studios, which is one of Britain’s major studios — for example James Bond waved his Walther there (that’s not a euphemism ) for four of his films, also Deadpool and some past, SFnal TV series: UFO and Space: 1999 were shot there — is now offering facilities for low-budget independent film makers. “Pinewood studios announce new indie film hub for budget films” at BBC News.
… Independent film makers will be able to use sound stages, the large soundproof warehouses where films are shot, as well as production offices and workshop space on the site in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire.
Camera hire, drone photography and post production will also be among the services available when the hub opens next summer.
The launch comes as the government’s Independent Film Tax Credit was passed into law….
(11) NEXT, STROON. [Item by Rob Thornton.] And we take the first steps toward Norstrilia: “Montana man sentenced to prison for cloning giant sheep and breeding it” at Fox8.
An 81-year-old Montana man was sentenced Monday to six months in federal prison for illegally using tissue and testicles from large sheep hunted in Central Asia and the U.S. to create hybrid sheep for captive trophy hunting in Texas and Minnesota.
U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris said he struggled to come up with a sentence for Arthur “Jack” Schubarth of Vaughn, Montana. He said he weighed Schubarth’s age and lack of a criminal record with a sentence that would deter anyone else from trying to “change the genetic makeup of the creatures” on the earth….
(12) THE SOURCE OF THE END OF THE WORLD THAT WASN’T. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] So, with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, we have lived though a decidedly SFnal time and mercifully most of us have got through it, though we must not forget the millions that did not. One of the remaining mysteries is how did it all begin?
Here there are two main competing theories: a Wuhan virus research lab escape, or live wildlife being sold at the nearby Wuhan meat market. China’s government has not helped matters by – being true to past form – withholding information about aspects of the research lab, so with an absence of information feeding fake news.
However, a new genomic analysis from the Wuhan, China animal market lends weight to that being the source of the 2019 CoVID pandemic. The study establishes the presence of animals and the virus at the market, although it does not confirm whether the former were infected with the latter. The European and US based researchers argue that the viral diversity present in the market suggests it was the site of the pandemic’s emergence. In particular, they say that the presence of two early SARS-CoV-2 lineages – A and B – in the market suggests that the virus twice moved from animals to people. Raccoon dogs (N. procyonoides), hoary bamboo rat (R. pruinosus), and masked palm civet (P. larvata) are likely source species. Stalls on the mid-west side of the market’s western block seem to be the source. See the figure below.
The primary research is Crits-Christoph, A. et al. (2024) “Genetic tracing of market wildlife and viruses at the epicenter of the CoVID-19 pandemic”. Cell, vol. 187, 5468–5482.
(13) VIDEO OF THE DAY. Ryan George takes us inside the “Joker: Folie À Deux Pitch Meeting”. Beware spoilers!
“Hey, how about we just burn millions of dollars?”
“That’s a very Joker thing to do. Love it! You mean do it in the movie, right? Right…?”
[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]
