(1) GRAMMY AWARDS. [Item by Mike Kennedy.] The Grammy Awards were given out Sunday night. (See Grammy.com for “The Full Winners & Nominees List”.) The only two obvious (to me) genre/related winners were:
Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media (Includes Film And Television)
- Dune: Part Two – Hans Zimmer, composer
Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media
- Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord — Winifred Phillips, composer
It’s perfectly possible that many of the other winners included music used in genre film, TV, games, etc. Or the works themselves may have genre content. But my knowledge of contemporary music is so slim as to be virtually invisible. You don’t even have to turn it edgewise. So let us know in comments if you find any more.
(2) GAIMAN AND PALMER SUED. Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer have been sued by a former New Zealand nanny of their son: “Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer Sued Over Rape and Human Trafficking Allegations” at File 770.
(3) FANS, RIPE FOR THE HARVESTING. Jessa Crispin, writing ahead of the lawsuit filings today, starts an analysis of the Gaiman/Palmer business model: “Around twenty years ago, publishing forgot how to sell books.” “Culture, Digested: Neil Gaiman is an Industry Problem” at The Culture We Deserve.
…Even taking into consideration their years of exploitation and abuse, Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer remain models of artistic success in the 21st century. Gaiman created an extremely sellable brand — affable, “oh goodness,” harmless Britishness wrapped up in a “I have read a lot of books” kind of storytelling — and the publishing industry used that not only to sell a lot of his books but that of his friends as well. Amanda Palmer has crowdsourced her way into a perfect little Patreon pyramid scheme, where all money flows to her and she gives back vibes and requests for domestic labor. This is the ideal artistic arrangement these days, where stars receive 95% of Patreon/Substack/other crowdsourced forms of income and everyone else competes for scraps. Both are reliant on a dedicated, servile audience, willing to turn over their time and bodies and cash to get a piece of that bohemian existence that only millionaires can manage these days. It’s the bohemianism not of Weimar, which Palmer constantly references, but the bohemianism of contemporary Burning Man, full of tech billionaires wearing the worst outfits you’ve ever seen in your life.
Accusations against bad actors follow a reliable structure. We dig through their work for signs that they were bad all along, we wonder why no one said anything sooner, a few select people will breathlessly explain how while they themselves were not harmed they could have been because they were so close to danger and didn’t know it. That’s fine. But it would seem more productive if we could discuss how the way our creative industries currently function leave people vulnerable to exploitation, how difficult it is to break through the veneer of a public figure who makes a lot of money for so many people, and the fantasies that allow people to confuse abuse with inclusion.
(4) CALL FOR PAPERS. Submissions are being taken for the MLA 2026 (Toronto) Speculative Fiction forum: “Genealogies and Futurities of AI in Speculative Fiction”.
MLA Call for Papers #29768
Session Title: Genealogies and Futurities of AI in Speculative Fiction
Submit proposals to: Rachel Haywood, Iowa State University (rhaywood@iastate.edu)
Description & Requirements:
Inviting proposals examining AI’s historical and futuristic representations in speculative fiction. How have speculative narratives anticipated, shaped, and reflected current developments in AI or imagined AIs that diverge from present realities? 250-word abstract, short cv
Submission Deadline: Friday, 14 March 2025
(5) DOES HE NEED TO DRAW YOU A PICTURE? Adam Kotsko would like to tell you “Why I Am Not a Gene Roddenberry Fan” at the Late Star Trek newsletter. He doesn’t explicitly say Roddenberry’s novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture is sleazy, he just supplies the necessary quotes and paraphrases to make that conclusion unavoidable.
The description of this newsletter says that the purpose is to reflect on the development of the Star Trek franchise. One great way to do that is to read tie-in novels from previous eras, especially ones that have been “superseded” by current-day canonical productions…
…I approached Gene Roddenberry’s novelization of The Motion Picture in a similar spirit. At the time when he was witnessing the franchise improbably reviving, what did Star Trek’s creator think Star Trek could be? I had read bemused articles like this one and hence knew that it was weird. But already in the first few pages, I felt like I was in a completely different universe…
… The aspect of Kirk’s preface that most often jumps out at readers is his reference to his mother’s “love coach”—presumably the person who gave her sex lessons in this extremely liberated utopian world. This idea is of course very “Seventies,” but it is also very “Roddenberry.” The movie itself already displays his worst impulses, because we are introduced to a new species of “sex aliens,” in the person of the bald Deltan woman Ilia, whose species is so overwhelmingly sensual that making love with them would drive a human mad. This is the same guy who introduced the Orion Slave Girls in the first pilot (and had Pike contemplate a career as a human trafficker) and who oversaw any number of plots where Kirk uses sex as a tool to fulfill his mission….
(6) ADAM NIMOY BOOK APPEARANCE. Now happening March 20 at the Pasadena Museum of History: “The Most Human: Reconciling with My Father, Leonard Nimoy with Adam Nimoy”. (Rescheduled from January 30.)
While the tabloids and fan publications portrayed the Nimoys as a “close family,” to his son, Leonard Nimoy was a total stranger. The actor was as inscrutable as the iconic half-Vulcan science officer he portrayed on Star Trek, even to those close to him. Join Adam Nimoy as he discusses his poignant memoir The Most Human and explores their complicated relationship and how it informed his views on marriage, parenting, and later, sobriety. Discover how the son of Spock learned to navigate this tumultuous relationship and how he was finally able to reconcile with his father — and with himself.
Copies of The Most Human: Reconciling with My Father, Leonard Nimoywill be available for purchase in our Museum Store on 03/20/2025.
Presentation will begin at 7:00 pm; PMH Galleries will be open for viewing at 6:00 pm.
Space is limited; advance reservations required
Note: the book The Most Human was released in June 2024.
(7) SPSFC CODE OF CONDUCT. The Self-Published Science Fiction Competition has posted its new Code of Conduct to X.com. (Not its own website.)
(8) MORE LEARNEDLEAGUE SFF: ELEMENTAL MASTERS, MADELEINE L’ENGLE, ALIENS, SPACE. [Item by David Goldfarb.] This LearnedLeague off-season has featured a few SFF-related One-Day Special quizzes.
This one has Mercedes Lackey’s “Elemental Masters” series as its ostensible theme, but is really more about folklore. I managed 10/12 right and 8th place, despite never having read any of the books.
This one about Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quintet I did rather worse on: only 7 right. To be fair, I have only read three of them, and that decades ago.
I also got 7 right in Alien Franchise, for much the same reasons: I’ve only seen two of the movies, and quite some time has passed.
Space is not technically SFF, but it’s a topic that is SF-adjacent enough that I think Filers might be interested. 11/12 right for me there, and the 12th off by only one letter.
(9) MEMORY LANE.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
The Greatest American Hero (1981-1983)
Forty-two years ago, The Greatest American Hero ended its three-year run on ABC. A rather wonderful run if I must say so myself.
It was created by producer Stephen J. Cannell, more known for series like Magnum P.I. and Castle (in which he appeared in a poker game with Castle as himself until his death) than SF series like this.
The series features William Katt as Ralph Hinkley, a teacher turned superhero after getting a suit from aliens; Robert Culp as FBI agent Bill Maxwell; and Connie Sellecca as lawyer Pam Davidson. Sellecca in another genre connection was married to Gil Gerard who played, well, you know who on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
Though it ran for three seasons, it had an unusually low number of episodes for a show of that duration racking up only forty-five in total of which of five went unaired during the original broadcast.
The powers of the red suit would appear to be quite generic, but that apparently didn’t appear so to Warner Bros., the owners of DC Comics, who filed a lawsuit against ABC, Warner Bros. Inc. v. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. It was ultimately dismissed by the Court where it was filed who said it had no grounds.
A wise decision given how common red suits with extraordinary powers were. I’m not which red suit DC was thinking of anyways as theirs. The red lanterns? Plastic man? The time Superman split in two, one blue and one red? And did they ever see Marvel’s Iron Man?
Five years later, the cast came back together for a pilot movie for a new NBC series which was named The Greatest American Heroine which was never picked up. The movie was later added in syndication to this series.
It’s streaming on Peacock. Yes, with the five that were not aired originally.
(10) COMICS SECTION.
- Bizarro gives haircuts on the square.
- Dinosaur Comics thought their predictions were the worst that could happen.
- Herman reuses furniture.
- Rubes remembers a TV show wrong.
- The Argyle Sweater learns a Transformer’s ancestry.
(11) VASTER THAN EMPIRES. Chowhound asks, “Does Beer Come In Bigger Sizes Than A Tallboy?” Sure, but after you drink one of them you may not remember this answer.
Typically, a “normal” beer can is about 12 ounces in size, and you see them everywhere. They’re featured in six-packs of domestic beers and plenty of non-alcoholic sodas as well. Sometimes, while you’re perusing the beer aisle, you’ll also see larger individual cans which are about 16 ounces in size, colloquially known as tallboys. Craft breweries love selling their beer in tallboys because it makes their beers stand out on the shelf. Increasingly, however, tallboys are coming up short for breweries. Your typical beer can is getting bigger.
There are a few larger sizes, each with common nicknames in the brewing industry. Past tallboys, you can also find 19.2-ounce cans called “stovepipes” which are an increasingly common way for craft breweries to sell their wares in convenience stores and local delis. Then you’ve got 24-ounce cans called “silo” cans, although you might recognize them as White Claw cans, because you can frequently buy cans of hard seltzer packaged in silos. The largest of all is a whopping 32-ounce can called the “crowler,” which is most often seen as a to-go option when you’re visiting the tap room of a local brewery. A crowler gets its name from the beer growler, which is a ceramic or glass jug which can be resealed with a lid; the crowler’s name is a portmanteau of “can growler.”…
(12) TEDDY HARVIA CARTOON. Yes, this seems pretty disturbing…
(13) RYAN GEORGE. Who knew there is a 12-Step program for Star Wars addicts? Ryan George is “Hearing The Star Wars Soundtrack Everywhere”.
(14) CHANGE COMING TO NASA RECRUITMENT. “NASA Astronaut Recruitment Faces Trump’s Moves Against D.E.I.” reports the New York Times. (Story behind a paywall.)
Since 1978, every new group of NASA astronauts has included women and usually reflected a multiplicity of races and ethnicities.
That is not simply by chance. NASA’s process for selecting its astronauts is not entirely gender- and race-blind. With so many outstanding applicants, choosing a diversified, highly qualified group of candidates has been achievable, said Duane Ross, who worked as manager of NASA’s astronaut selection office from 1976 until he retired in 2014.
“You didn’t lose sight of wanting your astronaut corps to be reflective of society,” he said.
Over most of its history, NASA has risen above partisan bickering, with broad support in Congress from Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals. But the makeup of its most visible employees — its astronauts — could now collide with President Trump’s crusade against programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion — or D.E.I.
For NASA to consider race and gender at all in the choosing of astronauts appears to run counter to an executive order that Mr. Trump signed on Jan. 22. That order declares that hiring for federal jobs will “not under any circumstances consider D.E.I.-related factors, goals, policies, mandates, or requirements.”
On the same day, echoing language in a template used by agency heads across the federal government, Janet Petro, the current acting administrator, told NASA employees that D.E.I. programs “divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination.”…
… Even during Mr. Trump’s first term, diversity and inclusion was a priority for top NASA officials. The administrator then was Jim Bridenstine, a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma, and in 2020, he added “inclusion” as the fifth core value for the space agency, joining “safety,” “integrity,” “teamwork” and “excellence.”
Under Mr. Trump, NASA also promised that the next moon landing would include a woman astronaut. Under President Biden, NASA broadened that promise to include a “person of color,” although not necessarily for the first Artemis program landing.
The embrace of inclusion was also evident last March when NASA issued a call for new astronauts. April Jordan, the current manager of the astronaut selection office, spoke about wanting to choose a group that was reflective of American society….
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew (not Werdna).]
