Tag Archives: Reactor

Pixel Scroll 12/10/24 We Are The Telepath Guild, The Telepath Guild, The Telepath Guild

Posted on by
26

(1) UNION AND STRAND BOOK STORE SETTLE. “Strike Ends at the Strand as Union, Management Reach Tentative Agreement” reports Publishers Weekly.

The Strand Book Store has reached a tentative contract agreement with its staff union, which is represented by United Auto Workers Local 2179, putting an end to a strike that stretched through the weekend and much of Monday, December 9. Should the contract be ratified, it would last through Aug 31, 2028, adding an additional year to a contract that was previously three years long, said Will Bobrowski, the former Strand employee and current second VP at UAW Local 2179.

Among the changes to the contract, Bobrowski told PW, are an increase to the store’s per hour hiring rate, which will now be $0.50 above New York State minimum wage and a $1.50/hour raise in an employee’s fourth year, amounting to a roughly 37% wage increase over four years for Strand workers who begin at the base salary. (The minimum wage in New York will increase by another $0.50 on January 1, 2026, and on Jan. 1, 2027, the state’s rate will be tied to the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, taking inflation into account in the establishment of a minimum.)

Paid time off for employees will remain unchanged in the new contract, totaling nine days for all workers. Charges of unfair labor practices filed by the union to the National Board of Labor Relations over the weekend will also be dropped….

(2) DEADLINE APPROACHES TO APPLY FOR OTHERWISE FELLOWSHIPS. The Otherwise Motherboard is soliciting applications for two 2024 Otherwise Fellows.

The Otherwise Fellowship (formerly Tiptree Fellowship) was established in 2015 to support and recognize new voices who are creating work that is changing our view of gender today. The Fellowship program seeks out creators who are striving to complete new works, particularly creators from communities that have been historically underrepresented in the science fiction and fantasy genre and those who are working in media other than traditional fiction! Each Fellow receives USD $500 in support of a new or ongoing project.

Applications are due December 15, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time, via email. Selected Fellows will be announced in Spring 2025. The Fellowship committee is being chaired by Otherwise Motherboard member Jed Samer.

For more information about what the Fellowship entails and how to apply, see “How to apply for an Otherwise Fellowship”.

(3) GENRE SPECIALISTS’ PICKS. At Reactor: “Reviewers’ Choice: The Best Books of 2024”.

As readers of speculative fiction, we are spoiled for choice. The book releases in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and beyond this year took us to lands of magic and wonder, newly terraformed planets and generation ships, crumbling gothic mansions, and tech-fueled future Earths—and we are so lucky to get to read them all. Our reviewers each picked their top contenders for the best books of the year, along with some personal favorites….

(4) ASFS’ REVISED CODE OF CONDUCT. The African Science Fiction Society released its new Code of Conduct today in concert with this statement about Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki. (The Code of Conduct is at the link.)

ASFS had started gathering information in response to Erin Cairns’ report discussed in File 770’s post “Two Accusations Against Ekpeki Disproved”.

(5) SCOTT EDELMAN’S OTHER PODCAST. Episode 10 of Scott Edelman’s podcast Why Not Say What Happened? — “Why I Was Questioned by the Police for Wearing a Mister Miracle Mask” — includes his ramblings about his first cons — plus a couple of con photos of him at 16.

And here’s the link to all episodes in the series, which can be downloaded through multiple sites.

Scott Edelman, at right wearing glasses.

(6) CALL ME ISHMAEL, BUT DON’T CALL ME LATE TO DINNER. “’People are rooting for the whale’: the strange American tradition of Moby-Dick reading marathons” at Yahoo!

Every fall on Venice beach, local residents set up a director’s chair by the water. A harpoon goes on one side, a whalebone on the other. Then, in honor of grey whale migration season, they spend two days reading Moby-Dick aloud.

Nearly 200 years after Herman Melville first published the story of a sea captain’s obsessive hunt for a white whale, Moby-Dick marathons have become a surprisingly popular American tradition. There are an estimated 25 or more across the US each year, in locations ranging from museums to a 19th-century whaling ship….

…The Venice beach marathon, held for 29 years, is a particularly surreal scene. Even in late November, the beach is crowded: French tourists on bicycles, the men of Muscle beach lifting weights, friends playing volleyball in short shorts. Far out on the sand, where the air begins to smell more like salt than weed or essential oils, the Moby-Dick readers sit in a circle, switching readers every chapter, as tourists and surfers eddy around them, drifting up to take photographs and then drifting away again. Occasionally, readers spot whales in the distance….

…Other classic novelists may inspire larger fan events, but Jane Austen celebrations don’t typically include a live reading of all of Pride and Prejudice.

“No offense to Jane Austen, but more happens. It’s more exciting to hunt a whale than to hunt a husband,” said Dawn Coleman, the executive secretary of the Melville Society, and an English professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville….

(7) MANY DOLLARS WERE LOST. Giant Freakin Robot makes its case for “How Disney’s Horrible Marketing Forever Changed Sci-Fi Movies”. They begin by dissecting the corpse of Disney’s marketing campaign for John Carter (2012).

In the long, storied history of Disney, the company has had massive successes, including the history-making Marvel Cinematic Universe and their entire animated output in the ’90s. At the same time, they’ve created some of the biggest bombs of all time.

The 2012 sci-fi adventure John Carter was, at the time of its release, the least profitable film ever made, a title it might end up losing to Joker: Folie a Deux by the end of the year. A rollicking sci-fi adventure based on classic pulp novels, John Carter should have been a massive success, but it never had a chance, thanks to the worst marketing campaign of all time….

…The second trailer course-corrected and starts off with Carter fighting in an arena before launching into a montage of the alien planet with Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” playing. As with everything about this movie, it was too far ahead of the curve, as today, every trailer has a slowed-down, epic version of a classic rock song playing over the trailer, but in 2012, this confused most of the general audience.

Worse, there’s nothing about being based on the legendary pulp novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, nothing about being an adventure 100 years in the making, no mention of how it’s starring Taylor Kitsch, who at the time Hollywood was pushing as the next big thing. In interviews leading up to its release, Kitsch publicly spoke about his disappointment with the film’s marketing, which lacked any sort of “hook” or jaw-dropping special effects shot to leave an impression on viewers. Even his other sci-fi dud, Battleship, included a screen-filling shot of the alien ship in all of its glory to tease moviegoers of the battle yet to come….

(8) WICKED INSPIRATION. Saturday Night Live gives us “Gladiator II: The Musical”. “There’s No Place Like Rome.”

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

December 10, 1960 — Kenneth Branagh, 64.

I first saw Kenneth Branagh with his then-wife Emma Thompson in Much Ado About Nothing, the Shakespearean comedy which he adapted. Truly lovely film.

So let’s look at his genre work as a performer. Dead Again might or might not be his first genre film where he was Mike Church / Roman Strauss, but Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein where he was Victor Frankenstein is genre and he directed it as well. I’ve heard varying opinions on it. What did y’all think of it? 

Then there’s Wild Wild West where he was Arliss Loveless, some bastardized variant on Michael Dunn’s perfectly acted Dr. Miguelito Quixote Loveless. He didn’t work for me. Not at all. Nor did that shudderingly awful film. 

Alien Love Triangle is a thirty-minute film starring Kenneth Branagh, Alice Connor, Courteney Cox and Heather Graham. Teleportation. Aliens. Genders, alien. 

He got to play in Rowling’s universe in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as Gilderoy Lockhart. Great role it was.

Oh, and in an alternate reality sort of way, he plays William Shakespeare in All is True, another name for Shakespeare’s play Henry VIII.  It’s a very lovely role and a sweet film as well. Recommended. 

For hard SF, I’ve got him directing Thor. (Well sort of hard SF.) For fantasy, he directed Cinderella and Artemis Fowl. 

Finally, he’s Hercule Poirot in the three Agatha Christie films produced so far — Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile and A Haunting in Venice. He was also director and producer for these. He’s certainly a different manner of that detective. Really different.

Kenneth Branagh

(10) SPIDER-MAN FIGURES. “Hasbro Unveils New Spider-Man Marvel Legends Wave for 2025” – Bleeding Cool has all the photos. Here are a couple.

…The first wave of Marvel Legends figures for 2025 have been revealed, with Spider-Man bringing some heat in the new year…. However, the whole roster has been unveiled, with six iconic heroes and villains coming to life, with each getting their own card back. For the classic Spider-Man: The Animated Series retro wave, we have the debut of The Chameleon, and yes, he gets a J. Jonah Jameson mask. We are also getting a Clone Saga debut with Kaine from a time before he was a hero and the corrupt clone of Peter Parker. Lastly, we are stepping into the Spider-Verse with the 1st ever-Marvel Legends figure of Spider-Man Unlimited!…

…The latest wave of Marvel Legends Series Spider-Man inspired figures:

  • Spider-Man Unlimited
  • Agent Venom (Flash Thompson)
  • Spider-Boy
  • Marvel’s Chameleon
  • Marvel’s Kaine
  • Electro (Francine Frye)

(11) CASTING OUCH. Variety reports “Jeremy Allen White Joins ‘Star Wars’ Film ‘The Mandalorian & Grogu’ as Jabba the Hutt’s Son”. Eh, Jabba the Hutt’s son? How? Parthenogenesis? Binary fission? Actual sex? Where’s my eye bleach.

… Plot details have been hard to come by for “The Mandalorian & Grogu,” so White’s casting as Jabba’s son provides the first real glimpse for what could be in store for the titular bounty hunter and his adorably wee adopted son. Their Disney+ series “The Mandalorian” is set in the years following the events of 1983’s “Return of the Jedi,” in which Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) strangles Jabba to death. The recent spin-off series “The Book of Boba Fett” revealed that Jabba’s absence left a power vacuum among the organized crime bosses on Tatooine; two of Jabba’s cousins made a play for his territory, only to be defeated by Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison), who takes over instead. It seems likely that, with Jabba’s son somehow involved in the new film, Boba Fett and his deputy Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) could show up as well….

(12) BLASTED IN THE PAST. Larry Correia would never do this. “Why ‘Gladiator’ director Ridley Scott keeps a 40-year-old negative review framed on his wall: ‘I was actually hurt’” at CNBC.

At 87 years old, director Ridley Scott has seen a tremendous amount of success over the course of his career. 

His films have grossed billions at the box office and taken home nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture for 2000′s “Gladiator.” But despite the plaudits he has received as a filmmaker, it’s the critical pans that have stayed with Scott the most. 

In an interview with filmmaker Fede Alvarez on the DGA’s “Director’s Cut” podcast, Scott revealed that he has a negative review from famed film critic Pauline Kael of his 1982 science fiction epic “Blade Runner” on display in his office. 

Scott explained that Kael “destroyed Blade Runner in four pages” in the New Yorker, likening the review to “industrial espionage, because you’re destroying a product before it’s out.”…

… “I framed that. It’s still in my office today,” he said. “It taught me this: there’s only one critic that means anything, and that’s you.”…

(13) THE WEST EGG AND I. Chuck Tingle seems to have embraced Scott’s number – and a good many other things.

(14) UNUSUAL VIDEO GAME. [Item by N.] “I Hope This Hurts: Mouthwashing Through A Disabled Lens” at The Jimquisition is a video essay from game critic James Stephanie Sterling, which analyzes the recent indie sci-fi horror success Mouthwashing from the vantage point of disability.

(15) CASTLEVANIA. Netflix dropped a trailer for “Castlevania: Nocturne Season 2”, which is available there starting January 16.

The legendary Alucard, Richter Belmont, and his band of vampire hunters are in a desperate race against time. Erzsebet Báthory, the Vampire Messiah, who already seems invincible, seeks the full power of the goddess Sekhmet so she can plunge the world into endless darkness and terror

(16) ZOMBIES BY INCREMENTS. Gizmodo says, “In 28 Years Later’s First Trailer, the Apocalypse Just Keeps Going”. Beware spoilers (maybe). Beware gory zombie stuff (definitely). In theaters June 20, 2025.

A lot can change in nearly three decades, even in a zombie apocalypse. New ways to survive, new mysteries evolving in the infection that laid the world low. Sometimes people grow up and become Aaron Taylor-Johnson, even. But one thing that doesn’t change? The violence….

…28 Years Later is just the first half of our long-awaited return to this version of the zombie apocalypse, however–Boyle’s sequel was shot back-to-back with its own continuation, helmed by Nia DaCosta and titled The Bone Temple (which we seem to get a brief look at in this trailer, too). That film will see Cillian Murphy reprise his role from 28 Days as Jim, but it hasn’t stopped people from speculating that one of the zombies glimpsed in the trailer could be his grim fate, as there is one that looks especially like a particularly gaunt Murphy glimpsed rising out of a bed of wild grass….

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, Sumana Harihareswara, N., Daniel Dern, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel “We’d Like To Welcome You” Dern.]

Pixel Scroll 7/29/24 No One Scrolls Here These Days, It’s Too Pixeled

Posted on by
16

(1) TOLKIEN’S ANSWERS. “’Human stories are always about one thing – death’: Why the shadow of death and WW1 hang over The Lord of the Rings” – at BBC. Includes video of the referenced interview.

In a 1968 interview, the BBC spoke to author JRR Tolkien about his experiences during World War One, how they had a profound effect and influenced his epic fantasy novel, Lord of the Rings.

“Stories – frankly, human stories are always about one thing – death. The inevitability of death,” The Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien told a BBC documentary in 1968, as he tried to explain what his fantasy magnum opus was really about. 

The novel, the first volume of which was published 70 years ago this week, has enthralled readers ever since it hit the shelves in 1954. The Lord of the Rings, with its intricate world-building and detailed histories of lands populated with elves, hobbits and wizards, threatened by the malevolent Sauron, had, by the time of the interview, already become a bestseller and a cornerstone of the fantasy genre. 

To better explain what he meant by the story being about death, Tolkien reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his wallet, which contained a newspaper clipping. He then read aloud from that article, which quoted from Simone de Beauvoir’s A Very Easy Death, her moving 1964 account of her mother’s desire to cling to life during her dying days….

(2) TOR/SCALZI PARTNERSHIP EXTENDED. With six books still owed on his previous 13-book deal, Tor has signed John Scalzi up for yet another ten books: “Tor Publishing Group and Tor UK Announce Major Multi-Book Deal for Bestselling and Award-Winning Author John Scalzi” at Reactor.

…This new deal marks another long-term commitment by Tor Publishing Group and Tor UK to the works of John Scalzi, with the first book of this new contract tentatively scheduled for 2029.

John Scalzi said of the deal, “It’s rare in publishing to get anything close to continuity—authors go from one publishing house to the next. So I’m especially proud that this contract not only extends my two-decade association with Tor Books, but gives us both an opportunity to build on what’s come before, and make what comes next even better. We have so much planned in the years ahead. I can’t wait for you all to read it.”

Patrick Nielsen Hayden commented, “It’s fantastic to know that we’ll be in the John Scalzi business for even more years to come. He’s a remarkable writer and I can’t wait to see what he does next.”… 

(3) TAFF WINNER’S ITINERARY. Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund administrator Sandra Bond today issued Taffluorescence 5, containing news of 2024 delegate Sarah Gulde’s movements and other hot news from TAFF. Gulde’s visit to the UK will take her to:

22-26 July: London… 26-29 July: Blackpool (Star Trek con)… 29 July-8 August: Inverurie… 8- 13 August: Glasgow… 13-16 August: Elgin… 16-20 August: Inverness… 20-23 August: Newcastle… 27-30 August: Stoke… 30 August-3 September: Liverpool… 3-10 September: Wrexham… 10-13 September: Neath… 13-16 September: Broadway (Give my regards… oh, that Broadway…) 16 September-11 October: London, Bath, Cornwall, Stratford.

Do not hesitate to give generously when the TAFF hat is passed.

(4) SHADOWY ENDING. The LA Times takes readers “Inside SDCC 2024 with ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ cast”. (Behind a paywall.)

…FX is going all out for “Shadows” at Comic-Con this year for their “farewell tour.” The acclaimed mockumentary comedy series — which earned eight Emmy nominations earlier this month — has announced that its upcoming sixth season will be its last. The Bayfront’s exterior is draped in a gigantic “Shadows” promotional poster, and just below the hotel is an activation area that features one designed to look like the show’s vampire mansion.

Before their panel presentation, the cast and creatives head to an area where they are greeted by fans in full cosplay despite the sweltering heat. The “Shadows” team is then shuttled to the convention center, where it listens in backstage as a packed Hall H receives a sneak peek at the Season 6 premiere. (Berry and Newacheck share a thumbs up when they hear the audience erupt in laughter after a Laszlo moment.) And after their Hall H presentation, they and the rest of their group will be chatting up fans — some in cosplay, some with “Shadows”-themed paraphernalia, all with enthusiasm — as they sign autographs and pose for selfies. As for Season 6, Simms says, “It’s exactly what we wanted to do.”

“We wanted to make a last season that was not sentimental or trying to tie up every loose end,” he says. “Just make [a season] that is super funny and at the end has a good ending, which we’re not going to tell you.”

(5) R-R-R-R MATEY! Deadpool & Wolverine made a lot of money this weekend, its $205 million domestic box office ranking as the eighth biggest opening of all time among any film and by far the biggest launch for an R-rated film, not adjusted for inflation. The first Deadpool was the previous record-holder at $133.7 million.  “Box Office: ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Sets Record With $205 Million Debut” at Variety.

…Disney’s superhero sequel has collected $205 million in its opening weekend, ranking as the eighth-best debut of all time ahead of 2018’s “Black Panther” ($202 million) and behind 2015’s “Jurassic World” ($208 million) and 2012’s “The Avengers” ($207 million). Only nine films in Hollywood history have crossed the $200 million milestone in their opening weekends. Ticket sales also easily surpassed 2016’s “Deadpool” ($132 million) to set the record for the biggest R-rated opening weekend ever. The 2018 sequel, “Deadpool 2,” now stands as the third-biggest R-rated debut with $125 million. Among the newest installment’s many benchmarks, “Deadpool & Wolverine” landed by far the biggest start of the year, overtaking Disney’s Pixar sequel “Inside Out 2” ($155 million debut).

Internationally, “Deadpool & Wolverine” captured $233.3 million for a staggering global tally of $438 million. After three days of release, the film, starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, is already the sixth-highest grossing of 2024. Disney spent about $200 million to produce and roughly another $100 million to promote the movie.

(6) DUNE DESIGN. Fonts In Use investigates “The Mystery of the Dune Font” in this 2023 article.

In the six decades since the publication of the original Dune novel in 1965, the science fiction franchise has gone through many different typographic identities. Notable examples include the use of Giorgio for the British paperbacks by NEL (c. 1968) and Albertus for David Lynch’s movie adaptation (1984). But another typeface has even stronger ties to Dune and its author. It appeared on the covers of dozens of books, including the classic Dune trilogy and its sequels, and also on other titles by – or about – Frank Herbert, from various imprints. Strangely enough, the name of this typeface is barely known even among die-hard fans….

(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

July 29, 1941 – David Warner. (Died 2022.) Let’s consider David Warner. Where shall we start? I say with his role in Time Bandits where Warner plays Evil Genius, a malevolent being capable of twisting and warping reality. He needs the map to be able to escape the Fortress of Darkness, where he’s been imprisoned. Evil is also different because He understands technology, and in his clawed hands “The world will be different. Because I have understanding.” What’s that he has an understanding of? Digital watches. “And soon I shall have an understanding of cassette recorders and car telephones.”  A truly excellent role for him.

David Warner as Evil Genius

Next up in my estimation would be his performance as John Leslie Stevenson and Jack the Ripper in Nicholas Mayer’s exemplary Time after Time which has Malcolm McDowell as H. G. Wells.  

As Warner as Jack offhandedly says to Wells, “Ninety years ago, I was a freak. Here, I’m an amateur.”  Warner does a bang on the ear of making Jack revel in the violent nature of the present such as the ease in which one can purchase firearms and how killing has become much more efficient because of them. 

Jack says, “We don’t belong here? On the contrary, Herbert. I belong here completely and utterly. I’m home.” 

Malcolm McDowell as H.G. Wells.

So what next? That’d have to be Chancellor Gorkon in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the chancellor of the Klingon High Council who hopes to forge a peace between his people and the Federation. 

Memory Alpha notes “Jack Palance was Nick Meyer’s original choice for the role. (Captains’ Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 141) However, Palance proved to be extremely costly to hire as well as slightly hesitant to accept the part.” They need a performer who fitted the script’s description of Gorkon as “savagely tall” and Warner was six feet, two inches tall.

David Warner recognized that the role was not a particularly large one, saying, “I just sat there for one scene and then got killed!  Which is fine – I don’t have a problem with that. It’s exposition, setting it all up.” (From Star Trek Magazine issue 153, p. 47) . He did a lot with what little time had do you agree?

David Warner as Chancellor Gorkon.

Those are the three performances that I think he’s most memorable in. Did he have other roles which I should note? 

He voiced in the Batman: The Animated Series a character named Ra’s al Ghul, a very long live criminal mastermind. He voices him to utter perfection as one who both respects and disdains Batman.  

That he’s a man of many roles is beyond dispute as he’s played Doctor Von Frankenstein and The Creature, Reinhard Heydrich who I can only describe as the souless monster that was responsible for the Holocaust; Bob Cratchit, a Professor Summerlee, Lord Mountbatten, The Doctor, Houdini and Professor Abraham Van Helsing. 

I’m sure that I missed some interesting performances he did, so feel free to tell me that I overlooked them as you always do. 

(8) COMICS SECTION.

(9) REYNOLDS RAP. The Hollywood Reporter gives reasons for ranking these as the “13 Best Ryan Reynolds Movies”. For example, you probably already forgot this one:

11. Detective Pikachu (2019)

The first thing you think of when you consider that famous yellow cutie that the Pokémon brand was built from probably isn’t Ryan Reynolds. His initial casting as Pikachu, for which he lent his voice and face via motion capture, was initially met with understandable confusion and a share of derision. But somehow, against all odds, it works. A gumshoe Pikachu with missing memories, teaming up with a failed Pokémon trainer, Tim Goodman (Justice Smith), and a cub reporter, Lucy Stevens (Kathryn Newton), to uncover a city-wide conspiracy is the kind of clever, special effects heavy take on the neo-noir that makes the film appealing for more than just Pokémon fans.

I couldn’t count the names of Pokémon characters I know on one hand, and I didn’t go into this movie as a fan. Yet, I found Rob Letterman’s film to be an engaging fantasy-mystery, and Reynolds’ performance to be a breezy and grounding element in a film entirely set in a lore-heavy fictional reality. As far as video game adaptations go, Detective Pikachu is one of the best, and it doesn’t get overly caught up in minutiae, instead allowing the cast and audience to simply focus on delivering a good time within the framework of a silly, but no less endearing, concept. And as for a bit of film trivia, before Reynolds accepted the role, Hugh Jackman was on WB’s shortlist to voice Pikachu — but he wasn’t quite ready to don the yellow just yet.

(10) KEEP ON DREAMING. Popverse is on hand when “Doctor Who and Star Trek showrunners announce that the two franchises are crossing over… for a mobile game”.

… During San Diego Comic-Con 2024 Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showrunner Alex Kurtzman and Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies came together for a joint event titled Intergalactic Friendship Panel: Star Trek X Doctor Who. This raised some eyebrows, and the anticipation only grew after Saturday’s Star Trek panel. During the panel, Kurtzman was asked about a Doctor Who crossover, and his answer pointed to the crossover panel. “I think you should come to the panel later today and ask the same question,” Kurtzman teased.

Now, we know what that tease was referring to – a crossover between the Doctor Who: Lost in Time and Star Trek Lower Decks: The Badges Directive mobile games. It’s perhaps not the crossover fans were hoping for – we were kind of crossing out fingers for a live-action meetup, but at least one of the panelists has hope that that may happen someday. …

(11) BACK TO THE SILO. Shelf Awareness picked up this Silo news at Comic-Con.

During San Diego Comic-Con, Apple TV+ announced that the second season of the hit series Silo, which is based on Hugh Howey’s sci-fi stories–including the novellas Wool, Shift, and Dust–will premiere November 15 with the first episode, followed by one new episode every Friday through January 17, 2025.

Steve Zahn (The White Lotus, Treme) is joining the season 2 cast..

(12) THE CTHULHU IN THE HAT? H.P. Lovecraft’s Dagon for Beginning Readers by R.J. Ivankovic is a droll, Seuss-inspired parody. (No, I don’t know if the Seuss corporate lawyers have heard of it yet.)

So a warning to all,
for what it is worth:
when the monsters arise
they will conquer the earth.

The famous H.P. Lovecraft story Dagon is gracefully retold in anapestic tetrameter and illustrated in a darkly whimsical style by genius poet-artist R.J. Ivankovic.

A sailor escapes in a lifeboat after his ship is attacked by a German raider during World War I. He soon finds himself in more bizarre peril, stranded in a dark, stinking mire on the edge of a mammoth pit. Venturing into the pit, he discovers a monolith covered in weird hieroglyphics and something stranger still that crawls from the slime a creature that may be the vanguard of a vast and monstrous invading army from the depths of the sea.

(13) VIDEO OF THE DAY. It’s ultimately an ad, however, it is cute: “Sand Whiskers and Starlight: The Feline Chronicles of Dune”.

Join us on a pawsome journey as we unveil our beloved feline friends who aren’t just curled up in a cozy corner; they’re out there, backpacking across continents, camping under the stars, floating in cosmic space, time-traveling to study with art masters, seeking enlightenment on pilgrimages, commanding the seven seas and skies, and even hustling in the Big Apple!

[Thanks to Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Sandra Bond, Bill, Jim Janney, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jon Meltzer.]

Pixel Scroll 4/3/24 Go, Strider! In The Sky

Posted on by
28

(1) TOM DIGBY REMEMBERED. Long-time LASFSian Alan Frisbie shares some of his memories of Tom Digby, who died March 27.

Tom Digby

Alan Frisbie: I was saddened to hear from Paula Evans that Tom Digby had died. He was one of the first people I got to know in LASFS when I joined in 1969.  His monthly parties were always fun, especially because of the conversations on every topic under the sun.  He almost always had some new gadget he had built, often to demonstrate some interesting scientific fact.

At one party he had a Jello tasting competition.  On the table were about ten bowls of Jello, in all the typical colors.  Each person was given a 3×5 card and told to list each numbered bowl and its flavor.

At the end, he revealed that they were all the new pear flavor, but with different food colors added to fool us.

In his kitchen was one of those backwards-reading clocks.  However, the mechanism had been replaced with a small DC motor that, at random times, would rapidly run the hands in a random direction for a random amount of time.

As was popular at the time, he had a color organ attached to his stereo. This one, however, was unique.  He had taken an old color TV and connected the deflection yoke vertical & horizontal windings to the left & right amplifier outputs.  If the sound was a pure tone with a 90 degree phase difference, of course you would get a circle.  But music is never pure like that, so you got a constantly varying display.  I’m not sure how the colors were selected, but the display was absolutely mesmerizing.

He also built a drum & rhythm synthesizer back in those pre-microprocessor days.  It had a gigantic array of slide switches, with one column for each possible time, and a row for each possible sound.  There was a potentiometer for speed control.  You could configure any conceivable time signature and pattern with it.  We had lots of fun with it.

Tom was a truly unique individual.

(2) DOCTOR WHO EPISODE TITLES. The Doctor Who Season One episode titles have been revealed.

  • SPACE BABIES: Written by Russell T Davies, directed by Julie Anne Robinson
  • THE DEVIL’S CHORD: Written by Russell T Davies, directed by Ben Chessell
  • BOOM: Written by Steven Moffat, directed by Julie Anne Robinson
  • 73 YARDS: Written by Russell T Davies, directed by Dylan Holmes Williams
  • DOT AND BUBBLE: Written by Russell T Davies, directed by Dylan Holmes Williams
  • ROGUE: Written by Kate Herron and Briony Redman, directed by Ben Chessell
  • THE LEGEND OF RUBY SUNDAY: Written by Russell T Davies, directed by Jamie Donoughue
  • EMPIRE OF DEATH: Written by Russell T Davies, directed by Jamie Donoughue

A second Season 1 Trailer also has been released.

(3) NEW GAIMAN SERIES. [Item by Daniel Dern.] The Netflix adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Dead Boy Detectives arrives April 25. They were created during Sandman (comic) #25, “Seasons of Mists”, and have been in lots of comics since (see list on “Dead Boy Detectives” Wikipedia entry.)

The characters (not sure it’s the same actors) were in several episodes of Doom Patrol Season 3. I lost track of whether they were in the Netflix Sandman series.

Here’s the trailer, which has me ready to start counting the days…

(4) RISING TIDE. Publishers Lunch says Reactor (formerly Tor.com) has announced these promotions:

Emmet Asher-Perrin has been promoted to senior editor, news & entertainment.

Christina Orlando has been promoted to senior editor, books coverage.

Leah Schnelbach has been promoted to senior editor, features.

Stefan Raets has been promoted to senior production editor.

(5) GOING SCOT FREE. “J.K. Rowling will not be arrested for comments about transgender women, police say” – click the link for NBC News’ description of and quotes from Rowling’s statements that were the source of the complaint.

…“We have received complaints in relation to the social media post,” a spokesperson for Police Scotland said in a statement. “The comments are not assessed to be criminal and no further action will be taken.”

Scotland’s new Hate Crime and Public Order Act criminalizes “stirring up hatred” against people based on their race, religion, disability, sexuality or gender identity….

(6) IT’S HUDE! Cora Buhlert invites you to go “Exploring the Hude Solar System (with Bonus Gothic Abbey Ruins)”.

(OhmyGod! Look who’s included!)

Pluto

The way to Pluto leads through the forest on a public, but unpaved road. Eventually, the forest gives way to Hude Golf Course, where you can see golfers trying to hit their balls. Golfing is clearly a popular sport in the far reaches of the solar system. You travel past the parking lot of the golf course until at last, you reach Pluto, sitting by the side of the road directly in front of a private house.

Pluto is just a tiny speck on the marker, but then Pluto is tiny. And yes, when the Hude solar system was set up, Pluto was still an official planet. The number of moons is no longer correct either.

(Okay, be a spoilsport…)

(7) DON’T WALK UNDERNEATH WHEN THEY FLY BY. “Trash from the International Space Station may have hit a house in Florida” says Ars Technica.

A few weeks ago, something from the heavens came crashing through the roof of Alejandro Otero’s home, and NASA is on the case.

In all likelihood, this nearly 2-pound object came from the International Space Station. Otero said it tore through the roof and both floors of his two-story house in Naples, Florida.

Otero wasn’t home at the time, but his son was there. A Nest home security camera captured the sound of the crash at 2:34 pm local time (19:34 UTC) on March 8. That’s an important piece of information because it is a close match for the time—2:29 pm EST (19:29 UTC)—that US Space Command recorded the reentry of a piece of space debris from the space station. At that time, the object was on a path over the Gulf of Mexico, heading toward southwest Florida.

This space junk consisted of depleted batteries from the ISS, attached to a cargo pallet that was originally supposed to come back to Earth in a controlled manner. But a series of delays meant this cargo pallet missed its ride back to Earth, so NASA jettisoned the batteries from the space station in 2021 to head for an unguided reentry….

… The entire pallet, including the nine disused batteries from the space station’s power system, had a mass of more than 2.6 metric tons (5,800 pounds), according to NASA. Size-wise, it was about twice as tall as a standard kitchen refrigerator. It’s important to note that objects of this mass, or larger, regularly fall to Earth on guided trajectories, but they’re usually failed satellites or spent rocket stages left in orbit after completing their missions.

In a post on X, Otero said he is waiting for communication from “the responsible agencies” to resolve the cost of damages to his home….

Of course he is.

(8) TODAY IN HISTORY. April 3, 1978 — “’Annie Hall’ beats out ‘Star Wars’ for Best Picture”. Oh, noes!

The rise of the action-adventure blockbuster was on the horizon, but on April 3, 1978, the small-scale romantic comedy triumphs over the big-budget space extravaganza. At the 50th annual Academy Awards, held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, Woody Allen’s Annie Hall won the Oscar for Best Picture, beating out George Lucas’ Star Wars.

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Born April 3, 1968 — Jamie Hewlett, 56. Of course most of you know about Tank Girl, but I’m betting that that most of you don’t know the story of Jamie Hewlett, one of the co-creators, and his role in creating Tank Girl. So let’s tell it.

The comic was created by Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett who met when they were studying at the West Sussex College of Design in Worthing, and first appeared in print thirty-six years ago in the British Deadline comics magazine.

Alan Martin in an Sci- Fi Online interview tells us how he and Hewlett created the character:

The three of us then worked together on the comic/fanzine Atomtan. While working on this Jamie had drawn a grotty looking heffer of a girl brandishing an unfeasible firearm. One of our friends was working on a project to design a pair of headphones and was basing his design on the type used by World War II tank driver. His studio was littered with loads of photocopies of combat vehicles. I pinched one of the images and gave it to Jamie who then stuck it behind his grotty girl illustrations and then added a logo which read ‘Tank Girl’.

Jamie Hewlett in 2014.

Posters, shirts of all sorts, and underpants, yes underpants, began showing up everywhere on the punk scene, including one shirt especially made for the Clause 28 protest march against Margaret Thatcher’s legislation effectively making homosexuality illegal. Tank Girl was particularly an icon among the lesbian community.

With its immense popularity, the major publishers showed interest in Tank Girl. Penguin UK was the one that Hewlett and Martin decided to go with. So they published all of the Deadline material as collections. What was interesting was that Penguin discovered that though that they owned global territorial rights, they didn’t own US rights. 

So Dark Horse won out over a number of other interested publishers forty years ago. A four-issue limited series Tank Girl: Visions of Booga, by Martin was released by IDW, as was Tank Girl: Armadillo and a Bushel of Other Stories, a Tank Girl novel also scripted by Martin. 

Fresh material is being produced by the current creative team is Alan Martin and Brett Parson. Tank Girl has appeared on a regular basis in various one-shots and limited series, now published by IDW, Image Comics, and mostly by Titan Comics.

No, I’ve not mentioned the film, have I? Well Martin and Hewlett are known for speaking quite poorly of their experience in the film, and what the film itself was. That’s has much as I’ll say about it. 

(10) SURFER’S UP. “’Fantastic Four’: Julia Garner To Play Silver Surfer In Marvel Movie” reports Deadline.

With the four actors set to play the iconic members of the super team, Marvel Studios‘ The Fantastic Four now has its sights set on who will play Silver Surfer, and it looks like they are going with one of the towns biggest rising stars.

Sources tell Deadline that Emmy winner Julia Garner is set to play the iconic comic book character in Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four. Pedro Pascal will play Reed Richards (aka Mr. Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby is Sue Storm (aka the Invisible Woman), Joseph Quinn is Johnny Storm (aka the Human Torch) and Ebon Moss-Bachrach is Ben Grimm (aka the Thing)…

(11) AWARD TO RONALD D. MOORE. Variety reports“AFF to Honor Ronald D. Moore with Outstanding Television Writer Award”.

The Austin Film Festival (AFF) has announced Ronald D. Moore as the recipient of the 2024 Outstanding Television Writer Award for his prolific impact on the world of television and his work on celebrated science fiction and fantasy series such as “For All Mankind,” “Outlander” and “Battlestar Galactica.”

“I’m very honored,” Moore told Variety over the phone. “It’s great when your work is recognized and when a renowned organization like the Austin Film Festival chooses to do something like this. It’s amazing. I’m just very humbled by it all.” 

Moore will receive the award at the Festival Awards Luncheon during AFF’s Writers Conference, which takes place Oct. 24-27. Two panels, “A Conversation with Ronald D. Moore” and “Script To Screen: Battlestar Galactica,” are also scheduled for the event….

(12) WHAT ARE FANS STREAMING? JustWatch has compiled their top 10 charts for March 2024.

(13) THE FIVE PERCENT SOLUTION. El País profiles “Author who won Japan’s top literary award with help from ChatGPT: ‘AI helps you compensate for your weaknesses’”.

Rie Kudan, the Japanese writer who won this year’s Akutagawa Prize — the highest award in Japanese literature — with a book where around 5% of the content was generated by ChatGPT, encourages writers to use generative artificial intelligence in their creations.

“If you think carefully about how to use it and face your own weaknesses, AI helps you compensate for them,” says the 33-year-old author, speaking at the headquarters of her publishing house, Shinchosha, which advertises her work under the slogan “A book of prophecies in the era of generative artificial intelligence.” However, Kudan says that the input from AI was very small: “Only one page out of 144.”

The novel Tokyo To Dojo To (Tokyo’s Tower of Sympathy) was described by the jury as an “almost flawless” work and earned Kudan a literary prize created in 1935 and which has launched the careers of authors such as Kenzaburo Oe, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1994. The award winner was announced in January….

(14) REMEMBER TO BYO MENTOS. Walmart is one place you can get this “Disney Parks Coca Cola Coke Star Wars Galaxy Edge 13.5 Bottle Thermal Detonator”.

(15) ECLIPSE IN US CURSED EARTH AND BLACK ATLANTIC. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] The eclipse will happen on April 8. Dr. Becky is an Oxford U based astrophysicist. “Total Solar Eclipse 2024 – WHEN, WHERE, WHAT, HOW, & WHY”.

(16) WHAT WILL EARTH BE LIKE 300 MILLION YEARS FROM NOW? [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.]  The YouTube Channel PBS Eons usually takes a look back in time at past evolution but for once has gone all SFnal with a look forward at the future of life on Earth 300 million years hence. To put that in perspective 300 million years ago in the past was when the first reptiles arose and they became the dinosaurs (for whom I have never forgiven what they did to Raquel Welch…).  In this 11-minute video we look forward to a time when there will be a new supercontinent and the Hugo Award debacle is long forgotten….

We spend a lot of time here on Eons looking backwards into deep time, visiting ancient chapters of our planet’s history. But this time, we’re taking a look towards the deep future. After all, the story is far from over.

[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, and Steven French for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel! Dern.]

Pixel Scroll 1/9/24 Our Pixels Now Are Ended, These Our Filers As I Forescrolled You, Were All Fifths

Posted on by

(1) SUBSTACK MANAGEMENT CLAIMS THERE WILL BE ACTION. Casey Newton has told readers of his Substack newsletter Platformer that “Substack says it will remove Nazi publications from the platform”. Apparently that really isn’t so broad an outcome as it sounds — as Robin Anne Reid says in the “fixed that for you” title of her own piece, “Substack will remove [some] Nazi publications”.

Newton’s Platformer post says:

…The company will not change the text of its content policy, it says, and its new policy interpretation will not include proactively removing content related to neo-Nazis and far-right extremism. But Substack will continue to remove any material that includes “credible threats of physical harm,” it said.

In a statement, Substack’s co-founders told Platformer:

“If and when we become aware of other content that violates our guidelines, we will take appropriate action. 

“Relatedly, we’ve heard your feedback about Substack’s content moderation approach, and we understand your concerns and those of some other writers on the platform. We sincerely regret how this controversy has affected writers on Substack. 

“We appreciate the input from everyone. Writers are the backbone of Substack and we take this feedback very seriously. We are actively working on more reporting tools that can be used to flag content that potentially violates our guidelines, and we will continue working on tools for user moderation so Substack users can set and refine the terms of their own experience on the platform.”

Substack’s statement comes after weeks of controversy related to the company’s mostly laissez-faire approach to content moderation.…

McKenzie also wrote that “we don’t like Nazis either” and said Substack wished “no-one held those views.” But “we don’t think that censorship (including through demonetizing publications) makes the problem go away,” he wrote. “In fact, it makes it worse. We believe that supporting individual rights and civil liberties while subjecting ideas to open discourse is the best way to strip bad ideas of their power.”

The statement seemed to be at odds with Substack’s published content guidelines, which state that “Substack cannot be used to publish content or fund initiatives that incite violence based on protected classes.”

In its aftermath, several publications left the platform. Others, including Platformer, said they would leave if the company did not remove pro-Nazi publications.

Meanwhile, more than 100 other Substack writers, including prominent names like Bari Weiss and Richard Dawkins, signed a post from writer Elle Griffin calling on Substack to continue with its mostly hands-off approach to platform-level moderation….

(2) 3 BODY PROBLEM. Netflix dropped the 3 Body Problem official trailer today. The series begins streaming on March 21.

From multiple Emmy Award-winning creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (Game of Thrones), and Emmy-nominated Alexander Woo (The Terror: Infamy, True Blood) comes 3 Body Problem, a thrilling story that redefines sci-fi drama with its layered mysteries and genre-bending high stakes. Based on the acclaimed, international bestselling book trilogy, The Three-Body Problem. A young woman’s fateful decision in 1960s China reverberates across space and time to a group of brilliant scientists in the present day. As the laws of nature unravel before their eyes five former colleagues reunite to confront the greatest threat in humanity’s history.

(3) A CAREER REIGNITED. Vincent DiFate shared the distilled wisdom gained from years as a working artist with Facebook readers:

I’ll second what Bill and David [Passalaqua] had to say about life as a working illustrator, but for me this is, I believe, my 57th year at it. I lost my love for making art almost from the moment my freelance career began–long hours creating art and solving the visual problems for sometimes truly unreadable and non-visual novels (mercifully few of them, though), dealing with editors and art directors with no feel for the SF genre or any visual acumen to speak of; and then there was always the letdown of seeing the personally unsatisfying results of my efforts. But after years of feeling unfulfilled I entered Murray Tinkelman’s graduate program at Syracuse University. I’d been teaching in. the program along such luminaries of the field as Chris Payne, Dave Pasalaqua and, of course, Murray himself, who was my best friend, and I saw how transformative the program could be.

On my first day in Dave Pasalaqua’s drawing class Dave came up to me and he said, Vin, you’ve got the best eye of anyone I’ve ever taught, but you’ve forgotten one thing–you’ve forgotten that making art is supposed to be fun. It was like being struck by lightning. In that moment, with that revelation, it brought me back to the memories of the days when I was a kid and couldn’t wait to get home to pick up the brush and start making art again. Dave’s sage remark was spoken to me some 25 years ago.

The down side is that I’ll never be as good an artist as I’d like to be, but now I look at every commission as a new opportunity to try and meet that goal. And I’ve learned to forgive myself for not being perfect.

(4) TOR.COM WILL REBRAND. “Tor.com To Become Reactor, Debut New Site, On January 23rd” the online magazine has announced. And Reactor’s redesigned website will be at this URL: www.reactormag.com on January 23.

Since its founding in 2008, Tor.com has become a leader in coverage of science fiction and fantasy books and popular culture, with over 3 million visits per month. As an online magazine, Tor.com has won countless awards and has been the Locus Award winner for Best Magazine for 7 years running. In addition to its coverage of all things SFF, the site is also home to an award-winning short fiction program, which has published works by Seanan McGuire, E. Lily Yu, N.K. Jemisin, and scores of first-time authors, and which have gone on to win several Hugo Awards, Nebula Awards, and World Fantasy Awards.

The site has been publisher agnostic since its founding, and the new name will reflect its independence from Tor Publishing Group. The short fiction program will continue under the Reactor name, and in addition to the daily commentary on science fiction, fantasy, and related subjects that readers have come to expect, the site will also now cover all aspects of genre, including horror, romance and and more, from a wide range of writers from all corners of the genre world, creating a true pop culture destination.…

(5) BABY YODA, BIGGER THAN EVER. Grogu is getting a movie: “’The Mandalorian & Grogu’ Star Wars Movie Coming From Jon Favreau” reports Variety.

Baby Yoda is headed to the big screen.

Jon Favreau is directing a new “Star Wars” movie, titled “The Mandalorian & Grogu.” It will go into production later this year.

Favreau created the Disney+ series “The Mandalorian,” which follows a helmet-wearing bounty hunter (played by Pedro Pascal) who starts the show on the run to protect a young, adorable alien named Grogu, better known by fans as Baby Yoda. It is unclear where the upcoming film will fit into the timeline of the live-action series, which has aired three seasons and is currently in development on the fourth….

(6) TRACY TORMÉ (1959-2024). TV and film writer Tracy Tormé, son of singer Mel Tormé, died January 4 at the age of 64. The Hollywood Reporter notes he co-created the 1990s series Sliders and was hand-picked by Gene Roddenberry to serve as the head writer on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

…Tormé also was a writer on Saturday Night Live during its eighth season (1982-83); wrote and produced with Travis Walton the fantasy drama film Fire in the Sky (1993), starring D.B. Sweeney and Robert Patrick; and was a consultant on the acclaimed Robert Zemeckis sci-fi drama Contact (1997)….

On the first two seasons (1987-89) of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Tormé wrote the episode “The Big Goodbye,” which went on to receive a Peabody Award — the only episode of any Star Trek series to win one of those — and was instrumental in the use of the Holodeck as the show’s centerpiece. He also served as an executive story editor and creative consultant before departing.

Sliders, which starred Jerry O’Connell, John Rhys-Davies and Cleavant Derricks, revolved around a group of characters who travel (or “slide”) between different Earths in parallel universes. The series, which Tormé created with Robert K. Weiss, ran for five seasons from 1995-2000 on Fox and the Sci-Fi Channel. (He left amid creative differences with network executives during the third season.)…

Tormé also was a writer for the rebooted The Outer Limits in 1998-2002; a writer and producer on the 1992 CBS sci-fi miniseries Intruders, the 2002-04 Showtime sci-fi series Odyssey 5 and the mythological 2003-05 HBO series Carnivàle; and a producer on the 2020 documentary The Phenomenon.

Plus, he wrote the screenplay for Spellbinder (1988), starring Tim Daly and Kelly Preston….

(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Born January 9, 1931 — Algis Budrys. (Died 2008.) I usually can’t remember the cover art for a novel I read some fifty years ago but I remember that for Rogue Moon (1960) by Algis Budrys. It was the Equinox / Avon edition of 1974 with the cover illustration by William Maughan I picked up on some newsstand in those days when newsstands still existed and they had SF novels to purchase along with comics and zines such as Amazing and If.  I’ll get nostalgic later…

It was the first work I read by him. It was quite good. I see it was nominated for a Hugo at Seacon, the year A Canticle for Leibowitz won.  It was by no means his first publication as that goes to “The High Purpose” which been printed in Astounding in 1952, the year he started as editor and manager for such publishers as Gnome Press and Galaxy Science Fiction. 

Between 1965 and 1961, he had two short stories, a novelette and two novels nominated for Hugos. None would win.

I’ve read three of his novels in total, the others being Some Will Not Die and Who? Both of them were well worth my reading time as well. I caution that I’ve not re-read any of these in thirty years so I don’t how well the Suck Fairy would react to them now. 

He was extremely prolific with his writing of short stories, penning well over a hundred. I’ve read enough of them to say he had a deft hand at this story length. So after the early Sixties, he wrote far less fiction and worked in publishing, editing, and advertising to make a much better living.  He edited morrow Speculative Fiction magazine from 1993 to 2000. It was nominated for a Hugo at ConAdian and the next year at Intersection. Alas he did not win.

He’s best known I think for his F&SF book columns that ran for almost forty years starting in 1975. I know that I looked forward to them immensely. They’re collected in Benchmarks Continued, Benchmarks Revisited and Benchmarks Concluded. There’s also Benchmarks: Galaxy Bookshelf which collects his columns there. 

And let’s not overlook A Budrys Miscellany: Occasional Writing 1954-2000 which collects some of his fanzine writings.

Algis Budrys. Photo by and (c) Andrew Porter.

(8) HAUL DOWN THE FLAG. This ship is headed for mothballs says Variety: “’Our Flag Means Death’ Canceled After Two Seasons at Max”.

“Our Flag Means Death” has been canceled at Max.

The pirate comedy aired two seasons at the streamer. The series originally debuted in March 2022, with the second season launching in October 2023….

…The series is said to be very loosely based on the real adventures of 18th century pirate Stede Bonnet, played by Darby. The Season 2 logline reads, “After trading the seemingly charmed life of a gentleman for one of a swashbuckling buccaneer, Stede became captain of the pirate ship Revenge. Struggling to earn the respect of his potentially mutinous crew, Stede’s fortunes changed after a fateful run-in with the infamous Captain Blackbeard (Taika Waititi). To their surprise, the wildly different Stede and Blackbeard found more than friendship on the high seas…they found love. Now, they have to survive it.”

(9) INTERPRETING ANCIENT SCULPTURE. Yes. Absolutely.

(10) ASTRA TV AWARDS. Variety brings us another slate of awards: “’The Boys,’ ‘Succession’ Land Most Honors at Astra TV Awards”. The winners of genre interest follow:

BROADCAST / NETWORK AWARDS

Best Actor in a Broadcast Network or Cable Drama Series: Pedro Pascal – The Last of Us (HBO)

Best Actor in a Broadcast Network or Cable Comedy Series: Utkarsh Ambudkar – Ghosts (CBS)

Best Supporting Actress in Broadcast Network or Cable Comedy Series: Danielle Pinnock – Ghosts (CBS)

Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series: Nick Offerman – The Last of Us (HBO)

Best Broadcast Network or Cable Animated Series or Television Movie: South Park (Comedy Central)

Best Casting in a Comedy Series: Ghosts (CBS)

STREAMING PROGRAM AWARDS

Best Supporting Actress in a Streaming Comedy Series (Tie): Ayo Edebiri – The Bear (FX on Hulu) and Christina Ricci – Wednesday (Netflix)

Best Streaming Movie: Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (Roku)

Best Writing in a Streaming Limited Series or TV Movie: Weird: The Al Yankovic Story – Al Yankovic & Eric Appel (Roku)

Best Streaming Drama Series: The Boys (Prime Video)

Best Actor in a Streaming Drama Series: Antony Starr – The Boys (Prime Video)

Best Supporting Actor in a Streaming Drama Series: Jensen Ackles – The Boys (Prime Video)

Best Directing in a Streaming Drama Series: The Boys – Nelson Cragg, Herogasm (Prime Video)

Best Writing in a Streaming Drama Series: Star Trek: Picard – Terry Matalas, The Last Generation (Paramount+)

Best Streaming Animated Series or TV Movie: Attack on Titan (Crunchyroll)

Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Costumes: Wednesday (Netflix)

Best Stunts: The Boys (Prime Video)

Best Casting in a Drama Series: The Boys (Prime Video)

Best Casting in a Limited Series or TV Movie: Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (Roku)

(11) COME ON DOWN. [Item by Mike Kennedy.] Seeking more tourism, Lexington KY has done the equivalent of erecting a huge See Rock City sign on the highway. The highway to the TRAPPIST-1 star system, that is. “Scientists Have Formally Invited Aliens to Visit Kentucky” in Gizmodo.

The city of Lexington, Kentucky, appears so tired of being overlooked by humankind that it has sent a formal invitation to the next-best thing: alien life that may or may not exist in a nearby star system.

It’s a tourism stunt, but the message is very real. The invitation, beamed out last fall via infrared laser toward the TRAPPIST-1 star system, is a project by the Lexington tourism bureau (yeah, we’re sending ads to aliens now). According to VisitLEX, they worked with engineers, linguists, and the FAA to make it happen. The target star is 40 light-years from Earth, which means any extraterrestrials that are eager to visit the self-proclaimed Horse Capital of the World will know they are invited in 2063.

…We don’t know that any life, much less intelligent life, actually exists in the TRAPPIST-1 system. Last year, data from the Webb Space Telescope revealed that TRAPPIST-1b, one of the exoplanets orbiting TRAPPIST 1, has no atmosphere. Because life as we know it needs an atmosphere to survive, that all but confirmed there is no potential for life on TRAPPIST-1b. Webb followed up that discovery with the finding that there is also no atmosphere—or at most, a thin one—on planet TRAPPIST-1c. Luckily for the VisitLEX team, the TRAPPIST system has five other exoplanets that could theoretically host civilizations capable of interpreting their invitation….

(12) ON YOUR SCREENS. JustWatch has shared its December 2023 rankings for film and TV streaming. (Click for larger image.)

[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, and Steven French for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day John A Arkansawyer.]