Tag Archives: SF Concatenation

Pixel Scroll 4/16/25 It’s Been A Long File Since I Pixel Scrolled

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(1) WSFS BUSINESS MEETING TOWN HALLS IN MAY. The Seattle 2025 Worldcon committee today reminded members they will be hosting two Business Meeting Town Halls where members can learn how to participate in the business meeting process. They will be on Zoom, and recorded for later playback. The committee has yet to announce how to attend and RSVP. The available information is here on the convention website: “Business Meeting Town Hall”.

  • Town Hall One: May 4 at noon Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-7).
  • Town Hall Two: May 25 at noon Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-7).

(2) SEATTLE WORLDCON WILL HOLD CONSULTATIVE VOTE. The Seattle 2025 Worldcon also announced they will hold a consultative vote of WSFS members on two of the proposed Constitutional amendments passed on from the Glasgow 2024 Business Meeting to the Seattle Worldcon: (1) the proposed revisions of the Hugo Award categories for best professional artist and best fan artist, and (2) the proposed amendment to abolish the Retro Hugo Awards.

As when Glasgow 2024 did this, there is no constitutional authorization for the poll, and it is not binding on the Business Meeting.

…The purpose of this exercise is simply to test whether a consultative vote of Worldcon members is feasible, and to learn lessons about how it might someday be formally adopted as a part of the WSFS decision-making process. We chose these two proposals in particular because they have clearly generated wide interest among the Worldcon community.

The consultative vote results will be used solely to inform the Seattle Business Meeting of the preferences of a larger sample of the membership than might otherwise be able to attend. Glasgow 2024’s consultative vote allowed over 1,200 WSFS members to share their opinion on a proposed amendment.

The consultative vote will run from May 1 to May 31 and may be accessed at the same site and in the same manner as the Hugo Award voting—so you can do both at the same time!

(3) A DATE THAT SHALL LIVE IN INFAMY. Convention History is shocked, shocked I tell you, by the party in Room 770.

(4) MARK EVANIER DID NOT OUTGROW COMICS. [Item by rcade.] The comic book writer Mark Evanier remembers the 1960s divide between fans of science fiction and comic books. “Fandom Freedom” at News From ME.

…One older female fan used to lecture me that Comic Book Fandom was an unfortunate outgrowth of Science-Fiction Fandom and oughta stay that way…or better still, disappear entirely. What they read was for sophisticated adults and what “we” read (drawing a firm, uncrossable line with that “we” there) was for the kiddos. Her suggestion was that there was something wrong with us for not outgrowing it.

The last such lecture I got — this would have been around ’73 — was from a guy wearing Spock ears and brandishing a plastic phaser that fired little multi-colored discs….

(5) THINKING INSIDE THE BOX. “A new chapter for publishing? Book subscription services launch their own titles” – the Guardian tells how it works.

Book subscription services are magic. A few clicks of a form and a bunch of new books , selected by talented curators, turn up at your door – often with collectible perks such as special cover designs and art. In a world saturated by choice and trends, not only is the choosing done for you, but you’ll often have a less conventional, better rounded and precious bookshelf collection to show for it.

This is presumably why there’s a strong appetite for such services: UK fantasy subscription box FairyLoot has 569,000 followers on Instagram alone, and many bookshops have started sending out their own boxes.

Now, some of these businesses have decided not just to sell books, but to publish their own: In January, FairyLoot announced a collaboration with Transworld, a division of Penguin Random House, while last week Canada-based subscription service OwlCrate launched OwlCrate Press….

(6) REASONS TO WATCH. Phil Nichols and Colin Kuskie discuss an award-winning film in SF 101’s “Go With The Flow” episode.

Flow (2024) is an extraordinary film – Latvia’s most successful of all time, and winner of the Oscar for Best Animated Film. Colin and Phil discuss whether it counts as science fiction (of course it does!), and what makes this delightful movie tick.

If you haven’t seen the film, we think we give you enough of flavour of it for the discussion to make sense, and hopefully to inspire you to watch it.

(7) FASCINATING MARQUEE. Tony Gleeson ran the photo below on Facebook with this introduction:

The venerable Vista Theatre in East Hollywood: it’s been everything from a porno palace to a repertory house. It’s been featured in scenes for numerous movies (the one that comes to mind is “Throw Mama From the Train”). It’s now owned by Quentin Tarantino and offers some pretty unusual fare.

When he gave permission for File 770 to reprint it, Gleeson added:

One thing I love is the coffee shop attached to the theatre (it used to be called the Onyx many years ago and had the best blackout chocolate cake) is now called Pam’s Coffy and features a portrait of Pam Grier. There is also a mini-Grauman’s Chinese footprint walk in front.

(8) THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK. “No Bids Filed for 2027 Westercon” reports Kevin Standlee at the Westercon website.

No bids filed to be on the ballot to select the site of Westercon 79, the 2027 West Coast Science Fantasy Conference. Although there will be no bids listed on the ballot, there will be space for write-in bids, and bids can still file the necessary papers (specified in Section 3.4 of the Westercon Bylaws) before the close of voting at 6 PM Pacific Daylight Time (UTC -7) on Saturday, July 5, 2025. The election will take place during Westercon 77 / BayCon 2025 at the Marriott Hotel in Santa Clara, California. Should no valid bids file by the close of voting, or should None of the Above win the election, the site of Westercon 79 will be determined by the Westercon Business Meeting on Sunday, July 6.

We will post the 2027 Westercon Site Selection ballot on the Westercon website by the end of April. All members of BayCon 2025 are members of Westercon 77 and all members are eligible to vote. Members can vote by postal mail (there will be no electronic voting) or in person at Westercon 77 / BayCon 2025.

To file a bid, or to ask any questions about the Westercon Site Selection process, contact Kayla Allen, the 2027 Westercon Site Selection Administrator, at siteselection2027@westercon.org.

(9) ART SPIEGELMAN AND JUDY-LYNN DEL REY PROFILED. Through May 14 PBS is making available online “Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse” part of the American Masters series. At the end of the program, they’re also running a short documentary about Judy-Lynn Del Rey. It starts about 1 hour 40 minutes into the 2-hour program.

(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

April 16, 1921 – Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov. (Died 2004.)

Peter Ustinov showed up in Logan’s Run as the Old Man; he had the lead role in Blackbeard’s Ghost as Captain Blackbeard based on the Robert Stevenson novel; he was Charlie Chan in Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (it’s at least genre adjacent, isn’t it?). He’s The Caliph in stellar Thief of Baghdad; a truck driver in The Great Muppet Caper and finally he has the dual roles of Grandfather and Phoenix in The Phoenix and the Carpet.

He voiced myriad characters in animated films including that of Grendel in Grendel Grendel Grendel based off John Gardner’s novel Grendel, in Robin Hood, he voiced Prince John and King Richard; and in The Mouse and His Child, he was the voice of Manny the Rat. 

Now I’m going to admit that my favorite role by Peter Ustinov was playing Poirot which he did in half a dozen films, which he first in Death on the Nile and then in Evil Under the Sun, Thirteen at Dinner, Dead Man’s Folly, Murder in Three Acts and Appointment with Death. He wasn’t my favorite Poirot as that was David Suchet but it was obvious that he liked performing that role quite a bit. 

Peter Ustinov

(11) COMICS SECTION.

(12) IN A BRICKYARD FAR, FAR AWAY. Gizmodo says get ready – “Lego Is Celebrating Star Wars Day With a Ton of Sets”.

The start of May is always a good time for Star Wars fans, but for Lego Star Wars ones, it’s also a time to fear the brick-maker coming down on your wallet with all the fury of a fully armed and operational battle station. This year is no exception, with Lego announcing a ton of sets ready to drop next month–including its next crowning entry in the Ultimate Collector Series line.

Today Lego announced that its annual May the 4th releases will be spearheaded by a new 2,970-piece take on Slave I as it appeared in Attack of the Clones. Renamed here as simply ‘Jango Fett’s Starship’ (aligning with prior merchandise moves away from the “Slave” naming around the ship’s return in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett), the new set includes a detailed interior cockpit which can house two new minifigures of Jango and a young Boba, an openable landing ramp and bomb hatch to place one of the ship’s legendary-sounding seismic charges in, and a display stand to have the ship posed in either landing or flight mode.

Jango’s starship will cost $300, and will release on early access for Insiders on May 1, before releasing widely on May 4….

… If you don’t want to grab Jango’s ride but still want to try and nab that Kamino set, then good news: Lego is also releasing another eight brand new Star Wars sets on May 1. Covering the whole gamut of the franchise, the releases see the first set inspired by Andor season 2, a new U-Wing, two Brickheadz releases inspired by A New Hope and the 20th anniversary of Revenge of the Sith, Rebels icon Chopper entering the buildable droid series, two new entries in the collectible helmet line, and even a buildable version of the Star Wars logo…. 

From the Lego Shop itself, the “Best Star Wars™ Gift Ideas for Adults” has photos of all the character helmets and other items mentioned above.

Fans who admire the pilots of the Star Wars™ galaxy can now showcase their passion with the LEGO® Star Wars AT-AT Driver™ Helmet (75429), inspired by the helmets worn by the pilots of the formidable AT-AT Walkers in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back™….

…For even more ways to put the heroes and villains of your favorite galaxy on display, check out the complete selection offered by the LEGO Star Wars helmet collection. From helmets inspired by Mandalorians and Clone Troopers to bounty hunters and Dark Lords of the Sith, there is something for every Star Wars fan to add to their collection.

(13) BUT ARE THOSE BRICKS PLASTIC OR GOLD? Just make sure you lock up your house after you buy those collectible Legos. The New York Times warns, “Worth Thousands on the Black Market, Lego Kits Are Now a Target of Thieves”.

It’s one Lego kit, a collection of small plastic bricks and related accessories. What could it cost? The answer, it turns out, could be thousands of dollars.

Lego kits and minifigures, figurines that are a little over 1.5 inches tall, are commanding high prices on the secondary market, with some, like the LEGO San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Spider-Man, valued as high as $16,846.

The children’s toys have even become something of an investing opportunity for those savvy enough to know what to look for.

But with the eye-popping price tags comes a dark side: Lego kits have become a hot commodity on the black market and the target of brazen thieves.

Last year, burglars hit Bricks & Minifigs outlets in California. Thieves made off with at least $100,000 worth of Lego kits and accessories.

Last month, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office in California recovered nearly 200 Lego sets after arresting a person in connection with a burglary at Crush Comics, a comic book store in Castro Valley, Calif.

Joshua Hunter, the owner of Crush Comics, said that members of his staff found the store’s stolen comic books for sale on eBay within hours of the theft.

The store worked with law enforcement and alerted other small business owners, including Five Little Monkeys, a toy store that recently had $7,000 worth of Lego stolen, to solve what turned out to be a spree of burglaries in the area.

Five Little Monkeys was able to recover a lot of its stolen Lego, said Meghan DeGoey, the company’s marketing director, but the theft was only the latest in what has been a growing problem.

“It’s been a problem for probably, I mean, forever, but it’s really ramped up in the last five, six years,” she said.

Five Little Monkeys has eight stores around the Bay Area, said Ms. DeGoey, and Lego stands out among its top-stolen items.

“People are really brazen when they’re going to steal,” she said, describing the way thieves will sometimes come into a store and walk right out or “do some like crazy misdirect and have a second person that tries to distract us.”…

(14) BUSINESS SHOULD NOT BE BOOMING. “Bahamas suspends SpaceX rocket landings pending post-launch probe” reports Reuters.

The Bahamas’ government said on Tuesday it is suspending all SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket landings in the country, pending a full post-launch investigation.

“No further clearances will be granted until a full environmental assessment is reviewed,” Bahamian Director of Communications Latrae Rahming said in a post on X.

The Bahamian government said in February after SpaceX’s first landing in the country that it had approved 19 more throughout 2025, subject to regulatory approval.

The Bahamas’ post-launch investigation comes after a SpaceX Starship spacecraft exploded in space last month, minutes after lifting off from Texas.

Social media videos showed fiery debris streaking through the skies near South Florida and the Bahamas after the spacecraft broke up in space shortly after it began to spin uncontrollably with its engines cut off.

Following the incident, the Bahamas said debris from the spacecraft fell into its airspace. The country said the debris contained no toxic materials and added it was not expected to have a significant impact on marine life or water quality.

The Starship explosion was not connected to the Bahamas’ Falcon 9 landing program with SpaceX.

(15) IS THAT SPACE ROT? “Webb telescope detects a possible signature of life on a distant world”  in the Washington Post.

A distant planet’s atmosphere shows signs of molecules that on Earth are associated only with biological activity, a possible signal of life on what is suspected to be a watery world,according to a report published Wednesday that analyzed observations by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

The peer-reviewed report in the Astrophysical Journal Letters presents more questions than answers, acknowledges numerous uncertainties and does not declare the discovery of life beyond Earth, something never conclusively detected. But the authors do claim to have found the best evidence to date of a possible “biosignature” on a planet far from our solar system.

The planet,known asK2-18b, is 124 light-years away, orbiting a red dwarf star. Earlier observations suggested that its atmosphere is consistent with the presence of a global ocean. The molecule purportedly detected is dimethyl sulfide (DMS). On Earth it is produced by the decay of marine phytoplankton and other microbes, and it has no other known source. The astronomers want to observe the planet further to strengthen the evidence that the molecule is present….

… “This is the first time humanity has ever seen biosignature molecules — potential biosignature molecules, which are biosignatures on Earth — in the atmosphere of a habitable-zone planet,” he added.The habitable, or “Goldilocks,” zone is the distance from a star that could allow water to remain liquid at the planet’s surface.

K2-18b, which is within ourgalaxy, the Milky Way,cannot be seen by any telescope as a discrete object. But it has a fortuitous orbit that crosses its parent star as seen from Earth. Such transits dim the starlight ever so slightly, which is how many exoplanets have been discovered. The transits also change the starlight’s spectrum in a pattern that — if observed with instruments on a telescope as advanced as the Webb — can reveal the composition of the planet’s atmosphere.

In 2023, Madhusudhan and colleagues reported that two instruments on the Webb had detected carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere of K2-18b, as well ashints of DMS. …

(16) SF² CONCATENATION  SUMMER 2025 EDITION. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] SF² Concatenation has just posted its seasonal edition of SF and science news and reviews. Also in the mix are some articles, convention reports as well as some archive items from its well over 30 years history and a load of standalone book reviews. Something for everyone.

v35(3) 2025.4.15 — New Columns & Articles for the Summer 2025

v35(3) 2025.4.15 — Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Reviews

v35(3) 2025.4.15 — Non-Fiction SF & Science Fact Book Reviews

[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Steven French, rcade, Olav Rokne, Kevin Standlee, 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 Dan’l.]

Pixel Scroll 3/15/25 I Wish I Could Pixel Like My Captain Kate (Janeway)

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(1) WE’RE NOT TALKING ABOUT A HOBBIT HOLE HERE. The Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog has posted to Bluesky a spin on the “Omelas” tale in the voice of you-know-who. Stunningly on point. Fourteen posts long. The first one is here.

OK. My quick attempt at "My Omelas, Right Or Wrong."1/XLet me tell you about this incredible place, Omelas. It’s huge, folks, absolutely beautiful. Everybody’s happy. Everybody’s winning. The economy, it's fantastic, the best economy anyone’s ever seen, believe me.

— An Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog (@hugobookclub.bsky.social) 2025-03-13T16:54:55.838Z

(2) SIMULTANEOUS TIMES IS SEVEN. Space Cowboy Books today launched the 7-year anniversary episode of the Simultaneous Times podcast. This episode is a collaboration with Apex Magazine.

Simultaneous Times 7 Year Anniversary Episode

Featuring stories from the pages of Apex Magazine.

  • “Then Came the Ghost of My Dead Mother, Antikleia” by Nadia Radovich. With music by Doctor Auxiliary. Read by Jenna Hanchey
  • “What Happens When a Planet Falls From the Sky?” by Danny Cherry, Jr. With music by Phog Masheeen. Read by the Jean-Paul Garnier & Jenna Hanchey

Theme music by Dain Luscombe

(3) SPECIAL ACCESS TO NATURE FUTURES STORY. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] SF² Concatenation has just posted the first of its four “Best of Nature Futures” short stories of the year. Because it is behind a paywall, non-Nature subscribers can’t access the original weekly stories. Fortunately SF² Concatenation has an agreement with Nature and the permission of respective writers to re-post four a year. The story “Cosmic Rentals” by Dave Kavanaugh concerns a rental store where you can literally hire “universes”… What’s not to like? …And if you scroll down below the story you will get the author’s ‘story behind the story’. You access it here.

(4) WHAT YOU WON’T SEE ON THE BALLOT. The Ursa Major Awards, the annual anthropomorphic literature and arts award, will shortly release their 2024 finalists and open public voting. But the administrators have decided to announce some rulings on the prospective nominees ahead of time.

We are about to present the list of nominees for 2024 and will open up voting soon. However, we thought it was best to first present a list of special considerations for a select few entries we have received this year.

In the Best Anthropomorphic Game category, Atlyss did receive enough nominations to place in the top 5, but because Atlyss has only been released as an “early access” title, it has been disqualified from the 2024 list.

In the Fursuit category, only one qualifying entry was given more than a single vote, therefore we felt it best to drop the category for 2024, as has been done in the past.

In the Best Anthropomorphic Music category, an album titled “Where Will the Animals Sleep” would have been in the top 5 nominations. However, as neither the content nor the author is anthropomorphic / furry, it has been disqualified.

(5) FEAR FACTOR. “Snow White Premiere: Dwarf Actor Responds to Rachel Zegler Movie Pivot” in The Hollywood Reporter.

One performer from Disney‘s new Snow White is sharing his thoughts amid the debate surrounding the launch for the live-action movie.

Martin Klebba — who has appeared in two previous versions of Snow White, including the 2012 feature Mirror Mirror that stars Julia Roberts and Lily Collins — provides the voice of Grumpy in the new movie and also serves as an advisor for the miner characters. Klebba tells The Hollywood Reporter that the recent controversy surrounding Snow White, which has led to the film’s Saturday premiere not inviting press onto the red carpet, has meant a less exciting celebration for those involved in the project that stars Rachel Zegler as the title character and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen.

“It really isn’t going to be a red carpet,” says Klebba, who emphasizes that he is very proud of the movie and cannot wait for audiences to see it. “It’s going to be at the El Capitan [Theatre], which is cool. But it’s basically going to be a pre-party, watch the movie, and that’s it. There’s not going to be this whole hoopla of, ‘Disney’s first fucking movie they ever made.’ Because of all this controversy, they’re afraid of the blowback from different people in society.”

Klebba says that the premiere changes were due to “the controversy with Rachel” but clarifies that he had not been given direct information on why the event was altered. Zegler is known as an outspoken star who suggested in 2022 that she was not a fan of the original 1937 animated classic due to outdated plot points. Additionally, after President Donald Trump was elected in November, Zegler posted comments to social media that were critical of his victory before later apologizing….

(6) FREAKIER FRIDAY. They’re afraid, too, apparently. “Freakier Friday Teaser Trailer”. Movie in theaters August 8.

(7) DO FANNISH VALUES WORK IN SCALED-UP CONVENTIONS? Patch O’Furr analyzes the issues of “How to love the freedom of leaderless fandom, and fight the flipside of organized abuse” for furry fans at Dogpatch Press.

Do you know the story where several blind people try to describe an elephant by only touching small parts of it? Nobody can say what the whole animal is.

That happens when furry subculture talks about itself, and protests outside stereotypes by falling into its own… The Geek Social Fallacies….

…That’s the natural downside of the old-school fan values, but things were more personal when groups were smaller scale. They would put up with a few jerks because it was harder to kick them out and sustain groups. Now add decades of growth, and much bigger scale of members who don’t know each other. (Dunbar’s Number names a finite limit on how many relationships your brain can handle.) Put the problem on steroids with internet platforms we don’t own. It’s not YOU, it’s MATH….

…The math of escalating abuse

Rapid and unplanned growth of furry subculture has many unforeseeable effects. Straining the limits of conventions is one covered on Soatok’s furry cybersecurity blog: Furries Are Losing the Battle Against Scale. Convention attendance is doubling every few years and “the furry community is growing at a break-neck exponential speed.”

Security suffers without top-down management at impersonal scale, especially when the more we depend on net platforms, the more problems we have by policy. Social media is built to shift liability for moderation from owners to users. It’s their business model to be unaccountable! The point is to eliminate the cost of the editor/gatekeeper/mod layer by automating the labor and letting volunteers and peers fill in.

Peer moderation may feel like personal control, but meanwhile, bad actors can game the system with off-site advantage. Moderators may respond to simple individual incidents on-site, but can’t even see complex cross-platform abuse. That’s how responses can be weak, scattered, inconsistent, and lack resources for scale, no matter how much their hearts are in it.

If you can’t see abuse, it festers. Think of church scandals where abuser priests were shifted around from church to church. We have that too, but there’s no orders from the top. It’s from being nobody’s job. A long-time creep can use a newly minted fursona to jump from group to group, when it’s easy to change accounts and delete evidence, but an uphill battle to track them or get consequences. Different process, same outcome….

(8) REMEMBERING A CLASSIC HORROR AUTHOR. “Lisa Morton Discusses Dennis Etchison” in an installment of the Horror Writers Association’s blog series “Nuts & Bolts”.

Lisa Morton describes Dennis Etchison’s work as a “brain bombshell” that changed her idea of what horror fiction could do. When she was just starting out, Etchison had a major influence on both her art and her career. In this month’s edition of Nuts & Bolts, Lisa discusses Etchison’s writing technique, his influence on her own work, and what writers today can learn from the late horror legend.

Q: Can you tell us a little about Dennis Etchison and his contributions to the horror genre?

A: To me, Dennis is one of the absolute greatest craftsmen of the horror short story. His short story collection The Dark Country came out in 1982, when most of the genre was split between Stephen King’s suburban, East Coast horror on one hand and the glorious excesses of the splatterpunks on the other, and his work fit into neither camp. It was completely unique and was the first time I’d read horror set mostly in my hometown of Los Angeles; it’s not an exaggeration to say that it made me think I might be able to write horror fiction. My all-time favorite short story is his 1993 masterpiece The Dog Park, which is one of those works of fiction that’s like a magic trick — it really gets under your skin and you’re not sure how it was done. Although I also like several of his novels, especially California Gothic, his short fiction is what I think will be remembered….

Guillermo Del Toro, Peter Atkins and Dennis Etchison in back of Mystery & Imagination Bookshop in 2013.

(9) KGB PHOTOS. Ellen Datlow has posted photos on Flickr of the “Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series March 12, 2025” gathering where Victoria Dalpe and Jedediah Berry read from their work to a very full house.

(10) LACON V HOLDING ANAHEIM MEETING. LAcon V, the 2026 Worldcon committee, told Facebook readers how to ask to attend their meeting next weekend.

LAcon V is hosting an in-person meeting on March 22nd and 23rd at the Anaheim Hilton.

This is a good opportunity to meet some of our leadership, learn more about the convention, and possibly become part of the LAcon V team!

If you are interested in participating, and plan to be in the Anaheim area, please email us at info(at)lacon.org for further details.

(11) T. JACKSON KING (1948-2025). Author and archeologist Thomas Jackson King, Jr. died December 3, 2024. SFWA’s tribute “In Memoriam: T. Jackson King” notes he was “a prolific writer of science-fiction, horror, and urban fantasy, and an award-winning journalist. He wrote articles for The SFWA Bulletin and SFWA Handbook, and served as the SFWA Election Committee Chair.” 

(12) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

The Girl with Something Extra series (1976)

Networks in the Sixties liked young actresses. They were either sexy, or they were cute. So let’s talk about the lead of The Girl with Something Extra series that debuted forty-nine years ago. 

That lead actress was Sally Field which tells you how deep the story was intended to be. She was a wife who had ESP, and her husband played by John Davidson never quite understood her. It was intended to be cute, really, really cute with her giving it that cuteness. 

There was other cast, but really who cared? Not the studio. It was intended to be just a vehicle for these two to be a couple as this critic noted “The plot for The Girl With Something Extra TV show immediately brings to mind another show that ended in March of 1972 after a whopping eight seasons on the air! That series of course was “Bewitched” which also featured a young newlywed couple with the wife having super-human powers that caused many problems for her and her husband.” 

The audience apparently didn’t grasp its charms, and it was canceled after one season of twenty-two half hour episodes. 

So the Apple search engine says it’s not streaming anywhere. The Flying Nun is streaming on, errr, Tubi. Any of y’all ever subscribe to that service? 

Lancer Books published a tie-in novel by Paul Farman, The Girl With Something Extra. 

I see multiple signed scripts is for sale on eBay. Press photos too. Like the one below. Aren’t they cute? Well, aren’t they?

(13) COMICS SECTION.

(14) DWAYNE MCDUFFIE AWARD TAKING ENTRIES. Comics Beat announced that the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics is accepting submissions. “Mark Waid joins 10th annual Dwayne McDuffie Award selection committee”.

…As in previous years, the event will name one winner from five honored finalists, whose work resembles a commitment to excellence and inclusion on and off the page, much like the late Mr. McDuffie’s own efforts to produce entertainment that was representative of and created by a wide scope of human experience. Moreover, prolific comic creator Mark Waid has joined joined the selection committee which includes The Beat‘s own Heidi MacDonald, and other notable comics industry figures.

The 10th annual “Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics” is now accepting submissions at https://dwaynemcduffie.com/dmad/. The deadline is May 1, 2025 for comics published during the 2024 calendar year.

New York Times best-selling author, Mark Waid, joins a selection committee of notable comic book professionals led by industry legend, Marv Wolfman. This prestigious prize has grown exponentially in esteem since it was established in 2015 in honor of Dwayne McDuffie (1962-2011), the legendary African-American comic book writer/editor and writer/producer of the animated Static Shock, Justice League, and Ben 10: Alien Force/Ultimate Alien, who famously co-founded Milestone Media, the most successful minority-owned comic book company in the history of the industry.

The slogan for the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics is Mr. McDuffie’s own profound saying:

“From invisible to inevitable.”

Prolific writer/creator, Mark Waid, is “proud to be part of the DMADs”:

“As a medium and as a community—even removing from consideration the onslaught of bigotry and intolerance sweeping the U.S. as we speak—the world of comics has a responsibility to recognize, promote, and honor comics that not only employ great storytelling but are emblematic of the power of equality and inclusion. As creators, good work from anyone forces us to up our game. As readers, we’re all better off—and more entertained and educated—when we’re exposed to the widest possible variety of voices and viewpoints.”…

(15) AVENGERS ACADEMY. Anthony Oliveira, Carola Borelli and Bailie Rosenlund’s Avengers Academy Infinity Comic series on Marvel Unlimited comes to print for the first time this June.

Since launching last year, Marvel Unlimited’s hit AVENGERS ACADEMY Infinity Comic series by rising star Anthony Oliveira and visionary artists Carola Borelli and Bailie Rosenlund has become an online phenomenon, gaining a devoted fanbase who tune in each week to experience the adventures of Marvel’s most promising young heroes! This June, the acclaimed series comes to your local comic shop in AVENGERS ACADEMY: ASSEMBLE #1, a new one-shot collecting the first six issues in print for the first time!

From the X-Men to the symbiote hivemind, this eclectic group assembles fan-favorite characters from every corner of the Marvel Universe, including new sensations like Kid Juggernaut. Discover their journey to become tomorrow’s Mightiest Heroes in this masterful blend of teen drama and super hero adventure!

SCHOOL’S IN SESSION!

Welcome to Avengers Academy! Seeking to guide the next generation of super heroes, Captain Marvel recruits a misfit team of super-powered teens: CAPTAIN AMERICA OF THE RAILWAYS, BLOODLINE, ESCAPADE, MOON GIRL, RED GOBLIN, and new hero on the block, KID JUGGERNAUT! But classes are the least of their concerns as they fend off super-villain attacks, make new friends – and new foes – and learn what it really means to be Earth’s mightiest heroes. Featuring the first appearance of an all-new SINISTER SIX, this is one book you don’t want to miss!

Check out the all-new cover by Stephen Byrne and preorder Avengers Academy: Assemble #1 at your local comic shop today! For more information, visit Marvel.com.

(16) FARADAY UNCAGED. [Item by Mark Roth-Whitworth.] Why do we have a lot of electricity? Faraday. I think a lot of us know who Faraday was, but this is a lovely, loving article. “Unearthed notebooks shed light on Victorian genius who inspired Einstein” in the Guardian.

…When a lab assistant at the Institution got into a brawl and was fired in February 1813, Davy remembered the 22-year-old Faraday and offered him the job – which involved taking a pay cut, but gave the young man access to the laboratory, free coal, candles and two attic rooms.

Faraday later gave an account of this job offer: “At the same time that he [Davy] gratified my desires as to scientific employment, he advised me to remain a bookbinder, telling me that Science was a harsh mistress… poorly rewarding those who devoted themselves to her service.”

Despite Davy’s advice, Faraday accepted the job. It was a decision that would prove to be seminal for science. Over the next 55 years, while working for the Royal Institution, Faraday discovered several fundamental laws of physics and chemistry – including his law of electromagnetic induction in 1831, which illuminated the relative motion of charged particles.

It was thanks to Faraday’s trailblazing experiments at the institution that he discovered electromagnetic rotation in 1821, a breakthrough that led to the development of the electric motor and benzene, a hydrocarbon derived from benzoic acid, in 1825. He became the first scientist to liquefy gas in 1823, invented the electric generator in 1831 and discovered the laws of electrolysis in the early 1830s, helping to coin terms such as electrode, cathode and ion. In 1845, after finding the first experimental evidence that a magnetic field could influence polarised light – a phenomenon that became known as the Faraday effect – he proved light and electromagnetism are interconnected….

(17) PIXEL SCROLL TITLE EXPLANATION OF THE DAY. [Item by Daniel Dern.] Via “I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate” (1922).

Probably my favorite recording (keeping in mind I’ve only listened to a fraction of the various artists’ recordings) is from Jim Kweskin’s Relax Your Mind album (more generally one of my favorite albums): “Three Songs – A Look at the Ragtime Era (Sister Kate’s Night Out) : I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate”.

Here’s the first version I’ve run into (yesterday!) that shows there’s a long intro section: “Sister Kate” – song and lyrics by Vi Wickam, Paul Anastasio, Albanie Falletta | Spotify.

Lots of (current/recent) popular covers!

Dave Van Ronk “Sister Kate”.

Here’s the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band “Sister Kate”.

And here’s an unexpected cover (from the From Liverpool To Hamburg 2CD set) — The Beatles – “i wish i could shimmy like my sister Kate” (live).

(18) VIDEO OF THE DAY. [Item by Arnie Fenner.] This “Frazetta Fridays” episode about the creation of Vampirella includes some fun history featuring Harlan, Forry, and Trina Robbins.

[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Arnie Fenner, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]

Pixel Scroll 1/15/25 Merry Pippins, Halfling Nanny For Hire

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(1) COSTS OF BOOK/JOURNAL PIRACY. “New Government Report Cites Ongoing Concern Over Pirate Sites” — Publishers Weekly counts the losses.

Several international websites that publishers argue continue to actively pirate copyrighted material were included on the U.S. Trade Representative’s frighteningly named Notorious Markets List (NML). NML is the centerpiece of the USTR’s annual Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy, the goal of which is to “motivate appropriate action by the private sector and governments to reduce piracy and counterfeiting.”

The 2024 report features a list of sites that are violating the copyrights of companies across a wide range of industries. Rather than try to document that monetary loss to American companies caused by these websites (though the report does cite a study which found that digital piracy cost the U.S. economy $29.2 billion in 2019), NLM reviews what actions, if any, companies have taken to stop their sites from engaging in piracy.

The two companies that drew the most attention from the Association of American Publishers are Library Genesis, commonly known as Libgen, and Sci-Hub. As part of a series of actions against Libgen, in 2023, textbook publishers filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the company. Libgen, which is believed to operate from Russia and has been used by Meta to train its AI efforts, hosts 80 million science magazine articles, 2.4 million nonfiction books, 2.2 million fiction books, and 2 million comic strips. According to the report, Libgen sites are “subject to court orders in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.”…

(2) FANTASTIC NEWS. Fantasy Magazine has officially returned, with a new publisher.

Co-Editors-in-Chief Arley Sorg and Shingai Njeri Kagunda will curate a wonderful selection of short fiction, flash fiction, poetry, and more in quarterly issues for publisher Psychopomp (known for Psychopomp.com, Psychopomp novellas, and of course, The Deadlands magazine, edited by E. Catherine Tobler)!

Kagunda and Sorg both bring engaging visions and eclectic, sharp sensibilities to the field, as well as a history of positive involvement in the genre community. Kagunda’s writing has earned her Ignyte and British Fantasy Award nominations, and her work as co-editor at PodCastle made her a two-time Hugo Award finalist. Sorg has received two community service awards, and his work as co-editor at Fantasy made him a three-time Locus Award finalist and a two-time World Fantasy Award finalist.

The first issue of Fantasy with Psychopomp is scheduled for June 2025 publication. Fantasy plans to open to submissions February 1 – 7. See submission guidelines at the link.

Subscribe to Fantasy Magazine via email for $5 per quarter. Use this link to subscribe. Psychopomp will publish Fantasy content on the Fantasy Magazine website after an exclusive to-subscribers period. Digital issues will also be available at their Grave Goods store and on WeightlessBooks.com.

For more information, see publisher Sean Markey’s blog post.

(3) THANKS FOR THE STAR WARS MEMORIES. Craig Miller will do a Q&A and signing in conjunction with a showing of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope at The Frida Cinema in Santa Ana on January 19 at 4:00 p.m. Address: 305 E. 4th St, STE 100, Santa Ana, CA 92701. Craig hears that a small number of droids will be present…

You’re invited to a special screening of the 1997 Special Edition of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope with special guest Craig Miller! Craig was director of Fan Relations for Lucasfilm from 1977-1980. He created and oversaw the official Star Wars Fan Club as well as having edited and written virtually all of the first two years of Bantha Tracks as well as being a producer for Lucasfilm Ltd. 

Craig will be appearing for an on-stage discussion about his experiences at Lucasfilm and his time during Star Wars! The discussion will be moderated by Scott Zilner. Craig will also be available to meet fans, and also be signing his book Star Wars Memories.

(4) SFWA ADDITIONS. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (SFWA) has announced a new office assistant, and that two past presidents of the organization are taking on new volunteer service roles.

Office Team: Misha Grifka Wander (he/they) joined operations this week.

You might recognize Misha as our Nebula Awards Commissioner. He is stepping down from that position after participating in a competitive round of hiring. Thank you to all the candidates who applied. Misha is a game designer, writer, artist, and academic from the American Midwest. He obtained his PhD in English from Ohio State University and has worked in nonprofits and office management. Misha will be joining our Interim Executive Director Russell Davis in the virtual office from 10:00 AM to 6:30 PM EST. Welcome, Misha!

Historian: Michael Capobianco will be stepping into the volunteer role of Historian. As Historian, Capobianco will be supporting the board and organization, providing historical perspective and guidance when needed.

Past President Advisor: Mary Robinette Kowal has been appointed Past President Advisor. 

(5) STOP THAT TRAIN(ING)! [Item by Steven French.] “British novelists criticise government over AI ‘theft’” reports the Guardian.

Kate Mosse and Richard Osman have hit back at Labour’s plan to give artificial intelligence companies broad freedoms to mine artistic works for data, saying it could destroy growth in creative fields and amount to theft.

The best-selling novellists spoke out after Keir Starmer a national drive to make the UK “one of the great AI superpowers” and endorsed a 50-point action planthat included changes to how technology firms can use copyrighted text and data to train their models….

(6) PERSONAL DEFINITIONS OF SPECPO. Seattle Worldcon 2025 poet laureate Brandon O’Brien has launched a department on the Worldcon’s website called “Con-Verse”. He picked a logical topic for his first post.

…What better place to start this blog, then, by trying to ask and answer the one question that comes up often from people outside the space: what is a “speculative” poem? But like most things in art, and poetry in particular, there are as many answers as there are poets and readers themselves. Hopefully, with enough of them we may notice some patterns of understanding, so I figured it was only right for you to hear from a multitude of expert voices on the matter. Here’s what some members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) had to say…

Read the quotes he compiled from 16 poets at the link.

(7) NYT NOTES DISNEY SUPPORT FOR FIRE-AFFECTED EMPLOYEES. The New York Times explains how “Hollywood’s Filmmaking Continues Despite L.A. Wildfires”.

…With thousands of homes destroyed, many of them in neighborhoods favored by producers, executives, agents and stars, and roughly 300,000 people under evacuation orders or warnings, little work got done at studio headquarters. Some studios closed entirely, and others encouraged employees to work remotely.

Consider the impact of the fires on Disney alone. As of Monday, 64 Disney employees had lost their homes and hundreds more had been evacuated, including Robert A. Iger, the chief executive, and three members of his senior leadership team.

Mr. Iger has been overseeing Disney’s relief effort from a hotel, approving $15 million for community services and rebuilding efforts, arranging for Disney employees who have lost their homes to receive two months of free furnished housing and opening Disney’s studio wardrobe warehouses to employees who need clothes and shoes. He has also been calling Disney employees who lost their homes.

“I want them to know that people at the top of the company are looking after them, that we care,” Mr. Iger said by phone on Monday. “We’re going to go through some really tough times here, but we’ll get through it together.”

Meanwhile, Disney’s movie assembly lines — like the rest of Hollywood’s — have been almost completely unaffected.

Disney has seen some flurries of ash on its Burbank lot, but no flames. Pixar and Lucasfilm, both owned by Disney, are based in Northern California.

Sony Pictures is in Culver City, far from any of the fires. Paramount Pictures and Netflix are in Hollywood, the neighborhood, which is 40 minutes by car from the two biggest fires. The sprawling Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures lots in the San Fernando Valley have been untouched.

For the most part, live-action movies are no longer shot in the Los Angeles region. It’s too expensive. Instead, movie production has moved to states like Georgia, New York, New Jersey and New Mexico and countries like Britain and Australia — all of which offer generous tax incentives.

Only two movies from major studios were affected by the fires. Filming was halted on “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” a 20th Century Studios remake of the 1992 thriller. The third “Avatar” movie, also from 20th Century, which Disney owns, briefly paused production, too….

(8) TODAY’S DAY. [Item by Daniel Dern.] According to The Kitchn’s article “National Bagel Day Deals 2025: What You Need to Know”:

The holiday was originally celebrated on February 9, which coincided with National Pizza Day…

Some bagelries and we-also-sell-bagellers have bagel freebies/deals, lists online or ask wherever you get your bagels.

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

Born January 15, 1935 — Robert Silverberg, 90.  

Editor’s note: Robert Silverberg is ninety years old today!  

By Paul Weimer: A legend of science fiction whose work I came to in an oblique way. 

In a short story, “Half-Baked Publisher’s Delight”, in a collection of “great short short stories”, I first came across the name Robert Silverberg. It was a weird little story where Isaac Asimov (a name I knew well at that point) and someone named Robert Silverberg, competed to be the most prolific SF author.  I had no idea who Silverberg was, but I was intrigued that the story had put him up against Asimov. Clearly, I needed to read his work.

Robert Silverberg. Photo by Allen Batson.

My first Silverberg was, as it so happens, the science fantasy Lord Valentine’s Castle. I thought it was a simple fantasy novel, but imagine my delight as, we follow the story of the titular Valentine and the troupe of entertainers he has joined with, that the narrative mixed science fiction elements, particularly the psionics, and the old Earth technology still on the planet. The novel is long and sprawling and concentrates heavily on the worldbuilding and the wandering across the landscape. Aside from the deceptively young Valentine, the other characters recede into the background somewhat to focus on the world presented. In other words, it was perfect for me as a teenaged reader. 

I would only later find out that it was slightly atypical, and that the interior life of Silverberg’s characters, his concentration on their inner lives and problems, and depth of their plights, is really the more typical Silverberg.  I admire and enjoy both sides of Silverberg’s writing. (Kingdoms of the Wall is much more like Majipoor in this regard, for instance, too, than his character-oriented novels and stories.)

I’ve read a lot of Silverberg, as you might tell, including novels, now and again, since. I enjoyed his work in the Heroes in Hell series. I enthused to his historical fiction turn in Gilgamesh. His variety of time travel stories, from Up the Line to the heartbreaking Sailing to Byzantium, have always enthralled me. Nightwings, taking place on a far future Earth, I first encountered in an incomplete graphic novel edition that inspired me to go and find the original and complete story. I meant to, but never found the Mouth of Truth in Rome, which features in the story.

I have a lot of favorite Silverberg stories.  If I had to go with one story, it is going to be a story I’ve mentioned before. “Enter a Soldier, Later, Enter Another”. It’s the story that starts his Timegate sequence of historical personages brought back as artificial intelligences, and it has the programmers have Francisco Pizarro encounter Socrates, to memorable and sometimes very funny results. The story shows Silverberg’s skill at dialogue, at character, and using history. 

If I had to go with one longer work, I am going to cheat again and not name one of his novels, and instead go with his Roma Eterna sequence. A series of short stories set in a world where the Roman Empire wound up in a dynastic cycle of rises and falls but never complete collapses, the stories in the collection explore a variety of themes of empire, of renewal and destruction, and lenses of looking at our own history by showing a funhouse version of it in his alternate historical path.

I’ve seen Mr. Silverberg at a couple of Worldcons…but have not actually exchanged any words with him.

(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY, TOO.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

Born January 15, 1944 — Christopher Stasheff. (Died 2018.)

By Paul Weimer: Back in the 1990’s, Christopher Stasheff seemed to be everywhere in my fantasy and my science fantasy reading. I kept encountering his work again and again, and in a variety of contexts.  Trying to remember what was actually first is a murk of memory, because I seem to recall being bombarded with several different early Stasheff’s that I read.  

Her Majesty’s Wizard starts off as a portal fantasy. Matthew Mantrell, graduate student, finds a strange piece of paper in a copy of the sagas. He translates it, and it translates him to an alternative magical medieval Europe. He falls in love with the Princess he rescues, teams up with an unlikely set of companions, and has to face the dark lord Malingo.  Matt might know Shakespeare for his poetry based magic, but it might not be enough.   

Christopher Stasheff

The Enchanter Reborn and The Exotic Enchanter were compilations edited by Stasheff of additional stories of L Sprague De Camp’s Harold Shea, aka The Incompleat Enchanter. Stasheff not only was the co editor of the two volumes, but he also contributed stories to each volume. The quality of the stories vary according to the author but Stasheff’s entries “Sir Harold and the Hindu King” and “Sir Harold and the Monkey King” help expend Harold’s adventures beyond the usual Western Canon. 

Stasheff contributed to one of my favorite shared world verses, the Time Gate stories created by Robert Silverberg. In an age here and now where LLMs are being labeled as AI, talking about true AI is a bit tricky. But in this verse of the shared world, in the 22nd century, real sentient AI recreations of historical personages are created (Silverberg’s “Enter a Soldier, Later, Enter another” with Pizarro and Socrates, kicks that all off).  So, Stasheff writes a story where a couple of the AIs decide to create one of their very own. 

Stasheff also did a shared world of his own, called “The Gods of War”. The Gods of War supposes that Gods of conflict and battle fight throughout history, and sometimes they are created from the minds of men, tulpa style. Tek, the God of technological battle, is the newest God of War.  Needless to say, this young and energetic God gets the ire and the attention of much older Gods of War and strife.

What I remember was definitely not first, but I read a little later, was Stasheff’s turn into science fantasy, The Warlock in Spite of Himself. Rod Gallowglass works for an interstellar agency in a polity looking for lost and forgotten colony planets. He might be a cynic and a grump, but even Rod is a bit stumped when he finds the planet of Gramarye. Rod doesn’t believe in magic, magic can’t possibly exist, his mindset is completely and utterly scientific and rational. And yet he is confronted with witches, warlocks, elves and monsters. There has to be a rational explanation for all of it…doesn’t there?  I read a few of these, but there are well over a dozen of novels in this setting.

A very fun writer. 

(11) COMICS SECTION.

  • Bizarro continues variations on vampire names.
  • Bliss introduces a strange new breed.
  • Dinosaur Comics is skeptical about the Vader reaction.
  • Eek! is about a different Vader reaction.
  • Rubes knows there no place like this home.
  • Strange Brew is the problem.

(12) TODAY’S THING TO WORRY ABOUT. “World Monuments Fund Puts Moon on List of At-Risk Sites” reports the New York Times. (Story behind a paywall.)

…With a growing number of wealthy people going to space and more governments pursuing human spaceflight, the group warns that more than 90 important sites on the moon could be harmed. In particular, some researchers are worried about Tranquillity Base, the Apollo 11 landing site where the astronaut Neil Armstrong first stepped onto the moon’s surface.

Protections for cultural heritage are typically decided by individual countries, which makes the task of taking care of important international sites like the moon more difficult.

Since 2020, the United States and 51 other countries have signed the Artemis Accords, a nonbinding agreement that outlined the norms expected in outer space. The rules included a call to preserve space heritage including “robotic landing sites, artifacts, spacecraft and other evidence of activity on celestial bodies.” A separate binding United Nations agreement provided for the protection of lunar sites, but there has been little progress in getting key countries to sign it.

“The moon doesn’t belong to anybody,” de Montlaur said. “It is a symbol of hope and the future.”

For almost 30 years, the World Monuments Fund has received nominations for its watch list of endangered sites from heritage experts around the world. The list is an educational and promotional tool serving the nonprofit’s other efforts to preserve cultural heritage.

A division of the International Council on Monuments and Sites devoted to aerospace heritage nominated the moon for the nonprofit watch list. Gai Jorayev, president of that division, said that members wanted to see sustainable management because of the “sheer number of human artifacts on its surface.”

Beyond the lunar orbiters and rangers scattered across the moon’s surface that express scientific achievements, there are also artifacts of human culture. Apollo 11 astronauts left a golden olive branch to symbolize peace, while a SpaceX rocket lifted a lander that carried 125 miniature sculptures by the artist Jeff Koons to the moon’s surface last year….

(13) THAT NUMBER SOUNDS FAMILIAR. Indianapolis station WTHR reports “FEMA isn’t giving California wildfire victims just $770”.

… Multiple viral posts imply that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is giving the victims just $770 in federal assistance. Some of the posts also compare the disaster relief spending to the government’s spending on foreign aid….

…Fact checking dispels the rumor that FEMA is giving Los Angeles wildfire victims just $770. Where did that number come from? President Joe Biden announced that people will receive a “one-time payment of $770 so they can quickly purchase things like water, baby formula and prescriptions” under the Serious Needs Assistance program. But that is not the only disaster relief available. People can apply for additional assistance.

If you are affected by the Los Angeles wildfires and in need of assistance, please contact FEMA at https://www.disasterassistance.gov.

(14) MUPPET APPEARANCE. “Kermit the Frog Sings for Hoda Kotb on Her Final ‘Today’ Show” on January 10 reports ToughPigs.

As journalist and television personality Hoda Kotb said goodbye to Today, the show she’s been part of since 2007, she got a visit from a very special guest: Kermit the Frog.

Kermit’s appearance had a special significance, as Hoda brought on her daughters, Hope and Haley. During the broadcast, it was revealed that Hoda sings one of Kermit’s signature songs to her children [Hope and Haley] every night… “Rainbow Connection.” And if you thought that was a perfect excuse for Kermit to sing “Rainbow Connection,” you must be psychic, because that’s exactly what he did! 

View Kermit’s performance at the Today website: “See Kermit the Frog sing ‘Rainbow Connection’ for Hoda Kotb”.

(15) SF2 CONCATENATION SPRING EDITION. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] SF² Concatenation now has its spring (northern hemisphere academic year spring) up. It has the usual large, seasonal news page together with articles and convention reports, plus some 40 standalone book reviews. Table of contents…

v35(1) 2025.1.15 — New Columns & Articles for the Spring 2025

v35(1) 2025.1.15 — Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Reviews

v35(1) 2025.9.15 — Non-Fiction SF & Science Fact Book Reviews

(16) GRRM FILM ADAPTATION ARRIVING IN MARCH. A trailer has been released for In the Lost Lands, based on the George R.R. Martin short story. Entertainment Weekly reported that the project, starring Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista, is directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and will premiere March 7. 

A queen, desperate to find happiness in love, takes a daring step: she sends the powerful and feared witch Gray Alys to the “Lost Lands” to give her the magical gift of turning into a werewolf. With the mysterious hunter Boyce, who supports her in the fight against dark creatures and merciless enemies, Gray Alys roams an eerie and dangerous world. And only she knows that every wish she grants has unimaginable consequences.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Daniel Dern, Tom Becker, 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 Daniel Dern.]

Pixel Scroll 12/31/24 Well, I’m Something Of A Pixel Express Myself

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(1) POSSIBLY AMONG THE BEST SF BOOKS AND FILMS OF 2024? [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] SF² Concatenation has just posted its annual team poll as to the possibly best SF books and films of 2024 (well some of SF² Concatenation team members liked them).  This is an annual bit of fun and is not to be taken too seriously.  Having said that, its past January team picks have seen some go on to be short-listed, and even win, some major SF Awards (scroll down the page to see these). 

You can see the selections here (and if on social media Facebook alert at BSFA here).

(2) AI GETS AN F. Jason Sanford’s article “AI and the Enshittification of Life, or My Year Wading Through the Slop of Generative Artificial Intelligence” is an open read on his Patreon.

…If 2023 was the year the companies behind generative AI conned the world into believing “artificial intelligence” had learned to be creative – spoiler: there’s no intelligence in generative AI, and the creativity behind so-called machine learning is merely algorithms trained on the stolen work of writers and artists – then 2024 is the year when the companies and people behind generative AI showed the world how quickly these programs could engulf the internet with near-total enshittification. Examples of said enshittification ranged from Google’s search engine telling people to put glue on pizza to large numbers of AI-generated images being used as propaganda in the recent US presidential election….

(3) ON THE FRONT. Literary Hub asked 54 designers to share their favorite covers of the year, and has posted a gallery of the 167 covers on their lists: “The 167 Best Book Covers of 2024”. At the top are the covers from The Southern Reach series.

(4) CLARKE AWARD WINNER ON QUIZ SHOW. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] Last night’s Christmas University Challenge BBC2 30th Dec, saw Queens College Cambridge vs Emmanuel College Cambridge.

On the Queens team was SF author and Clarke Award winner Richard Morgan of Altered Carbon fame among much else.

Richard Morgan.

The Queens team members seemed to equally contribute to their collective score. Richard helped early on getting the 2nd starter question for 10 points right.  He also demonstrated a knowledge of the film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as well as Bonnie Prince Charlie.

His team, Queens, won 175 to 95.

Whole episode (half hour) here: “University Challenge Christmas 2024 E06 Emmanuel, Cambridge v Queens, Cambridge”.

(5) THE MARVEL OF JIMMY CARTER. “Jimmy Carter’s Life, in 17 Objects” from the New York Times. (Behind a paywall.)

10. The Energy President

Mr. Carter made energy policy one of his top concerns. His presidency arrived after several years of oil shortages and price spikes that had roiled the economy.

He established the Department of Energy, which was also responsible for managing the nuclear weapons stockpile, and famously installed 32 solar panels on the West Wing of the White House to promote renewable sources. To his disappointment, Ronald Reagan had them removed. (The National Park Service quietly added new panels for secondary buildings on White House grounds in 2002, and the Obama administration revived solar power on the main structure in 2014.)

The Carter family got the Marvel Comics treatment by the artist John Tartaglione to encourage — along with Captain America — energy conservation. This illustration, signed by Stan Lee, Marvel’s publisher, is on display at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta.

(6) SELDOM IS HEARD. SYFY Wire contends “The Twilight Zone’s Most Iconic Catchphrase Was Barely Ever Said”. But the Wire thinks that phrase was “Submitted for your approval”. I always thought it was, “Case in point”. Or you might even think it’s something else.

The beloved sci-fi anthology The Twilight Zone (airing regularly on SYFY) is full of iconic quotes — like “It’s not fair… there was time now,” “Wish it into the cornfield,” and “It’s a cookbook!” — but the one that’s most associated with the classic show has to be from creator Rod Serling: “Submitted for your approval.”

When you picture Serling, appearing before the camera to introduce whatever twist-filled tale The Twilight Zone has in store, you can hear him saying that phrase. If you’re trying to do an impression of Serling, it’s almost mandatory that you say, “Submitted for your approval.”

But would it surprise you to learn that Serling only says that catchphrase three times across all of The Twilight Zone’s 156 episodes?

(7) BARB GILLIGAN PASSES AWAY. SF fan Barb Gilligan died December 28. Hope Kiefer announced the news on Facebook.

It is with profound sadness that I bring you the news of the death Barb Gilligan She and our friend Pat H started on an adventure cruise in the Sea of Cortez, but after a few fun days, Barb became ill. Her condition worsened, and the ship turned around to take her to a medical facility. From there she was airlifted to a larger hospital in San Jose del Cabo. Her condition continued to worsen, she was intubated, and never recovered. She was taken off life support on Saturday, December 28th. Her brother-in-law flew in and joined Pat to be there with Barb at the end.

Pat was a rock through all of this, working tirelessly to help and advocate for her friend in a country where she didn’t speak the language.

Barb was kind, adventurous, and always had a twinkle in her eye. She is survived by her dog Lily, and siblings, Cathy, Janice, David and James, and many friends.

(8) ANGUS MACINNES (1947-2024). Actor Angus MacInnes, whose active screen career included roles in many genre productions, died December 23 at the age of 77.

…He made his first on-screen appearance in 1975’s Rollerball.

His most notable role was in director George Lucas’ 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, which saw him play Gold Leader/Jon “Dutch” Vander. He later reprised his role in 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, directed by Gareth Edwards.

“For Angus, the fans of Star Wars held a special place in his heart. He loved meeting you at conventions, hearing your stories, and sharing in your passion for the saga,” the family added in their statement. “He was continually humbled, delighted, and honored by the admiration and passion of the fans and convention community.”

MacInnes’ other acting credits included Space: 1999 (1977), Atlantic City (1980), Outland (1981), The Littlest Hobo (1980-81), Witness (1985), Half Moon Street (1986), Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988), Sleepers (1991), Roughnecks (1994), Judge Dredd (1995), Space Island One (1998), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Formula 51 (2001), Hellboy (2004), The Black Dahlia (2006), Vikings (2013) and Captain Phillips (2013).

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

Born December 31, 1949 – Ellen Datlow, 75.

By Paul Weimer: Ellen Datlow is an Empress of short fiction editing.

Although I didn’t pay attention to it at the time, I’ve been reading fiction edited by Datlow for most of my science fiction reading life.  That is to say, Omni Magazine. Datlow was the Omni Magazine (and later Omni Online) fiction editor. So the stories I enjoyed in those early halcyon days of short fiction reading were under her editorial hand — Omni was the first SF magazine I read and for a while was the only one before I transitioned into magazines like Asimov’s and Analog. So some of my early favorite SF stories, like “The Infinite Plane” by Paul Nahin, were thanks to her editorial direction. But young me didn’t even think of looking up editors in those halcyon days.

After her stint in Omni, and more famously, Datlow’s short fiction editing transitioned to a goodly number of anthologies.  And this, friends, is where Datlow as a name came to my reading attention. Her editorial work on many volumes of books like The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, The Best Horror of the Year and others have been staples of my reading for years. Datlow has also won a number of Hugo and World Fantasy awards for her short fiction and for some of her one-off anthologies, such as the fantastic The Green Man.

Datlow also co-hosts the speculative fiction reading series held on the second Wednesday of every month at the KGB Bar in Manhattan. 

Ellen Datlow.

Happy birthday, Ellen!

(10) COMICS SECTION.

(11) STAY TUNED. Variety says there’s plenty for fans to anticipate next year: “The Most Anticipated TV Shows of 2025: New and Returning Series”. We’ve clipped the items of genre interest discussed in the articles to make this list:

  • “Andor,” the second season of which will premiere on Disney+ on April 22
  • the fifth and final season of “Stranger Things” on Netflix
  • The streamer will also drop “Squid Game,” [and] Season 2 of “Wednesday,” 
  • Among the undated offerings from HBO and Max are Seasons 2 of “The Last of Us,”
  • the latest “Game of Thrones” offshoot, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” and the “It” prequel series “Welcome to Derry” (which we’re already scared of based on a sneak peak!).
  • Over on Hulu, the sixth and final season of the Emmy-winning “The Handmaid’s Tale” will premiere sometime in the spring, and will reveal what June (Elisabeth Moss) and Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski) can do now that they’ve joined forces to take down Gilead.
  • Amazon’s Prime Video service…Season 2 of “Gen V,” the brilliant spinoff of “The Boys”
  • Last but not least, we come to FX. …Noah Hawley’s “Alien: Earth,” which was first announced in December 2020, will at last be unveiled, and will likely be one of the biggest shows of the year.

(12) A FINE YOUNG SON. “Son returns mom’s 72-year overdue book to New York Public Library” – Gothamist has the details.

A week before Christmas, a man returned a copy of Igor Stravinsky’s 1936 autobiography to a clerk at The New York Public Library’s 455 5th Ave. location.

The clerk immediately contacted the branch’s director.

“They called and said, ‘hey, are you able to come down?’” said Billy Parrott, director of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library.

The book was 72 years overdue, making it the most overdue book Parrott has ever heard of being returned to the branch.

“We routinely get stuff [returned], all the time, from the ‘80s or the ‘90s but rarely stuff from mid-century,” said Parrott, who loves learning the stories behind such superlatively overdue items….

… It was April 4, 1952. The book was due back two weeks later.

On Feb. 9, 1953, the tardy patron was mailed a formal notice, signed by the NYPL’s private investigator Herbert Bouscher (who later became head of its microfilm services, according to an obituary), requesting she return the book to the branch she borrowed it from and pay the fine of 1 cent per day plus a handling charge, which together came to $3.25.

Although she went on to work for a time at an NYPL location in the Bronx, she never did return the book, or pay the fine, said Parrott.

NYPL abolished late fees in Oct. 2021….

(13) WHO CAN REPLACE A MAN? “Future of space: Could robots really replace human astronauts?” BBC takes up an evergreen question.

…Some scientists question whether human astronauts are going to be needed at all.

“Robots are developing fast, and the case for sending humans is getting weaker all the time,” says Lord Martin Rees, the UK’s Astronomer Royal. “I don’t think any taxpayer’s money should be used to send humans into space.”

He also points to the risk to humans.

“The only case for sending humans [there] is as an adventure, an experience for wealthy people, and that should be funded privately,” he argues.

Andrew Coates, a physicist from University College London, agrees. “For serious space exploration, I much prefer robotics,” he says. “[They] go much further and do more things.”

They are also cheaper than humans, he argues. “And as AI progresses, the robots can be cleverer and cleverer.”

But what does that mean for future generations of budding astronauts – and surely there are certain functions that humans can do in space but which robots, however advanced, never could?…

… In her 2024 Booker Prize-winning novel Orbital, author Samantha Harvey puts it more lyrically: “A robot has no need for hydration, nutrients, excretion, sleep… It wants and asks for nothing.”…

(14) OOPS. “Space rock donated by Nasa to Ireland lay in basement three years before being destroyed in fire” reports Yahoo!

A lunar rock collected by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on humanity’s first trip to the Moon in 1969 was accidentally destroyed in a fire after spending three years in an Irish basement, it has emerged.

The rock was collected on Nasa’s Apollo 11 mission and gifted to Eamon de Valera, the Irish president at the time, in 1970.

Previously confidential documents from the Dublin National Archives reveal the historic item was left in bureaucratic limbo for three years, with civil servants unable to decide where it should be displayed….

… “This piece of Moon rock had lain in the basement for three-and-a-half years due to indecision as to where it might best be displayed,” a memo from 1984 seen by the PA news agency reads.

“It was decided to give the Moon rock to Dunsink when it became known that a second gift was to be made by the US government, and it was thought that some embarrassment would be caused if the first piece was not already on display.”

The lunar rock completed a 236,000-mile trip back to Earth on Apollo 11, only to spend three years in a dark room before being consumed by flames and accidentally disposed of with the rubble. “The first piece was destroyed during a fire at Dunsink on October 3, 1977,” documents confirmed.

The second piece of Moon rock, from Apollo 17, was gifted by the US in 1973, accompanied by a special plaque featuring the Irish tricolour.

(15) VIDEO OF THE DAY. Here are the special effects that explain “How They Made Hagrid Big” in the Harry Potter movies.

[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Paul Weimer, 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 Peer.]

Pixel Scroll 12/15/24 Deck Us All With Barsoom Charlie

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(1) NEW FUTURE UP. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] Just posted SF² Concatenation’s fourth and final “Best of Nature Futures stories” of the year, just in time to hold you over the Christmas break. The originals are behind a pay-wall so these re-postings (with permission of Nature and the respective authors) are the only way for the broader public to see these rather neat little SF stories.

The latest is “Fear of the Dark” by Stephen Battersby.  When the nature of dark matter is elucidated, it comes with a problem…

(2) DISNEY FOUGHT THE LAW AND THE LAW WON. “Disney agrees to $233-million settlement in wage theft case” – the LA Times has the story (behind a paywall).

Five years after workers first took Disneyland to court for allegedly skirting an Anaheim minimum wage law, resort owner Walt Disney Co. has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit for $233 million.

The company approved the preliminary settlement Friday, which accounts for back pay with interest as the Anaheim law is set to increase wages in January to nearly $20.50 an hour.

“What we believe is the largest wage and hour class settlement in California history will change lives for Disney families and their communities,” said Randy Renick, an attorney representing the workers in the class-action suit.

Back pay owed to workers from Jan. 1, 2019, when the wage law first took effect, until the date Disney adjusted wages at the end of the court fight last year, accounts for roughly $105 million of the total settlement….

…The company reached an agreement last summer with four unions representing 14,000 workers that raised base pay to $24 an hour….

(3) SEATTLE 2025 COMMUNITY FUND. The Seattle Worldcon 2025 Community Fund is dedicated to helping fans from diverse backgrounds participate in Worldcon by providing financial support for travel, accommodations, and memberships.

They are now taking applications for Community Fund grants. Full guidelines are at the Community Fund – Seattle Worldcon 2025 webpage. They are focusing on assisting fans who are:

First time attendees from the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Alaska, British Columbia)
LGBTQIA+ attendees
BIPOC/AANHPI attendees
Attendees from the Global South

If you belong to one of these groups and would like to apply for assistance, please submit your application here. We are approving applications in waves, with the first wave deadline set for January 17th. Though priority for the first wave will be given to people engaging in foreign travel, feel free to apply at any time if you fit into one of these focus groups.

(4) SEW THAT HAPPENED. Seattle Worldcon 2025 is also running a “Single Pattern Contest”. Contest Administrator Kevin Roche explains:

The Single Pattern Contest has been a tradition at Norwescon for nearly a decade, but the competition has a much longer history in costume/cosplay fandom. As the person who invented the contest (for Costume-Con 12 in 1994), I’m thrilled to have been asked to introduce it to the larger Worldcon audience.

This year there will be two options for patterns: 

  • A vintage-style bowling shirt
  • A 60s-style slip or sheath dress

In some years, a pattern selected for a single pattern contest has gone out of print or been difficult to locate, so a garment style rather than specific pattern number will avoid that difficulty. If you prefer a pattern, however, here are some suggested patterns:

Bowling Shirt: McCalls M7206* (available as PDF), Simplicity S9279, Simplicity S9157, Vogue V1622,  (unisex), McCalls M8459, McCalls M6972

60s-Style Dresses: McCalls M8466*, Simplicity S9848, Butterick B6990, McCalls M8402 (PDF), Simplicity S1609

More information at the website.

(5) AND WAIT, THERE’S MORE. Here’s the Seattle Worldcon 2025 presentation from last weekend’s “SMOFCon 41 – Worldcon QA”.

(6) I’LL BE DIPPED – IN BRONZE. Gothamist invites us to “Meet the sculptor tricking New Yorkers with art dedicated to the city’s fake history”. (See more at the “Compelling Mysteries and Forgotten Tragedies – NYC Urban Legends” website.)

Joseph Reginella has been building and installing legitimate-looking monuments across the city that commemorate legendary local events that never actually happened.

His most recent creation memorializes Nathaniel Katz, who introduced rats to New York City and was “catapulted into the Hudson River” as punishment, according to the weathered plaque beneath his pompous-looking, rat-covered bust.

Never heard the legend of old Katz?

It’s because he never existed. Reginella, a freelance artist who specializes in mold-making, imagined the tall tale and built the bust in the image of his pigeon-loving neighbor.

But many people both on and offline believed it to be true, according to Reginella and several news reports…

… The way Reginella sees it, the monuments are not meant to be “gotcha” pranks but escapist delights and gateways into a sci-fi version of New York history he has lovingly built and displayed for public consumption. (In addition to the monuments, he creates extensive backstories and even documentaries for his tall tales.)…

(7) DAVID A. MCINTEE (1968-2024). David A. McIntee, author of many spin-off novels based on Doctor Who, reportedly has passed. McIntee has written about many other franchises, too, including Final Destination and Space: 1999. His first full-length Star Trek novel, Indistinguishable from Magic, was released in 2011.  

He has written a non-fiction book on Star Trek: Voyager and one jointly on the Alien and Predator movie franchises.

(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Born December 15, 1951 – David Bischoff. (Died 2018.)

Our community is blessed with many amazing writers of which David Bischoff was one. So let’s talk about him.  

His first writings were in the Thrust fanzine where he did a mix of commentary and criticism. (Thrust got one Hugo nomination as a fanzine and four as semi-prozine.)  Editor Doug Fratz would later convert it into a semiprozine where Bischoff along with John Shirley and Michael Bishop were regular contributors. 

His first novel, The Seeker, which was co-written with Christopher Lampton was published by Laser Books forty-seven years ago. He was extremely prolific. No, I don’t mean sort of prolific, I mean extremely prolific. He wrote some seventy-five original novels which is to say not within of any of the many media franchises that he wrote within plus another thirty-five or so novels falling within those media franchises.

What franchises? Oh, how about these for a start and this is not a full listing by any means — Aliens, Alien Versus Predator, Farscape, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Jonny Quest, SeaQuest DSV, Space Precinct and War Games. And no, I never knew there were Jonny Quest novels. 

David Bischoff. Photo by and (c) Andrew Porter.

Oh, and I must single out that he wrote two Bill, the Galactic Hero novels, Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Tasteless Pleasure and Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Ten Thousand Bars which is either a great idea or maybe not. Not having read them I have no idea. A Planet of Ten Thousand Bars? Do they clone livers there? 

And he wrote for the Trek universe, two most excellent episodes at that. He co-wrote the ”Tin Man” episode from Next Generation, a Nebula nominee, with Dennis Putman Bailey, and the “First Contact” episode from the same series written with Dennis Russell Bailey, Joe Menosky, Ronald D. Moore and Michael Piller. 

Almost none of his extensive fiction has been collected save that which is in Tripping the Dark Fantastic from a quarter of a century ago which collects a few novelettes and some short stories. 

Very little of his fiction is available from the usual suspects, and even Tripping the Dark Fantastic is not available. 

(9) COMICS SECTION.

  • Foxtrot alibis the missing LOTR cookie.
  • Reality Check remembers why Santa’s sled is no longer pulled by these.
  • Working Daze hasn’t solved all the tree-trimming challenges.

(10) MUPPET HISTORY SITE RUNNER CHARGED WITH HARASSMENT. “Muppet History was a bright spot online — now it’s embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal” reports The Verge.

For years, a fan-run account called Muppet History has been central to the Muppets fandom. It shared little-known facts, memes, and wholesome messages, amassing half a million followers on Instagram and more than 280,000 on X. Publicly, it was a wholesome and sweet platform, a passion project that took off. It became an unofficial ambassador of Jim Henson’s iconic cast of characters — inside and outside the world of diehard fans.

But on Monday night, a post on the account’s Instagram page had an ominous tone. “Good Evening,” the message started. “We wanted to take a moment to address some concerns that have arisen as of late.” The vague post — on which comments had been disabled — mentioned “overstepped” boundaries, the “harm” caused, and that people were made “uncomfortable.” It did not specify exactly what had happened.

Since that post, however, a rough sketch has come into focus. Fans claim that Muppet History’s co-runner Joshua Gillespie, who operates the account with his wife, Holly, was sending unwanted sexual messages to other people. Now, it’s gone from a bright spot on the internet to another soured piece of online culture, leaving a small community navigating the fallout….

…A few weeks after receiving the message, Maloney shared the screenshot of the conversation with a small group of close friends on Instagram. The screenshots were leaked and reposted publicly on X. After that, she says, “the floodgates opened” in her inbox.

“People found out that I was talking about this, and they just started coming to me and confiding in me,” Maloney says. They said they received messages “begging for nude pictures to depicting sexual acts and telling them they would like it … just really nasty comments from a Muppet account, and from [Joshua Gillespie’s] personal account.”…

(11) BOOTS. [Item by Steven French.] A pretty horrific cherry, to be honest: “Exceedingly good needle drops: why a 1915 reading of a Kipling poem is the cherry on top of the 28 Years Later trailer” in the Guardian.

The US Navy operates something called Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, a training programme designed to equip military personnel with the necessary skills to survive in hostile environments. Part of this involves detaining them in a small cell while being repeatedly played the scariest thing that staff have to hand: a 1915 recording of actor Taylor Holmes reciting the Rudyard Kipling poem Boots.

The poem itself is terrifying enough, the percussive chant of an infantryman marching towards battle, trying to overcome his grinding sense of impending doom. But Holmes’s rendition almost defies definition. It begins haunted, but gradually rises to a possessed roar, as Holmes wails over and over again: “There’s no discharge in the war.” By its climax he’s screaming at the top of his voice, a prisoner of his own madness. It’s a scarring listen. It is also the soundtrack to the 28 Years Later trailer.

(12) TODAY’S THING TO NOT WORRY ABOUT. Although Gizmodo has learned “Tiny Black Holes Could Have Left Tunnels Inside Earth’s Rocks”, they say “A pair of imaginative cosmologists have great news for everyone: If a primordial black hole tunnels through your body, you probably won’t die.”

… “Familiar” black holes, if you can call them that, typically form in the wake of dying stars that collapse inwards. Primordial black holes, on the other hand, might have formed shortly after the Big Bang, when areas of dense space also collapsed inwards, before stars even existed—hence the primordial part.

Scientists have theorized the existence of PBHs for decades, but have never actually observed one. According to the study, some scholars even suggest that PBHs might be dark matter itself (the mysterious substance that makes up 85% of the universe’s mass). “Small primordial black holes (PBHs) are perhaps the most interesting and intriguing relics from the early universe,” the researchers wrote in the study…

(13) SALINE CREEP. “Saltwater Could Contaminate 75% of Coastal Freshwater by 2100” says a study reported by Gizmodo.

…New research from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) suggests that that seawater will contaminate underground freshwater in roughly 75 percent of the world’s coastal areas by the end of the century. Their findings, published late last month in Geophysical Research Letters, highlight how rising sea levels and declining rainfall contribute to saltwater intrusion.

Underground fresh water and the ocean’s saltwater maintain a unique equilibrium beneath coastlines. The equilibrium is maintained by the ocean’s inland pressure as well as by rainfall, which replenishes fresh water aquifers (underground layers of earth that store water). While there’s some overlap between the freshwater and saltwater in what’s known as the transition zone, the balance normally keeps each body of water on its own side.

Climate change, however, is giving salt water an advantage in the form of two environmental changes: rising sea level, and diminishing rainfall resulting from global warming. Less rain means aquifers aren’t fully replenished, weakening their ability to counter the saltwater advance, called saltwater intrusion, that comes with rising sea levels….

[Thanks to Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, 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 11/14/24 Pixel, Devourer of Scrolls

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(1) BEST OF NATURE FUTURES SF STORY NOW UP – OPEN ACCESS. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] SF² Concatenation has just posted its third ‘Best of’ Nature short SF stories of the year. These are normally behind a pay wall, but SF² Concatenation has permission from Nature and the respective authors to re-post.

The latest story is “The Nana Inheritance” by Amanda Helms.

The deathbed of your beloved grandmother isn’t really the place where you should decide who inherits her brain, but that’s what we did…

SF² Concatenation will have one more – the final of the year – short story mid-December to hold you over the festive season. Mid-January will see its spring (northern hemisphere academic year) edition with a huge news page, articles, conreps and a stack of book reviews…

(2) BOARD OF THE DINGS. Repeat after me, the British Board of Film Classification knows best. Now spit. “British film censors re-classify Return of the Jedi” reports Irish news outlet RTE.

Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi has been reclassified from a U to a PG in the UK due to its violence and a scene which shows one of the film’s heroes Han Solo frozen in carbonite.

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) had given it a U rating upon release in 1983, but said “the detail and overall intensity” of violence in the film meant that it was changed to PG last year for violence and threat, despite this being “offset by humour and an emphasis on loyalty in adversity”.

A U rating means the film is suitable for audiences aged four and above and should be “family-friendly”, while a PG rated film contains some content that may not be suitable for children and parents or guardians are advised to be present while they are watching.

In its 2023 Annual Report, which saw the sci-fi film reclassified, the BBFC said of Star Wars Episode VI: “This sci-fi adventure sequel concerns rebel heroes who must rescue their friends before facing an intimidating enemy army.

“As well as laser gun fights, aerial dogfights, and fight scenes which include the occasional use of improvised weapons, a person falls to a presumed but unseen death, a villain tortures a character by repeated electrocution, and a hero severs a villain’s hand at the wrist in a scene featuring limited detail.

“A captor attempts to feed his prisoner to a monster, and there are other scenes of threat involving bombs, hostages and a hero being frozen alive.”…

… The BBFC said the sequences were “no longer within our standards at U” despite upholding the initial rating for video and theatrical releases in 1987 and 2008….

(3) YOU CAN CHECK IN ANY TIME YOU WANT. “Doctor Who’s Steven Moffat confirms Christmas special plot details – including ‘time-travelling hotel’” – Radio Times has them.

…Moffat has teased some further details about what’s to come in the new episode.

Speaking to BBC South East news, Moffat revealed: “I can tease something about the Christmas special. Imagine in the far, far future, imagine that a hotel chain got hold of the idea of time travel. What’s the first thing a hotel chain would do if they had time travel? They’d realise they had an opportunity to sell all the unsold nights in their own hotels in history.”…

(4) THE BOWERY’S UP AND HOGWARTS IS DOWN. “Two New York City bakers to compete on new Food Network show ‘Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking’” – a New York Times story (behind a paywall).  

A new competition baking show on Food Network is bringing the magic of Harry Potter to a grand scale.

“Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking” is a larger-than-life new baking show that fully immerses contestants in the Harry Potter universe. Hosted by James and Oliver Phelps (who play Fred and George Weasley in the movie franchise), the show blends legendary storytelling and fantastical edible creations all on the competition floor.

“It’s a baking competition, it starts off with 9 teams of two bakers who didn’t know each other before they got into the competition. These guys are professionals in what they do. They’re the best of the best in America,” said Oliver Phelps. “They’re going for the trophy of the Wizards of Baking Champions and each bake is based on a set from the actual studios in London, and they have to come up with some inspiration from that.”

“Wizards of Baking” pairs the competitors into teams of two and has them compete alongside each other throughout the duration of the competition. Each week, the bakers make grand, eye-catching creations based on different Harry Potter sets.

The show was shot at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in Watford, England, and to raise the stakes, contestants are given access to the actual film sets, including The Great Hall at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Platform 9¾, Gringotts Wizarding Bank and The Burrow. The winners will be awarded the first-ever Wizards of Baking Cup and will have the opportunity to appear in a new Harry Potter cookbook….

(5) SAD, RABID PUPPY STUDIES. Jess Maginity reviews Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right by Jordan S. Carroll for the LA Review of Books in “Whose Future Is It Anyway?”

…In his introduction, Carroll discusses the close proximity of science fiction to radical right-wing politics since the early 20th century. To some extent, popular culture was always a tool used by the Far Right. Theorists of the French New Right described intentional ideological influence on popular culture aimed at a distant political victory as “metapolitics.” As Andrew Breitbart summarizes, “Politics is downstream from culture.” Carroll describes this tactic, alluding to his focus on speculative genres, as “fascist worldmaking.” The ideology that structures fascist worldmaking is speculative whiteness: “For the alt-right,” Carroll says, “whiteness represents a matrix of possibilities more important than any actual accomplishments the white race may have already achieved.” There are five “myths” that constitute speculative whiteness: first, white people are uniquely good at speculating about the future and innovating in the present; second, nonwhite people are incapable of imagining the future and making long-term plans for the future; third, the true grandeur of whiteness will only be apparent in a high-tech fascist utopia; fourth, science fiction is a genre only white authors are truly able to produce; and fifth, speculative genres have the metapolitical potential of allowing a brainwashed white population to see their racial potential….

…Genres have no essential existence; people decide what they are. A categorical definition only makes sense when enough people agree with it. The science fiction community rejected the alt-right’s definition of speculative fiction. N. K. Jemisin, a primary target of reactionary fan hatred, won three consecutive Hugos for Best Novel with her Broken Earth trilogy. Chuck Tingle, who writes absurdist queer erotica, was mockingly nominated by the Rabid Puppies for several awards; he disavowed the nomination, tirelessly satirized the Puppies, and wrote Slammed in the Butt by My Hugo Award Nomination (2016) in response. He has since written two very successful queer horror novels, Camp Damascus (2023) and Bury Your Gays (2024). The Sad and Rabid Puppies dissolved after a few years of campaigning; they were primarily active from 2014 through 2016. The alt-right has also collapsed. After the 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right rally, the alt-right as a movement effectively ceased to exist. That doesn’t mean that they just disappeared—some were absorbed by older radical right movements, others were absorbed into the mainstream, and a few became mass murderers in the name of a white future.

Carroll reminds us that our future is contingent. Fascists have a vision for the future that excludes most of humanity, but fascists can be defeated. The future is for everyone—if we make it that way….

(6) WHEN NEW WORLDS WAS NEW. The Spectator’s “Book Club” has a 43-minute audio interview with “Michael Moorcock: celebrating 60 years of New Worlds”. Listen to it at the link.

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the writer, musician and editor Michael Moorcock, whose editorship of New Worlds magazine is widely credited with ushering in a ‘new wave’ of science fiction and developing the careers of writers like J G Ballard, Iain Sinclair, Pamela Zoline, Thomas M Disch and M John Harrison. With the release of a special edition of New Worlds, honouring the 60th anniversary of his editorship, Mike tells me about how he set out to marry the best of literary fiction with the best of the pulp tradition, how he fought off obscenity charges over Norman Spinrad’s Bug Jack Barron, about his friendship with Ballard and his enmity with Kingsley Amis – and why he’s determined never to lose his vulgarity.

(7) CHRISTOPHER TOLKIEN CENTENARY. The Tolkien Society has released the schedule for its free online Christopher Tolkien Centenary Conference, being held November 23-24.

This November marks 100 years since the birth of Christopher Tolkien and the Society will be holding a two-day online event in honour of his life and legacy. You can register to attend the online Conference below.

“We seek to honour and remember Christopher. Although we know the enormity of the world that Tolkien created, we only know that thanks to Christopher’s work. He spent almost 50 years after his father’s death to bring Tolkien’s legacy to us all. His hard work and diligence has shined a light on the corners of Middle-earth that would otherwise be unknown to us. We all owe him a tremendous debt, and I hope this event goes some way in recognising Christopher’s legacy as much as his father’s.” — Shaun Gunner, Chair of the Tolkien Society

I don’t know about your house, but a lot of the participants are household names in mine — Christopher Gilson, Brian Sibley, Christopher Gilson, Carl F. Hostetter, Douglas A. Anderson, Ted Nasmith, John D. Rateliff, Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond, John Garth, Robin Anne Reid, Michael D. C. Drout, and Verlyn Flieger.

Where possible, talks from both days will be recorded and uploaded onto the Tolkien Society YouTube channel after the event. The event is free to attend. Register here: Christopher Tolkien Centenary Conference.

(8) CLARION WEST CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN. Through December 4, Clarion West’s Fall Fundraiser at Indiegogo is encouraging donations with perks like these:

Would you like to join an RPG session with award-winning science fiction writer Annalee Newitz? Experience a Seattle escape room with horror and dark fantasy writer Evan J. Peterson? Benefit from a consultation with Susan Palwick or Ben Rosenbaum?

And there are many more at the link.

Donations help cover programs and events, including all of the following: 

  • Instructors: All of our programs are taught by paid professionals in the field of speculative fiction. Clarion West pays our instructors an estimated $55,000 per year
  • Sliding scale tuition and application fees, reduced rates, free classes, and access seats: classes and workshops, travel, and time away can be a barrier to attending our programs. To reduce some of these barriers, we are committed to providing scholarships covering full and partial tuition to our residential workshops; discounts to reduce the cost of online classes; free events and programs for our community; and free seats in online classes for PGM/BIPOC writers. Clarion West covers  an estimated $25,000 in fees for these programs. 
  • Reader honorariums: Clarion West pays a dedicated group of application readers an average of $5,000 each year to help manage the application process. 
  • ASL interpreters and live captioners: Clarion West spends approximately $270 per event or $2,700 for live captioning services for live events and $350 for ASL interpreters for live events. 
  • Clarion West pays $4,200 annually for class and on-demand platforms 
  • Six-Week Workshop venues, such as university dorms range between $45,000-$90,000 for in-person years like 2024

(9) TIM SULLIVAN (1948-2024). Author and filmmaker Timothy Sullivan died November 10 of congestive heart failure in hospice in Newport News, Virginia.

His first published story, “Tachyon Rag”, appeared in Unearth in 1977. His short story “Zeke”, published in Twilight Zone, was a 1982 Nebula nominee.

Although mainly known as a writer and actor, his contribution to one of fanhistory’s most bitter fan feuds should not be forgotten. He and Somtow Sucharitkul split from the Washington Science Fiction Association during the exceptionally bitter Dunegate feud of the Eighties, nominally provoked by the way passes were distributed to a local publicity screening of David Lynch’s movie. They formed the Washington Alternative SF Association, and published the fanzine Dune Gate to prosecute the feud.

Later, Sullivan was cast by Somtow (along with other friends) in the film The Laughing Dead, a credit mentioned in The Hollywood Reporter’s tribute “Tim Sullivan Dead: Sci-Fi Author, Actor and Screenwriter Was 76”.

…He also wrote and directed Vampyre Femmes (1999) and appeared in such straight-to-video releases as The Laughing Dead (1989), Eyes of the Werewolf (1999), The Mark of Dracula (2000), Hollywood Mortuary (2000) and Deadly Scavengers (2001), working often with writer-director Ron Ford.

Sullivan wrote at least seven sci-fi novels during his career, three of them based on Kenneth Johnson’s V NBC miniseries and series in the mid-1980s about an alien invasion of Earth….

…He wrote dozens of short stories, including 1981’s “Zeke,” a tragedy about an extraterrestrial stranded on Earth that was nominated for a Nebula Award. His novels included 1988’s Destiny’s End, 1989’s The Parasite War, 1991’s The Martian Viking and The Dinosaur Trackers and 1992’s Lords of Creation….

…He also edited horror anthologies and handled book reviews for The Washington Post.

(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

November 14, 1961 — Cat Rambo, 63.

By Paul Weimer: First and foremost Cat Rambo is a beacon of teaching in the science fiction community. Her Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers classes are a wealth of information and education in how to write science fiction and fantasy that stand up as educational, fun and practically useful. (Disclaimer: I co-taught a class in the Academy on maps in fantasy novels with Alex Acks.). The best teacher is to practice and read others work, but if you want some formal instruction short of going to a Clarion or the like (or don’t feel ready for that yet), Cat’s courses may be the solution you are looking for. She has a swath of excellent guest teachers to give ballast to her courses. 

Besides her pedagogical pursuits, I enjoy her fiction. There is a coziness to a lot of her fiction, particularly the You Sexy Thing and its sequels, which are my favorite of her work.  It’s not that they are entire creampuffs of novels, but there is a sense of fun, playfulness and comforting adventure…plus food, and cooking and misadventures, that make the book page-turners for me. Rambo does do a really good job in what a lot of authors don’t get to do or don’t want to do–recapping a series so that I can better remember what was going on. In reading the latest of the series, over a year since I read The Devil’s Gun, the recap Rambo gave helped click the neurons and have a rush of remembrance about what I was plunging into with Rumor Has It. 

Given that this is an open ended and every complexifying series, I appreciate this service for the reader. It makes the work of trying to remember things less taxing, and allows me as a reader to focus on the fun of the books, and how she is layering plot and character with each successive novel. Reading and talking with Cat as to how she handles character growth and development brings home to me that her teaching, her classes really are reflected in her own novels, and vice versa. 

Cat Rambo

(11) COMICS SECTION.

(12) THE OTHER HANNIBAL. Even if that’s the character who comes to mind when you see that name, he won’t be playing Hannibal Lecter. “Denzel Washington: ‘Black Panther 3’ Will Be One of His Last Movies” reports Variety.

Denzel Washington revealed in August that “there are very few films” left for him to make at this stage in his Oscar-winning career, but now he’s revealing that “Black Panther 3″ is one of them. Speaking to Australia’s “Today” while on the press tour for “Gladiator II,” Washington said that director Ryan Coogler is writing him a role in the third “Black Panther” film. It will be one of Washington’s final movies along with a new Steve McQueen project and a film adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Othello.”

“For me it’s about the filmmakers. Especially at this point in my career, I am only interested in working with the best,” Washington said. “I don’t know how many more films I’m going to make. It’s probably not that many. I want to do things I haven’t done.”

“I played Othello at 22. I am about to play Othello at 70,” he continued, referring to the Shakespeare production co-starring Jake Gyllenhaal that opens on Broadway in February 2025. “After that, I am playing [Carthaginian general] Hannibal. After that, I’ve been talking to Steve McQueen about a film. After that, Ryan Coogler is writing a part for me in the next ‘Black Panther.’ After that, I’m going to do the film ‘Othello,’ After that, I’m going to do King Lear. After that, I’m going to retire.”

(13) UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED. The New York Times article “Take the ‘Death Stairs’ if You Dare” is paywalled, but the Facebook group “Death Stairs” is public and has lots of bizarre photos.

…No guardrails? Check. Carpeting that makes you lose your footing? Check. Steps of inconsistent depth and width? Check.

The more peril in the surrounding space, the better.

Do the stairs end in a dark basement? Excellent. Is the steep cement staircase guarded by rusting barbed wire on one side and open to a rushing dam on the other? Ideal….

Lane Sutterby, who lives in Kansas, had modest ambitions when he created the Death Stairs group in November 2020.

“I figured I’d have 10, 15 people join, maybe some of my close friends and a couple of random strangers,” he said….

…Some contributions to the Death Stairs Facebook page show how steep, rickety stairs are not the only risk. Distracting visual cues, inadequate hand rails and hard-to-see step edges are common….

(14) HOW CAN I GET THIS CAR OUT OF SECOND GEAR? [Item by Steven French.] Forget the jet packs, where’s my nuclear powered car?! “Visions of Nuclear-Powered Cars Captivated Cold War America, but the Technology Never Really Worked” in Smithsonian Magazine. Archival photos at the link.

In theory, nuclear-powered cars could run for thousands of miles without refueling, and some could even fly. But several problems remained. For one, nobody had developed a nuclear power plant small enough to fit into a car. For another, scientists calculated that an automobile with enough lead and other materials to shield the driver and passengers from radiation would weigh at least 50 tons, making it more than 25 times as heavy as the average vehicle. There was also the question of what to do with the nuclear waste.

These issues were never resolved, and the world quickly moved on. Still, the surviving prototypes offer a tantalizing glimpse of what might have been.

For one example, the Studebaker Astral.

(15) ROCKET TO THE MORGUE? Could it be dead, Jim? Futurism says “It Sounds Like NASA’s Moon Rocket Might Be Getting Canceled”.

NASA’s plagued Space Launch System rocket, which is being developed to deliver the first astronauts to the Moon in over half a century, is on thin ice.

According to Ars Technica senior space reporter Eric Berger’s insider sources, there’s an “at least 50-50” chance that the rocket “will be canceled.”

“Not Block 1B. Not Block 2,” he added, referring to the variant that was used during NASA’s uncrewed Artemis I test flight in 2022 and a more powerful design with a much higher translunar injection payload capacity, respectively. “All of it.”

To be clear, as Berger himself points out, we’re still far “from anything being settled.” Nonetheless, the reporter’s sources have historically been highly reliable, suggesting the space agency may indeed be getting cold feet about continuing to pour billions of dollars into the non-reusable rocket.

The SLS has already seen its fair share of budget overruns and many years of delays. In a 2022 interview, former NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver told Futurism that the project is simply “not sustainable.”

The rocket platform has become a political football, going well past $6 billion over budget and over half a decade behind schedule….

(16) NOT THE VIDEO OF THE DAY. “Disgusting, isn’t it? John Lewis’s shocking Christmas advert is actually about … shopping” – the Guardian sounds mighty peeved. Hopefully, they’re kidding.

Well, this is an outrage. There are just some things you shouldn’t mess with. Roast dinners. The national anthem. The John Lewis Christmas advert.

You see, the John Lewis Christmas advert has long operated on a perfect formula. Every November we are treated to a sumptuous mini-movie, the components of which have long since lapsed into tradition. It must be festive. It must have a slowed down piano ballad cover version of a nostalgic pop song. It must also be unfathomably sad, either because it’s about an old man dying of loneliness on the moon (2015) or a Christmas tree being banished to the garden because it’s a bit too excitable (2023).

But most importantly – most importantly of all – it must not be about John Lewis. The whole point of a John Lewis Christmas advert is that, if people watch it out of context and are subsequently asked what it is advertising, they should ideally reply ‘palliative care’ or ‘some sort of childhood trauma charity’. The point of a John Lewis Christmas advert is that a foreigner should be able to watch it all the way through and still have no idea what John Lewis is or why his kink is making people from Surrey cry.

But forget that this year. Because this year, John Lewis has thrown all that in the bin. This year, John Lewis has committed the unforgivable sin of literally setting its Christmas advert inside an actual branch of John Lewis. This is quite frankly unforgivable….

I kind of like it….

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cora Buhlert, 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 Shao Ping.]

Pixel Scroll 9/15/24 Yes, You May Say Hi To My Therapy Theropod

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(1) THE LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS SPOTTED IN THE WILD. Harlan Ellison’s The Last Dangerous Visions exists! It has started arriving in customers’ mailboxes. Although the book’s official release date is October 1, Jon C. Manzo told the Harlan Ellison Facebook Fan Club his copy came on Friday.

Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out…

(2) COVID CONCERN. John Wiswell has canceled plans to attend World Fantasy Con next month over dissatisfaction with the convention’s Covid policy, an announcement that elicited responses in social media from several other writers who have made the same decision about WFC.

(3) EATING THE FANTASTIC. Scott Edelman tells listeners it’s time for two scoops of Sarah Pinsker on Episode 236 of the Eating the Fantastic podcast.

Sarah Pinsker

I won’t almost call it historic — I will call it historic. Because it’s the only episode since this podcast began during which you’ll hear me chat with a creator while we eat a flavor of ice cream inspired by their latest book — in this case, Sarah Pinsker’s Haunt Sweet Home — created by the Baltimore ice cream experts at The Charmery.

… The flavor launched on Friday the 13th, and we met at The Charmery yesterday for a taste of that book-inspired ice cream, where we discussed the sculpture she saw at the American Visionary Art Museum which planted a seed for Haunt Sweet Home, the origin of the ice cream collaboration, how she knew her idea was meant to be a novella and not a novel, why she prefers writing books without a contract, how multiple ideas coalesced into one, the narrative purpose of telling a story via multiple formats, how to know a character who doesn’t know themselves, why you can’t tell from the end product whether a piece of fiction was plotted or pantsed, Kelly Robson’s theory about the Han Solo/Luke Skywalker dichotomy and what it means for creating interesting characters, why she’s a fan of making promises in the early paragraphs of her stories, whether our families understand what we’re writing about when we write about families, and much more.

(4) UNHAPPY IN WESTEROS. “Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin vs House of the Dragon: A timeline”. Elements of the news in Winter Is Coming’s story have been covered here, but this article makes a comprehensive chronology of the pieces.

The other week, author George R.R. Martin did something surprising: writing on his Not a Blog, he publicly criticized HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel show House of the Dragon, which is based on his book Fire & Blood. He dinged the show for changing things from the source material in a way that weakened the story, and warned that there were bigger, “more toxic” changes being contemplated for future seasons of the show.

Martin never did anything like this during the nine years that Game of Thrones (which is based on his book series A Song of Ice and Fire) was running on HBO, so the changes that House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal made from his book obviously upset him. We the fans had inklings that something was bothering Martin before he went public, but I certainly wasn’t expecting him to be so up front about it….

(5) JOURNEY PLANET CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS. Sarah Gulde and Chuck Serface are co-editing an upcoming issue of Journey Planet about friendships in science fiction and fantasy. You could approach this topic in several ways:

  • Famous friendships from science-fiction and fantasy literature, comics, films, or television. Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamjee, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, Spock and James T. Kirk, Captain Marvel and Spider-Woman (or She-Hulk), Dana Scully and Fox Mulder, and Katniss Everdeen and Rue come to mind.
  • Friendships among writers, artists, and other professionals within the genre. The Inklings and other writing or artistic fellowships would fit here.
  • Friendships between fans.  Who are your favorite people to see at conventions? Dare I mention the Futurians or the Greater New York Science Fiction Club? What about your local clubs or associations?

Friendships take many forms, so we accept broad interpretations expressed in fiction, personal essays, art, reviews, whatever we can publish in a fanzine format. Please send your submissions to Sarah Gulde at sarahmiyoko@gmail.com or Chuck Serface at ceserface@gmail.com by November 15, 2024.

(6) BBC PLANS ‘THREADS’ REBROADCAST. “’The most horrific, sobering thing I’ve ever seen’: BBC nuclear apocalypse film Threads 40 years on” – the Guardian has an overview. “Ahead of a timely re-airing of Mick Jackson’s famously bleak, rarely seen docudrama, its director recalls why he unleashed a mushroom cloud on Sheffield in 1984, while our writer explores the film’s lasting legacy.”

One Sunday night in September 1984, between championship darts and the news with Jan Leeming, the BBC broadcast one of its bravest, most devastating commissions. This was Threads, a two-hour documentary-style drama exploring a hypothetical event deeply feared at the time and also somehow unthinkable: what would happen if a nuclear bomb dropped on a British city….

…The BBC has shown Threads only three times to date: in 1984; in August of the following year, to mark the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and as part of a cold war special on BBC Four in 2003. Another – timely – showing is planned for October. When I watched the film at the end of the 20th century, Threads felt like a piece of history. Today, in a world of conflict in Russia, China and the Middle East, and expanding nuclear capabilities, it no longer does….

… For Jackson, the message of Threads comes down to something very simple: trusting people with the truth. “That’s what I wanted to get across,” he says. “That there’s no going back, that this happens. You can’t go back and press replay.”

But with a film you can. This month, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov hinted at his country’s intention to change its stance on the use of nuclear weapons “connected with the escalation course of our western adversaries”. The UK and the US recently enhanced their nuclear cooperation pact. Threads airs on BBC Four next month. Be brave for two hours, and then continue the conversation.

(7) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Anniversary: September 15, 1991: Eerie, Indiana

You remember Joe Dante, who has served us such treats as the Gremlin films, a segment of the Twilight Zone: The Movie (“It’s A Good Life”) and, errr, Looney Tunes: Back in Action? (I’ll forgive him for that because he’s a consultant on HBO Max prequel series Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai. Anyone seen the latter?)

Dante also was the creative consultant and director on a weird little horror SF series thirty-three years ago on NBC called Eerie, Indiana. Yes, delightfully weird. It was created by José Rivera and Karl Schaefer. For both it would be their first genre undertaking, though they would have a starry future, their work including Eureka, that a favorite of mine until the debacle of the last season, Goosebumps, The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story and Strange Luck to name but a few genre series that they’d work on in a major capacity. 

SPOILER ALERT! REALLY I’M SERIOUS, GO AWAY

Hardly anyone there is normal. Or even possibly of this time and space. We have super intelligent canines bent on global domination, a man who might be the Ahab, and, in this reality, Elvis never died, and Bigfoot is fond of the forest around this small town. 

There’s even an actor doomed to keep playing the same role over and over and over again, that of a mummy. They break the fourth wall and get him into a much happier film. Tony Jay played this actor.

Yes, they broke the fourth wall. That would happen again in a major way that I won’t detail here. 

END SPOILER ALERT. YOU CAN COME BACK NOW. 

It lasted but nineteen episodes as ratings were very poor. 

Critics loved it. I’m quoting only one due to its length: “Scripted by Karl Schaefer and José Rivera with smart, sharp insights; slyly directed by feature film helmsman Joe Dante; and given edgy life by the show’s winning cast, Eerie, Indiana shapes up as one of the fall season’s standouts, a newcomer that has the fresh, bracing look of Edward Scissorhands and scores as a clever, wry presentation well worth watching.”

It won’t surprise you that at Rotten Tomatoes, that audience reviewers give it a rating of ninety-two percent.  It is streaming on Amazon Prime, Disney+ and legally on YouTube. Yes, legally on the latter. 

(8) COMICS SECTION.

(9) HOW DOES THIS SHOE FIT? THEM says “LGBTQ+ Fans Are Speaking Out About WNBA Star Breanna Stewart’s ‘Harry Potter’ Sneaker Collab”.

Shortly after winning her third Olympic gold medal at the Paris Games last month, out New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart (or “Stewie,” as she is affectionately known by WNBA fans) announced a new signature shoe. The Stewie 3, created in partnership with Puma, is inspired by the Harry Potter films and features design details, like the “Deathly Hallows” symbol, that reference the Potter-verse. Almost immediately, the comments sections of official social media posts promoting the shoe were filled with fans voicing their disappointment that Stewart, one of the league’s highest-profile players and an outspoken trans ally, would be tied to one of the world’s most vocal antagonists of trans people.

The timing of the shoe drop has particularly upset Stewie’s queer and trans fans, considering it comes on the heels of Rowling being named in a cyberbullying lawsuit filed by Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who alleges that the Harry Potter author, Elon Musk, and other public figures took part in a “massive” harassment campaign that labeled her a “biological male.”

While fan backlashes to Harry Potter products are almost de rigueur at this point, this particular Potter collab hits harder because of who Stewart is and what the league means to its many LGBTQ+ enthusiasts. The WNBA itself is considered one of the safest and most affirming leagues for queer and trans crowds. Over 25% of the players in the league, including Stewart, are out as LGBTQ+ and the WNBA was the first professional league in the U.S. to officially recognize Pride….

…One of the questions fans like McKenzie want answers to is how a product celebrating Harry Potter and benefiting J.K. Rowling makes sense as a collaboration between an out pro-trans athlete and a company that has demonstrated support for LGBTQ+ people. (Neither Puma nor representatives for Stewart responded to multiple requests for comment.)…

(10) THEY’VE GOT THE GOODS. If you’re interested in Star Wars figure collecting, there’s a large photo gallery of the offerings unveiled here: “Hasbro Pulse Con 2024 – Star Wars Panel Recap” at The Toyark.

The Star Wars panel just wrapped up over on Hasbro Pulse Con 2024. New figures were shown for The Vintage Collection and Black Series from multiple eras. A couple that stood out to me was a refresh of Black Series A New Hope Luke and Leia, which have all new sculpts and no soft goods. Read on to check out details and pics from the stream. Pre-Orders for most go live at 5 PM for the general public!

(11) STAR TREK, 1-YEAR BARGAIN MISSION. [Item by Daniel Dern.] ParamountPlus.com (lotsa Star Trek, if nothing else)(also Daily Show and Stephen Colbert, of course) is offering a year for half price (so $29.99 for with-ads, or $59.99 with “No ads except live TV & a few shows, and SHOWTIME originals & movies”).

Coupon name/ID (in case you need it):  Coupon: fall50  (for “50% off”)

You can’t do this as a “renew” — at least not thru the web site, possibly via their phone people.

Our similarly-priced sale year just ended yesterday, so (having deliberately cancelled a few days ago so it didn’t autorenew at full price), I just signed up (for the cheapskate-with-ads, dunno if it’s too late to call and splurge the upgrade).

(Note: If you already have a ParamountPlus account, you don’t have to create a new account; your existing account persists if/when your subscription ends.)

(12) POLARIS DAWN RETURNS. “SpaceX capsule splashes down after history-making Polaris Dawn mission” reports NBC News.

A SpaceX capsule carrying four private citizens splashed down off Florida at 3:36 a.m. ET Sunday, ending a historic mission that included the world’s first all-civilian spacewalk.

Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Scott “Kidd” Poteet and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon returned to Earth in a Crew Dragon capsule, splashing down off Dry Tortugas, Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico….

…It was also the company’s [SpaceX’s] most ambitious expedition, as the crew members and their spacecraft executed several risky maneuvers.

Chief among them was the all-civilian spacewalk Thursday. Isaacman and Gillis exited the Dragon capsule on a tether, each spending around 10 minutes out in the vacuum of space. The duo spent the spacewalk conducting mobility tests in their newly designed spacesuits.

The outing was a risky undertaking, because the Dragon capsule does not have a pressurized airlock. That meant that all four members of the Polaris Dawn mission wore spacesuits during the spacewalk and that the entire capsule was depressurized to vacuum conditions….

(13) FROM NEIGHBORHOOD OF MAKE-BELIEVE TO GOTHAM CITY. Collider tells how “Michael Keaton Got His Start Working on One of Your Favorite Kids’ Shows”.

…In an interview, David Newell, who played deliveryman Mr. McFeely on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, went into more detail about what Michael Keaton did on the show. According to Newell, Keaton worked on the floor crew. Because of this job, Keaton ran the trolley that went through Mr. Rogers’ living room. If you’re watching any mid to late ’70s episodes, and you see the trolley come through the hole in the wall, that’s the man who would become Beetlejuice flipping the switch to make the trolley move. Keaton also helped build the sets and take them down before and after shooting an episode….

(14) REALLY OLD SCHOOL. “’Entire ecosystem’ of fossils 8.7m years old found under Los Angeles high school” – Yahoo! has the story.

Marine fossils dating back to as early as 8.7m years ago have been uncovered beneath a south Los Angeles high school.

On Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported that researchers had discovered two sites on the campus of San Pedro high school under which fossils including those of a saber-toothed salmon and a megalodon, the gigantic prehistoric shark, were buried.

According to the outlet, the two sites where the fossils were found include an 8.7m-year-old bone bed from the Miocene era and a 120,000-year-old shell bed from the Pleistocene era.

The discoveries were made between June 2022 and July 2024, LAist reports….

(15) WOLVES OF YELLOWSTONE. [Item by Jeffrey Smith.] Balanced Ecology — not particularly sfnal, but certainly adjacent. What happened to Yellowstone National Park when (a) wolves were removed and (b) when they were returned. Very instructive as to what one change can make to an ecosystem. A fascinating read.  “Friday Night Soother – Digby’s Hullabaloo” at Digby’s Blog.

…In 1995, something really exciting happened in the nation’s first national park, Yellowstone. 41 wild wolves are reintroduced here by scientists. After 100 years of being hunted, wolves could once again call this place home.

The wolves thrived, but something else very surprising happened. Their return had a spectacular effect on the landscape, an effect that spread wider than anyone thought possible. So how did this all happen?…

(16) AUTUMN CONCATENATION NOW ONLINE. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] The SF² Concatenation has just posted its northern hemisphere academic autumnal issue. The contents are:

v34(5) 2024.4.15 — New Columns & Articles for the Summer 2024

And scrolling further down there are loads of fiction as well as a few non-fiction SF and pop science book reviews. Accessible at www.concatenation.org.

Splundig.

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

Pixel Scroll 9/3/24 Nor Shall My Blog Sleep In My Hands, Till I Have Built Mount Tsundoku On My Bedroom’s Clean And Handy Nightstand

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(1) ANIME BANZAI IS SORRY. In the midst of apologizing for cancelling this year’s event, Utah’s Anime Banzai told Facebook followers their demise was primarily due to a committee member embezzling over $99,000. A criminal case is in progress. However, as they are still on the hook for their venue, the group says they are planning a three-day “Farewell to Banzai” party.

…We want to reiterate our remorse for losing sight of why we started this convention in the first place. It was our actions – and in fact, our inaction – over the years that caused a great deal of lasting hurt to former staff, volunteers, guests, and attendees. Concerns were brought to us time and time again, and we should have listened to them and taken action. We didn’t, and for that, we are truly sorry. You deserved better from us.

Additionally, we want to apologize for the frustration, confusion, and heartache that followed our decision to cancel Anime Banzai 2024. We see now that this decision felt like a violation of the trust and loyalty our community has shown us for almost two decades. The financial state of the organization, lack of staffing, and the event’s dwindling reputation made it seem like cancellation was the only feasible way to move forward. We realize now that we may have been too hasty, and should have explored more options before enacting what we saw as the only solution.

This time, we are listening. We are acting. We want to do what we can to make things right for those of you that are mourning the abrupt loss of the convention, as well as those financially impacted by the choices we made.

As some of you may know, a few years ago Banzai was the victim of significant embezzlement. A former staff member drained the organization’s accounts of almost 99,000 dollars, resulting in a criminal case that is still ongoing. Despite this, the convention continued to spend as though the accounts were full, making payments, purchases, and reservations that were beyond the organization’s means. This is something we should have noticed sooner. We should have stepped in and put a stop to recurring payments we could no longer afford, and cut costs wherever possible. We were not paying attention, and now find ourselves in a dire financial situation.

We do not currently have the funds to refund everyone who has already paid to attend the event, and have been working these last few weeks to plan something that would still provide attendees with something of value. With this in mind, we have decided to use the venue – which we can no longer cancel – to host a 3-day Farewell to Banzai party….

(2) GLASGOW WORLDCON REPORT AT SF2. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] SF² Concatenation has an advance post up ahead of its autumnal edition later this September of a first-timer’s review of the Glasgow Worldcon. This is the first of a few con reports SF² Concatenation are planning. More will appear in the spring edition in January. 

Attending this year’s Worldcon in Glasgow (8-12 August, I made it for the middle three days) was a big deal for me. As a first-timer – and solo at that – I knew I needed a strategy. As a tabletop gamer and environmental activist of many years standing, this wasn’t my first time turning up to a large building populated by strangers with hats, beards and a certain personal flamboyance. But Worldcon was different – a nearly entire Scottish Event Campus with 7,081 in-person attendees and a little over 600 watching online; a mix of sub-cultural gathering, international literary festival and hard-nosed networking opportunity. In the face of this, being a mere spectator was not an option conducive to my own sanity… 

You can see the rest of first-timer Tim Atkinson’s review of the Glasgow Worldcon conrep at the link.

Station welcome. More low-key fannish than Chengdu’s ostentatious buses. We’re here for the beer not the marketing images.

(3) IS CLIMBING OVER THE DOCTOR A PATH TO POWER? From Deadline we hear “Conservative Party Leadership Hopeful Says She’s ‘Not Afraid Of Doctor Who’ As She Devotes Majority Of New Campaign Vid To Spat With David Tennant”.

Kemi Badenoch launched her campaign on X yesterday and unveiled a 30-second video prior, in which she focused almost solely on her very public spat with Tennant. Tennant, who played the 10th Doctor, told Badenoch to “shut up” in July due to her views on trans rights and she responded at the time that she “will not be silenced.” Big anti-trans names including JK Rowling also rushed to Badenoch’s defense, calling Goblet of Fire star Tennant part of the “gender Taliban” in a ranty X post.

In the new campaign vid, which can be watched in full below, Badenoch said: “When you have that type of cultural establishment trying to keep Conservatives down you need someone like me, who’s not afraid of Doctor Who, or whoever, and who’s going to take the fight to them and not let them keep us down. That’s not going to happen with me.” The vid begins with a clip of Tennant criticizing her….

(4) GAME WRITING. John David Beety kicks off a five-part series “Playtesting Game Narratives” with “Introduction to Game Writing and Playtesting” at the SFWA Blog.

In science fiction and fantasy (SFF) terms, game writing is exactly what it sounds like: writing for games. Calling oneself a game writer, however, is akin to declaring oneself a scientist. Divisions within game writing include game media, such as board games and video games; forms, such as planning dialogue trees and naming collectible cards; and publishers, from solo efforts to some of the world’s largest corporations.

This post introduces a series on playtesting, the process of improving games through hands-on feedback. Think of it as an editing pass for games, though with a twist. Unlike prose writing, which usually presents a single, stable experience for readers, games depend on player choices to create a range of experiences, from an early Game Over to a grand finale years in the making. Playtesting allows games to deliver great experiences for the greatest number of players. 

By playing through a game and observing other players, playtesters can identify problems to fix, such as consistent reports of a disliked quest or a moment when story and gameplay mechanics seem to clash. Playtesters can be game-makers or outside parties, and it’s not uncommon to see the game-writing equivalents of authors and beta readers side by side in a multiplayer game’s playtesting sessions.

Future posts will offer specific insights on playtesting from experts in board games, card games, tabletop role-playing games, and video games. Here are brief overviews of those four game types, and the writing opportunities they provide….

(5) WORLDWIDE SERIES AWARD SUBMISSIONS OPEN. The Sara Douglass Book Series Award is taking entries through September 30.

ABOUT THE AWARD

  • This year, the Sara covers series ending (in original publication anywhere in the world) between January 2021 and December 2023.
  • The current judging year is deliberately excluded. This permits an earlier submissions deadline to allow adequate time for the judges to consider all works entered.
  • The Sara Douglass Book Series Award is not an Aurealis Award as such, but a separate, special award conferred during the ceremony (like the Convenors’ Award for Excellence).

GENERAL ELIGIBILITY

  • For the purpose of the Sara Douglass Book Series Award, a “series” is defined as a continuing ongoing story told through two or more books, which must be considered as ending in one of the years covered by the judging period.
  • This award is to recognise that there are book series that are greater as a whole than the sum of their parts – that is, the judges are looking for a series that tells a story across the series, not one that just uses the same characters/setting across loosely connected books. It is anticipated that shortlisted works will be best enjoyed read in succession, with an arc that begins in the first book and is completed in the last.
  • The series may be in any speculative genre within the extended bounds of science fiction, fantasy or horror (that is, if a book would be considered on an individual basis for one of the novel, or possibly novella, categories in the Aurealis Awards, the series may be considered here).

(6) PETE KELLY Q&A. The Horror Writers Association blog did an “Interview with Pete Kelly, Poet-in-residence for the Dracula Society”.

Pete Kelly: The Society was founded in October 1973 by two London-based actors, Bernard Davies and Bruce Wightman. The Society’s field of interest embraces the entire Gothic literary genre, and incorporates, too, all stage and screen adaptations, and the sources of their inspiration in myth and folklore. Trips are organized to locations of interest in the UK and abroad. There are regular meets in London with guest speakers, discussions, film and video screenings. My responsibilities are to deliver a poem for each quarterly voices from the vaults magazine and to perform at each meet, the first performance was June 15th so had been rehearsing like mad as it’s been two years since I did anything live. The response was brilliant though even got a wow or two from the audience.

Can you tell us about yourself as both person and poet? 

Pete Kelly: Bonkers and passionate. Though not classically trained, I love when things get weird pushing my understanding of this thing called life. Being an underdog  myself I will always root for them be it writers, bands or in any walk of life. I feel the big hitters have their support in place so I give new talent what help I can give. Also I generally see fresher ideas coming through with them, bucking trends for more fertile imagination.  Writing poetry pretty much mirrors who I am, solitary at times venturing off into my own world. The conventional is more horrific than horror…

(7) SHE BRINGS THE HEAT. On Facebook, Tom Digby (not the California fan), shared a photo of Margaret Atwood wielding a flamethrower.

Margaret Atwood, the 84-year-old Canadian novelist and poet, is pictured here attempting to burn an ‘unburnable’ copy of her novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” with a flamethrower.

A single unburnable copy was created to raise awareness about increasing censorship; her dystopian science fiction novel, which centers around one woman’s quest for freedom in a totalitarian theocracy where women’s rights are completely suppressed, has been the subject of numerous censorship challenges since its publication in 1985.

The unburnable copy was auctioned off after her flamethrowing attempt, raising $130,000 for PEN America, a literary and free expression advocacy organization.

As Atwood famously asserted in her poem “Spelling”: “A word after a word after a word is power.”…

(8) JAMES DARREN (1936-2024). Actor James Darren died September 2 at the age of 88. He gained fame as “Moondoggie” in three Gidget movies. Fans knew him best from his work in the 1966 TV series Time Tunnel, and cameos as the holographic lounge singer Vic Fontaine in several episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Ninein the 1990s. Full details at Deadline.

(9) COMICS SECTION.

(10) SUNDAY OFFERING. Sunday Morning Transport, a 2024 World Fantasy Award finalist, posted its monthly free story “The Memorial Tree” by Alaya Dawn Johnson. As they say, “Bringing out great short fiction each Sunday depends on the support of our readers. Our first story each month is free. We hope that you will subscribe to receive all our stories, and support the work of our authors.”

(11) SUSPICIOUS DEALINGS WITH DALEKS. Crime doesn’t pay. (Not even fake crime?) “A Dallas Writer Was Investigated for Selling Secrets to the Daleks” – the Dallas Observer says it happened. “There’s really an FBI file out about Paul Riddell’s supposed double-dealings with Dr. Who’s Nemeses.”

Paul Riddell is one of Dallas’s best eccentrics. He is the former owner of the Texas Triffid Farm, a now closed gallery of carnivorous plants named after aliens from a John Wyndham novel. Previously, he published science fiction essays for the likes of Clarkesworld, but these days he writes strange stuff at the Annals of St. Remedius on Substack.

In 1987, though, Riddell worked for Texas Instruments, employee number 800069, at Trinity Mills (now Carrollton). This is back when TI was designing the AGM-88 HARM (High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile), which would seek and destroy enemy radar-based air defenses. The weapon was used to enforce no-fly zones during the first U.S.–Iraq War. For obvious reasons, this made the workings of the HARM very important to keep secret.

Riddell had a boss, a nice guy from a Mormon family who Riddell says, “had clearly heard of this ‘humor’ thing people did and was desperately trying to learn it.” His boss’s attempts led Riddell to joke back with him, though Riddell’s wide-ranging pop culture experience sometimes left the man perplexed….

… One day, the manager came up to Riddell and clapped him on the back. “Sell any secrets to the Russians this weekend?” he asked. Riddell replied, “No, but I sold a few to the Daleks.”…

… Riddell’s boss knew none of this and wasn’t great at humor, either. Working at a top-secret-security-clearance facility, he thought it best to report Riddell as a possible enemy agent. The matter kept climbing up the chain of command, with each person questioning Riddell….

(12) ANOTHER FBI FILE. And if you want to see the FBI’s 1974 report mentioning Harlan Ellison, click the link: “Harlan Ellison : Federal Bureau of Investigation” at the Internet Archive.

(13) NOT “CLOSE ENOUGH FOR GOVERNMENT WORK”. “AI worse than humans at summarising information, trial finds” – Crikey has details of the Australian study.

Artificial intelligence is worse than humans in every way at summarising documents and might actually create additional work for people, a government trial of the technology has found.

Amazon conducted the test earlier this year for Australia’s corporate regulator the Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) using submissions made to an inquiry. The outcome of the trial was revealed in an answer to a questions on notice at the Senate select committee on adopting artificial intelligence.

The test involved testing generative AI models before selecting one to ingest five submissions from a parliamentary inquiry into audit and consultancy firms. The most promising model, Meta’s open source model Llama2-70B, was prompted to summarise the submissions with a focus on ASIC mentions, recommendations, references to more regulation, and to include the page references and context.

Ten ASIC staff, of varying levels of seniority, were also given the same task with similar prompts. Then, a group of reviewers blindly assessed the summaries produced by both humans and AI for coherency, length, ASIC references, regulation references and for identifying recommendations. They were unaware that this exercise involved AI at all.

These reviewers overwhelmingly found that the human summaries beat out their AI competitors on every criteria and on every submission, scoring an 81% on an internal rubric compared with the machine’s 47%…. 

(14) SAY CHEESE. From Reuters: “Exclusive: U.S. researchers find probable launch site of Russia’s new nuclear-powered missile”.

Two U.S. researchers say they have identified the probable deployment site in Russia of the 9M730 Burevestnik, a new nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise missile touted by President Vladimir Putin as “invincible.”

Putin has said the weapon – dubbed the SSC-X-9 Skyfall by NATO – has an almost unlimited range and can evade U.S. missile defenses. But some Western experts dispute his claims and the Burevestnik’s strategic value, saying it will not add capabilities that Moscow does not already have and risks a radiation-spewing mishap….

(15) JUSTWATCH TOP 10S. JustWatch has released the streaming movie and TV rankings for August 2024.

(16) SUBTERRANEA TRAILER. “Kenyan Sci-Fi Series ‘Subterranea’ Set at Showmax, Trailer Unveiled” – Variety introduces the trailer.

Award-winning Kenyan director Likarion Wainaina returns to Showmax with “Subterranea,” a new science fiction series. The streaming platform has unveiled a trailer for the eight-part show.

Wainaina, known for his award-winning superhero film “Supa Modo,” brings together a cast of Kenyan talent for this psychological experiment-turned-apocalyptic tale. The story follows eight participants trapped in an underground bunker after a global catastrophe….

[Thanks to Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, David Doering, Kathleen Pardola, Cath Jackel, Rich Lynch, 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 Camestros Felapton.]

Pixel Scroll 4/15/24 No, cats do not have magical powers. Really they don’t. Would they lie?

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(1) TODAY’S 40,000. [Item by Anne Marble.] A little Warhammer news… The official Warhammer Official X.com account just posted “In regards to female Custodians, there have always been female Custodians, since the first of the Ten Thousand were created.”

(It was in response to (this question in a longer thread.)

It’s fascinating to read the responses to this. Many fans are demanding they show them where this is shown in the lore. They are debating the official account.

Fans like these make me think, “Don’t make me have to feel sympathetic toward Games Workshop!”

From what I understand, this probably is retconning. But Warhammer is no stranger to retconning. They’re famous for retconning.

Angry fans are declaring that Games Workshop is going to kill the existing fanbase over this. They’ve accused them of “gaslighting” the fans. They are crying about “woke.” Some are claiming that they are returning the merchandise they were just about to buy all because of this. (Sure…)

People are predicting this is the “end” of Games Workshop. (They’ve been predicting this ever since 3D printing made it easier for people to make their own models.) Some are even blaming this stance on the fact that Vanguard and Group and BlackRock are now among the investors in Games Workshop.

But these are also the types of fans who do a lot of gatekeeping. If a fan has a different opinion, they call that fan a “tourist.” One dude was calling the people behind official lore “tourists.”

According to an older post by one of their well-known writers (Aaron Dembski-Bowden), this bit of lore was up for discussion years ago. But a “former IP overlord” said the characters couldn’t be women because the minis had already been produced, and they were all male.

The lore does say there are no known women Space Marines — and there are various theories about why. But Space Marines are also so altered that they are very different from what some would consider a stereotypical man. From what I have read, the Space Marines are sterile and asexual and chemically castrated.

Some people have been collecting screencaps of the responses. Also here. Here’s a selection:

The Fandom.com definition of a Warhammer 40k Custodian says Custodians are part of the Adeptus Custodes — the elite altered bodyguards of the Emperor. In comparison, the famous Space Marines the defenders of all humanity. And the Custodians are more powerful than them.

Also, while there is a lot of lore about the Space Marines, there is less lore about the Custodians.

For another perspective, I found some women fans who were upset because they thought it was badly done — and some who believed it was pandering to them. But most of the opposition seems to come from guys who use “woke” a lot. Some want to contact the Warhammer Community Outreach Manager about the change. Does that mean they are asking for the manager?

Disclaimer: I’m not a Warhammer player. However, I’ve been fascinated by the gaming system ever since I ran across a Warhammer Fantasy book called Warhammer City. I found Warhammer 40K even more fascinating because it’s so over-the-top. (It’s supposed to be.) So I ended up buying some of their novels.

(2) DON BLYLY MEDICAL UPDATE. Bookseller Don Blyly’s celebration of Uncle Hugo’s fiftieth anniversary was followed by a trip to the hospital, but he’s back at work already as he explained in his latest How’s Business? newsletter.

The week of the 50th Anniversary Sale was “interesting”.  For many years I heard the warnings about chest pains, and for many years I’ve had chest pains, but not quite like the medical advice described them.  Often, the pain seemed to be between my ribs, more often on the left side, but I didn’t think the pains were accurately reporting on where the problem was located.  And often I would let out a couple of large burps or farts and the chest pains would completely go away, so it seemed like the pains were not related to my heart. 

On the Monday after the anniversary I had a different kind of chest pain, a kind of pressure in the center of my chest, and it did not go away (but became somewhat less) after a couple of belches, and I started worrying a bit.  But Ecko had a doggie dental appointment Wednesday morning to have a tooth pulled that it had taken a month to set up, so I thought I’d get through that first if my pain didn’t get any worse.  My chest pain stayed about the same through Wednesday, and Ecko got through the extraction and was ordered to only have soft food for 2 weeks.  Thursday morning my chest pain was worse, so I went over with the staff of the store what to do if I had to go to the emergency room.    Just before noon the order of new t-shirts and sweatshirts arrived, a couple of weeks earlier than expected, and I wrote the check to the shirt guy.  Before I could start unpacking the 5 large cases of shirts, the pain became so bad that I decided to drive Ecko home, made arrangements for my son to pick her up at home after he got off work, and drove to the Abbott-Northwestern emergency room. 

It seems that one of the arteries in my heart was 99% blocked, and they quickly put in a stent.  The other arteries were partially blocked, but not enough to justify any more stents.  Swallowing a fist full of pills every day for the rest of my life is supposed to clear the other arteries and prevent a repeat of the heart attack.  After a couple of days they ran an echo-cardiogram to determine how much my heart had been damaged.  The doctor who interpreted the results told me that my heart was functioning at 45-50%.  I said that I didn’t feel that bad.  She said that nobody’s heart functions at 100% according to the standard used for the test–a perfectly healthy heart functions at 55% on the test, and that I would be back to 55% within a couple of months.  So, no permanent damage, but I’m supposed to take it easy for a while. 

About 48 hours after the stent was installed I got out of the hospital, and about an hour later got to the store to see how things were going.  A LOT of mail orders had come in while I was in the hospital, and Jon had pulled all the books and put them in piles so that I wouldn’t have to run all over the store finding them to process the orders.  And a lot of boxes of new books had arrived.  It took several days to get through all of that, and even longer to get through all the e-mails that had piled up.  But for several days I mostly sat in front of the computer and didn’t even think about going to the basement.

The hospital has been dribbling out the bills to the insurance company, and the insurance company has been letting me know how much I’m responsible for.  So far, the hospital has billed over $110,000, and so far I’m only responsible for $200….

(3) TUNES FROM THE TARDIS. [Item by Daniel Dern.] Not surprisingly given (some of) what I watch/listen to on YouTube, the YouTube Music app on my phone (which I’m not sure I’ve previously used, certainly not recently or muchly) burped up this (below) amusing item. I’m not enough of a Whovian to appreciate all the references, but enjoyed it natheless, and no doubt some of you more so. (And it turned out to be part of a playlist, which rabbit hole I timesinkedly explored, and will share my faves here, in days to come.) Doctor Who playlist.

(4) PAYING IT FORWARD. Gabino Iglesias shares some wisdom about anthologies in an X.com thread that starts here. Some excerpts follow:

(5) HIGH-PRICED DETECTIVE. From Newser we learn a “Handwritten Sherlock Holmes Draft Could Fetch $1.2M”

A rare, handwritten manuscript of the Sherlock Holmes novel The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is up for sale this June at Sotheby’s, and it’s expected to fetch up to $1.2 million, breaking past sales records of his works. It’s the only handwritten copy of Conan Doyle’s second novel in existence, Smithsonian Magazine reports, and how this particular work was commissioned comes with a fun bit of history. According to CNN, the story begins in 1889 with Conan Doyle having dinner in London with JM Stoddart (an editor of US literary magazine Lippincott’s Monthly) and fellow author Oscar Wilde.

When Stoddart asked what the writers were working on, Conan Doyle committed to publishing a second Sherlock Holmes novel for the magazine, while Wilde said he’d submit his work in progress, The Picture of Dorian Gray. “It’s hard to think of two contemporary authors who might be less similar than Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde,” Sotheby’s book specialist Selby Kiffer tells CNN. “And yet there they are at a dinner table together and talking about what they’re currently working on.”…

(6) SENDAK EXHIBITION IN LA. The Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles will host “Wild Things Are Happening: The Art of Maurice Sendak” from April 18-September 1.

Wild Things Are Happening is comprised of more than 150 sketches, storyboards, and paintings by Sendak drawn from the collection of The Maurice Sendak Foundation. Presented alongside landmark pictures for Sendak’s own books will be examples of artwork he created for such celebrated publications as The Bat-Poet by Randall Jarrell, A Hole is to Dig by Ruth Krauss, the Little Bear series by Else Holmelund Minarik, and Zlateh the Goat by Isaac Bashevis Singer. 

Designs for many of Sendak’s opera, theater, film, and television productions are also featured. His impact on the broader world of the performing arts is illuminated through his collaboration and friendship with directors, composers, playwrights, and visual artists, such as Carroll Ballard, Frank Corsaro, Spike Jonze, Tony Kushner, and Twyla Tharp. The exhibition will also highlight Sendak’s love of Mozart and the way the composer’s life and work influenced not only Sendak’s designs for Mozart’s operas, such as The Magic Flute, but also key books including Outside Over There and Dear Mili. As Sendak stated, “I love opera beyond anything, and Mozart beyond anything.”

This groundbreaking exhibition also adds new depth to audiences’ understanding of Sendak’s life—as a child of Jewish immigrants, a lover of music, someone with close personal relationships—and how it dovetailed with his creative work, which drew inspiration from writers ranging from William Shakespeare to Herman Melville. From portraits that he made of loved ones to archival photographs of family members to toys he designed as a young adult, the exhibition brings Sendak and his work to life in three dimensions….

Interior art for Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or, There Must Be More to Life. Originally published in 1967.

(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Born April 15, 1933 — Elizabeth Montgomery. (Died 1995.) The beauty of these Birthdays is that I can decide that one series that a performer did is enough to be worthy of a write-up. So it is with Elizabeth Montgomery and her ever-so-twinkly role as the good witch Samantha Stephens on the Bewitched series.

I loved that series and still do. Bewitched is one of those series that the Suck Fairy keeps smiling every time she comes near it. Obviously she too has very fond memories of it. 

Sol Saks in interviews said that the Forties film I Married a Witch based on Thorne Smith’s partially-written novel The Passionate Witch, and John Van Druten’s Broadway play Bell, Book and Candle, adapted into a 1958 film of the same name, were his inspirations for the pilot episode. These films were properties of Columbia Pictures, which also owned Screen Gems, the company that would produce Bewitched. 

Bell, Book and Candle is the prime story source as that has the good witch Gillian Holroyd, played by Kim Novak, casting a love spell on Shep Henderson as played James Stewart to have a fling with him but she genuinely falls for him.

Bewitched debuted sixty years ago this Autumn. It would run on ABC eight seasons, for two hundred and fifty episodes. 

Let’s discuss the other cast of Bewitched. Dick York was Darrin Stephens, her husband and I thought that he was a perfect comic foil for her. Dick Sargent would replace the ailing York for the final three seasons.  It’s been too long since I’ve seen the series but I think I remember his chemistry with her being a little less smooth.

So the next major cast member was Agnes Moorehead as Endora, Samantha’s mother. She worked fine in her role which was that she disapproved of her daughter’s decision to marry a mortal. She often times casts spells on Darrin for her own amusement, but mostly to try to drive Darrin away from Samantha. (It didn’t work. At all.) Despite that, she is the most frequent houseguest and one of the most loyal members of Samantha’s family who dotes on her grandchildren, Tabitha and Adam. 

Then there’s his boss, Larry White, who was played by David Tate, and he was well cast in that role, and many crucial scenes took place at the Madison Avenue advertising agency McMann and Tate where Darrin worked.

So that brings us to Elizabeth Montgomery. She began her performing career in the the Fifties with a role on her father’s Robert Montgomery Presents television series. She’d also be a member of his summer theater company. 

She turned out to be very popular and was kept busy performing consistently from there on. She’d have two genre roles prior to Bewitched, the first being as Lillie Clarke on One Step Beyond in “The Death Waltz” and, because everyone seemingly has to be in at least an episode of it, on The Twilight Zone as Woman in “Two”. The only other actor here is Charles Bronson as, oh guess, Man. It’s a piece of pure SF by Montgomery Pittman who also wrote the scripts for “The Grave” and “The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank”. 

So now we come to her in Bewitched,  and the role that she was perfect for.  It’s hard to write her up here without noting sexism of the time as her beauty was definitely the attraction for many of the viewers as opposed to her talent according to some of the news articles at the time. Or so said the critics. 

But talented she was, displaying a deft comedic touch that I’ve seen in few female performers since her as she never overplayed her role, something that would’ve been oh so easy to do. She was Samantha Stephens, the very long-lived witch who defied witchery tradition and married a mortal. 

Do note that it openly depicted them sleeping together and sexually attracted to each other. No separate beds here.

The first episode, “I Darrin, Take This Witch, Samantha” was filmed a short while after she gave birth to her first child. 

She was intelligent, not reserved and depicted as more than a match for anyone who might get in her way. Unusual for a female character of that time. 

I have over the years rewatched many of the episodes, and they do hold up rather well provided you like Sixties comedy. I think this along with such shows as My Favorite Martian and The Munsters are some of the finest comic genre work done.

(8) COMICS SECTION.

(9) JEOPARDY! [Item by David Goldfarb.] This is a little belated, but I thought you might like to hear about SFF or genre-adjacent clues on last Thursday’s Jeopardy! episode.

In the first round:

Unreal Estate, $800:

The English village of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh is where this animal lover has his medical practice

Alison Betts tried “What is James Herriot?” but it was Brian Hardzinski who had the correct response, “Who is Doctor Dolittle?”

Abbreviated Television, $400:

In the ‘90s we had “ST: DS9”

Brian: “What is Star Trek: Deep Space 9?”

$800:

Don’t space out (or do) with “FAM”

Triple stumper, nobody made the attempt. This was Apple TV+’s alternate history space show, “For All Mankind”.

“T.P.”, $400:

Kyle MacLachlan was the clean-cut FBI agent investigating a murder in the very strange title town of this series

Returning champion Lee Wilkins gave us, “What is Twin Peaks?”

Unreal Estate, $400:

On his third voyage, this man travels to the flying island of Laputa, where the people are so lost in thought they notice little else

Alison: “Who is Gulliver?”

Double Jeopardy round:

Some Timely Words, $1200:

This 6-letter word means to go back in fictional time & rewrite the past of a character or narrative for a new work

Brian: “What is retcon?”

Final Jeopardy: Space Shuttles

2 space shuttles were named for craft commanded by this man, who died far from home in 1779

Lee: “Who is ?” — no answer.

Brian: “Who is Cook?” Correct. The vessels: Discovery and Endeavour.

Alison: “Who is Cook?” She was the game’s winner.

(10) MAS ECLIPSES. “Meet The Country About To Have Three Solar Eclipses In Three Years” – Forbes arranges the introduction.

What if your country suddenly had three major solar eclipses in three years? As the world’s attention fades from Monday’s “Great American Eclipse,” there’s a realization that there’s not another one in the U.S. until 2033. So where is the next eclipse?

It’s in Spain. Then Spain again, and again.

A few years ago, Argentina and Chile staged two total solar eclipses—one a glorious sight and another a rain-affected, COVID-affected event—but it’s another Spanish-speaking country that is about to take the eclipse baton….

(11) USE THE FORCE. The Guardian’s Harry Cliff submits “The big idea: are we about to discover a new force of nature?”

… There are four forces that we already know about. Gravity governs the grandest scales, marshalling the planets in their orbits and shaping the evolution of the universe as a whole. Electromagnetic force gives rise to a vast range of phenomena, from the magnetic field of the Earth to radio waves, visible light and X-rays, while also holding atoms, molecules and, by extension, the physical world together. Deep within the atomic nucleus, two further forces emerge: the vice-like “strong force”, which binds atomic nuclei, and the “weak force”, which among other things causes radioactive decay and enables the nuclear reactions that power the sun and the stars.

Studying these forces has transformed our understanding of nature and generated revolutionary new technologies. Work on electromagnetism in the 19th century gave us the electric dynamo and radio broadcasts, the discovery of the strong and weak forces in the 1930s led to nuclear energy and atomic bombs, while understanding gravity has made it possible to put astronauts on the moon and to develop GPS satellites that can tell us our location anywhere on Earth to within a few metres. Uncovering a fifth force would be one hell of a prize.

Hints that physicists may be on the brink of making such a breakthrough have been accumulating over the past decade. The first tranche of evidence comes from particle physics experiments here on Earth, the results of which appear to conflict with our current best theory of fundamental particles, the standard model.

Notwithstanding its rather uninspiring name, the standard model is one of humankind’s greatest intellectual achievements, the closest we have come to a theory of everything, and has passed almost every experimental test thrown at it with flying colours. So far at least.

However, the BaBar experiment in California, the Belle experiment in Japan and the LHCb experiment at Cern have all spied exotic fundamental particles known as “beauty quarks” behaving in ways that go against the predictions of the standard model. Meanwhile, just outside Chicago, Fermilab’s Muon g–2 experiment has been busily studying another type of fundamental particle called a muon, finding that it emits a slightly stronger magnetic field than expected.

The most exciting explanations for these anomalies involve hitherto unknown forces of nature that subtly alter the way beauty quarks transform into other particles or mess with the muon’s magnetism. …

(12) SF2 CONCATENATION SUMMER SEASON EDITION. [Item by Jonathan Cowie.] SF² Concatenation has just posted its seasonal edition of news, articles and reviews. A couple of the articles may be of interest to those attending the Glasgow Worldcon later this summer….

v34(3) 2024.4.15 — New Columns & Articles for the Summer 2024

v34(3) 2024.4.15 — Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Reviews

v34(3) 2023.4.15 — Non-Fiction SF & Science Fact Book Reviews

(13) VIDEO OF THE DAY. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.]  I have a feeling in my water (never a good sign) that this might be based on a Blake Crouch novel…?  I have to confess I have a shameful weakness for Blake Crouch and have read four or five of his novels.  They are light reads, more thrillery, but most have a decided SF riff which are great fun (if careful not to look at plot too closely).  Anyway, see what you think…

A man is abducted into an alternate version of his life. Amid the mind-bending landscape of lives he could’ve lived, he embarks on a harrowing journey to get back to his true family and save them from a most terrifying foe: himself.

[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Anne Marble, Kathy Sullivan, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Daniel Dern, David Goldfarb, Lise Andreasen, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, and Chris Barkley for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Cat Eldridge.]

Pixel Scroll 4/6/24 On (Eclipse) Monday, Smart Electronic Sheep Won’t Look Up

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(1) MOOGS, WOULD YOU BUY IT FOR A QUARTER? “Nobody Wants to Buy The Future: Why Science Fiction Literature is Vanishing” — according to Simon MacNeil at Typebar Magazine.

A recent Washington Post article indicated that only 12% of the reading public were interested in reading science fiction.  A perusal of bestseller lists for science fiction shows an even more alarming truth: the science fiction books that do sell are a shrinkingly small number of reprints, classics and novels that had been adapted into movies. 

The December 2023 bestseller list on Publisher’s Weekly contained only two novels published originally in 2023: Pestilence by Laura Thalassa (an odd addition to the Science Fiction list as it is marketed as fantasy / romance) and Starter Villain by John Scalzi. The bestselling SF novel in that time period, Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, sold almost 17,000 copies. This puts it far below the bottom of the top 10 overall fiction bestseller list where Sarah J. Maas’ romantasy novel A Court of Mist and Fury sits at 19,097 copies sold. 

Science fiction is not selling…

… But there’s something else at play here that has reduced the public’s general taste for science fiction. 

We got to one of the futures Science Fiction proposed, and it sucked.

An oft-cited Tweet from The Onion’s Alex Blechman summarizes it perfectly: 

“Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale.
“Tech Company: At long last, we created the Torment Nexus from the classic sci-fi novel Don’t Create The Torment Nexus.”

We are living in the world John Brunner predicted in Stand on Zanzibar and The Sheep Look Up—one of corporate dominance, political instability and environmental collapse. We are, all of us, in the Torment Nexus. So why would we want to read what future horrors Silicon Valley merchants of human misery are trying to produce next….

(2) DID HE EVER RETURN? NO, HE NEVER RETURNED. “’Quantum Leap’ Canceled at NBC After Season 2” notes The Hollywood Reporter.

The network has canceled the reboot of the 1989 series after a two-season run, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

The series starring Raymond Lee wrapped its sophomore season in February and ranked as one of the broadcast network’s lowest-rated scripted originals.

Quantum Leap, which was produced in-house at Universal Television, earned a speedy season two renewal as NBC kept production going in a bid to have scripted originals during the writers and actors strikes….

(3) MIRRORSHADES. “NASA says you shouldn’t use your phone to photograph the solar eclipse” warns XDA.

Everyone knows you shouldn’t stare at the sun during an eclipse. However, as it turns out, your phone’s “eyes” aren’t a suitable substitute. NASA has posted that, if you intend to look at the eclipse, pointing your phone at it in hopes to capture it on camera will likely fry its internal circuits, but don’t fret; there is a solution if you want to snap a photo to remember the occasion by…

…If you want to take a snap of the eclipse, there’s still a solution. NASA recommends using the same trick that protects your own eyeballs from the solar rays; with a pair of eclipse glasses. And the same rules apply for your phone as they do for your eyes; use the glasses to protect the device when it’s looking at the sun, and don’t keep pointing at it for too long. If you abide by the rules, you’ll be able to remember the eclipse with a nice photo instead of a hefty phone repair bill.

(4) THREEQUEL. You heard it here last. Entertainment Weekly reports “Denis Villeneuve’s third ‘Dune’ movie is officially happening”.

Sometimes, dreams do come true. That’s as true for Paul Atreides as it is for Denis Villeneuve, who now gets to make his third Dune movie. Legendary confirmed on Thursday that they are currently developing a third movie in the sci-fi franchise based on Frank Herbert’s original novels and are also in talks with Villeneuve to adapt Annie Jacobsen’s nonfiction book Nuclear War: A Scenario after that.

Villeneuve first told EW in 2021 that his goal all along was to make three Dune movies. Dune: Part Two completed the adaptation of Frank Herbert’s original 1965 sci-fi novel, but Herbert wrote five sequels before his death in 1986 (his son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have since added to the franchise with many additional books). The first of Herbert’s sequels, 1969’s Dune Messiah, is what Villeneuve wants to adapt for his third movie in this series.

“I always envisioned three movies,” Villeneuve told EW then. “It’s not that I want to do a franchise, but this is Dune, and Dune is a huge story. In order to honor it, I think you would need at least three movies. That would be the dream. To follow Paul Atreides and his full arc would be nice.”…

(5) FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH GLASGOW. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] SF2 Concatenation has advance posted ahead of its next seasonal edition an article on Glasgow: “Glasgow as a venue for the Worldcon”.

Welcome to Glasgow the largest city in Scotland, a place often referred to as “the second city of the Empire”, meaning the second city of the British Empire because of its shipbuilding prowess on the banks of the River Clyde, and its industrial base.   But other cities in the United Kingdom also lay claim to the title, so better not say “I’ve just been to the Worldcon in the second city of the Empire” if heading down south.

(6) GLANCING TOWARD THE FUTURE. If you want to be in, respond to the Glasgow 2024 Academic Programme Call For Papers by April 30.

Glasgow 2024’s Academic Programme will bring together a diverse set of scholars from the humanities, social sciences, and adjacent disciplines to launch an exploration of SF/F/H’s concern for our futures. Through a combination of panels of three (3) 15-minute presentations each and hour-long roundtable discussions with scholars, we’ll discuss themes of futurity as they manifest in genre fiction and media past and present, as well as speculate on the genre’s own potential futures and capacity for shaping the future, encompassing film, literature, comics, games, new media, and art and/or the fan communities that celebrate them.

(7) DETECTING FAKE LITERARY AGENCIES. Patrick Carter enhances your scam detection skills in a thread that starts here. Here are some examples:

(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Born April 6, 1937 — Billy Dee Williams, 87. Rather obviously, Billy Dee Williams’ best-known role is as — and no I did know this was his full name — Landonis Balthazar “Lando” Calrissian III. He was introduced in The Empire Strikes Back as a longtime friend of Han Solo and the administrator of the floating Cloud City on the gas planet Bespin. 

Billy Dee Williams

(So have I mentioned, I’ve only watched the original trilogy, and this is my favorite film of that trilogy? If anyone cares to convince me I’ve missed something by not watching the later films, go ahead.) 

He is Lando in the original trilogy, as well in as the sequel, The Rise of Skywalker, thirty-six years later. The Star Wars thinks this might be the longest interval between first playing a character and later playing the same character, being a thirty-six year gap.

He returned to the role within the continuity in the animated Star Wars Rebels series, voicing the role in “Idiot’s Array” and “The Siege of Lothal” episodes. 

Now this is where it gets silly, really silly. The most times he’s been involved with the character is in the Lego ‘verse. Between 2024 with The Lego Movie to Billy Dee Williams returned to the role in the Star Wars: Summer Vacation in 2022, he has voiced Lando in eight Lego films, mostly made as television specials.

Going from hero to villain, he was Harvey Dent in Batman, and yes in The Lego Batman Movie. Really they made it. I’d like to say I remember him here but than they would admitting this film made an impression on me which it decidedly didn’t. None of the Batman Films did in the Eightes.

He’s in Mission Impossible as Hank Benton, an enforcer for a monster, in “The Miracle” episode; he’s Ferguson in  Epoch: Evolution, the sequel to Epoch, a what looks like quite silly, and I’m using this term deliberately, sci-film, and finally he voiced himself on Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?,  the thirteenth television series in the Scooby-Doo franchise. 

(9) COMICS SECTION.

  • Tom Gauld has two for us.

(10) TAXONOMY SEASON. Richard Ngo has put together a grid about types of conflict in a certain species of sff story. It’s followed by several posts with commentary. Thread starts here. (Ngo credits Grant Snider’s 2014 Incidental Comics “Conflict in Literature” as the inspiration.)

(11) JEOPARDY! [Item by David Goldfarb.] The April 5 episode of Jeopardy! was the first game of the tournament finals. In the Jeopardy round:

Alliterative Lit, $200:
Chapters in this book include “The Departure of Boromir” & “Shelob’s Lair”
Andrew He buzzed in but dried up. Victoria Groce responded with, “What is The Two Towers?”

The Double Jeopardy round had a category “Horror Music”. The contestants started at the bottom and worked their way up:

$2000
“Putting Out the Fire with Gasoline” is from the theme song to this beastly film starring Nastassja Kinski
Victoria tried, “What is Species?” but this was wrong. Amy Schneider tried “La Femme Nikita” but seemed to know that wasn’t right. Andrew didn’t try it. The answer was Cat People.

$1600
In a song by the goth rock band Bauhaus, this horror movie legend is “dead, undead, undead, undead”
Victoria got this: “Who is Bela Lugosi?”

$1200
A man sees a ghostly version of himself in Schubert’s Lied (song) with this German title
Amy seemed uncertain with “What is Doppelgänger?” but it was correct.

$800
“What ever happened to my Transylvania Twist?” is a lyric from this novelty horror song
Amy was more sure of this one: “What’s the Monster Mash?”

$400
Ray Parker Jr. wrote & performed the theme song to “Ghostbusters” that went to no. 1 on the charts & asked this musical question
Amy said, “What is ‘Who they gonna call?’” but this was not accepted. Andrew He got the right phrasing: “What is ‘Who you gonna call?’”

(12) CALL ME. “How ‘Bambi’ & Horatio Hornblower Helped Launch William Shatner & Captain Kirk: The Film That Lit My Fuse” – the headline of Deadline’s mini-review of You Can Call Me Bill is really the best part. You can skip the rest.

(13) WHEN MAY THE FOURTH IS WITH YOU. We reported Disney+’s upcoming Star Wars: Tales of the Empire series yesterday. Here’s the trailer. Arrives May 4.

(14) DIRECT FROM 1997. Hear the author’s musical selections on BBC Radio 4’s “Desert Island Discs, Iain Banks.

This week’s castaway is an author. In his book The Wasp Factory, the teenage protagonist tortures insects, experiments with bombs and kills a brother and a cousin. But, says Iain Banks, that was “just a phase he was going through”. He tells Sue Lawley how, as a writer, he has not developed the filters that most adults do and so views the world with childlike eyes, describing what he sees. And this world, he feels, is very often a violent and terrifying one.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Mohammed’s Radio by Warren Zevon
Book: The Complete Monty Python Television Scripts by Monty Python
Luxury: Front Seat Of A Porsche

(15) FIRST QUARTER. JustWatch has released their latest data report on market shares in the US for the first quarter of 2024. The report is based on the JustWatch users in the US selecting their streaming services, clicking out to streaming offers and marking titles as seen. 

  • SVOD market shares in Q1 2024: Global streaming giant: Prime Video took the lead in the US streaming market with shares more than the combined size of Disney-owned companies: Hulu and Disney+. Meanwhile, Netflix maintains its stronghold with more than 2x the shares than that of Apple TV+.
  • Market share development in 2024: Leading streaming growth into 2024 are Apple TV+, Netflix, and Paramount+, each adding +1% to their shares. On the other hand, Hulu, Disney+, and Max struggled to keep up, individually suffering through a -1% decline since January.

(16) CHIP OFF THE VERY OLD BLOCK. Live Science is there when “NASA engineers discover why Voyager 1 is sending a stream of gibberish from outside our solar system”.

…In March, NASA engineers sent a command prompt, or “poke,” to the craft to get a readout from its flight data subsystem (FDS) — which packages Voyager 1’s science and engineering data before beaming it back to Earth. 

After decoding the spacecraft’s response, the engineers have found the source of the problem: The FDS’s memory has been corrupted.

“The team suspects that a single chip responsible for storing part of the affected portion of the FDS memory isn’t working,” NASA said in a blog post Wednesday (March 13). “Engineers can’t determine with certainty what caused the issue. Two possibilities are that the chip could have been hit by an energetic particle from space or that it simply may have worn out after 46 years.”…

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