Captain America: The First Avenger

This movie has been out for a while and I just saw it a couple of days ago.

I enjoyed it... it coulda been better.

The movie takes place in the 1940s, but it was made to set up the Avengers movie, which takes place in the present day. So that gave pretty short shrift to Cap's adventures throughout WWII (as told in the contemporary to WWII Captain America comic book), and to Nick Fury (who does not appear at all) and the Howling Commandoes. [Yes, I said Nick Fury doesn't appear at all. There is a character with that name in the movie, at the very end, but that isn't the real Nick Fury, I don't care what anybody says!]

I've been reading the IMDB message boards about the movie, and there are a couple of threads about the multi-racial/ethnic Howling Commandos. The ignorant (aka unknowledgeable, not stupid) posters have been set straight - that wasn't an invention of the movie makers - in the 1960s comic series entitled Nick Fury and the Howling Commandoes, that's who was there - the Free Frenchman, the Englishman, the African-American. Truth to tell I don't remember a Nisei being with the team, but it's possible.

(Japanese immigrants and even first generation citizens were interred during the War, but the US Army actually had the gall to draft the boys of fighting age and send them off to battle - albeit in the Western theater, not the Eastern. And these Nisei troops proved their courage and their patriotism over and over again - I think they were the most wounded, and the most decorated outfit in the Western theater over the course of the war.)

Anyway, the ending was an anti-climactic disappointment.

Spoilers below.

As anyone familiar with the story of Captain America knows, the comic book ran during World War II, and after the war, ceased pubication. The comic featured Steve Rogers and his sidekick, Bucky - who was only 16 or so and the camp mascot - not a grown up soldier.

In the 1960s, the character was resurrected. The Avengers, cruising around the North Atlantic, find an iceblock calved off an iceberg, and inside it is Captain America, who has been frozen since the end of the war. He thaws and wakes up screaming, "Jump, Bucky, jump!"

Turns out, the Red Skull has been defeated and is escaping in a plane. Cap and Bucky jump onto the plane, intending to bring it down. Then Cap realizes its been booby-trapped and the Red Skull isn't aboard. (There's no threat to the US). Cap slips off the plane, Bucky doesn't, and so dies. Cap falls into the North Sea, gets frozen, and wakes up 25 years later.

In the movie, the Red Skull is flying the plane toward the US, where its set to crash into the capitol and will kill thousands of people. So Cap heroically steers the plane straight down into the Arctic icecap.

The problem? Why does he do it? It wasn't clear to me that, once he'd set the plane heading straight downward, he couldn't have just jumped out of the plane with a parachute. (He still could have hit the ground, been knocked unconscious, and been frozen, but I guess the movie makers wanted him found inside the plane.)

Second problem. The anticlimactic part.

While Cap is piloting the plane into the Arctic ice, he and love interest Peggy Carter have a dialog, where they're talking like he's going to meet her at a restaurant at 8 pm in the next week.

Then his voice goes silent, and she starts to cry.

What should have happened was that the movie switches back to present day, where Cap's frozen body has just been found, and while he's still unconscious, somebody says, "that's Captain America. We need him now more than ever."

Instead, what happens is, he wakes up in what looks like 1940s US, with a baseball game going.

We think to ourselves... oh, no, he's just been dreaming all this? We've been tricked?

No. Because the baseball game Cap is listening to is not one that took place after he disappeared, but rather one that took place before he even became Captain America. How stupid is that? THat's his clue that he's being tricked, so he breaks out of the room, out of the building, and runs into high-tech Times Square, where some guy named Nick Fury (portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson) approaches him and explains they'd wanted to acclimate him slowly to the truth, that he's been asleep for 70 years.

"I had a date," says Steve.

If they had to do this, why couldn't they just have had Steve go to the restaurant, and find the very aged Peggy Carter sitting there. She sees him, she's happy, she dies. That would have been poignant.

So, flawed, but enjoyable. And a helluva lot better and more worthy to be viewed than My Idiot Brother or Don't Be Afraid of the Dark!

Musing about religion

Pat Summitt announced today that she was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers. She's only 59, she's in relatively good health, physically-wise, she could live for another 40 years with no memory of who or what she is, how to go to the bathroom, how to clean up after herself.

When the announcement was posted on the Summitt message boards, a lot of Summitt fans started posting their horror and dismay. And most of 'em said, "She and her family will be in my prayers."

And I'm thinking, Jee-sus.

It's getting worse now. Now they're saying stuff like:

Don`t b angry [...]. God has plans for all of us. Pat has touched many lives and God will allow her to touch many more with this illness. He knows she can handle this and in a way that His glory will be shown.

AND

God chooses a person like Pat to carry out his work. My thoughts are he has a plan, and Pat has been called upon to lead the charge

Such homilies just want to make me vomit on the ground.

I'm an atheist, and have been since I was 13. I simply don't understand how people can believe in God. But, it's worse than that. Looking at the absolute misery that has infested 90% of this planet for thousands of years, looking at the mistery now - the starvation in Somalia, the starvation in the Sudan, etc. etc. and etc., and there's still millions of people who can say, "Oh, God loves us."

If you believe God exists, and you see what he wroughts, how in the world can you worship such a psycho? And frankly the same thing would hold true for Islam, I would think. You've got a religion that refers to Allah/God as the merciful and the compassionate...would such a God really tell his followers to go out and kill all unbeleivers? Why worship such a God?

Apparently Pat still maintains her faith that God will give her strength to "fight this battle," and I would not for the worlds tell her that there is no god, she's going to have to fight this battle with doctors and money cuz prayer won't accomplish shit - it never has - but when you're in the grip of a deadly disease of course you grasp at all straws (though why anyone would grasp at the straw of religion I simply don't understand), but for those who are admirers of this woman, to talk so blithely of "God's plan" and "God's glory" - Jeez, it's just sickening.

THere is no god, there's just us. We can't depend on prayer to get us to a point where civilization prevails against the monsters at the gate - and within the gates - we've got to do it ourselves.

The Hobbit Production Video Diary 3

Peter Jackson kept a video diary. This episode has Andy Serkis, the various dwarf actors and Ian McKellen.

It's interesting to see that they're working in front of a green screen - all the scenery is apparently going to be CGI.

Spiderman: Reflections of a Rock Superhero

Way back in the early 1970s, 2 records were put out. One was Spiderman, and starred Rene Aberjoinnois as Peter Parker/Spiderman and Thayer David as the Kingpin, and the other was Spiderman, Reflections of a Rock Superhero.

A few tracks are up on Youtube. This particular song, Count on Me, is my absolute favorite.

Booklist: The Ice Finders: How a Poet, a Professor, and a Politician Discovered the Ice Age

Began this on July 15, finished it about three days later...but just to be safe I'll say July 20.

The Ice Finders: How a Poet, a Professor, and a Politician Discovered the Ice Age, by Edmond Blair Bolles, 1999


Description from Amazon

This is an entertaining, often irreverent, history of the scientific discovery of the Ice Age. Bolles is fascinated by the way in which scientific knowledge advances. He challenges the notion that it proceeds in a rational and orderly manner, always building on previous knowledge. People, he claims, "learn unsuspected things, pulling knowledge, like rabbits, from empty hats," and often, convincing scientists of a new idea is more a matter of politics than of science. As an example of this theory, he weaves together the biographies of three important players in the great Ice Age debate.

Bolles focuses on Louis Agassiz, the naturalist who first theorized the Ice Age in 1837, but was unable to persuade the scientific community to accept his findings for almost 20 years. Second is Elisha Kent Kane, an adventurer and poet whose report on his journey to the north of Greenland in the 1850s provided the popular imagination with the vision of immense seas of ice at the Pole pouring great rivers of ice into the Atlantic and Greenland seas. Finally, Bolles writes of Charles Lyell, the great Scottish geologist whose book The Principles of Geology ignored the possibility that glaciers were capable of changing the earth's surface, and who resisted the notion of the Ice Age for many years after Agassiz had theorized about it. A master politician among his colleagues, once he was convinced of the theory, it became more widely accepted. Bolles claims that it was only the interaction among these three individuals, and many others who are mentioned in passing, that led to a lasting new understanding of the world in which we live.

The Adventures of Casanova (1948) starring John Sutton!

So okay, it really starred Arturo de Cordova as Casanova, but the only reason why I watched it was because of John Sutton.

Casanova is changed from a lover to a Zorro-type character returning to his home to fight against the invaders, in this case the villainous Comte de Brissac played by John Sutton. Sutton of course steals the films, in his all-too-few scenes.

The actor who plays Bernardo is Fritz Leiber, the father of Fritz Leiber Jr., the science fiction writer. [Leiber Jr, wrote a funny (albeit confessional) story entitled "237 Talking Statues, etc.", inspired by his difficult relationship with his father, in which Francis LeGrand II is confronted by the statues and paintings of the title, all self-portraits of his father in various roles, with which he discusses his relationship with his father.]

(Sorry it's in so many parts but my laptop was behaving very badly while I was doing this).

UK: Musical scores for silent firms unearthed in Birmingham

From the Guardian, UK: Musical scores for silent firms unearthed in Birmingham
Hundreds of musical scores used to accompany silent films in cinemas more than 80 years ago have been discovered in the collection of Birmingham city council's music library, including a theme tune used in early Charlie Chaplin films.

About 500 scores have been uncovered, many including the full parts for small orchestras of between seven and 11 players, not just a pianist. Judging by the titles, the often-fragmentary pieces were selected thematically to accompany similar plotlines. They are frequently self-explanatory: the mysterious manor house, exciting-dramatic, harrowing, creepy-creeps, wild chase, supreme peril, the poisoned cup and mounted police gallop.

"We don't actually know where they came from as they were in separate collections," explained Ali Joyce, the head of the music library. "They seem to have been in our basement for 30 to 40 years.

"We think groups of musicians would travel round cinemas and match the music to the situations in the films."

The Chaplin theme – Marche Grotesque – appears to be a unique example of a score written for a particular artist. It dates from 1916 at the height of the British-born actor's early fame as a worldwide star and was for use when his tramp character appeared on screen. It was composed by Cyril Thorne, a long-forgotten musician who wrote mood music.

The scores have the names of Louis Benson and HT Saunders stamped on them, the latter thought to have been a musical director at cinemas in Glasgow.

Neil Brand, an early film historian said: "This collection gives us our first proper overview of the music of the silent cinema in the UK from 1914 to the coming of sound. Its enormous size not only gives us insights into what the bands sounded like and how they worked with film [but also] the working methods of musical directors. Above all, it gives the lie to the long-cherished belief that silent films were accompanied on solo piano by little old ladies who only knew one tune. When they are played we will hear the authentic sound the audiences of the time would have heard."

Some of the tunes will be heard for the first time in 80 years next Tuesday – not even the librarians have heard them yet – at the launch of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's film music festival, when they will be performed at a free pre-concert event by Ben Dawson, the CBSO's pianist.

The Green Lantern

I went to see The Green Lantern yesterday, and didn't really care for it.

It starts out with the same old character tropes - the hero is an irresponsible womanizer who is given great powers, doesn't think he can handle them, his brilliant friend and beautiful girlfriend point out to him what he doesn't realize himself, then he gets an epiphany and goes out to save the world.

There's another trope I didn't care for. Irresponsible handsome character gets to be the hero, irresponsible ugly character gets turned into a deformed monster. Yes, let's teach all children that the good or evil inside someone is represented by their facial features.

Other than that.... the movie was certainly a bit too rushed in some spots, draggy in others.

There seems to be a blooper, Sinestro takes his hand-picked Lanterns flying toward Parallax - who is coming closer to Earth, then in the next scene he's present to scoff at Hal Jordan's training, in the next scene he's watching his Lanterns being destroyed by Parallax, and the next scene he's back talking to the elders (shades of the high chairs in Buckaroo Banzai).

Then there's the trope that only a "maverick" human can save the universe...yet what Hal did to destroy Parallax wasn't really all that original of an idea, you telling me all those other Lanterns couldn't have figured that out? Although they didn't have the advantage of possessing the ring of the Lantern who had imprisoned Parallax in the first place, so they couldn't have gotten him to follow them blindly right into a sun...

But of course, it's the "high noon" trope at the end, only Hal can save Earth, meanwhile the Lanterns don't show up until the very end, where they have to save the unconscious Hal from falling into the sun himself.

I'd give it a 6 out of 10. Definitely not for any kids under 13, I'd think, because the transformation of Hector Hammond into a monster is pretty gross, as is Parallax and the way he kills people.

Remembering Martin H. Greenberg, the Green Bay Packager

JSOOnline (Milwaukee): Remembering Martin H. Greenberg, the Green Bay Packager

Martin H. Greenberg edited and organized so many collections and anthologies of science fiction, fantasy, mystery and other writing, he was sometimes called the Green Bay Packager.

Greenberg, a retired University of Wisconsin-Green Bay professor, died June 25 at age 70. While still teaching at the university, he began a sideline of editing anthologies and packaging books, working with some of the biggest names in popular fiction, including Isaac Asimov, Tom Clancy, Stephen King and Sue Grafton.

"He helped publish more than 2,500 books, including novels, anthologies, and nonfiction works," according to a statement in the obituary that his family published in the Green Bay Press Gazette.

In a 2001 article, the Journal Sentinel's Dave Tianen described the range of Greenberg's many entertaining fiction collections:

"The books Greenberg has published cover an enormous range of topics and interests. A sampling of titles includes 'Alien Pregnant By Elvis,' 'Election Day 2084: Science Fiction Stories About the Future of Politics,' 'Single White Vampire Seeks Same,' 'Weird Tales from Shakespeare' and 'Sherlock Holmes in Orbit'."

As anthologist and book packager, Greenberg might conceive the concept for a collection, seek stories that fit the concept, negotiate the necessary permissions with the authors and other rights holders, and see the book through to publication. He often worked with co-editors, some of whom were big-name writers in their fields. According to a Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America post, Greenberg and Asimov edited more than 120 anthologies together.

In his academic career, Greenberg was a political scientist with a specialty in terrorism and national security.

Surprisingly, for a guy who was involved in so many books it would take a supercomputer to compile his bibliography, Greenberg told Tianen he worried about coming up dry:

"I was always scared I'd run out of ideas. A lot of it is simply reading the news, trying to stay a little bit attuned to pop culture. My youngest daughter, Madeline (14 in 2001), tries to make her old father hip. She's a reader and she loves science fiction conventions."

"The most remarkable thing about Marty," writer and frequent collaborator Mike Resnick posted on Facebook, "is that he sold over 2,000 anthologies and packed some 700 novels without making a single enemy along the way."

David Troughton as Richard III

David Troughton as Richard III on stage

The audio version, which I have.

I recently acquired a 3-CD set of the RSC's production of Richard III from 1996, starring David Troughton as Richard III. (Unfortunately John Nettles, who played Buckingham in the stage version, is not on this audio version. However, the only reason why I got this version was because Charles Simpson is in it - playing the Earl of Richmond (Henry VII) - who was also a different actor in the stage version.)

David Troughton gives an excellent portrayal of RIII (as I call him) but what's so eerie is that he sounds exactly like his father, Patrick. If you didn't know it was David, you'd swear it was Patrick.

James Cameron Helps Open New Avatar Exhibit in Seattle

InternationalBusinessTimes: James Cameron Helps Open New Avatar Exhibit in Seattle
A music and popular culture museum in Seattle is hoping to draw fans of the Oscar-winning film "Avatar" to its new exhibit. The showcase at the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame opens on Saturday at noon, after a large opening event on Friday.

Director James Cameron, visual effect artist Richie Baneham, and actors from the movie including Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, and Laz Alonso will appear at Friday's event and host panels during Saturday's opening.

The exhibit, built by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, will explore how James Cameron brought Pandora and its inhabitants to the big screen with props and costumes as well as hands-on exploration of the creative process used to build the world in the science fiction movie.

The museum will be the first of its kind to showcase artwork and props from the blockbuster film. Visitors will be able to use several interactive displays and try a virtual camera to see how the motion capture filming of actors fits in with the virtual world created on computers.

Another interactive exhibit allows visitors to become an actor under the "direction" of Cameron, using motion capture technology. Participants can then post a copy of their video on YouTube.

EMP is open 10:00am to 7:00pm daily and is located in downtown Seattle. There is no extra charge for the Avatar showcase, and the museum's other exhibitions include the recently opened Nirvana: Taking Punk the Masses, Battlestar Galactica, and Jimi Hendrix: An evolution of Sound.

If you can't make it to Seattle, the Avatar exhibit is expected to travel throughout the United States, Canada, and beyond once its run at EMP ends late in 2012.

Leonard Nimoy Says Phoenix Comicon May be Among his Last Public Appearances, Talks Today's Science Fiction Films

CollegeTimes.com: Leonard Nimoy Says Phoenix Comicon May be Among his Last Public Appearances, Talks Today's Science Fiction Films

Phoenix Comicon may be one of Leonard Nimoy's last public appearances before he goes into retirement, according to Spock himself.

The actor and science-fiction legend says he just doesn't feel the need for it anymore, emotionally or financially, and that he would rather focus more on his photography.

"Several museums now hold my work around the country," he says. "But the most important [reason] is my family. I have a great family life, with wonderful people that I love dearly. I've had a great, great run and I'm a very grateful guy."

College Times caught up with Nimoy in advance of this year's Phoenix Comicon, in which he'll unveil a presentation full of photos and stories of his time working in the industry, including his time on "Star Trek."

College Times: You started as Spock in 1966. What are your thoughts on the evolution science fiction through the years?

Nimoy: Science fiction has replaced the western that we used to do. Western is one of the frontier stories, and science fiction deals with those frontier issues. The way Indians used to be portrayed as the bad people, now we have Vulcans and other aliens as bad people. It has become the new final frontier, because of conflict between the nasty people there. Technology, of course, has evolved exponentially. It's just exploded and that has changed science fiction drastically. The first science fiction work I did was in 1960, I did a project called "Zombies of the Stratosphere." It's really funny to look back on it now, because it is so limited in special effects. The bombast and the gigantic creatures and explosions of today are just extraordinary. It's all about post-production these days.

Is technology one of the elements of a good science fiction story?

Well, the question is what's the story? To me, that's always important, because if you take away all the bombast and the crashes and fires and explosions, I'm interested in the story. Is there something intriguing? Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.

Where did the Vulcan gesture come from?

That came from when I was a child, and I would attend holiday services with my family. When the congregation is blessed by members of the priestly tribe of the Hebrew congregation, they say "May the Lord bless you, may the Lord cause his countenance to shine upon you, may the Lord turn his graces upon you and grant you peace." They were doing this in a way where they were shouting, and they held their hands out to the audiences with that gesture; the split fingers. I learned how to do it afterward and learned what it was all about; it is the shape of the letter in Hebrew that begins the word for God. They were evoking God's name as they bless the congregation.

You also introduced Spock's Vulcan Death Grip, the famous pinch on the neck, correct?

I did, because I didn't want to be punching people or have a weapon.

Because you injected some of yourself into Spock, do you find yourself more similar or different to him?

I've been told I take on his stoic characteristic. But on the other hand, my training as an actor was to use my emotions, and to express emotional responses in specific situations. Spock called for the opposite – he called for ultimate control of his emotions. I had to find a way to do that. It was my job in portraying this particular character, so I dug into my tool kit and I went to work. It took a little time to find my footing and make sure I could do that without being boring.

Spock has become a true pop culture icon. Why do you think this is?

I think people can really identify with him. At times, his wit is very clever. He's also very loyal and helpful. It's interesting – over the years, as much as we talk about Spock being a Vulcan and an alien and all that, if you really stop to think about it, he's really a human character. He's dealing with his own personal issues which are very human issues, because there's the conflict of logic and emotion in his life. And people get that and they understand that and relate to it.

Putting South African science fiction on the map

Guardian.co.uk Books Blog: Putting South African science fiction on the map

Last month, Lauren Beukes scooped one of the science fiction world's major literary awards - and in doing so, heralded something of a coming of age for South African speculative fiction.

Beukes - who describes herself as "an author, scriptwriter and recovering journalist" - won the prestigious Arthur C Clarke award for her second novel, Zoo City. The previous weekend the novel was on the five-strong shortlist for the British Science Fiction Association awards, missing out to Ian McDonald's The Dervish House at the major genre gathering Eastercon in Birmingham. But the Arthur C Clarke award – which saw Beukes beat McDonald – will be more than compensation, as will the news at the weekend that she has been shortlisted in the John W Campbell award for best new writer, to be revealed alongside the Hugo nominations in the US in August.

Beukes's novel is published in the UK by the relatively young imprint Angry Robot, which also published her debut, Moxyland. Both novels are genre-busting, fast-moving affairs that offer something comfortingly familiar yet excitingly exotic – a novel that springs, obviously, from a foreign culture, yet which is written in English, and with British and European reference points as well as home-grown ones.


Zoo City, the novel which has brought Beukes so much attention (godfather of cyberpunk William Gibson is one high-profile fan) is a mash-up of near-future SF and urban paranormal fantasy, a noirish clash of sub-genres that is refreshing for its Johannesburg locales. Zinzi is one of the "animalled" – people with some kind of stain on their conscience who magically acquire an animal familiar which follows them around and amplifies their psychic talents. Think Pinocchio or Philip Pullman written by Raymond Chandler and you're maybe a quarter of the way there.

Of course, if Beukes's success in the awards were isolated, that wouldn't constitute anything like a "scene". But since 2009, when Neill Blomkamp's District 9 shocked Hollywood by being a thoughtful, intelligent, action-filled science fiction movie that came from South Africa, of all places, there seems to have been a growing spec fiction movement.

Around the same time Zoo City landed on my doormat, so did a proof of The Mall by SL Grey, to be published on 1 June by Corvus Books. Despite the fact that this novel is described as a cross between Fight Club and the Saw movies – a marketing move that might well get the torture-porn crowd interested but didn't tempt me – I've been impressed by Corvus's speculative fiction output so far (such as Jeff Vandermeer's Finch and Chris Becket's Holy Machine) so gave it a go.

And when I finished it, pretty much in a couple of sittings, I found myself creeped out to an extent that no horror story had achieved for a long time. I put it down next to Zoo City and realised that there was something very special coming out of South Africa. I contacted Louis Greenberg - one half of the writing team SL Grey, along with Sarah Lotz, who also writes zombie novels as Lily Herne – and he confirmed that what had been a feisty, small-press community scene was now moving determinedly centre stage.

The leading lights among the SA scene seem to include horror writer Joan De La Haye, fantasy author Craig Smith, and Andrew Saloman, who has just made yet another shortlist with his novel Lun – this time, for Terry Pratchett's Between the Lines award, which looks for debut speculative fiction authors.

As you might expect, a lot of South African writing is informed by the country's own recent history – how could it fail to be? Apartheid rears its head in one form or another both in Zoo City, where the animalled are segregated, and in The Mall, where the "browns" find their way from our world to the book's nightmarish mirror-world. And that, perhaps, is part of the attraction: speculative fiction works best when it refracts real life through a fantastical lens, and magnifies, and perhaps tries to make sense of, the mundane. South Africa has had a lot of real life in the past few decades.

Beukes is certainly doing her bit to put South African SF on the map. With SL Grey coming up next and their fellow authors grabbing a lot of attention, it might well be that South African spec fiction is going to be this year's Scandinavian crime novel scene for British readers.

The Coldest Equations, by Caroline Miniscule

My latest book published for the Kindle is now available for purchase. (And within a couple of days, should be available for Barnes&Nobles Nook as well.)

It's science fiction.

Tracy Karlovassi, actress, is the star of the science fiction TV series The Coldest Equations, in which she plays Miranda Rainbird, security team leader for a corporation that deals in space travel. It is the near future, and these civilian corporations devoted to space travel have become little worlds of their own, with security agents protecting their own engineers and scientists from kidnap or spying, while at the same time spying on other corporations and attempting to kidnap their scientists and engineers.

Whenever a TV series on our earth is committed to celluloid, it is immediately created as an alternate earth, that exists just as much as our own does. And there are watchers -out there- who have devised a way to transport the actors from the TV series to their real life counterparts on the alternate earth, and vice versa.

In the TV series (and on the alternate earth) Miranda Rainbird has been framed for a crime she did not commit, and is on the run from both friend and foe. If it *were* Miranda Rainbird on the run, she could doubtless solve all her problems, skilled agent that she is. But Tracy Karlovassi has been transferred into her body...and what can a mere actress do?

It's fun, it's suspenseful, if you like classic science fiction TV and books, you'll like it. And best of all, it's only $2.99!

Available now. Go to the Kindle store via your kindle and search for The Coldest Equations, or follow this link:

http://www.amazon.com/Coldest-Equations-People-There-ebook/dp/B0052NSRKK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1306369228&sr=1-1

Trips to the moon in classical antiquity? British exhibit finds sci-fi in unexpected places

Washington Post Entertainment: Trips to the moon in classical antiquity? British exhibit finds sci-fi in unexpected places
( Sang Tan / Associated Press ) - British Library in London: The exhibition explores science fiction through literature, film, illustration and sound and display the Library’s earliest science fiction manuscripts to the latest best-selling novels.

It’s science fiction, but not as we know it.

A genre usually associated with sinister aliens and rampaging robots is getting a makeover at the British Library, which uses 17th-century manuscripts, feminist literature, and even an advertisement for liquid beef to showcase the unexpected ways in which science fiction has influenced our world.

Exhibit organizers said Thursday that one of their goals was to show that sci-fi wasn’t just “The War of the Worlds” or “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.”

“It’s much, much wider than that,” said co-curator Katya Rogatchevskaia. “H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, they are fantastic influences, but it’s a very diverse genre.”

It’s in service to that diversity that Soviet, Chinese, and Bangladeshi writers feature prominently, as do female authors, such as “Frankenstein” creator Mary Shelley and Jane Loudon, whose 1827 book, “The Mummy,” is set in a futuristic Britain complete with weather control and steam-powered houses.

There’s a healthy helping of the obligatory pulp — “action-packed” tales featuring busty damsels being pursued by slimy beings — but there’s a host of lesser-known material too, such as 1914 postcards showing a futuristic Moscow dominated by soaring elevated trams, or a British satirical piece from the 1820s that features a massive vacuum tube sucking people and merchandise “direct to Bengal.”

One of the most striking pieces is the second century tale by Lucian of Samosata, whose story has a group of traveling adventurers being whipped into the air by a whirlwind and dropped onto the surface of the moon.

Lucian’s story was meant as a riff on travelers’ tall tales, but the British Library said some considered it one of the world’s first works of science fiction.

___
http://www.bl.uk/sciencefiction

Endeavour crew recreates 'Star Trek' movie poster

The only problem is the poster is from the "relaunch" of Star Trek, not the original, best series!

MSNBC: Endeavour crew recreates 'Star Trek' movie poster
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The six astronauts flying on NASA's final flight of the space shuttle Endeavour are a serious bunch, but they've got a fun streak too. Case in point: The astronauts apparently like the science fiction franchise "Star Trek" enough to re-enact its most recent movie poster.

Creating custom mission posters based on popular movies has long been a tradition for NASA shuttle and space station crews. [Gallery: NASA's Most Offbeat Mission Posters]

But while past mission posters have recreated the film versions of "Ocean's Eleven" or the Matrix and Harry Potter movies, the six-man STS-134 crew of Endeavour chose something a bit more space-y: the 2009 reboot of "Star Trek," directed by J.J. Abrams.

"That was my idea!" Endeavour mission specialist Drew Feustel told SPACE.com.

Feustel said he had seen the movie during a previous spaceflight, when he launched on Atlantis in May 2009 to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope.

"That movie came out basically the day we launched and we were fortunate to have that movie uplinked to us on orbit," Feustel said. "I really liked the movie. I thought it was pretty neat."

Endeavour's STS-134 astronauts are slated to launch aboard shuttle Endeavour from here at Kennedy Space Center on Monday at 8:56 a.m. EDT (1256 GMT). It will be the last voyage for Endeavour before the orbiter is retired. [Photos: Endeavour's Final Mission]

Advertise | AdChoicesAdvertise | AdChoicesAdvertise | AdChoicesSpace, the real final frontier
Feustel said he suggested the latest "Star Trek" film as the theme for the STS-134 poster, and the rest of the crew agreed.

But Feustel's crewmate Greg Chamitoff remembered it differently.

"I kept trying to remember whose idea that was, and I think it might have been mine," Chamitoff said in an interview.

Regardless of the origin of the poster idea, the crew seemed to unite behind the concept.

"A lot of us are ["Star Trek" fans]," Chamitoff said of the Endeavour astronauts.

The poster features the six astronauts looking stoically ahead, their faces each in half shadow, with a dark background and "STS-134" in Star Trek font underneath. Leading the crew, in the James T. Kirk position, is Endeavour commander Mark Kelly.

"It's a pretty close approximation," Feustel said of the finished product. "It looks pretty cool; we like it."

NASA and "Star Trek"
The poster is not the STS-134 crew's only connection to the famous science fiction TV and movie franchise.

In May 2005, mission specialist Mike Fincke appeared as an extra during the final episode of the show "Star Trek: Enterprise." He visited the set during vacation, along with fellow astronaut Terry Virts, who also appeared in the episode. Fincke played an NX-01 engineer on the fictional starship.

The International Space Station's Expedition 21 crew (the current crew is Expedition 27) also donned Star Trek uniforms for their mission poster in 2009.

On Endeavour's last mission before the orbiter is retired, the space shuttle will visit the International Space Station to deliver spare hardware and a new $2 billion astrophysics experiment to search for exotic particles.

In an odd side-note, Kelly and Chamitoff also have another movie-themed poster under their belt. Both astronauts were on the crew of NASA's STS-124 flight to the space station in 2008. That crew's choice of a film to emulate: "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." Kelly commanded that mission on the shuttle Discovery.

The mission's new name, according to the poster? "STS-124 and the Order of Discovery."

Wonderfest Attracts Thousands To Louisville

WLKY.com: Wonderfest Attracts Thousands To Louisville
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Hundreds of science fiction and horror movie buffs turned out for a blockbuster of an expo this weekend.

The 22nd Annual "Wonderfest" gave movie and TV geeks a plethora of pieces of media history to check out.

The expo feature movie memorabilia and pop culture merchandise that spanned several genres and decades.

"It covers everything. If it's science fiction, fantasy -- it's here. You can find stuff here you wouldn't even believe exists," Sci-Fi fan David Hodge said.

The event had a life-size replica of the "Lost in Space" robot and full size heads from characters from popular horror films.

It even had two former "Bond" girls.

Actors Caroline Munroe and Martine Beswick starred in three James Bond movies between the two of them. They were among the featured guests from Hollywood.

The behind-the-scenes crowd got some exposure, too. Special effects legend Lorne Peterson enthralled the crowds with his work on all the Star Wars films.

"It's pretty amazing to have that effect on the world. To have the things you did, people talk about when they grow up and they're inspired by that type of thing. For a model maker, I don't know if there's any equivalent," Peterson said.

Visitors to the expo came from as far away as New Zealand and Japan.

One of the show's biggest attractions was the model contest. More than 500 entries were on display for visitors to admire.

No, you are not losing your mind.

If there were posts here yesterday that you read, which are not here today, it's because...they're not here.

Blogger.com, the platform that hosts this blog, was down for much of yesterday afternoon and all night...just coming up now (11 am mountain time.) And all posts made yesterday have disappeared.

Supposedly, those posts will be restored. I'll give them a day to do so, and if not, will re-post them tomorrow.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

It's the 4th Annual Fantastic Plastic "I Can't Go to WonderFest" Sale!

I received a press release from Fantastic Plastic, and share it here:

It's the 4th Annual Fantastic Plastic "I Can't Go to WonderFest" Sale!
Every year, hundreds of fantastic modeling enthusiasts descend on Louisville, Kentucky for WonderFest, a weekend long extravaganza of science-fiction, movie, TV and fantasy modeling.

http://fantastic-plastic.com/onlinecatalog.htm

And every year, thousands more fantastic modelers bemoan our inability to travel to Louisville to join in the festivities -- and maybe score some great new model kits.

To provide a quantum of solace to those unable to make this annual pilgrimage, Fantastic Plastic presents its 4th Annual "I Can't Go to WonderFest" Sale.

For the next two weeks, you can enjoy deep discounts throughout the Fantastic Plastic Virtual Museum Store On-Line Catalog. Savings are as much as 30% on many of our most popular kits, while supplies last.

NOTE: Discounts apply to Fantastic Plastic Models products only. Unicraft and Masterpiece Models kits are not included.

The 4th Annual Fantastic Plastic "I Can't Go to WonderFest" Sale runs from Monday, May 9 through Sunday, May 22.

This is our one and only sale of the year. Don't miss out on these "fantastic" savings!

And for those attending WonderFest -- have a great time! (Oh, and you can buy at these discount prices, too!)

WATCH THE SKIES!!!

- Allen B. Ury
fantasticplast@aol.com

Why The End Of Stargate Universe Means Bad Things For Syfy

Sharing a sample post from a website called Spin Off Online:

SpinOffOnline: Why The End Of Stargate Universe Means Bad Things For Syfy

Saturday, May 7th, 2011 at 6:30am
by A moment of silence, please, for Syfy’s SGU: Stargate Universe, which finishes its run with Monday’s episode, “Gauntlet.” Not only am I personally sad about the show’s cancellation, I also think that it’s bad news for Syfy overall. After all: Where are the network’s science fiction shows now?

Sure, I like Being Human, Warehouse 13 and Haven as much as the next man – Well, unless the “next man” happens to be my wife, who really loves Haven – but I’m not sure how much claim to being science fiction either show has, with all three shows (Being Human and Haven especially, Warehouse 13 slightly less so) being more supernatural than science fiction. With the cancellations this year of both SGU and, earlier, Caprica, the network formerly known as SciFi finds itself leaning on Eureka and Sanctuary as its sole science fiction dramas. How did that happen?

(And don’t get me started on the prevalence of the network’s “reality” shows like Ghost Hunters, Destination Truth or Marcel’s Quantum Kitchen. For all the flack that the network gets for its wrestling coverage – and, admittedly, I’m not sure that it gets enough – I feel as if the increasing amount of reality shows goes relatively unchecked. When obvious rip-offs of existing, non-genre-related shows – Hollywood Treasure or Face-Off, say – make it on the network, I feel like something’s gone wrong with the commissioning process.)

It’s all about ratings, of course; SGU gets less bang for its buck than Sanctuary (It doesn’t help that it’s a more costly show to produce), and so the network has to go where the money is. But losing SGU – a show that I’ll admit didn’t really find its footing until the second season, even though I think there’s a lot to like in the first – feels like a mistake that could have been avoided had the network tried to wait out another year, despite ratings. It’s not just the “The show was getting better!” thing (Although it was, he whines, hopelessly), but also… Syfy doesn’t have a space opera show anymore. Is it just me that that feels… wrong to, somehow? Shouldn’t a science fiction network make a point of having a show set in space, just because?

I know, I know, I’m old fashioned: Science fiction doesn’t just mean space, and there’s more to Syfy than sci-fi, anyway (Hence the name change, after all). But even as I look forward to the new shows that Syfy has coming up – particularly Alphas, which I’m hoping will end up being Heroes done right – I feel as if something is missing without that essential outer space element, and Blood and Chrome is still some distance away. Maybe someone can shoot Myka and Pete into orbit in the next season of Warehouse 13 for an episode, just to stave off my hunger for orbital action.

Graeme McMillan