ArmadilloCon coming soon!

As many of you know Armadillocon is August 10-12. Dark Forces regulars Paul Benjamin, Paul Miles, Alan Porter, and me are all programming participants.

Here's a schedule of our panels:

FRIDAY

Fr2000PR Meet the Pros

Fri 8:00 PM-10:00 PM Pre-Function Area

Readers and writers are encouraged to mingle here. Don't be afraid to tell your favorite writers that you like their stuff.

All of us will be here. This is not to be missed as all the pros comes to this one, drink, and shoot the shit with everyone. Great time to meet people.

Fr2100De Ever lost your work in the bit bucket?

Fri 9:00 PM-10:00 PM DeWitt

Osborne*, Archer, Cardin, Carl, Latner, Miles

For those who are too young, the bit bucket was the container that caught all of the chad from punch tape and punch cards in the old days of computers. When some data was lost, we said, "It's in the bit bucket." How does this compare to the art of writing?

Fr2300Dz Why are most comic books that are made into movies so friggin' bad?

Fri 11:00 PM-Midnight de Zavala

Roberson*, Nakashima-Brown, Porter, Wilson, Miles, Klaw

Every once in awhile, a comic book movie will be great, but for the most part, they are terrible. Is it the screenplay? The director? The acting? The comic book? Or something else?

SATURDAY

Sa1000PC Autographing

Sat 10:00 AM-11:00 AM Phoenix Central

Picacio*, Benjamin, Crider, Dayton

Sa1200De Revolution SF

Sat Noon-1:00 PM DeWitt

Klaw*, Finn, Bey, Wilson, Blaschke, Porter

Being an editor for a small SF site can be challenging.

Sa1600Dz What should you have read this year?

Sat 4:00 PM-5:00 PM de Zavala

Klaw*, Siros, Crider, Lansdale, Mills, Reisman

Our experts will give you the low-down on the best books in the genre that have come out in the past year.

Sa1700De Surprising Your Audience

Sat 5:00 PM-6:00 PM DeWitt

Orive*, Barrett, Miles, Benjamin, Oliver, Richerson, MWells

Fans of the fantasy/horror/sci-fi genres are so familiar with plots and characters and twists that it's hard to surprise them anymore. What new cliches have been created because of the glut of genre-related TV shows or movies?

Sa1930Dz Reading

Sat 7:30 PM-8:00 PM de Zavala

Rick Klaw

Sa2000PN Who would win in a fight?

Sat 8:00 PM-9:00 PM Phoenix North

Bey*, Klaw, Allston, Siros, Lansdale

Would Godzilla beat the Death Star? Would Chow Yun-Fat out-gun Hans solo? Is Q a bigger bad-ass than Cthulhu? Our panelists will discuss the pros and cons of each match-up's fighting prowess, while totally ignoring input from the audience. Audience participation to annoy the panelists is encouraged.

Sa2000De Hypotheticals

Sat 8:00 PM-9:00 PM DeWitt

Porter*, Roberson, Sturges, Wilson, Blaschke, Benjamin

A role playing panel wherein comics professionals take a set of interlinked and developing hypothetical scenarios regarding the comic book industry and play them out. Theres no audience participation, other than the audience getting a lot of enjoyment out of it.

Sa2300Dz Doing the Nasty in the Pasty

Sat 11:00 PM-Midnight de Zavala

Gibbons*, Hitchcock, Porter, Moore, Chester

Is it possible to go back in time and not affect the future? Which books portray time travel well? Can you actually be your own grandparent?

SUNDAY

Su1000PN Before and After Xena and Buffy

Sun 10:00 AM-11:00 AM Phoenix North

Andersson*, Benjamin, Dayton, Kenner, Kosatka, Wheeler

Where Did All These Sword-Wielding, Monster-Fighting Women in Modern Lit Come From?

Su1100Dz The Small Press Boom

Sun 11:00 AM-Noon de Zavala

Cupp*, Person, Klaw, Roberson, Waldrop, Burton, Lansdale

Small press has never been more popular than it is today.

Su1100De Mythic Journeys

Sun 11:00 AM-Noon DeWitt

Wheeler*, Benjamin, Kosatka, Leahy, McHugh, Stoddard

The mythic stories and how our genre makes them fresh again.

Su1300PC Autographing

Sun 1:00 PM-2:00 PM Phoenix Central

Cupp*, Klaw, Leahy, Lansdale

Su1500PN Harry Potter and the Sword of Puberty

Sun 3:00 PM-4:00 PM Phoenix North

Gibbons*, Miles, Ambrose, Webb, Rountree

Now that Potter-mania is done, we can look back at the phenomena. Was it worth all the hype? What will Rowling do next now that she is richer than the queen? Will it win a Nobel Prize? Did it have any effect on the world? Will it be forgotten in 10 years?

Stop by and say howdy... We'd all love to see ya.

Quote from ComicCon

Peggy sent this little tidbit to the RevolutionSF editors forum. I'm not sure if she planned on sharing with everyone else but this is too good not to be shared.


From a Yahoo! article on the con:

"When you walk around the hall, it smells like a fart a lot of the time," observed first-time attendee Judd Apatow, director of the recent comedy hit Knocked Up. "Like just 'cause you're dressed as a storm trooper doesn't mean you can fart at will."

But what about an Elvis Stormtrooper?

A Shameless Plug

My The Simpsons Movie review is up at RevSF. This one is a little different since I actually co-wrote the piece with Brandy. I believe this is her first review credit.

One of the things we failed to mention in the review is that it's best to see the movie in the theater with a group of Simpsons fans. The communal atmosphere enhances the experience.

Marion Ravenwood Returns!

Okay, we know about the Watchmen cast. We know that Michael will be returning to Lost (I'm going to start practicing my cry of Waaaaaaaaaaallt! right now!). We even know that Sylar has joined the cast of the upcoming Star Trek movie as Young Spock. But the coolest news to come out of San Diego so far is the announcement that Karen Allen will be returning to the new Indiana Jones movie to reprise her role as Marion Ravenwood. Allen and Harrison Ford struck sparks aplenty in Raiders of the Lost Ark ("Well goddammit, Indy, where doesn't it hurt?"), and all of the other movies in the series have struggled to find someone capable of standing toe to toe with Indy (Sean Connery had the knack, but not romantically. That we know of. Ewww.).

Watchmen casting announced

Watchmen Powering Up With Castings
by Borys Kit

"Watchmen," the long-gestating big-screen adaptation of the seminal DC Comics limited series, has finally found its superheroes.

Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode, Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Malin Akerman have been cast in the Warner Bros. movie, which Zack Snyder is directing. Larry Gordon, Lloyd Levin and Deborah Snyder are producing.

Set in an alternate America, "Watchmen" follows costumed hero Rorschach, who is living a vigilante lifestyle because most masked heroes have retired or been outlawed. While investigating a murder, Rorschach learns that a former masked-hero colleague has been killed, prompting him to begin investigating a possible conspiracy.

Haley will play Walter Kovacs, aka Rorschach, who ignores the ban on costumed vigilantes. Crudup will play Dr. Manhattan, a superpowered being with godlike powers and temperament.

Akerman will play Laurie Juspeczyk/the Silk Spectre, who is involved with Dr. Manhattan -- but that relationship begins to fall apart as he becomes more disconnected from humanity.

Goode will play Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias, a costume adventurer who retired voluntarily, disclosed his identity and built a large fortune. He hatches a plot to avert a global catastrophe he believes will be caused by Dr. Manhattan.

Wilson will play the Nite-Owl, a crime-figher who uses technical wizardry and has an owl-shaped flying vehicle.

Morgan will play the Comedian, a cigar-chomping, gun-toting vigilante-turned-paramilitary agent.

continued...

Sunshine

I'm sure Rick is going to do a full bore review of Danny Boyle's (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later) new film Sunshine, but since I saw it with him, I figured I'd jot down some thoughts about the movie.

Sunshine starts out as pure hard science fiction--a diverse group of astronauts on a mission to deliver a bomb to reignite our dying sun. The effects and production design are wonderful throughout--all red, green, and gold; I think the film is worth seeing just for this. In fact, I might recommend trying to see it in digital projection (heresy!) like at the Highland 10.

As I said, Sunshine starts out as hard sf. It stays that way through the first two-thirds of the picture. Then it veers madly into cheapjack horror and freshman college dorm metaphysics for the final third. The ship diverts to rendezvous with its failed predecessor. As they are docked, the first captain---somehow not only still alive but transformed into a living god---slips onto their ship and goes a little knife happy, all while spouting stuff about Man's place in the universe.

This, by the way, is the point in the movie at which Rick started muttering to himself, twitching, and rocking back and forth in his seat. I guess you have to respect a man who is physically distressed by bad (or just unfortunate) film making. It raised some deep questions for me to ponder in the dark. Like, shouldn't there be tasers hidden underneath movie theater seats? Or if someone gets you into a movie for free, is it bad form to call an usher and have them tossed out?

Back to the picture. What annoyed me most about the ending was the statement it made that a simple film about the mission would not have been enough. Saving the sun struck me as a sufficient good old school sf type of quest. I was compelled by whether they would succeed before the film swerved. I think this is an sf film thing. In mysteries, for example, filmmakers seem to have enough trust in the basic sturdiness of the genre to not cop out and start telling a different type of story towards the end.

Another problem (and it might be me more than the movie) is that I just didn't buy
Cillian Murphy as the hero physicist. As we drove home, we discussed who'd made a less believable scientist and the only one we could come up with was Denise Richards' turn as Dr. Christmas Jones in The World is Not Enough. I wonder if this is a generational thing--maybe I feel the same way about actors like Murphy that others felt about Redford and Newman as they supplanted John Wayne and Gary Cooper. All I know is that my movie physicists wear ties and have crewcuts, not pouty lips, stringy hair and deep blue soulful eyes. . . .

Anyway, long winded, but even with all of its flaws, I'd recommend Sunshine. It's 2/3ds of a real sf movie, which is closer than most other films get. Besides, I told a guy at work Transformers wasn't all that bad, so I can't pan this with a straight face.

Some Potter Fans Find Pages Missing

Some Potter Fans Find Pages Missing

By DOUG GROSS Associated Press Writer


Harry Potter charmed millions of readers this weekend, but the spell was broken at least briefly for some fans when they found pages missing from their precious copies of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."



The book's publisher, Scholastic Inc., says a few hundred of the 12 million copies of the book are reported to have pages missing. The gaps have left hardcore Potterphiles rushing to stores to exchange them _ or filing them away as mementos of the book's epic release.

continued...



Clearly these people do not know a lot about book collectibles.

"I don't know who would buy it, but maybe when some of these crazy kids grow up, they'll want to have something like that," she said.

Yeah, right.


My favorite line:

"I'm just that psychotic about it," she said.

from SFSCope:

Weekly World News Shutting Down
By Ian Randal Strock	July 21, 2007
While it isn't strictly a genre publication, and it does bill itself as "The World's Only Reliable Newspaper," the editor has decided that this announcement does fall within SFScope's purview: American Media has decided to suspend publication of Weekly World News, both the print publication and the web site. No reason was given at press time, although reliable sources do tell us that management turned down at least one offer to buy the publication. The weekly supermarket tabloid—known as the home of "Bat Boy" and other less-than-probable stories—has long had staffing connections with the science fiction, fantasy, and horror fields. [Edited on 22 July to note that this article has more color on the news.] Well now where are we going to get our ideas?

Very Short Stories

From Wired:

We'll be brief: Hemingway once wrote a story in just six words ("For sale: baby shoes, never worn.") and is said to have called it his best work. So we asked sci-fi, fantasy, and horror writers from the realms of books, TV, movies, and games to take a shot themselves.

Dozens of our favorite auteurs put their words to paper, and five master graphic designers took them to the drawing board. Sure, Arthur C. Clarke refused to trim his ("God said, 'Cancel Program GENESIS.' The universe ceased to exist."), but the rest are concise masterpieces.


I'm not going to reprint all of them, just a selection that pertain or will have interest to our group.

• Failed SAT. Lost scholarship. Invented rocket. - William Shatner

• Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so. - Joss Whedon

• Automobile warranty expires. So does engine. - Stan Lee

• Machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time. - Alan Moore

• From torched skyscrapers, men grew wings. - Gregory Maguire
  

• With bloody hands, I say good-bye. - Frank Miller
  

• It cost too much, staying human. - Bruce Sterling
  

• 1940: Young Hitler! Such a cantor! - Michael Moorcock
  

• I’m dead. I’ve missed you. Kiss … ? - Neil Gaiman

• Easy. Just touch the match to - Ursula K. Le Guin
  

• Bush told the truth. Hell froze. - William Gibson
  

And a Dark Forces Special:

• We crossed the border; they killed us. - Howard Waldrop

• H-bombs dropped; we all died. - Howard Waldrop

• Your house is mine: soft revolution. - Howard Waldrop

• Warskiing; log; prop in face. - Howard Waldrop

• The Axis in WWII: haiku! Gesundheit. - Howard Waldrop

• Salinger story: three koans in fountain. - Howard Waldrop

• Rained, rained, rained, and never stopped. - Howard Waldrop
  

Husband misdiagnosed as insane

This is one of the scariest things I've ever read. Talk about hitting close to home!


Husband misdiagnosed as insane
2007-07-03 07:03:25

A Quebec woman is looking for redress after her husband was misdiagnosed as being insane.
Turns out, he actually had multiple sclerosis.
Anatole Otis was 50-years-old when his health began to deteriorate 14 years ago.
A neurologist told him he was insane.
A T-Q-S news report says it wasn't until 2004, 14 years after his initial diagnosis, that a second neurologist discovered the truth.
His wife, Carmen Plourde, believes appropriate medication would have slowed the disease's progression.
Otis has been confined to a bed for several years.
The Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada says the disease was difficult to diagnose as recent as the early 1990's.
Still, the group is stunned a neurologist confused multiple sclerosis with a mental illness.

Cops Raid Chicago Poetry Event!

This is beyond absurd and falls squarely into WHAT THE FILK?!?!


Cops Kick Lit Mags Out Of Private Art Gallery

The Zhou B. Art Center, 1029 West 35th St., turns into a poet's heaven for a few hours on Friday, June 20. America's ninety-year-old legend, Poetry Magazine, gets to strut its hip new strut with a free event called Printers Ball. This one promises to be the best Printers Ball of all, and I finally see that The Poetry Foundation is doing something good with the money it has inherited from Ruth Lilly. And there are free hotdogs!! How much more American can you get?

On the first floor there are tables stacked with magazines, books, anthologies, journals and small press zines, all of which are being given away free to whoever wants to grab one. Cool tote bags are given out while supplies last to carry the books in. There is a DJ spinning music in one room and a performance art exhibit in another. On the second floor a glee club sings new wave songs. The walls of the third floor are decorated with art. There are hundreds of people here, all celebrating literature and literacy peacefully. The Lumpen guys can be seen with the Chicago Review guys. Issues of Columbia Poetry Review sit next to issues of In These Times.

For the moment, I think I am in a poetry paradise. The party is only beginning.

And then a swarm police wearing bulletproof vests with badges on ropes around their necks like characters from The Shield illegally storm into this private art gallery. Without so much as a search warrant or even an explanation, five of them surround the DJ and demand he turn off Mark Morrison's "Return of the Mack." Issuing uncompromising threats, they force the DJ to announce over the microphone that without so much as a discussion EVERYONE MUST LEAVE THE PREMISES.

Like a scene out of Robocop, a small army, in ominous black bulletproof jumpsuits with CHICAGO POLICE in big white letters across their chests, arm the exits as hundreds of literate citizens file out into the night.

Continued...

Masters of Science Fiction

Starting August 4 the new ABC series titled Masters of Science Fiction presents a new adaptation of an sf story in each hour long episode.

The first four weeks include:

• "A Clean Escape" based on John Kessel's short story. Mark Rydell directs from a script by Sam Egan. Stars Judy Davis and Sam Waterson.

• "The Awakening" based on a Howard Fast story. Michael Petroni directs from his own script. Stars Terry O'Quinn, Elisabeth Rohm, and William B. Davis.

• "Jerry Was a Man" based on Robert Heinlein's classic short story. Michael Tolkin directs from the his own teleplay. Anne Heche and Malcolm McDowell star.

• "The Discarded" from the Harlan Ellison story (of course). Jonathan Frakes directs from Ellison's script. Stars Brian Dennehy, John Hurt and James Denton.

Listed on the website but not scheduled yet:

• "Little Brother" based on a short story from Walter Mosley. Directed by Damell Martin from Mosley's script. Clifton Collins, Jr. and Kimberly Elise star.

• "Watchbird" based on the Robert Sheckley short story written by Sam Egan (Anyone have any idea what they are talking about?) Directed by Harold Becker from the J. Michael Straczynski teleplay. Stars Sean Astin, James Cromwell and Sally Kellerman as the voice of The Watchbird.

While I'll scratch my head at some of these selections, I'm glad to see the talented John Kessel getting some attention. He wrote one of my favorite 1980s sf satires Good News From Outer Space. Anything that brings attention back to Robert Sheckley is a good thing. And Howard Fast... what an unexpected choice. Most people forgot he ever wrote science fiction. What's next, an adaptation of a John Jakes sf story?

Deathly Hallows

Pointless Waste of Time has posted a lot of great fake Harry Potter covers for grownups who might not want to be seen reading Deathly Hallows in public. Here's one of the cleaner ones. . . . .

Shameless Plug

My little review of Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz's 1986 comic Elektra Assassin is up at Revolution SF. Thanks to Alan for running it.

I took a sideways shot at the sort of folks who didn't get Sienkiewicz's art back in '86. After I submitted it and I was looking at the previous comics on the list, I ran into Paul Benjamin's New Mutants review. . . in which he says he didn't really get Sienkiewicz's art back in '86. Thank god we weren't going to the same store then. We might have been throwing hands in the aisles. (Sadly enough, the comic book store I was going to in 1986 is the exact same one I go to now).

"Green Brother"

For those of you who own (or in Paul Miles' case are in) Weird Business, be sure to check out the John Lucas-illustrated adaptation of "Green Brother" from Howard Who?

A little side note about Messrs. Miles and Lucas, in the 90s they produced (Miles wrote, Lucas drew) a serialized strip for the XLent, the weekly produced by The Austin-American Statesman. For the life of me, I can't remember the strip's name but it ran 8-10 weeks. I seem to recall it being a full page strip. I'm sure Paul could fill in the info gaps.

Rick

This is cool!

Of course, when the blog gets set up (thanks Rick and Erik!) I got *nothing*, absolutely nothing.

Following the Howard Waldrop theme, I remember the one time I did Turkey City (years and years ago). I'd written a story set in the 30s just over the border at a rogue clear channel radio station. I was worried that the subject would be too obscure and non "science-fictionny" for the group, but not only did Waldrop get it (get, not necessarily liked) but he had some cool reference stuff on miracle cures, essence of goat or something like that, which I had touched on in the story. I suspect you could toss any retro subject out at him and he'd have at least some knowledge of it.

My copy of Howard Who?

My copy of Howard Who? (1986) is actually part of Strange Things In Close Up, a collection of Waldrop's first two anthologies . The second being All About Strange Monsters of the Recent Past (1987). Oddly, this UK collection from Legend shows no pub date but it must be sometime before 1990 since after his inscription Waldrop wrote October 13, 1990. I presume that was ArmadilloCon that year. Before the mid-90s, Armadillocon always happened on Texas-OU weekend when the hotels were cheapest. I can't recall the reasoning for pushing it back to August. We all know how everyone loves to visit Austin in sweltering August as opposed to beautiful, cool October.

Rick

Le Guin on literature

This came to me via my buddy and Danger Boy creator Mark London Williams and I thought I'd share with the class. It's an article centering around Le Guin's belief that literature is just another brand of genre fiction... a subject often discussed at our meetings.

Rick

Blog bug

Erik and I encountered a bug when posting images. Here's the fix:

Some users are unable to upload images on the beta due to a fix made yesterday, 9/6. The solution for this particular problem is to clear your browser’s cache. Alternately, force-reloading the posting form (CNTL-F5 on Windows) should also solve the problem. (As a note, we appreciate your patience as we work through the hiccups and problems with image uploading in general.) — latest update on Thursday, September 07, 2006

Rick

Let's get the party started.. again!

After some phenagling, Erik and I determined that this would actually work better for our group. So here's a repost of the first message.

Even though this was Miles' idea, I'll make the first post because who knows when he'll get here. Initially the plan is to help facilitate discussion pre-meeting about whatever books we are discussing. I'd also like to use this forum to discuss possible forthcoming titles.



Here's the schedule for the next three months:

• August 8: Howard Who? by Howard Waldrop
• September 12: Pantheon High Volume 1 by Paul Benjamin and Steven Cummings
• October 10: Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson

Rick