Mabfan's Musings

http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2009_11_28.html

A belated Halloween video from the Muppets......

Tonight, at 7:30pm, a documentary will air on BBC Two Wales called The Real Merlin & Arthur. The basic premise? Colin and Bradley taking a ROAD TRIP TOGETHER to find out what they can about Merlin and Arthur. I approve. *thumbs up*

Here's a preview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzLlXFgLJr4

Can't wait!

*

P.S. Feel MUCH better this morning, so far. Still have a huge cough, but am not shaking/shivering anymore.

• @savageplanet – Hope you enjoy PRECIPICE; like its immediate predecessor, it's a "change of pace" story for the saga. in reply to savageplanet 03:20:56

Mirrored from davidmack.pro/blog.

http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2009_11_27.html

Among the most-read columns on this site are the ones I did about what I call Unfinanced Entrepreneurs — people who ask writers or artists to create work for them on the promise of money if and when the project...

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Sfsignal/~3/agPwSGrkNms/

Here are 6 reasons why you should visit the website of artist Jim Murray.

Mark at Walker of Worlds spotted some way-cool covers for the French release of Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga. The artist is Manchu and a quick visit to the website reveals tons of equally cool science fiction artwork.

The site (which is in French) is organized as a standard blog, so there is no convenient gallery page. A google image search of the site reveals some (but not all) of the tasty eye candy, so use these handy links to see more: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Sfsignal/~3/cBqEwBNKX8g/

The SyFy Channel is airing a re-imagined version of Alice in Wonderland called Alice, premiering Sunday December 6th.
Here's a behind-the-scenes peek:

More videos can be found here.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Sfsignal/~3/5EWNen7S7LA/

Interviews & Profiles

• Locus Online has interview excerpts with Cory Doctorow (Makers) and Jack Skillingstead (Are You There? And Other Stories).
• @The Dragon Page: J.C. Hutchins (Part 2)
• @The Literary Project: Dan Abnett.
• @Innsmouth Free Press: Malcolm Barber.

News & Articles

• Ann & Jeff VanderMeer's anthology Steampunk Reloaded is open to (reprint) submissions.
• Here's a book trailer for Aliette De Bodard's Servant of the Underworld.
• Jo Walton reveiws Seteven Brust's The Phoenix Guards.
• The website for the game Star Wars: Old Republic has some stellar wallpaper downloads. [via Super Punch]
• An Intersection of Art and Technology in the Early Space Race. [via Big Dumb Object]
• The Website at the End of the Universe on Science fiction recommendations for kids and teenagers.
• Mish Sci Fi Musings on Asimov and Socionomics.
• More pics emerge from Smallville, showing images of Michael Shanks as Hawkman, Britt Irvin as Stargirl, Brent Strait as Doctor Fate and Justin Hartley as Green Arrow. Holy bottom-of-the-hero-barrel, Batman!

Lists

• Techland identifies 2 Game-Changing SF Novels recently read.
• NY Times 100 Notable Books of 2009 includes titles by Lethem, Powers, and Atwood; Janet Maslin's Top 10 includes Stephen King's Under the Dome. [via Locus Online]
• BestScienceFictionStories lists 9 Christmas Gift Ideas: Movie Bundles Based on Science Fiction Short Stories.
• Ten Fantasy Meals Mary Robinette Kowal Would Rather Eat Than Thanksgiving Leftovers.
• @SFX: 14 Greatest Format-Breaking SF & Fantasy TV Episodes Ever.

Rough draft. To the tune of "We all just wanna be big rock stars", or for those of you in the filk community who don't listen to mainstream stuff, "(I Wanna Be A) Filkstar" by Curt "The Camera Guy"

I'm sick of being told I need to want all these things
Mansions, limos and yachts, purses, high heels and bling
That life comes with stuff that just isn't right for me.

(tell me what you want)

I want a good paying job and a decent boss,
Time to worship at the altar of Joss
A good sci-fi store and terrific library

(what, not lots of fame?)

I wanna choose my clothes because I like 'em
Wear pants without always having to hike 'em
Or a denim skirt that goes below halfway to my knee.

(Not the power and the fans?)

I wanna visit my family cross the nation
Get a nice one bedroom in a great location
Some coastal foodie city with museums and galleries.

(You're clearly nuts.)
I'm gonna shun that life of fortune and fame
I'm gonna stay a nerd and relentlessly lame

Cause I don't wanna be a big pop star
I don't like bling and I don't like cars.
My apartment's small and I like it that way
Don't wanna have to care what the tabloids say
They have to hang out with the Pussycat girls
Or Britney Spears, god I want to hurl
Supposed to be skinny and always chic
Buy all their clothes at some designer's boutique
Just no...
No no don't wanna be a pop star
No no don't wanna be a pop star

I wanna learn to throw pots and carve and sew
Make furniture and soap and help green things grow
Make blankets for the babies of folks that matter to me

(Another niece- need some more yarn)

I wanna have a kitchen with all the right pots
Make great comfort food but still eat out a lot
And all my dates will be with people that I want to see

(So here's what I'm gonna do)

I'm gonna shun that life of fortune and fame
I'm gonna stay a nerd and relentlessly lame

Cause I don't wanna be a big pop star
I don't like bling and I don't like cars.
My apartment's small and I like it that way
Don't wanna have to care what the tabloids say
They have to go to parties in designer dresses
Worry 'bout dropped food and other messes
Supposed to be gracious and never shy
Look cool even when the heat makes them fry
But I'll put my feet up in my favorite chair
Make a pot of earl green and let down my hair
Here's a stack of good books, haven't read 'em in a while
By Flint, Huff, Weber, Bujold, Lackey and Lisle.
Well...
Why, why would I wanna be a pop star?

Gonna expand my mind and indulge my senses
Live without starving or stylish pretenses
Hold a job I love, working on databases
And travel each year to all kinds of places.

Cause I don't wanna be a big pop star
I don't like bling and I don't like cars.
My apartment's small and I like it that way
Don't wanna have to care what the tabloids say
They have to wear jewels on each ear
And deck themselves with bling like a chandelier
Never leave the house in less than perfect style
Step onto the carpet to posture and smile
Meanwhile, I'm curled up in comfy old PJs
A pot of roiboos and fruit plate to graze
Haven't got any chores or appointments for a while
I think I'll start with that book by Holly Lisle.
Well...
Why, why would I wanna be a pop star?
Why, why, why would I wanna be a pop star?

You know the one. Okay, so here are the 5 questions from zephyrofgod :

1. What is your favourite activity outside the SCA and writing? Why?
Cooking. Except that's SCA too, isn't it? I love the physical act of creating something, all the little actions, and then the chemistry of seeing how, say, olive oil and onions marry together. And then luckily there's praise at the end of it. Or at least something really yummy for me to eat. There are so many nuances and components to my enjoyment of cooking, including the history, nostalgia, etc., that I don't feel I can fully articulate them.

2. What do you enjoy most about fighting? The least?
Heh. What I enjoy most about it is the sudden cheeky and cheerful descent to 12-year-old hooliganism. Melees are the best example of this. The least? So far my inability to completely understand what the hell I'm doing.

3. What's your favourite setting to write in? Why?
Oh, gosh, that's a good one. I have no idea. I like science fiction, but I also like history. History feels eminently voluptuous to me when I'm working in it; science fiction is an illuminated dance of joy. Dionysus and Apollo, if you like. I can't choose.

4. If you could pick up any skill, with money no object, what would you want to pick up? Why?
Music. Without a doubt. And that's not a question of money being an object, but a question of time and application and desire. Music is even more instant gratification than cooking is; but also it's given me limitless pleasure since I was 5. trouble is, I a only an observer, as it were, not a participant.

5. What's your favourite animal? Why?
I don't have one. I know that's not a satisfactory answer, but how can I choose among otters, wolves, tigers, lions, octopi, sharks, cuttlefish, mallards, lemurs, platypi, cats, owls....

And okay, I guess I'll do it too:

Here's the meme, courtesy of so many folks.

Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile."

• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity.

• Update your journal with the answers to the questions.

• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions--if you want to.

• Thanksgiving: Marshmallows aflame. Suicidal coffeemaker. Clogged toilet. Lessons I'll remember when I never do this again. 16:32:41

Mirrored from davidmack.pro/blog.

JPG: Thanksgiving III - sunset clouds

Posted using ShareThis

http://improbable.com/2009/11/28/project-2000-%e2%80%94-a-fond-look-back/

http://improbable.com/?p=7361

Ten years ago, people quivered as the year 2000 approached. Let’s look back, perhaps fondly, at Project AIRhead 2000. Announced in June 1994 (click here to see the announcement), the project celebrated every item, project or concept that had the number 2000 tacked onto its name in giddy anticipation of the coming millennium.

Between today and January 1, 2010, we will glimpse at some of the collection. How many of these things survived a full decade past Jan 1, 2000? You might enjoy doing some detective work to find out. (If you find anything especially interesting, please let us know!)

The first items in the collection, announced way back then in 1994, included “Biomek 2000 Laboratory Automation Workstation”; “Lever 2000 soap”; and “2000 Flushes automatic toilet bowl cleaner”.

http://worldsf.wordpress.com/2009/11/28/stanislaw-lem-on-philip-k-dick-a-visionary-among-the-charlatans/

http://worldsf.wordpress.com/?p=394

http://worldsf.wordpress.com/2009/11/28/henry-jenkins-on-the-pleasures-of-not-belonging/

http://worldsf.wordpress.com/?p=392

http://www.rixosous.com/2009/11/piratica.html

The advantage of long bus rides: much time to read while someone else deals with the traffic.

I was fully intending not to shop at Philcon, but how could I resist a Tanith Lee novel with the subtitle "Being a Daring Tale of a Singular Girl's Adventure Upon the High Seas"?  I hadn't realized Tanith Lee wrote YA fiction, but I was certainly game to try it.

Piratica is the tale of one Artemesia Fitz-Willoughby Weatherhouse, daughter of deceased pirate queen Molly Faith and currently a student at the Angels Academy for Young Maidens in the year Seventeeen-Twelvety in an England that is just a bit different from our own.  This is a fantasy world in the swashbuckling romance-of-piracy sense, not in the dragons-and-magic sense, though there are some unusually well-trained parrots.  Artemesia has some memory problems as after-effects of the cannon explosion that killed her mother, but once she remembers her past (or does she?), she doesn't stay long at the Academy.  Enter one Art Blastsides, would-be pirate queen; her parrot Plunqwette; and her scurvy crew, currently working as adverteers for a coffee magnate....[spoiler-free thoughts below]

http://www.universalhub.com/2009/flipped_over_car_at_boylston_mass_ave

Photo of the car after the accident after 10 p.m. today. Boston Police tweet injuries were involved, but that they were not likely fatal.

Photo via BostonTweet.

read more

Chirp!

11:40 WEBS was surprisingly fuller than expected. Yarn, acquired. Much knitting commences. #yarn

11:52 And now, for hockey! Devils vs. Bruins. Go Devils!

12:31 Oooh and Brodeur sets the record today for most minutes played! Woohoo!

12:32 I forgot Sestito from the AHL Springfield Falcons now plays for the NJ Devils. :D

12:59 And there it is! Brodeur gets another all-time record.

23:51 No greater love love hath a person than this: she wakes up early on her day off to drive to another state to help a friend move.

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

http://sfwriter.com/2009/11/reading-of-earthfall.html

I very much enjoyed the WILDsound staged reading at the National Film Board theatre of my TV pilot script for a proposed series called Earthfall tonight.

The cast and the narrator (who read the stage directions) did a great job, but the script had been redacted (to my surprise) with the vast majority of the stage directions omitted -- which might have been fine if the actors had actually been fully acting out the scenes, rather than just by and large reading into microphones on stands. Maybe as author, I'm too sensitive, but I think a lot of what was going on emotionally in the scenes that was there on the page was lost in this process. For instance, here's the beginning of Act III as written, but only the parts in boldface were actually read to the audience:

---

EXT. OPEN FIELD - NIGHT

There's a mostly full moon, providing light. Hannah and Bryce walk through the forested margin at the edge of the road and emerge in an open field; a stand of additional trees is twenty metres ahead of them.

Things are still tense between them. They're not holding hands; there's physical distance between them; they're looking in opposite directions.

Bryce looks up at the sky and traces an imaginary line with his index finger.

THE NIGHT SKY - CONTINUOUS

The Big Dipper is clearly visible, as is the North Star.

BRYCE (V.O.)
There. Polaris.
Hannah turns around, getting her bearings. She nods.

HANNAH
So I was right.
They're in the middle of nowhere, but at least they now can head in the correct direction. They're relieved, and the mood starts to turn. Hannah moves over to Bryce, and slips her arms around his neck.

BRYCE
(smiling)
Right as rain.

HANNAH
(smiling playfully back)
Just so we're agreed...

---

Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
and WakeWatchWonder.com

http://sfwriter.com/2009/11/phyllis-gotlieb-honoured-today-in.html

My great friend and inspiration Phyllis Gotlieb passed away earlier this year, and today Mauril Bélanger, a Member of Canada's Federal Parliament, rose in the House of Commons to speak to that loss:

Hon. Mauril Bélanger (Ottawa—Vanier, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, this past summer, Canada lost one of its pioneers in science fiction writing, Phyllis Gotlieb, born Phyllis Bloom, in Toronto, in 1926.

The Sunburst Award, an award given annually to Canadian writers of speculative fiction, is named after her first novel, Sunburst, published in 1964.

Thanks to our parliamentary library, I have now had the pleasure to read that novel. I am truly happy to have discovered an author who gives us great characters and an intelligent storyline. I look forward to reading more of her novels.

Some have called her the mother of Canadian science fiction; others, it is grandmother. Robert J. Sawyer, Canada's most successful author of the genre, settled it by calling her “the grand dame of Canadian science fiction”, and I concur.

I wish to extend to her husband, Calvin Gotlieb, her son, Leo, and her daughters, Margaret and Jane, our condolences, but also our gratitude for her legacy.

Pictured: Phyllis and Kelly Gotlieb at my home.

Many thanks to Barb Collishaw for this news item.

Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
and WakeWatchWonder.com

I be a greedy greedy person. I shared this with my family, but hey, if anyone else would like to buy me things.
http://amzn.com/w/1T4TQHSXRFG89

(yes, I have other wishlists. Those are hidden right now)

edit: I know. Posting a wishlist. It's like utter fail, isn't it? I'm just amused at my family, who have all created amazon lists to share ideas.

Got two proposals out, one to an editor, one to my agent (the latter the revision of the mystery), and am 3/4 of the way through another proposal for the same editor. Also went to the Cloisters for the first time in ages, which was lovely as always.

Now I'm gonna watch my latest Netflix movie, Valkyrie, because I am Bryan Singer's bitch............

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/oFec/~3/lkpPSlUHyf0/blackest-night-is-totally-emo-version.html

The funniest thing I've read today is here -- Shaenon Garrity read Blackest Night so you don't have to.

No, wait -- she talked with someone who read it. Um, hold on, he didn't read it, either. But he's keeping up on Wikipedia.

Look, nobody needs to read Blackest Night, OK? But Shaenon has thought about it more than any sane person should, either....
----------------
Listening to: Glen Hansard - Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy
via FoxyTunes

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/timeblogs/nerd_world/~3/gpqCDbbcxSU/

http://techland.com/?p=5525

Oh, Nic Cage, why must you ruin somewhat interesting movies? His latest fiasco involves 14th century witch hunts and the Black Plague. We're unable to post the video for you here, but IMDB has it. Be sure to come back and tell us what you think about it.
[...]

The Endeavour Award announces:

Portland writer David D. Levine won the 2009 Endeavour Award for his collection of short stories, Space Magic. The Award comes with an engraved glass plaque and a grant of $1,000. The plaque was made by artist Ashley Harper.

The other finalists for the Award were Anathem by Neal Stephenson; Ill Met in the Arena by Dave Duncan; Long Walks, Last Flights and Other Stories by Ken Scholes; and A World Too Near by Kay Kenyon. The judges for the 2009 Award were Joe Haldeman, John Helfers, and Sarah Zettel.

The announcement was preceded by the long-delayed presentation of the 2007 plaque to that year’s winner, Robin Hobb.

Originally published at Science Fiction Awards Watch. Please leave any comments there.

http://bit.ly/nanoendo