Inner Worlds
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Wow! This has gotten away from me. Quick one today and something more over the weekend, maybe even the one I've been drafting in my head for this past April 12 touching on the 150th anniversary of the start of the War Between the States, the 50th of human spaceflight, and the 30th for the Space Shuttle program. Busy day.
For today, just something quick. Here's the first video blog for the filming of The Hobbit.
Hobbit filiming blog #1
For today, just something quick. Here's the first video blog for the filming of The Hobbit.
Hobbit filiming blog #1
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Pretty doggone awesome. You can follow all of the blogs at The Hobbit Movie Blog. Jackson's right, it is very much like time travel. Good thing he's shooting in New Zealand and not China 'cuz they don't allow time travel no more: China bans time travel on TV. This, of course, is the most certain evidence the PRC has already developed time travel and doesn't want to give anyone any ideas.
April showers...
...blood!
Or so would have been my introduction to this post had our original selection, The Greyfriar, (Vampire Empire Book 1) by Clay and Susan Griffith,* remained April's selection. However, circumstances arose which led us to shift it to the May 19th meeting. Into the gap created by the move is A.E. van Vogt 's Slan , a classic of the genre from 1946.
We're growing and changing, looking for ways to expand our activities. Check the links above. I shuffled the header around to add buttons for a Facebook page and to our Goodreads group. Already there's been a little uptick in hits on the site. Look to add April and May listings to Birmingham365 , successor to activeculture.org, tomorrow.
One note of SF/F news: Nicholas Courtney, best know for his role as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart on Doctor Who, died today. Short of one of the actors who portrayed the Doctor himself, it difficult to imagine a more important loss from the Who acting family. Condolences to his family and fans.
*My apologies to Clay Griffith. Here, on the main page and on the Library page, I mistakenly wrote "Clark" instead of "Clay" as his name. That was damn sloppy and again I apologize for the error.
Or so would have been my introduction to this post had our original selection, The Greyfriar, (Vampire Empire Book 1) by Clay and Susan Griffith,* remained April's selection. However, circumstances arose which led us to shift it to the May 19th meeting. Into the gap created by the move is A.E. van Vogt 's Slan , a classic of the genre from 1946.
We're growing and changing, looking for ways to expand our activities. Check the links above. I shuffled the header around to add buttons for a Facebook page and to our Goodreads group. Already there's been a little uptick in hits on the site. Look to add April and May listings to Birmingham365 , successor to activeculture.org, tomorrow.
One note of SF/F news: Nicholas Courtney, best know for his role as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart on Doctor Who, died today. Short of one of the actors who portrayed the Doctor himself, it difficult to imagine a more important loss from the Who acting family. Condolences to his family and fans.
*My apologies to Clay Griffith. Here, on the main page and on the Library page, I mistakenly wrote "Clark" instead of "Clay" as his name. That was damn sloppy and again I apologize for the error.
With a whimper...
That’s how Imagicon, Birmingham’s latest science fiction/fantasy convention died last Friday. Curious as a fortnight earlier in January, everything was still go. The bare-bones announcement was posted on their home page, Facebook, and forum around 8:30 AM. The organizers announced the cancelation and their intention to move the con to Columbus, Georgia next May. That word wasn’t a shock. A couple of Saturdays before, a post about purchasing memberships was deleted rather than answered by the admins of the IC board. That set off the ol’ Spidey-sense and made the cancelation announcement no surprise.
What is a surprise is despite being read nearly one hundred times over the next couple of days, the post elicited no replies. Not one. No lament of IC’s end or anger at its flight from the city. My own reaction was mixed, a blend of “Doggone it” and “Don’t let the door hit you”. But why post that? It’s easy to point a finger at the organizers what could be seen as their weak efforts to promote the event. No updates on their MySpace page or Twitter since last August. A Facebook page accessible only to those on FB. Contrast that with the upcoming Deep South Con 50 ’s page, visible to all. Do you want people to know what’s going on or not? Forget about getting folks to “like” the page. Get the word out. Whether they were victims of circumstance or simply been in over their heads, I never got the impression the people behind Imagicon were anything but sincere in their efforts. They stepped into the breach after the disastrous Omega*Con in 2008 and put on flawed but enjoyable shows over the next two years and are to be commended for the effort. Both cons drew the better part of 1500 people and despite the problems (expenses with the BJCC for IC1, the split venue for IC2), IC seemed to be on a shaky, though positive, track. Guess not. I wish them success in the future, I just wish it were in Birmingham and not Columbus.
The efforts of the organizers are one side of the Imagicon story. The other is the regional fan base. While they showed up for the cons themselves, one has to wonder if there’s enough give-a-damn in the city and region’s fan base to support such efforts. There’s not enough to comment on the con’s passing. All in all there was a rather passive reaction to the effort. Some of that passivity, perhaps most of it, came from a lack of trust. Omega*Con burned a lot of people in Birmingham and within the SF/F community. While they were two distinct organizations, the cons were linked in the minds of many, making the hill Imagicon had to climb to earn trust in its own right all the steeper. If you’re a publisher or an agent, do you want to hang your authors or actors out to dry at some half-assed con? If you’re a fan, do you want to volunteer for one? Uh, no.
What about Inner Worlds? Why didn’t we get involved? It never came up, largely because I never raised the issue. Inner Worlds was created to discuss a book every month, not as a “full service” science fiction fan club. The two years of the con we were still pretty small, less than half our current number (@ 22). Might we have gotten involved? Possibly. But it wasn’t something on the radar. Volunteering to work the con would’ve been something for individuals to decide, not the group. As for myself, the thought crossed my mind. I might’ve squeezed out the time, but feared what impact it might have in other areas, particularly on Inner Worlds. That said, as we’ve grown, it’s possible areas of expansion are opening for the group. There’s some discussion of them now, nothing concrete, so there’s no reason to put those ideas out here, though suggestions are welcome. Which ever direction we choose, that Third Thursday sit down is in my eyes the heart of the group and will remain so.
Okay, that's a little heavy, so here's some dessert. B-Metro, a local magazine has a cover feature on steampunk this month. There's a bigger picture of the cover photo on their Facebook page. I didn't know steampunk was both a fashion trend and a lifestyle. Next thing you know someone will make a something that's a floor polish and a dessert topping. Num-num.
Check out Rene's work on the Pyr blog by reading the first of their Author Round Tables. Featured this time out are Mark Chadbourn (whose The Silver Skull we read in March 2010), James Barclay, and Jasper Kent.
Lastly, what's one of these posts without a reference to GRRM or A Song of Ice and Fire? A refreshing change of pace? Ha! That's funny. While you're laughing, dig these screenshots from A Game of Thrones: Genesis , the upcoming PC game based on the series. Now you can set the game to the state of affairs at the end of A Feast for Crows and play the rest of the series out for yourself. What can I say? Who needs Dance?
[Khan] Give me Genesis! [/Khan]
Dribs and Drabs #4
February's meeting is upon us, though I've felt as if it should've already taken place. Perhaps because I finished The World Inside so long ago. My usual practice is to be polishing off the current selection only a few days beforehand. The book's come up as I've crossed paths with some of the gang over the last week and I'm now wondering if the discussion's going to follow the path I'd anticipated. Thursday will tell.
In the meantime, let's clean out the inbox and roll out a few tidbits from here and there. First, the last post (This one goes to eleven ) mentioned the new fantasy book group moderated by Holley at the Emmet O'Neal Library. The first meeting was small but the discussion of GRRM's A Game of Thrones was interesting. As I understand, the next couple of meetings will be devoted to discussing the other three novels (Clash, Storm, Feast). That way, the group will be caught up and ready to Dance... whenever that happens. Below are their tentative meeting dates for the rest of the year. It's a good idea to check with the library to confirm the dates and times (should be 6:30 pm).
Word came Tuesday (2/8) that Brian Jacques, author of the popular Redwall series, had died of a heart attack at 71. While considered a children's series, B&N has always shelved editions of the Redwall books in the science fiction and fantasy section of the stores, a recognition of their broad appeal.
On the lighter side, Mary Anne passed along this mash-up of Star Trek and Monty Python's Holy Grail. It's pretty funny, as is the A-Team one and this one which is based on an old 1950's educational film. Darn that Pete! Heck, while you're wasting time, here's the Fellowship as the A-Team as well.
Just a couple of tidbits on The Hobbit. First is this article about the casting process and second is the announcement of the start of filming on March 21 . Originally, I'd seen reports it was to begin lensing this week, but Peter Jackson's tummy didn't cooperate. Dude had a perforated ulcer. This has been a troubled production off the set for a long time. Let's hope all the major glitches are out of the way and that filthy Bagginses can get about his business at last, Precious.
On the book business front, all signs point to Borders declaring bankruptcy , possibly as soon as Monday (2/14). That's a mixed bag for B&N, who ain't showin' no mercy for their embattled rival. Borders going bye-bye is less competition for them, but its also a sign of the increasing vulnerability of bookstores themselves in the evolving market. Of course, Borders has brought a lot of this on themselves. They were slow to get into the digital market and then did so in a craptacular way. Here's a link to a SF Signal podcast featuring Lou Anders, Sue Lange, Mike Resnick and John Picacio discussing ebooks, their future and impact on the industry, touching on the Borders issue as well. One change is the way publishers are handlng audio rights and distribution. HarperCollins is eschewing CD releases of audio books and amended their contracts to bundle audio rights with digital which could complicate the relationships between authors, agents, and publishers in the future.
A few weeks back, I finished Robert J. Sawyer's Flashforward , which is an interesting book and well worth seeking out although as it features a smoothly running LHC in April 2009 when it didn't carry out its first proton-proton collisions until nearly a year later, it's a bit of a Flashback. One thing I thought Sawyer got wrong was his portrayal of 2009's bookstores. They're essentially cafes where people wait while an onsite machine prints and binds a copy of whatever book they want. Hah!, he missed the whole ebook development completely. Well, sorry, Mr. Sawyer. You may well be right. Meet the Espresso book machine which can cough up a physical copy of any book in its digital files in ten or fifteen minutes. The emergence of this technology alongside the ebook makes the ultimate demise of chain bookstores a real possibility.
I should thank TeleRead for being my new favorite site since I linked to damn near everything on there except Neil Gaiman's thoughts on book piracy being a good thing.
Oh, what the heck. Here you go: Interview with Neil Gaiman about piracy .
In the meantime, let's clean out the inbox and roll out a few tidbits from here and there. First, the last post (This one goes to eleven ) mentioned the new fantasy book group moderated by Holley at the Emmet O'Neal Library. The first meeting was small but the discussion of GRRM's A Game of Thrones was interesting. As I understand, the next couple of meetings will be devoted to discussing the other three novels (Clash, Storm, Feast). That way, the group will be caught up and ready to Dance... whenever that happens. Below are their tentative meeting dates for the rest of the year. It's a good idea to check with the library to confirm the dates and times (should be 6:30 pm).
March 24
April 28
May 26
June 23 (may be moved)
July 21
August 25
September 22
October 27
November 24
December 22
April 28
May 26
June 23 (may be moved)
July 21
August 25
September 22
October 27
November 24
December 22
Word came Tuesday (2/8) that Brian Jacques, author of the popular Redwall series, had died of a heart attack at 71. While considered a children's series, B&N has always shelved editions of the Redwall books in the science fiction and fantasy section of the stores, a recognition of their broad appeal.
On the lighter side, Mary Anne passed along this mash-up of Star Trek and Monty Python's Holy Grail. It's pretty funny, as is the A-Team one and this one which is based on an old 1950's educational film. Darn that Pete! Heck, while you're wasting time, here's the Fellowship as the A-Team as well.
Just a couple of tidbits on The Hobbit. First is this article about the casting process and second is the announcement of the start of filming on March 21 . Originally, I'd seen reports it was to begin lensing this week, but Peter Jackson's tummy didn't cooperate. Dude had a perforated ulcer. This has been a troubled production off the set for a long time. Let's hope all the major glitches are out of the way and that filthy Bagginses can get about his business at last, Precious.
On the book business front, all signs point to Borders declaring bankruptcy , possibly as soon as Monday (2/14). That's a mixed bag for B&N, who ain't showin' no mercy for their embattled rival. Borders going bye-bye is less competition for them, but its also a sign of the increasing vulnerability of bookstores themselves in the evolving market. Of course, Borders has brought a lot of this on themselves. They were slow to get into the digital market and then did so in a craptacular way. Here's a link to a SF Signal podcast featuring Lou Anders, Sue Lange, Mike Resnick and John Picacio discussing ebooks, their future and impact on the industry, touching on the Borders issue as well. One change is the way publishers are handlng audio rights and distribution. HarperCollins is eschewing CD releases of audio books and amended their contracts to bundle audio rights with digital which could complicate the relationships between authors, agents, and publishers in the future.
A few weeks back, I finished Robert J. Sawyer's Flashforward , which is an interesting book and well worth seeking out although as it features a smoothly running LHC in April 2009 when it didn't carry out its first proton-proton collisions until nearly a year later, it's a bit of a Flashback. One thing I thought Sawyer got wrong was his portrayal of 2009's bookstores. They're essentially cafes where people wait while an onsite machine prints and binds a copy of whatever book they want. Hah!, he missed the whole ebook development completely. Well, sorry, Mr. Sawyer. You may well be right. Meet the Espresso book machine which can cough up a physical copy of any book in its digital files in ten or fifteen minutes. The emergence of this technology alongside the ebook makes the ultimate demise of chain bookstores a real possibility.
I should thank TeleRead for being my new favorite site since I linked to damn near everything on there except Neil Gaiman's thoughts on book piracy being a good thing.
Oh, what the heck. Here you go: Interview with Neil Gaiman about piracy .
This one goes to eleven
January's meeting has come and gone and with it, Inner Worlds begins its twelfth year. 2010 was a year which saw an infusion of new blood and growth for the group and was an excellent start to IW's second decade. With new faces at this month's meeting, 2011 looks to continue the positive trends.
With that growth comes the possibility of change. This month's attendance was seventeen and save for illness and circumstance, would have been twenty-one. We're pushing the space available at Barnes & Noble. Add to that, there is no Community Relations Manager in the store, leaving book groups, Story Time, etc. under the supervision of booksellers alone with (one hopes) only benign indifference from management. While a critical mass hasn't yet been reached, the idea of a possible relocation should be in the group's collective mind. At the moment, the best alternative is a move to the Hoover Library, though other options might exist and none have been investigated. Suggestions and discussion on the point are encouraged.
Speaking of libraries and book groups, Holley, one of our four librarians, reports a nascent fantasy book group forming at the Emmet O'Neal Library in Mountain Brook. The first meeting is this Thursday, January 27 at 6:30 pm to discuss George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones , first of his "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. Let's hope they have a good turn-out and an enjoyable discussion.
Two quick IW related book notes. December's selection, The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder and edited by Lou Anders has been nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award . The award is to be presented at NorWesCon 34 , April 22, 2011. Secondly, Crossed , third in J.F. Lewis ' Void City series slipped in the Hoover B&N a few days early. J.F., a local author who's joined our band of misfits this year, graciously autographed the stock on hand so, if you hurry, you might be able to snag a copy of all three titles.
Lastly, February's selection is Robert Silverberg 's The World Inside and March's The Abhorsen Chronicles by Garth Nix.
With that growth comes the possibility of change. This month's attendance was seventeen and save for illness and circumstance, would have been twenty-one. We're pushing the space available at Barnes & Noble. Add to that, there is no Community Relations Manager in the store, leaving book groups, Story Time, etc. under the supervision of booksellers alone with (one hopes) only benign indifference from management. While a critical mass hasn't yet been reached, the idea of a possible relocation should be in the group's collective mind. At the moment, the best alternative is a move to the Hoover Library, though other options might exist and none have been investigated. Suggestions and discussion on the point are encouraged.
Speaking of libraries and book groups, Holley, one of our four librarians, reports a nascent fantasy book group forming at the Emmet O'Neal Library in Mountain Brook. The first meeting is this Thursday, January 27 at 6:30 pm to discuss George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones , first of his "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. Let's hope they have a good turn-out and an enjoyable discussion.
Two quick IW related book notes. December's selection, The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder and edited by Lou Anders has been nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award . The award is to be presented at NorWesCon 34 , April 22, 2011. Secondly, Crossed , third in J.F. Lewis ' Void City series slipped in the Hoover B&N a few days early. J.F., a local author who's joined our band of misfits this year, graciously autographed the stock on hand so, if you hurry, you might be able to snag a copy of all three titles.
Lastly, February's selection is Robert Silverberg 's The World Inside and March's The Abhorsen Chronicles by Garth Nix.
Jar Jar Hijinks
Yoosa guys gonna love this. Itsa bombad random!
Based on Cooper's suggestion, let's make a revision to the pool of titles we're picking from. Rather than draw from a huge list of hundreds, everyone picks a book for the Jar. That's up to nineteen titles (if everyone currently active in IW participates) to choose from. A number of balls equal to the titles offered up go in the Jar and we draw from those. When a pick is picked, the picker picks another pick. Rinse and repeat. I'll keep the monster list and get it up on the website for folks to peruse for ideas. It might get up this week as I'm off, but there's a couple of projects ahead of the website in the queue.
I vastly prefer this as it winnows down the choices to those the group wants and increases the odds of each title being selected while keeping things random. So think about it and send me your choice, say, by January 19th. If there happens to be a duplication, say Julie and Robert both suggest The Silmarillion, first one in gets it.*
*No purchase necessary to enter. Need not be present to win. Open to legal residents of the Gould Belt** only.
**Gould Belt? As in System Lords? No wonder SG-1 was able to pick so many off, we're right in the heart of their territory.
I'm curious if anyone can access the ImagiCon forum? The front looks normal, but all I get is a blank page when trying to read a thread. Tried on two machines. Is there anything new on their Facebook page? (I don't want to sign up for FB just to check.) There's only one little bit on the front of their homepage about the artist guest-of-honor for this May's (supposed) con, but that's the only sign of life. They've not even begun selling memberships yet. Smells like they've gone tango-uniform and like Borders, just haven't dropped to the ground yet. C'est la vie.
Looks like a sizable chunk of the cast of The Lords of the Rings will be returning for The Hobbit. The latest addition is Elijah Wood reprising his role as Frodo Baggins in a framing sequence for the films. Peter Jackson's definitely working to tie all five(!) films together as a single piece. I know there's been some issue about Christopher Lee returning as Saruman, but if the dude can take a role in Season of the Witch ("Oh no!"), he can come back for this. Just shoot his stuff in jolly old England and splice it together in post.
Digging up the link for the Wood bit, I saw on Collider that HBO has set a premiere date for A Game of Thrones, April 17. They also have a post with 28 images from the series. Winter's coming... apparently Sunday night here in Alabama. Eight inches of snow and ice!
Okay, I lied about the graphs, but let me pass along the year-end stats for both the main Inner Worlds page and the blog for 2010. You can see the website's had well over 100% growth in the number of visits and while I don't have the 2009 numbers for the blog at hand, it's seen an even greater percentage of growth.
InnerWorldsbhm.com — Page Requests
Yearly
2009 1189 (4.2 per day — this number is inflated because I hit the site a lot during the set-up)
2010 3064 (8.39 per day)
Quarter
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
2009 67 252 397 473
2010 454 698 833 1079
blog.innerworldsbhm.com — Total Visits
1/07/10 - 1/07/11: 4055 (5.42 per day)
As I mentioned in the last post about this, there's no way we'll see the same percentage of growth in 2011 and beyond, but as long as we don't slide backwards, things will be fine.
Based on Cooper's suggestion, let's make a revision to the pool of titles we're picking from. Rather than draw from a huge list of hundreds, everyone picks a book for the Jar. That's up to nineteen titles (if everyone currently active in IW participates) to choose from. A number of balls equal to the titles offered up go in the Jar and we draw from those. When a pick is picked, the picker picks another pick. Rinse and repeat. I'll keep the monster list and get it up on the website for folks to peruse for ideas. It might get up this week as I'm off, but there's a couple of projects ahead of the website in the queue.
I vastly prefer this as it winnows down the choices to those the group wants and increases the odds of each title being selected while keeping things random. So think about it and send me your choice, say, by January 19th. If there happens to be a duplication, say Julie and Robert both suggest The Silmarillion, first one in gets it.*
*No purchase necessary to enter. Need not be present to win. Open to legal residents of the Gould Belt** only.
**Gould Belt? As in System Lords? No wonder SG-1 was able to pick so many off, we're right in the heart of their territory.
I'm curious if anyone can access the ImagiCon forum? The front looks normal, but all I get is a blank page when trying to read a thread. Tried on two machines. Is there anything new on their Facebook page? (I don't want to sign up for FB just to check.) There's only one little bit on the front of their homepage about the artist guest-of-honor for this May's (supposed) con, but that's the only sign of life. They've not even begun selling memberships yet. Smells like they've gone tango-uniform and like Borders, just haven't dropped to the ground yet. C'est la vie.
Looks like a sizable chunk of the cast of The Lords of the Rings will be returning for The Hobbit. The latest addition is Elijah Wood reprising his role as Frodo Baggins in a framing sequence for the films. Peter Jackson's definitely working to tie all five(!) films together as a single piece. I know there's been some issue about Christopher Lee returning as Saruman, but if the dude can take a role in Season of the Witch ("Oh no!"), he can come back for this. Just shoot his stuff in jolly old England and splice it together in post.
Digging up the link for the Wood bit, I saw on Collider that HBO has set a premiere date for A Game of Thrones, April 17. They also have a post with 28 images from the series. Winter's coming... apparently Sunday night here in Alabama. Eight inches of snow and ice!
Okay, I lied about the graphs, but let me pass along the year-end stats for both the main Inner Worlds page and the blog for 2010. You can see the website's had well over 100% growth in the number of visits and while I don't have the 2009 numbers for the blog at hand, it's seen an even greater percentage of growth.
InnerWorldsbhm.com — Page Requests
Yearly
2009 1189 (4.2 per day — this number is inflated because I hit the site a lot during the set-up)
2010 3064 (8.39 per day)
Quarter
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
2009 67 252 397 473
2010 454 698 833 1079
blog.innerworldsbhm.com — Total Visits
1/07/10 - 1/07/11: 4055 (5.42 per day)
As I mentioned in the last post about this, there's no way we'll see the same percentage of growth in 2011 and beyond, but as long as we don't slide backwards, things will be fine.
"Nothing is ever truly lost..."
So Commander Adams (Leslie Nielson) tells Altaira after the death of her father and the destruction of Altair IV in Forbidden Planet. Perhaps that is true. Let's hope so for this past Sunday (1/2/11), ironically and far too soon after the death of Nielson, Anne Francis died . Best known for her role as Altaira, Francis made two notable appearances on The Twilight Zone ("The After Hours" and "Jess-Bell"). She also played the title character in the Honey West TV series for a season on ABC (1965-66). We may not have the Krell plastic educator, but Anne Francis remains alive, microsecond to microsecond, in our memories thanks to her wonderful performances over the years.
Christmas Presence
Just a short post to wish one and all a Merry Christmas and hope everyone has a knockout Boxing Day or at least wins on the scorecard. We're closing in on the end of the second year of the revamped Inner Worlds web site and the hits keep coming. We've had our first 1000+ hit quarter and are now over 3000 for the year. For the blog, there've been almost 4000 hits and the daily average is now over five. The visits have trebled this year over last. No way that'll happen next year, but I'm curious to see what does.
Here's a couple of amusing links: Five Sci-Fi Children's Books and some Steampunk Star Trek and for equal time, a few Star Wars steampunk-themed action figures.
Following up on the cancellation of Stargate Universe. There's a wafer-thin chance the cancellation may be a near-death experience for the show rather than a fatal one. At least for the moment. As noted in this article at Gateworld, the show's producers are working along several avenues to find some way to complete the series overall storyline, be that shifting the series to another network or a DVD movie. Let's hope things work out.
Here's a couple of amusing links: Five Sci-Fi Children's Books and some Steampunk Star Trek and for equal time, a few Star Wars steampunk-themed action figures.
Following up on the cancellation of Stargate Universe. There's a wafer-thin chance the cancellation may be a near-death experience for the show rather than a fatal one. At least for the moment. As noted in this article at Gateworld, the show's producers are working along several avenues to find some way to complete the series overall storyline, be that shifting the series to another network or a DVD movie. Let's hope things work out.
Regarding SyFy, here's an article on the channel from a few days ago at TV.com. A lot of fans get kinks in their tails about how the channel operates and has operated over the years. I still hold a grudge for the knee jerk cancellation of FarScape and its replacement by the miserable Tremors series. (Yes, I know that's somebody's favorite show and they love it the way I love Star Trek but they'll get over it.) The network's executives are tasked with making it as successful as possible. They aren't in the business to make science fiction. They're in the business to make money. Science fiction's just the product they chose to sell. And yet, as evidenced in this article and many others over the years, the TV merchants over at The Sci Fi Channel/Sci Fi/SyFy don''t like the product they market and would rather be shed of it and their principle market. It's as if ESPN decided sports fans with their obsession with stats and customs and language all their own—
—were to be shunned rather than embraced and chose to fill their schedule with home make-over shows and reverse mortgage infomercials instead of sports. What sense would that make? About as much as Hammer and Howe's management of Sci Fi has. If you're invited to a party, don't go, crap in the punch bowl, then complain about the frelling punch. Yet that's the farbot strategy H&H employ.
The changes are worse than the increasing generalization seen across television where History Channel's are History and show less and less of the same, airing a show like The Universe which belongs on Discovery or TLC except there's no room due to the crab-catching and hoarding on those channels. A move to Tuesdays and the fall has cut the ratings of an otherwise successful show (SGU). Move it back to Fridays and the summer rather than cancel it. Oops! Can't do that because there's a wrestling show NBC's gotta find a home for in the old slot and its pulling $olid number$. So, they're doing business with that move and aren't gonna change it. And though some folks grumble, wrestling actually kinda fits on Sci Fi. The entire milieu is that of a comic book (think X-Men with all the soap-opera) and comics are SF/F, no? Even Dragon*Con has wrestling demos, so the crying about that's a bit much. Still, if they're going to have sports, I'd prefer something more SF/F oriented. Rollerball, anyone?
In my opinion, continued erosion of the channel's genre origins is inevitable until it undergoes a complete transformation into something else, much like Discovery Health is about to become the Oprah channel. Either NBC/Universal or someone else will then create another channel to be a "real" Science Fiction channel, much as M2 was developed to be a music channel in the vein of MTV in the beginning, and the process begins again. The only way to stop it is to watch the best genre shows on the channel while shunning the garbage. Let them know you're watching. If you're not a Nielson house, email them to let them know. Don't timeshift with the DVR. Networks make money by selling advertising and if the +3 and +7 numbers look great it's worthless to them because the folks watching them have skipped the commercials. If I'm selling soap, am I gonna by a spot on a show where no one's gonna see it? No. My money's going to ESPN or CBS where college football's doing crazy numbers and people'll see my ads because they're watching live. The nerds can find their own damn soap.
Eight hundred and seventeen words. I must have a different definition of "short" than I do.
Dialing up February...
The Jar of Doom offered up Robert Silverberg's The World Inside . Originally published in 1971, it was a Hugo nominee in 1972. Reading the plot description, the book's very much part of the wave of works arising from the concerns about overpopulation so prevalent in the late-1960's and early 1970's which include Harry Harrison's Make Room! Make Room!, John Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar and "The Mark of Gideon ", a third season episode of Star Trek, among others. HBO reportedly began development of a series based on the book last year with former X-Files producer/writer Frank Spotnitz at the helm, but I couldn't track down any information beyond the initial announcement from last August.
Thanks to Laura for the new Jar, well, can actually. It's red and slanted and looks like a magnified firecracker, particularly when filled with a hundred gunpowder-colored balls. Hopefully more bang than bust comes out over the years.
On the television front, Sci Fi Channel announced, or rather tweeted, it had canceled Stargate Universe with half of its second season left to air. Truth be told, I far preferred Stargate: SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis to SGU. The light action-adventure format of those series was well suited to the underlying concepts of the fictional universe, particularly SG-1 which featured aliens parading as ancient gods, primarily Egyptian, fighting for control of the galaxy. That's not to say the show couldn't be dark or heavy (see "The Other Side" or "2010"), but those elements never overwhelmed the series' overall upbeat nature. SGA largely repeated that formula and while enjoyable was too often "more of the same".
That couldn't be said of SGU. The series very consciously broke with the traditional Stargate mix of humor and action within plot-driven stories for a darker, character-driven approach. Conceptually, it's the original SGA premise, a team trapped far from Earth coping with unknown Ancient technologies and a hostile environment, with the volume turned up. I almost wrote "to eleven", but the presence of an Ancient communications device which gives the characters the ability to swap minds with others on Earth undercuts the sense of isolation the crew might otherwise suffer, though arguably, a little contact with home might actually worsen those feelings rather than none at all. The tonal shift between SG1/SGA, and SGU was off-putting to a large segment of a fan base already irritated by what was seen as the unceremonious cancellation of SGA. That series' ratings had fallen from SG1's and the network dropped it in favor of something more in line with its successful and soon-to-end reworking of Battlestar Galactica. The appeal of that approach is readily apparent. Keep a significant percent of the Stargate base audience while hoping to draw a like percent of BSG's fans looking for something of a similar flavor. Unfortunately in many eyes, including mine, the effort to replicate the look and feel of that show was too on the nose. A lot of hand-held camera work, musical interludes, deeply flawed even functionally broken characters. For the first time, we encounter an SG team leader in Young who is incompetent, so twisted up by his failing marriage and the affair which damaged it he provokes an cameo by hardcore Jack O'Neill, unseen for years in any SG show ("Incursion" pt. 2 ). And the lead scientist character rather than being an attractive blonde or humorously arrogant, is a cold-blooded self-serving egotist who would make the original Dr. Zachary Smith blanch. None of those elements are bad and one can empathize with the producers' desire to stretch the concept of the Stargate universe if for no other reason than to challenge themselves creatively. A third series of "Smartasses in Space" might've been a safer bet, but if you're gonna go back to that well, why cancel SGA? Just retool it after the fifth season finale and keep rolling.
Another problem cited by many in the postmortem analysis of the series is its pace. This was something which annoyed me early on. SGU was slow. Much of the first season was scene-setting and world-building. A novelist's approach. That's not a bad way to go, but if you're gonna make me wait for the real fireworks to start, you gotta throw me some crumbs. SGU's first season dropped too few, for me. Few of the characters were appealing and too often there wasn't enough intellectual or emotional reward for sitting through the hour. Another series with a similar approach was Babylon 5, unfolding its story over five seasons. But J. MIchael Straczynski mixed the character and series mythology plot threads on a broad canvas with enough bang and zip to give the proceedings a sense of forward momentum even if all he was doing was shuffling the pieces into place for later use. In SGU's second season, the set-up in its first had begun to pay off. More was revealed of the characters and their universe, and rather than being lost, they had gained some control of their own destiny, no pun intended. With those developments, I'd warmed to the show. Too late it appears.
Regardless of whatever creative issues some in the audience might've had with the series, I think the real nail in the coffin was the move to Tuesdays. For years, Sci Fi's viewers had expected to see a big naquadah gate dialing up a wormhole. This year, wrestling was in its place and SGU went head to head with one of if not the top rated show on cable, Deadliest Catch, during a season when everyone's tuning in waiting for poor Phil Harris to drop dead on Discovery and Glee on Fox. I doubt Sci Fi wanted to kill the show, but with the shaky fan support already, that move was the third zat blast. Poof. It's too bad. I feel for those who had enjoyed the show from the start and regret that for the first time, a Stargate series won't be given the chance to, if not bring its major plot threads to a conclusion, at least make it to a reasonable stopping point. Maybe they'll get a bite at a movie or two to tie things up but with MGM's financial issues, even coming out of bankruptcy, and Sci Fi's limited budgets, I wouldn't bet on it. Barring a miracle, it appears the Gate's shut down for now.
Close the iris.
Thanks to Laura for the new Jar, well, can actually. It's red and slanted and looks like a magnified firecracker, particularly when filled with a hundred gunpowder-colored balls. Hopefully more bang than bust comes out over the years.
On the television front, Sci Fi Channel announced, or rather tweeted, it had canceled Stargate Universe with half of its second season left to air. Truth be told, I far preferred Stargate: SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis to SGU. The light action-adventure format of those series was well suited to the underlying concepts of the fictional universe, particularly SG-1 which featured aliens parading as ancient gods, primarily Egyptian, fighting for control of the galaxy. That's not to say the show couldn't be dark or heavy (see "The Other Side" or "2010"), but those elements never overwhelmed the series' overall upbeat nature. SGA largely repeated that formula and while enjoyable was too often "more of the same".
That couldn't be said of SGU. The series very consciously broke with the traditional Stargate mix of humor and action within plot-driven stories for a darker, character-driven approach. Conceptually, it's the original SGA premise, a team trapped far from Earth coping with unknown Ancient technologies and a hostile environment, with the volume turned up. I almost wrote "to eleven", but the presence of an Ancient communications device which gives the characters the ability to swap minds with others on Earth undercuts the sense of isolation the crew might otherwise suffer, though arguably, a little contact with home might actually worsen those feelings rather than none at all. The tonal shift between SG1/SGA, and SGU was off-putting to a large segment of a fan base already irritated by what was seen as the unceremonious cancellation of SGA. That series' ratings had fallen from SG1's and the network dropped it in favor of something more in line with its successful and soon-to-end reworking of Battlestar Galactica. The appeal of that approach is readily apparent. Keep a significant percent of the Stargate base audience while hoping to draw a like percent of BSG's fans looking for something of a similar flavor. Unfortunately in many eyes, including mine, the effort to replicate the look and feel of that show was too on the nose. A lot of hand-held camera work, musical interludes, deeply flawed even functionally broken characters. For the first time, we encounter an SG team leader in Young who is incompetent, so twisted up by his failing marriage and the affair which damaged it he provokes an cameo by hardcore Jack O'Neill, unseen for years in any SG show ("Incursion" pt. 2 ). And the lead scientist character rather than being an attractive blonde or humorously arrogant, is a cold-blooded self-serving egotist who would make the original Dr. Zachary Smith blanch. None of those elements are bad and one can empathize with the producers' desire to stretch the concept of the Stargate universe if for no other reason than to challenge themselves creatively. A third series of "Smartasses in Space" might've been a safer bet, but if you're gonna go back to that well, why cancel SGA? Just retool it after the fifth season finale and keep rolling.
Another problem cited by many in the postmortem analysis of the series is its pace. This was something which annoyed me early on. SGU was slow. Much of the first season was scene-setting and world-building. A novelist's approach. That's not a bad way to go, but if you're gonna make me wait for the real fireworks to start, you gotta throw me some crumbs. SGU's first season dropped too few, for me. Few of the characters were appealing and too often there wasn't enough intellectual or emotional reward for sitting through the hour. Another series with a similar approach was Babylon 5, unfolding its story over five seasons. But J. MIchael Straczynski mixed the character and series mythology plot threads on a broad canvas with enough bang and zip to give the proceedings a sense of forward momentum even if all he was doing was shuffling the pieces into place for later use. In SGU's second season, the set-up in its first had begun to pay off. More was revealed of the characters and their universe, and rather than being lost, they had gained some control of their own destiny, no pun intended. With those developments, I'd warmed to the show. Too late it appears.
Regardless of whatever creative issues some in the audience might've had with the series, I think the real nail in the coffin was the move to Tuesdays. For years, Sci Fi's viewers had expected to see a big naquadah gate dialing up a wormhole. This year, wrestling was in its place and SGU went head to head with one of if not the top rated show on cable, Deadliest Catch, during a season when everyone's tuning in waiting for poor Phil Harris to drop dead on Discovery and Glee on Fox. I doubt Sci Fi wanted to kill the show, but with the shaky fan support already, that move was the third zat blast. Poof. It's too bad. I feel for those who had enjoyed the show from the start and regret that for the first time, a Stargate series won't be given the chance to, if not bring its major plot threads to a conclusion, at least make it to a reasonable stopping point. Maybe they'll get a bite at a movie or two to tie things up but with MGM's financial issues, even coming out of bankruptcy, and Sci Fi's limited budgets, I wouldn't bet on it. Barring a miracle, it appears the Gate's shut down for now.
Close the iris.
Jar of Doom
After a protracted debate via email, we're going to start selecting titles by drawing from the Jar of Doom. Not Doom as in Mount or Doctor, but as in "fate".
As the current Jar is a simple plastic container with a flip-top, we need something more suitable. Laura has begun construction of a new one which should be unveiled at this Thursday's meeting so all may revel in its Doominess. Meanwhile, I am painting 100 balls black and numbering them for the book lotto. One hundred titles currently in the JoD (and available) as well as suggestions and Out of the Box posts will go on a list alphabetized by author. A ball is drawn from the JoD. The book on the list with the matching number is our selection. Another from the pile of suggestions/OotB replaces it on the list. Rinse and repeat monthly. To keep things fresh, the list will be recycled at least annually with older titles going back into the reserve pile. I'm also thinking about making two lists, one for even numbered months, the other, oddly enough, for the odd, provided there are enough titles. Also, there will be one white ball in the Jar, a wild card to allow
However, so we could have copies on hand for this week, I took the liberty of drawing from the old skool JoD to determine January's book. What we got is Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds . All future drawings will be done at the meetings, starting with February's choice this week.
Please feed the beast with suggestions for titles. I want folks to have input into the process. If something shows up on an Out of the Box we feel isn't worth putting in the Jar, please bring it up. Some of the current explosion of paranormal/SF/fantasy romances show up there, books I personally don't think are worth wasting our time on. The same will be true for the broader lists. Those will be up on the site once I go through the Jar to cull the deadwood and blend the survivors with the OotB titles and any suggestions. Let me know if there's a stinker on the lists and we'll put it to a vote, on the blog preferably.
Please offer your suggestions here and for certain, this will be a topic for Thursday as well.
As the current Jar is a simple plastic container with a flip-top, we need something more suitable. Laura has begun construction of a new one which should be unveiled at this Thursday's meeting so all may revel in its Doominess. Meanwhile, I am painting 100 balls black and numbering them for the book lotto. One hundred titles currently in the JoD (and available) as well as suggestions and Out of the Box posts will go on a list alphabetized by author. A ball is drawn from the JoD. The book on the list with the matching number is our selection. Another from the pile of suggestions/OotB replaces it on the list. Rinse and repeat monthly. To keep things fresh, the list will be recycled at least annually with older titles going back into the reserve pile. I'm also thinking about making two lists, one for even numbered months, the other, oddly enough, for the odd, provided there are enough titles. Also, there will be one white ball in the Jar, a wild card to allow
However, so we could have copies on hand for this week, I took the liberty of drawing from the old skool JoD to determine January's book. What we got is Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds . All future drawings will be done at the meetings, starting with February's choice this week.
Please feed the beast with suggestions for titles. I want folks to have input into the process. If something shows up on an Out of the Box we feel isn't worth putting in the Jar, please bring it up. Some of the current explosion of paranormal/SF/fantasy romances show up there, books I personally don't think are worth wasting our time on. The same will be true for the broader lists. Those will be up on the site once I go through the Jar to cull the deadwood and blend the survivors with the OotB titles and any suggestions. Let me know if there's a stinker on the lists and we'll put it to a vote, on the blog preferably.
Please offer your suggestions here and for certain, this will be a topic for Thursday as well.
