February 2009

World in the Satin Bag

Giveaways and Announcements

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First things first, some giveaways: Enroute to Life has a giveaway for The Terror by Dan Simmons. Drey’s Library has a whole collection of Kitty Norville books (that’s six books). Stephanie’s Confessions of a Book-a-holic also has a giveaway for The Terror by Dan Simmons. The Discriminating Fangirl also has a whole collection of Kitty Norville books. And now announcements:OpusFest is back! March 13 – 15, 2009 at Red Lion Hotel (I-70 and Quebec) Denver, CO. Come meet Ilona and Gordon Andrews, Gil Bruvel, Stephen Segal, David Boop and many others. Click for more information. And that is all! If you liked this post, please stumble it, digg it, or buzz it.

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Courage Campaign Against Prop 8: Sign the Petition

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I recently came across a petition against the Kenneth Starr case that, if successful, will legally divorce 18,000 gay and lesbian couples in the state of California. That’s right, the state will legally strip them over those marriages. We’re not talking choice. They have no choice if Starr wins. Think about it. I’m not going to rant here, because I just can’t do it right now. It’s too much for me to take that we are still so occupied by hatred and discrimination in this country. What I am going to do is ask those of you who follow this blog or stumble across it to please spread the news about this petition that will be, I hope, influential in overturning Prop 8. Here is what I would like those of you out there to do. Since they need signatures by Valentine’s Day (the 14th), please sign the petition if you are a California resident. If you’re not, that’s okay. Everyone who blogs about this, stumbles or diggs the petition page, you will be helping out. Post it on twitter, tell your friends, do whatever it takes. We need to get the word out on this and the more people spreading the word, the better. So let’s help this along. All of us. Let’s not let this past election just be one step forward, two steps back, but a giant leap into the future.

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Top Ten Fantasy Movies

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I’ve been thinking about how much attention I have paid to science fiction in the last year (or more) and it dawned on me that I should really do a top ten list of what I consider to be the best fantasy movies. I’ve done a top ten for science fiction and for series (even splitting the latter into the best, the overrated, and the worst). So without further procrastination, here’s the list (in no particular order): Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson)This should be an automatic addition to any fantasy movies list. I’m treating the trilogy as one movie here primarily because the books were original one book and only when pressed by the publisher did Tolkien relinquish his hold on the massive single-story concept. These films were stunning not just for the computer animation or the story, but the sheer dedication of the film crew, the actors, and the creators (the costumers, the bigature folks, etc.). And then there’s Peter Jackson and his writing crew, who pulled this masterpiece together. LegendFew people know about this film and it’s honestly quite astonishing that it has stayed below the radar so long. It desperately needs a cult following. This film starred a young Tom Cruise and a typically creepy Tim Curry (who played the demon). It’s one of those films that was probably seen as absurdly childish and “cliché” when it first came out, but when you look back you can really see some larger things playing out. Or, at least, I think so. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black PearlTo make it clear, I’m only talking about the first movie, not the ones following it. The first PotC film had a lot going for it: good graphics, good acting, good story, and humor. Whenever I think of PotC I think of the first scene where we meet Jack Sparrow. I laughed so hard in the theatre when his ship sank and he stepped off onto the dock. So, this is a must have on this list. The Wizard of OzBecause it’s a classic, it still holds up despite its age, and it’s arguably one of the best musicals of all time. You don’t even have to have seen the original Wizard of Oz to know something about it. Just like PotC and 300, it has become one of those culture-influencing films that changes the world at large, even if the world isn’t aware of it. The only way you don’t know something about the Wizard of Oz is if you’ve been living in a box or you’re too young to know what the heck all the dancing, singing things on the TV are. Princess Mononoke (Mononoke-hime)Some will probably disagree with me on this. I think this is one of Miyazaki’s best films. I liked Spirited Away quite a bit, but it didn’t stick with me nearly as much as Princess Mononoke. Perhaps I liked the message the film was sending because of how rooted in Japanese mythology it was, or because of how powerful the story was without having to resort to cheap tactics. It’s a stunning film with a surprisingly good English-dub cast. Toy StoryThe first Toy Story was mind-bogglingly amazing when I first saw it. Hilarious, poignant, and imaginative, this film set the stage for what Pixar was to do for the rest of its existence. A cute film for kids that appealed, surprisingly, to all ages. I can still watch Toy Story and enjoy it as a 25-year-old man. Why? Because it’s ageless. The Princess BrideHeading up the sadly tiny genre of comedic fantasy, The Princess Bride was and still is one of my favorite movies of all time. My sister brought it to my attention and to this day it is one of my favorites. How can you not like this movie? It puts together all the ridiculous clichés of the genre while giving you a cast containing a mixed bag of fantastic actors (who didn’t love Andre the giant?). Classic, timeless, and still one of the best films of all time hands down. The Neverending StoryI’m putting this on this list not because I have watched it as much as the others, but because it did something to me as a youngling that few films meant for kids was capable of doing: it terrified the hell out of me. Literally. I could never watch it all the way through as a kid. Not only was the wolf freaking scary (even though it was just a puppet), but the Nothing freaked me out. In a way, the whole film was a dark fantasy that awoke all my childhood fears. I love the film, but it’s hard for me to watch. Some of the darkness in my writing comes from this brilliant Wolfgang Peterson flick. WillowI know I’m going to get ripped on for this, but Willow is still one of my favorite films. It’s cliché, I know, and I actually have a strange phobia of little people, but something about Willow is charming. Maybe it’s because Ron Howard was involved, or maybe it’s just because it’s a cute story. Either way, the film takes a silly cliché and twists is around to provide a fantasy adventure. True, it seems like a rip-off of LOTR, what with the main cast being little people from a faraway place where regular men (us) don’t hang out, but I think what Willow did that LOTR failed to do was make a story that was more believable. After all, there are no silly moments in the end where you go “wait, couldn’t they have just taken a giant eagle to the volcano instead of wasting all those months nearly dying of starvation?” Alice in WonderlandChoosing the final item for this list was difficult. I realize that I had placed a lot of children’s movies on this list, but it seems somewhat funny that the vast majority of good fantasy happens to be made for kids. In

World in the Satin Bag

2008 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards Announced

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I think I may have mentioned all this before, but it seems that there was an email glitch that prevented the official news from getting out there from the GSAs. So, I’m here to tell you that the official winners have been announced (make sure to click the link so you get the shortlisted works too): Best NovelWicked Gentlemen by Ginn Hale Best Short Fiction“Ever So Much More than Twenty” by Joshua Lewis There’s a huge list of other works that are shortlisted that are certainly worth checking out. Of course, I’m excited because I was a judge in 2008 and found it to be an incredible experience. Wicked Gentlemen was certainly one of the best novels I read for the GSAs. Hopefully I’ll get to do it again! Anywho! If you liked this post, please stumble it, digg it, or buzz it.

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John Christopher’s Tripod Trilogy Off to the Movies

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As the title says, apparently John Christopher’s Tripod Trilogy is being adapted to the big screen (by Touchstone Pictures). I’ve never read the books, but I’m entirely cool with more science fiction novels being turned into movies. The more the merrier. Any thoughts from folks who have read the series? Or are those of us in the U.S. mostly ignorant of Christopher? If you liked this post, please stumble it, digg it, or buzz it.

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io9: Worth Reading or Consumerist Fluff?

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Mulluane recently suggested I should talk about this topic. I’ve been avoiding it under the assumption that nobody really wants to hear what I think about the enormous blog site io9 and whether I agree with some folks out there that think it’s largely a meaningless place for literature enthusiasts. SF Signal has already asked the general public what they think about io9 and I have already left a comment with a short answer. But I suppose longer, more elaborate discussions are in order. I don’t read io9…anymore. Why? I don’t follow io9 because they post too much content that isn’t of interest to me. My disinterest in io9 has nothing to do with the fact that they don’t cite sources or provide a little link love (although those things do irritate me a great deal), it has to do with simply finding their content to be largely uninteresting. I like the occasional post about upcoming movies and lost things rediscovered, but io9 is too much of a media outlet for me and focuses too much attention on these things. It became apparent to me at some point that I was skimming most, if not all of io9’s posts, and I made the decision to cut it from my RSS reader. Now, I’m not in any way saying that io9 is a “bad blog.” I suspect that many people find it interesting; on occasion I’ll find a post by them that actually does something for me, but because that doesn’t happen often I see no point having it clogging up my RSS reader. For what io9 covers, I think it does a good job. It succeeds in stirring up controversy, getting people to talk about things within the genre, and digs up old junk from the past to offload on an unsuspecting, but excited public. It has a purpose. With that in mind, I agree entirely with the Crotchedy Old Fan that io9 should be called out for its failure to credit its sources. It doesn’t take more than a few moments to link to someone, and if you’re going to take content from them, the least you can do is give some link love (it’s good for you, good for them, etc.). Besides, if you enjoyed someone else’s content so much as to want to use it for a post of your own (or, maybe you hated it enough to do the same thing), then it seems only logical that you would want to make sure that person keeps producing interesting content. Not linking to someone whose content you enjoyed is like me not linking to SF Signal’s post on this very subject (io9). At the end of the day, however, I don’t read io9 because it simply fails to provide me regular content in subjects I’m interested in. But, that’s the case with 99.9% of the blogosphere, hence why I only follow some blogs and not others. If every blog provided content we enjoy, then I suspect we’d never get out of the house. Anyone else have any opinions on the matter? If you liked this post, please stumble it, digg it, or buzz it.

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