Ansible 254 [long]
ANSIBLE 254
SEPTEMBER 2008
From DAVE LANGFORD, 94 London Road, Reading, Berks, RG1 5AU. Web
news.ansible.co.uk. Fax 0705 080 1534. ISSN 0265-9816 (print) 1740-942X
(e). Available for SAE or the meaning of poostermoolies.
[NET NOTE. See http://news.ansible.co.uk/a254.html for the nice HTML
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please don't send such requests to my own e-mail address. DRL]
DENVENTION 3. The 66th Worldcon in Denver, Colorado, seemed to run
successfully. Much timely information appeared on line as the con
progressed.
HUGOS. A 19-year winning streak came to its end at last, which
frankly was something of a relief.... NOVEL Michael Chabon, _The Yiddish
Policemen's Union_. NOVELLA Connie Willis, 'All Seated on the Ground' by
(_Asimov's_ 12/07). NOVELETTE Ted Chiang, _The Merchant and the
Alchemist's Gate_. SHORT Elizabeth Bear, 'Tideline' (_Asimov's_ 6/07).
NONFICTION Jeff Prucher, _Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of
Science Fiction_. DRAMATIC, LONG _Stardust_. DRAMATIC, SHORT _Doctor
Who_: 'Blink'. EDITOR, LONG David Hartwell. EDITOR, SHORT Gordon Van
Gelder (_F&SF_). ARTIST Stephan Martiniere. SEMIPROZINE _Locus_. FANZINE
_File 770_. FAN WRITER John Scalzi. FAN ARTIST Brad Foster. CAMPBELL
AWARD ('not a Hugo') Mary Robinette Kowal. Congratulations to all, with
special thanks from Hazel -- who worries about her groaning mantelpieces
-- to that nice Mr Scalzi.
HUGO RULE CHANGES: simultaneous nomination as pro and fan artist is
now allowed. Awaiting ratification next year: 'semiprozine' abolished and
'graphic story' added (the 2009 Worldcon confirms that it will be test-
flying this in advance as its permitted additional Hugo category);
'related book' changed to 'related work' to allow or confirm on-line
eligibility.
AUSSIECON 4, the unopposed 2010 Worldcon bid, naturally won the site
selection (658 votes from 826 ballots). The Chicago in 2012 bid was
officially launched at last.
### THE FIVE GOLD BANDS ###
BEN BOVA and Spider Robinson shared this year's Heinlein Award.
LEO & DIANE DILLON are to receive the 2008 World Fantasy Award for life
achievement, and so in the same year is Patricia McKillip.
MARY JANE ENGH, best known for her sf novel _Arslan_ (UK title _A Wind
from Bukhara_) as by M.J. Engh, is to be SFWA's 2009 'Author Emerita'.
Presumably some Latin research has been carried out since Ardath Mayhar
was proclaimed Author Emeritus for 2008. 'Well,' Engh said cautiously,
'I hope _emerita_ doesn't mean _over the hill_, but I'm truly honored --
blown away, in fact ...' [SFWA]
DIANA WYNNE JONES on a recent furore: 'Has it come to the august and all
seeing eyes of _Ansible_ that there is currently a furious row raging in
children's book circles? I know this doesn't sound like sf, but actually
it _is_ because the leader is Philip Pullman, who is objecting furiously
to the publishers' unilateral attempts to label every book that _might_
be for children with the age-range for which it is putatively intended.
Pullman says, reasonably enough, that this will exclude both children and
adults from reading books the publishers have labelled 11+ and so forth.
Needless to say, I am in full agreement with him, the more so that my
publishers tried to pull a fast one on me and presented me with this
labelling as a _fait accompli_, telling me that it only remained for me
to choose which age band each of my books was in. Almost all my books
weren't in any age band, as far as I could see, and short of labelling
them all 7+ (which wouldn't work), there seemed no solution. It then
occurred to me that publishers (not to speak of writers) were going to
lose money over this, as ignorant aunts were not going to buy books
labelled 11+ plus for ten-year-olds and adult devotees were going to be
shy of being seen reading, say, _The Lord of the Rings_ with a large sign
on it saying FOR ELEVEN YEARS UPWARDS. I wrote to Philip and suggested
he put this to the publishers -- for whom Losing Money is the Ultimate
Horror -- but he so far hasn't included this argument on his website
Notoagebanding.org. [...] The more people who are annoyed at this silly
piece of nannying, the better.' NTAB organizers have suggested a form of
words for authors to request in contracts.
JERRY POURNELLE, who's been having months of X-ray radiotherapy for an
inoperable brain tumour, announces: 'It's official. I no longer have
cancer. I have some scar tissue residual in my head, but both the MRI and
my blood work indicate that the cancer is gone. / My fatigue may be due
to sleep problems, but I should be about over the radiation sickness. In
a word, I am in great shape for a man of my age. Now all I have to do is
convince myself so that I get back to work. / It's taking a while for
that to sink in.' (28 August) [TI]
SPIDER ROBINSON and Ben Bova shared ... no, we've done that one already.
### CONJUNGE ###
5 Sep [] BRITISH FANTASY SOCIETY OPEN NIGHT, Ye Olde Cock Tavern, 22
Fleet St, London, EC4 1AA. From 6pm. All welcome.
5-7 Sep [] ZOMBIECON (_Brainnnnnns!_), Quality Hotel, Bentley, Walsall.
Advance booking now closed; Pounds50 at the door. Contact 54 Bridge Rd,
Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 2QP; info at zombiecon co uk.
6-7 Sep [] FORBIDDEN PLANET (London, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge,
Coventry, Croydon, Liverpool, Newcastle, Southampton) celebrates its 30
years of 'Geek Chic' with parties, including giveaways. NB: _not_
Forbidden Planet International (Scotland, Ireland, other English towns),
which dates itself from the Edinburgh SF BookShop in 1975.
19-21 Sep [] FANTASYCON 2008, Britannia Hotel, 1 St James St, Nottingham.
Pounds70 reg (BFS members Pounds60). Day rate Pounds25 Fri or Sun,
Pounds40 Sat. Contact 5 Greenbank, Barnt Green, Birmingham, B45 8DH.
24 Sep [] BSFA OPEN MEETING, The Antelope, 22 Eaton Terrace, London, SW1W
8EZ. 5pm/6pm onward. With Farah Mendlesohn.
25-28 Sep [] OXONMOOT (Tolkien Society), Christchurch, Oxford.
Pounds49.50 reg (members Pounds42.50). Contact 29 Tockley Rd, Burham,
Bucks, SL1 7DQ; bookings at tolkiensociety org.
3 Oct [] SCI-FI LONDON OKTOBERFEST (film), Apollo West End Cinema, Lower
Regent St, London. Box office 020 7451 9944.
11-12 Oct [] NEWCON 4, The Fishmarket, Bradshaw Street, Northampton, NN1
2HL. Pounds40 reg (BSFA members Pounds35). Pounds10 supporting; Pounds20
per day. Contact 16 Albany Road, Northampton, NN1 5LZ.
17-19 Oct [] FESTIVAL OF FANTASTIC FILMS, Day's Hotel, Sackville St,
Manchester. Pounds70/$140 reg; Pounds30/$60 day. Under-17s Pounds30;
under-13s Pounds20. Contact 95 Meadowgate Rd, Salford, Manchester, M6
8EN.
18-19 Oct [] OCTOCON, Royal Dublin Hotel, O'Connell St, Dublin. Euro30
reg to 12 Oct; students Euro12; under-18/supp Euro10. Octocon 2008 c/o
Electric Dragon, 19a Main St, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.
7-9 Nov [] ALT.FICTION HORROR WRITING WEEKEND, Dove Valley Centre, nr
Buxton. Workshop: Pounds150 reg including 2 nights full board. Contact
Alex, 07768 635293, or alexdavisevents at hotmail co uk.
22-23 Nov [] DUBLIN CITY COMIC CON, Park Inn, Smithfield Sq, Dublin.
Admission Euro20/day or Euro35 for the weekend.
20-22 Feb 09 [] REDEMPTION 09 (multimedia sf) -- Britannia Hotel, Fairfax
St, Coventry, CV1 5RP. _Now Pounds55 reg._ Under-18s/supp: Pounds15.
Contact 26 Kings Meadow View, Wetherby, LS22 7FX.
24-26 Apr 09 [] ALT.FICTION, QUAD art/film centre, Derby. More TBA.
Contact 01332 715434 or alex dot davis at derby gov uk.
29 Apr - 4 May 09 [] SCI-FI LONDON (film), Apollo West End Cinema, Lower
Regent St, London. Box office 020 7451 9944. More TBA.
17-18 _or_ 24-25 Jan 10 [] CONRUNNER 2, 'The North, probably Sheffield
or Manchester'. Rates to start at Pounds30. More TBA. Contact 56 Jackmans
Place, Letchworth GC, Herts, SG6 1RH.
2-6 Sep 10 [] AUSSIECON 4 (68th Worldcon), Melbourne Convention &
Exhibition Centre. GoH Kim Stanley Robinson, Robin Johnson (fan), Shaun
Tan. $A160/$US155/$CAN155/Euro100/Pounds80 reg until 3 Nov 2008;
$A52/$US50/$CAN50/Euro35/Pounds25 supp; presupporter, 'Firend' and site
selection voter discounts at www.aussiecon4.org.au. Contact GPO Box 1212,
Melbourne, Vic 3001, Australia; info at aussiecon4 org au.
_Rumblings_ [] WORLDCON 2013: the still uncommitted Texas bid now has a
rival, announced during Denvention: Zagreb.
### INFINITELY IMPROBABLE ###
AS OTHERS HOPE TO SEE US. Worldcon coverage at Denver Westword Blogs
included a visit to Shotgun Willie's strip club, which had laid on a Sci
Fi Strip Off to attract 'an army of sci-fi geeks'. Alas: 'It wasn't much
of a show, at least from a geek-hunting journalist's perspective. The
club was packed, pulsing with a slightly more techno-y vibe in honor of
the promised nerds. But as I cruised the club searching for
conventioneers, I realized: all men look like geeky sci-fi writers when
they're hunched over a railing, slack-jawed and chucking crumpled dollars
at naked women. I asked around, and no one would cop to being from the
convention. One guy was wearing a Star Trek shirt, but I never got to
talk to him. He was ... occupied.' (Joe Tone) [MM]
MORE WORLDCON AWARDS. _Big Heart_ (fan): Suford Lewis.
_Chesley_ (art): not presented at Denvention owing to voting delays.
_First Fandom Hall of Fame:_ Mike Ashley, Ray Harryhausen and
(posthumous) Isaac Asimov.
_Sidewise_ (alternate history) LONG Michael Chabon. _The Yiddish
Policemen's Union_. SHORT (tie) Michael Flynn, 'Quaestiones Super Caelo
et Mundo' (_Analog_ 7/07) and Kristine Kathryn Rusch, 'Recovering Apollo
8' (_Asimov's_ 2/07).
R.I.P. _Pauline Baynes_ (1922-2008), UK illustrator perhaps most famous
for her line drawings in all the C.S. Lewis 'Narnia' books, died on 1
August at the age of 89. She also illustrated _Farmer Giles of Ham_ and
other works by Tolkien (who said: 'more than illustrations, they are a
collateral theme'), painted the first paperback cover of _Watership
Down_, and won the Kate Greenaway Medal for her nearly 600 drawings in
Grant Uden's _A Dictionary of Chivalry_. [BS via AW]
_Ken Campbell_ (1941-2008), UK actor-director who staged popular
adaptations of _Illuminatus!_ and _The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the
Galaxy_, died on 31 August; he was 66. His performance of _Pigspurt_ at
Mexicon V (Scarborough, 1993) is fondly remembered.
_Creig Flessel_ (1912-2008), US comics artist who drew early DC
comics from 1937 and adventures of the golden-age _Sandman_ from 1939
onward, died on 17 July aged 96.
_Geoffrey Perkins_ (1953-2008), UK radio/tv producer whose credits
include the first two radio series of _The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the
Galaxy_, died in a road accident on 29 August; he was 55. [F/CM] He was
BBC Head of Comedy 1995-2001, and invented the fannishly popular game
'Mornington Crescent' for BBC Radio's _I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue_.
_George W. Proctor_ (1946-2008), US author and teacher whose many
books included some 16 sf/fantasy novels and two co-edited anthologies
(one of Nebula winners) died on 3 August. He was 61. [JC]
AS OTHERS SEE US. In August, MTV was casting for _True Life: I'm a Fan
Boy_: 'Are you obsessed with comic books, anime, fantasy, or manga? Do
you like to dress up as your favorite character and attend conventions
with other fans? Have you ever waited in line overnight for a book,
movie, or videogame release? Do you have tattoos depicting your favorite
brand or characters? Have you ever missed work, school, or other
important events to engage in role-playing or cosplay? Are you
misunderstood by your family or significant other because of it? Have you
ever been told to "grow up" by someone important to you? If you're an
obsessed fanboy (or girl), MTV wants to hear from you. If you appear to
be between the ages of 16 and 28 and identify with any of the above, MTV
wants to hear your story.' [JHB] Chiz chiz chiz: I was getting quite
excited until I realized that MTV's ageism excludes me.
OUTRAGED LETTERS. _Richard E. Geis:_ 'I note that being named Grand
Master is current. Let me inform you that I, Richard E. Geis, have been
named Grand Master for July 19 by the American Society of Distinguished
and Currently Unemployed Erotica Hacks, and I have hopes that some of my
pen names will make Grand Masterhood in due time.'
MYTHOPOEIC AWARDS. ADULT FANTASY Catherynne M. Valente, _Orphan's Tales_
(_In the Night Garden_ and _In the Cities of Coin and Spice_).
CHILDREN'S J.K. Rowling, the entire _Harry Potter_ series.
SCHOLARSHIP: INKLINGS Diana Pavlac Glyer, _The Company They Keep:
C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community_; John D. Rateliff,
_The History of the Hobbit_ (2 vols).
SCHOLARSHIP: OTHER T.A. Shippey, ed., _The Shadow-Walkers: Jacob
Grimm's Mythology of the Monstrous_.
AS WE SEE OURSELVES. From a local-paper story celebrating Garry Jon
Simpson's feat of publishing his sf novel through the 'author-funded'
Athena Press: 'I enjoy writing science fiction as you don't have to do
a lot of research for it.' (_Winsford Guardian_, 21 August) [SHS]
RANDOM FANDOM. _Steve Green_ thanks all the fans and others who donated
to Diabetes UK in memory of Ann Green (1961-2008) and raised more than
Pounds1300.
_Terry Jeeves_'s wife Val died in late August despite the apparent
success of her July cancer operation. All sympathy to Terry, who is
unable to cope alone and may have to remain in care.
_Paul Voermans and Cathy Hayward_ are getting married next June.
MAGAZINE SCENE. As of their December issues, _Analog_ and _Asimov's_ will
change from the traditional digest size to 5 7/8" x 8 5/8", matching
other Penny Press magazines. Page count drops from 144 to 112, so that
despite larger pages there'll be some 4000 fewer words. [DB]
AS OTHERS SEE US II. A rare good word for sf: 'The science fiction
"community", unlike most groups to which that word is attached, really
is a community, and a good many of the people in it are charming and
normal.' (Andrew McKie, _Telegraph_, 9 Aug) [TL]
Why _War with the Newts_ is underrated: 'Another problem is the
annexation of [Karel] Capek by the science fiction community ... Keen to
upgrade its image, science fiction apologists have displayed a propensity
to aggrandize its domain, sticking the label on writers who have precious
little to do with space opera or monster hide and seek.' (Peter Swirski,
_From Lowbrow to Nobrow_, 2005) [ADH] That is: giant talking newts just
aren't sf.
MORE SHORTLISTS. All too many BFA/WFA categories; here are the the novel
finalists._ British Fantasy Award:_ Ramsey Campbell, _The Grin of the
Dark_; Joe Hill, _Heart-Shaped Box_; Michael Marshall, _The Intruders_;
Sarah Pinborough, _The Taken_; Dan Simmons, _The Terror_; Michael
Marshall Smith, _The Servants_.
_World Fantasy Award:_ John Marks, _Fangland_; Will Shetterly, _The
Gospel of the Knife_; Michael Marshall Smith, _The Servants_; Emma Bull,
_Territory_; Guy Gavriel Kay, _Ysabel_.
FANFUNDERY. _TAFF:_ nominations are open for the 2009 westbound race from
Europe to Anticipation in Montreal. Each candidate should provide 5
written nominations (3 Euro, 2 NA), a platform of up to 100 words and
Pounds10 bond, by 5 Nov 2008; ballots should appear within days. Voting
deadline: post-Easter 2009. Euro admin: Bridget Bradshaw, 103 Rustat Rd,
Cambridge, CB1 3QG; email bugshaw at gmail dot com.
COURT CIRCULAR. Warner Bros is suing Bollywood's Mirchi Movies for the
hideous infringement of its non-fantasy adventure film title _Hari Puttar
-- A Comedy of Terrors_. Hari Puttar is Punjabi for Son of Hari. [BB]
THE DEAD PAST. _As Others Guffawed At Us, 1935:_ 'Why do people guffaw
when I tell them I am reading the _Voyage to the Moon_, by Godwin, the
model of Cyrano de Bergerac and Swift? I will throw in Lucian and
Voltaire as make-weight. But no one smiles if you say you are reading
Jules Verne's wizardry, or the fantastics of Wells!' (Edward Agate,
quoted in James Agate, _Ego 2_, 1936) What, no one?
ANOTHER BLOODY POLL. A Costa Book Awards survey of 'the nation's most
cherished and best-loved writers' produced a top 50 beginning: 1 Enid
Blyton, 2 Roald Dahl, 3 J.K. Rowling, 4 Jane Austen, 5 William
Shakespeare, 6 Charles Dickens, 7 J.R.R. Tolkien, 8 Agatha Christie, 9
Stephen King, 10 Beatrix Potter, 11 C.S. Lewis.... Other genre-ish names
include 22 Martin Amis, 23 Isaac Asimov, 24 Margaret Atwood, 27 H.G.
Wells, 29 Arthur C. Clarke, 30 George Orwell, 32 Iain Banks, 37 Kingsley
Amis, 40 Mark Twain, 41 J.G. Ballard, and 49 Ray Bradbury. [JB]
C.O.A. _Lilian Edwards_ has moved to a new Chair at Sheffield U: mail
address reverts to 39 Viewforth, Edinburgh, EH10 4JE. 'If anyone wants
a Sheffield lodger with 2 cats _c._ late Sept/early Oct, do let me know.'
SCOURING OF THE SHIRE. The US subprime mortgage debacle led to
foreclosure proceedings against the Tolkien-themed 'Shire' housing estate
in Bend, Oregon (where round hobbit-hole doors mercifully open on garden
storage rather than being main entrances). The developers owe their bank
$3.4m. A December auction is expected; new owners may or may not want to
keep fantasy features like artificially thatched roofs, 'dragon-shaped
support beams', 'Ring Bearer's Court', etc. (Bend _Bulletin_, 31 July)
[A] We are renaming the Langford cellar Shelob's Lair.
GROUP GROPES. _London First Thursdays._ Meetings continue happily at the
Melton Mowbray on Holborn, but Paul Treadaway feels we need a new
emergency fallback venue -- just in case. The Printer's Devil is being
demolished and the Goose is closed, so Paul suggests the One Tun on
Saffron Hill, now boasting an extension and garden terrace,
_A253_ ADDENDA. I cut a few words too many when reporting Terry
Pratchett's 3-novel presence on the Nielsen BookScan 'evergreen' list of
books permanently among the top 5,000 UK sellers since records began in
1995. Only 12 titles appear and no other author has more than one.
Tolkien is in there with _The Hobbit_, but not _The Lord of the Rings_.
[CS]
WE ARE EVERYWHERE. The charity magazine _The Big Issue_ is an unlikely
place to find sf, but spies report an Alastair Reynolds story ('Cardiff
Afterlife') in _The Big Issue Cymru_ #627, 25-31 August. [DR]
THOG'S MASTERCLASS. _Tripodal Stability Dept._ 'She crouched on a three-
legged stool as if warming herself before the fire, but Will knew her
chill would take more melting than that. He knelt down before her. The
stool wobbled under her when he took her hands, the one leg shorter than
the other that his father hadn't mended in fifteen years gone past.'
(Elizabeth Bear, _Ink and Steel_, 2008) [CS]
_Dept of the Right Spirit._ 'Four subordinate officers, plastered
in their seats ...' (Howard S. Smith, _I, Robot_, 2008) [DC]
_Delicate Euphemism Dept._ 'At the point where in the human male
there droops that Thing of Joy which is a Beauty for ever, these ethereal
visitors were as bald and smooth as porcelain.' (Richard Cowper,
_Kuldesak_, 1972). [AR]
### GEEKS' CORNER ###
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CONVENTIONS/EVENTS LONGLIST
Details at http://links.ansible.co.uk#cons
London meetings/events -- http://news.ansible.co.uk/london.html
Overseas -- http://news.ansible.co.uk/conlisti.html
[] 2008
Until 25 Oct 2008, Dan Dare and the Birth of Hi-Tech Britain, Science
Museum, London
5-7 Sep 2008, ZombieCon, Bentley, Walsall
12-14 Sep 2008, Reunion5 (media), Coventry
19-21 Sep 2008, Fantasycon 2008, Nottingham
25-28 Sep 2008, Oxonmoot (Tolkien), Oxford
3 Oct 2008, Sci-Fi London Oktoberfest (film), London
4-5 Oct 2008, Birmingham International Comics Show, Birmingham
11-12 Oct 2008, NewCon 4, Northampton
17-19 Oct 2008, Festival of Fantastic Films, Manchester
18-19 Oct 2008, Octocon, Ireland
25 Oct 2008, Teledeux!, London -- venue TBC
1-2 Nov 2008, UnCon 2008 (Forteana), London
7-9 Nov 2008, ArmadaCon XX, Plymouth
11 Nov 2008 - 4 Jan 2009, Science Fact & Science Fiction exhibition,
National Space Centre, Leicester
14-16 Nov 2008, Novacon 38, Bentley, Walsall
5-7 Dec 2008, Battlestar Starfury (_BSG_), Heathrow
[] 2009
20-24 Jan 2009, Wyrd Sisters: The Directors' Cut (play), Abingdon
6-8 Feb 2009, AXXIdental (filk), Grantham
20-22 Feb 2009, Redemption 09 (multimedia sf), Coventry
26-29 Mar 2009, Eurocon 2009, Fiuggi, Italy
27-29 Mar 2009, P-Con VI, Dublin.
10-13 Apr 2009, LXcon (Eastercon), Bradford
19-21 Jun 2009, Aetherica (fantasy), Chester
CANCELLED: 26-29 Jun 2009, Sectus 2009 (Harry Potter), North Wales
25-26 Jul 2009, Satellite 2, Glasgow
31 July - 2 August 2009, Constitution (sf, fantasy, RPG), Cambridge
6-10 Aug 2009, Anticipation (67th Worldcon), Montreal, Canada
[] 2010
2-5 Apr 2010, Odyssey 2010 (Eastercon), Heathrow
### ENDNOTES ###
APPARITIONS.
[] 6 Sep 2008: Sarah Ash, Chaz Brenchley, Deborah J. Miller & Jessica
Rydill Saunders at the West London Literary Festival, Main Tent,
Walpole Park, Ealing, London W5. 1pm-2pm.
[] 12 Sep 2008: Brum Group, Briar Rose, Bennett Hill, Birmingham city
centre. With James Barclay. 7.45pm. Pounds4; members Pounds3. Contact
07845 897760 or 4bhamsfgroup at yahoo co uk.
[] 18 Sep 2008: C.E. Murphy signing, Forbidden Planet, 179
Shaftesbury Ave, London, WC2H 8JR. 6-7pm.
[] 5 Oct 2008: Alan Grant and others, _Wasted_ comic launch at
Forbidden Planet, 40-41 Southbridge St, Edinburgh. 2-3pm.
[] 19 Oct 2008: Bryan Talbot, Hannah Berry, Paul Grist and Paul
Gravett panel, Manchester Literature Festival, Whitworth Art Gallery.
2:30pm. Tickets Pounds4/Pounds3.
[] 23 Oct 2008: Bryan Talbot talks at Eccleston Library, St Helens,
Lancashire. 7:30pm. Admission free. Contact 01744 677575.
PAYPAL DONATION. Support _Ansible_ and keep the editor happy! Or just
buy his books ...
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BRIAN ALDISS adds a few words in memory of Ken Campbell: 'Good old
Ken, a truly funny man and comic actor. We met first in Newcastle,
ages ago. Ken and mates came charging into a pub where heavy miners
were sinking heavy pints of porter. Their heavy faces said, "Maake me
fookin' laf!" -- and then they were wetting themselves with laughter.
Ken and Co piled up a tower of chairs to make a Big Ben. He climbed up
them and was going to jump off and commit suicide. But when he got to
the top he found he had vertigo (a fear of heights, you chump! --
Didn't you see the Hitchcock movie? too young, eh?!) -- and had to be
pushed.
'We joined forces and for several years toured the country. It was
called "bringing SF to the Masses". The masses sometimes numbered nineteen.
Birmingham was the best venue -- the good old Brummie group would always
support us. As long as Ken was on stage, everything was fireproof!
'Bless the dear man -- always merry when I knew him. If there was such
a place, there'd be laughter in Heaven now....'
COURT CIRCULAR II. Barbara Bauer's lawsuit against the Wikimedia
Foundation was dismissed in July, but the remaining defendants -- all
associated with websites that carried or discussed her listing in the
'20 Worst Literary Agents' -- still include team members at
AbsoluteWrite, the Nielsen Haydens' Making Light, and SFWA's Writer
Beware. SFWA itself is also a defendant.
http://www.citmedialaw.org/threats/bauer-v-wikimedia
OUTRAGED LETTERS II. _Simon R. Green_ offers a characteristically
profound 'Thought for the day: when it comes to the Brit Olympics, I
think our closing ceremony should consist of a giant wicker man, in
which we burn selected celebrities who have fallen from grace. Let's
see the next country top that....'
THOG EXTRA. _Solar Simile Dept._ 'The sun set, like a fried egg
sliding over a pan and being lost in the fire.' (R.L. Fanthorpe, 'Face
of Evil', 1960)
Ansible 254 Copyright (c) Dave Langford, 2008. Thanks to Anon, John
Bark, Barbara Barrett, Damien Broderick, James H. Burns, Dave Clark,
John Clute, Flick, Arthur D. Hlavaty, Tim Illingworth, Tony Lee, Marti
McKenna, Chris Moore, David Redd, Adam Roberts, Brian Sibley, Steven
H. Silver, Colin Smythe, Cally Soukup, Andrew Wells, and Hero
Distributors: Vernon Brown (Brum Group), Janice Murray (NA),
SCIS/Prophecy, Alan Stewart (Australia).
1 Sep 08
--
David Langford | http://ansible.co.uk/ | http://news.ansible.co.uk/
See http://ansible.co.uk/bibcent.html for bibliographical horrors.
date: Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:46:05 +0100
author: David Langford
|
