Pixel Scroll 7/14/16 I Am the Pixel in the Darkness
(1) READERCONTROVERSY. Mikki Kendall’s “#Readercon: Low Point & Lessons” rounds out an ongoing conversation about a panel at last weekend’s con. For those who weren’t at Readercon—or who didn’t attend the Beyond Strong Female Characters panel—Sabrina Vourvoulias’ post lays out the panel I … Continue reading →
Pixel Scroll 7/12/16 Boys! Raise Giant Pixels in your Cellar!
(1) RAMBO REPORT. “SFWA is Many Things, But Not a Gelatinous Cube” insists Cat Rambo, the organization’s President, in a 3,800 word update published halfway through her two-year term in office. I was looking at Twitter the other day and … Continue reading →
2016 Prometheus Novel and Hall of Fame Winners
The Libertarian Futurist Society has announced the Best Novel and Hall of Fame winners of the 36th annual Prometheus Awards. PROMETHEUS BEST NOVEL Seveneves by Neal Stephenson PROMETHEUS HAL OF FAME Courtship Rite by Donald M. Kingsbury A Special Award … Continue reading →
Pixel Scroll 7/16/16 Pixels, Scrolls, Roddenberry And Time
(1) POETRY DESTROYED. A sampling of Stoic Cynic’s satirical genius. A fragmented excerpt from The Filer and the Astronaut by Louise Carol: ‘The time has come,’ the Filer said, ‘To talk of many things: Of pups — and picks — and … Continue reading →
Cult Movie Bracket, Second Round, Second Bracket
By Hampus Eckerman: For each pair, vote for the top cult movie. Vote for what is memorable, what is fun, what is interesting, what is cult. You will have at least 24 hours to answer, but after that it depends … Continue reading →
Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens Official Trailer 1
The Sharknado hits Washington, D.C. and Orlando, Florida in the latest sequel. Coming to Syfy on July 31. Lots of cameos of TV personalities — from Shark Tank, naturally, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and others like trainer Dolvett Quince … Continue reading →
Lunacon 2017 Names Guests of Honor
The Guests of Honor at Lunacon 2017 will be Writer Ben Bova and Fan Roberta Rogow. In addition, the convention will feature the Boogie Knights as Musical Guests. Ben Bova is the author of some 124 works of science fact … Continue reading →
Star Wars Rebels Season 3 Trailer
The latest news about Star Wars Rebels Season 3 coming out of Star Wars Celebration Europe 2016 includes the announcement that Tom Baker, of Doctor Who fame, will voice Bendu — #tombaker joins #starwarsrebels character #bendu a force of nature and different part … Continue reading →
Pixel Scroll 7/15/16 The Scroll And The Pixelcat Went To Sea In A Seven And Seventy Blog
(1) WRITER BEWARE. If they can’t resolve a matter privately for an author, SFWA’s Grievance Committee will sometimes turn the matter over to another SFWA arm, Writer Beware. Here’s a write-up by Victoria Strauss of a recent investigation into Sky … Continue reading →
Oshiro Recruited To MAC II Incident Response Team
Mark Oshiro (Mark Watches Star Trek) announced on Facebook he will be a member of MidAmeriCon II’s Incident Response Team, which responds to code of conduct violations, or people’s other problems with members of the con. I am the Deputy … Continue reading →
The Big Read Gets Makeover
There’s been a changing of the guard in The Big Read program, with sf/f novels being added and subtracted. Over the past ten years, the National Endowment for the Arts has supported more than 1,200 NEA Big Read projects, with 4.2 … Continue reading →
1941 Retro Hugo Finalist Review Roundup
Curated by JJ: [Quoting from JJ’s explanation of the 2016 Hugo Finalist Review Roundup.] …I tried to select both positive and negative reviews, from a wide selection of reviewers, which were substantive and actually provided analysis of and commentary on … Continue reading →
Cult Movie Bracket, Second Round, First Bracket
By Hampus Eckerman: For each pair, vote for the top cult movie. Vote for what is rememberable, what is fun, what is interesting, what is cult. You will have at least 24 hours to answer, but after that it depends … Continue reading →
With Honor in His Own Country
By John Hertz: (reprinted from Vanamonde 1203) On June 29th we lost Fred Prophet (born 7 Jul 1929), co-chair with Roger Sims of Detention the 17th World Science Fiction Convention (4-7 Sep 59, Detroit, Michigan), whose publicity was headed by … Continue reading →
Roberta Gellis (1927-2016)
Roberta Gellis (1927-2016), an author of fantasy fiction and sf/f novels as well as a prolific romance writer, died May 6. She wrote her two earliest sf novels, The Space Guardian (1978) and Offworld (1979) under the name Max Daniels. Later, under her … Continue reading →
Best Series Hugo Committee Report Online
The motion to add a Best Series Hugo, discussed on File 770 last year by its former title in “New Draft of Best Saga Proposal”, and the follow-up “Final Revision of Best Series Hugo Proposal Now Online”, was sent to committee by … Continue reading →
2016 Emmy Award Nominations
The nominations for the 2016 Emmy Awards were announced today. The winners will be revealed at the 68th Annual Emmy Awards airing September 18 on ABC. For the third year in a row, HBO’s Game of Thrones received the most … Continue reading →
Wil Wheaton Addresses 2016 Mensa Annual Gathering
By JJ: Wil Wheaton gave the keynote address at the 2016 Mensa Annual Gathering in San Diego on July 1. There are lots of “money quotes” in this, but here are my favorites: I was a nerdy, shy, awkward kid … Continue reading →
Pixel Scroll 7/13/16 Scroll on the Water, Fire in the Sky
(1) YOUTUBER PAYOLA? ScienceFiction.com headlined that “The FTC Has Proven That Warner Brothers Has Paid YouTubers For Positive Reviews”. In some not so awesome news, Warner Brothers was caught buying off YouTubers to give them positive reviews of their video … Continue reading →
Hugo Voting Proposal Status Update
By Jameson Quinn: Since the last thread (“To Say Nothing of the Dogs”), there hasn’t been a whole lot of progress in Hugo voting proposals, but it’s still clearly time for an update on various fronts. To summarize the (tentative) … Continue reading →
2016 Geffen Awards Shortlist
The nominees for the 2016 Geffen Awards (Israel Speculative Fiction Awards) have been announced. Here are the finalists for the three categories of sf/f books translated into Hebrew. Best Translated Fantasy Book Stolen by Kelley Armstrong, translated by Vered Tochterman (Yaniv … Continue reading →
The Cult Movie Bracket – Round One, Bracket Two
By Hampus Eckerman: For each pair, vote for the top cult movie. Vote for what is memorable, what is fun, what is interesting, what is cult. 1. I ATE, BUT I DIDN’T INHALE Bad Taste (1987) Reefer Madness (1936) 2. … Continue reading →
South Pasadena Public Library To Screen Twilight Zone Movie on 7/14
Twilight Zone: The Movie will be shown at the South Pasadena Public Library’s film and author night on July 14. There also will be presentations by local author David Melbye, and a re-enactment of a classic episode by Robert Kerr … Continue reading →
Pixel Scroll 7/11/16 The Coal Equations
(1) OH, PUH-LEEZE. Hoping to prove his superiority to his critics, Simon Pegg resorts to the Quantum Defense as he justifies a gay Sulu, in “A Word About Canon” The main thrust for those who aren’t keen on our LGBT Sulu, … Continue reading →
2016 Sunburst Award Shortlist
The Sunburst Award Committee has announced the shortlist for the 2016 Sunburst Awards for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, including a new category, Short Story. Sunburst Award winners receive a cash prize of $1,000 for the Adult and … Continue reading →
Pixel Scroll 7/10/16 Captain Pixel Pants
(1) JIM HENLEY POOPS ON SPACE. In comments, Jim deposited this link to a report that long-duration space habitation impairs vision in 80% of astronauts. (Hey, “poops” is his word.) In 2005, astronaut John Phillips took a break from his work … Continue reading →