Amazing Things We Saw Today

A new, and possibly persistent, roundup of interesting things we saw today on the web and elsewhere.

The “plan”, such as it is, is to take the bookmarks we usually save for Sunday’s news roundup and cover them day-by-day, as well as summarizing them all on the weekend.  That will give each item two bites at the apple and will allow our readers to choose how to engage – either in smaller daily doses or longer weekly roundups.

Let us know what you think!

Gamer Gate N Point Something?
Jaym Gates points us to this Reddit list where someone(s) have taken it upon themselves to rate role playing game companies by their level of “wokeness”, but with a twist.  The more “woke” a company appears to be, the less they are recommended to the public.  A reverse recommendation list, if you will, because obviously, the less socially aware and respectful a company is, the better it is for a social activity like gaming?
According to some commentators, the list itself is not all that consistent, nor accurate, but then, where’s the fun to be had with an accurate, consistent list?

Shang-Chi and the legend of one additional ring
Box Office reports show this new Marvel release with a very strong opening weekend – second only to Black Widow of recent vintage in the era of the Pandemic.
The article makes big noises about theater owners heaving sighs of relief as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ performance seems to indicate that consumers are returning to theaters, despite the fact that some companies are releasing films in both theaters and through streaming services (Black Windo, looking at you).  For sure this era of film-making has brought us further segmentation of evaluating a film’s performance – and makes me wonder, given the state of the pandemic, if the studios wouldn’t be helping themselves out by releasing their new films directly to hospital cable networks, though of course (drum roll please), that’s a diminishing audience no matter how you measure it.
My big curiosities surrounding this film are:  what did China guarantee Hollywood in order to get this greenlit to begin with and how many “minders” were in the script-writinig room during its conception.
I’m not really familiar with the character or the comic;  after all, I really didn’t get into Fonda’s Kung Fu TV show either (taking classes – yes;  watching screen-i-fied “martial arts” not so much), but I was interested to learn that Shang-Chi is the son of Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu, a pulp character that has been found extremely wanting in today’s culture.

2021 DragonCon Dragon Awards Announced – by File 770
The 2021 (We have no idea what goes on behind the scenes or who may be paying off whom because they’re not known for their transparency) Dragon Awards have been handed out in Atlanta.
A listing of the winner’s was not available on the DragonCon website as of this writing, but was present on Mike Glyer’s File 770 website.  File 770 no doubt covers this for a sense of completeness, probably not out of any real interest (sorry, winners – yay you!), especially seeing as how many of the instigators and advocates for these “anti-Hugo Award” awards have been known to level criticisms (is that what we call them in polite society?) of both (multiple Hugo Award Winning Fanzine) File 770 and its (multiple Hugo Award Winning for Fan Writing) editor, trying to suggest that the news coverage there is anything but unbiased and comprehensive.
Of course the counter to such arguments is that the accusers themselves are guilty of what they charge File 770 with but, considering that they all hail from the right wing, this is stunningly unsurprising.
This has NOT been a paid promotion of File 770.

Thoughts on 2023 Worldcon Bids

Eric Hildeman innocently(?) asked on the JOF (Journeymen of Fandom, which is quick to point out that the word “journeyman” is being used in its historical meaning) group on Facebook what his fellow fans thought of the various 2023 Worldcon bids – Winnipeg, Memphis and Chengdu, China.
Unsurprisingly, I was quick to jump in with condemnation of the China bid (justifications here) for all of the right reasons.
You can read each committee’s Bid Proposals on Worldcon’s WSFS website.
If you are planning on voting in Site Selection at this year’s Worldcon – Discon III – please give careful consideration to the issues related not just to Worldcon, but also to China’s growing influence and infiltration of our entertainment and media.

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If you would like your thing to appear here in a squib, or a sarcastic rejoinder, or even having it distorted beyond all recognition, (especially new releases of things we’ll critique without ever having read, heard or seen), please feel free to submit them to Steve (at) AmazingStories (dot) com.

Today’s featured image is by Richard Powers, illustrating E.E. Doc Smith’s The Skylark of Space, Pyramid edition, 1962.

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