OryCon 39: Timothy Zahn Talks To the Fans

3525.

This is also the sort of reason why OryCon means so much and matters. OryCon has long had a reputation as a 'literary' SF convention which is appropriate; most Portland SF fans try to realize some sort of dream as a writer (I've known few who haven't), and in a city with events like Wordstock and famous for establishments like the Mighty Multnomah County Library and Powell's City Of Books, it just makes sense that people attracted to the craft and activity of writing would make OryCon he sort of place it is.

In this talk, author Timothy Zahn talked about things authory and Star Warsy: it was Zahn who brought us Grand Admiral Thrawn, one of the most enduringly-popular and arguably important characters in the SW Expanded Universe; Zahn is credited by some I've read with setting the table for a great deal of what followed. In his talk, he was a bit more modest about it, leaving the impression of someone who felt he was at the right place at the right time.

But the point I was striving at he just what a nice guy he was; affable, indefatigably friendly, the kind of Author GoH I remember OryCon seems to attract and invite. The kind of author all us aspiring SF writers hope to be.

He's our kinda guy.

[art] The Weird Dystopian Past/Present/Future of Simon Stalenhag

3475.

Looks like I may be a bit late to the party on this one, because Simon Stalenhag has been doing this for a few years now; his books, Tales From The Loop and Things From The Flood, explore this bizarre world.

But for me, the first-timer to his work, it's a viscerally-disturbing yet visually-compelling and intellectually-intriguing thing. Giant mecha stalk the landscape; inscrutable glowing monoliths dominate the skyline; legions of people wearing what seem to be VR headpieces causing them to resemble queer birds wander the landscape, apparently in thrall to some hypnosis from within them. The technology appears human, yet not-human; was there an invasion? Did some sort of technological breakthrough run amok?

The styles seem as once far future and near-past; cars and homes that came from California tracts of the 70s and 80s mix unironically with tech that seems to have come from 200 or even 300 years hence. Civilization seems to have been severely compromised but seems to function on some level; a young lady with her sidekick android explores suburban and rural homes which have been deserted and have fallen into some disrepair; perched on one item of living room furniture is a TV set from 1975. In a desert outback, great things resembling crashed spaceships decay; in other settings, mundane police investigate. Cables run from mysterious machines into houses and buildings which may or may not have people inhabiting them.

This world is full-tilt-boogie wierd, and gets at once under the skin and stays there.

His website is full with a metric f-ton of his work, and he gives you and upclose and personal look by not only posting his work but also extreme closeups of detail. The artwork looks as though it was done with acrylic, and the brushwork reminds me of Vincent diFate. So if you take diFate, add in a large helping of technological dread, garnish with retro-recent-future dystopia and a generous side of Blade Runner a'la Ridley Scott, and then amp that up to 11 on the eerie, you have this amazingly compelling vision.

The website to visit is http://www.simonstalenhag.se/.

[design] NASA JPL's "Visions of the Future" Space Tourism Posters ... And A Place That'll Print 'Em For You

3295.

A short time ago, NASA JPL released a series of delighfully-retro themed posters envisioning places in the Universe ... including our own, warm, commodious Earth ... as vacation destinations. The series is called Visions of the Future, and they're all available at the site http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/visions-of-the-future/ and all the images are free for the downloading. You can print them as you wish, use them for wallpaper, or whatever.

Your tax dollars at work, Earthling. I, for one, heartily approve of everything from the idea to the implementation to the lush graphics. JPL has hit a home run here.

But what if you don't want to bother with printing them, for whatever reason? Maybe you don't have access to large-format printing, or maybe you'd like to have them in some other form than inkjet? Not to worry, Major Matt Mason; Vivyx printing is charging quite reasonable rates to print them for you. The print charges start at $2.50 by the each for the economy paper in the 12"x18" size but you can also have that in museum-grade canvas for at little as $12.25. If you want big and quality you can have that canvas print in 36"x54" size for $110.25.

The link here is https://www.vivyxprinting.com/nasa-jpl-posters.asp. 

[#design] The Official "Portland In 2016" Westercon Bid Ad

3113.

I'm kind of the junior partner in this arrangement, but I'm thrilled just to be along for the ride. Far too infrequently do I get to look at awesome up close.

What you see, here, is the official ad for the "Portland in 2016" bid effort to land Westercon 69 for the Rose City, which will appear in the program book for at Westercon 67:

Quite the thing, neh? And I get to say that I contributed.

A precis:

The design suprema here is Meredith Cook. She has the sharpest design mind I've come across lately and I've found her incredibly inspiring. She's guided the the design effort so far and planted the seed (and did the hard beginning work) that grew into the goodness that is, and is sure to come. The general artistic appearance of that logo comes from her. I contributed a few ideas that serve to give it a little more character; it may or may not be what it is because of the bits I suggested, but it wouldn't have been at all if it weren't for her.

The base photo, that of that night-time Portland skyline, is my own work (as I detailed here). By making the bid effort logo circular, Meredith's design has enabled it to be used in the cleverest way …  the moon-over-town, lighting and illuminating a sky full of things that we love about Portland, and that sell Portland as the place for the envisioned Westercon 69. the whole effect is pure visual poetry to me, because as a place for fandom, Portland needs not too much more selling (at least in my personal, fairly smug opinion).

Westercon 67 is taking place in Salt Lake City this next month. That is where the vote will happen; anyone who wants to support our effort is welcome to do so (there's even a Pre-opposing contribution option, for those sufficiently perverse).

Portland in 2016 has Facebook and Twitter presences for those of you so inclined:

• On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Portlandin2016
• On Twitter: https://twitter.com/Portlandin2016

So, go support. Who knows … you might win a date with a unicorn!*

*Maybe, I guess. I don't know from who, but anything's possible … if you believe!

[writing] NaNoWriMo: The Two-Time Winner

2893.It is my pride and joy to say that I've won NaNoWriMo 2012, making me someone who's won every year I've entered.

I first entered in 2011.

So, you see, I sometimes do not have a handle on my own PR. Because if I really wanted to impress you, I'd have left that part out.

Anyway, in case you happen by the blog and don't know the stardard of National Novel Writing Month, which at one time I rather lampooned, it's to either complete a novel of at least 50,000 words, or complete at least 50,000 words of a novel that's going to be longer than that … one way or the other, get 50,000 words down … by November 30th. The contest starts November 1st. That means you have to averages 1,667 words per day, one way or the other.

Having done this, I am entitled to let my lit flag fly, which, this year, looks like this:

Because I did. And I can be truthful about that, because I verified the novel's word count using their handy-dandy interocitor-based word counter, which is about 200 or 300 words ahead of my live in-editor word counter.

As last year, I came with the barest sketch of an idea. It's encouraging, to me, that I can finally have ideas. I'm coming out of a time which was creatively barren to me. It's affected everything I've done artistically, and took my own job search into the grave. I don't know if I can get that resurrected, but if I do, as guys at a certain point in their lives find themselves, it will probably be in some non-standard way. But now I'm losing the thread … the point is, and it took me 2 NaNos to figure, I'm still capable of having ideas.

And that's a great gift.

There's a great and fun culture that's grown among the NaNoWriMo tribe. Some of us call us NaNos, most of us call us WriMos, and if you're lucky enough to have a schedule that allows it, you can go to these adorable meetings. pound out words with a bunch of like-affected people and maybe be a winner that way too.

My schedule precludes a bunch of that, and I lack a laptop. While the schedule has no way of changing any time soon. Am considering some FreeGeekery for that laptop, though. Just something modest running Linux and OpenOffice is all we need here.

Here, then is my trajectory during the event:

 

… and this impressed a few. That slanting gray line there is the relentless pursuit of the goal; 50,000 words spread out over 30 days. 1,667 words/day, as I said. Now, the first day, I figured I'd break it open and get some words on the ground, and got it just above the daily averages but then left off on it for two large distractions, one being OryCon 34 and the other being the Presidential elections (something I've been addicted to, the spectacle thereof, near enough my entire life).

While I continued to produce, I did so at a rate that seemed to suggest I had no prospect of completing before November 30th. But I plugged, aided and abetted by a The Wife™ who, I'm sure, put off things we should have done so that I could write.

Coming into the home stretch, I was still below 30K, then did that 'reaching deep down inside' thing that you sometimes have to do, and closed the over 10,000-word gap in a mere 3 days.

And the ms itself? It's pretty lame, actually. Since I come up to NaNo with nothing but an idea to start off with, it happens in a haphazard way. A nemesis for my main character didn't happen as I'd thought … he proved a spur but not a huge villain, but the arc of the story followed more or less the trajectory I'd figured for it. There was a twist, a surprise at the end that made everything as it looked but not as it seemed at first … I did take some care to make it credible at least to myself.

What I have here, as I had with last year's, is a plowing of the ground, a placing of markers and laying out of rows to grow better things out of. For me, NaNoWriMo is an endurance test, a working of the soil so I can come up with better things later, should I choose to chase this crazy thing. I think what I have are two good ideas for larger stories, or broken down could (and probably ought to) become even better shorts (Raymond Carver and Chekhov and Harlan Ellison taught me something about taking short incidents and making them into stories).

I, in short, love NaNoWriMo. I was supposed to be some sort of artist, either with words or images, and my incessant diarizing certainly keeps the literature flowing from some sort of pen. And, if the 'novels' I cranked out so far are crap, I am reminded that manure makes the best fertilizer, and I have taken all that time to plow up the ground there.

See you in 2013, NaNo.

[art] Blade Runner … in Watercolor

2843.(Via Slate) Aquarelle is a particular style of watercolor painting. Made with a transparent wash, they're airy, atmospheric, and very, very soft – and you have to get them right, first time. You can't 'fix' an aquarelle.

Via Slate I stumbled on an amazing media project, mounted by Anders Ramsell, which is the rendering of the film Blade Runner into aquarelle. This, my friends, is the teaser:



It takes a little visual-getting-used-to, but once you do the feeling of air and space and atmosphere takes over. It seems apparent that he's rendering frames, one-by-one, and photographing them, making this whole endeavor sort of a mashup of rotoscoping and animation.

Very inviting to the eye. Very daring.

It's going to take tens of thousands of individual paintings to complete, and he's 3,000 or 4,000 in now.

[liff] The Bottle of Dandelion Wine has Gone Dry

2839.Summer is over; the man is no more, though the illustrations may endure.

Ray Bradbury, 1920-2012, aged 91.

It's a sad and big loss, but we are cheered inasmuch as he was one of the most celebrated and influential American writers of this modern age, and is roundly credited as:

elevating the often maligned reputation of science fiction. Some say he singlehandedly helped to move the genre into the realm of literature.

I wouldn't say he did it all by himself. But it wouldn't have happened without him. He was the prime mover. He made the world safe for authors such as Ellison and Lem and even Mieville. And now he ascends into the pantheon beside Hawthorne and Poe and suchlike, the heavenly panel of literary judges, and that is indeed precisely where he belongs.

It was Fahrenheit 451 that was, in a seminal germ, responsible for teaching me critical thinking. I'll tell y'all sometime (but it's perfectly possible I've already prattled about it sometime in the last 2,837 entries. It was a formative moment).

[packaging] I Can Haz Canned Cheezburger Naow

2218.We are not entirely unfamiliar with the efficacy of canning food to make it travelable and extend shelf life, and although the idea of finding imported Heinz Treacle at the Hawthorne Fred Meyer (that has to be boilt in the can before being eaten) is note completely bizarre to us (though it is a bit alien), there are some things that take it a bit far.

Presented for your delectation, the Trek'N'Eat Cheeseburger in a can, designed for those who spend a lot of time in the outdoorsy, presumably miles away from the nearest fast food dive. Contained within a can of indeterminate size (but appearing to be about the same size or perhaps a little bigger than your standard can of tuna fish), the burger is prepared by heating the can in a hot water bath, removing said can, opening the lid, and then (and this is the important step) enjoying your cheeseburger.

And if this isn't nifty enough, the foodstuff (for what other word could perforce apply) has a shelf-life of about a year.

But my unease really has nothing to do with the idea of a cheeseburger in a can, having eaten my fair share of freeze-dried Mountain House food during my time as a Boy Scout, but rather the illustration, nicked from the Trek'N'Eat site and decorating this very post. Look at that burger. Do you, for one minute, think that it came out of that can? Do you, you cynical consumer of culture you, need to be reminded that there's such a thing as food stylists?

I cannot believe there is one chance on this good green Earth that such a perfect looking cheeseburger came out of that can. Now, note that I'm not saying that whatever comes out of that can isn't edible or even delicious. But the marketing, while skillful, is a little hard to believe.

But man, I'm curious as to what that thing looks like and tastes like. You bet.

Technorati Tags: Canned food, package design, strange foods, outdoor foods

[sf] Help Jeanne Robinson Fight Cancer - Win Dinner With Harlan and Susan Ellison!

2208.SF Fans, time to help: Most of you have heard of Spider Robinson, the creator (amongst other nifty things) Callahan's Crosstime Saloon. He's a legendary writer. His wife and co-conspirator, Jeanne, is a magnificent artist and sage in her own right, a dancer, and a writer.

Jeanne is afflicted with a rare and aggressive form of bile duct cancer, and, as such illnesses are wont to do, the Robinson family's finances are very nearly depleted. If Spider's fiction has delighted you or if anything Jeanne has done, then you can help out. There are several links that can connect you, full of information about what they're going through and how you can do a little something:

• http://www.spiderrobinson.com/index2.html
• http://stardancemovie.blogspot.com/
• http://wedreamforjeanne.blogspot.com/

But here's the big bit of news: Harlan Ellison has offered a most amazing thing: Dinner, at Ellison Wonderland, otherwise known as The Lost Incan Temple of Mars, in beautiful LA, with both Susan and Harlan Ellison. This will be auctioned off starting this Sunday, at the Ebay site for Jeanne's auctions.

The bidding will start at $1000 and the winner will be responsible for providing their own transportation to LA, but you know what? If I could afford that sort of money, you bet your sweet ass I would! Just to see the inside of that amazing house once in my life and shake Harlan and Susan's hands would be a hell of a hoot!

Imagine what you could do … maybe you could finally get the address of that idea Service in Schenectady that Harlan uses (well, I mean, you might … ). But if Spider and Jeanne's works have made you happy, here's a way you can give back.

If you can, you ought to.

More detail can be had at this BoingBoing article here.

Technorati Tags: Jeanne Robinson, Spider Robinson, Harlan Ellison, Cancer

[design] Fantasy and Science Fiction Themes in TV Since Star Trek – Amazing Graphic Treat

2205.io9.com's Stephanie Fox is someone I am now a fan of. Her genius here is the chart, and her production goes to show how an aptly-designed chart can give you a distilled view of trends that you can get your brain around.

Starting the year after Star Trek's cancellation and last broadcast, the left hand column gives you an at-a-glance display of what TV shows were running, when, and how long. Looking right, you have tabulated the number of shows in which each one of a number of common themes (such as Magic, Robots, Space Travel, and Aliens). Connecting the dots gives a view of what goes popular over time, what seems t stay popular, and what was popular when televised SF and F was really big which, as it turns out, the top half of the 90s.

Here's the chart. Clicking on it should provide some biggenation; if that doesn't work, just go here: http://picasaweb.google.com/samuel.klein/BlogSupport#5377428635350131762:

Discussion and other biggenation can be had at this thread on io9.com: http://io9.com/5347631/at-last-a-graph-that-explains-scifi-tv-after-star-trek. Chart was used with permission (thanks, Stephanie!).

About the only way that I can think that this would be niftier is to add a timeline of world news and events. I'm of the opinion that SF and F television either reflects what we're trying to deal with as a society, or inverts that – in some way, SF and F portrays worlds that invert our fears and fantasies (taking us from powerless to powerful, from worried to confident), and this is because I've always felt that well-done SF really holds a mirror up to our present and compels us to question it.

But that's just me being a dilettante, maybe.

It is a nifty chart, though, and don't question me on this!

Technorati Tags: stephanie fox, io9, graphic design, information design, trend design