Robert Asprin

Sad news from Kevin Standlee, who just flew out to Cincinatti for MARCON. Robert Asprin, author of all those pun laden MythAdventures books about Skeeve and his demonic friend Aahz, died Friday. Asprin was to be MARCON’s author guest of honor.
I’ll remember those books for Kelley Freas’ covers, which were as full of visual gags, [...]

“I’d eat the arse out of a dead mole if it offered a fighting chance.”

You may have heard that Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld books, recently learned he had early-onset Alzheimer’s.
A couple of days ago, he gave the UK’s Alzheimer’s charity a half a million UKP donation. When Pat Cadigan, an expat American science fiction writer living in the UK, heard about that she kicked in a few [...]

When Blogs Compete, Fandom Win

Looks like Charlie and Annalee are going to have some competition. Two science fiction blogs with great production values? Excellent.

Another Remembrance

Kate Schaefer on Anita Rowland: I was never clear about whether she believed in anything related to church except for the music and feeding the hungry; those seemed like enough.

Anita Rowland

Anita Roland at NorthernVoice in Vancouver, BC.

Originally uploaded by roland.

Back in 1999 and 2000, Anita Rowland helped bridge the online journaling and weblog communities, with her weblog and her journal, Anita’s Book of Days, she also helped run the Seattle Blogger Meetups. I met Anita through Science Fiction Fandom, especially Potlatch where she ran the [...]

That +3 Crystal Ring of Arcane Knowledge

Liz Henry: If I were a computer manufacturer or a media conglomerate I’d be doing stuff like putting Buffy DVD collections onto fancy Buffy themed bracelets.

Ruby and Cafe Scifi+tique

You wouldn’t be surprised to meet Ruby enthusiasts at a Japanese science fiction convention.

Shimura’s got embedded Ruby running in Illustrator. Press a button, and that evals to ‘7′.
The back story: Shimura’s part of Cafe Scifi+tique, a performance event put together by Japanese science fiction fans to invert and parody the creepy ‘maid cafe’ scene.
Cyn and [...]

Nausica’s Glider

Some people write fan fiction. Others do fan engineering.

A Pun and Some Japanese Fanish History

Dai means big, as in the Daibutsu. Con is short for “convention,” as in science fiction conventions.
That’s why the gentleman in the photo has a giant radish on the back of his tunic.
In 1983, at Daicon 4, a group of animators premiered a fan video. The over the top sequence introduced several visual tropes identified [...]

@boom?

Fuji TV and Adobe are doing something in conjunction with the Nippon 2007 WorldCon. I don’t know the details, but their site launches on Thursday the 30th (Japan Time.)

Off to Japan

Cynthia and I are off to Japan for the Worldcon.

This is awesome on multiple levels

George Takei to co-present Hugo Awards at the World Science Fiction Convention in Yokohama.

Siiru o kudasai?

According to the upcoming Worldcon’s site, exchanging siiru or stickers is a tradition among Japanese science fiction fans. So I ordered a couple of booklets of stickers from Moo to take with me on the Japan trip. I tried several images from my iPhoto library, but settled on this firework from 2004.
Cyn and I [...]

WisCon Quotes

Steven Schwartz, on the proposal for a frozen turkey bowling fundraiser: “The Revolution lacks dignity.” Tag: wiscon

New Tiptree Site

The James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award has a shiny new website, replacing the design they’ve used since 1988 1998.