From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:UNKNOWN:sf-lovers Newsgroups: fa.sf-lovers Title: SF-LOVERS Digest Vol 6, #65 Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8922 Posted: Sun Oct 24 01:40:08 1982 Received: Mon Oct 25 02:12:13 1982 >From SFL@SRI-CSL Sat Oct 23 18:59:09 1982 SF-LOVERS Digest 23-Oct-82 Volume 6 : Issue 65 Today's Topics: HHGttG in Washington D.C, Moorcock & music, SF & opera, SF-Lovers as APA, SF book club, Wolfe's THE CASTLE OF THE OTTER, Stallman's THE BEAST, docking in Podkayne, Ellison/Asimov/Wolfe interview, Trumbull's BRAINSTORM ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 20 Oct 1982 1835-PDT Sender: LEAVITT at USC-ISI Subject: HHGttG From: Mike Leavitt Will be on WETA (Channel 26) at 8:30 on Thursdays beginning 11/4 in the Washington DC area. It will run for 7 weeks. Each episode will run 30 minutes, so they can all fit on 1 4 hour video cassette. The show is featured in the November issue of THE DIAL (the national public broadcasting magazine). Don't Panic Mike ------------------------------ Date: Wed Oct 20 15:08:55 1982 From: UCBVAX.decvax!cwruecmp!magill@Berkeley The Heavy Metal soundtrack gives credit to Michael Moorcock as cowriter of "Veteran of the Psycic Wars". Does anyone know of other instances of a popular sf/fant. writer working with a popular group? Rich Magill decvax!cwruecmp!magill ------------------------------ Date: 21 Oct 82 19:42:06-EDT (Thu) From: David Axler Subject: SF & Opera, cont'd Recent entries on "Aniara" (including my own) provoked me into checking my files for more info, and into discovering that some "f(r)iend" has stolen my copy of the English translation thereof (now out of print, issued in paper in the Equinox/Avon SF Rediscovery series -- anyone got a spare they want to sell?). Anyway, a check of Peter Nicholl's "Science Fiction Encyclopedia" found the following on p. 383: Martinson, Harry Edmund (1904-78). Swedish author and poet, member of the Swedish Academy, Nobel Prize laureate. A prolific writer, HM's one contribution to sf is "Aniara" (1956; trans. Hugh MacDiarmid and E. Harley Schubert, 1963), a 103-canto epic poem eloquently defending humane values against the inhumanity of technology within the story of the irreversible voyage of a giant spaceship towards outer space. An opera (1959) based on the poem, composed by Karl-Birger Blomdahl, has acheived international success. In the article on "Music", several other sf operas are noted, including: 1) Haydn's 1777 opera "Il Mondo della Luna" 2) Offenbach's adaptation of Verne's "Voyage to the Moon." 3) The Janacek opera "The Makropolous Secret" (1925), based on a play by Capek; 4) Menotti's 1971 opera, "the Globolinks". The same article also deals (a bit haphazardly) with sf in rock'n'roll lyrics. The author is well-informed on the major stuff (e.g., Jefferson Starship's tendencies to "borrow" from Heinlein, Wyndham, and others), but misses a lot of lesser-known sf-related material, such as "A Time Before This", a sf rock opera by the one-album band Julian's Treatment. Ah, well.... ------------------------------ Date: 21 Oct 82 19:29:50-EDT (Thu) From: David Axler Subject: Miscellaneous Comments on Issues 49-63 (which all arrived at once!) 1) Hoffman (in 6:51) mentions the CoEvolution Quarterly note on APAs. In some ways, one could consider SFL as one, with few key differences: there's no limit on the membership, no cost, and no requirement that one must contribute ("minac"). However, the continuing flow of discussion and comments on comments on ... does make us very APA-like. 2) On the Science Fiction Book Club: It's generally a good buy, but you have to remember a number of things, especially that the production values are not nearly as good as "store-bought" editions of the same works -- the paper and the bindings will not last anywhere near as long. The gent who complained about having to pay sales tax should simply move to a state where the club doesn't have one of its mailing depots (PA is especially bad, as SFBC, QPBC, Book of the Month, and others all have factories here), since mail order sales can only charge you tax if they have a plant or outlet in your own state. 3) Another delayed Wolfe book: "The Castle of the Otter" (no, it's not a typo), being published by Ziesing Bros., has been delayed due to typographical problems (they claim that their typesetter just got a new computer...). Now, they expect to be mailing it out in mid-to-late November. For those who are wondering, this is Gene's book about writing about the world in which The Book of the New Sun is set; its title comes from Locus' misprint (due to garble on the phone lines) of the title of the fourth book in the series. 4) Stallman's "The Beast" is, indeed, excellent, but shouldn't be read until you've first read the two that precede it in the series ("The Orphan" and "The Captive"). They're going out of print rapidly, and since Stallman's death a few months back, they may not return to print. Enough for now, Dave ------------------------------ Date: 22 Oct 82 16:37:43-EDT (Fri) From: Ndd.duke at UDel-Relay Subject: docking in Podkayne I don't understand the objection to taking the spin off the ship before docking; how do you unload the ship when it's spinning? Even if you come out along the axis of rotation, the passengers will be spinning wrt the station. Or do you spin up the port to match with the ship and then spin it back down to unload the folks? Seems to me that Heinlein's method is the simplest. Ned ------------------------------ Date: 22-Oct-82 17:25:56-PDT (Fri) From: ucbvax!decvax!minow@ucb-c70 Last night (Thursday, Oct 21), ARTS cable ran an interview program with Studs Terkel and Calvin Trillan talking with Isaac Asimov, Harlan Ellison, and Gene Wolfe. An interesting conversation. Two quotes: "For the first time we have a weapon that nobody has used for thirty years. This gives me great hope for the human race" -- Harlan Ellison Ghandi is dandy, but liquoir is quicker. -- Isaac Asimov. These programs tend to circulate around the clock and country. You might consider looking for it when it comes around again. Martin Minow decvax!minow @ berkeley ------------------------------ Date: 22 Oct 82 13:04-PDT From: mclure at SRI-UNIX Subject: Brainstorm a004 2129 21 Oct 82 PM-Brainstorm,350 Natalie Wood Film Release Reported DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - The movie ''Brainstorm,'' whose completion was delayed by the death of actress Natalie Wood, may be completed and released by next summer, a state official says. A settlement is expected ''very shortly'' in a dispute involving the movie's producer, director and insurance company, Bill Arnold, director of the North Carolina Film Office, said Thursday. The film was shot largely in North Carolina. Arnol said he had been in touch with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the movie's producer, and director Douglas Trumbull. Trumbull believes the studio will settle its dispute with Lloyd's of London, the movie's principal insurer, and complete filming, Arnold said, adding that an announcement might come within two weeks. Principal photography was done in several North Carolina locations last fall. The movie was to be completed on sound stages in California last winter, but was delayed when Miss Wood died in November . MGM, thinking the movie could not be completed without Miss Wood, ceased production and sought to collect $12 million in insurance from Lloyd's. However, the insurer gave Trumbull $3 million to finish the picture, with the scenes rewritten in which Miss Wood would have appeared, officials said. Production resumed in February. A dispute arose between MGM and Trumbull over whether the parties had fulfilled their obligations for the film's completion and MGM took possession of the incomplete film, Arnold said. Twentieth Century Fox and ''several others'' had offered to buy the incomplete film, and because of that interest ''MGM thinks it can make money at the box office,'' he said. ''People were just so impressed with the basic footage,'' Arnold said. ''Everybody said if they ever finished the doggone thing it would be some kind of a classic.'' Arnold said that if the movie is completed, it would probably be released by next summer. The movie is a science-fiction thriller involving a scientist who develops an instrument for reading minds. ap-ny-10-22 0018EDT ********** Date: 20 Oct 1982 1835-PDT Sender: LEAVITT at USC-ISI Subject: HHGttG From: Mike Leavitt Will be on WETA (Channel 26) at 8:30 on Thursdays beginning 11/4 in the Washington DC area. It will run for 7 weeks. Each episode will run 30 minutes, so they can all fit on 1 4 hour video cassette. The show is featured in the November issue of THE DIAL (the national public broadcasting magazine). Don't Panic Mike Date: Wed Oct 20 15:08:55 1982 From: UCBVAX.decvax!cwruecmp!magill@Berkeley id A05547; 20-Oct-82 17:17:11-PDT (Wed) The Heavy Metal soundtrack gives credit to Michael Moorcock as cowriter of "Veteran of the Psycic Wars". Does anyone know of other instances of a popular sf/fant. writer working with a popular group? Rich Magill decvax!cwruecmp!magill Date: 21 Oct 82 19:42:06-EDT (Thu) From: David Axler Subject: SF & Opera, cont'd Recent entries on "Aniara" (including my own) provoked me into checking my files for more info, and into discovering that some "f(r)iend" has stolen my copy of the English translation thereof (now out of print, issued in paper in the Equinox/Avon SF Rediscovery series -- anyone got a spare they want to sell?). Anyway, a check of Peter Nicholl's "Science Fiction Encyclopedia" found the following on p. 383: Martinson, Harry Edmund (1904-78). Swedish author and poet, member of the Swedish Academy, Nobel Prize laureate. A prolific writer, HM's one contribution to sf is "Aniara" (1956; trans. Hugh MacDiarmid and E. Harley Schubert, 1963), a 103-canto epic poem eloquently defending humane values against the inhumanity of technology within the story of the irreversible voyage of a giant spaceship towards outer space. An opera (1959) based on the poem, composed by Karl-Birger Blomdahl, has acheived international success. In the article on "Music", several other sf operas are noted, including: 1) Haydn's 1777 opera "Il Mondo della Luna" 2) Offenbach's adaptation of Verne's "Voyage to the Moon." 3) The Janacek opera "The Makropolous Secret" (1925), based on a play by Capek; 4) Menotti's 1971 opera, "the Globolinks". The same article also deals (a bit haphazardly) with sf in rock'n'roll lyrics. The author is well-informed on the major stuff (e.g., Jefferson Starship's tendencies to "borrow" from Heinlein, Wyndham, and others), but misses a lot of lesser-known sf-related material, such as "A Time Before This", a sf rock opera by the one-album band Julian's Treatment. Ah, well.... Date: 21 Oct 82 19:29:50-EDT (Thu) From: David Axler Subject: Miscellaneous Comments on Issues 49-63 (which all arrived at once!) 1) Hoffman (in 6:51) mentions the CoEvolution Quarterly note on APAs. In some ways, one could consider SFL as one, with few key differences: there's no limit on the membership, no cost, and no requirement that one must contribute ("minac"). However, the continuing flow of discussion and comments on comments on ... does make us very APA-like. 2) On the Science Fiction Book Club: It's generally a good buy, but you have to remember a number of things, especially that the production values are not nearly as good as "store-bought" editions of the same works -- the paper and the bindings will not last anywhere near as long. The gent who complained about having to pay sales tax should simply move to a state where the club doesn't have one of its mailing depots (PA is especially bad, as SFBC, QPBC, Book of the Month, and others all have factories here), since mail order sales can only charge you tax if they have a plant or outlet in your own state. 3) Another delayed Wolfe book: "The Castle of the Otter" (no, it's not a typo), being published by Ziesing Bros., has been delayed due to typographical problems (they claim that their typesetter just got a new computer...). Now, they expect to be mailing it out in mid-to-late November. For those who are wondering, this is Gene's book about writing about the world in which The Book of the New Sun is set; its title comes from Locus' misprint (due to garble on the phone lines) of the title of the fourth book in the series. 4) Stallman's "The Beast" is, indeed, excellent, but shouldn't be read until you've first read the two that precede it in the series ("The Orphan" and "The Captive"). They're going out of print rapidly, and since Stallman's death a few months back, they may not return to print. Enough for now, Dave Date: 22 Oct 82 13:04-PDT From: mclure at SRI-UNIX Subject: Brainstorm a004 2129 21 Oct 82 PM-Brainstorm,350 Natalie Wood Film Release Reported DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - The movie ''Brainstorm,'' whose completion was delayed by the death of actress Natalie Wood, may be completed and released by next summer, a state official says. A settlement is expected ''very shortly'' in a dispute involving the movie's producer, director and insurance company, Bill Arnold, director of the North Carolina Film Office, said Thursday. The film was shot largely in North Carolina. Arnol said he had been in touch with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the movie's producer, and director Douglas Trumbull. Trumbull believes the studio will settle its dispute with Lloyd's of London, the movie's principal insurer, and complete filming, Arnold said, adding that an announcement might come within two weeks. Principal photography was done in several North Carolina locations last fall. The movie was to be completed on sound stages in California last winter, but was delayed when Miss Wood died in November . MGM, thinking the movie could not be completed without Miss Wood, ceased production and sought to collect $12 million in insurance from Lloyd's. However, the insurer gave Trumbull $3 million to finish the picture, with the scenes rewritten in which Miss Wood would have appeared, officials said. Production resumed in February. A dispute arose between MGM and Trumbull over whether the parties had fulfilled their obligations for the film's completion and MGM took possession of the incomplete film, Arnold said. Twentieth Century Fox and ''several others'' had offered to buy the incomplete film, and because of that interest ''MGM thinks it can make money at the box office,'' he said. ''People were just so impressed with the basic footage,'' Arnold said. ''Everybody said if they ever finished the doggone thing it would be some kind of a classic.'' Arnold said that if the movie is completed, it would probably be released by next summer. The movie is a science-fiction thriller involving a scientist who develops an instrument for reading minds. ------------------------------ End of SF-LOVERS Digest ***********************