| Links roundup for 21 May 2012 |
[21 May 2012|05:15pm] |
Here's a roundup of stories about fandom under pressure that might be of interest to fans:- In some of the latest takedown actions from the past month a fan offering free high-resolution downloads of his artwork for video game Fallout was contacted by a law firm representing the game owner Bethesda, issuing a cease and desist for his website. The artist replied in detail to the charges and has so far refused to turn his domain name over to the company, although he did remove links to the posters.
- Popular website TV Tropes removed fanfiction recommendations on their site after encountering problems with Google's Ad Sense which required them to remove "mature and adult content" from the site. Aside from the issue of advertiser control of content, however, others were upset about what it meant for their use of the site. As one poster commented "The problem, as I see it, is that the admins have destroyed countless hours of our work. I don't demand that pages be restored onto this particular server, but I do demand that the source material (pages as they existed pre-cut) be made available in some fashion, so that those who want can host it elsewhere."
- In many places, online access to content isn't affected by advertisers or corporate owners, but by governments. For example, Vietnamese authorities have recently mandated that Internet companies assist in online censorship. Among the provisions of a proposed decree, "Internet users 'are strictly prohibited' from providing fictitious personal data" which will prohibit all forms of anonymous blogging and discussion. Personal blogs will have to publicize the name and contact information of the individual responsible and will be held personally liable for all the published content on their blogs.
- On the other hand at least one sports blogger is alarmed at the possibility that team owners might put important decisions in fans' hands. "As counter-intuitive as it sounds, as much as the Sixers should care about making the fans happy, they shouldn't care about what those fans want on a Wednesday afternoon in the middle of a devastating losing streak. When they ask what the fans think about their roster, it isn't hip, catchy, or new-media savvy. It's insulting." Instead the blogger suggests, "continue to ask us what we think of a new lighting scheme, insist on our thoughts about a moose for a mascot, and call our home phones to ask how to make better use of '1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Sixers.' Those are the some of the best elements of a new fan-owner partnership."
If you have news of legal actions against fans or content takedowns, why not write about it on Fanlore? Additions are welcome from all fans.
We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup — on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW — or give @OTW_News a shoutout on Twitter. Links are welcome in all languages!
Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW. Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.
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| Monday music: Leadbelly part 3 |
[21 May 2012|04:37pm] |
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Okay, back to Leadbelly. My first introduction to Leadbelly was actually from the Arlo Guthrie/Pete Seeger live album In Concert, which was one of my favorite albums of my youth. On that album, Arlo did a performance of "On a Monday," which he identified as a Leadbelly song. That's what lead me to track him down in the first place.
Here's Leadbelly's original, quite appropriate for Monday music:
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| Achy and damp, but exercised |
[21 May 2012|03:44pm] |
By the time I got downtown this morning, it was raining hard; I waited under cover for a few minutes, but not long enough, and the backs of my pants got wet as I walked to the bank (to cash a check) and then on for a cup of tea before my workout. By then my right shoulder was bothering me enough that I took some ibuprofen, and did a workout that was all lower body and core.
( the specifics )
I put my damp pants back on, and went out into the rain. By the time I got indoors again (for some soup) the fronts of the pants were also wet. Nonetheless, hot soup helps many things. From there, I went to the Mid-Manhattan Library and picked up a book, and came home. By then my back was hurting (between the shoulder blades), possibly from the amount I was carrying. I am now trying a muscle relaxant/aspirin combo pill, but the back pain is distracting me from anything more complicated than writing this, and was bad enough earlier that I stopped partway through a set of my shoulder stretches. I really hope I'm feeling well enough for at least some of the usual upper-body exercise by Wednesday.
I have an appointment with the screen people to bring our repaired screens back tomorrow, hopefully in the morning. This fits nicely with my existing plan to stay home and take it easy physically.
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth (http://redbird.dreamwidth.org/1337233.html), where there are  comments. I welcome comments here or there (OpenID and "anonymous" are fine if you don't have a DW account).
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| "Arvard 'Ard Boyz Warhammer 40K Singles Tournament |
[21 May 2012|03:24pm] |
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Points: 1850 per player
Entry Fee: $15 per player ($10 with $5 'Ardboyz Membership Discount) Please note, armies are required to be fully painted and based.
This Event will allow the use of Forgeworld units.
Forgeworld units and armies must be 40k approved. No fliers, apocalypse formations, apocalypse units, gargantuan creatures or models with structure points are allowed. You must have a printed copy of rules for any Forgeworld units in hand to play them the day of the event. No electronic copies will be accepted.
You Must Have The Actual Forgeworld Model To Use In Your List.
No Proxies Or Other “Counts As” Models Will Be Allowed In Place Of Forgeworld Units.
The Warhammer 40,000 Fifth Edition Rules will be used.
The following is a list of legal army choices:
Codex: Black Templars
Codex: Blood Angels
Codex: Chaos Daemons
Codex: Chaos Space Marines
Codex: Dark Angels
Codex: Dark Eldar
Codex: Eldar
Codex: Grey Knights
Codex: Imperial Guard
Codex: Necrons
Codex: Orks
Codex: Space Marines
Codex: Space Wolves
Codex: Tau
Codex: Tyranids
Codex: Sisters of Battle (WD version).
***Composition:
Composition will be scored by a Comp Council and used to determine first round pairings.
Your list will need to be submitted for comp scoring by Friday, May 25th.
***Armies must be fully Painted and Based (3 color minimum).
***Prizes and Awards:
- Best Overall
There will be a 2nd and 3rd overall depending on turnout.
- Sportsmanship
- Army Appearance
- There will be other awards and prizes that will be revealed at the event.
***Other Items of Note:
-There will be a Pub Quiz.
-THERE WILL BE NO RULES JUDGE FOR THIS EVENT.
Players are encouraged to abide by Game's Workshop's First and Most Important Rule found at the beginning of the Main Rulebook.
-Players should have the following:
-2 paper copies of the army list (a player may be docked 3 points for each missing paper copy of the army list)
-ALL ARMY UNIT RULES FOR THE ARMY
-Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook
-Dice, Measuring Device, Templates (if needed)
-Missions will be handed out to players before each round.
REMINDER: Army Lists need to be submitted by May 25th for Comp Council Scoring.
Late entries and entries on the day of the event will be allowed with the following conditions:
1) Late Entries will not have Comp Council Scoring.
2) Late Entries will not be permitted to play in the tournament if there is not an even number of players ready to play on the day of the event.
There will be 3 Rounds each lasting 2 hours and 30 minutes. (This includes game set-up and deployment)
Scoring
Players will accumulate an overall score based on the following:
- Victory points determined by individual Mission results
- Sportsmanship points awarded by opponents played
- Army Appearance points judged by a non-player
- Army Composition Score
- Pub Quiz Score
- Player's Choice votes
To register for this event, send an email with your contact information and army list to: arvardardboyztourney@gmail.com
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| Spotted over on the FASS facebook account |
[21 May 2012|02:51pm] |
From FASS President/Past Producer Colleen Colbeck:
FASS is still looking for a Producer, Director, and Stage Manager for this year! Applications have been re-opened with the deadline of Friday, June 15th.
If you are interested or know someone who might be great for the job then please feel free to contact the past producer (that's me), past Director (Josh Hoey), or past Stage Manager (Nadia V. Ursacki) for more information about the position.
E-mail your applications to prez at fass.uwaterloo.ca, and should include your reasons for applying, any relevant experience, and any ideas you might have.
The FASS Theatre Company is serious about having fun -- we're a live cartoon on stage! We've been entertaining UW with variety and musical comedy since 1962, making us UW's longest-operating amateur theatre group. While the most fun occurs in January when over 100 cast and crew rehearse and prepare the show just in time for February, you can join us in our social events all year round!
FASS stands for Faculty, Alumni, Staff and Students. We welcome anyone and everyone and each year we see new friendships created and old ones renewed. If we're not too busy laughing at ourselves in rehearsals, trading jokes at writers meetings or sharing donuts backstage, you'll probably find us going out to a movie or throwing a famous FASS Party!
Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are  comment(s); comment here or there.
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| The judge's statement in the Tyler Clementi case |
[21 May 2012|01:36pm] |
Of course I haven't seen or read the testimony, but as best I can tell from what I've heard about the case within the media, I think the verdict seems about right. Oh, heavens, how can I say? I'm so glad I'm not a judge forced to make these agonizing decisions. There can be no winners in this sad matter. The judge explains his reasoning here, and his thinking seems measured and well-considered.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
One point that particularly caught my attention was the judge noting that the man who was with Tyler Clementi, identified in court documents as "M.B.," had written to the judge asking that Ravi not be deported. The judge granted his request by recommending that (but noted that his recommendation may be overruled).
Edited to add: Here is M.B.'s victim impact statement. I'm glad to have read it, as I had been wondering how he was doing.
This entry was originally posted at http://pegkerr.dreamwidth.org/1601349.html. There are  comments on the post.
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| Research Assistant: Science Fiction and Innovation |
[21 May 2012|06:31pm] |
Research Assistant needed - to contribute to a NESTA-funded study of Science Fiction and innovation. The research is based at Sussex University (School of Media, Film and Music and SPRU) and the applicant will work with Ed Steinmueller and Caroline Bassett.
The person appointed will need to be able to generate concepts, find ways to represent complex ideas, and be able engage with the material of study (science fiction). We are not looking for fan identification but do seek people interested in science fiction productions of all kinds (visual, literary, and digital) and prepared to consider their connections with other cultural formations (politics, style, technology). The candidate must be able to see patterns, write lucidly and be able to produce work designed both for academic (journal outputs targeted at various areas) and industrial/creative industry (NESTA) audiences.
The RA will be employed on a day rate for around 30 days over a six-month period. They will assist with developing framings, with necessary desk research and critical analysis, be responsible for web outputs, and will also be involved in some interviewing.
You may come from areas including English, media and film, cultural studies, innovation studies, new media and sociology, digital humanities. You will be a post-doc or equivalent and will be employed at a Grade 7 hourly paid Associate Researcher level.
Applicants need to be available to begin work in June. To apply please send a C.V, letter of application, and one short article/example of writing (this may be a review, or other piece) to Sarah Maddox at s.maddox@sussex.ac.uk. Please mark the email: SF Post-Doc.
Closing Date: June 1st, 2012.
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| Scrapbook update |
[21 May 2012|09:41am] |
A few weeks ago we officially announced the plan to overhaul Scrapbook, LiveJournal’s exclusive photo-hosting feature for Plus, Paid and Perm accounts. Today we’re letting you know that the new Scrapbook will release early next week; in anticipation, we want to give you a bit more information on some additional changes that have been made. The newest additions to the FAQ are under the cut; the original FAQ about the new Scrapbook is in the previous post.
( Read more... )
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| ALL-NEW SCRAPBOOK TO LAUNCH THIS WEEK; UPDATED FAQ |
[21 May 2012|09:38am] |
May 21, 2012: Three weeks ago we officially announced the plan to overhaul Scrapbook, LiveJournal’s exclusive photo-hosting feature for Plus, Paid and Perm accounts. Today we’re letting you know that the new Scrapbook will release this week; in anticipation, we want to give you a bit more information on some additional changes that have been made. The newest additions to the FAQ are under the cut; the original FAQ about the new Scrapbook is in the previous news post.
( Read more... )
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| It's Victoria Day again |
[21 May 2012|11:46am] |
Victoria Day (in French: Fête de la Reine) is a federal Canadian public holiday celebrated on the last Monday before May 25, in honour of Queen Victoria's birthday. The date is also, simultaneously, that on which the current reigning Canadian sovereign's official birthday is recognized. It is sometimes informally considered as marking the beginning of the summer season in Canada.
The holiday has been observed since before Canada was formed, originally falling on the sovereign's actual birthday, and continues to be celebrated in various fashions across the country on the fixed date. In Quebec, the same day was, since the Quiet Revolution, unofficially known as Fête de Dollard until 2003, when provincial legislation officially named the same date as Victoria Day the National Patriots' Day. It is a statutory holiday federally, as well as in six of Canada's ten provinces and all three of its territories.
[snip]
The holiday is colloquially known as May Two-Four in parts of Canada;[...] a double entendre that refers both to the date around which the holiday falls (May 24) and the Canadian slang for a case of twenty-four beers (a "two-four"), a drink popular during the long weekend.
Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are  comment(s); comment here or there.
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| WisCon cannot come soon enough. |
[21 May 2012|11:27am] |
I mean, it's coming Friday (for me; I'm flying out Friday morning), which is, objectively, pretty soon. But not soon enough, dammit.
Low-key weekend; I went to the Kennedy Center with ![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) alpheratz Friday night to hear Nelson Freire play the second Brahms piano concerto, which was lovely. And I watched the three-part Community finale: ( Spoilers and feelings behind the cut )
I also bleached my hair and dyed it purple Thursday night. I am hoping that this might summon a job interview out of the ether, in the way that going out without an umbrella will conjure rain. It's not at all colorfast and I'll need to keep touching it up, but I have half a bottle left so that's not a problem.
This entry was originally posted at http://ellen-fremedon.dreamwidth.org/842047.html. There are  : comments. Please comment there using OpenID.
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| Went to Bakka yesterday |
[21 May 2012|11:13am] |
An unfortunate side-effect of what I do is an Olympian resistance to buying new books and the fact that I fall well outside the aggregate target market of SF doesn't help. I did buy this, however:
( Read more... )
Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are  comment(s); comment here or there.
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| So What’s It Like To Lose A Nebula? |
[21 May 2012|11:18am] |
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Whenever I saw the Oscar losers saying “It’s an honor to be nominated,” I always envisioned gritted teeth and gut-roiling fury. I mean, you just had your chance at the brass ring, and you came that close! How could you be cheerful?
Yet I was grinning like a damn fool when I lost to Geoff Ryman. As were all the other losers I talked to. We had our pins, and our certificates, and our name immortalized in history, and the experience of being catapulted onto a much larger stage.
Who the hell could be upset? There’s now one word that’s guaranteed to be in our obituary, and that word is “Nebula.” We’ve made it.
It’s cool.
And it’s a weird bond; I spent the weekend hanging with my fellow nominees Jake Kerr, Rachel Swirsky, Katherine Sparrow, and Geoff Ryman – and there wasn’t an ounce of competition in there. It felt like an odd sort of club, one that contained only six people in the whole world, a once-in-a-lifetime bond: 2012 Novelette Nebula Nominee. No one else will ever know what this is like. We did lunch, we chatted in bars, we appeared on panels, we discussed our chances, and not once was there a bit of snark or anger.
(I met other nominee Charlie Jane Anders briefly after the ceremony, who seemed absolutely wonderful, but alas we got no time to hang and chill. I hope to rectify this at a future event.)
I felt blessed to be in the company of such beautiful people. I’d have been happy for any of them to have won. And the man I was rooting the most for, my wonderful and compassionate
Clarion teacher Geoff Ryman, who had me sobbing on the airplane on the way to Clarion because his book Was is one of the most heartbreaking things I’ve ever read? Well, he won. And when he walked back to his seat, I leapt out of mine to shake his hand and grin and pump the fist for him. Because if there’s a man who possesses a cool grace and an ability to write straight to the vulnerable centers of the heart, it’s Geoff.
The weekend itself was a helter-skelter of events, and I’ll probably be posting anecdotes for the rest of the week, but here’s the ones I remember in a sleepy Monday muddle.
This Is The Panel That Never Ends…. It Just Goes On And On, My Friends….
Yes, there’s the irony of a panel on pacing going forty minutes overtime. But there was no panel following us – and when you have such a fascinating topic as “How to get the rhythm of a story right,” and such fascinating panelists as Tom Crosshill, Rachel Swirsky, and Nancy Fulda (Nebula nominees all!), moderated by the vivacious radio host and Big Damn Author Ellen Kushner, you get a ton of feedback.
This panel was so good the audience didn’t leave. It was like Writing 301, a bunch of advanced techniques we all used to figure out how to get the pacing of a story right – and our approaches were all so different, there was a lot of varying discussion as to how to nail it. So we talked, and talked, and when at 2:15 we finally called the panel to a halt, half the audience walked up and kept the ball rolling. Rachel Swirsky had to leave, but thankfully noted childrens’ author R.J. Anderson took her place, and next thing you know we had a long discussion on how to handle critiques.
It was really amazing. My friend Ruby took a video of the “official” panel on her smartphone, and I hope it’s usable. I’d love for you to see it.
Meet My Signing Buddy, Franny
The author signing was a first for me, since as an author of short stories I’ve never had anything I could expect anyone to sign. You can buy books in the dealers’ room…. but if you want me to sign your copy of Asimov’s, you need to remember to bring it with you. And frankly, I’m not that big.
But thankfully, Nancy Fulda created a Nebula Awards Weekend book with one of my stories in it, and so people could buy a book to sign. So I sat at a small table.
Next to me was someone I didn’t know, so we introduced ourselves, and it was a woman called Franny Billingsley – who was remarkably fun to talk to! She was a children’s author but it was her first sci-fi con, so I explained what this “Clarion workshop” was and she told me about what YA conventions were like, and it was a remarkably warm way of passing the time.
Even better, since I knew more people here, when they came to see me, I could go, “And do you know Franny?” and then all of us got into a discussion together. So by the time I went to wander the floor and get my book signed, I left a merry discussion of writers.
Which was oddly convivial. For now and forevermore, Franny will be my book-signing buddy, the two of us at the table as readers sporadically came up, book in hand, to ask for signatures.
And only later did I discover that Franny was so modest she didn’t even note that she was up, you know, for the National Book Award.
What a wonderful person.
The Night Before
There was a Nebula nominees reception the night before, where we were to be honored. I didn’t quite know what that meant, but hey! This would only happen once. So I went.
What they didn’t tell us (which was a shame, because several of the nominees – including Charlie Jane – had wandered off) was that the reception was where John Scalzi would present you with your official Nebula nominee certificate and your pin, and then you’d be taken off for photos.
That’s when it became real.
Up until then, a part of my mind had been going, “Oh, no, this will be a mistake, they’ll probably take it away from you.” But as I walked up to the podium and Scalzi handed me the blue folder with the silver stars, I opened it up and saw my name. This was no dream. This was my life, my blessed life.
I couldn’t stop smiling.
The Night Of
So for the Nebulas, I had to dress up. And my lovely wife Gini helped me into my monkey suit:
Note the Nebula pin – which is a lot thinner and more losable than I’d have thought – and my Star Wars tie. I kept telling people all evening that it was my TIE fighter.
Nobody laughed.
My wife, however, looked fucking stellar. She kept joking that her job at the Nebulas was to be my arm candy, and oh boy was she:
When I got there, I was happily surprised to see Neil Gaiman, who was a last-minute addition. And Neil, who’d been with me during my reformatary stages at Clarion, drew me into a warm hug that went on for longer than I thought and said, “Bubbeleh!” He’s surprisingly, endearingly, proud of me.
When he said “Bubbeleh,” it felt like I was being welcomed to the next level. That all of this hard work I’ve put into writing – the hours wandering in the garden figuring out the next scene, the endless rejections, the workshops and cons I travelled to – had finally paid off. And that was a lovely thing to see.
Some pros told me, serenely, “You’ll be back.” I don’t share their confidence. For me, I struck lightning once. But the fact that I made it once is enough, and that won’t stop me. Because you know what real writing fucking is?
Jon Walter Williams held a three-hour intensive lecture on plotting and structure. And when I looked around the room of twenty people, at least four of us had been nominated for a Nebula. Here we were, being given one of the biggest honors in the field… and all of us had said, “No, there’s so much more work to do.”
That’s how you get to a Nebula. I got here. You can, too. Because Neil told me, “You just need to write.” And that’s what I did.
Now you.
Cross-posted from Ferrett's Real Blog.
This entry has also been posted at http://theferrett.dreamwidth.org/212953.html. You can comment here, or comment there; makes no never-mind by me.
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