Worldcon—Arrival

Worldcon—a large science fiction and fantasy convention that a lot of writers go to—was held in Washington, DC This year. I had never been there before. As we flew in for arrival, I realized we were passing what was obviously the Pentagon. I was astonished we could fly so close to it. Continuing on, I could see the Capitol, then the Washington Monument. It was all coming true.

I arrived in time to see the art show by Maurizio Manzieri, who is from Italy. One of his pieces, of a spaceship, was chosen for this year’s badges:

Please see his art at https://www.artstation.com/manzieri He does marvelous work with faces. 

The big treat for the evening was the showing of the restored 1927 movie Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang. There have been several iterations of this combination of science fiction and social commentary. The 2010 version restored several minutes that were found in a copy in Latin America. More recently, some computer work has helped fill in the gaps, since some scenes were filmed as slowly as 12 frames per second.

This evening’s presentation featured new music by Ryako. She composed and performed all the music herself. She was there to take questions.

In my next post, I may show pics from my sightseeing.

Hey, Hey, We Miss Mike Nesmith

Mike Nesmith passed away yesterday. He was the de facto leader of the pop group The Monkees. Before anyone says anything else, yes, that really was them singing. Because of the group’s origin, and some bad lip-synching in “Daydream Believer,” for instance, the rumor goes around that the four of them weren’t real singers. But yes, Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz, and Davy Jones really were singing.

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They burst onto the scene in 1966 with their TV show The Monkees. It was a show about a fictional musical group. But yes, that was them singing, see above. They went on tour after that first season. Massive crowds of screaming fans showed up. A phenomenon of that magnitude hadn’t been seen since the heyday of The Beatles. After that, they worked hard and became a real band.

Although Micky Dolenz had the voice that was most characteristic of The Monkees’ sound, my favorite singer was Mike Nesmith. My favorite song of theirs is “You Just May Be The One,” written by Nesmith with him as the lead singer. For copyright reasons I won’t put in a link to it, but try to find a version that just shows the band playing, and not goofy scenes with Peter Tork.

Now for a science fiction connection: Walter Koenig was hired to play Chekov in the old Star Trek because the producers wanted to get some of the female audience that liked Davy Jones. Koenig was mistaken for Jones once in a restaurant and asked to sing.

Omicron—Pronunciation

About half the newscasters I have heard pronounce omicron with a long o sound at the front, about half with a short o. Who is right?

Depending on which version of the alphabet is used, Omicron is the fifteenth letter of the ancient Greek alphabet. English speakers will be happy to know it looks like this:

O

But that doesn’t help much, does it? The inside information I can give you is that Greek has two letters that correspond to our o. The other is omega, the last letter of that alphabet.

Ω

 That should look familiar. I’m not talking about watches. A lot of science fiction novels and shows use that as a symbol, sometimes symbolizing an ultimate program or device.

Omicron corresponds to our short o. Omega corresponds to our long o. So omicron should be pronounced with a short o at the front. Otherwise, that just negates their having the two different letters.

But I’m not done. What about the letter i in the middle? That corresponds to the Greek letter iota, which looks a lot like our letter i. Sometimes it’s pronounced like short i, sometimes like a long e. (For that second one, think of someone singing Do Re Mi.)

I prefer that second pronunciation. That makes it om-ee-cron. I have only heard two female newscasters pronounce it that way—or perhaps it was the same one. Anyway, I’m pushing for people to pronounce it that way, and you can show off your new-found prowess in Greek by doing so.

(Those who really know the ancient Greek will point out that lower case omicron looks like our o, while lower case omega looks like a curly w, like this: ω. But that is a little complicated.)

Your 3G Will Be Dead as a …

I spent much of my Saturday morning trying to figure out if my current smartphone will work in 2022. As I hope you know already, 3G is going away in 2022. The exact date depends on your carrier. This is to make room for the exalted, brand new 5G, which will do everything except wash your feet for you. So your 3g phones and some of your 4G phones will be dead as a dodo.

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There’s a reason we don’t have any photographs of them

I have an old Galaxy phone. Is it the S7, S8, or S9? No, those were top Galaxy phones for their time. I don’t need all the nice features, so I bought a bottom level J7. Never heard of it? Exactly.

So I assumed it was a 3G phone. I spent some time trying to find cheap 4G phones, but they tend to be used, or ever worse, refurbished. Then a very good article clued me in that if the phone has LTE in the upper right corner of the screen, it will be okay for 2022. Sure enough, my phone has those letters. After some triple checking of this, I found out my phone is 4G LTE. It’s safe.

All this did not leave me in the mood for writing. But as we find out in Dune, mood should not matter. For copyright reasons I won’t post a link here, but look up the words “dune shield practice” in some video sharing site, and see the lesson there.

Spice, the Final Frontier—Comment on Dune

This is not a negative blog, so all I’ll say about the new Dune movie is that I had a hard time liking the main character—Paul Atreides/ Muad'Dib/ the cuisinart-hat-and-coat-rack. Yes, that means I’m one of those people who liked the 1984 version better. I’ve been told to think of that one as opera—opera without singing.

If you have a chance, check out the Sci Fi Channel’s 2000 miniseries Frank Herbert’s Dune. It’s supposed to be more accurate to the novel than the 1984 movie, though it was woefully underfunded for the battle against House Atreides. It would be more informative to compare this miniseries with the current movie.

Y

You’re Good at Whole Foods

I know that some people didn’t like it when Amazon took over Whole Foods, but there is an advantage to it.

My internet connection was slowing down, which was more than inconvenient. I’m trying to send out letters to agents to find someone who will sign me on as a client for my historical fantasy, Temple Beyond the Sea. My connection became so slow, some agency websites showed up piecemeal. The ones that did show up okay took a long while to load, especially since one has to look at multiple pages to see which agents accepts which genres, their query letter requirements, etc. I suspected it was my modem.

I ordered a new one from Amazon. Guess what, I ordered the wrong kind.

It had come in one of those huge 11x17 padded envelopes. I had cut the top off, and I didn’t relish the idea of taping it up securely to haul to an Amazon locker.

This is the small part

While setting up my return, Amazon gave me the option of returning it to Whole Foods Market. That’s right, I had noticed the curiosity of the Amazon return area in the store. It’s close by, and I wouldn’t have to put it back in the envelope.

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So I took the modem over there in its box and stood in line at that curious Amazon return area. After the guy there scanned the QR code Amazon had sent me, he put it on a cart and said, “You’re good.”

As an aside, I try to buy my books from Barnes & Noble to keep the local bookstores open. But if it’s going to be something cumbersome I might have to return, I’ll keep the Whole Foods option in mind.

Hot Greece

I’m preparing to send out my manuscript, Temple Beyond the Sea, set in ancient Greek civilization. The standard practice is to send a manuscript out to as many agents as possible in a “shotgun” approach and hope that one will accept it. (And if you are reading this post, dear agent, know that you are special.) What will hopefully work to my advantage is that reimaginings of Greek mythology is a hot trend now. You can walk into a Barnes & Noble and see a number of titles.

One of these novels is about Norse mythology
I’ll let you guess which one

If you follow my blog, you’ll know that I’ve written more than one novel manuscript. Do not leave this to chance. Have more than one way to strike while the iron is hot. For now, here in excerpt from Temple Beyond the Sea.

Book Review: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is actually a lengthy poem, written in Middle English. I read what was probably a standard translation in college, but when I found out that J.R.R. Tolkien had done a translation, I bought his version. Each translation preserves the alliteration in each line. For instance, Tolkien styled a line this way:

“Then he stayed his steed that on the steep bank halted

above the deep double ditch that was drawn round the place.”

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an anti-romance. The typical romance of the time would describe in detail how the knight or other hero would go through great battles. Then he would save the damsel in distress. In contrast, there is no description of any battle in this poem. It is mentioned that Gawain has a number of battles in his travels, but none are described. And there is no damsel in the story. On the contrary, the owner of a castle shows Gawain great hospitality, but his wife on no less than three mornings comes into Gawain’s bedroom and offers him her body. Each time, Gawain has to refuse her using the most polite language, since his code of chivalry does not allow him to insult such a lady. This series of temptations and denials of temptations is the main part of the story.

The author had to be an expert in romances to cleverly write an anti-romance that was so fascinating.

Tolkien was an expert on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. His own work, The Lord of the Rings, is an anti-quest. The protagonists already have the great talisman of power—the ring. They have to get rid of it, because no one can wield it without becoming corrupted. A number of turning points in the story have to do with temptation and denying temptation.

It’s very nice to see the connections fall into place.

By the way, there is a movie out there called The Green Knight that is supposedly based on this story. It is awful. They take some parts of the story and reverse everything. Also some truly grotesque “art” scenes are thrown in. This is not a negative blog, but do not see that travesty.

TV Review: Moonlight

I recently rewatched the 2007 television series Moonlight. Mick St. John (Alex O'Loughlin) is a private investigator with a secret: He’s a vampire. He looks about thirty, but he’s actually eighty-five. He takes an interest in protecting Beth Turner (Sophia Myles), a reporter who really is about thirty. They work together, doing some mild breaking and entering for clues for their respective lines of work.

Beth keeps saying that Mick looks familiar, but he brushes that off. As a walking CSI lab, Mick can tell if a vampire was around a dead body, and he can smell blood from a crime scene and tell if it matches an individual’s blood sample. And he uses his incredible strength and speed to save Beth and others.

It turns out that when Beth was a child, Mick saved her after she was kidnapped by a vampire. They sure make a cute couple. I wonder if they will get together?

Mick is front and center, Beth is on the right

Moonlight is different from other television or movie series on the subject. Mick does not normally kill other vampires, nor is he an isolated individual. Instead, there is a thriving but secret vampire community in Los Angeles. Mick’s best friend is a four-hundred-year-old vampire who has lots of vampire contacts. Mick has a contact in the coroner’s office who supplies him with blood. If Mick meets another vampire, they pick up each other’s scent and say something like, “Oh, so you’re a …” This large, secret community is an interesting take.

Keep in mind this was written in the early 2000s. The characters have cell phones, but they aren’t smart. Research on the internet is by desktop computer, and it takes a while. Beth works for an internet news group, and though they have higher ratings than more established sources, it’s still viewed as a novelty.

Another interesting fact is that this was one of the last of the great American private investigator shows set in modern times, until a new batch came out fairly recently. Most crime investigation shows involve the police or CSI types, and all the government resources they have. Seeing how private enterprise does things differently is refreshing.

But what kept viewers coming back was the on-again, off-again relationship between Mick and Beth. Mick thinks he’s no good for her. Beth keeps getting more and more fascinated with him. What will happen?