Science Fiction / Fact Bled Into Popular Music

As the Soviet Union and United States battled to win the early 60s space space, one of the music vicors emerged from London’s Holloway Road. Named after the world’s first communications satellite (nod to Arthur C. Clarke) launched on 10 July 1962, Telstar made the Tornados the first British group in the pre-Beatles era to have a US chart-topping single as well as topping the charts in the UK.

It also confirmed Joe Meek, a former Royal Air Force technician and the man who penned and planned space-age sound, as one of the era’s most successful producers.

The group - Alan Caddy, Hienz Burt, Roger Jackson, George Bellamy and Clem Cattini - briefy rivalled the Shadows as Britains’s premier instrumental combo, scoring UK a Top 5 follow-up with Globetrotter and three lesser hits in 1963 including The Ice Cream Man. But having survived Hienz’s departure for a solo career they split in 1965 with vocal groups clearly in ascendancy; Cattini went on to become British’s top session drummer.

If you like a good beat, and some weird sounds - go for it, get the album; or go get the single Telstar.

It’s a shame they got wiped out by vocal bands, because they actually do have voices on some of their songs, but to me they are a bit short - they’re still wanting to do their future sounds of Telstar - they had much more in them. I kinda hark back to this time, I don’t remember the last time someone wrote a song actually based or named after technology.

It gets me into the mood of 60s scifi.

It could also bring me onto another subject: why aren’t the general public as enthused and excited about space flight as they were in the 50s and 60s?

J G Gets The M B Treatment

From Pete and The Interzone Board: J G Ballard was the subject on ITV’s The South Bank Show, being interviewed by Melyvn Bragg, last Sunday.

See http://www.itv.com/page.asp?partid=6468 for the introduction and http://www.itv.com/page.asp?partid=6479 for the podcast.

I haven’t got around to listening to it yet (being on a substandard, 20th century net connection which costs more than the amount of a medium budget Hollywood movie per minute) - but I will do sometime soon.

One aspect which made me laugh is, according to the introduction, they talk about Crash, Ballard’s most controversial novel, which inspired one publisher’s reader to write “This author is beyond psychiatric help. Do not publish” - which Ballard took as a huge compliment! (I agree - it’s horrific how he treats the cars in this story).

According to the post on the Interzone Board: “Good show and JGB was cool with his SF roots, not sure Melvin was.”

(And this all ties in somewhat nicely with the fact I’ve just got my hands on The Interzone Anthology One signed by J G Ballard himself).

Plastic from Retro Juice is making its way around a few more festivals

If you missed this first time around and you happen to be at any of these, I thoroughly recommend you go and see it.

http://www.psfilmfest.org/festival/

http://www.ffm-montreal.org/en_index.html

http://www.ravennanightmare.com/2006/ntr/new/index1.htm

http://www.rebelfest.com/

http://www.cinenygma.lu/

See more information on the pretty awesome Plastic mini-movie, including full review, background and director interviews.

GET A. HEAD AND DESTROY ALL HUMANS! ®

THQ (UK) announces Anthony Head as lead voice over for Destroy All Humans! 2

Woking, Surrey – 6th September 2006 – THQ (UK) Ltd, a subsidiary of THQ Inc., today announces Anthony Head as lead voice over in the upcoming Destroy All Humans! ® 2 expected to be released in Fall 2006 for Xbox® video and game entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system.

Anthony Head voices Ponsonby, a well coiffed human and head of MI5, who is introduced to help the lead aliens, Crypto and POX, fight against the KGB. However, as the game progresses, Ponsonby is not necessarily who he appears to be. With the unexpected twists and turns, it appears that no human can be trusted. To succeed, players should remember to live by the motto, “Make War Not Love.”
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Interzone 206 September/October 2006

With thanks for Roy Gray / Interzone

As any self respecting SF enthusiast knows, Interzone is published by TTA Press.

This issue is packed out with goodies, just look at this list. Even the ads are worth a look.

Cover Art (Which I’ll put up soon!)
Fahrija Velic, BSFA Award nominated for his Interzone 201 cover (of which Richard Hawkins wrote “Blimey, this artwork is the best I’ve seen yet in any issue of Interzone; vibrant colour, well drawn, a bit vague, it almost looks like a photograph. The artist does himself proud.”) reappears with the powerful “Droid”.

Fiction:
The Beekeeper by Jamie Barras. It’s a traditional biopiracy expedition but on an alien planet. The natives are traditionally restless, very restless, and alien. Time for plan Bee.
illustrated by Stefan Olsen

Distro by Tim Akers. You are a distributed personality running on a multiplicity of platforms across America. But your hardware and wetware don’t mix easily and the enemy is both without and within.
illustrated by David Gentry

The New Chinese Wives by Will McIntosh. Child sex selection brings China rebellious bachelor hordes and virtual women. But, when family is all, a patriarch needs more than Confucian wisdom to ensure another generation.
illustrated by Jesse Speak

Karel’s Prayer by Chris Beckett. If you don’t know who you are you’re infant, insane or injured and if none of the above you’re in real trouble.
illustrated by Rik Rawling

The Ship by Robert Davies. The aliens arrive and Boston Harbour is the scene of first contact. No one expected it to be the scene of last contact.

The Nature of the Beast by Jae Brim. Clark and Clio were clones of the same man, and in competition to become that man.
illustrated by David Gentry

Features:
• Nick Lowe’s Mutant Popcorn sf’s wittiest film critic covers 10 recent releases.
• David Langford’s Ansible Link (news & gossip)
• John Clute’s Scores, this issue on authors Scott Westerfield and Keith Donohue.
• Bookzone edited by Sandy Auden: reviews of books by Gene Wolfe, Neil Williamson, James Patterson, Mary Rosenblum, Frank Schätzing, Cramer & Hartwell, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Alma Alexander and a page of Philip K. Dick including the graphic novel of A Scanner Darkly and Brian J. Robb’s on Dick’s Counterfeit Worlds.
• Interviews:
• Life Under Latex: David Naughton (An American Werewolf in London) and Camden Toy (Buffy and Angel) interviewed by Sandy Auden on 25 years of make-up fx.
James Patterson interviewed by Paul F. Cockburn
• Radiozone by Maureen Kincaid Speller on BBC Radio 4’s Imagining Albion: The Great British Future
• Mangazone: Sarah Ash on manga, anime and CLAMP’s Chobits.

PC Games Reviewed By Alan Fraser

Galactic Civilisations II: Dread Lords and Dark Age of Camelot – Darkness Rising

This month our postbag has included a multi-player online role playing game and a space conquest strategy game. In my last column I praised the simulation game “The Sims 2”, and that now has a new expansion pack “Open for Business”. This primarily adds the (challenging) resource management required to run a successful small business, but it does have one SFnal element – robots. Instead of hiring Sims to work for you, you can buy a Robot Crafting Station and make several different types of robots to carry out tasks in your business and home. They don’t need to be paid, but the downside is that they can break down with very negative consequences – for example a robot that runs amok can kill Sims. The new expansion pack has been very well received, although some players were hoping that much-loved packs available for the original “The Sims” game, such as holidays (“Vacation”) and pet-keeping (“Unleashed”), would have “Sims 2” versions released first. (The “Pets” expansion pack will in fact be released in Oct 2006).
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Cabbages From Inkyfingers Theatre Company
Reviewed By Roy Gray
Photos by Ruth Tuck ©2006

The Geeks of Yesteryear

Who were the geeks of the 1950s? For Lawrence Ghorra and Mark Winstanley, writers of Cabbages which ran from 14th-18th February 2006 at Manchester’s Contact Theatre they were the librarians.

This is horror in the asylum as Dr Spinoza, the self-proclaimed genius psychiatrist in charge of Ravenscroft Mental Asylum, decides librarians are the key to world domination. They hold the world’s knowledge and he intends to hold them.

In the park outside that institution two librarians Geoffrey Ramsbottom, a cliché naive trainee, and his fully qualified co-worker, Audrey, are courting. Audrey suddenly disappears in the midst of declaring her admiration for Geoff’s “natural flair for the Dewey System”. One act later two detectives are accusing Geoffrey of murder. His denials are worthless because he can’t remember what did happen. So what’s to do but ship him to Ravenscroft. Will he find Audrey? Can a librarian’s innate knowledge of Dewey Classification Numbers help resist the evil machinations of the megalomaniac Dr Spinoza? At first it seems so but Dr Spinoza has reserved at least one further horrible assault on the mind of the librarian, picture books!
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Related Link: London theatre tickets are available now for all west end productions.

The Starshipsofa Scifi Podcasts Continue

The Starshipsofa is burning around the universe discussing various areas of science fiction. So far they’ve covered Alfred Bester, John Brunner, Algis Budrys, Cordwainer Smith, Stanislaw Lem and most recently a John Carpenter’s movie Dark Star.

They have also put up a poll around The Top Woman In Scifi, including Princess Leia, Star Wars (which is my number one!); Billy Piper, Doctor Who (no thank you); Leela, Futurama (if anyone votes for her, then well.. hello padded cell); Daryl Hannah, Blade Runner (in my top ten, but she just doesn’t do it for me - too weird). I’m just wondering where Philip K Dick’s Dark Haired Lady is? Or the females from Blake’s 7?

Starshipsofa is an enjoyable and sometimes hilarious look at some aspects of science fiction which sometimes go a miss. One thing is for certain, you’ll always laugh at least once while listening to their shows.

A New Scifi, Fantasy, Horror Magazine

Fiction Magazine is a new monthly publication coming in January 2007.

It will contain original articles and content all related to your favorites genres - Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy.

It will feature news and reviews of the latest movies, books and video games.
Plus they’ll feature nostalgic reviews and features on many of those forgotten classics and unknown greats.
They’ll give as much space to small and unique productions as we will the big blockbusters, allowing for a far more diverse read. Giving you content that some of the national mags wouldn’t bother to print.

But the most important part of Fiction is it’s Reader Short Stories.
You get to read quality short stories from the UK’s up and coming talent, both as single issue short stories and multi edition serials.
If you are a writer then you can earn cash for submitting your own work.
Reader interaction is the most valuable part of Fiction, as it helps them keep the magazine what you want it to be.

Still not sure? Then try their 20 page sample. Simply email them with your name and address and mark the subject ‘Free 20 Page Sample’. They’ll post a copy of issue 0 completely free.

I’ve got issue zero and it looks pretty good. It is in A5 size and contains 20 pages, some of which contain information on plans for up and coming issues.

I’m not sure it should have movie/book/game reviews - just keep with the fiction and possibly the ‘Free People Wanted Ads’. I particularly enjoyed the two stories. Neither of them being too long winded, both being easy and enjoyable reads. Alien 8 (no relation to the classic Isometric Spectrum game), a scifi comedy story which is suprisingly funny, and Love. Death & An American Guitar, in the ‘Supernatural’ genre.

Issue Zero is free, so go and get it and see what you think.

Calling All Wanna Be Science Fiction Writers: A Scifi Writing Course

There is a Science Fiction Writer’s Course being run which is aimed at science fiction writers of all levels, which they hope will be of interest to anyone who has thought seriously about writing sci-fi.

Spread the Word is a charity funded by the Arts Council to provide support to writers in London to help develop their skills and give advice to help them get published. Most of their work is creative writing projects, courses, workshops and talks andthey use established writers as their tutors. They’ve been around for over 10 years, they’re non-profit making and all their courses are heavily subsidised.

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND

Science Fiction Writing Course

Boldly go where you have never gone before with this introductory course to writing Science Fiction. The course will explore the realms of science fiction writing. Author Anthony Joseph will inspire and challenge you to create, research, and write your own science fiction stories, and experiment with the genre.
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FLURB: A Webzine Of Astonishing Tales

Rudy Rucker has gone DIY and started his own online webzine or astonishing tales.

FLURB BLURB
As an introduction, he writes: “…Recently Paul Di Filippo and I wrote a story called Elves of the Subdimensions. We were in a rush to publish, so we tried a couple of SF webzines, and horrors, the fuddy-duds turned us down! Our tale was maybe too…astonishing.

And then I had a revelation that, if all I want is a freakin’ Web publication of a piece, there’s no reason to go through the same painful “submission” (how apt a word) process that is standard for ink on paper zines. Why not do it myself?

So I decided to start Flurb and present the kinds of stories I like to read. Hip, witty, deep, unafraid…”

So there you have it, hip, witty, deep, unafraid stories.

Issue One is online now.

Elves Of The Subdimensions
By Rudy Rucker and Paul Di Filippo

The Arcades Of Allah
(Hannemouth Self-Configurable Combinatorial Array)
By Marc Laidlaw

Provocatourist
By John Shirley

Billy and the Circus Girl
By Terry Bisson

Strategy for Conflict Avoidance: Memo to the Commander-in-Chief
By Michael Blumlein

I, Row-Boat
By Cory Doctorow

Mystery Customer
Kris Saknussem

It’s a neat read, and anyone who know Rudy’s stories (maybe from Interzone) will know how zany and funny they are.