By the title of this entry, you have probably guessed that MacLeod won the Clarke Award this year, for his book Song of Time. Pretty impressive, since his competition included Paul McAuley, Alastair Reynolds, Neal Stephenson, Sheri S. Tepper and Mark Wernham. The Clarke Award was presented last night at the Sci-Fi London 8 Film Festival, and presenting an award for a best book at a film festival is not as unusual as it sounds. This film fest has grown into one of the best SciFi Cons in the UK, and even has its own awards show for best short film made specifically for the event.
Building and singing… the world does both. Here are two excellent examples.
Scalzi, Hayden, and Bucknell took part in a panel, recorded and now online, called A Study in Online Community Building, all about how to create the future of publishing in an online world. I expect you will enjoy this, but I hope you will learn from it as well. I certainly learned a bit, and thanks to Brenda Cooper for the link. And then the Stand By Me World Cover, courtesy of Zadi and by way of Gizmodo. Thanks, gang!
Playing For Change | Song Around The World “Stand By Me” from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.
Visit the Spark Museum for some Steampunk vintage radio/electronics fun. It includes a picture on one page of a device I actually own, bought for 5 dollars at an estate sale from people who didn’t have a clue what the weird stuff in the back of their grandfather’s attic was. I figured it was a prize for the brass rotary voltage adjuster in the oak box, the ingenious wiring harness that allowed it to add another battery for each step you turned it up, and the full set of original 1924 RCA batteries (none leaking, and a few that could still hold a charge). It wasn’t until I got it home and did some research that I discovered what it was actually supposed to be. A word of caution if you find one of your own; it can get slightly painful if you crank it up beyond eight batteries in the circuit (You didn’t think I skipped the refurb and test part of the process, did you? What fun would that be? One should always get the full experience).
This weekend saw the presentation of the 2009 Nebula Awards, and some great writers won. Not hard to do when you consider most of the nominees were great writers, of course. That group included Ursula K. Le Guin, Catherine Asaro, John Kessel, and Nina Kiriki Hoffman for best novel, novella, novelette, and short story, in that order. Wall-E got best script, Ysabeau S. Wilce took home the Andre Norton Award, Harry Harrison won the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award, and Joss Whedon got the Ray Bradbury Award (and accepted on video). My favorite first-person account of the event comes from Amy Sterling Casil, herself no stranger to quality writing.
Eyeborgs opens this week in London, even though it’s a US movie. So does The Clone Returns Home, and Stingray Sam (a space musical western with unique design features). But there are other movies opening soon, including Star Trek 11 and Moon. And besides the Sci_Fi London festival, another party in that town is Anime Extravaganza at the East End Film Festival. Without getting Close Up and personal, I can tell you one of the Anime’s I am looking forward to is Oh! Edo Rocket!, and let’s not forget Death Note Day on the 28th in New York, and all across the country when the showing of Death Note 3: Change the World hits all the Fathom Events digital theaters. And don’t forget the Robot Penguins working for the Army.
Yes, it is time once again for Sci-Fi London, that truly amazing film festival held at the Apollo Piccadilly Circus and many nearby locations. This is the eighth year for the festival, and it is bigger and better than ever, starting Wednesday the 29th and running through Monday the 4th. It has become the event where the Arthur C Clarke Award is handed out, as well as the Sci-Fi London Awards. For those who want to build their own, they have created the SFL Lab where scientists, comic artists, leading genre writers and filmmakers will present a full program of classes, including things like Filmaking for small screens. For the more gonzo build-your-own types they held the 48 Hour Film Challenge a few weeks ago (so they could show the results at the SFL festival). They handed out titles, dialog, and props to 71 teams on Saturday, and on Monday 55 of those teams returned with finished films. They will be doing many World and UK Premiers, including the films The Hunt for Gollum, Eyeborgs, Eraser Children, The Clone Returns Home, and one of my personal favorites, Cyborg She. They will be screening X-Men Origins: Wolverine before it opens in UK theaters. And so much more; wish I could get the time off from work to be there, but at least I can watch Sci-Fi London TV!