Trekcon 5: An Anniversary Celebration!

 Last Saturday I went to a mini con, which was celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Austrek, the Victorian Star Trek fan club. I was a member soon after it began in 1976, but haven’t been a member for some time. 

The club was founded by Geoff Allshorn, who was a schoolkid at the time. Some months ago, Geoff asked old members to write something for a book that was going with the convention; I wrote two short items. Quite a few others also did, so it was book length. 

When I got to the Northcote Town Hall, I saw a lot of familiar faces, as well as newer members. It was a nice surprise. I didn’t get there till about 1.00 pm, so missed the morning’s events. Apparently my name was mentioned as a fan writer for the club’s fanzine, SPOCK, who had become a professional. 

I did still get to see plenty. Someone had put together a lot of old photos to project on to a big screen, including a few of me. We did a lot of things together back then, and were shown in costumes. I was not much of a costumer, but did make a few simple things by hand. One thing we did was go to Nero’s Fiddle, a theatre restaurant on a Roman theme, so we all went in Roman costume. After the show, we were invited up on stage to show our costumes and asked if we had made them ourselves(we had). The MC said he had seen the first episode of Star Trek The Next Generation, which had just begun at the time, so afterwards we all crowded him to ask for details. There were a couple of photos of us dressed Roman in the screening.

This was followed by a fan film made by the club, City On The Edge Of The Yarra. Many people, even of our generation, hadn’t seen it. I had, but not for a long time. In it, Kirk and Spock go through the Guardian of Forever and turn up in Melbourne in our time. There, they stumble into a Star Trek convention. When they go back to the ship, the whole convention follows them. That was followed by a documentary I still don’t remember being made, but I was in it, being interviewed! There I was, wearing a cardigan I still have.

There was a costume parade in which the woman who won was dressed as Nona from the episode “A Private Little War”. (Nona was played by Nancy Kovack, who was Medea in Jason And The Argonauts .)She had done a good job. In the old days that would have been a hall costume, worn outside the panels, but it was something she had made herself, unlike two of the others. 

After that, I watched, intrigued, as people bid on various items in the auction. There were prints, knick knacks such as a Guardian Of Forever and model characters from the show, books. Nobody bid over about $70 on anything, but they bid on more than one item, so spent a lot anyway. I remember a Blake’s 7 convention I attended in England where someone bought a pair of sunglasses worn by the actor Paul Darrow in the play Are You Lonesome Tonight? for £275! Not dollars, pounds!  I mean, a pair of sunglasses! Even if the buyer wore them, who would know what they were unless she bragged? Of course, she was American, so perhaps took them home and sold them for far more at a US convention. 

I didn’t bid on anything, as I already have enough goodies. But it was fun to watch. 

After the auction,  the anniversary cake was cut and I went home. There were a couple more events, but the lady sitting next to me was going to a house right near where I live and invited me to go with her in an Uber. How could I resist? 

I got a copy of the anniversary book and have been reading and remembering. What memories! 

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On Re Reading Two Comfort Novels By Controversial Authors

 I’m reading a lot of books at present, but re reading two comfort novels in ebook. Both are by authors who are controversial at the moment, for different reasons. Fevre Dream is by George R. R Martin, best known for the series A Song Of Ice And Fire, unfinished after many years. 

He wouldn’t be the only one. Aussie YA novelist Isobelle Carmody wrote two volumes of a supposed trilogy, ending on a cliffhanger. Kids have been born and grown up since Book 2 came out. Like Mr Martin, she has written a lot of other stuff since then, but not the one her fans were waiting for. She did tell me, when we met some years ago, that she was 400 pages into the final novel, but if she has done any more since then, I haven’t heard of it.

When Fevre Dream came out, nobody had heard of George R. R. Martin outside of SF fandom. We couldn’t afford him now, but he did attend a convention at a small hotel in St Kilda. There were about 150 attendees, including me, about all the room there was in that tiny hotel. I think he was working on the novel at the time, but he talked about it. I bought a copy when it came out and loved it. In fact, I like it better than ASOIAF, which I consider a soap opera with dragons. 

So, what is it about? The title is the name of the steam boat on which most of the action takes place, set in the 1850s. Abner Marsh, who had had several boats, has lost all but one and that one is old and shabby. He is approached to build a fabulous river boat by Joshua York, a very, very rich man who only comes out at night. And yes, he is what you think - a vampire. But he is a decent vampire, who wants to stop biting people and has come up with a way to do it. There are others who also want to quit the habit, who join him. In this novel, vampires are not undead, they are a race. 

There is also a villain, of course, Damon Julian, who is not interested in giving up biting people. I’ll let you read the book and discover him for yourself.

The other bit of comfort re reading I am doing right now is American Gods by Neil Gaiman, who is currently in much bigger trouble than annoying fans for not finishing a book or two. You have probably heard about that. I haven’t heard of anyone who has burned their Gaiman collection as they have their Harry Potter books for a much lesser sin, of what the author said instead of what they did, but a lot of fans are very angry with him - or disappointed, as I am.

I haven’t bought any new Gaiman books in a long time, but I have this in ebook and loved it when I first read it. And I’m loving it just as much now. I saw the first season of the TV series, which was fairly faithful to the book, and some of the second season, but decided to hang out and wait until the novel was finished… which it never was, even after three seasons, and they sacked the actor who played Mr Nancy aka Anansi the spider god. By the way, if you want to read a novel set in this universe, Anansi Boys was brilliant and funny. There is an audiobook of the radio play and another of the novel, read by Lenny Henry. It’s about Mr Nancy’s two sons, one of whom got his powers and is the cool one of the pair, the other of whom is not remotely cool. 

So, what is American Gods about? It’s literally about gods in America. The old gods, who came to America with immigrants, in their heads, are having to deal with the new gods of technology, who were born in the US. The old gods are led by Odin. Instead of an eye patch, he has a glass eye. Early in the novel he picks up Shadow Moon, a newly released convict whose wife was killed in a car crash, offering him a job as his sidekick. As she was with his best friend, who would have given him a job after his release, he reluctantly agrees. The whole novel is a road trip through the US. There are individual chapters titled “  Coming To America” which tell us how the various gods came there. Two of the gods who have settled down quite comfortably in America are Thoth and Anubis, who run a “family” funeral parlour together,where Shadow Moon gets a job for a while.  Thoth, called Mr Ibis, is writing accounts of how his fellow gods got there.  In the TV series, though not in the novel, Mr Jacquel( Anubis) is a kind, smiling black man who helps the newly dead before they go to the underworld. One elderly woman, who dies when she falls off a chair, regrets that nobody will taste her stew now. Anubis tastes it for her and assures her it is good. 

I’m about a third of the way through my re read and still enjoying it.

If you are disappointed with the author, perhaps you might consider borrowing it from the library. My local library has a very good spec fic collection. Possibly yours has too.

Just Been To See…Hans Zimmer Vs John Williams Concert

 I don’t know if I have mentioned this before, but I am a huge film music fan.   At one time I could probably listen to a film tune and tell you who wrote it, even if I hadn’t seen the film. I love the early film composers such as Erich Korngold( Errol Flynn movies), Miklos Rosza(Ben-Hur, El Cid, King of  Kings), Alex North (Spartacus. He also wrote a score for 2001: A Space Odyssey, but they decided to go with the music we are so familiar with), Elmer Bernstein(The Ten Commandments, and also, oddly, the main theme for a British children’s TV series, Arthur Of The Britons). 

Since then, I have discovered some newer composers, though not all of them new. In the end, I just love the music of epics.

And tonight I went to a concert of music by Hans Zimmer and John Williams. It  was not cheap, but worth every cent. You will certainly know the music of John Williams, and may well know some of the music of Hans Zimmer. The Zimmer music I know best is from Gladiator, but he has done a lot more than that. Chances are, if you have seen anything swashbuckling from the 1990s on, you will have heard his music. Pirates Of The Caribbean? Man Of Steel? The Lion King? 

Hearing a live orchestra play the music reminded me of how amazing it is, like a symphony,  not just the modern song-themed films which use existing music, but this was not just a concert. The conductor entertained us. He talked about each piece they played and you could see he loved them, but he also used costumes. For Harry Potter he put on a Gryffindor scarf. For the theme from Pirates Of The Caribbean he went off stage and emerged with a Jack Sparrow hat and a frilly shirt. Star Wars? He rushed off and returned with an Obi Wan Kenobi robe and a light saber. He also did a very good Yoda voice. At one point he made the audience hum the five note theme from Close Encounters. He also got us to turn around and shake hands with the person behind. 

We applauded loudly at each piece, and he made the musicians stand up for a bow.

The concert finished with JohnWilliams’ Superman theme - and the conductor stripped off his suit and conducted it in a Superman costume! 

It had been a long time since I had so much fun at a performance. A great way to end the weekend! 

Just Been To See…The Odyssey

 I’ve just come home from my local cinema, where I have seen the new Christopher Nolan film, The Odyssey. 

Just saying, I read the poem when I was fifteen. Then a friend who had a copy of The Iliad lent it to me and I lent her my Odyssey. 

There have been quite a few film interpretations of the Homer poem. A couple of them, at least, are up on YouTube, Armand Assante’s The Odyssey, 1997, and Ulysses with Kirk Douglas. Oh, and I see that The Return with Ralph Fiennes is there too. If you don’t mind an updated version, O, Brother, Where Art Thou? is set in the 1930s US. That one, of course, is a comedy with singing. 

There was so much fuss made about this one before anyone had even seen it.  Most of it was about the role of Helen of Troy being played by Lupita Nyong’o, a stunningly beautiful black woman. How DARE they! Never mind the fact that Helen was a daughter of Zeus, hatched from an egg laid by her human mother when she was raped by Zeus as a swan. Nobody complained about that, did they? And by the way, Zendaya played Athena, a Greek goddess, and she has an African American Dad. Can’t have that, can we? 

Greeks were annoyed that there were no Greek actors in it. But how many Greek actors were in the other versions? 

Recently there are people demanding it be boycotted because some of it was filmed in Western Sahara. Look it up. There is a clip on YouTube. 

Never mind. I just decided to go and see it and make up my own mind.

And I was impressed. It was visually stunning and beautifully performed by the cast. The special effects were amazing. I found myself caring about the characters, which is vital to me.

How faithful was it? Well, it did go through most of the stories from the poem - the Cyclops, Scylla and Charybdis, Circe, the visit to the Underworld, though it left out the bits with his mother and Achilles, who said he would rather be a slave of a peasant on earth than a king in the underworld. 

But Achilles was not in this film, as he was dead before the Trojan Horse incident, which was shown in flashbacks. Fair enough. And he told his story to Calypso, the goddess who had kept him for seven years, instead of the Phaeacian court. In this film, Calypso was sympathetic with his situation and let him go without complaint. In the poem she was annoyed at being ordered by the gods to let him go. But in this film she did admit to having kept him for seven years. 

The Kirk Douglas version did have him telling his story to the Phaeacians, and even had Achilles say his piece in the Underworld. It didn’t bother with Calypso. It started with Odysseus (bearing the Latin name Ulysses) finding himself shipwrecked in Phaeacia. Antinous, the villain suitor, was played by Anthony Quinn. If you are a fan of Robert Pattinson, you’ll get the chance to see him playing the nasty Antinous, though this version has him as a young man who got out of going to Troy by swapping places with Sinon whose peasant family agreed, to get some much needed money.

Matt Damon, who played Odysseus, grew a beard for his role, apparently, rather than let them give him a fake one. 

Tom Holland had to do another American accent for his role as Odysseus’s son Telemachus. It was a bit much for me, though, when Telemachus called his mother “Mom.” 

Like every other film version of the story, the dog Argos was in it, having waited for his master for twenty years. In both this film and the Kirk Douglas version, it’s how Telemachus recognises his father. Not in the poem, but never mind. The dog recognises his master and wags his tail before finally dying. It was touching, as always, especially as this version shows a flashback in which Odysseus chooses his puppy.

For some reason, Odysseus never seems to run out of arrows! 

I liked his relationship with his second, Eurylochus, who didn’t have any problem with telling him off. 

Anyway, I enjoyed it and so did many of the film critics. Highly recommended.

Me And Audiobooks!

 Do you consider listening to an audiobook to be reading? I do, though I rarely listen to a book I haven’t read first. The reason for that is because I mostly listen to them in bed, where I am likely to fall asleep. It doesn’t matter as much if I know the story. A lot of people listen to them in the car or while doing housework. I sometimes listen to them while I’m doing housework or over dinner.

Also, I like to enjoy them as a performance. Quite often, the audiobook is read by a well known actor, such as Stephen Fry, who read the Harry Potter books. Nigel Planer, whom you might know from The Young Ones or Hogfather, is hilarious reading Terry Pratchett’s novels. I personally like Tony Robinson best for Terry Pratchett’s books, but he reads the abridged versions.

Kerry Greenwood’s novels are beautifully read by Stephanie Daniel(Phryne Fisher) and Louise Siverson(Corinna Chapman). 

I bought one of Joanne Harris’s Loki novels, Gospel Of Loki, read by the delightfully funny Allan Corduner, who absolutely sounds to me like Loki would.

But although I have about fifty audiobooks of my own, I borrow quite a few from my local library by download. Currently I’m listening to Kerry Greenwood’s Death Before Wicket, the novel in which Phryne Fisher visits Sydney. My local library has quite a few Kerry Greenwood audiobooks.

In recent months, I have discovered that a lot of audiobooks are available on YouTube. I don’t recommend most of the Harry Potter books, which are not read by well known actors - in fact, they sound like they are not read by real human beings. But most others are the ones I have mentioned before - Terry Pratchett’s books read by the likes of Nigel Planer, and I have just discovered that the Kerry Greenwood mysteries are available, read by Stephanie Daniel and Louise Siverson. Which is great, because the ones from my library are mostly out on loan.

Quite often, when a book is out of print, you can still get them in audiobook. Barbara Hambly’s Bride Of The Rat God is no longer in print, though the reworked versions, Silver Screen Mysteries, are easy to get, and Amazon often sells them cheaply in audiobook.  Bride Of The Rat God is beautifully read by Marguerite Gavin. I hadn’t heard of her before I bought the audiobook, but love her now.

If you haven’t bought any audiobooks, why not check them out on YouTube first? They are free and you can listen to them any time. Or listen to them from your library.

What do you think? Are you a fan?

Just Been To See… Disclosure Day

 I went to my local cinema to see the newest Steven Spielberg movie, Disclosure Day. I hadn’t heard of it till a few days ago. But I enjoy SF films and Steven Spielberg is a director I respect. And the score is by John Williams. The music isn’t his usual symphonic type, though I hear it was done on purpose. 

There is a lot of action, with cars zooming along, attempts to kill the main characters, but there is much more to it than that.

Two couples, Margaret and her boyfriend Jackson, Daniel and his girlfriend Jane, are on the run and being chased by government agents led by villain Noah Scanlon, who is after a piece of alien technology Daniel has stolen with the intention of showing it and some vital videos to the world. Literally. The films have been there since Roswell in the 1940s. The aliens were not invaders and interrogators have tortured them, all there in the films. As a result, there is some alien technology controlled by Wardex, the agency led by Scanlon, who uses it to find and communicate with Jane and others. 

Margaret, a meteorologist working for a TV station, finds herself, the day before the main story, with powers she hadn’t known she had. She and Daniel, when they meet, feel as if they have met, but don’t know how or when.

Any more and there will be spoilers so that’s as far as I can go, but it’s well worth watching. Interesting that the villain - who thinks he is the good guy - is played by Colin Firth, who, in his time, was the sexiest Mr Darcy.

He is the only actor allowed to use his British accent, but there are others who have to be American for the film. Daniel is played by English actor Josh O’Connor. Emily Blunt plays Margaret. You might have seen her before, as Mary Poppins. Eve Hewson, who plays as Jane, is Irish, the daughter of U2 singer Bono.

I enjoyed it very much. I hope you do too. 

Juniper Wiles by Charles De Lint. Ottawa: Triskell Press 2021

This novel is one of the recent stories set in the world of Newford, that  delightful town somewhere in Canada , where  there  is  magic, music and craft.  The main characters casually practise magic  and  play music or write. There is an annual  festival of fairy themed music and art, and some of those  who attend are actual fairies. 

Juniper Wiles is a former actress who has returned to Newford after spending  several years in a TV series called Nora Constantine, playing as a  teenage detective. To her surprise, she finds people  calling her by the name of the character she played, including a ghost who wants her to solve a mystery for him before he can move on. She must do some mystery solving, reluctantly, with her friend July Coppercorn, who appears in other De Lintvnovels, and find the actual  Nora Constantine , who lives in another universe and has gone missing; the universe is based on an unpublished novel, and Nora  is probably a prisoner of the villain. 

 This novel was entertaining enough   For me  to buy the next book in the series.  I’m reading it now. 

It’s available in ebook and print, as well as audiobook .