SF-LOVERS Digest V3 #145
JPM@mit-ai
SF-LOVERS AM Digest Tuesday, 9 Jun 1981 Volume 3 : Issue 145
Today's Topics:
SF Fandom - APAs, SF Books - Fantasticats & Tin-Tin,
SF Movies - Raiders of the Lost Ark,
SF Topics - Compu-fiction & Children's TV (Warner Brothers and
The Thunderbirds and Merry Marvel Marching Society's and
F.A.B. query and Courageous Cat and Colonel Bleep and
Larriat Sam and Rocky and Bullwinkle) &
Children's stories (Spaceship Under the Apple Tree)
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Date: 7 Jun 1981 11:44:33-EDT
From: cjh at CCA-UNIX (Chip Hitchcock)
Subject: apa description
is a bit inaccurate; I don't know anyone to whom you can send a true
original (as opposed to a cut stencil or typed ditto master) without
money for xeroxing and expect to produce a finished zine. With no
exceptions that I know of, each member of an apa is responsible for
assuring that a sufficient number of copies of hir contribution is
produced. There's also an unclarity in the remarks about editorial
comments; I don't know anyone who has gotten away with putting such
remarks on people's contributions.
[ The editorial comment reference in the original description of APAs
was made in a context that implied that the comments were upon the
issue as a whole (and mainly administrative), not individual
contributions.
Also, the description separately discussed duplication of
contributions and possible costs of belonging to the APA. Many
APAs will accept simple originals (although then there is usually
a charge for xeroxing, as chip points out), while some will demand
X number of copies. Sending ditto masters is frequently the
cheapest thing to do all around (if the APA in question is set up
to handle then of course).
The best strategy to follow if you wish to join an APA is to first
find out all their requirements and discover whether membership is
open at this time (some APAs are so popular that contributing
membership is restricted, although you can usually purchase copies
of the APA). -- Jim ]
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Date: 8 June 1981 21:35-EDT
From: Brian J. Kreen <KREEN at MIT-AI>
Subject: Cats and SF
Another book dealing with such beasties (lovable though!) is
Decision at Doona, where humans meet 8' tall walking and talking
feline "people."
Decision at Doona
Anne McCaffrey
Ballantine Books, 1969
------------------------------
Date: 8 Jun 1981 at 0100-CDT
From: hjjh at UTEXAS-11
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ MISCELLANY ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
RE-- cats: Thanks to all who sent suggestions. Cordwainer Smith's
works were the overwhelming majority of the nominees.
The kitten-story recalled by BCH at Berkeley is Leiber's "Spacetime
for Springers". It couldn't help but make a cat lover puddley around
the eyeballs.
As for cat-lovers in the \other/ sense, I would recommend the Catteni
spaceman in McCaffrey's short story, "The Thorns of Barevi". (SF-Lers
familiar with "...Barevi" will surely forgive the pun, as the story
itself is almost one in narrative form.)
RE-- SILVERLOCK: The author's (middle AND) last name is Myers. Saw a
note in LOCUS a while back to the effect that some 30 years after the
original, he's done a sequel. Hoo-raaaaaaaaay!
RE-- Compu-fiction: Aha! Reality is catching up with SF. We've come
across a couple fiction-writing machines in the CYBER-SF project. Off
hand I recall the "wordmills" in Leiber's THE SILVER EGGHEADS, and the
heroine in Compton's THE UNSLEEPING EYE worked at Computabook.
------------------------------
From: RP@MIT-MC
Date: 06/08/81 08:19:13
Subject: Raiders of the Lost Ark
I agree with Zellich, ROLAids is a super winner. We (+kids) found this
to be the most entertaining film since TESB. Superman II will have
serious competition.
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Date: Sunday, 7 Jun 1981 20:18-PDT
Subject: Review: Raiders of the Lost Ark
From: mike at RAND-UNIX
Screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Saturday, June 6th. Directed by
Steven Spielberg. Lucasfilm, Ltd production.
This is a non-spoiler review. Don't let anyone spoil this movie for
you: don't read the book, leaf through the magazine, color in the
coloring book or any of the other ways you could spoil the movie.
JUST GO SEE THE MOVIE, and be surprised.
Don't be a fool! Go see this movie as soon as it opens! Go see it
twice. Seeing this movie the first time was as fun as seeing Star
Wars the first time. And I don't say that lightly.
Raiders of the Lost Ark is an adventure film of the old cinematic
school: the romantic setting is not outer space but a far-away jungle
or desert, the villains are not Storm Troopers from the Empire, but
Nazi's from Germany. Our heroes don't use the force, just good ol'
American pluck and spirit. They drink their whiskey straight, too.
So does Lauren Bacall, er, whatever the name of the heroine is.
Supposedly the inspiration for the film comes out of the Saturday
morning serials that used to run in the theatres for a nickle. Does
anyone know what these might be? I suppose the original Flash Gordon
fits into this mold.
The Action is continuous! The Danger immense! How can our Hero
Survive? Will Paramount's stock Double?
NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH: Warning to parents of very small children:
many of the images in the movie are strong. Maybe strong isn't the
right word. Maybe TERRIFYING is the right word. The woman next to me
in the theatre cringed continuously. As Indiana Jones said peering
into a sacred crypt where-man-was-not-meant-to-be, "Snakes. Why did
it have to be snakes?"
Michael Wahrman
------------------------------
Date: 8 Jun 1981 1617-PDT
From: Craig W. Reynolds from III via Rand <REYNOLDS at RAND-AI>
Subject: do it yourself movie editing
Forgive me if this has recently been mentioned, but the discussion of
movies with audience decision branch-points brings to mind the "Aspen
Project" of the Architecture Machine Group. This was (is) a "movie
map" of the town of Aspen Colorado. It is based on optical video disk
and midi-computer networks. The user sits in front of a color video
monitor which is touch-sensitive (Lauren's favorite) on it you see a
view down a street in Aspen, you press the GO button and your
point-of-view starts to move down the street (images coming
sequentually from the disk). When you come to an intersection, you can
continue straight through or turn to the right or left. Usually any of
these choices involve hopping to some other part of the disk to fetch
the pictures for the street you are turning onto. By using two disk
drives (with two copies of the same disk) the idle one can be
prefetching the "most likely" branch for the next intersection.
In this manner the user can "drive" all over the city, without any
real restrictions. One way to look at this is a movie which is always
edited on the fly by each viewer, this leads to any number of possible
"drives" (or plotlines, if you prefer).
Craig
------------------------------
Date: 8 Jun 1981 1448-PDT
From: CSD.BOTHNER at SU-SCORE
Subject: Tin-Tin comic books and films
The creator of Tin-Tin was Herge, not the abomination Lauren called
him. @digression [I think there is an accent aigu over the final e -
aigu means sharp or accute which is the angle it makes with the
direction of reading. The other one is an accent grave - someone mixed
them up in a recent message. ]
Tin-Tin is primarily a comic book, and Herge is part of the French-
Belgian comic book culture. Tin-Tin has starred in at least a dozen of
the big glossy comic book which are so typical in Europe. Tin-Tin's
adventures weren't really all that exciting, but the books' big win is
the supporting cast of eccentric friends and helpers.
------------------------------
Date: 7 Jun 1981 1958-PDT
From: First at SUMEX-AIM
Subject: WB Cartoons
The best cartoons ever produced (both technically and
plot/clever-idea-wise) were the WB cartoons produced in the 40's and
early 50's under the names "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies".
These cartoon lasted 8 (9??) minutes and took about 9 months per
cartoon to create. The artwork and detail in a typical Bugs Bunny
cartoon of this era rivals the best work from Disney-- each frame was
drawn separately, and complete orchestral scores were written and
recorded for each cartoon. With the escalating costs of production
and the advent of computer-controlled animation (SIGH!!--maybe the
vast improvement in computer-graphics in recent years will reverse
this--I hear Lucasfilm is experimenting with full-screen animation
which is totally generated by a computer), this type of meticulous
animation is only a thing of the past.
Besides the technical superiority, the story-lines of these cartoons
were nothing less than brilliant. The main reason for this was that
the audience for these cartoons was in fact adult--they originally
appeared before feature films in the 40's (now all we get is Woody
Woodpecker--does anybody really LIKE those damned things?) and were
therefore targetted for adult tastes (unlike Jay Ward which targetted
for adults but still had to deal with the reality that these cartoons
were being screened for kids). Besides Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck/Elmer
Fudd/Tweety and Sylvester/ Foghorn Leghorn/Tasmanian Devil/Yosemite
Sam/Wile E. Coyote, etc, there were also some excellent cartoons of
mice appearing as Abbott and Costello, Jack Benny, the Honeymooners,
and other film characters of the day, often with the real actor's
voices (Like Laugh-in, Sat. Night Live, etc., it was hip to appear in
a WB cartoon satire). Those Bugs Bunny cartoons on Saturday are often
repackaged/re-edited cartoons from the 40's. When they use newer
animation, it really pales in comparison. I saw Mel Blanc give a talk
recently (after the talk, which is interspersed with WB cartoons,
there is a Q&A session where he "takes requests", i.e. "Mel, could you
do Bugs saying "What a moroon!"") He did say that they (WB) are
considering doing those 8 minute pre-feature-film cartoons again!!
Although I don't think they will ever be able to be done with the same
care that went into those gems...
--Michael
P.S. For a reasonably good anthology of these cartoons, "Bugs Bunny
Superstar" and "The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie" are good, but they
only contain the standard WB characters. The weirdest thing of all to
see are certain Bugs Bunny cartoons done in the early forties which
were meant to support the war (i.e. Bugs in the army, Bugs encouraging
the audience to enlist, etc). These are not seen too often although
the local UHF station would consistently screen these for the kiddie
afternoon shows!
------------------------------
From: KARIM@MIT-MC
Date: 06/08/81 09:25:47
Subject: Lauren's zero-zero island, thunderbirds, etc.
Hmm. I thought "ZERO ZERO ISLAND" was the turf of "Dodo, the
Kid from Outer Space". Anybody remember this? Lauren? In case you
don't know, Zero-zero Island was supposed to be the one place on the
globe where there was zero latitude and zero longitude. Is this place
really on water, and is there an island there (or did they expect the
kids to be that stupid...evidently I am)?
Another bit: someone mentioned a few days ago, or hours (or is
seconds the unit of time I'm looking for? How's a sentient tin can
supposed to know, anyway?) something they used to say on "Captain
Scarlet" -- S.I.G., I think it was. The used to say F.A.B. on that
wonderful show, "The Thunderbirds". Now that is really driving me up
a wall. Meanings, anybody? In case you don't know, Home Box Office
(for those of you with cable of satellite dishes) has been and is
showing, that Gerry and Sylvia Anderson Classic (yes, "U.F.O.",
"Space: 1999") "Thunderbirds to the Rescue". For a few laughs, don't
miss it.
I would say more, but I was supposed to be at work sixty days
ago (or minutes, or seconds...sigh).
-Karim
------------------------------
From: TRB@MIT-MC
Date: 06/08/81 11:17:14
Ah, do I remember Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse. They had a real
hep theme song with a standing bass. The catmobile comes out of the
cat cave on the edge of town trailing smoke. The story was always
called something like "The Case of the Missing Jewels." Courageous
was courageous, and Minute was a wimp, always getting in trouble, like
Robin in Batman. Their archenemy was the Frog (see?) and Courageous
had the gun which did outrageous things.
My favorite recollection of Colonel Bleep was an enemy of his called
"The Black Knight of Pluto." I thought that was clever, right up
there with "Vassa, Queen of the Sea," who was the Submariner's enemy
on the Merry Marvel Marching Society's tv show. MMMS was neat, they
showed Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Spiderman too, if I
rightly recall.
Please, please, does anybody remember, on Captain Kangaroo, there was
a cartoon called Larriat Sam. His sidekick/horse was Tippy Toes. His
archenemy was Bad Lands Meany. What was Bad Lands Meany's sidekick's
name? I can't for the life of me remember, and I've never met anyone
who has. I've been asking people for years and years, I haven't yet
sunk so low as to write to Bob Keeshan. I know this isn't SF, so
sorry.
[ Please respond diretly to TRB@MIT-MC on this query, not SF-LOVERS.
-- Jim ]
------------------------------
Date: 7 June 1981 0228-EDT (Sunday)
From: Lee.Moore at CMU-10A
Subject: Natasha's last name
I still claim her name is Nogoodnick. It is the same sort of
alliteration as Boris Badenoff. (spelling doesn't count) (also a pun
on a certain Russian Czar...) Any debate?
Lee Moore
------------------------------
Date: 6 Jun 1981 2131-PDT
From: Friedland at SUMEX-AIM
Subject: trivia and SF books
I noticed that the two common answers "Fatale" and
"Nogoodnick" were given for Natasha's last name on R&B. The former is
actually correct, although the confusion arises because Boris often
used the latter to refer to her affectionately.
Peter
------------------------------
Date: 21 May 1981 06:05:07-PDT
From: decvax!duke!unc!smb at Berkeley
Subject: The Spaceship Under the Apple Tree
I remember it well! It was about an alien visitor, age 11 Earth years
(they allegedly measure age in light years -- *sigh* -- but I guess
that's no worse than the Millenium Falcon being able to make the
Kessel run in under 12 parsecs) and his new-found human companion,
also 11. The alien had a spool of wire that powered his space ship,
his gadgets, and his shoes, but this spool had somehow gotten lost.
And when it was found, it was found at the bottom of a pond -- ruined.
Fortunately, his friend's grandmother had snipped off a piece to mend
a screen door, so he had just enough. One classic scene was where the
alien and his friend (I don't remember either name) went fishing. The
alien, with his quick reflexes, was able to reach in and grab fish.
The human complained that he was supposed to catch fish on a hook.
So, after he grabbed another fish, he stuck the hook through its tail.
"Me catch fish on hook." Hiking with him wasn't any fun either: he'd
just set off in a straight line towards the destination, walking over
obstacles such as houses and haystacks, and walking under ponds.
Obviously, a major part of the action was an attempt by the human to
teach him Earth customs without letting on to his grandmother just
what was going on.
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End of SF-LOVERS Digest
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