The Crotchety Old Fan

After paying a visit to the SF Hall of Fame website and perusing the list of inductees, I have discovered a strange and interesting, while still bizarre, factoid.
There are, as of yesterday’s ceremony, 57 inductees into the Hall of Fame; virtually every era of genredom and every discipline within it are now represented. And now [...]

I’ve been meaning to get around to posting this for awhile…actually quite a while.? At least since 1976 when the events I’m going to talk about actually ocurred.? I know, I know, quite a while, but I’m one of those self-effacing, not-interested-in-self-promotion kind of guys, and it has taken the past three decades or so [...]

I’ve got a few ’specials’ planned for the near future, among them are:
Retro-Interviews with Samuel R. Delany and Norman Spinrad.
These interviews were originally conducted in 1978 by my then SF-partner in crime Joe Zitt, and were published in our SEMIPROZINE Contact:SF.
Delany has been coming back into focus in the industry with reprints of most of [...]

Everyone else is talking up the Ackerauction over at Profiles in History.? I’ve signed up (tho I doubt I can afford to even offer an opening bid on anything…)
AND I HOPE THAT SOME WELL-INTENTIONED FAN BIDS ON AND WINS THE FIRST EVER HUGO AWARD
Some very cool stuff in there – SF porn even – but [...]

While searching for some images for the Classic Science Fiction Channel (I’m going to be adding a couple of films and a WHOLE BUNCH of educational/historical/fannish oriented links today) I happened across a gallery of photos from the 1957 London Worldcon on EFanzines.com.
Wow.? In particular, this photo of John W. Campbell, 4E Ackerman and Sam [...]

From SFSignal to Cinematical to this:
The award-winning, genre-bending author Michael Chabon has been hired to do some script-doctoring on the John Carter of Mars project.
I love this guy and I love this quote:? “I wrote my original screenplay The Martian Agent back in 1995 because I wished I could do [Edgar Rice] Burroughs’s Barsoom. So [...]

I distinctly remember my Mother complaining shortly after retiring that one of the worst things about getting old is that everyone you know starts to die.
She wasn’t just talking about friends or family – she was also talking about social icons – the actors you watch, the politicians you voted for, the television personalities [...]

Tomorrow marks the 70th anniversary of Orson Welles’ radio broadcast of Herbert George Wells’ novel – The War of the Worlds.
H.G. wrote the original novel in 1898 – One Hundred and Ten years ago, 40 years before the radio broadcast (why aren’t we ballyhooing the 110th anniversary of the book instead of the 70th anniversary [...]

I’m still wrestling with the comments issue at the new COF site.? I take an enforced break today to visit another county fair.? Pics later.? (I won’t be deliberately seeking out shaved llama butt, but if it’s there, you know I’ll take a pic…)
Discover magazine runs a ‘top 5 space operas’ list today – a [...]

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File 770 revives memories of Laser Books and Thomas Monteleone’s novel – Seeds of Change.? Mike brings it up because of the J. J. Adams’ anthology of the same title, and an interview in PW of Adams.? (Go here for the link.)
File 770 reminds us that Laser’s plan was to ‘flood the market with cheap [...]