In six words: bigger, louder and much much dumber.

I quite enjoyed the first movie. This one... meh... check your brain at the door and it's not too bad, I guess. There are racist stereotypes, and puerile jokes which would be fine if they were actually funny, and plot holes and inconsistencies. But still, there are lots of giant robots and explosions, and that counts for something.

I went for a bike ride this afternoon with my friend K around the Glebe and Blackwattle Bay parts of the harbour. Her bike was stolen recently and I helped get her another through Ebay, and we were keen to take it out for a spin.

Large dark clouds filled the sky from the east and south, moving slowly at first, then suddenly they were overhead, spat a few drops, then poured rain down upon us. And then, 15 minutes later, it all passed over just as quickly as it arrived.

We were soaked and cold, but nothing a hot shower and a tasty Indian meal couldn't fix. And sitting by the heater watching Kelly's Heroes for the umpteenth time helped too.

About 5 minutes before the rain came, I took this photo. The storm was in a such a hurry that it put up the rainbow ahead of schedule.

I've been to the theatre twice in as many days. Twice!

Tonight I saw My Name Is Rachel Corrie, a play based on the true story of a young American woman who went to the Gaza Strip to help and work with the Palestinians living there, and was eventually killed by an Israeli military bulldozer. It's a one-actor piece, and so depends utterly on the performer, Belinda Bromilow. She was brilliant. She absolutely nailed this piece; she was so natural in the role of Rachel Corrie. My friend K said that even Corrie herself could hardly have been more convincing. Powerful, moving, and well worth seeing.

On Tuesday night we were at the State Theatre for the Sydney Film Festival premiere of John Woo's Chinese epic, Red Cliff (OK, a movie rather than a play, but still in a theatre). Mr Woo himself was there too, and he spoke briefly before the movie, expressing rather modestly his hope that we would enjoy it. The movie is the most expensive ever made in Asia ($80m budget) and also the biggest box office success there. It was originally released in two parts of over four hours in total, but we saw the Western release, a single movie cut to about 2 hours 30 minutes. And wow, what an epic. Huge battle scenes, lots of awesome fights, great costumes, love, intrigue, honour... I'd love to see the full version some time, as there was some abrupt jumping between scenes in this version, and some stitching together with explanatory voiceovers. But still, fantastic stuff. Trailer here (scroll down).

I bought a car this weekend! It's a 2005 Honda CRV. Picking it up tomorrow, I hope. Exciting!

But I will miss the old car, the Magna. I've had it since 2002 and have become very comfortable with it. It's in pretty good nick, but it was getting a bit rattly, and, well, old. And it's pretty thirsty, and while the boot space is good it's inconvenient for big objects as the rear seats don't fold. So I finally decided to trade it in and a compact 4x4 wagon seemed a good alternative.

Also, of course, the Magna is the last major physical asset remaining from my marriage, and with the divorce imminent at last, perhaps my subconscious was urging me to make the change for something shiny and (fairly) new. And there's few things more shiny than a shiny new car. :-)

I'll post a pic soon, but if you're curious, it looks like this one.

Here at last! All the news that's fit to print. Well, some of it. 'Tis but a sampling, dear readers.

In other words, I've undoubtedly missed some newsworthy items. Feel free to add them in comments if you wish.

So, what's been happening in the world of Aussie spec fic this past month?

People have been writing!

Cat Sparks
Margo Lanagan
Martin Livings (MaNoWaMo)
Tansy Rayner Roberts
Stephanie Campisi
Stephanie Gunn

And editing!
Jonathan Strahan on Eclipse 3.

And as an example that books DO eventually get finished: Glenda Larke delivered her manuscript for Stormlord Rising,
and Karen Miller finished editing the galley-proof of The Prodigal Mage:

Markets and competitions

The Katharine Susannah Prichard Speculative Fiction Award is open for a few more days (closing date: Friday May 29, 2009).

Twelfth Planet Press is now open for submissions to the New Ceres webzine for Issue 3, due September 2009.

Ben Payne announced a new "publication house, in the loosest possible conception of the word, dedicated to producing irregular pdf collections of stories in the bizarro/surrealist/absurdist/bonjovi genres":  Tuber By Moonlight!

Books and publishing

An update on parallel importation of books in Australia.

Amazon blundered in the incident now known as Amazonfail. Read all about it in this excellent summary by Tansy Rayner Roberts.

Kaaron Warren’s new book “Slights” has a very creepy cover!

Scott Westerfeld’s forthcoming novel Leviathan has awesome steampunky covers!

Karen Miller and Karen Traviss’s new Star Wars novel, The Clone Wars: No Prisoners, is out.

The Paul Haines collection, The Last Days Of Kali Yuga, can now be pre-ordered.

In celebration of the 2009 Ditmar Awards, Ticonderoga Publications is offering fans of Sean Williams a special deal. With every copy of Magic Dirt, a free, signed copy of Ditmar-nominated Earth Ascendant. Offer available until the announcement of the awards at Conjecture in Adelaide.

On Writing

Richard Harland launched his Writing Tips website.

Angela Slatter and Ben Payne on whether characters should be likable.

Awritergoesonajourney.com now Twitters.

CallMyAgent.Blogspot.com offered a critique of query letters.

Tansy pointed us to Nalo Hopkinson’s piece on prejudice, invisibility and science fiction. Justine Larbalesier wrote on the same subject.

Glenda Larke with advice for writing your first fantasy novel.

Simon Haynes chimed in with writing tips:

Stephanie Gunn linked to The Guide to Literary Agents and lists The Top 10 reasons agents stop reading.

And this is how writing is REALLY done!

Awards

Ditmar nominations happened. A shortlist resulted! Amazing stuff. Voting is now underway.

Tender Morsels was shortlisted for a Locus Award and a Shirley Jackson award. And also is a Tiptree Honor book. Geez, Margo, leave something for everyone else, please! :)

Julia Leigh’s novella “Disquiet” was also nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award.

Reviews and comments thereon

Martin Livings found a nice review of Carnies.

Rob Hood’s Creeping In Reptile Flesh was reviewed in Aurealis.

Grant Watson on artists responding to critics (the artist in this case being Dame Judi Dench).

Dirk Flinthart responded thoughtfully to a review of Canterbury 2100.

Justine Larbalestier on the goodness of bad reviews.

Sean Williams on a review of The Grand Conjunction.

Conventions

Swancon on the ABC.

Vale...

... to JG Ballard, who died this month.

Odds and sods

Justine was pressed to learn to Lindy Hop ... and will in fact be learning the dance, as her charity-fundraising challenge was met!

Ben Peek’s novel ‘Black Sheep” was the subject of a German exam question.

Deborah Biancotti on judging books by their covers, including her own forthcoming collection “A Book OF Endings”.

Shaun Tan delivered the 2009 Colin Simpson Lecture for the Australian Society of Authors:


Last, and most important of all, came the news that Paul Haines appears to have beaten cancer.

And on that note, good health to all, and to all a good night!

Just a quick note to warn that I'm swamped with work at the moment so the spec fic carnival might not happen until later this week.

Happiness is... getting a 5-year service award from one's employer in the form of a store voucher of one's choosing. In my case, a $400 voucher for Berkelouw Books.

Also, I saw Star Trek last night in Gold Class. Really enjoyed it - good fun, spectacular and a nice balance of homage and reboot.

Hey everyone, I'll be hosting the next Aussie spec fic carnival this week. For those who don't know, it's simply a blog post linking all the fun stuff, news, discussions etc from the past month relating to Australian speculative fiction. I'm compiling it all and have probably seen most of the obvious stuff - the Ditmar awards nominations, for example - but if you think there's anything noteworthy I might not have seen, then please alert me (preferably with links) in a comment here or via email to chrisbarnes at livejournal.com.

Went for a great bike ride with my pal K on Saturday... from Marrickville and Annandale, over the Anzac Bridge into Darling Harbour, then to the Rocks and around the foreshore under the Harbour Bridge to Circular Quay. From there, a ferry to Mosman Bay where we chained up the bikes and bussed it up the hill to do some shopping (the goal for this expedition was a shop selling secondhand kids and maternity clothes, Wear It Again Sam, a good place if you're after that kind of thing). Then we took the ferry back again, just after sunset, and cycled home. About 26km of actual cycling, I think.

It was a beautiful day for it - sunny but not hot. How gorgeous Sydney is on days like this - the harbour, the sunshine, the Opera House dazzling white... and a nightime ferry ride back to the glittering Emerald City.

I've just finished reading Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge. I can't recommend this book highly enough. It's a YA fantasy set in a non-magical world loosely based on 17th century England. There are rival claimants to the vacant throne, a Parliament set on keeping the throne empty, and a bunch of powerful Guilds who are quietly bent on increasing their control on society. There are highwaymen and roguish itinerant poets. There is a fascinating and realistic take on popular religion. And most importantly, there is the heroine, the plucky young Mosca Mye, and her loyal and fearsome goose Saracen.

Beautifully written, an excellent setting, fast-moving plot and engaging characters. What more can you ask? I'll be looking for more books by Hardinge, that's for sure.

I'm back from my medieval weekend (obviously... blogging hadn't been invented in those days, you know).

It was fun. Very well organised, a great camping site, good people, no shortage of food, and a well-run tavern - only $4 a pint! There were around 200 people there in all. All the tents were correct period tents (for the group using them, i.e. Roman tents for the Romans, Byzantine and Viking tents and so on).

Highlights apart from the tavern and feasts included:

* Several battles on Saturday: I speared many foes and was hacked down several times as well. Lucky it's all just a game, eh?

* Markets: I bought a three-legged stool, a bronze Byzantine ring, and some woollen braid for decorating my tunics.

* Relaxing with a spiced Turkish coffee and baklava in the Perki Kaimaki, the wonderful coffee tent that's now a regular at these events. (Yes, coffee isn't period for Vikings, but this event isn't a "living history" event, it's a meeting of several different re-enactment groups.) At one point, as several of us lay on the cushions sipping our coffee and musing on Philosophy and such, one of the camp children, a little boy of about eight or so, came over with his little violin and played for us. Quite skilfully too! It was a nice moment. We passed around a bowl for donations and he scored quite a handy sum of lolly money.

* An experimental recreation of the Battle of Marathon, a resounding victory of Greek hoplites (heavy infantry in body armour, bronze greaves and helmet, large round shield, spear and sword) against Persian infantry consisting mostly of archers. The Greek re-enactors formed a mini-phalanx of about twenty warriors and advanced in formation towards lines of archers (including me). We fired volleys of combat arrows (rubber tipped) at them and, just as they did in 490 BC, the Greeks weathered the storm of arrows with minimal casualties. From the front, in close formation with those big shields and bronze armour, there's very little space for an arrow to hit anything vital.

The only low points of the event were (1) the weather, which was rather too warm and humid, (2) my camera battery running out after only a day despite being fully charged and (3) one of the young Russian guys with whom I was sharing a tent getting very drunk and throwing up in the tent. Luckily he missed my mail shirt which was nearby and only messed his own bed. Imagine my trepidation as I made my way across the field after being told there'd been a chundering incident in my tent; I was imagining some sort of Exorcist-like event. Luckily it wasn't so bad and the tent was still inhabitable.

Apart from that, it was a great weekend!

( Some photos... )

Yes, it's time to don ye olde medieval clothes, take up spear and sword (and drinking horn) and head off to the biennial Australasian Historical Conference, a gathering of re-enactment clubs covering Ancient Greece and Rome, Vikings and Byzantines, Crusaders, Condottiere and all the way to those modern rascals the Routiers who do English Civil War stuff.

Should be fun - I'm looking forward to relaxing in the New Magdeburg Tavern being run by the Routiers. They'll be serving period ales, cider, wines and lunches too! How civilised.

And there'll be the usual archery, battles, games, workshops (including one on underwear!), music and merriment. Plus, I hope, plenty of time to sit around chatting and doing not much.

I've spent the past several days getting ready - I've made a new woollen tunic and a new pair of boots, patched up other gear that was looking a bit sad and tattered... oh, and painted my wooden chest too.

( Photos under the cut... )

It's over — we're officially, royally fucked. No empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock...

This article in Rolling Stone by Matt Taibbi, brought to my attention by catsparx, is a great read. It explains the complexities of how America (and therefore the world) came to its current parlous state of finance. It is a complicated situation full of mind-hurting financial jargon, but Taibbi does a good job of explaining it, largely because he gets quickly to the ugly truth at the heart of the matter and keeps reminding us of it: the so-called financial wizards responsible for the mess are parasitic bastards who built a house of cards - no, of vapour - in which the real money was directed, in staggeringly large amounts, straight to their own pockets. The whole affair is breathtakingly audacious, and even now they're still milking the system of government bailouts.

Will it all lead to a second American Revolution? One in which the American patriots this time revolt against the rapacious aristocracy of their own nation? I rather hope so.

Taibbi pulls no punches:

And the worst part about it is that we're still in denial — we still think this is some kind of unfortunate accident, not something that was created by the group of psychopaths on Wall Street whom we allowed to gang-rape the American Dream.

In a word - awesome.

In a few more words - not flawless, but an excellent adaptation of a complex and layered story. Most scenes were modelled almost exactly on scenes from the book. The changes from the book were relatively few, and well handled. And it looked great. Good acting. Very violent, but so is the book. (They aren't shy about showing Doc Manhattan's blue willy, too, if that's important to you. :) )

I think, on first impressions, it's probably the best superhero movie ever. (Others I'd rank highly are The Dark Knight, Iron Man and X-Men 1 and 2. A bit below them would be the first Christopher Reeves Superman and the first Tim Burton Batman. This needs some more thought.)

Also, Gold Class may be pricey, but it's jolly nice to have a seafood platter and a bottle of wine delivered to one's large comfy reclining chair.

ETA: And because the Gold Class lounge was mostly reserved for the Monsters Vs Aliens premiere party, we all got a freeby bag as an apology, containing Coke, chips and a free undated pass to another Gold Class session!

I'm off to see Watchmen tonight. In Gold Class, no less! I'm excited. The movie will have to be pretty brilliant to live up to the graphic novel, but most reviews so far are positive so I'm quietly hopeful.

Comments on the movie will follow.

Most of you already know about this, but here are further details for Hope, the fundraiser for Victorian bushfire relief that I mentioned previously. My contribution will appear in a later issue (not sure which one).
******************************

Hope #1
Hope is a new multi-part fanzine raising money for bushfire relief in the Australian state of Victoria. It is edited by me, Grant Watson, with contributions donated by writers, artists and fans in Australia and from overseas. It is supported by the Western Australian Science Fiction Foundation (WASFF), and has received assistance from the Film & Television Institute of WA, Supanova and Big Finish Productions.

Issue #1 is now available in a PDF edition in return for donations. How much you donate is up to you - I personally think a minimum of AUS$5.00 is reasonable.

If you wish to subscribe to the entire series (I suspect at this stage it's five issues long, not four as I'd previously told some people), then I'd recommend a donation of at least AUS$20.00.

Hope #1 contains contributions from Mo Ali, Sophie Ambrose, R.J. Astruc, Lyn Battersby, K.K. Bishop, Matthew Chrulew, Stephen Dedman, Mark S. Deniz, d.n.l, Paul Haines, Simon Haynes, Kathleen Jennings, Ju Landeesse, Damian Magee, David A. McIntee, Simon Petrie, Andrew Phillips, Gillian Polack, Robert Shearman and Daniel Smith. The cover is by Rebecca Handcock.

Hope #1 contains 46 pages of fiction, non-fiction, artwork, and even a comic book script excerpt!

You can make a donation to the project via Paypal by clicking here:

Once you've made a donation, please confirm it by e-mailing me at fanboy@gmail.com, and letting me know whether you were after just the one issue or the whole series as it's released.

If you're leery of donating directly to me, to subsequently donate a huge bunch at once, then please e-mail me some kind of receipt or screen capture of your donation to the Australian Red Cross and I'll trust you and send out the PDF.

Limited print copies are available, if dead trees are your thing. If it's a print copy you're after, let me know in your e-mail along with your address. I'll handle the postage. (Obviously I'd prefer you went for the PDF, but the option is there.)

If you want to promote Hope on your own LJ or blog, please do so - the more the info spreads, the more money we may raise for the people of rural Victoria.

Most of you probably know that Grant Watson is producing a fanzine, with the theme of "Hope", proceeds from which will go to bushfire relief. Details here. I've sent him my 2004 story "The Glass Flower"; a story with plenty of hope in it, I think. If you have something to contribute, click that link above for contact details. But do it now - he's editing the zine tomorrow (Wednesday 11 Feb).

I just cracked open a bottle of Talisker and right now am enjoying the first glass of that sweet, smooth, peaty, smoky firewater. Because I can!

My Nan died on Monday. Her funeral was today. She was my grandmother on my mother's side, my last remaining grandparent, and was 101 years old. A remarkable age, and though she was mentally sharp almost to the very last hours of her life, she had become very frail and tired and was quite ready to go. She wanted to just slip away in her sleep, and she got her wish.

It was a good funeral and just what she'd have wanted, I think, with nothing particularly religious or formal about it; just family and friends gathered to commemorate her life and give thanks for the love she had for us. My father and uncle spoke, and myself, and my niece. Three generations - son-in-law and son, grandson and great-granddaughter. I MCed the event and was honoured to do so; at the end, I flicked the switch that closed the curtains on her coffin. A sober event but not sad; we were sorry to lose her, but glad to have had her in our lives.

I just watched the cheeriest short film ever! It's called Validation and you can find it here. Guaranteed to put a smile on your face - well worth the 16 minutes of your time.