Monday, January 03, 2005

Joy V. Smith, Lakeland Florida USA



What a great cover by Frank Wu! I don't think I've ever seen a biplane vs. dragon confrontation before. Btw, did you see the biplane outtakes from Independence Day? I can see why they changed that, but this works.

This was a fantastic tribute issue to Julius Schwartz. I was unaware of him until now, but he sounds like a wonderful, helpful, supportive person who accomplished a lot. (What a lot of good one person can do...)

I enjoyed Joseph L. Green's article about his mistake in rounding off the geosynchronous orbit figure. (I sure hope I get an opportunity to nonchalantly correct someone some day.)

And that was an insightful article by Alexis Gilliland: “Morrie the Critic Discusses Love and Death”. Another interesting article was “The Real Future of Space” by Gregory Benford – space opera and space economics. Btw, at Oasis 17 Michael Conrad (artist, writer, designer) gave a presentation on designing and building model rockets and space ships, and he included practical design aspects. It's covered briefly in my Oasis 17 con report, which can be viewed at: O*W*C : Resources : Conventions : Reports : Oasis 17 '04, and it should be in the upcoming Southern Fandom Confederation Bulletin. (He's working on a more in-depth presentation and a book, I believe.)

I also enjoyed Mike Resnick's article about SF movies. He included a number of silly SF movie ideas that are on my list of most memorable annoying scenes, especially – the hero being outside during the terraforming of Mars at the end of Total Recall and Darth Vader's redemption. (Luke lived by sheer luck!) I avoided The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen after reading the reviews, and I'd thought the premise was so promising!

I enjoyed the other articles too, including “The Resident Patient” (I'd like to mention that in the Sherlock Holmes folder on the AOL Mystery board.), your “Dope Court” article, and the SF background in your “Strange Schwartz Stories” article. And I'm glad you addressed the Abu Ghraib stupidity...

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