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Last week I posted a YouTube thingy collating the ten best sound effects of Star Wars, and I indicated that I thought one sound was horribly missing while one made no sense to be included at all. Here it is again: The one that I don’t think belongs there at all is the Techno Union guy. I think he’s a neat touch, but he’s a throwaway gag, really. What’s missing? The Millennium Falcon, obviously. That ship has a totally distinctive sound to its engines, such that in the movies you can always tell when the Falcon is onscreen or approaching.Down the rabbit hole….

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Long-time readers will know that I am a member of that terribly small, but incredibly zealous, band of folk: those who admire and enjoy the Star Wars prequel trilogy. I enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, each one of them, and I refuse to view them as disastrous films done in by George Lucas’s money-grubbing hubris. The Daughter and I just watched The Phantom Menace this past weekend, and damned if I still can’t see what it is about that movie that everybody hates with such fury. But while I do openly admit to loving these films – long posts aboutDown the rabbit hole….

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Writer at work, originally uploaded by Jaquandor. Stop botherin’ me. I’m writin’ here. Sorry about the dearth of posting the last few days, folks, but the week here at Casa Jaquandor got a bit unexpectedly busy over the last few days. Not bad busy, just a whole lot of stuff that ended up on the plate and being more time-consuming than I’d figured at the time. Plus, I’ve been fending off a minor head cold. Regular posting should begin again tomorrow. By way of a progress report: I’ve been doing a lot more fiction writing lately — I finished aDown the rabbit hole….

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Robert A. Heinlein yesterday proved that he is still Science Fiction’s Biggest Jerk of All Time by electing to stay dead, rather than participate in the celebrations of his one hundredth birthday. Way to go, RAH. Jerk. Anyhoo, SF Signal has a slew of RAH links. I’ve got to read more Heinlein one of these years. I’ve read a bunch of his short fiction, but none of his novels. (I started The Moon is a Harsh Mistress a few years back and bounced off it.) Happy Birthday, RAH. Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….

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There’s been some turmoil over the last few days involving the Science Fiction Book Club, of which I’ve been a member for over a year now (and of which I’d been a member sporadically three or four previous times during the 1990s). Basically, the SFBC’s parent company, BookSpan, has been purchased by the corporate behemoth Bertelsmann, which owns BMG/Columbia House. Bertelsmann is therefore set to combine the book clubs it’s just bought with its other direct marketing entities, while also closing some of the smaller book clubs. Most notable here is their book club for conservatives, I suppose; I’d neverDown the rabbit hole….

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It all began thirty years ago today. Of course, I didn’t see it on opening day; I was five, after all, and it took a while for the thing to become a Big Cultural Phenomenon. My mother says that when she saw in the papers what was going on with this space movie, it was she who decided that come hell or high water, her kids were going to see it. So it was late summer, I think, by the time we finally saw it. Maybe it was early summer. Actually, I honestly don’t recall. The movie came out whileDown the rabbit hole….

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John Scalzi gets all gracious in losing the election for SFWA President. I’d say kudos to him for a clean campaign, but I was really turned off by the ads the Swift Spaceship Veterans for Truth ran in LOCUS on his behalf. Sure, he claimed to have no involvement in those ads, but we know better, don’t we? And the graciousness of Scalzi’s concession is especially cloying. I am so sick of the “reaching across the aisle” stuff that follows every election, for anything! What we need is more reaction like that of Ray Patterson, who after his election defeatDown the rabbit hole….

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Time, I guess, for a little SF book blogging! :: Here’s one of the great all-time opening paragraphs: This was a Golden Age, a time of high adventure, rich living, and hard dying…but nobody thought so. This was a future of fortune and theft, pillage and rapine, culture and vice…but nobody admitted it. This was an age of extre,es, a fascinating century of freaks…but nobody loved it. When I note that SF has had to scrape and fight for every tiny morsel of respect it’s ever been grudgingly offered by the Keepers of the Literary Canon, and I contrast thatDown the rabbit hole….