"We must be strong and brave"

[eldritchhobbit]

Virginia on the Deck

Happy birthday to gondoriangirl, and happy early birthday to vivien529. May you both enjoy many happy returns of the day!


I have a few links to share...

* From io9, an excellent list in the ongoing "pre-Golden Age" series: "10 Scariest Eco-Catastrophes from Early Science Fiction."

* Sajbrfem (of Fifty Two Acts fame) is starting a "Women in Science Fiction" reading club. First book: The Female Man by Joanna Russ.

* This is the last week of the Brenda Novak Online Auction for Diabetes Research. There are items for readers, for writers (including agent and editor evaluations and author critiques), and people who like to buy stuff. The SF/Fantasy section is here. (Thanks to marthawells, who has three of her autographed hardcover books in the auction!)

* On the latest episode of The Sofanauts podcast, I am part of a roundtable discussion on "the week in science fiction news" along with Jeremy Tolbert (of Escape Pod) and Paul Raven Graham (of Futurismic). You can stream or download this episode here.

* I am soon off to participate in ConCarolinas, where I look forward to seeing estellye, hinluin, witchcat07, arymetore, and sittingduck1313 -- and, I hope, sailingwest as well. Is anyone else attending? I will be online to a limited degree while I'm gone, and I'll be back on Sunday.


I'll leave you with this blast from the past. Until I saw this (and realized I could sing every word of the theme song), I'd forgotten I watched this as a child. Does this mean I was anime before anime was cool? (Oh wait - anime's always been cool. My bad.)

We must be strong and brave.
Our home we've got to save.
If we don't in just one year,
Mother Earth will disappear!
- "Star Blazers Theme," English version

Comments

[arymetore.livejournal.com]

Certainly looking forward to seeing you as well :) Might be getting in a little late Friday, but early enough to catch some of the Con :) Still not sure if sailingwest will be joining us... at this moment it looks doubtful.

By the way, you ever send Marie that t-shirt image?

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Fantastic! I look forward to seeing you there. I'll keep my fingers crossed re: sailingwest; it's been ages since I saw her!

Was I supposed to send that image to Marie? *headdesk*. I may have misread the email (I get them in digest form), because I sent it to Kristi instead. If I still need to send it to Marie, I definitely will!

[arymetore.livejournal.com]

It would be hoped she could come still... but she's been having severe monetary issues lately. And we were planning to take her to Williamsburg and Petersburg too...

Well, someone needed to :P Not sure if it was to be you or Kristi. But if you have it, then sending it to Marie would likely be the easiest :)

[agentxpndble.livejournal.com]

Holy moley! Was I ever addicted to THAT show!!! Sadly, I can remember very little detail... Did Captain Harlock cross over with it? Or was that an entirely different show...? I was *seriously* in love with Captain Harlock. Fuzzy memories aside, I used to cut last class in high school on a regular basis to get home on time to watch Star Blazers. How sad that I remember it so little after sacrificing my education for it. ;-)

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

I used to cut last class in high school on a regular basis to get home on time to watch Star Blazers

*cackles* In high school, I used to schedule my dates around the episodes of Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future. Clearly, our geekitude surfaced at a young age. ;)

Harlocked looked like he belonged on Star Blazers, to be sure, but I don't think he was on the show. Maybe that was Endless Road SSX or something else?

[(Anonymous)]

Ah Captain Power....

From Caster121 @ the Library...

[peadarog.livejournal.com]

Was that show called "Battleship Yamato" in Japanese?

[euclase.livejournal.com]

I think you might be right. :)

[peadarog.livejournal.com]

Cool! I can't wait for my prize :p

[sittingduck1313.livejournal.com]

Correct. IIRC their spaceship was the vintage WWII battleship Yamato. Hard as it may be for some of you to believe, that's hardly the most bizarre spacecraft idea Leiji Matsumoto came up with. That honor would go to the space trains in Galaxy Express 999 and The Galaxy Railways. Space trains! It's equally demented and awesome.

[peadarog.livejournal.com]

Space trains is a brilliant idea! Sort of...

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed! To satisfy US censors at the time, it seems "sake" was translated consistently as "spring water," and the ever-drunk doctor's antics were explained away as being signs he was just a jovial, jolly kind of guy. That said, I remember the show seemed wonderfully "grown up" compared to other animated shows I'd seen, with much more realistic depictions of violence, death, funerals, etc.

[peadarog.livejournal.com]

I never once saw the show, but a guy in my school who'd been living in Japan had a poster of it, that's the only thing I know :)

[sittingduck1313.livejournal.com]

Sue of Mutant Reviewers From Hell recounts her own Star Blazers memories.

http://mutantreviewers.com/ryamato.html

"The main characters tended to have abnormally large eyes, gravity defying hair, and the females among them made Barbie look like a pudgy old hausfrau. Yes my children, this was animé, post-Speed Racer and pre-Sailor Moon. Star Blazers, along with the equally nifty (and much lighter hearted) G-Force, was the animé of my coming-of-age."

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the great link!

Ah, nostalgia. *sighs and stares off into the distance* LOL!

[sithdragn.livejournal.com]

Oh, look at Virginia -- she's chillin' and lookin' gorgeous. And a great shot, btw!

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Aw, thank you! She's a big fan of sitting out in the sun. Or lying in the sun. Or napping in the sun. ;)

[euclase.livejournal.com]

Oh my god Star Blazers! I love that show! So does my dad (LOL).

That's like... when I first watched Ulysses a few years back after having not seen it for fifteen years, and I was so impressed at how much about it I remembered. Like jeez brain, way to store a lot of useless, unnecessary crap that I'm never gonna need. XD

That list of scariest catastrophes is indeed scary.

And Virgina is gorgeous (saw these on Flickr--glad you put them here, too).

And omg too big of a comment! But I wanted to say have fun at the the convention! <3

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Yay for Star Blazers! I can't believe I haven't thought of that show in years and years. I saw the title on the ConCarolinas schedule (it's showing in the video room during the con), and it all came back to me at once.

Like jeez brain, way to store a lot of useless, unnecessary crap that I'm never gonna need. XD

LOL! I know what you mean. I wish I knew where to find the "delete" button in my brain. I could free up so much useful space!

Thanks so much for the kind words re: Virginia's picture. I know I'm biased, because she's our best friend, but she has so much personality, and I do love trying to capture her attitudes and moods in photos. She's so patient with her silly humans. :)

And thanks for the good wishes for the con, too! I'm writing this from my hotel room at the moment, as a matter of fact. The dealers' room opens in half an hour, woohoo!

[sittingduck1313.livejournal.com]

BTW in case you didn't notice it, the media room at ConCarolinas will be showing the first four episodes of Star Blazers Sunday morning.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

That's actually what brought on my realization that I'd seen/loved the show, as a matter of fact! I read the title on the schedule, and my brain started replaying the theme song. Ha! It looks like ConCarolinas has a great video lineup this year. Although I hate to miss the panels - I wish I could be in two places at once! (Or three...)

[vivien]

Thank you! *dances birthday dance*

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

I hope it's a great one! :)

[suzume234.livejournal.com]

Oooh I love book clubs...

that book isn't at any library in the library system... I wonder if I can still order it from there... I found it at my college library... but it's out for the season, and I've just graduated.. : )

Anyway, I did find a preview of the book
http://books.google.com/books?id=zo26GOH9rX0C&dq=the+female+man&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=HHcfSsSZKNOntgfrz-THBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#PPA1,M1 (sorry for the length)

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much!

I love book clubs, too - even when I don't have time to participate, I often get great reading lists to save for a later time. It sounds like this one will be looking at some of the classic canonical works in the tradition, which I think is especially exciting!