Musings of a Babylon Lurker

DanCon 2010

Sunday, May 9th, 2010 | cons, scifi | No Comments

Today I went to a small scifi convention in Copenhagen.

The DanCon is a one day convention with a single thread, all going on i one room. It is organised by one of the Danish Science fiction societies, Science Fiction Cirklen. Everything was going on in Danish.

The con opened with a very nice panel discussion on “Tendencies English language short stories”, with a few examples of authors old and new.

After lunch we had a very nice presentation on medical science of the future, seen in the light of Star Trek technology, quite entertaining with a few examples illustrating how far we have already come and where we are behind the ST tech. An interesting fact is that the “hypospray” of ST had already been invented and tested some years before the original series aired.

The rest of the afternoon we had a presentation of the older British comic strip “Dan Dare”, a presentation of Anime

The afternoon ended with a presentation of the classic scifi magazine Astounding (before Campbell), an interesting insight into the scifi of the 30′s.

I found that I might have a subject for a presentation on a following con, so I am afraid I may have some work to do until then.

All in all a very enjoyable day meeting scifi friends in Denmark.

Tags: events, short story, star trek

Update, and visit to DK

Sunday, September 6th, 2009 | cons, general, scifi | No Comments

Just back from holidays in DK

Got the blog software updated to the latest version.

I went to the small Danish convention “Fantasticon” (organised by the Danish Scifi association Fantastik)

Nice little con with about 150 people, Guests of Honour were British authors Charles Stross and Gwyneth Jones. Thinking of going to the Easetercon in London next year, and possibly the Eurocon in Stockholm 2011.

Tags: events, scifi

Long time no see

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 | blog, books, events, film and tv, general, novel, scifi | No Comments

It has been a while since I last had an entry here, things have been a bit hectic.

I became a supporting membert of the Anticipation Worldcon 2009, and with that came the right to vote on the Hugo Awards.

So for a month I was – among other things – busy reading 4 of the nominated novels, listening to the short stories, and a few other things.

Also, I have been more active building some radio equipment, and have had a successful attempt of receiving the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

I went to see the new Star Trek movie with a friend in Denmark, and finally I have been active learning more Tai Chi and Qigong.

Some of those activities will result in some new entries in the near future. Right now I am taking it a bit easy – and watching the new “Torchwood” series : “Children of Earth”. The first episode looks very promising, so let us hope that carries through the whole story.

Tags: busy, general, scifi

Looking at Hugo Awards nominees 2009

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 | cons, events, scifi | 2 Comments

This year I decided to become a supporting member of the Worldcon/Anticipation that takes place in August in Montreal, Canada.

With a (supporting) membership of the Worldcon comes the right to vote on the Hugo Awards, the science fiction fans’ own awards.

Not just that, this year a big part of the nominee’s works are made available to the voters, so last week I downloaded the “Hugo Voter’s package 2009″, a zipped file of about 180 MB.

The file contains 4 novels, several novellas, short stories , a graphic novel (as far as I can see, have not opened that file yet), and other contributions, in order to facilitate an enlighttened voting process.

Now I am very happy that I got myself an eBook reader – it would be far too tiring reading that much on the iPod Touch. Still I am not tied to the computer screen, but can read anywhere I want – the Sofa or lazy chair is a good place.

I started reading “Saturn’s Children” by Charles Stross, partly because I expect to see him at a small local con (Fantasticon) in Copenhagen this year.

With 4 novels and all the other material I have a quite sufficient amount of reading to do before the Worldcon, even if I am not going to Montreal. I would like to go to a Worldcon once, especially if it takes place somewhere in (Northern) Europe.

Tags: Add new tag, Hugo Awards, scifi, worldcon

Fantasticon2008, Copenhagen, 26 – 27 April

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 | authors, cons, events, science, scifi, space, technology | No Comments

This is a small Danish convention with a few hundred people attending. Only foreign Guest was Norman Spinrad. The con was held in the “Vanloese Kulturhus” (cultural house) in nice large rooms and a terrace. Even the weather cooperated and we could sit outside chatting along between the programmed events. I arrived there after a long (12 hour) drive and a few hours of sleep.

On Saturday I went to the interview with Niels Brunse who has translated a large amount of English language books into Danish, and also written stories of his own. He was, among other subjects, talking about the difficulty of making a good translation, something I can relate to in a limited capacity, having attempted translation in both directions between Danish and English. Some elegant words or phrases in one language translate *very* poorly into the other.

Sunday had a surprise guest speaker, the Danish physicist Holger Bech Nielsen, giving a presentation of his version of the “theory of everything” : “Random Dynamics”. He is a *very* lively lecturer, and it is always fun to see him, his enthusiasm for the subject is just radiating from him. This was the first time I saw him “live”, the other times were just on television.

Arthur C. Clarke :

For me the best part of the programme on Sunday was the panel discussion about Arthur C. Clarke, the panel consisting of 3 Danish fans and the guest speaker Norman Spinrad. Spinrad had sopme cooperation with Clarke in the 1960′s and could tell us that the final scene of the movie “2001 – A Space Odyssey” was in fact not the one we saw in the movie. Clarke had envisioned a scene with very beautiful aliens, but it was not technically possible to do to his satisfaction – meaning the scene had to be rewritten.

Clarke’s relatively optimistic view of the future has by some been regarded as naive, but it most probably is an expression of his dream about the future.

Finally there was a discussion of Clarke’s unusual combination of hard science fiction and the “mystical” (for lack of a better word), something very prominent in “2001″, but it is in much of his other work.

Of course, you cannot mention Arthur C. Clarke without talking about his strong influence on science and technology (as well as science fiction), interesting to see how many of his early thoughts have come true already.

All in all a very nice week end , I will try to make it again next year.

Eastercon/Orbital2008 impressions

Saturday, March 29th, 2008 | Babylon 5, Orbital2008, cons, scifi | 2 Comments

Here come my entries made to my LiveJournal directly from the Eastercon/Orbital2008 – covering the first 3 days.

Friday:

Arrived safe and sound at the Eastercon in London.

Friday meeting up with a lot of new people.

Having a Babylon 5 Ranger pin helps finding other B5 fans – or they spot me …

In the morning a nice discussion about the future of the Star Trek franchise. In the end we agree that tere is indeed a future for Star Trek (no real surprise there)

Being in London, which con will be without Doctor Who in its programme? Friday had a discusion about Russel T. Davies : Fanboy let loose ?

Of course he is both a fan and the one who revived the Doctor Who as a series.

Sunday Babylon 5 is on the programme , “The Lost Tales will be on the programme – my only regret it that it is at the same time as the Neil Gaiman as Guest of Honour. difficult choice. Well , I want to meet some B5 fans here , so I guess “The LOst Tales”it will be.

Just hope to Get to have my “Day of the Dead” script book signed by Neil Gaiman.

Saturday:

Morning panel : “Doctor Who – Trickstergod ?”
Paul Cornell , writer of the double episode of the new Doctor Who : “Human Nature/Family of Blood”

Paul Cornell is a very lively panelist , lots of fun to see/hear. the discussion touched on a similarity with the Doctor and the Shadows from Babylon 5 – both being a sort of “Agents of Chaos” – quite a thought.

Lots of people reacting to the Ranger Pin , so had lots of B5 talks. Sunday “The Lost Tales” will be shown in the video room, I will be there and hopefully get some more good B5 talk.

Got some pictures – will come later – of Ranger Hilary in a very well made costume.

How about a B5 Ranger meeting a Klingon – good fun (got a pic of that as well).

In the afternoon a good panel discussion of “Religion in SF” , always a subject to generate a good discussion.

Had the “Day of the Dead” script signe by Neil Gaiman . Asked him about his position on a collection of non JMS B5 scripts , his reply sounded positive to me.

Sunday morning now – so writing this directly from the con.

This afternoon a programme point not foreseen : A tribute to Arthur C. Clarke – Have to be there.

Sunday:

Essentially no people came to watch “The Lost Tales today , so I went to the Neil Gaiman Guest of Honour performance with the author reading a bit of his work , and questions from the floor. I was slightly surprised by the reply to the question of “free circulation” of his works. He apparently has no personal objection to that as such , since it gives more people the opportunity to read his works . You could see it as free advertising. On the other hand , some of the works, like audio books are not his own property , so he can not just say :”go ahead”.

A hastily panel discussion has been organised in the response to the death of Arthur C. Clarke’s influence in science, space exploration and science fiction. He was one reason for me – and many of the panelists/audience – to get into science fiction, as well as igniting the interest for space travel and science.

I have always had an interest in astronomy, and I could not resist going to a video presentation playing the two editions of BBC and Patrick Moore’s program “The Sky at Night”.
I have always found that he possessed an enthusiasm for the subject, and a very good sense for making the complicated scientific more understandable to the general public.

Of course – lots of talks to other fans – meeting people … very enjoyable.

Eastercon/Orbital2008

Thursday, March 20th, 2008 | Orbital2008, cons, scifi | No Comments

I am off to the Eastercon/Orbital 2008 in London this Easter.

If I get the opportunity , I will write some posts directly at the con.

The only Babylon 5 related guest I know of is Neil Gaiman , who wrote the script for the 5th season B5 episode “Day of the Dead”.

If anyone reading this is coming to the con, my Nickname will be on my badge.

Eastercon/Orbital2008

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 | cons, novel, scifi | No Comments

Recently I registered for the Eastercon/Orbital2008 in London (Heathrow) .

I have been reading Neil Gaiman’s “Stardust”, since he is one of the guestes of honour at the con.
I like the story. For the signing I intend to bring the script book for the Babylon 5 episode “Day of the Dead” that he wrote.

In the pile of books I got just before Christmas I found China Miéville’s “Perdido Street Station”, since he is another guest of honour at the con. I have got through the first couple of chapters, but have not yet been caught up in the story. I have decided to work my way through the first part, and then decide if I want to continue. …. I know – I try not to judge a book by its first chapter , but I am afraid it is not really my type of story. The initial chapters are a little too much Dystopian for me.

My little contribution to the Eurocon

Thursday, October 4th, 2007 | Eurocon, books | 2 Comments

A family member of mine in Denmark is a young writer (my niece). It does not come from strangers, both her parents have books published.

She writes short stories in the SF and Fantasy genre – and as far as I know, she is writing on a fantasy novel. She has had a few short stories published in Denmark – in collections with other writers.

In 2004 and 2005 she won a Danish SF award in the category 17 – 20 years old writers – and in 2006 at the Eurocon in Kiev the Danish delegation made a presentation on her behalf, and she was awarded an Encouragement Award for New Writers. I had to find thet out by looking into the list of award winners, because she never told me. Imagine my surprise at seeing only two Western European names among the long list of Eastern European writers, one of them hers.

At the Eurocon 2007 she was asked to contribute an English language short story for a “Fanzine” short story collection to be released in connection with the Eurocon. Since she does not write very well in English, she asked me to assist with a translation. The story is only 6 – 7 pages long, so I got started. Not as easy as most people would think, since I wanted to translate the sense of the story, not just the words.

So there you have it – my own little contribution to the Eurocon 2007.

The book has the title “Science Fiction – The Danish Fanzine!” (Issue 15/2007)

On another note, I was talking to another participant of the ‘con and, since he had the book, I mentioned the story and he immidiately went to my young niece and asked her to sign the book. He argued that young writers should be encouraged. I should have been quick with the camera (I wasn’t), because this was a first time experience for her.

As an aside, she had another short story in a book released at the ‘con , albeit in Danish. That book is titled “Lige Under Overfladen” (Just Below the Surface) and is a collection of short stories from young European writers (not yet well known, but who knows if and when ?)

Actually I made a second contribution by taking photos at the convention and delivering 2 CDs with all pics taken on the Friday and Saturday of the convention.

A large selection of those have been published here .

Impressions from Eurocon 2007 (5)

Sunday, September 30th, 2007 | Eurocon, books, events | 1 Comment

Sunday : Anne McCaffrey and Zoran Zivkovic readings :

Anne McCaffrey chose to read the short story “The Ship Who Sang” (is the title afaik) , a beautiful and very emotional story that I had not yet heard or read. The story, she told, was written in response to the too early death of a close relative, and she told the audience that this was the first time she could read through the story without breaking down.

For me the surprise of Sunday was the reading of Zoran Zivkovic from Serbia. A BBC recording of his story about a conversation with God (though strictly speaking not quite Science Fiction) was very humorous, and I will try to get some more of his work for reading.

Finally a talk by Lene Kåberbøl, a Danish author of childrens books and fantasy books. What she said about the role of translators of stories struck a cord with me, since I have attempted such a thing myself – and know some of the difficulties of making a good translation – not of the words – but of the essence of the story.