New York I: Singularity.

Captain America:  "You got heart, kid. Where are you from?"
Spider-Man:  "Queens."
Captain America:  "Brooklyn!"

Captain American: Civil War

On Monday morning, Karli and I are leaving for a nine day vacation in New York - I haven't been to the city that never sleeps just as a tourist for about 30 years, and Karli has never been, so we're both really looking forward to the trip.

At the start of the planning process, Karli decided that she wanted to get more of a physical understanding of where things were in relation to each other, so I printed out a large map of south Manhattan, which she put on a cork board and proceeded to annotate with push pins indicating sightseeing destinations, dining locations, and shopping opportunities. We've since transferred the results to an iOS app* for the trip, but Karli's push pin planning process was the perfect starting point - it gave us a feel for locations and combined opportunities that we would never have gotten from an LCD screen.

If you look at the resulting map, there's a lonely unlabelled black pin in Brooklyn, just at the end of the Manhattan Bridge in the fashionable DUMBO** neighbourhood.  It's not so much a destination as a memorial: that pin marks the location of Singularity and Co., a Kickstarter™-funded science fiction bookstore that opened its doors in 2012 - and closed them at some point in the last year or so, as far as I can tell. Their Facebook™ page confidently says that they're open right now, but Yelp reports them as permanently closed (as do some Facebook™ comments), and their online shop has gone dark.

 

It always makes me sad when I see that a bookstore has gone under, especially a science fiction bookstore. I realize that the future will be digital, which makes Singularity and Co.'s original Kickstarter™ mandate of converting lost texts a commendable one, but like a fan of vinyl albums, I can't let go of my attachment to the physical media - and physical bookstores. The majority of my book shopping is for older books - for me, the yellow-paged paperbacks from the 50s and 60s, with their classic covers and their lurid teasers*** represent science fiction and fantasy as I first discovered it, and because of that I treasure the older books in my collection.

Our final planning list has a pretty good selection of New York bookstores that will undoubtedly provide me with a wide selection of genre shopping , but I'm disappointed that Singularity and Co. isn't one of them. However, I haven't completely given up hope. I'm hoping that, as with Mark Twain, the reports of their death are greatly exaggerated. We'll probably be crossing the Brooklyn Bridge regardless, and once there, it's only a short detour to just check on that DUMBO storefront location - as they say, hope springs eternal, and that pin is still in the map.

- Sid

* An unpaid product endorsement: if you're going to New York and want to plan your trip in a format that you can access offline, I strongly recommend the New York Travel Guide and Offline City Map app from Ulmon. It's done everything we wanted and needed for planning our trip, and it was free.

** Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass - no, really.

*** I could probably do a blog posting just on classic science fiction and fantasy teaser lines and their complete reliance on exclamation points:
"Trapped in the graveyard of lost spaceships!"
"Duel of the Cosmic Magicians!"
"The Galaxy Master - planets and women were his pawns!"
"Cosmic peril in a lost world!"

Star Trek III: "Tiberius, you kidding me? That's the worst!"

I'd like to take a moment and recognize Chris Pine for apparently still being able to enjoy a full and rewarding career as an actor after having successfully played the iconic role of Captain Jame T. Kirk in not one, not two, but three Star Trek reboot films.

Bravo, sir, bravo - and good luck.  My advice is to stay away from Star Trek cruises and invitations to shopping mall openings for as long as your bank account lets you.  (But don't be distant or critical, the fans hate that.)

- Sid

Star Trek II: "Engage!"

 

I was very clear about what to expect. Star Trek: The Next Generation was going to be an utter failure and I would be on my way back to England within a few months. I could make some money for the first time in my life, get a suntan and go home.

- Patrick Stewart

Today, without any real fanfare, Star Trek: The Next Generation celebrated its 30th birthday. 

As I've discussed in other blog postings, ST:TNG is my favourite part of the Star Trek franchise - not always perfect, almost nothing is, but with an excellent record of thought-provoking and watchable stories over the course of its seven year run on television, and its four movies.

The Next Generation was my Star Trek:  I'd seen all the episodes of the original series, but by 1987 they were as much a part of history as World War II, and as such had become one of the pillars of science fiction fandom.  Because of that position, you didn't really have a choice about liking those episodes - it was all we had to hold up against The Six Million Dollar Man and Buck Rogers.

The Next Generation offered a return to the kind of thoughtful science fiction that was Star Trek at its best, at a time when the franchise was experiencing serious fatigue issues. The show's creators were faced with a unique challenge:  to take an existing concept of the future, and imagine what its future might be, while remaining faithful to the foundations of the original series - in other words, to boldly go where Gene Roddenberry* had already gone in 1966, but better.

The result was a surprising success that clearly demonstrated the durability of the original premise, revived the franchise, gave us a believable future for the Federation, and permanently added the phrase "the next generation" ** to the list of cultural clichés.

Oddly enough, in spite of my affection for ST:TNG, it's been a very long time since I've actually watched any of the episodes. As far as I know, The Next Generation is on Netflix™ - maybe it's time to revisit the series and the entertaining selection of dated 80s hairdos offered by the different cast members.  (With the exception of Jean-Luc Picard, of course - being bald is always fashionable.)

- Sid

* Different sources offer very different views of the benefits and drawbacks of Gene Roddenberry's influence on the first two or three seasons of The Next Generation before his death in 1991. However, it may not be a coincidence that, in my opinion, it wasn't until the third season that the show really found itself.

** Not to mention "Make it so, number one.", "Engage!" and "Shut up, Wesley!".

Star Trek I: "Starfleet doesn't fire first!"

When Emotion brings us ghosts from the past, only Logic can root us in the present.

Sarek of Vulcan, Star Trek: Discovery

If there is one element that ties together the different incarnations of Star Trek, it is victory against all odds - albeit sometimes won with a stern price, but victory nonetheless. Discovery, the latest addition to the Star Trek universe, begins its story with something very rare in that universe:  failure.

Discovery, set about ten years before the original series*, introduces us to Lieutenant Commander Michael Burnham of the USS Shenzhou, impressively and aggressively played by Walking Dead alumni Sonequa Martin-Green.  While on a repair mission to a subspace communications relay, the Shenzhou encounters a Klingon incursion at the edge of Federation space.  Burnham, adopted and raised by Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan after the death of her parents in a Klingon raid, attempts to persuade the Shenzhou's captain to follow Vulcan protocol and preemptively fire on the Klingons:  the "Vulcan Hello" of the first episode's title.

Captain Georgiou refuses to compromise the principles of the Federation by attacking without provocation, which leads Burnham to commit an act of mutiny in hopes of saving her ship, her crew, and her captain.  She fails, then tragically fails again in an attempt to pull victory from defeat.  The ultimate result of her actions is the near-destruction of the ship, the decimation of the crew, the death of the captain, and war with the newly united Klingon empire.

My apologies for the spoiler, but I'm disappointed beyond words that Captain Philippa Georgiou, Michelle Yeoh's character, did not survive her debut.  My past experience with Star Trek is that it takes at least a season (if not more) for things to sort themselves out in terms of what works for the characters, but Yeoh's nuanced performance as Captain Georgiou was an understated work of art: intelligent, clever, funny, commanding and direct, but emotional and even vulnerable.  We can always hope to see her again in flashbacks, but that would be a sad substitute for watching the ongoing growth and development of the character.

However, her death and the death of most of her crew sets up an unexpected situation for the premiere of a new series.  At the end of the episode, Burnham pleads guilty in front of a Starfleet court of inquiry, and is stripped of her rank and imprisoned.  In her final words to the court, she poignantly describes her situation:

From my youth on Vulcan, I was raised to believe that service was my purpose. And I carried that conviction to Starfleet. I dreamed of a day when I would command my own vessel and further the noble objectives of this great institution. My dream is over. The only ship I know in ruins. My crew... gone. My captain, my friend. I wanted to protect them from war, from the enemy. And we are at war and I am the enemy.

This also summarizes the state of the series: almost all the characters that were introduced are dead and the protagonist is in prison. Where do we go from here? Presumably the story will be one of redemption, and I'm aware that Jason Isaacs has yet to make an appearance as in his role as Captain Lorca, but he's going to need a really good reason to drag a disgraced Starfleet officer out of her cell and make her part of his crew - what will that reason be?

I guess we'll just have to wait and see - it's going to be a process of, well, discovery.

- Sid

* I'm curious to see if there's going to be some specific reason that they decided to set this in Star Trek's "past" (for want of a better way to describe it). Three changes to the script and they could have moved the whole concept fifty years into The Next Generation's future, and then there wouldn't be all those comments about how advanced the bridge of the Shenzhou looks compared to Captain Kirk's, not to mention the revelation of Spock's human sister and the complete lack of velour turtlenecks, pointy sideburns and short pants on the crew.

I think I'll pass, thank you.

Yeah, funny thing...we never actually saw anyone get off this ride at the PNE...

- Sid

"And the weatherman says something’s on the move…."

The climate is what you expect; the weather is what you get.

Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

Texas is currently dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, which made its landfall late on Friday with winds of 130 miles an hour and torrential rains. So far eight fatalities have been reported, and the region has been devastated by the combination of wind, rain and flooding.*

This kind of catastrophe seems to be the new normal of climate and weather in the new millennium, and it may well be that as time goes on, unchecked global climate change will continue to worsen the situation.  Hurricanes could become stronger, and the gaps between them shorter, until ultimately an constant stormfront gnawed sullenly at the Eastern coast of the United States.

What option would the future United States have when faced with an opponent of this magnitude? 

Retreat.

In that future, the United States finally abandons the East Coast, moving everything and everyone 100 miles inland.  However, the US economy depends on a ceaseless flow of seaborne cargo, so the waterfront must remain open.  The result:  Festung America - its ports bunkered emplacements of concrete and steel, like a Maginot line around a beleaguered country. And, like the Maginot Line, ultimately a futile gesture, outflanked as tornadoes brutally march across the American Midwest, and temperatures in California continue to climb above this year's record high of 125° F.

Remember when this sort of thing was more like science fiction?

- Sid

P.S. For some excellent reading in which weather conditions are part of the plot rather than the background to the story, I strongly recommend that you pick up Heavy Weather, by Bruce Sterling, and The Water Knife, by Paolo Bacigalupi.

* It's getting harder and harder to say anything that doesn't sound trite in terms of support and sympathy, there have been so many disasters in the past few years that it feels like everything has been said. I guess the simplest things are still the most true: good luck.  You are all in everyone's thoughts.

"Once upon a time there was light in my life..."

 

10:17 PDT - total eclipse starts.

2:47 EDT - total eclipse ends.

World did not come to an end - check.

Trump still president - check.

Oh well, you win some, you lose some....

- Sid

"Not that it's a B-52 in outer space."

"We spent weeks and weeks building it up, encrusting the set with pipes and wires and switches and tubing and just about anything we could lay our hands on.  Then we painted it military green and began stenciling labels on everything. Ridley came back from the States and said, 'That's it, you've got it,' and then told us to keep going."

Alien Art Director Roger Christian, The Book of Alien

My workplace has recently retired the two simulators that we were using for crane training. (If you're curious, we replaced them with actual cranes - it's actually more cost effective to buy a crane solely for the purposes of training rather than disrupting the regular flow of work by having trainees operate production equipment.)

The simulators have been torn down, and our facilities manager has invited bids from anyone in the company who want the elements of the unit for their own use.

I took a look at the bits and pieces that are up for grabs, and my first thought was that if I bought everything in the room, I would have a damn good start on turning our apartment into something very much like the bridge of the Nostromo, the spaceship from the original 1979 Alien film.

Swiss artist H. R. Giger's unique designs for the alien spaceship and the titular xenomorph tend to receive most of the attention when Alien is discussed, but it's impossible to ignore the strength of the design and art direction for the ship which is the backdrop for the action.

The initial designs were created by two of Britain's premier conceptual artists, Ron Cobb and Chris Foss, with the final look of the ship's interior based primarily on Cobb's artwork.  Cobb describes himself as "a frustrated engineer" and as such his designs are solidly based in practical reality. Cobb's design philosophy is aimed at enhancing the story rather than conflicting with it:

I resent films that are so shallow they rely entirely on their visual effects, and of course science fiction films are notorious for this.  I've always felt that there's another way to do it:  a lot of effort should be expended toward rendering the environment of the spaceship, or space travel, whatever the fantastic setting of your story should be - as convincingly as possible, but always in the background.  That way the story and the characters emerge and they become more real. If you were to set a story on an ocean liner, there would be bits of footage to explain what the ship was like docked or at sea, but it would remain at the background of the story.  It should be the same with science fiction.

The concepts were combined and refined by art director Roger Christian to create the final look that gives the movie its gritty, realistic feel.

 

"Ridley showed us Dr. Strangelove, and he kept saying, "That's what I want.  Do you see?  Not that it's a B-52 in outer space, but it's the military look.' You can't really draw it...but I knew what he was saying because I had done it in Star Wars, so I said...'Let's have a go at it.' "

In order to make the set as believable as possible, every control on the bridge had a practical function, so that if an actor hit a swich, it would have an effect - a light would go on or off, a view would change, and so on.  The set was deliberately built to have a ceiling low enough to be visible, which combined with the fighter-bomber influenced overhead consoles to give the bridge a tight, claustrophic feel.

I can easily see how our apartment hallway would change into one of the ship's corridors, the second bedroom could be the escape craft set, and the living room would be the perfect site for the bridge of the Nostromo.  Heck, there's even a cat to fill in for Jones, the ship's feline mascot, although Jaq is a bit more solidly built than his movie alter ego.  Now all I have to do is convince Karli that this is something that we want to do to our home.  Gosh, that seems easy enough...

- Sid

"So put me on! Don’t be afraid!"

There’s nothing hidden in your head

The Sorting Hat can’t see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Today at lunch I went to the bank to get some cash for an upcoming getaway to the Okanagan Valley with my partner Karli and her squad.  I work near Vancouver's Downtown East Side, and in order to get to the nearest branch of the CIBC, I have to pass Main and Hastings - possibly Canada's most notorious crossroads - walking past addicts and beggars, people selling drugs or selling their bodies, and people who have lost their grip on reality due to mental illness of some sort.

Every time I walk past that particular intersection, I wish that I were Harry Potter, armed with the Sorting Hat and a magic wand.  Everyone in the DTES would line up, and the Sorting Hat would look into their minds to discover the real reason for them being where they are.

"A regular person, a little bit stuck

All out of money and down on their luck." 

A tap of the magic wand, and they've got an entry level job and a decent place to live.

"Addiction to drugs is a terrible curse

That takes the afflicted from bad into worse."

Tap of the wand, and poof, rehabilitation - then a job and a home, just like first group.

"Mentally ill and right out of your head

Lost in the dark when off of your meds."

Magic wand:  proper medical care and a safe haven for those poor souls who wander the DTES screaming at a world that they can't understand.

"Criminal, villainous, evil and cruel

Refusing to follow the civilized rules."

Unfortunately, there may well be people who should not pass GO or collect $200, but rather should go directly to jail. Some of this last group needs rehabilitation and redemption as much as addicts or the mentally ill, or may just need a job and a new start, but the hat will tell us exactly what is in everyone's heart - if you're just a bad person, you pay the consequences.

And then, when everyone had put on the hat and been tapped by the wand, Hastings and Main would just be another address.  How sad that it would probably take magic to make that a reality.

- Sid

Fallout 4: Not to mention Kevin Costner.

I've found four or five people equipped like this in Fallout 4 - hopefully SF author David Brin was amused by the post-apocalyptic nod from Bethesda.  (The bad news is that they were all corpses, which may be the most probable result of running around after the end of the world trying to scam people by pretending to be a postman.)

- Sid