Sincerely Flattered

I was wondering how long it would take for this to happen. My chronicling of each issue of Starlog magazine in my Starlog Project has become the standard resource for people describing issues of that late great science-fiction film/tv/books magazine or looking for which issue included what article. That was my intention.

The latest proof of this status is the listing I stumbled across this morning on eBay's Austrian site, in which someone named "spaceranger2000" listed a copy of Starlog #10 from 1977, and to describe the issue's contents, Herr/Frau/Fraulein (your guess is as good as mine) Spaceranger2000 uses my Starlog Project writeup.

Frankly, I'm rather pleased. I would have preferred attribution, natürlich, but my road to worldwide fame and fortune isn't necessarily a fast highway.

Well, it's not quite imitation; it's really just re-use. But nonetheless I'm flattered.

Read more: The Starlog Project's permanent site, the Starlog Project on my blog, and my similar project with Starlog's short-lived sister magazine Future Life.

Jörg Haider and the Right-Wing Gay Connection

"Jörg Haider war nicht schwul" reads a cover line of Germany's leading gay magazine, Männer (see image, right). In English, that headline means "Jörg Haider was not gay."

If you believe Wikipedia, then it's illegal, following an Austrian court ruling, to call the late nationalist Austrian politician gay or to say he had male lovers. But I'm not Austrian, and I don't always believe Wikipedia, so I don't have to change my opinion.

Today, the English-language online news site Austrian Independent reports that a member of one of Haider's right-wing parties, Vienna Freedom Party official Gerald Ebinger, had used Haider's alleged homosexuality as a selling point when trying to get gay Austrians to support his party. This led to an argument with officials from the party that Haider created after leaving the Freedom Party, but that's too uninteresting to recount here.

My own probably safe guess is that Haider was gay. Rumors of his sexuality apparently followed him for many years, and he famously died after crashing his VW Phaeton following a visit to a local gay bar. I think it's very, very safe to say that xenophobic, ultra-right wing conservative politicians don't visit gay bars to use the restroom or get directions.

I've read articles in gay publications expressing shock, yes shock, that there are gay right-wingers, but it doesn't surprise me, and the sooner people get over it and get real, the better off we'll be. As a friend of mine said back at the University of Wisconsin in the 1980s, just because you're gay doesn't mean you can't hate communism. (A corollary is that just because you hate communism doesn't mean you're a right-winger, but that's another blog post.) And just because you're gay, it doesn't mean you're sensitive, or smart, or nice. It might be nice if it were otherwise, but that's the truth. People are people.

One would think we've seen enough right-wing politicians and political activists come out of the woodwork and come out of the closet to make us realize that one's sexuality doesn't dictate one's politics. I'm gay, but my politics straddle center-Left to center-Right. True, I won't vote for a far-Right candidate, but that's because I was raised in a good family and a fine church, not just because I love my partner. I've never been tempted to become a Log Cabin Republican, because I think the Republicans have turned their backs on any real semblance of moderation. Or science and rationality, for that matter. But I have known Log Cabin Republicans, and I respect them, if not their faith in their party.

But David Brock. Larry "I'm still not gay" Craig. J. Edgar Hoover. Edward L. Schrock. Hell, go back to Ernst Rohm, who was done in by a little wacko named Adolf Hitler. this is no longer something that should surprise people. Ideas and political philosophies matter. Sexuality shouldn't.

I'll leave you with the image to the left. Simply because I like it. And it in no way makes me right-wing.

A Daniel Kehlmann Primer (Measuring the World, Ruhm, usw.)

I discovered German/Austrian writer Daniel Kehlmann's books in an interview with him in a German magazine a few years ago. He sounded intelligent, and he was getting a lot of praise. Luckily for me, his book Die Vermessung der Welt had just been translated into English and published as Measuring the World. I read it immediately, and I found the praise for him was justified.

If you don't know the book yet, I strongly recommend it. When I tell people it concerns two towering figures of the Enlightenment – Carl Friedrich Gauss and Alexander von Humboldt – who embark on a global quest to literally measure the world, I realize it sounds either fanciful or dull. Two scientists measuring distances and quantifying the planet? But it's a beautifully, and cleanly, written book that is funny, smart, and never dull.

The only other book so far released in English by the 35-year-old Kehlmann is Me and Kaminski, which is even funnier. It concerns an unbelievably conceited journalist trying to interview a quirky artist. Again, that brief description does this short novel a great disservice.

Basically, if you have a brain and want to read a first-rate talent (not to mention if you want to read someone who's not just regurgitating the same themes and self-absorption of young American novelists), then I suggest you give Kehlmann's books a try.

I am currently reading the German edition of his still-untranslated first novel, Beerholm's Vorstellung. But I am eagerly awaiting the release of the third translated book this September, Fame (original title, Ruhm). In this video below, Kehlmann talks about Ruhm (sorry, it's in German).



What? You don't read or speak German? Sigh. Well, here's a video that looks like it's a commercial for the translated edition of Kehlmann's recent blockbuster Vermessing Der Welt. The video has text in Chinese (I think). You've simply got to know either German or Chinese to get along in this world. You knew that, right?


It is no surprise to me that his books are being translated around the world. His works are huge bestsellers in Germany, and I hope they enjoy similar success elsewhere. First, because he is such a good writer. Second, because he deals with issues that are of critical importance; he actually makes the Western Enlightenment something that people can see and experience. Perhaps that's possible because he was a philosophy and literature student; but having that knowledge means nothing if you can't make the words say what you want, the way you want.

Der Orchideengarten: First Fantasy Magazine?

Thanks to blogger I09 for a look at the first fantasy magazine. This magazine, started in 1919, demonstrates the incredible creativity and talent of the magazine, and it shows that science fiction and fantasy are not something owned by Americans.

The artwork is at once very identifiably inter-war central European, and at the same time it could be created by a 22-year-old New York or San Francisco cartoonist today. Great stuff. I'd love to get my hands on a copy.

For more great covers of Der Orchideengarten, see IO9's blog.

Sing-Along Sound of Music

Last night, I went with some friends to see the "Sing-Along Sound of Music" at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco.
It's an Austrian-esque Rocky Horror Picture Show experience, with audience members dressed up as various characters from the 1965 Robert Wise film, starring the great Julie Andrews. There was even a bag of goodies for each attendee, including an invitation to the baroness' ball that audience members waved at the appropriate time and a popper toy that was to be set off during the first kiss between the captain and Maria.
The show was raucous fun, though a bit headache-inducing (the sound had to be very loud, or the movie would have been inaudible over the audience shouts). But what I enjoyed most of all -- was the film. I've seen the film numerous times before, of course, but I was able to appreciate it as a very well-constructed story with some great characters, incredible scenery, and some very deft writing touches.
The Castro announced that in 2009, they'll be launching some new sing-along movie experiences, including (the clear audience favorite) Mamma Mia.
(Photo above shows the organist playing Sound of Music tunes before the start of the show, a welcome reminder of my days at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago.)