Dear Rafael Mandelman: I'll Consider Voting for You When ...

On my way into San Francisco's Glen Park BART station (that's one of our subway lines, for those of you out-of-towners), I snapped this photo of one of the trash bins at the station. On the other side of the entrance, the same sign was on another trash bin. Around the entrance were several supporters of this candidate, Rafael Mandelman, who is running to become our supervisor (the equivalent of an alderman, and with all the weirdness that entails in most city councils).

I know that following the law seems to be considered an optional pursuit in San Francisco by many people, but am I really being too stuck up to be annoyed that a candidate plasters his material on public property? Or did BART (or the city – whoever owns the trash bins) approve of this use? If so, it's a form of endorsement of the candidate, and it's wrong. If BART or the city did not approve of it, then it's abuse of public property, and it's wrong.

Considering all of the troubles we have with people who get into public office (at all levels, in all locations, from all parties and ideologies) and forget about the line between their personal aggrandizement and the public good, we should hold people to decent standards when they're running for local office. So, Mr. Mandelman, you might be a perfectly fine candidate in many ways, but I'll consider voting for you when you display proper respect for the people you intend to serve. Get your signs off my – our – public property.

Harumph.

The Starlog Project: Starlog #161, December 1990: To Catch a Predator 2

The first Predator movie kind of came out of nowhere to become a cult hit. But the media was prepared for the sequel, and it got more attention than its predecessor. Thus, a Predator cover on Starlog.

Also note that this issue Starlog’s cover price jumps 55 cents, from $3.95 to $4.50. I know, inflation blah blah blah. But still, the magazine has been at a standard 76 pages (excluding special extra-page issues) since #94 back in May 1985 – 68 issues ago. The paper quality is much better than it was five years earlier, but it’s the same total number of pages, the same amount of color pages in the overall package, and it costs $4.50 instead of the $2.95 that #94 cost.

But don’t complain too much. Within half-a-year or so, the magazine will finally upgrade its page count and color situation, resuming its march to ever-more of both.

Starlog #161
76 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $4.50

Photo caption of the month: “Pete Martell stands out as the most normal Twin Peaks resident – just don’t let him near a percolator.”

The rundown: A powerful-looking Predator star is on the cover, while Valkenvania’s Demi Moore is featured on the contents page. Reader letters in Communications include praise for the Michael Ironside interview in #155, give decidedly mixed reactions to Total Recall, and attempt to be as weird as the Philip K. Dick interview it's referencing; and David McDonnell’s Medialog announces a sequel to be called Bill & Ted Go to Hell, plus other genre news.

Marc Shapiro previews the Dan Akroyd-John Candy-Demi Moore fantasy film Valkenvania (about which Akroyd says, “I don’t know why Starlog would want to cover this movie. It’s definitely not science fiction.” Fine. I said it was fantasy.); new video releases (Jetsons: The Movie, Total Recall, Back to the Future Part III, etc.) are announced in David Hutchison’s Videolog column; Robert Pegg profiles actor Jack Nance, veteran of David Lynch productions such as Eraserhead and Twin Peaks; Robert Greenberger interviews actress Suzie Plakson, who portrayed the Klingon K’Ehleyr in Star Trek: The Next Generation; in the second part of his talk with writer George R.R. Martin, Edward Gross explores how the series dealt with star Linda Hamilton’s decision to dial down her involvement with Beauty & the Beast; Michael Vance and Bradley H. Sinor talk with veteran science-fiction author Hal Clement; and Dan Yakir checks in with writer Bruce Joel Rubin to talk about his new movie Jacob’s Ladder (and he also discusses Ghost and Brainstorm).

The Fan Network pages include Lia Pelosi’s fan club directory, convention calendar, and some very short news bits on SF music parodies and a non-fiction book by Edward Gross exploring aspects of Beauty & the Beast; in the cover story, Marc Shapiro unveils this season’s Predator (and includes this comment by writer Jim Thomas: “I think Predator vs. Alien is a good idea that will probably never happen. ... My personal favorite would be to have the Predator beat the crap out of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”), with a sidebar chat with director Stephen Hopkins; Shapiro also explores TSR’s first move into the comics publishing business, with a new Buck Rogers title; actor Liam Neeson tells Kyle Counts about his role as the star of Darkman; Tom Weaver interviews actress Jane Wyatt, the veteran who portrayed Spock’s mother (and whom I always mix up with Jane Wyman, Ronald Reagan’s first wife); a two-page Tribute section includes Kim Howard Johnson’s remembrance of actor Jack Gilford and Python Graham Chapman, and Tim Ferrante provides actor Jock Mahoney’s obituary; Jean Airey and Laurie Haldeman, who chronicled everything Blake’s 7-ish a while back, return with a complete episode guide to the Robin of Sherwood TV series; Kerry O’Quinn gets all misty about Niagara Falls in his From the Bridge column; and David McDonnell’s Liner Notes column announces Mike Fisher’s new computer-drawn “Creature Profile” comic panel that will appear in the magazine for a number of years.

“There’s a moment when the cameras are rolling and before the director has called ‘action’ that you’re waiting. You’re not yet committed to the scene and you’re waiting for the cue and you’re in a very vulnerable kind of moment. It’s an intense pressure and concentration. And David [Lynch] will use that moment and start talking to you and give you verbal cues to the scene like ‘wrapped in plastic’ and you’ll be reacting to what he’s saying and do it on the spot. He has caught you, caught you unawares. It’s really neat and it’s really personal, a kind of intimate thing.”

–Jack Nance, actor, interviewed by Robert Pegg: “Deceptive Appearances”

To see more issues, click on Starlog Internet Archive Project below or visit The Starlog Project’s permanent home.

A Whole Month to Go yet Before Daniel Kehlmann's Fame Is Published

Sigh. The English translation won't be published until mid-September.

See, this is why everyone should live in Europe, so we can get the original edition when it first. comes out.

Above: As Amazon says.

And as Barnes & Noble says

Lost Sandstorm Scene from Return of the Jedi

It's not video, but it's recreated from stills of a lost scene from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. It involves a sandstorm that takes place after Luke rescues Han and his friends from Jabba the Hutt.

Watch the video below; then check out some background.

The Starlog Project: Starlog #160, November 1990: The Flash – in a Pan

Audiences weren’t exactly enamored of the previous Flash – the Dino De Laurentiis Flash Gordon film from 1980. But 10 years later, in 1990, CBS TV aired a different comics-based hero, The Flash, as a regular series. It starred John Wesley Shipp, and noteworthy guest stars include Mark Hamill. The Flash only lasted one, 22-episode season, and in that respect it resembled various failed attempts to bring science-fiction or comics projects to the small screen in the 1970s. I’m no Flash expert or fan, but from what I gathered from listening to other folks who were Flash-ers, this series was fairly well received and appreciated by comics fans (unlike many of the cheapo 1970s productions alluded to above), if not the network.

So, short-lived but well-loved.

Meanwhile this month, in other Starlog-ish news, Lia Pelosia is now listed as a consultant, along with former publisher Kerry O’Quinn, in the staff box. Also, the company ceased publication of its Bob Martin-spawned real/reel horror magazine Toxic Horror, and one of its other horror film magazines, Gorezone, has switched from bimonthly (six times a year) to quarterly (four times annually) publication. Starlog, Fangoria, and Comics Scene are all chugging along healthily, however. And, after a couple years’ interregnum, the Starlog Festival SF conventions return, with a January 12-13, 1991 event in Anaheim, California, with appearances from Patrick Stewart (Whoopi Goldberg’s boy toy, as you’ll see), Bill Mumy, Denise Crosby, Joe Barbera, and others.

Starlog #160
76 pages (including cover)
Cover price: $3.95

Classified ad of the month: “STAR WARS Can get ya it got me good. I got over stocked with original Star Wars style A posters & Anakins U.S. $80 each ...” Oh, if only people’d pay the extra 30 cents to have correct punctuation in their ads.

The rundown: That’s John Wesley Shipp as The Flash on the cover; Kim Hunter in full Planet of the Apes get-up is on the contents page; Communications letters are overwhelmingly devoted to commenting on various Star Trek topics (such as how to defeat the Borg), with the remainder a grab bag of Land of the Giants, James Coburn, Airwolf, and Quantum Leap commenters; and David McDonnell’s Medialog includes the truly scary news that the people who brought to TV the mind-numbingly boring and annoying series thirtysomething are planning a Robin Hood movie, which (thankfully) never materialized. (For you readers too young and blessed not to have lived through an episode of thirtysomething, just know that it was the show that confirmed in the rest of the population the conviction that Baby Boomers were self-absorbed and whiny. That show, the network suits saw fit to run for four seasons. The Flash could have livened up those characters.)

“Patrick Stewart doesn’t have much hair, but, boy, is that man sexy!” – or so says Whoopi Goldberg in her interview with Marc Shapiro, in which she discusses her recurring guest star role on Star Trek: The Next Generation and her role in Ghost; David Hutchison’s Videolog column notes the release of some Woody Wookpecker cartoons, plus other genre releases; Steve Swires interviews Edward Judd, star of The Day the Earth Caught Fire and First Men in the Moon; Tom Waver and Michael Brunas do a Q&A with actress Kim Hunter about her days as an ape on the Planet of the Apes movies; Marc Shapiro talks with Alien Nation star Eric Pierpoint, who portrays detective George Francisco in that series; Shapiro also has a short talk with actress Lauren Woodlan, who portrays alien kid Emily Francisco on Alien Nation; and Frank Garcia profiles actor Brian Tochi, who guest starred in the original Star Trek episode “And the Children Shall Lead” and also appeared in Space Academy, The Twilight Zone, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Marc Shapiro keeps giving us more this issue: he explores the new superhero TV series The Flash; the Fan Network section includes a directory of fan clubs and the convention calendar; Bill Warren previews Eve of Destruction, which stars Renee Soutendijk and Gregory Hines; in the first of a multi-part article, Edward Gross talks with veteran writer George R.R. Martin about TV’s Beauty & the Beast, about which Martin comments, “To the extent that if your ratings are strong, you earn yourself the freedom to do whatever you want. When your ratings begin to sink, and I experienced this on Twilight Zone too, suddenly you’ve got a lot of ‘help’ from the network and the studio. And it’s not necessarily the help you want. On Twilight Zone, things got so bad at the end that we had two network representatives sitting in on our story meetings. We never got that bad on Beauty & the Beast, but yes, we did go with more action in the middle of the second season and definitely in the third.”; in “Lord of Disaster,” Lowell Goldman talks with director John Guillermin about The Towering Inferno, King Kong, Sheena, and more; in part two of Mark Phillips’ talk with the writers of The Land of the Giants, future Dynasty creator Richard Shapiro notes about his involvement with Giants: “My writing career was not exactly soaring when I got my first script assignment for Giants. I needed the credit, I needed the money and frankly, I would have worked for anybody who offered to hire me.”; Kerry O’Quinn’s From the Bridge column explores his enchantment by total solar eclipses; and ye kindly editor, David McDonnell uses his Liner Notes column to – perhaps oddly, perhaps uniquely – suggest other magazines of interest (from other companies) to which Starlog readers should subscribe.

“Ah! That was great! Jonathan [Harris] and I remained friends years after the show [Space Academy]. Jonathan always had a story to tell. I would just sit with him and marvel at the stories about stage from way back and he would have them all. I remember every morning, he would bring a whole box of Tootsie Pops! He was terrific, so much fun, so clever, so witty, so much arrogance. He was testy. The first time I met him was at a doctor’s office – we were having our medical checkups for insurance purposes. In there were Pamela [Ferdin] and Jonathan Harris! I went up to him and said, ‘How do you do, I’m Brian Tochi, what’s your name?’ And he looks at me! ‘You do not know me, really?’“

–Brian Tochi, actor, interviewed by Frank Garcia: “Star Child”

To see more issues, click on Starlog Internet Archive Project below or visit The Starlog Project’s permanent home.

Eat, Pray, Love Author Elizabeth Gilbert to Lobby for LGBT Immigration Equality

When I lived in Chicago and tried explaining to friends the immigration difficulties gay couples had when one of them was foreign-born, more than one of them asked if my partner and I couldn't just get married or become registered domestic partners and that'd take care of it, right? Forget the fact that at that time – the late 1990s – there was not legal gay marriage anywhere in the United States. Even today, state-approved marriages mean nothing in federal law; in fact, I've heard of gay couples that list themselves as married on federal paperwork (customs forms, taxes, etc.) getting into big legal trouble because they're not considered to be married in the eyes of the theocracy – I mean, the federal government.

Don't judge my friends harshly for not knowing that; unless you're caught in that horrific space of worrying about having to move to another country or being separated from the one you love, you don't think about such things. And when you do have to deal with it, be prepared for a long fight. Get a really good lawyer. And kiss off any idea of being able to afford a home anytime soon.

So here's the scoop: A straight person can sponsor her foreign-born boyfriend for U.S. immigration purposes. The immigration authorities are known to be difficult even in those situations, because they have to deal with a lot of people who lie about being a couple just to get into the United States. But it is possible, doable, and legal.

Hell, here's a worse scoop: An American man can buy a wife from another country, and that passes muster with our federal government. They don't have to have children. They don't have to stay together for the rest of their lives. They don't even have to love each other. But a man who's been together with his boyfriend for years and who wants to be together with him for the rest of their lives is unable to sponsor his partner. Their relationship means nothing to the government.

So it's great to see that Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert is reportedly going to Washington, D.C., to join the fight to end discrimination against gay and lesbian couples in U.S. immigration policy. She is doing so in support of a piece of legislation called the Uniting American Families Act, the sort of law that would make the Fox News crowd choke on their own bile, but which makes sensible people choke up with emotion because they know that real love and commitment is at stake.

Reports on Gilbert's actions include the note that she knows what she's speaking of, because her foreign-born partner was unable to stay in the United States. By "partner" they mean her Brazilian boyfriend. You have seen the movie, no?

If you're interested in learning more about immigration equality for all citizens, here are some resources:

• Immigration Equality 
• Love Sees No Borders 
• National Center for Lesbian Rights 
• Out 4 Immigration 

The Starlog Project: Starlog #159, October 1990: Captain Picard’s a Borg!

This autumnal 100-page special issue of Starlog is a nice time capsule of what was going on in the science fiction and fantasy worlds around October 1990. Star Trek: The Next Generation’s third season had presented some of its best work (such as “Yesterday’s Enterprise” and “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I”), and season four would continue the show’s maturation from its somewhat PC first year. A new generation of science fiction writers were making their names, including William Gibson (interviewed in Starlog #145), Terry Pratchett (interviewed in #157), and Orson Scott Card (interviewed this issue).

What was happening outside of the SF world at that time? After all, if there’s supposed to be some connection between the themes of science fiction and the real world, then there should be something of interest.

Let’s see. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev got his legislature to pass laws laying the foundation for a market economy. France and England are connected by the Channel Tunnel. East Germany and West Germany are reunited after 45 years. President Bush was readying Operation Desert Storm to counter Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in August. Akihito becomes the 125th emperor of Japan. And, perhaps most important, the Internet Movie Database is launched, ending world conflict (well, as long as that conflict revolved around trying to figure out how many Police Academy movies featured that guy who can make weird sounds with his voice). Hey, it apparently brought a East and West Germany together.

Hmm, the real and the science-fiction worlds seem to be out of sync. In the real world, nations are moving together, settling old fights, and uniting (with the exception of Iraq, though even that brought together a million nations in George Bush’s coalition to invade Iraq). But in the science-fiction world, the peaceful if bland federation is threatened by the evil Borg, and Arnold Schwarzenegger is threatened by memory control.

Or wait, maybe it’s all right after all. SF is supposed to predict the future, right, not necessarily reflect the present. So this issue of Starlog has an interview with Orson Scott Card, who presages the rise to power of anti-science conservatives who reject climate science and impose religious views on matters of individual freedom. (But hey, I’ll give him this: He’s a very good writer.)

If only we’d known ...

Starlog #159
100 pages (including cover)
Cover price: $4.95

A photo caption to make you think: “Sikes (Graham) comes to terms with his feminine side as he must help deliver George’s (Pierpoint) child.”

The rundown: Patrick Stewart hasn’t been made into a knight yet by the queen of England, but he has been made into a Borg by the Borg queen, as he models the latest in cyborg headgear on this month’s cover; meanwhile, Peter Pan gets the contents page featured photo slot. Letters to the editor in the Communications pages all explore the Back to the Future III film or respond to Bruce Gordon’s exploration of that film (and, I have to admit, some of the hypotheses they suggest are quite interesting – Starlog readers really pay attention when they see movies); in Medialog, Marc Shapiro shares Bill Cosby’s comments about his planned remake of H.G. Wells' The Man Who Could Work Miracles, and David McDonnell provides a roundup of genre news, such as reading the tea leaves indicating that a Star Trek VI will be made (because Paramount’s been shopping around merchandising opportunities to potential partners – and I’d be willing to bet $2 that one of those potential partners was licensed movie magazine publisher Starlog); the Fan Network pages include a two-page article by Bill G. Wilson about modelmaker Mark Bradley refurbishing the original Battlestar Galactica model, a Star Trek novels contest, a very brief list of Beauty & the Beast fan clubs, and a convention calendar; and David Hutchisons’ Videolog column announces the release of Peter Pan on video, pllus other news.

T. L. Johns interviews legendary SF author Fritz Leiber; Bradley H. Sinor talks with Russell Bates about the animated Star Trek; Marylois Dunn profiles author (and self-proclaimed “very mean little old lady”) Ardath Mayhar; Jim George talks with director Nicolas Roeg about his fantasy The Witches, and he also gets Roeg to comment on his David Bowie SF film The Man Who Fell to Earth and its leading man, with whom he seems to retain a cordial if distant friendship; Star Trek: The Next Generation writer/producer Michael Piller tells Edward Gross about recent episodes; Will Murray interviews Total Recall screenwriter Ron Shusett about the film, including the abortive David Cronenberg-Richard Dreyfuss version; Edward Gross gets the inside scoop on the late Alien Nation TV series from that show’s writers; in part one of a multi-part article, Mark Phillips talks to the writers of the 1960s TV series Land of the Giants; and Mike Clark interviews Shimon Wincelberg, writer for Lost in Space (and he tells us that Carroll O’Connor – who eventually starred in All in the Family – was considered to star in Lost in Space, but the actor turned it down), Time Tunnel, and more.

It's a very writers-heavy issue. W. Bradford Swift interviews Ender’s Game author Orson Scott Card, who mostly gives a standard overview of his books and writing, but who also has some typically thought-provoking comments; Kerry O’Quinn’s From the Bridge column issues a call for ideas from readers; Bradley H. Sinor talks with another novelist, Walter Jon Williams (author of Angel Station, The Crown Jewels, and more); Wanda J. Hall checks in with Star Trek novel writers Diane Carey and Greg Brodeur; in a three-page Tribute section, Adam Pirani says good-bye in obituaries for the great Jim Henson and actor David Rappaport, Tom Weaver notes the passing of actress Susan Oliver, and Eric Niderost remembers actress Jill Ireland; and editor David McDonnell wraps it all up in his Liner Notes column, telling a cute story about his younger self, a mimeograph machine, and memories.

“I’m talking about books by 35-year-old novelists writing about 35-year-old characters who nevertheless approach the world as an adolescent: that life is all about getting free of people that dominate you. That’s a 15-year-old’s viewpoint. There should be fiction that tells you about growing up, about being an adult who’s responsible, who can’t just walk away when he gets tired, who doesn’t just go and get a divorce, who doesn’t have a mid-life crisis, but instead, sticks it out and deals with what goes wrong. There aren’t many adult heroes in fiction.”

–Orson Scott Card, author, interviewed by W. Bradford Swift: “Words He Lives By”

To see more issues, click on Starlog Internet Archive Project below or visit The Starlog Project’s permanent home.

David Boies Gives Advice on Dealing with Critics of Recent Gay Marriage Court Ruling

Working on my next column for Northside San Francisco, I was reviewing the great speech and audience Q&A with lawyer David Boies, who is one-half of the team that convinced a federal judge to rule Proposition 8 unconstitutional.

Boies went through a careful demolition of the anti-gay marriage contingent, which you can hear for yourself if you watch the video of his speech. But in brief, he proved that the defendants' arguments didn't hold up on the witness stand, where they had to present evidence and explain facts. The anti-gay marriage folks don't have facts; they have fears.

Then Boies predicted that people would hear criticism not of the opinion that the judge wrote but of the judge and the courts. And he was right; that's exactly what we've heard in the post-ruling wailing of the hard Right in this country.

He gave this advice: He said you won’t hear people saying, This is what the judge said in his ruling, I think he’s wrong, and here’s why I think he’s wrong. Boies challenged people who hear their friends and neighbors say they disagreed with the ruling to ask them what exactly in the ruling did they disagree with? What did the judge say that they think is wrong, and why do they think it’s wrong? What facts and evidence to they have to share? “Because if we can simply move this debate out of the realm of emotion and bias and prejudice, and into the realm of dialogue, and logic, and evidence, there is not another side.”

He makes me hopeful.

Judge Vaughn Walker Rejects Request to Stay Ruling; Marriages Legal as of August 18

WIth federal judge Vaughn Walker's decision today rejecting the defense's request to stay his ruling from last week that struck down our state's anti-gay Proposition 8, same-sex couples in California are able to begin getting married again starting August 18.

Couples were lined up inside the court building in San Francisco before the ruling was announced, ready to get married the instant it was made legal again. But they'll have to wait. The judge's ruling said:

None of the factors the court weighs in considering a motion to stay favors granting a stay. Accordingly, proponents’ motion for a stay is DENIED. Doc #705. The clerk is DIRECTED to United States District Court For the Northern District of California enter judgment forthwith. That judgment shall be STAYED until August 18, 2010 at 5 PM PDT at which time defendants and all persons under their control or supervision shall cease to apply or enforce Proposition 8.

In the case Perry et al v. Schwarzenegger et al, Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker supported his previous ruling. This was expected in many legal quarters, because in his ruling striking down Proposition 8, he made very broad and strong denunciations of the weak "evidence" and assertions of the defendants, and he also made fundamental statements about constitutional fairness. That's not the kind of thing you then go back and say, "Well, maybe I am wrong." If you rule something is a fundamental constitutional sin, you don't say that should be continued while lawyers jaw-bone it out in the courts for years.

You can get the official ruling here, at the site of the U.S. District court.

So, on the the U.S. Circuit Court!

After many years in which anti-discrimination causes were under heavy fire, it's great to see some momentum in the direction of fairness and equality.

Daniel Radcliffe and the Half-Blood Cover Photo

Well, the ol' tubes of the internets are buzzing with mostly complaints about gay lifestyle magazine Out's new cover featuring actor Daniel Radcliffe. (Do tubes buzz? We'll never know; Ted Stevens isn't around any longer to ask.) The image, as you can see, makes the handsome young actor look either crazy or strung out after a night of drugs.

The story inside the magazine is at least somewhat interesting; it's about Radcliffe's befriending of a transgendered musician. It also plays up the fact that Radcliffe has become a very public champion of equal rights for everybody, including the LGBT population. Gay magazines love to play up gay-friendly actors or other performers – especially if they're gifted in the looks department – because there's only so many times you can put Rupert Everett or Adam Lambert on the cover. And, let's face it, some folks love to fantasize about the gay-friendly-but-straight actors like Radcliffe. Hell, even Mel Gibson used to be a gay icon, and he's barking mad in his homophobia.

So I'm glad to see Radcliffe being unafraid to identify himself with gays, lesbians, and transgendered folks. He's proving himself to be a thoughtful person, one who is also a talented actor.

But what does this Out cover photo convey? That he needs to get out in the sun some more, despite his natural Britishness? That no one – no one – should ever wear a tank top? That you can make even Daniel Radcliffe look unattractive if you try hard enough?

In short, the photo is horrible. It was chosen, no doubt, to give some edge to an actor associated with a wholesome young-adults movie series, but it was still a bad choice. That's not to say that you can't dirty up Radcliffe. Esquire's UK edition did so a little while ago, and it looked fine. The cover photo showed the roughed-up actor in a way that supported the editorial content inside, and it didn't make you speculate about the magazine's professional judgement.

Another UK magazine, the gay lifestyle magazine Attitude, had Radcliffe on the cover and didn't think he needed to look vampiric. The American mag Details (and is there any gayer straight magazine?) had a very good-looking Radcliffe on the cover. And you certainly didn't think this blog in particular would publish a bunch of Daniel Radcliffe magazine covers and not include at least one Starlog cover, did you?

Of course, Dumbledore should have been getting this love from the gay publishing world, and maybe he would have, if that dastardly old Snape hadn't offed him ...