• MT VOID, 05/26/23 -- Vol. 41, No. 48, Whole Number 2277

    From evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com@21:1/5 to All on Sun May 28 06:41:30 2023
    THE MT VOID
    05/26/23 -- Vol. 41, No. 48, Whole Number 2277

    Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
    Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
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    Topics:
    Science Fiction (and Other) Discussion Groups, Films,
    Lectures, etc. (NJ)
    Mark's Picks for Turner Classic Movies in June
    (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
    Z CHANNEL: A MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (film review reprint
    by Mark R. Leeper)
    Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
    (pointer to column by James Davis Nicoll)
    This Week's Reading (DANGEROUS VISIONS AND NEW WORLDS)
    (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

    ===================================================================

    TOPIC: Science Fiction (and Other) Discussion Groups, Films,
    Lectures, etc. (NJ)

    Meetings in Middletown are in-person; meetings in Old Bridge are
    Zoomed, at least through the winter season. The best way to get
    the latest information is to be on the mailing lists for them.

    June 1, 2023 (MTPL), 5:30PM ALTERED STATES (1980) & novel
    by Paddy Chayefsky
    <https://archive.org/details/alteredstates0000unse/mode/2up>
    July 6, 2023 (MTPL) FERMAT'S LAST TANGO (2001) & novel
    THE LAST THEOREM (2008) by Arthur C. Clarke & Frederik Pohl
    <https://tinyurl.com/LastTheorem-Clarke-Pohl>

    ===================================================================

    TOPIC: Mark's Picks for Turner Classic Movies in June (comments
    by Mark R. Leeper)

    I have to admit I am a sucker for documentaries about the history
    of film and of filmmakers. If Turner airs one of their
    documentaries you will find me somewhere in the virtual audience
    soaking it all in. Well, now the audience is not really there and
    it is all digital but the motivation is the same. And Turner has
    decided that the focus for June is going to be documentaries about
    film. My picks for June are:

    THURSDAY, June 8
    12:45 AM Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the Movie
    Palace (2019)
    2:30 AM Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema 01
    (2019)
    3:45 AM Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema 02
    (2019)
    5:00 AM Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema 03
    (2019)
    6:15 AM Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema 04
    (2019)
    7:30 AM Image Makers: The Adventures of America's Pioneer
    Cinematographers (2019)
    9:30 AM This is Francis X. Bushman (2021)

    WEDNESDAY, June 14
    8:00 PM Carl Laemmle
    (2019)
    9:45 PM Oscar Micheaux: The Superhero of Black Filmmaking
    (2021)
    11:15 PM Burden of Dreams (1982)

    THURSDAY, June 15
    1:00 AM A Fuller Life (2013)
    2:30 AM Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema 05
    (2019)
    3:45 AM Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema 06
    (2019)
    5:00 AM Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema 07
    (2019)
    6:15 AM Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema 08
    (2019)
    7:30 AM The True Adventures of Raoul Walsh
    (2019)

    MONDAY, June 19
    6:15 PM Tab Hunter Confidential (2015)

    WEDNESDAY, June 21
    8:00 PM Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004)
    10:15 PM What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael (2018)

    THURSDAY, June 22
    12:00 AM The Celluloid Closet (1995)
    2:00 AM Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist (1979)
    2:30 AM Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema 09
    (2019)
    3:45 AM Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema 10
    (2019)
    5:00 AM Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema 11
    (2019)
    6:15 AM Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in
    Hollywood (2019)
    7:15 AM Soundies: A Musical History (2007)

    WEDNESDAY, June 28
    9:45 PM By Design: The Joe Caroff Story (2022)
    10:45 PM Floyd Norman: An Animated Life (2016)
    2:00 AM High Noon on the Waterfront (2022)
    2:30 AM Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema 12
    (2019)
    3:45 AM Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema 13
    (2019)
    5:00 AM Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema 14
    (2019)

    FRIDAY, June 30
    6:15 AM Max Steiner: Maestro of Movie Music (2021)
    8:30 AM Dean Martin: King of Cool (2020)

    Other films of interest in June:
    06/03 4:00 PM Angels in the Outfield (1951)
    06/04 8:00 PM Blazing Saddles (1974)
    06/06 2:00 PM Coma (1978)
    06/07 6:00 PM Around the World Under the Sea (1965)
    06/08 4:30 PM The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945)
    06/08 10:30 PM Suddenly, Last Summer (1960)
    06/09 7:00 AM Enchanted Island (1958)
    06/09 2:15 PM Lord of the Flies (1963)
    06/10 3:45 AM The Bad Seed (1956)
    06/10 10:00 PM One Million Years B. C. (1966)
    06/17 2:45 AM Queen of Outer Space (1958)
    06/17 4:15 AM Hercules, Samson & Ulysses (1963)
    06/17 5:45 AM Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)
    06/17 8:00 PM Time After Time (1979)
    06/19 3:45 AM Donkey Skin (1970)
    06/21 8:45 AM The Time Machine (1960)
    06/23 4:15 PM Soylent Green (1973)
    06/23 9:45 PM What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
    06/29 10:30 AM Tarzan, the Ape Man (1932)
    06/29 12:15 PM Tarzan the Fearless (1933)
    07/01 12:15 AM Eating Raoul (1982)
    07/01 1:45 AM Lisztomania (1976)
    07/01 3:45 AM Pink Flamingos (1974)

    ===================================================================

    TOPIC: Z CHANNEL: A MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (film review reprint by
    Mark R. Leeper)

    [Z CHANNEL, running on Turner Classic Movies in June, was on
    "Mark's Top Ten" list for 2004. here are his comments.]

    One of the earliest pay cable stations was also one of the best.
    This is story of that station and of Jerry Harvey who made the
    station a film fan's dream while running his own life into the
    ground. Harvey would get films from all over the world, films that
    most ardent cinema fans had been dying to see. This
    documentary shows a rich selection of the films that played on Z
    Channel in Los Angeles in the late-1970s. It all came to an end
    very suddenly and very tragically. This is a documentary that does
    a lot in a lot of different areas. It is well worth looking for.
    Rating: low +3 (-4 to +4) or 8/10 [-mrl]

    ===================================================================

    TOPIC: Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
    (pointer to column by James Davis Nicoll)

    <https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/ five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/>

    Introductory paragraph:

    "Relativity! Extremely well supported by the evidence, and
    extremely inconvenient for SF authors who want jaunts to the
    galactic core to be as easy as popping down the road. Given a
    universe so large that light takes as long as anatomically modern
    humans have existed to meander across a single galaxy, combined
    with a very strict speed limit of C, and you face a cosmic reality
    that makes many stories authors might want to write quite simply
    physically impossible. So ... what are hardworking science fiction
    authors to do?" [-jdn]

    ===================================================================

    TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

    DANGEROUS VISIONS AND NEW WORLDS: RADICAL SCIENCE FICTION, 1950 TO
    1985 edited by Andrew Nette and Iain McIntyre (PM Press, ISBN 978-1-629-63883-6) is a collection of essays by divers hands (as
    they say) which was a Hugo Award finalist in 2022. I found some of
    the essays fascinating, and skipped some others (particularly
    detailed looks at works with which I was totally unfamiliar), but
    overall I found the book well worth the reading, and highly
    recommend it.

    Note: I did not buy this in hardcover for $59.95, or in paperback
    for $29.95. I didn't even pay $9.99 for a Kindle edition, but read
    it for free through my library's HOOPLA subscription. There was a
    time when accessing the "Best Related Book" finalists was out of
    the financial reach of many, but this is no longer as true.

    Note 2: In the essay on R. A. Lafferty, an interview from LAN'S
    LANTERN gets quoted. Since we introduced Lan to fandom, and LAN'S
    LANTERN was where we were first widely published, this warms the
    cockles of my heart.

    [-ecl]

    ===================================================================

    Mark Leeper
    mleeper@optonline.net


    In literature as in love, we are astonished at what
    is chosen by others.
    -- Andre Maurois

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