Lloyd Penney (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} lloydpenney) wrote,@ 2008-10-25 10:11:00 |
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Loc on Ethel the Aardvark 138 (Sam Rooney, ed.)
Dear MSFCers:
Hello, all! Many thanks for another issue of Ethel, many thanks to Sam Rooney, and there's always something to say about the contents. For instance...
It is hard to believe that Ian Gunn has been gone for 10 years. I've been in communication on and off with KRin Pender-Gunn for most of that time, and I know she feels a little cut off from Melbourne fandom...I hope you'll all embrace her on November 28, and I'd give anything to come and join you all that evening. I've always enjoyed receiving Ethel, but when Gunny edited the zine, it was always full of silly illustrations and fun.
Professor Tolkien may have been a typically repressed Victorian gentleman, possibly with a loveless marriage. I have a number of Tolkien reference books on the shelf at home, some of which are mentioned here, and Tolkien struggled with jealousy and envy, and only started to conquer his own personal failings once The Hobbit saw print. Middle-Earth is very much Tolkien's perfect world, and the most perfect people in it are very Old English, with the attitude that the non-English surround the land of calm civilization, and while some are vaguely civilized, others further out pose a threat. When you see the notes and research and creation of languages, you know that The Hobbit was a prelude to his lifework, The Lord of the Rings, a combination of his dreams and desires, his nationalism and his interest in languages.
The X-Files never caught my attention enough to watch it regularly, but I have seen a few episodes. The characters are fleshed out enough to make you care, and perhaps this latest movie is more another chapter of Mulder and Scully more than anything else. I wonder if another X-Files movie might polish off the whole series with a flourish; I'd hate to see it end with a whimper rather than a bang.
Bill Shatner's biography...yup, he's Canadian, as was Jimmy Doohan on the original Trek. He enjoyed the Captain Kirk thing for so long, and I think he realized that his ego had gotten out of control, what with being one of the best known television characters in the world. Not bad for a Jewish kid who got his start as a Shakespearean actor at the Stratford Festival in Ontario. He's been self-deprecating ever since, in just about anything he does. One of the universities in Montreal, McGill, gave its students the opportunity to name its new students' union building, and to the consternation of the university provosts, they voted to name it the William Shatner Building. He'll probably never quite understand why he's so famous, so he's just along for the ride.
My letter...the job with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada was short-lived, but now I work for Southern Graphic Systems in Etobicoke, and I hope that by next issue, I will be a permanent employee.
Just this past weekend, Yvonne and I attended Con*cept, the annual SF convention in Montreal, and we had a quick tour of the Palais de Congres, where next year's Worldcon will be. It will fill the Palais de Congres just fine, and it is a beautiful building, literally at the intersection of the International Quarter, Old Montreal, downtown and Chinatown. The Montreal fans in charge have a wide selection of international experienced fans on the committee, so I think this will be a fine convention, and it's only 10 months off!
Off it goes around the world, and I hope it lands in your inbox. Take care, all, and see you next Ethel.
Yours, Lloyd Penney.
Dear MSFCers:
Hello, all! Many thanks for another issue of Ethel, many thanks to Sam Rooney, and there's always something to say about the contents. For instance...
It is hard to believe that Ian Gunn has been gone for 10 years. I've been in communication on and off with KRin Pender-Gunn for most of that time, and I know she feels a little cut off from Melbourne fandom...I hope you'll all embrace her on November 28, and I'd give anything to come and join you all that evening. I've always enjoyed receiving Ethel, but when Gunny edited the zine, it was always full of silly illustrations and fun.
Professor Tolkien may have been a typically repressed Victorian gentleman, possibly with a loveless marriage. I have a number of Tolkien reference books on the shelf at home, some of which are mentioned here, and Tolkien struggled with jealousy and envy, and only started to conquer his own personal failings once The Hobbit saw print. Middle-Earth is very much Tolkien's perfect world, and the most perfect people in it are very Old English, with the attitude that the non-English surround the land of calm civilization, and while some are vaguely civilized, others further out pose a threat. When you see the notes and research and creation of languages, you know that The Hobbit was a prelude to his lifework, The Lord of the Rings, a combination of his dreams and desires, his nationalism and his interest in languages.
The X-Files never caught my attention enough to watch it regularly, but I have seen a few episodes. The characters are fleshed out enough to make you care, and perhaps this latest movie is more another chapter of Mulder and Scully more than anything else. I wonder if another X-Files movie might polish off the whole series with a flourish; I'd hate to see it end with a whimper rather than a bang.
Bill Shatner's biography...yup, he's Canadian, as was Jimmy Doohan on the original Trek. He enjoyed the Captain Kirk thing for so long, and I think he realized that his ego had gotten out of control, what with being one of the best known television characters in the world. Not bad for a Jewish kid who got his start as a Shakespearean actor at the Stratford Festival in Ontario. He's been self-deprecating ever since, in just about anything he does. One of the universities in Montreal, McGill, gave its students the opportunity to name its new students' union building, and to the consternation of the university provosts, they voted to name it the William Shatner Building. He'll probably never quite understand why he's so famous, so he's just along for the ride.
My letter...the job with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada was short-lived, but now I work for Southern Graphic Systems in Etobicoke, and I hope that by next issue, I will be a permanent employee.
Just this past weekend, Yvonne and I attended Con*cept, the annual SF convention in Montreal, and we had a quick tour of the Palais de Congres, where next year's Worldcon will be. It will fill the Palais de Congres just fine, and it is a beautiful building, literally at the intersection of the International Quarter, Old Montreal, downtown and Chinatown. The Montreal fans in charge have a wide selection of international experienced fans on the committee, so I think this will be a fine convention, and it's only 10 months off!
Off it goes around the world, and I hope it lands in your inbox. Take care, all, and see you next Ethel.
Yours, Lloyd Penney.
