I realized this morning when asked about how my Friday night went that there was an unexpected (possible) connection to the whole evening.
In the next town over there was a really fantastic Chinese restaurant. We ordered food from them for years and years. We would go and pick up food in person. We presumed the kids that were always at the restaurant, and eventually running the front counter interfacing with the public were the children of the owners. They had the best General Tso’s in the area and were frequently voted to the top of local ‘best of’ lists.
One day, they closed. Zero public explanation, just gone. A sign hanging on the door ~ “CLOSED”. A lot of people I know felt we were owed some kind of reason after years of dedication to the business. (We’re not, but you can’t tell people how to feel.)
Last night my wife and I went to the new diner that opened using the same building the Chinese place used for so many years. It’s new, so it was going to draw attention. A friend went and recommended the burgers. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but when we got there I was surprised at how… not busy it was. Friday evening at 6 a new place around here tends to have lines and waiting. We walked in and were seated immediately.
The place was clean and refreshed. The interior layout was slightly modified (not a lot of space for change really) and it was brighter than I recall it ever being.
The staff was new and it was clear there were one or two little things still being figured out. The food was… good, but not so amazing that I’m rushing to tell everyone I know. I will say, the onion rings were amazingly light and wonderful. I’m going to have to go back and try them with a burger. All in all, a solid “good” for going out to eat.
When we got home we sat down and dialed up the latest Pixar release streaming at home. The movie “Elemental“. As with so many films like this – anthropomorphic – it’s a land where the elements (air, water, earth and fire) all live in a city together. Without spoilers, at the core, this is a love story. The love story is set in / wrapped around an immigration story. An immigration story of a kid that may or may not actually want to take over the family business…
Once it clicked, it made me both content to not know the disposition of the former take-out restaurant and hopeful that the family involved got to a place equal to the happy ending of the movie.
Back in July I had every intention of posting right away about an American soldier stationed in South Korea who had… somehow… gone across the DMZ to the North Korean side of the line. It felt like it was the sort of thing that I could comment on, and wanted to get it out there in some form of timely manner. There was also the idea of recognizing armistice day and giving a little bit of history. Clearly, given the dearth of actual posts over the summer months that didn’t happen, but that actually makes this post hit harder.
A little background. Back in the early 90s I was in the army. It was a single ‘tour’. I didn’t reenlist and got out when my contract was up. I don’t consider myself a particularly good soldier, nor do I believe I should use my status as a veteran for any kind of advantage. I signed up and did my thing and got out. The luckiest part of my entire military life was not being sent to the desert like so many of my friends (Gulf War time). One thing I did do was a year in South Korea. I left the US and headed to Camp Hovey, around ten miles from the DMZ. It was called a dependent restricted tour (no families) and generally meant spending that year with a bunch of dudes. The male to female soldier ratio was about 18 to 1. There were many, many off duty rounds of drinks and more than a little fighting.
While I was there I learned. I saw things I had never known of, participated in things I had never done before and it became part of the life changing thing that was my military service. One day during my year there I pulled on my full dress uniform and went on a tour to see the DMZ. It was a surreal experience. I got my photo taken inside one of the buildings on the north side of the line. There was a great deal of tension. We were given strict orders not to gesture, make faces or otherwise make any sort of noise or motion that would give the north something they could use for propaganda purposes. I asked when was the last time anyone had actually taken a shot across the line, thinking in my naive way that the answer would be in the 1950s. The corporal leading the tour said, “Two weeks ago. Did you see it on the news?” I shook my head no. He continued, “Then it didn’t happen… did it?” with the sort of emphasis that I inferred to mean, NO, indeed, nothing of the sort would possibly happen.
For emphasis, the ‘shooting’ part of this war was supposed to have stopped back in 1953. About 40 years before I was standing there. As I stated, it’s a bit surreal.
Fast forward to 2023. For those of you not catching the math, that’s 30 years after my trip there. Guess what? Nothing has changed.
That’s right. Nothing has changed. At the 70 year mark there are still people willing to shoot at each other for things that went on during their grandparents’ lives. It’s not like the veterans from that war are going to be standing out there – it will be the 20 somethings in the military today. The saddest part is, the kids on the US side probably didn’t even get a full lesson on the conflict. That makes the ‘running across the line’ that much sadder.
When I said the story hits harder now? That soldier from the US who ‘defected’ or whatever? That was July 19th. It’s September as of this writing – almost a full 2 months later. Have you heard any more about him? Is it still a headline thing?
No. And it won’t be. That kid is gone. IF he comes back, and I think that’s highly unlikely, he will be physically damaged from his ordeal and you will be able to see it. He won’t be the same in his thought process either, though that will likely be harder to see.
It’s been 70 years. Why aren’t we teaching more about what is happening there? What will it take to get people to change their minds?
Some history:
Recognizing “National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day” – July 25, 2023
Seventy years ago on July 27, 1953, the Korean War Armistice was signed. This ended fighting between the parties and left the boundary between North and South Korea at approximately the same location as when the war began a little over three years before.
A look at the numbers:
Over 1.8 million American troops were sent to fight in South Korea
36,000 Americans lost their lives
100,000 came home with injuries from the result of the war
7,500 men and women who still remain missing in action
For reasons that we can only speculate, Korean War Veterans never had victory parades or welcome-home celebrations. They simply came home and were expected to pick up where they left off before they went off to war. Some speculate that there was no celebration because there was no victory, or perhaps the American people were tired of war, this being so close to the end of WW2, and were ready to move on. Or maybe they did not see the importance of war in some far-off land that no one had heard of before June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea. Regardless, the Korean War deserves a day of recognition.
By tradition, on July 27th every year, the President of the United States issues a proclamation declaring the day National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day. If you know a Korean War Vet, your father, uncle, aunt, or maybe even a coworker, please thank them for their service. They deserve recognition for their sacrifice.
We’re closing in on the end of the 23rd year of the fan group Watch The Skies. It’s been an amazing run and I genuinely hope it rolls at least another 23 years or more.
We still publish a fanzine each month and I still get the opportunity to make cover art for the various issues. The August book we were discussing was called Paradox Hotel. I liked the visual concept of various versions of the hotel being slightly out of focus with each other. A blurry filter over the camera lens. I pulled together some images and set to work. Here’s the cover for the August issue:
Sometimes, the most challenging thing to get past is the blank space where your creativity lived. I was reviewing my posts here and realized it’s been about 2 months since I posted. I’d looked at my site and all the things associated with it many times during those weeks between the last post and this one, and every time there was this weight.
How do you deal with the lack? Do you create yet another post filled with reasoning and bargaining and excuses? Do you just go on as if nothing has happened? Do you make radical changes and put that forward as a reason?
In the end, I don’t suspect it matters much. I don’t have many (read ‘any’) fans. I have friends, but none actually comment on what goes up here or doesn’t go up here. I’m genuinely uncertain most days why I keep this site. I suppose that will be something I need to consider moving forward.
Things will pop back up here. There will be more posts. Maybe changes are coming… we’ll see.
This post was originally published in Watch The Skies June 2023 edition.
Andromeda Strain (1971)
I’ve been going back and re-watching some older science fiction films, or in some cases watching them for the first time. I had never seen The Andromeda Strain so I grabbed some popcorn and hit play.
There are a number of things I noticed while viewing this 50+ year old film.
There are aspects of the film style that place it squarely in the era of the late 60s / early 70s. Unavoidable things like changes in film making, the quality of the picture (at least compared to modern, high definition sets), special effects without CGI and updates to sound. There are minor turns of phrase that might raise eyebrows today. Some things the characters say or how they respond to things can be very different than a viewer of today would expect.
Beyond simple style or dated cultural issues there is technology. Some tech you simply can’t avoid seeing changes in. Cars, helicopters and planes are all mechanical items that we have contact with or at least passing familiarity with, so those are easy things to spot. Interestingly, the computer technology has made an unexpected change. In part, the attempts to be ‘futuristic’ have made of the tech in the movie actually look spot on to things we have today. Using a stylus on a computer screen in 1971 was so far in the future as to seem unreachable or at least something movie goers wouldn’t expect. These days we have a stylus for our personal tablets and phones that are so common we barely think twice about losing them. The computers themselves were a surprise to me. The ‘main frame’ driven tech is very old in the way the movie makers were likely thinking of it, but to those outside the computer industry it’s almost passable as an AI or super computer, so it would still fit the bill as ‘science fiction’.
Certain special effects make me wonder if the film makers actually killed lab rats and monkeys to get this movie made. Those scenes were definitely not for the squeamish. Any scene like that today would require disclaimers at the start of the film and would be ruthlessly scrutinized. I didn’t see the note at the end of the credits stating that no animals were harmed in the making of the film. Perhaps I missed it.
The version I watched had an interview with Michael Chriton. I was fascinated to hear about his drive and sense of humor (one of his pseudonyms meant dwarf when he was actually 6′-9” tall). The scope was broad for this movie but still had a tight run time. There’s a more modern (2008) remake that was broken into two 90 minute films, but I suspect it won’t land on my watch list. If there’s such a thing as a spoiler alert for a 50 year old movie, this film is a bit of a downer. The biological space thing escapes into the world at large. It is mutated and non-lethal, but it’s out there and there’s a secret science department in the government working constantly to stop it from mutating and killing people again. That part was a lot less entertaining after living through the pandemic and seeing how people reacted.
In the end, I’m glad I went back and checked out this classic. It’s good to have a sense of where things come from, knowing the roots of thing. If you’ve got the chance, you should watch this version of the film.
It really seems to be a consistent theme. Not just here, but in so many sites that I have followed over the years. There’s a certain amount of content and then there’s this huge gap, the site stops updating OR the site goes away entirely. Creating content and doing it at a consistent level is not an easy thing to do. There will be gaps. Those gaps will vary in size and duration depending on things that happen in the real world, not just here in the magical world of the computer.
So – jumping this gap and moving forward. There will be more, just as soon as I get it all written down…
Doing this a little differently than I have in the past. Much more a “as it happens” thing ~ or as close to that as I get. I’m writing this while in the middle of day 2 at the con. We’ll see how it all shakes out (and if I actually get back to this before I have to go all the way home).
Getting to the con from home was a challenge. There are 0 things the con can do about travel distance or traffic challenges, but it was certainly part of my experience. the 3.5 hour drive that was supposed to get me here took about 5 when I finally got here and got checked in. That was… not ideal. It was a difficult way to start.
Once I was actually here, at the venue, I discovered their wayfinding / signage to be lacking. Getting around here is not an easy thing when you’ve never been here before. There are actually 3 buildings containing various aspects of the convention and NONE of that is clear from the entry drive or signage from the parking area(s). I realize that wayfinding signs are part of my day job / professional life, but it makes such a huge difference to a persons experience. Bad signs meant it was hard to find the hotel registration. Then it was hard to figure out the right parking area / path to my room in the building next door. THEN I had to go and figure out con registration in the third building.
I figured it out, but by the time I got through all that I was just beat. I was done, I just didn’t know it yet.
I grabbed the person I’m rooming with and grabbed a bite to eat at a local sub shop, then came back to find 0 parking spaces available at the hotel lot near my room. Very frustrating.
I headed off to a panel that said it was about role playing informing your writing. What I got from the panel was a lengthy discussion about story telling informing your gaming. NOT the sort of panel that overwhelmed me and filled me with a desire to go and do more.
In the end, I decided that I was well and truly exhausted from the combination of a long work week and a miserable drive. I turned in early… missing out on the kind of fun you find at cons, like light up ice cubes for your party drinks!
Hopefully day 02 will bring more and better things…
This was originally published in Watch The Skies April 2023 edition.
In another dystopian future entry, the Korean film Jung_e presents some very real questions about what developing A.I. means and presents a picture of how that can effect the people most closely related to any project connected to that development.
The earth has warmed, the waters have risen. Humans have moved off the earth to various space platforms. Three of these platforms band together and declare war on the other platforms. In an attempt to create a winning edge, the allied forces take an elite soldier and attempt to clone her brain. This cloning is intended to create a soldier with all the skills, subtlety and loyalty of the original soldier in an easily replicated way. These clones will turn the tide and win the war for the allies. The experiments continue to run into an unknown obstacle, frustrating their attempts to complete this new A.I. soldier.
There are a number of pieces that are drawn into the film. I see a little bit of Robocop in there. I see a little bit of Ex Machina. There’s a touch of Ghost In The Shell. These are the things I see mixing and swirling around the story of the soldier and the doctor working on creating this new brand of soldier. It brings up a number of questions, but doesn’t necessarily answer them. This is a movie worth watching for the discussions it will give you after watching, along with a couple of very exciting action sequences. You should be watching Jung_E.
This is another book I would not have picked up on my own. This was a recommendation / selection from the Watch The Skies fan group / book club. I’m quite glad I did get it and read it.
I would place this story in the same category as “The House in the Cerulean Sea” and “Victories Greater Than Death”. The main character is trans, and Asian. Not anything I relate to, but this book is written in such a way that the empathy is there. I was pulling for Katrina. I wanted Satomi to help her.
The characters are interesting. The setting has the feel of a place the author knew well. The story has a lot of hope in it, and that feels like something we could use more of. You should pick this one up.
I picked this up for two main reasons. First, I was between a couple of science fiction reads and wanted something unlike either. Second, I am an old school lover of sword and sorcery stories. Oath certainly fit the bill for old school sword and sorcery.
I really enjoyed the simple fact that the paladin Bahzell was NOT what one might expect from the modern depictions or presumptions about what it means to be a holy warrior. This holy warrior also happens to be a berserker with an physical presence that can’t be ignored.
The world building here is solid. The magic system plays within the rules that are set out. The travel between places and the hardships involved with that travel all rang quite true. I would quibble with the way the characters spoke, but it was consistent throughout the book. Once you got the hang of how the words were flowing it was easy to read.
IF you’re a fan of old school sword and sorcery novels I’d recommend you pick this one up.
