MFR for May 2009

Please join NWSFS on Tuesday May 5th at 7:00 PM for one of Eric Webber’s favorite restaurants, The Italian Spaghetti House in Seattle (Lake City Way).

Booths and tables surrounded by murals of Italian scenery welcome guests as they step through the door. All full entrées include a choice of Minestrone or a salad, a main course and spumoni ice cream. Diners can choose from huge portions of pasta and pizza piled high with toppings as their main course. The restaurant caters to families and kids.

Address & Phone:
9824 Lake City Way NE
Seattle, WA 98115
(206) 523-2667

Directions from I-5 northbound
Merge onto WA-522 E via EXIT 171 toward BOTHELL
End at 9824 Lake City Way NE Seattle, WA 98115-2349

Directions from I-5 southbound
Take the NORTHGATE WAY exit, EXIT 173, toward 1ST AVE NE.
Take the NORTHGATE WY. ramp toward 1ST AVE. N.E
Turn SLIGHT RIGHT onto CORLISS AVE N.
Turn SLIGHT RIGHT onto N NORTHGATE WAY.
Turn RIGHT onto 24TH AVE NE.
Turn SLIGHT RIGHT onto LAKE CITY WAY NE/WA-522.
End at 9824 Lake City Way NE Seattle, WA 98115-2349

Please RSVP to info@nwsfs.org or the hotline at 360-438-0871. We'd prefer to get your RSVP by the afternoon of May 4th, but any attempt to RSVP will help us plan for you.

Steamcon Meeting This Sunday - May 3rd at 3:00 P.M

The next Steamcon organizational meeting is this Sunday, May 3rd at 3:00 P.M.

Location:
Capitol Hill branch of the Seattle Public Library
425 Harvard Ave. E.
Seattle WA

The parking in the library garage is free, but it does fill up.

For future reference, the next meetings will be :
June 7th (usual time and place)
July 12th (usual time and place)

Boxcar Astronaut for 04/26/09

Boxcar Astronaut - Boxcar Astronaut #111: Where is Diogee's food?
Greetings, Fellow Astronauts! Things have been quiet in the backyard lately now that Ben and Devin have built their new tree house. It seems they've been spending so much time up in their new "space station" that Ben has forgotten about some of his basic responsibilities. Watch as poor Diogee searches for a meal while his master lounges away in an All New Boxcar Astronaut!

NWSFS-Announcements: SciFi Theater

The following was sent to NWSFS:

Hey there, I wanted to let your group know about a theatrical event this weekend that might be of interest. I'm a company member at Open Circle Theater in Belltown, and we've got a couple of science fiction shows coming up, including a live performance of an episode of SPACE: 1999. I've included the information below. Hope to see you there! Thanks!

As part of Open Circle Theater's new weekly range of fantastic late-night offerings, the last weekend of each month, will be OCTV where we will perform an episode of a classic TV show live on stage.
For two nights (Fri. & Sat. at 11pm) some of Seattle's funniest actors and comics will perform a randomly-selected classic television script. At the end of that month's shows the Big Dial will be spun and next month's offering will be chosen.

In April OCTV will perform the sci-fi 70's cult classic, SPACE: 1999 starring Martin Landau and Barbara Bain! In a catastrophic accident on 13 September 1999, the moon is knocked out of its orbit sending the 311 inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha hurtling uncontrollably into outer space. Don't miss it!

Friday 4/24 and Saturday 4/25 at 11pm, the cost is only $7, and there will be prizes, guests, surprises and of course, there's Open Circle's full bar with astounding drink specials...

At Open Circle Theater. 2222 2nd Avenue (in Belltown, right above Shortie's)

Google Map: http://tinyurl.com/dmsw4z

Jeff Carlson's "Norwescon 32 Insider Report"

Author and PKD Award nominee Jeff Carlson just posted his "Norwescon 32 Insider Report" on his blog - Ketchup.

From the blog entries it seems that Jeff was very impressed with Norwescon saying that the con "was among the best-run" he had ever seen.

Jeff also seems to be impressed with "the fantasy fen and their magnificently squashed but nicely presented", umm, tracts of land.

Read Jeff's blog to find out more :)

Boxcar Astronaut for 04/19/09

Boxcar Astronaut - Boxcar Astronaut #110: Missing pieces!
Greetings, Fellow Astronauts! The boys are about to sit down for a nice quiet board game up in the "space station", only there's one problem, some pieces are missing. Ben improvises nicely with whatever small toys are at hand, however, the question remains: where are all the pieces? Check out this week's All New Boxcar Astronaut for the shocking answer!

From YouTube: Star Wars Musical Staged At London's O2 Arena

The title says it all! Enjoy! :)

2009 Science Fiction Hall of Famers named

Seattle's Science Fiction Museum has named the 2009 Hall of Fame Inductees: editor and publisher Edward L. Ferman, artist Michael Whelan, artist Frank R. Paul, and author Connie Willis. The induction ceremony will be 8 p.m., Sat., June 27. Save the date. Tickets are not yet on sale. A party for the kick off of the Clarion West Writers Workshop and the Locus Awards Banquet and Ceremony also take place in Seattle that weekend. See more about those events here.

Here's a little about this year's Hall of Famers, with more details at the Hall of Fame:

• Edward L. Ferman edited The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction for 25 years and published the early work of authors including Dean Koontz, James Tiptree, Jr., John Varley, and Karen Fowler.

• Michael Whelan has illustrated works by authors such as Stephen King and Isaac Asimov and including Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series and Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars novels. He is the first living artist to be inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

• Frank R. Paul created all the covers and illustrations for Amazing Stories in its first years, 1926-1929, and was guest of honor at the first World Science Fiction Convention in 1939, the year he painted the cover of Marvel Comics #1. You can see Paul's Amazing and Science Wonder Stories covers here, as archived by fellow artist Frank Wu.

• Connie Willis is the award-winning author of Doomsday Book (1992), Bellwether (1996), To Say Nothing of the Dog (1997), Passage (2001) and All Seated on the Ground (2007). Heralded by members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and the World Science Fiction Society, Willis has won Hugo and Nebula awards in all fiction categories.

The Hall of Fame, established in 1996, honors the lives, works, and legacies of science fiction's greatest creators. Each year four individuals are chosen for the honor based on their contributions to the field. Including the new inductees, the Hall of Fame now honors 57 of science fiction's greats from Brian W. Aldiss to Donald Allen Wollhiem. Last year's inductees were Betty and Ian Ballantine, William Gibson, Richard M. Powers, and Rod Serling.

Rumor has it, this year's ceremony will be hosted by Christopher Moore author of Fool.

Boxcar Astronaut for 04/12/09

Boxcar Astronaut - Boxcar Astronaut #109: Superballs to orbit!
Greetings, Fellow Astronauts! This week, Ben’s little superball adventure continues and quickly comes to an end. Watch as the little superball rockets through the stratosphere and into deep space itself thanks to a bounce from the mighty mechanical arm of Robot! Will it ever come back down? Keep tuning in to BoxcarAstronaut.com and find out!

Nebula short story listening

The United Kingdom's Audio Science Fiction Magazine StarShipSofa, produced by Tony C Smith, has podcast all the Nebula nominated short stories. Listen to all seven and pick your favorite before the winners are announced at the Nebula Weekend April 24-26 in Los Angeles. The stories in the running are:

"The Button Bin" by Mike Allen
"The Dreaming Wind" by Jeffrey Ford
"Trophy Wives" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
"26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss" by Kij Johnson (also up for a Hugo Award)
"The Tomb Wife" by Gwyneth Jones
"Don't Stop" by James Patrick Kelly
"Mars: A Traveler's Guide" by Ruth Nestvold

See the complete Nebula ballot at Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America.
Thanks to Shine Anthology for the Twit-tip. StarShipSofa's joined the Twitterverse too.

Gregory Frost Reading & Signing on 4/20

Gregory Frost Reading and Signing
Monday, April 20th, 2008 • 7:00 p.m.
What: Gregory Frost Reading as part of the NW MediaArts Fantastic Fiction Salons
Where: Richard Hugo House Cabaret • 1634 11th Avenue, Seattle, WA
When: 7:00 PM

$5 suggested donation

SNW Media Arts and the University Book Store invite you to join us each month as we present critically acclaimed writers from across the US whose work showcases the finest of speculative literature. Please join us on April 20th for a reading and conversation with author Gregory Frost as he reads in Seattle for the first time. Greg is also teaching a terrific one-day writing workshopon April 19th and there are still a few openings. See our website for details.

Gregory Frost is a writer of fantasy, science fiction, and thrillers. He has been a finalist for every major award in the SF and fantasy genres. His latest work is the fantasy duology, ShadowbridgeLord Tophet, from Del Rey. Booklist gave it a starred review. The Fantasy Book Critic called it “one of the few must-read fantasies of the year.” and

His previous novel was the historical thriller, Fitcher’s Brides, a re-imagining of the fairy tale of Bluebeard that was a finalist for both the World Fantasy and International Horror Guild Awards for Best Novel. Publishers Weekly called his short story collection, Attack of the Jazz Giants and Other Stories, “one of the best fantasy collections of the year.” He directs the fiction workshop at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, PA.

The Fantastic Fiction Salon series is co-sponsored by NW MediaArts, Richard Hugo House, and the University Book Store, who will be on site to sell books.

For more information about our workshop series and salons go to:
nwmediaarts.com or email events@nwmediaarts.com

Location:The Black Hole in the basement

Boxcar Astronaut for 04/05/09

Boxcar Astronaut - Boxcar Astronaut #108: Superballs!
Greetings, Fellow Astronauts! Super-balls are easily one of the BEST toys ever! They pack more energy into a small package than a hyper-active 6 year old hopped up on Red Bull and Pixie Sticks. They're just as dangerous, too as you can see by this week's latest Boxcar Astronaut!

Put brainwaves on your iPhone

Are you a great musician in your own mind? You might be, and we're not talking Rock Band or Guitar Hero fantasies either. You could be a neural artist like Paras Kaul, aka BrainWave Chick, a researcher at George Mason University in Virginia. Wearing an electrode-laden headband, Karas streams brainwaves from her frontal lobe into a laptop to create digital music. A recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, 'BrainWave Chick' Digitally Performs Mind Music, describes the process. BrainWave Chick performs on stage by attaining a meditative state and letting her brainwaves work the magic. The result is a mash up of ambient and underwater sounds: think sea mammals and submarines. Sample it here. Actors' brainwaves were also used to create the score for the upcoming independent horror film, Caller ID (directed by Eric Zimmerman, actors include Donnie Darko's James Duval).

But back to Rock Band, why not combine brainwaves, music, and gaming? Karas is also exploring the field of neurological gaming, interacting with a game environment using brainwaves. Read about Brainwave Games 4Learning on Gamasutra. Karas says the IBVA4, the Interactive Brain Wave Visual Analyzer, from New York based Psychic Lab Inc. is "a profound bio and psychic feedback system that is easily adapted for the gaming industry."

Curious about brainwave interaction? Check out the iPhone application.