2023

The year ended with my brother being hospitalized. I am hoping for the best.

This was the second time I had to attend Wordcon virtually. Due to my job and the current political tensions, I did not go to Chengdu. I did see the Opening Ceremonies, the Hugo Awards, panels that were online, and Closing Ceremonies. The convention’s interface was interesting but limited. There was no chat feature, and one could choose the language channel. What I saw was interesting and I hope future Worldcons can do as much. I had a Hugo Party for friends, some who had relatives who were finalists. Some friends won fan awards and I was mentioned in Hugo, Girl’s acceptance speech. This was a great honor and I appreciate it.

Pemmi-Con was a bit unorganized but fun. I got go with a close friend. I got to talk to other friends who only see at Worldcon. I wish I had spent more time in Winnipeg and see a Fringe show there.

I did make last year’s goal of writing more. I wrote 4 articles for The Drink Tank on “Pyramids of Mars”, Douglas Adams, Spider-Man, and Kitty Pryde. I did 2 book reviews and a film review for the Orlando SF Society’s newsletter Event Horizon. For the anniversaries of Star Trek Animated and Dungeons and Dragons, I did micro reviews on the anniversary date of the broadcast. I plan to continue and add another show next year.

The people who left us this year includes Suzy McKee Charnas, Cindy Williams, Gina Lollobrigida, Adam Rich, Burt Bacharach, Julian Sands, David Crosby, Lisa Loring, Lance Riddick, Robert Blake,  Hugh Hudson, Leiji Matsumoto, Dame Edna, Raquel Welch, Tom Sizemore, John Jakes, Topol, Michael Reaves, Mark Russell, Harry Belafonte, Al Jaffe, Sharon Farrell, Ray Austin, Tina Turner, John Romita Sr., Treat Williams, Glenda Jackson, Daniel Ellsburg, Jim Brown, Alan Arkin, Manny Coto, Tony Bennett, Inga Swenson, Sinéad O’Connor, Paul Rubens, William Friedkin, Arleen Sorkin, Bob Barker, Dianne Feinstein, Michael Flynn, Burt Young, Phyllis Coates, David McCallum, Michael Gambon, Lara Parker, Stephen Kandel, Richard Roundtree, Piper Laurie, Jimmy Buffett, Richard Moll, Matthew Perry, Robert Butler, Frances Sternhagen, Suzanne Somers, Frank Borman, Michael Bishop, Rosalynn Carter, Erik Reiss, Marty Kroft, Ryan O’Neal, Norman Lear, Marylin “Fuzzy Pink” Niven, David Drake, Andre Braugher, and Tom Smothers.

Megacon was a one day event for me. I saw some friends. I did go to a panel with Geoff Johns. He talked about his work and the star of Stargirl Bree Basinger showed up and joined Johns and the dais. It was a fun panel even though the show was cancelled last year.

Necronomicon was a great event done by fans in West Florida. My thanks to Steve Cole for looking after my table during trivia and fannish Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me.

Film-wise I started the year with the light and fun Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. The Killer Robots! Robotica Destructiva was a locally made SF comedy and one of the stars is a casual friend. Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania went to microverse with mixed results. Infinity Pool shows what happens when people do not have to live by the same rules as the rest of us do. Path of the Panther was a local documentary that should how the Florida Panther came back from near extension. Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was a fun romp with a great Easter egg. Shazam: Fury of the Gods had some moments, but the humor should have been dialed down a bit. Polite Society was great story which balanced the humor and drama. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 was disturbing, and one learns the importance of empathy. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse turns a hero I like into an authoritarian antagonist, but the story is not done and I want more. The Flash had great moments with the DC Universe, but it was a bit a mess and got the humor part wrong. Lynch/OZ looked at how the director is influenced by the film. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny could have been more but it was still a lot of fun. Blue Beetle was a great look at a Latin American superhero and honored the Ted Kord version of the character. Stop Making Sense took us to a Talking Heads concert and fun was had by all. Carol Danvers, Monica Rambeau, and Kamala Khan save the Earth in The Marvels. Aquaman and the Lost City was a strong end to the earlier series of DC films.

The Florida Film Festival had many good films to watch. Judy Blume Forever examined the career of a Grand Mistress of YA. Moon Garden presented a young girl’s nightmare. Two men explored one of this country’s great treasures in Out There: A National Park Story. The Artifice Girl was an AI story about its possible role in society. The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster was great retelling of Frankenstein with a better ending. A struggling artist takes a trip to a magical land in Unicorn Boy. A Ukrainian made CGI film takes one to steampunk world where nature and technology must find a balance in Mavka: The Forest Song. My Love Affair With Marriage is about a woman’s relationship to marriage told as an animated feature. Brooklyn 45 shows how World War II vets deal with the aftermath of war. The festival ended with the beautifully haunting Fantastic Planet.

I got to see some classic films in the theater or streamed for the first time. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls was Russ Meyers at his peak. Solaris is an oddly paced but interesting film. I found my local TV station cut the first scene in The Dirty Dozen. Blue Velvet is a disturbing and engaging film. The Spitualist was a fraud who gets in over his head. Garden State was an intense look at mental health. Shin Godzilla showed the strength and weakness of bureaucracies.  Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut examined the results of the Sexual Revolution.

I binged most of the Oscar Best Picture finalists in January-March. The winner Everything Everywhere All at Once became the second Science Fiction film to win the Best Picture Oscar. Eo told the story of a donkey that wonders Europe. We see Spielberg’s early life in The Fablemans. The Banshees of Inisherin is a painful metaphor of Ireland’s struggles. Tar was about person who cannot face her problems. Woman Talking shows Mennonite women making a difficult decision for themselves. The Quiet Girl is a somber look at childhood. Turning Red was a different look at adolescence. The Sea Beast was an exciting adventure. Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio is a new take on a classic that will break your heart. Triangle of Sadness was well made but a bit of a downer for me. Elvis showed us that Tom Hanks can be a villain and that the King loved comics. Argentina 1985 showed what hard work and the truth can bring down those who abuse their power.

There are a few things for next year’s Oscars. The Boy and Heron was Miyazaki’s most personal story and tells it with the same flair. Poor Things tells the story of a woman finding her own place in the world. Oppenheimer gave one a complex look at a brilliant man who did something incredible and had a messy life. Barbie took a toy and made a statement about women and men. Are You There God? Its Me Margaret  was about learning about ourselves during adolescence. Have You Got It Yet: The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd shed some light on an artist who left before his group got legendary big. Killers of the Silver Moon talks about one of the greatest crimes ever committed and we must understand it. A Disturbance in the Force explained how the Star Wars Holiday Special Happened. The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four told the saga about the 1994 Fantastic Four movie that was never officially released. Maestro showed us a flawed genius who made great art.

I did not watch as much anime in the theater this year. Suzume was a great coming of age film which also a road trip. It was great to see Paprika in a theater.

My television landscape changed this year. Only a few shows were on the traditional networks. Superman and Lois faces Bruno Manheim and will end its run dealing with Luthor. Nancy Drew ended its odd but engaging story. I may be outlier but I liked the characters in Gotham Knights and wanted to see where the story was going. The Quantum Leap project continues with great success. Our favorite crewmates of Star Trek: The Lower Decks got promoted. Some of them meet the crew of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. There we get new crew members and hear them sing. Star Trek: Picard reunites Picard with his crew and has a final voyage. Mandalore was restored in this Mandalorian. Ezra Bridger and Thrawn were found in Ahsoka. The Last of Us had some great character moments though I have some issues with parts of the world building (this can be though some of my perceptions). Muppet Mayhem gaves us the Electric Mayhem with all the glory. Loki tries to save the multiverse while Uatu continues to observe it in What If. Secret Invasion was a mess that did not have the scope of the original comics. Scott Pilgrim vs The World takes a new look at an old story and maybe a better take on the characters’ challenges. Ken Burns showed the history of the American animal in The American Buffalo. Rick and Morty examine themselves in this season. For All Mankind continues to take us further into space while facing our own shortcomings. Russell T. Davies, David Tennant and Catherine Tate return to Doctor Who to hand over the reins to Ncuti Gatwa.

I have been continuing the Galactic Journey’s Star Trek re watch on the 55^th anniversary of broadcast complete with commercials of the era. It is a great look at this classic series.

I did most of my anime watching on Toonami. It was a challenging year with no new shows. One Piece took us to Punk Hazard and Dressrosa. Deku learned the power of friendship in My Hero Academia. Made in Abyss continued its journey. Unicorn: Warriors Eternal  was a new trippy adventure by Genndy Tartakovsky. We saw the first part of the finale of Attack of Titan. Senku and the gang explored more of their world in Dr. Stone. There was more insanity with FLCL: Grunge and FLCL: Shoegaze. We got another take on the legend My Adventures With Superman.We rejoined Tanjiro and his team on a train in Demon Slayer.

Online I completed watching the adventures of Suletta Mercury in Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury. I also watched the exciting adventures of Loid, Your, Anya, and Sylvia on Spy x Family. Magical Destroyers told a story of fandom in an interesting way. Pluto took a noirish take on a Tezuka plot and Black Jack has a cameo.

Saga it is still a page turner. We got to celebrate a classic Horror icon in Kolchak: The Night Stalker – 50th Anniversary Graphic Novel.The war continues for Makia Halfwolf in Monstress: Volume 7 Devourer and Volume 8: Inferno. Duncan, Bridgette, and Rose defeat Beowulf look for allies in Once and Future: Volume 4 Monarchies in the UK. The story get wrapped up in Volume 5 The Wasteland. Cyberpunk: Big Cities Dreams showed the pros and cons of life in the city and the country. Alex Ross gives a sequel to a classic Fantastic Four story in Fantastic Four: Full Circle. Legendary comics did a great job adapting the recent Dune film to comics. J. Michael Straczynski returns to comics with Captain America and shows Steve Rogers fighting fascists both in and out of costume. For researching an article on Kitty Pryde, I read or re-read X-Men and Excalibur comics.

I read over 30 books including graphic novels, novellas, and non-fiction. I went down from last year, I need to manage my time better. Tochi Onyebuchi’s Goliath looks at class structures. Cities and the communities in them are fighting against a threat in The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin. A robot doing odd things is captivating in Lavie Tidhar’s Neom. Kindness and found family are the stars in Tasmyn Muir’s Nona the Ninth. Quantum Night by Robert J. Sawyer posits that mental behavior maybe affected by at the quantum level. Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Ogres has a great SF twist that we were not expecting. January 15 by Rachel Swirsky look at how Universal Basic Income would work. Ray Nayler explored intelligence both natural and artificial in The Mountain in the Sea. Colonialism is thoroughly analyzed in R.F. Kuang’s Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution. In Nicola Griffith’s Spear we follow a young woman who becomes a knight in a version of Arthur’s Camelot. SFWA Grandmaster Robin McKinley had a young woman deal with vampires in a different way. An orc tries to start a new life as a coffee shop owner in Travis Baldree’s Legends and Lattes. A princess puts a team together to save her sister in T. Kingfisher Nettle and Bone. Ann Leckie returns to the Imperial Radch universe with a new adventure dealing with a fugitive, aliens, and adopted child in Translation State. Bree is on the run trying to find answers in Tracy Deonn’s Bloodmarked. Seanan McGuire shows us that escape is an option in Lost in the Moment and Found. T. Kingfisher has a great spin on Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” in What Moves the Dead. Tess and the Countess Margarethe have their relationship tested in Rachel Hartman’s In the Serpent’s Wake. El tries to go back to save someone in Naomi Novik’s The Golden Enclaves. A spiritual detective is made an offer she cannot refuse in C.L. Polk’s Even Though I Knew the End. Nghi Vo has a group of people taking a trip and learn things about themselves Into the Riverlands. Silvia Moreno-Garcia takes the H.G. Wells story to Mexico in The Daughter of Doctor Moreau. Sunny and her friends take a dangerous trip in Nnendi Okorafor Akata Woman. Osmo challenges local myths and explores them in in Catherynne M. Valente Osmo Unknown and the Eightpenny Woods. A forensic account gets a fortune and has to deal with it in Cory Doctorow’s Red Team Blues. John Scalzi looks at the economics of being a 70s Bond antagonist in Starter Villain. Ian McDonald has to people meet and set a series of actions in motion that will change the world in Hopeland. A succubus and nightmare god plan a heist in Wale Talabi’s Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon. Malka Older has two former lovers investigate a mystery in Jupiter orbit in The Mimicking of Known Successes. I ended the year with Lavie Tidhar asking how much power can an old SF novel have in The Circumference of the World.

I did not read much non-fiction this year. Peril by Bob Woodward explained the last days of the last administration.I read part of Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes by Robert Wilkins which told the story of one of our greatest Fantasy writers. A read the part about the brides in Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, by Kyle Buchanan. These were both for Hugo consideration.

I stuck with the same podcasts this year with The Inglorious Treksperts, Biff, Fatman Beyond, Radio Free Skaro, Verity, Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy, Anime Addicts Anonymous, Anime World Order, Starship Sofa, Escape Pod, Hugos There¸Hugo, Girl, Toonami Faithful, The Incomparable , Our Opinions Are Correct, Random Trivia, The Dickheads,Postcards from a Dying World, Octothorpe, The Greatest Movie Ever, and The Best Movies Never Made. I just started checking out If This Goes On (Don’t Panic).

I am checking out short fiction in the Lady Business recommendation spread sheet.

Hugo, my dog, is doing well.

I did bike a bit more but I still have to push myself more.

I want to do more reviews this year. I need to work on discipline for reading and writing. I will do a full review once a month of something.

As always, thanks to those who made the year as fun as it was. This I list would be long and I would forget someone. If you know me and are reading this you are one of those people.

2024 will be a stressful year due to the election. I hope we pull together and vote for democracy. I always hope for the best.

Take care.

2022

This was the year of 80^th World Science Fiction Convention, Chicon 8. I got to do 4 program items as a panelist. One I was invited on the last minute. I worked as staff in the Press Office. This was an honor. I want to thank Chris Barkely (Press Office), Kris “NChanter” Snyder (Programming), and Olav Rokne. The Worldcon was marvelous. I got to see people I only get to online most of the year. The only thing I wish a friend of mine could have joined me, but circumstances made it impossible. It is a complicated issue which I hope will get better as time goes on.

I also got to contribute to an incredible issue of the Journey Planet edited by Olav Rokne and Amanda Wakaruk (http://journeyplanet.weebly.com/…/jp_anthropocene…). I also got to do an article for The Drink Tank on Chicon 8 (https://claimsdepartment.weebly.com/the-drink-tank—series-deaux/the-drink-tank-441-chicon).

The people who left us this year includes Elizabeth Windsor, Mikhail Gorbachev, Madeline Albright, Sidney Poitier, Jean-Luc Godard, Ivan Reitman, Loretta Lynn, Naomi Judd,  Meat Loaf, Fleetwood Mac, Christine McVie, Taylor Hawkins, Andy “Fletch” Fletcher, Olivia Newton-John, Irene Cara,  Bob McGrath, Coolio, Ronnie Spector, Angela Lansbury, Bob Saget, Tony Dow, Kirstie Alley, Nichelle Nichols, Ray Liotta, Sally Kellerman, Anne Heche, Bernard Cribbins, Yvette Mimieux, Vivienne Westwood, Pele, Peter Bogdanovich, David McCullough, P.J. O’Rourke, James Caan, Kevin Conroy, Roger Sims, Ron Goulart, Dave Wolverton, Douglas Trumbull, Faren Miller, Tom Vietch, Bill Johnson, David Lussier, Neal Adams, Patricia A. McKillip, George Perez, Barbara Delaplace, L.Q. Jones, Herbert W. Franke, Eric Flint, Alexei Panshin, Peter Straub, Greg Bear, Maureen K. Speller, Chris Boucher, Tom Maddox, Benedict XVI, and Barbara Walters.

Barbarella/Independent Bar closed its traditional Downtown Orlando location in April. I was there to shut it down. There were lovely moments there. People watching from the window or patio was always fun. I have not had a chance to check out the new location, but I will try soon.

Sunday Night Vinyl decided to leave terrestrial radio and go online. It came back 4 years ago, and it got us through the Trump years and COVID. I respect Erik Dennison’s (the host) decision to do it. I am glad it will still exist in another medium, but I love terrestrial radio. I will miss the show’s presence there.

I patched up things with my former podcast co-host. He apologized for my being kicked of the show. He was pressured by another co-host who then left a month after me. I did do some podcasts discussing this year’s Hugo finalists with many of the best fan podcasters and commentators. It always fun to discuss fannish stuff.

I retired my 2007 Ford Escape Hybrid. It was a great car. I had for about 13 years which makes it the car I had for the longest time. I now have a 2021 Ford Escape Hybrid Titanium. It works great with a lot of new stuff I still need to learn (I got it in November).

It was also worth staying up late to watch the Atremis launch from my house and get a picture.

The Hugos was fun. Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz were great hosts. I had knew 3 of the finalists for Fan Writer. Cora Bulhert won for her excellent work on reviewing the Golden Age of Science Fiction and looking at parenting in SFF. A Desolation Called Piece was a fabulous book about first contact and the workings of a government. Dune finally won for Best Dramatic Presentation on the third time. Thanks to Glenton Richards, acceptor for The Expanse, for loaning me his Hugo for my traditional picture.

Necronomicon and Southern Media Con were great events done by fans in West Florida. My thanks to Steve Cole for looking after my table during trivia and fannish Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me.

Megacon conflicted with the Orlando Fringe Festival and the Nebula Weekend so I decided to pass this year. Next year it will be on April 1so maybe I should make it.

Film-wise I started the year with the light and fun Sing 2. Guillermo Del Toro gave us the beautifully dark tragedy Nightmare Alley. Tetsuo: The Iron Man was beautifully bizarre. A variety of Horror was presented in the anthology film Scare Package. With a friend I got to see a great take on The Tragedy of Macbeth. It was fun seeing Bruce and Selena together in The Batman. Poser gave onea look into Cleveland’s underground music scene with a dark twist. Homebody is a fascinating look into gender with humor mixed in. There was great trip across the multi-verse in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The Belchers especially Louise had a great trip to big screen in Bob’s Burgers: The Movie. Two people are trying to find their place in the world in Cha Cha Real Smooth. Official Competition is an outrageous look at the making of a film. Croenburg paints a scary picture of the future in Crimes of the Future. Korg tells a story with a humor in Thor: Love and Thunder. Effect artist Phil Tippet takes one on a wild ride in Mad God. Amber faces an odd situation in a work retreat in Spin Me Round. The cat is the star in the Japanese adaptation of The Door Into Summer. Claydream gave us the life of Will Vinton who pioneered Claymation. The Hunger was stylish and fun to see Bowie as an aging vampire.  Black Adam was fun but it could have been more. The Menu was scary comedy that makes you want to remember your best meals. We go back to Pandora for an interesting but familiar trip in Avatar: Way of Water. Top Gun: Maverick had a strong story and the same strengths and weaknesses of its predecessor. 

I binged most of the Oscar Best Picture finalists in February and March. The winner CODA showed a young woman looking for her place in the world with a spectacular performance from Marlee Matlin. Parallel Mothers is a complicated story told by well by Pedro Almodóvar. Flee is an engaging personal history looking at the plight of refugees. Licorice Pizza gave us a young man with moxie and young woman also trying to find her place in the world. Belfast shows how a young boy escapes the horror of the world he lives in. King Richard is a compelling story of a flawed man trying to do the best for his family especially his daughters. Julie is also trying to find herself and makes mistakes in The Worst Person in the World. Encanto tells the story of a culture and one that is strongly connected to me. The Mitchells vs. The Machines is about a family dealing with change and an AI takeover of the world. Two individuals must deal with grief during a production of Uncle Vanya in Drive My Car. Film makers go for the throat in Don’t Look Up. Spielberg does a musical and subtly updates West Side Story. Power of the Dog has a slow pace, looks beautiful, and has great performances. Luca has a fish boy exploring the surface world. Raya and the Last Dragon is about fixing something. The Hand of God is a good coming of age story told in lovely locale of Naples. Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom is about a teacher in Bhutan teaching in a remote location over 4,000 meters and made with solar power cameras. In Spenser, Princess Diana deals with her relationship to the Royal family and makes a decision. A woman on vacation deals with her past in Lost Daughter. The Eyes of Tammy Faye gives us some insight about someone who made some good and bad decisions. Free Guy was a great cyberpunk story.

There are a few things I hope to see get Oscar nominations. Everything Everywhere All at Once is a film that deserves multiple viewing. Nope is a well told SF/Horror story that deserves attention. Three Thousand Years of Longing is a fantastic twist on djinn story. Moonage Daydream is the story of David Bowie in his own words and beautiful images. Wakanda Forever is a good story to deal with the loss of a great actor and we see intelligence win over brute strength.

I did not watch as much anime in the theater this year. Inu-Oh told the powerful story of ancient Japan, music, and fantasy. It was great to see Macross Frontier: The False Songstress and The Wings of Farewell in a theater.

I stayed with the same shows this year: The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, Stargirl, and Superman and Lois. Sadly, most of these shows ended this year and they will all be gone by next year. Stargirl and the JSA confronts old and new foes but also found new allies in their last year. The Legends of Tomorrow kept going on their goofy way and sadly ended on a cliff hanger. Batwoman kept up its strong themes and ended strongly. The Flash continue to run on for one more year. Superman and Lois faced off Bizarro World. Nancy Drew continued its odd but engaging story. Locke and Key had a different conclusion than the comic, but it works. Titans tried to save a potential villain and must deal with the Luthor in Connor. The Expanse concluded Babylon Ashes and the series. Our favorite crewmates of Star Trek: The Lower Decks continues its own quirky story and seeing old friends. Star Trek: Prodigy gave us answers and strong story. Star Trek: Discovery figured out how to communicate to Species 10-C and save lives. Star Trek: Picard has Picard facing his past. We join the crew of the Enterprise under the command of Christopher Pike on exciting adventures in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. There was another season of Love, Death, and Robots with works from John Scalzi, Neal Asher, Michael Swanwick, Bruce Sterling, and Alan Baxter. Peacemaker gave us a good story of what first appears to be a loathsome hero. We took a trip to early Internet and celebrity in Pam and Tommy. Moon Knight brought one of the most complex Marvel heroes to the big screen. We learned the origins of the film adaptation of The Godfather in The Offer. We see a new version of Ian Fleming’s work and life during World War II in Fleming: The Man Who Would BeBond.   Kamala Khan burst on the scene with all her power in Ms. Marvel. The history of ILM was told in Light and Magic. Stranger Things continues its story and made a good old song a hot again. The separation of the workplace and home was explored in Severance. Robert Jordan’s world came alive in The Wheel of Time.  Arcane told the complex story of sisters on the opposite side of a war. For All Mankind look at what could have been. The fourth wall breaking Jennifer Walters arrived in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Ken Burns told us the story of the first American intellectual in Benjamin Franklin. He also reminds us of more recent history in The U.S. and the Holocaust. God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty should how a sex scandal destroyed an empire. Paper Girls was a great adaptation of the comic and it’s a crime we will not get more.We finally got the live action version of The Sandman we always wanted. Werewolf by Night gave us Man Thing and great old school Horror film. In Kenobi we see Obi Wan deal with grief and find the will continue fighting the Empire. Andor showed another side to the origins of the Rebel Alliance. A team tries to recreate Project Quantum Leap and have similar but interesting results. Jodie Whitaker faced off the Daleks in a time loop, the Sea Devils, the Master, and reunited with Tegan and Ace before regenerating to David Tennant during this year on Doctor Who. The Guardians of the Galaxy learned the meaning of Christmas in their special.  

I have been continuing the Galactic Journey’s Star Trek re watch on the 55^th anniversary of broadcast complete with commercials of the era. It is a great look at this classic series.

I did most of my anime watching on Toonami. It was great following it with the team of Toonami Faithful. Because of their recommendation I joined the crew of the Sunny on One Piece. Toonami started on the Fishman Island arc, and it was crazy and fun. I never played the game, but Shenmue was a great action anime. Made in Abyss explores a dangerous and beautiful world. Lupin meets Sherlock Holmes and confronts his past in Lupin III: Part 6. We continue the journey with Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha in Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon. Spear and Fang go on a sea trip in the new season of Primal. Genocide was an issue on the table in the next installment of Attack on Titan: The Final Season. There is a great serving of Lovecraftian Horror in Housing Complex C. The Heroes confront the Villains in the next season of My Hero Academia. This was a great way to celebrate Toonami’s 25^th anniversary. Online I checked out the adventures of Suletta Mercury in Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury.  

Saga came back and it is still a page turner, and we have an ending plan.  Far Sector has Green Lantern Sojourner “Jo” Mullein of Earth facing contemporary issues in deep space. The war continues for Makia Halfwolf in Monstress: Volume 6 The Vow. We see the story of Persephone in the modern day in Lore Olympus. DIE, Volume 3: The Great Game and Volume 4: Bleed provides a satisfactory conclusion to this fantasy adventure and investigates the inside of role-playing games.  Duncan, Bridgette, and Rose defeat Beowulf and continue to face the forces trying to restore King Arthur in Once and Future: vol 2 Old English and vol 3 The Parliament of Magpies. The world of DC hero Adam Strange is examined in Strange Adventures. Geoff Johns looks at Golden Age sidekicks in Stargirl: The Lost Children. Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow has Kara helping a young woman find her father’s murder in an interstellar adventure.

I read over 40 books including graphic novels, novellas, and non-fiction. Leviathan Falls James S.A. Corey give a great wrap up to The Expanse. Amina is guardian for the city Ora and listens to three stories in S. Qiouyi Lu’s In the Watchful City. Hope is found in Pacific trash dump in Catherynne M. Valente’s The Past is Red. Nnendi Okorafor’s Noor deals with a cyborg woman and a Fulani herdsman engaged in a race against time in northern Nigeria where there is a permanent storm. Security consultant “Jane Smith” receives information that leads her to a taxidermized hummingbird and salamander in Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer. Jamie Gray takes a job in another world to help scientists research Kaiju in John Scalzi’s The Kaiju Preservation Society. Young people go to new worlds and deal with the consequences of their adventure in Seanan McGuire’s Across the Green Grass Fields and Where the Drowned Girls Go. Andrew Weir continues to science a problem in a deep space journey in Project Hail Mary. Olga “Welga” Ramirez, executive bodyguard and ex-special forces, gets caught in the fight for AI right as part of her current job in S.B. Divya’s Machinehood. Shelly Parker-Chan examines the nature of destiny in 1340s China in She Who Became the Sun. P. Djèlí Clark follows Fatma el-Sha’arawi, an agent of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities, as she investigates the possible return of a powerful force in Master of Djinn. The fates of an alien starship captain, a violinist, and her sponsor are intertwined in Ryka Aoki’s Light From Uncommon Stars. Adrain Tchaikovsky mixes up Fantasy and SF tropes in Elder Race. A robot and monk investigate the meaning of life in Becky Chambers’ A Pslam for the Well-Built. Alix E. Harrow examines Sleeping Beauty and Snow White in A Spindle Splintered and A Mirror Mended. Princess Thanh finds herself in the heart of power struggle between her people and a neighboring kingdom in Aliette de Boddard’s Fireheart Tiger.  Five aliens get stuck at a barren station and help solve each other’s problem in Becky Chambers’ The Galaxy and the Ground Within. Nina and Oli, a cottonmouth snake from another world, try to save a friend in Darcie Little Badger’s A Snake Falls to Earth. Xiran Jay Zhao takes a new look at the classic mecha story in Iron Widow. Tarisai continues her mission to unify parts of her kingdom in Redemptor. Naomi Kritzer shows another side to AIs in Chaos on Catnet. Can El and her friends survive graduation in Naomi Novik’s The Last Graduate? Suspended animation and time travel are looked into in Robert A. Heinlein’s The Door Into Summer. Charlie Jane Anders continues her take on the Space Opera in Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak. Carl Hiaseen’s takes on Trump and large boas in Squeeze Me. One sees a fictional version of Brent Spiner’s life in Fan Fiction. We see how the arts survives a worldwide plague in Station Eleven. A young Asian girl faces the magic in 1920s Hollywood in Nghi Vo’s Siren Queen. Mary Robinette Kowal sends The Thin Man to space with Tesla Crane and Shal Steward in The Spare Man.

Marvel was the subject of 2 books. Douglas Wouk tries to understand the Marvel Universe in All of the Marvels: A Journey to the Ends of the Biggest Story Ever Told.  Abraham Riesman investigates the life of Marvel’s lead writer in True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee. Never Say You Can’t Survive by Charlie Jane Anders shows how one can get through tough times with writing.There were some great articles in Andrew Nettle and Iain McIntyre Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985.

I also read 86 pieces of short fiction (novellas, novelettes, short stories) for Hugo consideration> I then read Nebula and Hugo finalists that I missed. I am shooting for 100 stories before March.

I stuck with the same podcasts this year with The Inglorious Treksperts, Fatman Beyond, Radio Free Skaro, Verity, Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy, Anime Addicts Anonymous, Anime World Order, Starship Sofa, Escape Pod,  Hugos There¸Hugo, Girl, Toonami Faithful, The Incomparable , Our Opinions Are Correct, and The Best Movies Never Made. Full Frontal Nerdity ended a great run. Postcards from a Dying World and The Dickheads (focusing on the work by Philip K. Dick) by David Agranoff are great shows on all forms of SF. For All Mankind looks at the Super Friends comic from the 1970s. Octothorpe reports on the going on in SF Fandom. I discovered the pleasure of Random Trivia from the Incomparable network host by Erica Ensign and Steven Schapansky.

I am checking out short fiction in the Lady Business recommendation spread sheet. I will use other sources as the come on online. My plan is to read at least 100 pieces of short fiction.

Hugo, my dog, is doing well.

I did bike a bit more but I still have to push myself more.

I did not do as many reviews as I wanted. I need to work on discipline. I will do a full review once a month of something.

I did not write my detailed Worldcon review. I want to go back and do it. I need to plan it out soon.

As always, thanks to those who made the year as fun as it was. This I list would be long and I would forget someone. If you know me and are reading this you are one of those people.

2023 has a lot of unknowns. I think we are better off than we were in the last couple of years. I always hope for the best.

Take care.

2021

The year started with a bunch of thugs leading an insurrection against the lawful actions of the government which I serve. I hope those involved are punished to fullest extent of the law.

The next day my mother, Olga Sanmiguel, died. It was a shock. I had expected her to outlive her mother. Her death was not due to COVID, though the disruptions it caused could not have helped. She got to die in the home which lived in for over 50 years. I learned finances from her. My mom knew I was responsible human and she loved me.

Other people who left us this year includes Timothy Lane, Storm Constantine, Mira Furlan, Cloris Leachman, Cicely Tyson, Christopher Plummer, Leon Spinks, Yaphet Kotto, Rowena, George Segal, Jessica Walter, Beverly Cleary, Larry McMurty, Prince Phillip, Michael Collins, Olympia Dukakis, Norman Lloyd, Charles Gordin, Ned Beatty, Don Sakers, Richard Donner, Sonny Chiba, Ed Asner, Norma MacDonald, Judi B. Castro, Colin Powell, William F. Nolan, Jackie Lane, Patricia Kennealy-Morrison, Ed Meskys, Dean Stockwell, Elizabeth Anne Hull, Michael Ferguson, Erle Korshak, L. Neil Smith, Bob Baker, Stephen Sondheim, Lina Wertmüller, Chris Achilléos, Anne Rice, Joan Didion, Desmond Tutu, Andrew Vachss, and Betty White.

I was on a podcast for a few months and then I was not. I thought I was doing well, taking point on shows about the extended Justice League cut, and Love, Death, and Robots. I also wrote the titles and summaries for the shows.I rubbed some of the other hosts the wrong way and a friend did not back me up or coach me well when I needed it. I am still angry about that. Thanks to Patty, Kim, Christian Basil, and Paul Weimer who helped me work through this crisis of confidence.

Thanks to COVID, we had a lot of time to think about the Hugos. Martha Wells won for Best Novel and Best Series for her Murderbot Diaries. FIYAH won Best Semi-Prozine. This a great source of SFF from People of Color. The Coode Street Podcast won Best Fancast for discussing what was happening in books and talking to top members of the field. Sheree Renée Thomas and Andrea Hairston did a great job hosting the Hugos. They had great bits and kept the ceremony moving.

Discon 3 this year’s Worldcon, had a bumpy road. As a result of COVID the con moved to December so a good chunk of it could be live. There was a strong virtual component and events were streamed out to the world. The programming live and virtual was engaging. A great idea was to have a reception for the fans to meet the attending Hugo Finalists. I go to meet Lori and editor Kevin from Hugo, Girl! podcast on Hugo night. I also got to meet Jenny Nicholson, Hugo Finalist and You Tuber. I hope we can ease eating restrictions for future con suites.

Necronomicon was live this this year. There was no con suite due to COVID but there was socializing. The trivia contest was fun as usual. I got to see some of the Florida pros and local fans.

Megacon went on with a strict mask protocol. I went there to see the local pros and fans doing panels. It was fun to do with a mask.

I also went to see films regularly with a mask on. PG: Goreman is a twisted take on finding a creature in your yard films of the 80s. I Care a Lot was a scary film of a woman who essentially stole people’s lives and agency. Tenet had a great idea but parts of it were not well executed. Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga was a film with great moments and Will Farrell. The Old Guard looked at the idea of immortality in a great action story. Cryptozoo was an animated film of woman trying to build a sanctuary for cryptids and things go wrong. Mandibles showed what happens to inept French criminals get a hold of fly the size of a medium size dog. Black Widow brought back our favorite femme fatal Avenger and her sister. Space Jam: A New Legacy was an odd spectacle that could have been much simpler. The Suicide Squad was a bit nihilistic, but fun to watch (especially seeing Starro). Shang Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings gave a us a great take on the Master of Kung Fu and reminded us of the talent that is Awkwafina. Daniel Craig got a great send off in No Time to Die. One of Jack Kirby’s visions came to life in Eternals. I finally saw the fun jewel that is Night of the Comet. Aaron Sorkin gave a look into TV history in Being the Ricardos. Marvel gave rounded out the year with the awesome Spider-Man: No Way Home.

I binged most of the Oscar Best Picture finalists in April. The winner Nomadland showed a new way of life and we got to see beautiful parts of the country well filmed. Sound of Metal let us experience what deafness is like. The Father was heart wrenching story of seeing dementia from a first-person point of view. Minari showed another take of the immigrant experience. Promising Young Woman gave us justice in situations when it is rare in real life. The animated short If Anything Happens I Love You conveys the pain felt by families taken away from senseless violence that could be prevented.   

There are a few things I hope to see get Oscar nominations. Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street which showed how the classic children’s show came to be. Rita Moreno:  Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It told the story of one of our greatest stars got to where she was. Last Night in Soho deserves some technical awards for recreating 1960s London and the split screen stuff with Anya Taylor-Joy and Thomasin McKenzie. Denis Villenueve gave us Arrakis and all its plots within plots in the first part of the epic Dune. No Man of God shows FBI agent Bill Hagmaier interview serial killer Ted Bundy and how it effects his psyche.

Two documentaries deserve more attention. Sisters With Transistors told the story of women who were pioneers in electronic music including Delia Derbyshire who did original arrangements of the Doctor Who theme. Feels Good Man explains how a comic creation can be turned into a weapon on social media.  

Anime was still going strong in the theater. Demon Slayer: Mugen Train takes the fight to a train and did well in the box office. A university student and a girl in a wheelchair change each other’s lives in Josee, the Tiger, and the Fish. Midoriya is a tagged as a fugitive but fights on to stop a sinister plot in My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission. There was a new look at the original story in Sword Art Online: Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night. We got a theatrical re-release of Macross Plus and I hope we see more Macross on the big screen.  

I stayed with the same shows this year: The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, Stargirl, and Black Lightning. Black Lightning ended with the characters facing challenges with and without their powers. Supergirl confronted some of the evils in the world which are hard to fight and fought Nixly and Lex Luthor in her last season. Stargirl and the new JSA proved their worth facing Eclipso. The Legends of Tomorrow kept going on their goofy way. Batwoman kept up its strong themes with a new lead actor. We got the best life action Superman television show ever in Superman and Lois. It dealt with an older Superman and Lois with them trying to save Smallville and the world while being good parents. Nancy Drew is a bit odd but engaging. Locke and Key came back with some new surprises and more to come. Titans had to fight the manipulations of Jonathan Crane. Emily in Paris continued her adventures in the great city. The Expanse concluded the Nemesis Games earlier in the year and came back at the end to deal with Babylon’s Ashes. Our favorite crewmates of Star Trek: The Lower Decks grew in character. Star Trek: Prodigy gave us great a YA Star Trek story. Star Trek: Discovery faced the Emerald Chain and then DMA this year. We see the tranisition from Republic to Empire in Star Wars: The Bad Batch. There was another season of Love, Death, and Robots with works from John Scalzi, J.G. Ballard, Joe Lansdale, Neal Asher, Rich Larson, Paolo Bacigalupi, Joachim Heijndermans, and Harlan Ellison.Kevin Smith and his team took us back to Eternia in Masters of the Universe: Revelation. Our young heroes in Young Justice face new challenges on Earth, Mars, and the magical plane. The live action Cowboy Bebop was well made but left me with a meh feeling. WandaVision focused on dealing with grief. Falcon and the Winter Soldier asked who deserves Captain America’s shield and what it means. The show also makes us face the problems our country must deal with. Loki brought the multiverse to Marvel universe. Hawkeye has an Avenger examines his past and train a new hero. The fall of the Galactic Empire is the focus of Foundation. The Doctor found out new information on their past and face the Flux in the year’s Doctor Who. We find out what happened to Boba Fett after Return of the Jedi in his new show.

I also have been doing a Star Trek re watch on the 55^th anniversary of broadcast on Galactic Journey (blog) Discord channel. This is complete with commercials of the era. Its great fun seeing these again even without the remastered effects.  I also binged watched to catchup on Bob’s Burgers and Archer. They are both good although I like the former a bit more since it’s a bit more positive.

I stuck with Fire Force, Sword Art Online: Alicization Lasting, Food Wars! and My Hero Academia. SSSS:Gridman was great take on Kaiju and super team shows. The first part of Attack on Titan: The Final Season was powerful and disturbing. The Promised Neverland was OK but felt lacking at the end. The Kingdom of Science continued its fight in Dr. Stone. I did a dubbed rewatch of Yashashime: Princess Half-Demon. Fena: Pirate Princess was a great looking and well animated adventure. I hope we get more. Blade Runner: Black Lotus allows some of the great creators of anime to play in the world of replicants. I want to thank Toonami for showing Batman: Ninja, Batman: Under the Red Hood, and Batman: The Long Halloween, Part One and Two.

I did not read much in new comics regularly outside of the Hugo finalists. Parable of the Sower looks at a scary future where empathy may help us get through it. Seanan McGuire gave a us an intriguing adventure with Ghost Spider: Volume 1 Dogs Days Are Over. The war is getting started for Makia Halfwolf in Monstress: Volume 5 Warchild. People trapped in an RPG world turned real continues in DIE, Volume 2: Split the Party.  A grandmother takes her grown grandson in a modern Arthurian adventure in Once and Future Volume 1: The King is Undead.  A found family tries to escape space pirates while trying to continue their mission in Invisible Kingdom Volume 2: Edge of Everything. Kevin Smith and his team did a great comic prequel for their tv show. Kamala Khan must fight for control of her image in Magnificent Ms. Marvel, vol. 3: Outlawed.

I feel I did not read as many novels and novellas this year. I am not sure if it was the COVID or something else. Hao Jingfang looked at how government effects the science and arts in Vagabonds.  Hench is told from the point of view someone working for a super villain and what problems superhero can cause. Starship captain Nia Imani takes custody of mysterious boy in Simon Jimenez’s The Vanished Birds. The film Birth of a Nation turns people into monsters in more ways than one in P. Djèlí Clark’s Ring Shout. Lindsay Ellis looks at first contact in the year 2007 in Axiom’s End. An experimental community is cut off from civilization by a volcano and they meet bigfoot in Max Brooks’ Devolution. Noemí Taboada tries to help her newlywed cousin in a mansion in the Mexican countryside Silvia Moreno Garcia’s Mexican Gothic. Susanna Clarke brings a world full of statues and someone exploring it in Piranesi.  Murderbot tries to keep humans he is working for in his first novel Network Effect by Marth Wells. Rebecca Roanhorse’s Black Sun deals with a world dealing with the possible social upheaval with a solar eclipse. Justin T. Call asks if someone can avoid a dark destiny in Master of Sorrows. Tasmyn Muir has Harrow rise in the emperor’s service, and it gets complicated in Harrow the Ninth. Bree Matthews deals with grief and a secret society in Tracy Deonn’s Legendborne. Mona must use her powers to manipulate dough to protect her society in T Kingfisher’s A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking. Yadirel tries to prove himself as brujo in Aidan Thomas’ Cemetery Boys. A girl investigates her cousin’s death in Darcie Little Badger’s Elatsoe. Jordan Ifueko has a girl forced infiltrate a prince entourage to kill him in Raybearer. A new take on a magical school, a school where students are fighting for their lives is Naomi Novik’s angle in A Deadly Education.Charlie Jane Anders gave us a fun YA Space Opera with Victories Greater Than Death. Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass must prevent a war with aliens in Arkady Martine’s A Desolation Called Peace. We hear the story of The Great Gatsby from Jordan Baker (who is Asian in the book) in Nghi Vo’s The Chosen and the Beautiful.

I stuck with the same podcasts this year with The Inglorious Treksperts, Fatman Beyond, Radio Free Skaro, Verity, Mission Log, Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy, Anime Addicts Anonymous, Anime World Order, Starship Sofa, Escape Pod, Full Frontal Nerdity, Hugos There¸Hugo, Girl and The Best Movies Never Made. Morgendorks ended a great run covering the animated show, Daria. I discovered Toonami Faithful, a podcast dedicated to the Toonami segment on Adult Swim.

I am checking out short fiction in the Lady Business recommendation spread sheet.

Hugo, my dog, is doing well.

I need to get back into a groove riding my bike. New work schedule and walking the dog makes it a challenge.

I did not do as many reviews as I wanted. I need to work on discipline. I skipped my Worldcon report last year, I need to start this year’s report after the recordings of the panels are released in January. As always, I will work on balancing fan writing, reading, media watching, podcasting, and con work.

As always, thanks to those who made the year as fun as it was. This I list would be long and I would forget someone.

2022 I think we will be rocky at the start due to the Omicron variant, hopefully we will work through this and push forward.

Take care.

2020

What a year. We had a plague which has killed 1 out of 1,000 Americans. Our daily routines have changed, and we will not return to what were before March 2020 for several months.

At least Americans got to go into space in a spaceship of own design and about 30 miles away from my home. We did this twice.

Many great people left the party this year Neil Peart, Buck Henry, Mike Resnick, Christopher Tolkein, Steve Stiles, Earl Kemp, Terry Jones, Kobe Bryant, Kirk Douglas, Freeman Dyson, James Lipton, Max von Sydow, Alfred Worden, Kenny Rogers, Brian Dennehy, Little Richard, Jerry Stiller, Dennis O’Neill, Vera Lynn, Ian Holm, Carl Reiner, Grant Imahara, John Lewis, John Saxon, Olivia de  Havilland, Wilford Brimley, Susan Ellison, Ben Cross, Chadwick Boseman, Charles R. Saunders, Diana Rigg, Terry Goodkind, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Mac Davis, Helen Reddy, Bob Gibson, Whitey Ford, Johnny Nash, Eddie Van Halen, James Randi, Richard A. Lupoff, Sean Connery, Alex Trebeck, Dave Prowse, Ben Bova, Chuck Yeager, Dean Ing, Richard Corben, John le Carre, Phyllis Eisenstein, Charley Pride,  Jeremy Bulloch, James E. Gunn,  Philip Martin, William Link, and Dawn Wells

It was a good year for the Hugos, though it was not a good ceremony. A Memory of Empire by Arkady Martine, a novel about the perils and allure of an empire or dominant culture from some one that is outside. It was a novel about big ideas set in a big place. R.F Kuang won the Astounding Award and took the industry to task on how it treats writers form marginalized groups. Amal El-Mothar and Max Gladstone showed a friendship spanning over tons of time in their novella This is How You Lose the Time War.

CoNZealand, this year’s Worldcon, went virtual. There was good programming, but there were some big mistakes. The Sir Julius Vogel Awards should have been its own event and ballots and packets should have been sent to the membership. This was new situation. I hope that future Worldcons will have a virtual component. The virtual Art Show and Dealer’s Room were interesting. I do agree that the events should be done in host country’s time. Cons should do programming online during non-primetime hours at the host country.

NASFiC 2020 was also virtual. The used a different system which worked well. Its good to have options with how to do these events online. It is a pity it had to go virtual since I have never been in Ohio.

Necronomicon came to my home this year. They Necronomicon Trivia used an online platform for their contest this time. It was challenging and I came in third which gave me a virtual bronze medal (no roses sadly). Masquerade was different, a non-competitive event. I did some panels which were engaging. Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me was great as usual.

Virtual is OK. I do miss seeing my fellow fans and discuss the issues of the field and fandom and just plain geeking out.

Films were scarce due to COVID, but there some good genre films. Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) was a fun adventure with one DC’s most chaotic characters. DC did another take in Superman: Man of Tomorrow as an animated film. Batman: Gotham by Gaslight had an odd twist, while Batman: Hush was fun. Wonder Woman: Bloodlines was great take on our favorite Amazon.Scoob appears to attempt to create the Hanna-Barbera Cinematic universe. On a Magical Night has a woman facing her past literally to help her present. Prospect is about a young girl and father looking for gems on alien world, a story which could find itself in Analog or Asimov’s. Sputnik is about an alien that comes back with a cosmonaut, a great thriller like Alien.

Parasite dominated the Oscars. It was a great story of a struggling South Korean family with great visuals. The Joker had a great performance but had some disturbing elements. Marriage Story told a painful story of a relationship that fails. The animated short Hair Love shows what a father will go through for his daughter. Jojo Rabbit was also a powerful film with a child’s view of a bad situation. 1917 one take look deserved to win for best cinematography. Little Women looked beautiful. I am surprised Uncut Gems, which had a power performance from Adam Sadler, got no recognition.

There are a few things I hope to see get Oscar nominations. The Trial of the Chicago 7 took us back to the 60s to look at events which led to our current political situation. Mank told the story of the writer of Citizen Kane. I am looking forward to seeing I’m Thinking of Ending Things, and Zappa.

Just Mercy made clear message about the state of American Justice. VHYes was innovative way to tell a story as an overwritten video tape. The Hunt had some great action sequences, but I am not sure what they were trying to say in the film. CRSHD showed the perils of dating in the social media era. Crescendo had Israeli and Palestinian musicians learning to work as an orchestra. Alice is aboutan abandoned wife and mother who will do anything to make ends meet. The Ghost of Peter Sellers was about a disastrous film shoot due to a star who lost confidence in the film. Shirley was subtle thriller about a writer, her work, and a couple she befriends. Palm Springs was a great take on the time loop film. We learned how to fight the good fight in John Lewis: Good Trouble. Vivarium was an odd look at suburbia. Booksellers looked at the world of book dealers and lovers of books. At the Video Store showed the rise and struggle of independent video store. 18 to Party a group of teens in the 1980s face life while waiting to get into a club and UFOs. Enola showed another Holmes taking on the world. My Comic Book Country showed the role of the comic book shop in pop culture.

I caught up on a lot of old films. The Conversation told a powerful and quiet story about surveillance. The Ascent showed the brutality of the Russian front during World War II. A Taste of Cherry shows a man looking for help but may found another solution to his problem. Braindead was disturbing but an engaging horror film. Hard Boiled was a frantic action film. Paris is Burning looked at the Ball culture in New York and let us share in the fun. Gold Rush showed the pioneer Charlie Chaplin. Flight of Dragons was a forgotten fantasy gem. Zodiac was an intense film by a great film maker. Auto Focus tried to solve the mystery of Bob Crane’s death. The Bad and the Beautiful told a story of old Hollywood some of which is still relevant. Gary Cooper is man whose past catches up with him Man of the West. Vagabond tells the story of someone who needed more help than she got. There were some funny bits in the parody bio pic Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Please Stand By is a quest story with the love of Star Trek mixed in. Monte Carlo was a fun teen rom com in the sun. Gimme Shelter showed us the Rolling Stones in 1969. I finally saw the power of The Elephant Man.  

Before the lockdown I got to see some anime in the theater. In Weathering with You was about young people trying to face the future on their own terms. My Hero Academia: Heroes Risings gets our young heroes into a fix and take it head on. Ride Your Wave was a tragic love story that gave you the feels. Lupin III: Fujiko Mine’s Lie showed a new side of our favorite femme fatale. Lupin III: The First was a good old red jacket adventure. A Whisker Away is about a troubled girl who is turned to a cat by a trickster cat, can she save her humanity before itis too late. Thanks to the studios, Fathom Events, and Netflix.

I stayed with the same shows this year: The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, and Black Lightning. Arrow ended with a great post Crisis story. Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD with a fab trip through time.  The second season of Altered Carbon continues to ask questions about identity. The Magicians combined a heist and musical and started a new world at its end. The Good Place found an answer to one of the biggest questions of all time.  Locke and Key was a great adaptation of a comic with great visuals and scares. She-Ra: Princess of Power made an enemy into a friend at its conclusion. I saw the 4^th season of Veronica Mars which was powerful but sad. The Rocinante’s crew face different challenges in the fifth season of The Expanse. Titans was superheroes with a small budget was engaging. The Doom Patrol showed misfits doing their best when the world is stacked against them. Stargirl rises to the occasion to save family and friends. Harley Quinn looks for her place in the DC Universe and causes chaos along the way. The Haunting of Bly Manor was a great look into the work of Henry James. Swamp Thing did a great take on the Earth Elemental. Emily in Paris was a nice trip to the great city. Primal has a man and his dinosaur partner face a hostile world. Star Trek: Picard fixed the ending of the last TNG film. Star Trek: The Lower Decks showed the other parts of Starfleet. Star Trek: Discovery tries to bring back the Federation in the 32^nd century. I followed The Mandalorian and his charge through the galaxy. Lovecraft Country made us look at our painful past and maybe understand our present. The Doctor had to face the Master and new information about herself in this year’s Doctor Who.

I stuck with Fire Force, Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld, and My Hero Academia. Carole and Tuesday made great music. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind concluded the team’s fight against the boss in Italy. Ad Astra was a great YA SF story. Wave, Listen to Me follows a young women budding career as a radio host. Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon is a worthy sequel to Inuyasha. I need to go back and finish Deca-Dence, which had some great ideas.

I did not read much in new comics regularly outside of Doctor Who’s comic from the magazine. I did love Dr. Nnedi Okorafor’s Laguardia. The story deals with issues of immigration we are facing today and demands to be animated. Paper Girls finished its story about friendship and time travel. Monstress has Makia making hard decisions and continues its incredible story. Mooncakes is about a also a story of family and friendship with warm and friendly art which also asks to be animated. Die is an interesting story of a D&D like game becoming real and how it effects its players. The Wicked+The Divine is about old deities in our world. I need to read the rest of the series. It was interesting reading the Flash Gordon finalists for the Retro Hugos. I also had fun going through the DC and Marvel digital archives through their online services, though they are interesting gaps.

Sarah Gailey took us to a magical LA where Ivy Gamble investigates a murder at school in Magic for Liars. Max Gladstone sends a Silicon Valley CEO to deep space in the middle of a power struggle in Empress of Forever. Aliens come the U.S. Virgin Islands and form a complicated relationship with the locals in Cadwell Turnbull’s The Lesson. I learned about heralds and horses in Mercedes Lackey’s Arrows of the Queen. Dark forces try to prevent New York from gaining sentience in N.K. Jemisin’s The City We Became. Olaf Stapeldon looks at dog becoming sentient in a plausible way in Sirius. John Scalzi concluded in the Interdependency series with The Last Emperox. Two twins separated by a continent must discover their connection before others do in Seanan McGuire’s Middlegame. Deeplight by Frances Hardinge is a YA adventure in a seaside town where a young man finds great power and needs to figure what to do with it. We follow January’s coming of age story while being pursued by those who wish to exploit her in Alix E, Harrow’s The Ten Thousands Doors of January. An AI who loves cats tries to help a young teenage girl in trouble in Catfishing on the Catnet. A sister, descended from fox spirits, joins the Space Force to clear her brother of a crime in Yoon Ha Lee’s Dragon Pearl. Two sisters must stop the boundary breakdown between 2 worlds in Fran Wilde’s Riverland. Oliver must fulfill a task set by his town in T. Kingfisher’s Minor Mage. Oak continues to maneuver in the world of fairy in The Wicked King. Gideon is forced to postpone her escape from the Ninth House to serve Harrohawk in a mysterious world of intrigue in Tasmyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth. An American submarine (circa 1944) is sent to a future world to fight a war in A.E. van Vogt and E. Mayne Hull’s The Winged Man. Rick Urquhart is on the run on Mars in Leigh Brackett’s Shadow Over Mars. Two young girls promised their father to stay of mischief while he is away, soon they drink a potion and turn into kangaroos and eventually turn back into humans and rescue their father from a tyrant in Eric Linklater’s The Wind of the Moon. Tade Thompson creates a complex world of aliens, telepathy, and politics in his Wormwood Trilogy. Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi follows a brother and sister with incredible power as they face a hostile world and how they might change it. Sarah Pinsker’s A Song for A New Day tells how the world was effected by a plague and gathering are banned. Princess Sun must make name for herself in battle in Kate Elliot’s Unconquerable Sun. David Gerrold has young people helping colonize a new world in Hella. Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future demands that we work on the world’s problems and offers possible solutions. Three sisters face their own issues and a world hostile towards witches like them in Alix E. Harrow’s The Once and Future Witches. Cory Doctorow warns of the power of nation state using our technology against us while a young woman finds what side she is on in Attack Surface. The residents of Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children go to help one of their own in a Universal-like horror world in Seanan McGuire’s Come Tumbling Down.

I stuck with the same podcasts this year with The Inglorious Treksperts, Fatman Beyond, Radio Free Skaro, Verity, Mission Log, Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy, Anime Addicts Anonymous, Starship Sofa, Escape Pod, and The Best Movies Never Made. Galactic Suburbia ended a great run. I started listening to local fans and a friend on Full Frontal Nerdity. I have also joined

I plan to check out some short fiction in the Lady Business recommendation spread sheet.

Hugo, my dog, is doing well. I have gotten back into a groove riding my bike. I hope I can keep up with it next year.

I did not do as many reviews as I wanted. I need to work on discipline. At this time, I have not done my Worldcon report. I need to focus on that next month. As always, I will work on balancing fan writing, reading, media watching, podcasting, and con work.

As always, thanks to those who made the year as fun as it was. This I list would be long and I would forget someone.

2021 we hope will be better. On January 20, there will be a more stable and kinder government in power. As I said earlier COVID is still with us, but we seem to see the end of this current situation. There will be spots of beauty here and there. We will all need to look for that.

Take care.

2019

This year was a bit of a downer.

My dad, Luis “Lucho” E. Sanmiguel, died. I am still processing this. I thought about him a lot when he was alive, and we always talked. Our relationship had its ups and downs, but we had each other’s back and we loved each other.

Others that left us include Peter Mayhew, Peter Tork, Paul Darrow, Terrance Dicks, Katherine Helmond, Gloria Vanderbilt, Syd Mead, Marie Fredriksson, D.C. Fontana, Brad Linaweaver, Vonda McIntyre, Martin Hoare, Andi Schecter, Janet Asimov, Gene Wolfe, Monkey Punch, Kazou Koike, Betty Ballantine, Doris Day, Carroll Spiney, Carol Channing, Lee Iacocca, IM Pei, Ric Ocasek, Eddie Money, Peter Fonda, Robert Foster, Sid Haig, Michael Pollard, John Singleton, Diahann Carroll, Toni Morrison, Valerie Harper, Georgia Engels, Jan-Michael Vincent, Luke Perry, Rip Torn, Peggy Lipton, Tim Conway, Arte Johnson, Rip Taylor, Super Dave Osborne, Alexi Leonov, Chris Craft, Dorothy Olsen, Luis Alvarez, Elijha Cummings, John Paul Stevens, Mark Dmuchowski, and the victims of Kyoto Animation fire.

NASFiC 2019 was in Layton, Utah. They should not have had so many guests of honor. There were many good panels, and it was great see old friends there.

OASIS 30 happened. We read the poem this time, and honored a great Florida writer, Adam-Troy Castro.

It was a good year for the Hugos. The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal, a novel about an alternate world with an accelerate space program with participation women as astronauts, won best novel. Dr. Jeanette Epps, an astronaut, presented the award to Kowal. Jeanette Ng won the John W. Campbell Award and help get the award renamed to the Astounding Award. Archive of Our Own won the Hugo for Best Related Work.

Dublin in 2019: An Irish Worlcon was fun and a challenge. There were more people than anticipated. Lines before panels was a new thing, but it all worked out. I did a panel on the Hugo finalists and it was great and an honor to be on it. It was great con to go to and work on.

I did three panels at AFO 2019, the 20^th Anime Festival Orlando. The panels were about SF Anime, Leji Matsumoto, Superheroes in AnimeThere was also some great Anime Music Videos shown. I need to plan for next year since it will be the 20^th AFO.

Necronomicon was great. I ran a dealers table for the fifth year in a row. My team did not win Trivia, but it was fun. Masquerade was earlier, but power as usual. It was sad since Mark Dmuchowski, died before the con. I did some panels that he would have been on and did my best. Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me was great as usual. Thanks to those who helped at the table.

There were good genre films. Ralph and Vanellope went on the internet in Ralph Breaks the Internet. DC recreated the epic Death of Superman and The Reign of the Supermen as an animated film. Billy Batson and his team came to life in Shazam. Nichelle Nichols got her due in the documentary Women in Motion (I got see in the Florida Film Festival, hopefully it will get a wider release). Jordan Peele shows the power of Horror combined with a great idea in Us. The great Marvel Saga came to a great conclusion in Avengers: Endgame. Peter Parker went abroad in Spider-Man: Far From Home. The strengths and weakness of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine were explored in the documentary What We Left Behind. I saw The Quiet Place for the Hugo and it took an idea and ran with it brilliantly. Doctor Sleep was a great sequel to The Shining. The Irishman was interesting, but parts of it bother me. The year and the Saga ended with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. It was a satisfying end, though I understand some criticisms of the film. I finally to see Alien the theater and resaw Tron. We saw the Fourth Doctor save the universe in presentation of the Blu-Ray for Doctor Who “Logopolis”.

I saw the Oscars with friends this year. I cheered when Ruth E. Carter won for Best Costume Design for Black Panther. I thought Olivia Coleman was going to be the next Doctor, she did not and played Queen Anne in The Favourite. Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse swung to win Best Animated Feature. This film won an Oscar, Nebula, and Hugo. Spike Lee finally got an Oscar for Screenplay for BlacKkKlansman. Lady Gaga deservedly won for Best Song for “Shallow” from A Star Is Born. Rami Malek won for excellent portrayal of Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody.  Showing us the Moon from the point of view of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin earned First Man Best Visual Effects.

There a few things I hope to see get Oscar nominations. Once Upon a Time Hollywood took us back to the 60s to look at one of the most infamous crimes ever. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood told us how Fred Rogers changed a person’s life. Bombshell showed us what a monster Roger Ails was. The Two Popes had two men talking about theology and we were fascinated. I am looking forward to seeing 1917, Parasite, and Just Mercy.

Anna was a goofy action film with a ton anachronism. Gloria Bell was a glorious film about an older woman who deserves love and respect. Hail Satan looked at the separation of church and state. All is True examined the retirement of William Shakespeare. Echo in the Canyon took us on trip to the California sound of mid-60s. I finally took a trip with Alain Resnais in The Last Year in Marienbad. I finally saw Silence of the Lambs and it was powerful thriller.

I also resaw All the President’s Men, and Contact. I also caught for the first time To Live and Die in LA, and Jacob’s Ladder.

Anime continued to be strong at the theater. In A Silent Voice was a gut-wrenching look at guilt and how to deal with it. I Want to Eat Your Pancreas shows how to face life and death. Promare was delightful chaos served up by Trigger. One Piece: Stampede was a fun romp with Luffy and the crew. Char’s Counterattack was a glorious show in the theaters. Thanks to the studios and Fathom Events.

Mostly stayed with the same shows this year Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD. Gotham ended by giving me the show I wanted in the last episode. Batwoman was a great addition to CW. Kathy Kane is a very complex and deep story and I wish this show dropped all at once. The Crisis on Infinite Earths brings to life the series and I cannot wait to see it conclusion. Arrow seems to be heading to worthy end. Eliot, Darlene, Dominique kicked ass in the end of Mr Robot. A Series of Unfortunate Events explained all and wrapped its story satisfactorily. I did not like the ending of The Punisher. Jessica Jones decided to keep fighting the good fight at the end of her series. The Magicians ended on sad note but used “Take on Me” in the last episode. Good Omens gave us an interesting Apocalypse and one of the greatest couples of all time. Black Mirror continues to ask the big questions. Dark gave us more information that will lead to a conclusion in the future. Stranger Things brought the Cold War to a mall and furthered the relationships. The Gelflings revolted against the Skesis. The series could have used more Mystics, but the ones that were there were cool. Carnival Row took us to a world of fawns and faeries, yet facing serious problems. Tyranny face the fury of Julianna in the last season of The Man in the High Castle. Rufus Sewell deserve recognition for his portrayal of John Smith. The rebellion fights on in She-Ra: Princess of Power. We went out of the Solar System this year on The Expanse. Damon Lindelof showed the power of Watchmen by making us look at our ugly past.

I did retro re-watch of Mobile Suit Gundam for it 40^th anniversary. It holds up rather well. Saw more on Toonami this year because they are getting stuff faster. We got a ton of answers on Attack on Titan. The Promised Neverland was disturbing and fascinating. Kirito went to fight for friends in another world in Sword Art Online: Alicization. Soma Yukihira learns and teaches about good food. Shinira Kusakabe wants to be hero in Fire Force. A new way of doing mechs were presented in Gen:Lock. We learn about the early days of Char Azanable and Amuro Ray in Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin – Advent of the Red Comet. Civilization is being rebuilt with the glory of science in Dr. Stone. A boy fights to save his sister from permanently being a demon in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. My Hero Academia and One Punch Man continues to be strong.

I did not read much in new comics regularly outside of Doctor Who’s comic from the magazine. I did love On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden. It is compelling story of a young woman forming bonds while rebuilding structures in space. Its use of technology and colors is unique. Paper Girls continues its incredible story . Abbott tells a story of detective in Detroit in the 70s with some horror mixed in. Majorie Liu and Sana Takeda takes us wild and wonderful worlds in Monstress.

Sam J. Miller created a city based on offshore in oil rig which is disrupted when a woman comes on an Orca. Becky Chambers showed what happened to space fleet after their journey is over. Two lovers are trapped in time on Time Was by Ian MacDonald. Charlie Jane Anders takes to a planet’s permanent where 2 groups of human live in The City in Middle of the Night. Future war is examined in Kameron Hurley’s The Light Brigade. A young woman takes on her father’s money lending business and gets the attention by powerful beings in Spinning Silver. The crew of the Rocinante fight back in Tiamat’s Wrath. Brain Movies volume 1-5 covers the scripts of Harlan Ellison including the sadly unproduced Cutter’s World. In an alternate world humanity fights for survival and equality in Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky. Maggie Hoskie is fighting monster in a post climate change world in Trail of Lightning. The Wayward Children will try to restore one of their own in Beneath the Sugar Sky. An AI and a woman investigate a mystery Aliette de Bodard’s The Tea Master and the Detective. A young girl finds adventure in steampunk alternate history New Orleans in The Black God’s Drums by P. Djiel Clark. Beauty is a commodity controlled by the Belles by Dhonielle Clayton. A usurper to the thrown has taken power and must be removed in The Raven Tower. Two young women are taken to the fairy world as girls and face court intrigue in Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince. In another alternate future the Civil War ended in chaos when the zombies rose, and Jane McKeene must fight them and humans in Dread Nation. Potential magic users try to bring back magic in The Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. A young woman goes on the road to find her own path in Tess of the Road. Peter Thiel plotted Gawker’s end in Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker and the Anatomy of Intrigue by Ryan Holiday. Joe Straczynski explained how he overcame poverty and abuse in Becoming Superman. In an alternate Egypt police investigate The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djiel Clark. Cory Doctorow gave us some interesting takes on the future with 4 stories in Radicalized. A young woman meets Houdini and get involved in a mystery in Kerri Maniscalco’s Escaping From Houdini. Timelines are the new battlefield for human equality in Annalee Newitz’s The Future of Another Timeline. The squad searches for Who Killed Sherlock Holmes by Paul Cornell. The Athena Club is looking for Sherlock Holmes in The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl by Theodora Goss.

Because of the Hugos There Podcast, I decided to fill in some gaps in my Hugo Novel reading. John Brunner showed the 2010 in 1968 terms in Stand on Zanzibar. We take a tour of a post-apocalyptic Earth in This Immortal by Roger Zelazny. We follow a boy scout in Farmer in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein. One follows a race of supermen in Slan by A.E. van Vogt. The tale of Arthur is told in The Sword and the Stone.

A good source of Trek info can be found in The Inglorious Treksperts podcast. The Best Movies Never Made talks about movies that never were. Asimov’s does a podcast on some of their stories. Still listening to Fatman Beyond, Radio Free Skaro, Verity, Mission Log, Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy, Anime Addicts Anonymous, Starship Sofa, and Escape Pod.

I plan to check out some novelettes and short fiction in the Lady Business recommendation spread sheet.

I got a dog and named him Hugo after the award. He has put a wrench in my bike riding schedule. I need to figure out how to find the time to bike and take of the bike.

I did more fan writing this year and I hope to keep it up. As always, I will work on balancing fan writing, reading, media watching, and con work.

My website got shutdown. The people who hosted it got out of the web hosting business. I may do more of my Micro Reviews on this blog.

As always, thanks to those who made the year as fun as it was. This I list would be long and I would forget someone.

2020 will be as crazier. There will be a trial in Senate and a contentious election. There will be more surprises and insanity. There will be spots of beauty here and there. We will all need to look for that.

Take care.

2018

WOW. I did not think things could get crazier than the previous year, but it did. The good news is that the fight goes against nonsense goes on. Whether next year will be a return to sanity, who knows. Let us hope.

Some great people left us. They include Delores O’Riordan, Ursula K. LeGuin, Jack Ketchum, John Mahoney, Mickey Jones, Billy Graham, David Ogden Stiers, Kate Wilhem, Stephen Hawking, Steven Bochco, Isao Takahata, Milos Forman, R. Lee Emery, Harry Anderson, Michael Anderson, Margot Kidder, Tom Wolfe, Alan Bean, Gardner Dozois, Harlan Ellison, Steve Ditko, Neil Simon, John McCain, Marie Severin, Jacqueline Pearce, Burt Reynolds, Gary Kurtz, Marty Balin, Jamal Koshoggi, Celeste Yarnall, Paul Allen, Kitty O’Neil, Sandra Locke, Stan Lee, Douglas Rain, Roy Clark, William Goldman, Gloria Katz, Fred Patten, Penny Marshall, and the 17 people killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

It was a good year for the Hugos. N.K. Jemisin is the first person too win three novel Hugos in a row for the same series. Rebecca Roanhorse won the John W. Campbell Award and Best Short story Hugo. Mike Glyer and File 770 have recused themselves forever from the fan awards after winning the Best Fanzine Hugo.

Worldcon 76 was fun. It had rough months in planning but it came together. Spider Robinson was finally a Worldcon Guest of Honor. There was a great program of panels and music. The 1943 Retro Hugos were a combination of radio play and dance. The con tried to encourage diversity and new voices and succeeded.

Sadly, I did not work at AFO 2018. I attended and a went to panels on politics in Anime, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, the history of magna artist group Clamp, cosplay, and Robotech. There was also some great Anime Music Videos shown. I need to plan for next year since it will be the 20^th AFO.

I did one day of Megacon since it conflicted with the Fringe Festival. I saw Jeff Goldblum and Catherine Tate and a panel on cover art from Marvel. One highlight was seeing someone cosplay Amos Burton from The Expanse.

Spooky Empire was heavily focused on The X-Files. I saw a Q&A with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson.

Necronomicon was great. I ran a dealers table for the fourth year in a row.  After a tight race my team won trivia again. I was a judge at the Costume Contest. It was fun though I had a rare head ache.

It was a good year for genre films. One even got the Oscar, I’ll discuss that later. The Killing of a Scared Deer was a disturbing film which questions what is the difference between justice and revenge and is it necessary. The Black Panther broke records and barriers. Wakanda Forever! Avengers: Infinity War brings us a big story and a cliffhanger where the fate of life kind hangs in the balance. Ant-Man and the Wasp was a fun romp. Aquaman was a good telling of the Hero’s Journey through the Kingdoms of Atlantis inspired by the work of Peter David and Geoff Johns. Solo: A Star Wars Story told us the origin of our favorite rogue. Sorry to Bother You looks at the modern workplace and takes it to Science Fiction-y twist. I finally saw the hilarious Tusk. Ava DuVernay took us the strange worlds of A Wrinkle in Time. It was beautifully confusing but powerful. Summer of 84 was borderline SF Thriller with a look to the past. Ghost Stories was a great horror anthology with a mind-bending ending. Sweden gives us a complex story of woman with a hidden past in Border. How To Talk To Girls At Parties, based on Neil Gaiman’s story, took us to the punk 70s with some interesting visitors.  The world’s greatest nanny came back to straighten things out in Marry Poppins Returns. We continue the exploration of magical history in The Crimes of Grindelwald which goes to scary places. Annihilation was journey to the unknown and it looked like Florida.  Deadpool 2 gaves another chater in the dark comedy superhero story. Spielberg brought the world of OASIS to life in Ready Player One.  Mute was trip to a future love with crooked doctors and one searching for love. Tom Baker hit the big screens in a special showing of the omnibus edition of Genesis of the Daleks. Justin Benson and Aaron Scott Moorehead showed you can do a good SF film on a limited budget with Resolution, Spring, and The Endless.

For the first time in the history of the Academy a Science Fiction film won. A Shape of Water is a love story wrapped in a harsh look at the bad old days. The imagery and story are incredible and powerful. The were other notable films recognized from last year. The Post reminded us of the power of the press. The Phantom Thread told a love story before the coming of the mod era in Britain. Call Me By Your Name took us to Tuscany for a love story. Fantastic Woman made one angry and told a story of love. Faces and Places followed two great artists making art on the French countryside.

There a few things I hope to see get Oscar nominations. Stan and Ollie looked at the last tour of one of the great comedy teams of all time. Won’t You Be My Neighbor told the story of the life and beliefs of Fred Rogers and how they affect the world. RBG told the story of how one woman made the world a fairer place for everyone and continues to do so. Cold War is a complicated love story set in during a dark era. I am looking forward to seeing The Favorite, Eighth Grade, Vice, and Green Book.

Ocean’s Eight, though not genre, was a fun heist film with the most talented actresses currently in Hollywood. Elisabeth Salander blazed her way and met her nemesis in The Girl in the Spider Web. Michael Moore gave his take on the last year in Fahrenheit 11/9. We learned about a piece of technology and its place in history in Powerglove. The antics of the old Soviet leaders were taken to high farce in The Death of Stalin. We learned about a man and hist art in Mr. Fish: Cartooning From the Deep End.  

I caught on some films like Crimson Peak, Once Upon A Time in America, Sisters, The Vanishing, Grizzly Man, and Bottle Rocket. Of the last film, it was meh. I also re-watched The Manchurian Candidate and The Dark Crystal.

Anime continued to be strong at the theater. In My Hero Academia: Two Worlds our young heroes have a Diehard-like adventure. The Night is Short , Walk on Girl is a fun trip on wonderful night. Hosada takes us back to childhood and family-life through time in Mirai. In honor of Takahata, I saw Pom Poko in the theaters. We see the genius of Miyazaki in action in the documentary Never Ending Man. I also saw Satoshi Kon’s classic Perfect Blue. Thanks to Fathom and companies like Funimation for bringing anime to theaters.

The Incredibles 2 is the animated film to beat this year. The world needs heroes and the come back in force. I took a trip on The Yellow Submarine.  It was cool to see various Spider-People, their supporting cast and villains in Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse. I hope to see Ralph Breaks the Internet soon.

Mostly stayed with the same shows this year Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD.  Gotham, and Iron Fist were still interesting messes. Luke Cage and Daredevil had great seasons pushing their characters. Sad to see the shows leaving Netflix. I left The Walking Dead after the defeat of Negan and I have no regrets.  Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events covered the next couple of books and gave us a new villain in the form of Esme Squalor. There was a scene with Violet on an operating table that was terrifying. Once Upon a Time was OK but it seemed like the creators should have done a new show since they wrapped up the show last year. Doctor Who came back with a new Doctor and companions. It was a fun series with a good mix of historical and more SF adventures. My favorite was “Kerblam!”. Sadly, it will be a year before new Doctor Who. The resistance was building in The Man in the High Castle. Maniac took us to a different future and interesting virtual world were our protagonist have to face their demons. Black Mirror had a Choose Your Adventure episode set in 1984. The Haunting of Hill House had a family fight a powerful force.  The Expanse covered Caliban’s War and Abaddon’s Gate. The Magicians restored magic. Dark took us a trip to past and maybe the future. Alternate Carbon mixed SF with Noir and has some great ideas.

I saw a good chunk of The Ancient Magus Bride, a beautiful show I need to finish. I did a retro watch of Vision of Escaflowne. Another beautiful fantasy anime I need to finish. Lupin III faced the modern age in Lupin III Part V.  We follow Giorno Giovanni and his stand using friends in Italy in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind. Chio School Road covers the adventures of a young gamer and her walk to school. Toonami brought dubs of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, Mob: Psycho 100, and Megalbox. Toonami also brought first run dubs of Attack on Titan, FLCL: Progressive, and FLCL: Alternative.

I did not read much in new comics outside of Saga. I did love Emil Ferris’ My Favorite Thing is Monsters. It is compelling story of a young girl coming of age in 1960s. I am eagerly awaiting part 2. I did check out Saladin Ahmed’s Black Bolt: Hard Time. I also read all the great finalist on the Hugo ballot.

Malka Older concluded her completed her Centenal Cycle and gives a hope in a world where traditional institutions are in jeopardy. Mur Lafferty’s Six Wakes gave a locked room mystery in space. Islandia described a country that never was. This was interesting, but long. Felicia Day told us Your Never Weird on the Internet [Almost] and she was right. We went to a family dispute in Ann Leckie’s Provenance. Yoon Ha Lee continued unconventional warfare in The Raven Stratagem. I started to follow the adventures of Murderbot in Martha Wells’ All Systems Red. I also read the next 2 novella in the series. Sir Phillip Pullman went back to the early days of the Dark Matter world in The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage. Teens in Nigeria continue their adventure in Dr. Nnendi Okorafor’s Akata Warrior. An unlikely trio bond in Sarah Rees Brennan In Other Lands. A girl must face the English Civil War with only her wits and her ability to be possessed by ghosts in Frances Hardinge’s A Skinful of Shadows. Another girl goes on a fantastic trip in T. Kingfisher’s Summer in Orcus. A boy must face his demons and hunger in Sam J. Miller’s The Art of Starving. Gwenda Bond continued to tell the stories of a young Lois Lane in Double Down and Triple Threat. We followed the adventures of the great women of Victorian literature in Theodora Goss’ The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter and European Travel for the Monstrous Woman. John Kessel had Mary Bennet face Frankenstein and his monster in Pride and Prometheus. Catherynne M. Valente tested humanity’s worthiness through a song contest in Space Opera.  Alec Nevela-Lee gave us tour in SF’s history in Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Queen l has the Lunar colony assisting a revolution on Earth.

Because of the Hugos There Podcast, I decided to fill in some gaps in my Hugo Novel reading.  Orson Scott Card looked at alien and human relations in Speaker for the Dead. Roger Zelazny told a series of stories of human’s taking the guise of deities from mainly Eastern religions in Lord of Light. Mark Vorkosigian finds a place for himself in Mirror Dance.

One of the worse things that happened this year was something personal. If you know me, you will know. If you see me in person, you can ask. I hope it gets resolved soon.

One of the best things that happened this year was Sunday Night Vinyl coming back to the radio. Please check it out and support of you can.

I plan to check out some novelettes and short fiction in the Lady Business recommendation spread sheet.

I tried to ride my bike 10 miles a day. I had mixed results but I am determined to keep trying. I try to shoot for 240 miles a month.

I did more fan writing this year and I hope to keep it up. As always, I will work on balancing fan writing, reading, media watching, and con work.

To see what have I been reading check here. Note after February the site will be here. Hopefully I will make some corrections and update in the coming week.

As always, thanks to those who made the year as fun as it was.  This I list would be long and I would forget someone.

Can 2019 be as crazy 2018? We can only go forward and hope. Let us all look out for each other. Take care.

(Picture by Derek Demeter)

 

 

2017

Wow. We are living in surreal times. Yet at the end there seems to be some hope that people are fighting back against the nonsense and winning.
If one good thing comes out of 2017 is that everyone learns to treat everyone with respect and not take advantage of each other.

For me it was not that bad. Things that I planned happened. I need to fight the anxiety I feel sometimes.

Some great people left us. They include Mary Tyler Moore, John Hurt, Chuck Berry, Colin Dexter, Don Rickles, Tim Pigott-Smith, Chris Cornell, Roger Moore, Gregg Allman, Adam West, Michael Nyqvist, Martin Landau, George Romero, June Foray, Brian Aldiss, Richard Anderson, Jerry Pournelle, Len Wien, Harry Dean Stanton, Hugh Hefner, Roy Dotrice, Fats Domino, Robert Guillaume, John Hillerman, Della Reese, Jim Nabors, Sue Grafton, Susan Caspar, Bernie Wrightson , Ed Bryant, Larry Smith, Chuck Barris, Rose Maire, Tommy Castilllo, and the 58 victims of the Las Vegas shooting.

New rules and a loss of interest reduced the Puppy influence on the Hugos this year, and it was . N.K. Jemsin became the third person to win back to back Hugos for Best Novel for The Obelisk Gate.

Worldcon 75 was fun. It was a truly international con. There were over 7,000 members from 60 countries. I did two panels, one on reviewing and another on Doctor Who. It was one of the bigger Masquerades for a non-US Worldcon. Helsinki was a fun city to have a Worldcon.
NASFiC 2017 was small but powerful. San Juan was a great place for a convention. I got to see old San Juan and Aercibo. I also ran registration for the con. It was a challenge but it was a success and I saw the programming I wanted to see. I wasalso on panels, one on fanzines, and one on the fannish way of life. Puerto Rico was great place to go and I hope it recovers from Irma as quickly as they can and get the help it needs.

I worked on AFO 2017 again. This time I worked on panel programming. I went over panel suggestions with the rest of the panel team. During the con, I kept track of panel attendance on my shifts. My new panel, SF Anime Features, went extremely well. People seemed to connect with the films. I am still thinking on what to do next year panel wise.
I did one day of Megacon since it conflicted with the Fringe Festival and the previous week was OASIS. There were not as many guests I wanted to see this year.

Spooky Empire was interesting this year with its focus on 80s films. I went to Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall Q&A session and it was fun. I also saw a
good documentary on Disney’s Haunted Mansion.

Necronomicon was great. I ran a dealers table for the third year in a row. I go to some panels on anime. After a tight race my team won trivia again.

As usual there were great genre films. The Last Jedi gave us a new and different Star Wars story. DC finally got its act together with Patty Jenkins Wonder Woman. Our favorite Amazon got the film she deserved. Justice League was uneven but seems to be going in a good direction. Lego Batman examined the nature of the DC icon. Logan gave us a satisfactory ending to life of one of the most iconic Marvel heroes. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 looked at our hero’s families. There was a good mix of drama and humor in Thor: Raganarok. Get Out was a Science Fiction thriller that looks at race. Spider-Man: Homecoming finally did Spider-Man right. It Comes at Night looked at the pre-conceived ideas behind the apocalypse. Colossal gave us a story about toxicrelationship mixed with kaiju. Albion: The Enchanted Stallion was a great family fantasy independent film. Love Witch was a fun romp reminiscent of 70s Horror. War of the Planet of the Apes gave us an incredible conclusion to Caesar’s story. We got a sequel to the classic Blade Runner that is trying to ask some big questions and gives an entrancing world to look at.
It was cool that the Academy nominated Arrival for Best Picture. Moonlight deserved the top prize. Hidden Figures showed the contributions made by African American women to the space program. Lion showed the journey to find one’s identity. Jackie told the story of a woman dealing with the death of her husband while the world watches. There were some great documentary features. 13^th showed how people use the law to hurt others. I am Not Your Negro combines the beautiful words of James Baldwin with powerful images. The winner O.J. Made in America closely examined on of the most sensation trial of the last century. Oscar Animation Feature finalist, My Life as Zucchini shows that animation can be used for serious subjects.

There a few things I hope to see get Oscar nominations. The Florida Project showed the plight of people living on the edge of financial disaster and how children deal with it. Ladybird showed the trial and tribulation of high school senior. Dunkirk conveyed the tension of rescuing the British Army from France. The Darkest Hour showed how Winston Churchill made the challenging decisions of the war. Molly’s Game showed how a woman succeeds by her wits and does not allow others to dictate her life. Ghost Story was a beautiful surreal existentialist story about a man who died and as a ghost looks like he a sheet over his head. I hope Get Out get a nomination for screenplay, picture, and director. I am looking forward too Shape of Water and The Post.

This was the year of anime in the theaters. One Piece: Gold gave us a caper picture with Luffy and the gang. The Japanese blockbuster your name appears to be a sweet romance and became a lot more. Sword Art Online considered augmented reality, moved the characters along, and setup a third season. In This Corner of the World took us to a town near Hiroshima during World War 2 and how people lived during this time. There were other films based on other shows, with more to come next year. Now we can see anime as come on TV and wait a few months to see it in a theater.

Sadly, Ghost in the Shell was a disappointment. There were some good recreations from the original film but the whole was odd. It wanted to be something but it could not stick to landing.

Coco is the animated film to beat this year. It is a story about family and finding your true desire. My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea was a fun animated film about high school. DC’s Batman vs. Two Face (done in Batman 66 style) was a fitting end to Adam West portrayal of Batman.
Cassette: A Documentary Mixtape was a documentary of the history of the cassette tape. It was spellbinding.Atomic Blonde was powerful action film with a fun soundtrack. Dawson City: Frozen Time was a documentary of a Canadian town that became the last stop for films.
I caught up on some classics this year including Singing in the Rain, Being There, Talk to Her, The Devils, The King of Comedy, It Happened One Night, After Hours, Stalker, The Apartment, and The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari. I also re watched Citizen Kane, Porco Russo, The Princess Bride, and The Castle of Cagliostro.

Mostly stayed with the same shows this year Once Upon a Time, Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD.  Gotham, The Inhumans, and Iron Fist were interesting messes. The Defenders gave us an interesting Marvel team. The Punisher was engaging. The Walking Dead started the war against Negan. Orphan Black wrapped up but at a busy time for me and I need to watch the last season. Mr. Robot had a great year taking the story to a new place. Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events was great take on the books and I hope they do they whole series. Black Mirror returned with strong episodes like “USS Callister”, “Hang the DJ”, “Metalhead” and “Black Museum” Stranger Things continued the story and had a great three-way conclusion. Doctor Who came back with Bill Potts and it was a romp. We know patiently for a new era of Doctor Who. Shada came back as combination of live footage and animation. American Gods did a good job of adapting the classic novel. Star Trek: Discovery give an interesting look at the Trek universe. TheOrville is a great homage to Star Trek: The Next Generation. Powerless was a great look at the DC Universe but sadly it did not last. Legion was a very arty look at Marvel/X-Men world. Jenna Coleman was terrific as Victoria. Feud: Bette and Joan showed the dark side of Hollywood. The People vs. OJ Simpson did good job bringing the story of that trail to life. Rick and Morty was one the great shows of Adult Swim (and Rick is not a good guy). Ken Burns and his team looked at a painful part of America history in The Vietnam War.

This was a very slow year for anime. I only saw one new show Little Witch Academia that was fun and I hope there is more. Space Battleship Yamato finally got an English dub on Funimation. There was a new season of The Eccentric Family with more fun and excitement with our favorite takuni family. We got some new cyclists in a new season of Yowapeda. Toonami brought dubs of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Lupin III: Part 4, Gundam: Unicorn, and the second season Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans. Toonami also brought back the spectacular Outlaw Star.
The only new comics I got into was Paper Girls and Monstress. Somehow in the middle of the year I lost track of most of the comics I was following except Saga. I need to re-evaluate what I will be reading next year.

N.K. Jemisin conclude her trilogy about geomancers (people who can manipulate the earth) with The Stone Sky and it satisfactory ending. Iam Providence by Nick Mamatas was a great look at a fandom in a novel. Infomacracy by Malka Older showed a new way of government in a thriller. James S.A. Corey’s Babylon’s Ashes and Persepolis Rising ratchet the action in the Expanse. The latter book puts our heroes in a tight spot. United States of Japan by Peter Tieryas was new take on Japan winning World War II. Glen Wheldon looked at the World’s Finest in Superman: The Unauthorized Biography and The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture. Yoon Ha Lee gave us a new look at warfare in Ninefox Gambit. The Dream Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson took us on a trip using Lovecraft images. Everfaire by Nisi Shawl showed an alternate Africa that avoided the pain and the plunder. Star Are Legion by Kameron Hurley gives us a world of women in space with action and intrigue. Ian MacDonald went back to the Moon in Luna: Wolf Moon. Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer took us to a complicated future where religion is worked by experts and one boy can change the world. A Close and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers is about a young girl surviving on her own with the help of an AI. Blood of Angels by Johanna Sinisalo looks a bee colony death with a SF twist. The Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinsalo postulates an alternate world where the welfare state has overreach and forbids spicy foods. New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson shows a world dealing with our mistakes and how we can fix ours. Borne by Jeff VanderMeer is about Rachel a scavenger surviving in an apocalyptic world of fantastic creatures. Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi looks at how an interstellar empire deals with the loss of its faster than light capability. Walkaway by Cory Doctorow gives us an alternate to the typical apocalypse. Instead of running away from something, we run to something which is better. The House of Binding Thornes gives my favorite character Madeline a new lease on life. Autonomous by Annalee Newitz is about a drug pirate who gives cheap drugs to those who cannot afford it and the robot who tasked to hunt her. Zoe Quinn teaches how to deal and fight with cyber-bulling in Crash Override: How Gamergate (Nearly) Destroyed My Life, and How We Can Win the Fight Against Online Hate. Mara Wilson gave us some insight in her essay collection Where Am I Now: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame. Nat Sagaloff gave us a look into the life of Harlan Ellison in A Lit Fuse: The Provocative Life of Harlan Ellison. Steven Warren Hill and his team gave us Red White Who: The Story of Doctor Who in America.

I checked out some novelettes in the Lady Business recommendation spread sheet.

I after doing 10 miles a day during Lent, my bike riding went down. I need to fix that.

Again I will work on balancing fan writing, reading, media watching, and con work.
To see what have I been reading check here. Note after February the site will be here. Hopefully I will make some corrections and update in the coming week.

As always, thanks to those who made the year as fun as it was.  This I list would be long and I would forget someone.

2018 looks scary and hopeful. Let us all look out for each other. Take care.

2016

What a year.

I spent the first 2 months in a splint or cast again.  The only good thing about it was I got more mobility in my left hand.

We all lost someone. It was hard for me when David Hartwell died a week after David Bowie.  I wrote about that here. Chica, the family dog, died but at least I had one quality afternoon with her. My oldest aunt, Ligia, also passed.

The names of the fallen kept getting longer. They include: Alan Rickman, Jerry Doyle, Morris Keesan, Prince, Muhammed Ali, Kenny Baker, Gene Wilder, Van Williams, Garry Shandling, Leonard Cohen, Alan Vega, Father John McCormick, John Glenn, George Michaels, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, William Christopher, and the 49 people who were killed at Pulse.

Then there was the election. The future never seemed so scary.

Unfortunately, there was Puppy influence at the Hugos this year, and it was the REALLY bad kind of Puppy. The fans repudiated the slates again and only two categories went to No Award. The powerful The Fifth Season won Best Novel and N.K. Jemisin sent a powerful speech. She stated SFF is looking towards the future rather than an imagined past.

MidAmericon 2 was fun. It was great talking to Ken Keller, con chair of MidAmericon (1976 Worldcon). He explained how the then relatively unknown Rocky Horror Picture Show was on the film program at MidAmericon. Keller had seen it at a theater and thought it would be fun to show at Worldcon. This may have sparked the phenomenon. I owe the local shadowcast, The Rich Weirdoes, for saving my sanity for have a special performance honoring Bowie. It helped me cope with Bowie’s and Hartwell’s death.

AFO 2016 was my first AFO as staff. I kept track of panel attendance on my shifts. My new panel, 21st Century Science Fiction Anime, went extremely well. People seemed to connect with the shows I picked. Next year I want to discuss Anime SF Feature films.

Megacon went through changes. There was no AMV Contest. There were more comic book guests like Frank Miller, Peter David, and Gail Simone. I only was at the con during the day since it was up against the Fringe Festival. It Megacon during the day and Fringe at night.

Spooky Empire events went well. In April, they had the legendary Alice Cooper who signed my CD and comic of The Last Temptation. They got dealt a bad hand in October with Hurricane Matthew disrupting everything in Orlando. When they rescheduled in December, I hung out with the writers.

Swampcon gave me chance to hang out with my Neconomicon friends.

Necronomicon was great. I was able to run a Dealers table, did some panels, and win trivia.

There were some great stuff for Trek’s 50th anniversary. We got a new film, Star Trek Beyond. There they were exploring strange new worlds and new civilizations. It was the most Trek-like film. There was a two-volume oral history of the series. The year ended with For the Love of Spock, directed by Leonard Nimoy’s son Adam.

There were good genre films this year. Rogue One shows a great side story of the Star Wars universe. Marvel continues the great trip with Captain America: Civil War and Doctor Strange. X-Men:Apocalypse was a fun look at the 80s, and young Scott and Jean were cute. Deadpool was a romantic superhero film. The Lobster was a great independent science fiction story where one must marry or become an animal. Warcraft was an ambitious film that tried to create believable characters. Mermaid directed by Stephen Chow was beautifully insane. Embers showed us how important our memory is. The Witch showed 17th century fears. The Legend of Tarzan was a faithful film about Lord Greystoke. Kevin Smith let us share some fun with Yoga Hosers. Nerve was scarily real. The new Ghostbusters film was fun, and I want Kate McKinnon in everything. Midnight Special was a nice independent Science Fiction feature film about a father rescuing his son from a government lab and getting him to safety. We finally get a look at the American Wizarding World in Fantastic Beasts, and Where to Find Them. A new Disney princess comes to us from Polynesia in Moana.

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad were messes that had some fun stuff for the comic fans. DC/Warner Brothers have to learn this and fix it for the future films. While their live action movies were floundering, DC did well in its DVD range and showed these films in the theaters as Fathom events. This included The Killing Joke and Batman: The Return of the Cape Crusaders.

There were some strong nominees for the Oscars from last year, which I saw this year. Spotlight showed the need for an active press. The Big Short angered me because we could have avoided the 2008 Financial Crisis. The Revenant was slow, but beautiful to look at. Carol needed to fully flesh out the characters, but was compelling. Trumbo presented a dark time of American history. Brooklyn was beautiful, but there was little tension. Son of Saul was a great film about the Holocaust, but painful to watch. The Bridge of Spies tells a story about a man with integrity. Creed showed that a film that focuses on a fully realized character of color could be financially successful.

Some films deserve Oscar nods next year. Moonlight shows a boy’s coming of age story in the roughest neighborhood in Miami. The Arrival is a great adaptation of a Ted Chiang story about understanding aliens. Nocturnal Animals is alluring visually. Blue Jay is a touching story about two old friends seeing each other for the first time in years. Christine showed a young woman slowly driven to desperate action. La La Land was a fun musical romp, which makes you smile and cry at the same time. Swiss Army Man was a quirky story of a man and his best friend, a corpse. Love and Friendship shows what a woman must do to secure her place in 18th century England. Sing Street reminded one of the fun times the 80s were musically. Manchester on the Sea is painful but fulfilling film about a man trying to find himself after suffering great tragedy.

There were some great non-Anime animated features. April and the Extraordinary World is a homage to Ghibli and tells its own story effectively. Phantom Boy is a fun superhero story set in New York. Zootopia has some great ideas, but there are some disturbing elements when one analyzes the film closely. Finding Dory is about finding family, the one we are born with and those we put together. Kubo and the Two Strings tells the story of a disabled hero who fights on his own terms.

Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made showed a group of boys who loved Raiders of the Lost Ark and remade it. This was the best documentary of the year.Michael Moore showed us alternate ways of doing things inWhere to Invade Next. It was great seeing the Fab Four in The Beatles: Eight Days a Week. The Green Girl, made in 2014, told the story of actor Susan Oliver and her extraordinary career.

I caught up on some classics this year including most of the Phantasm films, Monkey Business, Two for the Road, Purple Rain, When We Were Kings, The Witches, Rachel Getting Married, Crimes of Passion, and Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolfe. Though not a classic Under the Cherry Moon was a fun film. I also finally saw It Follows, a brilliant horror film. I also re watched Labyrinth, The Neverending Story, Stand By Me, The Maltese Falcon, Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke.

Mostly stayed with the same shows this year Once Upon a Time, Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD.   Grimm took an odd direction. Network cut Agent Carter short. Person of Interest had a satisfying conclusion. Gotham is still an interesting mess. Daredevil gave us a fully realized Punisher and Elektra. Luke Cage was a powerful showin the Marvel Earth with action and character depth. The Walking Dead gives us a compelling villain in Negan and seems to be coming back from the brink of nihilism. Orphan Black seems to be back on a strong course. Mr. Robot had some interesting twists. Black Mirror returned with strong episodes like “Nosedive”, “San Junipero”, and “Hated in the Nation”. Legends of Tomorrow goes to some of the other eras of the DC universe. Stranger Things brought a great combo of Horror and Science Fiction and treated its characters with respect. Frank Spotnitz left in the middle of the The Man in the High Castle‘s second season. There was tension, character development, and a rocking season finale. The network pulled the plug on The Muppets just as it found itself. Doctor Who took a break, but came back with a fun Christmas special. We also saw “The Power of the Daleks” return as an animated story.

This was a slow year for anime. I did not see as much new shows as last year. Rin-ne continues the story of our favorite poor half shinigami. The Heroic Legend of Arslan continues in Arslan’s fight to free his people. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures: Diamond is Unbreakable takes the story to a small Japanese town, and more crazy characters. Lupin III: Part 4 takes the gang to Italy were they fabulously posh adventures. Erased has a young man going back in time to prevent a murder. Orange has a group of friends sending letters to their high school selves to prevent a classmate’s suicide. Joker Game give us a group of smart and realistic Japanese spies in the late 1930s and early 1940s. We follow the life of a teen psychic in Mob Psycho 100. Macross Delta continued the great SF series. There were idols, mecha, Zentradi, and ties to previous series.Yuri!!! on Ice takes us to the world of competitive figure skating and relationships involved. Sayo Yamamoto, Yuri!!! on Ice‘s director, needs to make feature films. The Psycho-Pass feature examines the Sibyl system abroad. The Boy and the Beast explored the nature of family, and showed that Mamoru Hosada is one of great anime feature directors.

No new comics grabbed me this year. I stayed with X-Factor (until cancellation), Spider-Man 2099, Ms. Marvel, Astro City, and Saga. He-Man and Rachel Rising had satisfactory conclusion. Titan did a fun Fourth Doctor story set in Hinchcliffe era. Paul Cornell also did a fascinating 3<sup>rd Doctor story for Titan. Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro take us to a new version of a women’s prison in the future in Bitch Planet.

N.K. Jemisin started a new trilogy about geomancers (people who can manipulate the earth) with The Fifth Season and The Obelisk Gate and it is incredible. The former deservedly won the Hugo. Taiyo Fuji solves a problem in a new way in Gene Mapper. Charlie Jane Anders told the story of a powerful friendship in All the Birds in Sky, and these friends try to save the world. Yoshiki Tanaka’s Legend of the Galactic Heroes series final gets an English translation. Kate Elliot gives her spin on epic fantasy in Black Wolves with complicated plot and good characters. Dan Wells&rsquo; John Wayne Cleaver come backs to fight demons including his own in The Devil’s Only Friend. Seanan McGuire asks what happens to children after the big adventures in far away lands in Every Heart a Doorway. Fortune takes a strange turn for teenage Agnieszka in the Nebula winning Uprooted. Neal Stephenson destroys the Moon and shows the consequences in Seveneves. A girl’s desire to be a knight starts in Tamora Pierce’s Alanna: The First Adventure. A young woman gets help from one of the great all time actors in A Night in with Audrey Hepburn. Toh Enjoe experiments with form with Self-Reference Engine. Allen Steele takes tour in the history of Science Fiction, and takes us to the stars in Arkwright. Connie Willis looks into the pros and cons of telepathy in Crosstalk. Cixin Liu concludes his trilogy with Death’s End. There an alien invasion is averted or is it? The series covers many big ideas. The pieces set up for the big conclusion in Kameron Hurley’s Empire Ascendant. Carl Hiaasen’s Andrew Yancy gets into trouble in Razor Girl. Creep Con reminds us that we in the fan community must treat each other with respect and we will not tolerate bad behavior.

I started to listen to Kevin Smith’s to Hollywood Babble-On and Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR.

I checked out some novelettes in the Lady Business recommendation spread sheet.

Now that the wrist is fully healed I plan to bike ride more often. Due to the 6 month hiatus I got complacent. Now lets ride.

Again I will work on balancing fan writing, reading, media watching, and con work.

As always, thanks to those who made the year as fun as it was.   This I list would be long and I would forget someone.

2017 looks scary. Let us all look out for each other. Take care.

2015

The last quarter of 2015 was a challenge. On September 22, I broke my left wrist and I was in confining splint or cast for six weeks. Then just last week I re-broke it and I am in a splint again. It is a downer but like all things, it will pass.   I am grateful for all the help I have gotten.

A family member had a fight with cancer and has won for now.

Another downer this year were the Puppies and there influence on the Hugos this year. Their narrative was nonsense and most of the stories that they got on the ballot were substandard. The only good thing that happened is that more people got involved and voted.

In a small way, I stood up for a sister fan when a fellow fan was intimating her. I think I did the right thing. One most important things said at the last Worldcon was:

“There’s room for all of us here, but there’s no middle ground between ‘We belong here and No you don’t.’ I believe we must find non-toxic ways to discuss our conflicting points of view.” Laura J. Mixon on accepting her Hugo for Best Fan Writer.

Many great people left us this year: Leonard Nimoy, Terry Pratchett, Tanith Lee, George Clayton Johnson, Peggy Rea Sapienza, Christopher Lee, Yogi Berra, B.B King, Lemmy Klimster, Yvonne Craig, James Horner, Grace Lee Whitney, Wes Craven, and many others.

Despite Puppy, nonsense Worldcon was fun. I got to talk to David Gerrold about est and he high fived me at the Hugo Ceremony. It was also cool being a Hugo escort and I got to bring out the Hugo For Best Novel. See more about Sasquan, the 2015 Worldcon, in my August 2015 entries or here.

My panels at AFO 16 went well. They were Fantasy Anime, The Macross Saga, and 30th Anniversary of Robotech. At Worldcon, I got a ton of Japanese SFF books to discuss at the AFO 16. I also plan to cover Legend of the Galactic Heroes, which is finally getting an English release as a series and novels.

I checked out ContraFlow, this Year’s Deep South Con. It was fun even with a splint. OASIS was back and it went well. I need to document my plans for future of the con.

Megacon was manageable this year. I wish I could have spent more time at Spooky Empire. Hurricane Who had the right attitude when things went awry. Swampcon gave me chance to imrove my History of SF presentation. Florida Anime Experience gave me the chance to see the crew of Anime Addicts Anonymous. Florida Supercon let me see Jim Shooter, Neal Adams, John Romita Jr., Paul McGann, Karen Gillian, and Frank Quietly.

There were a lot of great genre films this year. Ex Machina asked the classic question “What is a human?” Mad Max: Fury Road proves that you can write a thought provoking story with a great action adventure. The Martian reminds us that science matters and we can meet the challenges space present us. Star Wars: The Force Awakens returns us to one of the greatest playground ever. It is great film for old and new fans alike. The Force is back. Inside Out shows how complex we are in a very simple way. When Marnie was There reminds us that we all want to be loved. Ant-Man and Avengers: The Age of Ultron gave us a fun trip to Marvel Universe. The Man from UNCLE was fun 60s spy romp. Spectre brought back a classic villain to the screen. Tarantino takes us on a cinematic adventure in 70MM with The Hateful Eight. Mockingjay Part 2 wrapped up The Hunger Games film series. Cinderella was a great new look at a classic. Birdman was disturbing in powerful way. Gone Girl was a great adaptation and shows what happens when you team up a great writer and director. Whiplash asked how far should one go for art. The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything showed the strengths and flaws of great minds. Jupiter Ascending has some questionable parts but worth your time in a theater.

The best film of the year was Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. See it. It is painful, beautiful and life affirming. I hope it gets some Academy nods particularly in the screenwriting.

Two good documentaries came out this year in the theater. Best of Enemies showed the relationship between Gore Vidal and William Buckley. Hitchcock/Truffaut explains Hitchcock’s importance in film. Selma dramatized the very complex struggle for Civil Rights in the US.

I caught up on some classics this year including Fight Club, Seven, Inglorious Bastards, Django Unchained, and finally Lawrence of Arabia.

A lot of good TV this year. Once Upon a Time, Grimm, Arrow, Person of Interest, Lost Girl, and Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, and The Flash are still going strong. Agent Carter was fun and we get more. Gotham is an interesting mess. Doctor Who had a very strong season. In 1975, the Doctor asked what would you do if you met a child and knew that child will grow up to be an evil fiend and kill millions. In 2015 the Doctors meets a child that will grow up to be an evil fiend and kill millions. Daredevil and Jessica Jones showed a different part of the Marvel universe. Both are very strong. Sense8 is about group people from all over the world tied together mentally. American Horror Story: Hotel is another mixed bag.   The Walking Dead walks a fine line between brilliance and misery porn and the latter may win. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was brilliantly adapted. Orphan Black had some great moments. Mr. Robot was derivative but had some intriguing ideas. Black Mirror showed scary possibilities if we do not balance technology with empathy. Supergirl makes the world save for all super heroes. Frank Spotnitz took us to a defeated and conquered America in an adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. The Player was a fun ride and I wish we got more. Heroes came back in Heroes Reborn.It worked. The Muppets took some time, but it found itself. For Christmas we got adaptations of Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End and James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse.

We said good-bye to David Letterman and Jon Stewart. Noah Trevor was a great host for The Daily Show.

A lot of good anime this year. Rumiko Takahasi was back with poor half shingami Rin-ne. Gangsta explored an alternative world with metahumans and noir. Your Lie in April made us cheer and cry at the same time. YowaPeda, Gatchaman Crowds, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures: Stardust Crusaders and Knights of Sidonia had great second seasons. The Heroic Legend of Arslan reminds us of the importance of politics and logistics in a story of a prince reclaiming his kingdom. She is a bubbly heiress and he is chain smoking academic, together they will solve a crime in The Perfect Insider. Saitama can stop anyone in an instant but cannot pass the hero’s exam in One Punch Man. Mitchiko and Hatchin tore it up on Toonami. We look at the hot issues of 1968 in Young Blackjack and pay respect to the master Tezuka. Shirobako showed the struggle of making good anime. Shimoneta: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn’t Exist was a crazy series about a very sexually uptight world.

Mainstream comics were weak this year. DC and Marvel restructured. I stayed with X-Factor, Spider-Man 2099, He-Man, Ms. Marvel, Astro City, Saga and Rachel Rising. I did checkout Rat Queens for the Hugo and it was fun. I do want to read more That Damned Band. Black Canary and Zatanna: Bloodspell by Paul Dini was great team up and biography for these great heroes.

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie wrapped up a great trilogy. Quentin finally get his act together in The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman. Cixin Liu looks at alien invasion in the long term in The Three Body Problem and The Dark Forest. Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Water Knife warns us of world where water scarcity is the rule. My Real Children by Jo Walton looks at the two different life paths for the same woman. A detective has to solve a bizarre crime and save her daughter in Lauren Beukes&rsquo; Broken Monsters. Nnedi Okorafor gave us aliens and superheroes in Nigeria in her novel Lagoon. Kim Stanely Robinson took us on an interstellar trip in Aurora. We got a new type of leader in The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (Sarah Monette). We looked at family in James S.A. Corey’s Nemesis Games. Sakyo Komatsu destroys and rebuilds the world in Virus. Fritz Leiber’s The Big Time told an intricate story involving time travel. Aliette de Bodard took us to and dark and intriguing alternate Paris with Fallen Angels in The House of Shattered Wings. The creators of the Welcome to Nightvale podcast were able to write an intriguing novel of the mysterious desert town. Ian McDonald took us to the Moon and focused on a tight Brazilian family in Luna:New Moon. Gwenda Bond did a great job giving us a teen Lois Lane in Lois Lane: Fallout. David Gerrold look at the social aspects of vampires in Jacob. John Scalzi did another serial novel in the Old Man’s War universe in End of All Things. A family becomes part of a first contact situation in Nancy Kress’ Yesterday’s Kin. Carl Hiaasen gave us a new Skink novel called Skink – No Surrender.

Amanda Palmer’s The Art of Asking was great and really helped me this year. We should ask for anything but we must be prepared for no.

I added The Fangirl Happy Hour and Random Trek to my podcast list. I had the pleasure of corresponding with Renee Williams, one of co-hosts of The Fangirl Happy Hour. I did so with many of my fellow fans by email, Twitter, and Facebook. It was great.

I did bike ride more this year and I recorded it. This went by the wayside due to the accident. I promised someone to stay off my bike for 6 months. This person does not have a stake so they asked this out friendship.

I will work on balancing fan writing, reading, media watching, studying for a class I plan to take, and con work. This will be a challenge with arm re-broken but it is a challenge and that makes it exciting.

As always, thanks to those who made the year as fun as it was.   This I list would be long and I would forget someone.

Do to the structure of the splint I did this with one hand. Please forgive my mistakes.

Everybody have a great 2016 and take care.

2014

2014 was a bit of a mix bag. There were bumps all over the place but there was an overall sense of stability. I was able to accomplish some big goals. One of those goals was finally going to the Normandy Memorial in France.   I finally got to walk on the beach that one of the greatest battles of all time was fought.

Fellow Florida SF fan Roger K. Clendening died this year.   It was unexpected.   He was good guy and great trivia competitor.   I was able to get his named mentioned in Hugo Ceremony in London this year.

My high school (10th & 12 grade) English teacher Martin Obrentz died this year. I learned a lot from him and even used what he taught me in my fan writing.   He always had contempt for Science Fiction.

As usual, many cool people died this year: Robin Williams, Bob Hoskins, Daniel Keyes, Jay Lake, H.R. Giger, Lucius Shepard, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Eugie Foster, Graham Joyce, Harold Ramis, Richard Kiel, P.D. James, and many others.

I got to hear the Orion launch.   It was cloudy and I was looking at the wrong piece of sky.

I went to my first North American SF Convention, Detcon in Detroit MI.   It was great seeing Steve Barnes as a Guest of Honor. Scalzi was great DJ.   He even played “Walk Like an Egyptian” by the Bangles not even knowing its reference in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. The DJ at Worldcon did the same thing. Loncon 3 was great.   At both cons, I did panels on anime.   It is cool being the programming planners considered me an expert on anime. It was also great doing a Doctor Who panel at Detcon.   There was great Guest of Honor programming at both.   I did my first Walk Among the Stars.   It was also great that Patty came and saw London and the con.   You can see my con reports in the September and December Event Horizons.   I did two panels at Anime Festival Orlando. One was on the 40 year history of Space Battleship Yamato and the other was an updated version of SF Anime panel.   Next year I am doing a panel on Fantasy Anime and 30 years of Robotech.   Megacon and ICFA were the same weekend.   Megacon had some crowding problems so it’s a good thing I was ICFA on Saturday for the pool picture. Nnendi Orkorafor   Anime Sushi did a stellar job with the Anime Music Video (AMV) contest this year. As did Anime America with the AMV contest in Holiday Matsuri.    Necronomicon moved to great new hotel.   I was also a dealer for the first time at Necronomicon and it was interesting seeing the con that way. At Florida Supercon, I talked to Peter and shook Carroll Spinney (aka Big Bird) hand (a hand that shook Jim Henson’s).

OASIS to a rest this year.   We got a new venue. It will be a rebuilding year.   I think it will all work out.

I did an article for The Drink Tank Worldcon.   Thanks to Chris Garcia, James Bacon, and Vanessa Applegate.

Some films were from 2013 but I did not see them until this year. Marvel continues its Box Office dominance with Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.   Those were good fun films.   X-Men: Days of Future Past was a strong entry.   Amazing Spider-Man 2 could have used one less villain.   Her showed that AIs can be our friends but still very different from us. Frozen shows there more than one type of true love.   Dawn of the Planet of the Apes showed that Apes ruled.   Words and Pictures showed the effectives of those mediums.   While some the things heard in Jodorwosky’s Dune was cringe worth, we see a filmmaker trying to make a seemingly impossible film.   The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug was impressive but still too long.   Punk Singer taught about Kathleen Hanna’s contribution to making the world a better place.Ender’s Game was a faithful adaptation of the popular novel.Muppets Most Wanted was a fun sequel with Kermit and company.   The Imitation Game is the story of a genius and the problem he worked on.   Benedict Cumberbatch give us a great Alan Turing.   The Babadook showed that a film can be scary and smart.Big Hero 6 showed that diverse and smart superheroes can kick ass. Interstellar had great ambitions but missed the mark in some places.   Edge of Tomorrow was OK but they Hollywood up the ending. There are some more I will need to see in 2015.

We got a new Doctor with Peter Capaldi,   who is not as cuddly as his predecessors.   Jenna Coleman maybe the Sarah Jane for the new era.   Danny Pink was great supporting character. Each new episode brought something new into the mix.   The Christmas special was incredible.   The Flash brings back Barry Allen to big screen.   Not as dark as Arrow but just as intriguing. Gotham is a mixed bag.   The nailed some of the character perfectly.   They need to strengthen others.   If they have a plan this could work.   Person of Interest has started a battle with two Artificial Super Intelligences with humanity in the middle.   Parts Death Comes to Pemberley were over the top but a great show overall.   American Horror 3 could also go over the top but it rather ended well.  Patrick Jane found Red John and love in The Mentalist.   It will be sad to see that go this year. Once Upon a Time, Grimm, Arrow, Person of Interest, Lost Girl, and Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD are still going strong. Once Upon a Time explains why Elsa and Anna’s parents did what they did.   Orphan Black gave some answers and more questions.   The Force is with Star Wars: Rebels.   Ken Burns explored The Roosevelts.   NBC seems to be on the right track with Constatine.

This year I subscribed to Funiamtion so I could watch commercial less anime. Between that and Crunchyroll and watched more anime.   I saw Aldnoah Zero (alternate earth invaded by Martians), Knights of Sidonia (a generation starship fights aliens), Shirobako (anime about making anime), Free (swimming anime), Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha (A teenager makes a hasty choice and gets shapeshifting powers), Parasyte (a boy whose hand is taken over by an alien parasite), Tonari no Seki-kun: The Master of Killing Time (a boy with an active imagination and his friend), Princess Jellyfish (young girl deals with social anxiety with her friends), The Eccentric Family (a family of shapeshifters have to avoid being eaten), From the New World (a future world with telepaths and how young people live in this world), Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet (a strong mecha show),
Your Lie in April (a piano prodigy tries to regain his skill), Samurai Flemenco (a great take on superheroes), The Devil’s a Part-Timer (a Demon king comes to our world and works in food service), Heroman (a boy finds a robot and fights for his city), Servant x Service (young civil servants in Japan and their office adventures), Flowers of Evil (an impetuous move by a young boy brings him trouble by a classmate),  and Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (a family fighting the paranormal).   Psycho-Pass 2 and Sword Art Online were great sequel shows.   Blue Exorcist was a demon hunting show with a great twist on Toonami.   I also caught up with Samurai Jack. Space Dandy was a great experimental show. Terror in Resonance had an interesting message with a bad documentation.   No Game, No Live had a great idea but a bad execution. Miyazaki last film The Wind Rises was a strong film about an engineer.

Saga continues to be one of the best SF comics out there.   Sex Criminals had some interesting ideas.  Grant Morrison has fun with the DC Universe with the Mutiversity series. Ms. Marvel showed that Marvel is committed to good comics for all. Peter David brought back X-Factor and Spider-Man 2099, it is a downer the former will be cancelled.   I stayed with Rachel Rising and He-Man.   I may pick up some series on e-comics next year. I caught up on James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse series.   Jeff VanderMeer takes us to the mysterious Area X in his Southern Reach series. Charles Stross explores interstellar economics in Neptune’s Brood.   The surreal horror of the Domincan Republic’s dictator Trujillo was brought to life in Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao.

Ann Leckie’s Anicllary Sword takes up where Ancillary Justice left off and I still want more.   John Scalzi novel Locked In looked at disability in a murder mystery.   I finished Iain M. Banks&rsquo; Culture series.   He left us way too soon.   Mira Grant’s Parasite asks how far do we go for our health. Zombie Baseball and The Doubt Factory by Paolo Bacigalupi instructs the young how to get socially active.   The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley is an epic fantasy mixed with parallel that demands your full attention.     Paul Cornell’s Severed Streets throws one for a loop and demands more.   Detcon had some great nominees for their YA award that included The Coldest Girl in Cold Town by Holly Black and The Summer Prince by Alya Dawn Johnson. in Dreams of the Golden Age Carrie Vaughn continued to explore the world of superheroes.

New podcasts I started to listen to were Skiffy and Fanty and Tea and Jeopardy .

As always, thanks to those who made the year as fun as it was.   This I list would be long and I would forget someone.

Next year, I need to watch my carbs, ride my bike more (I rode a lot in April and May). I am going to focus on my fan writing.   I took two classes last year with great people to help me with my fan writing and need to put it into practice.   I may blog more either in Livejournal or get a WordPress account.   I need to balance everything I need to do.  As always, I will try to push myself mentally and physically.   As always, I need to plan out my time out better.

I also need to start on this annual journal entry earlier. Please forgive my mistakes.

Everybody have a great 2015 and take care.