By Steve Vertlieb: Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day is the celebrated director’s most significant work in twenty-five years, a spiritually-based exploration of the derivation of both mortal and extra-terrestrial existence and their theological repercussions and consequences. The political realities of discovery are particularly disturbing to a smug military establishment and reigning hierarchy threatened by the powerful premise that advanced intelligent life beyond earthly conceit may entirely decimate our concepts of imagined world dominance and moral supremacy. Rumors, sightings and conspiracy theories concerning alien visitations have abounded since the late 1940s when the theories of secret installations housing either dead or imprisoned visitors from other worlds began circulating across the country and, indeed, the world. Secluded militaristic establishments housing the troubling remnants of crashed ships from beyond This Island Earth were spoken of in guarded whispers in order to protect national security and the prefabricated semblance of normality. Irrational fears of intellectual as well as technological dominance beyond the stars might, after all, sire panic across the globe and threaten international economic stability.
Steve Vertlieb at a showing of Disclosure Day
Now Steven Spielberg has addressed and taken on these fears and concerns through a natural progression of cinematic journeys and philosophic explorations of first contact. Beginning with his landmark science fiction epic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977 to the childlike benevolence of E.T., The Extraterrestrial in 1982, these âstrangers in a strange landâ have dominated the imaginative screen conceptualizations of the director’s youthful, imaginative mind. Born in the 1940s and raised during the Roswell-inspired cinematic science fiction craze of the 1950s, Spielberg’s progression of intergalactic obsessions has at last led him to and culminated in the realization of his defining epic. The acknowledgement that we are truly not alone in the universe and that âthe truth is out thereâ if only we choose to watch and âlistenâ is brought vividly to life within the frames and visual excitation of Disclosure Day.
The director’s cerebral and philosophical screen dissertations have their roots in films of the postwar aftermath and generational rebirth of the 1950s with such inspirational cinematic journeys and hope-filled encounters as The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) from director Robert Wise in which a Christlike ambassador from the stars comes to Earth to advise humanity that their petty fears and insecurities have led them down a path to eventual oblivion and that only kindness and compassion will allow humanity to endure. âThe choice,â he warns, âis yours.â
Disclosure Day, the final installment in Steven Spielberg’s inspirational trilogy of peace filled, futuristic yearnings is more deliberately fact based and realistic than his two previous journeys of faith in that the dictatorial, small-minded fears and jealousies proliferated by conspiratorial lies and fabrications have led us to a precarious point of no return from which only spiritual inclusion and redemption can save the Earth from cosmic depravity and dissolution. Like Klaatu’s prophetic warning to humanity at the climactic crossroads of The Day the Earth Stood Still … âThe Decision Rests with You.â
The protagonists in Disclosure Day have either chosen or been imbued by a spiritual calling to reveal to the world that âWe are not alone.â Their dangerously subversive mission has exposed them to very real threats of captivity and death. Fear of exposure has led governmental martinets to suppress at all costs the knowledge that âThe truth is out there.â The dominant purveyors of imagined supremacy and dictatorial power, once exposed, will do anything to protect and preserve their heinous control and power over the crumbling structure of their prefabricated society and corrupted civilization.
The dangers to society are real within the fictional fabric of the screenplay and story by David Koepp and Steven Spielberg, as are the unexpected theological threats and insecurities voiced in outrage by religious communities in impassioned protest to the concept that God may have limited or superfluous regional dominance over the vastness of the universe and infinity. The film has the courage to voice often intellectually precarious questions regarding both God and man’s place within and beyond the stars.
Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor share the screen as those chosen either by conscious determination, by fate or by the subliminal recollection of a shared traumatic childhood experience, somehow predetermined to disclose the truth, while Colman Domingo is a mysterious rogue agent bringing Blunt back to forgotten memories and vaguely celestial origins. Colin Firth is the avenging âangelâ determined at all costs to protect society and its emperor without clothes from exposure to a cataclysmic truth. However, the film belongs to Emily Blunt whose eloquent, emotionally shattering performance as a seemingly unwitting participant in the dissolution of structured society lays the revelatory groundwork for the devastating finale.
Steven Spielberg, while seventy-nine years of age at the time of this momentous film’s release, remains among the most influential, âyouthfulâ directorial voices of both the Twentieth and Twenty-first centuries. His contributions to popular culture, optimism, humanity and the arts cannot be over-stated. Of exceptional significance to this superb film are the intense and exhilarating visual thrill rides created by veteran cinematographer Janusz Kaminsky and editor Sarah Broshar, their most palpably delicious collaboration culminating in an unimaginably frightening chase sequence aboard a speeding train.
In the film’s emotionally shattering final moments the significance of our spiritual meaning and place in the progression of evolving spirits and intellects is revelatory and deeply humbling, a cosmic image of the vastness and purpose of a profoundly poetic, ever evolving universe in which the unimaginable beauty of existence is tantalizingly realized. It remains a haunting reflection of our inheritance, purpose and destiny as a species, prophetic and viscerally stunning.
Perhaps the most miraculous element of this profoundly beautiful cinematic excursion is the symphonic power and eloquence of its rapturous musical score composed by John Williams who, at age ninety-four, wrote and conducted a solid hour of haunting, ethereal, original and sublimely unforgettable music, virtually incomparable in these days of sadly saccharine, blandly forgettable melodies and themes. In their thirtieth screen collaboration as composer and storyteller, Steven Spielberg and John Williams have created a profound and superbly moving legacy amongst the stars.
Steven Spielberg and John WilliamsSteve Vertlieb and John Williams
In the end and semi-final analysis, Disclosure Day will be remembered as an ethereal look at endless possibilities posed by a limitless expanse and infinite universe in which anything is possible … if only we let down our defenses and choose to âListen.â
The winner will be revealed later this summer, and will be presented with their award and a cash prize as a guest of honor at the annual Sturgeon Symposium in October.
(2) TONY AWARDS. The 2026 Tony Award winners of genre interest are reported at the link. The complete list of winners is here.
(4) NEBULA AWARDS. SFWA presented the 61st Annual Nebula Awards on June 6. The complete list of winners is at the link.
(5) N. K. JEMISIN GRAND MASTER SPEECH. Jemisin has posted a copy of the speech she gave during the Nebula Awards after being presented with the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. âText of my Grand Master speech – Epiphany 2.0â.
âĶ I am often called a radical for the ways I push against the SFF status quo. Iâm not, because I am at least old enough to see value in tradition, sometimes. For a lot of us â me included â the gateway drug to SFF was classic science fiction, with its sensawunda and so-cool ideas and apparent welcome to all. There is an inherent optimism in the idea that our species will someday reach other stars. Right now, as drug-addled billionaires systematically dismantle our space program and even our ability to educate new scientists, we could use some of that old-school hope. Classic stories of interstellar travel have positive implications for the future of education and technological progress, but they also predict that weâll actually last long enough to get there â a thing not at all certain in this moment. That we will overcome our petty nationalisms and cowardly natalisms enough to survive, and maybe even thrive. We need this. We need to believe weâll get better, because without belief, we wonât even try.
But there are those in our field who complain that classic science fiction, and classic medieval-European fantasy, are somehow under threat. Too many women who talk, maybe? Too many writers and readers who want something new, like medieval-Malian fantasy or a space adventure in which all the characters of color are actually treated with equal respect. But there are still plenty of stories in the classic mode being written, and read, and bought by Hollywood. Whole brand-new space adventures that havenât been misunderstood by a techbro! Yet. Weâve got Murderbot. Weâve got the Three-Body Problem, and The Martian, and Project Hail Mary. There may someday be as many Game of Thrones adaptations as there are ports of Doom â so there is no threat to classical SFF. The complaint is a dogwhistle, of course. Propaganda. Thereâs no rational argument in it because thatâs not the point; the point is to frighten people into rejecting social progress.
There is value in tradition, until it becomes a chain wrapped around a child. To people who feel that there is a threat to tradition, anything is better than growth, even deathâĶ.
âĶWhy Not Just Write Straight Historical Fiction?
This is the question Iâve always wondered. Why rewrite historical figures and turn them into fictional characters? Why turn the real world a quarter-turn into the fantastic?
Kayâs rationale was nuanced and thought-provoking:
âIf it stems from a single thing, it was a realization decades ago that I didnât want to pretend that I knew the thoughts, conversations, and feelings of people who actually lived. I actually dislike the idea of writers and filmmakers feeling that they can do their thing when lives were actually lived. And it doesnât matter if youâre making something up because you have to hook the reader or viewer.
âIf it is characters clearly inspired by real peopleâbut just as clearly not themâthen I can make my characters live, think, act in ways that seem strong and meaningful to me and for the reader without having co-opted, taken advantage of, and used real people.â
Itâs a deeply ethical and empathic stance to take. Once you hear that, it completely reframes Kayâs work to be nuanced and honest. You can see how Kay crafts his characters while wearing his inspirations on his sleeveâĶ.
(7) REMEMBERING SUSAN SVEHLA. [Item by Steve Vertlieb.] Sue Svehla died June 8. Steve Vertlieb paid tribute on Facebook.
… From Gary Svehla comes this truly sad news … ‘Sue Svehla passed away at 1 oâclock at GBMC from a MRSA infection and heart failure. As of now I am doing all right giving myself space to grieve. In lieu of a service, we will host a Sue Memorial Party to scatter her ashes in her garden as soon as we get her ashes back. She went peacefully. She loved you all. Gary
Susan Svehla, along with her devoted soul mate, Gary, created one of the most profoundly significant and influential publishing empires in film fandom. ‘Midnight Marquee’ Magazine and ‘Press’ grew in both readership and stature over decades, becoming one of the earliest publications of magazines and books devoted to the horror, science fiction, and fantasy film genres, earning countless awards, devotees and loyal fans over a generation.
I was honored to play a decidedly minor part in their growth and prestige as a contributing writer and researcher over several decades. Sue’s contributions to the genre and to the world of publishing cannot be overestimated. Her loss will be deeply felt by all those who found welcome within the pages of her groundbreaking dedication to the motion picture arts. May God rest her soul and bring blessed peace to Gary.
(8) TODAYâS BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Paul Weimer.]
June 8, 1928 — Kate Wilheim. (Died 2018.)
By Paul Weimer: Kate Wilheim has two main legacies in my mind.
The first one may not be fair. Kate has written a fair number of stories and novels, several of which (âThe Plannersâ, âThe Girl Who Fell into the Skyâ and âForever Yours, Annaâ) won the Nebula award. Sheâs written books of poetry. She has a more than respectable oeuvre in SFF, and that doesnât even count her mystery novels.
But the first legacy in my mind is just one book, the fantastic Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang. Itâs one of the best postapocalyptic novels out there, a story of survival, and cloning, and commonality, community, individuality, Psionic empathy and much more. Its bittersweet ending has haunted me for years. If there is still something as an SF canon, Wilheimâs book must, I say, must be part of it. It is in conversation backwards and forwards, from Brackettâs The Long Tomorrow and George R Stewartâs Earth Abides, to books like Walk to the End of the World, and on and on to today.
The reason why the novel fits so well in the genre conversation is that Wilhelm is well immersed in those waters, and the second main legacy. Wilhelm, along with her husband Damon Knight, has been instrumental in mentoring authors. Their Milford Writerâs Conference was a progenitor to the original Clarion Workshop. As a result, Wilheimâs teaching has touched hundreds of writers, and thus, as a result, most science fiction readers have read a story that has at least a glimmer of the influence of Kate Wilhelm.
Now that is definitely being a part of the genre conversation.
Prime Video and Sony Pictures Television celebrated everyoneâs favorite web slinger from an alternate timeline during a Deadline Studio at Prime Experience conversation about Spider-Noir, a talk that featured the seriesâ co-showrunner, writer and executive producer Oren Uziel and cast members Lamorne Morris, Jack Huston and Karen Rodriguez.
In his first leading TV role, Oscar winner Nicolas Cage plays aging and down-on-his-luck private investigator Ben Reilly in 1930s New York, forced to grapple with his past life as the cityâs one and only superhero, The SpiderâĶ.
âĶEmmy winner Morris opened up about how easy it was for him to take on the role of journalist Robbie Robertson, as prior to being an actor he was working on becoming a sports journalist. Things did not pan out the way he planned, due he says to the amount of research the job required. So he became an actor â then discovered the job also required copious amounts of research. The irony makes him laugh.
In the end, he came to realize that acting was what he wanted to do, in part to celebrate unsung heroes like Ted Poston, the first African American journalist to work full-time for a white-owned newspaper. Poston worked at the New Post with a focus on covering stories about and for the Black community and served as an inspiration for Morrisâ character in Spider-Noir.
âWhatâs interesting about this character is that when I took a dive into Robbie, looking at some of the old comics, and watching and rewatching some of the Raimi films, I stumbled upon a guy named Ted Poston, a journalist back in those days who lived the life that Robbie is living,â Morris said. âSo, I found myself doing research on him and kind of walking his walk, which I found to be interesting. I think more people need to know about him. Ted one of those guys that people donât talk about enough.ââĶ
(11) ASK THE EXPERTS. [Item by Steven French.] What do scientists really think about the latest discoveries?
It may seem like we are on the verge of discovering alien life. In 2025, a press release stated that we have the “strongest hints yet” of extraterrestrial life on the exoplanet K2-18b. And when talking about a collected sample from a rock named “Cheyava Falls” on Mars, NASA Administrator Sean Duffy said this was the “closest we have ever come” to discovering life on the red planet.
Such moments capture the imagination. But they also raise an important question: what do the majority of scientists actually think?
Surprisingly, we usually don’t know. When a scientific controversy or breakthrough dominates headlines, press officers and journalists often quote a handful of experts. These views may be insightful, but they rarely tell us what the wider scientific community thinks. And yet public discussions frequently rely on phrases such as “the science says” or “scientists believe,” as if there were a clear and measurable answer.
In reality, systematic evidence about scientific opinion is often missing. My colleagues and I recently tried to change that in the domain of astrobiology. Shortly after the two major announcements of possible extraterrestrial life in 2025, we surveyed astrobiologists to understand how expert judgment was distributed across the fieldâĶ.
On the night of August 15, 1977, a radio telescope the size of several football fields sat in a field outside Delaware, Ohio, listening to the sky. It heard something. For 72 seconds, a narrowband signal rose and fell from the direction of Sagittarius, close to the 1420 MHz hydrogen line, and peaked far above the background noise. Days later, volunteer astronomer Jerry Ehman found the sequence 6EQUJ5 on the printout, circled it in red ink, and wrote one word in the margin: Wow!…
âĶ Big Ear had already helped produce a radio survey of the sky before it became famous for SETI. By the 1970s, the instrument was being used in the Ohio SETI program, a long-running search for narrowband signals that might stand out from ordinary cosmic radio noise.
The signal arrived near the hydrogen line, the natural radio emission frequency of neutral hydrogen atoms. SETI researchers had long considered the region around 1420 MHz an obvious place to listen because hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and the band is relatively quiet compared with many radio frequencies.
What caught Ehmanâs eye was not a message. The characters 6EQUJ5 were an intensity code, with each character representing one sample of signal strength. Once the values climbed past 9, the printer used letters, which is why the peak appeared as U.
The shape mattered more than the symbols. The signal rose, peaked, and fell across the exact window in which Big Earâs beam would have crossed a fixed point in the sky as the Earth turned. That profile made it look celestial, or at least far beyond the telescope, rather than like ordinary local interferenceâĶ.
In this wide-ranging conversation, Richard shares why he decided to write what may be the first comprehensive book detailing the publishing industryâs dramatic transition from print to digital. After more than 500 years devoted to ink on paper, publishers suddenly faced a technological and cultural revolution that changed not only books, but also writers, readers, agents, and the entire publishing ecosystem.
Richard reflects on being an early visionary for e-books long before they became reality. He recalls a pivotal moment in 1985 while walking down the street listening to music on his Walkman and imagining a future where people could carry entire books on portable devices. That vision would take another 15 years to become mainstreamâbut it helped spark a revolution that transformed publishing forever.
[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenationâs Jonathan Cowie, Chris Barkley, Steve Vertlieb, Dann, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Kathy Sullivan, Steven French, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jim Janney.]
By Steve Vertlieb: Mourning the death of intellectual wit, compassion, eloquence and dignity on late night television. âWhy should we surrender life to the brutes and fools.â (Things to Come, 1936).
While Jon Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel, Bill Maher and John Oliver still remain on the air, a precious slice of Americana has been ripped away from the heart and soul of our country. Courage, honesty and freedom of speech are seditiously being broken apart from the very core of âthe land of hopes and dreamsâ that once sired individualism and personal integrity.
As the voices of humanity and decency have been torn asunder by thugs and bigots, the conscience and echoes of humorous social commentary shall never remain entirely silenced.
As long as the spirit of satirical brilliance exists within the âsounds of silence,â a particle of humor, culture and humanity will ever survive and endure., The inspired, time honored opinions of satirists like Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel, Bill Maher, John OIliver and Mark Twain shall ever remain the vibrant, vital and essential voices of âtruth, justice and the American way.â
As for me, âI want to see if somewhere there isn’t something left in life of charm and grace.â (Clark Gable/ Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind.)
(1) SHUFFLE & DEAL STORY PROMPTS. Joe Stech of Compelling Science Fiction has made the community a gift of his new âSUPER MEGA SFF STORY IDEATORâ, a story prompt generator.
I’ve always enjoyed the vibrant colors and pixel aesthetic of old SNES games. With SUPER MEGA SFF STORY IDEATOR I’ve created an SNES-style classic story prompt generator for authors to help get the juices flowing. I spent a lot of time pulling in what I think are fun and unique story elements for this kind of generator, I hope you have fun with it!
Hereâs an example of what I got from a Random roll â sans the colorful graphics.
Setting – Asteroid mining colony
Subgenre– Hopepunk
Speculative Element – An unaligned superintelligent AI
Core Conflict – Doing nothing is the worst option
Protagonist – A traumatized character who keeps the world at arm’s length, not at the volume the media expects â N. K. Jemisin
What has drawn you to pantomime? Pantomime uses every possible theatrical device to tell its moral tales â slapstick, sentiment, song, dance, verse, cross-dressing, community singing, extravagant costumes and scenery, audience participation. Anything and everything goes. It is a matchless introduction to all that is possible in a theatre and ideal for children and for a family outing. As a homegrown art form, it hasnât travelled well. Americans find it as baffling as cricket. My patriotism is rooted in Shakespeare and panto.
âĶKasey Meehan, director of the Freedom to Read program, told PW that the report âpushes back on the prevailing narrative around the book ban movement, that it’s removing harmful, obscene, or inappropriate material. We know that to not be true.â Instead, Meehan said, âwhat’s happening here is the removal of books across diverse representations, nonfiction books, and all kinds of books that are intended for young audiences.â
PENâs research identified 3,743 unique titles removed from school classrooms and libraries between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025. Of the most-banned topics in the 2024â2025 school year, âviolence (non-sexual)â was at the top of the list, followed by âdeath and griefâ and âempowerment and self-esteem.â
In the analysis, PEN learned that work by or about BIPOC individuals and subjects appeared in 44% of the cases, âthe largest percentage that PEN America has ever reported in this category,â while LGBTQ+ titles went from 25% of the list in 2023â2024 to 39% as of 2025. Transgender or genderqueer content was found in 19% of books removed from shelves, such as Aiden Thomasâs YA Cemetery Boys and Elliot Pageâs general audience memoir Pageboy. And representations of neurodivergence or disability were central to 10% of targeted titles, among which were Elana K. Arnoldâs A Boy Called Bat and Nicola Yoonâs Everything EverythingâĶ.
âĶPEN analyzed 3,734 titles that were removed from schools between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025. The organization found 6,780 instances of book removals from 23 states.
While fiction still dominates book bans, the ratio of fiction to nonfiction changed markedly from the previous year. From 2023â2024, 85 percent of banned books were fiction and 14 percent were nonfiction; last year, the fiction percentage fell to 69 percent and nonfiction rose to 29 percent (or 1100 nonfiction titles). Many of those nonfiction books are specifically educational or informational titlesâincluding “art, language, politics, geography, identity, puberty, mental health, self-helpâand include textbooks, dictionaries, and other reference books”âwhich increased from 5 percent to 13 percent of total bansâĶ.
âĶBirmingham Airport has a monorail, which will take you to Birmingham International railway station, i.e. the airport railway station. Birmingham International station is directly next to the NEC (National Exhibition Centre) and the Hilton Metropole is next to the NEC. So in theory, it should be easily possible to walk from the Birmingham Airport all the way to the hotel.
I said âin theoryâ, because in practice, the walk was much longer and more exhausting than expected, especially when pulling a suitcase and lugging a laptop bag. For starters, the NEC is huge. And since it was so early in the morning and there were no events scheduled, it was also eerily empty. I pulled my suitcase through deserted hallways populated only by the occasional cleaner and past closed shops and restaurants. The whole place had an extremely creepy vibe â like something out of a horror film.
Once I had made my way through the brutalist behemoth that is the NEC and stepped outside, I looked around for the Hilton. But while there were several large buildings in the vicinity, I didnât know which one of them was the Hilton. The signposts werenât very helpful either, since they only pointed out various car parks and something called Resorts World (more on them later). Nor was there anybody around to ask. The only people in sight were some workmen engaged in noisy construction work.
I found a bench, sat down and opened up Google Maps. According to Google Maps, the Hilton should be behind another hotel called the Moxy, which I could see across the plaza in front of the NEC.
So I walked across the plaza and past the Moxy, all the while pulling a suitcase and lugging a laptop bag. Behind the Moxy, there was a large car park. I pulled my suitcase across the car park towards where the Hilton should be, hidden behind the foliage of a small park. There was only one problem. Between the car park and the path that led to the Hilton there was a fence. And that fence had no opening anywhereâĶ.
(5) SEEKING BETA READERS. Jonathan Gleich is looking for beta readers for his novel. Contact him at [email protected].
I have been in fandom since the 70âs – at once point ran a Star Trek radio talk show in NYC, (first one ever) I have become an author and wrote my second book — about a vampire priest,
I would love some beta readers to read it, and would appreciate it very much if you would post it and have people email me for a copy.
I lived three blocks from Linda Bushyager, Knew and dated Toni Lay, Knew Jim Burns â and others. Ran a few Star Trek conventions, worked a whole bunch. Joan Winston, shuster, Townsley.
He has created an audiobook anyone can download for free: The Vampire Priest.
(6) FREE READS. Grist brings back T. K. Rex to its Imagine 2200 series.
In 2022 we published T. K.âs short story âA Holdout in the Northern California Designated Wildcraft Zone,â exploring the relationships between humans, nature, and technology. Now, T. K. is publishing their debut short story collection â The Wildcraft Drones â continuing to delve into those themes, and we have one of those stories to share with you ahead of publication.
The new story, âForty-Seven Vacant Floors of Urâ, takes place in San Francisco in the near future, where Morgan Bernd is the third-to-last employed user experience writer in Silicon Valley â kept on just long enough to train the AI that will replace him. On his last day, he rides the elevator to the empty 47th floor of the skyscraper he never actually worked in, looks down at the sea of tents below, and makes a decision that is quiet, risky, and completely human.
I had to explain the premise of âThe Sheep Detectivesâ to so many people before I even saw it â yes, the sheep are solving the murder; no, itâs not animated, or at least not in the way youâre thinking of â that I was already primed to be annoyed when I showed up to see it, in a way a critic never hopes to be. Talking animal movies are hit or miss to begin with, often too cutesy or too patronizing, and the whole idea just sounded ludicrous.
Well, I repent. Not only is âThe Sheep Detectivesâ delightful, but itâs funny and emotionally complex and, dare I say, unusually deferential toward the noble sheep, frequently cast as brain-dead losers in cinemaâs barnyards (Shaun notwithstanding). Itâs also the rare kind of movie after which you can exit the theater saying âthey donât make movies like that any more!,â and be absolutely right. Hollywood: Take note, please.
Let me explain. In the 1980s and â90s, movie studios routinely released family-friendly, PG-rated movies that actually lived up to that rating: They were intended for the whole family to watch, with parental guidance. Mature themes â death, divorce, other of lifeâs darker elements â might be mixed into lighter comedy. They werenât kidsâ movies that adults could endure, but meant for audiences of varied ages, and many of us still consider them stone-cold classics: âE.T. the Extra-Terrestial,â âThe Princess Bride,â âHoney, I Shrunk the Kids,â âHome Alone,â âBeethoven,â âThe Mighty Ducks,â âMy Girl,â âFree Willy,â âSister Act” â just to name a few. (And of course, I thought of âBabe.â)
But somewhere around the end of the 20th century, studios began to use the PG rating almost exclusively for animated films with mature themes (largely Pixar movies). PG came to be associated with childrenâs fare. Studios stopped putting the rating on films that might otherwise have merited it, like many Marvel films, because they feared teens and adults wouldnât go see a PG-rated movie. Somehow, that meant a whole genre of entertainment more or less disappeared, too.
Watching âThe Sheep Detectives,â I remembered what weâve been missing. The film is based on the 2005 novel âThree Bags Fullâ by Leonie Swann. Directed by Kyle Balda from a script by Craig Mazin (who, perhaps improbably, you may know best as one of the creators behind âThe Last of Usâ and âChernobylâ), it is the tale of a kindly shepherd named George (Hugh Jackman) who tends to his flock with unusual care. He feeds them, shears them, gives them medicine and knows them each by name. Every night, he reads to them from his mystery novels. They listen attentively. He doesnât realize quite how attentively.
Then, one day, the sheep discover George lying dead in the field, and decide they must figure out who murdered him. The smartest of the sheep, Lily (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), leads the others in creating a plan, which involves going into the village and identifying who might have had motive to commit the dastardly deedâĶ.
(8) HUGO BALLOT ANALYSIS. Here is Cora Buhlert with âSome Thoughts on the 2026 Hugo Finalistsâ. Her discussion starts with the books up for what George R.R. Martin always calls âThe Big Oneâ.
Best Novel
We have a lot of returning favourites in this category.
Robert Jackson Bennett is back with A Drop of Corruption, the sequel to last yearâs winner The Tainted Cup. I didnât particularly care for the first book and havenât read the sequel yet, but apparently lots of people feel otherwise.
2021 Astounding and 2024 Best Novel winner Emily Tesh is also back with The Incandescent. Again, I havenât read this one yet, because itâs dark academia and I donât care for dark academia, though I did enjoy Emily Teshâs 2024 Hugo winning novel Some Desperate Glory a lot.
Nnedi Okorafor has several Hugo and Lodestar nominations and wins in multiple categories under her belt by now, though Death of the Author is actually her first nomination in the Best Novel category. Itâs also a very good book.
Adrian Tchaikovsky also has previous Hugo nominations in multiple categories as well as one win in 2023 in Best Series. His work is always worth reading, though I have to admit that I didnât get to Shroud yet.
Alix E. Harrow won her first Hugo Award in 2019 in Best Short Story and has been nominated several times since. I enjoyed this yearâs Hugo finalist The Everlasting a lot and it was also on my ballot.
Antonia Hodgson, the sixth finalist in this category is a new name â so new that sheâs also an Astounding finalist. That said, Antonia Hodgson actually wasnât a new writer to me at all, when I picked up her Hugo nominated novel The Raven Scholar, because I had read and enjoyed her historical mysteries before to the point that I even bought the German translations for my Mom, who was a big mystery fan. And yes, Mom liked Antonia Hodgsonâs mysteries a lot. Coincidentally, Antonia Hodgson even won the CWA Dagger Award in the Historical Mystery category for The Devil in the Marshalsea. Itâs a great novel, so check it out and then read the sequels. I also enjoyed The Raven Scholar a lot and it was on my personal ballot.
One book that I expected to see on the ballot, but that is somewhat conspicuous by its absence is Katabasis by R.F. Kuang. It probably sits directly below the nomination ranksâĶ.
(9) GARY KELLEY (1945-2026). [Item by Arnie Fenner.] World-renowned artist and educator Gary Kelley passed away peacefully in his home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, April 12.
Primarily working in pastels, he provided illustrations for virtually every major American magazine including Time, Rolling Stone, Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, and Playboy as well as for numerous book publishers, advertising agencies, and design firms.
Gary illustrated beautiful editions of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, and Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination, created the graphic novel Bach and the Blues, and produced the murals featuring famous authors and characters for Barnes and Noble Bookstores nationwide. Kelley also worked for the NFL and the NBA and was the official artist for the 2002 Kentucky Derby.
Inducted into the Society of illustrators Hall of Fame in 2007, Gary’s many awards included a record 29 gold and silver medals from the SoI in New York and Best-In-Show recognition in the Los Angeles Illustratorsâ Exhibitions. He taught and gave workshops at the Illustration Academy, the Syracuse University Graduate Program, The Hartford Art School, and the University of Northern Iowa, had shows in Paris, Tokyo, and New York, and was celebrated in the documentary Gary Kelley: The Film in 2023.
Gary is survived by his wife of 57 years, Linda, and children Cydney and Kyle.
(10) TODAYâS BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Paul Weimer.]
May 7, 1931 â Gene Wolfe. (Died 2019)
By Paul Weimer: Were I to do this birthday properly and proud, Iâd do a Gene Wolfe piece that had unreliable narration, used a prodigious and positively unwonted vocabulary, possibly footnoted, and definitely something to be re-read, re-examined and thought over for years.
Unfortunately I am not Gene Wolfe, and frankly, few other others in the SFF genresphere have ever dared to try and approach him. His is the kind of work that like few others, you can read and re-read over a lifetime, and get not just nuggets but whole veins of new and exciting ideas. His ideas have influenced my RPG scenarios and ideas for years.
Jack Vance may have invented the Dying Earth, but Gene Wolfe codified it and made it a whole subgenre of his own with the New Sun books, which is where i began his work. I did begin a bit in the deep end, but a friend (and at the time one of the players in my TTRPG) said that I just had to read Gene Wolfe. And so I did. Did I understand my first read through of Severianâs story? Not as much as I thought I did. Read number two went much better, and I keep thinking I need a read number threeâIâve made a couple of abortive attempts at it but the siren song and responsibility of new work keeps me from doing so.
After Beyond the New Sun, I went to the Long Sun (generation ships for the win!) and then moved on. I loved the Wizard Knight series with its Yggdrasil like setup of worlds (you all know how much I enjoy worldbuilding, even as I sometimes mistype Discworld for Ringworld and my editor misses it ). I think the Fifth Head of Cerberus might be his most accessible work, an entry point if you want to try Wolfe without going for some of the more elusive works. I think The Land Across is also a good entry point as well, and feels timely and relevant with its capricious rules in the government of the country our narrator visits (also makes me think of MiÃĐvilleâs The City and the City).
Iâve not read all of his oeuvre, but Iâve tried most of it. Iâm weakest on his short stories and need to catch up on those (Iâve read Castle of Days of course, and found out recently a friend found a copy of the Castle of the Otter for a bargain price in a used bookstore. What a rare find!)
My favorite Wolfe are probably the Latro books (Soldier of the Mistand Soldier of Arete and Soldier of Sidon). These books are almost as if Gene Wolfe decided. âPaul Weimer needs books just for him). Latro is a Roman mercenary, circa 470s BC serving as he will in the Mediterranean as a soldier. Heâs had a head injury and so cannot remember events of the previous day (50 First Dates, anyone?). However, he can see the various supernatural beings that populate the landscape that no one else can. The books are masterpieces of information holding and withholding as we, the reader can piece together things that Latro clearly misses, all in one of the best all time favorite set of settings. Sure, youâve got to work hard to really get these books, but thatâs the secret of all of Wolfeâs work. If you want to read it, be prepared to do the home work. Sure, this series and much of Wolfeâs work is not a casual read (and Iâve tried audio and audio and Wolfe do not work for me), but Wolfe was Umberto Eco in full SFF guise. If that is what you are ready for, or in the mood for, Wolfeâs works await you.
I never got to meet him in person, alas. Requiescat in pace.
Gene Wolfe
(11) COMICS SECTION.
Ink Pen parks a car in a way that may look familiar.
Apple TVâs Murderbotblends science-fiction, comedy, human emotion and many more elements, so the music is just as eclectic. Composer Amanda Jones conducted a performance of some of her designs at Deadlineâs Sound & Screen Television, then shared some of her designs.
For example, Jones uses a Korean saenghwang for Murderbotâs (Alexander SkarsgÃĨrd) themes, but combines it with a synthesizer.
âIt can reach these really high frequencies,â Jones said during the panel conversation. âAs Iâm pitch-shifting it creates this crazy frequency and textures that mess with your ear drum. Any time that Murderbot is trying to make eye contact with someone or experiencing great anxiety, this instrument comes into play coupled with synth.ââĶ
(13) FILM ADAPTATION OF TIPTREE’S âGIRL WHO WAS PLUGGED INâ. [Item by Ersatz Culture.] âSophie Thatcher Joins Jennifer Kentâs ‘The Girl Who Was Plugged Inââ reports Deadline. Given that the lead and shooting dates have been announced, it would seem to be more “solid” than the typical optioning announcement.
âĶ Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1974, the surreal dystopian tale revolves around a woman who loses her soul to technology in an effort to be loved.
Thatcher plays disfigured, suicidal young protagonist P Burke who is hired by a mega tech corporation to virtually operate a beautiful but brainless âflesh bodyâ called Delphi, grown in a lab with the sole purpose of influencing the masses and selling products.
As Delphiâs star rises, P Burke becomes enthralled by her and descends into a tech psychosis with disastrous consequencesâĶ.
(14) HOW WAS THE SCI-FI LONDON SPACESHIP LOGO CREATED? [Item by SF Concatenationâs Jonathan Cowie.] Some of us might be a little schizophrenic when it comes to SF art. Yes, on one hand we appreciated the completed image, but on the other we rarely seem to be particularly interested in how it was produced. This year’s Sci-Fi London’s logo sports a natty spaceship.
Steve Vertlieb stands as one of the most respected voices in film scholarship, a writer and historian whose work has shaped the way generations understand cinema, classic horror, and symphonic film music. For more than fifty years, his essays, criticism, and archival research have appeared in books, magazines, journals, and international publications. From contributing to the landmark King Kong anthology The Girl in the Hairy Paw to chronicling the legacies of Alfred Hitchcock, Bernard Herrmann, MiklÃģs RÃģzsa, Orson Welles, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and Lon Chaney Sr., Vertlieb has preserved the stories behind the artists who defined 20thâcentury film. His writing has been featured in The Monster Times, Scary Monsters Magazine, Cinemacabre, LâIncroyable Cinema, and the Hugo Awardâwinning File 770. Beyond the page, Vertlieb has spent decades sharing his expertise on television, radio, podcasts, universities, museums, and convention stages, including NPRâs Fresh Air with Terry Gross. His achievements earned him the prestigious Rondo Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award, placing him alongside icons like Ray Bradbury, Ray Harryhausen, and Christopher Lee. His career also spans Philadelphia broadcasting, voiceâover narration, and documentary scripting for projects such as Kreating Karloff and the upcoming feature Scored to Death. Most recently, his life and legacy were honored in a fullâcolor profile in the British magazine We Belong Dead, cementing his status as a guardian of film history.
[Thanks to Kathy Sullivan, Steven French, Mike Kennedy, Arnie Fenner, Ersatz Culture, Cora Buhlert, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenationâs Jonathan Cowie, Chris Barkley, and Mark Roth-Whitworth for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Mark Roth-Whitworth.]
(0) I am scheduled to have an angiogram on May 1. Hopefully it will do me some good. If all goes well Iâll be back home by mid-afternoon. However, in anticipation that I wonât feel like rushing to the computer to write the Scroll, I am drafting something for tomorrow that will leave plenty of room for you all to pitch in.
As a genre, science fiction stands out for its cinematic grandeur (across media), for its use of futuristic civilizations as allegories for the present, for its rich world-building and multi-layered lore, and for its in-universe music.
Think of movies such as The Fifth Element, where Diva Plavalaguna entertains the passengers aboard a flying cruise ship. Or think of Star Wars, where the seedy cantina is enlivened by an almost-folksy live music selection. This kind of diegetic music (music that exists within the world of the story) is emblematic of what James Wierzbicki identifies as standard science fiction music in an article for Lied und populÃĪre Kultur / Song and Popular Culture.
To Wierzbicki, science fiction music falls into two camps: âother-worldly, and thus never-heard-before musicâ and music that is âquite old-fashioned and earthbound.â This distinction, however, is not simply a matter of describing or performing a particular soundâĶ.
âĶHow did cinema respond? In part by inserting in-universe chants and music. As Wierzbicki notes, 1950s sound effect departments were busy âconcocting blip-bleep-bloop noises to illustrate futuristic/alien technologies, but there was little effort to depict whatever âmusicâ denizens of the future, or aliens, might have heard.â One notable exception is Forbidden Planet, in which officers aboard an Earth-based spacecraft listen to music recorded half a million years earlier by the planetâs denizensâĶ.
âĶ The tides began to shift in the 1960s and 1970s. Consider, for example, Spock playing the lyre in the first season (1966) of Star Trek; the electronic âloungeâ music in Barbarella (1968); the synthetic âOde to Joyâ in A Clockwork Orange (1971); the grunting chants of the mutants known as âThe Familyâ in The Omega Man (1971) alongside the comparable hymns in Zardoz (1974); the glittery sonic backdrops for the mall and disco in Loganâs Run (1976); the cantina band in Star Wars (1977); and the after-dinner songs in the âAndroids of Taraâ episodes (1979) of Doctor Who.
As entertaining as they might be, most of these pieces of music âconjure up an image of what audiences of the day thought the future should sound like, and thus with each passing year their âcontemporaneous strangenessâ seems more and more dated,â writes Wierzbicki. âĶ
(2) STEVE VERTLIEB MEDICAL UPDATE. [Item by Steve Vertlieb.] Took Shelly home last Saturday night at one thirty in the morning. There was pouring rain. It was quite dark on her street. I didn’t see a slight ledge raised up on the sidewalk approaching her property. I tripped over it and fell down hard, crashing head and face into the cement. I was rushed by ambulance to the Trauma Center at Einstein Hospital where I remained for four days. I’m back home now and my brother in currently enroute from Los Angeles to take care of me for the next couple of weeks. I’m badly bruised, while my face looks like the white dog with black rings around his eyes from the old ‘Our Gang’ comedies. My left arm feels dead and is enveloped in a hard, bulky cast. There isn’t much that I can do for myself and moving about is challenging. I’m terrified of falling yet again. Recovery will likely take at least three months. My typing skills are limited by the use of just one hand. Having said that, I’m alive and still breathing. So ends another exciting chapter in the ever-continuing adventures of ‘The Perils of Pauline’ …or of Steve Vertlieb. Your healing thoughts and prayers are deeply appreciated.
The National Cartoonists Society has announced the complete slate of creators, illustrators and sequential artisans up for the 2025 NCS Divisional Awards for Excellence in Cartooning. A vote of NCS members will take place in May, with the winners announced at the 80th Annual Reuben Awards, in Columbus, Ohio on August 7.
The NCS Divisional Awards comprises 13 categories, running the gamut from advertising, animation, comic strips, editorial cartooning, online and offline comics, and more. Each category has three nominees up for the title. All awards cover work published last year (hence the â2025â Reuben Awards)âĶ.
âĶMr. Potato Head is an iconic toy, but he certainly hasnât stayed the same over his more than 70 years of history.
This guy is pretty classic, but he has also evolved to keep up with the times and stay relevant. Todayâs versions of Mr. Potato Head toys offer some different options for facial features, unique shoes, and there are even family sets that come in a group.
Mini versions of the toy can even be found, wearing little costumes related to the Toy Story movie.
In honor of National Mr. Potato Head Day, head on over to a toy store and start wandering through the aislesâĶ.
(5) KATHLEEN MCBRIDE OBITUARY. Georgia fan Kathleen McBride died April 29. Her former spouse David Ettlin made an announcement on Facebook.
Kathleen McBride, longtime science fiction and fantasy fan, died this evening at a hospital in Valdosta, Georgia, after several years of declining health. Born Kathleen Margaret Aranyosi and raised in Bethlehem, Pa., she was also known as Kathleen Ettlin during our four years of marriage in the mid-late 1970s in Baltimore, and Kathleen Reeves during a second marriage when living near Washington, D.C. After her second husbandâs death, she moved to southwestern Georgia. She adopted the name McBride in kinship with her best friend Parris McBride, the longtime partner and wife of George R.R. Martin, with whom she had kept in touch for half a century. This photo of Kathleen dates to about 1977, and was taken in my then-house, an end-of-row mini-mansion known as Toad Hall in Baltimoreâs Charles Village neighborhood. It is how I will always remember her.
(6) TODAYâS BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Paul Weimer.]
April 30, 1938 — Larry Niven, 88.
By Paul Weimer. One could write a whole book about his early work, but I am here today on his birthday to discuss his later work, what I read of it anyway. Niven, like a number of writers, became less and less aligned with the kinds of SFF I was interested in as time goes by, but he lasted longer than many.
Take The Burning City. Years after The Magic Goes Away stories (still some of the best sword and sorcery out there), Niven teamed up with Jerry Pournelle to write a novel set in The Magic Goes Awayverse. Itâs set in a version of Los Angeles in the distant prehistoric past, a Los Angeles that occasionally burns down again and again (Fire Gods are so temperamental). Some of the magic of Niven, and some of the magic of the Niven and Pournelle combination, are here. Other things feel a lot like men shouting at clouds. (A group of antagonists clearly meant to be the IRS, for example, feels like leaden and unwanted political point making). But the brilliance of Niven sometimes shines through.
Rainbow Mars is a book whose contents are published in the wrong order. The titular work is a novella, one of the Svetz series and a capstone to the stories of his time traveler going back in time and winding up tangling with all sorts of supernatural creatures. In Rainbow Mars, he winds up dealing with a number of different SFF Martian landscapes and creatures, and a world-killing Yddgrasil. But this novella is first in the book, and then the rest of the Svetz stories come after it. It is my opinion that is the absolute wrong way to appreciate what Niven is doing in the Svetz stories and his cleverness is wasted thereby.
Finally, a few words about Achillesâ Choice. Co-written with Steven Barnes, Achillesâ Choice is the story of Jillian. In a world where winning Olympic medals means personal power, and where winning Olympic medals means taking a drug that, if not managed afterwards (expensively), means death, the devilâs choice of the title becomes clear right away and is a Niven novel which runs on theme more than anything. Is it better to have an obscure, low life, safe and cossetted, or to risk greatly, in the hopes of getting great glory. Jillian of course goes for the latter, just as Achilles did, and the unfolding of that choice runs through the novel. It may be a standalone âlesserâ Niven, but I think he and Barnes team up here as well as they did in the first couple of Dream Park novels.
Happy Birthday, Larry Niven!
Larry Niven, Steve Barnes and Jerry Pournelle at the LA Annual Paperback Show in 2015. Photo by Alex Pournelle. Used by permission.
NASA astronaut Don Pettit is showing off his pride and joy: a potato named “Spudnik.”
In their very minimal “free time,” astronauts aboard the International Space Station generally play instruments, make art, take photos, and more. But Pettit spent his time making like Mark Watney in “The Martian,” and growing potatoes in microgravity.
“Recognized by Andy Weir in his book/movie ‘The Martian,’ potatoes will have a place in future exploration of space. So I thought it good to get started now!” Pettit wrote on X on March 20.
Pettit’s latest mission to the International Space Station, Expedition 72, which landed back on Earth in April 2025, saw him make history as the oldest active astronaut, at age 70. As part of this mission, the crew conducted incredible research, including a study of the changes that can happen to your eyes due to living in space. But a year after the mission ended, Pettit’s side project growing Spudnik is now finding its time in the spotlightâĶ.
âĶ Sputnik can be seen in the photo growing out of a plastic containment bag, emerging like some furry, purple alien. But despite its unique appearance, this agricultural experiment seems to have thrived onboard the space stationâĶ.
The global multi-platform story begins 25 June, and the Fugitive Doctor is at the centre of it all!
A major new Doctor Who story event is here, and this time, the threat is closer than ever. Following its initial reveal last year, BBC Studios unveiled new rollout details, story elements and artwork for Circuit Breaker in the latest episode of The Whoniverse Show on the official Doctor Who YouTube channel.
Doctor Who: Circuit Breaker launches on 25 June 2026, kicking off an epic, multi-platform adventure unfolding this summer across audio, publishing, gaming and digital, bringing fans together for one connected, must-follow Whoniverse event.
The story event will see a single, escalating crisis play out across multiple formats, with each chapter unlocking new clues, new dangersâĶ and a new side to the Time Lord.
Circuit Breaker brings together a range of longstanding Doctor Who partners including Titan Comics, Doctor Who Magazine, BBC Audiobooks, East Side Games, Puffin, BBC Books and Big Finish, each delivering a unique chapter of the story across the summer.
Fans can follow every twist via the Doctor Who website and official channels and The Whoniverse Show, with the first chapter of the epic story launching on the in-universe UNIT website on 25 June.
[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Michael J. Walsh, Paul Weimer, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenationâs Jonathan Cowie, Chris Barkley, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Kathy Sullivan, and Steven French for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Cliff.]
(0) 2026 RECOMMENDED SFF LIST. Thanks to those of you who pointed out that I already created a â2026 Recommended SFF Listâ. What I had actually failed to do was update the top menu page with all the links to these lists. I now have updated it with the January post, and deleted todayâs post.
(1) STEVE VERTLIEBâS RONDO AWARDS APPEAL. [Item by Steve Vertlieb.] This is your last chance to vote for my work on Merian C. Cooper as “Best Article of the Year.” Voting ends May 1, 2026, at Midnight!
More than 100 retired NASA astronauts have banded together to form a new nonpartisan organization dedicated to promoting U.S. constitutional principles. The group, Astronauts for America, said in an open letter released on Tuesday that its members âbelieve deeply in the principles that have propelled our nation for 250 years,â such as the rule of law, checks and balances and the peaceful transition of power.
âI think weâve all been getting concerned for quite a number of years about not being comfortable with the way some things are going,â says Astronauts for America co-founder and former astronaut Linda Godwin. âIt was powerful to find out that a lot of us felt the same way, and thereâs a stronger voice together.â
Godwin flew on NASAâs space shuttle four times between 1991 and 2001 and also served on the International Space Station during that period. She says that many astronauts have become concerned over the recent decline in public trust in government and science and the now heightened levels of political polarization.
âCivil discourse is not working well right now, and itâs enough of a concern that we just wanted to speak up now,â she says. âIn our time as astronauts, we learned that when you see something, you speak up.â
First Fandom Experience is pleased to present The Complete Acolyte, the first ever full reprint of a seminal fanzine from the 1940s.
The Acolyte ran for fourteen issues from Fall 1942 through Winter 1946. This exceptional amateur publication provided an essential bridge in the history of fantasy publishing.
âFor decades, devotees of H. P. Lovecraft and weird fiction have been hoping for a facsimile reprint of THE ACOLYTE, the legendary fanzine founded by Francis T. Laney and containing contributions by Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Fritz Leiber, Robert Bloch, and many other luminaries. Now, First Fandom Experience has accomplished the featâand in the process provided a wealth of information about the magazine and its contributors, in a lavish production that is actually superior to the originals in the quality of its reproduction. Fans and scholars can now assess the importance of THE ACOLYTE in fostering the study of weird fiction, to say nothing of enjoying a fascinating array of fiction, poetry, articles, and other matter.â â S. T. Joshi, Author of I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft
This 540-page softbound volume includes:
The full contents of all fourteen issues of The Acolyte, presented in their original form, digitally restored for readability
A full table of contents spanning all fourteen issues
An extensive introduction with historical context on the publication, its editors and its impact
A complete reprint of Howard Phillips Lovecraft 1890-1937: A Tentative Bibliography, the first bibliography of Lovecraftâs work, published in 1943 by Francis T. Laney (editor of The Acolyte) and William Evans
Biographical notes on the many poets whose work appeared in The Acolyte
Seldom-seen art created by frequent Acolyte contributor Robert E. Hoffman, Ronald Clyne, Alva Rogers and others
âThe Acolyte was always about more than just Lovecraft, and represents a maturing and increasingly educated fandom that wanted to bridge the gap between pulp fiction fandom and literary study and criticism. First Fandom Experience is not only reprinting key texts for Lovecraft and fantasy fans, but reveals the fans who put it together, and the historical context that drove its rise and fall over four years and 14 issues.â â Bobby Derie, author of Weird Talers: Essays on Robert E. Howard and Others
Per social analytics corp WaveMetrix, that makes it the most watched family film trailer launch by an independent studio ever, beating Angel Studiosâ animated movie King of Kings, which ended up opening to $19.3 million last yearâĶ.
âĶNote that among non-MPA studios, Neonâs trailer for last yearâs horror film The Monkey was quite big, pulling in 43M views in its first 24 hours and 100M in its first 72 hours per WaveMetrix, a record for a non-MPA studio independent horror movieâĶ.
(5) TODAYâS BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
April 24, 1930 — Richard Donner. (Died 2021.)
Tonight we have Richard Donner who has entered the Twilight Zone, errr, the Birthday spotlight. As a genre producer, heâs responsible for some of our most recognizable productions.
His first such works was on The Twilight Zone (hence my joke above in case you didnât get it) as he produced six episodes there including âNightmare at 20,000 Feetâ. Heâd go on to work in the Sixties on The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart!, and The Wild Wild West. He closed out this period by producing Danger Island (which Iâve never heard of) where, and I quote IMDB, âArchaeologists are being pursued by pirates around an island in the South Pacific. On this island, various adventures await them.â Itâs at least genre adjacent, isnât it?
So fifty years ago and then two years later, he directs not one but two now considered classic films in two very different genres. First out was The Omen with an impressive cast far too long to list here that got mixed reviews but had an audience that loved and which birthed (thatâs deliberate) a franchise and garnered two Oscarâs nominations.
Next out was, oh guess, go ahead guess, Superman. Yes, it would win a much-deserved Hugo at Seacon â79. DC being DC the film had a very, very difficult time coming to be and that was true of who directed the film with several sources noting that Donner may have been much as the fourth or fifth choice to do so. Or more.
So what did he do post-Superman? Well something happened during the production of Superman II and he was replaced as director by Richard Lester during principal photography was Lester receiving sole directorial credit. That being most likely tensions, and that was the polite word, which he had with all of the producers concerning the escalating production budget and production schedule. Mind you both films were being shot simultaneously.
If youâre so inclined, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut was released oddly enough when the film came out so Iâm assume he had the legal right to do so which I find damn odd.
He did go on to direct The Goonies. Now I really donât think itâs genre, but I will say that the treasure map and the premise of treasure make it a strong candidate for genre adjacent, wouldnât you say? Truly a great film!
He went on to direct one of my favorite Bill Murray films, Scrooged. The Suck Fairy says she still likes that film and will agree to watch it every Christmas as long as thereâs lots of hot chocolate to drink
His last work was a genre one, Timeline, about a group of archaeologists who travel back to fourteenth century France, based on a Michael Crichton thriller.
âĶOf course, Adamsâs skill and legendary impact extend far beyond just Batman. Heâs best known for his work on the Dark Knight, but his incredible art graced many titles across a stellar career. His rightfully beloved Batman art often overshadows his other work, but today, weâre shining a light on that criminally underrated art he penciled for other great comics. Weâre taking a look at ten of Neal Adamsâs best comic covers that donât include Batman. This list could easily be a hundred entries long, but these ten stand out against their peers. At least, they do to me. So, without further ado, letâs dive into the wonderful world of Neal Adamsâs artâĶ.
(8) VENUSâS IMPENETRABLE HAZE COULD BE MADE OF COSMIC DUST. [Item by SF Concatenationâs Jonathan Cowie.] Modeling suggests that the layer beneath the planetâs acidic clouds is comprised of particles from outer space.
Thereâs a mystery surrounding the Solar Systemâs hottest planet. Just beneath Venusâs layer of acidic clouds lies a roughly 20-kilometre-thick haze. Researchers have long known about the haze â and that its particles must contribute to the formation of the planetâs clouds â yet its origins have gone unexplained.
To solve the mystery, Hiroki Karyu at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, and his colleagues created a model of Venusâs atmosphere. They found that some properties of the haze can be explained by a steady influx of cosmic dust â tiny particles floating in space.
Such an origin would explain how the haze has sustained itself. The cosmically sourced particles serve as cloud condensation nuclei, acting as âseedsâ for cloud formation. The teamâs model suggests that the cosmic dust could account for the atmosphereâs strange behaviour of absorbing ultraviolet light.
The researchers write that the findings âestablish cosmic dust as an essential component of Venusâ climateâ. The same might also be true for other planets, especially gas giants such as Jupiter, and those beyond the Solar System.
As was said in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail….’Ahh, Camelot….. Shhhh. It’s only a model.’
[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenationâs Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Kathy Sullivan, Steven French, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Mark Roth-Whitworth.]
Erwin Vertlieb, Pat Valentine, and Steve Vertlieb.
By Steve Vertlieb: How do I say goodbye to someone I’ve known for fifty-four years? How will I say so long to a man with whom I’ve shared laughter and tears, good times and bad, for more than half a century. How can I possibly say farewell to a soul I’ve cherished for three-quarters of my life? How can I face the cold reality that I’ll never see one of my closest, most trusted and intimate friends again? I’ve shared personal grief and loss numerous times over the course of my now eighty years, as have we all. I’ve lost friends to cancer, to strokes, to drugs and to attacks of the heart. It’s always painful and life altering, as well as a reminder that nothing in life is either certain or guaranteed. It isn’t comfortable facing one’s own mortality or the mortality of those we love. And yet, with age and the increasingly rapid passage of time, such loss becomes more inevitable … more certain … and more difficult to overcome.
On April 21 I received a voice mail that was too terrible to hear …too painful to grasp or to comprehend. … too unimaginable to understand and come to grips with. I learned that one of my dearest friends, one of the Three remaining “Musketeers” in my painfully dwindling number of most beloved comrades had somehow been selected to depart this experience that we know as life.
I first met Patterson M. Valentine in the Spring of 1972. I’d recently become friendly with a gentleman named David Mallery who was hosting a weekly television program on Channel 3 in Philadelphia called The Movie Buff. The Sunday series focused on classic cinema and film history. David was also friendly with another young film fan in the Flourtown area who he thought would have common interests with me and so he gave me his telephone number. Pat and I met for lunch and that, as Humphrey Bogart famously remarked to Claude Rains at the conclusion of Casablanca, was “the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
Pat Valentine as a young man.
Over the ensuing years, Pat and his then wife Molly became like brothers and sisters to me. We were virtually inseparable. I’d visit often at their Flourtown home, playing with their beautiful golden retrievers, Sammi and Buffy. My little brother Erwin would often join us for dinners and excursions. Pat was at my side when I married and when I divorced. He helped celebrate my mother’s 100th birthday celebration. He and Molly joined me to see Frank Sinatra in concert several times and when I was invited to meet Mr. Sinatra in his dressing room at The Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, New Jersey in 1976, it was Molly who drove me to that sacred rendezvous. When I was up and when I was down, Pat was always there to hold my hand and to help me. When my parents died, he was there to comfort me. My mother always harbored a secret crush on Pat and thought that he had the appearance of a classic movie star and oh so handsome leading man.
I shared his pain when he and his own wife divorced and grew as close to him as any two men could become. He was more than a friend. He was my brother. I cannot imagine my life without Pat. I cannot conceive of never seeing his irascible face or hearing his deep healing voice ever again.
In later years after we’d both retired and I was no longer able to work due to a seemingly endless progression of surgeries and heart related events and hospitalizations; I vowed to visit Pat every two weeks and spend a couple of hours with him talking over old times, old movies and the often-melancholy art of growing old. I spent two hours with him at his house on Friday afternoon, April 17. I gave him a bear hug as I always did when we parted and said that “I’ll see you soon.” As I pulled out of his driveway and saw him waving at me, I’d no idea that this would be the last time that we’d ever see each other, talk and hug.
It’s inconceivable to me that I’ll never see him again. The enormity of his influence on my life, laughter, survival and well-being was beyond imagining. And yet, as long as I live, he too will live for we remain an integral part of one another. I love you, dear friend and for as long as I continue to experience breath in my lungs, I always shall. God Bless and keep you on your journey.
Online voting has begun for the 24th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards. Youâre invited to vote for your favorites in any or all 30 categories. Click the link for instructions and the complete ballot. The deadline to participate is midnight May 1.
And as a teaser, below are the Best Film and Best TV Presentation nominees.
BEST FILM OF 2025 Includes wide release, video-on-demand and streaming
AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH
BLACK PHONE 2
BRING HER BACK
BUGONIA
THE CONJURING: LAST RITES
FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS
FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES
FRANKENSTEIN
JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH
THE MONKEY
PREDATOR: BADLANDS
SINNERS
SUPERMAN
28 YEARS LATER
WEAPONS
WOLF MAN
BEST TV PRESENTATION (in 2025)
ALIEN: Earth, Hulu. Corporate overlords develop enhanced lifeforms to harvest alien species. âWe find some nets? How big can it get?â
FOUNDATION, AppleTV+ Psychohistory is disrupted by the unexpected: The Mule. âI intend to consume the Imperium, along with the Foundation.â
IT: Welcome to Derry, HBO. The origins of Pennywise. âYouâre saying it wants to eat us?â
THE LAST OF US, HBO. Bitter survivor and teenage girl pick their way through the end of humanity. âYou canât keep her safe forever, no matter how hard you try.â
PLURIBUS, AppleTV+. A tiny handful are left to resist a seemingly benevolent hive mind. âDo you want an atom bomb?â
THE SANDMAN, Netflix. Dream becomes the custodian of Hades after Lucifer abandons her post. âIt has begun. Hell is closed.â
SILO, AppleTV+. Ten thousand survivors demand answers as rebels learn about the Beforetime. âDid I just hear you say you want to go outside?â
STAR TREK: Strange New Worlds. Paramount+. The adventures of Captain Pike, Spock and a young Kirk before âThe Cageâ âYou can call me Jim.â
STAR WARS: Andor, Disney+. Prequel series to Rogue One. âIf I die fighting the Empire, I want to go down swinging.â
STRANGER THINGS, Netflix. The final season brings the battle to the Upside Down. âI need you to trust me to make the right choice.â
THE WALKING DEAD: The Ones Who Live, AMC. The seventh franchise series reunites Rick and Michonne. âYou donât understand. In the dead world, love is dead!â
WEDNESDAY, Netflix. The Addams family delves deeper into Nevermoreâs dark school history. âIâm where fun goes to die.â
Like many of us, W. H. Auden was a huge Tolkien fan in his day. In 1954, the celebrated poet raved about The Fellowship of the Ring in The New York Times, writing âNo fiction I have read in the last five years has given me more joy.â Afterwards, the two corresponded frequently; Tolkien sent Auden advance copies of the next two installments and the two discussed Tolkienâs work at some length. (Auden thought, for one thing, that Tolkien should get rid of the romance between Aragorn and Arwen, though in the end, it didnât seem to vex him much.)
But ten years later, when Auden proposed to write a book about Tolkien for the Christian publisher Eerdmans, as part of their âContemporary Writers in Christian Perspectiveâ series (subjects would include J.D. Salinger, John Updike, Saul Bellow, and C.S. Lewis), Tolkien flatly refused. And while Auden is often characterized as one of the people who legitimized Tolkienâs work in the literary world, and the two are often described as âclose friends,â at least in 1966, Tolkien didnât seem to agree (at least with the latter bit).
âMr. Auden did, in fact, inform me that he had agreed to contribute to your series a book called J. R. R. Tolkien in Christian Perspective. For various reasons I did not reply immediately to him; but though I regret that my view may not please you, and I am of course grateful for the honor of your attention, it is necessary I think to quote to you now what I said to him.
ââI regret very much to hear that you have contracted to write a book about me. It does meet with my strong disapproval. I regard such things as premature impertinences; and unless undertaken by an intimate friend, or with consultation of the subject (for which I have at present no time), I cannot believe that they have a usefulness to justify the distaste and irritation given to the victim. I wish at any rate that any book could wait until I produce the Silmarillion. I am constantly interrupted in this; but nothing interferes more than the present pother about âmeâ and my history.â
âI owe Mr. Auden a debt of gratitude for the generosity with which he has supported and encouraged me since the first appearance of The Lord of the Rings. At the same time I feel obliged to comment that he does not know me.* It is possibly unfair to judge him by the press reports (possibly garbled) about me and my views at a meeting of the so-called Tolkien Society. They at any rate, as reported, showed him to be entirely mistaken about my views on the topics he touched onâĶ.â
Lagos resident, Oghenechovwo Donald Ekpeki, has accused food delivery company Chowdeck of negligence, threat and intimidation after one of its dispatch riders knocked him and his friend down in Ikeja, leaving him with a spinal fracture that nearly resulted in paralysis.
Ekpeki, speaking with SaharaReporters, recounted how the accident occurred late at night on February 14, 2026, while he and his friend, Purity Adheke, were walking in the Ikeja Government Reserved Area (GRA) of Lagos.
According to him, the incident happened shortly after they left The Place restaurant on Isaac John Street and were walking near Reddington Hospital, Ikeja, when a Chowdeck delivery motorcycle lost control and rammed into them at full speedâĶ.
On the night of February 14, 2026, one of the most celebrated voices in African speculative fiction nearly lost his life â and came within inches of permanent paralysis.
Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki â the first African-born Black author ever to win a Nebula Award, and a winner of the World Fantasy Award, British Fantasy Award, and two Nommo Awards â was struck by an out-of-control delivery vehicle while walking near Reddington Hospital in Ikeja, Lagos. The rider slammed into him at full speed, launching him into the air and onto the pavement, then continued forward and struck the woman walking beside him before finally stopping.
When doctors finally examined him â after a nine-hour ordeal without medical attention â they delivered alarming news: Ekpeki had sustained a spinal fracture. The orthopaedic surgeon told him plainly that had the injury been even slightly worse, he would have faced permanent paralysis, lifelong deformity, or chronic debilitating pain.
What followed the accident made everything worse.
After lying injured on the roadside for hours, the company’s supervisor eventually arrived â and his first concern was retrieving the motorcycle. When Ekpeki, in pain, demanded medical assistance, the supervisor asked what his “means of mobility” was. When Ekpeki understandably lost his composure, the supervisor threatened him. Ekpeki sat in the delivery company’s office for another five hours â fractured spine, blood pressure spiking dangerously, having not eaten or taken medication for his bipolar disorder and hypertension all day â before anyone helped him.
A full nine hours after the accident, he finally received medical care.
The road to recovery is long â and costlyâĶ.
More details at the GoFundMe link.
I am Shahid Mahmud, Publisher and CEO of Arc Manor, and Ekpeki is one of my authors. I have published his work through Arc Manor’s imprints and watched him become one of the most important writers working in speculative fiction today, particularly in bringing a much needed focus on fiction marginalized communities and non-Western cultures.
He has dedicated his career not just to writing extraordinary fiction, but to building the infrastructure for African speculative fiction â founding anthologies, mentoring writers, establishing awards for disability representation in the genre.
We are raising $3,000 to help cover Ekpeki’s immediate medical expenses and support him through his recovery period.
Ekpeki has survived what could have been a fatal night. Help make sure his recovery is one fewer thing he has to worry about.
âĶ. The movie in question was the East German/Polish co-production Signale â Ein Weltraum Abenteuer (Signals â A Space Adventure), which is loosely based on the 1961 novel AsteroidenjÃĪger (Asteroid Hunters) by East German-Brazilian writer Carlos Rasch. Though Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 â A Space Odyssey was as much if not more of an inspiration for the film as Rasch’s novel, as is evident in the lovingly extended scenes of spaceships gracefully floating, spinning or tumbling in space, while cosmonauts rotate in zero gravity. The influence of other recent western science fiction films and TV-shows such as Planet of the Apes, Barbarella, Raumpatrouille Orion andStar Trek is evident as wellâĶ.
(4) TODAYâS BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
ïŧŋMarch 14, 1933 â Michael Caine, 93.
On my list of favorite British performers of all time, Michael Caine is near the top of that list. Both his genre and non-genre performances are amazing. So letâs take a look at those performances.
Caine portrayed Alfred Pennyworth in Christopher Nolanâs Batman trilogy. He was quite stellar in this role. And he was in The Prestige, a truly great film, as John Cutter, in Inception as Stephen Miles, Professor John Brand in Interstellar and Sir Michael Crosby in Tenet.
Did you see him in as Ebenezer Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol? If not, go see it now. Heâs wonderful and The Muppet take on the Dickens story is, errr, well actually touching. Really it is.
Definitely not genre is The Man Who Would Be King, based off the Kipling story, which starred him with Sean Connery, Saeed Jaffrey and Christopher Plummer. The two primary characters were played by Sean Connery â Daniel Dravot â and Caine played the other, Peachy Carnehan. A truly fantastic film.
Michael Caine and Sean Connery.
In the Jekyll & Hyde miniseries, heâs got the usual dual role of Dr Henry Jekyll / Mr Edward Hyde. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor â in a Miniseries. He did win a Globe for Best Actor for playing Chief Insp. Frederick Abberline in the Jack Ripper miniseries airing the same time.
Nearly thirty years ago, he was Captain Nemo in a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea miniseries.
Heâs in Austin Powers in Goldmember, third film in the franchise. Heâs Nigel Powers, a British agent and Austin and Dr. Evilâs father. Can someone explain to me the appeal of these films?
In Children of Men, he plays Jasper Palmer, Theoâs dealer and friend, Theo being the primary character in this dystopian film.
Heâs Chester King in Kingsman: The Secret Service. Thatâs off the Millarworld graphic novel of Kingsman: The Secret Service by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons.
Iâm reasonably sure thatâs all I need to mention about his career.
âĶThe news comes a year after the streamer ordered a pilot for the project, tentatively titled Buffy: New Sunnydale, with Oscar winner ChloÃĐ Zhao, a self-professed lifelong Buffy fan, directing from a script written by Nora and Lilla Zuckerman (Poker Face).
The decision follows weeks of speculation about the fate of the pilot. Sources described it as ânot perfect,â noting the Zhaoâs sensibility may not have been the perfect match for the reboot. Zhao is now riding a wave of critical acclaim for her latest movie, Hamnet, which has eight Oscar nominationsâĶ.
(7) MY CHOICES FOR THE MOST DESERVING OSCAR WINNERS 2026. [Item by Steve Vertlieb.] While I understand that political divineness and humanistic conscience too often play a significant role in the ultimate selection of Oscar winners with a few token nominations being offered to deserving actors and technicians who realistically have no chance of winning the annual coveted trophy, here are my choices for the most deserving winners at the Oscars on Sunday evening who, with few exceptions, have little to no chance of winning in their respective categories.
I have notably passed on categories and nominations that failed to capture either my interest or imagination this year.
BEST PICTURE
1. “Hamnet” … A tragic, heartbreaking examination of the creative process and the toll that it takes upon those in the sphere of the writer
2. “Train Dreams” … An utterly stunning look at life, love and haunting loss spanning half a century of American transition and growth
BEST DIRECTOR
“Hamnet” … Chloe Zhao
BEST ACTOR
Ethan Hawke in a career defining performance as famed lyricist Lorenz (Larry) Hart in “Blue Moon”
BEST ACTRESS
Jessie Buckley as the passionate wife of William Shakespeare in “Hamnet”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Sean Penn for his Joyously delusional performance in “One Battle After Another”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Madigan for her nearly unrecognizable turn and frightening performance in “Weapons”
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
“Train Dreams” … Exquisite, breathtaking visualizations of the beginnings of the last century
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
“Blue Moon” … The sad, yet true decline of a uniquely influential Broadway lyricist
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
“Train Dreams” … A deeply poignant and melancholy portrait of a humble man vainly attempting to adapt to a changing American landscape through resignation and loss
VISUAL EFFECTS
1. “Avatar: Fire & Ash”
2. “Jurassic World Rebirth”
(8) CANNED BOOM! [Title by Mark Roth-Whitworth. Item by Steven French.] The Guardian article opens on a bit of a scary note, with its mention of the âone-tonne deviceâ but it does note later that the actual amount of anti-matter being transported is tiny, to say the least! âPlease drive carefully: scientists plan to transport volatile antimatter for first timeâ.
When the truck pulls away from the building at Cern, the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva, all eyes will be on its precious cargo, a one-tonne device containing some of the most exotic material on Earth.
The 20-minute test run around the campus, pencilled in for later this month, will mark the worldâs first attempt to transport antimatter, a substance so delicate that when it meets normal matter, both are consumed in a burst of pure energy.
To reach this moment has taken years. But if the test goes well â meaning the truck returns with the antimatter intact â it will pave the way for Cern to transport the material to other laboratories. In those facilities, researchers will perform precision measurements in the hope of learning why our universe is built from matter and not these bizarre mirror particles.
âA core question we want to understand is where did matter come from. And then, if you know about antimatter, itâs natural to ask, why is that not here? The process is not understood and we are hunting for clues as to why it happened,â says Dr Christian Smorra, a physicist on the Baryon Antibaryon Symmetry Experiment (Base) at Cern.
Antimatter, a name that implies an almost ideological opposition to the bedrock of our existence, is warmly embraced in science fiction. In Star Trek, it powers the Enterpriseâs warp drive and photon torpedoes. In Dan Brownâs Angels and Demons, a canister containing a quarter of a gram of antimatter is stolen from Cern in a plot to blow up the Vatican.
The reality is reassuringly mundane. Antimatter emitters are readily available at supermarkets in the form of bananas, which emit antiparticles through the radioactive decay of potassium. Sadly, they have limited value for understanding the universe. The device on Cernâs truck will carry about 1,000 antimatter particles, weighing about a billionth of a trillionth of a gram. Should the containment fail, and the antimatter make contact with normal matter, the resulting pulse of energy would be so feeble, the load doesnât even warrant a radioactive labelâĶ.
The Trump administration is reviewing proposals to break up one of the worldâs leading climate and weather laboratories, transfer its work to universities and private companies, take away its aircraft, and sell its property in Boulder, Colo.
The laboratory, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, has been targeted for months by the Trump administration. In a social media post in December, Russell Vought, the White House budget director, called the Colorado center âone of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.â
The center, founded in 1960, is responsible for many of the biggest scientific advances in understanding of weather and climate. Its research aircraft and sophisticated computer models of the Earthâs atmosphere and oceans are widely used in forecasting weather events and disasters.
Scientists say the move to dismantle the center would weaken research that is crucial to understanding the atmosphere, space and oceans, air pollution and climate change. It would leave emergency officials and planners less prepared for extreme weather events, critics said.
The centerâs staff includes about 830 employees working under the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a nonprofit consortium of colleges and universities that oversees the center for the federal government.
The center also operates a massive supercomputer, known as Derecho, in Cheyenne, Wyo., that scientists use to predict the behavior of wildfires, space weather, hurricanes and other complex weather patternsâĶ.
(10) LA VINTAGE PAPERBACK SHOW SIGNING NEWS. Hereâs the final revision of the autographing schedule for tomorrowâs Los Angeles Vintage Paperback Collectors Show which begins at 9:00 a.m. at the Glendale Civic Auditorium, 1401 Verdugo Rd, Glendale, CA.
[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenationâs Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Steve Vertlieb, Cora Buhlert, Kathy Sullivan, Steven French, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]
By Steve Vertlieb: So, I thought long and hard about whether or not to share this rather repulsive and utterly degrading story with everyone. It isn’t pretty. It isn’t remotely attractive or complimentary, but it is frighteningly true. I’ve experienced terrible balance issues for many decades. Yes, I know that this is an easy cue for some aspiring Don Rickles to comment that I’m just naturally unbalanced. Well, yea, I’m afraid that this is also sadly true. I’ve had a few major falls over the past few years and none of them were at Niagara. I’m seeing a Neurologist about this and even went through six agonizing months of physical therapy in order to attempt to correct this condition, but it only grows worse and more precarious as I age and grow more fragile. I’ve frequently fallen for Shelly over the years, but I suspect that she might have preferred a slightly more romantic “leaning” to my unexpected pratfalls either while emerging from the shower at a hotel in Atlantic City or on her front steps after losing my balance and hitting my head upon the cement.
At any rate, last Saturday night after returning from the Philadelphia Flower Show I was physically exhausted but decided to remain up for a while watching television. At around two in the morning, feeling drowsy, I decided to retire to my bedroom and get some much-needed sleep. I arose from the couch and bent over to my left, attempting to turn off the light nearest to my living room window when the room began spinning and I fell onto the floor, wedged between the couch and the coffee table. I was unable to move or get out the awkward position in which I had fallen, and so I pushed against whatever objects that I could feel in order to gain traction and stand up.
Unfortunately, in the now darkened living room, I pushed against any relatively solid object that I could feel, thereby knocking over hundreds of cd’s, dvds, blu-rays, letters and snow globes, creating the greatest natural disaster since the San Francisco Earthquake. Still unable to navigate my way upward, I forced myself to crawl like a worm to an area beyond the couch where I might find more open space from which to navigate. At eighty years of age, however, I could not find the strength or a table to reach out to and lift myself up. I had to crawl literally like a worm through the living room floor into the dining room and, finally, into my bedroom.
If any of you have ever seen a film called “Open Water 2,” you might recall the unhappy plight of the vacationers who unwisely jumped from the deck of a large yacht into the ocean for a swim, leaving no adult left on board to help them regain entry to the boat. Well, that’s the scene that crossed my mind as I lay helpless for FIVE (5) hours on the floor near my bed trying to find something to lean upon that might help me get to my feet and gain access to my increasingly inviting, yet torturously elusive and taunting bed. Utterly helpless, distraught, and frantic, I realized that the only way that I could lift myself up and into the bed was to roll over from my side onto my knees, grab the bedspread upon the sheets and literally pull myself up with enough traction in order to climb onto the bed.
The problem was that I had so badly banged up my knees in the initial fall that it hurt like hell to balance all of my weight upon my knees. Needless to say, I lay on the carpet for hours crying, sobbing, pleading and finally cursing for help when none was to be found. Finally, in an act of complete and utter desperation, I forced myself up sitting upon my knees, grabbed the blanket and pulled myself up, like a beached whale, onto the top of the bed, very nearly sliding back down onto the floor and then grabbing and clutching the covers, enraged but at last emancipated while safely ensconced like a crippled marionette onto the middle of my bed.
After a total of five agonizing hours in both desperation and pain, I got under the covers at seven in the morning and turned off the lights …. waking up three hours later at ten am in order to keep an early afternoon pre-scheduled appointment. I felt like the actors in that “Open Water” sequel trying in vain to climb back up to the near, yet so far away safety of the inaccessible deck beyond reach high above them.
As i write this missive two days later my body still aches, while my shoulder, arms, hands, legs and knees remain black and blue. After my recent emergency weeklong hospital stay in which I suffered massive blood loss requiring three or four transfusions, to say that I’m walking, sitting down and standing up with severe caution and underlying psychological and physical pain would be the understatement of this merely two-and-a-half-month-old new year. Now I know how “Willie the Worm” must have felt alongside Gene Crane in the early days of live Philadelphia children’s TV.
For you younger viewers, I’ll defer to Jack Black and sign off as …
