TBS&E Number 69 – April, May and June 2016 1 Still in Century Gothic! Produced by Garry Dalrymple as a contribution to ANZAPA mailing No. 293, of the Australian and N.Z. Amateur Press Association. Postal Address: 1 Eulabah Avenue EARLWOOD NSW 2206 (Mt. Basenjis Solar Observatory) or Home ph. (best after 7 pm) 02-9718-5827 Email; [email protected] Page 1 – Index and Editorial Pages 2 & 3 – Vale Mike Baldwin, 1938 – 2016, by Doug Nicholson Pages 3 to 5 - Astronomy and Science, G. B. Donati and Spectra by Dr Toner Stevenson, Sydney City Skywatchers, Sydney Observatory June 4, 2016 Pages 5 to 22 – Notes from Sydney’s SF&F Discussion Meetings, Concord Library, P5 & 6, Mar 7, ’Divergent’, by Veronica Roth, P 6 to 8, April 4, ’Daughter of Empire’, by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts. P 8 to 10, June 6, ’Do Androids dream of Robot Sheep?’ by Philip K. Dick. A Photo of me Mum! Sydney Futurian meetings; P10 to 14 - April 15, SF stories better known from TV and Movies, P14 to 16 - May 20, Odd Planets in SF stories, P16 to 22 – June 15, Communication in SF Stories We’re too late for June, and will be too Full Pages 22 to 28 – Book Reviews if we wait till August, so some sort of a split ‘Finches of Mars’ by Brian Aldiss (UK) issue will be needed to avoid a nearly 50 ‘Return to Mars’ by Ben Bova (US) page TBS&E #69. So what to shift to a ‘The Last Starship from Earth’ by John Boyd future issue, TBS&E #70. ‘Daughter of the Empire’ The June ANZAPA deadline was missed by R. E. Feist and Janny Wurts (US.) because of some other pressing matters, ‘Submission’ by Michel Houellebecq (FRA) Mother’s Tax / Capital Gains issues resulting ‘James 1’ by David Walter (UK) from the selloff of Mother’s assets to cover ‘Surprised by Oxford’ by C. Weber (Can.) her place at the Ferndale Nursing home. ‘Dooms Day book’ by Connie Willis (US) Another unanticipated turn in that saga. Pages 29 to 35 – Traveller’s Tales I’ve also had to deal with a late Pages 35 and 36 - Basenjis Tail Piece complication to the 2015 NSW Upper House Page 36 – Page Index of the books election, requiring my sending in a ‘nil’ reviewed in this issue. financial return, the time I have spent 1 TBS&E Number 69 – April, May and June 2016 2 completing this possibly exceeding the time tipple, and the taking of sufficient that all who voted for me spent filling in their amphet-amine tablets to demonstrate that ballots with a number 1 for Garry Dalrymple. in moderate amounts for most people they A week before going to press I have 38 are a quite benign party drug, was a big pages to hand and a small stack of ‘read’ bonding exercise for the nascent “Sydney books awaiting a review, several pages Push”, which was in the process of achi- worth. In particular there are three books eving awareness of itself. whose reviews I would like to present It had moved from its friendly base at Philip together, as they each cover a story where Street’s “Tudor” hotel, where its lightly the Academic World is the environment and connected fragments rubbed shoulders world view of the protagonists. without intimacy, to the rather hostile and perhaps contemptuous atmosphere of the They make an interesting set. “Assembly” hotel across the road. Give it another week, into July and there will At this new location, where the staff fawned be a round of another few ‘first of the Month’ on the pompously self-important and big meetings to document, perhaps another 12 tipping stars of the Macquarie Network’s to 15 pages? Radio 2GB, we were as welcome as So where to do the split? scabies, and my enemy’s enemy became my friend. The philosophy people drank See you for next in issue #70, which might be with the actors and journalists, the science in the same mailing. fiction fans drank with the painters and poets. Then one night all went to the Garry P Dalrymple. uproarious drug-fuelled drunken orgy that And here we rest our pen. June 29, 2016. was supposed to mark the occasion of Michael Baldwin reaching maturity. The Sydney Push became an unlikely distinct body, people united only by their disdain for the values of the society which surrounded them, and Michael was assisted into avoiding becoming “mature”, a condition he remained free from through- out the following fifty or so years preceding his recent death. After that party, he seemed to be always “around”. He would be with the science fiction fans, who were his original clan, with the Sydney Libertarians at the races, with Vale Mike Baldwin the University Student Revue people and (1935 to 20/6/2016) the general bohemian drink-bumming crew As remembered by Doug Nicholson. at the pub, sometimes being a bridge between the seeming incompatibles, but President Lincoln is supposed to have said not identified with any group, the outsider that, “If General Grant is mad, let us hope he who was inside everywhere. Michael was bites my other Generals”. such a science fiction fan he was almost a If, despite all evidence to the contrary, there parody of one. It was he who made the is a God, I hope Michael Baldwin bites him. propeller-topped beanies, with their It is difficult to put together a concise miniature electric motors, that seven of us package of words to farewell someone who wore when we went down to Canberra has been a friend for more than sixty years. packed into the Ford Prefect of Pat Burke, His twenty-first birthday party, which was to the Science Fiction Conference that was notable for the consumption of a lake of supposed to bring Sydney and Melbourne Sparkling Rhine-gold, a newly launched fans together. 2 TBS&E Number 69 – April, May and June 2016 3 When we went down to an Aussiecon in Melbourne, he brought out an issue of his fanzine “Extant” thinking nothing of it being ten years since the previous one. At this time we were part of a foursome share-house in Paddington, although I always kept one foot in my parents’ home in Bellevue Hill where my SF collection lived safely away from the dangers of bohemian life, but he left to undertake a short lived marriage and the unlikely couple took up residence near Sydney University before going traveling overseas at the concession rate his Qantas job entitled him to. Shortly after returning The June 6, 2016, Sydney City they split up and later divorced. Sky-watchers meeting; Speaker; Toner Stevenson, Historic Houses To Michael, reality was something to be very skeptical about, perhaps it existed, Trust, on Giovanni Battista Donati Perhaps it didn’t. His parents had died when and the discovery of Spectra. he was very young, and he had been raised Who was there? – 24 people, 16 M and 8 F. by a clutch of Aunts. He was about seventeen when I first met him A night of threatening clouds, crowds and at the second Australian SF Convention. Vivid inspired festival of light pollution. He spoke little, but seemed to take Lots of homeless people made extra- everything in. He was an apprenticed homeless as their usual under the bridge aircraft instrument mechanic and had read haunts were dug up and now water filled a lot of science fiction. pits and trenches and the Livid crowds! I came to believe his nature had been Club News – A student of the (Melbourne) shaped by it. Of why we so quickly became friends I have no idea, but I soon noticed how Swinburne University on-line Astronomy different he was from extreme skeptics I had course announced his interest in meeting known, who were often contemptuous of other students. and verbally cruel to those around them. A recent on-line catastrophe has opened He was open, generous and spontaneously an opportunity to update and improve the friendly. He enjoyed the conversations of Sydney City Sky Watcher’s website. fans, the serious ones, the silly ones and the The Harley Wood (former N.S.W. outrageously ridiculous ones. Government Astronomer) Memorial talk will He enjoyed getting drunk with them and he take place on Wednesday July 6, 2016, 6 to enjoyed chatting with those who did not 7.30 pm at the University of Sydney. drink. The Speaker will be Dr. Luke Barnes, Topic; Individuals like this often go through much of Life in a Finely Tuned Cosmos. their lives alone, but Michael was lucky enough and the woman who became his Monty Leventhal’s Solar Report – Generally partner was lucky enough to be able to see Solar Activity remains low. When there are into the nature of each other and to like sunspot groups they tend to be ones and what they saw. He leaves behind a loving twos rather than more complex formations, companion of many years and memories together with some patches of Plage and many of us have of someone for whom we some small flares. Also, these spots are cannot imagine a replacement. occurring away from the suns equatorial region, where they should be occurring at Doug Nicholson, July 2016 this stage of the predicted solar cycle. A key thing to look for as a hint of a real 3 TBS&E Number 69 – April, May and June 2016 4 transition between cycles, will be the through his lenses.