2 File 770: 147 File 770:147 is edited by Grant Canfield: 14, 44 Mike Glyer at 705 Valley Tarai: 9, 41 View Ave., Monrovia CA Chaz Boston Baden: 91016. (photo): 6,19,22,23,24 File 770 is available Bill Rotsler: 2,7,8, 15,17, for news, artwork, 23,29,32,33,34,35,37,38 arranged trades, or by Len Wein: 32, 34, 35 subscription: $8 for 5 Keith Stokes (photos): 10 issues, $15 for 10 issues, Alan White: 3, 18, 24 air mail rate is $2.50. Tim Kirk: 2 Telephone: (626) Ray Capella: 5, 25 305-1004 Marc Schirmeister: 12, 13 E-Mail: Alex Holden: (photo) 26 [email protected] Douglas Spencer: (photo): 26, 27, 28 Art Credits Munchkin: (photo): 30 Brad Foster: Cover, 4, 16, 31 Sheryl Birkhead: 36 Editorial Notes by Mike Glyer Wild Kingdom: Even though the screen child get a shot. door is broken, we often open the sliding The next day I spent part of a quiet shift glass door to the patio to let in fresh air. in the Fanzine Lounge reading an issue of We’re willing to deal with the occasional Chaz’s A Bear Went Over the Mountain. In flying bug. This spring is the first time his Noreascon Four report he wrote about we’ve had a problem with wild animals the photo taken of past Worldcon chairs, and inviting themselves inside. why I wasn’t in it: “Mike Glyer went to bed A sparrow came in and got stuck behind early, which is why you don’t see him in the a drape. We ushered it out. A black cat that picture....” It’s nice to be missed, but hon­ strolls through our garden once a day poked estly, I was actually getting off the plane in his head inside, then thought better of it. California at about the time they were taking Diana woke up from a nap on the couch and the picture. I’d gone home on Monday so startled a squirrel that had been regarding Diana would have one less night caring for her from the middle of the living room floor. Sierra alone. The prize winner, however, was the In the same issue, he brought up the bunny. It sniffed and hopped its way question “What is a trip report?” He was through the door until it caught Diana’s eye. fine-tuning the definition used by SCIFI, the An unknown neighbor has a large, brown LA nonprofit fannish corporation, which domestic bunny rabbit that frequently es­ aged these days. Sierra got a set of five pays a $500 bounty to TAFF/DUFF/etc. capes captivity and devotes its freedom to very-long-haired dolls. They came inside a when a trip report is published. Chaz didn’t wandering the perimeter of our house. Any molded, see-through plastic shell, each think that LiveJournal or blog entries quali­ number of times strangers have knocked at bound to the cardboard liner by an alumi­ fied, saying that it had to be paper and land our door and kindly told us our bunny was num wire around her neck and ankles. Her in SCIFI’s post office box. loose. Which we doubtless would have long hair was stitched to the backing. For any other purpose. I would think a wanted to know if he was ours. The bunny is Untying each successive doll, I started to trip report is defined by subject matter, not revolutionizing neighborhood social life. It’s have Mittyesque visions that I was some medium of distribution. Why doesn’t an LA cliche that people here never know FBI agent trying to free the five before Han­ SCIFI? SCIFI set the policy in 1984 to en­ their neighbors, yet a man who had never nibal Lecter came back and something awful courage more fan fund winners to write and ventured across the street to meet us before happened. publish reports, and at the time distribution didn’t hesitate to rush over and volunteer to It makes Sierra’s tea parties a welcome through computer networks wasn’t a factor. help catch our bunny. relaxation. The demand for paper publication came in The bunny’s adventure in our living Loscon 2005: Last November at Elst’s response to the example of Ken room came right after Easter, and as Diana annual Loscon wine and cheese party, he Fletcher/Linda Lounsbury’s DUFF trip slide chased him out the back she said to the informed everyone he is now the delighted show which they presented at cons in the neighbors watching this over our fence, grandpa of Rachel Sienna. “It’ll be about early 1980s. We wanted to encourage the “Yes. he left three baskets of eggs and two years ‘til she can say it,” he thought wider and longer-lasting availability of trip chocolate.” aloud. Elst showed off her baby pictures. reports in a paper format. Sierra Grace: Sierra turned four in Feb­ This talk of babies also reminded him of a Now? I’m no longer in SCIFI, so I can ruary, and our birthday girl received a toy story from his pediatric practice, about a only wonder if the group can be equally store worth of presents from her relatives. parent who was tattooed and pierced from satisfied with a printout of a web page. It astonishes me how kids’ toys are pack­ head to toe, but couldn’t bear to see her May 2006 3 Chaz Gradually Restoring Internet Photo Galleries Chaz Boston-Baden’s empire of fannish digital photo galleries is making a come­ back, eight months after the host’s disk­ controller failure blacked out such widely- used archives as Hazel's Picture Gallery and SCIFI’s Fan Gallery. Photographer Chaz Boston-Baden might have been under the influence of margarita Jello in 2004 when he complained, “Fans are dying faster than I can shoot them.” Of course, really meant that he hated to miss a single chance to immortalize fellow fans in his online image collection. Even this kind of immortality is risky without backups. That system was still in the planning stage when disaster struck last summer, turning all of the site’s 29,140 News of Fandom photos into little red X’s. Chaz had the ruined disk drive run through a professional-grade recovery proc­ (both in 2000); Brian Aldiss (2005, for but avocados, and mangos can be imported ess, partly paid by fan donations to his web­ “services to literature”); and Leroy Kettle, and we normally get avocados from New site’s maintenance fund. So far, Chaz has (2006, senior policy adviser on disability Zealand. Backpacker tourism will be hit restored 9,303 photos to his galleries and he rights, Department for Work and Pensions). very hard. Many backpackers do fruit pick­ expects to get about 50% of his photos back. Other honorees with an sf/fantasy con­ ing and farm work in the affected area to Chaz explained in his LiveJournal, “I nection can be Google-searched on the Ansi- extend their cash. No crop, no jobs, no tour­ have a big stack of about a dozen data ble website. And who knows, next year will ism. The actual tourism areas are mostly DVDs with gigabytes upon gigabytes of we be talking about - Sir Dave? OK. Less damage to the Great Barrier Reef many thousand unlabeled, unnamed, untitled than anyone expected. and undated JPEG files. Matching them Aussie s Ride Out Storm “The cyclone effects hit far inland also, back up to where they came from is a daunt­ On March 18 Cyclone Larry hit Australian right through the Atherton Tablelands and ing task.... Unfortunately a large number of coast, crossing the east coast of Queensland. almost as far as the Gulf. The affected area files appear to be corrupted; the good news It did great damage but in contrast to Hurri­ is about half the size of Tasmania, so the is, it’s something that usually can be re­ cane Katrina, had little impact on fans. For cleanup is taking a lot of time. I expect the moved in a few minutes with a binary file example, the storm came ashore 400 km insurance payouts alone will be around editor..... Those minutes add up, though!” north of Eric Lindsay’s and Jean Weber’s A$500 million, with total costs exceeding a [[Originally appeared at Trnfen.net.]] home in Airlie Beach. billion.” Eric writes, “Apart from a few gusts of Knight of the Paper Spaceship gale force winds, and a power outage in one Man Bites Dog Leroy Kettle's fame in Britain originally area, we were unaffected (well, apart from Fannish times have changed. Years ago. came from naming “Ratfandom,” from the checking the storm track obsessively). Even fans opening a bookstore was barely news. biting humor of his fanzine. True Rat, and the boats in Pioneer Bay were unaffected. Now in the era of Amazon.com and mega­ from his repeated victories in Checkpoint’s Only one dragged anchor, and VMR mall booksellers, whenever anybody opens a annual poll, where he won Best Fan writer in [Volunteer Marine Rescue] saved it before it mom-and-pop bookstore their optimisim is consecutive years (1975, 1976, 1977). Now went aground.” worth a headline. Especially when mom- the Queen of England has topped that heap Few fans reside near the affected area of and-pop are longtime Southern California of glory by making him an Officer of the rural North Queensland. Eric explained, fans Dwain and JoAnn Kaiser, whose Magic British Empire, civil division, in her 2006 “Fandom in Australia is a feature of cities, Door IV bookstore opened last June in the New Year’s Honours.