October 2006 Number 18 UNDER THE OZONE HOLE No. 17 OCTOBER 2005 Page 1 UNDER THE OZONE HOLE October 2006 Number 18 The Editor's Opinion...and Other Delusions by John W. Herbert......................3 UNDERUNDER THETHE 2006 Prix Aurora Awards................6 The Trials and Tribulations of Fanzine Publishing OZONEOZONE HOLEHOLE by Steve Forty. John W. Herbert, Andrew C. Murduch and Edited by John W. Herbert Garth Spencer............................7 [email protected] Letters of Comment...................13 undertheozonehole.blogspot.com Jesse 2859 Gorge View Drive, Victoria, BC, Canada. V9A 2H8 by Louise Peters........................14 REVIEWS Published whever or so by The Spuzzum Press. ©Y2K+6. The Adventures of Brisco County Jr....15 All rights are cheerfully returned to the contributors. So there. Alien Apocalypse .......................15 Canadian SF Links Beauty Tips From Moose Jaw..........15 Contributors - SF Canada: www.sfcanada.ca BloodRayne............................16 Steve Forty, John W. Herbert, Karl Johanson, E.B.Klassen, Louise Peters, - British Columbia Science Fiction The Chronicles of Narnia: Andrew C. Murdoch, and Garth Spencer. Association (BCFSA): The Lion, The Witch and the Ward- www.bcsfa.bcgreen.com robe....................................16 Photo Credits - Ottawa Science Fiction Society: Demon Night............................16 Photo on page 4 by John W. Herbert, and www.osfs.ncf.ca Illium............................16 Photoshopped by Karl Johanson. - The Voyageur: Imperial Ambitions.................16 Photo on Page 14, 26 and 27 by John W. www.voyageur.idic.ca/ It's the Crude, Dude................17 Herbert. - On Spec magazine: www.onspec.ca King Kong (1933).......................17 All other photos stolen off the Internet. - Neo-Opsis magazine: www.neo- King Kong (2005) .....................18 About the Cover opsis.ca The Long Emergency....................18 Yep, it's the 40th Anniversary of some tv Lost - Season One.......................18 show. - Prix Aurura Awards: Man With the Screaming Brain.........19 www.sentex.net/~dmullin/aurora/ Petrodollar Warfare....................19 Availbe for The Usual. - Sunburst Award: The Secret War: www.sunburstaward.org The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat.19 Available as a pdf if you prefer. Just email Titanic (1943).........................20 me and let me know. - The Merrill Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy: Titanic (1999).........................20 Also, all back issues are available as pdf www.tpl.toronto.on.ca/merril/home.htm The Who: files as well. Just email me, and I'll email them to you. - Garth Spencer's The Royal Swiss Tommy and Quadrohenia Live.........20 Navy: Why Europe Will Rule www.vcn.bc.ca/sig/rsn/ the 21st Century........................21 - Rober Runté's NCF Guide to Fandom: www.uleth.ca/edu/~runte/personal/ Election Watch 2006 sf/sfindex.htm by John W. Herbert.....................22 - R. Graeme Cameron's Canadian Sometimes the Candy Machine Wins Will someone just hurry up and Fancyclopedia: http://members.shaw.ca/rgraeme/ by John W. Herbert.....................25 give Bush a blowjob so he can be home.html In The Drink impeached? - Made in Canada Newsletter: by John W. Herbert.....................26 www.geocities.com/canadian_sf/ - Andrew Murdoch's Fandom.ca: www.fandom.ca Why You Got This Zine - Under The Ozone Hole Archives: __ You Contributed www.undertheozonehole.blogspot.com __ You didn't Contrib. Thanks for nothing. __ You sent money. Ad-Astra: “It’s sobering to consider that __ You didn't send money. Ditto. www.ad-astra.org when Mozart was my age he’d __ Trees Don't Deserve To LIve Con-version been dead for 15 years....” __ You are the closed circle. www.con-version.org -- Tom Lehrer V-Con: www.v-con.ca Page 2 October 2006 Number 18 UNDER THE OZONE HOLE The Editor's Opinion... and Other Delusions by John W. Herbert ccording to arecent CNN story, “President Bush in recent days f anyone in the West needed a concrete example of “why they hate has recast the global war on terror into a 'war against Islamic us,” one really needs to look no further than the acts of terrorism Afascism.' Fascism, in fact, seems to be the new buzz word for Icarried out by the Israeli government in Lebanon. Republicans in an election season dominated by an unpopular war in First, let’s be clear. Israel has the right to defend itself. But what Israel Iraq.” is trying to do is affect a political change by using violent action against Rumsfeld is also usin the word, describing the rise of “a new type of an unarmed civilian population. And that’s terrorism. fascism’’ and compared critics of the Bush administration’s war strategy Pure and simple. to those who were Nazi appeasers in the 1930s. And here’s the rub for Arabs. When an Arab country, Iraq, invaded Merriam-Webster Online describes rascism as: Kuwait, the whole world was up in an uproar! The UN passed resolutions denouncing the invasion, and the West lead an attack to repel the invasion 1 : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of based on those UN resolutions. One of the justifications for the 2003 Iraq the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the invasion was again Iraq’s apparent flouting of UN resolutions. (It turns individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic that they weren’t. But I digress.) government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic Yet when Israel invades an Arab country, the West seems strangely and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of silent on the matter, except for the US, which has pointedly not called for opposition an immediate cease-fire, only for a cease-fire once Israel has secured its 2 : a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic position. (Of course, it’s not like Bush can complain… he’s doing the same or dictatorial control thing in Iraq. But I digress again.) Further, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice appeared to actually condone the attacks with her Sound like anyone we know? preposterous and naïve comment that the invasion was the “birth pangs Perhaps Rummy and Bush mean “fundamentalism,” described by of a new Middle East.” Israel has occupied foreign territory for 40 years Merriam-Webster as: in contravention of numerous UN resolutions, and has invaded Lebanon 1 : a movement in 20th century Protestantism emphasizing – again – but the West does nothing but sit back and fret. And there’s not the literally interpreted Bible as fundamental to Christian much of that going on, either. life and teaching b : the beliefs of this movement c : The ultimate irony is that Israel will never achieve its security goal adherence to such beliefs with this action. This is just what Osama bin Laden and his Islamists want. They want to see Israeli and American soldiers stomping over the region 2 : a movement or attitude stressing strict and literal like bulls in a china shop. Right now, Israel is doing more recruiting for Al adherence to a set of basic principles, ie islamic Qaeda than bin Laden could ever hope to do. fundementalism For every Hezbollah terrorist taken out in this offensive, dozens of civilian families have suffered casualties and perhaps gained a new I can understand how Bush makes that mistake. He’s Bush. D’uh. appreciation for the Islamist cause. Some may even become jihadists. But how can such a learned man as Rummy make that mistake? Then Burying family members has been known to radicalize people. again, he might be confused. After all, he’s a fascist surrounded by fundamentalist fascists. fter a break of almost a decade, I attended , V-Con 29 and V- So let’s recap: Con 30. After such a long break, it was interesting to see what Osama bin Laden: fundamentalist Asort of fans were attending conventions these days. First, there were a lot of familiar faces, but they were older, greyer and fatter (myself included). Fandom does seem to be aging. Perhaps this Saddam Hussien (r): fascist. is strictly a V-Con phenomenon, but I suspect not. Donald Rumsfeld (l): fascist. Second, and what made the first point all the more obvious, is that there were hardly any teenagers or young adults there. As the poet asked, “Where have all the young men (and women) gone?” Are the “next generation” of fans hunkered down in front of computers and Playstations, exploring virtual worlds in a totally different way from “classic” fans? Perhaps I’m totally wrong about this - maybe I just don’t know where young people hang out at cons. But if I’m right, this will spell serious trouble for conventions like V- Con. If young people have stopped coming out, then conventions have nowhere to grow their attendance from. Clearly, conventions need to be getting the youngsters out in order to remain economically viable. Page 3 UNDER THE OZONE HOLE October 2006 Number 18 peaking of last year's V-Con, one of the few complaints I heard a sign of lung cancer in cats is tumours metastasizing in their toes. about the hotel was the lack of garbage cans or waste baskets in the However, an x-ray soon revealed that Linus’s lungs were empty, along Spublic areas like the lobby or hallways. Seems that there just wasn't with my wallet. any place to empty your pockets of the accumulated debris of a busy The vet also re-examined Linus’s lump during a further visit for convention day. All day I heard the comment that where no garbage cans blood tests. She began by draining the toe at the start of the exam before in the hotel. commencing with the other tests. When she returned to examine the toe It makes perfect sense in hindsight, of course. Garbage cans would again, it had already filled up again.