ummer is here, and with it comes the high season for science-fiction conventions all across the globe. In six short weeks, SF fans, artists and writers from around the world will gather in Glasgow, Scotland, for Interaction, the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention. With Jane Yolen, Christopher Pickersgill, Lars-Olov Strandberg, Christopher Priest and Robert Sheckley slated to appear as guests of honor, this international event promises to be the best Worldcon yet.
Interaction's site is the place to pick up all the information a convention guest could want in order to make the Glasgow con, scheduled for August 4-8, a memorable and pleasant experience. The usual facts and figures on hotels, volunteer opportunities and programming are available here, along with FAQs, progress reports and a souvenir book. Eligible voters for the Hugo Awards can browse through the ballot and then cast votes electronically. The site's links connect visitors to Worldcons past and present, as well as a sprinkling of other SF resources. Finally, this page also offers tips on seeing Scotland in style.
This close to the convention, the Web site is being updated on an almost daily basis, but visitors can most easily catch up on news at Interaction's beautifully organized and fully searchable blog. The Worldcon also has its own LiveJournal community, which allows attendees and volunteers to communicate informally on any number of topics.
One piece of information is, as yet, missing from this convention's Web site: Guest of honor Robert Sheckley has been ill, and there is no word yet on whether he will be well enough to attend. That news will no doubt be posted on the site as soon as it is available; in the meantime, Interaction promises to be a superb Worldcon, and visiting its home page can only serve to heighten a fan's excitement about the upcoming event.
—A.M. Dellamonica
Site of the Week—June 13, 2005
nly a few weeks have passed since the release of Star Wars: Episode III ... but already fans around the world have helped Movie Mistakes rack up over 20 continuity errors in Revenge of the Sith. Celebrating flubs—howlingly obvious errors and technically subtle ones, too—in television and motion pictures, this site makes for entertaining reading. It can also serve as a lighthearted reminder of the complex process involved in taking a story from script to screen.
A well-rounded film lover's site, Movie Mistakes offers movie trivia, memorable quotes, screen captures of classic film errors and a list of "perfect" (mistake-free, in other words) pictures. The Web page has an extensive listing of easter eggs, hidden content concealed within the menus of DVDs. Visitors who become members of Movie Mistakes can earn a handful of extra privileges—credit for mistakes spotted, full access to the site's image archive and, best of all, freedom from viewing its many advertisements.
Movie Mistakes does not specialize in SF. It has mistake listings for classics such as The Thirty-Nine Steps, sitcoms like Friends, romantic comedies, thrillers and every other type of show or movie. However, SF gets more than proportional representation: of the 30 movies with the most mistakes, the majority are genre films, with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets topping the
list at 286 errors. The "Best Mistakes" listing, a compilation of all-time funniest mistakes, contains entries from The Matrix, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The Movie Mistakes FAQ makes it clear that this site isn't nit-picking film errors out of malice, and that a movie can have dozens—even hundreds—of errors and still be utterly enjoyable. In fact, poring over a film to identify its tiniest flaws is a labor of love, something only a dedicated fan would do. The community behind this Web page genuinely loves movies, reviewing them so often and so intently that they catch glimpses of something most viewers miss—the behind-the-scenes effort that goes into creating the illusion.
—A.M. Dellamonica
Site of the Week—June 6, 2005
ontrary to what others may have said, H.P. Lovecraft was never buddies with Aleister Crowley and did not create Hastur the Unspeakable (he merely borrowed Hastur from Ambrose Bierce). Mythbusting of this sort is one of the primary aims of the H.P. Lovecraft Archive, a staid but informative site devoted to the life and works of one of the 20th century's most influential horror authors. Stories about the writer who brought us Cthulhu and the Necronomicon abound, but this Web page has the actual facts about the legend ... and it gets them right from Lovecraft's own pen.
In addition to his fiction, Lovecraft had a large social circle. Though one of the myths states he was a lifelong recluse, the Archive shows he traveled widely to visit friends and maintained a vibrant correspondence with dozens of writers, among them SF luminaries like Robert Bloch and Fritz Leiber Jr. Portions of his more than 100,000 letters appear in every section of this site, providing a treasure trove of autobiographical notes, observations and quirky personal trivia. The Archive's creators hope one day to post the surviving letters online in a searchable format to aid researchers and fans; for the moment, though, they have posted an ample supply of interesting excerpts.
This site has a detailed author's biography, a family tree, notes about Lovecraft's various passions, from chocolate to motion pictures, and data on his fictional creations as well as travel essays, philosophical articles and other nonfiction. It has information on Lovecraft tie-in media, such as taped readings and radio dramatizations, and notes on every Hollywood movie to be closely or loosely based on his creations. For serious scholars, it offers links to Lovecraft events, bibliographies and literary criticism.
Lovecraft's unique imagination placed an indelible stamp on the horror and SF fields, and a site like the Archive, one that allows visitors to get to know the unusual man behind the fantastic creatures and mythology of his stories, is nothing short of a public service.
—A.M. Dellamonica
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