Please Support THE CIRCUIT

Posted on 21. April 2017 by carstenschmitt

There is a new Kickstarter project going, asking for your support to realize a SciFi anthology series: The Circuit on Kickstarter. The makers behind the project are (among others) Manu Intiraymi, Walter Koenig and Tim Russ, all Star Trek alumni.
The rest of the cast and crew are also experienced actors and filmmakers coming from a wide range of genre shows.
The premise sounds fun, but even more fun is the fact that the producers want to include their supporters and fans to contribute to the project in a creative capacity.

I decided to take up the challenge and wrote a short script which I am going to hand in tomorrow. So, I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I don’t have high hopes for my script – the competition will be hard and I have hardly any experience in script writing. Nevertheless, it was fun writing it and if the crowdfunding campaign is not successful I don’t even have to worry about the quality of my writing. Therefore, I am asking you to chip in if you can. If you like genre shows, if you believe in new ways for creative people to reach an audience, please consider supporting the Circuit. Give some money, share the campaign on your social media profiles, any help is appreciated.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/836297110/the-circuit-urbiessa/widget/video.html

Support “Everyone: Worlds without Walls” on Kickstarter

Posted on 10. February 2017 by carstenschmitt

6904b1783e70f75e30cff6f5c33d89e9_original

Cover art by Christian Ward; All rights belong to the artist!

Tony C. Smith of the incredibly good District of Wonders network of podcasts, including Starship Sofa (Science Fiction), Tales to Terrify (Horror), and Far Fetched Fables (Fantasy), was annoyed and outraged about the most recent drop into the bucket of right-wing backlash against democracy, inclusiveness, and liberty, namely Donald Trump’s “Muslim Ban”.

He vented his frustration in a good rant on one of the shows and promised to do something. Something that Science Fiction fans are best at: to use stories to tear down the walls in our heads. Tony is running a Kickstarter campaign to fund an anthology of Science Fiction stories by authors from a range of ethnic and national backgrounds: “Everyone: Worlds without Walls.” Considering how good the Starship Sofa Podcast is, I have high hopes for this anthology to not only be the right thing to do from an ethical perspective but also the right thing to support if you like to read good-quality speculative fiction.

There was a time when I used to think that Science Fiction fans were generally more open-minded and inclusive than the average public. How can you be fascinated by the Prime Directive when you’re fucking bigot? How can you believe in humanity’s future in space when you can’t even see how we should overcome petty nationalistic tendencies on Earth? I know that the truth is different. I have experienced utter indifference from SF fans against the frankly terrifying “war against science” by populists like Trump, and the AfD in Germany. I have heard that politics should not invade the hobby. Another time I might have agreed. But not this time. This is the time to take a stance.

Tony’s initiative is small. It won’t sway public opinion, it won’t make Trump lift the travel ban, it won’t bring the UK back into the European family.
But it can introduce every reader to a different perspective, a different voice, and a little more understanding. Understanding, we can only hope, that is contagious. These days, we need even those little initiatives.

DISCLAIMER:

I do not know Tony C. Smith personally. I have nothing to gain from the anthology (apart from the enjoyment of reading it). I do not know any contributor personally. But I DO think it’s fantastic idea and I have supported it. And I think, so should you!

You don’t need much

Image

580c7ee3f96f1a6c49dc0cfc620111e72ef9b9

One of my favourite places.
Shot on film! Porst CM 135 Auto (A.K.A. Cosina CX, A.K.A Poor Man’s Lomo) on very much expired Kodak Gold 200 film.

How to tell you’re getting old 2

Posted on 4. February 2016 by carstenschmitt

I have been a gamer most of my life. I count myself lucky to still have a group of friends whom I meet regularly to play pen-and-paper role-playing games with. Most of these people I’ve known longer (much longer) than a decade and we jokingly refer to ourselves as ‘The Old Farts’ with the exception of “Youngster” who is barely in his mid-twenties.

Recently, we decided to switch to a new game system. We’re using the most recent edition, but our game master had a copy of the very first edition which he passed around during one of our evening meetings, and we were leafing through the pages reminiscing about the “good old times”. I looked at the publication date and remembered where and when I first played that game: 1991, in Weymouth, in the United Kingdom. I said: “Wow, guys, I just realised that the first time I played this game was 25 years ago.” The youngster gave me a funny look, and I realised that he had just realised that that was around the time he was born!

Talk about surrounding yourself with young people to feel young yourself.

At the Gaming Table

One of those days

Posted on 29. July 2014 by carstenschmitt

There are days when I can’t eat enough to throw up as much as I’d want to.

And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?

Banned Words

Posted on 12. June 2014 by carstenschmitt

Amen to that!

Figital Revolution

Starting a list of words that should be banned from our photographic vocabulary. Here’s number one:

“Film-like”

Adjective. Definition- a phase invented by advertisers, used to make people feel that the plastic, soul-less, hyper-real images they are making with their digital cameras are somehow connected to the rich heritage of real, film-based photographs.

If you want the look of film? Shoot film.

Viva la Revolution- Stephen

View original post