blog.starwreck.com

Well, when things change they certainly change fast. Late last night we found out that Älymystö, Timo’s band that he so recently wrote about, has landed a three-album deal with a major record label. As a result of this and long and serious talks together with the band and the Energia team, Timo is becoming a full-time musician and resigning his post as director of Iron Sky, effective immediately. At this moment, we’re unsure who will direct Iron Sky, but Samuli has intimated that locally famous director Timo Koivusalo has expressed interest in the job - we’ll keep you posted. I guess the next best thing to Timo is another Timo!

EDIT 13.06: It seems that Mr Koivusalo won’t be available, after all. So we’ve made the decision to go with what we have, and have Samuli direct Iron Sky.

Timo is flying to Austin, Texas on Sunday, to attend the prestigious South by Southwest film (and music, and other things besides) festival. Below is a little something found on the Interwebs to prepare him for his arrival in the homeland of liberty. Be sure to check out the group’s sweet logo on their Myspace page and remember: TSA means Takin’ Suckers’ Assets.

The things we find on the Internet! Today, it’s the thesis work of a German film student. Check it out; apart from the pretty CGI, the music and graphic design combine to depict a haunting, surreal world that reminds me, at least, of the decidedly otherworldly French science-fiction animation, La Planète Sauvage (translated to English as Fantastic Planet).

It’s also artsy-fartsy as all hell! It is a question of personal preference whether that is a good or a bad thing (I like it, director Vuorensola seems to disagree). It also says “die.art” with a fancy logo at the beginning of the end credits, which is just asking to be punned (like in the title of this post), if you ask me.

Oh, and in case you’re worried, no, Iron Sky will not look like this… or will it?

English Summary: We’re moving. Our address from 27 November 2007 on will be Yliopistonkatu 60 A, 3rd floor. See the map.

Tuotantoyhtiö Energia on hakenut silmämuna kovana isompia ja kauniimpia toimitiloja itselleen jo hyvän tovin, ja nyt on lopulta tärpännyt. 27.11.2007 alkaen Energian, ja tietenkin Star Wreck Storen, löytää reaalimaailmassa osoitteesta Yliopistonkatu 60 A, 3. krs. Taiteilijoita kun olemme, taiteilimme kätevän lähestymiskartan.

Koska suurten tavaramäärien muuttaminen on ikävää, olemme keksineet ovelan tavan tyhjentää puotimme hyllyt: menestystuotteemme ovat nyt edullisempia kuin koskaan! Nyt on siis oivallinen hetki käydä paitsi heittämässä hyvästit vanhalle liikehuoneistollemme, myös hankkimassa joululahjat kerrankin ajoissa. (Kyllä, tämä oli häpeämätöntä mainontaa.)

I finally finished Joe Haldeman’s novel Forever Peace last night. It kept me up until 4 in the morning just because the story kept kicking on higher and higher gears so I couldn’t leave the book with only fifty or so pages left. It was funny in a way. After all, I’d been reading the book for quite a while already, in tiny snippets every night before bed. (Oh, what I’d give for the time to sit down with a good book…)

I bought the omnibus edition Peace & War at Finncon last July, after listening to the author being interviewed Actors Studio style and realising three things at once. One, the man is funny, intelligent and an incredibly gentle person. Two, I’d only read two pieces by him: a translation of his seminal Forever War back when I was in school, and the Vietnam-themed poem (!) DX in the anthology Demons & Dreams edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (ISBN 978-0712630214, good luck finding a copy). And three, those two works - a three-page poem and a translation (for crying out loud!) - had left me with a lasting impression of a terribly skilled novelist. It was time to reacquaint myself.

True, the title of the omnibus - Peace & War - is a reference to a classic (I should really say, another classic). But it’s also very accurate: that’s what Haldeman writes about. Not content with merely describing either, he recounts the lives of people taking part in war in a way that makes the necessity of peace achingly evident. His style is remarkable - friendly, casual, like listening to a friend relate something that happened to him. That style gives his works a light and approachable quality, but also emphasises the understated way he describes moments of savage action. No build-up of tension, no deceptive calm before the storm, it really brings home the horror of combat when you have to re-read the last two sentences before it sinks in that an ambush has just been sprung and someone lies dead from stepping on a land mine.

And the sheer scope of it! Not for Haldeman the simple statement that war is hell. No, he goes right ahead and demonstrates that if war is indeed an intrinsic part of human nature, why then, the evolutionary quantum leap necessary to rid us of war is worth it. True, being one of a dying breed (as his protagonists tend to be in these stories) does leave one feeling rather forlorn. But then, war also leaves one feeling rather forlorn, or rather dead. Think about it.

Hey, there’s even a way to link this rant with Iron Sky. In 2004, Mr Haldeman split the James Tiptree, Jr. Award with Iron Sky writer Johanna Sinisalo. According to her, he was so much of a gentleman that he spent most of his acceptance speech praising her work. Having listened to and read the man, I’m inclined to believe it.

I’m ashamed to admit that I only today learned of the Baen Free Library project. To those not In The Know, it’s an online service by the publishing company Baen Books that offers electronic versions of their books for free. It’s been around since 2000, and currently offers 98 titles. To quote First Librarian Eric Flint: “I will cheerfully put up the stuff for free myself. Because I am quite confident that any ‘losses’ I sustain will be more than made up for by the expansion in the size of my audience.” So they’ve been saying (and proving) the same thing that we demonstrated with Star Wreck - that free distribution cannot but benefit the authors - since the turn of the millennium. So we weren’t quite the first, although apparently, Mr Puskala endorsed the Free Library on our forum already in 2002.

So why is this fact so hard for show business to admit? Why is the industry trying to clamp down on online piracy when it’s so obviously counterproductive - more regulations means higher costs means artificially-elevated prices means piracy appears more attractive? Beats me. Probably because it’s so much easier to cling to what you grew up with instead of trying to change with the times. Possibly because the prevailing ideological climate seems to be moving in a more draconian, paranoid direction. We can only hope that successful endeavours like the Free Library (and Star Wreck) will eventually convince the movers and shakers that free distribution is an opportunity and not a threat.

Actually, I know the true reason. It’s because only good authors benefit from the publicity generated by free distribution. Let’s face it: without the artificial hype generated by massive publishing efforts - if people knew what it is they’re buying - would the likes of Dan Brown or Ilkka Remes ever sell a copy?

And would we really be any worse off for it?

Even though running Energia Productions is very much a full-time job for us, we do sometimes find the time for side projects - each according to their skills. For my part, I was delighted when a fun fellow named Aleksi Eeben asked me to contribute to a computer game he was making - for the Commodore 64, no less! The game in question, Redrunner, is the sequel to his earlier award-winning Greenrunner (can you see the pattern here?). Both are rather hectic action games in the old-fashioned, fast and shallow way, and very fun to play (though you do need an emulator like VICE).

My part in the proceedings? Voice acting, of course. Aleksi’s game features cool graphics (for a C64 - there are many nifty little details), top-notch music, and appropriately arcade-ish sound effects - and speech. Though I humbly acknowledge the superiority of The Voice of Greenrunner, Elaine Walker, I must say Aleksi has managed to make my voice sound surprisingly good through the SID chip. Finally I have realised my childhood dream of being part of a C64 game project!

If you’re into this sort of stuff at all, you can do a lot worse than to check it out now - and remember, these days it’s fashionable to be “retro”.

Update: The title screen with great retro music and Antti’s smooth voice:

Just under a year ago, I discovered a fantastic webcomic, DM of the Rings, based on the premise “What would Lord of the Rings (the films, mainly) have been like if it were a Dungeons & Dragons campaign?” Due to an unforgivable lapse of judgement, I neglected to advertise it either here or in our forum. Now, the story is complete: in 144 episodes and precisely one year, the trilogy has been waded through, and practically every fantasy and roleplaying cliché therein poked fun at. (Well actually, the comic - and the year - was up last Friday, but hey, we didn’t have a working Internet connection then. Mumble, mumble.)

In a belated attempt to set matters straight, I’m hereby urging everyone at all interested in either Lord of the Rings or roleplaying to take a gander at this fantastic barrel of laughs here. And while I’m at it, I’ll also recommend (to all you gamers out there at least) the author’s next webcomic project, the alluringly named Chainmail Bikini. Check it out; it oughta be good.