novaBBS - rec.arts.sf.fandom - MT VOID, 10/22/21 -- Vol. 40, No. 17, Whole Number 2194

THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
10/22/21 -- Vol. 40, No. 17, Whole Number 2194

Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
Sending Address: evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
All material is the opinion of the author and is copyrighted by the
author unless otherwise noted.
All comments sent or posted will be assumed authorized for
inclusion unless otherwise noted.

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send mail to eleeper@optonline.net
The latest issue is at <http://www.leepers.us/mtvoid/latest.htm>.
An index with links to the issues of the MT VOID since 1986 is at
<http://leepers.us/mtvoid/back_issues.htm>.

Topics:
Bond Songs (Part 6) (LICENSE TO KILL, GOLDENEYE,
TOMORROW NEVER DIES) (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
NEEDLE IN A TIMESTACK (film review by Mark R. Leeper and
Evelyn C. Leeper)
"The Living Dead" Saga, James Bond Films and Songs, and the
MT VOID (letter of comment by Guy Lillian III)
This Week's Reading (Hugo Award novella finalists)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

===================================================================

TOPIC: Bond Songs (Part 6) (LICENSE TO KILL, GOLDENEYE, TOMORROW
NEVER DIES) (comments by Mark R. Leeper)

If you are just coming in on this, I am making comments on the
title songs from the Bond films.

Next up is LICENCE TO KILL.

Ooooh
Ah-aaah
I need, I need, I've got to hold on to your love

{Just what part of his anatomy was she holding onto?}

Ooooh

{Ooooh.}

Hey baby, thought you were the one who tried to run away
Oh, baby, wasn't I the one who made you want to stay?
Please don't bet that you'll ever escape me

{What must this woman look like?}

Once I get my sights on you
I got a licence to kill (to kill)
And you know I'm going straight for your heart

{I think I see why you are running running away. This
sounds like a case for the police.}

(Got a licence to kill)
Got a licence to kill (to kill)
Anyone who tries to tear us apart

{This is getting scary,}

(Got a licence to kill)
Licence to kill
Hey baby, think you need a friend to stand here by your side?

{To do what? Ride shotgun?}

Yes you do (Your side)
Ooh, baby, now you can depend on me to make things right
(things right)

Please don't bet that you'll ever escape me (Ooh)
Once I get my sights on you
I got a licence to kill (to kill)
And you know I'm going straight for your heart
(Got a licence to kill)
Got a licence to kill (to kill)
Anyone who tries to tear us apart
(Got a licence to kill)
Say that somebody tries to make a move on you
In the blink of an eye, I'll be there too
And they'd better know why I'm gonna make them pay
'Till their dying day

'Till their dying day
'Till their dying day
Got a licence to kill (to kill)
And you know I'm going straight for your heart
(Got a licence to kill)
Got a licence to kill (to kill)
Anyone who tries to tear us apart
(Got a licence to kill)
Licence to kill
Gotta hold onto your loving
Licence to kill
Ooohooo!
Kill

{This is why we need stricter gun control. Ooohooo, Kill}

Next is GOLDENEYE.

See reflections on the water
More than darkness in the depths

{Sorry, I'm not seeing it.}

See him surface in every shadow
On the wind I feel his breath

{Phew! Dead fish!}

Goldeneye I found his weakness
Goldeneye he'll do what I please

{Introduce him to soap. Have him to take a bath.}

Goldeneye no time for sweetness
But a bitter kiss will bring him to his knees

{I it would also fell an ox.}

You'll never know how I watched you
From the shadows as a child

{She has been stalking him for years.}

You'll never know how it feels to be the one
Who's left behind
You'll never know the days, the nights
The tears, the tears I've cried
But now my time has come
And trust me time is not on your side

{Neither is the wind.}

See him move through smoke and mirrors
Feel his presence in the crowd
Other girls they gather around him
If I had him I wouldn't let him out
Goldeneye not lace or leather
Golden chains take him to the spot
Goldeneye I'll show him forever
It'll take forever to see
What I've got
You'll never know how I watched you
and bedenied
You'll never know how it feels to get so close
and be denied

{This is getting seriously creepy.}

It's a gold and honey trap
I've got for you tonight
Revenge it's a kiss, this time I won't miss
Now I've got you in my sight
With a Goldeneye, golden, goldeneye
With a goldeneye, goldeneye.

{I guess revenge is sweet.}

And finally this week is TOMORROW NEVER DIES.

Darling I'm kill
I'm in puddle on the floor
Waiting for you to return
Oh what a trill

{You should have been house-broken.}

Vacillations good lord
How to tease
How you leave me to burn

{What are you, a pie in the oven?}

It's so deadly my dear
The power of wanting you near
Until the day
Until the world falls away

{Now that is one heavy pie.}

Until you say there will no more good-byes
I see it in your eyes
Tomorrow never dies

{What would you do with a dead tomorrow?}

Darling you won
It's no fun
Martinis, girls, and guns

{It sounds like a 12-year-old's idea of a good time.}

It's murder on our love affair
You bet your life
Every night
While you chase every morning die
You're not the only spy out there
It's so deadly my dear
The power of wanting you near
Until the day...

{It's getting worse.}

[-mrl]

===================================================================

TOPIC: NEEDLE IN A TIMESTACK (film review by Mark R. Leeper and
Evelyn C. Leeper)

NEEDLE IN A TIMESTACK is based on a story by popular science
fiction author Robert Silverberg. Though he has been a prolific
author for the last seventy years(!), little of his work has been
filmed. The only major exception is THE BICENTENNIAL MAN (based on
"The Positronic Man").

This film has a jazzy score and a diverse cast (and a touch of food
porn), and is divided into three sections, representing three
timelines, centering on Nick, Janine, and Tom. Each starts in the
boardroom of a wealthy corporation with somebody is giving a talk
that sounds like double-talk. In the middle, a "time shift" (or
"phase"--they seem to use the terms interchangeably) makes reality
change. Apparently changing timelines is "time crime" but that
seems to happen anyway. Nick thinks someone is trying to change
his timeline in specific.

Throughout the film people's lives get screwed up just the same way
they have been with time shifts. Things get entangled, and one
character says, "We can't change the past; we can just clean up the
future a little bit." (It sounds a bit like relationship
counseling.) Also, people tend to speak in aphorisms (like that
one, or "Happiness is the only thing more fleeting than time.")

Nick signs up for a service called "Past Protect" which presumably
saves your memories from this timeline in case a time shift changes
something. Oddly, memories from one timeline last for a few hours
when the timelines shift, but gradually fade. Past Protect has
somehow lost most of his memories but he can remember Janine for a
while. The idea in general creates situations similar to those in
TOTAL RECALL, though in this film Nick is looking for someone to be
with him forever in love rather than trying to have an adventure.

The mechanism for the time travel is not clear, though the body (or
a body) does go back in time (rather than just inhabit the person's
earlier body). Not surprisingly, Nick's attempts to "fix" things
have a somewhat different effect. (One nice touch is a close-up of
Nick's hand in each segment, revealing his different marital
statuses.)

Released in theaters 10/15/21. Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4), or
6/10.

[-mrl/ecl]

===================================================================

TOPIC: "The Living Dead" Saga, James Bond Films and Songs, and the
MT VOID (letter of comment by Guy Lillian III)

In response to the MT VOID in general and various specific comments
in the recent issues of the MT VOID, Guy Lillian writes in ZINE
DUMP #53:

Since summer, Evelyn and Mark have brought forth the following
topics in their terrific weekly e-zine: FORBIDDEN PLANET (in LOCs),
BLACK SUN, THE RELENTLESS MOON, CAPTAIN VIDEO (by a contributor),
the NPR poll on the decade's best SF/fantasy (including EXHALATION
and PIRANESI), a genealogy of zombie movies from NIGHT OF THE
LIVING DEAD on (the linkage should go back to WHITE ZOMBIE and I
WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, if not further), weeks of discussion on THE
FLY (1958), and lots on James Bond films and their theme songs (for
me, GOLDFINGER is absolutely the best film, "You Only Live Twice"
the most effective song; ahh, the drive-ins of Contra Costa County)
.... and that's only part of it. Every week there's more, centered
on fine reviews from both editors and solid commentary from the
Chorus and contributors. [-gl]

Click here to read the complete article

Gary McGath <garym@REMOVEmcgathREMOVE.com> wrote:
> These days, a license to kill is called qualified immunity in the US.

Nitpick: Qualified immunity means that you can't successfully sue a
cop who had a warrant for a different address who bursts into your
home at midnight and murders your wife and children and cripples you.
It doesn't mean that he can't be arrested and convicted of murder.
It's true he won't be charged with that or any other crime, but not
because of qualified immunity, but because the prosecutors are part
of the same gang as him.

Just this week a federal judge dismissed all charges against a member
of the federal "Park Police" who murdered Bijan Ghaisar, an innocent
motorist. That was here in Fairfax County, but the county police had
no involvement except that one of their cars happened to catch the
action on its dash cam, proving that the killer cop lied and that the
killing was totally unjustified.

ObFandom: It was the same federal judge who sentenced wrongly
convicted filker Bill Wells for escape twice and for failure to
register as a sex offender once (despite the sex offense charge having
been dropped). The latter would have been twice too, if not for an
affidavit I submitted to that judge at the request of Bill's attorney,
saying Bill stopped by my apartment to pick up his property and told
me he intended to leave the area. He was only caught nearby two weeks
later because he was trapped in the area by a major snowstorm. Due to
my affidavit, he was freed only a year later. For the third time he
was required to report to a halfway house, and for the third time he
took off running instead. This time I was out of town, so I arranged
for him to pick up his property from a dead drop. He's still a
fugitive today.

My belief that my assistance to him both times didn't break any
law seems to be correct, since otherwise I would have been charged
for what I said in the affidavit, but I was not. The statute of
limitations for all federal crimes has long since run out, meaning
I can no longer be charged with helping him even if it was somehow
illegal, and he can no longer be charged with escape. Unfortunately,
he can still be charged with failure to register, since that's
ongoing, and even if he couldn't, he could still be ordered into a
halfway house. He would presumably still refuse to go, since he would
be required to undergo sex offender treatment there which requires him
to confesses to a crime he didn't commit, and without that confession
he would be locked up for life. But if he did falsely confess, that
confession would be used against him in court, and he would be locked
up for life for that crime.

As I may have mentioned once or twice, the so-called justice system in
the US is profoundly broken. For instance in my own burglary case 44
years ago, I was proven innocent shortly after my release. The courts
never contested that proof, but just said it was discovered too late.
(My record remains otherwise perfectly clean before and since.)
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

Subject	Author
MT VOID, 10/22/21 -- Vol. 40, No. 17, Whole Number 2194	eleeper@optonline.net
Re: MT VOID, 10/22/21 -- Vol. 40, No. 17, Whole Number 2194	Gary McGath
Re: MT VOID, 10/22/21 -- Vol. 40, No. 17, Whole Number 2194	Keith F. Lynch

Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after.

arts / rec.arts.sf.fandom / MT VOID, 10/22/21 -- Vol. 40, No. 17, Whole Number 2194