TNFF Vol. 71, No. 1

The March 2012 issue of the N3F clubzine with new editor, David Speakman, is now out.

From the Table of Contents:

• Election results
• Convention calendar
• Reviews of Zines and Movies
• N3F coat of Arms help needed
• Neffy Ballot for best of 2011

Hosted at eFanzines.com, the public issue is located here:  http://efanzines.com/NFFF/TNFF-71-1.pdf

TNFF Vol. 70, Nos. 2-4

A new, combined three-issue zine put out by the N3F. It is the last issue edited by Heath Row.

From the table of contents:

• Remembering Joanna Russ, by Jon D. Swartz
• N3F History: ‘What is Science Fiction Fandom?’, by Jon Swartz
• Member Spotlight: Damon Knight, by Jon Swartz
• What About Area 51? by Jeffrey Redmond
• Vonda N. McIntyre: Math and Media Tie-Ins by Heath Row
• China Miéville: Hostage to Fortune by Holly Wilson
• Along with the zine’s signature reviews and an artist spotlight on Jose Sanchez.

A public version is available at eFanzines.com at the following link: http://efanzines.com/NFFF/e-Fan-26.pdf

Look back at where we’ve been and see how far we’ve come.

Here is the table of contents:
2 Bureaus & Activities w/ art credits
3 2008 Officers w/ table of content
4 President’s Message
5 2009 N3F ELECTION PLATFORMS!
7 Historical Vignettes
8 Reviews
11 FanDominion.com
12 The Best of FanDominion.com
22 A Fantasy CD Preview Review
24 Bureau & Activities Reports
24 N’APA
24 Round Robins
25 Web Mistress
25 Treasurer’s Report
26 Blind Services
26 Secretary Reports & Roster
29 Tightbeam – Letters of Comment
30 Constitution & Bylaws w/ changes
34 Things to Think About
34 Submission Guidelines
35 2008 Short Story Contest

You can download the public version (personal information removed) here: http://www.n3f.org/The%20e-Fan18public.pdf

He died as approximately 3 a.m. Saturday morning in his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as discovered by Ruth, his wife of many years.

In the mundane world, John Bristol Speer was a retired lawyer who resided in Albuquerque since 1962; previously, he was a Democrat state representative from the Bend, Washington area during 1959-1961.

Jack was a giant in science fiction fandom, a founding member of N3F, FAPA and the original historian of science fiction fandom.

His 1944 Fancyclopedia has spawned many imitators over the years (including one on this site) and his 1939 book, Up To Now: A History of Science Fiction Fandom, is still used as a reference almost 70 years after first publication thanks to its recently resurrected electronic form on efanzines.com.

Fellow science fiction historian Harry Warner credited Jack Speer as “the first to stress [fandom's] subcultural aspects. Single-handedly, he made fandom’s ayjays something entirely different from the mundane amateur journalism groups.”

During his early prankster days in fandom, Speer was also known by the fannish name, John Bristol (his first and middle name sans surname).

A fandom innovator, he is also credited with being the father of the fanzine mailing comment.

Jack was the second editor of N3F’s The National Fantasy Fan in the 1940s, after founding editor, E. E. Evans.

LINKS:

• UP TO NOW is available as a free PDF at efanzines.com
• Jack’s entry on Wikipedia
• Jack’s bio at N3F.org

Please feel free to leave your remembrances of Jack in the comments section at the bottom of this article.

* Special thanks to Robert Lichtman for fact-checking details of Jack Speers’ life.

However, bizarrely enough, what did NOT get lost, and was rediscovered today while I was unpacking and dealing with the remaining boxes of stuff after my fairly recent move, was my green spiral bound notebook labeled “Music Bu.” You can imagine my surprise when I saw this. Inside contains how and what I was going to do for the bureau.  Somehow this notebook has stayed with me when I left the nest and got married, moving to Vegas, then moving to Gimp City (my “pet” name for Yuba City), and then returning to San Jose where I am now.

I wanted to do an AudioZine! Now, there’s a nifty idea that’s probably more plausible now, but it wasn’t just gonna be people talking. This was gonna be 1-2 90 minute tapes long. The zine notes, which were to be on paper, would contain the group or artist name, the writer, the copyright and words (if applicable), album name, what movie (if applicable) and other such things. This could contain any and all types of music including original music by the members as long as nothing was risque or vulgar. Of course the focus was SFF. I reserved the right not to accept submissions (that’s probably not something I would have thought to include, so I’m sure the big sister fan was influencial in the way I wrote this stuff, though I must note, that I am not actually quoting myself entirely word for word).

Now, my youth at the time shows because I also had an idea for an Audio RR, which was very similar to the Audio Zine.  The difference was a 60 minute tape, with only ten minutes per RR member, and we were going to be talking to each other and have some music from SFF as well, so we apparently were going to be discussing the music we’re sharing with one another. It was also not directly controlled by me either. So it would have been more cut loose than the Audio Zine would have been.

I also had an idea for a general newsletter with the following column ideas, Latest music/the 90′s, Artist’s: Dead or Alive, Elementary Music Theory? (complete with question mark), Musical Info, Sheet Music, What Grooves and What Doesn’t, and Music in SF/F (the crux of the whole idea).

I also got my mother involved with the idea of allowing people to play or sing their songs on tape and have it notated with the first melody being for free. My mother is a musician and is real good at ear dictation, one of my uh, not so strong suits. I have to have a piano with me in order to do that stuff with any sort of accuracy.

And last but not least I had this whole “tell me about yourself” form to help me assess the interests of those wanting to get involved so I could better serve them. Unfortunately, I seem to recall that the tape recorder broke down, well, the record button stopped working, along with family and schools issues that this whole idea fell by the way side. . . I still think it’s a valid topic, and maybe I’ll stick a Music in SF/F in the N3F Forums that just started back up again.  Afterall, the music is what broke the series Andromeda for me. I couldn’t watch it because the music was that bad. . . On the other hand, it was the music that turned me on to Babylon 5, and it was the music that got me to play the sci fi MMORPG Anarchy Online, my first MMO experience. . .

Now the ideas and thoughts of my youth are returning to me, and you know they’re not half bad. I dunno if *I’d* wanna be the one to handle an online audio zine, that could be tricky, but it is definitely a neat idea, and I still believe that music plays an important part in the SF/F genres we love to watch so much.

Along with the regular features of officer and bureau reports, this issue includes two essays: The Computer in Our Lives and The Power of Nothing by Jack Robbins.

Additionally, Jon Swartz reviewed the books The Contested Earth and Other SF Stories by Jim Harmon and Next by Michael Crichton. He also reviewed the fanzine, Notes from Bob Peterson #97 (Dec. 2007) by Robert (Bob) Peterson.

You can check out the public version at the N3F main website here: The Fan, March 2008

At 89 years old, he is still one of fandom’s active voices. Click here to read a recent Associated Press article profiling Forry.