Mostly Harmless issue 115 sent to ZZ9 members

A few weeks ago, I received my copie of Mostly Harmless issue 115. As usual there are some nice articles so here is a list of all the good things you miss if you're not a member of ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha :

- First you really want to read "History of the kamikaze briefing sketch" by David Haddock. The Kamikaze sketch is a famous sketch co-written by Douglas Adams and Chris Keightley and performed for the first time at the 1976 Footlights production "A kick in the stalls" which was directed by Douglas Adams. David Haddock interviewed Chris Keightley so we've got a detailed and nice article on the subject.


- There is also the second part of the interview with Eoin Colfer (by John Coxon). Here, Colfer talks about his writing for Hitchhiker "I did have to dense myself a bit, you know, put more jokes per page), the quintessential phase ("I just didn't want to listen to that, I just didn't want to get confused"), the writing of the catch-up ("can you imagine trying to put Hitchhiker's in two pages?" and the writing of the ending of the book.
-  A mixed and detailed review of "And another thing" by Lidia Dockray.
-  A nice hitchcon report by Keira Vallejo  and an Islington slouch (Super Saturday tour) report by me (well a large chunk is missing but it should be printed again in the next issue of Mostly Harmless).
- The towel corner
...

There is also details about The Year of the Plank. 2010 has been designated "the Year of the Plank" with the aim being to raise enough money to dedicate a plank on Brighon Pier to Douglas Adams (I'll try to write an other blog post about this because it's a nice project).

What to expect in 2010?

In 2009, we got a fast-paced year with the 30th years anniversary of the first book and the publication of “And another thing”, both celebrated with Hitchcon 09, which was the biggest hitchhiker event for a long time.  We were lucky enough also to enjoy the publication of a sequel to  “Last chance to see”  with a new book and  a BBC TV series thanks to Stephen Fry and Mark Carwardine.

So what can we expect in 2010? Well I probably forgot some events and I will edit the post if necessary but there are just two events listed right now :

- Thursday March 11th.  Eighth Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture. Marcus du Sautoy, the mathematician, Oxford professor and host of BBC TV series "The Story of Maths", talking about 42

- "The Doctor and Douglas", a radio documentary about Douglas Adams and Doctor Who (see previous news) in March or April.

What we could hope for :

- The official announcement of a Dirk Gently TV series (at Hitchcon 09,  Douglas Adams agent Ed Victor have confirmed that talks are now in progress with the BBC about a TV-show based on the Dirk Gently novels).

- The announcement of a radio adaptation of "And another thing" by Dirk Maggs (this would be a great idea even if you don’t like Colfer's book).

- “Hitchhiker live” (as seen at the Hitchcon) could become a real show touring across the UK – and why not the world???

- Well, I don’t know if it’s a hope or a fear here, but maybe Penguin will announce a new Hitchhiker book by Eoin Colfer or another writer (Colfer said it would be a great idea to ask some other writers to pen Hitchhiker books – he said Iain Banks, Neil Gaiman and M Atwood could do it). But were the sale figures of “And another thing” that impressive? I don’t think so. And the readers’ reactions to Colfer effort were not that enthusiastic (even if I was not against the project in the first place, I must admit that my  own copy gather dust on my bookshelves, my bookmark stuck on page 190).

- Disney won’t make a second movie,  so it would be cool if they return the rights of Hitchhiker, so we can have again some new stuff and big projects in the Hitchhiker universe (plays, TV series, a second movie but not produced by Disney). Let’s remember that for all the Hitchhiker events in the recent years (the new radio series, Hitchhiker live,…),  there is a big discussion with Disney lawyers.

- ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha (the official H2G2 and Douglas Adams fan club) announces that they will organize their own Hitchcon in 2011 (come on dear ZZ9, you now you want it!)

Mostly Harmless issue 114 sent to ZZ9 members

"Mostly Harmless" is ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha's quarterly magazine (ZZ9 is the offical DNA and H2G2 fan club). Issue 114 has just been sent to ZZ9 members. If you're not a ZZ9 member, you can join here.

The current edition includes some interesting stuff :

- The first part of a long interview with Eoin Colfer who answers with a lot of details to John Coxon's questions. In this first part, Eoin talks about the characters ("I think I went for Restaurant and took that kind of stage development... so when I started the book, that's whre they are and they're very recognisable as characters from the original series, especially the first two books"), Douglas' unique style of writing, one-liners, humour, deadlines, sequels, Hitchhiker as a cult (It's like a mainstream religion rather than a cult. I think there are a few people who might have gotten away with this without the faithful worrying about it, and I'm not one of them").

- David Haddock and friends try to remember what they were doing 30 years ago when the book was published

- "And another book about the science of Douglas Adams..." by Alexander Pawalk who is busily writing a book called "Die Wissenchaft bei Douglas Adams" (The science of Douglas Adams) which will be published in january 2010

- "Hitchhiker's and philosophy. Part two : the ethics of entertainment" by Nicholas Joll

- Reviews of "The rough guide to the Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy", "Dont panic" (5th edition) and two reviews for the first half of "And another thing" (one very positive, and a "could have been better" one)

Let's remember that as a ZZ9 member, you have access to their merchandise, which include the world famous Beeblebear, a Don't panic towel, and other fun stuff.

Don't forget to bookmark ZZ9's website

ZZ9's Celebrations of the 30th Anniversary of the H2G2 book saturday 10 october

ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha is Douglas Adams and H2G2 official fan club. If you come to Hitchcon'09 in London the 11th october, you don't want to miss ZZ9's own celebrations the day before.

Events include :

- Inslinghton slouch (13:00)

"Douglas Adams lived at a number of addresses around the Islington area from the mid Seventies, with a few years spent on the west coast of America writing film script drafts. Of special interest for this trip will be a walk past the address where Douglas wrote the first Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book (we have cleared this with the current owner). After that we will probably pop on the tube to nip down to the Angel tube station as Adams used the Islington area for inspiration for the Hitchhiker and Dirk Gently books. Other places we will wander by include the office of estate agents Hotblack Desiato, the Regent's Canal where Dirk Gently sent Richard McDuff swimming, the location that inspired Fenchurch's door in So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, and more."

 - Captain's Cabin Party (19:00)

"The Captain's Cabin is a pub of interest to Hitchhiker fans. It is just around the corner from the site of the Paris Theatre where the first two radio series were recorded. This historic location is now a branch of LA Fitness. After recording sessions at the Paris, cast and crew often retired to the Captain's Cabin for liquid refreshment. ZZ9 will be upholding this tradition and hope to have some special guests to mix and mingle with as we make a weekend of Penguin's Hitchcon'09 event. All welcome, we are booked in upstairs from 7pm, and they serve food until 9pm. There may be a talk and/or a pub quiz if we are really together and hoopy. We have a habit of staying in pubs until they close so pop along any time after seven."

Ful details here :  http://www.zz9.org/events/zz930book.html