Masks

[scarlettina]

I have a friend who goes by the LJ name setsyoustraight, a friend since high school, who is a passionate fan of "Babylon 5," with a special fondness for the character of G'Kar and the actor who played him, Andreas Katsulas. A couple of years ago she discovered, on eBay, that Marc Scott Zicree was selling the prosthetic mask worn by Katsulas during his years portraying G'Kar. The package included a lifemask made of Katsulas for fitting the prosthetic. setsyoustraight was determined that the mask not fall into the hands of a private collector who would hog it all to himself.

She pulled together a group of 10 other fans (myself included) and raised money to buy the mask, the idea being that we'd acquire it as a group and then donate it to a museum where many people could see and enjoy it. Sure enough, we scored. It took a while for the package to be delivered, and then another while to find a museum in which to place it (and we tried several including--first and foremost--the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle which didn't have room, much to my disappointment).

After a long search, I'm pleased to announce that the mask and prosthetic have found a home at New York's Museum of the Moving Image. You can see the mask and prosthetic and read the full story of the acquisition at the museum's Web site. We, all 11 of us, had to sign the museum's release, so the form has been winging its way from Pennsylvania to England to Alabama to Seattle--all over the place--so the paperwork would be in order. It's been a heckuva ride. (Of course, I'm the one who screwed up--missed signing one of the pages, so it has to come back to me once everyone else is done with it. Ah well.)

And in a nice little extra, the acquisition got a mention in the New York Times today.

ETA: More press coverage: SFSite.com, New York Press, io9.com, FindingDulcinea.com, SF Scope (in which I am quoted!), CinemaBlend.com and AM New York's Urbanite blog. I suspect there's more coverage, and as it's discovered, I'll add it to the list.

Comments

[girasole.livejournal.com]

On a night when I could use a little comfort, this story warms and cheers me. I am not a fan of B5, but the story, the action, the cooperation and the gift give me joy.

[nwhepcat.livejournal.com]

Cool about the mask and the determination that it should be enjoyed by many. And the AMMI is one kickass museum. I'm glad it went there.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

It's been almost 15 years since I've been there and I hear it's gone through a heckuva rennovation since then. I'd love to visit it now.

[dianora2.livejournal.com]

That is so cool! Kudos.

[pixxelpuss.livejournal.com]

That's awesome! What a story.

[dthon.livejournal.com]

Well done!

-Scott

[kistha.livejournal.com]

This is truly "teh awesome".

Well done, and very very cool. I love G'kar's arc and the way that Katsulas played him with such soul. *sniff*

You guys are the best.

[e-bourne.livejournal.com]

Oh how very cool!

[ladyjestocost.livejournal.com]

What a cool thing to do! Kudos to you and your friends. :)

[elenopa.livejournal.com]

Just to say, as one of the ten fans, Thanks for the comments.

[steve98052.livejournal.com]

That's a wonderful story. You're a part of science fiction history now.

The one hole in the wonderful story is that the Scicence Fiction Museum "didn't have room" for it. How can it call itself a science fiction museum and not have room for an artifact like that? Shame on the curators. But it's good to know it found a decent home. (The link doesn't work right now though; I'm not sure whether it's broken or just temporarily flaked out.)

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Hm. The link worked fine last night. Don't know what's going on there.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Also wanted to add, happily, this isn't my only contribution to science fiction history. With publications in Asimov's and elsewhere, and having edited fiction for Bantam for 10 years, I had my place long before this, even if it's just a small one.

[steve98052.livejournal.com]

I knew some of that, but I wasn't quite thinking properly about my wording when I wrote the comment. I suppose I should have said something like another spot in science fiction history instead.

The link was back to life when I tried it a moment ago, so it was apparently a temporary flake-out. That's a nice story they wrote about it.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

No worries, really.

They did do a nice job, didn't they? I'm really pleased.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Congratulations for being a part of this!

[caryabend.livejournal.com]

Very cool. Did anyone notify JMS or Andreas' family?

[setsyoustraight.livejournal.com]

Hello, caryabend,

Yes, I did drop Joe a note about it. Andreas's family doesn't have a public presence, so I'm not going to make any crazy fan-driven efforts to contact any of them. :-) I'm hoping they hear about it through the grapevine, though (his daughter has been to cons with him, and has been around the block a bit in fandom, so it's not too out there to assume she might hear about it).

Amy

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

I'm virtually certain that setsyoustraight has all that covered.

[setsyoustraight.livejournal.com]

Yeah, in fact, since caryabend was bad, bad, BAD for putting the idea in my head , of course I decided that I _should_ contact Andreas's family. I used my various and sundry Jedi mind powers to find his daughter (whom I've met at a con, and actually warmed up to quite a lot before I even knew who she was!), and dropped her a note. I'll be interested to see if I get a response...

Amy