And here you have: My favourite Clash song when considering performances by the Clash. (I.e. I’d rather hear the Clash perform this than any other song. But, I’d still rather hear Danny Michel do Lost In A Supermarket.) Warren Zevon‘s Hollywood tragedy. I love a song with a story, especially if there’s enough vagueness to allow me to make up… Read more →
Author: Mr. McLaren
Ambivalence
On the one hand, I am really looking forward to being home. On the other hand I am really not looking forward to the process of getting home. My flight leaves Melbourne in two hours, then it’s 7 hours to Singapore, a 2 hour wait, then 14 and a half hours to London, then a 6 hour wait, then 7… Read more →
OK, You have to admit, that’s pretty damn funny
Jerry O’Connell’s message Read more →
In Passing: Vlado’s
I had no connectivity at the hotel last night, have been working full-on all day today, and am shortly going to head out for my (apparently) annual trip to Vlado’s. Since I start heading back home tomorrow, I’ll also have to pack tonight, so the odds are good that even if the Internet connectivity problem is sorted, I won’t have… Read more →
It’s like a movie plot
Did you see this bit on BoingBoing? Adrian says: According to the Swedish daily newspaper Expressen.se, police suspect that a team of thieves operating in Sweden are using little people hidden in hockey bags and placed in the cargo holds of buses to loot passengers luggage while in transit. They link to the original story in Swedish, which does me… Read more →
Jargon and Communication
Speaking of Scotsmen, let me say that as a general rule I am quite a fan of Hal Duncan’s blog–especially those gigantic blog entries where he intellectually swashbuckles his way through certain philosophical issues with verve and panache, using academic jargon like Mrs. Parker used wit. In particular, I have been intending for a while now to write an appreciation… Read more →
Something Good: Kenny Blyth reads Christopher Brookmyre
I had occasion to discuss my position on audiobooks recently while driving around Melbourne. I don’t think I’ve written about those positions here before, and indeed the extent to which I make use of audiobooks might surprise people who expect me to be a purist in my love of fiction. Actually, I am a bit of a snob about it.… Read more →
Pay Attention
I have always known That at last I would Take this road, but yesterday I did not know that it would be today. Ariwara no Narihira (translated by Kenneth Rexroth) A strange old man Stops me, Looking out of my deep mirror. Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (translated by Kenneth Rexroth) The mists rise over The still pools at Asuka. Memory does… Read more →
A Sunday Miscellany
Well, I’ve had a very busy weekend here in Melbourne–which I may get around to writing up at some point later tonight–and now I’ve made it back to my hotel/apartment, and it seems like a good time for me to do a little bit of value-added linkblogging. So, no theme, just lots of things that I found interesting: First up,… Read more →
If I Were Nebu-lord
For what it’s worth, if I were picking the winners of the Nebula Awards right now (not the ones I think will win, but rather the ones I thought were the best) from the preliminary ballot the winners, according to my arbitrary and would be: For novel, either Hal Duncan‘s brilliant mess Vellum, or else Peter Watt’s “no, this is… Read more →
The word ‘knell’ is in a lot of his stuff.
Extracted from The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore, Collected by Himself with Explanatory Notes. As by the shore, at break of day, A vanquished chief expiring lay, Upon the sands, with broken sword, He traced his farewell to the free; And there the last unfinished word He dying wrote, was “Liberty!” At night a sea-bird shrieked the knell Of… Read more →
Religion Bashing For Thursday
OK, let’s close some tabs. First off, let’s start with our old friend, the head Inquisitioner, Pope Benedict. It appears he’s been a naughty fellow. A BBC documentary has exposed that Pope Benedict XVI, aka Cardinal Ratzinger, played a leading role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests. In 2001, while he was a cardinal,… Read more →
We’re Living In Science Fiction: Street-Level Nanotech
There’s certainly something to be said for wild and crazy, “the universe is my canvas”, science fiction ideas–things with broad scope that seem tenuously plausible but highly disconnected from our day-to-day lives. Ever since 1982… or 1986, if like me, you first read Burning Chrome after the Mirrorshades anthology gave you a startling eye-opening. though, we’ve also known that there… Read more →
So far, so good
So, I did manage to travel half-way around the world between Friday and Sunday, popping in on London and Honk Kong before settling down in Melbourne. My days have been pretty work-focused so far: Monday I essentially worked all day, returned to the hotel ate dinner, and was asleep before 9. Yesterday (Tuesday) I worked all day, then went down… Read more →
On H.P.L.
Without any further commentary, I present Clark Ashton Smith, writing about H. P. Lovecraft: To Howard Phillips Lovecraft Lover of hills and fields and towns antique, How hast thou wandered hence On ways not found before, Beyond the dawnward spires of Providence? Hast thou gone forth to seek Some older bourn than these– Some Arkham of the prime and central… Read more →
