You may recall that I’ve strongly encouraged people reading this to check out the Shadow Unit project on several previous occasions. Well, the first “season” of Shadow Unit has been over for a while now, I want to take a few minutes to re-encourage you to check it out. The work got stronger throughout the season–in an amusing parallel with… Read more →
Category: General
This would not happen south of the border
Most unexpectedly heartening moment: When I realized that of the twelve final selected jurors, all of whom were given the choice of swearing on a Bible or merely making an oath of affirmation, every last one of them chose the non-faith-based alternative. I did miss the usual irony of seeing people swearing to tell the truth on a book of… Read more →
Crazy Australians pretending to be crazy Italians
Have you seen Italian Spiderman yet? The premise is that Italian Spiderman was a 1968 Italian action-adventure film made by Alrugo Entertainment, which was deemed “un-viewable” by Italian distributors and never released. The story has the only 35mm print of the film being lost at sea, but recovered in the present day, thereby allowing Alrugo Entertainment to release the film… Read more →
Now that’s an old school poem
Here, underneath this little stone, Lies Robert, Earl of Huntingdon. No archer was as he so good, And people called him Robin Hood. Such outlaws as he and his men, Will England never see again. That’s my best shot at updating what may well be Robin Hood’s epitaph to modern English. I love the Internet age because I have access… Read more →
Putting My Own House In Order
Or rather, bitching about my own country’s politicians for a change. It seems like I can’t turn around lately without seeing another story that just embarrasses me as a Canadian. The classic example, which I’ve talked about here before, is the Tories’ continuing attempt to force a DCMA-style law down our throats. After getting his ass more or less handed… Read more →
Compare and contrast
High culture: Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss’d Of the Two Worlds so wisely–they are thrust Like foolish Prophets forth; their Words to Scorn Are scatter’d, and their Mouths are stopt with Dust. Myself when young did eagerly frequent Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument About it and about: but evermore Came out by the same door… Read more →
Still true after more than 40 years
The point is that (little-t) truth is a matter of definition relative to the grid one is using at the moment, and that (capital-T) Truth, metaphysical reality, is irrelevant to grids entirely. Pick a grid, and through it some chaos appears ordered and some appears disordered. Pick another grid, and the same chaos will appear differently ordered and disordered. Fnord. Read more →
Memento mori
I had one of those shocking epiphanies today. I realized, seriously, completely, viscerally, that I am going to die someday. There was no hair-raising event, no near death experience, nothing dramatic. Just a realization that hit me during a very long drive, when I had some time to think about what it meant. Harlan Ellison is partly to blame. Obviously… Read more →
Bookish Bits: Vance Integral
That’s Jack Vance over there. I’m a fan. I’m enough of a fan that I wanted to sign up for the Vance Integral Edition when they were taking subscriptions. It played into my two compulsions: collecting all the good writing, and collecting fine or rare editions of the good writing. At that time I didn’t have the money sitting around.… Read more →
It Can’t Be Done
Why? Why would you try to take not just one, but two “highly complex” novels and try to make a film out of them? Hyperion deals with a space war, with most of the action taking place on a planet named Hyperion, known not only for its electricity-spewing trees but also for the Time Tombs, large artifacts that can move… Read more →
A Guide To Grown-up Thinking
I read a lot of magazines–oddly more offline than on. I think this is because my online reading tends to be wide-ranging, shallow, and driven by references from other sources–there are few “online magazines” that I find myself reading “cover to cover”, as it were. Interesting magazines tend to be composed of pieces that are longer, more indepth, and thus… Read more →
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
The Wire has ended. And ended well. And hey, stories that don’t end, ultimately don’t mean anything. I’ll miss the show, but there’s nothing sad about five years of making God Damned Art. And with this in their portfolio, I suspect that many of the creators involved (writers, cast, etc.) will have more opportunities going forward to make more of… Read more →
The moral is…
Hmm…
That looks pretty good. I really hope that the inkblots move around dynamically after post-production, though. Read more →
The last birthday post
You all saw the message the universe sent me today, right? Your positive omens don’t get more explicit than that. Read more →
