Sometimes artists still do act as prophets, calling people out on wrongs: The Nobel prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter has called for Tony Blair to be tried for war crimes, in his acceptance speech to the Nobel committee. Go, Pinter, go!
Month: December 2005
Back To The Cutting Room
Well, it looks like the week before and the week after Christmas will be a little different than I imagined. I’ll have a fair amount of packing to do, I’ll probably need to find an apartment for March, and it looks like I’ll be in Canada for something like 2 weeks. Lime is going to be able to leave around Feb 1st and will need to be back by about Feb 18th. Since a person cannot pack, pack, pack all day, one of the things I plan on doing is some writing and revision. I’ll have basically two weeks before …
What is this thing called… SF?
Kat has written a wonderful post about the question of the difference between fantasy and SF, and why some people like one and not the other. I’ll throw in my own two cents: I think these kinds of fiction speak to different areas of the imagination. I started out as a reader and writer of fantasy, simply because I loved imagined worlds; the more complete an imagined world, the more I loved it. (I’m sure this was at least in part fueled by my fascination with the Forgotten Realms line of products from TSR. I regard it now as a …
Is This The Song You Mean?
I think this is the song you wanted, Lime — Ryuichi Sakamoto’s “Rain”. It’s popular here in Korea, so maybe that’s the one.
“I Haven’t Been Listening to Any Music Lately.”
That’s what my website claims, so it must be true. Actually, I have been, but on my poor, limping, half-functioning mp3 player, not on my computer. That’s why nothing is showing up on my audioscrobbler feed, and that’s why my website thinks that I haven’t been listening to anything at all. Ah well. But in fact, during all of my recent trips, I have been listening more to audio narration than to music. I’m enjoying Lawrence Lessig’s book Free Culture, which I’m listening to in free audiobook format. Lawrence Lessig rocks, and that’s just that. And you know, releasing his …
Mike Hoare
Earlier today I was browsing the 80s entries for political and historical events and I stumbled upon a mention of “Mad” Mike Hoare, who is a mercenary my father told me stories about in the past. What a flashback. Would like to read one of the books penned by the guy, but the prices are a bit mad.
Lunar New Year Reads, Book #32: Manifold: Origin by Stephen Baxter
Stephen Baxter is one of those writers whose work I don’t actually know very well, but what I know of, I enjoy immensely. This is the fourth novel written or co-written by him that I have read, and the conclusion to a series I’ve downright admired, the Manifold Series. Manifold is a series of books dealing with different answers to the Fermi Paradox, which is based upon this question: if indeed the requisite materials and conditions for life as, indeed, as common as they seem to be in our universe, why do we not see evidence of life everywhere we …
Lunar New Year Reads, Book #31: A Draft of XXX Cantos
Ezra Pound is one of the modern masters of poetry. Ezra Pound was a dismal failure. Ezra Pound was a genius. Ezra Pound was a madman. These readings of the man, or readings of the man from his Cantos, I can understand. I can understand each of them, collectively as well as individually, and I can even affirm them collectively as well as individually. You might say that Ezra Pound transformed poetry forever, and I would not be inclined to disagree with you. On the other hand, you might be inclined to say he inflicted terrible wounds on poetry and …
Richard Pryor’s Gone
Requiescat In Pace.
Lawrence Lessig And Free Culture
I’ve been “reading” Lawrence Lessig’s book Free Culture lately. Well, listening to it, too. It’s brilliant and definitely worth checking out. If you want to listen, it’s free — yes, free, recorded as mp3s under his Creative Commons license. Download the free, legal audiobook torrent using this link (which was gleaned from the legaltorrents site). I’ll be having a lot to say about this book very soon. Courtesy of the esteemed Lawrence Lessig’s blog: Glypho is a new site experimenting with collective authorship. And here’s a video clip on a documentary about some the main important problems Lessig is writing …