I should add — some non-SF films I’ve seen lately were: Nixon. Well, I haven’t finished it, yet, but I enjoyed what I saw. Anthony Hopkins, damn, that man can act. New York, I Love You. A fine omnibus of shorts, this was like a collection of flash fiction set in what seems like a realer New York than most depictions of the city. Haeundae. Well, actually, I guess this Korean movie was an SF film — no less than Japan sinks — based on the idea that something as bad as the tsunami that struck Southeast Asia could hit …
Month: February 2010
Trotsky: A Graphic Biography by Rick Geary
I remember, when I took a film course as an undergraduate, studying with a professor named Don Kerr. When we watched The Birth of a Nation he read to us from the local newspaper in Saskatoon, an article dating back to the film’s release there. I still recall the amusement shared by all when the author claimed that henceforth, people could not longer criticize films for the decline in morality — “Films like this one can educate!” the article claimed — and that demon liquor was to blame. Huh? Social ills coming from either booze of movies? At a remove …
For you Home Brewers out there…
… or anyone interested in beer, brewing, and associated lore. I doubt the whole book will be of interest, but these few pages I typed out are probably at least a little bit interesting if you’re a brewer: From Roles of the Northern Goddess by Hida Ellis Davidson. London: Routledge, 1998. (from the Chapter titled “Mistress of the Household” (Pg 138-141): Yet another important use of water by the women was for brewing ale, the usual drink for all ages at a time when water was often suspect. Its association with a goddess may be seen in ancient Egypt, where …
Hugo Bids? Send the Sofa Some Love
I’m not really campaigning for a Hugo or a Nebula or anything like that, folks. 2009 was a very slow year for me, and the short story competition is huge. I love both of my published stories from 2009, but I’m much more excited about the stories coming out in 2010. Still, I guess I’m duty-bound to point out that “Cai and Her Ten Thousand Husbands” (at Apex) and “Of Melei, of Ulthar” (at Clarkesworld) are my two eligible stories. However, I wanted to draw attention to the bid Starship Sofa is making for Best Fanzine nomination. This isn’t just …
Burma Chronicles by Guy Delisle
It is almost certainly unfair to Guy Delisle that reviewers will compare this book with his earlier Pyongyang, for that latter graphic novel was a major achievement, and for me at least, it represented something new in the world of comics. I read it in wonder, a few years ago, amazed at how Delisle managed to tell the story of a year so smoothly, so engagingly, and so courageously. The newer book is quite different, but this should surprise nobody: we cannot expect an artist or writer to produce work that is like the first work we have encountered from …