I am. Back in Korea. And will be for a few years, off and on of course. Long story, buy me a beer and I’ll tell you it. Or I may parcel it out in bits here, if I ever get the time to blog more often. Rome was outstanding, and I have places to recommend, which I’ll write up sometime this coming week. Hong Kong was a mad rush, and I have only one or two places to recommend, but they’re very good ones. I slept too little, including close to no sleep for about 40 hours the last …
Month: February 2011
More About Korean SF, and Some Dougal Dixon Links
You might think that I’ve given up on the topic, but I haven’t. In fact, I’ve been working on a few papers on the subject. I don’t know if they’ll ever see the light of day, but I’m sending them out, slowly. In the meantime, I’ve had a few discussions with Anselmo Quemot, a blogger over at Acheron LV-426. You can see the discussions in the comment threads to these two posts: Placing the Future in South Korea? An open letter to Gord Sellar about South Korean sci fi Acheron LV-426 is full of other interesting stuff, too; it was …
Cascadian Brewday: St. Vitus of Cascadia RyePA
Since I’ll be going on a trip soon, I wanted to fill up all my fermenters, so I’d have something bubbling way while I’m gone. Therefore, though I rarely have two brewdays in a row, I decided to go for it today. Yesterday’s Saison was a long, slow mash, but I figured today I’d get a nice mix of grains, including a lot of highly enzymatic base grains, and just let ‘er sit for an hour or 90 minutes, and then get the damned boil done. Today’s quick brew is a RyePA, which is an American IPA with a substantial …
Jazz and SF
I’ve heard people, time and again, compare jazz to SF in terms of them both being very “American” artforms, and, along with the cowboy movie, among America’s original contributions to the common human repository of art and culture. The cowboy movie, I’m afraid, has roots that go way deeper than American history, which is why it resonates so powerfully with other forms of literature and narrative. I see a lot of the Gothic novel in the Western, and a lot of the Bible too. As for SF, let’s be honest: it didn’t really begin in America: the historian/theorists can fight …
Belgian Brewday: L’identité Secrète (“Super” Saison)
I’ve been ill for the last week or so, and this prevented me from going on a trip with my writing group to Jeonju. I’d promised to show them around, and I have to say, it was a bit heartbreaking when I wrote up a short guide to places to eat and drink in Jeonju and Iksan, not just because I was suddenly dying to eat some of their amazing, wonderful food and make a last trip with those friends (since several of them are leaving), but also just out of a desire to see those cities again. But when …