Skip to content

gordsellar.com

  • Home
  • Blog
    • Blog Archive
    • Blogroll
  • Writing
    • For Writers
  • Blogging the Cantos
  • RPG
    • Obtenebrations (Campaign Site)
    • Stellar Region (PBeM Game Archive)
  • Music
    • Music: Profile & Tracks
    • What We Talk About When We Talk About Music
  • Korea
    • SF in South Korea
  • About
    • Teaching
    • Brutal Rice Productions

Month: December 2014

Tallow, The Baltic Trade and Filthy, Shadowy Georgian London

I was surprised, a while back, to discover that all isinglass in Georgian England was imported from the Baltic. But wouldn’t know you, that’s where they got tallow, too. Tallow, of course, was used to make cheap candles and soap. In the Georgian Era, tallow candles were the ones that got everyday use, while wax […]

Read More…

December 15, 2014 gordsellarNo Comments

Baude Cordier, Pando, and The Lifecycle of Radical Music

The composition on the left is “Belle, bonne, sage,” composed by Baude Cordier, a musician who fell into the “Ars subtilior” school — that is, the “more subtle” school of music, which flourished briefly right around the end of the 14th century, in southern France and Northern Spain: you’ll see some sources call that “late medieval” and […]

Read More…

December 9, 2014August 14, 2019 gordsellar2 Comments

Phadaeng Nang Ai, Translated by Wajuppa Tossa

I came to Wajuppa Tossa’s translation of Phadaeng Nang Ai via Bryan Thao Worra’s Demonstra (discussed here, more info here–and it’s even discounted right now, and $7 is a steal!), where it’s mentioned in passing (in an appendix, I think). What got me curious about it (after I looked it up) was the impression I got that it’s basically an epic […]

Read More…

December 5, 2014August 14, 2019 gordsellarNo Comments

Hidden Treasures…

Having just finished Jim Baker’s The Cunning Man’s Handbook (which I discussed earlier here, and mentioned in passing here: it’s a big book, so I’d been reading it for a while now) I can say that big chunks of history suddenly make a lot more sense to me. For one thing, the constant fascination with hidden treasure. Basically, a […]

Read More…

December 4, 2014December 4, 2014 gordsellarNo Comments

Decode Theme by Macho Themes

Get Social!

Follow Me on TwitterFollow Me on YouTubeFollow Me on SoundcloudFollow Me on RSSFollow Me on itch.ioFollow Me on BlueskyFollow Me on MastodonFollow Me on LibrarythingFollow Me on E-mail

Recent Music-Making

Gord Sellar · String Quartet (In Progress)

Writing Projects Tracker

At the Mountains of Baekdu—revision 75%
A**hole Island—Final Edit/Rewrite 100%
Zymurgic, Book 1—revision stage 3 1%
String Quartet #1 75%

RECENT/UPCOMING PUBLICATIONS

Now available: FERMENTVM NIGRVM DEI SEPVLTI (Black Yeast of the Buried God) from LotFP! Text by me, illustrations by Gonzalo Æneas, layout by Jacob Hurst, editing by Joshua Blackketter, maps by Alex Mayo. OSR adventure set in a brewing abbey in historical Westphalia.

EU Webstore | US Webstore US Webstore | PDF at DTRPG

My OSR Conversions Guide for the Koryo Hall of Adventures 5E setting book is now available for €4.25, over at the publisher's website.

My short story "Sojourn" appeared in A City of Han.

Available on Amazon.com, or, in Seoul, from the Fiction Writers in Seoul website.


See a complete list of my publications and forthcoming work.

Stuff to Read

An annex of free stuff to read: stories, poems, and nonfiction.

SERIES & STANDOUT POSTS


ON WRITING & READING

For Writers. A collection of exercises & Intuition Pumps

My ongoing series Blogging Ezra Pound's The Cantos.

My ongoing (but only occasionally updated) series on SF in South Korea.

ON MUSIC

What We Talk About When We Talk About Music. A lengthy discussion of music and the arts, and what we've let corporations do to our culture:

ON KOREA & LIVING THERE

Five Expat Social Fallacies, a riff on the famous geek social fallacies.

On Teaching Writing in a Korean University

ON RPGS & GAMES

With a Side of Kimchi: My First Brush with Fiasco, an actual play report on my first game of Fiasco.

Talent Night: a prep/actual play report on my first RPG game in a decade and a half, back in 2013, played with Dread, including a free copy of the scenario.

ON OTHER SUBJECTS

How to Kill Your Successful Business in Five Easy Steps, a series on really bad business practices I've seen in action.

MUSIC

Dabang Band/다방밴드

Check out the Dabang Band website:

Dabang Band Link Logo Image

You can also check out a lot of my own music over on Soundcloud.

CONSUMPTIVE

  • What I'm reading now.
  • What I've read this year.
  • TV/movies I've watched this year.
  • Older watchlists on my IMDB account.

RSS TUMBL’D LATELY (MUSIC STUFF)

  • Like many people, I heard the opening track in the film Malcolm... April 25, 2023
  • One more for today: been checking out Joe Henderson (yes, on... March 29, 2023
  • Haven’t listened to enough alto players over the years,... March 29, 2023