The Fredösphere

End of an era.

2 Blowhards is officially shutting down. I saw it coming, and yet, the news is like a punch in the jaw.

I'm trying to think of any other blog that was as much a model and inspiration for the Fredösphere than 2 Blowhards; I guess maybe only James Lileks' The Bleat is in the ballpark. With Michael Blowhard especially, I traded comments and private email, and became a friend. The blog, more than any other I know, believed that amateurs could contribute to cultural commentary and subvert some of the dominant narratives, and showed how to do it. Heroes: that's what they are.

Labels: Culture

How is it possible I have lived to the year 2010 having never, ever heard of Raumpatrouille Orion, a German sci-fi TV show from 1966? It is perfect in every possible way, right up to the little dance the crew does when they spin around while grasping. . .oh, why bother describing it? See for yourself:



(Hat tip SF Signal.)

Labels: Futurism, sci-fi, VideoClip

Wow. This was definitely not the result I was expecting. And yet, somehow at the same time, fitting:

Labels: Lovecraft Was Neither

Jeff Vandermeer is a highly respected Seculative Fiction author who blogs. (I can recommend his City of Saints and Madmen.) He has linked to a fine animation describing the Theia hypothesis, which suggests that Earth's moon was the product of debris left over from the collision of the Earth and a very large (i.e., Mars-sized) celestial body.



This is of enormous interest to me because my first serious attempt at writing science fiction was a story about Earth and Theia falling in love. . .and getting too close. Yeah, I know, it sounds cheesy. Come to think of it, it was cheesy. But it could have been great. It almost was great. Sort of.

It was called The Moon That Dreamed of Earth. I created a poem, and then a choral work, of the same name. The work received its first public performance by the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Ann Arbor in 2009. Go to my music page to hear and excerpt.

Patiently unwind the slender tendril binding you to me.

Labels: BigDumbObject, Fiction, sci-fi

The latest jab at President Obama from The Onion is fairly non-partisan, given the subject matter (or, at least, is gentle enough not to seem too partisan to my jaded eyes) but is a lot of fun. . .

"This is an abhorrent waste of federal funds," Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform said of Obama's May 13 video, timestamp. "How can a man overseeing the largest deficit in history justify spending our hard-earned money on some artsy video of him signing the same bill over and over again for 14 straight hours as the distant sound of children's laughter grows in intensity until it becomes unbearably loud and then the entire thing ends with footage of an atom bomb going off? It's just despicable."

"Do we really want our tax dollars going toward something so clearly derivative of Sadie Benning's early works?" Norquist added.

. . .and, best of all, has a cute little Easter egg for us students of the musical avant garde hidden among the verbiage of paragraph five. Enjoy.

Labels: fun

"Pure steampunk goodness," indeed. Alkaline Trio's video has it all: an airship, a monocycle, a damsel-draped cow catcher, goggles, you name it:

Labels: Airship, Steampunk, VideoClip

The 2010 winners of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contesthave been announced. Outrageously, I am not among them. My entry in the science fiction category was, apparently, insufficiently bad.

Honestly, as I have spent the last year honing my fiction-writing skills, I can now see why I didn't succeed. My entry was quite a bit longer than the guidelines suggest, and it would have been well-served by some cutting. I now reveal to the world my entry, somewhat improved by the removal of an embarrassingly inept (that is, inept by the topsy-turvy standards of the Bulwer-Lytton alternate universe) parenthetical statement. It's still too long; nevertheless, enjoy:

Irrespective of the sucking force exerted on every external part of Cadet Terrance Jones' body as he floated, naked, out the airlock of the USSS Hotflash by the vacuum of space, a force powerful enough to make his gut resemble to passers-by that of a bloated cow, were space populated by passers-by, or for that matter, cows, the Cadet's iron discipline enabled him to resist farting, although he wasn't thinking about the fact that this was space, the place where no one can hear you do that, but of a time twenty years prior, and his next door neighbor, a lass with the sun in her hair and the sky in her eyes, named, incongruously, Wilbur.

Labels: Fiction, fun

It's time to recall to mind the monumental statue that Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos had built of himself. Turns out, the concrete structure was defaced, resulting in something out of a Lovecraftian nightmare. I hate to call the result of any act of vandalism Art, or to condone it in any way. . .and yet: let's be frank. That explosion was an improving act.

Here are the before and after photos.

(I haven't explored it yet, but that website, Artificial Owl, looks veeeeeery promising: dedicated to "the most fascinating abandoned man-made creations". Ooooh, do they mean ruins? I love ruins!)

Labels: Alas Babylon

This summer, I'm organizing a book club for my family. It's based on, but a little more elaborate than, the one described by Scott Danielson on the SSF Audio Podcast. Each of my two children will read:

3 books picked by me
3 books picked by the Wifeösphere
3 books picked by self
1 book picked by the sibling

Meanwhile, the Wifeösphere and I will read:

3 favorite books picked by the son
3 favorite books picked by the daughter

When all books are read, we'll celebrate as a family over Earl Grey & biscotti in some quiet, tasteful cafe. (Not really. Dairy Queen is more our speed.)

10 books for each child, and 6 for each adult: all short, because all are YA novels and YA nonfiction, but still, that's a lot of books. Suggestions for any of the above lists are welcome. So far, I've picked Heinlein's Space Cadet for the boy and Orwell's Animal Farm for the girl. . .and that's all.

Give me your suggestions.

Labels: Culture