People working are fun to look at, aren't they? [via BoingBoing]Click on the picture for more.
That is all.
ttfn.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Also
Look.
People working are fun to look at, aren't they? [via BoingBoing]
Click on the picture for more.
That is all.
ttfn.
People working are fun to look at, aren't they? [via BoingBoing]Click on the picture for more.
That is all.
ttfn.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Loose Souls Doing Weird Things
Hello, readers.
Having recently (as in this morning), finished Jonathan Safran Foer's, Eating Animals, I know find myself in the difficult position of caring about something and knowing that caring about something isn't enough. And so now things must be changed, actions taken, and so forth. Such is the power of stories.
A question, though, of a somewhat silly/serious nature. What about plants? They are alive, presumably, at the very least, a part of life, and we grow them and geneticize them and breed them and cut then down with loud, not particularly kindly looking, machines. Presumably, possibly, sometime in the future, we'll learn there's such a thing as plant consciousness. In fact, some people already have.
However it works, life feeds on life in order to stay alive.
The thing with plants, of course, is that, for most people, there's no belief, or comprehension, that plants feel pain the way that animals (such as us) experience pain. And so that means they get to die. Muahaha.
As I said, silly.
In other news, the Interstitial Folk had their Second Life Virtual World Salon last night. I was there, for a while, until my computer compunked. It was a polygonal affair, full of people' s names hovering over them so it was hard to see (probably there's a way to turn this off). Also, occasionally, the sound went wonky. But it was cool and quite different, if very much like any other reading in that authors read and people listened and, in the end, everyone danced. That last part might have been different. But it shouldn't be. There should always be dancing.
Today, a discussion of what Interstitialness, among other movements and manifesos within and without genres are all about. They talked a bit about it at the Salon. No conclusions were reached except that Interstitialness is not just about words, or stories, or any one particular genre, so much as it is about giving otherwise homeless artists a place that feels like home.
That and that there should be interstital t-shirts which read, "Loose Souls Doing Weird Things."
Or as Geoffrey Long puts it in today's discussion:
Having recently (as in this morning), finished Jonathan Safran Foer's, Eating Animals, I know find myself in the difficult position of caring about something and knowing that caring about something isn't enough. And so now things must be changed, actions taken, and so forth. Such is the power of stories.
A question, though, of a somewhat silly/serious nature. What about plants? They are alive, presumably, at the very least, a part of life, and we grow them and geneticize them and breed them and cut then down with loud, not particularly kindly looking, machines. Presumably, possibly, sometime in the future, we'll learn there's such a thing as plant consciousness. In fact, some people already have.
However it works, life feeds on life in order to stay alive.
The thing with plants, of course, is that, for most people, there's no belief, or comprehension, that plants feel pain the way that animals (such as us) experience pain. And so that means they get to die. Muahaha.
As I said, silly.
In other news, the Interstitial Folk had their Second Life Virtual World Salon last night. I was there, for a while, until my computer compunked. It was a polygonal affair, full of people' s names hovering over them so it was hard to see (probably there's a way to turn this off). Also, occasionally, the sound went wonky. But it was cool and quite different, if very much like any other reading in that authors read and people listened and, in the end, everyone danced. That last part might have been different. But it shouldn't be. There should always be dancing.
Today, a discussion of what Interstitialness, among other movements and manifesos within and without genres are all about. They talked a bit about it at the Salon. No conclusions were reached except that Interstitialness is not just about words, or stories, or any one particular genre, so much as it is about giving otherwise homeless artists a place that feels like home.
That and that there should be interstital t-shirts which read, "Loose Souls Doing Weird Things."
Or as Geoffrey Long puts it in today's discussion:
“A critic might look at an object we call teal and he’d sniff that it’s perfectly fine to classify it as blue. That’s his right, and it’s not our responsibility to stand on tables and rant that no, gawddamn it, it’s not blue it’s teal, but to show other people that it’s okay to be teal, if you like teal things more than blue things to come hang out with us, and if you’re interested in making teal things here is a list of resources for making teal things and a host of opportunities to share teal things with other fans of teal things – and in so doing, hopefully make new fans of teal things who might previously have only thought blue things were possible.”
That sounds about right.
Happy Tuesday, readers. Do something loose and weird. Think about your food. Wear more teal. You get the idea.
ttfn.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Quiet, Then Loud, Then Quiet Again: Or, You Can't Beat A Bit of ELO
I like this song.
Mostly because it is quiet, then loud, and then quiet again.
It's really all I need in a song.
See, for example...
and...
and...
Which doesn't really follow the rule but that's music for you. Breaking rules.
ttfn, readers.
p.s. Mr. Blue Sky was in a Dr. Who episode once. This is what that looked like.
Mostly because it is quiet, then loud, and then quiet again.
It's really all I need in a song.
See, for example...
and...
and...
Which doesn't really follow the rule but that's music for you. Breaking rules.
ttfn, readers.
p.s. Mr. Blue Sky was in a Dr. Who episode once. This is what that looked like.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Eating Animals and Sort Of-ing Twilight
Good afternoon, readers.This morning, as was tweeted, I began reading Eating Animals, the supposedly Jungle-esque foray of Jonathan Safran Foer into the gruesome world of killing and eating things. Now I'm full of serious thoughts about things.
Thanksfully, there's Twilight. I have yet to read it, but I don't need to in order to know that I'm very happy it exists. Mainly because of things like these.
Thing one is a boy named Alex attempting, with occasionally hilarious failure, to read Twilight on camera. Note the Buffy poster in the background. [via @maureenjohnson]
Thing two is John Green sort of reviewing New Moon
Yay.
ttfn.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Hearts, Keys, and Puppetry
And in other news confirming the future has already been here and may already be the past...
Rick Moody's writing a short story with twitter. Some people complain about it. Most of the complaints seem to be that it either a) clogged up their twitter feed, or b) kept getting interrupted by other tweets. My response: Organize your twitter, people. Dedicate a column to Moody's story. The future's not that confusing.
This follows on many, many other twitter story type things. Recently, for example, BBC AudioBooks America had the brilliant idea to let Neil Gaiman begin a story on twitter and then have people tweet the rest.
The resulting story was to be made available as an audio story.
As it happens, "Hearts, Keys, and Puppetry" by Neil Gaiman and the Twitterverse, went up today. Katherine Kellgren provides the vocals.
There are several chapters. I've listened to the first. A lot of reflections talking to people. Reality shimmering. A day everything went wrong. You know the type.
Also, Clarion has opened for applications. Go look at the professors. Feel awe.
ttfn, readers.
Rick Moody's writing a short story with twitter. Some people complain about it. Most of the complaints seem to be that it either a) clogged up their twitter feed, or b) kept getting interrupted by other tweets. My response: Organize your twitter, people. Dedicate a column to Moody's story. The future's not that confusing.
This follows on many, many other twitter story type things. Recently, for example, BBC AudioBooks America had the brilliant idea to let Neil Gaiman begin a story on twitter and then have people tweet the rest.The resulting story was to be made available as an audio story.
As it happens, "Hearts, Keys, and Puppetry" by Neil Gaiman and the Twitterverse, went up today. Katherine Kellgren provides the vocals.
There are several chapters. I've listened to the first. A lot of reflections talking to people. Reality shimmering. A day everything went wrong. You know the type.
Also, Clarion has opened for applications. Go look at the professors. Feel awe.
ttfn, readers.
Briefly...
Hello, readers. Here are links to things accompanied by occasionally pithy comments.
Physicist Michio Kaku, author of Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration Into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel, has a new show premiering on the Science Channel called, Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible. It's described as "both fanciful and serious." Of note, Michio Kaku built a particle accelerator for his high school science fair. We should probably listen to him.
ComicsMix wonders if i09 is inappropriately editing comments from sci-fi writers and editors. If this were a news blog we would need to look into this (such as, who is this ComicsMix people?), but as it is, we present it without comment. Except for this that was just written wherein we wondered who ComicsMix was.
i09's guide to December Sci-Fi Awesomeness. So far as I know, no controversy, real or imagined, surrounds this. Unless they left off James Cameron's Avatar, but they didn't. Crisis averted.
PC Mag lists 7 reasons why e-book reader things make a good holiday gift. Computer World lists 7 reasons they aren't.
Neil Gaiman ponders the future of audio books at NPR. He has a lovely voice. Hopefully there's a future for that. Presumably Ereaders, in the future, will be able to read to us, so chances are good that grandfathers will be out of a job. Alas.
The Interstitial Arts Foundation is holding a virtual world salon for Interfictions 2. It will be hosted by Jackson Street Books in Second Life. Such a real and imaginary location seems appropriate for discussing art that doesn't quite fit, don't you think? I thought you did.
Until the future, readers.
ttfn.
Physicist Michio Kaku, author of Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration Into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel, has a new show premiering on the Science Channel called, Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible. It's described as "both fanciful and serious." Of note, Michio Kaku built a particle accelerator for his high school science fair. We should probably listen to him.
ComicsMix wonders if i09 is inappropriately editing comments from sci-fi writers and editors. If this were a news blog we would need to look into this (such as, who is this ComicsMix people?), but as it is, we present it without comment. Except for this that was just written wherein we wondered who ComicsMix was.
i09's guide to December Sci-Fi Awesomeness. So far as I know, no controversy, real or imagined, surrounds this. Unless they left off James Cameron's Avatar, but they didn't. Crisis averted.
PC Mag lists 7 reasons why e-book reader things make a good holiday gift. Computer World lists 7 reasons they aren't.
Neil Gaiman ponders the future of audio books at NPR. He has a lovely voice. Hopefully there's a future for that. Presumably Ereaders, in the future, will be able to read to us, so chances are good that grandfathers will be out of a job. Alas.
The Interstitial Arts Foundation is holding a virtual world salon for Interfictions 2. It will be hosted by Jackson Street Books in Second Life. Such a real and imaginary location seems appropriate for discussing art that doesn't quite fit, don't you think? I thought you did.
Until the future, readers.
ttfn.
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