Music by The Flaming Lips, Jaga Jazzist, Glass Ghost, Kes Band, Deerhunter, Zoos of Berlin, Fleet Foxes, The Instruments and Radiohead, among others.
Thursday, 31 December 2009
Things to be thankful for in 2009 (or, ‘Obligatory but probably entirely unwelcome end of year list number 2 [of, as it turns out, a total of 2]’)
Public and educational lending rights payments
Sure, a rather crass choice to start with, but anyone who knows what I’m talking about, knows what I’m talking about.
Amid the popularisation of Twitter in 2009 and the consequent invasion of stupid memes, spambots and overly friendly but underly dressed women, it was nevertheless the year in which I felt I was becoming involved in a proper community. Heatwaves, blackouts, bushfires and earthquakes seemed to unite Melburnians in some kind of sweaty, freaked out Twitter gestalt, and it was great (not the bushfires part, obviously). Not to mention the feeling of being connected to a whole city despite being at home with my daughter much of the time (of which, see later).
It was also fun to see people I follow gradually discover each other, to watch as networks slowly knitted together. I’ve pretty much stopped following celebrity Twitterers and the news bots, and am focused on keeping up the conversation with people who’ve taken the time to send a reply or direct message my way. I’m finding my Twitter life much more rewarding as a result.
I’m sure there are critics who’d bemoan the idea that anyone going about their life would think “That’s tweetable”, stop what they’re doing and reach for their laptop or mobile phone. Because what could be worse than taking an experience and communicating it, for the interest or amusement of your fellow human beings, through the wonder of the written word.
Oh, and N____ joined Twitter this year, which has pretty much made my century.
My grandmother travelling through Europe at the age of 80
Okay, so she wasn’t backpacking or anything, but fucking hell. I get frightened at the thought of getting on the tram sometimes.
A new, but necessarily sort of secret writing opportunity
It’s under a house name and I’m not really allowed to tell anyone about it, but it was totally out of the blue, and a welcome opportunity, and an awful lot of fun.
Podcasts
No, I didn’t just discover podcasts this year, Mr ‘That’s So 2004’. The thing is, I tend to do a lot of walking around on the days my daughter goes to childcare, either on errands or doing the sodding vacuuming, and it’s a great time to listen to some interviews and short stories and things.
Some favourites this year have been (iTunes links, sorry folks) the iTunes ‘Meet The Author’ series (the Guillermo del Toro one is fabulous; less fabulous is the interviewer’s constant interjection of “That’s amazing”), the Terra Incognita Speculative Australian Fiction Podcast, Rick Kleffel’s frequently fascinating and frighteningly frequent Agony Column of speculative fiction interviews (not sure why iTunes labels every single episode EXPLICIT; Rick seems to be very well-spoken and not at all a potty-mouth) and ABC Radio National’s ‘The Book Show’.
Discovering new writers
As a result of the science fiction and fantasy section of my local library being particularly awesome, I spent a lot of this year getting stuck into speculative fiction anthologies and ‘Year’s Best’ collections from recent times, and doing a bit of catch-up. I also subscribed to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and Aurealis. In all I managed to read 121 short stories during the year. (Doesn’t sound that impressive, now that I think about it. That’s only a couple a week. Things really dropped off around November and December. Must do better next year.)
Some of the authors I read for the first time this year who made an impression include Daniel Abraham, Peter M. Ball, Peter S. Beagle, Cory Doctorow, Jeffrey Ford, Theodora Goss, Tim Pratt, M. Rickert, John Schoffstall, Kaaron Warren, Kim Westwood and Wayne Wightman.
Elvis Costello at the Palais
A great show, great crowd, great vibe, great stories, great jokes, and greatest of all, N____ came with me and enjoyed it as much as I did.
Starting a workshopping group
It’s been many years since I’ve been in a regular critiquing group, and for my own motivation I really felt the need to get some kind of workshopping circle happening again. I put the call out in March on Twitter (yes, that symptom of humanity’s ills again) and by about October I found I was part of a small, eclectic group of writers — some of whom I knew well, and some of whom I knew kind of. Looking forward to getting back into the swing of it in 2010.
Living near friends
We’re lucky enough to live close to some good friends who have children the same age as our daughter G_____, and being able to share the parenting experience has been one of the principal joys of this year. No less wonderful was discovering that two of those families are about to get bigger.
Writing a story I’m proud of
Partly (nay, mostly) a result of being part of the workshopping group mentioned above, I managed to finish a reasonably lengthy short story, and one I’m reasonably happy with. What I’m most pleased about is that I managed to subjugate my writerly proclivities (okay, there is a bit where a goblin does a shit in a carton of milk) and concentrate on story, theme and character instead of wilful strangeness and dirty jokes. (I know, who would have thought that focusing on story, theme and character would be a sensible thing to do in a story. Twenty years in the game and I’m still learning the ropes.)
Being at home with my daughter (aka ‘another sentimental bit’)
It’s challenging, frequently maddening, often baffling and sometimes quite lonely, but getting the chance to be a stay-at-home parent has been a huge gift. It’s hard to believe it’s more than a year since I quit work and started sharing my life so fully with the lively, strange, intelligent and curious person we have in our daughter.
It’s a year whose mark, for all the right reasons, will never fade.
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
According to Google Analytics, someone visited my website immediately after typing the search phrase “where to buy flatulence underwear melbourne australia”. There’s nowhere I can go from there.
Friday, 25 December 2009
For a moment I thought this looked like the most miserable Christmas morning ever, but then I counted not one, not two but three dolls she’s managed to wrangle from Santa. Oh, and a model airplane if you don’t fucking mind.
I hope your Christmas was just as bountiful, but less monochrome.
Thursday, 24 December 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Zoos of Berlin, Wye Oak, The Flaming Lips, The Octopus Project & Black Moth Super Rainbow, Beirut, Glass Ghost, Odawas, Jaga Jazzist and Midlake, among others.
Horn by Peter M. Ball
Great concept, mixing grimy police procedural, online sleaze and the world of faerie. Much straighter than I expected, having read a bit of Ball’s short fiction this year, though that’s no doubt due to the noir trappings.
Looking forward to seeing where Ball takes the sequel, which is being published by Twelfth Planet Press in 2010.
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
It’s like an alternate universe Catweazle.
(Frighteningly, it’s probably not that far removed from our actual universe Catweazle.)
(adski_kaferti, via Black and WTF)
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
Nicely customised comments form at the Panic Inc. corporate blog. Different enough from the usual WordPress comments form you see everywhere on the web, but with all the normal elements in place. Cute and idiosyncratic while maintaining usability.
Can’t help feeling my life would be richer and fuller if I wasn’t so dismayed by the sight of dirty dishes.
Or if we had a dishwasher.
It amazes me that the designers of the nineteenth century, armed with little more than their typographic inventiveness, and without the aid of automated data manipulation devices, were able to corral ever-increasing masses of information into something comprehensible. (Think of railway timetables, for instance, or even newspapers.)
This 1858 document, entitled Tableau de L’Histoire Universelle, attempts the modest task of drawing a family tree of the entire human race.
I can’t speak as to the accuracy of the genealogy, but as an infographic it’s freakin’ awesome.
(Also, I’d be thrilled if anyone could point me to a font that matches the handwritten type in the poster, particularly the italics.)
(peacay)
Friday, 18 December 2009
No causal connection has wealthy beginning
In the middle of 1944, a series of apparently innocuous answers in the crossword puzzle of the Daily Telegraph began to cause alarm at MI5. In the space of a few weeks, the words ‘Utah’, ‘Omaha’, ‘Neptune’, ‘mulberry’ and ‘overlord’ all featured as solutions to the crossword. What was significant was that these were all codewords relating to the soon-to-occur (and supposedly secret) Allied invasion of Normandy.
Coincidence? Espionage? Treason? The answer, like the solution to a good cryptic clue, is as appealing as it is obvious.
Thursday, 17 December 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Bear In Heaven, Deerhunter, Danielson, Midlake, Ron Sexsmith, Rufus Wainwright, Sufjan Stevens, Blitzen Trapper and Jerusalem Mules, among others.
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
Dutch edition of H. G. Wells’s The Invisible Man (or, Honey, I Blew Up The Invisible Man).
Monday, 14 December 2009
Sporty car in our neighbourhood with numberplate ‘D6GURU’. I admire any motorist so proud of their D&D attribute rolling ability.
Saturday, 12 December 2009
Off to hear songs about Jesus, miserly inn proprietors and genius savants who travel in threes.
Friday, 11 December 2009
Six day old bacon: safe or unsafe? For convenience I am going with safe.
Thursday, 10 December 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Jaga Jazzist, Kes Band, Farben, Duke Ellington, Sonny Rollins, The Instruments, Grizzly Bear, Frightened Rabbit and Ekkehard Ehlers & Paul Wirkus, among others.
I’m not sure The Wiggles have much to offer from an educational perspective if they still haven’t figured out how to wake up Jeff.
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Artist Carl Warner on his fruit and vegetable recreation of iconic London landmarks: “It’s important to me that people look at this and go ‘London’, instantly.”
I love that that’s important to anyone. I love that anyone would want to spend three weeks striving to become the Christopher Wren of the fruit and veg world. I love that in the video accompanying the original article there’s at least one half-empty bottle of lager lying around the studio.
(newslite.tv, via Dark Roasted Blend )
Saturday, 5 December 2009
From a US patent for a flatulence deodorising pad that sits in your underwear (in, the patent helpfully informs us, “the anal area”).
The background notes make for compelling reading (the charcoal cloth of which the pad is made was originally developed to defend soldiers against chemical warfare), but I particularly like the idea that somewhere there’s an illustrator whose specialty is the infographics of the fart.
(Google Patents, via Amy and Aaron Edgar)
Friday, 4 December 2009
I just broke a deckchair. And, I suspect, my arse.
Were I blessed with the good fortune of owning this Victorian eyePod, I’d want to be listening to music befitting its fine craftsmanship.
(Doctor Grymm, via New Scientist)
Mother and daughter in the doctors waiting room are having an animated debate concerning the outcome of a fight between a dog and a snake.
Thursday, 3 December 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Arve Henriksen, The Blessing, Charles Mingus, Glass Ghost, Radicalfashion, Bear In Heaven, Lymbyc Systym, Danielson and Neil Finn, among others.
Microsoft Office autoupdates always make me nervous.
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
Literally a new edition of Fowler
Languagehat.com reports on a new edition of H. W. Fowler’s A Dictionary of Modern English Usage. I have a copy of the second edition, so I can’t say if the entry below derives from Fowler or from the equally wonderfully named Sir Ernest Gowers (who revised the text in the 1960s), but it’s a characteristically dry dismantling of a certain misuse of language that I’d assumed was only a modern complaint. It seems, however, that it’s been going on for ages, figuratively speaking. (Or, if it’s an addition of Gower’s, literally decades.)
literally. We have come to such a pass with this emphasizer that where the truth would require us to insert with a strong expression ‘not [literally], of course, but in a manner of speaking’, we do not hesitate to insert the very word that we ought to be at pains to repudiate […] The Prime Minister sat through the debate [literally] glued to the Treasury bench […]
I have to apologise to the student I recently mentored, who used the word in a story I was critiquing. I didn’t exactly quote the above, but I came close.
Nip it in the bud, I say. (In a manner of speaking.)
I know which one’s going to be eaten first.
Hint: it’s the one who’s declining to participate in Mr Vampire’s “how to operate a hand puppet” lesson.
First rule of vampires, people.
Everyone remembers that fateful day, when the entire women’s gymnastics team were attacked by the exploding alien bottom fungus.
Pommel horse that, people of Earth!
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Hidden Ghost Balloon Ship, Jaga Jazzist, The Flaming Lips, Glass Ghost, Yo La Tengo, Dark Meat, The Big Pink, Seekae and The Vandermark 5, among others.
The first and second Matrix films had a handful of great sequences, but how much better would they have been if they’d been filmed in Legovision?
Answer: this much better.
(Legomatrix, via GeekDad)
Saturday, 21 November 2009
This is the ex libris bookplate you’d see if you happened to borrow a book from the personal library of Benito Mussolini.
Yeah, I’d be giving it back pretty effing smartly too, finished or not.
From the multiverse to the Whoniverse
It doesn't come as a huge surprise, but I didn't realise Michael Moorcock was a Doctor Who fan until it was recently announced he was contributing an original novel to the tie-in range currently being published by BBC Books. Here he shares his memories of the original series and his excitement (and sense of nervousness) about his forthcoming involvement with the new incarnation. Too bad Moorcock didn't write for the New Adventures series Virgin published in the nineties: he could've really let rip. Looking forward to this one nonetheless.
Just saw a utility truck with a decal on the back window that said ‘The Uterus’.
Thursday, 19 November 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Zoos of Berlin, fun., John Zorn, The Format, Caribou, The Blessing, Arve Henriksen, Atlas Sound and Pink Floyd, among others.
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
A screenshot of Grackle68k, a Twitter client for Mac System 6 through to Mac OS 9. I bet this will really annoy the dude I posted about in September who went back to System 7 precisely to escape this kind of distraction.
(retards.org, via Minimal Mac)
Monday, 16 November 2009
Gonna start a new genre. It’s called punkpunk. I’ll figure out the rest later.
Lounge rooms for the little people who live inside your PC. Beautifully done, but I bet the vacuuming is a bitch.
‘To dream of stars: an astronomer’s lament’ by Peter M. Ball, published in Apex Magazine October 2009
A clever alternate history, sparingly but brilliantly evoking a weird version of England in communion with alien entities. Peter M. Ball has published some great stories this year.
Saturday, 14 November 2009
Beautiful wood engravings from a 1947 French edition of Poe’s Fall of the house of Usher.
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Au, fun., Atlas Sound, Panda Bear and Sunwrae, among others.
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Bizarro collagey awesomeness by Melbourne artist Al Ouchtomsky.
Measuring my progress as a dad by my increasing willingness (nay, enthusiasm) to venture outside wearing only my underpants.
Monday, 9 November 2009
Taken inside the abandoned West Park Mental Hospital in Epsom, England. The place presumably looked pretty effing spick and span in its heyday, what with all those vacuum cleaners on standby. Check out the West Park Flickr pool for more.
Friday, 6 November 2009
Misread “Half Island” on a wine label as “MILF Island”. Apparently I’m not allowed to return the crate.
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by The Flaming Lips, Fleet Foxes, Karl Hector & The Malcouns, Marco Benevento, Plants and Animals, fun., Luke Temple, Menomena and Dr. Dog, among others.
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
‘The lucky strike’ by Kim Stanley Robinson, published in Vinland the dream
A fascinating alternate history concerning an aborted bombing of Hiroshima.
‘The merchant and the alchemist’s gate’ by Ted Chiang, published in The best science fiction and fantasy of the year Volume Two, edited by Jonathan Strahan
One of the finest things I’ve read this year — a concept that’s as well thought out as the best hard science-fiction, told in a perfectly judged voice evoking the best fantasy and fable. If Ted Chiang was prolific as well as being a genius, I think I’d have to murder him out of envy. As it stands (he publishes relatively rarely), I may only have to wound him.
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Maketh the writer
Fascinating piece by Sarah Churchwell on some famous writer-editor relationships.
Interior of Kings Theatre, Bondi Beach in the 1930s. Part of a new batch of images just uploaded to the State Library of New South Wales Flickr account.
From The East London Theatre Archive, a collection of nearly 15,000 playbills, programmes, press cuttings and photographs. Great resource for a Victorian typography enthusiast like myself.
Friday, 30 October 2009
I swear I vacuumed this floor mere days ago, now it looks like a dandruffing mammoth has slept on it.
Thursday, 29 October 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by The Flaming Lips, Atlas Sound, Grizzly Bear, Stars of the Lid, Andy Grooms Living Room, Pale Young Gentlemen, The Heavy Blinkers, Ola Podrida and Secondstar, among others.
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
‘The haunting that Jack built’ by Andrew J McKiernan, published in Aurealis: Australian Fantasy & Science Fiction #42
An effective merging of small town Australiana and European horror.
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
When Tom Baker abstained from participating in Doctor Who’s twentieth anniversary episode, ‘The Five Doctors’, he was, for the purposes of a promotional photoshoot, replaced with a wax dummy. Now I’m wondering if he shouldn’t have been replaced with one of these adorable nesting dolls.
I love that the Hartnell and Troughton dolls are in monochrome.
(sweet is the wind, via lizbt)
If the measure of ironing excellence was “add more creases”, I would be considered excellent at ironing.
Friday, 23 October 2009
Giant woven fish from Peru. Maybe it’s just me, but I’d go mental if I had to wake up to this every day. Mad craft skills, but.
Thursday, 22 October 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Simon & Garfunkel, The Flaming Lips and Megan Washington & Sean Foran, among others.
This was the first major LEGO™ set I owned. Clearly I will never achieve my dream of being the first author to include it on one of their book covers. Damn you, Jan Kraśko. Damn you to space.
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
This is remarkably similar to the mantelpiece in my own lounge room, which is also in greyscale. (From English Homes Vol III no. 1, Late Tudor, published in 1922.)
Thursday, 15 October 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Elvis Costello, Joanna Newsom, Glass Ghost, A-KO, The Middle East, Joshua James, My Teenage Stride, Suckers and Small Black, among others.
Sunday, 11 October 2009
If you gave your employer a document prepared using MS Word’s default styles, the only conclusion your employer could reach would be that they’d hired Charles Manson.
Friday, 9 October 2009
Always a bit sceptical when I hear The Wiggles claim that Dorothy is their favourite dinosaur. What basis for comparison do they have?
Thursday, 8 October 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Elvis Costello, Duke Ellington, Hidden Ghost Balloon Ship, The Orbweavers, Dizzygiggles, Kate Bush, Oneida, John Zorn and Sidewinder, among others.
Monday, 5 October 2009
Sunday, 4 October 2009
The delivery label for my IKEA goods had them addressed to “chris miks”. Which I guess is appropriately minimalist and Scandinavian.
Saturday, 3 October 2009
The middle-class guide to the galaxy
As the publication date nears for Eoin Colfer’s Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy continuation novel, the Guardian surveys the place of the original work (which is to say, the radio series, novels and TV series combined) in the British psyche. “The Hitchhiker stories make up a sort of folk-art depiction, like on a tribal carpet, of the late-1970s English middle-class cosmic order,” says Jenny Turner.
At IKEA. The Verdana, the horror.
Friday, 2 October 2009
From the Manuel Typographique, utile Aux Gens de Lettres, published in 1766. That was a good year for quaint pointy hands. (Though of course they weren’t quaint back then.)
Either I used to own this book, or the cover artist has access to my childhood nightmares.
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Zoos of Berlin, The Orbweavers, Deastro, Dizzygiggles, The Big Pink, Lindstrøm, Aretha Franklin, Augie March and Tin Machine, among others.
Thursday, 1 October 2009
Opened bin to find wasp in there. Put bag of incredibly soiled nappies on top of wasp. Humans: 1 Vespidae: nil
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
The best kind of cheese is four kinds of cheese.
Friday, 25 September 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Union Suit Characters, A Sunny Day in Glasgow, Stars of the Lid, Oneida, skygreen leopards, Andrew Bird, Here We Go Magic, St. Vincent and The Yellow Moon Band, among others.
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
‘Anda’s game’ by Cory Doctorow, published in Overclocked
Doctorow has cornered the market in hip, clever, of-the-moment sci-fi. This isn’t even sci-fi, really — it’s a story about the industrial relations, espionage and the economics of MMORPGs. Ingenious.
Saturday, 19 September 2009
‘The vision’ by Jonathan Lethem, published in Men and cartoons
Despite a convenient, slightly artificial set-up, this is a quietly powerful, sleight-of-hand piece about shame, secrets, and pride. There were a couple of distracting typos in this edition, but that’s more than made up for by the kooky back cover design, which pastiches the cheesy ads for X-ray glasses and hand buzzers and things you used to get in comic books. Looking forward to reading more.
‘Michael Laurits is: drowning’ by Paul Cornell, published in Eclipse Two, edited by Jonathan Strahan
Not so much a complete story as a metaphysical non-sequitur about the possibility of life after (or during?) death within a sophisticated, near-future social networking environment. Cornell’s narrative approach is a clever one, allowing him to explore his ingenious concept through a series of tantalising journalistic sketches. And as with his Doctor Who work (in print), he has a great knack for worldbuilding through well-chosen incidental details.
‘The rabbi’s hobby’ by Peter S. Beagle, published in Eclipse Two, edited by Jonathan Strahan
I suspect I’ll be looking for more of Beagle’s stories set in the post-World War Two Bronx, as this one is; the period is so well-rendered. For a moment I thought this story was going in a particular direction, then it went in another — and though the supernatural element is a little familiar, the resolution is nicely elusive.
Friday, 18 September 2009
Because clearly something had to be done about that spate of unofficial histories.
Going vintage to get things done
Freelance writer Riccardo Mori steps back in time to a Mac running System 7.1 (connected to an old iBook running System 9 as "a bridge between the 'old' world and the 'new' world" of his regular setup) to avoid the shiny, internet-connected world of distraction that OS X offers: emails, RSS, spur of the moment research on the muddy muddy web. Great photo of his barebones setup; I felt instantly calmed (and envious).
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Union Suit Characters, The Orbweavers, Nomo, Oneida, Cale Parks, Air, Wave Machines, Jimmy Ohio and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, among others.
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Slivering almonds must be a bastard of a job.
Friday, 11 September 2009
iPhone mockups with Notepod
Gorgeous iPhone sized (60x110mm) grid-lined notepads for mocking up apps and webpages (and jotting down the phone numbers of "hot geeks" if you're so inclined). Might buy one just to use as a decoy for would-be muggers.
Managed to flick a vibrant yellow stripe of poo onto myself. Not my own, if that makes it any better.
Little brother by Cory Doctorow
This is the sort of book you read at a certain age and it blows your mind. There’s a great sense of verisimilitude to the sections on hacking, it feels totally fresh, and I doubt it will feel dated five or even ten years down the track. Things do start to get a little overblown toward the end. I didn’t totally buy the extremes to which the villains go, for instance — but maybe that’s me displaying exactly the sort of complacency Doctorow is warning about.
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by The Orbweavers, Union Suit Characters, The KLF, Nomo, Sonny Rollins, The Ahmad Jamal Trio, Miles Davis, Cale Parks and Charles Mingus, among others.
Friday, 4 September 2009
If you need to come to my house to convince me of the benefits of your product, I suspect it’s because there are none.
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Wave Machines, Stars of the Lid, Helado Negro, Holy Fuck, The xx, Radiohead, Cale Parks, Fleet Foxes and Dr. Dog, among others.
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Melbourne’s weather is like the Jeckyll and Hyde of, um, weather. Yeah, I was up pretty early this morning.
‘Hodge shall not be shot’ by Peter Craven, published in The Australian Literary Review September 2009
Craven uses the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Samuel Johnson’s birth to look at the art of biography as pioneered by James Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson.
‘Shouts and whispers’ by Geoffrey Blainey, published in The Australian Literary Review September 2009
Blainey reviews Thomas Keneally’s Origins to Eureka, the first volume of Keneally’s planned history of Australia.
Axel Erlandson's tree sculptures
Inosculation, or tree bonding. "I talk to them," says Erlandson.
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
Nothing like glorious spring sunshine to put you in the mood to draft your will. Thinking of leaving everything to the Elves of Rainbowland.
Sunday, 30 August 2009
Striking design by Elaine Lustig. Love the bold colours and the slight wonkiness of the shape at the bottom.
Friday, 28 August 2009
Confirmed! Robot dancing to an incorrectly-sung version of Gary Numan’s ‘Cars’ is not amusing to child who is, at that moment, defecating.
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Brokeback, Dr. Dog, Nomo, Goldfrapp, Miles Davis, Radiohead, Andrew Bird, Grizzly Bear and Foreign Born, among others.
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Your keyboard, dementia, and you
If you overuse your CAPS LOCK there's a good chance you're senile, according to a new study. Judging by the comments on a typical YouTube video, there are a lot of people with really really really early onset dementia.
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Karl von Frisch's Decoding the language of the bee
Frisch translated the meaning of bees' waggle dances, by which a hive compares incoming reports from individual bees about nearby food sources to make collective decisions. According to Alex Wright in his book Glut: mastering information through the ages, other studies have shown that while a single bee can retain a piece of data for up to six days, a hive, through this collective information management enterprise, can retain the same data for up to three months. This page offers a PDF download of Frisch's 1973 Nobel Lecture on the subject.
Paul Otlet's "radiated book"
I recently had a flick through Glut: mastering information through the ages by Alex Wright and was intrigued by the story of Paul Otlet, who in the 1930s dreamt up an information retrieval system that seems to foreshadow the modern world wide web.
Behind the Typedia logo design
Not only is Typedia a very attractively designed resource site, the owners and designers have very generously shared an insight into the creation of the site logo. A great example of the professional back and forth that can go on with any creative project.
Sunday, 23 August 2009
I think Orval is my favourite of all the beers that taste like Vegemite and saddle.
Friday, 21 August 2009
"Steel is concerned and confused that his knob was glowing, and that it should please Silver"
A LOLpic rendering of Sapphire and Steel 'Assignment 3', one of my favourites stories from the series. This version is only slightly stranger than the actual episode.
Uncomfortable plot summaries
I'd love it if these were actual pitches. Particularly like the summaries for Doctor Who ("Elderly man serially abducts young women") and Torchwood ("Bisexual is inefficient manager").
What sort of dinosaur is Dorothy, exactly?
How did she survive the KT event?
Should she really be flaunting her non-extinctedness?
Christopher Green's recollections of Clarion South
Australian speculative fiction writer Christopher Green looks back on some notes taken during the Clarion South workshop.
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Hidden Ghost Balloon Ship, Foreign Born, Dr. Dog, Zoos of Berlin, The Phenomenal Handclap Band, Radiohead and The Weird Weeds, among others.
Thursday, 20 August 2009
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
The wrath of the killdozer
"While there is certainly a time and place for relentless, city-crushing machines, the line between legitimate vigilante and crazy-muffler-man-with-notions-of-divine-approval is much too fine for any one man to distinguish."
Rewriting as animated GIF
Elizabeth Bear captures the pain and insanity of writing with an animated GIF showing her edits, rewrites and total redrafts of a single paragraph over an hour. Made me feel both elated and depressed; the first because I could take comfort in shared pain, the second because I realised how much of my life I have expended doing just this.
Saturday, 15 August 2009
Can’t help feeling that if you’re watching The Bill on a Saturday night, you’re basically saying to the Grim Reaper, “Yep, I’m ready”.
Friday, 14 August 2009
My daughter just asked me to “run like an emo”. I had already slipped over on my own tears when I realised she meant “emu”.
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Zoos of Berlin, Dr. Dog, Foreign Born, Wye Oak, Animal Collective, The Weird Weeds, Deerhunter, Grizzly Bear and Elvis Costello, among others.
Monday, 10 August 2009
It’s just gone 8.00am and I’ve already picked up one piece of human poo with my fingers.
Sunday, 9 August 2009
‘The annals of Eelin-Ok’ by Jeffrey Ford, published in The faery reel: tales from the twilight realm, edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling
A beautiful, generous, life-affirming story that totally honours its unusual premise. I will always remember Eelin-Ok and his too-brief residency in that castle on the beach. Jeffrey Ford continues to amaze.
Friday, 7 August 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Zoos of Berlin, The Phantom Band, Grizzly Bear, Elvis Costello, Baby Teeth, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Guillemots, Foreign Born and Fol Chen, among others.
Tuesday, 4 August 2009
Saw a woman at the playground, alone, dressed in black, pushing an empty swing.
Sunday, 2 August 2009
Moonraker by Ian Fleming
The only 007 novel set entirely in England. Fantastic opening act at M’s club, Blades, where Bond outsmarts the villain of the piece, whom M suspects of cheating at cards. It’s a totally unusual assignment for Bond, but a thrilling one. And Fleming knocks out some great descriptions, like when he describes a flock of seagulls, startled by an explosion above the cliffs of Dover, as looking like “black confetti” against the sky.
Friday, 31 July 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Oneida, Grizzly Bear, Deastro, Elvis Costello, Here We Go Magic, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Coltrane Motion, Yeasayer and Blind Pilot, among others.
Thursday, 30 July 2009
When delivery men bring me parcels I am invariably in my dressing gown. I can’t help feeling bad about that.
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
Once the penguins consumed every inch of human flesh aboard the Gratitude, they scavenged the ship for porn.
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
Back from an introduction to first aid. Asked instructor to do session backwards so I’d end up with a licence to kill.
Sunday, 26 July 2009
For “Ready for anything” I think you could safely read “Ready to get knob out in public”.
Saturday, 25 July 2009
It’s happened to all of us. “Be careful,” says the lady at the Salvos. “Your antique bargain may be a sink of malignancy.”
(jovike)
Top 10 magical grimoires
Selected by Owen Davies, professor of social history at the University of Herefordshire. Davies has "written extensively about the history of magic, witchcraft and ghosts".
Friday, 24 July 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Elvis Costello, Oneida, Baby Teeth, Ween, The Best Believes, Sunset Rubdown, Super Furry Animals, The Smashing Pumpkins and Grizzly Bear, among others.
Monday, 20 July 2009
I feel the presenters on Play School may be overstating somewhat the purview and import of the ‘Hokey-Pokey’
Friday, 17 July 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Grizzly Bear, Blitzen Trapper, of Montreal, Sunset Rubdown, Blind Pilot, Super Furry Animals, Animal Collective, Here We Go Magic and Woods, among others.
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Dreamt I was asked to play bass for Sonic Youth. They wanted to go in a doom rock direction, and Kim Gordon wanted to go shopping.
Friday, 10 July 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Black Moth Super Rainbow, Cymbals Eat Guitars, of Montreal, Akron/Family, Ganglians, Andrew Bird, Grizzly Bear and Super Furry Animals, among others.
Friday, 3 July 2009
Would it be feasible for the losers of Masterchef to be fed to the winner of The Biggest Loser? Because I like symmetry. And cannibalism.
Computer reveals stone tablet 'handwriting' in a flash
A computer technique can tell the difference between ancient inscriptions created by different artisans.
Things I've been listening to (25 June to 2 July 2009)
Music by Kruder & Dorfmeister, The Best Believes, Beirut, Deerhunter, Sunset Rubdown, Black Moth Super Rainbow, The Horrors, Jóhann Jóhannsson and Akron/Family, among others.
Saturday, 27 June 2009
Spooky! Judging from Twitter Trends, Michael Jackson and the lesser known but similarly named “Micheal” Jackson died ON EXACTLY THE SAME DAY
Friday, 26 June 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Grizzly Bear, The Phantom Band, Arcadia, Sunset Rubdown, The Best Believes, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Akron/Family and Deerhunter, among others.
Thursday, 25 June 2009
The writer’s tale by Russell T Davies & Benjamin Cook
Fantastic!
Monday, 22 June 2009
Digitised newspapers from the 19th century at the British Library
Two million pages available for searching. Disappointingly, viewing articles requires paid 24 hour or 7 day pass, unlike the equivalent (beta) service of the National Library of Australia.
Sunday, 21 June 2009
Devil may care by Sebastian Faulks
Fun, addictive, but not quite up to the standard of Fleming’s early books. Feels more like a novelisation of an unmade Bond film.
Friday, 19 June 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Deerhunter, Grizzly Bear, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (Herbert von Karajan), The Autumn Defense, Grand Salvo, Department of Eagles, The Horrors, Sunwrae and The Phantom Band, among others.
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
ReCSS bookmarklet
Incredibly useful bookmarklet that removes the need to reload entire webpages when checking CSS changes by reloading the stylesheet only. A huge time saver (not to mention saving on bandwidth).
Friday, 12 June 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Sunwrae, Tortoise, Grizzly Bear, Thom Yorke, Nomo, The Horrors, Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas and Tachyon TV, among others.
Friday, 5 June 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Ekkehard Ehlers & Paul Wirkus, Rabih Abou-Khalil, Radicalfashion, Trans Am, The Smashing Pumpkins, Crystal Antlers, Torche, The Horrors and Oh No, among others.
Friday, 29 May 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Grizzly Bear, Deerhunter, Nomo, The Horrors, St. Vincent, Wildbirds & Peacedrums, The Phantom Band, Ekkehard Ehlers & Paul Wirkus and Ola Podrida, among others.
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
Old magazine articles for "dilettants, hacks and the merely curious"
"Designed to serve as a reference for students, educators, authors, researchers, dabblers, dilettantes, hacks and the merely curious."
Friday, 22 May 2009
Making pies for dinner. Complex and nerve-wracking. I take back everything I said about Titus Andronicus being a work-shy namby-pampy.
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by St. Vincent, Stars of the Lid, Here We Go Magic, Nomo, Marco Benevento, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Duran Duran, Cat Power and Marching Band, among others.
Tuesday, 19 May 2009
‘The last to be found’ by Christopher Harman, published in The Year’s Best Fantasy And Horror 2007 (Twentieth Annual Collection), edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant
This story genuinely creeped me out; I haven’t felt so absorbed in a tale for a long time. Not one to read on your own in a strange house in the middle of the night, let’s put it that way.
Saturday, 16 May 2009
In seeking to find the Latin for ‘hairy’, Googling “latin hairy” proved rather educational, if not entirely relevant
Friday, 15 May 2009
‘Pol Pot’s beautiful daughter’ by Geoff Ryman, published in The Year’s Best Fantasy And Horror 2007 (Twentieth Annual Collection), edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant
Another plank in my argument that Ryman’s lack of profile outside the sf community is the literary world’s loss. A startling, very human fantasy of the here and now, in a Cambodia that is real but somehow other.
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Au, Stars of the Lid, The Instruments, St. Vincent, Super Furry Animals, Luke Temple, Andrew Bird, Suckers and Radicalfashion, among others.
Tuesday, 12 May 2009
‘Exhalation’ by Ted Chiang, published in Eclipse Two, edited by Jonathan Strahan
This story deserves all the accolades it’s received — despite a seemingly stilted and unpromising opening, the story follows its thought-experiment through to a startling, mind-expanding (literally) conclusion.
Friday, 8 May 2009
Things I’ve been listening to
Music by Luke Temple, Marco Benevento, St. Vincent, Here We Go Magic, Animal Collective, Odawas, Super Furry Animals, New Ruins and Cymbals Eat Guitars, among others.
Thursday, 7 May 2009
Phrases that are surprisingly safe to Google #17: “Things to do with sausage.”
