I’m looking back this week, isn’t everybody? Here are my 2011 picks for crucial random categories like: Best conversation at a con, Most peculiar sight, and Best critter event.
Best new TV program
OK, talkin’ trash here, but I got hooked on this one. Most of it’s pretty good acting, but what’s with the the wild-eyed colony military leader?
Best sf/f books I read
Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins. IQ84, Haruki Murakami. The Brahms Deception, Louise Marley, Tongues of Serpents, Naomi Novik. Read More »
Noted with interest that the Seattle Symphony in an attempt to reach out to a younger audience last weekend played selections from the score of Final Fantasy using composer Nobuo Uematsu’s soundtrack for the video game. And not only that, the performance was multi-media, with sequences from Final Fantasy projected onto a giant screen above the stage. Pandering? Man, I don’t think so. Who are the arbiters of taste who decide to play the old stuff, and pieces that are comprehensible only to the rare audience here or there? Play more adventurous music, and you might get me into Benaroya Hall to hear the symphony. Um, if anyone cares if I attend. Apparently though, the Seattle Symphony is starting to reach out. I say, go for it.
I am amazed by all the self-righteous anger and personal snarkiness of this election. People keep repeating the same stale mantras, the discussions are a mile wide and an inch deep. Personal attacks and bile substitute for the issues–and that’s just around the dinner table! Oh well, it’s election season.
For a breath of fresh air, read Louise Marley’s marvelous essay on 3rdACTS.com. It’s entitled A Red and Blue Marriage. (A couple finds harmony beyond politics.)
Do you have a secret and inexplicable desire to use semicolons, but feel the world has beaten them out of you?
Perhaps you do, but will not admit it to yourself. Or perhaps you use them unabashedly (like me) and dare people to contradict you. (NO! it must be a colon!! — Or an arch remark like, Really, my dear, a period will do.)
No matter your position on semicolons, you must read this wonderful essay by
. It’s titled “The Passion of the Semicolon,” but due to LJ’s problem with Firefox 3, I can’t link you directly to it.
Yours truly made a guest appearance, or guest mind meld, on SFSignal today. Other contributors were Kathleen Ann Goonen, Nancy Kress, Alyxis Glynn Latner and Michael S. Brotherton.
Topic: “There is a lot of scientific research being performed across a wide array of disciplines. So much that it can be difficult to keep up with it all. What current avenue of scientific inquiry do you believe people should be paying attention to, and why?” Read More »
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