Wednesday Quick Notes
Well, I'm home sick. No abusing my review privileges to watch The Green Hornet tonight, and no work today.Here is my favorite TV show I don't understand a word of: Wushu Masters—it's the taiji fighting...
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Another of the Arizona Shooter's crimes...
is surely his poetry.It's not even fun schizophrenic poetry, which makes me wonder when they were written. It's just the normal sort of stupid glurge that someone who fancies himself a teensy bit...
View ArticleNot just a class, a LIFE-CHANGING EXPERIENCE!!!!
Still looking for sign-ups for my writing class: Commercial Fiction - Nick Mamatas, 5 Mondays, Jan. 24-Feb. 21, 7-9:30 p.m. BerkeleyIt's a good class if you actually want to be a writer as opposed to...
View ArticleWin a prize
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards are about to wrap up their raffle: donate and maybe win a prize! (I'm giving away one of the prizes.)In other news, it's so funny that people are...
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Somewhere...the kids are all right
Tunisia, baby. Meanwhile, half a world away, I saw yet another film about a rich girl's problem, made by a rich girl with problems. Somewhere by Sofia Coppola is very similar to Lost in Translation...
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Black Swan
Back when I edited Clarkesworld, I would get every two weeks an example of what I called a "Take THAT, little girl!" horror story. In it a young woman at loose ends and not romantically attached—too...
View ArticleSee you in Seattle!
One of my favorite dayjob books, Harmony, was just nominated for the Philip K. Dick award!Suddenly this Tuesday feels like Friday not Monday! That's science fiction!
View ArticleBaby Doc
Jan 18 (Reuters) - Haitian police escorted former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier on Tuesday from the hotel in Port-au-Prince where he had been staying since his surprise return from exile on...
View ArticleCathy Day has a problem, SCIENCE has the solution!
Over at The Millions, Cathy Day complains that writing workshops are difficult to run unless the students write short stories, but who really cares about short stories?There's a lot to agree with in...
View ArticleNorwescon
Thanks to Harmony and the PKD award, it looks like I'm going to Norwescon. Couldn't help but notice the very large number of sex-themed panels on the programming list. I'm reminded that when I've met...
View ArticleThe Secret History of Speculative Fiction; 1996-2006, or Talebones
It's too bad there's already a title called The Secret History of Science Fiction, because the similar suggested title above could easily go to The Best of Talebones. Talebones was a kicky little...
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Hey society, wanna buy some spectacle?
I walk through the Financial District on my way to work, and there are not infrequent protests (Zionism, pro- and anti-) and labor actions (carpenters unions, doormen) and increasingly, anti-bank...
View ArticleEdgar Awards
I've got a good eye. This summer I recommended a story I saw in Hitchcock's called "Monsieur Alice is Absent" and today it was announced as a nominee for best short story for the Edgars.I hope it wins!
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Writing Salons: Less Than A Week to Go
My next Writing Salon starts Monday here in Berkeley and I still need some sign ups! I'm sure many of you, local or otherwise, are tired of these messages. It's a weird quirk of the business that the...
View ArticleThrowing meat to dogs because growling and yelping entertains me
From The Progressive Q/A with Margaret Atwood:Q: You call your work not science fiction, but speculative fiction. What’s the distinction you’re drawing?Margaret Atwood: The distinction has to do with...
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Keith Olbermann
Looks like Olbermann has joined the ranks of the unemployed, and mere moments after the NBC/Comcast merger was approved. Funny that.I am reminded of my favorite Olbermann moment.
View ArticleThe Old Lady Menace
In other news, there's Glenn Beck's inexplicable targeting of Frances Fox Piven, who decades ago suggested that then-extant welfare programs were both underserving the poor and could not effectively...
View ArticleFunny
Looks like Tor.com is selling short stories via Kindle.You know, the short stories you can already read for free any time and even listen to if you want.
View ArticleNot everyone likes the movie THE WOMAN by Lucky McKee
We have these same conversations in Berkeley complete with people having to be removed from a venue by security, but they're generally about whether or not a piece of bread is nine-grain or twelve-grain.
View ArticleHow Is Today Different Than All Other Days
A fun thing to do today is to go to a bakery or grocery store and buy a cake and then to have the baker write on the cake in frosting (gold if possible) CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR OSCAR NOMINATION.Not...
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