Monthly Archives: February 2009
The Thing About 3D
Posted on February 7, 2009 61 Comments
And I realized this whilst watching Coraline, which I thought was very well done in general, is that it will always give people headaches as long as directors forget that every time they cut to a new scene, they’re actively making their audiences’ eyes refocus. In real life, your eyes are not required to do […]
Worldcon 2011? Hope You Like Reno
Posted on February 7, 2009 71 Comments
Science Fiction geeks knew that there were two primary contenders for the site of the 2011 Worldcon: Seattle and Reno, Nevada. Well, now there’s only one, because the Seattle in 2011 committee has withdrawn its bid, citing difficulties in securing their preferred venues. Inasmuch as this leaves Reno the only serious bid still out there, […]
And Thus, The Internet’s Work Done, It Collapsed In On Itself and Disappeared
Posted on February 7, 2009 30 Comments
Ladies and gentlemen: Zombie bacon: And of course, it’s available as a t-shirt. Now, let us never speak of either zombies or bacon again.
Why Living in the Sticks Occasionally Sucks
Posted on February 6, 2009 78 Comments
Distance in miles to closest movie theater showing Coraline: 40. Distance in miles to closest movie theater showing Hotel for Dogs: 10. Seriously, now: WTF.
Have Some Siouxsie
Posted on February 6, 2009 35 Comments
The video’s a bit silly (it’s a tie-in to the less-than-stellar Batman Returns), but the song is groovy: Fun fact: The song is co-written by Siouxsie & the Banshees and Danny Elfman, Siouxsie and Elfman being, like, king and queen of the Goth Eternal Prom. And if they had a baby, it would look just […]
Quick! What Should I Eat For Lunch?
Posted on February 6, 2009 91 Comments
You have just 74 minutes to tell me! (Disclaimer: No matter what you suggest, I’m likely just to eat cereal shoved inside a tortilla. Because I’m just that lazy. But it never hurts to try.)
The Big Idea: Margaret Ronald
Posted on February 5, 2009 13 Comments
Hey look, a Big Idea twofer this week! It’s because I love all y’all so much. But also, because I want to introduce you to Margaret Ronald, debut novelist. I met her last year while I was teaching at the Viable Paradise writing workshop, and she was on staff. As it happens, she’s also a […]
A Brief History of Science Fiction Movies and Me
Posted on February 5, 2009
Over at AMC today, I use the current Facebook “25 things about yourself” meme that apparently everyone in the known universe has tagged me on as inspiration to give a personal history of me and science fiction films. Learn which science fiction film was the very first one I ever saw, which SF film was […]
Insert Heavy Existential Sigh Here
Posted on February 4, 2009 113 Comments
I find it very sad that someone believed — and I suspect correctly — it was necessary to put up this site to make things clear to young men that there was a difference between porn sex and sex with a real live girl. It’s like when you have to tell a five-year-old that cartoon […]
Yeah, What About the Stimulus Package?
Posted on February 4, 2009 98 Comments
In the comments to the Forrest Plumber entry, commenter Frank asked (somewhat sarcastically, but even so) what my thoughts about the stimulus package are. I claim no great insight in the process, but my thought is, essentially: seems like it’s needed at this point, and I’m happy to let Congress thrash it out a while […]
Putting Millennicon on Your Radar
Posted on February 4, 2009 29 Comments
Citizens of Earth! Here in these dark, cold days of winter deprivation, have you been sitting in your small, cramped, poorly-lit domiciles, eating food straight from the can and staring your “calendars,” wondering what you will do with yourself on the weekend of the Vernal Equinox, when winter is henceforth banished and flowers and tiny […]
Forrest Plumber
Posted on February 3, 2009 168 Comments
Wait, what? Fresh off his stint as a war correspondent in Gaza, Joe the Plumber is now doing political strategy with Republicans. When GOP congressional aides gather Tuesday morning for a meeting of the Conservative Working Group, Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher – more commonly known as Joe the Plumber — will be their featured guest. This […]
The Big Idea: James Morrow
Posted on February 3, 2009 21 Comments
James Morrow is one crazy cat, and I say this with great affection. It takes a special sort of person to imagine, for example, using a supertanker to tow the two-mile long corpse of God, as he did in the World Fantasy Award-winning novel Towing Jehovah, or, in his latest, Shambling Towards Hiroshima, to imagine […]
A Rasher Too Far
Posted on February 2, 2009 43 Comments
I am famously associated with bacon; that said, even I wouldn’t attempt this. But I suppose if he survives he’ll have something to tell the grandkids one day. Also, something to tell his heart surgeon.
The Appalling Strip-Mining of the 80s Continues Apace
Posted on February 2, 2009 51 Comments
Dear Seether: Seriously? I mean, really: Really? If they had had any balls, they would have done “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.” That’s all I’m going to say about that.
A Slightly Humbling Moment
Posted on February 2, 2009 19 Comments
It’s when you write up a long rant about something, look at it, look at the subject of the rant, and then decide all things being equal, it’s probably better just given a single snarky line as a Whateverette. Either my ranting is getting worse, or my internal editor is getting better. I suspect the […]
Recommended by Locus
Posted on February 1, 2009 12 Comments
This is nice: Locus magazine has released its “Recommended Reading List” for 2008, and I’m on it twice: First for Zoe’s Tale, in the Young Adult Books category, and then again for “After the Coup” in the short story category. I suspected ZT might show up on the list this year, as the Locus review […]
Amusing Yourself Completely (and Legally) for $100 a Month
Posted on February 1, 2009 94 Comments
Currently, I pay a stupid amount of money every month to amuse myself and my family. We pay for music, movies, television and books, DVDs and video games and so on and so forth. The economy, such as it is, loves us for it, since apparently we’re some of the few still doing that right […]
Heads Up on The Forever War
Posted on February 1, 2009 45 Comments
I’ll make mention of this again in a couple of weeks, on the actual release date, but I wanted to put it on your radar now: There’s a new edition of The Forever War coming out on the 17th of this month, and the reason I’m mentioning it to you, aside from the fact that […]
More Proof the President is the Alpha Geek of the World
Posted on February 1, 2009 27 Comments
The new symbol of Washington insider-dom is whether or not you have Barack Obama’s private e-mail address. For the record: I don’t have it, drat the luck. But I don’t know that I’d really want it; the first time you sent Obama a forwarded LOLcat, the Secret Service would show up at your door. That’s […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying