Reviews, Top N lists, and other sundry literary stuff.
Early Saturday a.m. post… Trimming down the links in the sidebar; feels too much like clutter. Instead, thinking of just dumping links into del.icio.us and then install one of the myriad plug-ins for WordPress to add support for them. *shrug* A. has released my inner-chucker – – especially considering the up-coming move. ALSO: Realized last night […]
43 Folders on “12 ways to better sleep” – – almost all of these are things I’d discussed with my doctor last year when I had my last really serious insomnia bout. I’m right there with him on the melatonin, too. That always helps but I’ve heard you’ll want to be cautious with your long-term […]
Via B^2, for P.: Voluptuous Panic… The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin […] Voluptuous Panic’s expanded edition includes the new illustrated chapter “Sex Magic and the Occult,” documenting German pagan cults and their bizarre erotic rituals, including instructions for entering into the “Sexual Fourth Dimension.” The deluxe hardcover edition also includes sensational accounts of hypno-erotic […]
Brokeback Mountain. Very average. Maybe just hyped to the point where it couldn’t possibly deliver? I must say that I walked away pretty numb. Acting performances were in the “good” to “excellent” range and it certainly started well enough. (The first 30-45 minutes are brilliant.) Unfortunately, it can’t keep its own pace and slows down […]
Last night I finished re-reading Nancy Kress’ novel Beggars in Spain. I’d read it once before when I was quite a bit younger. (High school, maybe?) An interesting sci-fi read, it toys with a near-future scenario where genetic modifications are relatively commonplace and an arguably separate race of Sleepless are created as a consequence of […]
Jeff Coleman (my advisor from St. Mary’s) has a new collection of poems out. Titled Spirits Distilled, Jeff’s brief write-up goes: The book addresses a range of subjects, including my deceased father and grandmother, the 1998 dragging death of James Byrd, Jr., former and recently deceased Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, the psychological terror of September […]
“Fall Down Six Times” is a series of short-shorts by Ran Prieur that are essentially meditations on apocalyptic collapses. Or a “Ridiculous Best Case Scenario”. Most of these have elements that remind me of conversations I’ve had recently with friends about “what we’ll do when the economy collapses.” It’s reassuring that I’m not the only […]
A little late on this one but: Mournful for Octavia Butler’s passing. I’m grateful for her contributions to literature and am grateful I had the chance to be exposed to her through Parable of the Sower many years ago in school. (Well, maybe not “many” but it sure seemed that way when I thought of […]
“You know what your trouble is?” he says when we’re under the bridge, headed up to Fourth. “You’re the kind who always reads the handbook. Anything people build, any kind of technology, it’s going to have some specific purpose. It’s for doing something that somebody already understands. But if it’s new technology, it’ll open areas […]
“Printcrime” by Cory Doctorow is great. And a quick read, too. And Nature has kindly given him permission to re-publish it on his own site. Which is funny. Funnier if you’re familiar with Doctorow. And funnier still after you read the short.