This morning I downloaded the latest episode of Vic Galloway’s Scotland Introducing podcast. It’s one of the things I look forward every Friday, to see what unsigned Scottish bands Vic is going to profile this particular week. I wasn’t that taken with this week’s episode. There were some live session tracks, and they were justContinue reading “On Today’s Musical Discovery”
Author Archives: Allyn
On Hemingway and Writing Tricks
Lately, and of no real surprise, I’ve been on an Ernest Hemingway kick. I discovered that a restored edition of A Moveable Feast is forthcoming. My contribution to Peter David’s round-robin Twilight parody was two thousand words of quality imitation Hemingway entitled “Santora,” complete with bullfights, wine, villas, and cryptically coded sex. Of course, whatContinue reading “On Hemingway and Writing Tricks”
On the Ivor Novello Awards
Winners for the Ivor Novello Awards, which celebrate songwriting, have been announced. Though Elbow was nominated for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for “One Day Like This,” I really was pulling for The Leisure Society’s “Last of the Melting Snow.” They’re an unsigned band, and the song is just brilliant. I love that song It’sContinue reading “On the Ivor Novello Awards”
On a New LEGO Video Game
Have I mentioned recently how much I like LEGO? Didn’t think so. There’s a LEGO strategy game coming out for the Nintendo DS. Think Age of Empires, but with LEGO! It’s called LEGO Battles, and it starts out with Castles, then Pirates, and finally Space! You build buildings, and they’re LEGO buildings. Then you buildContinue reading “On a New LEGO Video Game”
On Anniversaries
Today was a day of nostalgia. Ten years ago today, my grandfather passed away. There are times, when the doors in my mental attic aren’t closed quite right, that I can hear his voice. There are things I regret. I never had a drink with him. I never asked him about his personal history. IContinue reading “On Anniversaries”
On the Latest Review
Brendan Moody today posted a lengthy review of Short Trips: The Quality of Leadership, the Doctor Who anthology my story, “The Spindle of Necessity,” was published in last spring. Said Brendan of the anthology: “The Quality of Leadership aptly demonstrates the many forms a leader can take, but its biggest success is in assembling aContinue reading “On the Latest Review”
On Restored Hemingway
A few months ago, in a production meeting at work, the marketing director said, in regards to an article I had written, “We’re not writing Hemingway here.” My retort went unvoiced: “No, I try and write like Fitzgerald, thanks.” Ernest Hemingway. F. Scott Fitzgerald. Two of the great American writers of the 20th-century. Both ex-pats,Continue reading “On Restored Hemingway”
On the Social Persona Test
I’m not really sure what this meme means, but it’s a Friday, so let’s roll… Your result for The Social Persona Test (What kind of man/woman are you?)… Lord of the Misfits (QLAM) Quirky Liberal Alpha Male You are similar to The Fratt Boy, in that you often try to take care of peers youContinue reading “On the Social Persona Test”
On the I Ching and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
Two months ago, give or take, I was talking with a friend of mine about George Harrison. Specifically, I was sharing an interesting story about the composition of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” his song from The Beatles’ “White Album” on which Eric Clapton guested as lead guitarist. While I can’t recall the exact wordsContinue reading “On the I Ching and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps””
On Achieving Victory
I am a fucking god. There is a reason people come to me with Excel problems at work. It’s because I know how to use it. And I use it very well. Today, on the train, I knew. Things were either going to go extremely right, or they would go horribly wrong. We were wellContinue reading “On Achieving Victory”