My Sophia Myles film festival began with Outlander. Norway, 704 CE. A spacecraft crash lands near a Viking village. The lone survivor discovers that his spacecraft carried an alien creature, the Moorwen, and he begins to hunt it down. He finds one Viking village destroyed by the creature, but before he can kill it he’sContinue reading “On Outlander”
Monthly Archives: May 2009
On Liberty University’s Short-Sightedness
Liberty University, founded by the late Jerry Falwell, has banned its College Democrats Club, because “the Democratic party violates the school’s principles by supporting abortion, socialism and the agenda of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people.” My instant reaction? Liberty University had enough Democrats for a College Democrats Club? I used to live in Lynchburg.Continue reading “On Liberty University’s Short-Sightedness”
On Things I’ve Been Reading
Let’s talk comics and other assorted readings… Poe #1 BOOM! Studios Written by J. Barton Mitchell Art by Dean Kotz A few days ago at work a PDF landed in my e-mail inbox. It was from BOOM! Studios, an up-and-coming comics publisher, of a book they have coming out in July — Poe. A completeContinue reading “On Things I’ve Been Reading”
On Today’s Musical Discovery
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”
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”