Category: Tidbits

I finally had the opportunity to see this movie. It’s marvelous. Not a lot of action–it’s a movie about intellectual pursuits. As a person who was on the debate team (yes, major geek) and who had a few teachers like the character Denzel Washington played, the movie was–oddly enough–a trip down memory lane. Since I […]

I’ve had a pleasant holiday weekend, but not a great one. So this afternoon, as I turned on NPR, I wasn’t in a bad mood, but I wasn’t in a great one. The first thing I heard was an analysis of the fictional character, The Dude, from one of my favorite movies (and definitely my […]

Every now and then, my mother’s old admonition, “You’re too young!” actually rings true. Even if in this case, it wasn’t so much youth as a lack of education. When I was in high school, Queen came out with their classic album Night at the Opera. (Yes, I’m that old.) I had it and listened […]

The discussion has started, thanks to SF Signals short interviews on the state of short fiction. Jenn, the owner of indigocafe.com, has an interesting point, not just about science fiction, but about mainstream literature as well. Check it out here.

It’s been an interesting week for me. I spent most evenings watching “Black Magic,” a documentary on the history of black players in basketball. The documentary is 4 hours long and worth every minute. I watched in segments because I didn’t have 4 hours in a row. I’ve been studying history all my life, with […]

John DeNardo recently asked me to participate in the Mind Meld section of sfsignal.com. The question was about the state of short fiction in the sf genre. He asked several others as well, and he posted the answers here. It’s an interesting discussion, and I suspect it’ll inspire me to write an essay. But my […]

I had time to play on the site for Baen’s Universe today. Baen’s Universe is a full-fledged science fiction and fantasy magazine on the web. It costs $6 to read an issue or $30 to subscribe. I’d recommend a subscription. The magazine has excellent columns and some wonderful short fiction. You can also get podcasts […]

On Saturday as I was driving to the grocery store, I heard a section of an NPR report on a documentary airing on VH1 about James Brown on the night after Martin Luther King was assassinated. The NPR story was interesting enough for me (who as Kris Nelscott wrote a book about the assassination [Dangerous […]

Last night, I watched August Rush. It’s a sweet little film, a fable about love and music and relationships. What struck me about the movie, however, wasn’t its sweetness or its charm. This is the first film I’ve ever seen that accurately shows what it is like to think musically. I was raised in a […]

I suppose you figured out by my contribution to BenBella’s anthology on 24 that I am a fan. I watch the series on DVD, not on live television. I simply can’t watch fewer than 2 episodes in a setting (and sometimes 4). So I’ve just finished Season 6. Not the best season (that was Season […]