My friend Eugie won a well-deserved Nebula1 for her novelette Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast. If you’ve not read it, Apex Magazine reprinted it online for free. You can also listen to an audiobook version of it courtesy of the Escape Pod podcast.
1The Nebula Awards are given by the Science [...]
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of supercuts, where someone takes every instance of a phrase they can find in a TV show or movie and smushes them together. The first one I ever saw was just about every instance of Buster saying, “Hey, Brother,” in Arrested Development.
After that there were all of the [...]
INT. GENERIC GAMESTOP – DAY
STEPHEN and his six-year-old son ELI enter. ELI is instantly captivated by Super Mario Brothers Wi-hee! on the Wii next to the door.
STEPHEN
Hey, Eli, are you going to stay here by the Wii?
ELI
Look, I’m moving Mario all around the map!
STEPHEN
I’ll take that as a yes.
STEPHEN wanders over to the Xbox games. [...]
Here’s the thing: I very quickly figured out what Digital: A Love Story was on about. I could see where the story was headed. I suffered through some sketchy story mechanics.
None of that mattered. In the end, Digital: A Love Story told an affecting story superbly, bolstered by its evocation of a specific moment in [...]
It’s been a snowy mess here lately. I jokingly said at Christmas that it snowed all the time here, so I think the universe decided to prove me right.
While it’s been too cold to even stick my toe outside, I’ve been stitching and listening to podcasts. I blame Alex at The Gearheart for addicting [...]
Huh. So that’s how Dollhouse ended: with a jumbled, unfocused episode that epitomized many of the show’s shortcomings.
It didn’t help that Misty and I watched Epitaph One right before the finale. Epitaph One was the first season episode that only showed up on the DVD release, at least in the US. It was set ten [...]
Sean pointed me to this video for a song called “I’ll Be Gone” by Mario Basanov & Vidis (feat. Jazzu).
If nothing else, check out the effect that starts around 1:52. I swear it works as a metaphor for the transient nature of music. Man, music visualization is cool.
Item the first: “Such Great Heights”, by The Postal Service.
Item the second: “Fireflies”, by Owl City.
The Postal Service was Ben Gibbard’s and Jimmy Tamborello’s side project. It mixed Gibbard’s deft melodies with Tamborello’s glitch-electronica beats. Owl City is Adam Young plus his laptop and a backing band. Critics have compared Owl City to The Postal [...]
Pink Floyd’s concept album The Wall turned 30 today. It’s an odd, ragged, emotional album. It doesn’t have the lasting musical impact of Dark Side of the Moon or the more self-contained minimalism of The Final Cut, but it’s still one of my favorite of the band’s albums.
It helps that I didn’t experience it the [...]
FlashForward is a new ABC show about what happens when everyone on Earth passes out for about two minutes and sees a vision of what they’ll be doing in six months. The show is most concerned with What It All Means — why did everyone get a glimpse of their future? and is that future [...]