The Interrociter

success is in my own f---ing eye

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:15:59 GMT

This quote from Ricky Gervais has parttimedriver written all over it: "David Bowie said that after Let's Dance, which is his biggest album ever and obviously not his best, he was doing these stadium gigs and looked out at the audience and suddenly realized that he had Phil Collins fans instead of Iggy Pop fans. And that's how I feel about everything I do: I want Iggy Pop fans."

Happy birthday, Andy D.

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:31:02 GMT

Hat's off and happy birthday to Andy Duncan, a fine writer and heckuva guy. He shares his birthday with Stephen King and H.G. Wells. May Andy's writing bring him the money of one and the reputation of the other.

Dan

Nancy Kress

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:59:35 GMT

For years I've had a love-hate relationship with the stories of Nancy Kress. Note that I said "the stories of." Nancy herself is a sweetheart. And she's an excellent writer; I wish we had more that were as talented and dedicated. But with many of her stories I'd find myself positively *hating* something about them. No need to go into details here, but: "Flowers of Aulit Prison"? Ruined on page two. "The Price of Oranges"? A really pretty good story--but oh, that one damned slip, like stepping into a pothole you didn't see. "Trinity"? Don't get me started. "Beggars in Spain"? Well, I hear the novel's better and actually does address some of the things I disliked about the story.

So, yeah, there's a lot of her stuff I don't like. Probably more, percentage-wise, than about anyone else whom I continue to read. Yes, I continue to read her, because she's still *that* good. It's actually become something of a thrill, picking up a new (to me) Kress story and wondering if there will be something in it that grates so hard that I'll remember it for years.

So I just now finished a long story by Nancy that did, indeed, have something that grated. And you know what? It doesn't matter, not this time. Because it's *that* good a story. In fact, I think it's one of the best stories I've read in the past few years. (Although I should admit that my story consumption is not what it used to be.) I've been working my way through Kress's collection, Nano Comes to Clifford Falls and Other Stories. I'm almost finished, and I've enjoyed every one. They're not all great stories -- some are admittedly (by the author) fluff -- but neither are there any missteps, at least of the kind that screech my personal blackboard. It's a solid showcase.

That particular long story? "Shiva in Shadow." Yes, it has some "ugh! fuzzy New Age stuff" in it (parttimedriver can explain the reference), but, you know what? It didn't matter. No--I take that back. It did matter. It needed to be in the story to help make it the excellent story that it is. It also has crashing stars, black holes, shadow matter and uploaded personalities. It all works. Everything fits. It's heart-breaking and wonderfully affirming. Read it, and ask along with me: "How did Nancy do that?!"

I'm not worrying anymore about the things I don't like in her stories. There will always be stories, or things in stories, that just hit me the wrong way. But I think I've decided that, with Nancy, this has more to do with my own angles and precipices than with her talent. Of that, there is no doubt.

more twittering

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:55:22 GMT

I'm using Twitter more than I expected. It has about as low a bar as you can expect for getting going. I'm at http://twitter.com/interrociter. I'm going to try to start gathering and tweeting links to weird news stories out of North Carolina. I do *not* plan to do that thing where your tweets get reposted to your (this) blog. I find that annoying. Blogs is blogs and tweets is tweets and never the twain shall meet. Mostly.

Anyways, if anyone reading this happens across or knows of any weirdness out of NC -- UFOs, ghosts, cryptids (e.g. Bigfoot, lake monsters, sewer monsters), etc -- then please let me know and I'll tweet it with the #weirdnc hashtag. I'm more interested in Forteana of a supernatural, paranormal or scientific nature, but might also stray into the occasional "news of weird"-type stories of extraordinarily dumb, lucky, or ludicrous people. Direct message me here on LiveJournal or e-mail me if you know my address if you have any weird leads.

simulated nuke or asteroid impact

Mon, 04 May 2009 21:10:24 GMT

Here's an app that'll give you a basic idea of the blast coverage of a variety of nuclear devices or a 10-km asteroid impact. Lets you choose any place in Google Maps and then nuke it. Oddly refreshing.

http://www.carloslabs.com/node/16

Now to work out those comm links to Omaha and Alexandria....

Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate Tweets

Mon, 04 May 2009 04:44:39 GMT

Could creating a Twitter account be construed as part of a mid-life crisis? After all, I am a bit old and set in my ways, and anti-social, for all this social media stuff. I mean, just look at how ofter you find me gushing here. However, I'm tired of people asking me "What's this Twitter thing all about?" and my not being able to provide a coherent answer. So, in order to keep up my techno-creds, you know, the ones I originally got by screwing around on Hazeltine terminals and Apple II computers, I present my Twitter account:
http://twitter.com/interrociter

This also counts as my reply to Jay's nudge. So there.

Trinoc*con is no more

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:51:27 GMT

Word's starting to get around that Trinoc*con has been canceled. This is correct. I've seen one posting that said Trinoc*con 2009 was canceled. This too is correct, but it's my understanding that Trinoc*con in general, and not just for this year, is gone. Unless someone comes along and starts up the franchise again, there will be no more Trinoc*cons *ever*. If anybody knows that this is incorrect, please let me know.

I'm okay with this. It was always a pretty good con, in my opinion. Keep in mind that I was a founder and always closely involved with it except for last year. But a large number of its experienced con runners moved away or had kids or just wanted to do something else, and with the economy in the crapper, it's no surprise that the con couldn't continue. But it was good up until the end, and this way it avoids an embardassing and potentially fiscally devastating denouement.

My thanks to everyone who worked and helped out to make Trinoc*con, pound for pound, the best little con in the Southeast.

marry merry Mary

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:22:44 GMT

My son's first-grade teacher gave us a note she confiscated from him, apparently in the act of passing it to a girl. The note read, "Can you merry me". My son denied writing the note and said he wasn't passing it; instead, he was trying to find out who really wrote it. Besides, he added, whoever wrote it didn't know how to spell "marry." That's proof enough for me that he didn't write it.

Dept. of a la mode with ice cream

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:20:10 GMT

So I'm at the drive-thru for Captain D's Seafood Kitchen and I order the fish 'n' chips. The voice in the kiosk says, "You want fries with that?" Better safe than sorry, so I said "yes". Next time, I might just say "no" just to see what happens.

Writer's Block: Gone but Not Forgotten

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:32:43 GMT

Many beloved television shows are no longer with us, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Six Feet Under, and Mystery Science Theater 3000. What defunct television show do you miss the most?

View 502 Answers

"NYPD Blue" and "The X Files" (the good "X Files," like the first 3 or 4 seasons....)

joys of parenting

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 02:36:24 GMT

Quote of the day from the six year old boy: "The name of this game is Aim for the Head."

The last movie I saw in a theater: "Beverly Hills Chihuahua"

Number of days last week I went to work and discovered poop stains from baby on my shirt: 1

Number of spare clean shirts I keep in my office: 1, thank ghod

Good to know

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:52:37 GMT

Time-sensitive request--before midnight tonight

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 02:01:33 GMT

What she said, so say I too. Thank you.

Best Dog Ever

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 23:06:56 GMT

We had to put Jane to sleep on July 31. She was between 13 and 14 years old. I got her as a puppy from the pound in 1995. She kept me sane during a bad time and was instrumental in my connecting with the woman who'd become my wife. We miss her very much.

cleanliness is next to....

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:03:41 GMT

Earlier today I shampooed by sick dog's shaved ass. How was *your* day?

We thought we were going to lose the dog, Jane, this week, but she appears to be improving now that her ass abscess is getting some care. Her appetite is back and she's no longer walking on her hind knees. Still senile, though. If she recovers enough strength, maybe we'll try putting her on the drug for "canine cognitive impairment." Needed a supply of that from the get-go, though of course she's always been The Best Dog.

It really is "who you know"

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:46:27 GMT

I love this story, taken from Robert X. Cringely's column for InfoWorld:

Recently I [one of Cringely's readers] signed up for Comcast Cable TV, having already subscribed to the phone and broadband service. While the guy on the other end of the phone was filling out the necessary form, he inquired as to how I liked my phone and Internet service. I replied that it was fine but that there was no way I was getting the 6mb/sec they advertised. He said "Oh", I heard a mouse click and he replied "There you go". Now I get 10-13 mb/sec. Go figure.

If only this worked, with, say, my own brain. Or God.

Entire column is here.

strange going-ons inside the house

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:51:26 GMT

Suddenly this morning, without any discussion or conversation, Beth and I both grabbed cleaning implements and started in on different sections of the house. This is called, I believe, achieving critical mess.

Later, I boxed up and stored the already-read paperbacks from the big bookshelf in the den. That left on the shelf nearly as many or more unread paperbacks. I hope having them out by themselves will help goad me into reading more of them. The warm feelings of nostalgia that were elicited by packing away, for example, the Tales of Known Space box set -- which I bought almost exactly 30 years ago in Laurinburg, NC, during the summer I attended the N.C. Governor's School (East) -- the Book of the New Sun, and Dangerous Visions, were balanced by the pleasant surprises of re-discovering unread books that I'd forgotten I had. Voyage of the Space Beagle and The Midwich Cuckoos, here I come!

Memorial, but not yet gone

Tue, 27 May 2008 02:11:53 GMT

Here is a pretty good article about my Dad, timed for Memorial Day, although Veterans Day would be more appropriate. It's from the site of (what's left of) the home town newspaper. I didn't see any egregious errors in it except that my Mom didn't go by "Martha". Instead, everyone called her by her middle name, Inez. Also, the Smith Crossroads job was not, I believe, related to the 321 job that my Dad supervised, which came many years after Smith Crossroads was turned from a roundabout into a highway. I'm sure the reporter was born long after those events.

Author alert!

Tue, 06 May 2008 04:50:58 GMT

Herr Doktor Kessel informs me that he and that swell guy Greg Frost will be barnstorming across N.C., promoting their new books to anybody left alive in the wake of the Democratic primary. In my own environs, they'll be appearing May 13 at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh -- where the night is Greg's but John will introduce him -- and on May 16 at McIntyre's Fine Books' "Sci-Fi [sic] Author Event". The description says it's a "dual Sci-Fi author event." I'd prefer at "duel" event, but I'll settle for what they got. Not everyday that the Fine Books people unlock the gate and let in the rabble. Hope to see you there.

The mighty hunter...

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:43:24 GMT

...returns from a couple of library book sales with a few really neat finds:

    The Right Stuff, Illustrated. A gorgeous big hardcover book with the complete text of Wolfe's classic along with dozens of photos of the people, places and machines of the early American space age. There's a lot of photos here I've never seen before, and I've looked through more than a few books like this. $1 for a pristine, unmarked copy. I feel like a thief, except not really.

   Watch the Skies! by Curtis Peebles. The best cultural history of the UFO phenomenon in the twentieth century. Another area where I've read more than a few books on the subject, and this is one of the few that gets my highest recommendation. It's accessible to readers who may not be steeped in UFO lore and culture, but deep enough to be well worth the reading for those who are. $1 for the copy that I originally read from the Durham County library.

    Quatermass, a.k.a. The Quatermass Conclusion. A 2-tape VHS set of the original, complete (240 minutes) BBC serial, Quatermass. I've seen the cut-down version known as The Quatermass Conclusion or Quatermass 4, but I'm really looking forward to seeing the whole thing, for I remember the shorter as being fairly incoherent. The writer, Nigel Kneale, was one of the unappreciated masters of modern science fiction, and the Quatermass series were way ahead of their competition in terms of intelligence and intensity. $5 for two VHS tapes that I hope still work; at least I still have a functional VCR. May have to gather the usual suspect ssome weekend to watch this, maybe toss in the other three Quatermass series -- or movies, since I'm not sure the first two series are available -- and have a Quatermass marathon.

Arthur C. Clarke

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 23:53:13 GMT

In a just world he would have died on Mars.

Clarke and Carl Sagan probably influenced my personality more than any other people I never met in person. But then, after reading as much of their work as I did, I feel like I knew and understood them a lot better than many people I know and see in person on a regular basis. It's hard to estimate exactly how much influence books like Across the Sea of Stars (which was one of the 4 books* I bought at the first library book sale I ever attended) and The Dragons of Eden had on me when I first read them in junior high and high school. But it's harder to imagine what kind of person I'd be if I hadn't read them then. I certainly wouldn't be me.

*The 4 being: The Clarke omnibus -- I'm currently re-reading Childhood's End in this worn and battered volume; Ballard's The Crystal World which, I regret to say, didn't do too much for me when I was 14 but which I suspect I'd like a lot more these days; Typewriter in the Sky & Fear by L. Ron Hubbard; and The Fifth Galaxy Reader, from which I remember only two stories, the ones by Gordon Dickson and Cordwainer Smith; that was almost certainly the first Smith story I ever read.

new book from John Kessel, and readings

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 23:27:15 GMT

Distinguished local author John Kessel asked me to pass along his announcements about his new story collection and some upcoming readings. This along with news that there's a new collection and novel from Greg Egan substantiating into meatspace makes me happy. -- Dan

FROM JOHN KESSEL:

Colleagues and Friends:

I hope you won’t mind my promoting myself a little. My new story collection, THE BAUM PLAN FOR FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE AND OTHER STORIES, will be published in April. In connection with this I will give some readings, including one at Quail Ridge Books and Music, at 7 pm on Wednesday, April 16, and at The Regulator in Durham, at 7 pm on Tuesday, April 22.

I’ve also recorded podcasts of readings of several stories from the collection, including the title story and another, “Pride and Prometheus,” which are available for free download at my website, http://www4.ncsu.edu/~tenshi/Podcasts.htm.

Excerpts from a couple of advance reviews:

From Publishers Weekly:

This nuanced . . . collection, the first in a decade from Nebula winner Kessel (Good News from Outer Space), plays on the theme of a hapless, down-on-his-luck man thrown into extraordinary circumstances. “The Juniper Tree,” the Tiptree-winning “Stories for Men,” “Sunlight or Rock” and “Under the Lunchbox Tree,” all tied to Kessel's lunar colony sequence, explore the limits placed on a man's life in a beautiful, woman-dominated city on the barren moon. In “Powerless,” the only story original to the volume, a hapless inventor finally perfects a strange new power generator, destroying his relationships along the way. Paying homage to the classics, “Every Angel Is Terrifying” serves as a sequel to Flannery O'Connor's “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” while in “Pride and Prometheus” Mary Bennet meets Victor Frankenstein. These well-crafted stories, full of elegantly drawn characters, deliver a powerful emotional punch. (Apr.)

From Locus Magazine:

John Kessel is one of American SF’s finest writers, but the reverse of prolific, so his first book of the current decade, the quirkily titled collection The Baum Plan for Financial Independence, is a welcome event. Occasionally dashing into whimsy, but in general employing a finely calculated combination of realism and satire, Kessel constructs stories of subversive eloquence, their full freight of meaning exploding in the mind a while after reading has ended. That meaning relates to the folly of cynical capitalism and ruthless fundamentalism, the adaptive desperation of individuals left bereft, the chafing perfection of gender utopias, and the difficult reconciliation of sensibility and science; each tale is a shrewd, stylish vehicle for such concerns, never too blatant, never too obscure. . . .

The closing story in this collection, ‘‘Pride and Prometheus’’, recently published in F&SF, is a splendid exercise in Jane Austen pastiche, a younger Bennet sister meeting Victor Frankenstein and striving to reconcile his cruel Gothicism with scientific ideals. Enlightenment scientism is beautifully burlesqued here, both Austen and Mary Shelley coming in for gentle mockery, the worldliness of the one interweaving mischievously with the emotional extravagance of the other. Each satirizes its counterpart, and the result is a spirit of wry realism. In short, a perfect summary of the complementary contraries within John Kessel, who in The Baum Plan for Financial Independence has produced one of the best collections of the year.

pop goes the culture

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:31:58 GMT

"Firefly" fans, take heed: http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/back-from-the-dead/#more-338

And my ceaseless explorations of IMDB recently unearthed this: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0824747/

Directed by Eastwood. Written by JMS. Starring Jolie. Could this in fact be...the perfect movie?

fair and balanced

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 02:48:12 GMT

"Wearing the helmet, I am just like everyone else and the world makes sense. The war is not an endless war, but a necessary defensive action in the interest of peace and will end shortly. The Masters are not creatures who lie to us and keep us in bondage, but lords of great wisdom and justice who, in the rooms of this great building, prepare us kindly for the world which we will in turn someday ourselves rule. The others who accompany me through these corridors and classrooms are not fellow victims but fellow students, and in the long or short run, everything is for the best."

So begins the short story, "The Helmet," by Barry N. Malzberg. I'd pontificate on how it relates to our "news" culture, but right now I have to go watch Fox News' coverage of Britney Spears.

Oh, and that story was first published in 1973.

character and competence

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 04:03:47 GMT

I find the poll results a little over halfway down in this article fascinating. Full poll is here (requires PDF viewer). Note the relatively small sample size, and it's two months old now, so it's little more than a historical curiosity. Still, fascinating. The only column that has entries over 50% is intelligence, with the exception of Giuliani's 53% for strong leadership. The only entries in the teens are Giuliai's morality and Clinton's honesty and morality.

The more recent Economist/YouGov polls here show Clinton way out ahead of Obama, but again, they have pretty small sample sizes (under 350 respondents for Democrat candidates). I hope we'll see more cracks in the facade of inevitability that surrounds Clinton.