A question arose in a comment thread on an earlier post. To wit: I love reading, and Kindle is cool, but books are expensive. (Okay, that’s really more of a statement than a question. You get my point.) It’s true. Now granted, the average e-book is a lot cheaper than even a paperback, but still, if you read a lot you
Read moreYou’ve probably heard the old challenge: You’re stranded on a desert island and you can only have X albums to listen to for the rest of your life. What would you choose? I’ve probably heard this one a hundred times and have thought about it informally for maybe 30 years. But I’ve never actually sat down and tried to tackle
Read moreWalt Whitman once said, “I see great things in baseball. It’s our game, the American game. It will repair our losses and be a blessing to us.” You could look it up. – Annie Savoy My grandfather used to tell stories about his sister, my aunt Janie. She played baseball. Not softball, but baseball. And was better than most of
Read moreI had this little Facebook exchange yesterday with Tony Hamera, guitarist and songsmith for one of my favorite bands, The Blueflowers. Tony Hamera MBV – I don’t think there is a more overrated band in the annals of music history….. Sam Smith Even if they were overrated, what happens to the last 20 years of music without their influence? They’re tremendously
Read moreOnce upon a time I could be counted on to say something like “the comment thread is often the most important part of a blog post.” When you have an intelligent community of good-faith readers and commenters, the initial post need not be fully baked and comprehensive – it can instead be treated as a conversation-starter, a jumping-off point for
Read moreAs we try to unravel the whole Manti Te’o/”Lennay Kekua” mystery – is she dead? Is she alive? Does she exist? Was Te’o in on it or is he the biggest rube in America? – “sports journalists” (one of my favorite oxymorons, btw) are taking a right kicking, and deservedly so. Everybody out there who reported on the heartbreaking dead
Read moreOur sister site, the 5280 Lens Mafia photoblog, launched not long back, and we continue to produce some very nice work. I thought I’d take a few moments to share some recent shots from the team, which I think you’ll enjoy. Let’s get the show off to a seasonal start with this from Greg Thow (who has featured here at
Read moreMy little sister sent me this the other day and I’ve been having flashbacks ever since. There’s only one false note: no Southern woman in history ever said “is my hair too big?”
Read moreHappy Saturday, kiddies, and welcome back to another exciting episode of SVR! Today, let’s see if you can guess the theme. Up first – I’ve heard of “gangbusters,” but “Gangnambusters” is a new one. Next: In retrospect, it’s hard to understand why they didn’t do it this way in the first place. Finally, the only thing wrong here is that
Read moreThis is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles. We’re stealing it back. – Bono When we hear talk about “markets” and “capitalism” and “business,” especially as such things are fetishized in the corporate media (think about how The Apprentice franchise has apparently made Donald Trump, a barking conspiracy theorist whose companies have declared bankruptcy four times and who has
Read moreNot long ago a good friend asked me if I’d take a look at this novel he was working on. He felt it was one of the best things he’d written, but was getting no bites from publishers. He was committed to making it work, and he wondered if I had ideas about what might be missing. So I read
Read moreIn my current S&R Honors tribute to William Gibson I say that I think he’s the most important author of the past 30 years, and I acknowledge that this is certainly something of a mouthful. I’ve been gratified by the comments, both here and over at io9, where the post was linked by Charlie Jane Anders. It’s great to make
Read moreJets Overhead has an interesting little social media promotion running. Upload a photo of you telling the world what you really want… If selected, your photo will then appear in the music video for “What You Really Want” which will premiere here in October 2012. GET STARTED On a sheet of paper, write down what you really want. Be honest.
Read moreYou’re probably noticing that we’ve painted the place and put up some new drapes. The migration to our new host (actually, our old host – we’ve moved back to WordPress.com where we started in 2007) has been in the works for months. But it’s been a bit of a task, and I’d like to offer massive thanks to Brian Angliss for
Read moreI have been known to say that William Gibson is arguably the most important author of the past 30 years. That’s a mouthful of an assertion, especially since we’re talking about a genre writer, I know. But even if I’m wrong, I’m not off by much. The man who more or less invented Cyberpunk, then abandoned it as quickly as he
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lullaby pit 