bunn: (Default)
On Friday, the Galeón Andalucía came to Fishguard. She's a replica of a 17th century Spanish Galleon, launched in 2010, which has spent the last 15 years sailing all over the world. Not a lot happens in Pembrokeshire in October so everyone became very excited, and we all rushed over to see her (apparently there were more visitors in tiny Fishguard than there were in Liverpool, and there were so many of them that on the last day, they had to stop some people getting on board because of the crowd. It felt rather appropriate, after reading that each of the 150+ people on board a 17th century galleon would have about 1.5 meters of space each. Varied, of course, according to status. The officer's cabins were snug, but not excessively so even by modern standards. The hammocks, on the other hand, made my back ache just to look at them.

Read more... )

Foster kitties

2025-10-15 22:40[personal profile] bunn
bunn: (Default)
We are fostering two cats for a few weeks for a local cat rescue. They are very thin, but very friendly. They haven't met our cats or Theo, they are living in the bottom floor in the big Shop store-room-cum-guest-bedroom at the moment, since they are both very thin and a bit sneezy. We are supposed to be feeding them up. They are eating a lot, which has to be good.

You can really see how thin Tabby is in the pic below - she's 8 months old. Her Mum is called Rosa, and she's slightly less skeletal, but still you can really feel her ribs.

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conuly: (Default)
I'm meh on the lyrics and music, but the video...! So here it is, with a couple of other videos that inexplicably got skipped last time I posted a lot of videos.

****


Fate of Ophelia )

******


Two covers of the same song )

*******


Guinea pigs exit and enter the tube )

******


Ghost waltz )
conuly: (Default)
Also, another one of our furnace pipes has developed a leak. Every time we fix one, the next one goes. I've patched this one, so with any luck (and with our keeping the heat pretty low) it should last until we can call in a plumber.

(Does anybody know a plumber who will accept payment in semi-feral kittens? There's a batch around the corner, very adorable, very healthy, and willing to warm up to anybody who feeds them! They do need to be just a little bit neutered, defleaed, and probably dewormed as well, not to mention vaxxed, but that's surely no big deal for the right family! Actually, I think it's two litters, so that should be ample payment for a little bit of plumbing work.)

**********************************


Read more... )
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)


Why do Cheolma Rehabilitation Hospital patients keep plummeting from the 6th floor, and why do none of them bleed when they hit the tarmac? The explanation is outside Detective Suyeon's field of expertise.

The Midnight Shift by Cheon Seon-Ran
vriddy: Shirakumo petting a kitten (shirakumo & kitten)
The final (still so hard to believe!!) season of Boku No Hero Academia started airing last week. If you would enjoy watching it along with other fans, come join us over at [community profile] bnha_fans! Like with previous seasons, we're sharing thoughts and reactions every week (without manga spoilers on those posts, to keep it friendly for anime-only folks :)).

ericcoleman: (Default)
We will be playing the Best Classic Filk Song and Best Filk Song nominees. You can find all of the info at this link, oh, and you can vote, especially now that you've heard them all!

https://www.ovff.org/pegasus/2025finalballot.html

Available on iTunes, Google Play and most other places you can get podcasts. We can be heard Wednesday at 6am and 9pm Central on scifi.radio.

filkcast.blogspot.com
lydamorehouse: (Default)
While I was at Gaylaxicon, an email went out form Cole Sarar (she/they) who runs Sci-Fi Reading Hour desperately looking for any author who might be up for a performance in early November. I checked my calendar right away because I really enjoyed [personal profile] naomikritzer 's performance last year. I wrote about this here, but this is the gig where Cole pairs a musician and an author together. In Naomi's case, it was like getting to watch a radio play because the musician had the ability to do sound effects and she had reworked the piece so that Cole and she could share the narrative.

At any rate, ever since then, I've been thinking about what of mine might work for something like this. I don't write a lot of short stories, though I have written some. The short stories I have written don't tend to get very broad distribution (by which I mean, I have yet to truly break into any kind of traditional short story market. The one I did get in in the 1990s? SF AGE? Now defunct.) A few years ago, I wrote something for one of [personal profile] rachelmanija 's projects that I really loved. It was about a supervillain trying to adopt a cat. It's very silly and tonally and conceptually, the complete opposite of [personal profile] naomikritzer 's "A Year Without Sunshine," so I had no idea if that would appeal to Cole. But, I was recently reminded at Diversicon that one of my strengths is humor. I decided to take a chance and I sent that along with a note that said, "You're probably already booked, but in case not, I'm up for it, and here's the piece I'm considering performing."

I don't know if I was, in fact, the only one to reply or if my being ready with a specific piece made me more appealing than any others who jumped in, but I got the gig.

I will, of course, be reminding you as this gets closer, but for your records here's the pertenent information: the performance will be Sunday, November 2 at the Bryant-Lake Bowl & Theater (https://www.bryantlakebowl.com/). Doors open at 6 pm and the show starts at 7 pm. There will be a post-show interview with both the writer and the musician at 8:00 pm. Cost is $10 in advance and $15 at the door*. (Braynt-Lake Bowl has its November calendar up, but this show isn't, for obvious reasons, up yet.)

Also, my co-performer will be the lovely and talented Scott Keever who says this about himself: Scott Keever is an award-winning guitarist and composer from Minneapolis. He has specialized in solo guitar, primarily fingerstyle, utilizing resophonic, classical, jazz and folk guitar sounds in his explorations while also focusing on Celtic and Eastern European styles. His stylistic range can be heard on his solo albums "Solo Guitar: Vol. 1" (2018) and “Solo Guitar: Vol. 2” (2022) (both available on Spotify and Apple Music) As well as being a solo performer, Scott plays guitar, Bulgarian tambura and oud for Orkestar Bez Ime (OBI), an award-winning Twin Cities band that specializes in Balkan dance music. He is also currently a member of chamber pop group Follow The Firefly and has recently worked with Ukrainian Village Band. He has been a long-time musician and performer in the local Minnesota theater scene and has appeared in productions with Brave New Workshop, Flying Foot Forum, Walking Shadow Theater, Ethnic Dance Theater, O’Shea Irish Dance and Table Salt Productions. He has also composed music for short films, documentaries, theater, radio and podcasts.

If that sweetens the deal for you. Please come if you're interested, yada yada, but what I really wanted to tell you about was the rehearsal yesterday morning. 

Our schedules are such that all of us were available in the morning. We met at Cole's South Minneapolis house at 10:00 am. 

It is always a challenge for me to navigate Minneapolis. When I first moved to the Cities, I lived in Minneapolis, but now, after decades of living in St. Paul, I find that whatever fey creatures rule the leylines of Minneapolis have rejected me. GPS mostly helps? It still managed to lie to me about which side of the street Cole's house was on so I spent several confused minutes trying to decide whether or not we were actually supposed to meet at the taco shop at the corner, or what. But, thanks to my chronic fear of being late, I had plenty of time to figure it out and managed to arrive nearly precisely on time.

Cole's house is a typical Minneapolis two-story affair. (How do I describe this to out-of-towners? A lot of our houses in the Twin Cities are older, at least by Midwestern standards, so I'd guess this was a Craftsman era house--early 1900s.)  Cole did not offer the full house tour, but I was immediately at home to see a dining room table full of art supplies and other child-friendly detrius. It was a lovely, lived-in house. We chatted about this and that while waiting for Scott to arrive. Cole's ethnic heritage is Turkish and so she offered Turkish tea. I've had (and loved) Turkish coffee, but I was very intregued by Turkish tea, so I said yes immediately.  During that conversation I learned that their father immigrated from Istanbul, but never became a US Citizen. We spent some time trying to decide if that made her a first generation immigrant or second. We settled on one and a half, which I found amusing. 

Scott arrived in an extroverted, (likely) undiagnosed ADHD clamor. I, of course, liked him immediately. But, between Scott and I, thoughtful Cole had a tendency to get left behind as conversation lept from subject to subject without even a pause for a breath. I spend at least part of the time pausing Scott to make sure Cole--OUR ACTUAL HOST--was included.

I'm pretty sure that Cole hoped for this rehersal to be no more than an hour and a half, but we ended up going three hours. 

Whew.

The way this show works Cole will also read something, so we started by listening to their story. They had sent us something ahead of time, but as Scott and I sat on the floor listening it was very clear that what she sent was NOT this story. After it was over we had a laugh because Cole had been saying that the piece they wrote "matched" mine in tone, but what we'd gotten in the email was so much DARKER that I spent some time thinking, "Wow, well maybe humor wasn't as self-evident as I thought?" But, no, it was just a clerical error. Cole had accidentally sent us the piece that had gone with the previous month's show! 

I read my piece and then we spent a little time trying to figure out the order if the show, who would read first, etc. That's all still up in the air, and I don't think it really much matters. I think Cole's piece is longer than mine, but we need to fill an hour one way or the other.

Then, somehow, the conversation got on Neil Gaiman and that whole horror show and I discovered I have a ton of friends in common with Scott thanks to his association with Cat's Laughing and the general Venn Diagram of nerds, music, and Renaissance Festival. 

It was a good time, but ran late and so then I made a tactical financial error by suggesting to Mason that we hit his favorite Korean fried chicken place for lunch. We had a great time and great food, but this--it turned out--was not the time of the month to splurge. Money is a huge argument in my household and so the rest of the evening was not nearly as fun as how the day started. 

Captialism, man. I could really do without it.



=====

*If you're local and want to go but can't afford it, let me know. I have two comp tickets as part of the package. My wife never attends my readings and my son will be out of town, and I hate to waste these.
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
During which I encountered:

* A person supine on the sidewalk, having apparently been struck by a car exiting the expressway. There were EMTs so I didn't interfere.

* A person driving their RC car on the LRT tracks as the train was approaching, who seemed put out that I told him to get off the tracks.

* An angry screaming apparently deranged guy between me and where I needed to be to catch the bus.
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)


This all-new Huckleberry Bundle presents Huckleberry, the mythic Wyrd West tabletop roleplaying game about tragic cowboys in a world doomed to calamity – unless you save it.

Bundle of Holding: Huckleberry
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
2018: Tories vote to pitch the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, PM May’s Brexit progress is strangely uneven, while Prince Harry and Meghan Markle conduct an experiment to determine the depths of British racism.

Poll #33722 Clarke Award Finalists 2018
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7


Which 2018 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

Dreams Before the Start of Time by Anne Charnock
1 (14.3%)

American War by Omar El Akkad
2 (28.6%)

Borne by Jeff VanderMeer
5 (71.4%)

Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed
0 (0.0%)

Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill
1 (14.3%)

Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfař
1 (14.3%)



Bold for have read, italic for intend to read, underline for never heard of it.

Which 2018 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Dreams Before the Start of Time by Anne Charnock
American War by Omar El Akkad
Borne by Jeff VanderMeer
Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed
Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill
Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfař
wychwood: a cartoon panda doing a somersault (gen - tumbling panda)
This month was ridiculous, so I'm splitting the booklog in two, in the hopes of getting at least some of it out of the way!

86. The Chalet School Wins the Trick and 87. A Future Chalet School Girl - Elinor M Brent-Dyer ) I'm always very happy to read any of this series.


88. The Life of Birds - David Attenborough ) I personally am not invested in birds in particular, but all of this stuff is fascinating.


89. Steering the Craft - Ursula Le Guin ) I think this would probably be useful for someone who wanted to improve their fiction writing - and it's interesting even for someone like me.


90. Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet - Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse ) A good snapshot of a moment I remember, and a reminder of how much things have changed!


91. The Tainted Cup - Robert Jackson Bennett ) I unexpectedly enjoyed this; not particularly memorable, but solid entertainment.


92. Tales From the Folly - Ben Aaronovitch ) I would say this was really only for fans of the series, but if you are a fan there's some really nice moments here.


93. We'll Prescribe You a Cat - Syou Ishida tr. E Madison Shimoda ) Not much depth, but it was quite pleasant to read.


95. Conclave - Robert Harris ) I really enjoyed this book, and I thought it did a great job of the Catholic vibes.


97. The Ministry of Time - Kaliane Bradley ) Ultimately I don't think I have any idea what this book is doing, but I do think it's at least trying to do something different; I would try Bradley again.


94. Sheepfarmer's Daughter, 96. Divided Allegiance, and 98. Oath of Gold - Elizabeth Moon ) A really classic fantasy trilogy; I still love these with the wholehearted commitment I did when I first came across them in a second-hand shop as a young teenager.
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
I got a paper letter from the Registry of Motor Vehicles yesterday, telling me it was time to renew my state ID card, and a billing email from Panix this morning.

I took care of both of those online. Both were straightforward, although the state required me to check more boxes--which makes sense, because Panix doesn't care where I live, am registered to vote, or also have email with other providers. Interestingly, the RMV noted that I'm already registered as an organ donor--but that, unlike voter registration, doesn't depend on them having my current address.

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