Author Archives: JE

Massive Stars in Open Cluster Pismis 24 http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061219.html

Edward Rothstein reviewed the new Robert Fagles translation of the Aeneid last week in the NYT. He likes it, but from the review I’m doubtful I will. He doesn’t quote much (a bad sign in a review of a poetic … Continue reading →

Remember the Monty Python episode with the abortive interview of Raymond Luxury-Yacht? I was listening to Gerry Mulligan’s Jeru the other day and I practically fell off my chair when the track “Blue Boy” came up. It’s the intro music … Continue reading →

Reuters reports that Sam Raimi is on-board to make a new movie about the Shadow: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061211/film_nm/shadow_dc No word yet on what minor role Ted Raimi will play. The article misleadingly states that “Walter B. Gibson created the character…” In fact, … Continue reading →

James Nicoll posted a link to the infamous Hitchens Vanity Fair piece about women not being funny. (Unlike Hitchens himself, for instance.) I’d seen it before, and was in two minds about commenting on it here. On the one hand … Continue reading →

Seen via James Nicoll‘s blog: the old Meyers-Briggs thing with a snide twist. It turns out I am: __________ Almost Perfect- INFP 40% Extraversion, 100% Intuition, 40% Thinking, 46% Judging So, you want to make the world a better place? … Continue reading →

Seen via CLASSICS-L: At The Onion, Aristophanes complains that audiences just don’t get him anymore. A clip: “Even my best gags get little more than a blank look these days. It’s like the average audience member never heard a friggin’ … Continue reading →

Scott R. Bakker has an interesting article in August’s Heliotrope (seen via David Soyka’s recent review of short fiction at Black Gate). The core of his argument is that fantasy is socially useful because it promotes what he calls interpretational … Continue reading →

A short thread at deadcity icon‘s Livejournal provoked the question, Does genre matter?” I think it does. Like anyone I can see the mainstreamification of sf/f concepts and tropes (e.g. Pynchon’s new book), but this phenomenon isn’t really new (e.g. … Continue reading →

Seen at James Nicoll’s blog: all the Nebula-award-winning novels hymned in haiku. But it only went up to 2004, so the latest winner (Joe Haldeman’s Camouflage) isn’t included. Here’s a shot at haikuifying it: The alien shark changes its gender … Continue reading →