| Croydon Meeting tomorrow |
[07 Dec 2009|04:07pm] |
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Christmas pub meeting tomorrow - the furthest away from Christmas that we can possibly get, but I'm sure we'll all be in festive mood, so join us at the Dog & Bull from ?(I'm never there before 8:30, but I'm sure the others are there by 8, if not 7:30)
Perhaps I should Photoshop that picture to have Opus holding a pint glass?
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| John Irving |
[13 Oct 2009|12:58pm] |
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I had to be different.
Everyone else piled down to Southbank Centre (no 'The' any more) on Sunday - and I've seen the photos - you can't deny it! I had to be different and went yesterday to hear another top-selling author speak.
In my case, it was John Irving, whom I've been a fan of since 'The World According to Garp' and is one of three authors that I instantly buy every book that is published in hardback - the other two being John Crowley & Guy Gavriel Kay.
He was being interviewed about his new book, 'Last Night At Twisted River'. The interviewer asked about 5 questions (+ 2 audience ones) in an hour and a quarter - the "replies" were long and not terribly to the point. However, it was a fascinating hour and a quarter as he gave an insight into his life and his approach to writing, and read the first couple of pages from the book - and even this was an interesting reminder for someone nearly half way through reading the novel.
My favourite question came from the audience, "In the book, the writer character attacks critics who persist in asking shallow questions about whether biographical details in his novels are true or not. Does this represent your thinking?" (that's the general idea, anyway) Irving made his disdain for critics' obsession very clear, pointing out that the character shares the same year of birth, the same educational establishments and even the same tutor (Kurt Vonnegut) as he himself, but saying that, for example, he thought his obsession with large dangerous women in novels was more revealing.
He also said that he felt that he tended to write about harm happening to children because that's what he'd feared happening in his own life. All in all, an excellent way to spend an evening and one guaranteed to make you want to re-read all 12 of his books - though I wish he'd write smaller ones as they're rather heavy to carry on the train!
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| How many Virgin engineers does it take to change a phone line? |
[05 Oct 2009|01:33pm] |
We've been without a phone line for several weeks, since the problem occurred just before we were due to get work done, and then we had scaffolding over the front of the house & re-rendering & painting done & I thought that Virgin might try to blame the workmen for the problem.
( Counting... )
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| Avast me hearties |
[26 Jul 2009|11:18am] |
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 sad |
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I was saddened to see in yesterday's Times that John Ryan has died.
John, of course, was famous as the creator of the wonderful Captain Pugwash. I've never seen many of the original cartoons, though we did buy Charlotte a couple of the books and they got many, many readings. I did see all of the TV series however, and it remains one of my favourite kids' series, despite the simplicity of its creation. And who can forget that wonderful theme tune?
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| Work, or not work |
[21 Jul 2009|01:18pm] |
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mood |
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bored |
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I worked from home yesterday.
I had problems early in the morning because Virginmedia are crap. So, when my VPN connection to work dropped out at lunchtime, guess who I blamed. It was only later that it occurred to me that the message implied a drop-out from the other end, so I rang the office. All lines engaged. Hmm. Strange.
Went in as usual this morning, having not seen the London news. No problem with the trains (now there's a first). Tried to go into the Co-op to get some fruit. Closed due to a power-cut. "Odd," thought I. Bakers was open, but advertising tea available.
Got to the ( office )
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| Bernie a Nazi sympathiser - who'd have thought it? |
[04 Jul 2009|09:34am] |
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mood |
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 amused |
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It appears here and everywhere (The Times has a longer article) that Bernie Ecclestone believes that Hitler did a pretty good job and was a pretty good guy ("...he wasn't a dictator") & thinks that Max Mosley would make a good PM.
I can see where he's coming from. After all, wasn't Hitler short & tyrannical. Now who does that remind me of?
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| Dave McKean art available for 39p! |
[18 Jun 2009|12:45pm] |
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mood |
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impressed |
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Not sure how many fans buy stamps, but I suspect vanishingly few. I buy the occasional set to keep a family tradition alive as my grandfather & father both collected stamps & I have inherited the collection.
On Tuesday, this week, Royal Mail released a set of stamps showing mythical creatures, with the art by one Dave McKean.
I've got the presentation pack and the art in that is delightful (I think that's the word - if you were to meet the creature depicted in real life, I don't think that would be your impression) and at a much larger scale than the stamps. If you are inclined to buy the stamps, it's worth the extra 50p for the pack.
BBC Kent article on the release here and the Royal Mail page, here.
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| Concidence? |
[11 Jun 2009|07:29pm] |
At the pub on Tuesday, we were discussing MPs and everyone seemed a bit surprised when I said that I'd seen my MP, Tom Brake, on the train occasionally, and not only did I recognise him, but he recognised me.
Got on the train after the meeting, and who was in my carriage? Yup, Tom. Got to say that he looked absolutely wrecked (and I don't mean in the way most people on the train are at that time of night). However, he did still recognise me.
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| Ploktacon 4.0 |
[26 May 2009|08:33am] |
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As with my previous 2 Ploktacons, this was a very enjoyable mix of silly & lit programming that could almost be tailored to me, though I don't read much YA stuff that was the focus.
It was a shame that Diana Wynne Jones couldn't be there, but as always, everyone got on with the task of enjoying themselves & didn't worry too much about her absence.
( And more here )
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| Any Firefly fans? |
[07 May 2009|09:28am] |
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mood |
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amused |
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There's a very funny sequence of cartoons this week XKCD.com featuring most of the cast of Firefly.
The comic is always well worth a look if you're at all geeky (and let's face it, if you're reading this, you are.)
[Unsubtly edited!]
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| LX Schedule |
[04 Apr 2009|03:35pm] |
For once, I have a schedule (twice as much as last year's, which was itself a record for an Eastercon), and so bound by the obligation to show you what to avoid, here it is:
needless to say, I'm doing this one because I'm in the "younger" age group (which says more about the greying of fandom than it does about me)...
New SF for Old
Sat 20:00
"We asked 3 older and 3 younger readers to recommend a book from their era, and now they've read them all it's time to discuss what they
thought."
Claire Brialey (moderator)
Liz Batty
Ang Rosin
Ian Taylor
Caroline Mullan
Martin Easterbrook
Yvonne Rowse
Parental Discretion Advised
Sun 12:30
"How much should parents monitor their children's reading? Do you let them roam free around the library, or vet their reading?"
Ruth O'Reilly (moderator)
Marianne Cain
Ian Taylor
Jocelyn Konrad-Lee
Chris Beckett
Sue Ann Barber
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| F1 |
[29 Mar 2009|07:27pm] |
All is at it should be in the world of Formula 1: back on the BBC, no adverts, The Chain as the theme music, and Jensen Button winning the grand prix (eh? rewind that, Jensen Button winning a grand prix??? What the hell is the world coming to, and I wish I'd had a flutter a couple of months ago, etc, etc)
No doubt certain people will now say that they always saw JB as a future world champion, though there's a long way to go yet and Lewis did very well to get 4th with that car.
Can't say I'm very keen on Jonathan Legard as a commentator - doesn't quite have that smooth voice that commentators should have.
Just seen that Vettel has been penalised 10 places on the grid because of the crash with Kubica. Why? Looked like Kubica's fault to me.
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| Bernie's Twisted Logic |
[23 Mar 2009|09:39am] |
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mood |
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-Asked if he was disappointed by the decision to ditch the system for this year, Ecclestone added on BBC Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek programme: "Absolutely. If you go to the athletics and look at the 100m you're not looking at the guy that's second, you're looking at the winner.-
So we can now look forward to the season being reduced to one race, can we?
Alternatively, we could just add up the distance covered by each car & award the prize to the one that goes furthest or work out the average speed over the season, or perhaps we could find a system which rewards consistency and performance over the entire season - perhaps by awarding points based on where the drivers finish in each race?
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| Alan Garner Interview & radio program |
[14 Mar 2009|05:34pm] |
Any fellow Alan Garner fans may be interested to know that there's a short interview with him in today's Times here.
Don't think it says anything new - though it's scary to think that The Weirdstone of Brisingamen is 50 years old this year. There's a program on Radio 4 next Tuesday morning, which I presume I'll be able to listen to on-line afterwards.
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