I've just enjoyed all four segments on the Improbable Research Vimeo page. I do recommend watching them in order, much as I won't promise they make any more sense that way. Even if you were in Sanders Theatre the night of the show and saw the whole thing live, the videos are a hoot. The cameras picked up lots of on-stage action that I was too busy running the slides (and too far from the stage) to notice during the show.
Please also take a look at the newly-opened Improbable Research and Ig Nobel Store where you can get your own "Please stop. I'm bored" coffee mug and many other Improbable items, too.
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carnyjack, dr_whuh, kaffyr, and I are going to the Chopin Theatre to see All the Fame of Lofty Deeds. (Many thanks to Dave Langford for mentioning this show featuring his brother's music and art.) As The House Theatre's website says:"Written by rock journalist Mark Guarino and featuring the music and artwork of Bloodshot Records recording artist Jon Langford, this phantasmic journey into the mind of a fictional country music legend is what an episode of Howdy Doody might look like if it were directed by David Lynch. Sadly reflective and yet hilariously surreal, the show mixes rock biography, live music and stunning visual effects to tell a tripped out tale of the demise of America's last living cowboy."
Tickets are $25, plus what looks like a 10% online ticketing fee. If others reading or hearing about this outing would like to join us at the show, please buy your ticket(s) directly and comment here* so we know to look for you. Our ticket order didn't come with specific seat assignments -- I don't know whether the theatre is allocating seats now or when we pick up the tickets at the door. If it's when we pick them up, we may be able to group our seats together, but that's of course far from guaranteed.
The Chopin Theatre is in Wicker Park, at 1543 West Division, Chicago, IL 60642. Directions here or via your preferred mapping service.
Showtime is 7pm. I hope we'll find a convenient place nearby for coffee/dessert/bheer/whatever after the show.
If you're in the Chicago area this Sunday, I hope you'll be able to join us!
*If you'd rather not comment here, please send me email (address in my LJ profile) or call me on my cell phone (if you have the number).
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Gold, Frankincense and Mars - Guy Consolmagno | ||||
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For an online taste, read or listen to "Zeppelin City" by Michael Swanwick and Eileen Gunn at tor.com. If I understand correctly, the Michael & Eileen's reading was recorded at this year's Readercon. Tasty, tasty.
I'm proud to be among Brian Gray & Anne KG Murphy's nominators. I think Brian & Anne are excellent candidates and that they'll be splendid TAFF delegates if they win. Brian & Anne are running an energetic, collaborative campaign along with Frank Wu, their fellow candidate in the 2010 TAFF race.
Votes in this race must reach the administrators by midnight PST, 22 December 2009. This is 8am GMT, 23 December 2009. Administrators are Chris Garcia here in the US and Steve Green in the UK. Addresses and other information are included on the ballot linked to above, including email/PayPal voting info.
In addition, Frank has put up a set of lively eBay auctions running through next Monday evening, December 7th (PST). Earlier this year, Brian & Anne rounded up almost all of the Tuckerizations on offer. Bid on naming rights for a character in upcoming works by Cory Doctorow, Charlie Stross, David Brin, Elizabeth Bear, Nalo Hopkinson, Julie Czerneda, and/or Mary Robinette Kowal. There are also two desirable first editions from George Orwell and John Hershey donated by Terry Hickman The auction is already adding more than $1,000 to TAFF's coffers, which bodes well for the health of the fund as well as spreading awareness of it.
For bunches of background and interesting information, see the TAFF website.
*Thanks,
bohemiancoast!beamjockey's or brotherguy's:As so succinctly written by W. Skeffington Higgins, "Brother Guy Consolmagno, curator of the meteorite collection at the Vatican Observatory, will be a guest for a brief interview on Comedy Channel's The Colbert Report on this coming Tuesday evening, 1 December, at 10:30 PM EST."
dlacey's LiveJournal for the announcement of SFContario's Author GoH. Diane is running programming, so there's the added delight of working with her on that. I understand Catherine Crockett has the consuite, again making it easy to arrange some sort of Toad Woods Toronto or similar event there. I don't get there often, but I've loved Toronto since my first visit there in 1986 through my most recent for Corflu in 2006. I'm glad to know I'll be returning next November and sharing SFContario with fine, fine folks such as these. And others of you reading this, too, I hope!
SFContario: November 19-21, 2010. Ramada Plaza Toronto.
My love and prayers are with them both, and with their friends and family around the globe. This is now how this is supposed to playing out, and I hope very much that it turns out to be something else, and something very temporary, indeed.
casacorona!Here's wishing you a day filled with joy, delight, and only the best sort of surprises. And may these good wishes repeat and magnify 365 times over through the year ahead!
Fuji apples are my current commonly-found-in-the-grocery-store fave. They smell like apples and they taste like apples.
When I go to an orchard, I like to taste test and am likely to select different (and more local) varieties. But after not buying grocery store apples for years and years, it's nice to finally have one I know I like.
(And to remember which variety it is.)
I met other friends in person for the first time: Vin¢ Clarke, James & Peggy White, & ATom....
Chuch, Vin¢, Rob, Avedon, and I went to Novacon 19, my first British convention. I came home from the UK with permanent ties to British fandom and Sixth fandom, ties that grew far broader and deeper in the years that followed. Going back in 1992, I finally met Dave Langford,
brisingamen, peake, and so many more friends. Then there was Precursor and Intersection followed again three years later by the first UK Corflu. Then death stepped in and bolluxed my "every three years" schedule. I was back for Vin¢'s memorial in December, 1998 and then...oh, dear, was the next and my most recent trip the short long weekend for plokta.con Release 2.0 in 2002? Yes, that's most likely.
Back on that first trip, I think I was just back from Norn Iron when the Berlin Wall came down. This week's 20th anniversary celebrations of that rekindled memories of my own 20th anniversary and how pleased I was to be nearby, if not on the continent itself, when the Wall fell.
Then it was November 11th. I grew up with VFW poppies. Even though the name was changed to Veterans Day the year I was born, I knew it first as Armistice Day.
World War I wasn't all that long before. My grandfather fought in it, as did seemingly everyone of his generation. Yes, the Great War had firmly picked up its "I" and "First" when referred to as a World War. It was supposed to have been the war to end all wars, but only a few decades later, we needed to differentiate it from World War II. My father came home from the Army, from the Battle of the Bulge, married mom, and started having what turned out to be three kids. I'm the youngest of those.
In 1989, Sue Harris bemoaned how few people wore poppies or even knew what they meant compared to her own childhood. Her adult children knew, but had no need or desire to wear poppies themselves. "It was all so long ago; it's not relevant. It doesn't matter now."
Only it does, of course. Ever since 1918, it has. I believe it always will. It's not the only war, the only battle for which this is true, but it certainly is one of them.
Sue was noticeably pleased that I grokked the poppies, that I bought one and attached it to my jacket before she'd said a word about her children's generation.
Today, and each November 11th, I'm proud of every person on my friends list and in blogs who noted the date and wrote about its meaning to them. I thank you myself, and I thank you for Sue Harris.
pecunium's post knocked my socks off. If you haven't already done so, please do: 11.11.09. Read, watch battlefield footage from the Somme. Listen to "Hanging on the old barbed wire" embedded in Terry's post.Then, please, remember.
"It's about life, and death and the birth of hope." — Terry Karney
Thank you.
Chris installed deadbolts in four, steel-wrapped, exterior doors that have been waiting for deadbolts since I moved in. Back in 2004, I installed the new deadbolt on the door that already had the necessary holes drilled, then wimped out rather than drilling the new holes needed to install the deadbolts in the other four doors. That seemed wiser than having to replace the doors themselves after my clumsy drilling efforts destroyed them. This Girl Homeowner is reasonably okay drilling guide holes for nails and screws, and sometimes using the drill to install the screws themselves. Cleanly aligned large holes at a 90-degree angle through both metal and wood? Not so much....
Chris also replaced the half-broken light over my garage doors, a light that's out of reach of any ladders I have. And he repaired two drawers in my kitchen that broke this year. Metal slides are all very nice, but when they mount onto plastic end brackets, 30 years of service is likely to do them in. Especially if you put as much stuff in your kitchen drawers as I do.
( That brings me to Environmental Impact Statements and the 5-Year Rule. )
Progress. Progress is good. It took me 20 years to find a home handyman I wasn't living with at Toad Hall. It only happened then thanks to Realtor Bob and only because I was putting the house on the market. On the handyman front, I'm well ahead of my usual game here.
Three cheers for ServiceMagic, and the friends here on LJ who mentioned having success with them in other parts of the country. I still think well of Angie's List, especially in denser markets than one finds here in Wales. The ServiceMagic approach helped me look further afield than I would have on my own, and led me to a great home handyman. Huzzah!
rangercraig!Thank you for being so utterly wonderful all through Anticipation. May your coming year bring you tenfold the joy and fun you helped me have in Montréal.
don_fitch!Enjoy, and know I'm celebrating with you in spirit as much as I wish I were celebrating with you in person.
I wish the entire Dreamwidth crew the best of success with Dreamwidth's continued development and thank my friends who are hanging out here for continuing to crosspost to LJ however much they choose to.
That, and I'm certain this quiz failed to tap into my very-present pride.
| Greed: | Medium | |
| Gluttony: | Medium | |
| Wrath: | Medium | |
| Sloth: | Medium | |
| Envy: | Low | |
| Lust: | Medium | |
| Pride: | Very Low |
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