Well, I have an odd hobby. I like to read and find news stories I think are worthwhile, both to keep from being blindsided by events and to stay well-rounded and informed.
My slant does tend to be human rights/justice oriented
Decided to switch instances so… new #introduction post!
I am a #queer#bi man, living in the Midwest USA. Left politically. I'm a fan of #scifi and #fantasy novels and games, #music (prog rock mostly), #cooking, anything and everything #plant related, and #anime and #manga, or just Japan in general. I'm also obsessed with #books, like, the word obsessed isn't strong enough 😆. Currently working on a Masters in Library and Information Science. Let’s be friends! 😊
MALEFACTORS is a collection of speculative fiction short stories about bad people doing bad things to worse people. These are the scofflaws, scoundrels, and outright villains. Get it at Amazon for now, but it'll distribute to other platforms soon!
It was a wonderful journey. Right now I am revising it and it will be self-published somewhere later this year when it is back from the editor. The rough version will stay on #AO3 though, united, unbeaten, unbound (you will understand when you read the polished version). The premise is anti-capitalist, so, who am I to take it down?
I hope you enjoyed the ride. Let me know if you would like to get a Season 2!
Here it is. The latest track I’ve released, and the first video clip I’ve ever done. It is, of course, Space Pop (feat. Kaaren Elizabeth Smith).
Kaaren is a long time friend who I used to co-host a weekly karaoke night with, at a small town bar called The Reef back in the 90’s!!
One of the goals of the Dgar Project is to write new songs, and record them with friends that I have some kind of music related history with. When I got the opportunity to record with Kaaren, I took it.
Kaaren, on the day, was amazing. I sent her a demo of the track to practice and listen to a week earlier. She did some really quirky takes. It’s all her voice too. There’s no auto-tune. There’s no pitch correction. It’s all her. So much fun.
The “doo doo doos” she does was originally a melody I played on a distorted electric guitar. On one of the takes she does these “doo doo doos” over the riff. It just sounds so cool, I replaced my guitar track with her vocals.
I also hope you enjoy my #Blender project that makes the video in all its 8 frames-per-second glory!
Despite its sensationalist pulpy title and #ColdWar premise, Jack Arnold's adaptation of the #RichardMatheson novel is an existentialist treatise.
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) plays with the understanding of what it means to be acknowledged as a human, and one's place in the world. The story is told through the eyes of the titular Shrinking Man – Scott Carey – who after being exposed to strange fog, finds himself increasingly lost in this world.
Joseph #Losey's The Damned (1962) starts out as your conventional, lurid, early counterculture affair.
An American tourist visiting #Dorset is tricked by a prostitute, then falls victim to a youth gang controlled by King, a still very green Oliver Reed at his meanest. The trickster is King's sister, who confides in the American hoping to escape her brother's incestuous avances. They elope to a nearby island, closely followed by King and his gang, where they find a group of #children, all contently living in an underground lab, with #AutomaticDoors only they can control. These are the damned.
Maximal 70s: a writhing tower of copulating bodies graces the front cover of this schlock sci-fi novel about a federal agent trying to save the president from assassination by using Psychic Power Sources and group sex to reach the astral realm. Cover by Frank Fazetta. #70s#scifi
Part of the SF Masterworks Collection. Despite being nearly 60 years old the narrative around the manipulation of the truth feels incredibly prescient. Wondering whether David Whitaker had read it before he came up with #DoctorWho story The Enemy of the World. #Books#Bookstodon#SciFi#PhilipKDick
The Frood: The Authorised and Very Official History of Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Jem Roberts
Finished coincidentally on what would have been the great writers 71st birthday. I’ve read Jem’s other comedy biographies of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, Blackadder, Fry & Laurie and The Beatles and as a comedy geek enjoyed them all.
The influence on Orwell’s 1984 is obvious and there are lots of great ideas and passages within the story. That said while I appreciated it I can’t say I ever felt gripped by it or as engaged with the characters as in 84 or other similar works.
I accidentally posted something under my 2022 #book thread but it's time to live in the future! So this is officially the beginning of my 2023 book thread!
Written like the denouement of a grand fantasy, with the protagonist grieving and moving on and building an ordinary life. It's fantasy, but the mundane gets all the intimately detail, so the book is less about magic than about every SF novel Jo Walton read in 1979.
Marla had been a gifted child. She graduated at age 13, got her master's degree at 15 and wrote an already groundbreaking piece as her PhD Thesis when she was 20. That was in the year 2089. ...
Martin, the chief diplomat in the crew of the Rana Mission, stood in line with the others as Captain Persson gave her speech. It was the departure speech. Martin was a little nervous and proud. He would most likely be the Armstrong of his era, the person who was supposed to make first contact with an alien. ...
"Glad you have found our message", a distorted voice said with a noticeable ironic undertone. "We have your girlfriend. You know that. Hugo Niemann, you will do something for us. You will raid the crypto vault of Credit Cayman. We know what you're capable of." ...
Arriving in the Rana system was less spectacular than Martin thought. The blackness of the space there followed the blackness between the systems. The only difference was a star that shone a bit brighter than usual. They still had two days until they were supposed to reach the orbit. ...
B055 once showed her the place in the 3D map of Prague. "I'd go there", he said pointing at the ugliest piece of brutalism architecture that her otherwise beautiful home city had to offer. It was the abandoned, rotten TV tower. Now she came here to think from time to time. And there was a lot to process now. ...
The day of the heist. B055 and R00t prepared themselves. They chose flies as their Avatars. R00t once came up with that mod. Actually, avatars have to be at least 1 unit in height. For today's purpose, a little piece of nothing that could defy virtual gravity was a perfect fit. ...