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Over at theinferior4, Lucius Shepard recently posted ten excellent capsule stories of exotic Christmases past -- although I guess jail isn't an exotic location for everybody. It got me thinking about my own Xmases in foreign lands. There are only three I can remember, not counting the four we spent on Yap when we were living out there (besides which I don't ( Read more... )

So yeah, the not-so-surprising big news is that Sharee has a new boyfriend, and that's all good. I wish them all the best: carpe diem, per aspera ad astra, caveat emptor, de gustibus, et cetera, und so weiter. It's true it has me contemplating (again) my own stubborn inability to form new romantic relationships, and I may write about those thoughts ( Read more... )

Via Craig Smith I have learned of a no doubt short-lived ad campaign in Australia for Jamieson's Raspberry Ale. The ad company, The Foundry, has pitched this beverage with an image of Ho White and the Seven Dwarfs depicted in apparently post-coital bliss. We are counting the seconds until Disney's lawyers launch Predator drones. However, the best ( Read more... )

Before I forget, I wanted to take a moment to admire Barack Obama's slapdown of the Australian PM, John Howard. In case you somehow missed it, Howard said in an interview that he thought Al Qaeda would be thrilled to see Obama or any other cut-and-run Democrat win the next US presidential election. Obama replied by saying that if Howard was so ( Read more... )

There is some interesting coverage of last weekend's Australian National SF Convention, Conjure, at the ABC website (that's the Australian, not American, ABC). It includes a rudimentary (but not insulting) "it's not about Spock ears" apologia, but also a good interview with GoH Bruce Sterling, plus interviews with Cory Doctorow and Sean Williams ( Read more... )

Nice interview with Michael Franti in The Australian today. I hadn't heard that he's made a documentary called I Know I'm Not Alone about his travels around Iraq in the aftermath of the US invasion. I also didn't know that he (and his band Spearhead) are so popular in Australia. Although come to think of it, last time I was there, S. and I visited ( Read more... )

Just over a week ago, far north Queensland was hammered by tropical cyclone Larry, which was at category 5 strengths when it hit land. The first news I got about it was from Jean Weber, who posted to a fannish forum that Airlie Beach, at the southern edge of the storm, had suffered strong winds but little damage. The next day, she posted another ( Read more... )