I thought that Deadpool was the first Marvel character to break the fourth wall, but it turns out David Burn’s Sensational She-Hulk did it first.
Category: Groovy Things
Something Deeply Hidden by Sean Carroll. I’ve read other books about quantum mechanics. Nothing else has got me as close to feeling like I get it. A masterpiece of explanation.
Check out Bruce Sterling and Jon Lebkowsky’s annual State of the World over at The Well. Always informative and fascinating: https://people.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/507/State-of-the-World-2020-Bruce-St-page01.html
Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison is a delightful story of a princess raised by bears and dragons. I’m amazed I’d never heard of it before, but happy I finally did. Track down a copy. I think you’ll be glad you did.
Finished reading Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer last night. A good read before bed, during that liminal drowsiness. Cuts to the emotional heart of what’s so dire and sad about climate ruination and humanity’s complicity in it. A tough book to stomach, rewards careful chewing.
A Grab Bag of Links (Go-Round Gorilla Edition)
I’ve had more dreams in the last week than I’ve had in the last couple months probably. Wild! I don’t remember much, apart from going through doors. That’s dreams for you! Anyway, here are some interesting things I found on the internet thingy.
- Looks like I’m going to be running this groovy game, Ultraviolet Grasslands by Luka Rejec, for some friends of mine. It’s just the kind of gonzo stuff I’m into. Feeling pretty excited about it! (I listened to a chat with Luka on the Rollin’ Bones podcast and he’s just as interesting as I was thinking he would be.)
- The Last Blog has some great music on it. All fascinating and weird in the best way.
- I’ve been listening to songs from KEXP’s Song of the Day podcast for years now. A lot of good stuff. Occasionally a song sticks with me and I’ll dig a little deeper into the band, such as In Dreams by Math and Physics Club. I had never heard of them before, even though they’re a Seattle band and I lived there for years. I was deeply charmed by this photo of the band at a Seattle library.
- Alan Jacobs honed in on something that stuck with me too from Neal Stephenson’s last novel, Fall, or, Dodge in Hell, namely, what to do about people who have veered off into a completely disconnected reality tunnel and are determined to stay there no matter what.
- “Strange Meeting” by Wilfred Owen. Probably time to start reading some of the old war poets again.
Dig these photos of 1970s Tokyo. I’m reminded of William Gibson’s Neuromancer and Idoru.
Some Links (Evasive Echidna Edition)
The sun came out and I drank it up. There’s a swamp in my backyard now. Some people had a good day for the first (well really second) time in weeks, geeze. Sometimes I read so slowly and other times I zoom through books and that’s the end of them. Could almost read this whole book today, but I won’t.
Forget Left/Right. It’s True/False now. It was ever thus.
Photos of people reading books. I could scroll through these all day (and probably will).
Shades of Solla Sollew! A funny Lovecraft-inspired poem by Simon Bucher-Jones. (Here’s Part 2)
Some Links (Elaborating Echidna Edition)
I read some poetry. It was pretty swell. The poetry was pretty well received too. The sun came out. It rained. I read some books. Walked to and fro. Chatted about rocks and Roald Dahl and any old thing.
I’ve liked every other book that Patrick Stuart has written, so I’m thinking I’ll probably like this one too. (No, not that Patrick Stewart. This Patrick Stuart.)
A simpler time. (This video is bonkers!)
The tee shirts have images. The images are made up of the text of famous novels. Pretty cool.
Some Links (Infinite Dingo Edition)
Some days feel like three or six days wrapped into one. There were some laughs had. Wanted more sun than I got. It’s all good though. We’ll get plenty of sun soon enough.
I’ve found a lot of really cool stuff on this site, Colossal.
Like this Russian woman, Masha Ivashintsova, who was a secret photographer her entire life.
Or this app, Artopia, that lets you leave 3D AR graffiti in specific locations.
Or this artist, Katie Doka, who makes these delightful miniature birds.
Or Rune Guneriussen, a Norwegian who makes art out of lamps and books.
Oh yeah, and José Naranja, who does some pretty swell book art.