The Supercollider
Monday, March 15, 2010
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¶ 9:07 AM 0 Comments
This blog is now located at http://thesupercollider.blogspot.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.
For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
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¶ 9:07 AM 0 Comments
Saturday, March 13, 2010
The Germ
If you're ever in Philadelphia, check out The Germ bookstore. It must be one of the last Science Fiction bookstores left in the country. I think this has something to do with the city itself. It's an eccentric, angry city. It has a strong conservative contingent and a deep catalog of history that undermines that conservatism. It's that irreconcilability, I suspect, which is a fertile ground for Science Fiction. Though "fiction" doesn't quite cover it: Philly SF is outrageously, pleasantly aspirational, too, when viewed through the lens of The Germ. The Science Fiction section is largest section of the bookstore, with great Sheckley, Moorcock and Zelazny finds, but it blends seamlessly with a handful of other sections, including UFO Abduction, Paranormal Research, Zero-Point and Anti-Gravitational Energy Studies, and Training in ESP. In the front there is a petition to the Serbian Orthodox Church requesting sainthood for Nicola Tesla, and in the back there is a gallery devoted to Tesla-related artwork. On purchasing a hardcover edition of Dangerous Visions and a selection of Leigh Brackett stories I received ("50 cents or free with every purchase") the gift of a Nicola Tesla pin. The Nicola Tesla Inventors Club meets there. Tesla acolytes are tough, perpetually unfashionable, prickly and fairly democratic sort of utopian. After the last general interest bookshop (whoever came up with that fanciful notion?) has shuttered its doors, The Germ, or something like The Germ, will continue to sell what it sells and bear host to what it hosts. Salut. ¶ 8:38 AM 0 Comments
If you're ever in Philadelphia, check out The Germ bookstore. It must be one of the last Science Fiction bookstores left in the country. I think this has something to do with the city itself. It's an eccentric, angry city. It has a strong conservative contingent and a deep catalog of history that undermines that conservatism. It's that irreconcilability, I suspect, which is a fertile ground for Science Fiction. Though "fiction" doesn't quite cover it: Philly SF is outrageously, pleasantly aspirational, too, when viewed through the lens of The Germ. The Science Fiction section is largest section of the bookstore, with great Sheckley, Moorcock and Zelazny finds, but it blends seamlessly with a handful of other sections, including UFO Abduction, Paranormal Research, Zero-Point and Anti-Gravitational Energy Studies, and Training in ESP. In the front there is a petition to the Serbian Orthodox Church requesting sainthood for Nicola Tesla, and in the back there is a gallery devoted to Tesla-related artwork. On purchasing a hardcover edition of Dangerous Visions and a selection of Leigh Brackett stories I received ("50 cents or free with every purchase") the gift of a Nicola Tesla pin. The Nicola Tesla Inventors Club meets there. Tesla acolytes are tough, perpetually unfashionable, prickly and fairly democratic sort of utopian. After the last general interest bookshop (whoever came up with that fanciful notion?) has shuttered its doors, The Germ, or something like The Germ, will continue to sell what it sells and bear host to what it hosts. Salut. ¶ 8:38 AM 0 Comments
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Another Castle
"To me, Super Mario Brothers is less like The Waste Land and more like a tennis ball."
Very interesting conversation with Adam Parrish on Another Castle about gaming and language. Bruce Andrews and Zork are also mentioned. ¶ 9:40 AM 0 Comments
Very interesting conversation with Adam Parrish on Another Castle about gaming and language. Bruce Andrews and Zork are also mentioned. ¶ 9:40 AM 0 Comments
Monday, March 8, 2010
Congratulations!
Hey, that was great. A dose of gender parity was dished out. It was--honestly--really satisfying to see Jim Cameron's smug, techojock grin wiped from his face, and to see Katherine Bigelow fumble happily through her two acceptance speeches. The better movie won.
So, just maybe Rex Reed, Anthony Lane, Grandma, Uncle Sam and Che Guevera can finally relax and actually talk about these movies as if they were fictional things? Now that the movie whose budget could have gone to feed an African refugee camp won out over the movie that could have gone to feed a small African country? Because the movie which was explicitly a set of anti-militaristic cliches--and which was not, in fact, so anti-war after all--had as its chief advantage the fact that no one could ever, ever mistake it for reality. Which makes Avatar--and a lot of other science fiction-- less a fashion accessory for the epistemologically challenged and more like something you can actually talk about at the end of the day.
Not that I'm saying The Hurt Locker didn't have good special effects. I'm just saying, it'll be a great day when a woman can win an Oscar for a real, grown-up movie like this:
¶ 9:47 AM 0 Comments
So, just maybe Rex Reed, Anthony Lane, Grandma, Uncle Sam and Che Guevera can finally relax and actually talk about these movies as if they were fictional things? Now that the movie whose budget could have gone to feed an African refugee camp won out over the movie that could have gone to feed a small African country? Because the movie which was explicitly a set of anti-militaristic cliches--and which was not, in fact, so anti-war after all--had as its chief advantage the fact that no one could ever, ever mistake it for reality. Which makes Avatar--and a lot of other science fiction-- less a fashion accessory for the epistemologically challenged and more like something you can actually talk about at the end of the day.
Not that I'm saying The Hurt Locker didn't have good special effects. I'm just saying, it'll be a great day when a woman can win an Oscar for a real, grown-up movie like this:
¶ 9:47 AM 0 Comments
Sunday, March 7, 2010
