Desk Set Twenty minutes into the future with William Gibson.

Star Trails! Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows star trails over the La Silla Observatory. Dizzy!

What Does Jonathan Franzen Hate? Apparently: eBooks, smartphones and other gadgets, the internet, cats, fiction variants, critics, Broadway, and self-promotional author videos. Hilarity ensues.

That Time of the Month Ansible 295. That is all.

Thog's Second Helping. Headdesk Dept. 'Syme struck the table with a radiant face.' (G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday, 1908) [JDB]

Cat on a Hot Alien Roof Spew-worthy cat's-eye view of Alien. Thanks, Winch!

Soundtracks Another fifteen picoseconds of fame! An appearance in an SF Signal Mind Meld! In the Beginning was the Word My first encounters with soundtracks was on a grainy black-and-white television in the early 1960's. I can still recall being creeped out by the music and the sound track (the sound effects) of such Outer Limits episodes as Demon with a Glass Hand, Soldier, and more. Outer Limits was not only some of the earliest science fiction that I remember, but my first encounters with how music and sound effects can work together to make a story better. Forbidden Planet featured "electronic tonalities" with a completely synthetic soundtrack. In here the noise of the ship, the sound of the weapons, the scream of the Monster from the Id, all combined as one. You can't dance to it, you can't hum it, but it was one of the best aural environments in the film that I experienced. A few years later came Star Trek. Again, an interesting mix of found music and sound environment. The music, especially in the space scenes (oh, that Doomsday Machine was a real thriller!), was stirring but can you imagine life on the Enterprise without the sounds of the computers, the turbo-lift, the engines, the transporter? The sound track that affected me the most, and which is still a favorite to this day, was the music for 2001: A Space Odyssey. While there was an original music score done for the film (by Alexa North, which was released as a soundtrack on its own several years ago), seeing the movie on the big screen (during its first release) not only confirmed me as a lover of classical music, but introduced me to the wild edges of orchestral works (and probably led me to all sorts of "experimental stuff" or "electronic stuff" that I still listen to today). Whether it is the marrying of Also Sprach Zarathustra (Strauss) to several key scenes (such as the triumphant tossing of a bone into the air), or Ligeti's music on the approach to Jupiter and the journey Beyond the Infinite, this soundtrack was the key for years. After 2001: A Space Odyssey, I can think of several soundtracks that in whole, or in part, remain favorites. The Planet of the Apes, with Jerry Goldsmith's occasionally odd-sounding score affected me but, alas, I did not have the actual record (later CD) for years after seeing the film (once!) on the big screen. Silent Running, with a mixture of both a orchestral score and a more poppy collaboration between Peter Shickle and Joan Baez remains one of the few scores where I think either a rock or folk approach works with science fiction. It All Started With a Big Bang! I'm sure that other contributors to this installment will talk about Star Wars. So, while a favorite (actually, I like the soundtrack to The Empire Strikes Back better), I'll talk about the post Star Wars soundtracks instead. Star Wars was both a blessing and a curse. It opened the floodgates to many more SF/F productions, but that meant we were seeing a lot more dross along with the gold (Adventures of Stella Star, anyone?) The same went with the music: everybody and their brother and sister were doing big special effects productions with bigger and bigger orchestral numbers. I'm sure that the studios would have been happy if they had been able to clone John Williams, but it lead to a certain sameness (and dullness) in the soundtracks. Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Alien, both born in the post Star Wars-glut managed to avoid this for the most part. Both scores were courtesy of Jerry Goldsmith and featured the non-standard orchestration that attracted me to Planet of the Apes. While I might find some sequences of Star Trek: The Motion Picture tedious, I've never found the music to be tedious. Alien manages to creep me out, with or without the film as a back drop. Another effort that stands out for originality was the Vangelis score for Blade Runner. Marrying sound effects, visuals, and a sweeping electronic score made a lasting impact on me. I cannot see a clip or still without thinking of the music or vice versa. Along the cyberpunk end was the soundtrack to the animated film Ghost in the Shell and the soundtrack to the series of the same name. The film's score is odd and atonal, the series features a lot of rock and jazz. Both have been permanently loaded on my iPod since I first bought it. The first Matrix movie (are there any others?) mixed both orchestral and rock to a good effect (I love watching the DVD with the music-only option, great pacing all the way through!). I could mention many more: Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Battlestar Galactica (the reboot), Star Gate (any version) and more, but those are my key listens.

Southern Skyglow Not your ordinary light pollution over Australia in today's Astronomy Picture of the Day. What a special effects show!

The Blame Game We may never know what doomed Phobos-Grunt, but the blame game continues.

Greetings, Comrades! According to my stats, most people find this site via a Russian domain name. Hoookay...

Music Hath Charms The oddest looking set of stereo speakers out there? Maybe not, if you have a classical bent.

Winning! The rest of you can go on home. I think we have the Hugo winner RIGHT HERE.

Eye of the Helix Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows NGC 7293, the Helix Nebula. The Eye of Sauron?

Pale Blue Dot Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows our home planet from the recently-launched Suomi NPP satellite.

Last Stand Having consumed independents (for the most part), Barnes & Noble scrambles to find a way forward.

SETI Begs for Money An interesting article about a private search for aliens and how if obtains funds. Maybe a Kickstarter campaign should be done?

Great Dismal's EDC What is in William Gibson's pockets? Or what does he use for pockets?

Thoughts from the Ambient Hotel M. John Harrison and "...what he said..."

Thoughts from the Ambient Hotel M. John Harrison and "the implication of form"...

The Economy Still Sucks Now, maybe it is those horrid eBooks, or those horrid games or that horrid new-fangled television...but another bookstore in the area is closing.

There's A Hole In Your Sky Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows a dark molecular cloud known as Barnard 68. Do the Moties hide behind such a cloud?

Referencing the Canon A place that appears in Patrick O'Brian's H.M.S. Surprise is stumbled upon while cruising the internet.

Joining Markets What do you get when two brands beloved by misbegotten youth (or those trying to hang on to that youth) everywhere get together?

It's Klaus, Baby Klaus Schulze performing in 1977. That would be about a year before I discovered his musical moves.

All Around the Planet Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows auroral activity in Sweden. It also uses one of those odd camera tricks that have been showing up of late: the person in the picture could be standing on a very odd little asteroid!

50

Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time turns 50 this year. That was one of my favorite reads in my misbegotten youth. I'll have to give it a try again (and maybe The Young Lady will finally try it).

Run, Come, See Jerusalem!

The SFE is back baby. Long may it grow and expand!

Atomic Rockets

Hmmm...I sense a pattern in this Slash Dot posting. Do you think maybe you should consult the Atomic Rockets site if you are writing a Hard SF tale?

Smith

Virgil Finlay contributes to Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality of Mankind.

Remnant Population

An article on what the Bible brings to literature. One could expand this to what much of literature has brought forward to newer literature. A good education is never wasted. And don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

The Madness of Rocks

The geology of the Mountains of Madness. I'm still awaiting our first big blizzard. Then I'll do my semi-regular re-read of H.P. Lovecraft's classic.

Field of Dreams

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows a beautiful rich field of galaxies, including a nice irregular in the forefront.

Cold as Ice

Vesta is probably "dry" but is cold and dark enough for ice. Given recent data from Mars and our Moon (let alone the moons of the outer planets), I'm willing to bet there will be more ice there than we expect.

Dogs and Cats Living Together

So a bunch of fantasy writers walk into a convention...no, seriously, a bunch of fantasy authors walk into a convention...

Crystal Ball

William Gibson can't really predict the future. What's wrong with science fiction writers these days?

Eight Years On

A ninety-day mission now enters its eighth year of continuous operations. Way to go, Opportunity! (Also today's Astronomy Picture of the Day...)

I've Been Reading Waaaaaayyyy Too Much "Schlock Mercenary"

A dream I had this morning, right before waking...

"Hey, Mikey, watcha got there?"

"It's a death ray!"

"A death ray? Where'd ya get a death ray? Who are you? Cap'n Future?" (snorts)

"I got it from a cereal box, after sending in box tops!" (defensively)

"Sure, it's a neat toy."

"It ain't no toy!"

(laughter)

(ominous hum)

Prime Mover

Hey you! You behind me! You with the "Live Free or Die" license plate and the "Yes We Can" bumper sticker!

Guess what? There's a reason I'm doing 35 MPH. You might be in a hurry, but this is a residential area with heavy pedestrian traffic. There's a reason there's a double yellow line so you can't pass me. Oh, look, there are about 75 cars in front of me, all also doing 35 MPH, so how far will you get?

Oh, look, utility vehicles along the side of the road, so you can't pass me on the right either. Want to try driving on the sidewalk maybe?

Putz. Go back to the shallow end of the gene pool.

Politics

'I know they do: we have some hands from Shelmerston, decent men and prime seamen, who are little better than democrats - republicans, if you follow me - and would easily be led astray by a clever political cove with a fine flow of words: but the man-of-war's men, particularly the old Surprises, do not like him. They call him Monsieur Turd, and they will not be won round by smirking and leering and the brotherhood of man: they dislike his notions as much as I do.'

(Patrick O'Brian; The Wine Dark Sea)

FRAGO: Bad Hair Day

As the enemy Sparhawk broke up in a expanding cloud of gas and debris, Major Scott Gordon knew he was in trouble. There was no way he was going to be able to maneuver his spaceplane out of the path of fragments without taking some hits. His vehicle might be a "fighter", but it wasn't armored (otherwise it would never get into orbit).

The Boss

It reminded her of the time their soundman, Ritchie Nagel, had dragged a militantly disinterested Inchmale to see Bruce Springsteen at Madison Square Garden. Inchmale had returned with his shoulders hunched in thought, deeply impressed by what he'd witnessed but uncharacteristically unwilling to talk about it. Pressed, he would only say that Springsteen, onstage, had channeled a combination of Apollo and Bugs Bunny, a highly complex act of physical impression.



(William Gibson, Spook Country)

Stream

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows intense star creation in a dwarf galaxy.

Black Hole Region

"And yet we have all known flights when of a sudden, each for himself, it has seemed to us that we have crossed the border of the world of reality; when, only a couple hours from port, we have felt ourselves more distant from it than we should feel if we were in India; when there has come a premonition of an incursion into a forbidden world whence it was going to be infinitely difficult to return. Thus, when Mermoz first crossed the South Atlantic in a hydroplane, as day was dying he ran foul of the Black Hole region, off Africa. Straight ahead of him were the tails of tornadoes rising minute by minute gradually higher, rising as a wall is built; and then the night came down upon these preliminaries and swallowed them up; and when, an hour later, he slipped under the clouds, he came into a fantastic kingdom. Great black waterspouts had reared themselves seemingly at the immobility of temple pillars. Swollen at their tops, they were supporting the squat and lowering arch of the tempest, but through the rifts in the arch there fell slabs of light and the full moon sent her radiant beams between the pillars down upon the frozen tiles of the sea. Through these uninhabited ruins Mermoz made his way, gliding slantwise from one channel of light to the next, circling round those giant pillars in which there must have rumbled the upsurge of the sea, flying for four hours through these corridors of moonlight toward the exit from the temple. And this spectacle was so overwhelming that only after he got through the Black Hole did Mermoz awaken to the fact that he had not been afraid."

(Antoine de Saint Exupery, Wind, Sand and Stars")

Anabasis (Xenophon)

It was agreed that this was the most barbaric and outlandish people that they had passed through on the whole expedition, and the furthest removed from the Hellenic customs, doing in a crowd precisely what other people would prefer to do in solitude, and when alone behaving exactly as others would behave in company, talking to themselves and laughing at their own expense, standing still and then capering about, wherever they might chance to be, without rhyme or reason, as if their sole business were to show off to the rest of the world.

Shelving Matters

I think I've found a bookshelf solution for me. Maybe Neil Gaiman will be nice enough to sell me his house, cheap.

Distribution Modes

Ever comes across this quote?

The future is already here—it's just not very evenly distributed

So who said it?

Aurora

With the news that multiple CME's have headed towards our pale blue dot, today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is very appropriate.