Consortium of Seven: Year 2

        (Notes for any who are revisiting any of these pieces: First, I apologize for any of the inevitable, broken links. Things get pulled from YouTube all the time. Second, for the most current streaming availability for anything, go to JustWatch and type in the name of the show or movie. Streaming platforms are swapping material all the time these days. That JustWatch link will pop out into its own window. - Mike)   The final week of April, Wednesday saw the - actually rather late for me - beginning of the seasonal shift for me as I shut the windows and put on the air conditioning. I'm not fond of indoor temps getting above the (very) low 70s, and prefer most of the moisture wrung out of the air. The only dangers once I do this are forgetting to be more attentive to drinking enough water, and steeling my nerves against the next electric bill.     Arriving on Netflix just over a week ago was a science fiction adventure of the very possi...

 Happy Thursday, everyone!  I hope your week is going well as we head into the weekend.  Baseball is humming along, the White Sox (as of Wednesday) have a winning record, hockey is limping to an end and now that I'm double vaccinated I'm planning to go back to the movie theaters next week after my wife's second 2 week period is over.  With all that in mind, what silliness did I find this week? ___________________________________ Let's start with something I know is good!  Scalzi writes excellent military science-fiction that isn't just "rah rah kill aliens rah!" work.  This is part of his Old Man's War series, where humans are out there in the universe, making allies and competing for a limited number of planets and resources, and they've been steadily ticking everyone off and the universe has decided to bite back.  A lot of fun, but Scalzi has a great balance of comedy and action in his work (people keep comparing him to Heinlen, but he's Hein...

On Wednesdays here at the group blog, we've been celebrating the work on long-time novelist, editor, and journalist Lee Lynch  and today we've got links to one of Lee's most inviting book series. Lee was an innovator before the idea of linked stories and characters continuing from one book to another took hold; she may have been doing it before Tales of the City, even.  II'd just gotten the middle book of this trilogy, and I was so excited to read it that I'd brought it to the laundromat with me. I was turning pages and glancing up over the top of the book now and then to see if the dryer was still spinning when a woman who walked by suddenly stopped and goggled at the book cover.  "The new one is out?!?" said she.  "Yep," said I. "Got it yesterday." She asked if there were more copies on the shelf at the local bookshop and I said there had been three or four. I wondered if she was just going to drop the duffle bag of dirty duds right w...

Each of these films was clealy made by someone who said, "Of course I know how to make a movie. After all, I've seen  a movie." (To be fair, the last entry today was made by Roger Corman, who had skills but no budget and no time and whose bosses wanted a shockfest that will fill drive-in movie lots.)  You've been warned.  Preview clip: YouTube thinks you'll pay to watch this mess, so to see it for free,  click here to watch on Daily Motion. Next week:  Something else entirely!                                                 Garbo

 by whiteray As we continue the exploration of my five favorite singles of all time, we get to No. 4, and I find myself in a quandary.   Oh, I know what the record is. It’s been in my Top Five since the early 1970s. The problem is, I am not at all certain where I first heard it.   During one of the summers of my late teens, bored and somewhat at odds with the world, I would take long Saturday evening bike rides through the city of St. Cloud (Minnesota), the city where I was born, that I left in 1977, and that I returned to twenty-five years later.   I’d ride on those 1971 evenings along the Mississippi River down to the rickety structure that was called the Tenth Street Bridge, certainly built in the Nineteenth Century. I’d look down as I crossed on the pedestrian walkway, seeing glimpses of the water below through the gaps between planks. And I’d make my way up the long hill on the western bank of the river, with the greater portion of the campus of St. Cloud ...

Chuck and his amazing agave  It's Spring in the northern hemisphere, and birdsong all around if you step out of the house, or open the windows. Here, we get that pleasure year round, and so far I don't take it for granted. I had the chance to see a large, hungry woodpecker at work last week, and caught it on film. I heard him tapping, hammering more like, from quite far away and hoped he'd still be busy by the time I got close. Sandy was good and didn't even bark at a dog barking in the background. Most of the snowbirds have left the area, but there seem to be more people around than usual for this time of year. I overheard someone say that Naples is the 10th most moved to city in the US. I also read the cost of having homeowners insurance makes buying property in Florida, prohibitive. They are continually building, here, and it is depressing. Insurance is expensive and you can't get much insurance on mobile homes, anyway. I was surprised when mom told me they didn...

Perhaps one of the art genres most trapped in its own time is Art Deco.  The term derived from arts décoratifs, a phrase first coined in 1858. When we think of Art Deco, we might picture The Great Gatsby, smooth, luxuriant surfaces, bold geometrics, sparkling skyscrapers, elegant curves, shiny cars & wealth; indeed it is partly characterised by the use of extravagant & lavish materials. Whereas the Arts & Crafts movement was said to have beautified & decorated as a social response to the grim functionality of life & objects produced during the Industrial Revolution, Art Deco was the decoration itself & can be seen as a reaction against more austere times. Art Deco articles & design quickly became less fashionable as the Great Depression hit & it was only retrospectively classed as a distinct style & movement in the 1960s. Broadly applied to buildings, furniture, ornaments, textiles, & jewellery Art Deco exploited the burgeoning resources, med...

      Another busy week, which contributed to less viewing time -- though likely still far more than I probably should be doing given all that needs to be done. A balanced life continues to elude me. On the other hand, I believe I made a few good choices, including going with activities when I felt best suited to them instead of being a slave to conventional hours. If I let myself do it, I can get so much more done if I roll with it at 2, 3, 4 or so in the morning rather than force myself to sleep for fear it'll leave me wrung out during normal business hours. The reality is that I'm going to feel a bit wrung out and closer to useless then anyway, but I'll feel more relieved, and consequently operate better for knowing I've already accomplished several things. Several mental notes have already informed me that when my schedule is fully my own, an ideal day will likely involve a siesta.        I've also spent some time reconnecting wi...