| Robert Holdstock |
[Nov. 30th, 2009|09:04 am] |
I came to this late,only picking up the story last night but it is terrible news to hear that Rob Holdstock has died. I can only re-iterate others comments about what a gracious and kind man he was, and a damn fine writer. A few years ago ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) jjarrold hosted a couple of fine lunches in London for gentlemen of a certain age; Guests were Rob, Iain R Macleod, John Courtney Grimwood and me. Apart from the fact that every single one ended up costing me a hundred pounds more than I'd intended, I remember the quality of the conversation and the company. Last saw him at the Gollancz bash and he was in good form and always happy to chat. Mythago Wood still seems to burst out of a morass of cod-medievalism as a blazing original fantasy. I remember a great conversation at an eastercon about Sibelius vs Vaughan-Williams as composers of landscape; about which he was a fabulous writer. Got me into Vaughan-Williams, and made me look at the land in a different and deeper way. Sad loss. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 22nd, 2009|08:17 pm] |
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The miracle of live blogging. In the bar of White's Hotel in Wexford. The Wexworlds Festival has just closed. I've been a guest and programme participant. This is a wonederful thing. Instigated by Eoin Colfer and programmed by the indefatigable James Bacon (csn't find his LJ handle), this is an SF and Fantasy festival for young people. Key words here: Festival. Young. People. Events and talks, demonstrations of cool science and general messiness are free and open to the public. It celebrates children and the fantastic. Now, I don't need to tell you how good this is and why it should be supported. I did a few panels and groups (though I am the least child-friendly author you can imagine). Every panel was over-subscribed. The final session was an awards for young film makers and writers. This is immensely enouraging and exciting. The future is in safe hands. More on this shortlly --ther connection is s bit wobbly in here and I've already lost a longer post, but hats off to the commitee and the kids! |
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| finished at last |
[Oct. 22nd, 2009|08:20 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Sigur Ros: Ara Batur | ] |
Just this minute delivered The Dervish House. Man, that was intense. |
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| open souce technology baffles old hack |
[Sep. 20th, 2009|09:42 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Clark: Body Riddle | ] |
Or, ask Livejournal. I'm using Open Office, which is nice and pretty smooth, but the version I'm using has a major problem handling accents --and if I'm doing a book set in Turkey, there are a lot of those. Is there a simple, two keystroke solution to entering accents? Using the special character menu every time is simply ridiculous, the replace function ineffecient in that every word has to be seperately entered, and the macros off-putting as I have no interest in anything coding related and it's not at all clear how you get them to operate. Hate to say it, but Word had it pretty good, in that a simple control shift would handle most accents. (And no, I don't want, 'are you still using that, you should be using... (insert obscure specialist ware)' suggestions, thank you). I'm using Open Office because I can easily transfer stuff between this big box and the netbook.
As you can see it is making me a tad grumpy... |
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| EHOD |
[Sep. 14th, 2009|03:10 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Riceboy Sleeps: Indian Summer | ] |
Or, European Heritage Open Day. Spoiled for choice, but we decided to head for Lissan House in County Tyrone, which as you may remember, featured in the first series of the BBC's Restoration and won over the hearts and votes of the nation through the indomitable Hazel Dolling who lived alone in the house in the years before her death in 2006 and, according to the lady from the Trust who guided us round, up until the very end would go down to the pond to clear leaves from the sluice so she could power up the turbine for electricity to watch Eastenders. It came within 140 votes of winning.
I've always been a big afficionado of dacaying Irish country houses: Lissan claims to be the longest-inhabited by a single family: the Staples. It is an extraordinary, magical place, folded away in three hundred acres in those lost terrains into which huge sections of history and geography can disappear, down double-rut lanes and through obscure stone gates. The house is slowly succumbing to nature; --it always has had a history of neglect; one of the previous incumbents forgot about the second floor, part of which collapsed into the entrance hall with the result that that now goes up three storeys and is occupied by an Escher-esque series of wooden staircases that wend in and out of each other. Damp and mould are taking their toll, the estate is growing rank and wild around the house. The turbine, in its shed down by the river, still works, you can hear the drive band ticking over. The atmosphere overall is otherworldly and haunting, the best way I can describe Lissan is, it's the nearest to Edgewood I've ever been. The click of the turbine, gurgling away, still powering the decaying house, reminds me of the orrery which Smokey Barnable sets in motion. It has an extraordinary sense that someone has just stepped out of it, for a moment. It's not haunting, it's something else entirely.
The Lissan House Trust has to find a cool quarter of a million to release match funding for the five million pound restoration: this may be the last EHOD it's open for quite some time, so it felt like a huge yet intimate privelege, this old, ungrand house (it's a family home, not a stately home, and that's part of what gives it is charecter) tucked up against the Sperrins. The Trust members clearly love the place and I can understand why. |
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| a tease |
[Aug. 30th, 2009|07:27 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Joao Gilberto: Agua de marco. | ] |
Just seen advance artwork from Stephan Martiniere for Pyr's edition of The Dervish House. Of course, I couldn't possibly show you anything, but it is surely awesome. As soon as I can, I'll post it, until then, let this be a little tease....
While we're on Turkey: we got six figs (so far) off the Brown Turkey fig up along the warm wall, and about five off the White Sicilian, which is more decorative as a specimen tree but more delicate. There is nothing quite as... Mediterranean... feeling as pulling a fig from your own tree --this far north (and that north of Nova Scotia, you North Americans).
With more time, I'm getting back into biking, (human powered not hydrocarbon) and exploring the extent of the National Cycle network here in the black north: train/bike combos are pretty good here, people take bikes a lot on the train. It's interesting discovering other landscape networks: it's all to easy to think of roads as the main links between places, but it's a scale thing: on a bike, at that scale, the Lagan canal towpath --Route 9-- becomes the main highway, the railway line its adjunct. Other geographies. (This is the kind of thing Georgios Feretinou, in The Dervish House has made a career out of studying and applying to economics)
Music wise: long after finishing the book, I'm still discovering the breadth and depth of Brazilian music, and how Joao Gilberto does so much with just a guitar, a whispered voice and the merest brush of a hi-hat. It is music that seems to require to be listened to in solitude : a social setting, an audience of more than one and it evaporates, its delicacies unwind, the saudade deliqueces and it can turn into that thing that northerners criticise in Brazilian music: it becomes 'elevator music'. At least twice in my life I've wandered off the superhighway of white western pop into other musics; MPB has been a joyous scenic route for three years now and I'm still only scratching the surface. Got a nice new Gilles Peterson compilation, but at the moment I'm finding the most value in classic bossa nova. |
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| Veg Talk and some boats |
[Aug. 20th, 2009|07:34 am] |
| [ | music |
| | The Who; Dirty Jobs | ] |
A little late on this as the event was last weekend, but the sun shone on the Ards Allotments Open Day (with incidental stunt aircraft from the airfield next door). This is the allotment alluded to waaaay back which slimmeroftheyea's Mum won. Consisting of sitting around in much sun with coffee from flask (see how I slip into the Old Fart's lifestyle so effortlessly?) being asked advice on caterpillars attacking tomatoes and how to cook beetroot and showing off our corn cobs and slow-swelling pumpkin. Details and pix of the slow transformation of Irish steppe into a quasi-verdant paradise can be found at diaryofanallotmentwidow including your humble scribe showing off his onions, ooh missus. We've had a lot of food off the plot, haven't had to buy any veg except tomatoes for a good few weeks now. Blight has been horrendous this year. We did make pukkah Caesar Salad, from Martha Lomask's brilliant and witty 'All American Cookbook' with the romaine from the plot, and it was outstanding. Total of seven ripe figs between our Brown Turkey and White Sicilian trees this year, which is Pretty Damn Good given our latitude.
The same evening we braved the crowds and shuttle busses to go and see the Tall Ships in Belfast, which were beautiful and romantic if ever so slightly uncanny --these move? Across oceans? Yet, the moment you see one, you want to go away on it, off over that horizon. Overall though, as Dr Johnson said of the Giant's Causeway, worth seeing but not worth going to see: the crowding was was horrible and the usual Belfast Solution to any event was applied: beer tent, pig in a bap and chuck a couple of bands at it. At least we were spared the seemingly mandatory Cool FM Roadshow. Took forever and a hell of a lot of walking to get back to the shuttle bus to the arse end of D3 out in the harbour estate, but it was pretty efficiently organised. Good fireworks though. And the ships were indeed a glory to behold, with huge banners furling in the evening Lagan breeze. |
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| summer star shower |
[Aug. 13th, 2009|10:33 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Porcupine Tree: Stars Die | ] |
We did manage to get a look at the Perseids last night, from the back garden, with wine, for about an hour before it got too cold. Sky, clearing cloud; the best was four in the space of a minute. Small moments of the cosmic in the back garden: it was beautiful and ancient and quite inhuman and deeply centring, those long-journeying flecks of dust. |
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| picking up the way of blog again |
[Aug. 10th, 2009|04:48 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Riceboy Sleeps: Boy 1904 | ] |
... having bewen abit out of it. I find I have a bit more time for it now, due to Movements in the Dayjob, which mean me going part time for a while (I may even decide to make it a bit more long-term). Anyway, the sudden wobble in fiscal security was the reason we decided not to go to Montreal, which rankles a bit, but congratulations to the winners. Wot, no Langford? Yays!to Cheryl: loove the puce.
A bit of an honour. In Fact, a biggie honour, in that I'll be a tutor/enabler/mentor on Clarion West 2010. Very very much looking forward to this. |
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| Bubblebath Cat and the Anticipation Goodies |
[May. 19th, 2009|07:43 pm] |
Excitement first: Those of you with a long memory may recall an old book I wrote waaaay back King of Morning, Queen of Day, a sort of Urban Fantasy before the fangy brigade took over. It's out in France from Denoel (can't hack diaresis on this) and last Saturday won the Best Foreign Novel Prix Imaginales in Epinal in the Vosges in France. Delighted and honoured, especially as the award is a large plastic cat that looks as if it contains bubblebath. Pic courtesy of Cher Morgan.
Elsewhere, That Troublesome Novella The Tear is now part of the standard Anticipation Hugo Voter Package. You can;t see it on the page, but if John Scalzi says so, then it must be true. Usual caveat about being a member applies, but if you're already a member, you can get it part of the expanded deal. Oh, and to give you every opportunity, the ballot is open. Vote early and vote often, as we say in the Black North. |
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| Tear Here |
[Apr. 30th, 2009|09:07 pm] |
My Hugo nominated novella 'The Tear', from SFBC's 'Gacactic Empires', edited by Gardner Dozois nominated for a Hugo at Anticipation, Montreal 2009, is initially available via this site. I hope in time for it be fully available through the Anticipation site. In the meantime, here are the rules. It's only available as a pdf emailed from me. To obtain, send me an email: ianmcdonald(at)cyberabad(dot)co)dot(uk). Make your subject line this 'Tear Here', in the body of the email include your name and your membership number for Worldcon. I need both, and I shall check. I hope this will only be a temporary measure until it's more easily downloadable through a proper website, but it'll do in the meantime. |
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| Nata Luxe |
[Apr. 24th, 2009|05:06 pm] |
And so, on Sunset Boulevard. That was exactly 24 hours bed-to-bed, which is a bit rough, but for the price, you couldn't be rude to it. Continental Belfast to Newark,Newark-LAX. For once the hotel transfer didn't send me into Victor Meldrew-esque tantrums of frustration, but then it wasn't TBIT. Hotel is posh and rather nice, though the service is a little fawning, which I haste, but then that's a this-side-of-the-Atlantic thing. Haven't seen a damn thing, having slept soundly and toyed with the Mr Coffee (which, with a thrilling disregard for health and safety, is in the bathroom. I've got a meeting with G4 television at 11 on a couple of animation projects, then the rest of the day is science fictional.
Oh, and can any pundits tell me why this Asus EEE (and it happened on a previous HP laptop), when you type, frequently jumps the cursor back to the previous instance of a vowel further up the document, so you can mistype scads of material before you notice? It is very very frustrating. |
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| Nebula Weekend |
[Apr. 22nd, 2009|07:24 pm] |
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Well, I'm off and away tomorrow to LA for the Nebula Weekend. Got me tux (thank M&S), got me tickets, got me travel adapter, got me directions to the signing at the LA Book Fair (Sunday, if you're handy to UCLA, do come) and it's all rather exciting really. Another weekend trip --out Thursday, back Tuesday so I shall be a mess, really, when I get back. Looking forward to it immensely. Haven't really given much thought to the Nebulas themselves. We shall see. And God bless the Arts Council for the travel grant. Aren;t you glad tyo know your tax dollars are goinmg on something worthwhile, rather than bailing our bankers' egos? |
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| Grand Slam |
[Mar. 21st, 2009|08:02 pm] |
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Just to say, two bottles of champagne and eighty minutes later, the adrenaline levels still haven't quite dropped to baseline. Those final ten minutes in Cardiff were the scariest I've ever seen. Two perfectly matched teams playing their hearts out, but destiny was Ireland's, I think. Biran O'Driscoll must surely be the Most Irish Looking Man Alive. And has the heart of a lion. Rugby, eh? |
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| I drew a map of Canada (2) |
[Mar. 20th, 2009|08:35 pm] |
Seems we may be back in Canada again this year, as my novella The Tear from Gardner Dozois's Galactic Empires is a Hugo Nominee. Which is damned wonderful. Lots of other great people and mates on the shortlist. You'll be able to read my story in Gardner's YBSF26 and also Rich Horton's 2009 Year's Best Science Fiction (sorry, can't find a link.) --the original SFBC anthology is kind of hard to track down. And I'm making enquiries about some kind of Anticipation members-only pdf version --I'll let you know.
And I'm going to be at the Nebula Weekend in Los Angeles in April, just in case --yes, I know I haven;t booked yet. Hell, I only just got the flights. |
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| You'll be the last to know... |
[Mar. 4th, 2009|05:10 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Annie Lennox: Shining Light | ] |
... anything on this blog, I'm telling you. The Nebula Final Ballot is out, and I'm on it for Brasyl, which is pretty damn exciting. Congratulations to all. You know, I think I might just be able to go... |
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| Exit Planet Tuesday |
[Feb. 3rd, 2009|09:16 am] |
I've done a couple of press pieces recently, but the one question which pleased me most was a suggestion to play-list ten pieces of music from the various 'soundtracks' to books, with Youtube links. This was far too much fun... enjoy the fruits below
Sezen Aksu: Deger Mi. no playlist of Turkish music is complete without one of the great smoky-voiced torch singers.
Dolapdere Big Gang: Sex Bomb. I picked this up last time in Istanbul and it's a hoot. These guys have to be seen live--someone bring them over here. Watch the audience: they out-Tom Jones Tom Jones.
Zafer Erdas; Drama koprusu. Gives it the Bryn Terfels but it's a very lovely song.
D'Caro v Groove Armada: : I See You Baby Not really Indian at all but sounds so joyfully Punjabi desi. The totally depersonalised avatar dance is a teen-y delight.
Milton Nascimento: Travessia A planetary treasure.
Chico Buarque, Donga, Pixinguinha e Hebe: Pelo telefone Lovely jam session version of the first ever marching samba with a very young Chico Barque.
Bonde do role: Solta o Frango Labelmates of CSS. Less spandex, also less chance of them selling out and shipping off to London. And disappearing after a shite second album.
Chico Science and Nacao Zumbi: Todo Estao Surdos The Recife-based mangue-beat was a thing of short-lived wonder.
Kajol and Shah Rukh Khan: You are My Soniya. When I was researching 'River of Gods' this song was, like, everywhere. It still gets a party going. I think the French helps.
Nitin Sahwney and Jeff Beck: Nadia Together again at last. (If you can find one without the German voiceover, I'll love you forever) |
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