Tag Archives: Website Recommendation

You Should Be Watching

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This was originally published in Watch The Skies fanzine, August 2021 issue.

Nestflix

It’s the dog days of summer. The doldrums. Media is scattered far and wide but people aren’t focused on sitting down and watching whatever they can scrounge. Folks are squeezing in one more beach trip or working hard at getting ready for back to school time. Reruns and re-watching old movies is the kind of relaxing thing that can fill gaps between all this summer activity. But when you do the re-watching, do you notice the world inside the world? Do you catch the shows that are on the screens in the background?

This is not a true “what to watch” in the sense that these shows don’t actually exist, except in an alternate world. When you’re going back to an old Futurama episode, do you recall anything about “The Scary Door”? How could you miss a show with a description like this;


“You are entering the vicinity of an area adjacent to a location. The kind of place where there might be a monster, or some kind of weird mirror. These are just examples; it could also be something much better. Prepare to enter: The Scary Door.”

There is a fun site out there that lists more than four hundred of these magical shows inside shows. Have you noticed a show within a show? Do you have a favorite? When you get a few minutes head on over to the Nestflix site and check out this crazy collection.

Late To The Party

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Somewhere beyond the ringing in my ears there was purple and giggles. This indicated popularity and enjoyment and avoidance of the dog park but I had no knowledge of the dog park. I did not know about Night Vale. You should know about Night Vale.

IF you enjoy weird, horrifying, wonderful, random things then I suggest you tune your dial dear listener to the community radio for Night Vale. There are many things to recommend this, not the least of those things being the penalty for being caught not listening to the mandatory broadcasts or the court ordered amputations for overdue library books. These are important things. These are lovely things.

I strive to catch up. I started way back at the beginning so my time line will be different than your time line but there should be points where these intersect and an understanding can be made.

I have only ever liked the weather once. All of the other weather would have been better if replaced with a constant low moan with static in the background. Nobody is perfect. Except perhaps Carlos.

Even when the weather is bad, it is still better than Desert Bluffs. Those guys are awful.

Go to Night Vale. Listen. Learn. Enjoy.

NightVale

The Red

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The Red: First Light (The Red Trilogy)The Red: First Light by Linda Nagata
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This review also appears at MilSciFi.com

This was a really well done book. I had actually read one of her other works Limit of Vision and really enjoyed that as well. She is now on the list of authors whose work I will check out every time. She tells a compelling story.

The story of Lt. Shelley dragged me through this book in about a day. It’s a fast read with believable characters. I could see and feel the near future setting. The story has a number of interesting things worthy of conversation – sometimes right up front, sometimes just lurking in the background. I could relate to the hero of the story.

Relating to the hero and having a good conversation is really what I want to recommend about this book. It’s got such a solid world and fast paced action where the danger is real that I just sort of absorbed that and really wanted to dig into motivations of the players. It is particularly relevant right now given our political atmosphere.

I have no idea if this is an acceptable thing or not – but I want to contrast this book with Control Point by Myke Cole. Both of these authors are looking at the lives of soldiers and the changing nature of what warfare is going to mean. They handle it in different ways and their protagonists work things out differently but they are both tackling difficult real world issues by way of their fiction.

Absolutely worth the read. Go and get this book.

View all my reviews

A Pseudo-mention

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A lot of the time lately I’ve found the internet to be a frustrating and mean place. I try to stay away from the most negative aspects of it, but I’m not always successful. The longer it goes, the more I understand the usefulness of Facebook as a tool and the more I hate the way it is handled. I have started to stay away.

Today I was surprised by something small and personal, but very cool and positive. I have a story in an anthology called TV Gods. I really like my story. While I was listening to Pseudopod I heard TV Gods called out. The narrator for the episode is also a fellow author! I was very excited. I realize it’s not a big deal to other people, but I really enjoyed it.

IF you like horror, please go and listen to Pseudopod. I am not particularly a fan of horror but this podcast really is excellent. The stories are frequently visceral and distressing – but isn’t that the point of horror?

The mention is right at the start of episode 444 “Boys Will Be Boys”. It is an uncomfortable story with genuinely horrible things in it. It is read by Keven M. Hayes – who really nails the mood and tone.

Well done. Well done. Go – check it out!

Balticon – A Review Part 2

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Links and Connections

One of the cool things I’ve always liked about going to conventions was the chance to meet and chat with creators of all types. I hope that as a creator that I give back in the way I have always felt the con giving to me.

This year was no exception. In fact, I think I’d call it exceptional in terms of the variety of folks I had the chance to meet. I chatted with authors and artists, podcasters, programmers, students, publishers and all sorts of others. I found some amazing work along the way.

I didn’t get as much of a chance to chat with this new author as I wanted – but the art was interesting and the story sounded like it had potential: http://thehollowsun.com/

Found a card for the magazine – and I’m signing up for a test subscription: http://thedarkmagazine.com/

I didn’t get to chat with Sunny after the panel she was on, but her portal earrings were neat… I’m intrigued about the way she described her work and will likely check some of it out: http://sunnymoraine.com/

I was really taken with this artist’s work – please go and support her: http://www.stephanieburgee.com/

I shared a panel with the founder here: http://www.zombiesneedbrains.com/

Last, but certainly not least I got to meet and chat with Dave Robison. I am very happy I had the chance to add him to the circle of folks I know. Go and read his Magazine of speculative thought here:

http://www.vexmosaic.com/

There are always lots of folks at a convention like Balticon. IF you get the chance, you should get out to a local convention and get to know some of these folks!

Just a sip

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So, the weekend is on the way. A great time to consider having a drink with a friend among other things… other things like listening to a great Podcast.

It has taken getting laid off and having a lot more time on my hands than ever before to allow me to actually catch up with some of the great Podcasts out there. One I particularly enjoy is PodCastle. It was recently spotlighted on another site I read – SF Signal. I don’t know if I agree with the author’s picks for “best” but that’s the beauty of it. There are over 300 episodes. There is something there for everyone.

One in particular jumped out to me as I listened to it yesterday – Episode 330 DRINK ME! I particularly enjoyed the “sponsor’s” advertisements. It is worth the time to check it out.

Have fun listening, and tip one back with friends.

An object at rest

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I enjoy reading a good story. I particularly like it when I can read something I like and pass that along to friends so they can find something new. It’s an extra boost when they like something as much as I do.

I’ve been using a web site called Goodreads for a while now. I know there are questions about it – my understanding is it was gobbled up by Amazon or something. I know there are others out there like Library thing but so far I am comfortable where I am.

That thought just reminded me of a great line from the cartoon The Tick,

“An object at rest CANNOT BE STOPPED!”

That was from the midnight bomber what bombs at midnight. If you haven’t seen The Tick vs. The Tick, go look it up. The midnight bomber is my favorite.

Anyway – Goodreads. I’m on there and I like to share my views on the books I’ve read. I am only posting reviews of books I’ve read since I signed up on the site. I’m not going to go back and just give star ratings to things I’ve read in the past – with one notable exception. I started with the Hobbit. That was the book that kicked everything off for me. I give that book the full 5 stars without hesitation. It changed things for me. It was amazing. That is the 5 star standard. It’s amazing and/or really changes something for me.

If you’re interested (and not already there) pop on over and look me up. Maybe we can talk about a good book!