Satan's day off--so we're to blame:

(Schrodinger's Cat--from Robert Anton Wilson's Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy 's cover art.)

So, seems we've been agitating the universe--by looking at it. Damn shame, really. But bound to happen, I suppose. If you grok either the weak or the strong anthropic principle, it should've seemed likely enough to you that there would eventually be a sophont busybody prepared to gaze into the fabric of time/space, and even uncover your dark matter , thereby coming close enough to understanding what's what to collapse the whole vector state of the eternal whatsits.

Seems obvious, really. Toast always landing butter-side down, and all. But it is really so?

It seems to the amateur eschatologist that just being there isn't enough to bring on the "gnab gib". Rather, the universe was going to end anyway, and we were just here to appreciate what the end would mean, because the universe likes an audience. Or so I prefer to think. I'd not like to think we picked at the universe, and made it stop *trying*. Awkward.

Some Addictive Fiction

"Di Filippo is like gourmet potato chips to me," said Harlan Ellison, famed science-fiction writer. "I can never eat just one of his short stories."

Odd to start a review with someone else's blurb, but you know, that Harlan Ellison, he has a way with words, and that's pretty much what I have to say about Paul Di Filippo's fiction. Everytime I get one of his short fic collections, I find I just sit down with it and chew away--but it's not some ordinary thin-sliced fried spuds you are reaching for when you crack open a Di Filippo collection. It is gourmet, because his stories are spiced with odd twists and curious characters and gimmicks and odd trains of thought, and he has been known to take the odd liberty with a literary figure or so (I *loved* Lost Pages precisely for the fun he has with...Kafka as superhero? President Heinlein? And color me strangely if I *did* like the last tale in The Steampunk Trilogy, "Walt and Emily"--because of the odd way he approaches alternate universes and how the landscape of American poetry was influenced by these two lights.)

So for a quick capsule review--pick yourself up one of these addictive, funky, sweet, strange collections (my little graphic up top leaves out Ribofunk--but please, that's a recommend because the stories are tight and topical and you won't be looking at DNA the same...) and indulge yourself.

(Yes I know I recommend a lot of fiction--but what should I do--point out the *bad* books? No fun, there. And I think I tend to go looking for books I'd like, anyway.)

Oooh--Representation of Everything--it's pretty!

Okay, call me a "depth whore" and get it over with--I like big, interesting ideas. The idea of a kind of "Unified Theory of Everything" that finally makes all the pieces fit and is elegant and ties gravity in nicely is really appealing to me--especially since I'm a total non-math person and need the "For Dummies" version to really get what it's all about. I can be completely blinded with science, if you know what I mean, and I think you do.

So I kind of dug the recent Telegraph article being linked everywhere on teh internets probably for little more reason than--well, the above awesome graphic.

I know that I am not competent to review the theory, but I have a deep aesthetic preference for the expanation of how things hang together in this universe to be simple and kind of, well, pretty. The phrase "Exceptionally Simple" seems awfully handy for how I'd like the universe to ultimately be found. We just thought it was more complicated than it was. All those subatomic peculiar spooky-acting particles and the forces that kept'em dancing? Just a foxtrot, really. Basically, I want to see reality as a Spirograph drawing. I kind of want the fabric of the time/space continuum to seem like Indra's net of jewels cast out in front of us, and we, mankind, finally get to inspect the weave. I want the thing to be simple enough that there actually will be a "for Dummies" version, and reasonably clever Scientific American subscribers and gifted undergrads will eventually just be like, hey--the universe, it's neat and pretty and we get it. The answer was 42 . Or was it?

Which is why I'm a little impatient to see some peer-reviewage. Does it Blend?

Things that just ain't right:

So, I have some things that just ain't right, right here:

Family Guy to Go on Without Seth McFarlane Okay, what's up with that? He does major voices in addition to being the main creative cat behind the show. I can get they want the show to make money--but if the quality is played? They will hurt the show because quality counts. Now the damage will be short term, probably--but still--where's the respect for a writer's creative control? It doesn't seem right.

Vintage whiskey may be poured out --even nicely aged, non-harsh-so very smooth, bottles of Jack might see the long dark tunnel that leads to the sewers if somebody doesn't just one time understand--it isn't the contraband's fault. Now, here is where law might just be an ass.


And the last thing that isn't right--but in a very very different (worse) category of wrong: Orangutan shaved and used as sex slave . This is so wrong on so, so many levels. It's quite obviously abuse of an animal, but it's also, in a weird way, sexism and slavery. Pony is a female primate. She was captive, made uncomfortable (I'm sure the shaving made the poor girl itch, awfully) and trapped, and used for sex. By and for humans. Although a different species, she was way caught up in human drama--and I find I feel for Pony almost like I would for a human in her situation--maybe even more *pity*--because she couldn't possibly understand why it was all happening, couldn't say anything about it, could only hope some nice people would make it stop. And yet the madam referred to Pony as her "baby". What kind of weird dynamic was that? It's acknowledging the orangutan had maybe the sentience of a small child? Then was the madam pimping the moral equivalent of a child?--that's sick.

So in connection with the previous:

This is a cool thing of a steampunkular nature. And also--see this Star Trek parody--very cool.

And now we are set up for a Vixen Strangely Stream of Consciousness--The Star Trek parody seemed to me as if George Melies (who did the very awesome A Trip to The Moon ) met up with the makers of The Perils of Pauline , whose most notable scene was the reputed tying of our heroine to the railroad tracks--which railroad tracks in fact were--the New Hope-Ivyland Rail . Which is cool, since I've quaffed beer right off those same tracks--well, not exactly off the tracks, I don't know who'd pour perfectly good beer on train tracks anyway--but Triumph does overlook those tracks, as I've previously mentioned. So picture me, sipping beer, and watching a train on the track where some other train threatened to smash Pauline's pumpkin--

Which takes us to Smashing Pumpkins--who did a video which was strongly influenced by Melies: Tonight, Tonight .

But you want to know who else did a video very influenced by Melies? Queen: Heaven for Everyone . And what else was Queen known for? That's right: the soundtrack of the original, and best, Highlander movie. The best song: Princes of the Universe . If not this one: Who Wants To Live Forever --and yes, the original movie and these scenes do make me a little moist around the eyes every time. So there--I said it.

So, just so you understand--all my obsessions do fit together--and nicely, don't they?

Okay--Steampunk appreciation post.

I know, I'm probably coming across Steampunk kind of late, just like I notice all kinds of things a trifle late, but I'm going to admit, this is the thing my websearches have been all about lately, and I've really seen some cool and creative stuff out there. See, I have totally limited mechanical or technological skills myself, but I admire the heck out of people who do. I have to admit, I kind of cheered the first time I heard about someone cracking open and haxxoring an i-Phone, just because I think that, just like information wants to be free, tech wants to be modded. I think I'm longing for a brass and wood rotary-dial i-Phone that broadcasts MP-3's from a Victrola-style horn.

The above pic is from Datamancer's site--which I think is completely awesome. His mods are aesthetically pleasing and technically keen. Extremely impressive. But for other awesome Steampunkery, er, I've been visiting Brass Goggles and Steampunk Fashion , lately. My own goth-y--non-office wardrobe leans towards black and long skirts and poet-blouses--I think I've always liked the style, but just never really had a name for what it was I liked. So when I was sporting the khaki-linen suit with pocketwatch and privately thinking of it as my "explorer costume" (no really, I had such an ensemble)--maybe I was expressing a little Allan Quatermain thing--

Which reminds me, I am bummed because I have to wait a few more days before getting The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier--which was going to be out Nov. 14 but was delayed a couple days. Great Sheldrake's Fields! I've been looking forward to it since I finished TLOEG2. Sigh.....Expect a review once I've read it, seriously.

Facing the inevitable, I watched "Highlander: The Source."

Now, because I get to things when I get to them, I actually didn't see this long-yet- trepidatiously-awaited bit of cinema when it was released September 15 on Sci-Fi Channel. For one thing, I found out about it a little late (damnit, I wasn't expecting it to be a Sci-Fi original movie!) and for another--I don't do Tivo. I can't have true movie-watching enjoyment if interspersed with commercials. I get to things when I get to them--hence, when my brother, herein aliased as MasterofDarkness (yeah, I know, it runs in the family...) acquired the Russian DVD, I knew I had to take it for a spin. I had already read the several reviews which gave me every reason to "Just Say No."

(Packaging note: I am by no means literate in Russian, and my conversation in Russian extends to maybe five or six phrases--one of which is actually obscene. Therefore I can lift little info off of the DVD cover--except to note, as my brother did, that there is no picture of the hero, Duncan MacLeod, on it. The big guy getting the Quickening on the front is the "villian", the Guardian. The back shows characters Giovanni, Methos, Anna (the love interest) and another pic of the Guardian. I do not know if this is intentional.)

I realize fully, by way of disclaimer, that probably anybody who wanted to see this one has, and at this point, a review is almost a form of commiseration. But I think it needs to be said:

It could have been worse.

No, really. It could have been a musical. It could have been on ice. It could have involved aliens, talking dogs, or supergenius toddlers. It is a serious movie, and I just about see what they did there.

The movie starts with brooding Duncan overlooking a scene of utter chaos and one is brought to mind of Highlander 2: The Quickening. It's a little odd to be reminded of it so soon in, but we are apparently being confronted with a dire near-future dystopia where our hero will, perhaps, be called upon to set things to rights. And PDQ! (Fan note--many serious Highlander fans don't really even like to acknowledge the existence of HL2--Yeah, but Sean Connery's in it, even in the "Renegade version" which does not mention the idea that the *ahem source* origin of Immortals is another planet. And that if an Immortal went there...he'd become mortal. Because that would just be silly.)

It is revealed that part of his despair has to do with his mortal wife Anna(!) leaving him for unspecified reasons, even though she seems like a helluva gal. (Fan note: In the series, where HL fans were introduced to Duncan MacLeod, he actually had a mortal girlfriend, and in one of the episodes, a gypsy informed him he would never marry. And he pops the question, and his girlfriend gets murdered. It was kind of canon that he was a chronic bachelor until HL: Endgame came along, adding the idea he'd already done *been* married. A quandary, certainly.)

Some reviews quibble that we are not told why the world looks so totally out of whack--but we are--there are Immortals who Know What the Heck is Going On. By way of exposition, a sort of cyber-conference call takes place beween Methos (Very Old Guy), Giovanni (Old, religious Guy at the Vatican--totally pale and kind of a Dan Brown-novel character), Xai Jie, an archaeologist, and Reggie Weller, an astronomer. The planets, and for that matter, numerous other celestial bodies, are aligning to where the Source will be revealed. So everybody's horoscope is just whacked. Xai is very excited because he has found out where the Source likely is (YAY!) but he's also bummed, because the Guardian of the Source is after him, and he's totally gonna die.

SPOILER: He dies. He had some good moves, though. They're making a Star Trek movie, so maybe he can be Red Shirt guy Number 1? And we get a look at the "heavy"--

And he's a distracting disappointment--a bulky leather-clad totally white and hairless wisecracking weirdo with a high-pitched giggle. Yeah, I said "giggle." Sometimes. And he has superspeed. There you go. How does anybody face superspeed? Obviously, very scary--in a cartoon kind of way. Call him: Zippy the Albino UnKurgan.

So, moving right along, for whatever reason, Joe Dawson and Methos (nice friends, Duncan has) think he should be a part of the noble quest to find the Holy Grail. I mean the Source. Because He Just Might Be the One. Subtle foreshadowing is not this movie's forte. He goes along with the band of diverse Immortals, and one former Watcher, to a monastery where they will be speaking with an elder--even older than Methos (who's like, 5k--no n00b), who Really Knows What's going on. And whoever do they meet there--but Duncan's wife. She was called to this place by mysterious visions. So she is totally in with the in-crowd on the Grail Quest. Duncan, Anna, Methos, and Giovanni are in on the confab, Reggie and Joe are...watching the cars...I dunno, they're just outside.

The Elder--who is a squishy, bloated, decayed guy (wow--ten thousand years does not look good on this dude) explains he was part of a previous quest where "Something Went Wrong" (sorry about the gratuitous use of caps--the narrative just calls for'em). He ended up doomed to eternal...blobbery? and the other survivor of the quest is the Guardian. He wants them to find the Source, because somehow this will lead to his release. He touches Anna and she now sees exactly where they have to go, as if she just got a download. When they near the Source, they will get weaker (oh shit--HL2: The Give Me a Break). The place is on an island. so they are going by a boat.

Now, let me stop here and shed my critical highbeams on this so far dark and dreary tale. There is a lot of "telling" not "showing" going on--which should have been a little tip that the story was too complicated. It was just bound not to make sense after a bit. People, like me, who've seen all the movies and watched the entire series on tv, get the Joe/Methos/Duncan dynamic and why Duncan is a kind of archetypal hero and Joe's the father that didn't cast him out and Methos is like a friend/mentor that tries to lend the voice of experience--that's a lot of baggage to dump on a poor movie-watcher, though. But because I've been *here* before--here's what I *think* they might have been doing:

Okay--Joe does represent a father figure and Duncan's ties to the mortal world--he is killed by the Guardian real quick, dramatic death scene--I'm moving quick because it's a little schmaltzy. But it's one down.

The island is populated by savage cannibal biker thugs. There is a gratuitous ass-kicking scene where it is established that the heroes as real heroes, and even Anna can kick a little ass (although it is not established why she can--a small problem I had.) But there are still many cannibal biker thugs about. Then...music montage--hey--that isn't Queen.

Reggie, the youngest Immortal on this quest, is the kind of geeky scientist, who pretends he's a bit of a "cabbage" and has the impetuousity and curiousity of youth and sorry--spoiling it for you--he goes next--maybe he represents reason. Or innocence. He buys it while Anna and Duncan are succumbing to the pull of nature against a tree in the woods. I kind of liked him.

Now, after a grisly bit where they realize the Immortals are now mortal--because Reggie was just really cut up, not beheaded, they are faced again with the cannibal biker thugs, only some have horses, and they tranquilizer dart them (eh?) and then they are kind of crucified with ropes on a rack and there's a wickerman and a bonfire and much moshing. Oh, the hijinks of cannibal biker thugs when the stars are just so!

Now, Giovanni seems to represent faith, because he came in with faith that what he found from the Source would agree with Scripture. Whilst crucified (Giovanni, Duncan, Anna and Methos), the Guardian comes to them, and takes Anna away. She asks Duncan to come for her (as if sure he will escape the trap he's in.)

And then there were three. A stray bit of flame loosens Giovanni's bondage, and he thinks he's now Chosen, and leaves the others behind. Bit of a jerk, really. When Decent Duncan has a similar thing happen, he cuts Methos free--who speculates as to whether he'd have done the same (Methos would, and you know it and I do--sort of.) Anyway, to get with the spirit of the thing, Methos represents Experience--let's say. In the mad dash away from the cannibal biker thugs, Giovanni is killed by the Guardian and Methos tells Duncan He Thought He Might Be the One, But Duncan Really is...and riding a horse, distracts the cannibal biker thugs away from Duncan, so that he can get to the Source and do whatever he needs to do.

(Fan note: They really can not kill Methos. Oh, no. Lots of factors, really. Has a few fans. I'm one...AND I SAY THEY CAN'T. Ahem. What I mean is, it's very cool having a character who is as interesting and old and you know--all the fanfic potential still untapped and...so he rides into the sunset with cannibal hordes behind him--and at 5k yrs old, he's probably been there, done that before--but he's mortal thanks to the Source, and some of them have bikes and he has a horse--and he's on an island. I like to imagine, well, this is a very old, crafty, and resourceful bloke, our Methos. He already had a helicopter chartered and waiting for a call from his cell phone.)

So, the veils stripped, no father figure, no innocence, no faith or experience (no expectations) he faces the Guardian. The scene is ongepodgeket--van art. Planets aligned. Anna steps up on a platform. He has to fight the Guardian.

He now has the super speed of the Guardian. The fight is just...awful. But he defeats him by not defeating him (you know--like, if you're a fan of the show, the way he kind of defeated Ahriman, without the Tai Chi? I know fans of the show remember, because everybody really liked the Ahriman arc.)

And now he joins Anna, and surprise--they're pregnant. The End. Because there can be only One, and Duncan's son will be it, and because of his connection to the Source, when Duncan's son meets up with Agent Smith and is assimilated, he'll totally restore Zion...wait...that was another movie, right?

Do they really want to bring up a kid in this mean old near future dystopia? Eh. The ending doesn't easily lend itself to a follow-up. (We can't even be sure how exactly they make it off the island of evil cannibal biker thugs.) Unless we ditch everything else and now follow the story of the One?

(Maybe he'll meet up with Obi-Wan Methos and be trained as a ...nah, that would be another movie....)

There were a lot of ideas there. I noticed a continuity thing that nearly wasn't where one minute, on the platform, Anna's hair was straight--then braided, then it was straight again--but perhaps that was only mirroring the dimly seen braided figure in the Elder's flashback. Was there something there? Does the Elder get release? Is the Game still on, or was it all a big joke--a terrible millenia-old tag-match carried down through the ages brought on by a misunderstanding of what The One is? The Immortals mythos has been seriously played with here--and I wish they just held back from all that supernatural business.

And we still don't know what the Source was--notice that?

An actually newish book review--Halting State

Say--if I were to draw on my Eng Lit background and my savvy from at least skimming the trades, even if I didn't have anything good to hawk of mine own, I'd have a pocket list of things superficially not salutory about the latest Stross endeavor. It's in second person voice for one--and your literary-minded student was clearly advised that this is a confusing tone--especially if you have more than one character--try three!--voicing the tale in this "You-ness".

Also--it is known to serious writers currently banging out a line or two--that dialect is a thing to shy away from-don't alienate, er, well, especially your dumb-ass yanks, who won't get it--don't make things more complicated than need be.--Especially one as quaintly phonetically rendered as say, Scottish.

And--if you must write about the future--say, steer clear of the really *near future*, would you? After all, the near future is most exquisitely verifiable--no?

And so we actually hit on all the strengths of Halting State, which is excellent because the author goes ahead and *does* what any other writer might pause at.

To hit the "Never do's" backwards--the story is plausible because even a dumb-ass non-gamer non-programmer who nonetheless does a thing or two with games and such, *gets* the tech, and also gets the "you" thing not just from text--based-ummm, MUDDs and such, but also as a technique to draw the reader in--if I dig it--others more plausably should.

As for the dialect, the main argument against it would come if it were unintelligible, but I say it's safe to pronounce the scottish accent "Not nearly as hard as may be"--possibly less so. The casual reader is possibly familiar with Fat Bastard of the Austin Powers' Cimenatic oevre? Then, so must the Yank confess familiarity with the Scots dialect. (To a wee, pitiful degree.)

All things considered, even if the casual reader were previously acquainted with things regarding style. he or she would have to consider this work on something beyond style alone. I would say the story rests on---duh-story-telling. (Aye--to wit--yea:)

We have three separate and interesting persons, Our ain Detective, Sue Smith, our Ain Haxor, Jack Reed, and Our ain beancounter with a sword--Elaine. These persons intersect about a greivous crime in an artificial world. For to discover the perpetrator of the crime, they enconter twists in their understood reality. One of their twists is obvious--another had me skipping back over the previously written things--just to be sure 'twas so--be prepared for twists--'tis Stross! Sometimes twisted!

I do believe the engaged SF fan will well enjoy this tale.

Vanity, Vanity--I report some--er, vanity.

The A Beautiful Life Shop moved recently, to a spot I think is more spacious and lets them show more of their very lovely and cool merchandise. (I have seriously been a customer for a bit and wondered how all the things they had on their website were in their little store--believe me, even though I don't think they are all set quite yet--they do have a good deal more on display than at the former location. )

One product line I had to try on my recent trip was the Priti line of all organic polish and polish remover. They are relatively affordable, and the Japanese Rose color I chose from this line is reminiscent of OPI Red (bright and distinctive!)--except it does not have tolulene or any of those really bad drying chemicals. I also got the polish remover--and it smells so much less offenive than the drugstore products I usually use on my nails--which usually necessitate a "grace period" where I do not color my digits at all, because my nails are too dry and frail. I will confess this item is more pricey--but quality is worth it. I suspect use of this product will be less damaging, just as the smell is less..um...yucky. And might I add, the polish is pretty resilient? A two coat job lasted four days with minimal chipping before my first wee touch-up--and I really have not have to touch-up since. So I give it a recommend, as well as recommending a visit to the store, if you like bath, beauty, and cosmetics.

The fall vacation--a report:

So, I again had a vacation-week, and I again spent my time at the aforementioned Peddlers' Village and also at New Hope--jaunting along Main St--scoping yon tasty shops. Again have I purchased jewelry--having now a garnet ring set in silver to grace my pinky--a finger I have long considered an afterthought, it being much skimpier and harder to fit then my other, more swollen, digits. I have again visited Farley's Bookstore--and found books regarding US history that are right interesting. One in particular references the UK's "Glorious Revolution" and how it relates to the US: Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval That Inspired America's Founding Fathers (Hardcover), by Michael Barone. This was great in putting some of our religious history and our Constitutional history into great perspective--the Englishmen who by and large wrote our founding document were after all, the inheritors of these battles--stemmed from religion. That religion should not loom large, and that the rights of the Magna Carta should--are very much a part of America's heritage. It's an interesting, if involved read--it takes a bit of thinking.

(Again I posit the notion one goes to the independent bookseller and finds books one should read--not that one actively is looking for. I think my dislike of the current administration--Bush/Cheney, and my sense that they have no grounding in history for their policies, has been reinforced by my reading.)

I also got in the same book binge, Founding Myths: Stories that Hide our Patriotic Past --by Ray Raphael. It has long occured to me that the early founding history of our nation read like Livy--he remedies the myths by contexturalizing (is that a word--I hope?) them. The two books are related in helping establish how and why the US is a nation founded as we are, with just such a Constitution, and the importance thereof--or something like that.

In addition, I have picked up more Gibson--I do not know why I never read Neuromancer or Mona Lisa Overdrive before. The novels are well-done--hard-boiled--but, alas, I am reading them a wee bit too late. Perhaps I miss something. I will say I also picked up Neal Stephenson's Zodiac--I have not finished this--but I like every word. I mean that--I have left it on my workstation and will get back to it Wednesday--but I already know I like it very much--the language and scenario draw me in. Quite good--I will always wonder how I came across his writing only as of this year.

Erm, whilst in New Hope, I also ate pizza and bought the loveliest purse ever! At Fred Eisen . It's a great big black leather purse--I previously got a sort of smaller, red-brown bag--he does great work, which is why I came back. My large bag is sturdy and will contain pretty much anything I need to face my day. I also picked up a really awesome pair of shoes there--a very fine successful trip.