@arbutus  Welcome to Kramer! Rescue pets can be more work at first but always worth it. Sounds like the boys had a great adventure and a good place to watch the meteor showers.

@arbutus, Thanks for the welcome! @janetteB, @puroandson, Thanks for the welcome back! @winston, Yes, it is pretty fabulous out here.  Mrs Blenkinsop and I spent lunch at the local craft-brew pub, and the Blenkinsop pile includes a view of the snow-capped mountains on the mainland. The wilds of rural Ontario are a thing of the past, and the door…[Read more]

@ARbutus I missed your post. Your beach holiday does indeed sound lovely. I haven’t been following the Olympics, sport being really really not “my thing” however there has been much talk around town about a local youth who has done very well.

We live a fair way from the nearest beach, about 40k but that involves urban driving which always in…[Read more]

@arbutus  That sounds like a nice weekend! Woods, beach , sports and spirits sounds so Canadian eh?  Canada is doing pretty good today with a bronze in the decathalon and silver in the 100m mens sprint. Andre De Grasse came in second behind the Bolt!

@arbutus  Why are they recasting Xena and Gabrielle at only 40?

We know why.  But we don’t need feminism any more, right?

@arbutus   Happy to lightly share these thoughts . . . I think I got my first dose of perspective-exploding by reading a bunch of SF by early 20th c author Olaf Stapleton.  “Last and First Men”, among others (the title kind of gives it away, doesn’t it?).

oops – I’ve not replied to a bunch of people!

@bluesqueakpip – always liked that Jules cover and REM is one I’ve always tried every few years to think “do I really like them?”
@barnable – cheers, not heard in a long time and actually bothered myself to listen all the way through and raised a smile when it was sorely needed!
🙂
@Arbutus – thanks…[Read more]

@Arbutus

Like the mad Newfie Celtic style!

@Whisht

Song to console:

@Arbutus – bass sax = endlessgood

;¬)

So – choons to console? Or just choons to say “isearchedmyituneswiththeword”end”,”europe”etc ?

Like you care?

So here is some stuff (can you tell I’m still bruised?)

A song to say the affair is over?

and something uplifting that I found when looking for “end”…[Read more]

@arbutus @whisht @puroandson

@puroandson I will look forward to your birthday, please remind me when it does reach your birthday (I’m rubbish at remembering dates!) and what else could you want for your birthday when you have all of us giving you songs!

@whisht Even if you deny it I would still pick you on my quiz team, I bet you’d be good at…[Read more]

@Arbutus  @blenkinsopthebrave  @StitchInTime  @puroandson  @Missy  Thank you all for those kind words; it’s good to be back and I hope to contribute more to the conversation in the next few days.  Re-watching Doomwatch and Edge of Darkness after such a long interval has been an interesting and rewarding experience which perhaps merits some comme…[Read more]

@puroandson

I’ve never really had a taste in music which is a shame I just know that I don’t like much of that pop nonsense nowadays (doesn’t mean I don’t like change!) especially the bloody beaver (good name). I suppose I like old rock songs and yeah guitars are probably my favourite instrument. Most songs I hear now though are electronic which…[Read more]

@arbutus @puroandson @ichabod @pedant

Sorry, this is the short version

http://deyoung.famsf.org/files/whynogreatwomenartists_4.pdf

@arbutus @puroandson @ichabod @pedant

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/library/Nochlin-Linda_Why-Have-There-Been-No-Great-Women-Artists.pdf

For those who are interested in art history and feminism here’s one of the crucial texts on the matter by Linda Nochlin ‘Why have there been no great woman artists?’. Short but very accurate.

@arbutus  Not to mention how many of these lovely girls would have lost their lives at an early age in childbirth– assuming that they survived childhood themselves. And yes, lovely to be courted by some guy three times your age who your father is going to make you marry, like him or not. The list goes on. I’ll take the 21st century, than…[Read more]

@arbutus   Here’s a link to the review of the book about Elizabeth I in last Sunday’s NYT:

@arbutus  I agree about Xena.  Also the slowly dawning sense (slow for me, anyway) that the relationship of this heroic female figure and her female sidekick was different from, say, the female leads in Cagney & Lacy.  That in itself was fascinating, and refreshing.

I do wish a show would be done with Lucy Lawless as an older Xena — what ha…[Read more]

Well, for absolutely no Dr Who-related reason, here are 2 things people may want to listen to.

Here is a gorgeous piece by Arvo Part:

And I think it was @Arbutus who mentioned that she’d nt heard Penguin Cafe Orchestra, so here’s a kind of ‘Best of’ album. Its them playing live, so when if you want…[Read more]

@arbutus et al:  what you say about professional writers sometimes receiving less and less editorial help rings true. I have noticed the same tendency in films sometimes, when someone produces something successful, and suddenly has carte blanche to do what they want, and the sequels and so on become increasingly overblown because nobody wants to…[Read more]

@miapatrick Quite right. No one can really edit their own work. I found that there were several bits and pieces I’d written, which my Editor said I didn’t need. she called it ‘literary self indulgence’ and she was right. None of them added anything to the plot, but it’s difficult to see that for yourself.
Another thing, anyone who thinks…[Read more]