Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Ripping New Series

21 Jan 2013 by KRAG

There’s a new television series, coming from Britain to the U.S., courtesy of BBC America. It’s called “Ripper Street” and we watched the pilot last night.

British TV has a reputation for creating series (well, some anyway) that don’t talk down to the audience. They have a reputation for high-quality productions. They have a reputation of fine actors playing complicated characters.

This show is all of those things.

What immediately makes this show unique is that it is set in London circa 1889, in the months immediately after Jack the Ripper’s killing spree. The policemen, the criminals, and the populace all have those gruesome crimes fresh in mind.

Continue Reading »

Posted in Television | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments »

The View from Here: As You Know, Bob

18 Jan 2013 by KRAG

Stack of BooksIt’s virtually unavoidable, this one. Seriously, virtually unavoidable, just like the old show/tell chestnut. It takes a mountain of diligence, discipline, and work for me to avoid it. And in the end, if I am successful in removing its stain from my story, the result might not be any better. So, as with that old “Show, don’t tell” adage, this one is largely a matter of degree. Too much, and my prose is comical. Too little, and…what’s that? You don’t know what I’m talking about? You mean I didn’t explain something to you?

And there’s the rub. If you haven’t from the title or the above gleaned my drift, let me spell it out for you. I’m talking about the dreaded expository block. Yes, that clunk-fest where the author steps right into the story, takes you (poor Reader) in hand, and gently explains to you what’s really going on. It’s that section which, when put into the mouth of a character, usually starts with a phrase like, “As you know, Bob…” It’s when Steven Spielberg paints a little girl’s coat red in an otherwise black-and-white film, just to make sure that you and he are on the same page.

But exposition is often necessary. My readers aren’t psychic, and just as I can’t “show” every last detail and nuance, neither should I take my story back to the beginning of, well, Everything, in order to expose my reader to all the backstory and context that imbues my heartbreaking work of utter genius. So, it’s another balancing act, another vague artist’s equation wherein phrases like a lot and too much prominently figure.

Some examples after the jump:

Continue Reading »

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Life’s Letters Lost

16 Jan 2013 by KRAG

An interesting article crossed my desk yesterday, detailing a dozen “letters” that just didn’t make the cut for our modern Roman alphabet. Well, okay, it’s not that cut and dried. It’s not like there was a Council of Nicaea meeting on the alphabet. Most of these “lost letters” were in wide use at one time, but just fell out of favor.

You know some of them already. The friendly Ampersand (&) is the best known, and anyone who’s read a facsimile of our Declaration of Independence has snickered over the phrase “Purfuit of Happinefs,” wherein we find both the old “long s” and its surviving relation, the “short s.” (And now you know what to call that “effy” S-thing.) Continue Reading »

Posted in Culture, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Devil on my Shoulder

16 Jan 2013 by KRAG

Part of me always feels guilty.

The writer in me is always watching, always observing, always taking notes. One year, a friend presented me with a t-shirt that said: Careful or You’ll End Up in My Novel. She thought it was funny. I know that it’s true.

There is a vast supply of information out there, presented to us everyday, free of charge–on the bus, in the grocery, on the freeway, in the workplace–and all we writerly-types have to do is watch, observe, note.

So, part of me always feels guilty. Especially at times when my inner amanuensis probably wouldn’t be welcome.

Continue Reading »

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments »

Cheese Food

15 Jan 2013 by KRAG

Ages ago, in a place and time long forgot, I acquired an old-school cheese lyre. It was, essentially, a Y-shaped piece of steel with a stiff wire across the opening. It did not have one of those roller bars that dictate the thickness of your slice of cheese; the makers assumed you were an adult, and could decide for yourself how thick you wanted your cheese, from wafer-thin to inch-thick hunk. It was a marvel of low-technology—a bent piece of steel with a wire—and it lasted nigh on twenty years.

Two years ago, it broke. Since then, I’ve been looking for another one, but it’s impossible. Continue Reading »

Posted in Food, Low Tech | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Deficit Death Star

14 Jan 2013 by KRAG

Proving that someone there has both a good sense of humor and a fair dollop of geeky sf-background, the White House officially responded to the petition that the government begin building a Death Star by the year 2016. Any petition having garnered more than 25,000 signatures requires an official response, no matter how silly they might be, and this petition was definitely silly. But, rules is rules, so despite it being a ludicrous idea, the White House gave it the same attention they gave the petitions from all those states that want to secede from the Union.

I encourage you to read the full, official response. From its title (“This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For”) to its final reminder that nothing can beat the power of the Force, it is chock full of little nods to Star Wars.

And it’s not just the White House that has a sense of humor. Did you know that NASA has a program called the Commercial Crew and Cargo Program, and that it carries the acronym of C3PO? Hehehe.

k

Posted in Hi Tech, Politics | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments »

Sensawunda

14 Jan 2013 by KRAG

A short time ago, the VISTA (Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) was doing a “warm-up” routine. It was pointed to a random spot and took a photo. You know, like you, with a new camera, might take a shot of the street outside your house.

But in this analogy, when you took a shot of that street outside your house, you caught the newest Ferrari driving by, or of that model from the Fiat Abarth commercial, or of . VISTA, in an unintentional moment, captured a stunning image of 47 Tucanae, otherwise known as NGC 104.

47 Tuc is a huge globular cluster of millions of stars crammed into a 120 light year diameter sphere. They all orbit the gravitational center of this cluster, but each in its own direction, buzzing around the core like angry bees. This accidental picture is amazing, and if you can, I’d recommend you download the massive 8000×8000 image and play with it a while.

I did, and I zoomed in and out on blue giants, red giants, a field of stars so densely packed that they’re like pave diamonds. In the outer sectors of the image, you can zoom in and, between the stars, see red-shifted galaxies. It’s amazing.

k

Posted in Hi Tech | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »