jeregenest

I went with a friend to do part of the Indie Bookstore crawl that's happening this month here in Dallas. We got the following shops stamped:

Half Price Books flagship: I've been here many times. I picked up several books including the new Lev Grossman Arthurian story.

Interabang Books. My favorite local new bookstore. I bought Michael a book about the making of Born to Run and a lovely boxed set of Murderbot.

Bibliobar is in downtown Plano right down the drag from the park where we do Pokemon on the way back from Kura on Legacy Drive. It's tiny but I did find a book I liked there. Lots of sex positive/queer stuff and a strong emphasis on romance.

Neighbor Books is just off the square in Downtown McKinney, in sight of the old courthouse where we saw the Hot Club of Cowtown a few years ago. It's bigger than most of the indie stores I've seen and has a better selection of books, but the arrangement choices are pretty different: all the fiction is one one long set of shelves mixed in but the nonfiction is divided up. I liked this better than Bibliobar but not better than Interabang.

Current Music: Silence is golden.

sabotabby

Hey, it's a new Wizards & Spaceships episode! In "The Science Bros Answer Your Science Questions Part 1," you can find out what happens if you jump out of a spaceship* and other pressing sci-fi and fantasy questions.

* Don't.

gentlyepigrams

Spring has sprung across the multiverse, aided by the actions of your colleagues, the agents of the Free Republic of Ygg. Unfortunately for you, the seat of Order likes it when it's Always Winter and Never Christmas. Amber has sent someone to bring seasons to a halt, and it's up to you to make sure the seasons keep rolling merrily along.

Current Music: Silence is golden.

gentlyepigrams

Books
The Undercutting of Adam and Rosie, by Megan Bannen. Third and last in this trilogy of romantic fantasies. They're not romantasies, they're romance x fantasy crossovers: both parts weigh in equally. This one is about gods, demigods, and immortality, and brings the changing world to its logical conclusion. I've enjoyed these stories and I'm going to miss this extended clan now that they're over.
The Queens of Crime, by Marie Benedict. The "Queens of Crime" aka five famous vintage mystery writers, solve a real-life crime in 1930 England (and Bolougne). I liked the twists at the end and the parallels between things that had happened to the narrator and the victim.

Music
Brass Queens, Hot Tub Sessions Volume 1. Short 30-minute album by a group of women brass players recommended to me by the algorithm. Fun stuff; I need to find out if they're touring.
Jess Murph, Sex Hysteria. Another "recommended by the algorithm" try but this one wasn't as successful. Autotune and rap, featuring Gucci Mane. Not awful or anything, just nothing that made me want to listen to it again.
Rose Betts, There Is No Ship. Still another algorithm recommendation but this one is right up my alley. Folk inflected piano and a great voice! I see more of her music in my future.

Current Music: Silence is golden.

sabotabby

Just finished: Inventing the Renaissance: The Myth of a Golden Age by Ada Palmer. I went to art school semi-on-purpose. Which is to say I always loved art, loved drawing, but was it my passion? Who knows what a 13-year-old's passion is? I was nerdier about other things. But I was bullied in grade school and wanted only to get away from my tormentors when I finally graduated, and so I auditioned for the art school as an escape. I was good at drawing, good enough that they plucked me out of my boring town and away from everyone I hated. There I had teachers who truly were passionate about art, and art history, and I fell in love with not just the paintings and sculpture and architecture but the stories and personalities behind them. We scrimped and saved so that I could go on the school trip to Italy and there I got to see the art, and fall in love with Florence in particular, and walk in the footsteps of Michelangelo and Leonardo and Machiavelli and Lorenzo the Magnificent and it was the most incredible thing to happen to me in my life thus far.

So anyway reading this book was like reliving that, only—as Ada Palmer says throughout the book—"Ever-So-Much-But-More-So." Because there is more history than I knew, or learned since, more stories, more people, about 100 pages of footnotes, and it's contested history, histories complicated by someone who loves this era even more than I do. Despite the book's heft, it's a very fast read. Also I cried a l'il. Fight me. But read it.

Currently reading: Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. This is a re-read of my favourite SM-G book For Reasons and my God, Meche is even worse than I remembered. I love her. Ahaha. What a nightmare child.

gentlyepigrams

(more about other activities later)

HunnyBunny Biscuit Co.. A little chain of biscuit brunch foods shops that includes Oklahoma City. We liked it so much we ate there twice. They have biscuit benedicts that are delicious and also a fantastic biscuit cinnamon roll. I hope they open up in Dallas because they'd make a mint.

Fogo de Chao. Spouse was into carnapalooza. It was nice and the service was overall pretty good. I wish I'd come in completely starved because I always feel like I didn't get enough to eat. What we did get was really well done meat and sides. I always wince at the money we spend on these things but it's less than we spend on omokase or a Tasting Collective meal. I also tried a Brazilian soda that was really nice but the amount of sugar in it was scary.

Musashi's. Japanese hibachi place that we like. We went there last year and since we still don't have a regular place in Dallas, we decided it was a good vacation meal. They have some of the nice Wagyu and American Wagyu on the menu. I had the American Wagyu and it was expensive but delicious. The chef was very experienced and put on a good show. I feel like one-off places are much better than Benihana is nowadays and this was no exception.

The Jones Assembly. Warehouse restaurant and concert space in an old auto plant. Slightly upscale gastropub menu and vibe. If this place were in Dallas, we'd be all over it.

Current Music: Silence is golden.

gentlyepigrams

Jenna Ortega and the Fashion of Fear. An analysis of her promotional fashion in light of her position as the face of female Gen Z horror.
Pa. State Museum closes Native American exhibit, returns 1000s of artifacts under federal law. Good.
The Disney+ Curse: How the Streaming Service Hurt Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar Brands. I sent this to two friends because it's relevant to ongoing conversations about how these entertainment brands are just less interesting now than they used to be.
‘Cat-sized’ rat found in Teesside town puts focus on pest control cuts. Yikes. That's near where I went to school when we lived in England.
How to Kill a God. An analysis from the fansite for the Craft Sequence, a series that seriously changed how I think about magic.
Premium Quality Entertainment: The Joys of Murderbot and Sanctuary Moon. An analysis of the Murderbot show and some of the book details using the cheesy TV show Murderbot loves.
David Geffen’s Divorce Gives New Meaning to an Old Term. It's "hypergamy" or marrying up, or having a sugar daddy. Apparently this particular term has also been coopted by incels.
The Hidden Case of Sir Ewan Forbes, the Transgender Baronet. He was born in 1912, but lived as a boy from early on, and people accepted him for the most part. Sometimes I really think that enforced mid-century conformity was the worst thing for marginalized people in the Anglosphere.
Springsteen Isn’t Who I Thought He Was. A thoughtful critical appreciation of his poetry from someone who wasn't a fan. This is a discussion related to the ones spouse and I have had about Springsteen in comparison to other artists.
The original game of thrones — Mary and Elizabeth’s dance duel. There's a new ballet opening this summer at Edinburgh about Mary and Elizabeth and the Virgin Queen is played by a GNC man!

Current Music: Silence is golden.

sabotabby

Today's post is ICHH's "Dogwhistle Politics and Nazi Code Hunting." Gare and Mia take a deep dive into what is, superficially, a comparatively minor issue—that of conspiratorial thinking on the left. They take as their jumping off point a tweet from the Gestapo featuring John Gast's "American Progress." It's an overtly fascist tweet because the artwork itself celebrates the genocide of Indigenous peoples, and the text reinforces that the poster thinks that this genocide is a good thing, and also because an overtly fascist organization that is currently carrying out a genocide tweeted it. If they'd tweeted a picture of kittens, it would still be a fascist tweet, because it is a fascist organization posting on a platform owned by fascists. Nevertheless, certain segments of the extremely online left and liberals have convinced themselves that there are also secret fascist messages in the tweet.

The basic thesis of the episode is, "no, you fools, they don't need to dogwhistle anymore because they are in power and doing fascism." But there's another, even more important point here, which is that we're all still basically stuck in 2016-7 and we need to be updating both our thinking and our strategies. I feel a certain way about this because for all that I mocked it back in the day, conspiratorial thinking worked very well for the right, and I sort of disagree with Gare and Mia that it won't reach a particular type of low-information voter who likes to feel privy to exciting secret knowledge. But also, it is counterproductive and has people who might otherwise be useful and productive chasing their tails playing numerology on X, the Everything App.

At any rate, it's an interesting psychological insight and as someone who is not immune from Extremely Online Thinking, it's a useful check-in.

gentlyepigrams

We didn't see any shows in July and we don't have any on the schedule for August, which is good because we're busy AF right now and feeling overwhelmed between scheduling for games we're doing in September and preparing for the con we're going to in November.

( Under the cut to protect your flist )

There's a lot of stuff that has recently come up that we're considering that will either be on the list next month or not. The only thing on the current list that is a major maybe is the PMJ in December, and that may depend on my eye surgery.

Current Music: Silence is golden.

gentlyepigrams

A short report this week because I was busy with other things and I'm slowly reading medical stuff.

Books
Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz. A very cute cozy novella about robots opening a noodle joint in future San Francisco. It also deals with things like bigotry against robots and military trauma.

Music
Sierra Hull: Tiny Desk Concert. I put this on because she played the mandolin but I found I really enjoyed the bluegrass vibes, especially the song about her grandmother (Spitfire).

Current Music: Washing machine

sabotabby

Just finished: Nothing, this book is 768 pages long.

Currently reading: Inventing the Renaissance: The Myth of a Golden Age by Ada Palmer. It's so good. The middle of the book tells the story of 15 Renaissance figures, both famous and obscure, on various sides of factional political fights, theology, and modernity. After a sympathetic look at Lucrezia Borgia (who did nothing wrong), I just finished the chapter on Michelangelo, which despite being one of the longer chapters (I am weirdly relieved whenever we hit someone I like who didn't die horribly and prematurely) and focusing on the political infighting of the time, didn't even cover his imprisonment. To be fair, he did a lot of stuff, and it covers his love life admirably, which is juicier. She uses it in part to talk about the degree to which art was wielded as a weapon of political influence, often at the expense of the artists and craftspeople themselves, and also the complex history of queerness in the era.

There's a particularly good exchange between Galeazzo Sanseverino (the lover of Duke Ludovico Sforza, who lived openly with him along with his wife Beatrice) and Francesco Gonzaga, husband of Isabella d'Este. Sanseverino had challenged Gongzaga to a duel, to which Gonzaga replied, "Prù—this is a fart sound I make with my mouth with the addition of a fuck-you gesture and a fig sign," and that when he had gay sex, "I do it at the door of others while you do it at your own." (I.e., he was a top.)

Anyway this book is great. I'm only highlighting this because it was the last thing I read before I passed out last night. It's all like this, though.

gentlyepigrams

First the artists come, then the Wall Street guys, then you shut it down. Spouse and I felt like this short video was a very Austin story even though the poster is in NYC.
I Didn’t Expect Dr. Gurathin To Be My Favorite Part of Murderbot. The writer of this piece got Murderbot the way I did. I really need to sit down and read the books.
College Admissions Is a Hard Problem. The author is a professor at Union College and has a rising senior child. (I'm e-quainted with him and his wife but I read him because he's interesting, interesting enough to write pop sci books). He's got several approaches you could take to the problem but ultimately he's right: there are too many candidates for too many prestige seats at the top colleges.
The Killer 1911 Heat Wave That Drove People Insane. There's a lot of discussion about how we should do without AC for the sake of the planet. Yes, we should go to better/less polluting power production, but when we don't have AC, humans die of heat: the elderly, the young, and other vulnerable folks.
Self Censorship Is Actually Good. It's nice not to be an asshole in public; it's also not nice to have to censor yourself around MAGA folks who live in an alternate universe.
Why everyone should support WNBA players’ bid to get more money. All I have to say to columnist Mac Engels' piece is "get it, girls!".
The Interview: Robert Reich Thinks the Baby Boomers Blew It. I'd heard the story about the student he admired being killed by the KKK during the Civil Rights era, but some of the other stories were new to me. Reich is a really interesting guy and I always find his posts and threads worth reading.
Is your brand making the same mistake that killed Neiman Marcus?. One of the Neiman family made this short video about what he thinks killed Neiman Marcus. I don't think this was 100% of the problem but I imagine it was a big factor, though.
The Greatest Albums of 1984. Brought to you by a dive into the meme of "which perfect album came out when you were 16?".
Newsletter #185 - Faith No More's "Midlife Crisis" and the Observers Paradox. The observer's paradox piece of this hit me hard.
Our Flag Means Death Creator David Jenkins Is Writing the Pilot for a Booster Gold Series. Spouse and I will be all over this.
Cheese May Actually Fuel Nightmares, Surprising Study Confirms. I'll eat the cheese and risk the nightmares, thanks.
Lab-grown cheese is coming. But would you eat it? I'd try it.
This elephant learned to use a hose as a shower. Then her rival sought revenge. Those are two smart heffalumps. Also I didn't know elephants could be left-trunked!

Current Music: Silence is golden.

bryant

The Boston Film Festival has a terrible interface. You select which movie you want info on from a pulldown menu, which is bad; the movie pages don’t have information on which dates the movies are playing, which is lame; and the pages for each individual date don’t have links to the movie description pages. Buh. The film list helps a little but not enough.

Anyhow, it all starts tonight, and I would be remiss if I did not point out a few movies.

Read the rest of this entry »

[Crossposted from Population: One; go here for the original post.]

bryant

I just unloaded a bunch of FanTasia pictures from the camera in preparation for GenCon; my blog is the beneficiary of this wealth. It wasn’t a heavy picture-taking trip for me but I got a few good shots. Please keep in mind that Montreal is much prettier and funkier than one might think from my photography.

Read the rest of this entry »

[Crossposted from Population: One; go here for the original post.]

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jeregenest

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Reading

Indie bookstore crawl part one - 2025 08 12 (backdated)

podcast friday

ANCW blurb for The Free Republic of Ygg - The Rites of Spring

Weekly media report - week ending 2025 08 13

Reading Wednesday

We ate at: a bunch of places in OKC on vacation

Interesting things - 2025 08 10

podcast friday

Gig list - August 2025

Weekly media report - week ending 2025 08 06

Reading Wednesday

Interesting things - 2025 08 03

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Looking backwards

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September 2017

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