Tag Archives: music

Mining Our Biblical Matriarchs

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A workshop on Friday, September 2, 2022 at Chicon 8, presented by Sally Wiener Grotta

The women of the Bible (Eve, Esther, Miriam, etc.) have been amongst the West’s most enduring female archetypes. As lush and varied as any mythology, their stories have been reinterpreted by every generation’s artists, clerics, and political leaders, according to how they expected women to be. However, these archetypes have been largely overlooked by modern spec fic authors. In this workshop, we’ll have fun challenging and toppling common preconceptions about various women of the Bible, as we mine this rich mother lode for SF&F story ideas.

The following are my notes and amplifications. I am solely responsible for their content and any mistakes.
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Chicon 8

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Thursday

On Thursday, Sept. 1, Mia McDavid and I drove to Chicago for Chicon 8: The 80th World Science Fiction Convention at the Hyatt Regency Chicago . This was our 5th Chicon. Previously we had attended:

Despite some glitches, we really enjoyed the Con, and visiting downtown Chicago again.

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Windycon 2021

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My wife Mia and I spend the past weekend in Chicagoland. Friday and Saturday we were at Windycon, a science fiction convention that we have frequently attended since the 1970s. This was first SF con we have been to since the world shut down for Covid-19. There was no Windycon in 2020. Covid, of course, has not gone away, but this year Windycon was back, with changes. There were very strict and detailed Covid policies. Proof of vaccination or a recent negative Covid test were required for admission. Masks were required everywhere except “while … actively consuming food or drink in the consuite or green room” or for performers while performing and at least 6 feet from anyone else. Bill Roper has a positive con report, with which I completely agree.

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Monday Night Irish Class, October 24, 2016

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Irish Class, October 24, 2016

Rang Gaeilge, 24ú lá Mí Dheireadh Fómhair 2016

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Fadas: áéíóúÁÉÍÓÚ

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Seanfhocal

Is fearr filleadh as lár an áthe ná bá sa tuile. Better to turn back at the middle of the ford than to drown in the flood. Is cuimhin liom an t-amhrán Waist Deep in the Big Muddy le Pete Seeger
Bíonn súil le muir ach ní bhíonn súil le cill. There is hope when [lost] at sea, but no hope in the graveyard. Note le for agency

Léigh tuilleadh

February 29

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From Gilbert & Sullivan on Leap Day

For some ridiculous reason, to which, however, I’ve no desire to be disloyal,
Some person in authority, I don’t know who, very likely the Astronomer Royal,
Has decided that, although for such a beastly month as February, twenty-eight
days as a general rule are plenty,
One year in every four, its days shall be reckoned as nine and twenty.

Pirates of Penzance
Gilbert & Sullivan 1880

The Cold and the Dark

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Untitled Page

On December 8 Metro Transit added a new express
bus line to downtown Minneapolis, where I work. The northern
terminus of this bus line is about 1¼ miles from
my home. This is well within normal walking distance for me, and there are sidewalks along Rice Street, where traffic can be quite serious. So
I decided it was time to leave the car at home and do my normal commuting entirely by walking and public transportation like
mia_mcdavid and I did in Chicago until 1987. I have been doing so ever since.

This has both pros and cons:

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Ixnay on the iPod:

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In Praise of Crap Technology

I actually did have an iPod once, a sleek 30-gig number with a brilliant video screen and space for nearly half of my comically large music collection. I watched a video on it exactly once—Breaking Bad, season one—cringed with horror every time I dropped it and felt the $400 hole in my wallet for longer than I’d owned the thing when I inevitably lost it.

[My Coby MP3 player is] worth next to nothing so I’m virtually assured never to lose it—unlike apparently every iPhone prototype ever—and I don’t cringe at all when my toddler flings it across the room. And because the next Coby is sure to be just as mediocre, I’ll never need to upgrade—I’ve stepped off the escalators of feature creep and planned obsolescence, and all the expense and toxic e-waste that come with them. Crap technology, it turns out, is green technology.

On a related note, see All aboard, and hold onto your phones.