Mark W. Tiedemann's Blog, page 93

Photography and Change

Steve McCurry, a famous photographer whose image of an Afghan girl with brilliant green eyes for National Geographic has become iconic, has been given a great and sad gig—Kodak has handed him the last production roll of Kodachrome to take and shoot.  He's doing it in grand style, traveling all over the world, with a film crew shooting a documentary about it.

I wanted to be a photographer for National Geographic when I was a teenager.  I knew nothing about how to do that, and for numerous...

New Fiction

I've been working this past few months on short fiction.  You wouldn't think this would be such a hard thing to do, given my rate of production in the last ten years (almost fifteen novels, scores of book reviews, a few assorted nonfiction pieces, and all the blog entries, both here and on Dangerous Intersection), but short fiction is peculiar.  Hell, anything is peculiar.  If you're used to writing one form, switching to another can be very difficult.  There are some writers, I know (and...

Interview Complete

Over on Dangerous Intersection, all of my interview has been posted.  It's up in three separate posts, seven parts altogether.  The links to each post are here:

http://dangerousintersection.org/2010/07/18/mark-tiedemann-speaks/

http://dangerousintersection.org/2010/07/19/mark-tiedemann-interview-parts-iv-and-v/

 http://dangerousintersection.org/2010/07/21/mark-tiedemann-wraps-up/

Watching them now leaves me with mixed feelings.  This was almost a year-and-a-half ago.  The entire thing was done...

A Moment of Celebrity Type Stuff

A friend of mine, the estimable Erich Veith, came by my home a bit over a year ago and we recorded a long interview.  Erich has finally gotten around to editing it and has begun posting segments on YouTube.  Here's the first one.  (I still haven't figured out how to embed videos here, so bear with me.)

Erich runs the website  Dangerous Intersection, where I post opinionated blatherings from time to time and Erich graciously allows me to hold forth in my own idiosyncratic manner.  Why he...

Radio Markets and Discontent

Personal gripe time.  This is one of those instances where I believe The Market is a hydrocephalic moron and people who put their undying faith in get what they deserve.

Shortly after the 4th of July just past, a St. Louis radio station changed hands.  KFUO 99.1 FM had, for sixty-plus years, been our commercial classical station.  Before the first Gulf War, our local NPR affiliate, KWMU, was largely a classical music broadcaster, but after that first foray into Mid east adventurism they...

James Hogan, Troubled In His Stars

James P. Hogan had died.

He wrote science fiction.  The books I read, over 20 years ago, were generally pretty good.  He has the distinction for me of having written one of my favorite debut novels, Inherit the Stars.  It was a murder mystery, a science mystery, a space adventure, and a thorough-going exposition on forensics of all sorts, including, in the end, "evolutionary" forensics (if such a thing exists).

There is profound irony in that.  The plot hinges around a spacesuited corpse found ...

Mel Gibson and Other Musings

So Mel Gibson has been exposed (once again) as an intolerant, sexist, abusive person.  A recording of a phone conversation with his former girlfriend is now Out There on the internet and one can listen to Mel spill molten verbiage into her earpiece while she calmly refutes his charges.

All I can wonder is,  So what?

What business is this of ours?  This is private stuff.  People lose control.  Between each other, with strangers, but more often with those closest, people have moments when the...

Context

Well, well, it seems I'll be doing three conventions this year.  I'd planned originally on one, but then I found out about MadCon 2010, in Madison, Wisconsin, which is ostensibly Harlan Ellison's last convention.  He claims.  Not that I'm inclined to disbelieve him, but…

I've been asked to participate in programming at Context 23 in Columbus, Ohio.  I've heard many good things about this convention and some friends have been pestering me to attend for a long time.  I've been reluctant to do...

Test Flight

Last night we did something in this house we've not done in years.

We broiled steaks.

Oh, yes, we like our new stove.  We filled the manse with the aroma of good things to eat and lo, they were good to eat.  Our taste buds did happy dances while we feasted.  I assume our guests likewise experienced satori, possibly with each bite.

Steak, asparagus, rice, sour dough rye bread, salad…we did it up royally.  Two excellent bottles of wine.  (My mother, by the way, would be amazed that I'd eaten...

The Great Kitchen Update

When we bought our house, it came well-equipped.  Two bathrooms, a refrigerator, central air, a garage…and a stove.  This one, in fact.

I have no idea how old that thing is.  It's a Fridgidaire all-electric, 40 inches wide.  Side-by-side ovens, self-cleaning, for its day no doubt state-of-the-art.

And Donna couldn't wait to get rid of it.  She wanted a gas range.  Well and good.  Of course, having just shelled out money to buy the house, we didn't have a lot left over to start replacing...