Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 217

News from the Mideast

A note on Turkish soft power: I posted a couple years ago about the Turkish telenovela Noor, which turned out to be a huge hit once it was translated into Arabic and marketed in the Arab world. Arab women were stunned and fascinated by the male hero, who openly loved and supported his wife, allegedly a new idea in those parts. The fictional hero was cited as a co-respondent in divorce cases by

Post Toolbox

I am still a bit rocky from the two weeks of Taos Toolbox, and remain very much sleep-deprived. I came down from the comfortable temperatures of the mountains to the 100-degree heat of the Middle Rio Grande Valley, so all I've wanted to do is cower under the air conditioner and sleep.Not that my schedule permits this, of course.But what a terrific workshop we had! For two weeks the participants

Ursoid Invasion

So here I am at the lodge in Taos Ski Valley and it's nine-fifteen at night and I've just been told that there is a bear in the building.Stay tuned.

Ra Ra

Finnish orc-rock band Turisas, winner of the Eurovision contest for 2006, display their dexterity on "Rasputin." Dig that frenzied Finnish dancing!Rah. Rah.

Virtual Tee

A few choice quotes from Toolbox workshop critiques. All this goes on the virtual tee shirt."Nothing says 'fuck you' like a corpse hand in the face.""The house is on fire but I dropped my drink.""You can't be Orwell and Kafka simulaneously.""Lovecraft was scared of everything. But these guys are really okay.""I'm having trouble doing ONE thing simultaneously.""Why didn't his friends notice that

Toolbox Song

Here we are at Toolbox,Our jolly, happy crewHere we are at ToolboxWhere the hell are you?

Massive Flow

The Onion does it again.Massive Flow Of Bullshit Continues To Gush From BP HeadquartersLONDON—As the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico entered its eighth week Wednesday, fears continued to grow that the massive flow of bullshit still gushing from the headquarters of oil giant BP could prove catastrophic if nothing is done to contain it.The toxic bullshit, which began to spew from the mouths of BP

What? Friday Already?

Friday already?It has been a very busy week. The next weeks are likely to be busier. For the last few days I've been busy with so many things.The runup to Taos Toolbox, the master class in writing that I'll be running for the next two weeks. The quarterly organizational meeting at the karate school, usually lasting much of the day (I had to bail early).Requalifying for my black belt, later

Lego Printer

From the realm of the strange, useless, and utterly cool, it's a printer made out of Legos. [via Emily:]

Cat 1, Smoke Monster 0

Over on her blog, Cat Valente lets Lost have it with a multi-barrel chain gun. It had me hopping up and down and clapping my hands with glee, it did.Lost is a science fiction show.Now, they haven't wanted that label from the beginning. First, they assured us that everything had a real-world explanation and it was not science fiction or fantasy at all. This is obviously crap at this point, but