Homo Sum:
humani nil a me alienum puto

To help me get through another annoying Monday, I have composed a short playlist of five songs that I like, which bear no relationship to each other whatsoever. Additionally, I am reasonably certain that anyone reading this will most likely not have heard any of these songs, and I can state with some certainty that [...]

And here you have:

My favourite Clash song when considering performances by the Clash. (I.e. I’d rather hear the Clash perform this than any other song. But, I’d still rather hear Danny Michel do Lost In A Supermarket.)
Warren Zevon’s Hollywood tragedy. I love a song with a story, especially if there’s enough vagueness to allow me [...]

I had occasion to discuss my position on audiobooks recently while driving around Melbourne.
I don’t think I’ve written about those positions here before, and indeed the extent to which I make use of audiobooks might surprise people who expect me to be a purist in my love of fiction.
Actually, I am a bit of [...]

Well, I’ve had a very busy weekend here in Melbourne–which I may get around to writing up at some point later tonight–and now I’ve made it back to my hotel/apartment, and it seems like a good time for me to do a little bit of value-added linkblogging. So, no theme, just lots of things that [...]

I guess it’s fair to say I was a bit of weird teenager. There probably weren’t many other people my age who would rush home most nights in order to catch Ideas on the radio. But I did. I loved that show (I still enjoy it more often than not when I catch it now, [...]

Even if very few of them know his name, almost everyone in the greater Halifax area knows Steve Dooks.
For most people, Steve is “that guy who plays the piano at Pete’s“–one of Pete’s better ideas, by the way. In Bedford they think of him like this:

and people downtown think of him like this:

While I’m sure [...]

For your edification tonight, I present three essays by old Bertie, in audio form. A couple of hours of listening that might expand your mind.
(It’s not him doing the reading–his voice, which I may share with you later–was not nearly as appealing as this reader’s.)
The essays are:

What I Believe: This is the big one–Russell [...]

A Sunday link list, of things that made me think of specific people.
For my lovely wife, to share with her radical feminist associates, is the story of the most famous pirate of all time. Especially the bits about the pirate laws governing female prisoners. And the end of the story.
Also for her yet another story [...]

If you’ve read either his debut novel Elantris, or his sophomore effort Mistborn, you will definitely be interested in Brandon Sanderson’s website, since it includes detailed annotations for both books, along with a blog and lots of other stuff including info and exceprts from forthcoming works.
Here’s a link to a recent essay on why [...]

Seeing the review of Keeping It Real pop up on Strange Horizons yesterday reminded me that I wanted to say something about the book.
Somehow I managed to avoid any notice that this book was forthcoming, despite my relatively recent interest in Robson, and was somewhat shocked to find out that it was already out [...]