Posts by James Butler
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I'm going to add to this list of "SF writers whose politics I know of and disagree with" Gene Wolfe, a conservative Catholic (not that there's anything wrong with that, Craig (: ). He remains one of my favourite writers in any genre, but I find myself often cringing at his ideas about duty, honour and women.
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For all the talk about how Heinlein was a nutso libertarian and PKD was a flag-waving commie, it's worth noting that they were firm friends and Heinlein financially supported PKD when he was at his lowest ebb (which was pretty often).
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Up Front: Card on the Table, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
I’m sure Hayeck, Friedman and Saint Ayn are spinning in their graves.
Meh, they're too busy reading Terry Goodkind.
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For anyone who has trouble reconciling the thoughtful, excellent writing in Ender's Game with Card's reprehensible and plainly stupid bigotry, I recommend this essay. It finally cured my desire to re-read the whole series.
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Is it pessimistic of me to not feel too bad about the omission of bus lanes, because within a few years car volumes will have dropped enough that there will be lanes to spare for buses?
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I also had a long Twitter conversation with Sophie Yana Wilson from Radio NZ yesterday, after I realized that they record almost all of Musica Sacra's concerts and in fact a large fraction of the best classical concerts in New Zealand each year, but the recordings might as well have gone down a black hole as far as the Internet is concerned. She told me (edited):
We make informed decisions about the broadcastability of concerts before deciding to go ahead so 90% of what we record goes to air. Good stuff goes to Podcast Classics (NZ performances) /Resound (NZ works). Works we deem historically important go to Sound Archives, like Eve de Castro Robinson's Len Lye the Opera/Stephen Matthews' Parihaka. RNZ Concert currently has radio-centric expertise & we're making steps to making more content available online. Problems = streaming rights with certain works. They can be VERY expensive.
The thought that there might exist some data somewhere that I can't download on my phone is anathema really, but it's just a simple matter of time, resources, political will etc. Sigh.
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Just hours after I'd been scratching around trying to something vaguely local and Christmas-themed for Russell, Atoll Records put up a couple of clips from Musica Sacra's "Christmas Spectacular" CD
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‘Sink’
God that mystery meat spit behind the bar is almost Cronenberg-esque. I'm never eating a kebab again.
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I was mistaken - two Song Quest winners, and it's been sponsored by Lexus for ages apparently.
I was saying to Russell that it's a pity all the best choral music is for Easter; but then I also think all the best pop music is about existential angst so maybe I'm the wrong person to ask.
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Here's to the next 10 years! *clink*