Hi, kiddo. You tell puns now. You make them up on your own. You’re starting to write poems, and songs. And you’re so smart. At some level, I should have gotten used to it by now, but I’m still slackjawed watching you do double-digit addition, or read chapter books — and you’re not even in … Continue reading 5

As of today, my current job is now the longest one I’ve ever held.

I miss you, Mom.

Pleased as hell to announce that the Fizzybees have released our first album, Hello World! You can stream it at Spotify and Soundcloud and iTunes and Google Play and all the usual places. If you’d like to download the mp3s, you can do so for free over at Bandcamp. We hope you have half as … Continue reading Hello World

Mele was my buddy. Mele was a very good dog. I love you, buddy. You run on ahead. We’ll be there to throw the ball for you soon enough.

….for the three of you who still read blogs! Album of the Year: Janelle Monae, Dirty Computer. Really no question about this one. I enjoyed her previous albums, but this one is really a whole additional quantum level of amazing. Honorable Mentions: K.I.D, Tired All the Time — the early contender before Janelle’s album came … Continue reading Music Picks for 2018

Let me talk to you about “Crash” by the Primitives. Except I’m not actually going to be talking about “Crash” by The Primitives. Get me going about music long enough, and I will tell you about how “Crash” is a perfect pop song. Perfect. The chiming, arpeggiated guitars contrasted with the choppy, crunchy guitars; the … Continue reading Crash

Turns out you’re smart. I want to say, hey, no surprise, look at your parents, but neither nature nor nurture are destiny. And, of course, we’ll love you whatever your faculties turn out to be. But I will admit that watching you turn into a math-loving bookworm over the last year has been a delight. … Continue reading 6

Tough choices this year! Charly Bliss got surprisingly (and impressively) sophisticated on their sophomore effort, K.Flay took one step further away from indie-rap towards indie-rock, and her girlfriend Miya Folick put forth a deeply rich and powerful album. Album of the Year: Maddie Ross, Never Have I Ever. I was already digging this a lot … Continue reading Music Picks for 2019

Your stories got richer this year. You’ve gotten really into writing; you’re filling up notebooks. But somewhere along the line, your stories stopped being mostly settings and turned into tales with plots, with protagonists who have obstacle that they have to figure out how to surmount. You plow through chapter books. We go to the … Continue reading 7

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NCIS and NCIS: New Orleans will air the first new episodes of 2017 tonight. You can find sneak peeks, tweets and photos...

Criminal Minds has the first new episode of 2017 on the schedule tonight. Here’s a sneak peek from “Profiling 202”, featuring David...

NCIS and NCIS: New Orleans aired new episodes last night. You can find ratings and links to watch the episodes below, along...

Criminal Minds aired the ninth episode of season twelve last night at 9:00pm ET/PT. “Profiling 202” pulled in 7.25 million viewers and...

Criminal Minds newcomer Damon Gupton (Stephen Walker) celebrated his birthday yesterday, January 4. He was born on that day in 1973. Here...

NCIS: Los Angeles will air the first new episode of 2017 tonight. “Kulinda” is scheduled to start at 8:00pm ET/PT. (If anything...

NCIS: Los Angeles aired the twelfth episode of season eight last night. “Kulinda” pulled in 10.35 million viewers at 8:00pm, earning a...

Criminal Minds and NCIS: Los Angeles will air new episodes this week. (NCIS and NCIS: New Orleans offer repeats.) NCIS will re-air...

Criminal Minds has a new episode on the schedule tonight. Here’s the first sneak peek from “Seek and Destroy”, featuring Emily Prentiss...

Criminal Minds aired the tenth episode of season twelve last night at 9:00pm ET/PT. “Seek and Destroy” pulled in 7.53 million viewers...

So we’re sure most of our Gentle Readers have seen the beginnings of publicity for the upcoming series Sanditon, sort of an adaptation of Jane Austen’s last, unfinished work. So, first things first: the trailer! We have previously expressed our opinion on this upcoming work: that it is not so much an adaptation of Jane…

Once again the calendar rolls to December 16, also known as Jane Austen Day. We celebrate every year with our fellow Janeites, remembering the author who has given us so much joy. We have a few links to share with our Gentle Readers. Firstly, an article in the TLS from Devoney Looser about how we…

We are on record as not being terribly excited about this series, but we must admit we are very curious about it. It is for all intents and purposes fan fiction, and we like fan fiction as a concept; however, we do not like all works of fan fiction, judging each upon its merits. So…

We were not really sure that the world needed another adaptation of Emma. There are already several, not bad if not spectacular, although none are really the definitive adaptation that fans of the novel hoped for; but all enjoyable in their way. One can nitpick at all of them, but we don’t find any of…

We are hunkered down here at the fabulous high-tech AustenBlog World Headquarters, and maintaining proper social distancing. Dorothy has been basically locked in her garret watching the North and South series on repeat, occasionally emerging to make another pot of tea and mumbling something that sounds like, “Save us, Richard Armitage.” The Editrix is herself…

We are all keeping our social distance these days, and many of us, other than the superheroes in the medical profession and restocking grocery stores, are spending all of our time in our homes. The delightful ladies of Drunk Austen have thus put together a Virtual JaneCon to be held this weekend, March 28 and…

Gentle Readers, here is another treat for us while we are confined to our homes. We may even be able to lure Dorothy away from her garret for this one. Streaming Musicals will present a free streaming event of Paul Gordon’s musical adaptation of Pride and Prejudice on Friday, April 10, 2020 at 6:30 p.m.…

[Image: Diamond nanowires produced by physicist William Gilpin, used only for the purpose of illustration.] As part of some early prep, just putting notes together for a workshop I’ll be leading in Moscow later this summer, I thought I’d link back to this 2014 post by Paul Gilster on Centauri Dreams about “SETI at the … Continue reading "Synthetic at Every Scale"

[Image: Weeds, via Wikipedia.] This story, from July 1988, feels unexpectedly timely today, given our new era of experimental sci-fi building materials, from mushroom bricks to translucent wood. “Two brothers were convicted by a federal jury Thursday on charges that they organized an elaborate hoax in which they duped investors of $3 million with claims … Continue reading "Weed Hoax Architecture"

[Image: Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer by Caspar David Friedrich (c. 1818).] It would be interesting to look at locations of the American popular imagination, as seen in movies and TV, mapped against regional tax breaks for the film industry. There was a brief span of time, for example, when rural Pennsylvania stood in for … Continue reading "Tax Incentives and the Human Imagination"