Monthly Archives: October 2006

explains why he likes Adric.

From Liz Fuller in today’s Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty newsline: AZERBAIJANI EXPERTS ASSESS POSSIBLE INTERNET SECURITY THREAT. The website day.az has asked two experts to assess the possible threat to Azerbaijan’s national security posed by the posting on maps.google.com of … Continue reading →

Here. In particular, watch the second of the two video clips. Brought tears to my eyes. In fact, look at the whole of the on-line documentary. ETA: belated hat-tip to .

Sorry for the mucho Doctor Who posting this weekend, a combination of not feeling like doing much else and catching up with stuff I’ve watched ages ago and never got around to blogging. Anyway this will be a fairly short … Continue reading →

As has predicted it will be all over livejournal, I must fulfill his prediction. Hilarious spoof of Firefly.

13) Nine Princes in Amber, by Roger Zelazny 14) The Guns of Avalon, by Roger Zelazny 15) Sign of the Unicorn, by Roger Zelazny 16) The Hand of Oberon, by Roger Zelazny 17) The Courts of Chaos, by Roger Zelazny … Continue reading →

Diehard fan though I am, my family was living in the Netherlands in 1979-80 and so I have never seen any of Season Seventeen (“Destiny of the Daleks”, “City of Death”, “The Creature from the Pit”, “Nightmare of Eden”, “The … Continue reading →

Oh dear. It’s pretty dire. The anti-matter monsters are either laughable video effects or men in not-very-threatening rubber suits. The quarry is a quarry. There is a character who is funny because he is working class. There is a human … Continue reading →

I’ve already written several entries about this while we were wacthing it, but it really is fantastic. It’s a 1976 BBC dramatisation of Robert Graves’ two novels, I, Claudius (1934) and Claudius the God (1935), and deserves to be even … Continue reading →

I spotted the two-disc English language DVD version of this going cheap in the local FNAC and bought it about a month ago. I’m one of the diehard fans of the original 1978-80 radio series, and will accept no substitutes, … Continue reading →

Using the weekend to catch up with three classic bits of TV I have rewatched recently, and never got around to writing up here. First up is “The Caves of Androzani”, a Doctor Who story first broadcast in 1984. It … Continue reading →

I decided when I started blogging that, since I am a public figure (at least in some countries), there was no point in embracing anonymity at the risk of being exposed; so my real name has been clear here from … Continue reading →

OK, we have now watched the first two episodes – “Everything Changes” yesterday and “Day One” tonight – and we really enjoyed it. I haven’t read anyone else’s lj entries about it except my wife‘s (will now go back and … Continue reading →

Tom Baker and John Culshaw on Dead Ringers (with thanks to ) I managed to get hold of the 1999 documentary, “Adventures in Space and Time” the other day, which is narrated (in another Hitch-Hiker link) by Peter Jones. Tom … Continue reading →

Yes, has it right: the answer to my previous question is indeed Calvin Coolidge. On 1 June 1925, Thomas Marshall, who had been Vice-President from 1913 to 1921, died aged 71. Coolidge had succeded him as Vice-President in 1921 and … Continue reading →

In anticipation of November 11, when (all being well) Gerald Ford will become the longest-lived U.S. President ever, I have been mulling these statistics. From the end of his presidential term on 4 March 1801 until his death on 4 … Continue reading →

12) Star Songs of an Old Primate, by James Tiptree Jr With all the buzz about Julie Phillips’ new biography of Alice Sheldon, I realised that I am not as familiar with the works of James Tiptree as I would … Continue reading →

From here. 1 quaff for: Banishments in General Executions in General Suicide in General Adultery in General Orgies 2 quaffs for: Murders & Assassinations in General Poisonings in Particular Incest Omens and Sibyls 3 quaffs for: Assassinations/Poisoning of Emperors (w/accompanying … Continue reading →

Only one episode left. Sigh.

11) A Wayfarer in Sweden, by Frederic Whyte I’m slowly working my way through the works of Frederic Whyte (1867-1940), who was both my first cousin thrice removed and and my second cousin twice removed. In this book, published in … Continue reading →

Mastermind: I thought the HP Lovecraft questions were a little easier than the Agatha Christie ones – though surely it is a bit unsporting to restrict the Agatha Christie questions to the Poirot novels alone? My knowledge of Led Zeppelin … Continue reading →

, may I mutually recommend who blogs both at Inuit Bikini Scarlet Carwash and Hunting Monsters? You are both into international politics and alternate history. (And those of you who share their interests would probably enjoy reading both.)

Has anyone out there read Oracle by Ian Watson? It would seem to fit both my interest in Irish-related sf and my interest in sf at least partly set in Belgium…

9) Charlotte Brontë’s Promised Land, by Eric Ruijssenaars Enthused by my recent reading of Villette, I ordered this little book from the Brontë Society last week and it was waiting for me on my return from Moldova. I must be … Continue reading →

8) One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn Somewhat grim reading, but at least very short. It is basically the history of a single day in a Soviet labour camp in 1951. The prisoners are mostly … Continue reading →

7) The File on H, by Ismail Kadarë I’ve read a few Kadarë books – most recently, The General of the Dead Army – and happened to see this one at Vienna Airport on my way through to Moldova on … Continue reading →

6) The Scales of Injustice, by Gary Russell I think the first Doctor Who spinoff novel I read was Gary Russell’s Invasion of the Cat-People, long long ago. I was so deeply unimpressed that it was years before I read … Continue reading →

Well, I have got through the ten unread books I listed a month ago. I think roughly two of them were books that I would whole-heartedly recommend to others to read: The Color Purple and Persuasion

5) The Color Purple, by Alice Walker My Unread Books Project has not delivered me a barrel of laughs so far, and I have to say that my heart sank as the narrator is raped at the age of fourteen … Continue reading →

4) Villette, by Charlotte Brontë With my ancestral home being near where the Brontë sisters’ father was born, and having trudged through Jane Eyre for my O-level in English Literature (one of my two B grades, along with Religious Education), … Continue reading →