| War of the Worlds |
[Jun. 9th, 2009|08:54 pm] |
Six of us went to "The O2" on Sunday night to see Jeff Wayne's live performance of War of the Worlds. I was the only member of the group familiar with the work. There were three twenty-somethings and a 12 year old in my company. They all enjoyed the evening.
It was quite spectacular, with all the musicians on stage, some big screen images, and the wonderful music.
Being of an age to be fond of the piece from its original incarnation as a conept album over 30 years ago (and owning a vinyl copy) I was delighted to be at the event.
The negatives were the less than ideal sound quality; Richard Burton's narration was a bit fuzzy and difficult to make out at times; the Parson's wife was clear and distinct in her singing and the artillery man did a fine job; the diction of the other singers was not great; in general the music was a bit too loud for the the singers.
On the positive side, the music was great; there were a number of clever elements to the performance that I will not give away here; they used Richard Burton's original narration; it was War of the Worlds!
All in all it was a very enjoyable night. Given its iconic status was was great to be present at a live performance. I was not, however, tempted to get a CD of the evening's performance. I will stick to my original for listening pleasure.
It was my first time in the O2 since it was renovated. It is a great improvement and was well managed on the night. A good venue. |
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| Boasting & Bragging |
[Jun. 6th, 2009|07:31 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | books | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  happy | ] |
I just bought a 1st Edition of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Lost World".
It cost me the sum total of 10euros.
:-) |
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| The Tear by Ian McDonald |
[May. 23rd, 2009|06:20 pm] |
The Tear by Ian McDonald, (Galactic Empires edited by Gardner Dozois)
I have just finished The Tear by Ian McDonald. It has been nominated in the Best Novella category of the Hugo Awards and justly deserves its place on the shortlist.
For a novella, it covers vast expanses of space, time, emotion and life. Coming of age; multiple stages of life; first love; lost love; moving on; political unrest; xenophobia; evolution; space opera; and life in general are all there; whether Ian meant them to be or not.
I won’t spoil the story by giving away detail, but will say that a few hours taken to read this 75 page tale will be hours well spent. I still have another of the Hugo nominated novellas to read, but The Tear will be hard to beat in relation to getting my vote.
Next on my Hugo Nominees reading list is Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross, which is nominated in the Best Novel category.
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| BETRAYED! |
[May. 18th, 2009|11:21 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  depressed | ] |
Today I discovered, to my horror, that The Oxford Dictionary of English includes:-
Incentiviz(s)e.
I give up! |
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| Hugo Voters Pack |
[Apr. 26th, 2009|11:00 pm] |
I have received my Hugo Voters' Pack of electronic copies of almost all the Hugo nominated works. This is 178mb of great value, including:
6 novels,
4 novellas,
4 novellettes,
5 short stories,
3 non-fiction books,
Art work
and more; and more; and more...
All this for a mere €35 (55 Canadian Dollars), the price of a Supporting Membership, which also gives me the right to vote, which I will definitely be doing.
One can sign up for Anticipation here and can read about the Hugo Voters' Pack here.
A list of the Hugo Nominated works can be viewed here.
I strongly recommend anyone interested in Science Fiction to take advantage of this offer and to vote in the Hugo Awards. Better still, go one better than me and take out a full membership and attend WorldCon in Montreal this August.
Now to start reading the nominations. |
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| Yiddish Policemen's Union |
[Apr. 22nd, 2009|07:48 pm] |
The "Yiddish Policemen's Union" is a murder mystery set in an alternate reality in which Jews were unable to occupy Palestine in 1948 and were settled temporarily in part of Alaska. Religion and chess play a large part in this book, as does the diversity of the people making up the population of the Jewish district.
Apart from being in an alternate reality, I do not see how this book warranted nomination for the 2007 Hugo and Nebula awards. Having found it to be a moderate to mediocre murder mystery I am surprised it won both awards.
Unless you are an avid murder mystery reader you are not likely to find the story of great interest. |
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| Congratulations Ken |
[Apr. 14th, 2009|06:12 pm] |
Congratulations to Ken MacLeod for winning the BSFA Award for Best Novel for Night Sessions.
I have read Night Sessions and can recommend it strongly. |
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| Convention Open |
[Mar. 28th, 2009|05:03 am] |
Well, we're up and running. There was a great turnout for the first evening of the convention, with the main room packed. |
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| GOOD NEWS for a change! |
[Mar. 22nd, 2009|11:34 am] |
This weekend has been very positive and full of good news.
Firstly, I won a CD on a text-in radio competition. I had to give the name of Natalie Cole's father. For getting that right, I will receive her latest CD.
They played some of the tracks from the album, and Natalie is her father's daughter. I'm sure he would be proud of her.
( There's MORE ) |
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| Phoenix Convention VI |
[Mar. 18th, 2009|11:18 pm] |
I have been busy over the past months getting ready for Phoenix Convention VI. I have not been posting much about it in LJ, but here is the latest Newsletter.
Phoenix Convention VI Newsletter
Wednesday, 18th March, 2009
( Detail ) |
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| More pumpkin shots |
[Mar. 15th, 2009|04:45 pm] |
I have been requested for more pictures of that pumpkin.
( More ) |
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| Ultimate Science Fiction Collection |
[Mar. 15th, 2009|04:13 pm] |
For those of you with a spare $116,530 the ultimate collection of science fiction books is on offer at abebooks, here. It comprises first editions all the Nebula and Hugo award winners, 98% of them signed.
By the way, post and packing is free.
I can see this generating a number of book memes. |
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| Winning Pumpkin |
[Mar. 14th, 2009|06:36 pm] |
One of neices in New Zealand just won 1st Prize in a pumpkin growing competition. She is pictured above with her two children and the winning pumpkin, which weighed in at 80.4kg.
Yippee! |
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| P-Con, Phoenix Convention |
[Feb. 24th, 2009|09:52 pm] |
I haven't been posting here much in the past six months, but now, I have news to spread.
Phoenix Convention VI is being held at the end of March - 27th, 28th and 29th.
You can find out more detail at the Convention website.
Cheryl Morgan has posted a P-Con Preview on her blog, here. |
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| Shock & amazement |
[Feb. 22nd, 2009|10:01 pm] |
It was my eldest daugher's boyfriend's (are you still with me?) birthday yesterday. I wanted to get him a copy of one of my favourite books, Gormenghast, so I went to two of the best bookshops in the city. They didn't have a copy.
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| I'm working from home today! |
[Feb. 3rd, 2009|09:12 am] |
I got into the car last evening at 6pm to drive home. I parked outside my house at 10:55pm.
Dublin had about 3 inches of snow. Our roads and drivers just can't handle it.
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