Futuriana

Last month I was at the Ouseburn Trust waiting to go on their Brewery Tour (which was not as blokey as the photo on their website imples) and a time travel kids book in their gift shop, so of course I had to get it. Flipping through the first couple of pages there was a scene of the kids being skeptical about the importance of history, so I figured I knew what to expect, but I’m happy to report it’s much better and deeper than that. It’s the summer holidays, Archie’s grandfather is unwell, Deela’s father is over-protective and her …

My birthday started on Thursday as far as I’m concerned, since it was First Thursday – and a busy one now that the weather is warmer and the daylight lasts past the end of the workday. I’ve managed to schedule other little things for every day through Tuesday the 10th, an unusually busy birthday celebration for me, but the big one was a visit to Beamish on Saturday. Everyone has recommended Beamish, including I kid you not, complete strangers at random pubs. I’ve been wanting to go, but was a bit skeptical it would live up to such universal praise. …

February is nearly done, its warmed enough to maybe put away the thermals, and the sun is still out when I close my work laptop at the end of the day. Eastercon is hovering on the horizon, whispering about deadlines. Last weekend I finally made the effort to watch the local Lunar New Year parade, I’d caught bits of it previously but since I had morning errands in town and the weather was (mostly) quite nice, I followed the crowds till I found a gap along the parade route and watched the whole thing. It was surprisingly chaotic from a …

After being disappointed by the wildly uneven 28 Years Later, I went into this cautiously optimistic based on word-of-mouth and the knowledge that at worst it would have more Ralph Fiennes. I knew it was a direct sequel, and I’d seen the poster/publicity stills, but that’s about it. And it was great! Gory, funny, touching, with depth if you’re looking for it, but solid horror action if that’s all you’re in it for. Although the rage zombies are still very much (full) front(al) and center, the 2YL series (they’re doing a third one) is maybe most interesting to me as …

Miniature Worlds: Little Landscapes from Thomas Bewick to Beatrix Potter is lovely exhibition at the Laing, focused on tailpieces and other small vignettes. The emphasis on landscapes in the title feels a tiny (hah) bit misleading as many of the vignettes are of people and animals, obviously including the Beatrix Potters, and some Tenniel Alice illustrations, and Blake’s Virgil woodcuts. Thomas Bewick, a local artist, was entirely new to me – and a delightful discovery. His engravings are wonderfully made and seeing them up close is a treat, the exhibition provides a magnifying glass to get the full detail. But more …

Slightly over a week in, already tired of it. Closer to home it’s been not so bad though. Christmas was pleasant, twixmas quiet, and we had visitors for an at-home NYE and a few days after. Epiphany/Reyes/Little Christmas is usually Catmass in our house but the internet did not oblige with the gifts I had decided on for them, so they will get them when back in stock, luckily although they know the time of day they are fuzzier (hah!) on the calendar. First Thursday was Jan 1st, so we postponed to the 8th and that was clearly wise as …

We are in the runup to the end of the year, marked mainly by top ten of the year articles, app year-in-review marketing campaigns, and roundup blog posts. So here I am doing my bit. Most of the excursions and adventures I’ve blogged about already. I tend not to review things much anymore, but ’tis the Season of Lists so some favourites in no particular order. Books: Private Rites by Julia Armfield, which I was rooting for to win the Clarke. A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall, which was the coziest without being slight. When There Are …

If you know me, you know I love a gimmick, so I was very excited to go see the space prog rock band Henge on their current tour. They call their sound cosmic dross, and I’d say their vibe cosmic utopianism, but nerdy. Obviously the main initial attraction for me was the theatricality of it all, the band has four members – of which only the synth player is human. Lead signer Zpor may appear human but is actually a billion year old alien from Agricular in Cosmos Redshift 7, he wears robes and a headpiece topped with a plasma …

We had a Halloween party again this year, cosmic horror themed this time. Almost everyone wore some sort of costume, and as Halloween fell on a Friday this time we had lots of trick-or-treaters to scare. My main project for decorating was an infinity mirror serving as a sort of void/vortex of stars but I had to scale it down because it turns out two mirrors boxed together can get quite heavy! Still, it was fun to try out and hopefully I can expand it next time around. November has been dark, cold, and rainy so far, but enjoyable all …