Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 163 entries, all of them here in full.
March 29, 2015 · 322 words
Amen
We have here three versions of the “Amen Break,” as originally recorded back in 1969, on a song called “Amen Brother,” by a group called the Winstons. (There was a time, as George Clinton of Parliament recalls, groups were either named after cigarettes, cars, or birds.) “Amen Brother” was the B side of the Winstons’ hi
Read entry →March 22, 2015 · 151 words
Brides on the Beach
Kathy’s workshop is over, and we’re now spending a couple nights in Waikiki before heading home. Today (Saturday) the town was full of Japanese brides being photographed in front of iconic local sites. When we ate at Orchids, we shared the restaurant with several large bridal parties. I took any number of photos of cut
Read entry →March 18, 2015 · 559 words
Submariniana
Here’s a mother humpback whale breaching, while her calf waves a fin good-bye. We had to head for port before this pair became really active, and they started jumping once we were too far away to really get a good view. This was a formal whale watching cruise, sort of a disappointment because the whales […]
Read entry →March 12, 2015 · 330 words
Cape Sounion
Here’s another photo from my long-ago trip to Greece, of sunrise at the temple to Poseidon on Cape Sounion, at the end of the Attic peninsula. I took the bus out to Sounion, bought a ticket, viewed the ruin— which is perhaps the most perfect small temple ever built— and then had souvlaki in a […]
Read entry →March 11, 2015 · 746 words
Secret Masters
So for years, when visiting Santa Fe, I’ve been driving past a giant pink Moorish castle, and wondering what went on inside. For the place was Santa Fe’s Scottish Rite Temple, where met the Secret Masters of Whatever It Is They’re Secret Masters Of. The other day, for the first time in history, the temple […]
Read entry →March 10, 2015 · 213 words
Analog Me
I’m in search of lost time, as Proust might put it. I’ve got a closet full of slide carousels documenting my various travels through the multiverse, and I’ve just bought a scanner/converter to bring them all into the digital age. So for the last few days I have been soaking in nostalgia for the lost […]
Read entry →March 8, 2015 · 94 words
The Multiverse on Sale!
Implied Spaces is now on sale for $0.99 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords. It’s supposed to be on sale at iBooks, but for some reason Apple seems not to have got the word. This situation may be corrected by the time you read this, however. UPDATE: the problem has been solved, and iBooks now […]
Read entry →March 5, 2015 · 448 words
Lessons for Writers: Dr. Funkenstein
I’ve been enjoying the autobiography of George Clinton, with its somehow perfect title, Brothas Be, YO Like George, Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard On You? I really didn’t follow Parliament/Funkadelic back in the day, for various reasons. I liked my rock and roll more straight up. P-Funk was so prolific, with its various
Read entry →March 4, 2015 · 277 words
Bloody Jane
“From this period, the intimacy between the Families of Fitzroy, Drummond and Falknor, daily increased till at length it grew to such a pitch, that they did not scruple to kick one another out of the window on the slightest provocation.” Who was it, d’ye think, that wrote such an elegantly balanced Augustan sentence, a
Read entry →March 3, 2015 · 270 words
Skunked
More details about the fusion reactor being developed by Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works, courtesy of Aviation Week. “We would like to get to a prototype in five generations. If we can meet our plan of doing a design-build-test generation every year, that will put us at about five years, and we’ve already shown we can do
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