Odd Obsession

Those of us who read science fiction know that even SF of the finest quality can be represented by truly fugly covers that cause us embarrassment while riding the bus. The two major ways they tend to go wrong are: 1) attempting to depict scenes in the book photo-realistically while failing in knowledge of basic anatomy , and 2) having way, way too many things (and fonts) going on at the same time . No wonder e-books are so big with the fandom. This is the one that allowed me to finally realize my dream of having something on Good Show Sir .   Why, hello there, giant-brain-eyeball-octopus-bat-guy! And what’s behind your head? It’s not the moon, because it doesn’t go all the way around. An enormous cantaloupe, perhaps? This one just has too many elements. Do we really need a blue alien, a rocket, purple tomatoes/pumpkins, pseudo-Mayan panther/snakes, AND a bug-eyed alien with one antenna holding a wine glass?  If this is about a human who swaps...

Better than just about anything, really * Someone recently brought up Billy Bragg to me as an exception that I should make to my curmugeonly, folkie-hating ways. Well, I did see him back when young and less set in my convictions, and he did not impress me that much. (Now, I want to preface this by saying that I do not feel the burning hatred of a thousand suns for actors or musicians who express political opinions, such as some conservative commentators feel for all those not named Ronald Reagan.  If you go to far in that direction, you might as well say anyone who was not actually a politician couldn't comment on politics, and how sad would that be? It would eliminate both Noam Chomsky (linguistics professor) and Glenn Beck (morning drive-time DJ). Glenn Beck isn't wrong because he's self-taught, he's wrong because he thinks Obama will give the United States to George Soros to make into his own personal socialist fiefdom.) Bragg started out with a recording of...