Saturday, January 18, 2003

Saturday Night Blather

Here is my review of Michael Chabon's Summerland for GMR. I'm proud of this one. Well, I was proud of my Indian Runner review too. It is much easier to review things that are really good, and that I really love, than things that are mediocre...

Speaking of which, I learned this week that I will be losing my Andromeda reviewing gig at SlipstreamWeb because the site is shutting down. I have very mixed feelings about this from a number of standpoints. There's my professional reaction in the current terrible freelance market that I am sorry to lose a job, any job. Then there's my fannish reaction that I am sorry to lose what was always the liveliest Andromeda site around. But I rarely even glanced at the Slipstream BBS because there were so many vicious, nasty fans there, and I continue to be frustrated by the show, which has never lived up to its potential and has suffered from wildly uneven writing since the beginning. On the other hand, it has two of my favorite female characters in sci-fi, five actors whose work I greatly enjoy (including the much-maligned Kevin Sorbo), and enough humor and pathos to keep me tuning in even when the scripts are lousy. On a gut level I still enjoy it more than Enterprise and much more than the last several seasons of Voyager.

You%20are%20Irish
What's your Inner European?

brought to you by Quizilla


Now this really surprised me -- I thought I'd be Parisian! I have fallen in love with a number of Irish people in my life, but I don't particularly identify with the Irish beyond the commonalities between the Irish and Jewish immigrant experiences on this side of the Atlantic. And other than Joyce being my favorite of the listed authors, I didn't think I answered anything with a particularly Gaelic slant!

Back for a moment to Summerland -- I think we need to create a REAL Fantasy Baseball League. Nine Princes in Amber vs. the U.S.S. Voyager senior officers. The Fellowship of the Ring vs. the 1947 Roswell Grays. The Field of Dreams Dead All-Stars vs. the Devil's Damn Yankees. That sort of thing.

No comments: