So, in response to reading this Buzzfeed piece about how comics pro Tony Harris hates female cosplayers — only some of them, though, which we’ll get to in a moment — I tweeted Pro tip: geeks of all genders who are confident in their geekery and their sexuality get laid more often. Confidence is sexy. […]
Whining isn’t Sexy: Rage about Nerd Rage Read More »
So there I was at Chicon 7, attending a panel called “Human or Robot: Is Human Spaceflight Necessary?” with Ben Bova. Bova was the moderator, and there were no other panelists beside the two of us. (There were more of us scheduled, but none of them showed. I assume they were hung over.) The panel
Fascists and Futurism Read More »
Kids on the Slope is slice-of-life anime, and it’s also a rare case of director Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop; Samurai Champloo) adapting an existing work: a manga called Sakamichi no Apollon by Yuki Kodama. Wikipedia summarizes the plot like this: The beginning of summer, 1966. Because of his father’s job situation, freshman high school student
My Favorite Things: “Kids on the Slope” and Watanabe’s canon Read More »
I was in the car with a friend on the way to a foresight gig with the advisory council for a major philanthropy broker, and as we waited at a red light he said: “I’ve been meaning to ask you a challenge question for a while.” “Shoot,” I said. “Are you concerned with where science
“Are you concerned with where science fiction is going?” Read More »
Rahel Aima has a new essay on the New Aesthetic, and I really enjoyed it. Not least because it quotes me. As my mom said: “Remember when you quoted other people in your own essays?” Well yes, of course I do. Mostly because I still do it. But it’s a nice feeling nontheless. It means
More on that whole New Aesthetic thing… Read More »
A while back, I wrote a bit about why you should watch Puella Magi Madoka Magica. At the time, I had only watched four episodes. Now I’ve seen all twelve, and I still agree with that. Here’s why. Puella Magi Madoka Magica, currently streaming for free on Crunchyroll, is quite frankly one of the best
I still think you should watch Madoka. Read More »
Last summer, I participated in the Bordertown design studio, a ten-week seminar on the subject of cities divided by borders. Everyone involved developed a deliverable, which we exhibited at the Detroit Design Festival. At the time, I was too blown away by the city of Detroit and its inhabitants to talk about my own work.
Bordertown, Surveillance, and the Evil Eye Read More »
DARPA has decided it would like a humanoid robot sometime in the near future, and is willing to pay you to build it. Here are the reasons I’m excited about this news: I’m writing a series of novels about humanoid robots. (Scroll down for some most excellent blurbage.) DARPA has agreed to allow unpaid teams
About those DARPA robots… Read More »
Since Bruce Sterling’s excellent post at Beyond the Beyond covering “The New Aesthetic” panel at SxSW ’12, a lot of other entries have sprung up talking about it. I thought I’d round some up: An Essay on the New Aesthetic, by Bruce Sterling The New Aesthetic and I, by Damien G. Walter New Aesthetics —
The New Aesthetics of the male gaze Read More »
I met Mike Daisey after his performance of The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs at the Seattle Repertory Theatre, during the spring of 2011. At the time, Steve Jobs was still alive, and the theatre served free apple-tinis to patrons who came in cosplaying him. Black turtlenecks were in abundance. One of my
What fiction can do: or, a word on Mike Daisey from someone who’s met him Read More »