Thursday, October 2, 2014

Remember, drink responsibly!



After a couple of pints, Sid starts flashing his TARDIS in the bar.
- Sid

UPDATE: As it turns out, my sister's question below about the ghost at the Inn on the Falls is not entirely correct.  Apparently there is a total of three ghosts on site, not one.  Now, as I've previously commented, I'm a bit of a sceptic when it comes to this sort of supernatural phenomenon, but it's an interesting coincidence that out of all the places we could have stayed in Muskoka, we ended up at the haunted inn.
 

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Sentimental Concrete Robot and Other Toronto Vignettes

As per my birthday posting, I'm currently in Toronto as part of a one-week vacation trip to Ontario. Following are a few quick outtakes from the trip so far.


Good advice, but unexpected.


Really not the kind of thing that I was expecting to see for sale in Yorkville.

 
The alien invaders were quick to adapt their buildings to ours.


I'm not going to claim that the original Royal Ontario Museum is an example of classical architectural excellence, but seriously, these two styles do NOT work together.  In fact, if you told me this was the result of alien spores rather than deliberate planning, I might well believe you.
 

Abandoned Raygun, Rockwood Conservation Centre.

 
Score.


Whenever I visit Colin, he always takes me to the Pickering Flea Market - I'm not sure why, there's only so much shopping I can do when I'm travelling with carry-on - but this time there was an unexpected bonus.  The Market has added an Antiques section, where I was surprised to find some copies of Galaxy magazine from the 50s for a mere $3.50 each.  They're not in mint condition, the spines are a bit beaten up, but I know a lot of people of similar vintage who also have back problems.



Not a bad name for a band - okay, maybe an 80s band.


And, in conclusion - sentimental concrete robot, as per the posting title.
- Sid
 

Friday, September 26, 2014

Testing for America readers.



I've just started reading Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men, originally published in 1930.  Last and First Men is a unique entry in the library of science fiction, in that for the most part it's without characters or any sort of a plot, and as such it's not really a novel at all.

Then what is it?

Last and First Men is a history of humanity, told from the perspective of the incredibly evolved denizens 2,000,000,000 years in the future. As with actual history, it is episodic, full of tragedy and accomplishment, marked by great leaders, compassionate humanitarians, and brutal villains.  Unlike actual history, Stapledon's version is punctuated by alien invasions, evolutionary alterations, and the eventual entropic death of our species, altered almost beyond description by millennia of evolutionary change.

I'm currently reading the section dealing with the very near future, circa 2030, where Stapledon offers the following description of the United States a hundred years into his own future:
In the Far West, the United States of America openly claimed to be custodians of the whole planet. Universally feared and envied, universally respected for their enterprise, yet for their complacency very widely despised, the Americans were rapidly changing the whole character of man's existence. By this time every human being throughout the planet made use of American products, and there was no region where American capital did not support local labour. Moreover the American press, gramophone, radio, cinematograph and televisor ceaselessly drenched the planet with American thought.
Thus it was that America sank further and further into Americanism. Vast wealth and industry, and also brilliant invention, were concentrated upon puerile ends. In particular the whole of American life was organized around the cult of the powerful individual, that phantom ideal which Europe herself had only begun to outgrow in her last phase.
Those Americans who wholly failed to realize this ideal, who remained at the bottom of the social ladder, either consoled themselves with hopes for the future, or stole symbolical satisfaction by identifying themselves with some popular star, or gloated upon their American citizenship, and applauded the arrogant foreign policy of their government. Those who achieved power were satisfied so long as they could merely retain it, and advertise it uncritically in the conventionally self-assertive manners.
Is it just me, or is the Internet the only thing missing from that description?
 - Sid