Scrivener by Keith Thompson

“Invaluable to the theurgical community, the scriveners rotate their pelvises to give each pair of legs resting time during their relentless task of producing the reams of glyphs and charted incantations demanded of them.”

Leviathan - The Grand Map by Keith Thompson

I’m off to get Scott Westerfeld and Keith Thompson to sign my copy of Leviathan on Thursday night.

Steampunk and zombies FTW.

“Steampunk: An aesthetic movement based around the science fiction of a future that never happened.”

Hmm. Just realised that Firefly is steampunk. I love Firefly.

Negativland - Christianity is Stupid (from the excellent Escape from Noise, 1987)

I can’t believe I never get tired of this song.

I listened to a lot of Laibach when I was in high school. Still totally brilliant, and if I lived in London I’d be at their show in December.

Life is Life (from Opus Dei, 1987)

Get Back and Across the Universe (from Let it Be, 1988)

Sympathy for the Devil (from Sympathy for the Devil, 1988)

The Rolling Stones - Wild Horses

I love watching their faces as they listen to their music. Plus, they’re wearing some truly awesome trousers.

“At a time when productivity is the world’s largest religion, the siesta tradition lives on. In Spain, work operates under the command of life, instead of the other way around. No task is so critical that it can’t wait a couple of hours while you attend to more important matters like eating, relaxing, or catching up on sleep from a night on the town … Taking a long break in the middle of the day is not only healthier than the conventional lunch; it’s apparently more natural. Sleep researchers have found that the Spanish biorhythm may be tuned more closely to our biological clocks. Studies suggest that humans are ‘biphasic’ creatures, requiring days broken up by two periods of sleep instead of one up-till-you-drop ‘monophasic’ shift.”

Having grown up in Catholic, siesta-based cultures, I find the Protestant work ethic and capitalist-efficiency ethos of North America to be entirely oppressive. I nap as often as possible.

“Eastern long-necked turtles living in the suburbs of Australia have larger home ranges and cope better with periods of drought. The reptiles also appear to grow and survive better, suggesting suburban environments may sometimes be superior places to live than natural ones.”