Planets = Big Towns. One of the problems with Space Opera style science fiction is that it tends just to scale up normal adventure fiction into the larger sizes of the universe. Therefore we get spaceships that do trips of a few thousand light years […]

International Business Traveler
Steve’s post below skirts round the subject of fear of flying. I never used to be afraid of getting on a plane, then suddenly a couple of years ago I started getting the twinges of unease he talks about. I realis[…]

Total Relaxation Inducer
From the Future Slang website:
Sleep Machine (TRI): Total Relaxation Inducer. Coffin-like machine that compresses a full night’s sleep into ten minutes.
From the BBC website: World’s first sleep center opens in Ne[…]

To delightful Amsterdam – one of my favourite things about the place possibly being it’s relative proximity to where I am now. An hour in the sky and you’re back on the ground, wham bam. My attitude to flying veers haphazardly from […]

Identity Crisis Remixed: DC Comics’ rubbish ‘summer event’ given an unsubtle, but deserved slap. (via I Want A Blog, and speaking of unsubtle, is that the welcome return of Styleman I spy…?)[…]

Is travel writing inherently imperialist?
Chinua Achebe seems to think so. Here’s his take on The Artist Abroad from Home and Exile:

Diverse as their individual situations or predicaments were, these children
of the West roamed the world wi[…]

A Poetics Of Pop
Amateurist asks for more technically informed analysis of music: you can guess the discussion that ensues (at least if you’ve spent any time on ILM). For what it’s worth I’m with Michael Daddino – great idea, […]

“This self-indulgence could kill a boy…”
Here it is! “Unworthy” by Thieves, my almost-nomination for the best tracks of the 90s poll on ILM. Who were Thieves? A duo of David McAlmont (later of Bernard Butler team-up and […]

The Fall And Rise Of Fiorentina
As related here, an extraordinary sequence of events has ensured that Fiorentina will play in Serie A only two years after being stripped of the rights to their old badge and team colours and relegated to Serie C2 afte[…]

Over the river and through the woods… — going to see grandma (and grandpa, on my dad’s side) was always one of those special things for me, because they lived so far away most of the time. Not all the time — for two years, th[…]