The Hugo Awards have been given annually since 1955 for the best science fiction or fantasy works, including best novel. I love science fiction and I recently thought of reading all the Hugo Award-winning novels that I hadn't read. So I checked out the list of Hugo Award-winning novels and was surprised to find that I had read 9 of them -- surprised, because I always feel like I read less than a lot of my friends.
Carrie Fisher is back at the Berkeley Rep performing her solo show, Wishful Drinking. I saw this show last year, and it's hilarious and brilliant. During the first act, she deconstructs her rather tangled family relationships -- her mother is Debbie Reynolds (3 marriages) and her father is Eddie Fisher (5 marriages)-- in a segment entitled Hollywood Inbreeding 101. I'm not that into Hollywood gossip, but this part of the show had me cracking up.
The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky takes the Old Testament literally and throws out evolution. The museum supports beliefs that the universe was created in 6 days and is only 6,000 years old, and rejects and ridicules science that says the universe is much older. Recently, a group of paleontologists meeting in Cincinnati made the short trip to the museum. Here's what happened.
Flash mobs are performing the Thriller dance and Michael Jackson songs around the world. You're not surprised, are you?
My friend John Vink loves to create interesting random projects. His latest effort is South Winchester News, a hyperlocal web site dedicated to a 4.5-mile stretch of Winchester Boulevard, a wonderfully kitchy and useful commercial street that runs near his house (and mine) through San Jose, Campbell, and Los Gatos, California. Winchester Boulevard, named for the family that founded the Winchester weapons company and home of the infamous Winchester Mystery House, is a patchwork of buildings spanning more than 100 years of development and housing hundreds of businesses that include a Russian deli, several sushi places, Mexican restaurants and carnicerias, an Ethiopian market, a couple of thrift stores, numerous fast food joints, Chinese restaurants, an ultra-chic faux-downtown shopping district, and a derelict Burger King, which closed more than 10 years ago but still keeps the light on over its salad bar (waiting for Sarah Winchester, perhaps?).
Please enjoy South Winchester News, and check out this Google map of the South Winchester Boulevard territory it covers:
Earlier this month, the 5th anniversary of the Sonic Blog passed with little fanfare. The Sonic Blog is a bit of surreality that happened in the comments when I wrote a most innocent blog post about visiting a Sonic Drive-In in Ripon, California. A few days ago my friend Stacie Tamaki wrote a wonderful post on her award-winning The Flirty Guide blog that explains a bit about the history of the Sonic blog.
Last Sunday my family and I spent part of Father's Day at the Silicon Valley Duck Race. The race takes place every year at beautiful Vasona Park in Los Gatos, California. This year 15,000 rubber ducks were poured into the creek for the big race. We left before the race started, but I was there for the test run of 2000 ducks. Here's a video I shot with my handy new iPhone 3GS:
At Eddie Papa's in Pleasanton, they serve cotton candy with the check.
Bill Rasmussen: Sports Junkies Rejoice : The Birth of ESPN (*****)
Vernor Vinge: The Peace War (*****)
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle: The Mote in God's Eye (****)
Various: Creepy Archives (*****)
Jenny Block: Open: Love, Sex, and Life in an Open Marriage (***)
Jack Kirby: Jack Kirby's O.M.A.C. One Man Army Corps (*****)
