A bit of housekeeping - crossposting from Dreamwidth appears to be permanently down, so I am manually copying this which will be my last post on LiveJournal.  Please find me at https://chris-gerrib.dreamwidth.org/.

For the record and so I may refer to them later, my thoughts on the situation in the Ukraine.

First, there is no moral, legal or ( Read more... )

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Herewith is my schedule for Capricon, to be held in downtown Chicago at the Sheraton Grand Chicago February 3 -6, 2022.

The Best Genre Novels of 2021 Erie Literature Panel Thu 5:00 PM

Hugo nominating season is upon us, so let's take a moment to talk about our favorite SF/F novels from 2021.

The Lighter Side of Speculative Fiction Michigan Fan ( Read more... )

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This past Saturday the Chicago area was hit by a snowstorm. Said storm was at it's peak in my area during the hours I usually go out for dinner, so I stayed in and watched Netflix. My viewing choices proved to be a British invasion.

First up was the 2017 movie Darkest Hour. This was a film which earned Gary Oldman an Oscar. Despite that, I had ( Read more... )

Happy New Years! I stayed in last night. After cooking myself a large steak I watched the new Netflix film Don't Look Up and part of another Netflix film, The Lost Daughter. I have thoughts on both - herewith in reverse order of screening.

I found The Lost Daughter entirely too slow for my tastes, and didn't really care much for the characters. ( Read more... )

One of the cool things about going to conventions is you get to meet people with wildly varying backgrounds. At the most recent Worldcon, Discon 3, I met somebody with personal experience in dealing with Amanda Palmer. For those not in the know, Amanda is an American singer and mid-tier celebrity. She's notable in this instance for her book The ( Read more... )

I'm at Discon III, the current World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon). One of the things we do at a Worldcon is vote on where the convention will be two years from now. It was announced today that Chengdu, China won the bid for 2023. It was not my first choice, largely due to the travel cost. The other bid was Winnipeg, Canada - obviously ( Read more... )

So one of my local theater companies, Buffalo Theatre Ensemble, has gone back to in-person plays. I attended their recent showing of Stove Toucher. I quite enjoyed it, although based on the advanced marketing I was not enthusiastic about it.

The advanced marketing was "What happens when you achieve the high-rolling lifestyle you always dreamed of ( Read more... )

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