Admittedly, I’m late to seeing Looper. I saw it last night because Argo was sold out and The Cloud Atlas wasn’t for a couple of hours but I really enjoyed it and I’m glad we saw it. The premise: In 2074, time travel has been invented. It’s illegal but is being used by criminal organizations […]
Author: karlschmieder
Maya Warrior Queen Tomb Found: Lady K’abel
Check this out: Seventh-century Maya Holy Snake Lord, Lady K’abel, was just found in Guatemala. According to the article: K’abel, considered the greatest ruler of the Late Classic period, ruled with her husband, K’inich Bahlam, for at least 20 years (672-692 AD), Freidel says. She was the military governor of the Wak kingdom for her […]
R.I.P. Chavela Vargas (1919-2012)
A brief moment of silence, a shot of tequila and a grito de un amor perdido for the great ranchera songstress Chavela Vargas. When I hear Chavela Vargas, I hear ranchera at its most definitive. Her voice expresses hardships and pain, loneliness, bitterness, discontent, desires, love lost and love with a capital ‘L.’ Here’s BoingBoing’s Xeni […]
My Modest Reading List: Summer of 2012 Edition UPDATED
UPDATE: Starting in 2013, I tracked the books and media I consumed throughout the year. Want to see what I was into in 2013? Click here. Want to know what I’ve been reading in 2014? Click here. I’m busy. Unfortunately, that means I can’t read as much as I would like. It kills me, actually. […]
Using Your Bloody Red-Eyed Insomnia to Get Things Done
I had two good friends make suggestions on what I should blog about and I liked what they suggested, so here’s the first post for my good friend Laura Thanks to X’s “Nausea” for inspiring my title.over at Learning Catalan. My name is Karl and I am an insomniac. As a kid, I always had […]
BOOK REVIEW: THE ARCTIC INCIDENT (Artemis Fowl 2 )
Someone’s been selling illegal fairy technology to goblins. The Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance Unit (LEPrecon) suspects Artemis Fowl, a 13-year old criminal mastermind, who previously cost the fairies of the Lower Elements a half-ton of gold and the embarrassment of being outwitted by a human. Goblins, fairies, LEPrecon and a teenage criminal mastermind? For readers […]
SF+F OWW: Columbus Circle of Time is an Editor’s Choice
I am proud to say the first four chapters of The Columbus Circle of Time were chosen as an Editor’s Choice on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Online Writer’s Workshop. When I heard at the end of last month, I couldn’t believe it but when the review came in I couldn’t stop smiling. Here’s a […]
Blatant Consumerism: End of Days Limited Edition Capitalizing on the Mayan Prophecy
This arrived in my mailbox today on the backpage of the Fountain Pen Hospital catalogue. I know people are capitalizing on the Mayan 2012 prophecy, have been for the past few years, and I expect more will follow but for some reason this really amused me. Here’s the marketing copy (bolding and italics are mine): […]
Review: The Hunger Games
I’ve mentioned before that I like to read what my 11-year old Alejandro is reading and last summer, I noticed several of his friends were reading The Hunger Games. Alejandro tore through the three books in the series in a matter of days. And when I finally had a chance, I read the first two […]
Review: Hot Tub Time Machine
A group of three middle-aged best friends whose lives didn’t turn out as expected. A friend who spends all his time online. A ski resort that has seenbetter days. A hot tub, a squirrel, vodka, and an illegal energy drink. These are the elements that transport these four guys back to the eighties when their lives […]