I started our modest little book club as a means to motivate SF fans to pick up a book or two, share my love of reading with them, introduce them to authors they may be unfamiliar with and, whenever possible, shed the spotlight on some of the new up-and-coming talent out there. One such writer is Christopher Barzak who will be joining us in April to discuss his Nebula-nominated The Love We Share Without Knowing (You can read a little more about it here: http://christopherbarzak.wordpress.com/the-love-we-share-without-knowing/). Another is Spanish-born author Carlos J. Cortes who will be dropping by in May in support of his Philip K. Dick Award-nominated novel – and May Book of the Month Club selection:
The Prisoner, by Carlos J. Cortes
From the publisher: “2049. Earth’s prisons are shut down and all inmates placed in massive hibernation tanks. In the ten years since then, no one has broken out…until now.
When prisoners check into Washington D.C.’s maximum security “sugar cube,” they don’t check out. Here lie suspended not just the planet’s most dangerous criminals, but also half a million so-called “center inmates”—troublesome activists whose only offense is to challenge those in power.
Laurel Cole was one of those inmates—and now she’s on the run. After pulling off a meticulously executed escape plan, she and her team must elude the police by descending into the tunnels that run like poisoned veins beneath the city. Pursued by a ruthless mercenary who knows these sewers better than anyone, Laurel seeks help from a group of renegades who live huddled in the fetid darkness. But if she ever hopes to see daylight again—and expose the government’s lies—she’ll have to go even deeper. . . and the clock is ticking.”
Discussion the week of May 1oth with author Carlos J. Cortes (who also has a blog dedicated to the novel which “tracks the gestation and execution of the novel, from concept to the bookshop shelves”: http://cortes-theprisoner.blogspot.com/).
Well, with the Olympics drawing to a close, I feel it’s time to offer up my list of The Most Memorable Moments of the 2010 Vancouver Games –
The I.O.C.’s hysterical reaction to the notion of women smoking cigars, drinking beer and – horrors of horrors – celebrating their win: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/talkofthegames/2011191562__the_ioc_will_investigate.html
That damn cauldron. First, one of its four arms fails to rise during the opening ceremonies resulting in all sorts of awkwardness, then it’s fenced in like some dangerous wild animal – for our protection of course: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/oly/6878788.html
At the Olympics, dreams truly can come true. Unless, of course, you turn your cellphone off: http://www.nesn.com/2010/02/german-speed-skater-misses-chance-to-race-for-medal-because-his-phone-was-off.html
Bronze medalist Scotty Lago enjoys the Vancouver nightlife. And is subsequently sent home: http://www.tmz.com/2010/02/21/scotty-lago-olympics-apology-bronze-snowboard-photo/ Reports that the I.O.C. also sent him to bed early with out supper have yet to be confirmed.
Those ridiculous outfits. Aaaah, my eyes!!! http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/18022010/58/winter-olympics-vancouver-worst-dressed-list.html
Russian bobsledder celebrates a wipeout by the Canadian team. Then realized he was on t.v. and tried to cover. Sort of. http://deadspin.com/5480239/russian-bobsledder-a-little-too-pleased-by-canadian-wipeout
Back to work tomorrow for our final week of prep before we start production on SGU’s second season…
I absolutely love that the site featuring the story in which the IOC chastises the women hockey team for drinking alcohol in public (oh the humanity!) has several Budweiser ads on the left side. They are official olympic sponsors.
LOLOLOLOLOL @ the celebrating Russian bobsledder!!! :lolo:
Too funny!!! 😀
Thanks for that!
So, Joey…how’s the itch? 😉
das
Hey joe are we gona see pregnancies abord ship
Congratulations CANADA’s Men’s Hockey Team on your gold medal win and consequent bragging rights.
Ahem…my countrymen did themselves proud as well because silver ain’t shabby. Go USA! Just watching the closing ceremonies here.
Now, on to SGU business. So when do the actors begin showing up to start shooting second season? Will we soon discover how Rush gets out of his predicament as the last part of S-1 airs in April? Or do we need to wait several eps in?
Hope your itchy ears are better Joe.
G’night,
2cats
Hello Joe, Just stoppin by again. I simply Can NOT wait till youguys get SGU rolling and back on our T.V Screens, I mean er I want to see Dr.Rush get that old Alien space craft working just enough and fly it and meet back up with the crew….Least I hope he does as we must have our Rush fix, bringing all the slippery snake like decepton to the show hehe.
I Deffo do not want to rub it in or be disrespectful on your blog at all, but did want to stop by and point out that out “Own the podium” program turned out after all hehe. Serously I hope we can redeem ourselvs as good people after the Curling thing, but as I posted the last comment in that post you made on that, I think everyone would be going nuts for thier home team in thier home country. As “People” we all can get out of control. I however am ashamed of it. It’s sad that Olympcs true purity is slowly becomming tainted with politics and money. And Kudo’s for the USA team playing thier hearts out till the end in Men’s hockey, we were lucky to bag the winner in OT.
Anyways for some stats on most golds won for Us here:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/breakingnews/canada-breaks-record-in-number-of-gold-medals-won-by-olympic-host-country-85740127.html
Thanks for getting back to work Joe. All the best for 2010 for you and your crew with SGU. Can’t wait for the show to go live, I’m like a SG junkie without his weekly fix qute bad lol.
Cheers and with respect from Canada.
Michael.
Oh, forgot to congratulate the Canadian hockey team! Yay! I have a soft spot for Canadians, it seems…
das
Hi Joe! Some devoted Martin Wood fans read this article:
http://www2.canada.com/northshorenews/news/story.html?id=87b6d924-6784-49f6-8233-f936d5ec707a
And we were wondering if you could pass along our well wishes for him and his family! Thanks! 🙂
LJ
NA-NA NAA NAA NA NAA NAH CANADA **OWNS** the **ICE**!!!
NA-NA NAA NAA NA NAA NAH WE **BEAT** the U.S. **TWICE**!!!
😀
OH!!! I **SOOOO** WANT one of those Giant BEAVERS in my backyard to freak out the damn Squirrels!!
The Prisoner, sweeeeeeeet. I’m totally destined to be a political prisoner.
Of course, there were a couple Philadelphia Flyers on the winning Canadian team…sooooo…
SEE?! THIS is why I hate the Olympics. It makes no sense anymore. It all went to hell with the end of the Cold War and the acceptance of pro athletes into the competion. I really miss those East Germans, I tell ya… *sniffle*
das
Hi Joe:
Yep….we pulled out everything but the maple syrup in poking fun at all those Canadian stereotypes in the closing ceremonies. Giant Beavers, Mounties and Moose…oh my!
As for owning the podium…we do, in Gold!! The most gold medals of any winter Olympics…ever.
Notice: The nation of Canada will resume limited functions in about an hour. Full service is expected by sometime Tuesday.
Patricia
Hey Joe,
The reason the IOC is investigating the Canadian women’s hockey team celebration is because some of them were underage. I believe the youngest there was 16!!
And remember your rant last week about all those people wearing the Vanoc Accreditation Pass. The one I told you gets free transit, free meals, and access to Olympic events. Well they also get you inside the chain link fence surrounding the cauldron, so you can get a proper picture. Next time around you should really pick one up!!
Also that medical problem you were talking about yesterday, sounds like Porro Capillus. It’s very serious and should be treated immediatly, fortunately all you need is a haircut.
Well, at least the games ended with a great final event, with a hard fought win by the home team. (I know, technically the Americans were the home team, but really, who decided to make the Canadians the “away” team?) Now all that’s left is for the media to bring us endless interviews of the winners for the next few weeks…
thanks for the May BotM club choice. The list has gotten satisfyingly long of tomes to pick up on the next book run.All that remains is to find the time to read them.
Enjoy getting back into the daily routine, and looking forward to seeing what trials and tribulations come your way. Not to mention getting oo look at the poochie pics.
As the bridges into the city are shut down, I celebrated by finally posting a writeup on the geology & chemistry of the SG:U premiere “Air”. No photos this time, but lots of science for the geeks I know hang out in this comments section.
@ARCTIC G
Eh, You forgot to mention: Wednesday afternoon – NFLD Time!
Joe did you watch any of the Games????
Hey Joey,
Sorry, it was a typo at first…but maybe I like it.
Great job on HOCKEY!!! So happy Canada won. I know I live in the US, but hey our NHL is made of of world players *even a Canadian* so when the team was assembled…much of what the US had, went to play on other teams. Always thought it was funny that for YEARS and years they didn’t allow a professionals. Now, it seems who ever can kick butt plays.
Any-who..I agree with the outfits..it is sooo funny. I wonder how they will feel flipping through the photo albums and seeing their pictures “Oh man, what was I thinking?” Oh and yes, the entire world that has a TV SAW.
Too fun, but I am looking forward to you getting back to work. Looking forward to all the Carl pictures and comments. Have missed him around a bit. Oh, and Patrick too.
Thanks Joe for all the updates on the Olympics. *hugs*
Best to you Joe,
Always,
Cheryl 🙂
Coucou =) ça va ?
Alalaal j’ai adoré ces Jeux! Et nous ne retiendrons que le meilleur 🙂 Hier j’ai regarder le match de hockey (votre soeur aussi 🙂 et c’était génial!!! Les canadian on eu des difficultés pour gagner mais ils ont réussi!
Et oui la semaine prochaine les acteurs reviennent!! =)
Aller gros bisou!
Anais!
Ack, is the BOTMC discussion this week? Darnit! I haven’t had a chance to read Boneshaker yet, and with every waking hour consumed by work, I don’t think I can finish it before week’s end. Although…when do questions have to be in by?
I did manage to grab five minutes yesterday to watch Canada win men’s hockey, which was awesome!
What a great game! My guy Sidney won the game – soooooo cool. I’ve been going for Canada in the Hockey ‘cos we don’t have a team in it and have been having lots of fun along the way. Congratulations!!!!
So Joe, have you been keeping up with the talk about changing the NFL overtime rules so it’s the first team to 6 points and that both teams get possession unless the first team scores a TD?
What do you think?
I’ve always thought that it was ridiculous to place so much importance on a coin toss. Apparently in 96 of 158 OT’s (61%), the team that won the coin flip won the game.
In netball we have 3 minutes each end and if its still tied up then its the first team to 3 goals wins. I’ve played games that went into double overtime and it seems to work well, of course I probably would think that ‘cos both times we’ve won the game. The first time, I had the ball to shoot for goal from the edge of the goal circle (I was about 13 years old). My knees were shaking with the pressure and I fired it up but it totally missed the goal ring and was grabbed by my extremely tall teammate – was a nice pass….lol
Cheers, Chev
Canada put on a great show! I loved the way they made fun of the lighting ceremony. The scenery shown of Canada was breathtaking. If my feet didn’t go numb at 70F, I might even want to go skiing there.
That hockey game was so exciting! Both teams were excellent and silver is pretty darn good.
Those moments in the Olympics were “interesting”. You didn’t mention anything about the male Russian pulling a fit about his silver. All the skaters were breathtaking and the Russian was fantastic! However, he had a over a minute at the end of his performance where he just ice danced. It seemed like arrogance on his part, like he couldn’t lose so why bother. It reminded me of the study that said that bronze winners were happier than silver winners.
So we haven’t done a quiz for a while so I managed to find the following Brain Lifestyle Quiz:
I got 67%. My strength was nutrition. My weakness was spirituality. Apparently I need to meditate more.
How did you do?
Cheers, Chev
With regard to the medal tally and whether it should be most golds or most overall.
If each medal were equal then there wouldn’t be different colours. They would just award the same medal to the first 3 to finish or highest scores depending on the event.
The medal tally should be in order of gold medals and if they are equal then silver medals and if they are equal then bronze.
Therefore Canada finishes first, Germany second and USA third.
What does everyone think?
Does anyone know when this changed? I remember it used to be in order of Gold, yet it seems lately they’ve changed to overall.
Cheers, Chev
Streamy Award news: the nominations come out in a few hours. They will probably be out by the time you approve this. The audience choice finalists though won’t be announced until mid-March. I’m hoping the Kino Scenes will be in the finalists.
Once the audience final voting begins I’ll let you know so we can all support Ivon and the wonderful work he’s done with the kinos. Thanks to everyone who have already helped out during the nomination period.
Cheers, Chev
CANADA 3 USA 2 YYYESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!
Joe, I hope the joyous rioting from Canada winning hockey gold didn’t destroy Vancouver too much.
Well waddya know!! We did own the podium in Gold… Who’d a thought!
Congratulations to Canada on winning in hockey! A local friend of mine, who is Canadian, had to put up with the rest of us rooting for the USA, but she had the last laugh.
Congrats to the Canadian Hockey team, luckily Louie (Luongo was tending goal, he is a brick wall and a great guy. I was also glad to see my buddy Dan Boyle won a gold, I have picture with him when he was just Panther. Funny how these guys do great after they play for the Panthers. hmmmm
I thought it was just me that NBC did a crappy job covering the Olympics, until I saw an article on Yahoo – http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/NBC-awkwardly-and-abruptly-ends-Olympic-coverage?urn=oly,224859 Kinda glad they are over, but it did give me something else to watch on t.v.
@Chevon7
Regarding the Olympic medal table. Everywhere else in the world It’s who’s got the most gold medals that is on top of the tally table. Checkout any non North-American News web site.
This is a legacy of the bad old Cold War era and the AMATEUR Soviet sports teams like the former East German Olympic team (IIRC ran by the Stasi). The American media started counting medal totals instead of gold medal totals. So as not to lost face against the superior Soviet teams who were state employees and usually medically enhanced. Brings to mind about really bad jokes of the almost female Soviet Olympic athletics of that era.
A bronze or silver sports medal is not equal to a gold sports medal.
P.S. The best Winter Olympics for Canada in the haul of shiny yellow souvenirs, better than anyone else previously .
@chevron7 – thanks for the link to the quiz,that was very insightful, tho I beg to differ with some of the results. My score was 69% with my strength being Mental activity.My weak area was physical fitness. I guess the quiz didn’t like my level or idea of 3 times week doing the Nordic Track and lift some free weights while throwing in some yoga on days that the knees just can’t bear any impact. I guess my score had to be low somewhere. I would have thought that I needed more OUTDOOR activity. Go figure.
Rick Mercer has just been interviewed live, and compus mentus (as such), on BBC Radio 4’s ‘PM’ news prog, and says that all you Canadians have hangovers which is a great chance to inva… – CHARGE!!!!
Grab the Podium!
Snatch drinks from the underage medal celebrants!
Switch scripts in Bridge Studios!
Avoid the restaurant trail carefully set down by psychops operator Mallozzi in recent weeks to ensnare and delay the unwary, sap the energy, the will, the figh…
Too late. Crispy duck…Yum!
Sirens! S**t! Quick, eat, eat.
Doors bang open, pistol safety clicks off in my ear, the beer is snatched from my tongue.
‘American?’
Mouth full, I shake my head.
‘Ok, guys, false alarm. Everybody out. Enjoy desert, sir.’
The troops make to go, break formation. Saunter, begin checking out the menus, real slow.
If they stay any longer I’ll get piles sitting on this podium…
Waitress beats a retreat from the posse. Must have just come on shift. Looks like a kid. ‘Same every Monday, hon.’
Something snaps at my attention. I thrust the menu at her. ‘Haggis – Japanese style?’
Her eyes roll. ‘Guy comes by here, Muzzi, Mallaz..I don’t know, but he’s got some say. Tweaks our play. Bait, he calls it. At least we didn’t have to go for his cheese sauce on the haggis option and blow the show. Up. You’re nicked!’
She extracts the podium from below me to cheers from the slo-joes. ‘Now you’re gonna miss pudding.’
I do see the point in those links you posted, Mr. M…
But what about the good stuff? What about the Chinese figure skating team finally getting the gold after all their hard work? What about Evan Lysacek’s amazing performance and well-deserved (no matter what the Russians say) gold? What about Joannie Rochette somehow finding the strength to go out and give the performance of her life, despite what she’d just been through? What about the Canadian hockey team?
I know that a lot of the good moments of the Olympics are shoved in everyone’s faces in a rather corny manner, but I saw almost all of them and I still believe that those good moments deserve a LOT more attention than the mistakes, glitches and goofs.
(Even though the celebrating Russian bobsledder is admittedly pretty funny. :))
I myself want to congratulate the peole at Canada hockey place for the warm cheers given to Ryan Miller when he received his silver medal. That was class.
This Canadian want to also congratulate Team US. To conquer without peril is to triumph without glory. You gave us the best opposition of this tournament and some cold sweats indeed. A great deal of our glory, we do owe it to a worthy opponent. Lets hope we meet again in Sotchi!
@chevron7: I believe, IIRC, there was a time when they gave 5 points to a gold medal, 3 to a silver and one for a bronze. I redid the rankings according to this scheme and it would strictly change nothing at all. In case of a tie (here, it would give both Canada and Germany 96 points each) what would be fair? More gold medals or more people on the podiums? I’d have myself a hard time telling honnestly which would be the fairest. Still, the US of A would keep the first place. We broke a all times record in gold medals won, does the rest matters really???