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Prospectors call it pyrite, after pirate, swash-buckling thief of another’s wealth.

The rest of us call the shiny bogus rock Fool’s Gold.

My roommate Jerry has plopped a big hunk of the stuff on my desk, beside my computer and writing supplies. The rock gets smaller all the time, shedding sandy pebbles across the desktop whenever I close a drawer or bang the desk with my chair. Jerry doesn’t approve of anyone being a writer. Jerry hails from the old country (New Jersey), where one gets a job at age 9 and holds it until his retirement party at 104. Everything in between consists of unpaid bills, pressures to procreate and exchanging pro sports trivia with co-workers. Writing or creative ideas better be sure-fire money-makers. After all, who’s ever heard of a high-jacked truck loaded with good sub-plots and metaphors? No one gets top-dollar for poetry on the black market. Full story »

Scholars & Rogues recently launched the S&R LitJournal in order to promote creative writing in the form of new poetry, fiction and nonfiction. We’ve received and published several works from talented authors and look forward to presenting our readers with more quality original literature in the future.

Since some members of our staff are creative writers, we’re familiar with the challenges associated with developing your skills and finding the right publication outlets for your work. There are thousands of print and online literary magazines, and identifying the best places to submit can be a daunting task. Not only that, writers at various points of development might be interested in writing programs, contests, conferences, communities, etc. Again, connecting the dots can be tough.

So S&R has now pulled together a suite of resources aimed at helping creative writers find the resources they need to hone their craft and reach an audience. Full story »

It’s the beginning of March, and if I was teaching somewhere, which I am not, I would be teaching poetry right about now. There was always a brief window to teach poetry, before the sun rose too high, and I lost my charges to fun and crap like that. So the beginning of March was perfect. Cold, clammy, death-like March, the season of grief and sonnets.

And it was always a hard sell. In middle school, I typically introduced my middle school students to real poetry. For many of them, it’s the first time they’ve waded past Shel Silverstein and into the murky metaphoric waters beyond. It’s also when I am inevitably tricked into reading large tracts of adolescent poetry written about old boyfriends or girlfriends or others “who have done me wrong.” Full story »

As the battle for freedom and control wages in Libya, it brings to mind the popular uprising in Hungary in October 1956. Never heard of it? Not surprising. It’s not covered in a lot of history books.

The people, initially led by students, dared to criticize the Soviet controlled puppet government and the repression. In the few heady weeks they even elected their own leader, Imre Nagy.

Despite the pleas of the revolutionary government for help from the United Nations, no one came to their aid.The Soviet Union invaded in November crushing the revolution. Nagy was executed as a traitor and that small spark of freedom died. Soviet domination continued for more than three decades before disintegrating in 1991, though some historians say the 1956 uprising was the “first tear” in the Iron Curtain. Full story »

You may never heard of a radiological dispersal device (RDD). That’s because it’s more often referred to as a dirty bomb. Come to think of it, many don’t even know it by that name, however provocative. (Think of it recited by the English woman in the Orbit gum commercial: Duh-ty Bomb.)

A dirty bomb, though, bears no resemblance whatsoever to a sex bomb. “Dirty” means it’s contaminated with radiation. Which is why you may not be familiar with it. Because it’s not a true nuclear weapon, the RDD is not accorded the level of attention it deserves as a threat comparable to terrorists detonating a nuclear bombs in a U.S. city. But, as long as it’s obscured by the threat of a nuclear explosion, its construction and transport, already much less challenging than with a nuclear weapon, can be expedited. Full story »

The fox stood in carved silhouette against the quicksilver of the canal reaching inland from the Bay of Bengal. The shallow channel held the moonlight like a palm. I watched it forage for crabs; its mate joined hesitantly for she had noticed me.

I sat on the beach blanched white, waiting. I had had time to watch, feel, listen. The foxes had ceased to howl hours ago; the almost full, orange moon came up above Kowar Char, an abundant expanse of beach bending eastward with the line of dense koroi trees. Above that line, first Mars, then Orion and Sirius, followed by Saturn rose and were now declining to the west. Behind me, the tamarisk forest bent and brooded in leafy whispers: the light in the hovels inside had long since ceased to wink. Boats blackened with tar, some upside down, lay scattered like white sepulchres. The heady smell, of sea, leaf and sand was wafted to keep me awake: I even had the leisure to discern the glass in the sand glistening…. Full story »

So Saturday was World Book Night. It was actually an all day thing for most of us, and really started Friday night at Trafalgar Square. This was a big deal—giving a million books away free. What a great concept. I stumbled across this a couple of months ago, I can’t even remember where—probably on one of the SF writer blogs that I hit regularly. So I went and signed up to give away books, free, to anyone I felt like—friends, neighbors, complete strangers. There was a list of 25 books, selected by a panel, and I picked one of my favorites—Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

I love the idea of this. Yes, it’s probably at root some marketing thing from the publishing industry, but, at the same time, I don’t care. Just the idea of giving one of your favorite books to someone you know or don’t know, and not knowing what the reaction will be. Full story »

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Part 4 in a series.

One way to get the measure of a person – their temper, as in mood, their dispositions, both emotional and intellectual, what they glean from life, how they “see” the world this way rather than that way – is by understanding those other voices to whom they listen, about whom they think, and from whom they draw.

Most immediately and obviously for Reith his father, George Reith, a minister in the Free Church of Scotland, was a powerful influence. Reith told Boyle that from beyond the grave his father had had a profound effect on public service broadcasting. (38)

There were other influences, though – or put somewhat differently, two individuals with whom Reith identified, in one case somewhat paradoxically. In 1929 Reith was asked by the former Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin – who had been elected Rector of St. Andrew’s University in Scotland – if he had any ideas that he might use in his inaugural address. Reith recommended Tyndall’s 1874 address to the British Association, and urged him to study the ideas of Dr. Thomas Chalmers, “in his view one of the greatest Scotsmen who ever lived…” Full story »

On January 26, influential country musician Charlie Louvin died at age 83. He and his brother Ira performed and recorded as the Louvin Brothers, until they split up in the early sixties, when Charlie began a solo career. Perhaps because of the spare instrumentation of Charlie’s guitar and Ira’s mandolin, as well as their heart-felt harmonies, they influenced the Everly Brothers, the Byrds, and country rock legend Gram Parsons.

Another fan, Emmylou Harris, was quoted by the New York Times: “. . . there was something scary and washed in the blood about the sound of the Louvin Brothers.” In fact, simply “washed in blood” might better characterize one of their songs. Full story »

2011 is already shaping up to be a great year for new music. Esben & the Witch’s greatly anticipated debut really delivers, Adele’s sophomore effort is a strong step forward, and Wire is back, after all these years, with an outstanding effort that manages a sound that’s both contemporary and true to their New Wave heritage. A fantastic new REM disc drops next week, I believe, and IAMX’s new one lands March 18. The Lost Patrol is hinting at a 2011 release, and Green Day is slated for a new one, as well. Verily, my cup runneth over.

One of my favorites of 2011 so far is 4am from Buffalo’s Dotsun Moon. I’ve always been a sucker for bands descended from the Portishead side of the trip-hop family tree (oddly, I like many of these artists more than Portishead themselves), and Mary Ognibene’s understated, sultry delivery hits me right between the, ummm, well, let’s just say eyes here to avoid any trouble with the broadcast standards department, shall we? Full story »

Sand Beach at Acadia National Park, Maine, with the sun just down and a storm front moving its way in from the east. Desolate and beautiful, harsh and good for the soul.

I’m watching the Bulls/Magic game and it got me thinking (because there are two former Blue Devils on the Chicago roster and one more playing for Orlando) about Mike Krzschefvzksky-era Duke players and the NBA. Duke has won a bunch during his tenure and they’ve put a number of players in the pros, but none have really ripped the lid off. Lots of okay players, talented guys who help(ed) their teams. But not so much in the big dog category.

I’m trying to figure out who the best former Dukies would be and am wondering if there’s a HoFer in the bunch. I guess the best of the lot would be Johnny Dawkins, Grant Hill and Carlos Boozer? Maybe Elton Brand? Am I missing anybody?

If so, has there ever been a more epic combination of great college/weak pro talent?

My new stand-up album “Chaos For The Weary” is now on iTunes.

Listen to samples here: www.bit.ly/LeeCampAlbum

We all have our favorite stops around the ‘sphere. One of the oldest and best progressive voices out there is Jeff Tiedrich’s Smirking Chimp, and while we don’t normally do this sort of thing, I’m asking everybody to pop over there today and, if you can, contribute to their fund drive. They’re talking a heavy beating financially, as are a lot of worthy online publishers these days, and if a lack of cash causes them to under we’ll all be the worse for it.

We live in a world where pillagers like the Kochs and Rupert Murdoch make sure that their twisted story gets told. Unfortunately there is a lot less big-time money available for those of us working to counter the noise machine. Rumors to the contrary notwithstanding, George Soros isn’t making us all rich. Full story »

Part 3 in a series.

On 20 July 1925, Reith’s 36^th birthday, the British Post-Master General, Mitchell-Thomson, informed the House of Commons that there would be a committee of inquiry into the future of the BBC chaired by the 27^th Earl of Crawford and Balcarres. Reith had already raised the question of the Company’s future at a meeting with the Board on 19 March 1925, by now convinced that its status should be changed to a public service.

In November 1925 Reith prepared a memorandum for submission to the Crawford Committee, entitled “Memorandum of Information on the Scope and Conduct of the broadcasting Service,” the only purpose of which was “to show the desirability for the conduct of Broadcasting as a Public Service, for the adoption and maintenance of definite policies and standards in all its activities, and for unity of control.” Full story »

I suppose, as a general rule, the human animal is built to prefer knowing to not knowing, but I have been struck over the course of the past decade or so at how much worse our society has gotten at tolerating uncertainty. It’s as if having to say “I don’t know” triggers some kind of DNA-level existential crisis that the contemporary mind simply cannot abide.

Perhaps this is to expected in a culture that’s more concerned with “faith” than knowledge, reason, education and science, but even our extremely religious history fails to explain the pathological need for certainty that has come to define too much of American life. Perhaps it’s due to fear. America is currently being slapped about by one hell of a perfect storm, after all: Full story »