A Break
by Hamish Mack

We walk down to the estuary,
raising clouds of insects,
like smoke, with our feet.

We look for clues,
in the sky, or on the water
as to what has happened to us. Full story »

I’ve always felt strongly attuned to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s famous short story, “Ethan Brand.” The title character forsakes his life to search the world for the unpardonable sin. He finds it. It ends badly for him. The nature of the sin?

He remembered with what tenderness, with what love and sympathy for mankind, and what pity for human guilt and woe, he had first begun to contemplate those ideas which afterwards became the inspiration of his life; with what reverence he had then looked into the heart of man, viewing it as a temple originally divine, and, however desecrated, still to be held sacred by a brother; Full story »

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There sure has been a lot of news about cheating in sports lately, hasn’t there? Full story »

It’s Memorial Day weekend. As we honor our fallen, let’s also reflect on the larger question of war and on the reasons these dead heroes are too often asked to give up their lives.

S&R invites our readers to offer their own favorite poems of war and memory. Or stories. Or personal recollections. Whatever.

I’ll start. This one, from Yehuda Amichai, isn’t about America, but I think the message probably resonates for all of us.

Memorial Day For The War Dead

Memorial day for the war dead. Full story »

When we think about rock & roll and its various derivative styles, we pretty much think of the US and UK. And why not – just about every thread of the popular music universe has arisen in one of the two countries. But when you invent something cool, everybody is going to want to play, which is why you can find outstanding acts from all over the world these days.

This morning I was trying to decide what CD to pick up to round out my monthly eMusic selections and I noticed that I had saved The Asteroids Galaxy Tour for further review. Funky, trippy CD, sorta like Saint Etienne high on an Ecstasy/Nitrous Oxide cocktail. I had wondered about their background, so I hit teh Googles and discovered that hey, they’re from Copenhagen. Which made me think – there are some other Danish bands I like a lot, too. So let’s take a few minutes and celebrate the Danes, shall we? (All of them except Pay Lars, anyway – he got his.) Full story »

Regular readers are aware of how alarmed we are by the construction of a facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico intended, in large part, to help produce something known as plutonium pits. Before examining the latest development in attempts to halt it, first some background on the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Nuclear Facility (CMRR-NF) from recent posts.

1. Plutonium pits are the living, breathing heart of a nuclear weapon, where the chain reaction occurs. In other words, mad science at its most extreme. Full story »

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Full story »

When we’re kids we like the damnedest things, don’t we? There was a moment, I guess during the summer of 1972, when my two favorite songs were the Jackson 5′s “Rockin’ Robin”…

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So many places I haven’t been, so many places I want to go, so many songs about places. But I guess the place I haven’t been that I want to see the most is Scotland.

My favorite Scottish artist is Fish. And as he sings here, when he was still with Marillion, he was born “with a heart of Lothian.”

Perhaps I was, too, just a bit… Full story »

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Back to the British Library this evening for another interesting panel discussion as part of their Science Fiction series, this one on “Who owns the story of the future?” Given the extent to which we’ve seen the media get compromised by corporate ownership over the past two decades, at least in the US, this turns out to be a really good question—where do the narratives come from that we tell ourselves to make sense of the world as it is today, let alone of the future. And one that people seem to be interested in, given that it was literally a full house. Part of that may have been the fact that two of the speakers were William Gibson and Cory Doctorow, who have clearly thought about these issues in some detail. Plus, they’re old hands at this sort of thing. The other panel members all looked just as interesting, all being writers on what the future may or may not hold.

First, Mark Stevenson has written An Optimist’s Tour of the Future. And economist Diane Coyle has just published something that is sure to go on my reading list—The Economics of Enough (reviewed here by Fred Pierce). I haven’t read any of these, I have to say, so this was a bit of an adventure—going to talks with people you’ve never heard of can be a dicey proposition. On the face of it, Coyle appears to be genuinely frightened of what the future might hold, whereas Stevenson, I imagined, might be pretty chipper about things, a representative of the Matt Ridley view of the world.
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I like Sam, of Dr. Slammy fame. Let me be clear on that, I am more likely to at least entertain the notions Sam floats out here than I would be those same notions from other like types: this to me is a character flaw, but I admit it freely. I’ve been playing along with his Facebook 30 Day Song Challenge Sequel the last few weeks, mostly because I like music and I live by the list: listing may be my only real skill. A friend points out to me that it’s not much of a challenge: he says challenges have winners, and wants to know what the prize is for the best. This challenge does have a winner, and as always, it’s me, motherfucker, or possibly those who get to read my challenge answers each day and feel… Jesus, how do they feel? Appalled, bemused? Full story »

So, what sort of machines do you need to create an industrial civilization—kind of like the ones we have now, but more sensibly sourced. I remember taking a sociology course years ago where we started out with a similar question, although we conceived the question more broadly—what does civilization as we know it rely on? The answer then (decades ago, before the impact of The Whole Earth Catalog had been felt) was something along the lines of “technology.” But this is a much better question. We rely on machines for all sorts of stuff, still. Yes, yes, we tell ourselves we’re in a post-industrial economy and all that. Right. These guys have thought about this question, and you know what? You need 50 machines—“The Global Village Construction Set.” A Meccano or Erector Set for grown-ups, with some further but important constraints: “Open Source – Low-Cost – Modular – User-Serviceable – DIY – Closed-Loop Manufacturing – High Performance – Heirloom Design – Flexible Fabrication.” No Tech Magazine has the scoop. Here’s who they are. And here’s their blog. Now get to work.

ht—Climateer Investing

Something we’ve wanted for awhile is a logo – not just the text logo, which we like, but something visual and iconic. Many ideas have been kicked around and set aside for one reason or another (my lack of design skill being at the top of that list). But not long ago, we hit on a rough idea and were able to call on the talents of one of Denver’s absolute finest graphic designers, Laura Manthey, to turn it into something that reflects the core principles of the S&R brand, which we have carefully nurtured for literally four years now.

So here, without further ado, is the new Scholars & Rogues coat of arms: Full story »

A little whimsy, a lot of alienation. Dynamic tension, much? Wonderful stuff from The Blueflowers, whose “In Line with the Broken-Hearted” is one of the best CDs of the year so far.

And I’m back from several days of packing and moving, just in time to find this emotional and spiritual landmine waiting for me. [sigh]

When you’re a kid in America, nothing is as tangibly magical as Christmas. The excitement, the presents, the lights, the sheer spectacle of the entire world gone shimmery. And nothing is more special than family, the entire family gathered together, the food, the sense of absolute belonging. You are home, in every way it is possible to be home. Or at least that’s how it was for me. Full story »

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