Gwenda, Author at Gwenda Bond

Trivial Birthday

1 Comment / Memes Upon Memes / By Gwenda / April 9, 2006

Have to start again sometime, so why not? The wikipedia birthday meme that everyone is doing. (3 events, 2 birthdays and 1 death)

July 12 (and I’m a bit distressed to find that the Rollerdome I want to rent out for my 30th birthday party has no information about said rentals on its Web site…)

Events
1812 – War of 1812: The United States invades Canada at Windsor, Ontario.
1892 – A hidden lake bursts out of a glacier on the side of Mont Blanc, flooding the valley below and killing around 200 villagers and holidaymakers in Saint Gervais.
1973 – The 1973 National Archives Fire destroys the entire 6th floor of the National Personnel Records Center.

Births
100 BC – Gaius Julius Caesar, Roman soldier and politician (d. 44 BC)
1880 – Tod Browning, American film director (d. 1962) (and in Ky., natch)

Death
1926 – Gertrude Bell, English archaeologist, writer, spy, and administrator (b. 1868)

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Going Dark

10 Comments / Excuses, Excuses / By Gwenda / April 6, 2006

I’m taking a few days off, likely back next week. I just didn’t want to leave the sweet boy’s entry at the top of the queue. Thanks to all who have called and written to us. It’s a tremendous comfort in a time when we need tremendous comfort. Back later.

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The Truth About George

Goodbyes / By Gwenda / April 5, 2006

There were a lot of things George Rowe the Dog, Poster Boy for American Values, My Attorney, did that made him different than most dogs. Things that made him extra-special. Here’s ten:

1. Became world-famous. One of George’s most often-used nicknames is "The World Famous George Rowe the Dog" (always followed by a cheer of some sort, usually "Yay!"). There’s a reason.

2. Started a political movement.

3. Was used by CNN as the Poster Boy for American Values in cut-aways from the Supreme Court building during the deliberations on the 2000 election.

4. Was an honorary member of the U.S. Capital security force. George likely had top secret clearance.

5. Pioneered the world-famous passive-passive defense against things he didn’t like, such as baths.

6. Could fly laying flat on the floor. And shake hands with the best. He almost never barked. He had a huge heart and spirit. And everyone loved him instantly.

7. Ate only Mickey Mouse-shaped pancakes. (It was in his contract rider.)

8. Did everything Christopher Rowe ever told him to do and meant.

9. Was always a good boy.

10. Made us happy when we were sad.

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VeronicaMarsTalk

4 Comments / TV Goodness / By Gwenda / April 5, 2006

This sounds great:

"Plan B" Veronica and Weevil work together to bring Felix’s murderer to justice.

That is all.

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GilmoreGossipCircle

12 Comments / TV Goodness / By Gwenda / April 4, 2006

The verdict is out:

I’m OK, You’re OK. Rory (Alexis Bledel) forgives Logan (Matt Czuchry) for his indiscretions, then needs some time for herself, so she pays a visit to Lorelai (Lauren Graham) in Stars Hollow. Although Lorelai (Lauren Graham) refuses to admit that she is upset, Rory can tell that she is bothered by the news that Luke (Scott Patterson) will be gone for a few days on a field trip with his daughter, April (Vanessa Marano, who does not appear in the episode). Against Lorelai’s wishes, Rory pays a visit to the store owned by April’s mother, Ana (guest star Sherilyn Fenn), to spy on her. Meanwhile, when Zack (Todd Lowe) finally works up the courage to ask Mrs. Kim (Emily Kuroda) for permission to marry Lane (Keiko Agena), he is surprised at the deal she makes with him. Melissa McCarthy, Edward Herrmann, Kelly Bishop, Yani Truesdale, Liza Weil and Sean Gunn also stars. The episode was written by Keith Eisner and directed by Lee Shallot Chemel.

Wow, they’ve been going a really long time without new episodes this season. (Not as bad as VM, but close!) Anyway, at least there’s promise of Lane-y goodness.

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Tuesday Hangovers

3 Comments / Hangovers / By Gwenda / April 4, 2006

Why am I inexplicably awake at 3:30 and still at 4:30? Please tell me if you know.
Justine got Boing-Boing’d.
Strange Horizons is spending the week reviewing Justina Robson novels. Serendipitously.
Salman Rushdie writes a new introduction for Midnight’s Children 25 years later; on what happened after it sold: I quit my part-time copywriting job. (I had moved on from Ogilvy & Mather to another agency, Ayer Barker Hegemann.) “Oh,” the creative director said when I tendered my resignation, “you want a rise?” No, I explained, I was just giving notice as required so that I could leave and be a full-time writer. “I see,” he said. “You want a big rise.” (Via Moorish Girl.)
Cave art = teen boy graffiti? No word on what this means for the first draft of history. (Via Bookninja.)
Erin comes up with a disaster kit for the rest of us.
Daniel Olivas interviews Luis Alberto Urrea over at TEV.
This story just keeps getting weirder.
Andrea Seigel reads between the lines of the first review of her new book To Feel Stuff.
Oh dear, the cat’s playing with the light socket. I wonder if he does this every night…

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In Love With Love

5 Comments / Books / By Gwenda / April 3, 2006

I’m too tired to muster much of an entry, but what the hell, right? I want to talk about the book I just started.

You see, I’ve been in a bit of a fiction slump for the past month or so. Every time I picked up something new and started it, I did not fall madly in love. I was not swept away. I was not awed. I was not in love. Now, I certainly don’t expect to feel this way about every book I read, but I do expect it every once in awhile. And I expect a cousin of that feeling to occur a fair amount. I don’t read very many books I don’t like (see Jenny Davidson, see Colleen Mondor): mostly I put those down. I’m still not sure whether this slump was purely related to my own reader’s malaise (it happens) or to the books I was attempting (at least a few of them deserve another chance). I was getting my fiction fix mostly by rereading novels I already knew and loved well.

Anyway, this lack of dazzling fiction has been somewhat eclipsed by all the excellent nonfiction reading I’ve been up to (see 75 sidebar, down and to the right) and by some excellent stories in the Fountain Award jury reading. But. I was still beginning to worry. Fretting really, like some Mr. Rogers-type unable to find a clean sweater. Where is a book I LOVE? What if I’ve become one of THOSE people — you know, the ones who rarely LOVE a book anymore?

Last night, C and I went out to dinner and a couple of glasses of wine and bookshopping. He picked up the lovely Justina Robson‘s Living Next Door to the God of Love; I picked up Laura Whitcomb‘s A Certain Slant of Light (suddenly available, after a year of remembering to look for it at bookstores but never finding it). I think we also bought a couple of others off the remainder table, but that’s indelicate to speak of. (A real aside: The bookshop girl was charming and we got to talking about the Tiptree Award somehow — she ordered Air while we were chatting — and she recommended Wes Stace’s Misfortune for it and was amazed it was already on the short list for this year.) I took both the novels when we got home. I haven’t made it to the Whitcomb yet — though I’m sure I’ll love it, based on Justine’s reaction. I haven’t made it there because I started Living Next Door.

This book is completely exhilarating. (Someone Fed-Ex a copy to a certain D.I. stat.) I was in love with it by the end of the first paragraph:

There’s a kind of hush all over the world tonight: the sound of lovers in love. The rosy fug of it is so overpowering that I can’t hear the special kind of silence I’m listening for; the one that will tell me I’m about to die.

Whew.

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Lucy, I’m Home!

6 Comments / Excuses, Excuses / By Gwenda / April 3, 2006

Didn’t mean to go AWOL today, but we were dealing with some crises. The many fans of George Rowe the Dog, Poster Boy for American Values, My Attorney, will be pleased to hear that he seems to be rallying tonight — gracefully excuting the eating, drinking and standing more or less upright we all know and love. We are breathing big sighs of relief; keep your fingers crossed. Real content to follow.

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On Definitional Fisticuffs

3 Comments / Science Project / By Gwenda / April 2, 2006

From Bruce Sterling’s State of the World 2006:

Adam Greenfield is trying to speak and think very clearly, and to avoid internecine definitional struggles. As a literary guy, though, I think these definitional struggles are a positive force for good. It’s a sign of creative health to be bogged down in internecine definitional struggles. It means we have escaped a previous definitional box. For a technologist, the bog is a rather bad place, because it makes it harder to sell the product. In literature, the bog of definitional struggle is the most fertile area. That is what literature IS, in some sense: it’s taming reality with words. Literature means that we are trying to use words to figure out what things mean, and how we should feel about that.

I’ll be linking this one again later in a different context, but it’s worth going there and reading the whole thing.

(p.s. If I linksnatched this from you, I’m sorry — it’s been an open tab for days and I can’t remember where I spotted it.)