.: Above The Aether :.

There has been some debate on whether or not Jack Kerouac truly wrote the original draft of One the Road in three weeks while hopped up on Benzedrine and coffee. There isn’t any debate that he used several very long continuous scrolls of tracing paper that he taped together to measure a total of 120 [...]

Writer, Madeleine L’Engle, died this past Thursday. I have very fond memories of reading her books as a child and thinking they were amazingly creative and inspiring. From the New York Times Her works — poetry, plays, autobiography and books on prayer — were deeply, quixotically personal. But it was in her vivid children’s characters [...]

The fathers of Wintermute, Cookie Monster and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are interviewed at the Onion’s AV Club this month. Here are links to their specific interviews:  William Gibson, Frank Oz and Joss Whedon Good stuff.  Enjoy. -Dave

There is a very entertaining short story by Terry Bisson, called “They’re made out of meat.”  It’s a one-page science fiction story about two aliens talking about humans in a very funny way. “Oh, there’s a brain all right. It’s just that the brain is made out of meat! That’s what I’ve been trying to [...]

Hey folks, don’t panic.  Tomorrow’s Towel Day.  If you are able, wear a robe tomorrow in honor of uncle Doug.  Then kick back and have something to drink. -Dave

Walter Isaacson’s new Einstein biography is pretty good so far. It’s a gigantic 700 page tome that I have just started to read last weekend. I’m hoping the physics (when I get to that section) will be easily digestible for someone like myself who doesn’t have a professional background in the hard sciences. I’m not [...]

There is a great collection of science fiction writer blogs at SF Signal.  There are nearly 200 feeds to choose from alphabetized by author. Now all you need is some free time to actually read them. -Dave

Author and cultural icon, Kurt Vonnegut died today at the age of 84. From the NY Times: Mr. Vonnegut wrote plays, essays and short fiction. But it was his novels that became classics of the American counterculture, making him a literary idol, particularly to students in the 1960s and ’70s. Dog-eared paperback copies of his [...]

LibraryThing is a pretty nifty site that let’s you catalog your book collection online.  You can then connect with people who have similar interests in the same authors you do.  The system is pretty cool.  You can type in part of a title or part of an author’s name and LibraryThing will find the books [...]

From Wired magazine New York Comic Con attracted thousands of comic book fans last weekend, with many donning costumes ranging from simple Spider-Man T-shirts to an elaborate, $5,500 replica of Boba Fett’s Mandalorian armor. See some great photos here. -Dave