iain m. banks joins the ranks of an exalted pantheon of authors in my little black book, sitting beside such luminaries as m. moorcock, a. moore, g. morrison. if only his last name started with an m, they could have their own little club of anarchist authors.

this is the most powerful of the culture novels that i have read. largely because we actually see the work that s.c. does and the way in which they play societies off against one another. on the outside it appears that they strive towards a freer, less war-like society, but inspecting their practices a little closer one finds they use any means necessary to accomplish their goals of stabilizing other societies to their whim.

the familial drama in this is as much a tragedy in the grand scheme as any of the greek drama you may be familiar with. the character’s slow growth towards awareness through vignettes showcasing memories of the works he has accomplished as a s.c. operative build our connection with what appears to a warrior’s war hero, with elements of bushido seeping through, while bringing the true tragedy gradually to the surface like a half remembered truth desperately discarded.

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merry winter solstice and happy fucking new year, a mixtape tradition dating back to the eighties when hairthere started it.
all this dropped this year (or early next), some have won accolades, others is local music for local people…all for your aural pleasure.

bizness – tUnE-yArDs: w h o k i l l
at night – the black angels: phosgene nightmare
parted ways – heartless bastards: arrow
romance – wild flag: wild flag
immigrant song (led zeppelin) – karen o & trent reznor: ost the girl with the dragon tattoo
chinese high (nguzunguzu remix) – gang gang dance: eye contact
amor fati – washed out: within and without
surgeon – st. vincent: strange mercy
eleven (ft. merrill garbus) – thao & mirah: thao & mirah
you know what i mean – cults: cults
oh, why – balam acab: wander/wonder
romantic streams – sleep ∞ over: forever
touch – holy other: with u
video games – lana del rey: video games
the lion’s roar – first aid kit: the lion’s roar
which side are you on (florence reece) – ani difranco: which side are you on
the words that maketh murder – pj harvey: let england shake
bad ass me – tom waits: bad as me
wild poppies – the mast: wild poppies

ask me ask me ask me: perry the bully and the death of an innocent man.

somebody give parliament the smoking gun already and take this assclown down.

hawtness. plain and simple hawtness.

wild flag video for their single ‘romance’.

new album streams from dtx’s st. vincent and atx’s own neon indian.

a victorian wall bookshelf for a wall of books.

jonny quest opening credits as stop-motion animation. (h/t 2 da boing)

ni no kuni (on ps3 from studio ghibli/level 5) – you gonna pay for that purdy. (h/t 2 kotaku)

dali is not crazy at all, he is just busy looking for mystery hallucinogens.

eerie how history repeats itself. meet the new rethugnicans, same as the olde rethugnicans…won’t get fooled again? (h/t 2 tpm)

faux news noise machine kickin’ it up before the elections, the sonsofbitches.

nelson bole’s short little boat. (h/t 2 coilhouse)

yes please, more like this. women stand up for your legal rights, the theocrats cannot prevail if you challenge them in court.

lady gaga’s ‘you and i‘ remixed by mercury prize nominated metronomy.

“ i have a bad feeling about this.” lucas is a hack. his only good one is thx 1138, and american graffiti is passable. if he had directed empire, we would all have given up on star wars.

my gut is telling me i want some yogurt or some chocolate, either one makes me feel bettah.

i loved capturing these lizards as a boy, only to discover they may hold an important key to evolutionary change.

your future, my future, everywhere in the universe it’s the same, cruelty is rewarded with power…w/ apologies to tim burton. (h/t 2 io9)

rachel maddow and richard engel new doc day of destruction, decade of war is coming out this weekend. we will all mourn democracy in the following days

where there is smoke, there is fire, dan choi is getting the run around from the doj. and bermuda onions.

blade runner preview reel from a 83’ sci-fi con. (h/t 2 io9)

trailer for almodavar’s new film the skin i live in.

closure, coming to a ps3 near you…or maybe just me.

“this is the space age, we are here to go!” darpa seems to thinking in those directions.

really faux, a scientist is confusing people on climate change? glass houses, oh disinformation peddlers.

keeping the slate clean, because you know knowing stuff is dangerous.

branding sexual abuse victims for life…what would the patch look like, the red letter R or a red zero with a slash across it? anti-woman theocracy rears it’s shibboleth heads.

and tejas isn’t the only front in this anti-woman crusade. be glad you ain’t in kansas dorothy, they don’t respect no constitution, it’s god’s country. the asshat one.

finally some sense coming out of the right, or maybe he just has a thing for keeping mermaids outta jail.

this is what fascism looks like, the collusion of private enterprise with the government to divest individuals of their due process, or rights. these and others are war crimes, it’s time to prosecute those responsible.

some sweet music to calm the beast. september girls from big star. sooo good.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

the hype is that e.c. is in the same rarefied air as sterling, stephenson, and gibson, that this is the decade’s neuromancer. at first i found his prose too easy, but we are living in a post-rowling world. by the second half of the story i was engrossed in the adventure. there are some great ideas in here, the depiction of online education in the middle of this century is worth the price of admission alone. so many great moments as it layers on the pop culture references of the 80′s (having lived them, i saw a few dropped balls, as it were), the music, the films, the television shows are all here. the stand-up arcade games of my youth are essential, as are many other obsessions of (mine &) the times. i suppose the highest compliment i can give it, it made me want to start a d & d game again, and get an emulator for my computer. i have neuromancer, islands in the net and snow crash if i want to really get lost in the “net”, but it is a good story and is recommended if any of the things mentioned above pique your interest.

true story: when i went to my local comic book store for the signing, who was giving eric words of encouragement (and likely came to see the delorean w/ flux capacitor) was none other than bruce sterling hissownself. welcome to the cyberpunk royalty mr. cline. i await your next adventure…

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two chat bots go at it…like any chat room on the net…god and miscommunication. what is godwin’s law for ai and god?

racial profiling in the security theater, what reading about planes will get you while flying…

mmm. bacon. mmm. chocolate chip cookies. Mmm².

“leaves, where is she leaves?” at the bottom of your potted plants feeding them.

turning an old computer into an emulator wonderland.

diatomaceous earth, the ecologically way to get rid of bugs w/ exoskeletons.

“sitting on my tin-can…” david bowie’s ‘space oddity’ becomes a children’s book.

jeremy rifkin talks about empathic civilization in a rsa animation.

friday mornin’ music y’all. going out to rebels in libya and those bracing for the big blow of irene. end the wars now!

gonzo is back! johnny depp (finally) brings the rum diaries to a theater near you.

iranian lesbian teenagers in a world of oppression. turn up the rock n roll, let’s dance!

dem some strong and powerful women. foxy b and lagy gg. “callin’ me like a collector…”

hand illustrated and bound final project of german art student…the silmarilion.

syria targets a political cartoonist in an attempt to silence the opposition. fools.

is it time to go solar and ditch the electric companies and their rolling blackouts and collusion to defraud you of you hard earned dolladollayen? (h/t 2 io9)

the interconnected nature of our quest for energy that is running out…the energy crisis in ready player one is on its way…

teh gays have come for you marcus…they gonna heal that homophobia and help you come on outta that closet you and your beard been livin’ in.

“members of the media were also filming at monday’s event, but their cameras were not taken.” fear of being exposed as a selfish ass rethugnican.

new video from st. vincent  for her the single ‘cruel‘ from her upcoming strange mercy.

the daily show correspondents explain the tempest in a tea bag.

‘so close to paradise‘ a sweet side of electronica from n00bs elite gymnastics. (via da fork)

haven’t played it, but this portal fan film is definitely better than a lot of crap on the big screen.

bai bai steve jobs, you had a good run.

books to read while you burn the furniture for warmth and listen to the 2% talk about sacrifice, yours, not theirs (read 4 out of the 10).

the day that freedom died. i watched it unfold live and was stunned at the symbolic strike at the economic, military, and (thwarted) political hearts of us. but like ron paul said to r. guiliani….

wikileaks ftw! government officials do all they can to make sure monsanto can keep destroying food the world over.

a low(er)-cost alternative to apple’s ipad, hack the nook color.

new florence +the machine single, ‘what the water gave me‘…recorded in abbey road 3.

sleep ∞ over (from da atx) have a long player coming out, here is the first single ‘romantic streams‘ (and a remix of the same by balam acab).

new girls ‘honey bunny‘ off their upcoming father, son, holy ghost.

like coilhouse, mondo 2000 was a magazine that pushed the edge, boing boing was right there too. (h/t 2 da boing)

goldman sachs now owns us and has government officials do its ugly bidding. shame.

poor mittens, so rich, so awkward, so clueless, but at the least, unlike ron paul he’s not a strict creationist.