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LifeloggingI am Apollo Lemmon and this is my lifestream. I invite you to join me in my exploration of an integral life. I am focused on discovering what it means to live a life rooted in integral consciousness and I explore spirituality, art, community, technology, fitness and other aspects of a fully engaged life. I am now living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
I can always be reached at apollo@apollolemmon.com
Sincere condolences to Spider Robinson and family on the passing of his wonderful, talented wife: the dancer, writer and choreographer Jeanne Robinson, after a long struggle with cancer. The human race has lost one of its finest members. Spider and Jeanne's family -- including their grandchild -- were able to be at her deathbed when she went, and by Spider's account, it was a sweet and gentle moment for them all.
I’ve amassed a number of quotes I haven’t found a good outlet to share before now. Clogging up Twitter would be shameful, so a blog entry seems an ideal way to present them. There are bits of profundity, inspiration, compassion and geekiness in the words that follow.
Podcasts have become the source of most of the storytelling I experience. The high quality of readings and the stories being read are too good to keep quiet about, so I’m beginning a series of entries on podcasts with the best in science fiction, horror, fantasy and mainstream fiction that I have been lucky enough to find.
Tony C. Smith has created a superb audio science fiction magazine with StarshipSofa’s weekly Aural Delights podcast. The Sofa collects poetry, flash fiction, fact articles and short fiction by a wide range of the most important people in the science fiction field: writers and guests have included Elizabeth Bear, Spider Robinson, Cory Doctorow, Tad Williams, Larry Santoro, Jeremiah Tolbert, Gustavo Bondoni, Michael Bishop, Amy H Sturgis, Michael Moorcock, Gene Wolfe, Charles Stross, and Ted Kosmatka.
A host of SF writers have offered to let the StarShipSofa narrate their works. Writers who have already donated their work include Ian Watson, Pat Cadigan, Harry Harrison, Joe Haldeman, Joan D Vinge, Norman Spinrad, Ian MacDonald, J D Nordley, Bruce Sterling, Gweneth Jones, Alastair Reynolds, Jerry Pournelle, Landon Jones, John Varley, Pat Murphy, John Kessel, Laurel Winter, Jeff Vandermeer, Kevin J Anderson, Bradley Denton and Matthew Hughes.
Tony C Smith host of the StarShipSofa podcast explains that all the authors kindly donated their work to be narrated for free as long as there was no money to be made. Tony Smith says, “I wanted to start getting great stories out there for free and thought the best way to do that was to contact the writers directly. All have been happy to donate works to the StarShipSofa as long as we make no money from this venture. That is exactly what we are doing.” ~PR
Late last year I discovered John Varley‘s The Persistence of Vision through a superb reading of the story included in Spider Robinson’s Spider on the Web podcast. The story has become my favourite novella and I am thrilled each time I revisit it.
One of the richest elements of the story is the positive vision of polyamoury that Varley placed at the heart of his community. The non-exclusive intimacy was not merely sexual —though it was sexual— and demonstrated the best of what a pragmatic and enthusiastic community can create.
That one aspect of the community resonated with me, but Varley instilled the story with a genuine sense of realism by developing a fictional culture and society that was both functional and beautiful.
Recognizing elements of Utopian narratives led me to a reading of the story that I think works well: this is a functional utopia, one that recognizes the flaws inherent in any idealism and responds to them. The displaced Other of utopian thought is present here, but it is an other able to form a real community; idealism demands constant rebuilding.
This is a timely reading — and not just because the economy is in free-fall. Technology is rupture — each new wave of technological change displaces and remakes us. Today’s technocratic winners are tomorrow’s superannuated losers. The future of human history will be about how we answer the bug in/bug out question.
Cory Doctorow, “Spider Robinson reads Varley’s ‘The Persistence of Vision‘”
Spider Robinson’s reading of the story is warm, loving and damn-near-perfect. You can download “Spider on the Web Episode 57 The Persistence of Vision” at Spider Robinson’s website and learn more about John Varley at his own.
I bring along Spider Robinson‘s Spider on the Web podcast when I have time to do some listening as one of my staples. Science fiction, great music, technology, culture, space and a slew of other topics pop up and Spider offers cutting insight on it all. His readings of essays written for the H.R. Macmillan Space Centre are especially rewarding, as are his ‘casts on religion and global warming. There’s an integral lean to a lot of his stuff that I appreciate.
This week’s ‘cast has been one of my favourites, largely because it introduced me to David Crosby performing “Triad”, the finest song on polyamory I’ve heard, and Spider’s Lifehouse Trilogy, which explores ethics among non-theists.
I’ve mentioned and quoted Spider before in “My Enviornmental Stance” and “Stardancing“.
Dream. Dance. Evolve.
This week I discovered a fantastic endeavour being proposed by Jeanne Robinson as I was exploring the website of her husband, Sci Fi luminary Spider Robinson. The Stardance Project‘s aim is to create and promote dance in space, first through a film simulating what is possible through the form and eventually as a reality. Jeanne was the founder and artistic director of Nova Dance Theatre here in Halifax, among other accomplishments, and has passion, experience and expertise enough to craft something incredible.
Spider and Jeanne wrote about dance in space in The Stardance Trilogy
Spider himself recently started a lively podcast, Spider on the Web, where he has been reading essays and excerpts from his most recent novel. The first essay, “Let’s Start Wasting Money in Space“, is in line with Stardance, promoting space tourism as a way to sew the seeds of space art, sport and contemplation (and space sex!). He paints a brief and compelling picture of space as holding our future and maybe a piece of our salvation.
As a personal note, Spider Robinson has been in the periphery of my reading interests for years. My father’s bookshelf was a treasure trove of science fiction and fantasy and this included Stardance. I didn’t read the book then, nor when Spider became one of my favourite guests on my favourite show when I was an early teen, the well-missed Prisoners of Gravity. Now I’m drawn to him again and think this time I’ll dive in.