Houdini the Mentor

I mentioned my fascination with the Great Houdini several days ago, and felt it was worthwhile to elaborate upon this true hero of the Victorian Age.
It would be far to easy to dismiss Harry Houdini as simply a man who could pick difficult locks, or stage dramatic escapes…or even as a skilled and wildly popular [...]

Fifty Foot Childhoods

It seems that each generation of late is doomed to see their childhood transformed on the big screen. In 20 years will my son be taking HIS son to a live action Pokemon movie?
Recently I went to see the Transformers film and we had a wonderful time. Admittedly, it was never a cartoon I watched [...]

More SLCC Reporting

Amazingly enough, the even-handed, relatively positive reportage keeps coming out of Chicago about SL, still being penned by Miss Caroline McCarthy. If I didn’t know better, I would say the backlash against the Metaverse is coming to an end.
I do not know if Miss McCarthy is actually a resident of Second Life, but if she [...]

Steampunk Boston

Steampunk continues to be “discovered” by mainstream journalists. The latest is Peter Bebergal at the Boston Globe.
He has put together a good overview of steampunk techniartists currently so visible and their best work, including such well known and beloved figures, oft mentioned in this blog and others, as Mr. Von Slatt and Datamancer.

New Silhouettes, Old Problems

Artistic mediums and styles never truly die, they are simply used in new ways by new artists to speak new truths. Such is even true of that most Victorian, seemingly old fashioned form of portraiture, the silhouette.
An artist named Kara Walker has taken this old form and breathed new life and challenge into it, [...]

Chinese for “Lag”?

Technology doesn’t stand still for long, therefore it could have been expected that over time, more and more capable competitors to Second Life would emerge.
Wagner James Au, the man formally known as Hamlet Linden (of NWN fame) has recently been introduced to a likely contender in China called HiPiHi and has lived to tell the [...]

Sophie Lancaster

I am posting about this simply because it needs to be posted about, in my opinion. It needs to be remembered, at least for a moment.
Sophie Lancaster died at age 20, murdered for being unusual. My prayers and deepest condolences go out to her boyfriend and her family. I don’t know why this moves me [...]

Movie Night

It is with a great deal of pleasure that I place before you, my dear readers, certain video files which got me through the weekend.
While certainly not Caledonian in content, they are with a doubt Caledonian in SPIRIT…and after all, that IS what counts, isn’t it.

A Houdini Moment

One of my heroes since I first began to read of him as a boy is Erich Weiss, better known to the world as the great Harry Houdini, a world renowned magician, escape artist and debunker of hoaxers. No Victorian figure, save perhaps Phineas T. Barnum, could be said to have had a larger effect [...]

War and War

Certainly there are few classics as well known (but as little read) as Tolstoy’s War and Peace. The book, originally published as a magazine serial between 1865 and 1869, has been the butt of more Tonight Show jokes and lame Sitcom one-liners then any other literary work save perhaps the Bible.
War and Peace is again [...]

SLCC Coverage Begins

As I had expected, much like voters in a Chicago election, the media is having their say early and often about SLCC, currently beginning it’s siege in Chicago..
What I didn’t anticipate is that they seem to understand that the media and popular-opinion battering SL has been taking all year has not been entirely justified…and that [...]

Journey to…the Mysterious Island – BardHaven’s Story Part 4

They were well hidden along the treeline, gathered in small groups and staring down at the white sand beach from the hilltops. The great ship was odd enough when they first saw it’s massive masts in the distance. However, then it was just an amusing curiosity…much like when Lawrence sneezed during elevenses and sucked an [...]

We Are In Death

 
 

Death, and more importantly, the views of, society, culture, science and religion towards death has always fascinated me. It made me a very unusual child, and led to a lifelong interest in history as well as decidedly Gothic tendencies.
Death has held a primacy of interest for all of human culture since we first realized that [...]

Negligence by Contract

Some days I come across news stories that I simply must share with you, my gentle readers, if for no other reason then to give me an opportunity to vent outrage and pontificate.
As a parent, the announcement of the upcoming “reality show” Kid Nation, in which a group of children are placed in a remote [...]

Vector Caledon

The myriad uses and purposes for virtual worlds are slowly dawning on the rube world, as indicated by a story I stumbled across on Sky News last night.
It seems that a year or so ago, a plague called Corrupted Blood was introduced into World of Warcraft. However, this “illness” which infected player’s avatars was not [...]