Sunday, September 6, 2015

City Dreaming

Castle-and-Sun-by-Paul-Klee

Paul Klee, Castle and Sun (1928)


The lobster emerges just long enough from the bottom of the bay to converse with the canary.  

"City lights," says Canary.

"Drinking their reflection," says Lobster.

Daytime work precludes more frequent posting-- and will continue to do so this fall.  You can catch glimpses of the lobster and the canary on Twitter:  @DanielRabuzzi




Elias Sime, The Computer Cemetery - or Addis Ababa as Motherboard (c. 2005?)


In the meantime, slivered recommendations, best of what I read this past year (alas! no time to comment further) in no particular order:   V. E. Schwab,  A Darker Shade of Magic;   Sofia Samatar,   A Stranger in Olondria;  Ann Leckie, Ancillary Justice; Jeff VanderMeer, The Southern Reach trilogy;  Erika Johansen, The Queen of the Tearling; Katherine Addison, The Goblin Emperor;  Diane Setterfield, Bellman & Black; Daniel H. Wilson, Robopocalypse;  Helen Marshall, Hair Side, Flesh Side; Daniel O'Malley, The Rook;  Nathaniel Mackey, From A Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate;  Genevieve Valentine, Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti;  Kathryn Davis, The Thin Place;  Andrew Nicoll, The Good Mayor; Paul Cornell, London Falling.  


Lower East Side Photo


 Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao, "Lower East Side, NYC, Street Scene" (c. 2014)


And a handful of favorite short stories, some old, some new, that have intoned their magic over me this year:  Steven Erikson's "Goats of Glory" (from the Strahan & Anders anthology, Swords & Dark Magic);  Ellen Kushner & Caroline Stevermer's "The Vital Importance of the Superficial" in Datlow & Windling's Queen Victoria's Book of Spells); and Yoon Ha Lee's "Iseul's Lexicon" from her Conservation of Shadows.




Aleksandr Brodsky & Ilya Utkin, "The Paper Architects," from their Projects (1980-1990)



Sunday, January 4, 2015

Dragon by Da Vinci

Study of Cats and Other Animals c. 1513


Look carefully, there among the cats.

Da Vinci thought hard about dragons--he pondered most of all the proper placement of their wings.  With his superior knowledge of anatomy and physics, he made sure dragon-wings were positioned in the place of arms, rather than appended helicopter-style to the shoulder blades (he drew winged dragons elsewhere; I cannot find the image at the moment).

I require such scientific exactitude in my creatures of fantasy.  

Except when they are bumble bees.