As a music spectacle, it was pretty spectacular. But as a rallying cry and mustering of political might, I question if Live Earth actually made things better or worse.
- These types of “benefit concerts” are old news, leaving most people to sleep through them; I would have except my wife saw Dave Matthews on and we were hooked (go Dave, where was Tim?);
- Many of the artists and organizers themselves were wondering if the concert was hypocritical, if, in fact, the act of fans, artists and organizers traveling to and putting on these concerts used a “larger carbon footprint” that it was worth (excellent brief Time magazine article here); (more…)
Shaun Farrell has an excellent podcast called Adventures in SciFi Publishing. He has had many of my favorite authors on his podcast, has editors and publishers as well. It is well executed and quite interesting.
Shaun recently (Episode 24) had author Tobias Buckell on the show (you can read the first 1/3 of Tobias’ new novel Ragamuffin online here). He announced that Tobias will do an “Ask a Writer” portion of the podcast.
My question was chosen to be the first one tackled.
Episode 25, released on the 4th of July, featured my question: I asked for Tobias to contrast self-publishing, print-on-demand and traditional publishing. With my background in the software and internet industry, I chose the print-on-demand avenue, as it appealed to my sense of how distribution and marketing should work. If I would have had more time to spare, I would have investigated more in self-publishing, creating a small independent publisher. My question: (more…)
Maybe it’s because it is getting awfully close to 100 degrees in Texas.
Maybe it’s because of the 40 days of rain.
Whatever the reason, my family and I are hooked on Ice Road Truckers on The History Channel.
It is a mini-series documenting the annual rush to get supplies up to the DeBeers Diamond Mine in the Northwest Territories of Canada over several frozen lakes. The truckers have a few scant weeks to get the needed manufacturing and living supplies across the ice road, built on top of several frozen lakes and tundra with a healthy portion of man-made engineering. The story is told mostly through the experiences of a few 
truckers: Hugh, who holds the record for most loads; Rick, who is doing this for the second year and works for Hugh, but covets his record; Drew, a rookie on Hugh’s crew; Alex, who has about 100 kids and has been doing the ice road the longest; TJ, a rookie; and Jay, a local (from Yellowknife where the road starts) who has been doing this since he was 18.
The pay is high, the risks are high and the conditions suck. Plus the more loads you move, the more you get paid, and there are, of course, bragging rights. So lots of sleep deprivation. What else do you need for a summer blockbuster hit?
And I’m willing to bet they bring this back next year; the series has garnered a lot of interest so I’m sure a lot of dry weather truckers are going to be heading up to Yellowknife this coming winter, certain that they can drive on the ice, thinking that it’s no big deal. All you need is a truck, a tuque and a map of Canada, ay?
Sundays at 10pm Eastern on The History Channel. Updates posted in the Comments below.
