All posts by Carl V. Anderson

Welcome to the Future

It is 2015!

My resolution is to avoid seeking guidance from the mystic seer.

New Year’s Day, for me, is something akin to an annual calendar-induced time machine. I inevitably find myself thinking back to the previous year and those thoughts bring with them the feeling that I’ve been magically transported to the future, as it cannot be possible that another 365 days have passed.

Some of you are resolution setters, others are not. Over the past (nearly) decade of blogging I have had years where I outlined very detailed resolutions (which rarely turn out to be successful) and other years I have set more loose expectations of things I would like to do/change. The most fun I had was in 2012 when I actually did make some healthy lifestyle changes, which have, for the most part, lasted and in 2013 when I set “The crazily optimistic, if I had all the time in the world, “Come on, you will never get half of this done you starry-eyed dreamer” list of Resolutions, Challenges, Hopes and Pipe Dreams for 2013”

In the spirit of 2013, and because Mark Twain is inevitably correct, I am going to proclaim a few goals for 2015.

“New Year’s Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual,”
– Mark Twain

Continue reading Welcome to the Future →

Favorite Reads of 2014

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(Image Credit)

“I never feel lonely if I’ve got a book – they’re like old friends. Even if you’re not reading them over and over again, you know they are there. And they’re part of your history. They sort of tell a story about your journey through life.”

~Emilia Fox

Mid-January will mark a decade of blogging here at Stainless Steel Droppings. I have blogged about many different things here, but one consistent subject is reading, and one of the things I enjoy most about being a blogger is this time of year. The end of one year and the beginning of another brings about conversations of favorite reading, viewing and listening experiences of the year.

While the reading output of 2014 is likely the lowest I have had since I started blogging, the decisions I made about what to read resulted in many new friends, friends that will one day become some of those old friends that Emilia Fox (one of my favorite audio book narrators) references above.

The image I chose for the header accurately reflects the way I feel about a good book…like I am crawling inside it to get swept up in the story.

These are the various stories I read in 2014 that made the biggest impression.

Continue reading Favorite Reads of 2014 →

Spectrum 21: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art

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November 2014 saw the first fruits of the passing of the torch, with the twenty-first volume of Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art being released by Flesk Publications, under the editorial hand of John Fleskes.

After two decades of bringing fans of science fiction, fantasy and horror art a beautiful, comprehensive annual collection of fantastic art, Cathy and Arnie Fenner announced at Spectrum Fantastic Art Live 2(May, 2013), that they were turning over the editing and publication of the Spectrum art annual to John Fleskes.

If you have had the privilege of holding a Flesk art book in your hands, you know that the Fenner’s made a great choice. The purchase and perusal of Spectrum has been one of my favorite annual traditions since volume eight, and I have been excited to see what John Fleskes would do with his first release.

That anticipation was rewarded with a fantastic (pardon the adjective) volume of art. Spectrum 21 maintains the high production values of previous volumes and has a familiar structure while including touches from John Flesk that kick off the book’s third decade with a bang.

Continue reading Spectrum 21: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art →

Wishing You an Out of this World Christmas

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(Image found here)

There’s only one more sleep ’til Christmas!

On the eve of Christmas Day I wish each and every one of you a very, merry Christmas. I hope the next few days are filled with wonderful remembrances of Christmases past and with the creation of new memories in Christmas present.

We will spend the morning cleaning and decorating Christmas cookies (including some Dalek shaped ones for our Doctor Who loving friends) as we get ready to host Christmas Eve at our house. Stockings will be opened and Mary and I will celebrate our Christmas together later in the evening.

Tomorrow we will get together with my siblings and their families at my parents’ house to celebrate Christmas and tomorrow night we get to have our niece spend the night! 🙂

Here’s wishing you all a special Christmas week…

and hope that this year’s Doctor Who Christmas Special will make up for the disappointing end to Season 8.

What are your plans for the week?

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

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There…and back again. Thus ends* the Middle-earth journey of Peter Jackson and the crew of film makers who made the worlds imagined by J.R.R. Tolkien come alive on the big screen.

It is with a degree of sadness, which will undoubtedly grow over the coming weeks, that I say ‘goodbye’** to these characters, the lovely country that is Middle-earth (er…New Zealand), and to the dedicated people, seen and unseen, who made this journey special.

On Friday evening I sat in front of a forty foot curved screen and watched The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies bring Bilbo’s unexpected journey to an end. It was a spectacle, filled with some memorable performances. It had some flaws, to be sure, but that did not stop me from enjoying the moment.

The following thoughts on The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies presumes that you have seen the previous two films and, unlike my normal Film Review process, will contain spoilers.

Continue reading The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies →