John Varley, RIP

I was sad to see that John Varley has died. He was one of my favourite authors duing the 80 and 90s, mostly for his Eight Worlds series. I met him at Ad Astra in 1989 and I think I still have a few of his books that he signed there.  

In looking over his Wikipedia entry, I see that I've missed a couple of his later books, an oversight I should correct, especially Irontown Blues, a follow-up to Steel Beach and The Golden Globe, both of which I loved. But my favourite of all his works is his novella, "The Persistance of Vision", which completely blew me away when I read it when it first appeared in F&SF.  Truly one of the greats.

Saturday Sounds - Bheki Mseleku

This week's musical treat doesn't feature an album or a concert, but a musician, South African pianist and composer, Bheki Mseleku, who, sadly, died in 2008. I first heard his music on SiriusXM, the song "Vulkani" from his album, Timelessness, and immediately wanted to hear more. 

He's a pianist very much in the mode of McCoy Tyner (a good thing in my books) and a talented composer. His music incorporates African rhythms, hard-bop tonalities and strong melodies, Spotify has several of his albums and I've linked to Timelessness below. I hope you like it as much as I do. It's a perfect antidote to the onset of holiday musical sludge that we're inundated with this time of year.

Posts Will Be Sparse This Month

I haven't been able to keep up with a regular posting schedule this month. Part of that is just being too busy with household problems (a dead washing machine soon to be replaced) and prep for the holidays. I'm also having some eye problems, which I'm hoping will clear up over the next month (bad dry eye) and that's making it hard for me to read.

I don't want to shut the blog down but it's likely to be quiet here until early January. 

Movie and TV Reviews - November 2025

Movies and TV shows that Nancy and I watched in November. I do these posts mainly so I can keep track of what we've been watching, so the reviews are cursory. 

Movies

• Goodnight Oppy: A BBC documentary about the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers. Quite good and gives a sense of just how remarkable this mission was. (Amazon Prime)
• Frankenstein: I enjoyed it though I found it hard to watch (many dark scenes) and some of the changes from the novel confused me. I found it interesting that Del Torro updated the technology in the story (all the electrical stuff, for example) to a late Victorian level, even though the story is set in the 1830s. The gothic tone is faithful to the book even if some of the characters and details vary. (Netflix)
• Deep Cover: A trio of improv actors gets hired by the police to pose a criminals to entrap a drug dealer. Things go spectacularly wrong. A good popcorn movie but not much more. (Prime)
• The Family Plan 1 and 2: Extremely implausible but still somehow watchable. More popcorn movies. (Apple TV)

TV

• The Nature of Things: Implosion. Documentary about the Titan submersible disaster. Should have been longer. 
• Slow Horses (season 5): A bit lighter than some of the earlier seasons but still enjoyable. 
• Trainwreck: Woodstock '99. Three-part documentary about the disastrous Woodstock '99 festival What were they thinking? (Apple TV)
• Only Murders in the Building (season 5): The plots continue to be implausible, but we are enjoying it. Steve Martin is brilliant, as always. (Disney+)
• Antiques Road Trip (seaon 12). Only four more seasons to go and we will have watched all of them, (PBS)
• Beyond Paradise (season 3): The season finally continues after the Christmas episode. I'm enjoying this one more than earlier seasons; not all episodes revolve around murders. (BritBox)
• Lazarus: We had high hopes for this because it was based on a novel by Harlen Coben. But we only got through about 20 minutes of the first episode before giving up. If you like shows about troubled psychiatrists having visions of dead people you will like it; we didn't. (Amazon Prime)
• Code of Silence: BritBox has been heavily promoting this show about a deaf cleaner who gets hired by the police to lip read to help in an investigation. It's a bit implausible but quite watchable. (BritBox)
• Only Murders in the Building (Season 5): The deaths continue at the troubled Arcadia as the intrepid podcasters try to find the killers. (Disney+)
• Murder Is Easy: An adaptation of a story by Agatha Christie. This one turned out better than I expected, though that's not saying much. (BritBox)
• I, Jack Wright: A British brick magnate dies suddenly and his family implodes in spectacular fashion. Grim, twisted, dark, and made with that special brand of dark humour t hat the Brits do so well. But the ending ... there had beter be a second season. (BritBox)

Featured Links - November 25, 2025

Things I found interesting but didn't want to do a full blog post about.

Lifeguard station at Scarborough Bluffs

Reinventing the Subsistence Economy. "How Energy and Food Decoupling Rewrite the Map of Post-Growth Futures." An optimistic look at a possible future from Karl Schroeder.

The Terminator Future Has Arrived. "Gaza represents a future of warfare that will be repeated elsewhere as the algorithms are proving efficient, merciless and remorseless."

The Worst Part About Publishing a Book in 2025 Is The New Kind of Spam. Authors are getting buried in targetted AI-authored spam. 

Google’s New Gmail Upgrades—Why You Must Choose Carefully. Unless you live in the EU, Google may be opting you in to giving them access to your private data.

Russian Unreality and American Weakness. "Notes from a bizarre moment of diplomatic history." An absolutely devastating take down of the proposed "peace plan" to end the Ukranian war from historian Timothy Synder. 

Open the pod bay doors, HAL (Arguing with A.I.). A detailed post showing how AI can provide misleading results, with examples.

Bitcoin isn't anonymous — investigators can trace every transaction on the blockchain. Just in case you thought all those drug buys were safe. 

Photo of the Week - November 24, 2025

This week's photo is of a lifeguard station at the Scarborough Bluffs park. Of course, there were no life guards on duty this time of year. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro.

Lifeguard station at the Scarborough Bluffs

 

Saturday Sounds - Philip Glass and Tenzin Choegyal - Be the Sky

This week's musical treat is a new album from Philip Glass and Tenzin Chiegyal, Be the Sky. I've just listened to this and love it.

From Google: "Be The Sky" is a recent album collaboration between composer Philip Glass and Tibetan musician Tenzin Choegyal, released on November 14, 2025. The album is described as a collaboration born from their two-decade friendship, blending Glass's minimalist style with Tibetan musical traditions. It's a musical tribute to the Dalai Lama and serves as an offering of hope and spirituality.'

It's one of Glass' best works since Glassworks. Beautiful, ethereal, contemplative music for the soul. Enjoy.