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Okay ... so I told y'all on my previous post that I'm taking a break; getting the urge to create again, but yeah ... I'm recharging the batteries. So anyway, during my perpetual search for speculative fiction from the African diaspora, I luck-up on Mack Reynolds. I've never heard of this guy ... have no idea what race he is. It was the title of the first piece that caught my eye. "Blackman's Burden." Right ... now peep the sub-title of the second novel, "Africa blazes in tomorrow's world".

"Given the growing attention to postcolonial SF in recent years, it's a surprising oversight. Reynolds' novels describe a near-future Africa that has been abandoned by the developed world. With the exception of a few unfunded, below-the-radar humanitarian teams from the Reunited Nations, the people of Africa are on their own—until one of those teams decides to take the reigns of the struggling continent and give it a united government that works. Homer Crawford, an African-American aid worker, rechristens himself "El Hassan" and becomes Africa's benevolent tyrant. There's more than a little paternalism in the concept, but you get the sense that Reynolds is aware of the irony of this postcolonial intrusiveness. Ultimately, the idea comes across as a kind of philosopher-king utopianism: it asks, why can't we just make things work?"

Naturally I had to snag both copies. Can't wait to read them. I just hope they arrive before the creation-lust flood my spare time... read more

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I'm kinda taking a break from the creative process. And just in time too. Over at our sister site, I was made privy to an outstanding web page. Djehuty Graphics! The above pic is just one of the stunning images found on this site. Djehuty Graphics even features an online graphic novel detailing the history of humanity. Naturally I've added the link to Djehuty Graphics to this site, as well as our companion site, NETERS. Read more.

Oni Ise Owo from Kenneth Coker on Vimeo.

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Recently, I lucked on a great site called, African Digital Art. So I made a stop there today and "discovered" Kenneth Coker. The above video is just some of his work... see more.

I'm glad I found African Digital Art, and naturally I had to add it to my links page!

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This is one of my favorite short movies. I found it while searching the web for African Centered speculative fiction. It took me a minute, but I've found it's creator ... a brother named, Jabari Hall-Smith. He is a creator of Afrofuturism. read more.

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... nbc's KINGS is my favorite television show. It's layered with deep characters and has a vast history that permeates an alternate world: in a country currently ending a costly war. I watched the first episode in awe ... noting the Judeo-Christian themes blending in and out the series. I jumped on over to the nbc web site, and confirmed my observations. KINGS is a modern re-telling of David and Goliath.

This time, the country is Gilboa, it's capital, Shiloh. A cosmopolitan nation at odds with a country not-so-lucky ... Gath. I'm a big fan of world building - see my own works - so KINGS is right up my alley.





The characters are rich. Two of whom are Black; not sure what race they are called in this alternative universe, anyway, the roles they play are juicy enough. Especially The role played by Eamonn Walker. In KINGS, he is known as Rev. Ephram Samuels - a counterpart to the biblical prophet Samual. Rev. Ephram Samuels and King Silas Benjamin are at odds ... though it appears that the Rev. was at one point instrumental in helping King Silas attain power.



The other 'Black' character is the beautiful Thomasina. Played by Marlyne Afflack, she is the Palace Secretary. She holds the King's trust, and in my opinion, commands a certain power in her own right.



KINGS is something special. I look forward to future episodes; I will purchase the series once the DVD drops, and right now; other than The Fringe, it's the only show I look forward to watching on television...

htp (peace)

With the novel getting ready to drop in a week or two, I've had some time to relax before finishing the next project. I've been watching season two of The Invaders. A Quinn Martin production. For you old heads, ya'll should remember the very cool alien invasion series that aired in the late sixties. It lasted for two seasons, but it's one of the tightest stories I've had the pleasure to watch.

The opening scene of The Invaders shows a cheesy looking saucer approaching earth. The special effects in the series is probably on the level of something that can be done in the garage nowadays, but the show is off the hook. Anyway, I decided to fire up Lightwave; build the saucer in modeler - freaking forgot how to use the thing; what with 9.6 and all, Lightwave looks totally different since the last time I played around with it.

The textures of the space scene, and the earth, were treated in photoshop... going for that vector look. The saucer was built pulling and tweaking a cone in modeler. I then imported the saucer into Hexagon (a 3D application), and separated out the material regions. This allowed me to put different colors in different places on the saucer object. I then rendered the scene in Lightwave.

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Just thought this was a kewl google pic....

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Okay... so the Big-O is moving into the white house in January. Naturally folks are excited about this. I have had conversations with folks of every color under the sun; no pun intended, and it amazes me how many people see Obama's election as divine in nature. Peep the following articles I lucked up on while doing research for a novel.



Barackhenaton



That One



The Messiah

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I'm excited and apprehensive at the same time. This movie is a classic. Why mess with it? Oh well, lets keep our fingers crossed. see more

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Wow! You've heard this before, "The older you get, the faster time moves." Seems true enough. Perhaps it's a psychological thing...has to be. Unless you're moving at the speed of light on earth, shouldn't time be a constant? I don't know. But anyway, I read an interesting article about a Super Collider that will be activated in August. Couldn't help but think of the movie, The Mist.



MEYRIN, Switzerland - The most powerful atom-smasher ever built could make some bizarre discoveries, such as invisible matter or extra dimensions in space, after it is switched on in August. But some critics fear the Large Hadron Collider could exceed physicists' wildest conjectures: Will it spawn a black hole that could swallow Earth? Or spit out particles that could turn the planet into a hot dead clump? read more