Author: Diane Griffin

Diane is a writer of Fantasy, an intermittent blogger, and a generator of nonsense.

Zeitgeist 3/5/25

Annie Haslam puts me in mind of Jacqui McShee

I’m listening to Renaissance’s Ashes are Burning from 1973. I read it as harkening back to Vanguard Records kinda stuff. Honestly, if you like Pentangle, you’re going to love this. Jon Camp is one of those Rick with a pick™ guys and is melodic in that Chris Squire/Paul McCartney way. Annie Haslam definitely puts me in mind of Jacqui McShee, but making mathy, orchestral music.

Really nice. I’m midway through side two of this thing, so I feel like I can say that this is a truly great pop/prog album.

I’m thinking about this theory Krystal Ball put forward that suggests that Trump may actually be trying to cause a recession. I think maybe so. Maybe that’s what’s happening.

Our options are these: he’s doing it intentionally OR he’s just that stupid. I don’t know which to believe. Much will be decided over the coming weeks. I’m praying that the upshot is that Trump is just a stupid muhfuggah, and that Elon Musk makes Pumpkin Spice Palpatine look like a friggin genius. (A big friggin OMG DUDE to whoever came up with the name “PayPalpatine” for Elon, btw.)

That’s my favorite conspiracy theory.

My LEAST favorite theory is that Trump is a Russian asset. I don’t believe it for a minute. Second worst possibility is that Trump and Putin see each other as equals, and Putin’s rule is the closest analogue to what Trump wants.

He might get it. <shrug>

Zeitgeist 2/2/25

How I’m thinking right now.

The Toxic Dweeb and the Orange Guy

As capitalist democracies so often do, the land of my birth has embraced the bundle of sticks. I sometimes wonder if it’s possible for a capitalist democracy not to.

Maybe the person we elected President is a wholly owned subsidiary of a South African trillionaire not-see. Maybe not, but remember, he’s just as bad on his own.

I’m 65. Medicare age and trans. Mosk has his Nazi-saluting hands on the payment apparatus of the US Treasury now. The Treasury Secretary resigned in protest.

Mosk has a transgender daughter. Her name is Vivian Jenna Wilson. He signed off on her transition when she was 16. He says he was “tricked.” Ah, the old “tricked by a tran” trope. How pathetic.

He lies about everything. As Trompe does, and as you all know. This is a time of shock and awe. Uncounted loud outrages done in the light so you miss the worse ones done quietly in the shadows.

Remember, the best Christofascist “minds” designed this project, and Mosk/Tromp are executing it as planned. This looks to be a complete top-to-bottom, right-wing takeover of the you-knighted Staits.

Keep your eyes open, and your hearts, too. There are dangers ahead. Fighting Fascists is never easy, but it must always be done. This is the crucial time, a fulcrum in the flow of history. Our time.

AOC posted this on bluesky: “One thing about me is that I will fight Nazis until I’m six feet in the ground.” I feel the same way. Our fathers and grandfathers fought the Fascists. Our time now.

Novel Progress Report 1/15/25

Just, you know, how it’s going..

So, here it is, January ’25. The world is about to enter a long, dark corridor. Really, we’re pretty much in that corridor already, but we’re about to turn a corner and whatever dim light there was behind us is going to be cut off.

We’re entering an age where human life will be much less valuable. The people are on the ropes. What are we going to do? What can we do? Time will tell. I hope what’s coming is at least a good story.

Into this dark January I continue to work on my novel-in-progress provisionally entitled A Curse of Romans. I’m giving it about 3 hours a week right now, but it is a consistent 3 hours a week, and has been since 2022. I’m a little over 3/4ths of the way through a 4th draft. I keep thinking I should devote more time to it, but whether I do or not, I intend to get it to a final draft, probably 3 or 4 passes away.

This current draft is about getting my facts straight. I’m consistentizing my worldbuilding (which was improvised in the first draft), I’m trying to make the characters a little bit more interior-logical, line-editing some because some things I did on the fly were obviously bad and it’s embarrassing, plus I’m rewriting two big sections, one of which I did earlier and one of which is upcoming – i. e., the ending. The current ending must be scrapped and replaced.

Next draft will be a scene-by-scene out-loud retelling in the narrator’s voice. Draft five is shaping up to be crucial. That will be the one where not only will I be reading each scene aloud, I’ll be applying the Stanislavsky stuff that my MFA seminar was about. If I don’t get intentions right, the whole thing will fall apart. Also wondering if I should acquire a kilij, which my narrator character uses.

So yeah, it’s difficult, I’m going slow, but the work is going well. I like what it’s about, I like my characters, and I think this is a good story. Of course, anyone who ever eventually reads the thing will decide.

Current listening: The Mob Rules by Black Sabbath.

Barrett by Syd Barrett

A reminder of what might have been

Syd Barrett was the original leading light of Pink Floyd, but succumbed to debilitating psychological issues that began around the time of the release of the band’s first album. He left the band under a cloud after a short struggle to continue contributing, and after two erratic solo albums, left the music business entirely. Barrett, his second solo album, was the end of the road for Syd as a recording artist.

It’s sssssooooo wwwwweeeeiiiirrrrrddddddddd, but it’s also surprisingly good considering the problems involved in making it, and different from anything else you might care to name in rock music.

The first thing I think of with Syd’s solo stuff is wild tempo shifts and a casual attitude towards pitch, but there’s less out-of-control-ness than you might think on Barrett. I mean, it’s loose, at times almost chaotic, but I think Syd was a lot more on top of things for this record than his rep might suggest.

“Gigolo Aunt,” for instance is prime late-sixties pop rock, as is “Baby Lemonade.” The shuffling beats, the psychedelic brightness, the unique phrasing and viewpoint — all are trademark, and testament to Barrett’s distinctive creativity.

The band is Syd on vocals and guitar, Richard Wright on keys, Jeff Shirley from Humble Pie on drums, and David Gilmour on bass and backing vocals. Gilmour and Wright are the producers. At Gilmour’s insistance, Syd plays all the guitars.

Ultimately, it’s both its own thing – loose and immediate, quirky and streamlined – and a reminder of what might have been.