Loren Eaton, at I Saw Lightning Fall, recommends an article by Danny Bowes on the Noir roots of Cyberpunk:

In the end, what noir and cyberpunk share is a simultaneous, paradoxical status as distinctly past-tense forms that nonetheless keep popping up everywhere in subsequent art. … Fittingly, as each was widely criticized — and exalted — as valuing style over substance, the lasting impact of noir and cyberpunk (connecting the two as one entity, since there is no cyberpunk without noir) is greatest in the visual arts and cinema. For in the shadows lies danger and mystery. Sex and power. The simultaneous thrill and fear of confronting death. Noir, and all its descendants, including cyberpunk, is the shadow.

Our friend Ori Pomerantz directed me to this video of “The Vikings” by Depeche Mode.

Mostly historically accurate, but the music is oddly inconsistent with the themes, it seems to me. Maybe that’s because I’m old.

In any case, I think the contrast clearly shows the superiority of my book trailer, which I link here simply for purposes of instruction:

This weekend–the state fair, with a friend. Sadly, he’s a guy.

Hope your weekend is good. Especially if you live on the southeast coast.

Trevin Wax talks about what makes a blog interesting. He boils it down to curiosity. “Curiosity works itself out in two ways,” he notes.

1. “The blogger provokes a sense of curiosity and wonder in his or her readers.”
2. “The blogger has an innate curiosity that enables him or her to write from a unique perspective.”

Naturally, I’m sure he’s a big fan of BwB. I mean, how could he not be?

Late to the computer tonight. I had to pick up some family members at the airport. They’re just back from a trip to Germany and Denmark. In Denmark they were able to meet and get to know our distant relatives, in Jutland.

Needless to say, I am filled with impotent rage and envy that I couldn’t go along. However they bought me dinner, so I chose not to steer the car into an abutment, sending us all to a fiery but magnificent demise.

Over at The Corner, Michael Potemra writes of “The Inexhaustible Chesterton:”

One of the things I have come to like most about Chesterton is that he is one of the few writers whose books you can open virtually at random, and have a good chance of finding a breathtaking insight.

Today was a big day—it was the day I got a link on Instapundit.

I’d noticed that people (usually publishers) send Glenn Reynolds books—often in the Fantasy and Science Fiction fields—and he posts an Amazon link. So I sent him a book, along with a short note mentioning my blogging credentials, and crossed my fingers. Today it paid off.

We sold off our entire Amazon stock within a very short time. Unfortunately, our Amazon stock wasn’t very large. But still it’s something. Maybe I’ll acquire another influential fan or two.

What’s that you say? Not enough Viking content in this post? Well, we can’t have that.

Here’s a video of a couple Scandinavian musicians doing a song called “Ormen Lange,” which I’ve liked for a long time. I first heard it done by a Norwegian folk group called “Vandrerne,” but their version doesn’t seem to be online. The Vandrerne arrangement was a little more processed, and I frankly prefer it, but this isn’t bad.

The song is a “ring dance” song from the Faeroe Islands. The title, “Ormen Lange,” means “The Long Serpent,” and it refers to King Olaf Trygvesson’s great war ship, which I believe I mention in The Year Of the Warrior. In the tradition of Faeroese ring dance songs, this seems to be a very long one. Only the first few verses are here—they tell how King Olaf calls his men to join him in a voyage in his ship, and his men enthusiastically respond that they’ll willingly follow him “into war or peace.” Then they launch the ship and set sail, with the king at the helm. I assume the full version goes on to tell about Olaf’s death at the Battle of Svold.

The chorus goes:

“The dance glimmers in the hall, and we dance in a ring.

Gladly ride Norwegian men to battle (the assembly of Hild).”