Category Archives: Personal history

On Trying to Read 100 Books a Year

Posted on Thursday 28 January 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s some advice from The Observer [a British weekly newspaper] about How to Read 100 Books a Year. Long ago on this blog, or its precursor, I mentioned something about how I would describe the kinds of lists and statistics … Continue reading →

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On Seeing The Nutcracker ballet

Posted on Sunday 20 December 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

As I mentioned on Facebook yesterday, we saw a production of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet at the San Francisco Ballet (click link for a 1-minute video sample), on Saturday 12/19, and had the good luck to snag first row seats, with … Continue reading →

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The Bay Area and the California Dream

Posted on Sunday 1 November 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

It’s been especially lovely here in the Bay Area all this past week, with mild temperatures around 68 or 70 F (though a bit warmer in the Oakland Hills where we are), and sunny warm skies decorated with big fluffy … Continue reading →

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Contemplating a Lost in Space Rewatch

Posted on Thursday 22 October 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

So I’m contemplated a “Lost in Space” rewatch – at least as much a rewatch as I can bear. The show greatly affected me when I first saw it at age 10 (it debuted in 1965, a year before Star … Continue reading →

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My Father’s Books: and Cambridge, Illinois

Posted on Monday 19 October 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Over the weekend I spent some time glancing through one of the dozen or so books I kept from my father’s small library. He was an architect, an idealistic and eventually disillusioned architect, who had great ideas but became relegated … Continue reading →

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Jonny Quest Rewatch

Posted on Friday 16 October 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Speaking of rewatches of favorite childhood shows, I have in fact finished a ‘rewatch’ of one of my earliest favorite TV shows, the 1964 animated series ‘Jonny Quest’, via a DVD set I bought some years ago and haven’t watched … Continue reading →

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Lost in Space, Season 4

Posted on Thursday 15 October 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

While sorting through a couple old file cabinets today, deciding what I should keep and what I can toss, I came across a file that I must have discovered some 30 years ago, when I was obsessed with rewatching childhood … Continue reading →

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Frank M. Robinson’s SCIENCE FICTION OF THE 20TH CENTURY: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY

Posted on Wednesday 16 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

I’m beginning to explore and read or reread various histories of science fiction. Robinson’s is a coffee-table book, published in 1999, that had sequels from the same publisher about fantasy and horror, by different hands: Randy Broecker and Robert Weinberg, … Continue reading →

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The Methodical, Cheerful, Bluntness of Isaac Asimov

Posted on Wednesday 19 August 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

I switched gears a couple weeks ago, after reading several recent (2014 and 2015) novels, to spend some time revisiting one of the 20th century’s most acclaimed science fiction authors, Isaac Asimov. It’s hard to tell, at this point about … Continue reading →

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Bay Heat

Posted on Monday 17 August 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

It was a hot and hazy weekend, very unusual for the Bay Area. When I stepped outside at 7am Saturday morning to pick up the newspapers from the driveway, there was a distinct smell of smoke in the air, as … Continue reading →

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