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| Tuesday, May 21st, 2013 |
docbrite
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8:39p |
Book Auctions
It's been a while since I sold any signed books on eBay. Just listed five new auctions: WRONG THINGS by me and Caitlín R. Kiernan, TRIADS by me and Christa Faust, GUILTY BUT INSANE, and the chapbooks CON PARTY AT HOTEL CALIFORNIA and THE SEED OF LOST SOULS. As always, I'm happy to personalize the signatures. |
chrisconlon
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4:15p |
The Oblivion Room - Free Giveaway!
Here's a chance to win an advance copy of The Oblivion Room and some other swag courtesy of Evil Jester Press, the book's publisher. Act now, the deadline is short. Here's the press release....
-- Today EVIL JESTER PRESS announces an exciting, one-of-a-kind giveaway for Christopher Conlon’s The Oblivion Room: Stories of Violation, due for release by EJP on June 25! The winner of this giveaway will receive a free advance review copy (trade paperback format) of The Oblivion Room signed by Chris (inscribed if you wish), along with a special, unique bonus: several pages of this Bram Stoker Award-winner’s original handwritten notes and first draft of one of the stories from the collection! “I have an unusual working method, I guess,” Chris says. “Generally I begin in longhand, with a pencil and a legal pad. I compile some very disorganized notes over a period of weeks or months, and then start into the story itself. Only after I feel that I’ve got it ‘up and running,’ so to speak, do I switch over to the computer, typing up what there is of the handwritten draft and then moving forward.” Seeing Chris’s notes and handwritten first-draft pages will provide an invaluable insight into the working processes of an author Joe McKinney calls “one of our best, hands down,” and who Gary A. Braunbeck praises as “a brilliant writer.” To enter this giveaway, simply send an e-mail with the words “I Want to Win!” typed in the subject heading to wehsconlon[at]aol.com. No text is necessary. One entry per person. All entries must be received by Friday, May 24 2013, 5:00 pm EST. The winner will be chosen at random and notified via e-mail. Winner must respond via return e-mail with name and mailing address within 72 hours of notification or prize will be rescinded and another winner chosen. That’s it—a free trade paperback of The Oblivion Room, hailed by Michael R. Collings of Hellnotes for its “remarkable stories” and highly recommended for readers seeking “the deeper realms of fear and terror,” along with a sheaf of handwritten notes and first-draft material from the author himself. Enter to win today!
--(By the way, the Hellnotes review referred to in the press release can be found here: http://hellnotes.com/the-oblivion-room-stories-of-violation-book-review) # |
nihilistic_kid
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8:38a |
Interview
Nine years ago this week, the hardcover edition of Move Under Ground (now also on Kindle for $2.99, cheap!) was released. To celebrate, kind of, here's an extensive interview with me over at the Weird Fiction Review: Everything is terrible, everywhere. |
scottedelman
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8:41a |
Intriguing 1966 DC Comics house ad
Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there. While I was over at my sister-in-law’s house Sunday night, I happened to notice a stack of old comics on the coffee table and picked up this one—Detective Comics #350 (April 1966)—because who could resist a Batman drawn by Joe Kubert or those Go-Go Checks?
The house ads in the issue were as much fun as the stories (which is often the case), and I was particularly intrigued by this one, in which DC claimed it sold “twice as many comics as any other competitor” and “almost as many as all other comics combined.”( Read the rest of this entry »Collapse ) |
| Monday, May 20th, 2013 |
docbrite
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11:54p |
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scottedelman
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9:23p |
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nihilistic_kid
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4:37p |
My Two Minutes Of International Fame and Shame
So because I wrote Insults Every Man Should Know I was asked to speak on BBC5 about the weekend's row over swivel-eyed loons. I was told not to say the "f-word", the "c-word" or to "take the Lord's name in vain" but other than that anything would be fine.
I was on for all of two minutes. We spoke very briefly about clever insults between politicians, and I pointed out that this case is different: it's someone insulting their own rank and file, not trying to either build a coalition by insulting some "outsider", nor is it performative like the barbs politicians trade as part of the election show. I was then asked to address what "swivel-eyed" might have meant.
Me: "It's an ableist slur, it's basically saying that have a mental and physical disability...like calling someone spastic"
Host: "Oh, spastic is an offensive term!"
Me: "Well, yes..."
Host: "Not appropriate for BBC radio"
Me: "I'm explaining that it's an insult"
Host: "We apologize to anyone who might be offended..."And after that I was asked about America and mentioned that John Adams once called Thomas Paine's Common Sense "crapulous" and I was off the air two seconds later. SUPERSTAR! |
nick_kaufmann
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1:46p |
Doctor Who: “The Name of the Doctor”
After a very disjointed and lackluster season, Doctor Who sprints to the finish line with a superb example of what the show can do now that it’s been freed from the narrative shackles of the Amy-Rory-River arc: the Season 7 climax ”The Name of the Doctor.” Let’s dive in, shall we?
MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW! BE WARNED!
I think what I liked especially about this episode is that it had stakes. For the past two seasons, there haven’t been any real stakes involved to the season enders. In Season 5, a crack in time and space is going to destroy the entire universe, but that’s okay because the Doctor can just reboot the universe. In Season 6, the Doctor has to die or all of time and space will get messed up, but that’s okay because the Doctor can fake his death with a robot and apparently that will satisfy all the cosmic demands of his death. In “The Name of the Doctor,” at least, characters wind up using their smarts and their abilities to defeat the bad guys and save the Doctor’s life. There’s no “trick” here, no sneaky way out. There are stakes, and those stakes are real, and they are overcome through the actions of the characters. More of that, please.
It was an interesting choice to make the Great Intelligence this season’s big bad. The Great Intelligence is hardly one of the more popular monsters of the classic series, having appeared only twice, both times during Patrick Troughton’s run as the Second Doctor, and not having an iconic physical appearance to draw upon. There are some drawbacks to this choice, too. The Great Intelligence only appeared this season in the Christmas special “The Snowmen” and in “The Bells of St. John.” In both episodes, the Great Intelligence is defeated by the Doctor, but it hardly seems like enough to drive this disembodied entity to launch the vengeful plan that brings everyone to far-future Trenzalore. Granted, the Doctor did defeat the Great Intelligence two more times, but they weren’t in this season. Those episodes — “The Abominable Snowmen” and “The Web of Fear” — were aired more than 40 years ago. So yes, an interesting choice, and maybe not an altogether successful one, but it’s definitely another example of Steven Moffat’s fascination with presenting story arcs out of order. (I get that time travel is involved, but I’d argue there’s a reason recurring characters were always met in order in classic Who. For example, whenever the Doctor crossed paths with the Master, it was always after their last televised encounter. Same with Davros, the Cybermen, etc. It’s just easier to keep track of everything that way.)
What’s also interesting is that even though this is Trenzalore, the events that take place don’t seem to jibe with Dorium’s warning about the planet. He said: “On the fields of Trenzalore, at the fall of the eleventh, when no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer, a question will be asked, a question that must never, ever be answered. The First Question, the oldest question in the Universe, that must never be answered, hidden in plain sight: Doctor who?” While the Doctor’s name is a plot point in this episode, it is neither revealed upon the Great Intelligence’s asking, nor is there anything about not being able to speak falsely. Online, some have posited that this is what Dorium warned him about, that the “fall of the eleventh” happens when the Doctor cuts the antigrav so the TARDIS will fall to the planet’s surface, and that “silence falls” when the stars start to go out, but I think that’s stretching it. The events Dorium warns about are supposed to bring about the fall of the Silence, that secret society revealed in Season 6, and the Silence has nothing to do with this story. But we do learn that a big battle took place on Trenzalore in which the Doctor died, so it’s possible the battle that’s referenced is the one Dorium warns about. This would make it yet another example of Moffat presenting plot points out of order.
Much to my surprise, considering how overcomplicated and riddled with plot holes Steven Moffat’s grand schemes usually are, the explanation for the multiple Claras works. There’s a lot of science fiction handwaving about how it works — can a timeline actually be a physical doorway? — but it works on a storytelling level. What’s more, it gives us a wonderful, brilliantly nostalgic opportunity to see all the classic Doctors we won’t be seeing in the 50th anniversary special. Well played, Steven Moffat! (That said, some of the CGI was awful. Patrick Troughton might have been the worst, running in his fur coat across a green screen beach at a completely different speed from everyone else.) Most interesting, though, was Clara’s interaction with the First Doctor and Susan. The implication here is that one of the Claras is Gallifreyan, which opens such a can of worms! I mean, did she continue on, regenerating when needed, and eventually die in the Time War? Is Chancellor Flavia’s last name perhaps Oswald? (I kid!) Clara telling the First Doctor which TARDIS to steal was pretty awesome, but it seems to nullify the idea that the TARDIS chose the Doctor as much as he chose it, which would be a sad loss to the mythology.
This episode also nicely wraps up the River Song storyline, should they decide to end it. This is, after all, the post-Library River, and she and the Doctor get a wonderful, no-holds-barred goodbye scene. That said, I suspect River has at least one story left in her, which would be Dorium’s Trenzalore prediction, most likely the moment when she learns the Doctor’s real name.
And then there’s John Hurt. Aside from the Doctor explaining that John Hurt is him but not the Doctor and then having the onscreen titles introduce him as “the Doctor” in direct contradiction to what the Doctor just said, his presence in that strange, hard-even-for-the-script-to-explain cavern that is also the Doctor’s timeline is absolutely thrilling. Even with only two lines of dialogue and a single action (turning around), Hurt shows what an incredible actor he is. His presence in the 50th anniversary special has been confirmed, and I can’t wait to see what they do with him.
The Internet is abuzz with rumors about who he is. Most prevalent is the idea that he’s a “forgotten” or “repressed” incarnation, the one who actually pulled the trigger that ended the Time War. Which would make Eccleston really the Tenth Doctor, Tennant the Eleventh, and Smith the Twelfth. This seems rather overcomplicated and I’m not sure what the point of it would be — which means it’s right up Steven Moffat’s alley and so it’s probably true!
By the way, how cool would it be if they went back to the scene in “The God Complex” where the Doctor opens the door to the room of his greatest fear and we see now that it’s John Hurt?
“The Name of the Doctor” doesn’t wrap up everything, though. For instance, we still don’t know why the TARDIS doesn’t like Clara. We also don’t know why the Doctor is removing himself from databases across the universe, or what he hopes to achieve with that. Season 8 has been given the green light, so hopefully we’ll find out then. Or maybe in the 50th anniversary special.
And now for some Doctor Who neepery! I cannot believe the Great Intelligence name-checked the Valeyard! Fans of classic Who all over the world probably roared with laughter at that moment. So, if you’re not one, you might be wondering why. Well, once upon a time, during Colin Baker’s run as the Sixth Doctor, there was a season-long arc called “The Trial of a Time Lord.” Most classic Who fans don’t like to talk about it, and for good reason. It’s pretty dreadful. Essentially, the Doctor is put on trial by the Time Lords (again!) for all his meddling. Prosecuting the Doctor is a shady character called the Valeyard, played by the very creepy Michael Jayston in an all-black Time Lord outfit that practically screams “Villain!” And indeed, he is the villain of the story. What’s more, his true identity is revealed by the Master as…get ready for this…no, really…oh, crap, here, just have the actual dialogue: “There is some evil in all of us, Doctor, even you. The Valeyard is an amalgamation of the darker sides of your nature, somewhere between your twelfth and final incarnation.” That’s right, the Valeyard plans to have the Doctor (himself) executed so he can steal his (own) remaining regenerations, because apparently you can do that. Ultimately, the Valeyard is one of the worst creations of one of the worst eras of classic Doctor Who, and fans everywhere would rather forget all about it. Thanks for reminding us, Steven Moffat. Just for that, you’re sentenced to a glassful Mel’s carrot juice! (Don’t ask.)
Originally published at Nicholas Kaufmann. You can comment here or there. |
| Sunday, May 19th, 2013 |
docbrite
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4:52p |
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docbrite
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4:52p |
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lou_sytsma
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9:53a |
Endings - Or New Beginnings?
This past week I have run across a trio of items that in one way or another deal with the ending of something. Be it a book series, stories about the end of a life and/or lives, and the conclusion of season long story lines. Even though all deal with endings they all also contain either the hint of new beginnings or in the case of Arrow - definite new beginnings. ~~~ The Dark Tower CompanionBesides a personally guided tour by Stephen King himself, no one could do more a more insightful overview of The Dark Tower saga, and by extension the body of King's works, than Bev Vincent.
Long acknowledged a master of King lore, Bev uses that acumen to succinctly tie everything together. Not only does the book include a handy reference guide to the major characters, places, themes and tie-ins, but in typical Vincent fashion, Bev raises interesting possibilities beyond the material itself. Some are conjecture. Others of an insight that only comes to those mastered in their subject.
Bev Vincent proves himself a King Master with this book. I'm doing a podcast interview with Bev about the book today and it should be up in couple of weeks. Keep an ear out for that! I'll post a link here when it goes live.
~~~
Pork Pie Hat Peter Straub is a gifted writer who knows not only what to put into a story but what to leave out for the reader to ponder over. This is another example of that unique talent in a novella length ghost story. What starts out as a story about a man's curiosity about a jazz saxophone player turns into a ghost story which became the catalyst for the sax player's career. Adroitly done. ~~~ Arrow Now that's how do you do a season finale! 
Whew! So many great moments for each character. Quite a feat. I am loathe to give away story/character specific spoilers but suffice it to say the show does not drag out arcs but continually reconfigures them or finishes them off so that new ones can be introduced. Nothing gets stales on this show. The capper is the main threat may have been thwarted but the backup one was not and the town still ended suffering a major blow. Well done Arrow show runners, cast, and crew. Well done. ~~~ |
scottedelman
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10:21a |
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docbrite
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7:27a |
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| Saturday, May 18th, 2013 |
docbrite
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7:21p |
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docbrite
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4:02p |
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| Friday, May 17th, 2013 |
docbrite
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7:52p |
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nick_kaufmann
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4:02p |
The End of an Era
I used to love NBC’s The Office. I watched it religiously for many years. For a long time, I considered it the best sitcom on TV. After three or four seasons, I became convinced the American version had actually surpassed the British sitcom on which it was based. Dwight and Creed in particular were amazing characters, and of course, like everyone, I was caught up in the Jim and Pam romance. (Though, for a while, I was pretty sure Jim would be better off with Karen Filipelli, the Utica branch co-worker played by the outstanding Rashida Jones, who treated Jim a lot better than Pam did at the time because she actually liked him and wasn’t dithering about some completely unworthy fiancé.)
Strangely enough, I never considered Steve Carell’s Michael Scott my favorite character, but when Carell left the show, wisely sensing it was running out of steam after seven years, I quickly lost interest. I think I made it through roughly half the eighth season before opting out. Robert California, the replacement Regional Manager, was a disaster, despite being played by the superb James Spader. His character stuck out like a sore thumb. He belonged on a completely different show. Every plotline that focused on him was tedious. On top of that, I just couldn’t get into all the Andy and Erin romantic angst. They were no Jim and Pam. Not even close.
So I stayed away from the show for a year and a half, but I decided to tune in to this week’s series finale, and I’m glad I did. I laughed a lot, and even got a little teary-eyed, just like I used to during the show’s heyday. (Though Ryan abandoning his baby was pretty questionable as far as funniness goes. I mean, come on, you guys.) Still, it was a great sendoff to a once-great sitcom. So long, The Office, and thanks for all the great memories. I forgive you for Robert California.
Originally published at Nicholas Kaufmann. You can comment here or there. |
nihilistic_kid
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12:14a |
SF Greek Film Festival
Tonight I took in some movies at the San Francisco Greek Film Festival. There are many films I'd like to see, but this was the only night I had available. Three shorts and a feature: First up was "Kypseli", which is "hive" and a very congested neighborhood in Athens. Though the film plays on the pun, most of the shots show a bunch of fairly empty streets, as if someone is shooting a film in town or something. A pair of yuppies sit at a cafe, and the woman discovers that her phone is gone. First they blame a Pakistani street peddler, and get him arrested, and then they realize that an old Greek woman stole the phone. They confront her and find out that the Greek economy has turned to shit. Also, the Pakistani is deported. Fine, I guess. Then there was an American film, "Athanasios"—another bit of title punnery. It's a Greek name and means immortal. We have immigrant papou, and his punk kid American grandson who enters his shoe-repair shop (shot in an actual Greek-owned shop in SF's West Portal neighborhood) bleeding from some altercation with no good kids. "A paper cut", papou says, who was shot in the neck by the Nazis during the War and lived. Immortal! And after a little first aid, now the American kid is proud to be Greek again. A very personal movie. Indeed, perhaps so personal the director didn't even realize that he didn't actually tell the story. However, it was beautifully shot. Meditative and cool, with clever long shots in the American scenes and hard, stark close-ups in the flashbacks, Then came "The Palace", by my once long-lost cousin Anthony Maras*. Here's the trailer: I'd read the script when he was in pre-production, and saw the film on my computer months ago thanks to a password-protected Vimeo link, but this was the first time on the big screen. Disclosures aside, this was the film of the night. It's easy to make a sentimental film about Cyprus, and it's easy enough to portray a bunch of rampaging Turks. He managed to avoid all that, to build some descent tension, and to create a real character in the form of a young Turkish soldier who really just wanted to go back to the UK and become an actor. Extremely worthwhile. Then there was the feature, My Blood. A crazy art film about a woman and a man who might be two men, and one of them is the son and the other the husband, but they are the same, and the woman feeds them blood and demands to be loved forever and 90 percent of the shots are extreme close-ups and the score is a constant dubbubdumbbubdubbubdumbub so the whole thing feels like a ninety-minute long trailer for a fourteen-hour long film. Really, just watch the trailer sixty-three times and you get the movie: There's a certain ambition to the film, and it's admirable in its way—the budget was zero, and the director bartered everything, trading space for lights, the lights for sound editing, some sound editing for...all the way down the line. Bigger or Better, but starting with nothing. (It is fairly easy to make a ninety-minute film in most of the shots are just of half of someone's face or tit.) And it was artsy and "tasteful", though my sensitive cousin Nikos left when the pot full of blood came out. (I encountered him in the lobby when heading to the bathroom.) But for all its strengths, My Blood was still just an exercise in tedium, with a dash of suspicion toward women. All in all, a nice if sometimes challenging evening, and I can't wait for Anthony to make a feature. *Facebook, for all its faults, is great for finding members of the branche of the family that emigrated to the Congo, and then on to Australia, in the years after the Greek Civil War. |
| Thursday, May 16th, 2013 |
lj_maintenance
[ markf ]
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6:02p |
Back online
We've just brought User Cluster #9 back online, and the errors being caused by the maintenance should stop occurring. Notifications are sending again, but may be delayed as there is a backlog of notifications waiting to be sent. If you are still encountering any errors, please open a Support request so we can investigate the issue. |
lj_maintenance
[ mferrell ]
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1:42p |
Maintenance still in progress
We are still in the process of bringing User Cluster #9 back online, and it is unfortunately taking longer than we anticipated. We are making progress, but are still several hours away from this being fixed. To address a few common questions we are seeing:
How many user clusters are there?
There are 13 user clusters in total.
How can I find out what user cluster my account is on?
You can see which user cluster you are on at http://www.livejournal.com/misc/whereami.bml if you are logged-in. If you cannot login, your account is located on user cluster #9.
I am not on cluster 9, but still can't post or edit entries. What's happening?
Trying to update or edit posts may still fail even if you are not on user cluster #9. An Error 500 will appear when loading the update/edit journal page if you have posting access to a community which is located on this cluster. The update module at http://www.livejournal.com/portal/ may still allow you to post while maintenance is ongoing.
I'm not getting notifications. Is this related?
Subscription notifications are not currently being sent as a result of this maintenance. You may still receive other types of emails, such as pingbacks and password notification emails, but will not receive notifications of new entries or comments being posted.
What other things aren't working right now?
Twitter digest posts are not currently being imported as a result of this maintenance. Some other pages & features may display errors if they need to access information located on user cluster #9. The inbox and community management pages are both known to be showing errors for people affected by this.
We will post again either when user cluster #9 is back online, or if we have any additional information to post. Thanks again for your patience while we work to fully restore service to the site. |
marcy_italiano
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9:56a |
Music Markets
Hi gang, A lot of people I know are writers. Some are even writers who also play instruments. Those musicians however, aren't usually writing songs to go to market other than playing a gig or putting out a band CD. G and I are trying to sell individual songs to markets similar to the way writers would sell a novel. Writing markets are all over the net, but music market listings are not. And short of moving to the streets of Nashville, you gotta find another way to break into the biz - 'cause getting discovered on stage ain't gunna happen. This is where Taxi comes in. http://www.taxi.com/ They are a service that lists markets and you have to get through their filtering system before your work is sent along to the company, which remains anonymous until you get Taxi song approval. You pay a membership each year and pick where you want your songs to go. when a song gets put through, you get contact information and can deal with the company directly after that. Taxi also gives great feedback (depending on the listing), more than some songwriting groups who just "dig each other's shit" all the time. And we all know that gets us nowhere. Here's an example of a listing in a Country market: "CONTEMPORARY COUNTRY SONGS that would appeal to the fans of Reba McEntire, Martina McBride, etc., are needed by the head of A&R at a MAJOR Nashville Label to pitch to an amazing female country artist. Well-developed songs with a contemporary sound will help you turn heads at this A-list label. Your songs should feature an infectious melody and a stand out chorus. Relatable and conversational lyric themes with a focus on love, life, romance, overcoming obstacles, etc., are a must for this pitch. All tempos are welcome for this listing. Female vocals only. Vocal and instrumental demo presentation must be incredibly impressive! Please submit one to three songs online or per CD, include lyrics. All submissions will be screened on a yes/no basis - No full critiques from TAXI - and must be received no later than Thursday, June 6, 2013." There is a listing number to refer to as well. Publishers ARE the agents in many ways, and contracts are vastly different. But one things I've learned this year is that you have to know what you are in the music industry - very specifically. Are you an artist and if so, what genre (or micro-genre). Studio or stage? Are you a songwriter? Do you write jingles ala Charlie on 2 and a Half Men? Do you make ambiance music in a home studio? Wherever there is music, there is a business behind it, and you have to know what business you want to live in. Besides top 100 star. ;) |
lj_maintenance
[ livejournal ]
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3:35p |
Maintenance update
We successfully finished maintenance on cluster #7. All accounts’ owners from this cluster can now log into their journals.
We are working on restoring the user cluster #9, it will take approximately an hour. We will keep you informed. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience.
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| Wednesday, May 15th, 2013 |
lj_maintenance
[ mferrell ]
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9:44p |
Maintenance update
To followup on the previous post, the same symptoms for user cluster #7 are also present for users on cluster #9, so we're in the process of fixing it as well. Having 2 clusters to work on rather than 1 unfortunately means that we expect it to take approximately 6-8 hours for everything to be resolved. We do, however, know how the problems with each cluster started and it is not something which will cause any additional clusters to have these issues. We'll post here again either when the issue has been resolved, or if we have any significant developments to update you on. |
lj_maintenance
[ mferrell ]
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6:46p |
Emergency maintenance on user cluster #7
We're doing some emergency maintenance on one of our databases (user cluster #7, there are 13 user clusters in total. You can see which user cluster your account is on here). The estimated duration of this maintenance is 4-5 hours.
If your account is located on user cluster #7, you will not be able to login to your account until this maintenance has been completed. If you are already logged-in, you will be unable to post, edit, or delete any material on LiveJournal until the maintenance is completed.
If your account is not on this cluster, LiveJournal will still be up, you will be able to login. You may be able to post, edit, and delete content, but if any communities you have posting access to are on cluster #7, you will see an Error 500 when attempting to load the update/edit journal page, or viewing your inbox if any messages have been received from a user on cluster #7. Other pages may also be similarly affected if they attempt to load usernames or data from this cluster. You may also encounter problems viewing journals, entries, comments, or private messages from accounts which are on this cluster.
We're working as quickly as possible to get everything back up & running, and appreciate your patience during this maintenance.
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docbrite
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7:35p |
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bev_vincent
