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November 7th, 2009
11:25 pm ellen_datlow [Link]	Point Break and Imitation of Life (early version) I was too sick to watch movies last night but did so tonight. Kathryn Bigelow's Point Break with Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, and Gary Busey. About 15 minutes too long, some gorgeous shots of surfing, interesting (but someone predictable) plot. It was not a bad way to spend almost two hours. And saw the earlier version or Imitation of Life with Claudette Colbert. Here's my post and the thread on the later version Imitation of Life . Some thoughts: although the guy doesn't overtly pressure Colbert to leave her job he does beg to take her away on his boat doing fish research, hence giving up her career to hang around with him while he continues his. However....she's already rich rich rich, so she could retire. I don't like that Colbert feels forced to give the guy up (for an indefinite period of time) because of her daughter--not saying it's not realistic or even reasonable; I just don't like it. Same heartbreaking scenes with regard to Peola coming back to the mom's funeral. Overly sentimental death scene with the spirituals sung in the background are dreadful. I've seen Claudette Colbert act better in other movies. The young woman who plays Colbert's daughter is terrible. The one who plays Delilah's daughter is much better. Tags: movies, race (Leave a comment)
05:34 pm ellen_datlow [Link]	Feeling human and PHOTOS Today, after sleeping on and off for 1 1/2 days, I woke up feeling almost human. I don't believe it was any kind of flu just a really awful, fast-moving cold. I'm still coughing (trying to get up the stuff that's too far down for comfort)and it hurts every time I cough--ribs, etc caused BY the coughing the first two days. I felt good enough to go out and shop for zinc (couldn't find the Odwalla Vit C drink) and groceries. And for the first time in years, I had them delivered. I ate my first food early afternoon--yesterday I just had toast--I just didn't want anything else that I had in the house. Making chicken soup now. Taking expectorant cough syrup, gargling with salt water, drinking lots of water. Enroute home I picked up a four foot tall book shelf/column that I think I'll -put in my bedroom to keep the "books to be read for Best of the year"--rather than where they have been--on my floor. We'll see how that works. And here are the photos from WFC: http://tinyurl.com/yb7j6eq Tags: a cold, photographs from wfc (11 comments \| Leave a comment)
01:15 pm theinferior4 [pgdf] [Link]	Juan Tizol It is said that a poet has proven himself or herself as talented if some decades after their death three or five or so of their poems out of all their output are still remembered. The same standard probably applies to song composers. A few tunes enter the canon, and you're a certifiable genius. Juan Tizol certainly qualifies, having given us both "Caravan" and "Perdido." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Tizol Until yesterday, I had never heard another of his tunes, "Bakiff." It certainly never entered the canon, but possesses many of the qualities that made the other two songs great. Such an instance raises huge unanswerable questions about why one work of art is a hit and another one, similarly great, is not. In any case, if you enjoyed the two videos above, try this link. It should bring you to an audiofile of "Bakiff." http://www.last.fm/music/Duke+Ellington/_/Bakiff Posted by Paul DiFi. (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
10:56 am theinferior4 [paulwitcover] [Link]	The Chunkin' of the Punkins Today, in just a few moments, in fact, Cynthia and I will be driving an hour inland, to Bridgeville, DE, to attend that awesome annual spectacle of American know-how and red-blooded enjoyment of smashing things known as Punkin Chunkin! Traditionally held on the first weekend after Halloween, to ensure an ample supply of leftover pumpkins, Punkin Chunkin involves teams of engineers and hobbyists from around the country who compete to build and operate machines that hurl pumpkins for large distances in a number of categories. It's a hoot. Until you have seen a pumpkin fired from a large artillery piece, you have not really lived. Some of the launches are all about sheer power, while others involve medieval-like mechanisms of Goldbergian charm. Is this a great country or what? (4 comments \| Leave a comment)
12:00 am gordsellarfeed [Link]	Happy Worldwide Dungeons and Dragons Game Day http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gordsellar/QdzA/~3/o76gFZWzYus/ http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=5111 It’s today, and while I no longer play, it’s worth noting or celebrating if you like. (Leave a comment)
November 6th, 2009
02:52 pm theinferior4 [lucius_t] [Link]	don't goATS! The Men Who Stare at Goats is not a very good movie. Just went to an early showing and was seriously let down, because I wanted this to be cool. It's one of those flicks where almost everything funny is in the trailers, and it can't seem to decide whether it wants to be whacky or make some kind of statement about war--thus it comes off a goofy comedy with too few good parts. It's very slight. Be warned. Now back to the cabin in the hollow.... (12 comments \| Leave a comment)
10:56 am theinferior4 [pgdf] [Link]	New Sofanauts Podcast Visitors to Tony Smith's fine site can now hear Peter Watts and I rambling conversationally across many topics, in the latest SOFANAUTS PODCAST. http://sofanauts.com/ Posted by Paul DiFi. (Leave a comment)
08:16 am theinferior4 [paulwitcover] [Link]	Cousin Paul to the Rescue! When Liz is in trouble, I am not slow . . . (3 comments \| Leave a comment)
07:32 am theinferior4 [paulwitcover] [Link]	Ft. Hood The title of Liz's last post made me think about the frustration involved in trying to separate the wheat of solid information from the chaff of rumor and speculation yesterday in the wake of the horrible shootings at Ft. Hood, not only on TV but on the internets. Glenn Greenwald has some interesting points to make here, though it's hard to see how news organizations are likely to exercise, of their own free will, any sort of responsibility in the current environment of 24-hour cable feeding-frenzy, and the idea of government stepping in to impose restrictions is abhorrent. Maybe we just have to accept inaccuracy and rumor-mongering as the price of a free press, which I'm certainly willing to do. Caveat emptor and all that. But the hypocrisy of mainstream media in blasting bloggers for publishing rumor and failing to fact-check is on full display today. As for the shooting itself, there is still much to learn, still many questions. I hope that one's patriotism may be granted, along with sincere admiration for the responders and sympathies for the victims and their families, while still allowing some skepticism over what has been reported. I know very little about firearms, for example, yet it seems strange to me that the shooter could have killed and wounded so many with pistols, even automatic pistols. Perhaps a reader can help me out here. But even stranger are the accounts of multiple shooters, which are then walked back to one, and of that one shooter's reported death, then walked back to "not dead yet." The fog of war is one thing, but these are authoritative statements given by military officials -- Pat Tillman springs to mind. Can anyone doubt, based on these and other ambiguities and outright reversals of "official" information, that conspiracy theories will run rampant and indeed likely be an enduring part of this tragedy? I was struck by Obama's remarks that strongly implied it was okay for U.S. soldiers to be out there killing Iraqis and Afghanis but there was something "horrific" about U.S. soldiers coming under fire in their own country, on their own base. Why anyone would be surprised that there might be repercussions from our permanent war is beyond me. This is in no way meant to rationalize or justify the murderous actions of a madman. But those actions did not come in a vacuum. I hope that Ft. Hood is not seen as one man going postal but as a kind of canary in a coal mine moment. Cultures and countries, like people, can go off the rails. Our permanant war on terror has converged with other national pathologies -- guns, racism, religious mania -- to take us in a dark direction. Yesterday was not an aberration but another symptomatic outbreak. (5 comments \| Leave a comment)
05:49 am theinferior4 [lizhand] [Link]	The Traditional Shooting of the Televisions I was SO bummed that I was out of state a few weekends ago, when Carolyn Chute held her annual mustering of the Maine Militia — I really wanted to go. I had a fair idea of what to expect: based on reading her last novel, it sounded like the sort of thing you'd find only here in Maine (or maybe only in a Carolyn Chute novel). I comforted myself with the thought that my good friend and neighbor Andy O'Brien (former frontman of punk band The Deported, now member of the Maine State Legislature) would be there taking notes. Alas, Andy couldn't make it either, so thank god Time magazine sent a reporter. You can all read about it here: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1932076,00.html We had snow yesterday, nothing that stuck, just enough to make everything look gloomy and cold. This makes made a good backdrop for writing Available Dark — kinda hard to channel Iceland in January when the sun is shining and asters nodding in the warm breeze. It's so good to be raw and utterly miserable again, Emperor blaring in the background with "Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk" on heavy rotation. A few ays ago I received the bound galleys for the Viking edition of Illyria. The cover art is gorgeous, though because of some glitch I can't post images on the I-4. Maybe I'll see if Cousin Paul can do it for me. Illyria will be out next spring, Wonderwall sometime in 2011. If anyone has any cool ideas as to how to beat the drum for this novel I'd love to hear them. This is the one book I've been trying to write since I was 17, failing miserably over and over again. Winterlong was an early effort, not necessarily a failure on its own terms but I didn't manage to nail the story. It's a weird relief to have finally done so, after more than thirty years. NOW what do I do? (26 comments \| Leave a comment)
November 5th, 2009
09:27 pm shawnsdeggans [Link]	Completely moved http://shawndeggans.blogspot.com/2009/11/completely-moved.html If you're looking for content that was once here, it's been moved to my home domain at http://www.shawn-scarber.com Sorry for the troubles! (Leave a comment)
07:39 pm catrambo [Link]	Request for Amazon Reviews If you've read (and hopefully enjoyed) my collection, Eyes Like Sky And Coal And Moonlight, might I ask that you spread a little love its way in the form of an Amazon review? Current Mood: contemplative Current Music: Santana - Se A Cabo Tags: amazon.com, eyes like sky and coal and moonlight, requests (3 comments \| Leave a comment)
08:01 pm ellen_datlow [Link]	Good round up of Poe influence and current anthos about the master In praise of Poe by Edward Pettit Pettit is the Philadelphian Poe expert Tags: poe (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
01:04 pm catrambo [Link]	Updates The reading with Cherie Priest and Jeff VanderMeer last night was swell, and nicely attended. Thank you so much to everyone who made it and to Duane Wilkins of the University Bookstore for arranging it. If you read spec fic and haven't been to the bookstore lately, you should check it out -- one of the best selections in the area (in my opinion). Afterwards there was beer, nachos, and much good conversation. My story, "The Mermaids Singing Each To Each," is up at Clarkesworld. It was inspired by a link that Katherine Sparrow pointed me at, about the existence of huge lumps of floating trash in our oceans nowadays. I will be teaching a one day workshop as part of the Field's Edge Writers Community program on Saturday, March 13, 2010 at the Bainbridge Public Library. I am reading tomorrow night (November 6) at The Press Club in Portland Oregon: Join Underland Press to celebrate the weird and the wonderful with readings by acclaimed authors Jeff VanderMeer, Jay Lake, Cat Rambo, and Jeff Johnson. With art by Benjamin W. Burch and music by DJ Santo, along with crepes, wine, and beer at the Press Club, we'll stay and talk fantastic lit 'till the management kicks us out. Current Music: Carla Bruni - Ma Jeunesse Tags: readings (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
11:04 am tinaconnolly [Link]	there and back again omg, I think I've been looking forward to 11/5 since April. Besides regular bookstore work and face painting festivals I've had big projects* due nearly every month, as well as travel every month for...many moons now. I mean, I loved every bit of it, but...And Now We Nap. I am back from World Fantasy, which was probably my favorite con so far. Too many brilliant conversations to list, but two memorable moments are forming the Fake Literary Agency with Spencer and accepting Sean as my first Fake Client, and free airport sushi with Eugene. Oh! And finding out that Lindsay's dad was my band teacher in eighth grade in California. How weird is that? While in San Jose I heard that Pseudopod is picking up my Strange Horizons story Turning the Apples, and this morning I found that my reading of Holly Phillips' absolutely wonderful The Small Door is live on Podcastle. If you're the sort who likes to listen, give it a whirl, 'cause it's full of listening. Also, I finished a novel just before WFC. :D Tags:* cons, fake literary agency, live!, podcastle, pseudopod, sale (15 comments \| Leave a comment)
01:04 pm ellen_datlow [Link]	And.... within hours of returning home I was hit smack bang with a hacking(cough), sneezing, nose running cold. At least that's what I'm assuming as I've got no temperature or aches and pains or nausea, etc. I hope I didn't give it to the Locus crowd, with whom I visited Tuesday (no symptoms then)... I will be hibernated as much as possible for the next couple of days-drinking hot water, lemon, ginger, and honey; tea. Taking cough meds, cold meds, and stuffing vicks up my nose and on my chest. And keeping a BIG box of tissues next to me. Tags: cold (22 comments \| Leave a comment)
08:06 am theinferior4 [paulwitcover] [Link]	A feeling I get when I look to the west . . . The reality of the space elevator envisioned by Sir Arthur C. Clarke and others has moved a step closer to reality above the sands of the Mojave Desert with the first successful test of a prototype in the NASA-organized competition for a workable design. Tests continue today, and you can watch them live. Pretty damn cool! (7 comments \| Leave a comment)
01:07 am ellen_datlow [Link]	Home and some stray reviews Horror world reviews TWISTS OF THE TALE (you'll have to scroll down for it). Some choice quotes: "If there’s one thing Ellen Datlow knows how to do well, it’s put an amazing anthology together. From The Year’s Best Horror to Poe to The Dark, she has never failed to capture the essence of the concept she set out to accomplish. The best stories are always chosen, not the most well-known authors, which results in nearly flawless products for both seasoned horror fans and those who just might be browsing.... Highly recommended – even for those who prefer dogs." And a great review in Green Man review of The Best Horror of the Year volume One Again, some choice quotes: "The quality and variety of stories, along with the depth and breadth of Datlow's summary of the year in review, makes The Best Horror of the Year informative as well as entertaining, and any horror fan who wishes to keep current with the state of the genre will want to have a copy." ...."Diversity, complexity, and uniqueness are shared characteristics of all of these stories, making the entire volume a balm for any horror fan who has at times felt a sense of ennui at the sight of books featuring the same old names on the covers along with the same old illustrations of tough stoic men and naked screaming women." Tags: best horror of the year volume 1, reviews, twists of the tale (18 comments \| Leave a comment)
November 4th, 2009
04:54 pm theinferior4 [ljgoldstein] [Link]	Why I Hated A. S. Byatt's New Novel A. S. Byatt’s Possession: A Romance is one of my favorite books of all time, which is certainly part of the reason I was so disappointed in her new novel, The Children’s Book. Possession is about two poets, a man and a woman, in the Victorian era, and two academics, a man and a woman, in the present, and the researchers’ quest to find out more about the poets, who might or might not have had a romance. It doesn’t sound very interesting, maybe, but take my word for it, it’s a fascinating read, impelled forward by an urgent curiosity -- the academics’ curiosity to know what happens next, and the curiosity of the reader, who of course always wants the same thing. And the book is built up beautifully; the balances, the resonances, are so carefully worked out -- the echoes between the researchers and the poets, their friends and lovers, their work and their lives -- that if you take out any part of it it all falls apart. In fact the movie did take out a part of it, making the male academic American instead of English, and -- what do you know -- the whole thing duly fell apart. ( Read more... ) (21 comments \| Leave a comment)
10:33 am theinferior4 [lucius_t] [Link]	the road review Hey---just popping in for a bit to drop this review. A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY by Lucius Shepard For a time it eluded me why anyone would want to make a movie of Cormac McCarthy’s =The Road=, a book that has taken T.S. Eliot’s famous line, “not with a bang, but with a whimper,” and seeks with punishing insistency to document that whimper. No matter how well mounted, I doubted that what would be essentially a zombie picture minus the zombies (roving bands of shaggy, crusty human cannibals standing in for their undead brethren), and minus the humor that zombies have come to evoke in the context of pop culture…I doubted it would do more than middling business, especially as it was slated for a Thanksgiving release. Not exactly holiday fare. Surely, I told myself, John Hillcoat’s (=The Proposition=) gray-as-gristle film wouldn’t garner the same attention as had the previous, less monotone McCarthy adaptation, the Coen Brothers’ =No Country For Old Men=, and thus it would not have a profitable awards season re-release. It appears now that I was only half-right in my presumptions, as awards chatter for =The Road= has been off the charts. ( Read more... ) (40 comments \| Leave a comment)
12:59 pm theinferior4 [pgdf] [Link]	Bear vs. Terrorists Full story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8339549.stm 1) How long until conspiracy theorists allege that the bear was trained by the CIA? 2) Will the CIA actually start to train terrorist-killing bears and airlift them to Afghanistan and Pakistan? 3) Should L. Sprague de Camp receive posthumous predictive credit, due to his "Johnny Black" series of stories? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_L._Sprague_de_Camp_works#Johnny_Black_series Posted by Paul DiFi. (5 comments \| Leave a comment)
07:34 am theinferior4 [paulwitcover] [Link]	Off-year Election Hangover Ugh. After eight years in the Democratic column, and after a historical break for Obama just a year ago, Virginia reverts to the Repugs. New Jersey, where a Repug buffoon went head to head with a Democratic bozo, elected the buffoon -- this in one of the bluest states out there. In my city, the oligarch mayor, an egomaniacal technocrat who purchased a repeal of term limits and then spent 90 million of his fortune for a third term, and played the racism card via surrogate Guiliani in the waning days of the campaign despite polls showing victory -- won a surprising squeaker . . . one is left to wonder what might have happened had the Obama machine scrupled to actually support the Democratic candidate. As for Maine, the less said the better. But again, the WH was missing in action in this contest. Would they have made a difference? Who knows? An argument can be made, and is being made, that these are all local contests and don't reflect a general souring on Obama, but I have to disagree. Republicans brought more voters to the polls, independents went heavily Repug, and the aloofness of the WH was just another expression of the political calculation and timidity that has afflicted the Obama administration in so many areas. They do not know how to play hardball. They are so invested in protecting the coalition that propelled them into office that they are actually undermining it -- it's falling away in drips and drabs. I don't understand their tactics or their strategy. Just yesterday majority leader Reid predicted that health care reform would most likely be pushed into next year. For him even to speculate about this in public represents a gross failure of WH management on this signature issue. And how much do you want to bet that the results of last nights elections will be used not only by Repugs but by conservative Blue Dog Dems to push back against HC -- hell, Reid has already met them halfway. The New York Times has an interactive feature wherein you can choose a word that best sums up your feelings about the Obama administration on the anniversary of his election. My choice was "disappointed." I wasn't the only one. *** Updated: With thanks to Ron Drummond . . . and John Stewart. (7 comments \| Leave a comment)
06:57 am theinferior4 [lizhand] [Link]	Get Your Stare On Another trailer for Men Who Stare at Goats, which opens Friday. This is the first movie I've wanted to see in a couple of years. I've always been fairly impervious to George Clooney's charms, but this seems like it might tip the balance in his favor. In a related article, the Guardian names its Top 5 Cinematic Staredowns but for some reason omits those creepy kids in the original Village of the Damned: "Beware the stare that menaces all mankind!" Here in Maine, the anti-gay marriage referendum passed — a triumph for the Christian Right, who imho should be subjected to The Stare, then thrown to the goats. Out-of-state money funded their campaign, as it has in the past; this time, big bucks from the LDS, which has also been buying up local real estate at fire-sale prices. Isn't there some desolate wasteland out West they could take over? In more positive election news, the Maine Marijuana initiative soared through with almost 70% of the vote. And my father, the Honorable Edward P. Hand, won his tenth (I think it's ten -- I've lost count) four-year term as Town Justice in our hometown, Pound Ridge, a position he's held since I was in high school. Way to go, Dad! http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2009/oct/23/clip-joint-staring (25 comments \| Leave a comment)
12:10 am scififanatic [Link]	NaNoWriMo Wow--I missed day 3 completely, but that's because I haven't been happy with my revisions. I got a pair of fresh eyes on the chapter. All I can say is that my sister is a genius! It feels so good to have a sister who gets it. She got everything that I was trying to get right--but more importantly, she highlighted what was missing. I'm always fighting the voice in my mind that says "cut cut cut" but it turns out I didn't fight this voice hard enough; I didn't put enough of this certain element into the story. It feels great to know what's wrong. That makes it a lot easier to fix. So hopefully NaNo Day 4 will give me a chance to do better. Night all! 4706 / 69791 (6.74%) (Leave a comment)
November 3rd, 2009
07:45 pm worldfantasycon [magscanner] [Link]	Books; Poe Cake A photo from the dealers' room, and five photos of the Poe cake, can be found at http://www.mikeandkaren.org/gallery/main.php/v/2009mike/wfc/ (1 comment \| Leave a comment)

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