Lawrence Person's Futuramen

Library Additions: A Random Assortment of Interesting Books

Lawrence Person — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:00:25 +0000

Books and related items, and no particular theme, other than interesting firsts I picked up. Been dawdling about getting this documented, and now I need to put it up so I can catalog a major acquisition of books I made Friday…

Bok, Hannes. Bok 1. Glenn Nigra, 1975. Portfolio with 12 loose Hannes Bok illustration sheets, portfolio folder Fine- with bumping to corners, all illustrations Fine. Uneven shading in pic is a scanner artifact, as the portfolio folder is actually slightly too large to fit on the scanner.

De Camp, L. Sprague, and Fletcher Pratt. The Carnelian Cube. Gnome Press, 1948. First edition hardback, a Very Good+ copy with bumping at head and heel and wear at heel and tips, and slight dust soiling at head, in a Very Good- dust jacket with 1/4″ loss at head, and slightly less loss at heel and tips, significant fading to red ink on spine (the cube is barely carnelian anymore), partial stamp on rear flap, top front (non-price) flap trimmed at very tip, and general wear. The first Gnome Press book. Chalker & Owings, page 197. Earl Terry Kemp, The Anthem Series*, page 191. Currey (1978), page 132.

Really only a placeholder copy, and I wouldn’t even have picked it up if it hadn’t been part of a lot with:

De Camp, L. Sprague, and Fletcher Pratt. Land of Unreason. Henry Holt and Company, 1942. First edition hardback, a Near Fine+ plus copy, with slight bumping at head and heel and slight dust soiling to page block at heel, in a Near Fine dust jacket with age darkening to rear cover. A very nice copy, and a splendid example of the Boris Artzybasheff dust jacket. Bought for $34 for this and the above (plus shipping and buyers premium) off Heritage Auctions.

McKillip, Patricia A. The Forgotten Beasts of Eld. Atheneum, 1974. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with bend at head and heel in a Near Fine- dust jacket with crimping at head and heel, edgewear and a closed 1/4″ tear at top front cover. The very first winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. Pringle, Modern Fantasy 100, #54. Bought for $26 off the Internet.

Swanwick, Michael. It Came Upon a Midnight. Dragonstairs Press, 2011. First edition chapbook original, #81 of 100 signed, numbered copies, a Fine- copy with one faint stray mark to front.

Swanwick, Michael. Midwinter Elves. Dragonstairs Press, 2012. First edition chapbook original, #15 of 100 signed, numbered copies, a Fine- copy with small stain on rear.

Vance, Jack. The Eyes of the Overworld. Gregg Press, 1977. First hardback edition, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued. Sequel to The Dying earth featuring Cugel the Clever. Precedes the Underwood/Miller edition. Hewett, A26g. Currey (1978), page 498.

Wolfe, Gary K. American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s. The Library of America, 2012. First Edition hardback thus, being a two volume compilation of some of the best American SF novels of the 1950s: Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth’s The Space Merchants, Theodore Sturgeon’s More Than Human, Leigh Brackett’s The Long Tomorrow, Richard Matheson’s The Shrinking Man, Robert A. Heinlein’s Double Star, Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination, James Blish’s A Case of Conscience, Algis Budrys’ Who?, and Fritz Leiber’s The Big Time, both volumes Fine in Fine dust jackets, new and unread, in a Fine slipcase. This is an example of book collecting madness, since I either have first editions of, or have already read, all the books here except Who?, but I thought this was a handsome set when it came out, and snapped this up when it showed up at Half Price Books.

*This is a newly published reference work on SF specialty publishers. I hope to finish a review of it Real Soon Now, and I’ll have copies for sale through Lame Excuse Books.

Shoegazer Sunday: Laboratory Noise’s “I Can Only Give You Everything”

Lawrence Person — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 13:00:48 +0000

So a while back I posted a couple of songs from Laboratory Noise’s debut album When Sound Generates Light. Then I went to buy the album, found a CD cheap on Amazon, put it in my basket, and then got busy with something. The next day when I went to check out, the price had gone from something like $3 to something like $20.

Then it slipped my mind until I found it cheap on Amazon again and finally picked it up. Now I’ve had a chance to listen to it.

The verdict?

This is a tremendously strong Shoegaze album. Certainly the best I’ve heard since Midsummer’s Into the Trees, and possibly the best since Slowdive’s Just for the Day, my Shoegaze Alpha and Omega. Every song on it is at least good, and even the one song I didn’t care for the beginning of turns (“Earthrise”) beautiful about halfway through.

Here’s “I Can Only Give You Everything,” but any shoegaze fan should pick this up.

It’s that good.

They also have a new EP out that’s next on my listening list.

Colin Furze is Completely Insane. I Really Respect That.

Lawrence Person — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 20:36:40 +0000

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Colin Furze! He’s sort of like the Mythbusters or Junkyard Wars if they did things that were dangerously stupid.

10-horsepower motorized baby carriage? Check.

Jet-powered bicycle? Check.

Kids! Don’t try this at home! Or, really, anyplace else. Ever. (Unless you work for Survival Research Labs. Then go for it!)

Music by UK punk band March to the Grave, which probably understates the dizzying speed at which Furze will reach that goal.

Here he is riding a home-built, classic Wall of Death in a scooter:

And here he is bailing off the Wall of Death.

Furze has his own YouTube channel and website. He also has an infectious enthusiasm, probably engendered by repeated head trauma.

Godspeed you, Colin Furze! I look forward to seeing many more videos from you until your inevitable grisly demise!

(Hat tip: Weird Universe, where Paul Di Filippo is among those hanging out.)

Meaningless Sports Headlines: A Continuing Series

Lawrence Person — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 17:57:27 +0000

So last night the Miami Heat beat the San Antonio Spurs 109-93 to even the NBA Finals series at 2-2. Here’s an actual headline for a sidebar story at Sports Illustrated: “Disappointed Spurs Refuse to Concede.”

Wow, how shocking! Because sports teams have such a long history of just conceding after reaching the championship for their sport. Remember Shaquille O’Neal, after the Orlando Magic were down 3-0 against the Houston Rockets in 1995, declaring “The Dream just schooled me, and there’s no point carrying on this pathetic charade any longer, so we concede the NBA Championship to the Rockets.” Or John Elway, his Denver Broncos down 27-3 to the San Francisco 49ers in Superbowl XXIV, declaring at halftime “We suck, so we quit.”

And who can forget legendary Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne’s immortal concession speech conveying the great words of the late George Gipp, “Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, ask them to go in there, roll over and mewl like sick little kittens and concede one for the Gipper.”

Yet, bucking this long tradition, the Spurs have declared that they will actually continue to play a tied championship series in the top professional sports league in which they’re paid millions of dollars. Thanks for clarifying that shocking development for the rest of us, online Sports Illustrated headline writer!

Pointless and Awesome

Lawrence Person — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 02:16:56 +0000

There are many things that are pointless, and some that are awesome.

Here’s something that’s both:

Pointless: Because there’s absolutely no practical point in having your food delivered by quadrocopter if your waitress has to stand there and guide the Quadrocopter to your table using an iPad.

Awesome: Because they’re still flying food to your table in a quadrocopter.

I may have to eat there when I’m in London for Worldcon next year…

Iain Banks, 1954-2013: RIP

Lawrence Person — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 15:22:34 +0000

The BBC is reporting that Iain Banks died at 59, just two months after announcing he had terminal cancer, and weeks after an update in which he was sounding a tiny bit more optimistic.

A great writer, of both SF and mainstream work, and he will be missed.

Shoegazer Sunday: Experimental Aircraft’s “Meet Me on Echo Echo Terrace”

Lawrence Person — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 13:00:13 +0000

Austin’s own Experimental Aircraft are another band in the shoegaze/psychedelia/post-rock netherworld.

“Meet Me on Echo Echo Terrace” is from their album Third Transmission off Graveface records, run by Ryan Graveface of Dreamend and Black Moth Super Rainbow.

One caveat: They seem to have the same video (or variations thereof) for all the songs on this album.

When Novelty Records Go Bad

Lawrence Person — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 23:42:01 +0000

Can you imagine anything less hip than Milton Berle doing a Borscht Belt Schtick parody of The Beatles “Yellow Submarine”? Well, wonder no more!

All it needs is Joy Anne Worley doing an interpretive dance behind him on the Laugh-In set dressed as a sea sponge…

(Hat tip: Saved from the Paper Drive.)

Criterion Top 10 Lists

Lawrence Person — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 17:46:09 +0000

I wasn’t really considering a Top 10 Week when I posted yesterday’s Talking Heads list (and I may not do it every day), but I stumbled across this this collection of Criterion Top 10 lists from various luminaries. Among the more interesting are:

All are worth reading, if not necessarily agreeing with. But it’s good to know I’m not the only person who loves This is Spinal Tap and Brazil…

My Top 10 Favorite Talking Heads Songs

Lawrence Person — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 00:59:51 +0000

Apropos nothing but a stray comment, here’s my ten favorite Talking Heads songs:

Road to Nowhere: Great road music, compulsively listenable, with dark, disturbing lyrical overtones. “There’s a city in my mind/Come along and take that ride/And it’s all right/Baby it’s all right”
Dream Operator: Perhaps their most simple, beautiful, wistful song. “Let go of your life/Grab on to my hand/Here in the clouds/Where we’ll understand.” (The glass harmonica version off the Sounds From True Stories soundtrack is pretty wonderful as well.)
Burning Down the House (live version): I prefer the hard-charging, straight ahead version off Stop Making Sense, but it’s very close, as the spooky, echoey album version has much to recommend it as well. “People on their way to work said, ‘Baby what did you expect?’/Gonna burst into flame, go ahead.”
Heaven (live version): By contrast, the live version of this song is far better than the studio version. Their other wistful, beautiful song (though with far more ironic lyrics). “Heaven/Heaven is a place/A place where nothing/Nothing ever happens.”
The Overload: Dark, heavy and foreboding, with a slow, inescapable baseline and lyrics that bring to mind W. B. Yates’ “The Second Coming.” A song (to my mind) about the end of all things. Compare and contrast with Laurie Anderson’s “Gravity’s Angel.” “A terrible signal…”
Life During Wartime (live version): Another burner. I wonder if combatants in any of the various conflicts going on around the world play this between firefights. “This ain’t no party/This ain’t no disco/This ain’t no foolin around…”
City of Dreams: Talking Heads at their most twangy. I wonder if disc jockeys at country stations ever slip this into the rotation. “We live in the city of dreams/We ride on this highway of fire/If we wake, and find it gone/Please remember this our favorite song.” (“City of Steel,” off the the Sounds From True Stories soundtrack, is even twangier.)
Memories Can’t Wait: A long, deep drink of neurotic paranoia from inside a damaged mind unable to control its thoughts or direction. “Don’t look so disappointed/It isn’t what you hoped for, is it?”
Hey Now: A pure dose of Zydeco-tinged, childlike goofiness. “Buy me a/rubber ball.”
Nothing But Flowers: Byrne’s paean to modern American society, while tweaking radical environmentalists. “I dream of cherry pies, candy bars and chocolate chip cookies!”

Honorable mention: Once in a Lifetime, Nothing But Flowers, Electric Guitar, Psycho Killer (live version), Walk It Down

And this is just the Talking Heads; favorite David Byrne songs would be a separate list.