Archive for February, 2016

Another Speed Downhill Mountain Bike Run

Monday, February 29th, 2016

I know these things are basically “Hey, how’d you like to expose yourself to the possibility of catastrophic injury for the greater glory of Red Bull and Go-Pro?” but I’m always impressed with these downhill speed-runs where they basically clear out half the population of some steeply graded city in South America for some nervy bicycling lunatic to careen down streets, stairs, sidewalks and goat-paths at a breakneck pace for our amusement.

Shoegazer Sunday: Plastic Flowers’ “Diver”

Sunday, February 28th, 2016

Plastic Flowers is Greek-born/London resident musician George Samaras. “Diver” is an aggressively pleasant little song off his new album Heavenly.

(Hat tip: Primal Music Blog.)

Kickstarter for the Sequel to Manos: The Hands of Fate

Thursday, February 25th, 2016

I know that many of you (and by “many” I mean “five or six of you”) come here for news of Manos: The Hands of Fate). (And yes, I have the restored Blu-Ray of the original Manos, but I haven’t watched it yet.) So here’s some news about the sequel:

The previously announced sequel, The Search for Valley Lodge, officially died back in 2014.

However, and entirely new sequel is being put together by Jackey Neyman Jones (the little girl in the original film) and their Kickstarter just made it’s $24,000 goal. They even have Tom Neyman back as The Master!

If you think there’s too much puppet action (from Manos: The Hands of Felt) in the Kickstarter trailer, here’s a shorter trailer:

$24,000 isn’t much for a feature film. Then again, the original Manos: The Hands of Fate wasn’t much of a feature film…

Library Additions: Three PS Publishing Limited Editions

Monday, February 22nd, 2016

PS Publishing had a sale, and I picked up three limited editions of things I already had the trade editions of.

  • Bradbury, Ray. Greentown Tinseltown. PS Publishing, 2012. First edition hardback, #29 of 50 copies signed by editor Donn Albright, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and decorated boards. Trade state lacks the dust jacket and limitation page.
  • Lansdale, Joe R. Edge of Dark Water. PS Publishing, 2012. First edition hardback, #221 of 300 signed copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and decorated boards and a Near Fine slipcase with a 1″ indention.
  • Lansdale, Joe R. Trapped in the Saturday Matinee. PS Publishing, 2012. First edition hardback, #157 of 200 signed copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and decorated boards and a Fine slipcase.
  • A Bad Day for Literature

    Friday, February 19th, 2016

    First Harper Lee dies, and now comes word that Umberto Eco died at age 84 today as well.

    I enjoyed both The Name of the Rose and Foucault’s Pendulum, even though I knew at the time I was probably missing many of the literary in-jokes. The Name of the Rose in particular is well worth reading, as you’d never believe a 30 page discussion of various medieval Christian heresies could ever be so incredibly funny…

    Harper Lee, RIP

    Friday, February 19th, 2016

    Harper Lee, whose first novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, about racial injustice in a small Alabama town, sold more than 10 million copies and became one of the most beloved and most taught works of fiction ever written by an American, died on Friday in Monroeville, Ala., where she lived. She was 89.”

    The list of credible candidates for the great American novel of the 20th century is a short one, and To Kill A Mockingbird is one of the top contenders. If you haven’t read it, make that the next book on your stack; it’s that good.

    Library Additions: Non-Fiction Books from Cold Tonnage’s £5 Sale

    Wednesday, February 17th, 2016

    A follow-up to yesterday’s post, here are the non-fiction books I bought in that Cold Tonnage £5 sale:

  • Adams, Douglas and John Lloyd. The Deeper Meaning of Liff. Pan Books, 1990. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Near Fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
  • Carr, Terry. Fandom Harvest. Laissez Faire Productions AB, 1986. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. According to Chalker/Owings (1991), page 538, only 250 hardbacks were done.
  • (Hitchcock, Alfred) Paul Condon and Jim Sangster. The Complete Hitchcock. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy.
  • (Lovecraft, H.P.) Eddy, Muriel, and C.M. Eddy, Jr. The Gentlemen from Angell Street: Memories of H. P. Lovecraft. First edition trade paperback original thus, containing additional material not in the 1961 edition, a Fine copy.
  • Tymn, Marshall B. American Fantasy and Science Fiction: Toward a Bibliography of Works Published in the United States, 1949—1973. Fax Collector’s Editions, 1979. Paperback original, a Very Good+ copy with spine creasing and wear along the spine. Though Tymn authored or co-authored a number of important reference works, this, an attempt to update Bleiler’s Checklist with modern works, limited only to those published in hardback, is generally not numbered among them, as it was largely superseded by Currey and Reginald the same year of publication. Chalker/Owings (1991), page 178, are not kind: “Alas, it’s useless, one of the most worthless pieces of bibliography in the past 20 years or so.” There was a hardback, but Chalker/Ownings says it was just attaching a premade casing to the paperback. Not in Keith L. Justice’s Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Reference.
  • Wake, Paul, Steve Andrews and Ariel (yes, just “Ariel,” no last name; I can only assume it’s edited by the mermaid from that Disney movie). Waterstone’s Guide to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. Waterstone Guides, 1998. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. There are some good contributors in here (like John Clute), but the author entries are distributed somewhat randomly. Waterstone’s is a UK bookstore chain, and I imagine these are pretty common on the other side of the pond. Here? Not so much.

    Hipster Ariel

  • Library Additions: Fiction Books Bought from Cold Tonnage’s £5 Sale

    Tuesday, February 16th, 2016

    Cold Tonnage Books had a sale where all £10 books were £5, so I picked up a fair number. This post covers fiction titles.

  • Aylett, Steve. The Inflatable Volunteer. Phoenix House, 1999. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, with a publicity postcard signed by Aylett laid in.
  • Aylett, Steve. Toxicology. Gollancz, 2002. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, with a postcard laid in.
  • Blish, James. A Dusk of Idols and Other Stories. Severn House, 1996. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket.
  • Constantine, Storm. The Monstrous Regiment. Orbit, 1989. Trade paperback original, a Fine- copy with a touch of edgewear at head and heel, signed by Constantine.
  • Ellison, Harlan. Edgeworks 2: Spider Kiss/Stalking the Nightmare. White Wolf, 1996. First edition hardback omnibus thus, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. When the Edgeworks series first came out, I didn’t pick them up because I already had all the individual works they contained. But at £5 it’s worth picking up for title variant completeness…
  • Newman, Kim. Moriarty: The Hound of the D’Urbervilles. Titan Books, 2011. Fine, signed by Newman.
  • Library Addition: The Da Vinci Code

    Monday, February 15th, 2016

    Only doing a separate blog post on this to illustrate a few points about bookselling and collecting.

    Brown, Dan. The Da Vinci Code. Doubleday, 2003. First edition hardback (price of $24.95 on flap, “First Edition” and “10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1” numberline on copyright page), a near Fine copy with owner blindstamp on front free endpaper, in a Fine- dust jacket with a small crease to bottom corner of front flap.

    Da Vinci Code

    The multi-million bestseller. At one point people were getting big bucks for first printings. This copy? I bought it for $2 from the “Nostalgia Bargain” section of a Half Price Books.

    Sic transit gloria mundi

    Shoegazer Sunday: Rancho Relaxo’s “Stars”

    Sunday, February 14th, 2016

    For your Sunday dose of Shoegaze, here’s Norway’s Rancho Relaxo with “Stars.”