Australia’s Deafcult released their album Auras last year, and “Rubix” is off that.
Shoegazer Sunday: Deafcult’s “Rubix”
January 7th, 2018Library Addition: Ray Bradbury’s The R.B., G.K.C., and G.B.S. Forever Orient Express
January 6th, 2018Here’s an odd little item I picked up off eBay:
Bradbury, Ray. The R.B., G.K.C., and G.B.S. Forever Orient Express. Joshua Odell Editions, 1994. First edition chapbook original, consisting of a long, skinny (17 1/2″ x 5 1/2″) outer cardstock binding with the four pages of the poem laid in (not stapled or otherwise attached), a Fine- copy with a pinhole through the top of the chapbook and one tiny white scratch to rear, otherwise mint. Reportedly done in an edition of 300 copies. Signed by Bradbury. Poem, longish by Bradbury standards, about Bradbury riding a train with G. K. Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw in the afterlife. The rear cover says that this is an excerpt from the forthcoming Journey to Far Metaphor: Further Essays on Creative Writing, Literature and the Arts, a book that Joshua Odell Editions evidently cancelled. This work would later show up in Bradbury’s collection The Cat’s Pajamas. Bought off eBay for $37.79.
Colin Furze Shoots 1000 Rockets Off A Bicycle
December 31st, 2017To celebrate New Year’s Eve, here’s everyone’s favorite mad inventor firing 1000 rockets off a bicycle. (For certain values of “bicycle.”)
Happy New Year!
Library Additions: Two Michael Swanwick Chapbooks
December 29th, 2017Put in my yearly order to Dragonstairs Press:
I’ll have copies of both of these available through the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Library Additions: Two Signed Harlan Ellison Firsts
December 28th, 2017Two more books bought relatively cheap off ebay:
Library Addition: Signed/Limited Edition of Jack Vance’s Ecce and Old Earth
December 27th, 2017I’d picked up the other two signed/limited Cadwell books cheap, but I needed this middle book to complete the trilogy.
Vance, Jack. Cadwell II: Ecce and Old Earth. Underwood/Miller, 1991. First edition hardback, #107 of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket in a Fine- slipcase with one 1/8″ square spot of soiling to spine rear. Hewett, A84. Bought from a fellow Jack Vance collector who was downsizing for $75.
Things I’m Thankfull For: Jigsaw
December 26th, 2017Jigsaw the Golden Retriever, the oldest of my two dogs, just turned 14.
I asked my vet how he was doing for his age. She said “I don’t know. They don’t usually live this long.”
Jigsaw started out as an unrestrained riot of affection and turned into a dog that everyone loves.
Here are a few pictures of him over the years.
With an old dog, you know your days together are limited, and you just try to cherish the time you have left.
Tis The Season
December 25th, 2017Finally, a video that combines two of the biggest obsessions this time of year:
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Shoegazer Sunday: Stellarscope’s “Silent Night”
December 24th, 2017Last year this time I threw Stellarscope’s version of “Silent Night,” and I liked it so much I decided to turn it into one of those “holiday traditions” you hear so much about.
Merry Christmas!
Library Additions: Two Dan Simmons Lord John Press Books
December 22nd, 2017Lord John Press was an odd press, ranging from small-run SF first editions by Ray Bradbury, Ursula K. Le Guin and Stephen King to books by John Updike and Gerald R. Ford.
The two Dan Simmons books listed here (of four they did total) were the right author with the wrong titles at the wrong time at the wrong price points and the wrong print runs. Simmons was a hot writer at the time, but these books came after his “miracle year” duo of Carrion Comfort and Hyperion, were not nearly as well-regarded, were post-first limiteds (they didn’t beat the Putnam edition out) at high price points (starting at $125 and going up to $800) in too large a print run for too many states (500 quarter-leather, 250 half-leather, and 26-lettered copies in full leather). And they both came out the same year. They’re nice, but not so awesome as to inspire bibliolust in casual collectors. When I saw those price points and print runs, I went “Gonna pass,” and a lot of other collectors evidently said the same, as these limiteds have littered bookdealer inventories ever since.
I do like and collect Simmons, and I always thought I would pick them up when they got cheap enough. That finally happened.
I also have Entropy’s Bed at Midnight and Summer Sketches, his other two Lord John Press books.