Here’s another obscure Japanese shoegazer band, Mash, with their song “Bury.”
I like the way it builds, though the outro crescendo could have been a bit shorter…
Shoegazer Sunday: Mash’s “Bury”
January 22nd, 2012New William Gibson Book: Distrust That Particular Flavor
January 20th, 2012William Gibson has a new book out, Distrust That Particular Flavor, collecting his non-fiction output. Gibson’s essays are usually interesting and thought-provoking.
Paul Di Filippo offers a review, as does The New York Times.
Top 500 Books Sold at Auction in 2011
January 18th, 2012The list of the top 500 books (or related paper items) to sell at auction for 2011 is now available. Beyond a first edition of Gulliver’s Travels, there was no SF I could spot, but a number of interesting items, including Action Comics #1, the founding documents for Apple Computer, the original manuscript for an unfinished Jane Austen novel, and the usual assortment of illuminated manuscripts. Also, a copy of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep inscribed to his wife; at $254,500, that may be the most I’ve ever seen a work of 20th century American fiction go for.
And here are all 500 books in a handy spreadsheet format.
A Very Old New Film
January 17th, 2012The 2011 Houston Texans: Great Season, Disappointing End
January 16th, 2012December 26, 2010: After watching the Texans lose to the Denver Broncos, making it four losses in a row to fall to 5-10, a despondent fan in the greater Houston area is preparing to commit suicide when the Angel of Football Future descends into his bedroom clothed into the divine light of truth. “Stop!” cried the angel. “I have been sent unto you to save you from despair by bestowing a vision of the 2011 Texans!”
Fan: You mean there’s hope? Does Arian Foster lead the league in rushing again?
Angel: No, he injures his hamstring and misses the first few games.
Fan: What, Arian goes down? Crap! At least tell me that Andre Johnson leads the league in touchdown receptions!
Angel: No, he also has a hamstring injury, and only appears in seven games before the regular season ends.
Fan: Both of Houston’s top offensive weapons suffer hamstring injuries? It just gets worse! Does Mario Williams finally lead the league in sacks?
Angel: No, Mario goes down with a torn pectoral muscle and is lost for the year after the fifth game.
Fan: Gah! Now you’re just tormenting me! Top performers on both offense and defense injured! I suppose you’re going to tell me that Special Teams are awful as well?
Angel: Actually, your rookie punter plays great–
Fan: Finally, a break!
Angel: –but then he’s lost for the year with a non-contact injury.
Fan: Agggggh! It’s like a nightmare you can’t wake from! At least tell me that’s the worst of it, that no more major Texan players go down?
Angel: Uh….
Fan: Wait, more injuries? Mario, Arian, Andre, that’s all the Texan’s superstars…except…
Angel: Uh…
Fan: No! Not Matt Schaub! Tell me Schaub stays healthy!
Angel: Sorry. Albert Haynesworth breaks his foot in the tenth game.
Fan: Bastard! So I suppose Matt Leinart is our starting quarterback for the rest of the season?
Angel: Well, he starts for one game, but he breaks his collarbone just before the half.
Fan: I’m in Hell! I suppose you’re going to tell me we hire some retread QB to lead the team?
Angel: Well, they do sign Jeff Garcia–
Fan: Aggggghhhh! Kill me now!
Angel: And Jake Delhomme does take some in-game snaps…
Fan: WHY, GOD, WHY???? WHY DO YOU HATE THE TEXANS SO MUCH???
Angel: But the starting quarterback for the rest of the season is actually a fifth-round rookie named T.J. Yates.
Fan: I’m dying here! With all that the season must suck hard! What do we finish, 5-11? 4-12?
Angel: No–
Fan: 3-13? 2-14?
Angel: No–
Fan: Aggggggghhhhh! A winless season! We’re as bad as the 2008 Detroit Lions! Life is an unending vale of misery and sorrow!
Angel: No. The Texans go 10-6, win the AFC South and beat the Cincinnati Bengals in their first playoff game ever before losing 20-13 to the Baltimore Ravens on the road.
Fan: What? After all that, our team makes the playoffs and wins a game there? How did we get by Indianapolis?
Angel: Peyton Manning was out for the year with neck surgery and they went 2-14.
Fan: But with Mario out, our defense must have sucked the farts out of dead wildebeest!
Angel: No, after the team hired Wade Phillips and drafted two defense standouts in J. J. Watt and Brooks Reed, the defense went from 30th to 3rd in the league.
Fan: Wow, with all that adversity, that’s a great outcome! A playoff game at Reliant Stadium will rock!
Angel: Indeed it well.
Fan: I guess I won’t kill myself after all! Now, can you give me any hope for the Astros?
Angel: Uh, I think it’s time to end this vision…
Sadly, the Texans’ offense (especially Jacoby Jones) made too many mistake for Houston to make it to the conference finals, but that shouldn’t obscure what a remarkable ride the Texans gave us this season, and what devastating string of injuries they had to overcome to get there. The Texans have both one of the youngest, and one of the best, defenses in the league, and if Schaub. Foster and Johnson can stay healthy, should be serious Superbowl contenders for at least the next few years
Shoegazer Sunday: Ringo Deathstarr’s “You Don’t Listen”
January 15th, 2012Here’s the earcatchingly-named Ringo Deathstarr (note the double r at the end of Deathstar; there’s evidently a New Jersey rapper that goes by the single r version of the name) with “You Don’t Listen.” The band hails from Austin, which has not been a hotbed for Shoegaze (though The Swells have been here a while). My friend Andrew said he enjoyed seeing them at Psych Fest.
And here’ the live version, not because it’s particularly good, but because it provides proof of the maxim that just about any Shoegazer band is improved by including a hot redhead.
Croooooooow!
January 13th, 2012There’s a scene in Ian McDonald’s The Dervish House in which one of the characters notes that rooks and other birds have had their intelligence enhanced through stray environmental nanotechnology. As the videos below show, they might not have to wait that long. Here are some crows…
Using tools sequentially:
Making a tool:
Via Fark, using a makeshift sled:
And using a vending machine:
In other news, Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds is available on Blu-Ray…
2011: Texas’ Dryest Year Ever
January 11th, 2012Official confirmation, just in case you needed it:
Federal scientists confirmed Friday that Texas had its driest year on record in 2011.
The statewide average rainfall for the year totaled just 14.88 inches, according to the National Climatic Data Center, beating the previous low of 14.99 inches set in 1917.
And keep in mind that it was even worse than it seems, as several inches in that final tally only turned in the last few weeks of the year where, as welcome as it was, it did jack-all for farmers.
Library Additions: August 8—December 31, 2011
January 8th, 2012Despite this big-ass list, I think my book buying is actually slowing down a little. It’s getting harder to find things that I want (and don’t already have) at Half Price Books or eBay. Despite that, I always seem to have a surprisingly large number of books every time I do one of these roundups, mainly due to new small press offerings. (And speaking of small presses, many of the books listed below from Subterranean, Golden Gryphon, Haffner, etc. will be on sale through Lame Excuse Books, so drop me a line if you want to be on the mailing list.)
Related Topics
Other science fiction book collecting topics you might find of interest:
Shoegazer Sunday: The Jesus And Mary Chain’s “Just Like Honey”
January 8th, 2012The first (and for a long time only) Jesus And Mary Chain song I’d heard was “Snakedriver” off The Crow soundtrack. It struck me as a sort of post-Beatles bit of psychedelic pop, and only later did I learn that they were considered a Shoegazer band. Here’s their song “Just Like Honey,” which has more echo and less distortion.