Today is Halloween, which means it’s time for the annul Fark scary story thread!
Here are the links to threads from previous years:
While you’re here, feel free to check out some of my other freaky/creepy/scary/silly Halloween posts.
Archive for October, 2023
Fark Annual Scary Story Thread for 2023
Tuesday, October 31st, 2023Halloween Horrors: Strange Sky Sounds
Monday, October 30th, 2023All around the world, people hear strange things from the sky. Here’s a roundup of the various “sky trumpets,” booming noises, hums and other things people have no explanation for.
Halloween Horrors: Creepy Spider Light
Sunday, October 29th, 2023Who wouldn’t like a lamp in the shape of a spider wandering around your house at night?
Library Addition: Slipcased Edition of Dan Simmons’ Entropy’s Bed At Midnight
Friday, October 27th, 2023Another purchase from that same private collector, and another case of “I already have this book, but not in this state.”
Simmons, Dan. Entropy’s Bed at Midnight. Lord John Press, 1990. First edition hardback, #93 of 100 signed, limited copies, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued, in a Fine slipcase. Reginald, Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, 1975-1991 33966 (but not this state). Supplements a signed, non-slipcased 1/300 edition.
Lord John Press is an interesting press. They started out as primarily a literary small press (John Updike was a particular favorite), but did several science fiction, horror and mystery firsts along the way, including Stephen King’s Dolan’s Cadillac, which (of course) sold out almost instantly.
About the time Carrion Comfort and Hyperion came out so close together, Simmons (like Clive Barker before him) got tagged as “The Next Stephen King,” and there was briefly a small press frenzy for publishing his work. I think Lord John did fine on this one, but some of the other Simmons titles they did (Children of the Night and The Hollow Man in particular) helped burst the small press bubble in the early 90s. They did too many copies in too many different states at too high price points, with the result that they sat on dealer’s shelves for decades. That, the wild overproduction of Pulphouse, and the unwise shift of Dark Harvest to mysteries, along with the founders of Phantasia Press and Underwood-Miller stepping away, helped dampen the small press boom in the early 1990s.
I will have one copy of the 1/300 signed limited edition of Entropy’s Bed at Midnight in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog, currently in progress.
Dog Halloween Costumes
Wednesday, October 25th, 2023Tis the Halloween season, and here are some pretty good dog costumes. Enjoy!
Library Additions: Three Signed Stephen R. Donaldson Firsts
Tuesday, October 24th, 2023Stephen R. Donaldson was someone I read back before I collected first editions, and the Thomas Covenant books were ones I read despite disliking the central character.
But I had a chance to grab signed firsts of the second Thomas Covenant trilogy from the same collector culling his collection as the previous Vance, Blaylock, etc. entries. All of these replaced unsigned book club copies.
The story I’ve heard from a couple of places is that Lester Del Rey’s boss at Del Rey/Ballantine (I’m assuming Ian Ballantine) walked by Lester’s office and asked “Shouldn’t we be getting in the new Donald Covenant manuscript soon?”
Del Rey: “Oh, I rejected it.”
Long pause. “You what?” Keep in mind that at this point, Donaldson was the biggest selling author in all of Ballantine Books.
Del Rey: “Yeah, it was told from a woman’s viewpoint. Books told from a woman’s viewpoint don’t sell to fantasy readers.”
The publisher stood there for a few seconds, then walked out without another word and called Donaldson from his office.
“Stephen, what are you doing right now?”
“I’m looking at the rejection letter Lester sent me.”
“OK, from now on, I’m your editor. Send me the manuscript.”
Many years of profitable publishing then ensued…
Shoegazer Sunday: Great Northern’s “Radio”
Sunday, October 22nd, 2023My relationship to Great Northern is weird. I liked what I heard off Remind Me Where The Light Is enough to buy it, listened to it a lot for a while, and then just…stopped. I can’t even explain why I stopped. It’s a mystery, like the waning of a pestilence. That album is superbly crafted Shoegaze-tinged pop that sounds bit like Tamaryn.
“Radio,” an earlier effort off Sleepy Eepee, is a different sort of beast, like Mazzy Starr crossed with some buzzy low-fi band. Singer Rachel Stolte has a compelling voice.
Despite not listening to them for years, YouTube occasionally offers them up in my feed. A good thing, too.
They evidently toured with Smashing Pumpkins this year, and are supposedly working on a new album.
Halloween Horrors: Transworld 2023 Show
Friday, October 20th, 2023Once again, here’s footage from a Transworld Halloween trade show, filled with animatronics, masks, props, etc.
I Saw Peter Gabriel in Austin Last Night
Thursday, October 19th, 2023I saw the Peter Gabriel concert at the Moody Center in Austin on October 18. It was the third time I’d seen Gabriel perform live, and he put on a good show. We had tickets facing center stage in the mezzanine section, and they were quite pricey.
About half the songs are off the forthcoming I/O album, while the other half are from other parts of his career (“Sledgehammer,” “Solsbury Hill,” etc.). His tour ensemble was a mixture of old familiar faces (the always excellent Tony Levin, Manu Katche and David Rhodes) and new (cellist/vocalist Ayanna Witter-Johnson, who was very good).
They had an interesting multimedia setup with projection surfaces on different stage elements that they could move, as well as close-up cameras for projecting on either wing (and occasionally the giant circular moveable hanging surface that was the centerpiece of the set).
I think the best song of the concert was an absolutely killer version of “Digging in the Dirt,” which had a nasty, funky, bass-heavy sound to it. There’s not a version with great sound on YouTube, so this will have to do:
They also did an extremely good version of “Biko” as the final encore.
Here’s the set list, which seems to be constant across venues.
I think the last two shows of the tour are in Dallas tonight and Houston Saturday, and overall prices are a bit cheaper than the Austin show. It’s well worth catching if you’re a Gabriel fan.
As for the Moody Center, the sightlines are very good, the concession prices are exorbitant, and the seats are too small and not particularly comfortable.
Library Additions: Three Samuel R. Delany Firsts, Two Signed
Wednesday, October 18th, 2023More from that private library purchase. Two of these replace less desirable copies.
