Shoegazer Sunday: Lights That Change’s “Beautiful Soul”

April 13th, 2014

Lights That Change is a neo-Shoegaze band out of the UK. With “Beautiful Soul” they offer up a bright, gauzy, floating slab of prettiness with some great female vocals.

Sadly, it seems that vocalist Lisa VonH has already split with the band.

PAX Coming to San Antonio in January 2015

April 12th, 2014

Penny Arcade Expo is coming to San Antonio January 23-25, 2015. No venue was announced, but I can’t imagine they can hold that monster in anything smaller than the convention center, since PAX Prime in Seattle has drawn as many as 70,000 participants.

This is what they call “a big deal.” And unlike Worldcon, expect most of the attendees to be under 30 rather than over 50…

Mike Judge Has A New TV Show: Silicon Valley

April 9th, 2014

The creator of Office Space, Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill has a new (live action) TV show on HBO called Silicon Valley.

The first episode is up free:

I’ve seen about half of it. It’s reasonably funny, but some of the geek characters are a bit too cliched…

File Under: Technical Proficiency

April 7th, 2014

Given that 2Cellos‘s first video here already nearly 15,000,000 million hits, there’s a good chance that you’ve already seen the bad boys of Croatian classical music cover AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck.” If not, you’re in for a treat:

But only about half a million have seen their equally impressive (if less showy) cover of U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name.”

Shoegazer Sunday: Terminal Sound System’s “Lords Of The Living, Masters Of The Dead”

April 6th, 2014

Terminal Sound System is the latest incarnation of Skye Klein, who I first encountered A Beautiful Machine, whose “Breathe in Space” has been ensconced in my personal top 10 list ever since. On “Lords Of The Living, Masters Of The Dead,” the heavy side of A Beautiful Machine (see, for example, “Home”) get’s slowed down for a doom-laden piece hailing from the netherworld between Shoegaze, Post-Rock, and Doom/Depressive Metal for a sound that reminds me of Talking Heads’ “The Overload” with a bit of acid rock thrown in for good measure.

A most appropriate sound for a band whose name suggests the end of all things (though I could do without the hippie ashram bit in the late middle…).

Swell Documentary on the Making of Paul Simon’s Graceland

April 3rd, 2014

Dwight’s linking of this piece on accordions got me listening to my favorite album featuring accordions, Paul Simon’s Graceland, one of the all time great albums. I was vaguely aware that a 25th Anniversary edition had come out, and poking around online I find that a documentary on the album had come out last year, all of which is available online.

If you like the album, ths documentary is well worth your time.

Shoegazer Sunday: Center of the Sun’s “Home”

March 30th, 2014

There’s still some Sunday left, so here’s Center of the Sun again with “Home”.

Science Fiction Collector’s Watch: Gardner Dozois’ Personal Archive Offered Up for Sale

March 25th, 2014

Bookseller James Cummins is offering up Gardner Dozois’ personal archive for sale for a mere $150,00:

35 linear feet (17 standard archive boxes and 11 letter files). The Science Fiction Archive of Gardner Dozois. Generally very good to fine (some early note books and letters with toning or crumpling). References: Encyclopedia of Science Fiction http://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/dozois_gardner. Item #262493

Papers and correspondence of science fiction author, editor, and anthologist Gardner Dozois, whose early stories established him as one of the most talented writers of the American New Wave (though at first perhaps better known to his fellow authors than to a wide readership) and whose subsequent work as editor and anthologist has shaped the field of science fiction more than anyone since John W. Campbell. His stories were collected in The Visible Man (1977), Strange Days: Fabulous Journeys with Gardner Dozois (2001) and When the Great Days Come (2011); many of his story collaborations (with Jack Dann, Michael Swanwick, and others) were collected in Slow Dancing through Time (1990) and The Fiction Factory (2005). Dozois twice won a Nebula Award, for his stories “The Peacemaker” (1983) and “Morning Child” (1984). “Counterfactual” (2006) won the Sideways award for works of alternate history. His first novel, Nightmare Blue (1975) was an adventure tale co-written with George Alec Effinger; his novel Strangers (1978), a love story between human and alien, like his fiction and the anthologies he produced, challenges many of the earlier notions of science fiction. Another novel, Nottamun Town remains unpublished; it is present in the archive in many draft forms and in a finished typescript.

Snip.

For nearly twenty years (from 1985 to 2004) Dozois was editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction, where he discovered and encouraged many new talents in the field. He won 15 Hugo Awards during this period. Dozois’ circle of personal and professional correspondence has been wide ranging and it documents the changes in the genre over more than four decades. He was an early and clear-headed reader of James Tiptree, Jr., and the introduction Dozois wrote for the Gregg Press edition of Ten Thousand Light-Years from Home (1976) presented an analysis that was psychologically acute and was in no way overturned by the revelation the next year that Tiptree was Alice Sheldon. Tiptree letters in the archive (12 T.L.s., 1974-1977, and 9 postcards) include Tiptree’s reponse to the introduction and the letter in which Alli Sheldon reveals her identity to Dozois in advance of the public acknowledgment.

Snip.

The correspondence also documents long friendships with Pat Cadigan, Eileen Gunn, Howard Waldrop, Mary Rosenblum, Joe Haldeman, Jack Haldeman; the long connection with agent Virginia Kidd; and working relationships with Gene Wolfe, Ursula K. Le Guin, Robert Silverberg, and almost every notable science fiction author and editor of the late twentieth century and into the new century. Since 2005, an increasing portion of Dozois’ correspondence has been electronic, and the archive includes a digital file of approximately 35,000 e-mails (sent & received) and 2,250 electronic documents.

$150,000 is:

A. Too rich for my blood.
B. Probably a comparative bargain for an institution or serious SF collector who has everything else (“Just put it over there between the first edition Alice in Wonderland and all those Lovecraft manuscripts.”)

Library Additions: Eight Signed Jack Vance Books

March 25th, 2014

The most numerous books I bought from that 70% off sale were signed Jack Vance:

  • Vance Jack. Araminta Station. Tor, 1988. First U.S. trade hardback, a Fine- copy with pinhole cracks to front gutter in a Fine- dust jacket with slight dust soiling to rear cover. First book in the Caldwell Chronicles. Signed by Vance. Hewett, A79c.
  • Vance Jack. Ecce and Old Earth Tor, 1991. First trade hardback, a Fine copy in a Near Fine dust jacket with crinkling and wrinkles along extremities. Second book in the Caldwell Chronicles. Signed by Vance. Hewett, A84b.
  • Vance Jack. Throy. Tor, 1992. First trade hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Third book in the Caldwell Chronicles. Signed by Vance. Hewett, A85b. Price for all three Caldwell volumes: $52.49.
  • Vance Jack. The Five Gold Bands. Underwood/Miller, 1993. First hardback edition and first edition thus, originally published in pulp paperback as The Space Pirate, a Near Fine copy with small orangeish spots to all three page block edges, in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by Vance. Hewett, A2k. Price: $37.49.
  • Vane, Jack. Galactic Effectuator. Underwood/Miller, 1980. First edition hardback, one of 800 trade copies, a Fine- copy with slight spotting at head in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by Vance. Hewett, A63. Chalker/Owings (1991), page 432. Price: $26.24.
  • Vance Jack. Vandals of the Void. John C. Winston, 1953. First edition hardback, Very Good- with a two inch split to outer back spine join and dust soiling to page edges, lacking the dust jacket. Signed by Vance. Hewett, A3. Currey (1979), page 501. Price: $29.99.
  • Vance, Jack, and Tony Russell Wayman. The Last Castle b/w World of the Sleeper. Ace Books, 1967. First edition paperback original (H-21 and 60¢ on cover, as per Currey and Hewett), a Very Good+ copy with long faint crease on the Russell side and slight overall wear. Signed by Vance. Hewett, A30. Currey (1979), page 499. Price: $8.99.
  • Vance, Jack (edited by Miguel Lugo). The Wit and Wisdom of Jack Vance. AuthorHouse, 2011. First edition trade paperback (POD) original, a Fine copy. Selection of excerpts from Vance’s works. Signed by Vance (though the signature (see below) is very shaky, as Vance was pretty much completely blind by the time this book came out). I was unaware of this before I saw the listing for it, and I can’t imagine that Vance signed terribly many. Price: $29.99.

    Wit Wisdom Vance

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  • Hayajan Covers Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” in Arabic

    March 24th, 2014

    It’s taking me some time to catalog those signed Jack Vance book and do my taxes, so here’s a musical oddity: a Jordanian band covering Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” in Arabic. Enjoy!