One of the things the WordPress stats package shows you is which Google search terms people use to reach your site. It is my suspicion that whoever was searching for “pictures of a person’s dick” was most likely bitterly disappointed at these scans of my Philip K. Dick first editions…
In Which I Disappoint a Google Searcher
April 21st, 2011World Horror in Austin
April 20th, 2011Blogging has been a bit light as of late because I was finishing up my taxes and then cleaning my house in advance of a party, the two of which have eaten up almost all my previously spare time.
I will be attending the World Horror Convention here in Austin next week. In fact, I’ll be moderating a panel:
Horror Without Stephen King
1:00 PM Saturday, April 30 – Phoenix Central
Jack Ketchum, Lawrence Person (M), Del Howison, William Nolan, Rocky Wood, Bev Vincent
Stephen King is the undisputed grandmaster of modern horror. But what if he had never lived, or went right to publishing literary fiction without ever writing a single scary story. What would the field look like today without the man from Maine? Would there even be a horror genre as we know it?
William F. Nolan has been writing since before I was born. He was also good friends with Chad Oliver, the late, great dean of Austin science fiction writers. I”m sure he has many an interesting story to tell.
I’ll also be part of the big group book signing at 7:30 PM on Saturday, though I’m sure I’ll get more signatures than I give…
The Onion on Book Signings
April 16th, 2011From the so-true-it-hurts category: “Author Francine Massey told reporters that she does her absolute best for everyone who comes out to see her, whether it’s just three people or a much larger crowd of nine people.”
Back when I would have Nova Express issue release parties at Adventures in Crime & Space, there were times when three people would have been an improvement…
(Hat tip: SF Signal)
But Wait! There’s MORE Shatner News!
April 13th, 2011In addition to Emmy-Award winning actor, singer, director, and international man of general awesomeness, add “Shakespearean Actor” to William Shatner’s already formidable resume. He’ll be doing a reading of The Merry Wives of Windsor along with Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hanks, Martin Short, Eric Idle, and Christina Applegate.
It’s a benefit for the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles to be held May 9 at 8 PM at Royce Hall at UCLA. If I lived in the LA area, I think this would easily be worth $95 of my own dollars to attend…
Shatner Update: Shatner Sings Again!
April 13th, 2011You may have noticed that I’m a fan of William Shatner. I’m not so much of a fan of his music (or his direction; William Shatner still owes me $3.50 for Star Trek V); in fact, putting on a copy of The Transformed Man is a good way to clear out a room after a party. But Shatner being Shatner, that hasn’t stopped him, and he’s now putting out a new album.
A few notes:
He can’t sing, but Shatner has pretty good taste in music. Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and Peter Shilling’s “Major Tom,” “Iron Man,” tasty tracks one and all.
He also has lined up some pretty big names to help him out. Check out this list:
That’s not a lineup of sidemen, that’s the roster of a major benefit concert.
This is pretty much obligatory:
Dear College Humor: Your List is Bad, And You Should Feel Bad
April 13th, 2011Warning: Deceased Equine Flogging Next 500 Words
So: A little while back College Humor put up a list of the top 100 movie comedies of all times based on the votes of their readers. (If you want to avoid giving these idiots click traffic (and you should), this Fark thread helpfully offers up the entire list in the fourth post.) Based on the evidence, their readers are all either people who have consisted on a diet of nothing but chips of lead-based paint for several years, or under the age of 18. Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a credible choice for number one, but not only is that about the only thing they got right, it’s almost the oldest movie they have on the list; both Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles came out a year earlier. (Man, what a year Mel Brooks had! It’s pretty much been a long, slow slide ever since…) That’s right: The oldest film on the list is from 1974.
No Eeling comedies. No classic screwball comedies. No Marx Brothers. No Charlie Chaplin. No Buster Keaton. No Harold Lloyd.
However, even in the woefully inadequate time period covered, the Super-geniuses at College Humor managed to leave off This is Spinal Tap, but managed to make room for Jackass, Jackass 2, Black Sheep (a film that comes in at a robust 28% at Rotten Tomatoes) and (at number 11) Spaceballs.
I think this may in fact be the worst “Best of” movies list ever submitted to the public at large. Perhaps College Humor should rebrand themselves as “Middle School Humor”…
Why It’s Getting Harder and Harder to Read Slashdot These Days
April 10th, 2011Slashdot header: FBI Releases Document Confirming Roswell UFO.
Actual story: FBI declassifies document in which an agent reports that some guy claimed there were flying saucers found at Roswell.
It’s been known since the 1990s that the crash debris at Roswell came from balloons used in the classified Project Mogul, an attempt to monitor Soviet nuclear testing via atmospheric acoustics. While this explanation fits all the actual known data about the incident, most conspiracy theorists ignore it because a crashed balloon isn’t nearly as cool or interesting as crashed aliens.
Look, I know a lot of what appears on Slashdot these days is just flamewar clickbait. But do you think you could avoid actually lying about the link in the header? Is that too much to ask?
Japan Earthquake/Tsunami Update for April 4, 2011
April 4th, 2011A few more bits of new on Sendai tsunami/earthquake aftermath:
And speaking of Ofunato City, here is footage of the tsunami coming in there:
Someone has put up a series of videos called “people trying to escape from the tsunami,” some of which I’ve never seen before, and all of which look entirely too close for comfort.
Here’s entirely-too-close footage of the tsunami coming in, including large tugboats and a van trying to escape, right before the cameraman decided he really needed to get to higher ground:
A video from Kamaishi in Iwate:
Tagajo City:
Finally, some much-needed happy news:
(This and all previous posts on the Sendai earthquake and tsunami can be found here.)
Carpentry Porn
April 2nd, 2011As someone who has bookshelves custom-built to my own specifications (8-high, adjustable shelves, etc.), I appreciate fine carpentry work. But this just takes it to a whole new level:
That’s the tool chest of 19th century piano maker H.O. Studley. I originally saw this linked from Fark, and knew I had to put up a video of it, if only to show Howard Waldrop (a man deeply appreciative of fine woodwork) the next time he’s somewhere near a computer.
I’m sure this is very old news to some people, as there have been many articles written about it in woodworking magazines. I think my jaw actually dropped open when they showed how the individual fastening drawers slid back and forth.
Tobias Buckell Offers Up Real E-Book Data
April 1st, 2011He actually lists exactly how much he made off the e-books edition of his short story collections Tides from the New Worlds (which, I should point out, I have one print copy of left over at Lame Excuse Books). His conclusion as a solid mid-list writer: You’re not going to get rich. Also, the magic 99¢ price point isn’t necessarily the profit-maximization point.
This was also pretty discouraging: “Collections are hard to sell in print, and I know from some discussions that many collections sell for $500 – $1,000 advances to medium or small presses, if you can sell them at all.” I know that short story collections aren’t going to make anyone rich, but I that that anyone who could actually sell a short story collection to serious small press (Subterranean, Golden Gryphon, PS Publishing, etc.) would be able to garner a (still paltry) $3,000-5,000 advance.