Presants for Sally is UK band and another part of the St. Marie Records stable. Here they are with “A Touch of Joy, a Touch of Sadness.”
The End of the Llamas With Hats Saga
March 5th, 2015I’ve mentioned Llamas with Hats before. While I wasn’t looking, the people at Filmcow went out and completed the saga.
The verdict? Eh. The combination of humor and disturbing off-screen violence of the first few hit the spot, but they gradually cranked up the disturbing while sidelining the humor.
Not the choice I would have made.
Here are all twelve for your viewing pleasure.
Three is still the funniest.
Also enjoy these complimentary memes with your flight:
Library Addition: PB of Neal Barrett, Jr.’s Through Darkest America Inscribed to Lewis Shiner
March 4th, 2015I found this shopping at Half Price Books, bought it, then confirmed my suspicion:
Barrett, Neal. Through Darkest America. Worldwide, 1988. First paperback edition, a Fine- copy with tiny bump to bottom front corner and slight age-darkening to paper, otherwise apparently unread. Inscribed by Barrett, Jr. to fellow Texas science fiction writer Lewis Shiner: “11/29/88//Unca Lew—/Having you here for/a while has made my/day, as ever—/(Signature)”.
Lew confirmed that it was indeed inscribed to him, noting he must have sold it because he was moving again and already had the hardback…
Library Addition: Signed First of Ray Bradbury’s Murder Madness
March 2nd, 2015I’d seen signed copies of Ray Bradbury’s PBO A Memory of Murder floating around for $40 and up, but I struck a deal for this one off eBay for $25:
Bradbury, Ray. A Memory of Murder. Dell, 1984. First edition paperback original, a Fine- copy with a tiny bit of edgewear, signed by Bradbury, with a review slip laid in. Collection of Bradbury’s early mystery stories. An unusual book, in that you wouldn’t think he would have a mass market paperback original (with no hardback edition) this late in his career. Not particularly common, and even less so signed.
Shoegazer Sunday: Ummagma’s “Rotation”
March 1st, 2015“Ummagma is a Canadian-Ukrainian indie duo” of Alexx Kretov and Shauna McLarnon that describes their music as “Rock, Pop, Electronic, Ambient Styles: Alternative, Indie Rock, Dream Pop, Ambient/Ethereal, Synth Pop Electronica, Lo-Fi, Post-Rock, Pop Rock, Indietronic, Progressive Rock, Shoegaze, Instrumental, Space Rock, Power Pop.” Well, that covers a lot of territory, doesn’t it?
Here’s “Rotation,” the video for which is pretty interesting.
Looks like some of the video was stolen from here.
Leonard Nimoy, RIP
February 27th, 2015Super brief because I need to be back at work, but I wanted to note the passing of Leonard Nimoy at age 83. He was great as Spock, perhaps the best actor in a very fine ensemble cast, and also extremely good in several other roles. A good actor and, by all accounts, a classy, stand-up guy.
Library Addition: William Sloane’s The Edge of Running Water
February 26th, 2015The one other item I bought from L. W. Currey’s most recent sale was William Sloane’s The Edge of Running Water, a science fiction novel about a machine to contact the dead that I’ve heard good things about. Firsts have gotten a bit hard to find in recent years.
Sloane, William. The Edge of Running Water. Farrar and Reinhart, 1939. First edition hardback, a Very Good+ copy with slight bumping at head and heel, foxing to gutters, darkening of endpapers and slight age darkening to pages, in a Good only dust jacket with a 1/2″ to 1/4″ loss at head, loss at points, long thin crease, 2″ closed tear, dust staining and wrinkling to rear panel, creasing and tear at bottom front edge, and additional shallow chipping at edges and general wear. Bleiler, Guide to Supernatural Fiction, 1482. Bleiler, Checklist of Science Fiction and Supernatural Fiction (1978), page 181. Crawford, Donahue and Grant, 333, page 56. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy I, page 200. Barron, Horror Literature, 3-181. Bought from Currey for $50.
Library Additions: Several Arkham House Books
February 24th, 2015Here are are several Arkham House books I’ve bought over the last couple of months. All except The Dark Man are widely available titles I picked up at bargain prices.
Library Additions: Two Olaf Stapledon First Editions
February 23rd, 2015I recently picked up a lot of Olaf Stapledon books from an Australian book auction, for AUD$119.50 plus shipping. For that I got imperfect firsts of two of Stapledon’s novels (plus a second printing of Odd John that will go in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog).
While I was in London for last year’s Worldcon, I dropped by Peter Harrington’s main bookstore, which had a number of lovely items far out of my price range. Among them was a set of inscribed Olaf Stapledon books in dust jacket they hadn’t finished cataloging yet, including at least one with a multi-page letter from Stapledon laid in, that I think they were going to price between £5,000 and £10,000 each…
Shoegazer Sunday: Manon Meurt’s “To Forget”
February 22nd, 2015Evidently Manon Meurt are from the Czech Republic.