For your Sunday dose of Shoegaze, here’s Australian shoegaze band The Dunes (sometimes spelled TheDunes) with “Post Office Rock,” another entry in the “Damn, waltz-time Shoegaze sounds really good” sweepsteaks. (See also: Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You” and Auburn Lull’s “Arc of an Outsider.”)
Sunday Shoegazer: The Dune’s “Post Office Rock”
March 2nd, 2014Yelp’s Top 100 Places To Eat Include Six from the Austin Area
March 1st, 2014So Yelp has release a Top 100 Places to Eat in the U.S. list. Their ratings, being based on actual diners, are very different than high-end restaurant critics, and include six places around Austin:
Quick thoughts:
By comparison, only one place made the cut in Houston, and none in Dallas…
(Cross-posted to The Logbook of the Saturday Dining Conspiracy.)
Aaron Allston, RIP
February 28th, 2014I’m floored by the news that Aaron Allston just died from a heart attack at age 53. I knew he had health issues, but had no idea any were that serious. I used to run into him fairly regularly at Indian restaurants in north Austin, as well as at cons and parties. Aaron wrote mostly media tie-in work, but I enjoyed the stories of his I read.
I should probably finally get around to reading Doc Sidhe, his Doc Savage pastiche…
Shoegazer Sunday: Skies of Ember Covers Slowdive’s “Catch the Breeze”
February 23rd, 2014I really am on a Slowdive cover kick. Skies of Ember is a Filipino band, and although it says so nowhere in the title or description, this video is actually a live instrumental cover of Slowdive’s “Catch the Breeze.”
Dream Diary: My Non-Shootout With Michael Jackson
February 18th, 2014I dreamed I was in the process of buying a bank. One customer I knew was telling me she was going to sue me, even though I didn’t even own the bank yet. I think she was doing it out of spite.
Then I was riding in a car with someone I think wanted to sell some sort of service to my bank. While we drove I was worried about what level of fractional reserve the bank should have in these tough economic times. (Yes, I dreamt about fractional reserve banking; I’m just a wild and crazy guy). But then the guy driving drove up and over an unfinished overpass, despite my warning, and we landed with a crash in a closed Target parking lot at night.
I was walking along after that, and I had to go into a convenience store to use the bathroom (yes, one of those dreams), but I was worried my dog would run off while I was inside.
Inside it was more like a hotel or bank lobby, and when I went into the restroom, it was some sort of cave (more like a video game cave than a real one).
For some reason, Michael Jackson was holding a ridiculously long antique wooden rifle on me, something like 15-20 feet long, saying he wanted to die as a woman and as a defender of the Alamo. (I guess he was channeling Phil Collins here.)
The gun was so close to my face that I swept the barrel aside with my left hand while I pulled my own gun out of my pocket with my right. But I couldn’t fire it because there was a beef jerky packet stuck to it that prevented operating the trigger.
Meanwhile, Michael Jackson had turned into a friend of mine, and not only was the rifle he holding normal sized, but it turned out to be made of beef jerky packets connected together in the shape of a gun as well.
Then I woke up.
Library Addition: E. E. “Doc” Smith’s The Skylark of Space
February 17th, 2014Another important small press work I bought at auction:
Smith, Edward E., PhD. The Skylark of Space. Buffalo Book Company, 1946. First edition hardback, a VG+ copy with slight bumping at head, heel and corners and faint dust staining at heel, in a VG- dust jacket missing a small 1/4″ triangular chip from center of dj spine, plus about 1/4″ of chipping loss at head and heel, and slight overall rubbing, otherwise intact with $3.00 price on flap. The very first of Doc Smith’s famous space operas. Currey (1979), page 457. Chalker/Owings (1991), page 78. One of two books done by the Buffalo Book Company (the other of which, John Taine’s The Time Stream, I picked up in December).
Bought for $237 from Heritage Auctions.
Sunday Shoegazer: Center of the Sun Covers Slowdive’s “Machine Gun”
February 16th, 2014Evidently I just can’t get enough of Slowdive covers. Here’s the now defunct (or on hiatus) Center of the Sun doing a crunchy, guitar-drenched cover of “Machine Gun.”
They also did a cover of Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You.” Obviously this is a band on my wavelength…
Library Additions: Envelope of Letter from H. P. Lovecraft to Robert Barlow
February 10th, 2014By now you should have figured out that book collectors are insane. If not, what I paid for the following item should convince you:
Lovecraft, H. P. Envelope Addressed to Robert Barlow, with Lovecraft’s return address on the back, in Lovecraft’s own handwriting. Postmarked December 4, 1931.
Barlow was a longtime correspondent of Lovecraft’s. The envelope itself bears the return address for another Lovecraft associate, bookseller George W. Kirk, a fellow member of the “Kalem Club,” a group of close friends from the time he lived in New York City from 1924-1927.
Bought for $328 off eBay.
Pretty much all books Lovecraft signed in his lifetime, as well as letters, postcards, etc., have commas in the price. This struck me as a way I could afford a Lovecraft signature.
Now I just need those James Tiptree, Jr. and Thomas Pynchon signatures…
Shoegazer Sunday: Silvania’s “Trilce”
February 9th, 2014Silvania is Peruvian duo currently resident in Spain (and not a manufacturer of inferior lightbulbs). “Trilce” is from the “floaty, spacy” branch of Shoegaze.
I hope you like religious statuary…
Why Sports Parody Is Impossible These Days
February 7th, 2014Though this happened last year, with the Olympics starting it’s newly relevant again: Canadian curler gets two year ban for steroids.
Still waiting for that chess steroid scandal…