Normally I don’t link to something that’s already been on the Fark tab, but this Fiddler on the Roof/You Got Served mashup is too good to pass up:
Jew Got Served
January 7th, 2011The Top 500 Books Sold at Auction in 2010
January 5th, 2011Here’s an article on the top book price realized at auction in 2010, topped by a first edition of the legendary Audobon Birds of America, which pulled in an astounding $11,321,215, or four times the price realized for the Shakespeare First Folio that came in at fifth place at a measly $2,315,273.
Not a lot of books of particular genre interest, but there is an inscribed first of A Christmas Carol, and I’m sure that Howard Waldrop will find this copy of The Book of John Mandaville, the most complete version in Middle English known, and which sold for $447,282, of interest.
And here’s the entire list in spreadsheet format for the hardcore.
Edited to Add: Top link should work now, though you’ll have to click on the article link there.
Edited to Add 2: Link now even more cromulent, thanks to the sleuthing of SF Signal’s John DeNardo.
Screw Macy’s
January 4th, 2011From Dwight comes news that the Macy’s in Highland Mall is closing. Sad news for anyone losing their job, but I can’t really work up much sympathy on the care-o-meter otherwise.
Which is a real shame, because I used to be a regular shopper at that store…when it was a Foley’s. Foley’s was a Houston-based department store chain that offered decent prices on good products. (I did a short stint as Christmas help at one of their stores long before I had a lawn to chase you punk kids off of.) Macy’s, by contrast, expected you to pay list price in the Internet era for the privilege of shopping at Macy’s. So I stopped going and never looked back.
There’s a lesson for businessmen there: Don’t do away with a cherished local brand for the sake of uniformity. The pennies you save on printing costs are far outweighed by the dollars you lose in ill-will.
Of course my disdain and indifference is nothing compared to the white-hot hatred of people unfortunate enough to work there.
Recent Library Acquisitions: Greg Bear’s Sleepside Story
January 3rd, 2011I have a complete collection of Greg Bear’s first edition hardbacks (though I do still need to pick up a copy of the recently published Hull Zero Three). However, until recently I was missing two Bear books, one very easy to find (Foundation and Chaos, a copy of which I just picked up at one-quarter the publisher’s price), and the other one, the Cheap Street Sleepside Story, very expensive. However, I finally picked up a copy from a noted SF dealer having a 50% off sale (the same dealer I bought the first edition of Nineteen Eighty-Four from) for $175.
Here are some pictures. The open book and traycase are too large to fit on my scanner, and the visible weave of the cloth made it hard to get a good picture without getting moire patterns:
Full description:
Bear, Greg. Sleepside Story. Cheap Street, 1988. First edition hardback, one of 127 total copies, of which this is one of 52 copies signed by Bear and artist Judy King-Rieniets comprising the “Publisher’s Edition,” done in two-part red and black Japanese cloth, a fine copy in Japanese cloth tray case, without dust jacket, as issued.
For those unaware of the press, Cheap Street was the imprint of Nan and George O’Nale, founded in 1980, doing very small runs of beautiful, hand-bound books. (Jack Chalker noted that they were the only publishers that refused to provide information for The Science Fantasy Publishers, the massive book on SF small presses that he and Mark Ownings compiled, and described them as temperamental, secretive, and hostile, at least to him. Like many of Jack’s descriptions in The Science Fantasy Publishers, there are probably several grains of truth to that view which also need to be taken with several grains of salt…) The last science fiction book they did was Howard Waldrop’s Flying Saucer Rock and Roll (which I also have), though Howard tells me they did one non-SF book after that, a book of jokes related to the Forest Service (which George O’Nale had evidently worked for). Unfortunately, in 2003 the O’Nale’s committed double-suicide, leaving behind careful instructions as to where their bodies would be found and for the disposition of their estate.
I don’t have a complete Cheap Street set, though I do have a goodly number, and hope to pick up the rest when I can find them at attractive prices.
Edited to Add: This first issue of Andrew Porter’s fanzine Monadock reprints the Roanoke Times piece on the O’Nale suicide, the original of which no longer appears to be up on the Roanoke Times website.
Forbidden Planet’s Anne Francis Dies at 80
January 3rd, 2011Anne Francis dead at 80. So that’s both leads for Forbidden Planet gone in the past year. I may have to have a memorial viewing. (Fortunately Richard Anderson (AKA Oscar Goldman) is still alive.)
By the way, that Amazon link is for the Ultimate Collector’s Edition boxed set at a paltry $17.99, which is about half what I paid for it two years ago, and I think it includes everything in the two-disc 50th anniversary edition, plus the metal box AND the Robby the Robot action figure. At that price I may have to stock up for birthday and Christmas gifts…
Sherry Black Murder Tidbits Trickle Out
January 2nd, 2011There’s been a tiny bit of news in the case of murdered bookstore owner Sherry Black: police have released pictures of a belt that may belong to her murderer. So if you live in Salt Lake City and know someone with criminal tendencies who has worn a belt with the initials “AX” on the buckle (which evidently stands for “Armani Exchange”; fashion is not my beat), police would like a word with you.
A commenter here has suggested that transient Paul David Vara, who has been arrested on aggravated murder and multiple rape charges in the same area, may be involved. There’s certainly no question that (assuming police statements are true) Vara is (to use a legal term) a violent scumbag:
When police found Gabel’s body, they noted that her breasts had been mutilated, according to court documents. An autopsy by the Utah State Medical Examiner’s Office found most of Gabel’s internal organs had been torn out.
The 6-foot-1 and 260-pound Vara told police that he “pulled her internal organs out of her body,” court documents state.
The cause of death was determined to be “multiple factors, including strangulation and extensive loss of blood,” according to court documents.
Vara told police that he “used green string to strangle the female because she was struggling with him.”
Vara hails from San Antonio, and seems to have quite a record of violent offenses:
His adult charges in Texas date from 2007 back to 1998, when he would have been 18. His charges in Texas include aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in 2004, assault in 2001, two separate incidents of assault causing bodily injury in 2000 and another one in 1999. He had several charges of burglary and vehicle burglary in 1998.
And pace our commentator, his record of gang activity (such as it is) seems to be non-Insane Clown Posse related:
Medina said Vara told him that he had come to Utah to escape the Latin Kings gang in San Antonio. Medina, 40, said he left MS-13, a gang he had joined at age 11 and the two men bonded over their mutual hope to leave gangs behind.
(A little background on the Latin Kings can be found here. )
While Vara certainly seems violent and scummy enough to have killed Black, I’m just not seeing any real link to her (or, that matter, ICP). And sadly, the world suffers from no shortage of violent scumbags…
I Question Whether “Stripping for Jesus” Actually Exists
January 2nd, 2011I was discussing the movie career of Karen Black, probably most famous for Airport ’75 and Trilogy of Terror, when I came across the IMDB entry for Stripping for Jesus.
If you know anything about the viewing habits of me and my bad-movie-loving friends, you would think that a film called Stripping for Jesus would have, at the very least, been known to us. After all, we have seen Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter. (We said to ourselves “With a title like that, how could they go wrong?” Sadly, we found out.) Especially since it ranks an abysmal 2.0 from users. And was theoretically written by Anne Heche (AKA “no, the attractive one”). So it seems like the sort of thing I would have stumbled over. (“Ouch!”)
As no reviews or footage of this film can be found anywhere on the internet, I must sadly assume that it does not exist. Unless someone can prove otherwise.
(By the way, despite my not having seen her in anything since Capricorn One, Karen Black has actually been in no less than 188 titles. Suck it Family Guy.)
Christopher Walken in Space
December 31st, 2010
Blogroll Updates
December 31st, 2010I’ve been doing a little blog-roll updating, and I’ve finally got around to adding the blogs of some other writers. (The Wheels of Futuramen may grind slow, but they grand exceedingly, well, slow. Glacial, even.) These are writers who are personal friends I know and like, who are excellent writers, who write interesting blogs, or all of the above. So I’ve gone ahead and added links to the blogs of:
No doubt I’ll be adding more as time permits.
One Wax Dummy Not Enough for Lady Gaga
December 31st, 2010Madame Tussards had to unveil eight different wax figures of her for their various museums around the world. I guess that was necessary when your subject changes costumes faster than most people change their air filters.
I don’t think I’ve seen this Gaga outfit before:
That’s actually a pretty attractive look for her…right up until you get to the signature Lady Gaga hat. And then it looks like it should be worn by a character from Terry Gilliam’s Brazil.