Is Bliss hails from Portsmouth, UK. “Belong,” off their album Strange Communication sounds like a cross between something from the noisy, heavy guitar end of Shoegaze (like Civic) and Gentlemen-era Afghan Whigs, a band I probably hadn’t thought of in two decades. Something about the plaintive, nasal howl of the lead singer…
Shoegazer Sunday: Is Bliss’ “Belong”
May 16th, 2021Library Addition: Signed Copy of The Ray Bradbury Companion
May 13th, 2021Another book in my quest to get a signed copy of every Ray Bradbury-related book:
(Bradbury, Ray) Nolan, William F. The Ray Bradbury Companion. Gale Research, 1975. First edition hardback (no statement of printing as per Currey), a Fine copy in a sound, Very Good slipcase from which numerous small (tackhead sized and smaller) pieces of the affixed wrap-around paper label have chipped away, plus a few other touches of dust and wear, sans dust jacket, as issued, signed by Bradbury on page 37. Critical companion on Bradbury’s work. Currey, page 59. Tymn, Schlobin, Currey, 221. Bought off eBay for $59.
Library Addition: Signed First of Poul Anderson’s Flandry of Terra
May 11th, 2021Here’s one of those books I heard good things about in my youth but never actually read:
Anderson, Poul. Flandry of Terra. Chilton, 1965. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with bumping at head and bumping and slight rubbing at heel, in a Fine- dust jacket with slight wrinkling at head and heel and a touch of rubbing, signed by Anderson. Currey, page 10. Anatomy of Wonder 4, 3-7. Bought off eBay for $22.50.
Shoegazer Sunday: Two Versions of Golden Hair
May 9th, 2021Here’s some A/B comparison testing. Here’s Planet Cell covering Slowdive’s cover of Syd Barrett’s “Golden Hair”:
It’s pretty good…up until the end, when it becomes a sort of strident mess.
By contrast, this live version of Slowdive doing the piece themselves at the Best Kept Secret festival (which I’ve posted here before) just takes it to an entirely new level at the end, all the parts of the band meshing together for a soaring climax.
MST3K Kickstarter Update: Fully Funded, New Joel Episodes, Dueling Hosts, More!
May 7th, 2021For those who still haven’t backed the new Mystery Science Theater 3000, they just roared past their $5.5 million goal to make 12 episodes and they still have (as of this writing) 13 hours left to go.
I previously covered The Gizmoplex, but here are few of the more interesting tidbits about Season 13 that have been revealed since the campaign launch:
If you haven’t backed the Kickstarter yet, now would be a good time…
Library Additions: Chizmar, Wagner Little Books
May 3rd, 2021Two more Borderlands Little Books:
Library Addition: The Stormbringer Sessions
April 29th, 2021Here’s an item I picked up a while back that I’ve only just gotten around to blogging about:
(Moorcock, Michael) Cawthorn, James. The Stormbringer Sessions. Jayde Designs/Savoy Books, 2021. First edition hardback, an oversized graphic novel format. #30 of 100 numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and a Fine slipcase, with a sheet replicating the cover art laid in. A graphic novel reprinting Cawthorn’s rough sketches for Michael Moorcock’s Elric: The Book of Stormbringer, a much more complete and elaborate graphic novel adaptation of the concluding Elric book than the version published by Savoy Books in 1976. At £100 plus transatlantic shipping, it’s a pricey item, but with such a small limitation (with only an additional 100 trade copies) for a Moorcock item, I thought it was better to snap it up when I could (and indeed, all copies are now sold out).
The scan chops off the very bottom of the cover, because that was all that would fit on my scanner.
The slipcase is embossed with a red foil version of Moorcock’s eight-arrowed chaos symbol:
Library Addition: Signed First of Theodore Sturgeon’s Without Sorcery
April 28th, 2021Picked up another signed Sturgeon first:
Sturgeon, Theodore. Without Sorcery. Prime Press, 1948. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with slight bumping at head, heel and points and a tickmark and circled “A+” next to “Maturity” on the title page, in a Very Good+ dust jacket with edgewear and crinkling at head, heel and points, rubbing along edges one thin streak of discoloration to spine (not affecting any text), slight haze rubbing to front cover, and age darkening and dust staining to white rear cover, signed by Sturgeon. Sturgeon’s first short story collection (and first “real” book). Diskin, Theodore Sturgeon: A Primary and Secondary Bibliography, A54. Currey, page 473 (state B, trade issue). Chalker/Owings, page 352. Kemp, The Anthem Series, page 129. Bleiler, Checklist (1978), page 189 (not in the 1948 edition). Locke, Anatomy of Wonder, page 208. Barron, Anatomy of Wonder 4, 3-173. Bought for $50 off eBay.
Honest Trailer: Godzilla vs. Kong
April 27th, 2021And here’s the conclusion of our (sorta) Godzilla Week on Futuramen, The Honest Trailer for Godzilla vs. Kong:
Hopefully more book geeking starting tomorrow.
Art Addition: Original Bob Eggleton Godzilla Painting
April 26th, 2021So back at the beginning of 2020, I found out that there was a Godzilla in Hell comic book miniseries, for which a different professional artist painted every page of an issue, and that Bob Eggleton did the paintings for issue #2. I like Godzilla, I liked the idea, and I like Bob’s work, so I contacted him to see if any of the paintings were available. Some were.
So I bought one for what I think is an extremely modest sum for an artist of Bob’s stature.
Then it took me another year to buy, assemble, and frame the work. (Framing art is freaking expensive.) But I think the end result is quite nice:
I don’t have a lot of original art because I spend so much on books. But it’s nice to be able to afford the occasional piece…