Desperation or How Long's It Been on The DVR?

So what's the longest you've kept something on your DVR?

I got interviewed by a Wall Street Journal reporter a while back who was working on a story about letting Netflix movies linger unwatched yet unreturned. I got the call because I'd answered a poll on Hacking Netflix. (Elektra, most of summer 2005, thanks for asking.) I don't know that the story saw the light of day, but he was interested in the real cost of "no late fees." Netflix after all benefits from you holding onto a title longer.

The last temptation
The DVR is a bigger temptation for procrastination than "no late fees." I usually watch episodic TV shows within a few days, but movies linger a little longer because it's harder to carve two hours out of a day. I only watch a couple of things "live." Lost being one of them. Who can wait for a new installment?

Stephen King's Desperation
Well anyway, I started watching Stephen King's Desperation the other night. It's three hours long so I finally had to watch it in pieces. Otherwise I wasn't going to see it at all.

I got curious about how long I'd had it and checked the time stamp.

May 23!

That's not saying anything about the quality of the show, just about the convenience of modern technology. As Peter Hyman notes in The Reluctant Metrosexual, we can now record everything on TV simultaneously.

Watching is a different matter.

I don't manage to read every Stephen King book as it arrives on the scene as I once did, though I listened to the brilliant Cell as an audiobook.

Desperation, like Cell and many King works, involves a broad cast of characters thrown together in a strange situation. It's a good telefilm, sort of reminding me of the days of cool movie-of-the-week thrillers like Scream of the Wolf, Gargoyles and Trilogy of Terror.

OK, it was technically better than those but it harkened.

As I watched, though, I kept thinking that I should have read the book to experience the full effect of King's characterization that even a three hour TV movie couldn't provide.

And that's the real problem with Netflix and DVRs and movies for iPod.

I have books that sit around waiting for me longer than any DVD or recorded program, and that's my real loss.

Fiends by Torchlight by Wayne Allen Sallee

You should buy this book, and I don't usually say that about things I haven't read yet.

But I have no doubt it's a collection of top quality short fiction of the wry and twisted variety. Wayne, a Chicago-based writer frequenly found on the "L" Train, has been my friend for many years now, and he has consistently produced out-of-the-ordinary tales that frequently landed in "Years Best Horror" collections.

I will give more specifics about Fiends by Torchlight, but trust me, don't wait for that. Find a copy now and look for other stuff by Wayne including the chapbook "For You, The Living," one of the finest zombie stories ever, and his novel The Holy Terror, a piece of urban literature in the guise of a serial-killer thriller.

It features a character known as The American Dream, and you should also look for short stories by Wayne about TAD in any guise.

The Spot Across the Bay

I know there have been a ton of movies and TV shows set on Alcatraz.

I saw The Birdman of Alcatraz when I was a tiny lad and Escape from Alcatraz when it was in theaters when I was a little less callow. And of course I saw The Rock as well as and Point Blank with Lee Marvin.

But I knew the movies based on true stories were not particularly accurate, and I'd never developed more than a passing interest in Alcatraz history until I took the cellblock tour.

Strolling history
Strolling the prison's Michigan Avenue and Broadway quickly transported me back in time, and I was quickly fascinated and imagining the men housed and the guards.

The occasional photo exhibits and the faces evoked a feeling of the era, the tension and the desperation.

The Battle of Alcatraz
I had only peripheral knowledge of the Alcatraz siege, but the tale of Bernard Coy and his accomplicies, Joe Cretzer, Marvin Hubbard and Sam Shockley, told in the cage that once housed the library really nabbed my attention.

I was excited when I returned home to discover emusic featured an audio dramatization of Kentucky bred Coy's 1946 escape attempt from Actors Scene Unseen.

It turns the facts into an interesting and compact program in two parts that captures some of the frustration that must have fueled the convicts' actions. Coy, who worked in the library and took reading materials to prisoners who'd earned the priviledge, plotted the escape which involved getting guns from the gun gallery with a makeshift bar spreader and obtaining a key to the recreation yard.

They got the guns but not the key and the battle that ensued resulted in guards being shot and required the U.S. Marines.

I'm sorry now I missed Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story when it aired on NBC back in the day. How can that have been 1980? I can still remember the on-air promos, God as my witness.

I've asked my local library to track down Clark Howard's out-of-print Six Against the Rock, a novel about the Coy escape that was also adapted for TV. I've read his short stories forever in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and never been disappointed.

More

Parks Service Official Alcatraz Site

Bernard Coy's Last Words

Escapes from Alcatraz


Tags: Alcatraz, Bernard Coy, Gangster Era

"Where Bush Street Roofed Stockton"

Christine picked the City by the Bay for a getaway, and for me that meant looking up a few noir locations. She should have known that was coming.

Hard boiled detective fiction provided some of my earliest reading enthusiasm.

It was with a little help from San Francisco Noir by Nathaniel Rich that I found the plaque identifying the location of Miles Archer's death from The Maltese Falcon.

(I guess it has a bit of a spoiler so don't look if you're planning to read the book.)

I can remember reading about the monument's placement in the '70s in one mystery mag or another but for some reason I've never made it to San Francisco until now.

I can't say why it took so long, but I was glad for an opportunity to travel in the footsteps of Sam Spade.

At Hotel Rex
We were staying at the very cool Hotel Rex, which has a Maltese Falcon passage mixed in among literary quotes that decorate various floors. We were actually about a block and a half from the spot "Where Bush Street roofed Stockton before slipping downhill to Chinatown."

So of course it was the last night in town I actually found Burritt Alley, even though I'd spotted Dashiell Hammett Street on our first night, when we were heading to Chinatown for a festival and dinner.

Finding noir
It's not hard to find, but earlier in the week I'd managed to pass on the wrong side of the street almost every time.

A girl in a chef's jacket was talking on a cell at the mouth of the alley when I located it--something you wouldn't have seen in Spade's day--but otherwise it looked about like it's described in the novel.

She offered to take a picture of Christine and me together, but I opted for us to do separate poses.

The sun was still a little high, I guess, for the perfect experience which would have called for night and fog, but it was still nice to be there, almost inside a great literary work.
Tags: Sam Spade, San Francisco, Film Noir, hard boiled fiction, Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett

What's on the iPod? - A Real Mix

iSkin gave me free downloads on emusic as a thank you for buying skins for the SidPod from them a while back, so I've been perusing the MP3 offerings and trying to put together a quality playlist or, failing that, a pile of guilty pleasures.

The selection doesn't rival iTunes, but I've found a reasonable mixture of indie and classic, kind of across the board.

Favorite Discoveries via emusic
Alexi Murdoch is my favorite "new to me" indie artist from emusic. Apparently "Orange Sky" caused a bit of a stir that I missed out on when his EP was released, but now I'm board. Cool song.

Mediaeval Baebes - OK, I'm a little naive about the Classical charts but I've been to a Renaissance Festival or two. I love tunes in the middle ages tradition, and I found several tunes from their Mirabilis album including their take on "Scarborough Fayre. "

Favorite filling in the gaps in my collection
I love the music of the late Warren Zevon, and I found several tunes I didn't have including ironically his recording of "My Ride's Here," one of my favorites.

It's sad and cynical and I really like Bruce Springsteen's version on the Warren Zevon tribute album, "Enjoy Every Sandwich," but it's nice to have the original to carry with me. (Usually--aforementioned excepted--I hate tribute albums , and that's one thing you have to watch out for on emusic. They have lots o' songs recorded by someone other than the original artist.)

Another great Zevon tune I found was "I Was in the House When the House Burned Down," also featuring his dark, cynical humor.

Guilty pleasure of the lot
The Archices - "Sugar, Sugar" that's really all I have to say about that isn't it?

Favorite PBS star recordings
Picked up a couple of Roger McGuinn tunes from "Roger McGuinn Live at the XM Studios" album including "Mr. Tambourine Man."

Rounding things out
I've never owned enough Jazz or been Jazz literate enough so I also grabbed several classics from John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk.

Songs I'm pissed off I downloaded
"Rocket Man" and "A Word in Spanish" speaking of tunes not recorded by the original artist. I'm sure there were ASCAP payments involved but I really thought I was getting the Elton John versions. You start listening to a cover, and you just get that feeling something ain't right.

All in all though, I've a good emusic experience, and you've probably read the benefits - you buy you own, you're not just renting tunes until the next device sync.

Tags: music, iPod, music downloads, emusic.com

What's on the iPod? - They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus Anymore

Because it's important to know the truth and not the smear tactics being spread by those running against Kinky Friedman, the next Texas Governor.

I'm offended most of all as a fiction writer, because if you read the lyrics to "They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus Anymore" it's clear the negative remarks come not from the Kinkster's first person persona in the song but from a:

"...redneck nerd in a bowling shirt..."

Trying to brand Kinky as a racist with those remarks is like attributing Darth Vader's remarks to George Lucas and saying he favored the Empire over Luke Skywalker's forces.

If traditional politicians misrepresent the truth in their ads, can we trust them on anything?

Wow, is that the queen mother of dumb questions?

Charles L. Grant - The Last Call of Mourning

Messages from a couple of directions are telling me Charles L. Grant has passed away after a long illness, and I'm, of course, saddened by the news.

I once heard him called a writer's writer, admired by those enraptured by words for his mastery of the language. His opening paragraphs are always fabulous passages to read, and his tales wonderful evocations of dread. He long championed "quiet horror."

The OxRun Station cycle includes my favorites of his books, but all of his novels under his own name were worthy, atmospheric reads.

A scary little town
The OxRun books explore a strange little town in both the modern era and in its distant past with a trilogy of novels that also paid homage to the black-and-white horror movies of the thirties. He also wrote comic science fiction and much more and edited some of the most respected horror anthologies of the current era.

I remember one of the first times I ever saw him.

It was when World Fantasy was in Nashville-- I think I'm remembering the place correctly-- in the eighties. He was hosting a late evening panel called "Charles L. Grant's Dark Corner of the Shop."

Sharing the dais was the late Karl Edward Wagner.

While they waited outside the hotel meeting room where their panel was to convene, they donned wrestler's masks and hurled boasts and insults at each other in a wild and fun impromptu exchange.

Hard to believe they're both gone now.

Tags: Charles L. Grant; horror, writer, Ox Run Station

Great Horror Short Stories - A Psychical Invasion by Algernon Blackwood

I love pyschic investigator stories, forerunners to the X-Files and Kolchak, many penned in an era of spiritualism and mysticism around the turn of the 20th century.

One of my favorites is "A Psychical Invasion" (1908) by Algernon Blackwood. It features Fox Mulder's spiritual grandfather, John Silence. (Read it online here.)

Silence is one of those physicians who stretches his intellect beyond the challenges of his medical practice, and "Psychial Invasion" is one of his most exciting cases.

Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
Silence is called on to help a haunted writer who, following essentially a psychidelic drug experience, is hearing colors and having conversations with inanimate objects not to mention being opressed by an unseen presence who compells him to draw her likeness.

Silence sets out to dehaunt the young writer's house using a collie named Flame and cat named Smoke, animals being highly attuned to spiritual activity.

The dehaunting is a task as challenging as just about any besides Shirley Jackson's Hill House.

Kinkyads are here

Kinky for Governor television spots are now available for viewing online at Kinky Friedman's website- www.kinkyfriedman.com:

Good Shepherd - featuring animals from Utopia Animal Rescue founded by the Kinkster

Clean Energy, Clean Government - focusing on Texas' need to import energy

Check them out - both do a good job of image building and stressing Kinky's stand against political business as usual.

If you're not from Texas, tell somebody who is.

What's on the iPod? - A Song for 9/11

I first heard Loudon Wainwright III's "No Sure Way" on NPR's Fresh Air in October 2001, when we were all still in shock.

The singer/songwriter's account of a subway trip into Manhattan days after 9/11 remains as deep and affecting as the first time I heard it -- blending mythological references (...there beneath the East River it felt like the River Styxx...) with the stark, painful reality.

Five years gone
I attended a charity function the other day, and a speaker noted that the cool autumn morning made it impossible for him not to think of that other September, now five years ago.

Five years? I've lost touch with the guy I was on the phone with that morning when I heard, but not how I felt.

"No Sure Way's" lyrics capture it well:

I saw the three initials
W, T and then C
I'd survived/somehow was living
But somewhere I shouldn't be
At the next stop the doors opened
And I emerged up above ground
I was in another country.
Elysian Fields? No Chinatown.

I think I'll have to listen a few more times over the next couple of days. To the memory of the innocent...

Further reading

Esquire: "The Falling Man"



Tags: 9/11, Loudon Wainwright III,songs, music, iPod

At the Table of Free Voices

(Note: Since writing this I've read coverage that there were streaming problems from The Table of Free Voices. What I saw Saturday morning seems to have been a real time feed toward the end of the day so apparently it was corrected.)

Watching the discussions at The Table of Free Voices was a little overwhelming in more ways than one. If you haven't heard via droppingknowledge.org, it was a gathering of 112 participants from around the globe.

They were prompted by 100 questions posed by people from everywhere and read by Nigerian activist Hafsat Abiola and actor Willem Dafoe.

The corners of the wind
Ideas were coming in many languages and from literally many directions yesterday morning, but it was fascinating to watch and listen--not to agree with every viewpoint-- but to be stimulated by the minds and nations represented.

I came to the table a little late since things started at 9 a.m. Berlin time, but I caught many interesting snippets.

Open ended
Sometimes the questions that came across as the most affecting were those less concrete.

And the one that resonated for me in the moment came from activist Julia Butterfly Hill--she who spent 700 plus days in a tree to save it from loggers and later founded Circle of Life Foundation:

"What is your tree? What is it in your life that calls you to be bigger than what you think is possible?"

Fear is the cheapest room in the house
I heard Anuradha Mittal's response Saturday morning and thought it was eloquent. Now it is available online in its entirety here :

"I would have to say it is a phrase by Hafez...who said, `Fear is the cheapest room in the house. My dear, you deserve better living conditions...' Every day I remind myself that it is about courage. That one can never be defeated until we give up hope, 'till we give up the courage, 'till we accept the fear that they want us to live in. Her phrase is my tree..."

And what a wonderful tree that is.

Amended and expanded 7:56 p.m. 9/11

Tags: Table of Free Voices, Willem Dafoe, Hafsat Abiola, Dropping Knowledge, world affairs, environment

Rolling to 44

Yesterday was my birthday. It was such a busy day I didn't have a lot of time to think about it. Then I checked in on my MySpace page.

The little profile box had automatically changed from 43 to 44. It was the first time I saw it in print and it was sobering.

I'd grown comfortable with 43. It's not 23 but it's not bad.

But 44?

The 4 somehow makes things different. I'd accepted 43.

44 is closer to 45! which is halfway between 40 and 50 and howthef**** did I get to 44 or even 40?and ohmigod where is the f***ing break lever?

I was recovering from minor--except surgery is major--on my last birthday and I blinked and it's a year later, a year since I stayed home two weeks recovering and watching movies until I felt good enough to read books again to pass the time--how much The Man Who Knew to Little --there's nothing but crap on can you stand?

And now it's a year later.

And there's a 4 at the end of my age.

Already.

Down in the Cellar

My review of the upcoming Gospel of the Living Dead by Kim Paffenroth is now available in the new webzine Down in the Cellar. Check out the book reviews section.

The book is an interesting examination of the "Dead" films that really delves into their deeper meaning.

The 'zine also features horror fiction, poetry and movie reviews. Drop over and have a look!


Tags:
Zombies, George Romero, Night of the Living Dead , horror

What's on the iPod? - The Last Man on Earth

I've always thought The Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price must have provided a bit of inspiration for George A. Romero as he prepped Night of the Living Dead.

The two came out only a few years apart then went on to extensive late-night TV re-runs.

The Price film, the first movie adaptation of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, features scenes of shambling vampires menacing Price in a boarded up house, and they look a lot like the ghouls converging on the farmhouse in NOTLD.

The films diverge from there and NOTLD probably has a higher scare quotient, but I've always had a bit of affection for Last Man's moodiness.

I like it better than the other adaptation, The Omega Man with Charlton Heston, even though its take on the vampires is interesting, especially with Anthony Zerbe as their leader.

I'm looking forward to the next adaptation allegedly due in 2007. I've lost track of who it's allegedly starring now.

Free - Vampires - Free
Last Man is an essentially Italian film. Apparently it was going to be a Hammer Film and would have been shot, no doubt, in lurid color, but they passed. It is for one reason or another in the public domain and is thus available for free download at Archive.org. They have iPod ready versions . By the way, if you run an Mpeg4 through Videora, it really screws up the soundtrack. I don't recommend it.

Vincent the Vampire Slayer
As mentioned, the film involves Vincent Price as Robert Morgan--marginally an action hero!?- being menanced by vampires. He's the lone survivor of a plague that's turned everyone into bloodsucking freaks.

He hides out in his bachelor pad at night and spends his days staking vampires. He just can't seem to find his old friend who's turned and keeps coming back to get annoy him. He's that kind of friend.

There's a long, somewhat slow flashback at the center detailing the disease's course and Morgan's hopeless efforts to protect his family, but the beginning and the action-adventure ending make up for that.

After the flasshback, he befriends a poodle, meets a woman--not a swinging '70s African American woman like Charlton Heston--but a woman who's not a vampire yet.

There are visually interesting scenes of black clad pursuers--fortunate that they color-cooridnated--tracking Vincent/Morgan through a church as the climax arrives right along with the thematic meditations on morality in a world turned upside down.

It's made darker and thus scarier by its black-and-white stock.

Check it out if you have a few gigabytes free. It's got its scares, and it's got Vincent Price.

Tags: Vampires, iPod, movies, horror, Vincent Price

Deadwood - "I Was Going to Tell Him Something Pretty"

Nobody I work with watches Deadwood first run. Well except for one guy in upper management, and we don't chat casually about television shows. Hmm, in fact we don't chat casually at all. I don't think he's speaking to me. Do you think it was something I said?

Anyway, I was hoping to talk to someone about the episode because it was disturbing in a horror sort of way - Deadwood's not horror but it certainly has horror fiction's grim, take no prisoner's attitude.

To deflect a gunbattle and save Trixie, his former prostitute "lover" who's left the trade, Al Swearengen had to kill an innocent hooker from his brothel to appease season-long villain George Hearst (almost as casually as say, Hearst Magazines recently killed off underperforming mags Shop Etc. and Weekend.)

When told that wasn't fair, Al--who's had some actually heroic moments this season--asked: "Since when did that enter into it?" (Thanks to Entertainment Weekly's review for that quote.)

Of course we've known all along that historically the real George Hearst not only secured mining interests in South Dakota as he's been seeking all fictional season but also went on to hold higher office. Yet the hope still lingered for some satisfying resolution within that arc.

'twas not to be and what remained was a grim slice -- take that however you want.

Hearst rigged an election, a girl died and even stalwart and perpetually pissed-off lawman Seth Bullock barely batted an eye, though he noted he would lose sleep over the death.

Yep, that's what horror fiction often says. Good guys and bad lose in horror fiction all the time and the only message from the usual omnipresent narrator is pretty much what the average counselor says every day:

"Life's a bitch, learn to live with it."

Counselors and psychologists just put a little more glitz on it.

Kind of like Al apparently meant to do when he told his barkeeper, Johnny, that killing the prostitute had been a necessity.

Only later does the episode's title come into play when he sadly mutters: "I was going to tell him something pretty."

Tags:
Deadwood television, horror

Favorite Short Stories: The Lonesome Place by August Derleth

"The Lonesome Place" is a classic horror short story that's always stayed with me. It's about fear breeding fear essentially, and it really leaves the horror to your imagination.

It's from the pen of August Derleth, who's a recognizable name to most serious horror fans but may not be to casual readers of today. If you have not read him, catch up.

He became the custodian of the Cthulhu Mythos after H.P. Lovecraft's death and carried it on, founding Arkham House. He also penned stories about Solar Pons, a Sherlock Holmes-like detective. Then there are also Sac Prairie tales of the Midwest and much more.

I read "The Lonesome Place" first in the great horror collection I've mentioned before "Horror Times Ten." It originally appeared in a1948 issue of the pulp magazine Famous Fantastic Mysteries.

Once upon a time, I read a story from Horror Times Ten every Sunday afternoon, or from the collection Gooseflesh I bought along with it. Guess that went on for 20 weeks at most but it seems like a whole chunk of my early teen years.

Reading for a lonely October
"The Lonesome Place" is chilling even for afternoon reading, but it's perfect for any midnight and perhaps well suited for a chilly autumn night -- the kind of night describe in the story or at least that I think of when I read it.

It's set sometime in the early mid-20th century, when kids might still be sent to a corner grocery for a loaf of bread after dark and where monsters of supernatual origin fueled fears more than say John Mark Karr.

The first-person narrator's opening line explains:

"You who sit in your houses of nights, you who sit in the theaters, you who are gay at dances and parties--all you who are enclosed by four wall--you have no conception of what goes on outside in the dark. In the lonesome places."

There's one spooky spot by a grain elevator that all the kids have to pass, and everyone is convinced a monster lives there.

Derleth takes us running and terrified past that spot in the narrative, then recounts the later discussions amid friends about the thing that lives there.

Everyone adds a layer, a tail, scales and more.

And I won't say where it goes from there. I'll just say again it's, to me, one of the perfect chiller stories that focuses on the power of imagination.

I'm almost certain it was floating around somewhere in the back of Stephen King's mind or in his subconscious when he conceived It.

Seek it out if you like stories that make you shudder.

Further reading
August Derleth autobiography

August Derleth bibliography

Tags:

Horror, Short Stories, August Derleth, pulp fiction

Ponderables

Is anyone else sad that The Baha Men are considered a one-hit wonder?

Fort Worth Jammin' - Brad Hines at the White Elephant

Before my ongoing stream of consciousness ramble was interrupted by my Google glitch (see previous post), I was going to talk about my trip to Fort Worth and tell you about some music that's gonna be on my iPod soon.

Some friends introduced me to the White Elephant on open mike night, and we got to hear Brad Hines, who has an incredibly rich voice whether he's singing his own tunes or covering Tom Petty and others.

"Forever in His Debt" is a fine piece of personal, honest country poetry--spirtual and redemptive without being didactic.

Check it out here or listen to the whole song on Brad's Myspace page.

Login Craziness

I've been having HELL with logins - I guess related to Blogger Beta or Beta Blogger or whatever. It's really a beta blocker - yuk! yuk! yuk!

After several rounds of autoresponses referring me to forums for help, I think a human being actually did a little resetting.

Then I had to repeat several steps to get back in - it's a Google/Blogger merry go round.

Anyone else having this headache?

Hardboiled Horror

Seems in this electronic age I go through various stages of reconnecting and losing touch and reconnecting again with friends I've passed on the journey.

Ironically this week, I've touched base electronically with two pals from Coast Con Days.

Exchanging electronic missives with one of them, Christopher Mills, reminded me it had been a while since I had checked in on Femme Noir and other residents of his Supernatural Crime site.

I thought Femme Noir was fabulous the first time I read a few panels. It has a certain flavor and style that reminds me of Will Eisner's The Spirit, though it's all fresh. It's a great blend of dark noir mood, crime and horror.

If you're a horror comics fan, the site will keep you busy for hours.

We're talking dark, rainy streets, gats, shadows and that's just in Femm Noir. The site also features the adventures of a host of other grim figures and occult detectives.

Give it read.

Tags: horror, comics, mystery, private eyes, Film noir

Favorite Short Stories: The Ship That Saw A Ghost by Frank Norris

When I used to hang out at conventions more than I do now, horror writers were always arguing about quiet horror vs. I, don't know, noisy horror. That's horror achieved with a whisper vs. horror achived with a chainsaw.

I ran across a piece of quiet horror last summer, penned by an author not particularly noted for his ghost stories. The Ship That Saw a Ghost sails from the pen of Frank Norris, best known to me at least for McTeague, a novel my friend's class had to read in college. I didn't have to read it. I went to a different college.

On the good ship Glarus
The short story tells the tale of men aboard a tramp steamer named Glarus on a secret and nefarious mission off the coast of South America in 1902. A visit to a lost and dangerous island promises to make the crewmates rich.

Fate has other plans, however, and to give much away would spoil the story which is available free at the link above.

I suppose the relationships of the sailors including the key mates known as the Black Crows as well as the reports of their San Francisco port of call all mesh with other Norris work.

The sense of sea life and of sailors at home is captured, but the core premise and the chills provided the imaginative reader make it a great late night read.

Put on a candle, imagine the creak and moan of a ship topping constant waves, far away from anything, then imagine being stuck in the middle of nowhere in a dead calm.

It's quite horror but its chilling.

Tags: Horror, Ghosts , Literarture, Frank Norris, Sea Tales

Get Getting Lost

My buddy Wayne wrote the A to Z Lost Glossary with 600 plus entries that culminates this new book on the Lost TV series.

It's called Getting Lost in case you have images turned off, and it's a collection of essays including an interesting intro from editor Orson Scott Card who outlines a series idea he had a few years back that had a similar premise. Getting the great Sci-Fi and somtimes horror (Lost Boys) author's take as well as the synopsis of his "lost" (sorry) idea makes it quite worthwhile, not to mention the additional essays and viewpoints.

It's a must if you're a "Lostie" suffering through the summer months with only reruns and the Lost Experience, it's a definite bromide.

So, speaking of can't wait until September, anyone heard any new rumors?


Tags: Lost, TV, Orson Scott Card, horror, science fiction

Wouldn't it be cool if they re-animated London After Midnight?

London after Midnight may be one of the best known "lost" films, a silent terror classic. It's a collaboration of Lon Chaney and Tod Browning, the one where Chaney wears the cool top hat with his black cape. I remember it first from a Famous Monsters of Filmland thumbnail cover, featured in their back issue gallery.

Mark this
While it was remade as Mark of the Vampire with Bela Lugosi and imdb.com reports a still picture re-creation, it's one of those legendary horror tales you long to see and lament.

It struck me like a diamond bullet
I was struck by a notion while reading about the restoration of lost segments of the Doctor Who serial The Invasion. Two lost chapters of the tale will be recreated via animation, and the 30-second clip on the BBC website looks incredible.

So how cool would it be to see "London After Midnight" given a similar treatment?

Tags: horror, Lon Chaney, monsters, vampires, movies

Dueling 19th Century Magician Projects

I'm rather excited by The Illusionist and The Prestige, what seem to be Warner Bros. and Touchtone's rival 19th century magician projects.

They are:

a.) based on literary works -- the short story "Eisenheim the Illusionist" and the novel The Prestige respectively.

b.) not brand items unless they're Edward Norton/Paul Giamatti/Jessica Biel and Hugh Jackman/Christian Bale/Scarlett Johansson pictures, and even star brands break the summer trend of sequels and remakes only.

Six minutes is a long ride
I discovered via the Risky Biz Blog that Yahoo is offering a six minute clip -- don't get too excited a lot of it's credits --of The Illusionist, but there's an additional scene as well. Both serve above all to introduce the film's great sepia, Victorian visuals.

So far there's just a trailer for The Prestige, from the director of the fabulous Memento, but that's also enough to begin building my anticipation.

Oddly Christine was not excited by the premise when we saw it on the big screen at Lady in Water.

I'm prepared to support both, just because they're baked reasonably fresh.

Tags: Movies, trailers, magic

Dark Shadows Returns

When I was barely old enough to comprehend television shows, I watched the exploits of Barnabas Collins on the Gothic soap Dark Shadows ( more here). I guess that's evidence my grandmother didn't watch me closely enough.

I don't remember being really terrified as much as intrigued by the tales of ghosts and vampires.

Christine and I were happily able to watch much of the series in the early '90s on The Sci Fi Channel, and I was also fortunate enough to interview many of the cast members of the brief '90s revival of the series.

The soap was not a perfect show. It's had the usual limitations of video. But there are still some particularly good horror tales within the the thousand or so episodes.

Phoenix rising
Early on they were in black and white and really chilling. Just before Barnabas arrives in the series, the Collins family and their foundling employee Victoria Winters face down a modern day and potentially fiery phoenix.

Later, after one of the series most popular though convoluted time travel arcs, a Lovecraft-inspired tale began. I enjoyed that one quite a bit although ratings in the '60s dropped and it was wrapped up quickly.

New shadows gather
I was rather excited to discover while poking around the Big Finnish Audio site that a new series of Dark Shadows audios is coming soon.

Installments, sold on CD, will feature many original cast members including David Selby who played Quentin Collins, the show's second major heart throb after Barnabas. Laura Parker, John Karlen and Maggie Evans aka Kathryn Leigh Scott will be featured also.

Pay a visit to the site for wallpapers of the cast memembers, audio clips and of course, ordering information.

If you've never experienced Big Finish or Dark Shadows, set some money aside. I suspect these are going to be good.

Tags:Dark Shadows, horror, OTR

Ash's Meditation

We don't know what Ash went through before he found his way to our doorstep. He had a little "will provide companion animal services for food" sign when he showed up.

I've mentioned in this space before he's blind in one eye. Though the eye is entact, his vetinary ophthalmologist found the retina pretty badly damaged. Could have been a BB or some other injury in his past.

That's led us to wonder if he has a touch of neurological damage.


The perfect feline
Or at least I speculate that. Christine think's he's the perfect cat. Monty, our oldest tom, is trying to teach him bad habits but so far few have stuck.
He definitely has some practices that differ from the other cats in the house, most notably a meditative ritual he performs several times a day.

He usually undertakes this on the Afghan on the back of the sofa. That's preferable to what Monty tends to do to the sofa. He has, uh, scratching issues.

Anyway, perching on the sofa, Ash begins to knead with all four feet; it's a constant, gentle stomp. Sometimes he does it quietly, other times it's accompanied by howling meows.

The first few a.m. times these awakened me I thought Monty was killing him.

I'm not sure what he accomplishes -- sometime he hops down and moves on to other cat business after he's stomped a while. Other times, he curls up and goes to sleep, so maybe it's just an instinctive, flatten-the-grass-down-for-a-nap trait he picked up from his ancestors who lived in the wild.

Or ancient temples.

Monty just seems to look at him a little nonplussed when all this goes on. And he seems to shake his head and say: "I just don't understand his religion, but he certainly adheres to his rituals faithfully."


Tags: cats,pets,animal behaviors

What's on the iPod? - Kinkytoons!

Kinkytoons have been available on (the next Texas Govornor!) Kinky Friedman's website for a while now, but it's nice to have them available for the iPod through iTunes.

Now they can be viewed anywhere and shared with friends.

Although they're devoted mainly to what was the uphill battle to get on the ballot as an independent, they're still a blast. Now that the Kinkster is on the ballot and making Gov. Rick Perry sweat about a debate, they still have plenty of irreverent humor and pithy political points.

Check out "10 Things that are Easier to Do Than Run For Texas Governor" and "I Looove Texas" and visit the Kinky website for a third.

The campaign rolls on
I've been watching the Kinkster's campaign as it's developed, and I'm proud to say I went out to sign his petition to get on the ballot when it passed through my town.

There was a time I would have said an independent candidate was a vote in the wrong direction, but the Ten Reasons To Elect Kinky Friedman Governor Of Texas(.pdf format) makes some excellent points, No. 8 being "The Two Party System is Broken" and 1o. It's time to declare independence from politics as usual."

Somehow Kinky's points about special interest groups and the like resonate much like a passage from Jon Stewart's political work:


From America: The Book:

“This model of direct elections by the people for representatives of a lawmaking body to be overseen by corporate lobbyists with obscene amounts of cash has proven so efficient that 96 percent of Congressmen are reelected. Clearly the system is working. Why else would the same officials be elected over and over and over again? Voter apathy? Entrenchment born of a corrupt system designed to ensure those in power stay in power? Tell it to Castro, Paco.”

NPR recently reported on a study that Stewart's The Daily Show is getting young people engaged in the political system.

Are we moving into an era where pop culture impacts an entrenched and corrupt system?

The cynic in me says nah. The optimist says maybe.

Get your Kinky toons and look for the Kinky action figure press conference on iTunes too. It has my favorite Kinky one-liner: "I can't screw it up any worse than it already is!."



More Kinky audio and video

Tags: politics,Kinky Friedman

Ray Bradbury The October Game - major spoiler

Read my interview with Ray Bradbury

Really, don't read this if you plan to read the short story "The October Game" by Ray Bradbury and you don't want the surprise spoiled.

It's a really good story and I mentioned it here a while back, so I get hits from Google for "October Game Meaning Of" and stuff like that.

Since you land on the band The October Game if you do the "I'm Feeling Lucky" search in your Goo Diligence, and you otherwise get a lot of hits about degrees of success of various sports teams in the month of October, apparently there's not a definitive critical analysis of the Bradbury story out there online. (Not that this is going to be, but I do what I can.)

Cosmic Ray
Many people think of Cosmic Ray as a science fiction writer, and he did his share of Martian tales and things from outer space, but in the pulp days especially--and if you watched The Ray Bradbury Theater you know this--he penned his share of tales of terror.

"The October Game" is copyrighted 1950 in the collection I own (Gooseflesh pictured with my other favorite old time horror collection above.), although Wikipedia lists it as 1948. At any rate, the story is a masterpiece of suggested horror. It evokes literally visceral imagery without stating it and leaves a chilling, unsettling after effect. For many readers--me, me I'm one of those--remember it for years.

"Revenge is the best way of gittin' even." -- Archie Bunker
It's a tale of revenge, a horror achieved without graveyards or magic and with ghosts and witches only in costume or imagination.

It's Halloween, you see, and the bow-tied and cufflink wearing protagonist, Mich Wilder, I think, is contemplating a way to hurt his wife, Louise, as the tale opens. He rules out murder because he's seeking revenge with "duration." Killing her won't hurt her enough.

Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way
We get the impression this is a middle class family. Bradbury tells us they live in a "warm two-story house," but, relations are frigid and, by the way, Mich wanted a boy. The couple has an eight-year-old daughter, Marion, and a big Halloween party is planned. Louise has showered her affections on Marion since her birth.

A.B.C. - Marion loves the daughter very much, Mich has a bad case of cabin fever and an eight-year case of a male post partum depression.

As the party planning goes on, Mich's sense of being trapped in his existence unfolds. There's mention of failed business ventures and we are told October means winter is coming and he just can't face another Northern one.

So eventually everyone shows up for the party, and "the husband" decides to take everyone to the cellar which he proclaims "The Tomb of the Witch."

The real October game
That's where the impromptu game begins. It's one played in the dark. Traditionally grapes are passed around and the kids are told they're feeling the dead witch's eyes.

Then they get a bowl of spaghetti and that's described as "the witch's innards" and so on.

Here's where the spoiler comes in -- don't read on unless you've read the story or just don't care --

Bradbury has established the shoddy emotional state of the Wilders, the depression of the husband, the desire to produce a lasting hurt of Louise who adores their daughter. The tale is a brief portrait of a very dark domestic situation.

I really mean it - spoiler, close your eyes now...
:
:
:

Dude, those weren't grapes and spaghetti!

Order books by Ray Bradbury.

My interview with Ray Bradbury.

Tags: horror,Ray Bradbury,fiction,Halloween,books

An Education in Civics

No matter what your sympathies or political affiliation, watching a bill wend it's way through Congress and the hands of those who wield power is educational. Especially seeing who they wield power for. If you don't follow CSPAN regularly you just don't pick these things up.

Sometimes you don't realize how asleep at the wheel you are about your country:

Thoroughbred Times: Horse Slaughter Bill Discharged From House Energy and Commerce Committee

The Washington Times: Stop Horsing Around

If they're this sneaky about horses...

Tags: Horse Slaughter, Congress

What's on the iPod? Aquaman!

OK, it's probably a sign that I'm too easily amused--see my previous post, the uh, one with the dictionary--but I always get excited when new shows turn up on iTunes.

Warner Bros. shows were added yesterday including The Jetsons, The Flintsones and Babylon 5, although it's the season with the commander I didn't like.

I like finding things that might otherwise not have seen the light of day, though. That's why I popped for the Aquaman pilot.

Oh yeah, there's an Aquaman pilot
The potential Smallville spinoff was previously just past the edge of my peripheral vision, but I was pleasantly surprised when I watched.

It made a half-hour on an exercise bike set to a cardio cycle feel about like a half hour, but it was an exciting tale.

Revisionist history
It should be noted for future generations that the show's not how it really happened. (That's my old Aquaman action figure from Mego to illustrate how the A-man really looks, except when he has long hair and the metal hook for a hand.)

In this version Aquaman doesn't have green pants. Those were pants weren't they? His shirt always looked kind of scaley.

He's touched by the sea as a youth when he and his mom are lost in the Bermuda Triangle and thus he becomes a troubled older youth with phenomenal swimming abilities.

Lou Diamond Phillips is his costguardsman father, who'd be happy if he'd just take the civil service exam and settle down.

Aquaman has other things on his mind like clashing with federal agents and meeting other sea worthy folks and Ving Rhames who has more to reveal about his past.

It's kind of a shame the show didn't make it upstream.

Read more about it at Aquaman TV.

Tags: comics, iPod, TV

Look up Idiot in the Dictionary

I ran across the image generator that creates these dictionary definitions with your picture on this blog.

So, I've heard the crack enough times, right?

I keep thinking of the great exchange between Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr. from Kiss Kiss Bang Bang:

Perry: Look up idiot in the dictionary. You know what you'll find?

Harry: A picture of me?

Perry: No! The definition of idiot. Which you fucking are!

Tags: Movies,Image Generator

Dropping My Question

I posted a question at Dropping Knowledge, the website devoted to the "Table of Free Voices."

Mine's nothing profound, but the site's concept is enthusiastic and refreshing and it felt good to get a little involved.

In spirt at least it seems to transcend liberal and conservative, Democrat, Republican, neocon and next week's buzzword.

It kind of reminds me of this quote from Unitarian minister James Freeman Clarke:

“A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation.”

What's my question?
Visit the site and look for it, and while you're there peruse the other content and read the other questions. Skip the ones that are tongue in cheek. There are plenty of sincere ones.

(Full disclosure: There are blog programs that reward bloggers with clicks for mentioning Dropping Knowledge. I'm not applying for any of those for this mention. I'm dropping it because I like the site.)

Black Beauty Ranch

I should have mentioned Cleveland Amory's Black Beauty Ranch in my previous post.

It's a refuge for horses and many other animals and it needs support.

It's certainly a good answer to the: "Where will the horses go if we don't slaughter them?" question.

I've called many of the committee members listed in my previous post also and in each case I've had very pleasant conversations with their staffers.

If you read this before 2 p.m. 7/25, take time to act.

Horse Slaughter Action Needed

The Texas Humane Legislation Network is reporting that H.R. 503, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (AHSPA), is to be reviewed at 2 p.m. Tuesday, July 25, 2006, by the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection. That's the national body, so everyone can get involved.

THLN notes:

"Crowded into trailers and exposed to the elements, horses are hauled for up to 28 hours without a break. When they reach the slaughterhouse, callous workers poke and beat the animals as they are shoved into the kill box. Despite the federal mandate that horses be rendered unconscious before having their throats slit, repeated blows with captive bolt guns are often necessary to stun them, and their death is protracted and excruciating. Members of Congress must end this practice by adopting the AHSPA in its original form."

What individuals can do
THLN recommends those wishing to stop the slaughter:

"Please contact ALL subcommittee members and urge them to strongly support the AHSPA as written. Make a special effort to respectfully request all members of the subcommittee who are cosponsors (indicated by * in the contact list below) ATTEND the committee hearing and SUPPORT both the AHSPA and Representative Whitfield, who is participating in the hearing. Call or fax TODAY until the hearing takes place on Tuesday. Please share this Action Alert with family, friends and co-workers, and encourage them to call or fax their Members of Congress, too."

Chair and Ranking Min. Member Phone Fax

Chair: Cliff Stearns (R-FL) 202-225-5744 202-225-3973

Rnk: Janice Schakowsky (D-IL)* 202-225-2111 202-226-6890

Members:

Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)* 202-225-2906 202-225-6942

Charles F. Bass (R-NH) 202-225-5206 202-225-2946

Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) 202-225-2811 202-225-3004

Mary Bono (R-CA)* 202-225-5330 202-225-2961

Sherrod Brown (D-OH)* 202-225-3401 202-225-2266

Barbara Cubin (R-WY) 202-225-2311 202-225-3057

Jim Davis (D-FL)* 202-225-3376 202-225-5652

Nathan Deal (R-GA) 202-225-5211 202-225-8272

Diana DeGette (D-CO)* 202-225-4431 202-225-5657

Michael Ferguson (R-NJ)* 202-225-5361 202-225-9460

Charles Gonzalez (D-TX)* 202-225-3236 202-225-1915

Gene Green (D-TX)* 202-225-1688 202-225-9903

Edward Markey (D-MA)* 202-225-2836 202-226-0092

Tim Murphy (R-PA) 202-225-2301 202-225-1844

Sue Myrik (R-NC)* 202-225-1976 202-225-3389

C. L. “Butch” Otter (R-ID) 202-225-6611 202-225-3029

Joseph Pitts (R-PA)* 202-225-2411 202-225-2013

George Radanovich (R-CA) 202-225-4540 202-225-3402

Mike Rogers (R-MI) 202-225-4872 202-225-5820

Mike Ross (D-AR) 202-225-3772 202-225-1314

Bobby Rush (D-IL)* 202-225-4372 202-226-0333

Tedd Strickland (D-OH)* 202-225-5705 202-225-5907

Lee Terry (R-NE) 202-225-4155 202-226-5452

Edolphus Towns (D-NY)* 202-225-5936 202-225-1018

Fred Upton (R-MI) 202-225-3761 202-225-4986

* Denotes HR 503 Co-sponsors

The committee site is here.

More reading

A .pdf on 5 reasons horse slaughter in America is a disgrace.

Willie Nelson speaks out against horse slaughter

Kinky Friedman on horse slaughter - Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy

The Washington Times - Stop Horsing Around

Cat dieting

We're trying a new cat diet program at our house. My one female cat, Miss Daisy, is pawing my arm as I type this to register her disapproval.

Miss Daisy is the chief reason we have a new diet program. Christine's mother once observed: "She looks like she's going to have kittens," as Daisy sashayed into a room.



Ash, one of our newer arrivals at our ranch of cats, likes to eat about as well as Daisy does and is starting to build his girth also.







Monty, our oldest Tom, lost weight when he had a fever of unknown origin a while back and hasn't put it all back on. He likes food moderatly less than Miss Daisy, but he is prone to poke me in the leg when he's hungry. He pokes me a lot when he's hungry.



Oliver, probably the youngest, looks like the illustration on the cat food bag, the one that depicts the cat that's too thin. He doesn't care much for cat food. He'll give Ash his food pretty regularly and sit patiently waiting for him to clean the bowl.

Each cat now has a separate bowl and we're measuring the food with special cat food measuring cup the vet gave us.

I forget if that was two or three "Miss Daisy is getting too fat" lectures ago.

Anyway, four bowls - measured amount, distributed usually by Christine at night and me in the morning. It's a bit of a juggling act because they all want their bowls at once.

They eat from their respective bowls. Except when they don't. Daisy eats from Monty's, Monty eat's from Ash's etc. We try to put the food up after they've finished it and let them nibble again when Monty starts tugging my pantleg.

A couple of nights it seemed to work really well. They didn't even get through the entire measured amount. But I think they're getting wise.

Monty has always had a technique of getting me up when he wants something. He doesn't howl himself, even though he has quite a voice for such a small creature.

He corners Daisy, who hisses warnings.

Christine then urges me to get up and separate them. That never works. Instead, I feed Monty to shut him up. Christine calls it rewarding bad behavior.

Daisy usually eats too and Ash if he wakes up.

You see the source of the problem.

We'll see how the weight loss goes.

Tags: cats

diary

Doctor Who Season 1

I haven't watched and rewatched anything in a long while the way I have Series 1 of the Doctor Who revival from producer/writer Russel T. Davies.

Psychological Horror

My friend Charles has a new blog about writing. Does he look like a psychologist in his profile pic? He is also a biker and I'm not sure about the order in which those appropriately fall.

Maybe he is a scientist of the mind first, but he's also a horror writer noted for many short stories in many collections and for Cold in the Light, a horror novel set in the Ozarks.

He's also serious Robert E. Howard fan. In that pic he does look a little like Conan of Cimmeria, doesn't he?


Anyway, if you're interested in horror and writing and all that, you should check out Charlie's corner of the blogosphere.

He's a cool guy I've known since we bumped into each other at the New Orleans Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival sometime back in the Hyperborean Age.

Tags: author blogs
horror

Writing+and+poetry

Another page from one of my horror comics

This is from the hard to find--if anyone was looking--fourth issue of The Mantus Files, a comic book mini-series I wrote for Malibu Graphics back in ancient times. It was edited by my buddy Roland Mann and drawn by Thomas Giles.

This page comes near the end of the tale, right before the story's version of "all Hell" breaks loose with a twist about the dragon talked about and anticipated through most of the series. I thought we came up with kind of a cool way for Mantus, our occult investigator hero, to kill him. The guy in the pic's not the dragon, by the way. He's a guardian from the dark side.

Hmm, guess that dialog could have been a little better.

The defeat of the rampage involved some saintly relics that we made up, though the course to them took Mantus through a lot of real New Orleans locations.

Mantus files can be ordered from The Nostalgia Zone

Tags: Horror comics

What's on the iPod? - The Husband

If iPods are now providing the soundtracks for our lives, my score is not limited to music. Lately we've been painting our house on our own, as we have time. Christine watches a lot of HGTV.

I follow orders.

In the pink room
Listening to books on tape is not new to me. In our previous house the owners had attempted to paint a long living room dining room combination an interesting shade of rose. It didn't turn out rose.

It turned out pink.

I listened to Spock's World through two coats of Kilz. That was in boom box (aka the iPod mega) days. It took another Eric Van Lustbader novel to finish the job, two coats of a deep Martha Stewart tan. I suspect when the light is right, the new owners can still see a few flecks of pink showing through.

The new Dean Koontz
Eventually I'll be able to mark the rooms of my current house by audio books. It's not bad having pop-literature sort of permeating rooms.

The master bedroom was Stephen King's Cell. A hallway was Bad Twin. Two walls of the living room were Dirty Blonde by Linda Socottoline.

The Husband Dean Koontz helped finish the living room. I guess that's appropriate in more ways than one since I was working for Christine.

The Husband is my favorite Dean Koontz novel since Life Expectancy. It made the work go nicely.

Back to the book
Velocity and Forever Odd are good Dean Koontz books. They just didn't quite grab me in the way Life Expectancy did.

The Husband is a race against time story with a killer twist -- a guy who doesn't have $2 million is ordered to get it or his wife will be killed.

On its own, that's a Lifetime thriller, but it's not about just getting the money together.

It's about who the hero, Mitch Rafferty, is.

And how he grew up and why that puts him in harms way.

In other words, it has the Dean Koontz master style.

Certain action scenes reminded me a little of action scenes in False Memory, but the characters are all new. Don't want to do spoilers here, but know that as with many Koontz characters, Mitch's past is haunting him.

And it puts his happy present day existence at dire risk. His wife, whom he loves unwaveringly, is in peril and thus his entire existence is on the line.

It's no wonder this one is already set to be a movie, but I predict even though it's sort of ready made for an hour-and-45 minute thriller, much of the love story and the back story won't translate to the big screen in quite the way Koontz can tell it in prose.

With rich scene settings and descriptions blending with rich emotional detail, The Husband is the perfect score for painting a room or a summer drive, or I'm sure in its hard copy form it's wonderful for the beach.

Ipod Lifestyle

Struggling to do the right thing

This is not a political blog, and I've struggled over the weekend, putting up posts and taking them down because of my frustration over my Congressman.

I took down the long post and the short post I wrote.

The long detailed my letters and his team's responses to two issues I feel strongly about -- net neutrality and horse slaughter.

The short post simply linked up a You Tube video displaying some Congressional buffoonery as shown in The Daily Show.

I decided neither really helped the horses or other causes, or I worried that they were not part of the solution.

The Bottom Line
There are many great blogs devoted to both issues I mentioned. I'm going to write the polite letters to my Congressional delegation and vote against those who don't represent me.

Find your representatives here and do the same, or they'll do what they want.

And I'll keep looking for the right thing.

Speaking of elaborate mazes

Some aliens must have had landing gear that looked like Mr. Spock.

Actually an interesting article at Scotsman.com about a Star Trek TOS maze.

And you thought I was goofy with my weekend on Mars photo.

Signs in 3D

Apparently the aliens who produce crop circles have developed more elaborate landing gear.

The Daily Mail is reporting the first 3-D crop circles. (I found it via the daily headlines on Fortean Times.)

M. Night Shyamalan made good use of crop circles and grey aliens for horror purposes in Signs, of course. These don't seem quite as menacing as they are perplexing in our real world.

Mr. Pragmatic spoils the fun
Skeptics have long considered crop circles to be hoaxes, and they're probably right. Intellectually I have to agree with skeptics most of the time.

But in my heart, I like a bit of wonder. I think this is one of those areas that's fun. Unless it was your wheat field, anyway.

Sense of wonder anyone?
Sure they're probably all made by guys with time on their hands, but they stimulate the imagination a bit and give us a little mystery.

Even after documentaries that show guys with wheat cutting tools, when something new like this, pardon me, crops up, you find yourself asking anew - "How the heck did that get there?"

And is there something more than the pseudo solid world that surrounds me?

An opening epigram in the Robert Aikman collection Cold Hand in Mine, went something like this: "In the end, it is the mystery that remains and not it's explanation."

Words to live by.

New Profile Image - Cosmic Sid

Wayne, my buddy, dredged up an old photo of me from his hard drive.

That was a great weekend on Barsoom.

OK you got me
The actual shot was taken on a snow day, and I used it when I was first getting the hang of Photoshop.

You may recognize the sand dunes from one of the standard Photoshop sample photos.

The planets were created in Paint Shop Pro 5 or 6 with one of the picture tube features that Adobe seems to build into Illustrator but not Photoshop. ?!

Tag: Photoshop

Ear worms

The other night as I tried to drift off to sleep--while my cat sat on my chest stealing my breath--lyrics from an old song started playing in my head. Except I couldn't remember all of them, so it went something like this:

"Mmm, mmmm, mmmm ... and a cat named Kalamazoo." Not mmm mmm like the Crash Test Dummies song, though.

I'd already turned off the computer and I didn't really want to uproot Miss Daisy to do the Goo Diligence (I saw that on Urbandictionary.com and I'm doing my part to make it a real term) on it, so I just kept my head on the pillow and suffered. "Mmm, mmm, mmmm ... Kalamazoo." This went on for hours.

If the cat could talk
I thought maybe I was thinking of that song because the cat was on my chest. I decided not to change her name to Kalamazoo.

The next morning I realized that ear worm was planted by my friend Wayne. Damn you Wayne Sallee and the Cal-Sag bus you rode in on.

It was payback for joking about him and multifuction copiers. He titled a blog entry "Della and the Dealer," you see.

Deutsch Hoyt
It all became so clear as I checked his blog that morning. It all came back: "It was Della and the dealer and a dog named Jake and a cat named Kalamazoo" from Hoyt Axton.

My brain deposited his post title and dredged up the end of the phrase.

I loved Hoyt Axton, so I thought "Della and the Dealer" would be a great tune for the iPod after a night of living with:

"Mmm, mmmm, mmmm ... and a cat named Kalamazoo.".

They only have a version in German on iTunes.

If I'd been a comic book character when I discovered that, there would have been a word balloon over my head with ?! in it.

Why THE HELL is there a German version of "Della and the Dealer" on iTunes but not the Hoyt Axton version? Steve Jobs is going to leverage Hollywood into $9.99 movie downloads and he can't cut a deal for the entire Hoyt Axton music library?

That's gonna show up in the third quarter. I was gonna pop for two (2) greenback $s and also download that song Hoyt sang on WKRP when he was supposed to be Loni Anderson's ex-boyfriend and thought Dr. Johnny Fever was her love interest. But no.

I had to settle for looking up the lyrics so I could then sing it myself all day: "It was Della and the dealer and a dog named Jake and a cat..."

Prompting Christine to go: "Shut up DAMN YOU!."

Did I mention Christine was home, too?

It's amazing the damage a cat stealing your breath and an ear worm can do.

Maybe the ear worm was named...ah forget it.