alicesonmarie

mr_earbrass @ 02:59 pm: What I'm Doing, What You're Doing, What We're Not Doing
Moi: The Sad Tale of The Brothers Grossbart was chosen as one of Barnes & Noble's SF&F online Book Club's picks for December and this is my week to shine/dodge uncomfortable questions. Big thanks to Paul Goat Allen for selecting the book and any and all readers, and if you're interested in joining the spoiler heavy discussion or just peeping in you can check it out here.

I'm also working on doing late game research for The Enterprise of Death involving the Fon of Dahomey and sundry saints and working on some short fiction. Ooooh, and I got a great review in the Guardian! The Guardian! It was in their print edition for December 5th--Eric Brown used the term "pertinent satire." Juicy!

This month I read The Crying of Lot 49, which was a good bit sillier than I had expected. My first Pynchon, which proves you're never too old. I also read Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived In The Castle, which is phenomenal. Maybe it's just me but it filled in this gap in my brain between Arthur Machen's "The White People" and Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory, sort of a literary missing link. Also read some killer short fiction by Brian Evenson and Stephen Graham Jones, the latter of whom bought me a bowl of chili when we met last week. If there's a quicker way to my heart than free chili and smart conversation about horror I haven't found it yet. I also started Jones' novel Ledfeather but realized after a single sitting that I needed to get it to my father as soon as possible and so it got sent out in the Christmas box before I could finish it.

Finally, I'm straining so hard on sending jtglover positive thoughts that my nose started bleeding. Knock'em dead, tiger.

By way of avoiding having to write anything interesting myself, let me direct you to Molly's page where she reminisces on her experiences as a former Ayn Rand fan and high school Objectivist. She's in the clear now, but man...dark days.

What's everyone else up to? Any good movies or books to recommend, or bad shit, man (in a Dennis Hopper voice) to avoid? Speak!

[Cross-posted to my website]

Tags: guest blogs, interesting people, interviews, reviews, the enterprise of death, the sad tale of the brothers grossbart

mr_earbrass @ 11:02 am: Tom Waits. Kool Keith. What Else Is There?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiJ2E0xGOv8

Or, things that make me extremely happy on a Friday morning. I saw Kool Keith almost a decade ago and it remains the best hip hop show I've ever seen. I saw Tom Waits a year and a half ago and it remains one of the best shows I've ever seen, period. At no point did I ever dare to hope they would work together, and the N.A.S.A. project seems really cool overall. Life...life is pretty good right now.

[Cross-posted to my website]

Tags: collaborations, music, video evidence

mr_earbrass @ 03:46 pm: Flash Fiction Contest at Paper Fruit
Molly Tanzer, writer, assistant editor at Fantasy Magazine, and so much more, is having a flash fiction contest at her blog Paper Fruit to celebrate the one year anniversary of said blog. 500 words or less on the theme of "paper fruit," and whatever the hell that means is up to you. First and second place win prizes (one of which will look especially familiar to followers of this blog) and publication on Paper Fruit, as well as the people's ovation and fame forever. Go forth, my bastard children, and be both papery and fruity!



Tags: contests, flash fiction, interesting people, loots, writing

mr_earbrass @ 09:50 pm: What's this submitting to crap markets to get ahead in the good slushpiles malarky I've been hearin?
My amigo Molly, assistant editor and slush shoveler at Fantasy Magazine, ways in on the Scalzi/Black Matirx/Everyone-on-the-web hooha over at her blog Paper Fruit. She also catalogs some of the common faux pas she's encountered, and while we've all seen the "please don't do this" reminders at various markets' submission guidelines I found hers to be a great perspective, as well as the fact that she covers some of the less obvious but easily avoidable missteps that crop up a lot. Check out her "View From Atop the Slushpile."

Tags: interesting people, link mania

mr_earbrass @ 10:59 am: Trailer Trash; or, Nicolas Cage, You Are Grounded
I have a serious weakness for movies set in Medieval Europe--I know, I know, most of them are terrible. I know this because I have an unwholesome compulsion to watch them.

I have a serious weakness for historically-set horror movies--I know, I know, most of them are terrible. I know this because I have an unwholesome compulsion to watch them.

So that I will be watching this against all better instincts should hardly be surprising:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj3JLTM_FOk

WOW. If this trailer does what every trailer does these days and give away the entire movie then it looks like 2010 will be the year that Nicolas Cage returns to the frontlines in the War Against Women Witches. Seems like a lady started the Black Plague but don't worry bro-dudes, Nicolas is here to help. I agree with Molly that this movie will be a bust if he doesn't don some sort of animal skin and deck the malefactress while screaming "witches!" He has a history of such things:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QqgIzlmdBc

I wish I was strong enough to resist the siren song of Nicolas Cage devouring the scenery like it was made of marzipan and he was an almond addict, I truly do. And I think I might have, if only they hadn't also cast Christopher Lee. And Ron Perlman! Not just any Ron Perlman, either, but a motherfucking cloak-wearing Ron Perlman, and not only that, but a motherfucking cloak-wearing Ron Perlman saying "something's out there" just before a witch summons motherfucking wolvesto eat Nicolas Cage. And there's bird doctors. Oh sweet, sweet pain, thy name is Nicolas, and I await your embrace.

[Cross-posted to my website]

Tags: bird doctors, movies, oh nicolas no, the wicker man, trailers

mr_earbrass @ 12:33 pm: Art Break: Sandi Calistro
I unexpectedly found myself in Denver for an afternoon this weekend, and went into a piercing studio/tattoo parlor to look for Christmas presents. Said shop was Sol, which I'd briefly browsed when Molly and I were in town for the Hawk and a Hacksaw show that I spaced on writing up here (will rectify that at some point--great show, as Molly notes in the link) but not at such length. The shop itself has one of the best selections of high-end body jewelry and plugs that I've ever seen, and all the artist's portfolios were great, but what I want to address here is the work of an artist (tattoo, and, er, the regular kind) whose art is prominently displayed in the shop, though she now does her tattooing at her own shop: Sandi Calistro. Someone I was talking to compared her to Mark Ryden, but I personally like her stuff way more. I'll let a few examples, taken from her myspace gallery, speak for themselves, and then you can follow the link back to check out the rest of the stuff she has up:


( More, with Tattoos, Behind the Cut )


[Cross-posted to my website]

Tags: art, beautiful, denver, interesting people, tattoos

mr_earbrass @ 12:11 pm: Last Omnivoracious Essay For Me, Last Ecstatic Day For S.J.
I finished up my week of guest blogging at Amazon with an article called "Navigating the Intent of a Fickle Author" that is, I assure you, better than that lame-ass title might imply. In it I address the problem of looking for authorial intent when the author is, er, fickle, disclose embarrassing secrets of my childhood, and basically come off like myself.

Also, S. J. Chambers has her last stand at Jeff V's blog, wherein she interviews fellow Poe scholar Rob Velella. Check it.

[Cross-posted to my website]