Month: April 2008

One life, furnished in early Ellison

Last night, I attended a screening at Lincoln Center of Dreams with Sharp Teeth, the new documentary on writer Harlan Ellison. Ellison and the film’s director, Erik Nelson, were on hand after the show for a short Q&A. (Longer on A than Q, in typical, cantankerous Ellison fashion.) The film is a great and often very funny portrait of Ellison as man and writer, flaws and all; and while it may not win him a legion of new fans — the work itself will have to serve to do that — it absolutely left me wanting to re-read some of his stories.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get home until close to midnight — after the subway, the train ride, and the squirrelly cab driver who seemed overly excited that his radio station could pick up Cleveland a sports station — so I didn’t have a chance to dig out the old volumes. But if you’ve never read Ellison, do yourself a favor and check out some of his stories. And, if you’re able, the film. There are lots of reasons — some good, some maybe not so much — why the man will be remembered, but it’s stories, the life’s work, that are truly remarkable.

Death and that other thing

Well that’s what I get for not doing my taxes sooner…

Actually, they’re all but done, except that now the TurboTax software we have installed refuses to update — and the program refuses to open unless I allow it to update, which sort of leaves me stuck in an impossible middle. I can’t even open it up to look over my near-finished return. I guess I’ll be filling out forms from the IRS website later this week. Luckily my taxes are pretty simple this year, and the 15th is still a few days away.

But seriously…sometimes, I think they might be right when they say this whole procrastination thing’s a bad idea.

Kaleidotoropical

[cross-posted to the Kaleidotrope weblog]

The fourth issue of Kaleidotrope is finally at the printer, and with luck copies will start flowing out within the week. So that seems like as good a time as any to finally reveal the full table of contents.

Fiction
“Molting” by Andrew Howard
“Word Count: Negative 1” by Ashley Arnold
“The Three Wishes of Miles Vander” by Bill Ward
“Premature” by Mark Rich
“Paradise” by Adam Lowe
“White Sheets” by Mike Driver
“Rome (a Metrophilia)” by Brendan Connell
“Half-Sneeze Johnny” by Kurt Kirchmeier
“My Cthulhu Story” (a comic) by G.W. Thomas
“Furrier” by Flavian Mark Lupinetti
“She’s a Hearth” by Paul Abbamondi
“The Life and Times of a Hungry World, Told Briefly” by Alex Dally MacFarlane
“The Transparency” by Michael Obilade

Poetry
“Househunting on Mars” by Bonita Kale
“Praise for What I Don’t Know” by Thomas Zimmerman
“Cracked Shells” by Beth Langford
“Spring in the Lab” by Alyce Wilson
“Farm School” by Marcie Lynn Tentchoff
“A Manual For Good Housekeeping in the Age of Global Warming” by Miranda Gaw
“Ivanikha” by Dana Koster
Two Poems by Franz K. Baskett
“Worldviews on a Desert Trail” by Jason Huskey
“Towards the Afterlife” by Aurelio Rico Lopez III

Plus!

“Who Goes There,” Betty Ragan’s interview with Marc Schuster and Tom Powers
“The Rise of the Fembots: A Brief Introduction to Female Android Sexuality in Film” by Eric Borer

Artwork from Remi Treuer, Rod Walker, and Lisa Willis — and assorted other fun! I hope you’ll consider picking up a copy. For just $4 ($6.50 international), it’s a steal — and all that money goes directly back to my contributors, keeping them happy and fed!

And, amazingly enough, two years of this hasn’t quite deterred me yet! I’m accepting submissions for issue #5.

Lyrically challenged

It seems like all I do around here lately is post lists of music like this one:

  1. “Arthur Curry 2007” by Ookla the Mok
    I know not even Peter David can make me cool
  2. “Crazy” by Nelly Furtado (orig. Gnarls Barkley), guessed by Wormbrain
    And I hope that you are having the time of your life
  3. “Like Dreamers Do” by the Beatles
    Oh, I knew when you first said hello
  4. “The Million You Never Made” by Ani DiFranco
    I am warning you I am weightless
  5. “Tonight” by TV on the Radio
    I’ll shove it all to the floorboards
  6. “The Last Thing You Should Do” by David Bowie
    Give the last kiss to me
  7. “Straight Lines” by Dawn Landes
    I don’t want to say it’s breaking my heart
  8. “Stagger Lee” by Lloyd Price, guessed by Kim
    I was standing on the corner when I heard my bulldog bark
  9. “Price to Pay” by Blues Traveler
    Standing here with a tale to tell, I might as well tell to you
  10. “Jesus Is Just Alright” by the Byrds, guessed by Betty
    I don’t care what they may know

It’s amazing what being out of the office for a few days in New Orleans (and trying to get a zine finished and off to the printers) will do to your blogging time.

Anyway, guess the lyric, win no prize! Here’s how what happened last week, if you’d like to check your work or something. And, as always, best of luck!