Month: July 2010

Song of the day

So I was listening to Coverville this afternoon at work when a version of Bob Seger’s “Against the Wind” came on that I’d never heard before, even though I’ve long been a fan of the group that was covering it, the country music super-group the Highwaymen. It turns out, though, that I’m maybe not as familiar with the group as I thought — and in fact not at all familiar with them beyond the title (and first) track of their debut album. Which, as it happens, is the very same album the Seger cover comes from.

I didn’t even know that first track was a cover, too.

Still, I like the song. It’s hard not to like a group whose members are Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. The video below for “Highwayman” borders on the cheesy — mid-’80s country through and through — but I like the song.

Random 10 7-9

Last week. This week:

  1. “The Pointless, Yet Poignant, Crisis of a Co-Ed” by Dar Williams
    Well sometimes, life gives us lessons sent in ridiculous packaging
  2. “222” by Those Darlins
    And we didn’t know much about the city
  3. “Kirsty” by Maple Leaves
    Melodies like diamonds out of her mouth
  4. “I’m an Animal” by Neko Case
    And heaven will smell like the airport
  5. “Brothers in Arms” by Dire Straits, guessed by Betty
    Now the sun’s gone to hell
  6. “To the Bone” by the Kinks
    I took her back to my bachelor flat while the stereo played for two
  7. “Crosseyed and Painless” by Talking Heads
    Facts are never what they seem to be
  8. “To Ramona” by Bob Dylan
    Your cracked country lips, I still wish to kiss
  9. “All the Old Showstoppers” by the New Pornographers
    When Gabriel saw the numbers he fell
  10. “The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell” by David Bowie
    You’re still breathing but you just can’t tell

As always, good luck!

Thursday swelter

Another average day, notable mostly only because there was no air conditioning on my train home this evening. And while it was slightly cooler today that earlier this week, thanks to a tiny bit of rain in the morning, the temperature was still hovering around 90°F all day. The air conditioning was still sorely needed. It meant that I got a seat all to myself, in a mostly empty car, as other passengers went in search of fabled (and possibly nonexistent) cooler cars, but it also meant that we were rolling along in a sauna for some forty minutes. Still, as I overheard one other passenger say, “If I move, it’ll probably be just as bad, and I’ll be crowded with a whole bunch of people. I’d rather sweat all over myself alone.”

Beyond that, I’m just trying to get the latest issue of Kaleidotrope together…and realizing that I probably won’t until next weekend. Electronic copies have gone out to some reviewers, but it looks like contributor and subscriber copies just won’t be ready in time to mail them on Saturday like I’d hoped. I’m pretty confident they’ll be ready next weekend, all collated and stapled, so they’ll definitely mail out in early July.

And if you’d still like a copy of the latest issue — or better yet, a four-issue subscription — there’s no time like the present to act on that. Your copy is just a PayPal link — or money sent directly to me — away.

Meanwhile, I think I’m going to close the zine to submissions again for awhile, starting likely in September and running to the end of 2010. I really do want to go back to only two issues for next year, and this seems like the best way to ensure that I’m not so overstuffed with accepted stories as to require three issues again. An extra issue this July hasn’t proved too onerous, but it is an added expense, and the cost of producing an issue — certainly of mailing an issue — can be considerable. Anything I accept at this point is quite possibly not going to appear until April of 2012, and that’s edging into the ridiculous. I don’t want to start telling writers I’ll print their stories, but not for another two or more years.

So I think instituting a reading period is a definite necessity at this point. Then again, given what I’ve already accepted, another July issue might also be needed.

We’ll see.