The first trailer for Pacific Rim, Guillermo del Toro’s kaiju vs. giant mechs film, is out.
Oh yeah. I’m there.
Howard Waldrop and I have signed up to review this next year.
Archive for December, 2012
First Pacific Rim Trailer Drops
Thursday, December 13th, 2012Finally! Gene Wolfe Named Grandmaster!
Thursday, December 13th, 2012In a well-earned and long-overdue honor, SFWA has finally named Gene Wolfe a Nebula Grandmaster.
Congratulations to Gene for a lifetime of great work, and to SFWA for getting this one right.
(Hat tip: SF Signal.)
New Lame Excuse Books Catalog Out Soon
Wednesday, December 12th, 2012Drop me an email or comment if you’d like to receive a copy.
A Book Collector More Obsessive Than I
Monday, December 10th, 2012Poking around the Internet, I came across this description of the personal collection of American librarian Paula Peyraud, who assembled a vast and impressive collection of books, letters, and art for the Georgian period (1760–1820), including important work by Samuel Johnson, Jane Austen, and hundreds of less famous figures.
A more complete description of her collection can be found in this PDF, and if you’re interested in books and collecting it’s well worth a read. Though not my collecting vector, the collection Peyraud was amazing not only in quality (though she favored extensively hand-annotated works by contemporary figures over pristine copies), but also in the sheer vastness of her holdings. “By the time of Peyraud’s sad death in 2008, the complete collection ran to approximately half a million printed books.” Having assembled a bit over 1% of that number, the sheer size of her library (which she kept, meticulously cataloged, in a subterranean book gallery at the big family home she inherited) is stunning. I’m also tickled by the idea of an American librarian outbidding a Viscountess for a choice item.
Shoegazer Sunday: …And the Earth Swarmed With Them’s “Everyone Will Fade”
Sunday, December 9th, 2012Here’s …And the Earth Swarmed With Them‘s atmospheric, goth-y “Everyone Will Fade,” off their album The Fading Voice Of The Old Era Speaks To Us, But Where Are The Ears Left To Hear It?, which does suggest a certain sensibility…
Slamball, ChessBoxing, or Hockey?
Saturday, December 8th, 2012With the NHL lockout looking to drag on indefinitely, America finally has a chance to ditch hockey for another sport.
So below, find a poll on what should be America’s next great sport:
Let your voice be heard! Vote below!
Michael Swanwick and Locus on Jeff Millar
Wednesday, December 5th, 2012It turns out that I wasn’t the only person in the science fiction community who appreciated Jeff Millar:
Turns out Millar was more multi-talented than I thought…
Vague Movie Descriptions
Sunday, December 2nd, 2012There was an amusing Fark thread on people giving vague but accurate (or correct but misleading) movie summaries, and people guessing the movie. I enjoyed it enough that I thought I would offer it up here with my own vague summaries. A good number of these are science fiction, fantasy, or horror.
Post your answers below.
Shoegazer Sunday: Tears Run Rings’ “Waiting for the End”
Sunday, December 2nd, 2012Here’s Tears Run Rings, a shoegazer band from America’s west coast, with their very Slowdive-esque “Waiting for the End.”
Jeff Millar, RIP
Saturday, December 1st, 2012From Dwight comes the sad news that Tank McNamara creator and Houston Chronicle movie reviewer and columnist Jeff Millar has died at age 70. To have some idea of his stature in Houston in the 1970s and 1980s, imagine that Mike Royko and Roger Ebert were the same guy.
His regular humor column was really funny. I remember one about an IRS agents showing up on the doorstep of a nuclear war survivor’s doorstep to conduct an audit. “That whole ‘end of civilization as we know it’ excuse may pass muster with other government agencies, but not the IRS.”
Tank McNamara was one of my favorite comic strips as well. He had a hilarious sport trial series presided over by an English-barrister sounding Dennis Rodman. (“Mr. Sprewell, please be so kind as to remove your fingers from the panelist’s throat.”) And I loved the strips with the mad sports scientist Dr. Tszap, with his frizzed-out hair, coke-bottle glasses and hula girl tie.
I met him once, at CollegeCon at U of H, the first science fiction convention I went to in 1980. I have his signature on the back of the program book along with those of Harlan Ellison, Robert Sheckley and George Takei.
He also had a story in Damon Knight’s Orbit 17: “Toto, I Have a Feeling We’re Not in Kansas Anymore.” I haven’t read that, or his mystery novel Private Sector.
RIP.