Archive for May, 2013

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Library Additions: Three Chapbooks

Monday, May 13th, 2013

Three chapbooks, two (mostly) non-fiction, and one fiction round-robin to help complete my Joe R. Lansdale collection.

  • Michael Blaine, Dennis Etchison, James Kisner, Dean R. Koontz, Joe R. Lansdale, Richard Christian Matheson, Robert R. McCammon, William F. Nolan, Alan Rodgers, David B. Silva, J. N. Williamson and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. The Monitors of Providence. World Fantasy Convention, 1986. First edition chapbook original, one of 1000 copies given out at the 1986 World fantasy Convention in Providence, RI, a Fine copy.

  • Moorcock, Michael. Epic Pooh. British Fantasy Society, 1978. First edition chapbook, Fine- with tiny bit of creasing to bottom outer corner tip. Non-fiction.

  • (Smith, Clark Ashton) Sidney-Fryer, Donald. Clark Ashton Smith: The Sorcerer Departs. Tsathoggua Press, 1997. First edition chapbook, Fine-. A critical miscellany, plus one poem by Smith.

    • The coloration is actually even on the last two; the variation in the pics is a scanner artifact.

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    Posted in Books, Fantasy, Horror, pics | No Comments »

    Shogazer Sunday: Mirage In The Water’s “Is It Real?”

    Sunday, May 12th, 2013

    Another does of Mirage in the Water, this time with “Is It Real?”

    Evidently the movie scenes are from a 1970s Japanese film on transvestites. I doubt that’s going in my to-be-viewed queue anytime soon…

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    Posted in Music, video | No Comments »

    A Hole In the Water Into Which You Pour Money

    Friday, May 10th, 2013

    I never cared about the America’s Cup, which has always been a race for rich guys to compete against each other. But this article on the crash of Oracle’s radical 13-story, rigid-sail driven ship is fascinating from both engineering and failure analysis perspectives.

    Post crash footage:

    And here’s Mark 2 of the boat, back on the water and hydroplaning:

    Like most Oracle products, the ship seems to need a large number of consultants to keep it operating…

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    Posted in technology, video | 1 Comment »

    Ray Harryhausen, RIP (And Valley of the Gwangi)

    Tuesday, May 7th, 2013

    Stop-motion animation legend Ray Harryhausen has died at age 92.

    I’m pretty sure your average SF movie blogger can offer a more heartfelt and insightful obituary than I can, so instead, here’s a short documentary about how Harryhausen helped created the special effects in the underrated Valley of the Gwangi.

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    Posted in Movies, Science Fiction, video | 1 Comment »

    Happy Birthday, Gene Wolfe!

    Tuesday, May 7th, 2013

    Gene turned 82 today. Hopefully he’ll be at the San Antonio Worldcon. I also look forward to reading his book The Land Across later this year.

    I also hope to have a bit more Gene Wolfe-related content later in the week.

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    Posted in Books, Fantasy, Science Fiction | No Comments »

    Massive Science Fiction Piracy at BookOS.org

    Tuesday, May 7th, 2013

    Good news, everyone! There’s a new website called BookOS offering millions of free books to download!

    Bad news, everyone! It’s a pirate site that most likely hasn’t obtained any e-rights for any of the millions of copyrighted works they have available!

    Who are they pirating? Well, they have around a hundred works by Howard Waldrop that I know they haven’t bought e-rights for (because I asked him), and they have hundreds of works by:

  • Gail Carriger
  • Bil Crider
  • Paul Di Filippo
  • Harlan Ellison (good thing they picked someone whose never been known to sue anyone, eh?)
  • Neil Gaiman
  • Joe R. Lansdale
  • Elizabeth Moon
  • Michael Moorcock
  • Jerry Pournelle
  • Mike Resnick
  • Kristine Kathryn Rusch
  • Gene Wolfe
  • Outgoing SFWA President John Scalzi
  • Incoming SFWA President Steven Gould

    • And that’s just a random handful of writers I know that I checked on (plus Harlan Ellison, whom I’ve met, and who I know has some good lawyers). I’m sure there are hundreds of others.

    Perhaps the folks at SFWA might sit up and take notice. And if your work is being pirated, you might want to write support@bookos.org and ask them to pull it down.

    (Updated: Good news, everyone! Support@bookos.org wrote back to say the Waldrop has been removed, and now there’s a notice saying “Link deleted by legal owner.”)

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    Posted in Books, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction | 1 Comment »

    Library Additions: Three Cheap Street Books

    Monday, May 6th, 2013

    I managed to pick up three different Cheap Street Press books from a couple of different sources over the last week:

  • Benford, Greg. At the Double Solstice. Cheap Street, 1986. First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy, in original mailing envelope. Chalker/Owings, page 108, which lists this copy (with publisher’s greetings on (unnumbered) page 23) as one of 60 copies thus, one of apparently four states.

  • Benford, Greg. Time’s Rub. Cheap Street, 1984. First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy, in original mailing envelope. Chalker/Owings, page 107, which lists this copy (with publisher’s greetings on (unnumbered) page 19) as one of 73 copies thus, one of apparently four states.

  • Leiber, Fritz. In the Beginning. Cheap Street, 1983. First edition hardback, #67 of 128 copies of the “Collectors’ Edition” signed by both Leiber and illustrator Alicia Austin (there were also 10 lettered collector’s copies, and 7 lettered and 32 number publisher’s copies), a Fine copy, in full cloth with title labels pasted on front and spine, sans dust jacket, as issued. Chalker/Ownings, pages 106-107.

    Also laid into this copy is the four page prospectus for the book:

    • I already had two other Benford Cheap Street books (the hardback Of Space/Time and the River and the chapbook of We Could Do Worse), which means I’m still missing:

  • Benford, Greg. Centigrade 133 (Cheap Street, 1990)
  • Benford, Greg. Matter’s End (Cheap Street, 1991)
  • Leiber, Fritz. Ervool (Cheap Street, 1980)
  • Leiber, Fritz. Quicks Around the Zodiac: A Farce (Cheap Street, 1983)
  • Leiber, Fritz Riches and Power (with actually includes Ervool) (Cheap Street, 1982)

    • Plus several Cheap Street books by other authors.

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    Posted in Books, Fantasy, pics, Science Fiction | 1 Comment »

    On San Antonio: Some Clarifications

    Sunday, May 5th, 2013

    Many of you reading this blog will be attending LoneStarCon 3, the San Antonio Worldcon this year.

    Many of you reading this blog have also watched the SyFy Channel’s film Chupacabra Vs. The Alamo.

    I know it may come as a shock to some, given the painstaking technical accuracy evident in other SyFy films like Mansquito and Arachaquake, but Chupacabra Vs. The Alamo does, in fact, take certain liberties. As such, to avoid disappointment among those visiting San Antonio for the first time, and given that it’s Cinco de Mayo, which plays an important role in the film, I want to offer up some clarifications on errors made in the film.

  • The Mexican border is southwest of San Antonio, not southeast. Southeast is the Gulf of Mexico.
  • There are no green mountains near San Antonio. Unlike, say, Vancouver.
  • Many people in Texas ride motorcycles, but they do so on roads, not against badly-composited bluescreens.
  • DEA Agents in Texas do not typically ride motorcycles with unsecured shotguns.
  • DEA Agents generally drive to crime scenes in cars, not motorcycles.
  • Especially not riding on the back of another DEA agent’s motorcycle.
  • People do not typically need to wear jackets in San Antonio in May. Unlike, say, Vancouver. (Though this year may be an exception…)
  • Animals the size of a Scottish Terrier are not typically capable of dragging away 200 pound police officers in full SWAT gear.
  • As the seventh largest city in the United States, San Antonio has a large, modern police force. They would not need a random assortment of DEA agents and rogue gang members to take out a few hundred wild dogs.
  • While many San Antonians are bilingual in both English and Spanish, seldom do they pepper their English with the very most common Spanish words, as though to say “Look, ese, I speak Spanish!”
  • Police interrogation rooms do not generally look like small business conference rooms.
  • Most Hispanic gang members in San Antonio don’t look vaguely Asian, and don’t speak with a slight Brooklyn accent.
  • It is very doubtful that repeating long rifles can be found in display cases at the Alamo, as the Spencer Repeating Rifle was not invented until 1860.
  • Even if they were in said display cases, it is very unlikely that they would be stored with live ammunition, ready to be used by anyone who broke open the case.
  • Even if the gunpowder hadn’t gone bad after almost two centuries.
  • There is no basement in the Alamo. (A point that I think has already been definitively established.)
  • There is no secret escape tunnel underneath the Alamo. If there was, I’m pretty sure 177 years of urban infrastructure development would have found it.
  • Especially if it was wide enough for 10 people to walk abreast.
  • Especially if it lead to a giant metal hatch in a parking lot near the Alamo. (Or, more specifically, a stage in front of a bad bluescreen projection of a parking lot near the Alamo.)
  • Chupacabras or not, DEA agent or not, if you blow up the Alamo, expect to spend a lot of time in jail.
  • As the 7th largest city in the U.S., San Antonio also has a large, modern Fire Department, so if you did blow up the Alamo, it would not still be giving off a plume of digital smoke well into the next day.

    • I hope this has cleared up any confusion anyone might have about San Antonio or the Alamo. Happy con-going!

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    Posted in Movies, Science Fiction | 3 Comments »

    Shoegazer Sunday: Kyte’s “Planet”

    Sunday, May 5th, 2013

    Kyte hails from Leicestershire, UK. Here’s “Planet,” which sounds a bit like M83 with a dash of Sigur Ros thrown in.

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    Posted in Music | No Comments »

    High Concept

    Thursday, May 2nd, 2013

    “He’s the Pope. He’s the Ex-Pope. They’re private detectives.”

    Benny: “It will take a miracle to solve this case!”

    Francis: “Good thing they called us in!”

    “Pope and Pope, Thursdays at 8, on Fox!”

    Alternately, Benedict XVI was secretly studying forensic pathology in his spare time, and resigned to follow his true calling, in which case it gets named CSI: Vatican City.

    I could have gone with the “Popes by day, superheros by night!” angle, but you don’t want to strain plausibility.

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    Posted in TV | No Comments »

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