Archive for May, 2015

Shoegazer Sunday: Windermere’s “Trailer Park”

Sunday, May 31st, 2015

As far as I can tell, this Windermere is a defunct Post-Rock/Shoegaze band from Denmark, not the current band from New Jersey. They sound a bit like Jeniferever if the latter’s lead singer could sing a bit better. “Trailer Park” is a pretty song with a long build.

Library Additions: Signed Neil Gaiman Tasmanian Cave Spider Book

Wednesday, May 27th, 2015

So a while back I got word of Neil Gaiman being involved in a benefit for a project involving (I kid you not) Tasmanian cave spider sex. He’s evidently quite the Tasmaniophile, having spent his honeymoon with Amanda Palmer in Hobart. It sounded like an odd, interesting project, and the sort of thing to drive Gaiman completists crazy if they didn’t presupport, so I went ahead and ponied up for the deluxe package, which was, IIRC, a bit over $100 for both books.

Now, finally both books from the Sixteen Legs project have come in:

  • Gaiman, Neil, with Niall Doran, Craig Wellington and Jodee Taylah (artist). Sixteen Legs Production Art: A Visit to the Queen of the Dark. Bookend Trust, 2015. First edition hardback, one of an undetermined number (though probably just over 100 copies, given that there are just under 100 names (including my own) listed under Premium Supporters on page 43) of the Limited Deluxe Edition signed by the three authors and the artist, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket in decorated boards, as issued.

    16Legs QueenB 1

  • Doran, Niall, Alastastair Richardson, Joe Shemesh. Kinky Love: Mating of the Tasmanian Cave Spider. Bookend Trust, 2015. First edition hardback, one of an undetermined number of signed copies, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket in decorated boards, as issued.

    16Legs Kinky

  • Appropriate Music for Austin Right Now

    Monday, May 25th, 2015

    What, too obvious?

    Plus information on where it’s flooding in Austin right now.

    For Auction: Queen Victoria’s Lacy Underthings

    Wednesday, May 20th, 2015

    Finally something for the ultimate Steampunk enthusiast/Queen Victoria fetishist: an auction lot of her underwear.

    Yes, for a mere £1,500 starting bid, you can own Her Majesty’s Bloomers.

    The Dreweatts & Bloomsbury auction takes place on May 21 BST, which means you’ll either need to place a bid online or get up fairly early in the morning (if you’re in the U.S.) to bid…

    Shoegazer Sunday: The Hope Slide’s “The Prince William Sound”

    Sunday, May 17th, 2015

    The Hope Slide is a Canadian Band named after a natural disaster and, like Great Northern, has a name that make it hard to search for information about them on Google. Evidently the two principles were previously in a different Shoegaze band called Hinterland. Here’s “The Prince William Sound.” (Speaking of songs that are hard to Google…)

    For Your Enjoyment: A Chicken Sneezing

    Saturday, May 16th, 2015

    You really have to turn the sound on for this one…

    Library Additions: Two Michael Swanwick Chapbooks

    Wednesday, May 13th, 2015

    I recently obtained two Michael Swanwick chapbooks, at least one of which is bound to drive Swanwick completists bonkers:

  • Swanwick, Michael. Hunting the Phoenix. Dragonstairs Press, 2015. First edition hardback (“archival board wrappers covered with hand-dyed rice paper, with a stab binding ornamented with a single aventurine bead”), #6 of 30 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued, new and unread. Sort of an in-progress illustrated sketchbook for a Swanwick novel, more impressionistic colored line art than narrative. If it’s not the strangest Swanwick item yet, it’s tied with the hardback state of Puck Aleshire’s Abecedary. Bought for $30 from the publisher.
  • Swanwick, Michael. Season’s Greetings. Dragonstairs Press, 2014. First edition chapbook original, #18 of 100 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy. I should be able to pick up copies of this to sell through Lame Excuse Books later in the year.

    Swanwick X 2

  • Library Addition: Clifford Simak’s City

    Monday, May 11th, 2015

    I picked up one of the key Gnome Press titles at a Heritage auction:

    Simak, Clifford. City. Gnome Press, 1952. First edition hardback, a Near Fine- copy with slight spine lean and previous owner’s name and date on front free endpaper) in a Near Fine+ dust jacket with a few pinhead sized spots of discoloration on dust jacket flaps and along top flap edges, and extremely slight dust-staining to white rear panel; an exceptionally nice example of the dust jacket. One of Simak’s key works, and one of the more desirable Gnome Press titles. Chalker & Owings (1991), page 199. Currey (1979), page 446. Kemp, The Anthem Series, page 208. Won for $200 from Heritage Auctions.

    City

    Shoegazer Sunday: Thee Heavenly Music Association’s “Trip Seat”

    Sunday, May 10th, 2015

    The opening of “Trip Seat by Thee Heavenly Music Corporation (yes, two “E”s in Thee) reminds me of both REM’s “Finest Worksong” and A Beautiful Machine’s “Home.”

    Library Addition: The H. P. Lovecraft Companion

    Thursday, May 7th, 2015

    My quest to pick up just about every damn H. P. Lovecraft reference work in the world continues apace:

    (Lovecraft, H. P.) Shreffler, Philip A. The Lovecraft Companion. Greenwood Press, 1977. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. One of the first broad critical companions to Lovecraft’s work, offering an in-depth summary of Lovecraft’s literary theory, plot summaries of all his stories, an encyclopedia of characters and monsters, and an in-depth look at Cthulhu Mythos monsters. An interesting high-level overview and “first cut” of Lovecraft criticism, from before S. T. Joshi turned it into a cottage industry, and pretty much all the topics covered here have been examined at much greater depth since. Currey (1979), page 332. Joshi, Lovecraft Bibliography, I-C-158. Tymn Schlobin Currey, 294. Bought off the Internet for $42.50.

    Lovecraft Companion

    Scan shows surface wear to the dust jacket protector.