Today’s random New Year’s Eve image stolen from Fark:
Happy New Year!
Posts Tagged ‘pics’
Christopher Walken in Space
Friday, December 31st, 2010Library Curiosities: The Space Squid Cuneiform Clay Tablet
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010You may have heard about science fiction fanzine Space Squid printing one of their issues on the ultimate form of Dead Media: inscribed in cuneiform on a baked clay tablet. Of these, I think they auctioned off five at Armadillocon.
Being one of the few people in the world with a complete collection of Space Squid issues (they actually told me that Nova Express was one of their sources of inspiration, the poor deluded fools), naturally I had to pick one up, which I did for the munificent sum of $11. (Bidding seemed more brisk for the usual cats-with-wings and dragon-related art items.)
My tablet. Let me show it to you.
Click to gallery-ize, the click again to embiggen. The first picture is of it sitting in its resting place on my mantelpiece, and the other two pics are close-ups of the front and back. (And here’s another Wired story with pics.)
In truth, the tablet (which contains the Kevin Brown story “Hunting Bigfoot”) is actually pretty hard to read, and I’m not sure how permanent the medium is; the clay has a tendency to flake off. Still, I’m sure that some 50 years hence an insane fanzine collector will be paying big bucks for one…
Here’s Matthew Bey’s step by step tutorial on how he created them.
Armadillocon 32 Photos (Part 3)
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
Here’s Bradley Denton, urging Richard M. Nixon’s head on to victory.
Doug Potter.
William Browning Spencer asked that his orange visage be stricken from the Internet.
Howard Waldrop. The background came out so nice I left it in.
Howard setting up for his reading, where he read portions of The Moone World
A. Lee Martinez.
Stina Leicht.
Willie Siros.
A very tried Scott Bobo.
The hardcore Dead Dog Party attendees, from left to right: Jonathan Miles, Michael Sumbera, Andrew Wimsatt, Richard Simental, Dwight Brown.
Armadillocon 32 Photos (Part 2)
Monday, August 30th, 2010And here are some more photographs I snapped at Armadillocon 32.
“Steampunk Guest of Honor” Michael Bishop upon seeing that I had a box of books for him to sign.
Michael Bishop upon finding out that I had a second box of books for him to sign.
Better pictures of the dealer’s room:
Better pictures of the hotel atrium:
Robert Jackson Bennett, whose first novel, Mr. Shivers, no less an authority than Joe Domenici called “The finest first novel I have read in years.”
Lovely Editor Guest of Honor Anne Sowards reviewing a manuscript at the signing table, presumably a novel about shape-shifting car mechanic who is also a werewolf, or perhaps a shape-shifting wolf mechanic who is also a werecar.
Noted lush and former Armadillocon fan GoH Scott Bobo, who once tried to help us pick up teenage girls in Japan.
Kasey and Joe R. Lansdale.
Kasey and Joe R. Lansdale, now with 75% more Fortified Cuteness per serving.
The wily Maureen McHugh, who skillfully avoided lesser hunters by not appearing on programming.
Two Views of Mark Finn from his one-man show, “Colonel Kurtz Goes Bowling.”
Paul Miles
Chris Nakashima-Brown and Paul Miles, poised artfully in front of a display of Michael Bishop’s books.
SF Signal honcho John DeNardo caught during a spare moment of his one-day whirlwind tour.
Lillian Stewart Carl.
Jayme Lynn Blaschke. Disclaimer: I feel it only fair to warn you that the planets depicted on his vest are not, in fact, astronomically accurate.
GoH Rachel Caine.
Don Webb, preparing to lead his troops up the beaches of Normandy. Or perhaps Cancun.
Hugo-winning fan artist Brad Foster IS Beldar Conehead!
Noted lush Mikal Trimm, enraged that I’ve temporarily delayed him from obtaining more beer.
Old Earth Books publisher Michael Walsh. (And if you want to buy signed copies of the Best of Howard Waldrop volumes he published, look here.)
Paul Lynde expert Steve Wilson.
Dwight Brown, contemplating exactly how he will murder executives at AT&T slowly and painfully.
Yvonne Daily and Phil Brogden,
Chuck (not at the con), Michael Sumbera, and Milton (also not at the con)
An attendee’s Steampunk purse, which is just a few dials shy of a certified weather station.
Said purse may or may not have belonged to one of these Steampunk aficionados.
Kim Kofmel and Al Jackson. (I have another picture of the two of them, and Al’s eyes are also closed in that one.)
The lovely Denman Glober, camped out below a giant Space Squid banner. But I do wonder why her parents named her like a James Bond villain. “Denman Glober” sounds like someone who should be running a shadowy international conglomerate from his secret lair underneath the Pacific…
Sarah Felix.
New York Times best-selling author Aaron Allston, struggling mightily to stay awake after having just seen a compilation of the line-dancing scenes from Howling 7.
Program director Jonathan Miles, who put me on not one, but two 10 AM panels after I asked not to be scheduled for any panel before noon. Incidentally, this picture was taken just after Jonathan had finished his busy day of selling crack to school children, but before he went off to kick puppies and burn American flags.
Houston writer John Moore, looking snazzy in the seersucker pants he borrowed from reporter Carl Kolchak.
Armadillocon 32 Photos
Saturday, August 28th, 2010Here are a few quick-and-dirty photos from Armadillocon 32, all except the first taken Friday.
Michael Bishop, from the Thursday Pre-Con dinner.
COOOOKIEEEEE!
Neal Barrett, Jr. in his stylish hat. “I got it from Walgreens. I buy all my clothing there.”
Richard Simental, AKA RoadRich.
Matthew Bey. Photo uncropped to give you some idea of the dealer’s room space. (Will try to get a better picture today.)
Michael Sumbera
Andrew Wimsatt
Stina Leicht, looking at Elizabeth Moon (who only dropped in briefly the first day, due to a busy schedule)
Stina was complaining about me taking pictures of her, so naturally I had to take several more.
Patrice Sarath
The first of three unsuccessful night views of the Renaissance Atrium. I’ll try to get some daylight shots today.
Phil Brogden, Yvonne Daily, and Mike’s torso
Karen and Kasey Lansdale.
Updated: You can find Part 2 here.
Awesomely Wrong Watchmen
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010Stumbled across this image at this story on Alan Moore passing on getting the rights to Watchmen back if he would write sequels:
Wish I could tell you who the artist is.
And as long as I’m stealing awesome wrong Watchman images…
And if you haven’t seen it already, this Saturday Morning version is so many kinds of wrong:
Finally, please note that many of the above can be found at this site dedicated to Watchmen parodies.
Bookshelf Porn
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010That is, in fact, the name of the site..
Includes some amazing pictures:
(Hat tip: Bookfinder Insider mailing list.)
New Book Acquisition: Signed H. G. Wells
Sunday, July 18th, 2010Half-Price Books was having their usual coupon sale, so I picked up their set of H. G. Wells’ The World of William Clissold. Published by Ernest Benn (UK) 1926, it’s three volumes, one of 198 copies signed by Wells on the title page, green boards and vellum spines, with gold gilt on front board, spine, and top book edge, some leaves still unopened, two of the three volumes in paper slipcases (the slipcase for volume 2, alas, was missing). Originally priced at $500, marked down to $350, minus 50% off with the coupon. It’s not one of the key Wells SF works I really want, but I thought a signed Wells (and in particular, a set for which you know the signature is genuine; see L. W. Currey’s Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors: A Bibliography of First Printings of Their Fiction, 1978, page 527), was a nice thing to have.
Below are some pics. Click to embiggen.
H. G. Wells: The World of Williams Cissold, three volume set of the first edition, signed by Wells
The limitation page, with H. G. Wells' signature
ApolloCon 2010 Pictures
Sunday, June 27th, 2010Some pictures from the 2010 ApolloCon in Houston, just concluded today:
The lovely and talented Stina Leicht, celebrating her forthcoming novel by going blue in both ocular and follicular realms.
Gabrielle Faust, putting on her best “Who, me?” expression.
The dealer’s room. Neither Willie nor myself dealt there this year, meaning Edge Books was the only real bookdealer there this year.
SF Signal’s John DeNardo. I think the smug was entirely unintentional.
Scott Cupp, no doubt contemplating some book he’s owned, or will soon own, both of which are extremely target-rich environments.
GOH Catherine Asaro. This photo doesn’t show her high-heels. Without them, she’s actually only 3’6″.
Karen Burnham, searching her tattoos for the identity of the killer she’s hunting.
A fairly interesting tabletop boardgame featuring smooth pucks that you flicked to knock out your opponent’s pucks, sort of a cross between marbles and shuffleboard, except there are some screws around the circle in the center that you can bounce the pucks off of and which provide something of an obstacle. The name was “crocsomething,” but not crocodile. Please note that searching for “game” and “screw” is probably not something you should do at work.
Updated to add: The game is called “crokinole”.
Clockwise from lower left: Judy Crider, Lou Antonelli, Bill Crider, Scott Cupp. I think we were talking about bad movies yet again.
A pair of con-goers decked out to the nines in Steampunk attire. This takes an extraordinary amount of dedication. In Texas. In summer. Wait, did I say “dedication”? I meant “complete insanity.”
The Shrine O Dolls found at the “in-room convention party.” Sadly, there were no book dealers there either…
Neal Barrett Jr.’s Author Emeritus Party
Sunday, May 30th, 2010Since Austin’s own Neal Barrett, Jr. was named SFWA Author Emeritus for the 2009 Nebula Awards, FACT threw a party at Casa Siros to celebrate the occasion, with luminaries coming from as far away as Nacogdoches (Joe R. his ownself) to pay homage.
Susan Wade, William Browning Spencer (occluded), Neal Barrett, Jr. (holding up the art SFWA had commissioned, featuring himself and three of his characters), Don Webb
Susan Wade, William Browning Spencer, Neal Barrett, Jr., Don Webb
Susan Wade, William Browning Spencer, Neal Barrett, Jr., Don Webb
Neal Barrett, Jr. holding up the SFWA Author Emeritus, which is a kaleidoscope. (“Kaleidoscope” is also the name of an awesome Ray Bradbury story from The Illustrated Man.)
The back of Joe R. Lansdale’s head, Ruth Barrett, someone whose name I should remember, and Scott Cupp
A closer (albeit oblique) view of said painting; I took a straight-on picture, but the flash reflection on the glass made it impossible to see.
Neal iz 2 kewl 4 this skewl!
More of the same. Less of the sane.
Just a few of Casa Siros’ vast array of Glowing Gizmos.
Three excellent authors who have had their books published by St. Martin’s. Also, three authors who are not on The New York Times Bestsellers List. These two facts may be related.
Neal cuts the cake, while Carol is just slightly too slow to avoid being incriminated with the rest of us.
Joe R. Lansdale, William Browning Spencer, Don Webb, and Neal Barrett, Jr. Susan Wade would be in this picture, had she not been eaten by a Grue.
FACT party attendees. Just after this picture, one of their number was ritually chosen by lot to be stoned to death.
Joe R. Lansdale and William Browning Spencer, in the last known photo of them before being horribly devoured by Pixar characters.
“Walk towards the light….walk towards the light…”