Tis the Halloween season, and here are some pretty good dog costumes. Enjoy!
Dog Halloween Costumes
October 25th, 2023Library Additions: Three Signed Stephen R. Donaldson Firsts
October 24th, 2023Stephen R. Donaldson was someone I read back before I collected first editions, and the Thomas Covenant books were ones I read despite disliking the central character.
But I had a chance to grab signed firsts of the second Thomas Covenant trilogy from the same collector culling his collection as the previous Vance, Blaylock, etc. entries. All of these replaced unsigned book club copies.
The story I’ve heard from a couple of places is that Lester Del Rey’s boss at Del Rey/Ballantine (I’m assuming Ian Ballantine) walked by Lester’s office and asked “Shouldn’t we be getting in the new Donald Covenant manuscript soon?”
Del Rey: “Oh, I rejected it.”
Long pause. “You what?” Keep in mind that at this point, Donaldson was the biggest selling author in all of Ballantine Books.
Del Rey: “Yeah, it was told from a woman’s viewpoint. Books told from a woman’s viewpoint don’t sell to fantasy readers.”
The publisher stood there for a few seconds, then walked out without another word and called Donaldson from his office.
“Stephen, what are you doing right now?”
“I’m looking at the rejection letter Lester sent me.”
“OK, from now on, I’m your editor. Send me the manuscript.”
Many years of profitable publishing then ensued…
Shoegazer Sunday: Great Northern’s “Radio”
October 22nd, 2023My relationship to Great Northern is weird. I liked what I heard off Remind Me Where The Light Is enough to buy it, listened to it a lot for a while, and then just…stopped. I can’t even explain why I stopped. It’s a mystery, like the waning of a pestilence. That album is superbly crafted Shoegaze-tinged pop that sounds bit like Tamaryn.
“Radio,” an earlier effort off Sleepy Eepee, is a different sort of beast, like Mazzy Starr crossed with some buzzy low-fi band. Singer Rachel Stolte has a compelling voice.
Despite not listening to them for years, YouTube occasionally offers them up in my feed. A good thing, too.
They evidently toured with Smashing Pumpkins this year, and are supposedly working on a new album.
Halloween Horrors: Transworld 2023 Show
October 20th, 2023Once again, here’s footage from a Transworld Halloween trade show, filled with animatronics, masks, props, etc.
I Saw Peter Gabriel in Austin Last Night
October 19th, 2023I saw the Peter Gabriel concert at the Moody Center in Austin on October 18. It was the third time I’d seen Gabriel perform live, and he put on a good show. We had tickets facing center stage in the mezzanine section, and they were quite pricey.
About half the songs are off the forthcoming I/O album, while the other half are from other parts of his career (“Sledgehammer,” “Solsbury Hill,” etc.). His tour ensemble was a mixture of old familiar faces (the always excellent Tony Levin, Manu Katche and David Rhodes) and new (cellist/vocalist Ayanna Witter-Johnson, who was very good).
They had an interesting multimedia setup with projection surfaces on different stage elements that they could move, as well as close-up cameras for projecting on either wing (and occasionally the giant circular moveable hanging surface that was the centerpiece of the set).
I think the best song of the concert was an absolutely killer version of “Digging in the Dirt,” which had a nasty, funky, bass-heavy sound to it. There’s not a version with great sound on YouTube, so this will have to do:
They also did an extremely good version of “Biko” as the final encore.
Here’s the set list, which seems to be constant across venues.
I think the last two shows of the tour are in Dallas tonight and Houston Saturday, and overall prices are a bit cheaper than the Austin show. It’s well worth catching if you’re a Gabriel fan.
As for the Moody Center, the sightlines are very good, the concession prices are exorbitant, and the seats are too small and not particularly comfortable.
Library Additions: Three Samuel R. Delany Firsts, Two Signed
October 18th, 2023More from that private library purchase. Two of these replace less desirable copies.
Library Additions: Two Signed James P. Blaylock Firsts
October 17th, 2023Two more books from that private collection purchase, both of which are 1-to-1 swaps of Fine/Fine signed copies for Fine/Fine unsigned copies.
I was surprised that my existing Lord Kelvin’s Machine wasn’t signed, since Blaylock was a semi-regular Armadillocon attendee in the 1990s. i will have a number of Blaylock firsts (some signed) in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Library Additions: Several Jack Vance Items
October 16th, 2023A private collector downsizing his library sold me some of his books, most of which was for Lame Excuse Books stock (hopefully that catalog will be out near the end of November), but there were a few things I found to add to my own collection.
Halloween Horror: Kaiju No. 8 Trailer
October 13th, 2023Not sure if this quite qualifies as a Halloween Horror, but it includes monsters, and it struck my fancy.
Basically, it’s an anime series focused on a guy who’s crappy job is to clean up after kaiju attacks.
It’s basically Damage Inc. meets Godzilla. Plus the teaser trailer is giving off a tiny bit of a FLCL vibe.
I don’t subscribe to Crunchy Roll (or any streaming service), but I’d seriously consider buying the DVD set when it eventually comes out.
Halloween Horrors: Steamed Hams as Terrifying Soviet Animation
October 12th, 2023Once again, The Simpsons “Steamed Hams” segment has inspired the Internet to produce an alternate version, this one in terrifying Soviet-style animation.
The juggling Crusty is pure nightmare fuel.
(Previously.)