Gonna Pass on the Expedited Shipping, Thanks

January 16th, 2018

Actual screen cap from an Amazon order I placed yesterday (click to embiggen):

Think I’ll have to pass on the $12 million in expedited shipping costs. I don’t need it that bad…

Dolores O’Riordan, RIP

January 15th, 2018

Just heard the news that Dolores O’Riordan, the lead singer for The Cranberries, has just died at the untimely age of 46.

There were most famous for “Zombie” and a few other hits, but my favorite song of theirs has always been the melancholy “Daffodil Lament.” Here’s a live version.

(Hat tip: Derek Johnson.)

Elvis vs. King Kong vs. Godzilla

January 10th, 2018

Mark Finn reminded me that Elvis Presley’s birthday was this week, so to celebrate I thought I’d put up this very, very silly video…

Shoegazer Sunday: Deafcult’s “Rubix”

January 7th, 2018

Australia’s Deafcult released their album Auras last year, and “Rubix” is off that.

Library Addition: Ray Bradbury’s The R.B., G.K.C., and G.B.S. Forever Orient Express

January 6th, 2018

Here’s an odd little item I picked up off eBay:

Bradbury, Ray. The R.B., G.K.C., and G.B.S. Forever Orient Express. Joshua Odell Editions, 1994. First edition chapbook original, consisting of a long, skinny (17 1/2″ x 5 1/2″) outer cardstock binding with the four pages of the poem laid in (not stapled or otherwise attached), a Fine- copy with a pinhole through the top of the chapbook and one tiny white scratch to rear, otherwise mint. Reportedly done in an edition of 300 copies. Signed by Bradbury. Poem, longish by Bradbury standards, about Bradbury riding a train with G. K. Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw in the afterlife. The rear cover says that this is an excerpt from the forthcoming Journey to Far Metaphor: Further Essays on Creative Writing, Literature and the Arts, a book that Joshua Odell Editions evidently cancelled. This work would later show up in Bradbury’s collection The Cat’s Pajamas. Bought off eBay for $37.79.

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Colin Furze Shoots 1000 Rockets Off A Bicycle

December 31st, 2017

To celebrate New Year’s Eve, here’s everyone’s favorite mad inventor firing 1000 rockets off a bicycle. (For certain values of “bicycle.”)

Happy New Year!

Library Additions: Two Michael Swanwick Chapbooks

December 29th, 2017

Put in my yearly order to Dragonstairs Press:

  • Swanwick, Michael. Midwinter Fables. Dragonstairs Press, 2016. First edition chapbook original, #22 of 110 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy, new and unread. Four short recastings of classic fables (“The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” “The Fox and the Crow,” “The Ant and the Grasshopper,” “The North Wind and the Sun”) and a frame story (“Midwinter Fables”).

    Midwinter Fables

  • Swanwick, Michael. Touchstones. Dragonstairs Press, 2017. First edition chapbook original, #9 of 50 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy, new and unread. Three one page stories: “Lovers and Lunatics,” “Bradbury Jar 2.0” and “A Jarful of Keys,” as well as an Afterword. Related to Swanwick’s trip to China in 2017.

    Swanwick Touchstones

  • I’ll have copies of both of these available through the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.

    Library Additions: Two Signed Harlan Ellison Firsts

    December 28th, 2017

    Two more books bought relatively cheap off ebay:

  • Ellison, Harlan. Brain Movies: The Original Teleplays of Harlan Ellison Volume One. Edgeworks Abbey, 2011. First edition trade paperback original (no hardback state), the “Babylonian Limited Edition,” a Fine copy signed by both Ellison and introduction author J. Michael Straczynski. In addition to many of Ellison’s most celebrated teleplays (“Soldier,” “Demon With a Glass Hand,” etc.), it also includes “Memos From Purgatory” featuring numerous holographic corrections in Ellison’s hand. Not in ISFDB. Edgeworks Abbey is Ellison’s own press and he’s issued a whole lot of trade paperback books through it of previously unpublished or uncollected material. (The Brain Movies series alone is now up to six volumes.) Bought for $29.99 (the opening bid) off eBay.

    Brain Movies

  • Ellison, Harlan. Dreams With Sharp Teeth. Quality Paperback book Club, 1991. First edition paperback original, a Very Good+ copy with spine slightly concave, light crease across entire front cover, wear at points, and wrinkling to first few pages. Signed by Ellison. Omnibus edition of the collections I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream, Deathbird Stories and Shatterday, minus duplicated stories between the volumes plus an original introduction by Ellison and slightly revised texts and story introductions. Bought off eBay for $12.50. Below the condition I usually collect, but there were no other signed copies online at all…
  • Library Addition: Signed/Limited Edition of Jack Vance’s Ecce and Old Earth

    December 27th, 2017

    I’d picked up the other two signed/limited Cadwell books cheap, but I needed this middle book to complete the trilogy.

    Vance, Jack. Cadwell II: Ecce and Old Earth. Underwood/Miller, 1991. First edition hardback, #107 of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket in a Fine- slipcase with one 1/8″ square spot of soiling to spine rear. Hewett, A84. Bought from a fellow Jack Vance collector who was downsizing for $75.

    Things I’m Thankfull For: Jigsaw

    December 26th, 2017

    Jigsaw the Golden Retriever, the oldest of my two dogs, just turned 14.

    I asked my vet how he was doing for his age. She said “I don’t know. They don’t usually live this long.”

    Jigsaw started out as an unrestrained riot of affection and turned into a dog that everyone loves.

    Here are a few pictures of him over the years.

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    Jigsaw Screen Cap Dup

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    With an old dog, you know your days together are limited, and you just try to cherish the time you have left.