Robert Quine 1942-2004

Guitarist Robert Quine, 61, has died, possibly of a heroin overdose. What a loss. The guy was an amazing guitar player. He made a name for himself with Richard Hell & the Voidoids and went on to revive Lou Reed's career with The Blue Mask. He played punk music, but he was a guitar god. His sound was distinctive and aggressive and he played like few before him (or after him for that matter). I was always excited to hear him on an album. This really is a tragedy. He had already done great work, but nothing would have stopped him from doing more if he had lived.
There are comments on his death here, here and people are talking about it on the I Love Music board. I'll add more as I find it.
Here's a bit on Quine from Victor Bockris' book "Transformer":

The purest of musicians with the highest of standards, Quine let his music speak for him. As soon as he played a single, inimitable note on his guitar, there was no question that Mr. Quine was in control. If an artist's work can be judged by how quickly it is recognized, then Bob Quine was on eof the all-time greats. By 1977, his playing was so inspired he had developed a cult following.

Bockris' book makes it clear that Quine not only aided Lou Reed on his album, but basically revived Reed's confidence in himself and set him back on the road to greatness.
Bockris also quotes New York Times music critic Robert Palmer:

Robert Quine's solos were like explosions of shredding metal and were over in thirty seconds or so.

And here is Lester Bangs on Quine:

Someday Quine will be recognized for the pivotal figure that he is on his instrument -- he is the first guitarist to take the breakthroughs of early Lou Reed and James Williamson and work through them to a new, individual vocabulary, driven into odd places by obsessive attention to "On the Corner"-era Miles Davis. Of course, I'm prejudiced, because he played on my record as well, but he is one of the few guitarists I know who can handle the supertechnology that is threatening to swallow players and instruments whole -- "You gotta hear this new box I got," is how he'll usually preface his latest discovery, "it creates the most offensive noise ..." -- without losing contact with his musical emotions in the process. Onstage he projects the cool remote stance learned from his jazz mentors -- shades, beard, expressionless face, bald head, old sportcoat -- but his solos always burn, the more so because there is always something constricted in them, pent up, waiting to be released.

UPDATE: Here's the New York Times obituary. Now they're saying it might have been suicide. Quine had been despondent over the loss of his wife in August. Also, Lou Reed has made a statement about Quine's death:

"Robert Quine was a magnificent guitar player -- an original and innovative tyro of the vintage beast," Reed said in a statement released to Billboard.com. "He was an extraordinary mixture of taste, intelligence and rock'n'roll abilities coupled with major technique and a scholar's memory for every decent guitar lick ever played under the musical son. He made tapes for me for which I am eternally grateful -- tapes of the juiciest parts of solos from players long gone. Quine was smarter than them all. And the proof is in the recordings, some of which happily are mine. If you can find more interesting sounds and musical clusters than Quine on 'Waves of Fear' (from Reed's 1982 album "The Blue Mask"), well, it's probably something else by Robert."

There's some comments and a few more details at Richard Hell's site.
And finally, here's an interview with Quine from 1997 that goes over his whole career and from the same site, here's a list of Quine's favorite music.

Lost cities and peoples

Professor Hex put together a good batch of links recently. Especially interesting was his post about the possible discovery of Atlantis and his supposition that maybe it's Tartessos instead. The Tartessos link is fascinating. Unlike Atlantis, there's a wealth of historical mentions of Tartessos and it seems to coincide with Biblical references to Tarshish.
In the Altantis article, meanwhile, there's a reference to the Sea People:

Dr Kuehne noticed that the war between Atlantis and the eastern Mediterranean described in Plato's writings closely resembled attacks on Egypt, Cyprus and the Levant during the 12th Century BC by mysterious raiders known as the Sea People.
As a result, he proposes that the Atlanteans and the Sea People were in fact one and the same.

Here's some information on the Sea People.

Epic fantasy

At s1ngularity::front, Gabe Chouinard looks at epic fantasy and questions why he and so many book buyers love it when so much of it is mediocre.

What is missing from epic fantasy is PERSONALITY. Too much of it is homogenized, steralized, devoid of life. Without personality, epic fantasy is just a string of redundant novels telling a single story over and over again. We all know the tropes, we all know the Hero's Journey, we all know the way things will work out in the end. So it becomes a matter of style and idiosyncracy... and such traits are sorely ignored in most epic fantasy, which is why writers like Gene Wolfe and Stephen R. Donaldson stand out so prominently in the field. When the tale is familiar, it's the telling that matters.

Save the giant squid

Britain is fighting to stop deep sea trawling, which it believes is killing many underwater species, including the giant squid.

How I think

So I took the What Kind of Thinker Are You quiz at the BBC Web site. According to my results I am a:
logical-mathematical thinker
intrapersonal thinker
existentitial thinker.
It gives a little description of what each type of thinking means, people who were similar thinkers and jobs that best suit your thinking style. For instance, among the people who thought like me were: Graham Greene, Isaac Newton and Gandhi (actually, Gandhi fits into two of my categories.) Of course, all the jobs were different under each category.
It's an interesting quiz. See what you get.

How giant squid aid you

Scientist says the eyes of the giant squid may hold the key to solving visual impairment. The story includes a rather awful picture of a detached giant squid eye.

Couch potato world record

So this British guy spent 47 consecutive hours watching TV and broke a world record. As world records go, this doesn't seem all that impressive to me, I've practically done it myself. The only hard part is staying awake. Got to be careful what you watch, one episode of "Full House" and you're done.
(Link found at Return of the Reluctant.)

Amazon's new thing

So Amazon has started a new thing, called a Plog. Well, really it's not a new thing at all, just new for them. A Plog is a "personalized Web log," and as far as I can tell, it lists your recent purchases and Amazon recommendations. It looks like Amazon is the plogger, although it's attached to your account. It's kind of an interesting idea, I hope they do something with it.

Writers and their multiple personalities

This link looks at the work of August Highland, a man on the Internet who has created 80 different personas who have numerous literary Web zines and publish each other's fiction. These 80 different persona have also created numerous literary movements. You can start on his stuff here. Of course, most of his stuff seems to be words strung together in either a "Finnegan's Wake" or William Burroughs cut-up novel style.
The whole thing reminds me of Fernando Pessoa. Pessoa was a Portuguese poet who created four "heteronyms." Each of these created personality wrote poems in their own style. They would write articles about each others work and would be inspired or outraged by each other.
(Original link found at Bookslut.)

Godzilla and religion

The Revealer looks at Godzilla, exploring the religious ideas behind the Japanese cut of Godzilla and what it means. I don't like their contention that Serizawa was a suicide bomber. He's reluctant to use his weapon at all, unlike suicide bombers who are hoping to strike a blow against their enemies. He kills himself to keep the weapon secret. And I'm also not sure Godzilla is a metaphor for America. Nevertheless, it's a good article, check it out.

Giant mushroom in the Congo

An 18 inch high, 3 foot wide giant mushroom has appeared in the Congo and it's baffling scientists. All I know is you'd better not eat it.

Godzilla plus

Henshin!Online has a full round up of what we know about "Godzilla: Final Wars" now. Monster Zero has loads of stuff about the movie as well. All the talk about this movie has really got my giant monster movie engines revving. I watched two Gamera films last night and I'm planning on watching "Mothra" and "Atragon" in the next few days. Some day I'll have to write about why I like these films so much (although I'll have to figure it out for myself first.)

What is blogging, exactly?

Stephany Aulenback at Maud Newton's blog has a humorous reply to some of the rather silly articles that have appeared about blogging. She also brings up an interesting point:
The terms blogger, blogging, and blog are so overused they have become pretty much meaningless. They seem to indicate any individual (as opposed to a corporation) who posts anything – anything at all -- on any sort of webpage, with any regularity.
Is there a way, or should there be a way, to distinguish between people who use blogs for linking to news (boingboing, Bookslut, The Write Hemisphere), those writing about their lives (Tequila Mockingbird, Where is Raed? wKenShow), and those based around the lives of well known personalities (Neil Gaiman, Margaret Cho, Caitlin Kiernan)? And there are plenty of other blogs that don't fit into those categories. The Mumpsimus doesn't, and that's one of my favorite blogs.
A little while back, Terry Teachout at About Last Night wrote about what makes a blog. While a good starting place, I don't think he's entirely correct in his points. (One rule I think is just plain wrong: 3. Blogs without links aren’t blogs. Blogs without blogrolls aren’t blogs. Blogs without mailboxes aren’t blogs. Half of the blogs I mentioned above would be eliminated in that case.)
In general, I'm not all that concerned. But sometimes it's hard to talk about the differences of these various places. You start introducing somebody to blogs and they say something like, "Oh, you mean like Fark." Sort of. I have no idea if Fark is a blog or something else, really. It was certainly created before blogs were around, but it would be very hard to point out the difference between Fark and a blog. In that same category, gangster of love seems to fit into the blog world, but she doesn't use a blogging engine and she insists on being called a journal, not a blog.
Is blogging becoming too vast a word? Should we categorize things into blogs, journals, news feeds, etc.? I don't know. What are your thoughts?

What we talk about when we talk about Raymond Carver

Rake's Progress and Maud Newton mention that yesterday was Raymond Carver's birthday. Carver was one of my biggest influences back in college and I always enjoy rereading his stories, which now I'll probably do for the next few days. At both of those blogs, they gives links for learning more about Carver and what books to start with.

New Godzilla: Final Wars information

On the Japanese Godzilla: Final Wars Web site, there are lots of new things. One is a trailer made up of images from the movie, most spectacularly Godzilla standing in the center of a huge crater, the devastation of a city behind him. The Web site also includes a list of the 12 monsters who will be in the film. The design for the new Gigan has been revealed, and he looks very robotic now. You'll need Flash to see the Web site. Monster Zero, however, has put up images from the Web site. Apparently the movie will include an alien invasion. "Final Wars" looks to be totally old school Godzilla.

Ryuhei Kitamura

Here's an interview with Ryuhei Kitamura, the director of the upcoming "Godzilla: Final Wars" as well as his own films like "Versus" and "Azumi."
(Link found at Monster Zero.)

Jeffrey Ford: new fiction, a giveaway and a list of online stuff

Jeffrey Ford has a new story, "Rabbit Test" up at Fantastic Metropolis. After you're done reading it, you can check out what The Mumpsimus has to say about the piece. And you can discuss his fiction at the Night Shade Books message boards.
Ford has been my absolute favorite writer for the last several years. I was lucky enough to have won "The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque" in a Fantastic Metropolis contest a while back and since then I've been hooked on Ford's fiction. So I want to do the same for somebody else.
I've got second hardcover copy of "Mrs. Charbuque" that I would like to give to some person who is intrigued by Ford's fiction and wants to read more. If you want the book, e-mail me. The first person who does, and expresses a real interest in Ford's work, will get the book.
In the meantime, check out some of Ford's short fiction online:
The Empire of Ice Cream
Floating in Lindrethool
The Far Oasis
Malthusian's Zombie
The Shadow Year [excerpt]
The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque [excerpt]
Quiet Days in Purgatory
Horrors by Waters
Out of the Canyon
Exo-Skeleton Town
The Beyond [excerpt]
And here's some interviews:
Infinity Plus, BookSense, SF Site, Book Page, "Trampoline" promotional interview
Some nonfiction:
Distant Voices, about H. Rider Haggard
Ford interviews Kim Deitch
On "The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque"
Read and Appreciated 2003, 2002, 2001
A biography.

Charles Grant auction has begun

The auctions to benefit horror writer Charles Grant have begun. There's a lot of interesting stuff here, from signed Alice Cooper T-shirts to lots of horror novels signed and numbered, comic books and something called the rarest Stephen King item ever! Some of it is already pretty expensive, but there's some reasonable starting prices and it's all for a good cause, so check it out.

Author's new blog

Matthew Woodring Stover has a blog, studioMWS. Stover is the author of several books, the only one of which I've read is "Heroes Die," which was a combination of sword & sorcery mixed with science fiction. He has also written Star Wars tie-ins and is writing the Episode III novelization. There's not much on the blog yet, but he's only had it up a couple of days.

The fiction of the Mumpsimus

Matt Cheney, the terrific blogger at The Mumpsimus, has a story up at ideomancer called "Prague." The story is what I would expect having read his many reviews of speculative fiction stories. It's smart, short, beautiful and rewards re-reading. If you enjoy it, be sure to check out some of his other fiction at his personal Web site. Besides short stories, he's also written plays, screenplays, poetry and nonfiction.

Notebook love

moleskinerie is a blog about the Moleskine notebook and how great it is. I love the Moleskine, it's a got a great romantic look and at the same time is totally functional. The only problem is it's terribly expensive. For a tiny little notebook, you spend $10. It makes me afraid to write in them.
(Link found at scribbling woman.)

Stomp!

Couple of interesting Godzilla things:

Henshin!Online has translated a long interview between Godzilla director Masaki Tezuka and writer Wataru Mimura. Most of the interview is about the Japanese film industry from the 1970s on, but there's some interesting stuff about Godzilla too:
"MIMURA: But including my script, what do you think of the film?
TEZUKA: Reflecting on MEGAGUIRUS, what I wanted to do was to provide a scientific background to the story. I needed clear scientific reasons. It is impossible to create a Black Hole Gun, Godzilla himself is totally unrealistic, but I needed them for the story, therefore I thought providing scientific rationales were all the more important.
MIMURA: I see.
TEZUKA: So this I time [for GODZILLA AGAINST MECHAGODZILLA], my staff researched both robot computer technology and DNA engineering for Mechagodzilla. I paid so much attention to this part of the story.
MIMURA: So you think, even for a fantasy film, some amount of reality is necessary and the story should be based on the scientific fact. You cannot accept a totally unrealistic subject.
TEZUKA: No I can't. I think a scientific background contributes to maintain a steady storyline. Speaking of a steady storyline, if the capital had not been Osaka [in GXM] MECHAGODZILLA could have been a sequel to MEGAGUIRUS, as you said to me before. [laughs] Kiriko would have been in the new film. When you told me that I should have used Megaguirus again, I thought it was a good idea."
***
At DVDtalk they have a review of ADV's new "Destroy All Monters" release. It's a bare bones DVD of the movie with bad dubbing, no chapter stops and no extras. But it comes with the soundtrack.
The movie is quite enjoyable, but the poor print and many digital artifacts makes this movie a rental.

Mamatas on mainstream horror

Nick Mamatas dissects mainstream horror.
The mainstream of horror fiction of the past five years:
makes the following statements as regards class, gender, race, urbanization and pets:

...

creates a sense of identification by displaying the thoughts of the POV character in increasingly annoying italics

offers a protagonist demographically slightly better off, whiter, and more suburban than than stereotypical drug store/Wal-Mart (as opposed to bookstore) book buyers

...who consumes name-brand products, especially Pepsi

...and who, while looking in mirrors, contemplates either a recently-broken nose or a widening ass

Writing interview

So Maud Newton has started her series of interviews with writers about writing, called "Making Book." Her first interview is with Salah Abdoh, whose 1999 book "The Poet Game" stirred up interest after Sept. 11 because of its look at Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. Maud asks some good questions, and in at least one place, the question is more interesting than the answer. It's definitely worth checking out and I'm looking forward to see what she's got lined up in the future.

Hunting giant squid babies

The New Yorker writes about a giant squid hunter!
Steve O’Shea, a marine biologist from New Zealand, is one of the hunters—but his approach is radically different. He is not trying to find a mature giant squid; rather, he is scouring the ocean for a baby, called a paralarva, which he can grow in captivity. A paralarva is often the size of a cricket.
“Squid, you see, hatch thousands of babies,” O’Shea told me recently, when I called him at his office at the Earth and Oceanic Sciences Research Institute, at the Auckland University of Technology. “Most of these will get eaten up by larger predators, but during periods of spawning the sea should be filled with an absolutely fantastic amount of these miniature organisms. And, unlike the adults, they shouldn’t be able to dart away as easily.”

That annoying First Amendment technicality

This story is outrageous. Apparently, there is a New Mexico principal out there who is condemning students and teachers for producing articles critical of the government. He's destroyed poetry and tore down art from walls. Then he proudly read his own poetry during a ceremony in which a flag was raised and praised himself for his actions.
And it gets worse! He fires the teachers, won't rehire the art teachers and he won't release their records so the teachers can get new jobs. Is this man insane?
Here's another Web site about it:
A cloud of silence, censorship and fear hangs over the RRHS school district. A once-vibrant student literacy and critical-speaking/critical-thinking initiative has been crushed. In May, 2003, the RRHS Military Liaison and the Principal triumphantly raised a flag on school grounds and read out a poem telling critics of war policy to "shut your faces". Principal Gary Tripp told local press that this was "a high point" of his principalship.
You can donate to help the teacher fight Principal Gary Tripp.
I'm hoping this is a somewhat isolated incident. But there's been so much of this kind of crap going around, I begin to wonder.
Then there was this case a few months ago about an art school in San Francisco that freaked out when a student wrote a violent story.
I wonder, do Americans just not support free speech anymore? I mean, I know over the years many, many people never understood the concept. But it seems like this kind of censorship is more and more accepted. I hope not. I hope it's a couple of isolated incidents that will fall away in time.

Axl Rose v. Buckethead

I'm way, way behind on this, but apparently Axl Rose slagged Buckethead in a press release he wrote back at the end of March. Basically, he blames all his problems on the bucketed one:
During his tenure with the band Buckethead has been inconsistent and erratic in both his behavior and commitment - despite being under contract - creating uncertainty and confusion and making it virtually impossible to move forward with recording, rehearsals and live plans with confidence.
Later, he goes on to say that Buckethead was just in Guns N Roses to get a deal with Sanctuary Records.
Now, I'm not one to question the words of Axl, and certainly, Buckethead is a little on the odd side. I've even heard he needs a chicken coop in the studio to do his guitar solos.
But here's the thing, which of these two musicians has taken more than a decade to get an album? Which one has alienated most of his friends and fellow musicians? If you're not sure, let me point you to the discography of Axl and Buckethead. (For godsakes, Bucket has 2 albums out this year! And that's not counting the other band names he's appeared under.) I'm just saying is all.

Girly-man elf boy

At In Search of Pith, JeremyT reviews his weekend and gives a fun review of Troy:
The Trojans were pretty damn hampered by Paris. In the original text, you've got Aphrodite saving Paris's ass constantly, so you can have a little sympathy for him. In the movie, he's a philandering twit who deserves to have the shit kicked out of him. He's a coward, and he's played by that poncy stupid elf, which means every woman in the theatre coos at the very sight of him. I'm kind of hoping at this point he suffers some kind of debilitating injury and never acts again. I'm tired of listening to all the sub-30s women in the theatre have little orgasms when he pulls the string on a bow. There's some weird Freudian shit going on there or something.
And by the way, "Troy" has a tomato next to it on Rotten Tomatoes front page, yet it has a 59 percent rating, which means it should be a little green splatter. Why is that? Could it have anything to do with "Troy" being the feature sponsor today? No, I refuse to believe it.

New blog

John Joseph Adams, slush reader for Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine, has a blog called THE SLUSH GOD Speaketh... He's only got a few entries up so far, but he's already got star-studded posts about Harlan Ellison, Bruce Sterling and how he got the job at F&SF. It just reminds me that I have to update my blog roll soon.
(Link found at Write Hemisphere.)

Aleister Crowley in the Desert

Here's an excerpt about Aleister Crowley in the Desert from the book "The Place of Enchantment: British Occultism and the Culture of the Modern" by Alex Owen.
(Link found at wood s lot via scribbling woman.)

Maud Newton does author interviews

Maud Newton has announced that she will bedoing interviews with writers on their writing habits. I can't wait. I love to read this stuff.
Learning of a writer's methods and preoccupations makes me feel I'm that much closer to solving the puzzle of inspiration, not only in the case of that one writer, but in the world. After all, as Anita Brookner has said, "Great writers are the saints for the godless."
I remember Joyce Carol Oates making fun of this sort of thing. She asked how it could make any difference what kind of pen she uses? It probably doesn't, but for other writers or wannabe writers, this can be interesting stuff. It can also make a writer look at one's own habits and consider what works best.
In the end, though, I just find it entertaining.

The Incredibles

A trailer is up for Pixar's new movie, The Incredibles and it looks good. It seems to be a humorous film about a group of superheroes. I immediately recognized Samuel Jackson's voice as "Frozone." This looks really good.

Monsters in movie court

The Washington Post has an odd little article called Monster Films: Bringing Out the Beast in Us. (Unfortunately, you'll probably have to register to see it.) It's set up as Movie Court, with the prosecution, Ann Hornaday, arguing that with all the horrible images of brutality and torture we see on the news every day, there's no need for monster movies to cater to our darker side.
For the defense, Stephen Hunter makes the argument that monster films appeal to the child in more imaginative people, like himself.
I still like it when things get blown up, squished, smashed, mashed, creamed, fragmentized, atomized, liquefied, pureed and mulched. For destruction I hold with those who favor the carnivore, but the alien is also nice and would suffice.
While I'm not sure his argument entirely answers Hornaday, I certainly agree with what he's saying.
When the screechy mandibular chompers of "Them," with their hunger for sugar and human flesh, come out to play, or when the Giant Squid the size of the USS Forrestal squashes the Golden Gate to a sodden swizzle stick, it's a hoot. See, that's one of the most profound joys of the movies -- the subversive pleasure of seeing what society tells us is bad and wondering: Gee, why does it make me feel so good?
I'm going to start looking at Hunter's reviews more often. (And I'm going to ignore Hornaday, who doesn't seem to get horror at all.)

Auction for Charles Grant with lots of cool stuff

Following orders from Nick Mamatas and my own belief that it's a good cause, here's the press release for a Horror Writers Association auction to benefit Charles Grant:

***

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 13, 2004

Contact Information:
Horror Writers Association
Nicholas Kaufmann,
Trustee
(718) 855-0970
nkaufmann@nyc.rr.com
www.horror.org



AUTHORS RALLY TO HELP ONE OF THEIR OWN

The Horror Writers Association holds auction
to benefit stricken author


NEW YORK, MAY 13. The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is holding a benefit auction for legendary author and editor Charles L. Grant, who has been hospitalized indefinitely with severe cardio-pulmonary disease and emphysema. Mr. Grant, whose body of work spans five decades, faces a tremendous burden on his health and substantial health-related expenses.

In response to this dire situation, the HWA called for contributions to a benefit auction for Mr. Grant. Although HWA is not a charitable organization and contributions could not be considered charitable donations, this didn’t stop a flood of concerned writers, editors and publishers from contributing to this cause.

Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Neil Gaiman, Peter Straub, Clive Barker and nearly fifty other accomplished authors have confirmed contributions to the event. Publishers such as Leisure Books, Earthling Publications and Night Shade Books have also contributed.

“The response has been amazing,” said Joe Nassise, president of the Horror Writers Association. “The absolute generosity of everyone involved has been truly overwhelming.”

This two-part fundraiser, being held in conjunction with the HWA’s annual Bram Stoker Awards Banquet weekend, is the first of its kind for the organization. One component of the fundraiser is a high-profile auction to be held on eBay beginning May 23 and running until June 5, the evening of the awards. Bidders can find all auction items by searching the eBay User ID “bookwyrm55.”

The second component is a silent auction to be held on June 4-6 at the HWA annual meeting in New York City where the Bram Stoker Awards will be presented.

THE HORROR WRITERS ASSOCIATION (HWA) is a worldwide organization of writers and publishing professionals dedicated to promoting dark literature and the interests of those who write it. HWA was formed in the late 1980's with the help of many of the field's greats, including Dean Koontz, Robert McCammon, and Joe Lansdale. Today, with over 1,000 members around the globe, it is the oldest and most respected professional organization devoted to the genre.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact Nicholas Kaufmann at nkaufmann@nyc.rr.com

***

And if you can't do the auction, you could still donate to help Grant at this Web site.

You must read this

"The Voluntary State" is one of the best science fiction stories I've read in a long time. The author, Christopher Rowe has an interview here and a bibliography here and a blog here. You can also discuss the story here.
It's just more proof of how good Sci Fiction is. At least the SciFi Channel will be able to say it's done one good thing during its existence.
It's also proof of how great reading all these blogs is. I've seen this story mentioned in a whole bunch of places, all of them ecstatic for the story. It intrigued me enough to seek it out. I'm glad I did.

Godzilla stomps box office

Do you know what was the biggest box office hit, per screen, this past weekend? That's right Godzilla, the uncut Japanese film playing in two theaters, in New York and San Francisco. It earned $38,030. Per screen, that beats out Van Helsing and the other tripe out in the multiplexes. Now, hopefully it gets a wider release.

Snakehead fish update

A snakehead fish has been found in Northern Virginia. It's only a matter of time now, they'll be taking over the whole eastern seaboard, and of course, crawling underfoot looking for new prey.

Giant monster movie news

A few months back, you might remember I linked to a trailer for Dragon Wars, or D-Wars as it seems to be called in some places. Well, there's more scenes from the movie up at this site. The monsters are still looking pretty impressive. The scenes show the dragons, giant snakes and armed dinosaurs stomping through the streets of a modern city (including blowing up a building with an AT&T sign prominently shown, gotta pay for it somehow). This is exciting stuff, although I'm still worried the story and acting will be as bad as "Reptilian," the totally awful first film from this company.
***
And in other giant monster movie news, I was reading a rumor that John Sayles would be writing the screenplay for Jurassic Park IV, but I can't find anything to confirm that. In fact, most sites say William Monahan, a new writer, is writing the script. Also rumored to be part of the film is Keira Knightley.
Sayles is working on a political satire, however, that will star Chris Cooper and be out before the 2004 presidential elections.

New Nintendo stuff

Apparently, Nintendo is planning some big changes, most importantly a new GameBoy that includes wifi. There's also a new Zelda game coming and some other goodies, plus hints about a new home system to replace the GameCube. Video games have been losing my interest over the last year or so, but this still sounds pretty neat.
(Thanks to Charles for the link.)

Remembering William Burroughs

Marianne Faithfull talks about William Burroughs and her connections with him. Apparently, she is starring in a new production of The Black Rider, which was written by a collaboration of Burroughs, Tom Waits and Robert Wilson. I think the album is great (and I think that review is totally wrong, though the review of the song Briar and the Rose is better), and it's great to hear Burroughs sing "'Taint no Sin":
"'Taint no sin to take of your skin and dance around in your bones." I didn't know that it was Burroughs' last work.
(Link found at Bookslut.)

New magazines

So Wildside Press will be publishing three new magazines this year. The first, H.P. Lovecraft's Magazine of Horror, is already out and I have to get a copy. At the very least, it's got a Ramsey Campbell interview, so I know there's something I'll enjoy. The other two magazines are Adventure Tales and Underworlds. Adventure Tales appears to be a reprint magazine, bringing work of pulp authors back into print. It'll be interesting to see what selections they make. Underworlds is "the unique magazine of noir-influenced suspense, crime, and supernatural fiction."

The horror, the horror

Richard Kelly seems to be in the news a lot these days. The director of "Donnie Darko" is teaming up with Eli Roth, the director of "Cabin Fever" to write a movie based on a Richard Matheson story called "The
Box."
Also, director Lucy Mckee will be releasing his new movie "The Woods" on Oct. 1. McKee directed a great low budget horror movie, "May."
With all these guys working, I think things are looking up for horror in the movies.

More about reviewers

At the DarkEcho blog, Paula Guran says:
Okay, so I am glancing through my new issue of LOCUS (#520) and I come across a favorable review of a book that does not even deserve ink in the magazine. Am I the only reviewer in the world who wants to pick up other reviewers by their (no doubt ass-like) ears and shake sense into them?
She goes on to wonder if reviews (and Guran writes reviews for Cemetery Dance magazine) really matter, which brings us back to Ed Gorman's point.

Reviewers, what are they good for?

Over at Ed's Place, author Ed Gorman says:
"Variety pointed out that this year five different movies that have been scourged by critics not only opened at numero uno but even had legs. This weekend's 'Van Helsing' is the latest example. I probably read eight or nine reviews of it. None had even one good thing to say about it.
"I'm pretty sure publishing operates this way. A number of bestselling writers are consistently trashed by reviewers but it hasn't damaged their careers. That's why I'm usually reluctant to show prospective editors my good reviews. How nice, they say, being polite. But they know and so do I that reviews generally don't sell books. It's like saying to the editor, My Mom thinks I'm really swell."
It is interesting, no? I know more than a few people who say they look at reviews and whichever movies are given bad reviews, they go out and see them.
I, on the other hand, like reviews. But I rarely like just one. I want to read a whole bunch of reviews to get a sense of what the movie is like and what reviewers have problems with. This is why Rotten Tomatoes is brilliant. In one burst, I can see a whole lot of reviews. And looking at Van Helsing, I can pretty much say it's not going to be very good.
But this isn't always true. Take Deep Rising, an earlier Stephen Sommers film. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 26% rating, just 2 points over Van Helsing. All right, admittedly it's kind of stupid and is all about giant monsters and explosions. But it doesn't sell itself as anything else. In fact, it gives you some characters and humor to boot.
And horror movies, I almost never trust reviewers on gory horror movies. They seem to get so blinded by blood and guts that they can't comprehend the rest of the movie.
So what do you do? I'm not sure. I usually only go to the theaters to see movies I'm sure about it. When I'm renting movies though, I'll pull out anything that vaguely interests me and give it a try. This means I miss a few good films in theaters and I suffer through a lot of bad ones at home (although at home I can turn it off without losing $10.)
In the book world, things are a bit different. I only use reviewers to tell me about books I know nothing about. Otherwise, I stick with authors I know, classic books or books recommended by authors I love.
So, use my new comment feature, tell me how you use (or don't use) reviewers.

Donnie Darko: Revised

Richard Kelly says Donnie Darko will be dramatically revised for its re-release to movie theaters.

"Ultimately, for me, I'm just psyched I finally got to finish the film," he said. "While I'm proud of the theatrical cut, I feel like there were some elements that were never fully realized that I'm excited to be able to realize now. It's been a dream come true, and I'm really lucky to have gotten to do it."

I'm really mixed about this. There's no doubt that "Donnie Darko" is a flawed movie. Unless you start looking at a lot of the supplemental material, there's no way you'll understand all the manipulated dead and chest spears things that are referenced in the film. But that's also part of the charm, things are left a mystery and the film becomes personal to you.
Not to mention I'm mixed on the whole idea of going back and revising your movie (or whatever artwork you've created) after it's been in the public eye.
"Star Wars" is always the thing that comes to mind for me. George Lucas went back and changed all the special effects and made a few other changes. It has always upset me that Greedo fired first in the new version. And some of the Jabba part is a little silly. On the other hand, I did like the new special effects and most of the other additions were either helpful or not a problem.
And we've all come to expect director's cuts, right?
So maybe I'm just worried over nothing. And, anyway, I've got my copy of "Donnie Darko" on DVD anyway, in case I don't like the new version. (Unlike Star Wars, which will most likely never be released on DVD in its original version.)

Look, I can use pictures now! 

Change is here to stay

OK changes have been made succesfully. Now everyone can post comments and they will forever be attached to my entries. The template has changed. There's a few more futuristic, bubble type designs available, but I like this more subdued look. Do you agree? Leave a comment! I've updated a few links but have yet to add any more. All right, now with luck I can get back to more regular posting.

Peter Crowther interview

S1ngularity publishes a new interview with Peter Crowther. Crowther is a horror writer, a publisher of fine science fiction, fantasy and horror novellas and is now becoming a magazine editor. He's one of the most important people in the speculative fiction field right now, so the interview is well worth your while.

Nick Mamatas interview

Beatrice does 5 Questions With Nick Mamatas. Nick has a LiveJournal here and here's a listing for his novel, "Move Under Ground."

New stuff, when it works

Aargh. Blogger has added all kinds of new elements, most importantly permalinks and a commenting system. Well, I've managed to get the permalinks working, but the comments defy me at every turn. In the meantime, all the old comments have been deleted. Sorry. Once I get the new comments system working, they'll be attached to the permalinks so your writings will never again (theoretically) be lost in the great Web void. If anyone else with a Blogger site has had problems with comments, let me know and tell me how you got through it.

Going to a Monster Show

In San Francisco, the Shooting Gallery will be hosting "The Tokyo Monster Show 2004."

The Shooting Gallery is excited to pay tribute to Godzilla and his friends with “The Tokyo Monster Show”. Over 30 artists will take part in this homage to Japanese monster movies. Paintings, photography, sculpture and drawings will all be on display for everyone to enjoy. Never has there been such a gathering of creatures since “Monster Island”, when Godzilla proved he was The King of All Monsters

The site has a few examples of the giant monster paintings. They're very good.

Rambling on dolphins

Trained dolphins are being used to search for a secret American submarine. I think it's amazing the things dolphins are being trained to do these days. In southern Iraq, dolphins were used to clear mines.
It all reminds me of a science fiction story by Alexander Jablokov called "A Deeper Sea" (it was also rewritten into a novel, but I didn't read that.) In the story, a Russian scientist learns to communicate and control dolphins. What, at first, he doesn't know is that he's also torturing them. The dolphins are used as soldiers in a global war. It's a good story and made the Year's Best Science Fiction anthology for 1989. Jablokov's last book, "Deep Drive," (which I enjoyed) came out in 1998. His Web site hasn't been updated since then. I wonder what he's been up to.

The Great Mahakali Write-A-Thalon

The Great Mahakali Write-A-Thalon is another novel writing contest. This one asks you to write a 35,000 word novel between 9 a.m. May 14 and 7 p.m. May 16. Considering it takes me the whole 30 days to write a 50,000 word novel in a month, this would be quite a challenge. Unfortunately, I work weekends, so I can't miss the sleep I'd need to in order to participate. Still, sounds exciting, good luck to all those participating.
If this is the kind of thing you're into, there's also Anvil Press's Three Day Novel Writing Competition which takes place on Labor Day weekend.
Ah what some of us will do for a deadline.
UPDATE: The Anvil Press Three Day Novel Writing Competition has apparently come to an end. Ah well. Thanks to Rohit Gupta for the heads up.
ANOTHER UPDATE: All right, maybe that Three Day Novel Writing competition still exists, but it's not easily found. There is this under construction Web site, which may yield something in the near future.

In search of...

Speaking of horror comics, there's something I wonder if any of my readers could help me with. When I was a young teen, in maybe 1981 or so, I bought a comic book at a fair. It was a collection of Polish legends and fairy tales. I remember liking it, but I can remember very little of it. I haven't seen it anywhere in years. The only story I remember had something to do with a king, many rats and a flood. It was in color.
I know it's unlikely, but does this ring any bells for anyone?

EC comics

Apparently, it's been 50 years since William Gaines, publisher of EC Comics, appeared before a Senate committee to defend his horror comics. Richard Corliss discusses the history of EC Comics and their gory fun in this interesting article from Time magazine.
The Comics Journal did a nice issue a while back that had interviews with many of the creators of the EC comics. Unfortunately none of it seems to be online.
The link was found through the DarkEcho newsletter. And I should also mention that DarkEcho now has a blog. It just started, so I'm not sure where she's going with it. But Paula Guran is always interesting, so it's worth keeping an eye on it.

Any tentacled hole will do

Apparently giant squid aren't too choosy about their sexual partners.

Pat Tillman: Human being

This opinion piece shows a side to Pat Tillman that we haven't been getting elsewhere. Using quotes from the memorial service, Tillman is shown as a much more complicated person than the prescribed story would make you think.
Tillman's youngest brother, Rich, wore a rumpled white T-shirt, no jacket, no tie, no collar, and immediately swore into the microphone. He hadn't written anything, he said, and with the starkest honesty, he asked mourners to hold their spiritual bromides.
"Pat isn't with God,'' he said. "He's f -- ing dead. He wasn't religious. So thank you for your thoughts, but he's f -- ing dead.''
There's a lot more. It's a good article check it out.
By the time the ceremony ended, after his brother and brother-in-law sipped the Guinness that Garwood poured in Tillman's honor, the funny, thinking, wild, crazy man had come to life. The family's loss, the loss of every soldier's family, seemed more real.

UFOs over Iran

Connecticut man saw a UFO over Iran. Apparently, this is becoming increasingly common in that country. Skeptics say people are seeing the planet Venus filtered through the night sky, while others say it's spy planes.

Alien fish returns

Ah, the return of the snakehead fish. The snakeheads were a big story last year. It's a Chinese fish that eats everything in a pond and then will travel over land to the next pond where it starts eating again. The fish can wipe out ecosystems pretty fast. This year, Maryland is considering banning the fish. Pine Lake in Maryland was drained and cleaned out after a fisherman found a snakehead there last week.

More Godzilla coverage

SFGate.com has a couple of articles on Godzilla and the original print of the movie.
But Godzilla isn't just the bomb -- he's hate and anger, war, the poisoned environment -- in short, he is mankind itself, the destruction wrought by the rage within us, an inner ugliness we can never quite seem to shake.
There's an article on the making of Godzilla and a timeline of Godzilla films and reality that influenced it.

Godzilla's metaphor problem

The New York Times takes a look at the first Godzilla movie -- that is, the Japanese version, sans bad dubbing and Raymond Burr -- on its 50th anniversary. The article looks at Godzilla as a metaphor for the A-bomb and what that really means:

The most peculiar thing about Godzilla as a metaphor for the bomb is the creature's simultaneous status as a legendary beast of Japanese islanders' mythology: surely a more precise representation of the disaster that befell the country at the end of the Second World War would be an agent of destruction from far away, unheard of even in legend, not this native, almost familiar monster. Is Godzilla, then, also on some subterranean level a metaphor for Japan's former imperial ambitions, which finally unleashed the retaliatory fury that leveled its cities?
Maybe. But the the runaway metaphor of [director Ishiro] Honda's Godzilla isn't nearly so easy to pin down. It's more ambiguous, more generalized and perhaps more potent than that. And its significance can be glimpsed only in the Japanese version of the movie, because what Honda's "Godzilla" is most fundamentally about, I think, is a society's desire to claim its deepest tragedies for itself, to assimilate them as elements of its historical identity.

The article says the later films seem to subvert the message by turning Godzilla into a hero. Actually, I think the metaphor was simply dropped. None of Godzilla's sequels have been as serious as that first movie. And "King Kong vs. Godzilla," the film that revived Godzilla's career and was the template for the next 20-odd movies, was intended as a humorous monster bash.
The only Godzilla movie that attempts to be as serious is Shusuke Kaneko's "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack." But "GMK" seems to be confused as to what it wants to say and its rushed filming schedule shows.
(Thanks to Professor Hex for the link.)

Gardner Dozois leaving Asimov's

I interrupt my absence to point out that editor Gardner Dozois is leaving Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. Dozois has been at the magazine for something like 20 years and has won 14 Best Editor Hugos. He also does the annual Year's Best Science Fiction books.
Dozois' editing has had a profound effect on me. Asimov's was the first science fiction magazine I ever subscribed to and Dozois' introduced me to a wide range of authors and writing. I remember falling in love with Lucius Shepard's writing because of stories like "R&R" that were printed in Asimov's.
Dozois and Ellen Datlow (editor of Omni then, editor of Sci-Fiction now) are the two editors who have had the most influence over my reading. So it's something of a sea change to see Dozois leaving the magazine he's run for all these years.
Dozois has his own statement up at the Asimov's discussion boards.
Dozois leaves to “pursue other projects, including his own writing.” I don't think I've ever read a Dozois story. Well, hopefully that will change now.
(And Matt Cheney at The Mumpsimus does a much better job than I at looking back at Dozois' work at Asimov's. He also says: "At the moment, I can't think of any great magazine editor who has maintained the energy and excitement of their best years." I would just answer that Datlow is doing work today at Sci-Fiction that is just as good as what she did with Omni, and that's saying something.)

Excuses, excuses

If you haven't noticed, things are quiet around these parts. I'm a bit busy making changes and what not, so I'm not going to be posting much in the near future. In a week or so, I should be back on schedule and, I hope, doing things a little differently. We'll see. More later.
In the meantime, check out Professor Hex. He's quickly making me irrelevant.

Nebula Awards announced

Hey, Jeff Ford won a Nebula Award! He won the Best Novelette award for "The Empire of Ice Cream," which is a great story you can read for free online. What are you waiting for, click the link!
Also well worth reading, Karen Joy Fowler's "What I didn't see" which won for best short story. It's also up at Sci-Fiction.

Supernatural Fiction Database

Tartarus Press is creating an online Supernatural Fiction Database. This is exciting stuff. Not only is it a great resource, but it will help me find new authors I'd be interested in. The proprietors suggest their Arthur Machen entry best shows what they are trying to achieve.
(Link found at Gambols and Frolics.)

Jonathan Lethem's Marvel Years

Jonathan Lethem writes about growing up with Marvel comics and specifically his arguments for and against Jack Kirby with his boyhood friends. It's a great read.
Also online, Lethem's story "Super Goat Man", which deals with a failed superhero, among other things.

Yum, trilobite

Trilobites were apparently the snack food of dinosaurs.

Taking the wet out of water

Tyco Fire and Security has invented a new firefighting device, water that isn't wet.
As part of a demonstration, Pelton submerged several items into a tank of Sapphire that was on the Good Morning America set. Books did not get wet. Electronics were not be destroyed. Items that were submerged in the liquid were dried in a matter of seconds, and showed no ill effects according to Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and other members of the Good Morning America staff who saw items plunged into it.
(Link found at Cylindrical Primate Storage Unit.)

Giant squid fandom stretches across blogosphere

Brokentype writes about everybody's favorite Giant Squid in a nice long essay filled with lots of interesting links. Most of it I've linked to at one time or another, but it's a great essay.
Also, he points to this poster of a giant squid fighting a T-Rex. How cool is that?

New York is full of zombies

David Wellington is writing a novel, Monster Island, about New York taken over by zombies. He's serializing it chapter by chapter on the Web. The first chapter opens with a boat pulling into Manhattan, passing the Statue of Liberty:
I thought maybe, just maybe they were alright, maybe they’d run to Liberty Island for refuge and been safe there and were just waiting for us, waiting for rescue but then I smelled them and I knew. I knew they weren’t alright at all. Give me your tired, your poor, your wretched refuse, my brain repeated over and over, a mantra. I was butchering Emma Lazarus but I couldn’t stop, my brain wouldn’t stop. Give me your huddled masses. Huddled masses yearning to breathe. “Osman! Turn away!”
There are seven chapters up so far.

The ultimate news story

Man bites dog to death in China. Apparently, a drunk man was nipped by a dog. He didn't like it much.
The infuriated inebriate then pounced on the dog and bit it repeatedly until it died.

Deadly squid guts

Wow, squid are dangerous even after death.
Three of four crew members found dead Sunday aboard a South Korean vessel at a fishing port in Oda, Shimane Prefecture, may have died from lack of oxygen due to a gas caused after the guts of squid in the hold of the ship rotted, police and Japan Coast Guard officials said Tuesday.

The skies are falling

Professor Hex posts on things falling from the sky, from frogs and fish to piranhas and ice bombs.

"Our utter insignificance"

I saw this meme at Return of the Reluctant and decided to participate:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

RESULTS: Algernon Blackwood, "Ancient Sorceries and other Weird Stories" from the story "The Willows":
"Indeed, so vague was the sense of distress I experienced, that it was impossible to trace it to its source and deal with it accordingly, though I was aware somehow that it had to do with my realisation of our utter insignificance before this unrestrained power of the elements about me."

A dark thought for the day.

Delivery from the past

Post Office delivers postcard, 82 years later.

Shroud of Turin news

Apparently, there is a face on the back side, too.
These days though, Jesus has found new places for his image, like lava lamps (with pic!).

Codex Seraphinianvs

Thanks to Gambols and Frolics, I've found out about the Codex Seraphinianvs. Some claim it's the weirdest book in the world. It's a tome drawn and "written" by Italian artist Luigi Serafini.
The Codex is a collection of original artwork by Italian artist Luigi Serafini, presented as a travalogue or scientific study of an alien world. Unlike such alien worlds as Darwin IV in Barlowe's Expedition, which one might find in a science fiction novel, the world in the Codex is obviously some kind of perverse reflection of our own. All of the Codex is presented entirely in an obscure alien writing. This writing, in combination with the bizarre pictures, is what finally puts the Codex in its own league for weirdness. For instance, on one page is a "Rosetta Stone" - only it just translates Codex script into another alien language.
The Web site above has images from the book and some links for more information. It seems to me to be an attempt to create a modern version of the Voynich Manuscript. You can find a few links about the Voynich Manuscript here (scroll down).

A journey under Malta

Professor Hex links to this article on the Hypogeum in Malta, a subterranean burial chamber so large that people got lost and never returned. One teacher and her class of 30 never returned. Well, that's what this article claims anyway. Here's a snippet of some of the far out claims:
She claims that out of this lower tunnel on the far side of the chasm emerged, in single file, several very large creatures of humanoid form but completely covered with hair from head to foot. Noticing her, they raised their arms in her direction, palms out, at which point a violent "wind" began to blow through the cavern, snuffing out her candle. Then, some “thing” wet and slippery (apparently a creature of a different sort) brushed past her.
It's fascinating stuff, whether true or not.
You can see pictures of parts of the Hypogeum here. Here's an article that treats it more soberly as a tourist attraction:
For about a 1,000-year span, the Hypogeum served as a necropolis, a city of the dead that eventually housed the remains of about 7,000 people. It was one of many megalithic structures strewn across Malta, built by a complex Neolithic culture that mysteriously disappeared around 2500 BC.
Even without slimy things and hairy humanoids, the Hypogeum is interesting as an underground Stonehenge and home of a death cult of some kind. Thanks Hex!

Japanese tattoos don't say what you think

The Chicago Tribune does a great little article on what kanji character tattoos really mean. (You may need registration for the article, Metafilter suggests using anonymous/anonymous for your user name/password.)
I had a friend who lived in Thailand. She talked about how people there wore remaindered T-shirts from English speaking countries that said horrible things. One T-shirt was supposed to say DNKY, instead it said DYNK. Another said "I fuck horses" or something similar. If you don't know the language, you must be careful with what you wear, or get imprinted on your skin.

Killer asteroids

Scientists are coming close to surveying all the asteroids that could destroy human civilization. Next they plan on finding the less important city destroyers.

Do birds have cults?

Sparrows try to commit mass suicide by drowning.

Eyeball jewelry

In the Netherlands, people are getting the latest fashion trend, jewelry in their eyeballs.
Dutch eye surgeons have implanted tiny pieces of jewelry called "JewelEye" in the mucous membrane of the eyes of six women and one man in cosmetic surgery pioneered by an ophthalmic surgery research and development institute in Rotterdam.
The procedure involves inserting a 3.5 mm (0.13 inch) wide 1 piece of specially developed jewelry -- the range includes a glittering half-moon or heart -- into the eye's mucous membrane under local anaesthetic at a cost of 500 to 1,000 euros ($1,232).
There's a picture at the link.

The Passion of the Easter Bunny

A Pennsylvania church tried to teach kids about the crucifixion of Jesus by having actors whip the Easter Bunny.
People who attended Saturday's performance at Glassport's memorial stadium quoted performers as saying, "There is no Easter bunny," and described the show as being a demonstration of how Jesus was crucified.
Melissa Salzmann, who brought her 4-year-old son J.T., said the program was inappropriate for young children. "He was crying and asking me why the bunny was being whipped," Salzmann said.

"Satanic" attack on school

A school dormitory in Malawi was attacked in the night by a bare breasted assailant who beat several girls severely.
When the unknown assailant entered the room he appeared to have knelt down and suddenly started beating and hacking the helpless girls with what appeared to be a pipe, leaving blood sputtered everywhere including the walls, according to the girls.
The girls said the assailant seemed to have briefly gone out but reappeared briefly, grinned widely at the girls and then disappeared.
Police took the girls to a safe place and the beaten ones are being treated. But the assailant found them the next night.
Boarding mistress Bridget Muhemed said the assailant’s identity has not been established.
“We are still baffled by the whole incident. It has never happened before. Many believe this is either witchcraft or something to do with satanism. And how did he or she track down the girls and even know we had taken them to police?” she said.
...
The incident comes at a time when stories of vampires, blood suckers and trafficking in body parts are yet to die down in Malawi.

George Romero movie

George Romero is making a movie about a living dead rock 'n' roll band. Called Diamond Dead, the movie will be produced by Ridley Scott and has music by Richard Hartley, who did some uncredited work on "Rocky Horror Picture Show" and was the composer for "Shock Treatement." The Web site for Diamond Dead has a Flash trailer, a jukebox with Hartley's songs, and actual portions of the script as it goes through rewrites.
I just watched the trailer. It's basically just a list of names and then the character sketches of the main characters while some of the music plays. In concept, it looks interesting, if they can pull it off.

The Manchurian Candidate remake

I'm so tired of movie remakes, especially when they start tackling classics. Admittedly, I enjoyed both the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Dawn of the Dead remakes, but I still don't think they're necessary. And now, they're remaking one of the greatest films ever made, The Manchurian Candidate. It has a good cast and Jonathan Demme is a fine director, it may even be a good film. It's still pointless.

Perplexing UFO mystery

In a survey, the Scottish town of Bonnybridge was named the UFO capital of the UK. The survey was sponsored by Grolsch beer. The real alien question here: Why is a beer company sponsoring a UFO survey?

Letting others do my blogging

I was going to mention Jeff Vandermeer's new Web sites and articles online, but Trent at s1ngularity::criticism put together a nice post of all the relevant links. If your interested about Vandermeer's work (and you really should be) start clicking.

Jonathan Carroll interview

Singularity.net has published the first in series of interviews, this one with Jonathan Carroll:

JC: When you're working in the fantastic it's as if you're boxing with the gloves off. There are no rules so anything goes. You want God to appear eating an ice cream cone? Fine. You want a woman to give birth to Hitler#2? Fine. When there are no rules there is certainly more chaos and it can be a lot harder work for the reader, but there's also a lot more room to move and maneuver. You can talk about things on the page that you couldn't in more "stable" fiction" because of that anything-goes element. When you read ["Corrections" author Jonathan] Franzen, you're going to a Chinese restaurant. You get what you expect and the only surprise is if the food there, invariably Chinese cuisine, is wonderfully prepared. When you go to my restaurant you have no idea what the food is going to be or if it will be well prepared. There's an element of doubt that isn't in the Franzen restaurant, maybe even dismay, but there's potential for wonder and all out delight that cancels out the other negative stuff if you like this "anything goes" sort of place.

Russians to build UFOs for U.S.

U.S. Naval Air Systems Command has signed an agreement with Russia's EKIP Aviation to produce flying saucer shaped aircraft. The ships are good for putting out forest fires and monitoring oil pipelines, according to the story. There's a picture at the site too.

Do-it-yourself Caesarean

The 40-year-old pregnant woman lived in an area of Mexico without running water or electricity and eight hours from the nearest hospital. She had lost a baby previously due to labor complications. She wasn't having that this time.
Dr R Valle, of the Dr Manuel Velasco Suarez Hospital in San Pablo, Mexico, said: "She took three small glasses of hard liquor and, using a kitchen knife, sliced her abdomen in three attempts and delivered a male infant that breathed immediately and cried."
Before losing consciousness, the woman told one of her children to call a local nurse for help.
(Found at Cylindrical Primate Storage Unit.)

Tarantino, Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino wants to take on 007 with a low budget adaptation of "Casino Royale," the first James Bond book by Ian Fleming. He wants to bring Pierce Brosnan back as bond. But according to Dark Horizons, Brosnan has no interest in doing anymore Bond movies and the studio doesn't want him anyway.

A woman and her octopus

Japanese sculpture depicting woman and octopus sex. Not safe for work? (Found at Cylindrical Primate Storage Unit.)

Hauntings

Haunted house resident sets up Web sites to bring together people with similar problems.
People want a safe place to come and talk about their experiences, where nobody laughs at you or calls you crazy," says Fritz.
And now the group is gearing up for its largest, and most comprehensive, event: a two-day Spring Paranormal Get Together April 24-25. In addition to lunch and dinner at two haunted restaurants, the gathering will include a seance, professional ghost tours of two haunted locations (including a cemetery) and the chance to sleep in a haunted bed and breakfast.
Why do people who have had paranormal experiences want to sleep in a haunted place?
Meanwhile, another group is planning the Southeastern Paranormal Studies Intercollegiate Conference this weekend.
Conventional scientific research and unconventional ideas will be fused in an attempt to explain the unexplained, said Nelson Abreu, president of the Science of Self Club, who is hosting the event.
“We feel that giving a stage for serious scientific research on nonconventional topics is essential because scientific journals are censoring this type of work,” he said.
Meanwhile a night janitor at a courthouse and a film crew are dealing with ghostly encounters.

Easter Island cures cancer

Medical researchers have found that drugs made from bacteria in Easter Island's soil helps deal with kidney cancer. No word on side effects having anything to do with the size of your head.

All the religion news that's fit to print

Here's your Jesus roundup:

A new survey says more people believe Jews responsible for Christ's death. The survey takes into account that Mel Gibson movie everyone's talking about:
Generally, there is a correlation between seeing the movie, and expressing an intention to see it, with holding the view that Jews were responsible for Christ's death. This is especially the case among younger people. Of those age 18-34 who have seen the movie, 42% believe Jews were responsible for Christ's death. Similarly, 36% of those age 35-59 who have seen "The Passion of the Christ" express that view. Still, majorities in both of these age groups ­ whether they have seen the movie or not ­ say they do not feel that Jews were responsible for Christ's death.

In Texas, man sees "The Passion" and confesses to murder that had been ruled a suicide.

The Revealer reviews the South Park episode about "The Passion of the Christ" (which was a hilarious episode, I must say.)

Swedish textiles expert says he can prove the Shroud of Turin is real.
Swedish textiles expert Dr Mechthild Flury-Lemberg, who discovered the seam at the back of the cloth during a restoration project, says: "There have been attempts to date the shroud from looking at the age of the material, but the style of sewing is the biggest clue.
"It belongs firmly to a style seen in the first century AD or before."

Woman says the image of Jesus has appeared in her fireplace. It's not the first supernatural occurrence at her house:
"On January 2, 1999 the first word appeared on the wall," said Rose-Mary. "It was the Welsh for 'peace be with you'. In that first month we had about 20 words come and go.
"Since then pictures, crosses and Welsh words have been appearing all the time on the wall and around the fireplace in a brownish stain.
"They come and go. The words always seem to have a virtuous or religious connotation.
"Watching the fireplace in our house is as entertaining as watching the television!"

And Cosmopolitan has added a column on spirituality.

In politics the Bush administration accuses Kerry of using scripture for political purposes.
''John Kerry's comment at New Northside Baptist Church was beyond the bounds of acceptable discourse, and a sad exploitation of Scripture for a political attack,'' said Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt.
Because, the Bush administration would never use God in politics. As far as I'm concerned, both sides should shut up about God and starting worrying about politics.

Farscape returns

Sci Fi Wire reports that SciFi channel is picking up a Farscape miniseries, "Peacekeeper Wars."

Lansdale interview

Good interview with Joe R. Lansdale from the Houston Chronicle. The article includes a lot of biographical detail about the author that I didn't know. (Link found at Beatrice.)

Movies for the sick bed

So I've been sick for the last five days and have not felt like coming anywhere near the computer. Sorry for the derth of posts lately.
When I'm sick I can't concentrate on books or deep thoughtful movies, so I ended up watching lots of monster movies and action films this weekend. It's like chicken soup to me. So here are my capsule reviews:
"Equilibrium": Cool action rip-off of Fahrenheit 451. Christian Bale's action scenes are truly impressive.
"Deep Rising": Total popcorn movie fun. A big squid, octopus monster hidden inside a giant ocean liner, killing people off one by one. Good fun. Not much more.
"Impostor": One long chase scene. It captures a few good science fiction ideas, but mostly it's just characters running around.
"Mystery "Men": Funnier in concept than execution. I'm surprised at how good a rating Rotten Tomatoes gave it.
"Cabin Fever": Fun horror movie. Lots of references to 70s and 80s horror movies. Lots of humor. A good time. Gory.
"Underworld": Action movie with vampires and werewolves. Takes itself very seriously. Didn't buy the love story. Eh.
"Dog Soldiers": Surprisingly good low budget soldiers vs. werewolves movie. Kind of a "night of the living wolf" movie.

I also managed to crawl out of my hole long enough to see "Hellboy". I thought it was great. But then, I'm a big fan of the comic book and it's very true to the comic. Still, I though it was an exciting, fun movie with good characters and awesome monsters.
Back to regular linkage tomorrow.

Del Toro At the Mountains of Madness

Thanks to an off-hand mention at Caitlin Kiernan's Low Red Moon journal, I found out that Guillermo Del Toro, director of Hellboy, Kronos, Mimic and The Devil's Backbone, is also attached to direct an adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness. This is great. I saw Hellboy the other day and was very, very pleased. And The Devil's Backbone was truly a great spooky movie. I think he could really do the H.P. Lovecraft story justice.