The Mumpsimus's doings

Matthew Cheney, sometimes known as The Mumpsimus, has a review of Richard Butner's "Horses Blow Up Dog City & Other Stories" at SF Site. Also, the description of Cheney at the bottom of the review helped lead me to fiction by Cheney called Getting a Date for Amelia at failbetter.com in their 2001 issue. Unlike Cheney's story "Prague," which can be found in the archives of Ideomancer, this is a realistic story about a boy and his retarded sister, Amelia. I'd like to see Cheney do more fiction, it's no surprise he has a talent for it.

Heiress won't go away

Paris Hilton has been signed up to do a new movie version of "The Great Gatsby." Oh dear God, Hilton is Daisy Buchanan in real life, it doesn't mean she can act like, well anything. It looks like there has already been four movie versions of the book. I've never seen any of them, and I don't think I'm about to start now.

End of the Century

Johnny Ramone has died.

Comic books and Connecticut

I missed this event: Heroes, Heartthrobs & Horrors at the Connecticut Historical Society. It's a show detailing the important role my humble state played in the comic book industry. That Web site includes some interesting articles on censorship and the various companies that were headquartered in Connecticut.
I remember growing up that Charlton Comics was in Derby, just a town away from where I lived. If I had known then what I know now about Charlton (mind you, I was probably about 10 when they closed their comics shop) I would have visited and tried to see what went on there. It amazes me that Steve Ditko worked there, mere miles from me.
Anyway, the exhibit ended Sept. 7, though the Society hoped to have a travelling exhibit made out of it. No word on that though. In the meantime, Sequential Tart did a nice article on how it was all created.

Kelly Link interview

At Return of the Reluctant, Bondgirl interviews Kelly Link. It's a fun little interview and a good introduction to her if you don't know her work. Link's collection "Stranger Things Happen" is terrific. I've been taking my time getting through it, reading a story here and there, now and then. In the interview, Link says she will have a second collection out by next summer. It will include a story called "Some Zombie Contingency Plans." I can't wait to see her take on zombies. In the meantime there's this:

Gwenda: So, what’s your zombie contingency plan?

Kelly: In all situations, I like to ask myself: What would Jackie Chan do? Not because I have any sort of Jackie Chan skills, but because it's soothing to contemplate an imaginary Jackie Chan in imaginary action, kicking imaginary ass, zombie or otherwise. More usefully, what Jackie Chan does is improvise, using objects at hand. So we have a pantry with a lot of different kinds of jam, and some Lyle's Golden Syrup, as well as a lot of heavy, tall bookshelves, and several interesting fireworks, such as The Titanic, and The Naughty Elephant. There's also a lawnmower in the garage, and I've seen Peter Jackson's Dead Alive at least five or six times.

So although I'm not wedded to any kind of plan, I'm prepared to improvise ferociously.

Link and her husband, Gavin Grant, have also co-edited the fantasy half of the 17th annual Year's Best Fantasy & Horror, which is a terrific book and something everyone should be buying every year.
I got to say, I love this trend of bloggers interviewing writers. Maud Newton and The Mumpsimus have done a few as have others. It seems the latest evolution in lit blogs.

UPDATE: Bondgirl is having a "interviewapaschmooza." She has followed up her Link interview with an interview with Scott Westerfeld.

Cthulhu arises

SOTA, a toy maker, will be making an action figure of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu. There's more pictures here. It looks pretty good. It's nicely hideous, having lots of tentacles and weird protrusions and whatnot. Definitely something I'd like to get. They are also talking about doing two other Lovecraft figures, but haven't decided what. I'd love to see a Deep One figure and I like the idea of making an H.P. Lovecraft figure. We'll see.

Stupid reviewers

Jessa Crispin of Bookslut rips into a very stupid "review" of In the Shadow of No Towers. It's an entertaining read and she does a good job of pointing out how reading comics can be, and often is, a different experience from reading comics.

Mini-monster beached

A mini-Loch Ness monster has shown up on the shores of Parton, UK.

Another Parton resident told The Whitehaven News: “It seems to have a seal’s body, the tail of a whale, fins on top and sides, but also claws and really sharp teeth.”

There's a picture at the site that gives an idea of what this thing looks like, and its size, but not a lot of detail. I'll bet you it turns out to be a bloated fish. But here's hoping it's not.
Link found at Professor Hex.

China Mieville, "An End to Hunger"

The Register publishes a China Mieville story for everyone to read. It's called "An End to Hunger" and it comes from the book The New English Library Book of Internet Stories.
The story is based around Web sites like this one that offer seemingly easy ways to help feed the poor. In the story, the characters find out there's a little more behind the Web site than a few liberal do-gooders.
The story is slight. It's a chance for Mieville to make a few political points while using a pulp horror narrative. It's an enjoyable story, even if doesn't rank with Mieville stories like "The Tain" or "Details."

Zoran Zivkovic and an apology

Hello poor, beleaguered readers. I'm sorry I have left you bereft of postings for so long. In the coming weeks, I hope to change that. That is, if anyone still cares that I'm out here. We'll see.
I just read an interview with Zoran Zivkovic, the Yugoslavian writer, at Strange Horizons. Zivkovic is very interesting writer. I read The Library which was published as part of Leviathan 3. It's a great fantasy work filled with every permutation of the library. Well worth checking out. Actually, Leviathan 3 is an excellent, excellent anthology and will reward your time. I've already pre-ordered the next in the series, Leviathan 4, and I am looking forward to reading Leviathan 2, which I got from Night Shade Books recently.
Well, that's it for now. Hopefully, I'll have more to say in the coming days and weeks.

Patti Smith, H.P. Lovecraft are kin

Holy crap, this is cool. Patti Smith on her love of H.P. Lovecraft. Smith is a great singer-songwriter and Lovecraft is a great horror writer. I love them both, and it's nice to see them meet on the backwater of the Internet.
(Much thanks to Caitlin Kiernan for mentioning it.)

High velocity writing advice

Chris Baty has written No Plot? No Problem!, a book of writing advice. Of course, the advice is derived from his work with Nanowrimo, which he created. So it's mainly going to be about writing fast and for fun. Baty's writing is always entertaining so I'm sure it will be worthwhile.
(Link found at Fast Fiction. Glad to see you blogging again Cybele.)

New blog and another cultural concurrence index

Claude Lalumiere has created a Lost Pages | Found Pages blog to go along with his Lost Pages Web site. The first entry is his Lost Pages Cultural Concurrence Index, based on the same idea that was previously used by Terry Teachout and The Mumpsimus. I, of course, am a sucker for this. So here is my LPCCI (Lalumiere's choices are on the left, mine are in bold):
1. Adbusters -or- No Logo
2. Alan Moore -or- Neil Gaiman
3. Alien -or- Aliens
4. Audrey Hepburn -or- Katharine Hepburn
5. Bartók -or- Mozart
6. Björk -or- Madonna
7. Blade Runner -or- RoboCop
8. body -or- soul [This question seems really, really difficult to me.]
9. Buffy the Vampire Slayer -or- Wonder Woman
10. Burning Chrome -or- Neuromancer [Haven't read the novel in years though, so really, I'm not sure.]
11. Carol Lay -or- Lynn Johnston [Lay's a cartoonist right? I don't know Johnston.]
12. Chinatown -or- Taxi Driver
13. Chuck Jones -or- Walt Disney
14. Clint Eastwood -or- John Wayne
15. Cole Porter -or- the Gershwins [in concept, I don't know enough about either.]
16. comics on matte paper -or- comics on glossy paper
17. crime fiction -or- murder mysteries
18. Danger Man/Secret Agent -or- The Prisoner
19. David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch -or- David Cronenberg's Crash
20. David Fincher's Seven -or- Bryan Singer's The Usual Suspects
21. David Lynch -or- Spike Jonze
22. David Pringle's Interzone -or- John W. Campbell's Astounding [I haven't read interzone]
23. Do the Right Thing -or- 25th Hour
24. Dorothy Parker -or- Sylvia Plath
25. Dr. Strangelove -or- Hiroshima, mon amour
26. Dune -or- Foundation
27. Ed the Happy Clown, by Chester Brown -or- Louis Riel, by Chester Brown
28. Festen (The Celebration) -or- Dancer in the Dark [Though I've never seen Festen.]
29. Fredric Brown's crime fiction -or- Fredric Brown's SF [Again, haven't read the first choice.]
30. Greek gods -or- Roman gods
31. Gregory Peck -or- Cary Grant
32. Groucho Marx -or- Charlie Chaplin
33. H.G. Wells -or- Jules Verne
34. Iggy Pop -or- Lou Reed
35. The Ipcress File -or- On Her Majesty's Secret Service [Bond novels?]
36. J.G. Ballard -or- Brian Aldiss
37. Jack Kirby -or- Stan Lee
38. Jacques Brel -or- Frank Sinatra
39. Jaime Hernandez -or- Gilbert Hernandez
40. James Bond -or- Austin Powers
41. Jim Jarmusch -or- Hal Hartley
42. Jim Thompson -or- James M. Cain
43. Jimi Hendrix -or- Eric Clapton
44. Joe Jackson -or- Elvis Costello
45. John Coltrane -or- Bill Evans
46. John Sayles -or- David Mamet
47. John Waters -or- Russ Meyer
48. John Zorn -or- Brian Eno
49. Jonathan Carroll -or- Stephen King
50. Joni Mitchell -or- Cassandra Wilson
51. juice -or- coffee
52. Kill Bill -or- Jackie Brown
53. The Larry Sanders Show -or- Curb Your Enthusiasm
54. living with animals -or- eating animals [I do both.]
55. M*A*S*H -or- All in the Family
56. Michael Chabon -or- Jonathan Lethem [Though I haven't read enough Lethem to really compare.]
57. Miles Davis -or- Duke Ellington
58. Neil Young -or- Bob Dylan
59. Noam Chomsky -or- Christopher Hitchens [Not that I agree with him, I'd just rather read him.]
60. nonsmoking -or- smoking
61. nudity -or- fetish
62. O'Neil/Adams on Batman -or- O'Neil/Adams on Green Lantern/Green Arrow [No idea.]
63. Ornette Coleman -or- Steve Coleman
64. Orson Welles -or- Alfred Hitchcock
65. Pacey -or- Dawson [Never watched the show.]
66. paperbacks -or- hardcovers
67. Peanuts -or- Doonesbury
68. Philip José Farmer -or- Kurt Vonnegut
69. The Police -or- Sting
70. Portishead -or- Radiohead
71. punk -or- rap
72. R.A. Lafferty -or- C.S. Lewis
73. Rashomon -or- In the Realm of the Senses [Haven't seen either.]
74. Robert Silverberg -or- Harlan Ellison [Nearly too close to call.]
75. Roger Zelazny in the 1960s -or- Roger Zelazny in the 1970s [This is an assumption. I haven't paid enough attention to when he wrote what.]
76. Rolling Stones -or- Beatles [Close though. If the Stones had quit before 1985, they might have an edge.]
77. Roseanne -or- Seinfeld
78. Roxy Music -or- Pink Floyd
79. science fiction's New Wave -or- French cinema's Nouvelle Vague
80. The Secret History -or- The Little Friend [No idea.]
81. The Shadow -or- The Punisher
82. Sherlock Holmes -or- Dracula
83. Smallville -or- Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie
84. Smokey Robinson -or- Stevie Wonder
85. The Sopranos -or- Law & Order
86. Stand on Zanzibar -or- Gravity's Rainbow [Haven't read either, yet.]
87. Susie Bright -or- Andrea Dworkin [Don't know. Not sure I care.]
88. Thelma & Louise -or- Sex in the City
89. Theodore Sturgeon -or- Philip K. Dick [Man, is that one tough.]
90. Tom Waits -or- Leonard Cohen
91. Ursula K. Le Guin -or- Marion Zimmer Bradley
92. Vaughn Bodé -or- Robert Crumb
93. The Virgin Suicides -or- The Breakfast Club
94. walking -or- driving
95. Warren Ellis -or- Garth Ennis [Though if I ever get around to Transmetropolitan and Orbiter, this could change.]
96. The White Stripes -or- Red Hot Chili Peppers [Based on latest albums.]
97. Will Eisner -or- Art Spiegelman
98. XTC in the 1980s -or- XTC in the 1990s [Skylarking was in the 1980s, right?]
99. Y Tu Mamá También -or- Once upon a Time in Mexico
100. Zatanna -or- Vampirella
I got 62 percent.

The legend of D.B. Cooper

Apparently, the new movie "Without a Paddle" is about several guys chasing the legend of D.B. Cooper, the skyjacker who jumped out of the plane over Oregon forest. I've always found his story fascinating (not that that will make me watch this comedy) and the article I linked to has some more serious takes on Cooper's life, including several Discovery channel shows I missed. I think I first heard about the Cooper story in an "In Search Of..." episode (man, that show was great when I was 10).

New Flash Gordon movie

Stephen Sommers is apparently producing a new Flash Gordon movie. Sommers, the writer/director of "Deep Rising," "The Mummy," "The Mummy Returns," and "Van Helsing," is sometimes good with the all out action film (like "Deep Rising" and "The Mummy") but has been steadily going downhill. I love the old Flash Gordon serials (I never read the comic) and the early '80s Flash Gordon movie is loads of fun. But I don't have any special connection to the franchise. If Sommers could pull off a logical, fun movie I could like it. However, there is talk that he is getting Ashton Kutcher for the lead. This does not bode well.

Sexy squid

Giant squids may be the swinger of the deep seas.

Squid love, it turns out, starts with a 5-foot-long penis and may include homosexuality, cannibalism, even group sex. Ahem.

Giant squid catch

Fishermen off the Canary Islands have caught a 30 foot long giant squid.

World Fantasy Award nominations

God, I can't get away today. The World Fantasy Awards nominations have been announced and Ellen Datlow has a list on her discussion board. They are as follows:
2004 World Fantasy Awards Final Ballot

Nominations for the 2004 World Fantasy Awards, covering the 2003 publishing year, have been announced:

NOVEL
# The Etched City, K. J. Bishop (Prime Books)
# Fudoki, Kij Johnson (Tor)
# The Light Ages, Ian R. MacLeod (Ace)
# Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton (Tor)
# Veniss Underground, Jeff VanderMeer (Prime Books)

NOVELLA
# "A Crowd of Bone", Greer Gilman (Trampoline: An Anthology Small Beer Press)
# "Dancing Men", Glen Hirshberg (The Dark Tor)
# "The Empire of Ice Cream", Jeffrey Ford (Sci Fiction 02.26.03)
# "Exorcising Angels", Simon Clark & Tim Lebbon (Exorcising Angels Prime Books)
# "The Hortlak", Kelly Link (The Dark Tor)

SHORT FICTION
# "Ancestor Money", Maureen F. McHugh (Sci Fiction 10.01.03)
# Circle of Cats, Charles de Lint (Viking)
# "Don Ysidro", Bruce Holland Rogers (Polyphony 3 Wheatland)
# "Gus Dreams of Biting the Mailman", Alex Irvine (Trampoline Small Beer Press)
# "O One", Chris Roberson (Live Without a Net Roc)

ANTHOLOGY
# Gathering the Bones, Jack Dann, Ramsey Campbell & Dennis Etchison, eds. (Voyager Australia; Voyager UK; Tor US)
# Strange Tales, Rosalie Parker, ed. (Tartarus Press)
# The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases, Jeff VanderMeer & Mark Roberts, eds. (Night Shade Books)
# The Dark: New Ghost Stories, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Tor)
# Trampoline: An Anthology, Kelly Link, ed. (Small Beer Press)

COLLECTION
# Bibliomancy, Elizabeth Hand (PS Publishing)
# Ghosts of Yesterday, Jack Cady (Night Shade Books)
# GRRM: A Rretrospective, George R. R. Martin (Subterranean Press)
# More Tomorrows & Other Stories, Michael Marshall Smith (Earthling Publications)
# The Two Sams, Glen Hirshberg (Carroll & Graf)

ARTIST
# Brom
# Donato Giancola
# John Jude Palencar
# John Picacio
# Jason Van Hollander

SPECIAL AWARD, PROFESSIONAL
# Peter Crowther (for PS Publishing)
# John Howe & Alan Lee (for artwork in The Lord of the Rings)
# Kelly Link & Gavin Grant (for Small Beer Press)
# Sharyn November (for Firebird Books)
# David Pringle (for Interzone/service to the field)
# Sean Wallace (for Prime Books)

SPECIAL AWARD, NON-PROFESSIONAL
# Deborah Layne & Jay Lake (for Wheatland Press)
# Paul Miller (for Earthling Publications)
# Ray Russell & Rosalie Parker (for Tartarus Press)
# Dave Truesdale (for Tangent Online)
# Rodger Turner, Neil Walsh & Wayne MacLaurin (for SF Site.com)

Lots of great stuff on here. I'm surprised I haven't read any of the entries under "Short Fiction". I've got some catchin' up to do.

A meme before flying

All right, so I found one more thing to blog about, another silly list. I don't know if any of you care about this sort of thing, but I love it. Here's a list of the Online Film Critic's Top 100 Overlooked Films of the 1990s and I've bolded what I've seen. I think the list is kind of strange, since most of the top films were considered hits for the independent market. Here goes:
O.F.C.S.'s Top 100 Overlooked Films of the 1990s
1 Miller's Crossing
2 Safe
3 The Sweet Hereafter
4 Lone Star
5 Heavenly Creatures
6 Waiting for Guffman
7 The Hudsucker Proxy
8 Babe: Pig in the City
9 Dead Man
10 Fearless
11 Bound
12 Chungking Express
13 The Straight Story
14 Searching for Bobby Fischer
15 Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai
16 That Thing You Do!
17 Dead Again
18 Sneakers
19 Zero Effect
20 The Butcher Boy
21 Truly, Madly, Deeply
22 In the Company of Men
23 Devil in a Blue Dress
24 The Red Violin
25 Cemetery Man
26 Hamlet
27 Breakdown
28 Welcome to the Dollhouse
29 The Apostle
30 Eve's Bayou
31 Hard Eight
32 Defending Your Life
33 A Little Princess
34 Bringing Out the Dead
35 Hana-Bi (Fireworks)
36 Jacob's Ladder
37 The Spanish Prisoner
38 Pump Up the Volume
39 Beautiful Girls
40 The Double Life of Veronique
41 Very Bad Things
42 Richard III
43 October Sky
44 Strange Days
45 My Neighbor Totoro
46 L.A. Story
47 Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
48 A Bronx Tale
49 The Limey
50 A Perfect World
51 Before Sunrise
52 Bob Roberts
53 Dick
54 Raise the Red Lantern
55 One False Move
56 The Ref
57 Exotica
58 Sonatine
59 Joe Versus the Volcano
60 Matinee
61 The Ice Storm
62 The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
63 Croupier
64 The Winslow Boy
65 Girl on the Bridge
66 Bullet in the Head
67 Darkman
68 Cannibal! The Musical
69 Fast, Cheap & Out of Control
70 Smoke
71 The Last Days of Disco
72 Fresh
73 Eye of God
74 Flirting with Disaster
75 Bottle Rocket
76 Ashes of Time
77 Fallen Angels
78 Great Expectations
79 Kundun
80 A Midnight Clear
81 Deep Cover
82 Ravenous
83 Twin Falls, Idaho
84 The People vs. Larry Flynt
85 Quick Change
86 The Secret of Roan Inish
87 Beloved
88 Big Night
89 Topsy-Turvy
90 Living in Oblivion
91 Jesus' Son
92 Glengarry Glen Ross
93 Chaplin [In no way does this belong here.]
94 Dead Alive
95 Jude
96 Cradle Will Rock [or this]
97 Proof
98 The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl
99 Titus
100 Mystery Men [This was not overlooked, it was deservedly passed over.]
I'm a little astounded at some of the choices here. How is "That Thing You Do!" overlooked? And "Big Night" has been lauded across the country. What's the criteria for overlooked here? Well, most of these films were good anyway. I'm glad to see Cemetery Man up there.
All right, that's it, I'm leaving.

New ocean creatures

Well, I'm officially not going to be blogging anything for the next several years in blog time (about a week or two in real time) as I'm on vacation. However, before I go, you must check out this Wired story about mysteries of the ocean's depth. A recent expedition 6,500 feet down found new creatures no one has ever seen before.

Brightly colored, about a foot long with a well-defined forepaw and tail, it looks like no known sea creature, said Olav Rune Godoe of the Institute of Marine Research in Bergen. The unknown animal was found crawling around the bottom at a depth of 6,500 feet.

Best of all, the article has pictures! Check it out.
Link found at BoingBoing.