Coming to Kindle and Smashwords
November 2013
Oct 17, 2011
Oct 14, 2011
the neighbor's dog again is in my sites..
Dog Mustache
By on October 13, 2011
The Humunga Stache by Moody Pet is a mustache-shaped rubber ball dog toy that gives the appearance that your canine is donning fancy facial hai
Wing nut not prosecuted...
Seattle superhero not prosecuted
Seattle prosecutors decided not to press charges against Seattle superhero Phoenix Jones. As I posted yesterday, Jones was arrested over the weekend for allegedly pepper spraying a group of people. His "spokesman" says he was attempting to break up a fight. From CNN:
"If you see something that warrants calling 911, call 911. You don't need to dress up in a costume to do that," police spokesman Mark Jamieson said.In court Thursday, Fodor arrived wearing a hood, which a judge's assistant asked him to remove. When told that charges had not been filed against him, Fodor put the rubber hood back on and exited the court with a swarm of media cameras following him.
Outside the courthouse, Fodor told reporters he would continue his anti-crime patrols.
"In addition to being Phoenix Jones, I am also Ben Fodor, a father and brother," he said, removing his hood. "I am just like everybody else. The only difference is that I try to stop crime."
William Gibson Interview
Illo: Rob Beschizza. Photo: Frederic Poirot Author William Gibson discusses Victorians, John Shirley and the early days of his career. A longer version of this interview appeared in the 197th issue of Paris Match
INTERVIEWER
Do you think fiction should be predictive?GIBSON
No, I don’t. Or not particularly. The record of futurism in science fiction is actually quite shabby, it seems to me. Used bookstores are full of visionary texts we’ve never heard of, usually for perfectly good reasons.INTERVIEWER
You’ve written that science fiction is never about the future, that it is always instead a treatment of the present.GIBSON
There are dedicated futurists who feel very seriously that they are extrapolating a future history. My position is that you can’t do that without having the present to stand on. Nobody can know the real future. And novels set in imaginary futures are necessarily about the moment in which they are written. As soon as a work is complete, it will begin to acquire a patina of anachronism. I know that from the moment I add the final period, the text is moving steadily forward into the real future.There was an effort in the seventies to lose the usage science fiction and champion speculative fiction. Of course, all fiction is speculative, and all history, too—endlessly subject to revision. Particularly given all of the emerging technology today, in a hundred years the long span of human history will look fabulously different from the version we have now. If things go on the way they’re going, and technology keeps emerging, we’ll eventually have a near-total sorting of humanity’s attic.
In my lifetime I’ve been able to watch completely different narratives of history emerge. The history now of what World War II was about and how it actually took place is radically different from the history I was taught in elementary school. If you read the Victorians writing about themselves, they’re describing something that never existed. The Victorians didn’t think of themselves as sexually repressed, and they didn’t think of themselves as racist. They didn’t think of themselves as colonialists. They thought of themselves as the crown of creation.
Of course, we might be Victorians, too.
INTERVIEWER
The Victorians invented science fiction.GIBSON
I think the popular perception that we’re a lot like the Victorians is in large part correct. One way is that we’re all constantly in a state of ongoing technoshock, without really being aware of it—it’s just become where we live. The Victorians were the first people to experience that, and I think it made them crazy in new ways. We’re still riding that wave of craziness. We’ve gotten so used to emergent technologies that we get anxious if we haven’t had one in a while.But if you read the accounts of people who rode steam trains for the first time, for instance, they went a little crazy. They’d traveled fifteen miles an hour, and when they were writing the accounts afterward they struggled to describe that unthinkable speed and what this linear velocity does to a perspective as you’re looking forward. There was even a Victorian medical complaint called “railway spine.”
Emergent technologies were irreversibly altering their landscape. Bleak House is a quintessential Victorian text, but it is also probably the best steam-punk landscape that will ever be. Dickens really nailed it, especially in those proto-Ballardian passages in which everything in nature has been damaged by heavy industry. But there were relatively few voices like Dickens then. Most people thought the progress of industry was all very exciting. Only a few were saying, Hang on, we think the birds are dying.
++++++++++++++++++
INTERVIEWER
You wrote your first story for a class, didn’t you?GIBSON
A woman named Susan Wood had come to UBC as an assistant professor. We were the same age, and I met her while reconnoitering the local science-fiction culture. In my final year she was teaching a science-fiction course. I had become really lazy and thought, I won’t have to read anything if I take her course. No matter what she assigns, I’ve read all the stuff. I’ll just turn up and bullshit brilliantly, and she’ll give me a mark just for doing that. But when I said, “Well, you know, we know one another. Do I really have to write you a paper for this class?” She said, “No, but I think you should write a short story and give me that instead.” I think she probably saw through whatever cover I had erected over my secret plan to become a science-fiction writer.I went ahead and did it, but it was incredibly painful. It was the hardest thing I did in my senior year, writing this little short story. She said, “That’s good. You should sell it now.” And I said, “No.” And she said, “Yeah, you should sell it.” I went and found the most obscure magazine that paid the least amount of money. It was called Unearth. I submitted it to them, and they bought it and gave me twenty-seven dollars. I felt an enormous sense of relief. At least nobody will ever see it, I thought. That was “Fragments of a Hologram Rose.”
INTERVIEWER
How did you meet John Shirley?GIBSON
Shirley was the only one of us who was seriously punk. I’d gone to a science-fiction convention in Vancouver, and there I encountered this eccentrically dressed young man my age who seemed to be wearing prison pajamas. He was an extremely outgoing person, and he introduced himself to me: “I’m a singer in a punk band, but my day job is writing science fiction.” I said, “You know, I write a little science fiction myself.” And he said, “Published anything?” And I said, “Oh, not really. This one story in this utterly obscure magazine.” He said, “Well, send me some of your stuff, I’ll give you a critique.”As soon as he got home he sent me a draft of a short story he had written perhaps an hour beforehand: “This is my new genius short story.” I read it—it was about someone who discovers there are things that live in bars, things that look like drunks and prostitutes but are actually something else—and I saw, as I thought at the time, its flaws. I sat down to write him a critique, but it would have been so much work to critique it that instead I took his story and rewrote it. It was really quick and painless. I sent it back to him, saying, “I hope this won’t piss you off, but it was actually much easier for me to rewrite this than to do a critique.” The next thing I get back is a note—“I sold it!” He had sold it to this hardcover horror anthology. I was like, Oh, shit. Now my name is on this weird story.
People kept doing that to me, and it’s really good that they did. I’d give various friends stuff to read, and they’d say, “What are you going to do with this?” And I’d say, “Nothing, it’s not nearly there yet.” Then they’d Xerox it and submit it on my behalf, to places I would have been terrified to submit to. It seemed unseemly to me to force this unfinished stuff on the world at large.
INTERVIEWER
Do you still consider that work unfinished?GIBSON
I had a very limited tool kit when I began writing. I didn’t know how to handle transitions, so I used abrupt breaks, the literary equivalent of jump cuts. I didn’t have any sense of how to pace anything. But I had read and ad- mired Ballard and Burroughs, and I thought of them as very powerful effect pedals. You get to a certain place in the story and you just step on the Ballard.INTERVIEWER
What was the effect?GIBSON
A more genuine kind of future shock. I wanted the reader to feel constantly somewhat disoriented and in a foreign place, because I assumed that to be the highest pleasure in reading stories set in imaginary futures. But I’d also read novels where the future-weirdness quotient overwhelmed me and simply became boring, so I tried to make sure my early fiction worked as relatively solid genre pieces. Which I still believe is harder to do. When I started Neuromancer, for instance, I wanted to have an absolutely familiar, utterly well-worn armature of pulp plot running throughout the whole thing. It’s the caper plot that carries the reader through.INTERVIEWER
What do you think of Neuromancer today?GIBSON
When I look at Neuromancer I see a Soap Box Derby car. I felt, writing it, like I had two-by-fours and an old bicycle wheel and I’m supposed to build something that will catch a Ferrari. This is not going to fly, I thought. But I tried to do it anyway, and I produced this garage artifact, which, amazingly, is still running to this day.Even so, I got to the end of it, and I didn’t care what it meant, I didn’t even know if it made any sense as a narrative. I didn’t have this huge feeling of, Wow, I just wrote a novel! I didn’t think it might win an award. I just thought, Phew! Now I can figure out how to write an actual nove
Oct 13, 2011
F**kin beautiful....
On Sunday morning, Seattle superhero Phoenix Jones, whose secret identity has been revealed as 23-year-old Benjamin John Francis Fodor, was arrested for allegedly pepper spraying a group of people. Don't-miss-footage of the scene is above.
mmmm...zombie candy corn
Zombie Candy Corn
By on October 12, 2011
Artist Andrew Bell of the Creatures in my Head has brought one of his illustrations to ‘life’. His 2003 drawing titled The Return of the Children of the Candy Corn of the Damned II features a zombie candy corn which he has now made into two wonderful 3D sculptures titled Out Out Damned Corn (Patient 0) and Return of Yellow #5 (Patient 1). Each one comes with its own bell jar for display
luv it.....
"That official did not explain why drone crews were playing Mafia Wars or similar games during their overseas missions," observes Noah Shachtman at Danger Room, who first broke the pwned drone story.
Oct 12, 2011
Ape speaks......
Well Perry is for all intents and purposes is toast. A different year or a different time he would have gotten more slack. But unfortunately for him W did for clueless Texan pols what Hitler did for tooth brush mustaches. So for Romney it is South Carolina. The area where he is most likely to be challenged from the tin hat crowd. This election will be ran on how much the far right is willing to swallow and still show up.
Hillary to be Obama's vice? Interesting....
he did everything but garrote himself with a string tie...
Rick Perry Fumbles Revolutionary War Remarks Following Republican Debate
Following Tuesday night's Republican presidential debate, Texas Governor Rick Perry stumbled in making remarks on the Revolutionary War, Carrie Dann at NBC News reports.
The GOP contender suggested that one of the "reasons we fought the revolution in the 16th century was to get away from that kind of onerous crown" in response to a question on the issue of states' rightsyikes...
Tessa Farmer’s Fairies Feast on the Flesh of Birds
A close-up look at one of Tessa Farmer's eerie fairies, crafted by the artist using insect parts and fern roots.
Last time I checked, Tinkerbell didn’t use hedgehog-spine spears to kill small birds, nor did she feast on their flesh before turning their skeletons into flying vessels. But artist Tessa Farmer imagines a very different kind of fairy
dig it.....
Susannah Breslin in Forbes, story and photos: "Is the Occupy Wall Street movement a revolution or a mess? That all depends on who you ask."
Things I need.....
When It's Gone It's Gone, an online one-of-a-kind store, is selling this Royal Navy ejector seat that's been fitted with legs for use as an office desk-chair. Not sure what the ergonomics are like (I assume that a pilot's seat has to be at least moderately comfy, though!), and as for price, it's a strictly "make an offer" affair.
Oct 11, 2011
more Cthulhu, more better...
DeviantArt's DrFaustusAU has been posting "The Call of Cthulhu," Dr Seuss/HP Lovecraft mashup, one page at a time. The good doctor's got a nice ear for scansion, and is quite adept at producing seussian lines, which makes this quite a delight.
shameless self promotion........
5.0 out of 5 stars A Frenetic Read, October 19, 2007 
By
This review is from: Gideon's Fall: When You Don’t Have a Prayer, Only a Miracle Will Do (Paperback)
I will start this review by saying that I had a hard time deciding between four and five stars. The prevelance of misused homonyms and typos definitely detracts from the storytelling, but the dynamism and vigor of an unusual literary style eventually decided me in favor of five stars. In this hurly-burly view of the indeterminably close future, an improbable spritual innocent, an unlikely telekinetic spaceman, and an all too likely cast of surgically and genetically enhanced humans romp through a borderless world in which a militant Catholic church deploys fighting Jesuit castrati, Mormans mount a fighting rearguard action and a Jim Jones wannabe charges into the fray. Through it all a cast of bit players entertain with violent sidelights in a worlwide fight underground. Actually, in the end, Gideon, a consistant but secondary player does not actually fall, the denouement being as satisfying and odd as the rest of the novel.
The author's unusual dynamic style takes a chapter or two to acclimate to, but is well suited to the tale that he spins. This is one of those rare books that is one good editor away from the bookstands and bookstores
liberal freaks...
The Sesame Street muppets join the picket lines of the Occupy Wall Street protest in this doctored photo series by Tauntr.
The photos are reminiscent of Paco Pomet’s surrealist painting of Cookie Monster
Oct 8, 2011
here we go.....
Perry backer says Mormonism is a cult...
Richard Ellis / Getty Images
It wasn't all anti-Obama speeches at the Values Voters Summit Friday. Texas evangelical leader Robert Jeffress introduced Texas Gov. Rick Perry as a “a genuine follower of Jesus Christ,” and then explained his word choice by telling reporters that Mitt Romney “is not a Christian.” Perry's campaign immediately tried to distance itself from Jeffress, saying that it “does not believe Mormonism is a cult” and that Jeffress had been chosen boy the event's organizers. But Perry's camp acknowledges that it is the pastor at an influential Baptist church in Dallas. Jeffress, surprised by the response to his comments, said, “This isn’t news. This idea that Mormonism is a theological cult is not news either.” Romney's campaign declined to comment.
Pot holder for your baked goods....ha ha ha ha (it's early)
This silicone pot holder, aptly named Pot Holder designed by GAMA-GO, is punningly made in the shape of a marijuana leaf and is available from our friends at
Oct 7, 2011
A year out...(Ape editorial)
O.K. A year or so to go. 9.1 % unemployment. Iraq a forgotten mess. Afghanistan a hot mess. It should be a Republican cake walk. But it's not. Perry is a idiotic boot wearin numbnutdid that..) Cain makes pizza (I like pizza but...) (Michelle Bachmanis bare wires nuts... Gingrich well he is Gingrich..so that leaves Romney. Now it is impossible for a modern Republican candidate to win the electoral college with sweeping the southern states. And Mitt is a Mormon which is going to make all the snakehandlers below the Mason Dixon very antsy which will lead to all kinds of third party challenges. The old saying was that "liberals fall in love republicans fall in line " doesn't seem to hold true this year. Conservatives need some love, Can mitt deliver? I am not sure. Obama should be getting boxes from uhaul (I realize be angry at Obama for not turning things around is like screaming at you wife after you gave her a bucket of shit and come back a hour later and it's not a souffle ) But confidently wisdom says it shouldn't even be close.It's sure looks pretty close from here 
Oct 5, 2011
leave sh** alone...
New York State Senators want "refined First Amendment," laws to prevent trolling, flaming and excluding people from online groups
New York State Senators Jeff Klein, Diane Savino, David Carlucci and David Valesky apparently missed civics class, because they think the First Amendment grants the "privilege" of free speech, not the right, and that this "refined" view of free speech should be implemented in order to stop people from saying stupid things on the Internet.Their report suggests that a "refined" First Amendment could be used to stop "happy slapping" (a short-lived violent craze from 2005), trolling, "flaming," and "INTENTIONALLY AND CRUELLY EXCLUDING SOMEONE FROM AN ONLINE GROUP" (the caps are theirs).
Seriously? If we don't let you into the club, it's now a form of cyberbullying? It makes you wonder what happened to these particular Senators when they were kids.
The paper also attacks "anonymity," again ignoring how anonymity can often be extremely helpful to kids who wish to discuss things and ask questions without revealing who they are.
As for where they're going with this? Well, you guessed it: they're planning to introduce new laws to deal with cyberbullying (even though NY already has such a law). The plan is to extend two existing areas of law: "stalking in the third degree" will now include cyberbullying, and "manslaughter in the second degree" will be expanded to "include the emerging problem of bullycide."
Oct 4, 2011
mmmmmmm....edible mouse and usb stick
Mouse and USB stick sandwich and garnish
Here's a clever mouse-and-USB-stick sandwich, creator uncredited
Sep 30, 2011
Is this goose stepping schmuck still alive?
Pat Buchanan: Black People Bought 'Propaganda' On The 'Liberal Plantation'
Pat Buchanan endorsed Herman Cain's controversial claim that black voters have been "brainwashed" into voting Democratic -- and, on Thursday, he added some very controversial opinions of his own to the mix.
On Wednesday, Cain told CNN that black voters "have been brainwashed into not being open-minded, not even considering a conservative point of view." The comment received a lot of attention, and MSNBC's Martin Bashir asked Buchanan about it on his Thursday show. Buchanan said he wholeheartedly approved."I think the African American community has embraced Great Society liberalism which has been devastating for the African American family," he said. "...I admire Herman Cain for standing up and going against, if you will, the conventional wisdom, and being a tough African American businessman."
"Brainwashed?" Bashir said. "That's a fairly strong term."
"I think what he's saying is they bought a lot of liberal propaganda on the liberal plantation and I think he's right!" Buchanan replied staunchly.
"On the liberal plantation. Wow." Bashir said. "That's right," Buchanan said.
Buchanan got himself into hot water In August when he called President Obama "your boy" to Al Sharpton. (Buchanan later clarified his remarks.)
Forgot to report $700,000 of income? Get em....
Clarence Thomas Should Be Investigated For Nondisclosure, Democratic Lawmakers Say
The letter outlines how, throughout his 20-year tenure on the Supreme Court, Thomas routinely checked a box titled "none" on his annual financial disclosure forms, indicating that his wife had received no income. But in reality, the letter states, she earned nearly $700,000 from the Heritage Foundation from 2003 to 2007 alone.
Sep 29, 2011
BEARS!!!!!!!!! (apologies to stephen colbert)
Clyde Gardner Wanted To Wear Bear's Skin, Murder Ex-Girlfriend: Prosecutors
MALONE, N.Y. — A New York man who had abused his ex-girlfriend and then plotted to kill her and make it look like she had been mauled by a bear was sentenced to prison for trying to hire someone to kill her in a staged car crash.
Clyde Gardner gave up on his first idea: Kill a bear, skin it and wear the pelt while using its claws to kill the woman as she took out her garbage. The plan included him wearing the bear's paws on his feet so no human footprints would be left behind.
Clyde Gardner gave up on his first idea: Kill a bear, skin it and wear the pelt while using its claws to kill the woman as she took out her garbage. The plan included him wearing the bear's paws on his feet so no human footprints would be left behind.
bring your child to work day. (house edition)
Image: From the Onion, a photoshopped image of John Boehner holding a child hostage on the steps of Congress. A series of tweets related to this article caused a stir today.
Sep 26, 2011
Sep 25, 2011
Couch Fest Films
Rosa is one of nearly 60 short films being featured during Couch Fest Films.
Image courtesy Couch Fest Films
Image courtesy Couch Fest Films
The popcorn comes straight out of the kitchen this weekend when dozens of houses in Iceland, Haiti, Peru and elsewhere temporarily transform into Couch Fest Films movie theaters.
Couch Fest Films — arguably the world’s most cozy film festival — will screen nearly 60 short films in makeshift home theaters on Saturday. Its self-described “Captain,” Craig Downing, launched the festival in Seattle in 2008. This year the geographic scope of the fest has expanded to 10 countries total.
It’s a cool idea, but what’s wrong with regular movie theaters?
“We had been thinking about how people usually just sit in the dark, watch a film, and then go home,” Downing explained in an email to Wired.com. “We wanted to create an event that would encourage people to come together. We figured by having a film festival in strangers’ houses it could be a great physical and metaphorical way to encourage people to open the door and talk to each other.”
Downing, now working as a cameraman in Reykjavik, Iceland, adds, “I know it’s cheesy, but we have a crippling weakness for developing community. Our mission has always been to bring people together with mind-blowing films.”
Ten U.S. cities will host Couch Fest Films movies, including Jesus Orellana’s fantastical short film Rosa (pictured above). For a complete list of Saturday’s locations, check the map here.
See Also:
saw them in 77' at cbgbs, back when the world was new....
The 7th Annual Johnny Ramone Tribute takes place on October 1st at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles
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