I Have No Shame and I Must Gossip

34 Comments / Scientifiction / By /

Breaking in to point to the chatter that Harlan Ellison groped Connie Willis (scroll to 3) — sans permission, natch, as the verb groping more or less implies — on stage during the Hugos.

Why was there no groping in Glasgow? Kim Newman and Paul McAuley would have been far less disturbing (and funnier), I’m sure.

But seriously, I think this news is going to remind a lot of us of a certain ICFA banquet gone terribly wrong. It must stop.

Updated: This is one of the most disgusting photos I’ve ever seen. Someone please put Ellison down. Immediately. Update of Update: As Ed points out, someone’s pulling a revisionist bait and switch so we are now linking to a different disturbing photo (meant, I suppose, to imply that it’s OKAY he grabbed her boob, because at some point she kissed him) instead of the mic/mouth one. But it’s still up here (scroll down) — if you want to see something hugely disturbing, anyway.

Updated again: Ed is right on.

Updated yet again: And so is Gavin.

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To (Pre)Judge or Not to (Pre)Judge

3 Comments / Books / By /

There’s a miniscule brouhaha over in TEV’s comments about the intrinsic merits (or rather deficiencies) of YA and other genre-type books and whether they can have as much "lasting value" as Great Adult Literature. I’m paraphrasing, but not by much.

I have promised myself not to post any further comments, because happy news day, stuff to do, and the like. But I’m weak, so who knows? And that doesn’t mean you can’t.

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Gypsy Music

1 Comment / Books / By /

I’ve been loving Beirut’s Gulag Orkestar ever since Kelly and Gavin sent it for my birthday. I had no idea that lead singer Zach Condon was just 20 years old — or that he dropped out of school to bum around Paris, and ended up discovering the wonders of Gypsy music.

This seems like as good a time as any to recommend yet again Fernanda Eberstadt’s fantastic book about Gypsy music and culture in France, Little Money Street: In Search of Gypsies and Their Music in the South of France, especially to those who may be listening to Beirut and intrigued by their influences. I’m not surprised at all that someone’s bringing back the influence of the great (often short-lived, often very young) Gypsy bands to the indie rock scene; I can’t believe it hasn’t happened sooner. I found myself drooling at Eberstadt’s descriptions of the tapes of live shows everyone trades in Perpignan. Let’s just hope the focus on Beirut leads to greater availability of bootlegs of some real Gypsy music.

p.s. Today’s earworm, however, is "Weekends Away" by the Math & Physics Club.

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Friday Hangovers

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Tyranny of the Anecdote

Scientifiction / By /

Some of you have heard the "snail man" anecdote in person. For everyone else, Christopher tells it on MemeTherapy, as one of several writers on the oddest thing they ever learned while researching a story:

It’s something that just came up recently, actually, though I’m not sure whether the info itself is as odd as the tone in which it was conveyed to me. I was on the phone to a science museum curator in Philadelphia, asking for information about snails. The character I’m contributing to the next round of George R.R. Martin’s Wild Cards books is, for want of a better term, a snail-centaur.

He asked “You’re researching this because you want to know what characteristics a snail man would have?”

I told him that was more or less it and he replied, with no hesitation at all, “Snail man would be a tremendous lover.”

All the answers are great fun.

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Requiem (Updated)

3 Comments / Goodbyes / By /

Last week, news filtered out that Mike Simanoff, the blogger behind Little Toy Robot (and other sites over the years), had died. Jeff Bryant wrote about him more eloquently than I’m able to. I only "knew" Mike through our respective sites and exchanging comments over the years; which is to say I knew him enough to be very, very sad for his friends, family and the world that he’s no longer here with us.

John Klima has posted his short story "Morris, His Self," which was in Electric Velocipede #6. There’s also a memorial site. R.I.P.

Updated from Michael’s brother (thanks, Colleen):

"Many people have asked about flowers and memorial donations. We are asking people to make donations in Michael’s memory to the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression." ( http://www.narsad.org/ )

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