She owns half these linky.
El Gorgo issue two! In which the erudite Mexican wrestler who is also a gorilla takes on Lovecraftian cultists who are alien dinosaurs who are in the FUTURE! Bonus: he says Khaaaaaan when he is struck down! Free to read online, and you can order the print copies too.
40-minute interview with Chris Onstad of Achewood. I haven’t watched this yet myself.
Frederik Pohl has a blog! That would be Frederik Pohl, aged 89, science fiction legend and winner of countless SF awards for his writing and editing. Awesome.
An episode of the Bill & Ted cartoon voiced by Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves, with George Carlin in the Rufus role! WYLD!
An extraordinary oral history of the Bush years courtesy Vanity Fair.
And finally… the most convincing ad for D&D ever published.
Civilised!
Cal and I tied the knot yesterday! (This photo is from Jenni on Facebook – thank you!)
Shortly we go to my parents for the post-bash BBQ (2pm until fallover o’clock). I hope everyone remembers that it’s on and they’re all invited… or we’ll have lots and lots of sausages left over…
Wire and Request
First thing, cross-posted from my LJ:
“Wellington – buy The Wire now.
If you are in Wellington, and if you like The Wire, stop queueing to borrow it. Get yourself along to Borders Lambton Quay where you can get seasons 2, 3 and 4 for the princely sum of $9.99 each (down from $59.99 each).
You read that right. Borders goes a bit wacky with their pricing sometimes and no doubt this is a system error of some sort, but there was a whole display with 9.99 Wire seasons. They’ll probably fix it in a day or two, like they did when I bought Under The Mountain for $7 (down from $30) but it is entirely legit while it lasts.
I bought ’em.”
Second thing:
If anyone going to the big wedding party on Sat is free during the day and can lend a hand setting up, drop me an email. We’d love to have a couple extra bods…
The Horror, The Horror
They were penned up and set out for purchase by huge beasts who wanted to chop them to pieces and devour their corpses. Before they could be eaten they staged a daring breakout and fled into the night. Finding a safe place to stop running, they established their own hidden sanctuary where they created a new society of their own, where they would hopefully be safe from being eaten. They named their community in memory of that threat, so they would never become complacent. They were… the Munch Bunch.
The whole terrifying tale retold as a jaunty song.
These characters were important to me when I was little, particularly the Banana Bunch. The all-knowing Wikipedia has an entry that mentions the special New Zealand series of characters. I remember these fondly, and I remember being pleased that there were NZ characters in the books (even if they never turned up on the television show).
President Obama
Man, that does feel good to say.
Much better than whatever that last one’s name was.
Comes Great Responsibility
Previously
Now: Barack Obama writes to his daughters
“And I want every child to understand that the blessings these brave Americans fight for are not free-that with the great privilege of being a citizen of this nation comes great responsibility.”
Hee.
BIZ-E
Final week before the big day. Final week being engaged. Loads to do.
Was in a shop the other day with Gregor, Malc and Liz. Gregor nudged me and pointed at a t-shirt showing a bride-and-groom symbol, and I read aloud the words above it: “Game on!” Gregor shook his head and flattened the shirt so I could see that it really said “Game Over”. But he insisted that it was a good omen that I misread it so positively…
(If y’all want to come, give me an email. Yes, you *are* invited.)
Revival Linky
Abandoned places: a Russian nuclear-powered arctic lighthouse; a ruined amusement park about Jesus; the soundstage for The Wire.
Rediscovered – the wonderful Edward Gorey’s book of early-60s etiquette, The Recently Deflowered Girl, giving correct advice for the aftermath of that delicate moment.
Galactus’ Kirby-helmet conceals sekret funny face
Classic Far Side cartoons recreated as real photos
Designheads will love this, because I sure do: the Book Cover Archive. All those beautiful lookin’ books!
The ever-delightful Kate Beaton turns her attention away from historical folk to discuss the behaviour of young women today.
Lego as urban intervention
The Wire’s five seasons summarized in a 5 minute rap (er, spoilers):
And finally… Robocop really really likes chicken
Goodbye Silly Bushy
Silly Bushy leaves office shortly. He’s delivering a farewell speech in about 24 hours but his last press conference signalled what that will be like: arrogant, unrepentant, blinkered.
How unfit this man was for office; how naive and clueless he was. For example, this staggering foolishness of this claim, so ridiculous in its audacity that I clipped it from a newspaper and kept it: Jan 10, 2008: Bush Predicts Mideast Peace In A Year. How bitterly ironic that as that year ticks up, the conflict between Israel and Palestine is not merely unresolved, but as far from peaceful as it has been for many years.
Aside from his enormous ignorance, it is his lack of empathy that I will remember, and his complete subjugation to the monstrous Dick Cheney. I have been waiting so long for Bush to be gone, we all have, but it now seems like such an anticlimax; is he still on the stage? How long is he going to stand there? When’s the new guy coming on? I want to see the new guy! Bush has been prematurely forgotten, which is astonishing considering the massive harm he has presided over and, frequently, caused. But I suppose we’re just sick of thinking about him. He wore out our fury, in the end.
Which means that I find myself in the unsettling position of agreeing with Boris Johnson, who wrote a chiding mockery of Bush for the Telegraph, but concluded: “without wishing to defend G W Bush, I want to enter an important qualification. Yes, he did lead the coalition to topple Saddam, and was, therefore, implicated in the loss of tens if not hundreds of thousands of lives. But at every stage he did so with the messianic support of Tony Blair, and the tacit approval of Gordon Brown; and when it came to persuading a reluctant public of the threat posed by Iraq, it should never be forgotten that the Labour Party and their spin doctors were far more ruthless and duplicitous than the White House.”
Quite. The venom I felt, and still feel, towards Tony Blair is undiminished but I have nothing like that degree of fury towards Bush. Bush was always a tool of those more clever and more wicked than he; this does not exonerate him in the least, but at least makes sense of the pity that I feel for him mixed in with the anger. I expect he will not find life easy outside of office. (At least until he is revisioned into a misunderstood hero in, say, twenty years, as Nixon was.)
Goodbye Silly Bushy, and your Cheney and your entire noxious ecosystem. The reality-based community delights in your departure.
Shorts
Have decided I need to focus on the short story form. Oddly, I now feel that I actually have an inkling of how to write for it, when for the last decade it has baffled me. So my goal is twelve short stories this year that I would be comfortable submitting for publication somewhere.
The first is now underway. It is amusing me, and riffing off an idea that’s been bouncing around in notebooks for the best part of that aforementioned decade. It’s reassuring to know that good ideas will wait patiently for me to catch up with them.