Of Rats and Hopes and Wonders

Hello, readers.

It's looking more and more possible that the end of February will see me flying to Seoul to teach English. It's not technically a done deal, as I've got some certifiying to finish, but I've begun orienting myself to the possibility, which mostly involves looking at food bits like this:



In other news, my super-heroish story, "The Blue Wonder," is flying over at Strange Horizons. I wrote it. You should read it. It's about a man who can fly and stuff.

Also, of note, Hope Mirrlees an author who has a lovely name and many good books which very few people have read, including me, now has a website dedicated to her. Selections from some of her works like, Lud in the Mist, and the entirety of of Madeleine are online. Mostly heard of her, as many have, through Neil Gaiman's blog. No excuses left now not to read her, I suppose.

And finally, but not lastly, Jack Pendarvis, teacher, Believer columnist, Awesome writer, and blog revolutionary, will be part of something called, "The Marginal Arts Festival," in Roanoke, Virginia. Jack is very excited about the mascot for this festival being a giant rat. Considering said mascot is made from, among other things, bicycle parts, wheelchair wheels, an Ubu stick and a rubber chicken, I think we can all agree his response is reasonable.


Happy Monday, readers.

ttfn.

Snow and Things

Hello, readers.

There was snow for a bit, and now it's mostly gone. Nashville freaked out for a similar amount of time, and now things are more or less back to normal. It is a town of many hills and not nearly enough salting vehicles, you understand. It's still a bit funny, though, to watch our weather people covering the imminent snow as though it were an attack of giant lizards.

In other news, 2010 is well under way. Here's a list of new and possibly real things to wonder at:

Thing 1, the almost certainly real Vampire Weekend have their new album streaming at NPR for one more day. Also, here they are on MTV Unplugged. I was surprised, too. I didn't think MTV existed anymore, either.

Thing 2, the possibly real and definitely kind of silly idea of a spin-off to Lost. io9 discusses how Lost: The Next Generation renders satire obsolete.

Thing 3, a story of mine will appear at Strange Horizons sometime tonight, or tomorrow morning. I'm fairly certain this is real.

Also, the final episodes of the David Tennant and Russel T. Davies Doctor Who show were watched by me and Mom. It turns out that Doctors and Davies are very much like snow in that they are here for a while, people freak out, and then they are gone. Was sad to seem them go, but I was also sad to see Christopher Eccleston go and that turned out okay.

Now we have a new Doctor to doubt and worry over and hopefully, eventually, to love and miss when his time comes to melt away. Here's what he looks like now, in his unmelted state.



He looks perpetually surprised, which is how a new Doctor should look. Don't know about the gun. But I trust Stephen Moffat to be scary and sublime. It looks like he's bringing back the Weeping Angels. Don't blink, readers.


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Loss, Time, Hope, And Other Nouns

Hello, readers.

It's the end of the year and the end of the decade. I could write something profound here about time and loss and change and the future but I think just listing those nouns should be enough.

If not, though, here is a paragraph of resolutions and thoughts stolen, more or less, from other, sometimes more famous, people.

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. Be more awesome. Return to your core values of Jerry Lewis, monkeys, UFOs, and oatmeal. Fight as if your weapons are all Dancing. Drink as if your mugs are Everfull. If you get the chance, close your eyes and pretend you're something you're not, maybe a a three-footed wallaby on Mars or a glowing fish swimming deep in a dark sea. Make something that didn't exist before you made it. Fail spectacularly and often. Live every day like a man in love. Realize you're falling. Realize everyone's falling. Say hello to everyone. Hello, everyone. And, as always, be kind, even if it means being cruel. The world will be the better for it. I promise.

It has been a strange and wonderful year for me, readers, as all years are if you pay attention. It just happens that in this one I lost a car, a grandfather, a father, a cat, and, well, I think I'll stop there, because in many ways, this was the greatest year of all years ever. There's a lot of love out there, readers. Keep your eyes and ears open. No, I don't know how to open ears. You'll figure it out, though, I'm sure.


Happy tomorrow, readers.


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Hooray for Everything

Hello, readers.

Hope the holidays have treated you well so far. If you're one of those who find all this happily and merrily stuff rather annoying, though, then, well, just wait a bit longer and then it will be the New Year and your happy cynicism can be directed at people's silly resolutions. That's always fun.

Speaking of which, here were some of mine.

Of the ones I didn't forget about entirely, I'm happy to say I accomplished a fair amount, including number 4: Fail spectacularly at something. That one was fun, if a bit tragic.

In other news, there's a story up at Fiction Weekly called "Jellyfish and Dragon Tattoos." It's rollicking and funny and includes lines like, "Such mystery," and "Fuck off, pilgrim." I tweeted about it already. So, in order to add value here, I've decided to search the author's name, Faith Gardner, on the internet.

It turns out that besides writing about giant crabs from outer space, she sometimes sings by herself and also with other people.

The other people are a band called, Hooray for Everything.

What's funny is that was my exact thought at the end of "Jellyfish and Dragon Tattoos."

Such mystery.

Happy everything, readers.


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Yes.

So, someone asked me to list the twenty albums of this decade that "blew/expanded my mind and remained in the permanent collection." Far be it from me to say no to a listing request.

So. Here goes. In no particular order except that this is the order that they occurred to me.

1) Radiohead - In Rainbows
2) Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
3) Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
4) Damien Rice - O
5) Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
6) Regina Spektor - Erm. Wow. The name just escaped me.
7) And now I'm derailed. Wait for the momentum to return. Okay. Go.
8) Arcade Fire - Funeral
9) Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
10) Cat Power - You Are Free
11) Andrew Bird - Noble Beast
12) Begin to Hope. That was the Regina Spektor album. Silly me.
13) Erm. Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
14) Maybe I should go check some best of lists to see what I've forgotten to remember.
15) Pausing. Waiting. Okay. Go.
16) Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise
17) Nickel Creek - Why Should the Fire Die
18) Hrm. Checking Paste for inspira-memory.
19) Cheating, really. But, oh well.
20) Ah yes. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
21) Is that 20 albums? Probably not.
22) The Decemberists - Her Majesty
23) The White Stripes - Elephant

And that's enough for now. However many that actually is.

Happy Christmas, readers.


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Best of: Late to the Party

Hello, readers. It's been awhile.

At the moment, I'm ensconced in the corner of a monkey watching John Green eat pizza.

This has inspired me to list the top five music discoveries I discovered this past decade which I was fairly late to the party on.

1) Neutral Milk Hotel. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is the kind of song I would want played at my funeral if I have to die, which seems to be the case from all available evidence.

2) Radiohead. Yes. It's true. I didn't listen to Radiohead until this decade.

3) The Beatles. Yes. This is worse. They were popular a while back. I heard their songs. Did not really listen until recently. They're quite good, actually.

4) Weezer. The Green Album saved my life. Not literally, of course. Completely unliteral thing. Mostly it just made me happy.

5) Elliot Smith. XO, among other things.

There. Okay. That was in no particular order that I know. Now I'm going to drive away from this monkey and get food.

Here's a quote before I go, though.

"There's nothing left to do but be awesome."

Think about it.


ttfn, readers.

Mermaids. Magic. Girls On Roller Skates.

Hello, readers.

If ever you wondered what is in my mind when writing these things, look here. Read the bit in quotes. That pretty much says everything you need to know.

Other things you could know, though, include:

Last night, at the Goon Presents Burlesque, there was magic, mermaids, and the Nashville Rollergirls. I was most surprised by the Rollergirls. They dressed in corsets and stockings and rolled out between bits to collect whatever was left behind on stage: namely beds, radios, and, erm, clothes. Their skating about added a nice bit of wheeled whimsy to everything.

Also whimsical was the hula-hooping of Sadie Twist. She's a member of Music City Burlesque which had several members performing.

All the girls were quite lovely, as was the crowd, who hooted and hollered in the most innocent manner you can imagine a crowd hooting and hollering at lovely girls dancing about and dropping things of societal importance.

Here's a picture of some of those girls done by La Photographie Nashville (who also did the one of Sadie to your left up there).

And here's a girl on roller skates with R2d2 (taken at the final 2009 bout):



ttfn, readers.