I’m leaving the title off of this until the end–read it first. Doctor, you say there are no haloes around the streetlights in Paris and what I see is an aberration caused by old age, an affliction I tell you it has taken me all my life to arrive at the vision of gas lamps as angels, to soften and… Read more →
Category: Books
The foetid taint of Hollywood
Why does Hollywood have to taint everything good? I mean, if they’re going to screw up Radio Free Albemuth, and apparently VALIS as well, (both of which I am fairly sure are unfilmable without dramatically transforming the work, and not for the better), what is safe? (Maybe I’m being cynical, although Dick’s history in Hollywood supports me. And “very close… Read more →
Sex Ed (For Alex Wilson)
WARNING: Do not read if squeamish. Really this is only for Alex. The new Jhonen Vasquez book is out. Yes, this is the same fellow who was the driving force behind Invader Zim. The same guy behind Johnny The Homicidal Maniac and (my favourite of his works) I Feel Sick, plus a bunch of other stuff. The new book, which… Read more →
Quote of the Day: Peter Watts
And the audience was pretty damn appreciative, even if some of them had already heard my comparison of God to an invisible purple hamster who lives up my butt and tells me what to do. (source) Read more →
Last bit of Cintra
If the earlier quotes on L.A. didn’t sell you the book, I’m going to take one more shot at convincing you, and then I’m going to shut up about it. Promise. France’s Surya Bonaly, the beautiful black ice skater, has gotten screwed by the judges every time I’ve ever seen her compete. Surya Bonaly is a blazing star, she is… Read more →
City Of Words
I guess it’s fair to say I was a bit of weird teenager. There probably weren’t many other people my age who would rush home most nights in order to catch Ideas on the radio. But I did. I loved that show (I still enjoy it more often than not when I catch it now, and I have a ton… Read more →
Cintra on L.A. (Three)
Picking up from here: What men routinely get away with in L.A. would get the tips of their noses sliced off in most of the social channels in New York. Women are different in New York; their methods of womanly operation are different from those in Southern California: more brains, more independent wealth, less sexual Uncle Tomming. New York women… Read more →
Cintra on L.A. (Two)
Picking up from here. There are a few hair-raising quality-of-life issues in Los Angeles, such as the fact that attitudes towards racism, instead of getting more enlightened with education and time, are rampantly degenerating—a retrogression completely supported and for all intents and purposes whipped further backwards by the torch holders of Hollywood status quo. Racism, which you don’t see an… Read more →
Really Old Books In The News
I noticed a couple of interesting–at least to me–stories in the news recently about some really old books. By far the more sensational story was the one about Codex Gigas, or Devil’s Bible, being put on display in Prague. That fact that it’s on display is perhaps less interesting than the fact that it exists at all. There’s quite a… Read more →
Any System
Any system you contrive without us will be brought down We warned you before and nothing that you built has stood Hear it as you lean over your blueprint Hear it as you roll up your sleeve Hear it once again Any system you contrive without us will be brought down You have your drugs You have your guns You… Read more →
Cintra on L.A. (One)
You may recall my mention that I’m really enjoying my couple-of-pages-a-day reading of Cintra Wilson‘s book. Well, here’s a quote about Los Angeles that stood out for me while reading the book, presented for your amusement: The “Ha-ha, Satan lives in L.A.” jokes are not really funny anymore, because they’re too eerily true. There’s so many hoof tracks and triple-6… Read more →
The Farouche Assemblage
If you read this blog closely, you will have noticed a few mentions of Matt Hughes, particularly including my mention of being startled at finding out there was a Hughes chapbook forthcoming from a publisher I had previously never heard of. Well, you can be sure I’ll be paying a lot more attention to Payseur And Schmidt from now on.… Read more →
What I’m Reading Right Now
Sometimes people ask me what I’m reading right now. I usually pick something interesting that I’ve finished recently and talk about that. This is primarily because I am always loathe to commit much of an opinion to a work until I finish it–if it’s terrible enough that I don’t want to read it, I can comment on why I stopped,… Read more →
A Targeted Miscellany
A Sunday link list, of things that made me think of specific people. For my lovely wife, to share with her radical feminist associates, is the story of the most famous pirate of all time. Especially the bits about the pirate laws governing female prisoners. And the end of the story. Also for her yet another story about people who… Read more →
Sic transit gloria mundi
I was a bit too enervated to worry about blogging, or reading blogs, last night, so I woke this morning to find the entire Internet plastered with the news that Madeleine L’Engle had died. (See link list below). I know exactly when I read my first L’Engle book: it was A Wrinkle In Time, in the enrichment program in Grade… Read more →
