Man, I’ve been blogging a lot today. One other thing I wanted to mention: I’m officially going to World Fantasy this year. I didn’t think I’d be able to swing it, but since I’ll be covering the convention for SCI FI Wire (as I did for Worldcon), I can not only afford it, but will probably make money by going. And that’s a tough deal to beat, since I desperately wanted to go anyway.
Fantastic Genres II:
Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror
and Children’s Literature
SUNY New Paltz
Following the success of the first Fantastic Genres conference in late April-early May of 2004, the second conference once again looks to bring together writers, editors, critics, and academics in dialogue about the fantastic genres. Taking place over Columbus Day weekend of 2006, (October 6-8), the conference will host a range of programming including fiction and poetry readings, academic papers, and panel discussions on topics ranging from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to the narrative elements of Role-Playing Computer Games.
Keynote Writer:
John Crowley
From the beginning of his career, John Crowley has been among the most innovative and exciting writers working in the fantastic genres. His Little, Big (1981) has achieved the status of modern classic, while subsequent works such as The Translator (2002) and Lord Byron’s Novel: The Evening Land (2005) have solidified his accomplishment.
Keynote Critic:
Joan Gordon
Reviews editor for Science Fiction Studies, Joan Gordon is the author of a critical study of Gene Wolfe, and co-editor of the anthologies Blood Read: The Vampire as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture (1997) and Edging into the Future: Science Fiction and Contemporary Cultural Transformation (2002). She is Professor of English at
Other Scheduled Guests:
John Joseph Adams, Marleen Barr, Dave Belden, Rick Bowes, Chris Cevasco, Michael Cisco, Douglas E. Cohen, F. Brett Cox, Jeffrey Ford, Alexander Irvine, Sarah Langan, Nick Mamatas, Sarah Micklem, Kim Paffenroth, Helen Pilinovsky, Veronica Schanoes, Amy Tibbetts, Gordon Van Gelder, Ysabeau Wilce, Paul Witcover
If you’re a science fiction/fantasy/horror professional, and you’d like to participate, contact conference administrator John Langan (langanj@newpaltz.edu).
Conference Fee:
Admission to the conference is $35.00, payable by check or money order to SUNY New Paltz. Please mail payments to John Langan at the address below. SUNY New Paltz students with a valid student I.D. may attend the conference at no charge.
Lodging Options:
There are a number of lodging options available within a relatively brief drive to the SUNY New Paltz Campus. The 87 Motel offers affordable rooms and rates; the area is also home to the Mohonk Mountain House and Minnewaska Lodge, both of which offer more deluxe accommodations. For a complete list of local motels, hotels, and bed and breakfasts, please consult the New Paltz Chamber of Commerce.
For more information, contact:
John Langan (langanj@newpaltz.edu)
SUNY New Paltz
75 South Manheim Blvd.
New
845-257-2736
SUNY New Paltz Homepage
(includes driving directions)
I recently learned of a new online music store called eMusic, which offers a 14 day trial period, during which you can download 20 free songs. I checked it out pretty thoroughly during my trial period. Got 20 free songs out of it, so I was pretty happy with that, though they had quite a limited selection.
But I did discover at least one good band out of it: Gunmetal Grey. I’m really digging their album I downloaded from there. And holy crap, I just googled them to link to their website, and see on their MySpace page that they’re unsigned! Could have fooled me. This is good stuff. It’s firmly in the metalcore camp, with a mix of true hardcore growls with really clean melodic bits in the choruses. Somebody give these guys a record contract!
Which reminds me of a conversation I had with one of the guys manning a memorabilia table at the Viking museum exhibit. I was wearing my Killswitch Engage shirt, which he commented on, so we started talking about metal. I asked him if he liked Trivium, because they’re one of my favorite bands. He said he used to, but doesn’t like their new direction. That’s perfectly valid; I’m not entirely sure I approve of their new direction–I really loved what they did on their demo and first two albums–but I’ve heard three songs off the new album, and I have to say they all kick ass. It’s a very different sound; vocalist Matt Heafy has left behind the death vox screams in favor of a James Hetfield-esque growl; and like before, Heafy continues to contrast the harsher vocals with some clean melodic singing (which seems much improved since the last album). The instruments are as proficient as ever, and really freakishly so, considering these guys are all in their early twenties. (Of course, perhaps the most astonishing thing about them is that their demo, which is better than most professional produced albums, must have been recorded when Heafy was 15 or 16–and he not only provides the vocals; he also plays a blistering guitar.) But anyway–the thing that the guy at the Viking museum said that kind of stuck in my craw was that he disparaged Trivium’s melodic choruses, as if that were a bad thing. And this guy is certainly not alone in that opinion; I’ve seen a lot of other metalheads on online forums complain about that, not just with Trivium, but with any band that does that. This is not an opinion I share, and frankly don’t understand. To me, when a band shifts from a harsher riff to a melodic chorus, that contrast just makes the harder parts of the song seem all the more brutal. A non-stop barrage, with no melodic breaks, can feel like an attack; I don’t mind being bludgeoned by my music, but damn, give me a chance to take a breath once and a while.
Anyway–back to eMusic. Most of the other stuff I grabbed wasn’t that great. I got Darkest Hour‘s first album, which I think is just a demo; it’s not terrible, but I don’t particularly like it. Certainly not good like their other stuff. I’m still trying to find a way to buy their other recent albums on the cheap since iTunes still doesn’t have them for whatever reason. The WalMart Music store (which is cheap and has a great selection) has them, but I can’t play WMAs on my iPod. The thing is, I should be able to just buy them, then burn them to a CD, then I could re-rip the CD, and boom: DRM disabled. But my goddamn CD-R isn’t working for some reason. It just turns CDs into coasters.
I also got Days of Eulogy by Unearth, which is like b-sides or older stuff from demos or something. I never wanted to pay money for it because I didn’t particularly like their first album (and I expected Eulogy would be more of the same), though I loved their second (The Oncoming Storm), and the new one III: In the Eyes of Fire is equally kick ass. Eulogy is about on par with the first album, so I didn’t dig it too much. The other thing I got was most of Wolverine Blues by Entombed (didn’t have enough free tracks left to get the whole thing). It’s good, but I have a limited attention span for Entombed, and Wolverine Blues isn’t as good as the album before that, though it gets cool points for referencing everyone’s favorite mutant.
Some other music I’m really digging, which I might as well tell you about since I’m on a roll here, is the debut album by Mercenary, The Hours That Remain. If you click over to their MySpace page, you can listen to “Soul Decision,” the song that hooked me. This band is a bit unusual for me in that they feature clean vocals most of the time, with only occasional digressions into extreme vox (and the singer does both extraordinarily well). And as much as I like “Soul Decision,” there are songs on the album that are even better, and the rest are at least on par with it. So if you like that one, you’ll almost certainly dig the entire album.
Another band I’m very high on at the moment is Herod. Check out “That Green Feeling” and “Assimilation” for a good sampling of their stuff. And “Lies & Betrayal” is pretty awesome too, though it’s entirely clean singing (almost Iron Maiden-ish vocals), if that sort of thing bothers you.
And finally there’s Compos Mentis, a band who randomly friended me on MySpace, but damn, they’re pretty good. Thus endeth my seemingly quarterly music post.
In the wee hours of the morning today, Doug Cohen and I were guests on Jim Freund’s radio show, The Hour of the Wolf, which airs on WBAI in New York. I’ve got MP3s of the whole show up on my website, which you can access here: Part One and Part Two. The audio starts with about a half hour of music and then shortly after Jim Freund comes on and starts the show. [update: I edited that part out. Also, I wanted to mention that it sounds like at least part of the show wasn’t on the CD I have; part one ends in the middle of a sentence, so I’m not sure how much was lost. I expect not much, as the interview is still pretty long. Somewhere between 15-20 minutes could possibly be missing.]
I only took a few photos while I was there, and all of them turned out pretty badly. So you must content yourselves with this bad photo of Doug and this equally bad shot of Jim’s place in the control room.
First, David Louis Edelman announced he’ll be giving away five signed copies of his novel Infoquake , and now John Scalzi is also giving away a free signed ARC of his new novel The Android’s Dream (which I’m reading and enjoying at the moment).
And in related news, Mary Robinette Kowal has set up a raffle to help save Apex Digest, which includes some cool prizes. Here are the details, according to Mary:
I’ve set up an old-fashioned raffle with fairly staggering prizes to do some fundraising for Apex Digest. You can buy a ticket to put your name in the hat to win autographed copies of books, art, video and other strange goodies. Tickets are a dollar each. That’s nothing, right? You can afford that.
On Friday, September 29th, we’ll draw names and hand out the prizes.
You might win an autographed book by M.M. Buckner, Geoffrey Girard, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Kevin J. Anderson, Brian Keene, David Louis Edelman, and more. Or how about a copy-edited manuscript of a Ben Bova novel? Would you like a signed first edition hard cover of The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russel? Maybe you’d want to have your story professionally edited? Stop by and see which things you covet.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, while I was at the Haffenreffer Museum for Viking Weekend, I shot a video with my digital camera of two of the guides demonstrating Viking swordfighting techniques. It’s got sound and everything, so you’ll be able to hear them explaining the techniques as they demonstrate. Probably good for you all out there who are writing epic fantasy or swords-n-sorcery stuff.
Well, I’ve finally managed to get the video split up and posted to YouTube. For some reason, I’m having trouble getting the playlist to work properly, so here (behind the cut) are direct links to all seven parts. Enjoy!
(more…)
Wow. A book on writing by a woman with the actual last name of Prose. What are the odds of that? I guess it’s like naming a kid Jeeves: you know he’s destined to be a butler.
David Louis Edelman, author of the kick-ass SF novel Infoquake [read my review], is giving away five signed copies of the novel to the people who best accomplish one of five tasks, as outlined on his blog. Some of the tasks sound like fun, so go give it a shot. I’d happily enter, but I’ve already got a copy.
Intergalactic Medicine Show just published the latest installment of Camera Obscura, in which I review the new NBC superhero drama Heroes.
[Excerpt:] The dream sequence opener was the first clue that Heroes wasn’t exactly going to be full of original thought. The pilot is your standard comic book superhero origin story, given the Unbreakable treatment–which is to say, treated in a more realistic light: no spandex, just people with freaky powers. But its most grievous sin is the characters’ rather uncanny resemblance to the X-Men. Not only because they appear to be mutants, or the next step in human evolution, but also because some of the characters have direct X-Men analogues. For instance, Hiro has the same abilities as Nightcrawler; Claire, Wolverine; Peter, Storm (or any of the other flying X-Men). Stan Lee should consider suing somebody.
Go read the whole review and tell me what you think!
Apex Digest editor Jason Sizemore got laid off recently and has been publishing the magazine despite this for several months now. But now he needs your help. If you like the magazine, and would like to see it continue,