Rainbow Examines Near Future
SCI FI Wire just published a piece I wrote about Vernor Vinge’s new novel, Rainbows End, which is his first novel in seven years.
Creepers Creeps In Real Time
SCI FI Wire just published a story I wrote about David Morrell’s recent Stoker Award nomination for his novel, Creepers.
The Art of the Phone Interview, or, an Ode to the Dictaphone
As my loyal readers know, I recently interviewed George R.R. Martin for SCI FI Wire. What you don’t know is that while I normally do email interviews, GRRM dislikes them and preferred to do a phone interview. So off I went into new territory.
Not being able to transcribe a conversation as I conduct one word for word, and not having a perfect memory, I figured I better record the call. Which I did, but my recording plan didn’t turn out to be too smart–I was using my Pocket PC to record the interview, holding it up to my cell phone speaker and trying to listen at the same time. Didn’t work great, but I couldn’t think how else to do it with the technologies I had at hand. I downloaded a program for my PC (Call Corder) that’s supposed to record calls for you, but I couldn’t figure out how to use it. And by couldn’t figure out how to use it, I mean, couldn’t even figure out how to set it up, get it to recognize my modem, etc. Pretty pathetic.
I need to find *something* though. I have another phone interview in about a week and a half. I won’t say who with now, but maybe I’ll post about it later to report how it went.
But man, I really don’t like the phone interview. I get unspeakably nervous beforehand, so I waste a lot of time preparing and re-preparing my materials, watching the clock, etc. And then once it’s done, you have to spend all that extra time transcribing it, and it’s somewhat frustrating if you can’t make out exactly what he says (luckily that didn’t happen enough to matter for my GRRM interview).
See, what I need is to get that recording program working, and then get one of those voice-to-text programs to transcribe it for me; I’m sure such a thing would require some clean-up and editing, but it would probably be easier than trying to transcribe the whole thing manually.
Anyone have any suggestions?
SCIFIPEDIA
Check out SCI FI.com’s SCIFIPEDIA.
UPDATE: SCIFI.com seems to have locked down the SCIFIPEDIA–perhaps they hadn’t intended it to be public yet. When you try to go to it now, all you get is a prompt asking you for a username and password.
November Haunted By Past
SCI FI Wire just published a piece I wrote about Tom Piccirilli’s November Mourns and its recent Stoker Award nomination.
STRONG MEDICINE: April 2006
The latest installment of my book review column, STRONG MEDICINE: Books That Cures What Ails You, has just been published at Intergalactic Medicine Show.
In this column, I review Fledgling by Octavia Butler, Engaging the Enemy by Elizabeth Moon, Journey Between Worlds by Sylvia Louise Engdahl, and Burn by James Patrick Kelly.
New Home Page
Accelerando Is 8th Hugo Nod
SCI FI Wire just published a piece I wrote about Charles Stross’s recent Hugo Award-nomination for Accelerando.
Some New Music
After all the research I’ve done to discover new metal bands, it’s nice to have them find me once and a while. See, MySpace *is* good for something.
First, this band, Behind the Scenery, contacted me. And it wasn’t just some random MySpace blast–they actually showed that they’d read my profile, enough to see who I cited as musical favorites and suggested I check them out since they’re similar to other bands I like. So I did, and they’re right–they’re similar, and they’re good. I’d’ve bought their indie-label albums already, but they’re German, and the exchange rate is a little high for my wallet ($25 for one album, though that does include shipping, I believe–still, too much for now). However, they do have several free songs available for download, so I’ve got them rocking my iPod. (There’s a few on their MySpace page, and a few more on their website.)
The other day, another band contacted me: Hung, and they hail from NYC, so they’re local. Like Behind the Scenery, they read my profile and made a targeted pitch. So I checked them out, and they’re good. And it turns out they’re having a free live show at the Continental in Manhattan on April 25. One of the guys musicians [not a guy] in the band–the one who emailed me, in fact–plays electric violin, a Juilliard-trained violinist, no less. I thought that was pretty cool; not what you usually see in a death metal band. As that might indicate, they have a pretty diverse sound–defintely worth checking out. There’s just one full-length song on their MySpace page, but you can listen to another of their songs (full-length) on their Battle of the Bands page. (Beware that link though–I tried following it twice in Firefox and it crashed by browser both times. I was able to get there in IE though.)
Besides these two bands, I’ve been on a bit of a musical binge lately. There’s a band I just discovered called Night in Gales. They’ve got a 4-song EP available on their website available for free download (there’s no direct link, so just look for the download page). I really dig all four songs, enough that I went out and bought one of their albums; alas, it wasn’t as good as those new ones. But I’ve only given it a preliminary listen thus far, so perhaps it’ll grow on me.
Another new band (well, an old band, but new to me) is Unleashed. They’ve got a couple free songs on their website too, for free download. Direct links are below. They’re all pretty kick-ass, and so is the album as a whole. I especially like “Winterland”–that was one of those songs that I just clicked with instantly and wanted to hear more. These guys are categorized as death metal, though they sound very thrash to me, albiet with a harder edge. They remind me a lot of Slayer, actually. Here are the free songs: “Winterland”; “Destruction (Of The Race Of Men)”; “Only The Dead”; “The Longships Are Coming”
Yet *another* new band is Scar Symmetry. They only had one free song to download, but it was enough to convince me to check out their album, and I’m glad I did. Though that song kicks-ass, it’s not the best song on the album, not by a long shot, which is a sign of a great album. Scar Symmetry is melodic death metal, but they have a really interesting take on that sound. Their line-up only lists one singer, but the vocals sound as if there’s dueling vocalists. A lot of singers shift between clean singing and death vox, but this guy probably has the most drastic range I’ve heard. He’ll go from really melodic singing, almost like the guy from Linkin Park, to this really deep, gutteral growl. It’s a nice effect that adds some nice dynamics to the music. They’re very melodeath in their complex guitar riffs, but it sounds like they add a bit of keyboards now and then (though they don’t credit a keyboard player in their line-up). And a nice bonus: it seems I’ve discovered them just in time to jump all over their second album, which comes out in May.
History Is Bunk: A Meme
via: Andrew Wheeler
Instructions: enter your birthdate into Wikipedia (without year), then post three events, two births and one death. I thought I’d put a little spin on the meme, by trying to relate my entries to SF/fantasy.
Events:
1930 – The radio mystery program The Shadow airs for the first time.
1964 – Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes).
1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.
Births:
1965 – J. K. Rowling, English novelist / 1980 – Harry Potter, fictional protagonist of J.K. Rowling‘s series Harry Potter
1966 – Dean Cain, American actor (played Superman in the TV show, Lois & Clark)
Death:
2001 – Poul Anderson, American author (b. 1926)