Unca Harlan's Art Deco Dining Pavilion

Archive - 08/15/2005 to 09/26/2005

Unca Harlan's Art Deco Dining Pavilion

: One of them seemed to me a pleasant man with a nice manner.

: The other struck me as a superannuated teen-age golem with a slack jaw, a slow manner, a typical pointless surliness at a world unwilling or unable to accept him as Superlative, and on sum a twerp easy to dismiss.

I suppose then, sir, that the particular observation is the very reason the two of them are able to produce such a splended and unique blend of humour. Please remember that there are a lot of intelligent people in this world -- some, dare I suggest, are more intelligent than even you -- and this intelligence need not be expressed in the same manner by which you measure your own. I hope that you would not pretend that you could compose music with the same degree of insight you use to compose a sentence.

You may not find their breed of humour funny or their form of expression engaging, but you have to respect that they were invited to the event as your peers. If you really believe what you seem to believe about one or both of them, I see only two real possibilities:

Your breed of expression is past its prime and you lament the end of the 1980's. You are sorry to see what is becoming of your aging fan base and helpless to cope with the onslaught of Internet publishing [Even this interface is crude and five years behind the times]. You feel the need to lash out at any conceivable threat and hide behind a shield of vocabulary whenever your motives are called into question.

- or -

You really are a complete and total megalomaniac.

I find the second conclusion most likely, but I still feel the first has merit. You are of course entitled to feel however you wish, but please take the following into account:

I am not a young man, though I am not nearly as old as you and far older than either of the Penny Arcade authors.
I was a fan of yours before Penny Arcade existed.
I am no longer a fan of yours because you ruined my fun. I could care less about how smart you are. I know plenty of people personally who rank at the highest levels of intelligence by various means of measurement and none of them would behave like you have. Welcome to the list of idiot savants.

Fools and foolscap
Hey all,

As a long-time lurker and Ellison admirer, I hate to prolong the discussion of the foolscap foolishness, but there is a question I must ask. Am I correct in my understanding that Harlan Ellison, a writer whose contributions to English literature will be remembered for as long as this thing called civilization continues to sputter and gasp, was asked to share guest-of-honor status with two nimrods whose only claim to fame is a snarky web site about video games? And then asked to don a dunce cap on stage with said meatballs?

Is this correct?

If Oscar Wilde wasn't dead, he is now.

Chuck

Hello little fuck
Love your star wars material, keep up the good work.

"Of course I wasn't there, but the first thing I think of when I think of insulting Harlan Ellison is to call him a little fuck. There's an old story out there (stop me if you've already heard it) about him propositioning a tall blonde woman at a party with the line, "What would you say to a little fuck?" Her answer, of course, was, "Hello little fuck."

Still gets him riled I hear.

Harlan, I need to apologize for my meshuggener behavior during the book signing Saturday night right before your charity lecture.

To be brief, one of the items I wanted signed was the booklet from the On The Road With Ellison volume 2; only I forgot to remove the security strip from the jewel case. With people behind me and the time almost 9:30, I got really flustered and HE deservedly so busted my chops for the way I acted. BTW, HE signed the jewel case!

I agree with HE's assessment of Gabe and Tycho.

Yes Kristin there are Webderlanders in the Seattle area. As I posted yesterday, I was only able to attend the guest of honor and charity speeches. I wish was able to spend time Sunday at the con.

In rooting about the internet, I found another great quote from Louis Pasteur:
"I beseech you to take interest in these sacred domains so expressively called laboratories. Ask that there be more and that they be adorned for these are the temples of the future, wealth and well-being. It is here that humanity will grow, strengthen and improve. Here, humanity will learn to read progress and individual harmony in the works of nature, while humanity's own works are all too often those of barbarism, fanaticism and destruction."

David

I can't believe you got up there and made fun of Gabe and Tycho! Tycho -- Tycho! -- who has never written an unkind word.

And children around the world were raised on Gabe's beloved brainchild, the Fruit Fucker. You smear their memory with dirt. How could you? How could you get up there and do it?

Yay.

"Hi Mr. Ellison.
Just wanted to tell you how much I loved your Star Wars book.
Cheers!"

And who says Oscar Wilde is dead?

say what?
WHAT? There are Webderlanders in Seattle??? I'd gotten the impression it was only the five of us Harlan took to dinner NONE of who was local and several (such as Barney) had bigger reasons than me for doing it, (going out of their way I mean) like having had years to really make friends with The Man. I'd have loved to have met YOU! (the name tags dopnt say where anyone is from, because mostly only local people attend I guess)

nice reports, guys!

Ugh. Giving out a URL in public brings the trolls out too...

Well, I suppose Harlan isn't for the shy or fearful; I wouldn't sic Harlan on myself. Except I did, by coming here. I decided long ago I wouldn't be scared away from this board, As for the con...*Eventually* I think i did manage to look HE in the face if not in the eye....if I ever get it right he'll call me by my first name instead of my last name like a drill sergeant....never mind. Um. I was not there at the Gabe/Tycho thing if that is what you mean. I hope they were not overly offended - somehow everyone always seems to get angry on behalf of somebody *else*.

I do know "foolscap" means paper, but I think I learned it from something in Cecil Adams' "Straight Dope" column. Pure chance, not from looking it up. Of course, most people have dictionaries around somewhere. Don't they? I mean, I had to buy one for Freshman English.....and there ARE reputable dictionaries that have online or CDROM versions (although subscribing to the electronic Oxford English Dictionary costs more than most non-academics can probably justify.) Anyway, many people are well informed about specific things since modern society often forces you to specialize, but nobody (except maybe Harlan) knows absolutely everything.

Kristin
I was a spooky horse in a previous life...or maybe a scared bunnyrabbit...

Hi Mr. Ellison.
Just wanted to tell you how much I loved your Star Wars book.
Cheers!

THE MOON AGAIN
Hmmmm.....the ever truthful news media has reported that we...homosapiens will be back on the Moon by 2018. This could be very interesting when the Mayan calender declares the end of humanity by 2012. This could very well be verrrrrry interesting
indeed!

Well
I am hoping this reaches the ears of Mr. Ellison, but I just want to say something. I read penny arcade every day (yes, by that I do mean that I read it every day, even when there hasn't been an update, as there are news posts). On the other hand, I had to wiki YOU.

Thus, I can't understand where you get off acting like a jackass to two people you just met and assuming they are below you (and implying that they are somehow less by accusing them of not finishing high school, very childish...), thinking that you can just dismiss them out of hand. If you didn't know who they were, maybe you should have at least tried not being rude and mouthing off. Courtesy isn't too much to ask from you, I hope.

I won't be reading any of your material. ever. (just so you know)

Ryan


p.s.- ...although I just can't wait to read your next star wars book.

Geeewhiz, I seem to have aroused the feral bleats of Gabe & Tycho's aficionados.

Met the co-guests of honor at Foolscap for all of two minutes.

One of them seemed to me a pleasant man with a nice manner.

The other struck me as a superannuated teen-age golem with a slack jaw, a slow manner, a typical pointless surliness at a world unwilling or unable to accept him as Superlative, and on sum a twerp easy to dismiss.

But then, I'm known for my compassion.

Harlan

More Foolscap. Paper, eh?
Intelligence and wisdom aren't the same thing, Robert Morales. I don't claim to be an expert on either, or on the little Foolscap incident itself, but from what I can see the situation was really ridiculous. EXTREME rudeness with a capital "R." Detestable. OH, and I find it HILARIOUS that people consider degradation intelligent. Stellar. Like your implication that Andrew was socially inept. That's precious. OOZES intelligence. It is SO intellient, I am forced to add a SMILEY to express my opinion!

">:("!!! GRAA to you, I say! GRAAA!

Harlan! Love your Star Wars stuff man. Keep it up!

I have the misfortune to live in the state that claims Bill Frist as its own; he wants to be the next George W. Bush, or did want to, anyway, before Our Glorious Leader's approval ratings went into the toilet.

Formerly, I lived in the state that claims such sorry sacks of fewmets as George W. Bush, Tom DeLay, and Phil Gramm as its own. I worked for the Texas State Legislature for fifteen years, 1978-93, but took to telling folks instead that I played piano in a whorehouse.

A long time back, I lived in Topeka, Kansas, which is home to the Westboro Baptist Church, whose members believe that God hates fags.

Is this a great country, or what?

Looks like Bill Frist is another stock crook. Boy, the locusts just keep shadowing the capital.

Almost three hundred thousand marchers at the anti-war rally, but a middling four hundred at the pro-war one. A fun, cloud flecked day for the left.

The hurricane wasn't as bad as it was reported.

Really is a good start for the week, for a change.

------------

"You seem to think that your shit don't stink, but lean a little bit closer and the roses seem to smell like boo boo. The Roses really smell like boo boo"

Outkast.

Love those Star Wars books Mr. Ellison. You should read more Penny Arcade and realize that you are not god's gift to wit.

HARLAN: Just wanted to let you know that I got your package. Thanks again, man! For everything.

-John

A word from the chair
As the chair of Foolscap, I wanted to write what a great joy it was to host Harlan for our convention, how much we enjoyed bringing him to Bellevue, and how easy he made it for us.

In retrospect, I wish we'd gone easier on his scheduling, as HE was dead tired at the end of the con, but wouldn't consider dropping anything once it'd been printed that he'd be at an event. HE gave very generously of himself, and it was much appreciated.

I hope Harlan will chalk up the over-scheduling to enthusiasm, and our hearts speaking. As HE will remember, mortals are weak and frail. When their stomach speaks, they forget their brain. If their brain speaks, they forget their heart. And if their heart speaks, they forget everything.

best regards,
Hank

Pardon me. My last sentence should have been "You can be both."

That must be it. I've personally never met a hostile intellect. Clearly one can't be intelligent and egotistical at the same time. Being smart and being rude are not mutually exclusive. You be both.

Andrew, it's funny how intelligence always comes off as hostility to the ignorant or the socially inept. Funny, but not cool.

Foolscap
Wow. I don't want to say Harlan came off like a complete ass, but I'd be lying. I sat in when he had some sort of weird confrontation with Penny Arcade creators "Gabe" and "Tycho." A tip: trying to imply that people who don't know that "foolscap" is another term for paper are ignorant fools makes you look like a pompous jackass. Way to be cool, sir.

And it must be great to be so damn cool that a person can come up with the best quip or response in any situation, said in JUST the right way. If I were cynical, I might think that he exagerrated some of those situations.

Re: "Foolscap VII"

Sounded like a great outing. Wish I'd attended that one.

Always wanted Harlan to yap up on the Holmes scrapbook (both the Doyle stories and the film log).

...and with regards to Mr. Pasteur: MY mind was NOT one prepared coming in; so, I'm still at the bus stop waiting for that Chance. Hope it won't be too much longer; it's gettin' chilly out here.

Foolscap
Harlan was in top form. His lecture on the secret of life (theme: "chance favors the prepared mind") was illustrated by anecdotes from his ill-starred army career, full of frying pans to the face, drunken sadist sergeants and machine-gunned cows. In fact, I noticed on every panel -- and Harlan pitched in for several hours each day, to his credit -- he illustrating his points with anecdotes. The storyteller can't help himself.

New short-short story: he composed a 15-minute (!) gem...the vocabulary this guy has on the tip of his tongue is a marvel...based on a painting of a stone tower (?) writhing toward a nebula. It was an elegaic, but not dour, vignette of the end of the universe.

Mortality, alas, is clearly an insistent presence in the Ellisonian mind (and lifelong-svelte Ellison detests his post-bypass paunch, often enjoining himself and all similarly afflicted [in a target-rich environment, given this is a con for bookworms, myself included] to lose weight.

In sum, it was Ellison at his angsty, hilarious, encyclopedic best. He was recorded on digital video throughout; let's hope it's disseminated soon.

In re to Foolscap VII, I had a wonderful time. It was great seeing Harlan and Susan. Unfortunately with a little one at home my attendance was limited to a brief stop on Friday, the Guest of Honor and charity speeches on Saturday, and a quick looksie on Sunday with Shanee (2 1/2 years old). Silly me didn't think to stop in again today on my way home from seeing my Dad.

I did meet a few Webderlanders. Maybe the Seattle area Webderlanders can meet once in a while. The talks that I did see were quite entertaining and vintage Harlan. I don't know where he gets his energy from!

The charity talk was just amazing. I'd identified with what HE spoke about and liked the advice he gave:
read the Sherlock Holmes stories and remember this quote from Louis Pasteur: "Chance favors the prepared mind."

I'll post again tomorrow with an apology to HE for my behavior during the book signing before the charity lecture...

David

(hic) oops, double post I meant Ellisons.

Foolscap day 3
2 funny panels. Banquet ($29 ticket.) Dinner with the Ellisonians and Webderlanders at Black Angus. No more to say. Sworn to secrecy (bad enough i committed the vile sin of bringing a laptop to a CON!!!) If even this was evil speech, Rick can delete it.

Kristin

Latest projects
I would like to know if there are any recent television projects I can check out.

American Ideals
Harlan is a well-known champion of the right to free speech, and the right to an (educated) opinion.

In today's Yahoo news (from Reuters) there was an article noting that yesterday's anti-war rally at the Mall in Washington DC was attended by some 100,000 people.

In contrast, today's Pro-war, Anti-anti-war protesters rally was attended by roughly 400 people.

In comments at the lightly attended rally Senator Jeff Sessions observed:
"The group who spoke here the other day did not represent the American ideals of freedom, liberty and spreading that around the world, I frankly don't know what they represent, other than to blame America first."

The 100, 000 do not represent his ideals of freedom (including freedom of Speech, we must assume). His 400 attendees evidently do.

Additionally (from Yahoo): One sign on the mall read "Cindy Sheehan doesn't speak for me" and another "Arrest the traitors"; it listed Sheehan's name first among several people who have spoken against the war.

Yes, Democracy is healthy and alive here in the land of the free, as long as you agree with the Bush agenda. Those that disagree with the conservative minority are, evidently, traitors.

I have a shot in my portfolio I wish I could share. It's entitled "Land of the Free" and was taken last Christmas in Washington, DC. It's of the White House, separated from the National Christmas tree by the famous black wrought-iron fence, as well as freeway-style stone dividers, a chain link fence, and a fourth barrier of chains.

Steve B

Hurricane Katrina, cont.
Whatever may or may not be true about the causes of Hurricane Katrina, I can vouch for one of its effects. This past Friday, I got a call from a trauma surgeon of long acquaintance (we graduated from high school together, back in the Late Pleistocene) who had just returned to her home in Texas following weeks of rescue work in Louisiana. Previously she had described conditions in the devastated area as "horrible, just horrible," adding that "you can't imagine the misery and stench." This time, almost the first words out of her mouth were, "Bush is such an asshole!" Later she qualified the remark: "he's a double asshole." Now, this is a lifelong Republican and koffee-klatch pal of the First Lady's I'm talking about. The Great and Mighty Oz really has been unmasked. The millennium really has arrived. Hell really has frozen over.

United States
>The Earth is, afterall, a singular and marvelously complicated system, but not impervious to humanity.<

I'd say it was the other way around. Global warming may be bad news for humans and other large mammals, but the insects are loving it, and plants, which are really the dominant life form on earth (and perhaps the "reason" animals exist at all), will thrive.

In Crichton's otherwise silly book "Jurassic Park" this point is made very well. Arrogance got us here, and arrogance continues to feed the idea that man will ruin the planet. But the planet will still be here long after we've burned ourselves off of it, and life will march on.

Foolscap day 2
..Harlan just (well, between 11:30 and 12 or so) finished delivering his lecture/reading/rap on the secret of life, his favorite aphorism from Louis Pasteur , "Chance favors the prepared mind."

He also announced he would autograph every book for every person (well, this is a smallish con...) before the con ended. Harlan, are you just feeling...OLD? Guess you can't go and die leaving someone's book un-autographed. That would be evil!


Oh, and he did a mini-writing workshop for stories inspired by computer print outs of paintings from the artshow. Of the dozen some odd people there several actually did register on his talent meter. I'm not one of them...I think I had the worst story there...but I admitted it so there were no unpleasant scenes.

This is a nice friendly convention and I hope to attend another in the future.

Kristin

Peter:

It wasn't butterflies in that room. It was Ashton Kutcher frantically waving a copy of the one good review for THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT.

D.

My theory
Forget this global warming stuff. The real culprit for these hurricanes is Chinese Terrorists. I heard they filled a room with butterflies, then opened the door.

---Peter

"The changes are there, they are measurable and we need to address this situation."

Yup, indeedy. It's frustrating to watch the scientific community, particularly with the Earth sciences, only begininning to acknowledge that the entire global ecosystem is linked; what happens in one area affects another area. Everyting's connected, and they NEED to start coalescing their data. The Earth is, afterall, a singular and marvelously complicated system, but not impervious to humanity.

Thankfully, on the other side, I covered in advance everything I'd have to say further on the subject to Todd OR Peter Reeves. It's not much different from talking to this guy I know who only (and I mean ONLY) listens to Rush Limbaugh for his information. It's scary...and THOROUGHLY pathetic.

Re: our ventures into space, returning to the Moon, etc.

At the right pace, it's all going to happen. Many solutions to the problems our species have created for this planet lie out there in space (from mining resources to re-adaptation...after all, between a human global population that grows, and grows, and grows, an atmosphere that's being battered, glaciers that are melting, and an interglacial period that will take a turn some thousands of years from now, not to mention a sun that will nova in millions of years from now, we'd BETTER be "spreading our seed" to the heavens or we're doomed as a species), and it will also help resolve issues for starving populations and disease.

Whatever misgivings at the present any of you have about venturing back to the moon or beyond, it's inevitable. It WILL happen according to the urgencies and necessities dictated by the time and by research. Even if we remained earthbound, the solutions we'd find would probably be overwhelmed by the infinite number of disasters that await us. Global warming is an established fact. Glaciers are melting at a slow, yet steady rate. Polar ice can change the water level of the oceans, the temperature and climate of an entire region, and alter the exchange of heat between the ocean and the air above. Oceans have risen in the last 100 years by, I recall reading or hearing, as much as 6 to 8 inches in the last 100 years. The seas actually appear to be rising fast because the land is actually sinking in some places and rising in others. I don't think they know yet how much of the rising global sea level is caused by melting of the glaciers or by expansion of the existing ocean water due to slow warming. Either way, the rising ocean levels would make hurricanes and other storms more dangerous. So imagine: more than half the U.S. population lives within 50 miles of a coastline. Many land masses like that region in Louisiana, and countries like the Netherlands are BELOW sea level. What do you suppose is awaiting THEM?

So, humans have to and WILL steadily head for the stars. Do you think humans are going to allow themselves to succumb to the fate Nature holds for them in the long run, at least without a fight? No way.

"The Man Who Was Heavily Into Revenge"
Harlan...

Bob Ingersoll is an amusing fellow. I've been dealing with a contractor for several months now. Not a pleasant time.

Hearing of my latest clash, Bob said that if you ever asked me to adapt another of your stories for comics, I should ask for "Revenge."

He (as opposed to HE) thinks I could bring some personal anger to it.

Can I claim "dibs" on it now?

Much love to you and Susan,

Tony

P.S. Ingersoll will let you know where to send contributions to my bail fund. Doesn't hurt to plan ahead.

An invaluable resource for pricing rare books is http://www.abebooks.com/

RE: your rare books...I'd keep them, if I were you. Why sell them, they sound wonderful!

However, if you really want to sell them, cut out the middle-man and do some research on their value...there are a few used book guides out there. Then sell them on e-Bay. To me!!

Or, offer them up as lots right here. You'll have a few takers.

Selling the used books
Tim,

For God's sake, DON'T just take those books to a local used book shop. Latch on to a reputable specialty dealer. Dreamhaven Books wouldn't be bad, ditto Lloyd Currey, and no doubt Barney or some of the other folks on the board can give you a fairly comprehensive list of straight arrows who'll give you a fair price (and aren't a couple of you folks dealers yourselves?).

I've scrounged around used book shops a lot since I was 14 years old, & I've never seen a copy of Canary in a Cat House. If it's in excellent shape, that's probably worth some decent $$$. Ditto some of the rest.

Anyone who's more current on today's prices and dealers care to help this guy out?


Bests to all,

--tr

Can Someone Give Me Advice?
I'm a longtime Ellison reader, and I have a question for the group regarding a box of about 50 old SF paperbacks which was recently given to me. The box contains 1st ed. paperback originals from the 1950's, nearly all in excellent condition. The titles and authors were instantly familiar to me, as many have been mentioned repeatedly in Harlan's work: "The Demolished Man" by Alfred Bester, for example, and "Mother Night" and "Canary in a Cat House" by Kurt Vonnegut. Other titles are by Charles Beaumont, Brian Aldiss, Algis Budrys, Isaac Asimov and Fredric Brown.

I'd like to sell these in toto...but, short of taking them to a local used bookstore, have no idea how. Any advice?

(BTW - I've snagged the early Ellison paperbacks from the box already)

Consenting adults flushing $500 hammers down the shitter

Even aggressive efforts wouldn't have us in lunar colonization mode so soon. Even if we had started in the 1960s. Though one has to think that in an ideal world a multi-national approach to such an effort might have lots of people thinking of space in a much different manner. Star travel instead of Star Wars?

Yeah, I've read too much of Asimov's fiction and not enough of his hard science.

So far as technological advances are concerned, why aren't we (in an effort to save one of our grandest cities), emulating the amazing efforts of Dutch engineers in the Netherlands?

We can't seem to get some of the most vital things right on this planet, let alone the engineering wizardry involved in putting a metroplex in Tycho or a mall on Mons Olympus. Recurring theme, eh?

Agreeing with Stan, I guess, in a way.

Now someone separate Todd and Rob. That stuff is unnecessary.

I am,
Neal

Hi Cindy

While it's true that September has always been the worst month in hurricane season, a scientist has found some disturbing shifts in storm trends. A professor at MIT named Kerry Emanuel, who studies atmospheric science reported in "Nature" that the number of category 4 & 5 hurricanes have increased by 15% since 1970. The change coming as a result of a half-percentage rise in water temperature. And these findings are coming from a scientist who was skeptical of global warming and wasn't looking for a link, but after his study claimed the issue stuck out like a sore thumb.

The changes are there, they are measurable and we need to address this situation.

Mark W.

Rob sez, “God knows what your moronic point is THERE….” in reference to my recent posting about hurricanes.

Hey, Rob, your knee-jerk response to my “moronic” statement once again proves you are a preacher on a soapbox rather than a rational listener/reader.

1) I was not poo-pooing category 4 hurricanes. I was focusing on category 5 hurricanes to make my point with Frank WHO WAS FOCUSING ON CATEGORY 5 HURRICANES. Yes, Robby Boy, we all know that category 4 hurricanes are bad things. Any hurricane is a bad thing. Sheesh, try some interpretive reading.

2) My posting had nothing, nada, zilch, the big ‘O’ to do with the Bush response to Katrina and the levees in N’Orleans. Read it again, nitwit, and you’ll see that my posting was about a brief timeline of past category 5 hurricanes and how they (and other hurricanes, if you put on your glasses and read between the lines) will often hit around September as September is Hurricane Season and has been Hurricane Season even before hurricanes had names and categories and humans to worry about them. Where Bush? Where Conservatives? Where levees? Where Halliburton?

Rob, you irk me with comments such as yours that relate nothing to my posting and yet call me moronic and dumb. In fact, I must warn you so that you can back calmly away from the pc, as may others who are easily offended….I must warn you that I need to curse you brutally with many expletives so that I can feel much better and go back to what I was doing prior to reading your response.

Here goes.

Rob, you are a motherfucking cocksucking sonofabitch bastard dogballlicking kittycunnilinging asshole.

Try not to misinterpret that one.

Ahhhhh. Feel much better. Ommmmmmmmmm.

-TODD

COLONIES ON MOON AND MARS
You know...I put the blame of not having colonies on either the Moon or Mars...squarely on the shoulders of NASA...the other bureaucratic assholes who THINK they run this country....and the invisible shadow government who needed the money ear marked for space research to their black ops operations. We should have enjoyed Disney on the Moon by now...or staying at the luxury MARRIOTT HOTEL ON MARS BASE ONE.
Instead of spending $500 for damned hammer that cost less than twenty bucks at Walmart...and the millions upon millions these people have literally flushed down the toilet (which cost us taxpayers another $5,000 or more!) We could already having the citizens of good ol' planet Earth on a time ship heading for Alpha Centauri. But! Why look on a fucked up past...lets try not to make a fucked up future.

What does GW stand for???
GW? You know what is scary??? People will think that stands for George W!

Speaking of politicians, I am NOT defending Bush - i loathe him - but all politicians, left or right, get all the blame/credit for whatever happens on their watch, even if they share it with their predecessors. So I'm willing to believe the katrina damage is partly Clinton's fault too, but it does little good to say so, since he is safely out of office and despite being impeached (for silly reasons) managed to avoid conviction (maybe there is something good about our political system after all.)

Ooh, and at www.skymall.com you can buy a talking action figure of GWB. (Or Reagan, or Clinton, or Albert Einstein, or Theodore Roosevelt, or any of many others.) Eeek!

Kristin
Posting from Foolscap where Susan thinks I'm "stressed out" (It's just my fevered brain overexcited at being here which is excessively like the fight or flight response! HE called out to Susan from across the hallway...she came....cool. :))

I agree, Global Warming Denial (like Holocaust Denial) is dangerous and evil.

GW rant

One of the most wearying and insulting positions taken by the Right is that which minimizes Global Warming.

Don't spoonfeed me cat shit and tell me it's oatmeal. This is a quantifiable, measurable, demonstrable phenomenon.

The hurricane cycle we are currently in is arguably a weather trend, and not necessarily an indication of GW. Scientists are loathe to pinpoint warm water in the Gulf of Mexico as solid proof of said phenomenon.

But there are plenty of other data compiled by folks a lot smarter than any of us that points to SOMETHING effecting a profound change in our environment.

Every time I see a fucking dumptruck belching blue, gray and black I know what that SOMETHING is. I used to live close to I-80, a major east-west thoroughfare. I lived close enough to hear it. No matter what time of day it was, I could always hear it. Every time I think of that artery I know what the SOMETHING is.

Don't be doodieheads.

Pogo knew,
Neal

P.S. Regarding political and public non-reactions and lack of proactive thinking with regard to impending doom, a politician whose name escapes me recently said (paraphrase),

"Our memories are so short, there is no telling what we will do on a pretty day."

oops, devastating

Rob, a little honesty wouldn't hurt. The threat of a devestating hurricane didn't just arise in 2000. Bush funded more levee upgrades in the last 5 years than Clinton did in the previous 8. Funding for the New Orleans levees was one of the targets of Clinton's budget balancing efforts, and he "cut" (i.e., did not fund at the level the Corps asked for) funding for the project.

http://eurota.blogspot.com/2005/09/us-left-all-straws-clutched-every.html

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46132

Todd...

That's right, Katrina was a 4.

God knows what your moronic point is THERE. It's a bit like talking the differences between the H-Bomb and the A-Bomb.

Important issue is a 4 was anticipated years ago, Bush had been advised about it and the urgency of bringing the levees up to date, which were NOT constructed to withstand a 4 or 5. But your hero - this brainless fuck who is destroying the country in whole chunks (God knows when YOU'LL ever grasp that) - cut funds to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, while maintaining MASSIVE tax cuts for the wealthy (it eludes as to how you Conservatives can remain so untroubled by this), and, as a bonus, giving Halliburton guaranteed business.

Get your priorities straight: Bush underfunded the levees and they failed when warned this was coming.

Are you guys so BLINDLY "idealistic" that reality is THAT far out of your reach?

As Randi Rhodes says about Conservatives, "you're either very dumb or very cruel". My guess is generally the former.

Katrina was a Cat 5; fortunately it weakened to Cat 4 shortly before landfall. Per National Weather Service bulletins, both Katrina and Rita were, at one point, the third strongest hurricanes on record as defined by how low the barometric pressure had gotten (Rita, obviously, bumped Katrina down to 4th). While we're fortunate that both dropped down from Cat 5 before landfall, they were both very significant hurricanes shortly before doing so.

Frank Sez: "Two category five hurricanes within about three weeks, and in about the same area. They rev up once they hit the warm, inviting water of the Gulf Of Mexico. To say there is no global warming is to say their is no gravity."

First, Katrina was not a 5, and Rita no longer is anyway. But that's all beside the point.

There have been category 5 hurricanes throughout the previous century, in early enough times that they could not be cause by human exhaust. 1928, 1932, 1935, 1938, 1947, 1950, 1951, 1955, yadda yadda yadda. Two within 11 days of eachother in 1969.

Guess what is shared by all of these? The month of year: September. The height of, you guessed it, Hurricane Season. Just because all of these category 5 hurricanes did not hit the U.S. does not mean they did not exist. They existed, they always existed, they always will exist. Especially in September. Hurricane Season.

-TODD

space travel

I placed my comments on the future of the space program in the Forums.

You can go to that bookfair in D.C., but don't forget about the big anti-war march. It is your duty to be there and watch the people take back the flag from the jackels and brownshirt Republicrats.

--------

Irv Rubin went out like a man. I usually don't mock the dead, but in his fanatical name I will.

Dancing on graves is my new hobby.

Washington, D.C.ers
Anyone in the area going to try to make it to the National Book Festival on the Mall?

http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/pavilions.html

Neil Gaiman, E.L. Doctorow, George R.R. Martin, are just some of the talent represented.

I've slotted tomorrow morning for yardwork, but I hope to get down there by 12 or 1.

-Keith

No Eric, let's don't mess up Venus! Leave it as it is, what with all the dinosaurs and swamps and steamy ferns and such.

Anybody coming up here to YOUR NATION'S CAPITOL tomorrow for the big protest? Ms Sheehan will be here and that means the press so it'll likely be quite a day.

I'm going but that's not why. I'm going to stage a one man protest against the emptiness behind the Simian Rictus Mask, whosever face it covers. I'll have a two sided poster. On one side in Verdana Bold

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

(Who knows I might run into Christopher Hitchens.)

And on the other side

CROATOAN

Thanks HE. It pays to have good writers huh?

Something Completely Different...
Sorry to deviate from the pending planetary exodus, but I was tickled to see in the new issue of Top Ten (a comic book which thrives on its obscure geek references) a scene of half-a-dozen Derradadaists dumping jellybeans on a crowd. They even drew the swizzle-skiffs to code.

Tee-hee,
Marci

cronk kite


am i the last person to hear about this? i just can't imagine myself breaking anything, especially NEWS.

http://www.philipkdick.com/films_scanner-061204.html

The Fart Factor
What you're forgetting, Eric, is what all the sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere of Venus is going to smell like. Imagine the hottest, windiest, filthy sock fart emanating from one of those coal fired kilns used to bake ceramics. Sure, we can filter MOST of it out, but I don't think it will be any more effective than rolling down the windows when your 350 pound habanero chili eating buddy cuts a wet one in the car.

All hail the Moon, where at least we're smelling our own.

>I would not be surprised if, in a hundred years, there are not permanent colonies on the moon and Mars.

I will be. Of course, I'll be rotting in the ground, so I'm sure I'll be surprised at everything at that point.

The incentive to make the moon pay off is just not here. It's close, but it has no pressure, temperature, gravity, or atmosphere that we can do anything with. Ditto Mars, which is kind of like the moon dressed up, just a lot farther away.

Go to Venus, say I. Plenty of atmosphere to work with, and the gravity, pressure, and temperature are just about right...if you're floating a few miles off the surface. Build there, and then go to work on Saganizing the atmosphere. Venus is closer, our bones won't turn into rubber bands working there, and the potential is much greater -- once you shake and bake the place a la Aliens.

I have no doubt that in the fullness of time human beings will move out into space and I would not be surprised if, in a hundred years, there are not permanent colonies on the moon and Mars.

But NOW, RIGHT NOW I think it is too soon to focus so much of our resources on the act of physically sending a privileged few to the moon just so we can say we've done so.

These marvelous unmanned probes, which cost a fraction of what manned flights do, function as our surrogates, the eyes of us all, not just a privileged few. We should be seeding our solar system, from Mercury to the Oort Cloud, with these machines, scoping out our immediate environment.

But by focusing on manned flights these worthy projects are done on the cheap or worse, eliminated altogether.

Just so homo sap can beat his chest and stick a flag in the ground.

TO FRANK CHURCH
Hey Frank! Maybe our sons should send us old farts out to fight in Iraq....bet the war would be over in a heart beat.

You guys missed a good Bill O'Reilly last night. The fucking guy almost threatened Phil Donahue with violence. Donahue mentioned to O'Reilly that he had not sent his son to fight in Iraq and O'Reilly went crazy. I tell you, the guy has mental problems. He does need to be sent straight. Would love to see Harlan give him some guff. I can dream, right?

--------------

Todd is a conservative, so his love of green cheese is understandable. They tell you they believe in responsible government, but the guys spend more than woman on a hot credit card spree.

Shoot for the Moon and Other Observations
(God I just love coming up with the subject line...)

Todd is exactly right regarding the monies for the new Moon effort -- this is money that is already earmarked for the NASA budget. Yes, it supposedly comes at the expense of items like Hubble and the Shuttle, but there is no guarantee that the money would be there for them in any other scenario.

Alan Coil is right. "Spending money to return to the moon will leave people here on Earth still homeless and malnourished."

And NOT sending people back to the Moon will leave them in exactly the same condition. You seem to feel the money would be immediately diverted to a humanitarian cause, and that every dime spent in another direction is also directly out of the mouths of the homeless. I would support your cause if I thought anyone could actually redirect the money in that way, but it ain't gonna happen no matter how hard we squinch our eyes and say "I wish, I wish, I wish"...

I agree, however, that the Moon costs have been very badly presented to the public, but the fact remains that the Moonshot will, at the very least, NOT contribute much more to already bad financial shape Mr. GWB has thrust the nation into. As I have repeatedly stated, at least it's something I can support, as opposed to tax cuts for his buddies, cronies running FEMA, religion being taught as science, and this little military action he's taken in a far off land called "Iraq".
________________________________________________

Leave it to Poppy Brite to find something amusing in a hurricane. My younger sister awoke after hurricane Ophelia (North Carolina) to find a Port-a-Potty in her front yard. Disaster Relief with home delivery?
________________________________________________

Three cheers to the jetBlue pilot who safely got a lot of people back onto the ground. I fly jetBlue as often as possible, and this is one more reason to chose 'em. Good pilots.
________________________________________________

I decided this morning that the quarantined dude in the "hatch" is Danielle's ex. He got the house.


SB

Those attending the Foolscap convention this week-end, please e-mail me. I'm looking forward to meeting some fellow webderlanders!

David

Simon is gone
Well...I think the most important Nazis are either dead, dying or have already been dealt with legally. I think Simon Wiesenthal, could rest on his laurels....he outlived them all, after spending the worst time in the hellhole of a concentration camp. I believe his legacy of hunting the guilty involved with the Holocaust is still going on...I suppose the only ones left are the young guards who are now entering their eighties. Simon made sure that all of the World would never forget...because it could happen again...and it did in Kosovo...the mass genocide of Saddam against his own people...PolPot in Cambodia. Why is it human beings who attain a lot of power, feel the need to destroy other human beings?
I guess it is something to do with our genetic makeup. It so sad, we have to deal with the power mad homosapiens...and as Rodney King said long ago....and I quote: "Why can't we all get along with each other?" It is still a question not answered to the fullest, maybe it never will.

cool link here (time valued)
Check this out.....


http://stores.ebay.com/AuctionCause/

First Amendment Project - you could be written into a book as a character (Or have an alien race named after you in a David Brin sf novel.) Participating authors include Neil Gaiman as well as several more mainstream writers (I think the auctions may have already closed for some of them.

I wonder if cynicism about space travel (especially manned space travel) is especially characteristic of New Wave authors and fans due to their generally leftist orientation??

Kristin

RE: Hurricane Rita.

Whipping off the Florida Keys, hitting speeds up to something like 120mph...

The beauty of it is that the Mayor of N.O. has announced that there will not be enough gov't help for those stranded when Rita hits. "Neighbors must help each other", he urges. Fend for yourselves.

Thats the beauty of a Faith Based gov't policy.

Oh, yeah. Halliburton is getting a ton of contracts out of this thing.

Oh, yeah. And Bush has appointed a vetinarian to head women's health care. No joke; look it up.

**I think new ventures to the moon are sound: we can ship the poverty-stricken up there and start freeing up some space in the Superdome again.

THIS FROM POPPY Z BRITE

too damn funny not to post

over the course of the past couple days Poppy got into her house

here is one of the high points from today's journal entry:

"One embarrassing footnote: The animal rescue people had to heave the mattresses off our bed to catch cats underneath, and lying out in the middle of the floor were two bongs and a huge hot-pink dick-shaped jelly vibrator. Sadly, we are so vanilla that it's been years since I used the latter to do anything but massage Chris's neck and calves after a long kitchen shift. "

Unabashedly,
Neal

the fucken blues


this country is so broke it cannot afford to spend the night.

(stolen from Buddy Guy)

Two category five hurricanes within about three weeks, and in about the same area. They rev up once they hit the warm, inviting water of the Gulf Of Mexico. To say there is no global warming is to say their is no gravity.

All I can do is hide under the blankets. Your world scares me.

Going back to the moon?
What an incredible waste of money.

The entire purpose of this Republican empire is to bankrupt the country so they can dismantle Social Security and all the other social programs. Spending money on a return to the moon will just help speed this process.

We can't even afford to pay for Katrina relief.

And now, Bush was on promising the people of Texas that what happened with the relief effort in New Orleans and southern Mississippi would not happen in Texas. Of course it won't. It's his home state and they voted for him.

His promises are all empty air. There are no relief people left. There are no relief supplies left. There are no more spare doctors to tend injured and ill people. If another disaster occurs, we will have to call on the Mexican government to lend us a hand. We have no resources left.

Spending money to return to the moon will leave people here on Earth still homeless and malnourished.

People, people, people,

NASA is not stating that they need $104 billion handed to them for a special project to go to the moom. NASA is stating that a project, with a target date of 2018 (13 years from now) will total $104 billion.

First, that's $8 billion a year. Second, they are stating that this mission will be paid through the current NASA budget. Priorities will be shifted (including the already planned decommissioning of the space shuttle in a few years) and the moon mission will rise to the top.

NASA is not asking for a hand-out; they are stating the costs of a project as it falls within their budget. A budget cut on NASA will result in a project delay/concern, but otherwise they are simply saying "instead of buying these 4 paperbacks, we're going to buy this 1 hardcover."

-TODD

Ezra #
"If it's a massive social works program you want, why not spend the $100 billion on a Manhattan Project/Apollo type program to develope alternative or renewable energy resources in order to wean ourselves off of Texas Crude?"

I could not agree with you more on this, E#. If you can get this puppy onto Congress' docket with a snoball's chance of passage, I would be more than thrilled to support and advocate it. I'm sure the President would have an opinion, however, that we would all disagree with.

I also am heartsick at the dismissal of Hubble. It's an incredible tool which is being allowed to die -- but what a legacy it leaves behind.

Yes, machines have the capability to explore the solar system. That's what we've been doing for the last three decades, in fact. To argue that machines can do it and that we ought to have our feet solidly welded to our tiny little world, not venturing into the great unknown (or partially known, as the Moon would be) defies the core of what we, in our most enlightened moments, call the Human Soul.

There will always be humanitarian ways to spend money. There have been for thousands of years, ever since mankind invented the coin and the difference between poverty and wealth.

Not every penny goes to those programs, however. Nor should it. And, as I said below, I'm much happier some of my hard-earned taxes are headed for the Moon (and into the pockets of hardworking earthbound employees) than into rebuilding a nation we should never have invaded, or lining the wallets of the already wealthy.

Going to the Moon gives us a reason to look up, not down. A human voice and a human mind can describe, in infinitely greater detail, the "maginificent desolation" and incredible beauty of their experience.

And that's an experience no computer can duplicate, no matter how well it is made.
________________________________________________

I went back to the bookstore yesterday and elected not to purchase what turned out to be "Rumble" as theorized on this board.

I am sad to report that, according to the bookseller, the last three known copies of Harlan's completion of Lewis Carroll's "Rombles" were destroyed at the Burning Man Festival in 1992. Nobody's talking, but an oblique reference was made to a "Smokey the Bear" incident.


Steve B

Earth, Space, the Moon, and Beyond: why we must go!
Ezra,

I see your points and agree with all of them except the little one you make that we shouldn't be sending manned craft into space.

Developing the technology to go to back to the moon, and then Mars, will require extensive scientific and engineering feats, which will drive our economy, our universities, and our spirit as a species for decades to come.

Those are the 3 reasons we should go.

In fact, Bush's call to go to Mars is the probably the only political statement he's made with which I agree. It requires federal resources, and what Republican wants to spend federal dollars on anything but defense? It is a very UN-Republican goal. Coming from a man whom I view as the Tourist-in-Chief, it was a surprise.

Now, the one problem with NASAs plan is that they plan to use the rocket technology we already have, instead of developing new technology, to get us there. I find it hard to believe we don't know of better ways to drive to the moon. The good thing is, with all the advances in computer technology, we can probably go lighter and smarter, since the computer systems they used back in the 60s and 70s that wrapped around the craft internals several hundred times will now fit in chips that weigh thousands of pounds less, and are at least 30 orders of magnitude more powerful.

I say, it's about time.

-Keith

But cookie we ARE exploring space. See

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html or

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm or

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/

The idea of the human race moving off of a dying earth to seek some New Jerusalem in the Milky Way is fantasy, not SF. Here we live, here we die. This world could be a paradise. If we destroy it we don't deserve to survive.

Hm. . .that'll actually dovetail nicely with my annual October 1st personal holiday of 'Bring a bat to the bookstore'. And to think, all these years I've been wondering the true purpose of that holiday. Been celebrating it for years. Now I see why.

And they say faith isn't rewarded in this day and age.

Stacy

"The Bookstore Mob Project
"At 2 p.m. E.T. on Saturday, October 1, independent bookstores across the U.S. will be the setting of a boisterous demonstration against the liberties of the solitary reader. Precisely at that moment, "flash mobs" will descend on indie bookstores everywhere, open their favorite books and read aloud simultaneously for two minutes, driving literate malcontents from the stores and demonstrating that the power of loud recitation and action-by-mob will conquer even the most dedicated reader.

"We anticipate that this will be the most thoroughgoing crushing of the independent mind," said Mr. O'Brien, coordinator of the de-mob-stration. "Readers tend to enjoy peace and quiet when they read. Well, we're going to remind them about the real wold that awaits them outside of their precious bookstores. Our flash mobs will demonstrate that not even a place _dedicated_ to reading can be free from the triumphant voices of the Popular Will."

This year, the Bookstore Mob project has added a new twist: encouraging its members to read aloud from "officially subversive" books.

"In years past, we usually encouraged our mobs to read from popular works, such as _The Da Vinci Code_ or _Left Behind_ or even that perennial favorite, _The Holy Bible_," says O'Brien. "But this year, we've decided to experiment. For example, If you have a stringy-haired, eyebrow-pierced poser in hornrims and a sweater standing next to you, declaiming _Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_ at top volume, are you really going to look at it as a 'subversive' book anymore?"

Other planned "public readers" will include confused-looking older men reading from _Manufacturing Consent_, footnotes and all; teenagers in anarchist uniforms declaiming from the works of Kathy Acker, Henry Rollins and Valerie Solanas; men in Armani suits reading from _Nineteen Eighty-Four_ and _Atlas Shrugged_; and massively overweight, bearded men and women will perform selections of _Ender's Game_, _Farnham's Freehold_, and _Singularity Sky_.

The event coincides with the first day of Banned Books Week."

The Final Frontier
I'm thrilled about another mission to the moon. Eventually, and soonish, we may get to Mars.

Maybe it's the sci-fi lover in me, but I think that we *need* to explore space. I just don't see this planet lasting forever. I think that our survival as a species may some day depend on our ability to relocate.

Yes, we should be putting more money and research into alternative energies and green living. But it probably doesn't hurt to be exploring space in case that doesn't work out.

Still, I agree, that's a ton of money and we're stretched pretty thin as it is.

I ran across this posting and thought it might interest some folks here…

The Bookstore Mob Project
At 2 p.m. E.T. on Saturday, October 1, independent bookstores across the U.S. will be the setting of a boisterous celebration to show support for locally owned and operated booksellers. Precisely at that moment, "flash mobs" will descend on indie bookstores everywhere, open their favorite books and read aloud simultaneously for two minutes, symbolizing the immense variety of voices that can be found in America's hometown bookshops. The event coincides with the last day of Banned Books Week.


See:
http://bookstoremobproject.blogspot.com/

Awwwww...
Steve, how can somebody who reads speculative fiction be so anti-space program?? Yeah, the original apollo program was an arms race/publicity stunt..the REAL crime was the NASA turf wars that resulted in things like the Saturn V engineering drawings being destroyed, so to go back (and I think we SHOULD go back) we have to start again from SCRATCH!!

People refuse to believe the original moon landing ever happened at all. Well, nothing came of it in the long run so it might as well not have. That is reason enough to go back. (Although I agree that the timing may not be good w/Hurricane Katrina...)


As a kid I read hard sf first, and fantasy second..sorry...so I got my mind corrupted by rocket ship stuff.

Kristin
That's too bad about Simon Wiesenthal; he was one of the greatest heroes of the 20th century.

Simon Wiesenthal always struck me as a real-life amalgam of Dr Van Helsing and Lt Columbo - a peerless and gracious avenging angel. (Even though he let Errol Flynn and Charles Lindbergh skate, 'ey, Frank Church?)

Anyhow, before we all go off on another maudlin tally of the well-known recently deceased, can I suggest Webmaster Wyatt add a "Bring Out Your Dead" section to the forum?

Harlan - A while ago you mentioned that you had been invited to speak at Boston University in mid-October. Is that still a go? Or have the plans been changed?

Mark W.

Here After Rita
Had a windy night, a rainy day, and nothing more. Didn't even lose power (we were without for two days after Katrina). But all is well.

Someone of true importance has died today: Simon Wiesenthal.

-TODD

Steve Barber

If it's a massive social works program you want, why not spend the $100 billion on a Manhattan Project/Apollo type program to develope alternative or renewable energy resources in order to wean ourselves off of Texas Crude? Think how many future wars that would prevent! Think how much environmental degradation that would stave off!

I support the peaceful exploration of space. At this time that can best be accomplished by the sorts of unmanned probes like Cassini which is daily sending back amazing data from Saturn and its neighborhood. And losing the Hubble without replacing it is a crime against science. It would be like going blind.

Honey Bruce Friedman passes
I see in today's New York Times that Honey Bruce Friedman, Lenny Bruce's ex-wife, has passed away. I believe the divorce came before Harlan's association with Bruce, but I can't help wondering--Harlan, did you know the lady?

Florida Denizens
Hi, just a check-in on our FL friends... hopefully all are ok and/or unaffected by Rita...

Of Rombles and Rumbles
Thank you all for the input. I'm going to be near the bookstore again today and will drop in for a check and possible buy.

Stay tuned.

Rombles

"Rombles" was a tone poem fragment of Lewis Carroll's that Harlan was commisioned to complete on behalf of The Things we Find at the Bottoms of Barrels Formerly Belonging to The Estate of Lewis Carroll Society. At first, they paid him in clams or oysters but they all ran away. Nobody knows what became of them. Finally, he settled for a bound-in-white-vellum edition of The Hunting of the Snark and a picture in a small silver locket but nobody is saying what the picture is of. If you find another copy of ROMBLES, which was only reprinted once, in the horribly ill-fated BUISINES PARTNERS IN WONDER, I would go $85.00

- Barney

ps. They tell me there is a Skiffy Museum in Seattle. I'm hoping to track it down LATE Thursday afternoon or early Friday morning. Anybody with True Gen on this place or any other places cooler than a hotel room in Bellevue is welcome to shoot me links off-line. Or in the words of Daffy Duck, "Just shoot me. Shoot me now!"

- B.

Steve:

The first (1958) Pyramid edition of "Rumble" bears the code number "G352" at the top of the spine. Could be the "63" you're referring to. (See http://www.islets.net/novels/rumble.html).

Depending on condition, $85 could be a reasonable price, though hardly a steal. On the other hand, possessing a copy of the first edition of HE's first book is, as the commercial says, priceless ...

MZ

TO PATTY
Dear Patricia....Yes...I have found that in my mailbox too...only it wasn't from here. Those damnable spoofing spiders will take you email address or anyones including Harlans to use it to send their virus infested crap to us.
I have been on the Pavilion long enough, that Harlan's webmaster must know that I am regular or semi regular, that is why I will not put my email address on here anymore. I have already been in touch with MSN on this matter.

STAN IN BEAVERTON, OREGON

Researching a screenplay entitled "Mail-Order Murder", written in 1989 & is supposedly connected in some way to Harlan. It may be based on one of his short stories... Have had no luck finding any connection so far. Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks!

The Irked Shirker Unlurks.
Alex Jay Berman knows I'm not nice to be around when I'm irked.

I'm irked, Webderlanders, even though I know it can't possibly be one of you.

I accept that the Internet is populated by all kinds of people. Including those people who have the know-how and the free time to create and distribute spam with spoofed e-mail addresses.

I found a spoofed e-mail from webmaster@harlanellison.com in my box when I got back from NEBA this weekend. I know it's spoofed because the subject line is similar to many other pieces of spam I get daily. Plus it's 42k, a common size for spam e-mails with lovely virii built in.

I would think that Unca Harlan's living room would be free of Internet spiders collecting e-mail addresses. The only spiders I expected here would be my eight-legged ladies.

No real point to the story, except that, if you find a similar e-mail in your bulk folder, it's probably NOT from www.harlanellison.com.

--------Patty

http://www.mikescomics.com

*rombles could be part of a foreign title...maybe a foreign edition?

Could it have been "Rumble"?. There was a Pyramid paperback by this title (which is actually "Web of the City") published around 1958 or so.

Mark
heading down to the San Gennaro festival for a sauage and a bag of hot zeppoles, extra sugar please.

Mystery
Okay, Ellison-o-philes:
Today I was in a little used bookstore tucked into a corner of Long Beach (not Acres Of Books, so don't rush down there to nab the prize). In the "Rare Books" locked-up bookcase I spied a little book with the name "Harlan Ellison" on a portion of the spine. A tag with the price covered part of the title which looked like "*rombles". Looked to be either late fifties or early sixties in wear and tear, with the number 63 at the top of the spine.

The person with the key had stepped out for lunch, so rather than bring too much attention to it I simply told them I'd be back. I will get more info, but I can't find this title (or anything similar) in any of the biblios for Harlan. I consider myself fairly well versed in Ellisonia, but this one's beyond me.

Should I run and buy the thing immediate-like or run just as quickly in the other direction? They want $85...????

_________________________________________

And Ezra: I really would like to know if you truly think the $104B is going to be loaded up into rocket ships and launched to the moon? That money, mon ami, will be spent right here on lil' old terra firma going into the pockets of many thousands of American workers -- including a significant number in New Orleans, where they put together the external tanks.

Seems like a helluva lot better way to spend my taxpayer dollars than on war/reconstruction in Iraq or tax-reducted into the pockets of people significantly better off than the majority of us everyday workers.

Steve B

book question
Hi,

I know Dangerous Visions came out a little while back in a newer version with multiple covers. Thing is, I never got to see all the covers available. Does anyone know where I can see the covers and from there buy whichever covers strikes my fancy?

Thanks,
Tony

BOONDOGGLE
What possible reason could there be for homo sap to spend $100 billion to go back to the moon http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4261522.stm
????? We've already wasted billions on the International Space Station. Consistently successful unmanned probes have to fight for their lives for approval, barely squeaking by congress. The one unalloyed victory of the modern space program, the Hubble Space Telescope, is slowly being allowed to die on the vine with no firm plans to be replaced in the foreseeable future.

More imperial chest beating, hoorah!

Where's My "Little Buddy?"
If it's not too late, can someone locate the Professor and have him wire together a defibrillator out of coconuts?

Aye, thar seas be lonely ...
http://thewhizbang.org/

...which is my favorite local theatre group. Buy their cd, get on their mailing list, and check them out if ever you're in their proximity. Unpaid ad.

Talk Like A Pirate Day!
Avast ye mangy flea-bitten scurvy ratdogs!!!!!!! Tighten the jumpers and lower the shrouds!!! Darrrrgh! Who be thinkin' up the word "Grommet" anyway?! Someone three sheets t' the wind?! Maybe he be tackin' an' ate sail an that's all the crew could understan' comin from his mouth!!! It be a life question I can only solve by goin' to the crow's nest an finishin' the grog before it turns t' vinegar!!!! Who be the coxswain 'round here???

ATTENTION!!!!!! JOHN PACER!!!!!!!!!

If you're lurking out there, John...

Can't find your phone number.

Spoke to "the Man," Carl Gnam at Sovereign Media (REALMS OF FANTASY magazine) this morning. Called to find out what dispensation had been made with the folio you sent me. He said he was favorably impressed with your work and would be getting in touch with you. He added that the folio had been sitting on his desk, in a pile of "pending" since May (which I suspected), and he was apologetic for the delay. BUT he said he would be getting in touch with you, and would be returning the folio to me, rather than to you, as I'd requested. When it arrives, I'll send it back ASAP.

If you don't hear from him within a reasonable space of time, let me know.

All best otherwise,

Yr. pal, Harlan

(aka Trimalchio in West Egg)

Comments here are like the pitter patter of little muddy feet; you know, the kind of feet that you see leaving the scene of a gruesome axe murder. The blood drippings lead to a typewriter and the lead sheet has a red stain that looks like a big obscene H. Gotta love you guys, even though you have been grumbling lately.

-----------

Harlan, you hip to Henry Threadgill? Great modern jazz there.

AAARRRRRRRRRRRR!

Avast, ye seadogs! Today be National Talk Like a Pirate Day! Ye'll be keel-hauled at twelve knots and fed to the bilge rats if ye dasn't shiver yer timbers smartly!

And, I say, do be so kind as to stand and deliver your valubles in order to avoid a rather sticky end, old boy. (a non-scurvy pirate)

Chuck

Dostoyevsky ...
... I haven't read much of lately.

On the other hand, if you'd like to discuss Twain, Vonnegut, Verne, Heinlein, Hemingway, Frost, Bradbury, Martel, LeHane, Gaiman, Pat Frank's "Alas, Babylon" or this wonderful new writer named Ellison I'd be happy to oblige. (Why does this sound like a massive law firm?)

Then again, picture's being worth a thousands words and all, how about Henri Cartier-Bresson???

"Lost" season premiere is Weds, BTW.

One of the Other Steves

DTS: where you from? If only 2 cities get a movie, it's New York and Los Angeles. San Francisco is the next tier down, while San Jose never seems to be on the list at ALL for limited releases. guess i'll just have to wait for the DVD.

Amy, did you get my email? Yahoo mistook your earlier message for spam - good thing I checked the spam folder!

The only Dostoyevski novel I've finished is THE IDIOT, which is Harlan's favorite, isn't it? Anyway I might never have read it if I hadn't read "Prince Myshkin and Hold the Relish" and I will always associate that name with hot dogs somehow. There's also NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND, which is a shorter piece so if you want to give out a Spider-type "reading assignment" that one would be good. (Anything from the anywhere is a parody of that title, you know.)

Where's the Marilyn Mansion? Does anybody live in it? ;-)

Kristin
"My name is Montoya the Pet Avenger. You killed my dog. Prepare to die!"

Dream Corridor on DVD series?
Quite awhile ago I read in Starlog or Dreamwatch that Dream Corridor is being done as a series straight to DVD. Is this true? How is the project? Is it still a work in progress?

Good for you Dooner

right on with the right on

Neal

Steve: I'll meet that challenge, on one condition. Describe an ACTUAL "Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse" episode where Minute is NOT knocked unconscious (fainted, whatever) and upon regaining consciousness, told that he's the REAL hero by Courageous Cat.

Before you ask, Doug, you are NOT eligible for this offer.

"Is this board broken? The last posting was eleven hours ago!!!!

Or is it just Saturday? Hum."

If this was filling up with posts on a *Saturday*, I'd be concerned for y'all.

=)

Okay, I have a suggestion: no more talk about television or movies until we have talked about one great novel by Dostoyevsky. I double-dog dare all of you!

Snobbishly yours,

Steve Dooner

On TV themes:

When I was little(er), it was the DOCTOR WHO theme that had me running behind the couch. And I wasn't the only one! Probably the most atmospheric tv theme ever.

On banned books:

The fatwa may have boosted Rushdie's sales, but he had to go into hiding that whole time. I am sure he did not enjoy the experience. And the fatwa extended to people associated with the book as well. Wasn't one of its translators actually murdered?
That's an extreme case.
On the other hand, controversy does help. How many people rushed out to buy "The DaVinci Code" after church officials slammed it? And moving to other mediums, one Mr. Marilyn Mansion would have vanished off the pop culture radar with nary a blip had not the religous right made herculian efforts to keep him in the media spotlight. A billion dollars worth of free publicity and advertising guaranteed his success with high schoolers.

Frank:

I saw Mr. Galloway speak at the University of Toronto on Friday. Interesting guy. I'm surprised he wasn't detained at the border!

-Steve E.

By the way...and addendum to the post below
ALL: By the way (for anyone who _does_ read the profile), yes that's a typo in the first phrase of the first sentence uttered by Spragg. Should've been "are" instead of "is" -- but these things happen sometimes (and, unfortunately, go unnoticed by editor and writer alike). --DTS (thanks for your forebearance, Rick)

An Unfinished Life
ALL: Okay, folks, you've GOTTA check out the Lasse Halstrom-directed movie, "An Unfinished Life." It's only showing on something like 139 screens (this is it's second weekend of release), because some idiot in the upper Hollywood echelons decided to group it with films that are regularly "dumped" around this time of year. I read and reviewed the novel by Mark Spragg last year and can tell you that he used all sorts of hackneyed, formulaic characters and situations: single mother and her daughter on the run from a bad boy friend; father-in-law who despises said mother and blames her for the death of his son; two old codgers in their twilight years, caring for each other, sharing a bond that can't be broken. Then Spragg proceeded to take all of that refried material and magically breath new life into it, touching on issues of life and death that regularly haunt us all. He did so in his novel and in the script he simulataneously cowrote with his wife. If you want to read more about that and Spragg, here's a link to a profile I wrote. Click on number 13 and then use "settings" on the tool bar to magnify it all:
http://www.costcoconnection.com/connection/200409/

This movie is one of the best I've seen in a long time. What's more, it deals with adult concerns in an adult way; and like the novel, takes what could've been a merely hackneyed formula and turns it into something damn close to brilliant. That's just the script: the actors are fantastic -- Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman, Carolyn Mannheim, Josh Lucas, Becca Gardner, Damian Lewis (who was also great in "Band of Brothers"), and last, but not least (believe it or not) Jennifer Lopez. Finally, the camera work and direction turn the whole thing into the cinematic equivalent of an oil painting.

I know that there aren't many theaters showing this brilliant movie (KC just went from one last week to four - 'course, we did the same thing for "Off the Map," so maybe folks around here DO have some aesthetics where art is concerned); but if you can find it in your area, you'll be doing yourself and any friends or family a favor by taking it in. My daughter and I both enjoyed the hell out of it -- there's a 30 year age difference between us -- and I'm planning on going back to see it with my wife when she gets back in town.

If you've read bad reviews of the movie -- and I know of at least one simple-minded reviewer (in "Entertainment Weekly") that slammed it, ignore them and see the movie for yourself. You'll enjoy it.

--DTS

Test....
Is this board broken? The last posting was eleven hours ago!!!!

Or is it just Saturday? Hum.

Looks like there's two ways to attract more attention than you ever got before and they both suck: (A) being dead, (B) having a fanatical Muslim cleric accuse you of blasphemy and order his followers to kill you. (And you think you have a problem with deranged fans!) BTW if I understand it correctly "fatwa" just means *any* religious dictum issued by an imam and usually the issue is peaceful enough; the Rushdie thing got people thinking it meant putting out a contract on somebody (and many in the Muslim world attacked Khomeini's order as un-Islamic...but enough fanatics would have carried it out that Rushdie had to lie seriously low for a long time.)

Kristin
Testing to see if this goes up on the board

TODD:

Unabridged.

he

"So...
"...what you're actually telling me is that I am the only 10-year-old here who ISN'T a fairy."


Okay, coffee through the nostrils is really, really not a good time. Doesn't this place come with a disclaimer of some sort????

HARLAN,

Just got your package in the mail. Thanks! I'm a big fan of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. I'll be sure to watch the Sinister Cinema tape as soon as I can. Work's been nuts. Again, thank you so much, it was really cool of you.

Sincerely,

Stacy

"I'm afraid (pun fully intended) that I'm with Jan and Mark on this one. The Haunting was a truly frightening film."

...So, what you're actually telling me is that I am the only 10-year-old here who ISN'T a fairy.

Harlan, on your reading of Jack Williamson's new novel, will that be an unabridged reading or abridged?

-TODD

Sheep Star in Croatia Online Reality Show

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/tv/article.adp?id=20050914104309990014&cid=936

*makes note this is not anything your mother couldn't see*

A funny thing happened on the way back from the scary movie...

All this talk about "The Haunting" reminded me of a silly yet really well timed prank I pulled on somebody many, many years ago.

One of my best friends in high school had an older sister who had some VERY pretty acquaintances, so when we were sophomores we obviously enjoyed hanging out with those high and mighty seniors. Hey, we were young and dumb and thought we could get lucky! The week "The Exorcist" was released, a whole bunch of us, ie. a few male sophomores and a load of seniors of the very female persuasion, went to see the first late Friday night showing. Well, good or bad, there was a lot of screaming and fidgeting and generally nearly jumping out of our seats through all the gore and vomit on the screen. Afterwards my buddy and I, along with his sister and a couple of her lady friends, went back to their house to play records (remember those?), wash down some chips with soda, and all try to calm down after the cinematic assault. While nobody was paying attention, I grabbed my friend and whispered an idea in his ear. He loved it, we snuck into his sister's room, and crawled under her bed. A few minutes later she came in, sat on the bed to take off her shoes, and we suddenly arched our backs to "levitate" that bed several inches off the floor! Her scream could have drowned out a Ted Nugent concert!!

...the awe and mystery...


the lead-in to THE OUTER LIMITS scared green shit out of me as a kid

"WE HAVE TAKEN CONTROL OF YOUR TELEVISION SET..." oh shits

Neal

Alex jay started a thread in the forums called "Could someone post this for me?" Since I couldn't figure out how to cut and paste it, I'm simply directing people to it, and adding this: https://www.conlanpress.com/youcanhelp/index.html

I just recently discovered Peter S.Beagle's books, and they are wonderful. I have one on order and intend to order more.

Please read this. Thank you.

debbie

For those interested in all aspects of Shirley Jackson's life, I highly recommend Judy Oppenheimer's PRIVATE DEMONS, a full length biography of Jackson.

Shirley Jackson is glorious. Allow me to recommend the SUNDIAL to you also.

The later remake of the Haunting of Hill House is a steaming pile of ostrich shit.

Shirley Jackson lives!

How odd that Robert Wise's passing should start a discussion of "The Haunting" here, right at the moment when I'm reading the book on which it was based, Shirley Jackson's _The Haunting of Hill House_, for the first time.

Jackson was my featured author in "Story Time for Grownups" at Grendel's Coffee House on Labor Day. (I started out cold with "The Lottery," modulated to a humorous romance called "About Two Nice People," and finished with a lovely tale called "The Most Wonderful Thing." Was tempted to do the Jackson tale first printed by Fantasy & Science Fiction, "An Ordinary Day, With Peanuts," but it was a little long for my purposes.)

Haven't seen the Wise movie, but it sounds intriguing. The recent remake with Lili Taylor, Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson, Bruce Dern, etc., appears to be conspicuous by its absence from this discussion. (Didn't see that one, either, but I remember the trailer.)

Helluva bad break for 20th century American literature that Jackson died when she was only 48.

__On Friday, Septermber 23 Turner Classic Movies will have a 24 hour salute of the movies Robert Wise was involved in___

Where's Trek I? Elitists.

On Friday, Septermber 23 Turner Classic Movies will have a 24 hour salute of the movies Robert Wise was involved in. Here is the schedule:

6:00 AM Citizen Kane (as editor)
8:00 AM The Magnificent Ambersons (as editor)
9:30 AM The Curse of the Cat People (director)
11:00 AM The Body Snatcher (director)
12:30 PM Born to Kill (director)
2:30 PM The Set-Up (director)
4:00 PM Executive Suite (director)
6:00 PM Somebody Up There Likes Me (director)
8:00 PM West Side Story (director/producer) 12/05,
10:45 PM Run Silent, Run Deep (director)
12:30 AM The Haunting (director/producer)
2:30 AM Odds Against Tomorrow (director/producer)
4:30 AM Blood on the Moon (director)

Looks like a good line-up

HARLAN's "I, Robot" script.
Not the other tripe.

(Just thought I'd clear it up before someone else did..."

Banned Hauntings
Rob -
I'm afraid (pun fully intended) that I'm with Jan and Mark on this one. The Haunting was a truly frightening film. If it didn't move you I'd wonder what did scare you as a kid (and don't say nuclear war or the Real Don Steel)?

Mark hits it right on the head with the comments about the use of sound. My imagination went into full overdrive picturing the creature that was pounding the walls, and that sufficed to give me nightmares for weeks. And, as for the films listed as OBVIOUS, there's a reason for that -- it's the same reason that the film Casablanca is so full of cliches. They're the obvious choices because they ARE so good that they BECOME the obvious choices. Less defensible would be something like Cat People 2 or whatever it was called.
____________________________________________________

Suggestion for the crowd: speaking of Ellison's vast array of incendiary works, I have an idea.

Harlan writes brilliant stuff. He writes banned stuff. He writes Brilliant Banned Stuff. One of the bestselling books of the 1980s was this little ditty called "The Satanic Verses" by Salman Rushdie, who was fairly unknown (by the general public) until a fatwa was issued by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989. Instant bestseller.

Does anyone have contacts in this regard? I figure if the "I, Robot" script is declared "apostatic" by an Ayatollah we could have a huge bestseller on our hands. This would also help Asimov's estate. Just musing aloud.

And if anyone finds this offensive, my name is really Frank Church and/or Henri Cartier-Bresson (writing from beyond the grave).

No, banned books do not help anybody, just ask Henry Miller. The fucking guy ends up broke most of his life because Tropic Of Cancer cannot be released, once it did, sure the the guy started rolling in the money, but what for cost?

I would hazard a guess that Harlan's ample use of the f word is the reason some of his work is banned. Sure, the kids can roam the halls listening to violent gangsta rap, but damn them for hearing a well heeled story with that dreaded word.

Fuck is such a cute word too.

------------

Amazing debate between Hitchens and MP George Galloway. They really go at it.

http://democracynow.org/

should be a comma after "suspects". grrr.

bannd books
***Harlan*** I probably shouldn't even be typing this, as it speaks to "stategery" and self-promotion, but for once [lately] I feel the urge to amplify a thread. Banned books are good business. As I'm sure you know. In the same way that "infamy is the new fame" as you have explicated, banned books are now as much a marketing tool as buying the endcaps and re-stock cart space and ladder space in a Barnes & Noble.

So... If there is a documented incident - and I suspect there are *plenty*, of DANGEROUS VISIONS or DEATHBIRD STORIES just to name two likely suspects being banned by a school district, or a specific library, you are well on your way to having these books shortlisted alongside 1984 and INVISIBLE MAN and HUCK FINN and all those other treats we tuck in the walls in order to keep safe from the tender mercies of the Firemen.

Of course those guys are all safely dead and you're not, but shyness and reticence aren't exactly your strong suit. Or, in the words of "your people" - It couldn't hurt.

- Barney

ps. I'm looking at this post like a racoon with a new shiny object and trying to imagine it being a "problem post" and coming up blank. Hoping you do the same. If not, well I'll see you in a week and you can beat on me in person. Hugs to the missus. - B.

Batman Set, Again
Harlan, I hate to repeat a question, but again, it may be useful if I can get the review assignment.

So: which "Big Batman set" are you providing commentary on? The four-disc set of the Burton incarnation vomited on by Joel Schumacher? The deluxe release of this year's BATMAN BEGINS? Some version of the animated series? A release of the serial, or of the sixties tv show? All seem to be in the pipeline?

The Haunting
Rob & Jan,

I first saw the Haunting about 5 years ago when everyone was coming out with various lists of the greatest movies of the 20th century. I was familiar with Shirley Jackson, and decided to give the movie a shot.

What impressed me the most was the use of sound in the film. The scene where the men in the group are lured away and the women are trapped in the room by the spirits, was particularly effective. I had hooked up my surround sound just a few weeks before and it really helped provide a dramatic effect, as, in the film, the ghosts kept knocking, then pounding around the walls and ceiling.

I believe it was Hitchcock that said what is unseen is infinitely scarier than the seen, and I feel that is true in this film. The spirits that inhabit the house are never shown but their implied presence allows the imagination to conjure up all sorts of macabre spectres.

Just curious, what movies do you find scary, if the Haunting is not to your tastes?

Mark

I saw the latter half of THE HAUNTING as well when I was around ten, and I was so frightened I never could forget it, so that when I saw it again two years ago (when I was 27), I still remembered the images, as well as the twists and turns of the story. But that movie is not for today's audience, and like most horror films it's not designed for repeated viewings.

Steve,

"I agree that the original The Haunting is one of the most terrifying films of all time."

Each to his own, but I think that's a shade overstated.

I saw this film on tv when I was a kid (and I was around 10 - when PLENTY o'flicks sent my ass a'quakin'!); I rented it once as an adult. Had nary a shiver in either viewing.

It's an interesting film. An intelligent film. An evocative film. But terrifying? Well...not to THIS 10-year-old.

Wise was a very good craftsman, however, always pushing for intelligent material, and I always had a great time with RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP along with the other OBVIOUS titles already rattled off here. Right now I have DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL on "hiatus" for having run it so many times.

Banned Harlan books
I can't imagine why, they're all full of, oh, things like not believing in God, (or showing that God is a bad guy), dark fantasy (you know the kind people think will turn their kids into devil worshippers), gory violence, street crime...

Y'know, I have a sweatshirt that says "Read a Banned Book" and it has a list of famous titles that have been banned/attacked somewhere...no Harlan books on it, alas....I think I got it from the Signals (used to be PBS/WGBH) gift catalog, which doesn't have that particular one now as far as I know, but sells really clever and witty shirts.

Looks like i'm really going to Foolscap...anybody need crash space? let me know.

Kristin

Harlan's work banned
Yeh...Harlan what of your work has not been banned? In one form or another. That's what makes you so unique among the sages of modern literature...and why we like your work and like you too.
It's too bad the clowns in the suits that run things in New York and Hollywood can't recognize genius when they see it.
May you always lead in the pack of contraversay (I don't know if I spelled it right...hell..where is my f**king dictionary?)
Anyway...keep 'em guessing my friend.

A STAGED READING OF "NOAH AND THE GREMLINS"

To One And All:


A staged reading of NOAH AND THE GREMLINS, a musical based on Harlan's story WORKING WITH THE LITTLE PEOPLE!

On: Thurday, 29 September 2005 at 7:30pm

At: The Theatre At Saint Peter's -- Citigroup Center
619 Lexington Avenue (Entrance on 54th Street), NY, NY 10022

There is no charge for the tickets BUT seating in this elegant venue is limited so you will need to reserve your seats. Theatre capacity is 178. First come, first served.

Telephone: 212-935-5824

www.yorktheatre.org.

Note: Harlan will not be in attendance. He's still recovering from being trapped in the elevator during his last NY trip!

A STAGED READING OF "NOAH AND THE GREMLINS"
To One And All:


A staged reading of NOAH AND THE GREMLINS, a musical based on Harlan's story WORKING WITH THE LITTLE PEOPLE!

On: Thurday, 29 September 2005 at 7:30pm

At: The Theatre At Saint Peter's -- Citigroup Center

genius



Rob just mastered the understatement.

"I was blown away because Wise instantly resolved one of the great mysteries of cinema--ie: Who reshot Welles' Ambersons?--just because I asked him the question. I guess no one ever had."

Wise reshot a few parts of AMBERSONS at Welles' request - most significantly, the death of Major Amberson. He had nothing to do with the final scenes, which were directed by Freddie Fleck - all that happened much later, after Welles had lost control of the film.

Wise didn't even shoot much of THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE - at least two-thirds of that film (including all of Simone Simon's scenes) were the work of credited co-director Gunther Von Fritsch.

Wise was nonetheless a real auteur. He even managed to make something personal out of STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, which is essentially a remake of Wise's THE HAUNTING.

The key division in Wise's work is between his widescreen films (STAR TREK, THE HAUNTING, THE SAND PEBBLES, THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, WEST SIDE STORY), which are often about harmonious group activities, and those films made in the narrower 1.85 and 1.66 ratios, which tend to deal with either isolated protagonists (BLOOD ON THE MOON, BORN TO KILL, THE BODY SNATCHER, THE SET-UP, SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME, I WANT TO LIVE!, AUDREY ROSE), or groups that are torn apart by internal tensions (ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW).

DEAR MS. CROSSLAND:

You has gotta be kidding me, sweetie!

Has ANY of my work been banned?

Ask rather: which of it HASN'T been attacked in one or another venue.

Proudly, Yr. pal, Harlan

I once asked Robert Wise how he got the Cat People sequel that started his career. Without hesitation, he said he got the clout to direct that film by shooting all the bridge scenes for Magnifcent Ambersons after RKO chopped up Orson Welles' original.

I was blown away because Wise instantly resolved one of the great mysteries of cinema--ie: Who reshot Welles' Ambersons?--just because I asked him the question. I guess no one ever had.

Steve Dooner

PS. If you look closely at the Cat People sequel and other RKO films of that year, you'll also see the studio re-using all the sets from Amberson's too.

Robert Wise
Mark is right. Robert Wise had to have been one of the most accomplished and diversified directors of the 20th century. I agree that the original The Haunting is one of the most terrifying films of all time.

In no particular order, my favorite Wise films are:
The Haunting
The Andromeda Strain
West Side Story
Run Silent, Run Deep
And, of course, Day The Earth Stood Still

On a personal note, his most famous war film was Run Silent, Run Deep. The novel on which it is based was written by a family friend (Ned Beach), so it holds a fond place in my life. (Though, to be honest, Ned was unhappy with the movie -- but what author ever feels justified by the screen version of their baby?)

Personally, I don't give a rat's posterior about his personality, it's his art which matters to me. Wise left a legacy, that's his mark.

Texas killed another death row inmate yesterday. She was a black woman, had a fucked up trial, nobody cared. She had her arm swabbed and the needle calmly poked into her arm. Texas creeps jeered and did the two step in the streets.

Another shame for America.

The American Library Association is celebrating it's annual (since 1982) freedom to read campaign with Banned Books Week (Sept 23-30).

Mr. Ellison have any of your works been banned?

Thanks, Harlan.

Best,
Ray

Batman Set
(accidentally typed "Bartman." Totally by accident. Honest.)

Harlan, which "big Batman set" are we talking about? I may review it.

Robert Wise Has Passed
Just saw the news on IDMJ and on Ain't It Cool News that Robert Wise passed away yesterday at the age of 91.

He was one of the most versatile directors in history, having helmed some true classics in horror (The Haunting - still one of the most terrifying films I have ever seen), science fiction (The Day the Earth Stood Still - arguably the best science fiction film in history) and musical (The Sound of Music - not my cup of tea, but many love the film).

Harlan, not sure if you ever met the gentleman, but from what I have read he was a mensch and will be missed.

Harlan - CD is in the mail as of noon today; coming first class, should be there early next week. Enjoy!

TODD:

I am, indeed, on the commentary tracks of the forthcoming Val Lewton boxed set. Haven't seen it yet, and I await its arrival with anticipation. As well as the RUN FOR THE STARS audio, and the King Kong audio from Blackstone, and the big BATMAN set on which I also run my mouth.

Also performed a nice Peter David story, "Meeting at the River Styx," on a forthcoming audio.

Soon I go into the studio to read Jack Williamson's THE STONEHENGE GATE.

Been busy. Also writing lotsa stuff.

Yr. pal, Harlan

How in the world did one of those stupid scam letters get on this website? Damn, those little buggers are sneaky!

I saw Bush's speech this morning...bleagh. I keep hoping that I'll wake up one day from this nightmare and discover, to my utter relief, we actually elected someone with intelligence and compassion.

Well, I can always dream...sigh.

RAY:

Contacted Elkins. Waiting for him to call me.

he

This joint is gettin' a TAD weird for ME.

I'm expecting to see Rorschach from Alan Moore's WATCHMEN come poppin' oughtta the woodwork any second.

Dear A. Romantic:

Ever think of taking up smoking?

Dear A. Romantic,

I recommend that you read two stories by Harlan: "On the Downhill Side" and "Grail."

Steve Dooner

Dear Luvver Boy,

Romantical: Romance is perennial, born to die and rise again.

Statistical: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Practical: NOTHING is more valuable than the proof of passing years.

Ethical: Honor your commitments.

To betray the trust that your faithful companion has given to you, along with the rest of herself, would make you unworthy of the affections of any good woman. Maybe your current companion is no longer awed or entertained by your cherished life-to-date collection of stories, concepts, moods and attitudes. Having your old schtick admired by another pair of eyes is a thrill for someone too lazy to keep inventing himself. Even so, work to be wonderful in the eyes of your present companion, and see her draw joy from your struggle to be good enough for her.

Speaking of Val Lewton, last weekend I attended a lecture/ signing by Yale U Prof Alexander Nemerov of his new book ICONS OF GRIEF, about VL's pictures during WW2. Not to disparage Prof Nemerov, who is a big time literary intellectual, but the theme that VL's movies reflected his sadness over the madness overtaking the world at that time seemed kind of well, uh, obvious to be presented as an awesome insight.

The highlight of the event for me was getting to meet Val E. Lewton, the painter, (VL's son) who also attended. Apparently the DVD prints are wonderful and Ted Turner personally took charge of the effort to colorize them suckers up right.

Heh Heh Heh, just kidding. About the colorizing part.

I notice that the Val Lewton DVD set will be released in a couple of weeks. Wasn't there going to be some participation from Harlan on this set (or, at least, The Cat People): either a commentary or interview?

-TODD

The Heart of the Matter
TO ALL THE DWELLERS OF WEBDERLAND: Though I know I risk getting all sorts of cynical and smart-ass answers (having always been something of cynic myself), here's my question for the folks on this board (cause you guys ALWAYS post interesting and insightful (or smart aleck) answers.

Here's a brief set-up: 12 years ago, you decided to buy a birthday gift for this female friend (girls, can substitute male friend for their purposes) whom you found quite attractive, intelligent and witty (but couldn't, for reasons that will go unspoken here, have a relationship with). You bought her a pair of earrings. When she opened the box, it turned out to be a saphhire ring; futhermore, it fit perfectly. At first you pretended it was the gift you intended; later, cause you liked her so much, you admitted what had happened, shared a laugh about it, and went on with your separate lives (still in awe at the happenstance). 12 years later, this same woman, living only three hours away now, contacts you after reading something in a local paper with your name in it. You rekindle the friendship and soon find that you have one hell of a lot in common: tastes in food, music, etc., etc., etc. (to quote Yule Brenner's character from "The King and I"). One thing leads to another (as they generally do in life) and you find that when Behind Closed Doors (to use a phrase from a Charlie Rich song) you fit as well as the last two pieces in a puzzle. Furthermore, the two of you are passionately, head-over-heels for each other.

So here's the question (s): If you found yourselves in such a situation, with a lover who seems to be as close to perfect as you're liable to find, would you think you've been ignoring the signs of fate (the ring, the words that got you back together, and about a half dozen other things)? Would you suddenly start believing in the possibility of that ideal we have all chased since childhood (the Right One, the soulmate)? And how much would you be willing to change your life for a chance to be with such a person? Would you upend a happy, loving relationship that has always been much more based on friendship than what I think of as the ideal (passionate love mixed with the sort of mature love that makes things last) so you could spend the rest of your life with someone who will be, ultimately, the perfect person? Someone who elicits that head-over-heels passion (as well as the mature, let's soldier thorugh this together, feelings)?

Whew! How's THAT for a longwinded question?
I'm not saying that I'm looking for advice on what to do (I believe I've made up my mind); but I AM interested in how most of you would react to such a situation (especially if you are or were, as I was, given to profound disbelief in mysticism and fate and such -- I'm definitely reconsiderding).

Phx, etc.
I spent a significant part of my growing up in Mesa, AZ, which is a suburb of Phoenix. It was a charmed life. We rode our bikes to school, swam for three hours a day at the public pools (every Junior High has one, it seems like), and made some great friends.

I had considerable difficulty with the public school system, however. After the system's repeated efforts to ram my "square peg" into its "round hole" (sorry), my parents made a great decision and moved us up to a small town in the mountains near Flagstaff. It gave us the breathing room we needed to develop our individual talents and bind together as a family again.

Perhaps the individual who slagged Phoenix was a troll of one kind or another who spent his or her time there sweltering in a cardboard box. I'd probably hate the place too.

Harlan and James Elkins

HARLAN:

Curious to know if you were able to make contact with James Elkins.
Hope you don't mind, but I practically guaranteed him a reply from you. Sorry, if I overstep.

Best,
Ray

Alex Jay

You’re probably getting much more advice than you ever wanted, but I’ll throw this in. About ten years ago, a co-worker had a significant stroke brought on by his smoking. (He survived – he isn’t quite the same – but he is doing well.) The next day I was talking to a good friend (also a co-worker) and asked if that was enough proof that she should quit smoking – asking this as a friend and someone who wanted to see her live for a few mo