Unca Harlan's Art Deco Dining Pavilion

Archive - 09/02/2006 to 11/22/2006

Unca Harlan's Art Deco Dining Pavilion

I missed the draft by one year. When I graduated from high school, Both the war and draft were over.

My father was drafted in 1954, just missing Korea. That's why I was born in El Paso, Tx. He was stationed in what was humorously know as Fort Bliss.

He doesn't miss it.

As has been mentioned, a draft didn't do anything to deter the debacle in Vietnam, for sure. I'm not so sure there is any more of a disconnect as far as the public and the war than there was in Korea. Hell, a lot of people didn't know where Korea was, or what the 'Police Action' was really about.

And I'd just like to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. Now's the time to get together with family and have them close. Even if some of them are a mite peculiar.

Chuck

I CORRECT & I SMILE

CORRECTION: Paul Leslie ... it's an ant, not a frog.

IT IS TO SMILE: As very likely the only person squatting at this site who was, in fact, actually and really, DRAFTED INTO THE U.S. ARMY, and served two stinking years (1957-59)(between WWII.3 and WWII.4), I am vastly amused by all of you, and that cadre of dimbulbs in D.C., discussing the abstract as if y'all had the ratiocination, the IQ, and the experience just southwest of something that perceives of its a petri dish as a vacation spa.

Yr. Pal, (Former PFC Ellison, Harlan J., US********) Harlan

Frank,

"Let me get this straight--first, our Josh, a man who was nominated for an Oscar is shitcanned, then the main dude, Peter Jackson is shitcanned, Oscar or no Oscar. Maybe O'Reilly is right, Hollyweird is sick. "

Sick Hollywood may be, but your straight's a little wiggly. I wasn't fired off of Halo, and neither was Peter. First stage was Microsoft and Jackson severing the connection with Universal and Fox, second stage was Microsoft and Jackson not making a deal with a new studio that satisfied them. All sorts of words describe what happened to the various and sundry parties involved, but nobody got shitcanned.

Just for the record.

It may seem like a minor quibble, but wikipedia notwithstanding, some folks do believe what they read on the internets. This is idle gossip to some, but to me, it's my professional rep, and I've never been fired from a writing gig.

The Tony Bennett special

I like Tony Bennett. Always have.

Frankly, Frank, you need to talk with your doctor about hearing aids.

I like Rangel a lot.

And I am certainly NOT for a draft.

But the vital message Rangel is delivering to Bush - a very practical one - is "put up or shut up". If the Bush administration has SO much faith and "determination" for "victory" in Iraq - then - in light of ever smaller numbers volunteering for what is practically becoming a long-run suicide mission - a DRAFT is the ONLY way it's going to work.

It would mean the deaths of recruits from both poor and wealthy backgrounds.

And what Rangel has done - whether or not you reduce it to "fear mongering" - is give these assholes a subjective sense of the real horror of loss. It's reality, if you review the statistics on the numbers volunteering against the "bold" long-run plan Bush has for the Middle East. There is no fucking way it's going to be "accomplished" if you don't have the right number of men in what will clearly be a long...LOOOOOOOOOONGG struggle.

You have to either implement a plan to pull out (where the hell is the UN in all this?) or be set to pump up the volume (in which case we'll be sending thousands to a pointless death).

Rangel's quote: "There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way,"

I like what Barber said: "This is the most disengaged I've ever seen the public from the actual pain and suffering being endured/inflicted by our troops and the warzone populace."

Because it remind me - I mean crystalizes in my mind - the horror Bush has hurled this country into. And I don't think the American public truly empathizes with it or has weighed its true price. If we stay there we're dead; if we leave we're dead. Why? Because BOTH options will leave a far greater number of terrorist hate groups at our bedsides, many times the danger Hussein EVER presented to us, and greater danger than ever existed before for Israel as well. This is the legacy of a ball and stick with a jester's head that poses itself as an American President.

You might want to consider, then, the complexity of Rangel's point rather than just dispensing it as, "gosh, shit n'holy damn - HE wants ta reinstate da DRAFT!"

Paul, KOS are my initials. I don't actually type my name out because it's not important. YOu might disagree, but hey, I am the one who gets to choose. Anyone who has been around a while, here I mean, probably knows who I am as I -used- to post my full name; KOS are my initials.

Frank, whether a draft is good or bad as an idea (and I find it risible that you with your "Fuck Authority" attitude in most things are in favor of a draft simply because you think "rich kids" will suffer), to advocate a draft as you do, declare that we currently have a nercenary army of poor kids and then argue that we need a professional army leads to extreme cognitive dissonance.

An army like the one we have now, of long-term enlistment volunteers is a "professional army". You advocate an army of short-term conscripts, which is the opposite of "professional".

Professional armies are a hallmark of empires. Citizens in arms (militias and conscripts) are hallmarks of republics. Republics USUALLY go to war only when the majority of the citizens feel the nation is in fact threatened directly and imminently. Empires go to war when the leaders feel the Empires interests are threatened. Frederik the Great famously remarked that neither the residents of the towns nor the peasants in the fields of Prussia should know OR care whether the Kingdom was at war. Seems we are well down the road towards this attitude in our current America.

Yours for clarity.

KIS

Last Great Films / That Pesky Subconcious / Happy Gobbler
1) I think we did see "one last great film" from Altman. It was called GOSFORD PARK. Of course, he lived still longer and made several additional films, after that -- and even if they're not great, they're not entirely devoid of interest, either. Life and art are messy. Like great authors, not every great filmmaker can leave at the moment of a masterpiece, big or small, like John Huston did with THE DEAD. Most times, their mortality refuses to coincide with their greatest moments, with that level of neatness. Fortunately, we can bend the calendar facts, to jibe with the moments that deserve special appreciation, in much the way we usually regard the sublime BEING THERE, and not the awful THE FIENDISH PLOT OF DR. FU MANCHU, as the final film of Peter Sellers. We certainly know which one is remembered.

2) The instant Judi woke me up this morning, I serenaded her with this song, which did not exist when I fell asleep last night.

"Nobody ever wants the sommelier around!
Nobody ever cares!
Just drop off the wine and get the hell out!
Go get yourself eaten by bears!"

I can't take credit, nor do I want it. It arrived in my sleep. I'm not sure I could have come up with the word when conscious. She just shook her head and said, "You're a strange person."

3) Enjoy your tryptophan overdose, everybody.

Todd, I don't know nuttin bout Neccos...........

.......but about the draft it seems to me that Rangel did not do this for attention, unless it is to get attention to the cost of the war. I would rather this was not the vehicle he used but it is hard to resist enjoying the spectacle of the neocons. They tell us that we are in a struggle for our way of life and our very existence. They tell us we need to give up our civil liberties because "If your dead you don't have any liberties.". They tell us all muslims are suspect and the jihad is spreading, have you checked under you bathroom sink yet? But wait, don't ask me to sacrifice anything. I won't give up my tax break and I won't risk my neck in this struggle for civilization. No draft say the neocons.

No draft say I as well but Rangel's debate is good for the spectacle.

________________________________

On another subject Ursula K. Le Guin received the Maxine Cushing Gray award in October. She dedicated her award to Literature. In he acceptance speach she wrote:

"There have been governments that celebrated literature, but most governments dislike it, justly suspecting that all their power and glory will soon be forgotten unless some wretched, powerless liberal in the basement is writing it down. Of course they do their best to police the basement, but it's hard, because Government and Literature, even when they share a place, exist on different moral plains. Each is the ghost in the other's bedroom. A government can silence writers easily, yet Literature alwars escapes it's control. Literature cannot control a government; poets, as poets, do not legislate. What they can do is set minds free of the control of any tyrant or demagogue and his lies and disinformation."

That's just one paragraph but I think there is a deeper truth in there about why it is not really an Ellisons or a Le Guins job to go out there and say "the republicans suck" or "vote for prop. 6547". We can do that just fine ourselves. What we need the Ellisons and Le Guins for are their "Repent Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman and their The Left Hand of Darkness. If they can keep doing that then I can keep yelling about the neocons. Like the frog said, "We do what we can".

Let me get this straight--first, our Josh, a man who was nominated for an Oscar is shitcanned, then the main dude, Peter Jackson is shitcanned, Oscar or no Oscar. Maybe O'Reilly is right, Hollyweird is sick.

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

Bring back the draft? I am all for it. The rich kids, hiding under Daddie's money won't avoid the big pull--either you be a man and go fight in Iraq, or be a bigger man and risk jail. Would shake the place up, and we would not have to have this mercenary military of poor kids fighting all of our wars--loosing limbs and dying. Let Uncle Sam's leash drag those bastards, kicking and screaming in to get that buzz cut.

We need a professional military. Rangel is right.

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Altman will be missed. Sad that we will never see that last great film from him.

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You all missed a good one last night: The Tony Bennett special, on NBC. Great stuff, beyond the Target store pornography. Tony still has it. He is the Johnny Cash of jazz.

Ummmm...
Not to put words into Todd's mouth (or keyboard, to make the imagery more accurate), but reread his post.

He did not state that Bush was planning a return to the draft. He referred to the fearmongering (assummably Democratic), not to the fact Bush was considering the idea. If memory serves, it was presented by Dems to point out that the war(s), as they were (and are) being fought, are unsustainable in the long run with an all-volunteer force.

I believe that is exactly the same message that Rangel was pushing the other day. He knows it cannot possibly get past Congress -- and in fact voted against his own previous resolution on the matter -- but raising the spectre of a draft makes the war much more immediate to a general pulic which, so far at least, seems to think that we're fighting some sort of elaborate video game.

I ain't that old, but I've lived through Vietnam, Bosnia, multiple "police actions" and the two Gulf Wars -- and this is the most disengaged I've ever seen the public from the actual pain and suffering being endured/inflicted by our troops and the warzone populace. By suggesting the possibility of "YOUR kid could be sent over there" Rangel is bringing the horror of war into our homes, thereby creating an even greater backlash against it.

Make it visceral, and the public will react.

Todd will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe he was referring to Democratic fearmongering against the war (as opposed to Republican fearmongering against the known, the unknown, and the terrorists).

Kerry is Todd's friend??
Kerry Says President May Bring Back Draft
Bush Campaign Dismisses Charge
By Jim VandeHei and Dan Balz
MILWAUKEE, Oct. 15 -- John F. Kerry charged Friday that there is a "great potential" President Bush will reinstate the military draft if reelected, as the two candidates battled furiously for an edge with voters in Iowa and Wisconsin who are deeply divided over the Iraq war.....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35517-2004Oct15.html

The Draft
Journalist Marc Cooper's been an advocate of bringing back the draft (no deferments, natcherly) -- and as compelling as his reasons are, I'm glad they weren't in force during my draftable period.

His blog entries on the subject are at
http://marccooper.com/getting-drafty/
http://www.laweekly.com/index.php?option=com_lawcontent&task=view&id=10835
http://www.marccooper.com/

Todd,

Not to dip my toes into the water, but...

"I recall all the fear-mongering in the 2004 campaign about how Bush will bring back the draft"

You do? I sure don't. I'd love to see some links or citations. It's always been crystal clear that the last person on the planet who'd bring back the draft would be Bush. It would destroy him on two levels. The first being that once it's EVERYBODY'S kids being killed, what little support is left for his illegal and immoral war will vanish overnight, and second being that it would once again raise the issue of Bush's own draft dodging activities during Vietnam. Any hope the man has of NOT going down in history as this country's single worst president would vanish with a draft, and at this stage, posterity is about all Bush is concerned with.

While you may have one or two friends who thought Bush would bring back the draft back in 2004, I assure you, there wasn't a real political thinker on the planet who predicted it, or expected it. Even Bush isn't that dumb.

Neccos
On a lighter subject, I have a question about Necco candy wafers. This does relate on a Harlan Ellison board, as he is a fan of the chocolate Neccos.

I'm bebopping home from work last night, which is how I usually try to commute even when not moving, and I'm sucking on Neccos and my usual frustration rises when I pop a chocolate Necco into my mouth: does anyone really think these things taste like chocolate?

It's not that I don't like them. Chocolate Neccos bring a mild sweetness to the sometimes powerful licorice and cinammon and clove and wintergreen, or the strong fruity lime and lemon and orange; but I never get a sense, after 40 some years of eating these things, that chocolate Neccos have a chocolate flavor.

Is it just me?

Also, though I know for sure that the yellow Neccos are lemon flavored.....there are times that I get a hint of banana. Is it just me? It leads me to doubt the little yellow Necco's true flavor, though I know that lemon is the official company line.

Is it just me?

-TODD

PS....love seeing the draft debate bubble up due to a Democrat's opinion, regardless of the reasoning. I recall all the fear-mongering in the 2004 campaign about how Bush will bring back the draft; yet it's Rangel who really wants to do it (or, truth be told, just wants the attention as there is no way his bill would pass).

weaknesses
Harlan and Susan,

Thanks for package. Harlan, your words make this Jack Armstrong glow red. My ego didn't need any more inflating, but thanks.

Barney,

I think Nate was being sardonic. I'm sure he can respond to that, but if you think about the comment for a bit...how can these soldiers be weak? You asked if the weakness took the form of mental, physical, or moral weakness.

Let me add this thought. America is a capitalistic republic. So the soldiers could be "economically" weak. In other words, they may not be able to make ends meet without serving as "weekend warriors," or to get tuition for college without GI incentives.

Sad thought, that.

-Keith

Nate's comments
***Nate*** Leaving aside the rest of your remarks, which you are entitled to, I found this one - "It's a game to this nation; weeds out the weak ones" to be insensitive and offensive. You can fairly make the argument that the armed services have been lowering the bar for admission to service and you can point to some ugly incidents on the ground over there and you can channel some ugly sound bites Michael Moore treated us to from a few ground pounding racists. You can slam this war and this administration and everyone who signed on to prosecute it. But when you start tarring everyone in the armed services with a brush THAT wide I'm going to object. Not just on behalf of a few injured folks I know or on behalf of the dead brother of a friend of mine but on behalf of all of those people who SERVE.

Just to put a limit on the scope of my objection - let's just look at the 100+ people who died in Iraq in October 2006. Hundreds of thousands of others could be brought into this tent but let's focus. The statistic I heard was five teenage Americans. The rest of the casualties ranged from age 20 to 53.

So my question to you Nate would be which were the weak ones? Were they physically weak? Mentally weak? Morally weak?

Please don't go out of your way to insult hundreds of thousands of good well intentioned people just to make a point. Because on the very best of days in the "best of all possible worlds" (as Voltaire, tongue in cheek would have had it) you don't help your argument.

- Barney Dannelke

"I'm proud and grateful beyond measure that I haven't been of eligible age while there has been an active drafting of military personnel; the thought of being sent to war against one's will is about as hellish a concept as I can muster. But I wonder if the mentality expressed by the student in this comic is part of why the idea of a draft appeals to people - that the consequences of war should be equally shared throughout a society."

Trudeau's point seems to be that it is hypocritical to support the war in Afghanistan while remaining opposed to the draft. A fair position, I suppose, since the only attitude which makes any sense to me is to unambiguously oppose the war. Suggesting that those who oppose this war should be forced to fight it makes about as much sense as saying that those who support the war should be forced to participate in protests against it!

Coincidentally, I've just started reading an edition of Dalton Trumbo's 1939 novel JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN which begins with a foreword written in 1959 in which Trumbo explains that he wasn't opposed to either the draft or the idea of war - he was simply opposed to the reasons behind America's involvement in WWI. He actually let JOHNNY go out of print during WWII, as he was worried that the novel might "adversely affect the war effort".

Hasn't service in the military usually involved class issues? Whatever the intentions of the college deferment in the 1960s, the effect was to exempt the sons of the wealthy and powerful. In the 19th century, drafted men could legally hire substitutes. I suspect most of the substitutes came from the ranks of the poor, although I have not seen statistics. I can easily imagine the draftees who hired the substitutes deluding themselves like the student in the Doonesbury cartoon.

I was too young for the actual draft, although I had to register for Selective Service in 1984. I had a weird perspective on the draft at the time. I dreaded the draft not necessarily because of the thought of dying in combat, although that was part of it. My main dread was in repeating the experiences I had with other males in high school. Although I have always been straight, most of the boys (and some of the girls) assumed I was gay, and I received the usual harassment because of it. (Why did they think I was gay? Who the hell knows...) I expected life in the barracks to be a hundred times worse. Matthew Shepherd's sad fate was years in the future, but that is the kind of fate I expected to suffer during basic training.

Elijah,

When we had the draft before, it didn't deteer an unneeded and immoral war. It didn't ensure responsibility. America is addicted to war; addicted to watching their children die in combat. It's a game to this nation; weeds out the weak ones. The draft isn't going to make people blink at the next dumb war our government comes up with.

Besides the point this type of proposed bill tries to make unfairly assumes that all non-military young people are not in service for the same reason - we are all just pampered. But a lot of us don't go to fight because it's not a moral war. A draft just to teach a bunch of ivy league kids a civics lesson also sucks people like me into combat. That makes no sense.

And if anything, the whole concept of draft reinstatement is most likely going to backfire and even more people are going to think that war is just a normal part of everyday life. Just like every kid learns to drive, every kid kills a foreigner.

I sent my request to the SFBC for a new printing of "Ellison Wonderland". I certainly hope a lot of you also use the email address I left in my last message to do the same.
Here's hoping you all have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING also. It will be just me staying with my mother for our dinner. She is really struggling in her recovery after her 2 surgeries on her broken hip. She is doing some therapy at the clinic again to try to strengthen her leg, but it really wears her out. I'm so glad I at least was able to get her to Minnesota for the convention earlier this year to meet Harlan and Susan.

Digital Zombies: Coming to a Theatre Near You!

http://www.darkhorizons.com/news06/061121h.php

I want to hurt Rob Cohen. Right now.

MILES:

Yes, please, thank you very much; do indeed send me the noted magazine. I would be most grateful.

Thanks in front, Harlan Ellison

Hizbullah also used cluster bombs...

David

Deaths in Threes
That's funny, I always thought deaths came in the hundreds (thousands?) per hour.

What? Only the famous count?

-TODD

Well, I don't know if they come in 3's, 4's, 5's, or whatever, but MP Pierre Gemayel was assassinated today in Lebanon. His car was bumped from behind, the assassin got out, shot him in the head, got back in his car, and took off. Also, Israel finally admitted to using cluster bombs in Lebanon during its invasion in civilian areas. If you don't know about them, learn, and be disgusted.

Favorite Altman moment, from The Long Goodbye:

"El porto del gato"

One of many.

HOGWASH!

" Some say it always comes in threes..."

HOGWASH, I say. It's merely chance. If you wait long enough, deaths will happen in threes. If you wait slightly longer, deaths will happen in fours. Just a smidgen longer, and deaths will happen in fives.

Get the picture? It's HOGWASH, I say!

Elijah I would support a draft if there were no exemptions. Pacifists could serve in non-combatant roles. And for just the reason you said.

We should only go to war if this country is directly threatened. If it's important enough to go to war then all should be willing to participate.

We have to stop these political wars where our "interests" are threatened (as defined by our leaders) but not the safety and existence of this country. A volunteer army that is not representative of the vast majority of citizens just encourages these political wars. It doesn't cost most of us anything so we let it slide on by.

Guillermo del Toro
Harlan,
you may already know this- but in the uk magazine SFX, Guillermo del Toro, cites you as one of his "heroes and inspiratons". You are in good company along with Charles Dickens, Ray Bradbury , Carl Barks and others.
Could send you a copy if you so wish.
Miles

draft
Doonsbury had what I thought was an interesting commentary on the draft :
http://images.ucomics.com/comics/db/2006/db061121.gif

I'm proud and grateful beyond measure that I haven't been of eligible age while there has been an active drafting of military personnel; the thought of being sent to war against one's will is about as hellish a concept as I can muster. But I wonder if the mentality expressed by the student in this comic is part of why the idea of a draft appeals to people - that the consequences of war should be equally shared throughout a society.

This isn't the kind of question I'm in the habit of asking but here, in the presence of those I admire for clarity of thought and the ability to communicate with the written word, I have to ask : Does the lack of a draft pretty much guarantee irresponsibility on the part of the voting public and elected officials? What options are there to ensure responsibility other than a draft?

Respond here or to my email address. I'm just curious as to people's thoughts, so no offense is intended if I do not respond.

I got the news just now myself. Definite loss of a terrific artist. (And I had just caught an old episode he'd directed on Alfred Hitchcock the other night - shows I'd never seen before)

The drag is - unlike with so many directors late in their lives (Coppola is a good example) - his films in terms of strength and impact have been on an upswing. His output over the last 10 years, for ME, anyway, complement the classics he did in the early 70's. I've had my eye out for his new stuff consistently. A real drag to see this roll interrupted.

At least he made it to 81 - a better deal than SOME have had.

Robert Altman and death
CARSTONIO: I might be given the equivalent of a cyberspace "finger" for it, but I didn't really enjoy "Nashville." I did however, dig (in no certain order) "Short Cuts," "M.A.S.H.," "Kanas City," "McCabe & Mrs. Miller," "Dr. T and the Women," "The Player," "Gosford Park," "Buffalo Bill and the Indians," and "A Prairie Home Companion" (perhaps that last, like "An Unfinished Life," by a different director entirely, is a movie only someone who has lived in the Midwest for a while can appreciate). I also dug "Popeye" and "Quintet," mostly because they were so unusual at the time. I even enjoyed "The Gingerbread Man" for what it was, an interesting thriller. It's fitting that Altman's last film addressed the notion of mortality, and did so with such a dry sense of humor.

ALL: It _is_ a shame when someone of such talent, someone who made such a great contribution to his field, dies. Just like the rest of us mortals, guys like Altman (or Jack Williamson, who made it to 98) would certainly prefer to grab as much extra life as they could get -- mostly because they seemed to enjoy the ride, and get so much done while cruising the highways and byways. But I really believe that men and women with lives so full and well-lived wouldn't want others wailing and feeling bad after they pass on -- especially if they make it into their 80s and 90s (the natural life expectancy after all). I rather think they would want us to get on with our own lives and enjoy the the people we love, the work we do, the books and music we prefer and the sandwiches we're offered in the time each of us has left.

Then again, I'm as capable as the next guy of being dead wrong.
--DTS

Wow.


Fuck.



When I was a kid, my dad used to take me to the most inappropriate movies.... When I was 8, he took me to McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Three times.

There are two filmic images that have consistently haunted my brain from those days. The fat whores bathing in McCabe's bordello, and Robert Culp walking around the Bradbury with a glass hand.

Robert Altman
God DAMN it, God DAMN it, God DAMN it, God DAMN it.

We had several more films from him than we had any right to expect, thanks to his heart transplant...but God DAMN it.

Arrrrrrrrrggggghhhh!

God DAMN it!

Some say it always comes in threes...
Gary Graver. Robert Altman. Next...?

Robert Altman, 1925-2006
"M*A*S*H" is one of my favorite movies, and I also liked "The Player." But sadly, I have not yet seen "Nashville."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/21/AR2006112100624.html

What gives?
First HALO went up, now Jackson's off THE HOBBIT.
Josh, you're the inside man; is Peter making that big a stink over not getting paid? If so, good. Don't blame him one bit.
After that much sweat and time, and all the lucre he helped realized for the companies, if they can't make good, let them hire Richard Benjamin.

Blame it on Disney...
A web coming I frequent posted a link to a new show by The Jim Henson Company, Inc., called "The JIm Henson Company's Puppet Up -- Uncensored". It seems this combination of puppetry and stand-up comedy has received very favorable reviews over the past year, so TBS is taking a shot at producing a live show where the audience tosses out ideas for the puppeteers to perform. Here's the link:

http://www.puppetup.com/

I checked out the site and was very pleased with the delightfully left of center humor and possibilities presented by this performance. As a long time Henson fan, I admire the talents of the puppeteers and have quite an ear when it comes to matching up voice performances. Say what you will about television, children's shows, or PBS, Jim Henson knew his way around the production floor and his work influenced much of what we see on TV today. Okay, so The Jim Henson Company was behind "Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars"....not every project is as stellar as "The Muppet Show".

Today has been a low down, chin scraping, blues wailing day. There have been worse, but this one generally sucked. I needed a pick me up, and the news about "Puppet Up" looked to do just that. And then I clicked the link to Henson.com and stood helplessly by as my innocence was sacrificed on the altar of Michael Eisner's corporate predations:

"In February 2004, The Walt Disney Company and The Jim Henson Company signed an agreement for Disney to buy the "Muppets" and "Bear in the Big Blue House" franchises, including all worldwide production, distribution and merchandising rights. All inquiries regarding Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House should now be directed to The Walt Disney Company. The phone number for their corporate headquarters is 818.560-1000 or you can visit them on line at www.disney.com
" (http://www.henson.com/entertainment/muppets.html)

Yeah, so there are bigger problems in the world, and I'm a day late and a dollar short with this announcement. It's one thing to bemoan the fact that Disney had its hooks into Henson in the first place. Reading that ranks right up there with thinking that Carol Spinney won't live forever.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be curled up in a fetal position with my stuffed Kermit, watching "Seven", reading The Handmaid's Tale, and thinking about thalidomide babies.

Gary Graver, Orson Welles' cinematographer for the last fifteen years of his life, died last Thursday. He made an extraordinarily good document about Welles called "Working with Orson Welles."

It's very sad to know that, for all Graver's hard work and effort, he, like Orson, never lived to see the completion of "the Other Side of the Wind."

Mark W.

Peg -
Thank you. I've already reported this to Rick. I can delete (and did) if it appears on the top four threads, but not SPIDER. I don't have Jan's email, so therefore sent a "crush, kill, destroy" to Rick earlier today.

Please, nobody click through or respond to the message.

Thanks for pointing out Peg. I'll remain silent for a day in penance for the second post, but thought this merited comment.

Steve B

Someone with the power, please?
Rick, Steve B, or Jan - whichever of you has the permissions and is quickest on the draw - someone has posted decidedly off-topic pics over on the SPIDER forums. (Of course, I'm simply assuming it's off-topic. For all I know, badly modified fake porn photos of Britney Spears really *did* kill the dinosaurs.) In any case, I'm calling this to your attention since posting of the photos - whether of dubious authenticity or otherwise - may be exposing the website to legal ramifications... [puns and/or double entendres intended]

Cheers
Peg

Please, nobody use my political nook for useless blather. That's my corner of the market. Sticks his tongue out.

Wyatt will probably nuke it soon, anyway.

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Somebody described Los Angeles as "beautiful?" Remember, crack kills.

Now, if you are talking about San Diego, or around northern Cali, near the beach, sure, kiss the breast of Morder.

------

Bengals beat those sorry Saints. Who Dey, Harlan, Who Dey!!

A HARLAN ALERT PART TWO

Yes, I know Gary Groth and Fantagraphics have posted "reams" of legal paperwork anent my lawsuit against them. My attorney, John Carmichael (who was ramrod on the AOL pracy litigation), is on it. He is a superlative litigator, and other than that --despite repeated requests from a few of you to "bring you up to date" -- I am content to say nothing in response, but solely to let John do his barrister best. Please be patient, all. In the fullness of time, you'll find out what happened.

Beyond that, I suggest if you visit any pro-Fantagraphics website or publication, that you stay steadfastly polite and non-combative. I must insist that me and mine must behave more sedulously than the defendants.

Thank you. Harlan

A HARLAN ALERT PART ONE

One or two of you noted here recently that a very nice snippet about the attractive SF Book Club edition of DEATHBIRD STORIES appeared in the "letters" section of the most recent monthly solicitation brochure that the SFBC issues. A satisfied reader mentioned that it would be nice if the SFBC next did a new edition of ELLISON WONDERLAND.

So.

Pursuant to that letter, the editor of the SFBC (Ellen Asher) (or perhaps it was Andy Wheeler)(I don't know who does the actual editorial work on the solicitation catalogue each month) replied that if they heard requests for ELLISON WONDERLAND, they would seriously consider doing it.

Well...

It so happens that Pete Crowther (PS Publishing) in the U.K. optioned the rights to do just such a new edition earlier this year. (If you haven't seen the PS titles, I urge you to go find the website and check'm out. They are among the most handsome, well-designed, elegant and reasonably-priced specialty press volumes being done: classy in every particular. In fact, DESPERATE MOONS, the freshman collection of stories by R. Andrew Heidl, has an introduction by me that might amuse you; I know the stories will.)

And so...

I called Ellen Asher, and passed along to her the awareness of several of you, that Webderlanders seemed interested in just such a book. She said she wanted to know precisely that, but needed people to come forward on their own--without my soliciting anything--in any way--free and clear of coercion--to advise either her or Andrew Wheeler, at the Science Fiction Book Club, that a new ELLISON WONDERLAND wouldn't be such a bad idea.

I've called Pete Crowther, to apprise him of all of this. I'm waiting for a phone call back. But in the meantime and

ONLY IF YOU WANT TO TO DO THIS KNOWING I AM NOT NOT NOT ASKING FOR EMPTY SOLICITATION NOT NOT NOT !!!!!!

You can get in touch with Ellen, primarily, or Andrew -- and say what you want to say.

If the idea flies at the SFBC, Pete Crowther might then, if feasible as amortization, gang-release such an edition in a print-run sufficient to cover the SFBC needs, as well as those of PS Publishing in the trade and signed/limited editions he'll be doing.

I leave this in your hands.

Respectfully, Harlan

A friend of mine moved here in January, right in the middle of the Santa Ana winds. Needless to say, his midwestern seasonal sensibilities have really taken a beating this year. He keeps asking me "When does November arrive?"

"It's already arrived," I reply. "Hot, windy weather, an occasional rain shower that quickly passes, and nothing but brown, brown, brown everywhere you turn your head. What were you expecting? Kansas?"

I love it, by the way. The fact that Winter and Spring arrive pretty much at the same time means that backpacking season starts in mid February after the rains let up and extends through the end of June, after which it's just a little too hot and dry to hike carrying a 30 pound pack. But that's ok; by that time, the Rockies have dug themselves out from under their mountain of snow (along with the Sierras). A perfect excuse for a road trip.

The "cool" thing about LA (as it were): as hot and dry as it gets, I can name three cool, shaded canyons with perennial streams within LA city limits that offer a refreshing alternative to the sardine-packed beaches. One late July day, when it was 120 degrees in the valley and 100 here "on the Westside," when there were close to a million people jostling for sand space from Point Loma to Zuma Beach, I found an isolated stretch of cool, refreshing creek a mere half mile walk from my car at Will Rogers. I spent the day there in the cool shade, napping, swimming in the creek (about 2 feet deep by that time), eating a great lunch......

(..... and praying I wasn't spotted by the small homeless encampment located just a hundred yards downstream from where I was set up.....)

This will make you feel better

Harlan, Susan, Josh, Duane and all other Angelenos:

Today is one of those amazing, crystal clear mornings where you can not only see the antennae on Mt. Wilson, but count 'em. I easily saw the Hollywood sign from Long Beach on my drive in. It's picture-postcard time and I forgot my friggin' Nikon.

Getcherself out of bed, away from the desk or otherwise to a viewing post and take a look. It's a reminder that when this place is clear, it's one a da' mos' beautiful places on Earth.

(Everyone else just ignore this and pretend it's a typically hot, smoggy day in LaLaLand.)

Get Better, Soon!
Unca Harlan & Josh,

Hoping you fellas are back in the swing, real soon.

Remind me again; why did we vote these people into power....

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/19/rangel.draft.ap/index.html

They haven't even taken the reigns yet and they already have proven themselves to be nothing but a batch of idiots.

Harlan, Susan, Josh, and anyone else who've been attacked by the germs of the evil monkeys: I HOPE YOU'RE ALL WELL SOONER RATHER THAN LATER.

I'm reading dead people...

(It's almost as if Josh never left.)



In other news, the quarantine has been extended around Beverly Hills, Sherman Oaks, Laurel Canyon and the Sepulveda Pass. A Hazmat team is standing by...

Alan,

"Sorry to hear that about poor old Josh."

Christ, not half as sorry as I am.

Your mind may indeed boggle but I don't see where I assigned any position to you KOS. I just said that to me you soud like someone from Free Republic and in your blanket attacks of people here sounding like a blog-space on DailyKOS and good little boys and girls all trukling into line with the rest of the proles, that's about how it looks. The rest of my comment is what it is and you ain't the focus, although I refer to your comment about standing in the bullshit.

I don't want to bore Harlan and the readers here with a back-and-forth between me and you so if you want to keep on this track, why don't we go over to the forums. Believe me, it won't "feed my ego" if you show up or not, just save the readers here some time. Maybe "Frank Church's news corner, the sequal" if that is alright with Frank, as he deals with the political stuff alot.

Harlan, ya don't know me but it's good to hear you're better and writing. Sorry if my comments are too political or personal for your Pavilion. Just let me know.

Paul "real name", not yet drowning in a pool of puke, Leslie

Damn.

Sorry to hear that about poor old Josh.

The War on Evil Monkeys
Susan...

First and foremost, a heaping helping of my good wishes for speedy recovery of Harlan and Josh.

However...

In our understandable reaction to these blatant attacks, let us remember that many monkeys are not evil, that many monkeys want no more than to be left to live peacefully among us, indulging in rampant sexual behavior designed to embarrass parents at zoos and, occasionally, when provoked, hurling feces at those who annoy them. In truth, we all have our monkey moments.

Cheetah sends his love.

Tony

A pool of puke? GodDAMN, that sucks. I thought someone like Josh would have bowed out with a bang...being crushed underfoot by the Incredible Hulk, for instance, or taking on Toshiro Mifune in a final duel-to-the-death.

A pool of puke. Wow.

josh was a fine man.
I only met him once, but he seemed much larger than the three syllables of his name would suggest.

Do you think anyone has claimed his unused aftershave products?

-keith

Last night was a gasper, but I'm 90% today. I'll be up working tomorrow. After the Saints game.

Thank you for your concern.

Sadly, Josh Olson passed away in a pool of puke, late last night. Good guy. Real pity, that.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

DEAR HANS

If you're going to take a swipe at me, at least try to do it on the facts, NOT on corrupting what is written:

I have NEVER said "fuck Christmas."

What I said, repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly, was

FUCK XMAS.

Big difference. Xmas is a commercial cesspool of greed and mendacity; Christmas is a day of worship and rememberance of a fine philosopher. If you cannot perceive the difference, you and I have nothing to discuss. But if...your wits are so addled, or your field of perception so attenuated that
you cannot perceive the point a clear-speaking essayist is trying to make...I look on you with pity, as I would on any illiterate.

I have NEVER said, "fuck Christmas."

Get it straight, bozo, or buzz off.

Righteously, Harlan Ellison

Here's hoping Susan continues her recovery and Harlan and Josh follow soon after.There was a mention of Harlan in the most recent monthly catalog I just received from the Science Fiction Book Club. A reader sent a note praising the recent edition of "Deathbird Stories" that was released by the book club and put in a request for a reprinting of a new club editon of "Ellison Wonderland". The email address for passing on such a request is sfbceditors@sfbc.com. If you send a request please put letters to the editor in the subject field and include "I give you permission to print this letter" in the body.

Case O' the Pukes

Here's hoping that the health and well being are once again firmly in place in casas Ellison and Olson.

Here's a spell guaranteed to keep the Evil Monkeys away:

OOBA-CHAKA, OOBA-CHAKA, OOBA-OOBA-OOBA CHAKA!
I CAN'T FIGHT THIS FEELING...

Waitaminit.

Nah. Wrong spell. Get lots of bed rest and do what the nice lady says, Harlan.

Chuck

Harkan and Josh
Both of you get well soon.

No, not soon.

Sooner.

Break Susan's record for beating this wretched thing.

Bob Ingersoll

To the Ellison Household and Cadre,

Get well soon!

Mrs. Ellison, please don't over do it trying to nurse maid the menfolk. They're miserable now, and would only be more miserable worrying about you should you allow fatigue to undo your tentative hold on feeling better.

Ad Hominem etc.
Paul, Paul, Paul...

Ad Hominem attacks in political arguments are often a sign of a weak position.

So, is it your "argument" that because I oppose the war, and believe Murtha would be better at getting us out of it than "stay the course" Hoyer, I am then responsible for "innocent bloood" and war profiteering?

The mind boggles at your ingenuity.

My goodness, I had no idea i was so transparent. Obviously by wanting us out of the war I am actually trying to get us in even deeper.

Since you confess you don't know who I am, by what psychic power do you assign positions to me I have never taken? I don't read Free Republic and Little Green Footballs, and barely know the latter exists (the first I never heard of prior to your cryptic and nmildly entertaining post)?

I will predict that within a year there will be some sort of ethics bouhaha involving Hoyer.

Hubris always leads to a fall.

We should all be glad and thankful when we're in good health. We tend to take it for granted because society for the most part takes *us* for granted.

Josh and Harlan: Get well soon. It's one thing to be sick when you have a normal sort of job, but quite another when you're a writer and nothing gets done without you.

And Susan: Don't get sick again by overexerting yourself too soon.

Who the heck is KOS? Sounds like he got lost when looking for Free Republic or Little Green Footballs.

Meanwhile Cheney is yucking it up at the Frderalist Society, joking about how a federal judge would dare to call illegal Bush's domestic spying program, just because it violates the FISA law passed by congress. How dare she tie the presidents hands in a time of war.

Good old Ed Meese think's it is perfectly fine to engage in summary execution of illegal combatants or hold enemy combatants till the end of hostilities with no legal rights, which may be decades from now, and of course it is the president who declares you an enemy combatant. Meese says anyone on the field of battle is an enemy combatant so tough luck if you happen to live in a country the U.S. decides to invade. Of course Meese's view is predominant in the White House now.

The fact that the Dems voted for Hoyer over Murtha as their leader was not pretty but it was democracy in action. It is no more the end of the world portrayed by the right wing and the MSM then it was the end of the repubs world when they voted against Gingrich's choice back in 94'. Well, it may have been the begining of the end for the republicans because Delay got elected. The MSM could never bring itself around to reporting on secret prisons, torture, illegal spying, and war profiteering but here come the dems so it's back to the freak show. Is Nancy Pelosi a bitch? Is she in a catfight with Harmon for the Intelligence Committee chairmanship? Are the dems grown-ups like the republicans or damaged goods like CNN tells us?

I'm sorry KOS is standing up to his ankles in bullshit but it beats wading in the blood of the innocent and the vomit of our sick planet. Oil companies have hit the jackpot under Bush and war profiteers have found markets unimaginable five years ago. The U.S., which is the worlds biggest weapons producer and exporter has been riding the wave of the biggest market for arms since the arms race after the first gulf war.

These things do not happen in a vacuum. You elect an oil-man as president, he picks an oil-man as vice-president and an oil rich country gets invaded and oil prices go up. Violence and instability have been the hallmarks of Bush's rule and it is no coincidence that they are great for buisness if you sell arms or oil. Alot of that profit will go back into the GOP one way or another and there is always a position open for a new ex-congressman on their boards.

My favorite current quote:

"In what concerns you much, do not think that you have companions: know that you are alone in the world."
Thoreau
P not D
Get better Harlan. We need you U O
W
N
.

Get well
Well Harlan...Susan tells the board you are feeling a little puny. Wee now that Susan is out of the room, I say milk it. You know the ole "I bet some Red Lobster" would make me feel better. Or some Chocolate Chip Ice Cream would help parch a sore throat. You know she would be a great nurse while you are ill.

Get well soon, Harlan.

Glad you are feeling better Susan.

Jim & Cindy Argendeli

Harlan, and Josh,
Hope you recover with great suddenness. But, man, learn to stay away from those monkeys.

D.

Hi! What is your opinion on Michael Eisner (and his minions) banning Walt Disney's immortal "Song of the South" animated film classic.

Happy Thanksgiving! & Merry Christmas!

Of course the vegetarians and animal supremacists say Thanksgiving is prejudicial against them and atheists like Harlan (like in his lurid essay Fuck X-Mas) say the same thing about Christmas...

Thank you all for your kind wishes. I'm UP (although feeling like a wet noodle) but now Harlan's DOWN! Send many "feel better" wishes to my sweetie. Josh is also feeling bad. Although he came for a brief visit during my poxiness, I blame EVIL MONKEYS for his condition.

It was EVIL MONKEYS that infected the Brit Pack at MN. Right Rob? Bad evil monkeys!

Yrs. in yuck. Susan

Ruth Brown~ Jan. 12, 1928 - Nov. 17, 2006
A small teardrop from my eye. I really like her voice.

Murtha didn't get elected because he is too fat.

They want his voice, just not his appearance.

You all say you want out of the war, but when push comes to shove your rep.'s vote for Steny Hoyer, a man who want's to "stick it out", as opposed to:

Begin quote- "It is total crap that we have to deal with an issue like this when we’ve got a war going on and we got all these other issues," Murtha said.

I think the public is demanding some action on this issue. I don’t think they’ll accept anything less, and I’m hopeful that the—I talked to Baker-Hamilton Commission, but whatever they say, they have to find a way to give a timetable to redeploy our troops. -End quote http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15737141

And like good little boys and girls you all truckle into line with the rest of the proles.

So while the left hand waves "Ethics" around in the air, the right hand shovels more men and treasure down the jaws of Moloch.

Plenty to see here, plenty going on here. Lust for power, ego fulfillment and the smell of bullshit is in the air. Less than two weeks into the "New Era" and it's already up to our ankles.

Harlan, they are all ganging up on us. They don't seem to understand how politics works. It is a game, and the main players make the rules. They should all know this by now.

Murtha is wanted by the left, the same left that elected those fucks. They owe us, dammit.


---------

"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"
Denis Diderot

"History repeats itself because nobody listens."
Laurence Peter

"Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers."
Mignon McLaughlin

"That's the heart of it: My shows were not that controversial with the American people. They were controversial with the people who think for the American people."
Norman Lear

Murtha's "support"

Murtha may support the ethics reform legislation at the end of the day, but he's made it clear that he would be doing it only because Pelosi told him to, to curry political favor, and is on record calling ethics reform "total crap".

Jason

Murtha (I know it's over, but I had to set one thing straight)
"Murtha was wrong for the job because he has a problem with the ABSCAM scandal and generally does not support ethics reform."

It should be noted that Murtha's widely reported "problem with the ABSCAM scandal" is a 26 year old video of him NOT taking a bribe. And he actually said he was supporting Pelosi's ethics reform bill.

All that said, the votes have been counted, show's over, nothing to see here, let's get back to work.

Jack Williamson Memorial
Hi,

Here is a Flickr page I set up for photos from the memorial for Jack Williamson yesterday. It was a wonderful day full of loving tributes and laughter.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22901299@N00/sets/72157594380452679/

-Patricia Rogers

PS-Again Harlan...I know what a good guy you are by the phone calls you make!

Has anyone here had an opportunity to see IDIOCRACY? It's by the same fellow behind BEAVIS & BUTTHEAD and OFFICE SPACE. Given the movie's ridiclously limited release, I wouldn't be surprised if everyone gave a collective "no".

I've read a couple of summaries online, and it sounds like the type of film Webderlanders would go bugfuck over, Harlan included. It portrays a post-apocalyptic future (well, apocalyptic from MY point of view) wherein the entire human race has de-evolved into a vast collection of morons. Anybody with a vocabulary beyond five words is immediately accused of homosexuality, and soil is regularly watered with sports beverage.

The Road To Painesville
....so, I'm bebopping along Route 2 from Cleveland two weeks ago, heading toward Mentor, Ohio for a wedding rehearsal when I start seeing signs for Painesville. I nudge the wife and remind her of Harlan's birthplace and we wonder if his house still exists and whether we will soon see one of those brown historical signs pointing to a bronze plaque stating that Harlan Ellison was born here seventy-mumble-mumble years ago and life in Ohio, nay, the world has never been the same again.

But then we come to Mentor, exiting before the truth was to be told.

PS, sure is glad to be back in AZ. Whenever we venture back East between November and April it snows to make sure we never forget why we left in the first place. Yup, we had Wedding Day Snow and Slush a tad SouthWest of Painesville, Ohio the following day.

-TODD

My current favorite quote:

"If I lose the light of the sun, I will write by candlelight, moonlight, no light. If I lose paper and ink, I will write in blood on forgotten walls. I will write always. I will capture nights all over the world and bring them to you."

-Henry Rollins

"Maxine Waters, Henry Waxman, now those are my kind of dems."

Oh Frank, you and I may have to chat. But not here, mon frere, not here..... ;)

It's Daniel Ellsberg (2 "L's") and to paraphrase a great zinger, I know Dan Ellsberg, Dan Ellsberg is a friend of mine (he really is), and Frank, Murtha is no Dan Ellsberg.

I'm with Unca Harlan, Murtha should be the leader, not Steny Hoyer, some moderate creep using the packaging of the mild left. Steny, what a dumb name.

Murtha has been transformed, Hoyer is just another elite boilerplate nothing. Murtha did a Daniel Elsberg with the war, and he deserves canonization in heaven as well as this chair. Notice, all the moderate dems abandoned Murtha. Behind his back, these same people diss good ole Howard Dean.

Maxine Waters, Henry Waxman, now those are my kind of dems.

Murtha is reborn, and he will prove all you mooks wrong.

--------

Scott Reesten...We need you back babee.

Murtha was wrong for the job because he has a problem with the ABSCAM scandal and generally does not support ethics reform.

Hoyer was wrong for the job because he is too focused on money and raising it at all costs and because he has a bad history with not supporting Pelosi.

Murtha was right for the job because he courageously spoke out against the Iraq war and took the heat and because he backs up Pelosi all the way.

Hoyer is right for the job because his positions are more democratic and because he can help the Democrats raise money and get elected.

I think if Murtha had won, good man though he may be, it would have made the Democrats look like hypocrites on the corruption issue and been a big distraction. Too bad the Dems could not have found a third guy or gal who had not supported the war and had no ethics baggage. Someone like David Obey.

We will have to wait and see if Hoyer has the wisdom to not become a liberal doppelganger of Delay.

Amen on Hoyer over Murtha
I doubt that getting an F from the focus on the family is a bad thing and it's certainly not an "anti-family vote", more an anti-nutcase vote.

Feel better Susan. I have no witty ideas for the douc-bio; I just wanna see it soon.

KEITH CRAMER:

After reading your wise post ... see me: Man With Eyes Open. We calls it an epiphany. Thank you, Keith.

When I'm wrong, damn skippy, I am wrong.

Astonishing how little it smarts to admit it. Would that Bill Clinton and a few others who come to mind had understood how LITTLEthe truth hurts when youembrace it.

Yr. smartened-up pal, Harlan

Get well soon, Susan!

Argendeli Family - hooray for the homecoming. May the coming months and years roll smoothly past with more good times than bad.

Harlan and Company

Hoyer was the logical choice. Here's why:

Hoyer is further to the left than Murtha. Murtha's politics (and frankly political style) are old-school and more conservative than even the incoming across-the-political-spectrum Dem majority. Murtha espouses positions which often align him with conservative Republican agendas. He does not always vote that way, but these are what he states as his opinion behind closed doors and openly in public.

Yes, he was the first to publicly call for some sanity to this war and to bring the troops home, but that was a singular act and in electing a Majority Leader you need to consider ALL of their stands on issues. Hoyer is far more representative of Democratic values on the whole and deserves the position precisely because of that. Hoyer has a far better record of building consensus and being receptive to new ideas than does John Murtha.

In addition, Hoyer spent a good deal of time, as did Pelosi, working to get others elected. Many of the incoming congresspeople owe their victories, in part, to Hoyer's direct effort.

From a political standpoint, chosing Hoyer is a much better going-forward decision than is chosing Murtha simply to reward him for a heroic stand. This is about progress, not annointment.

Which, of course, brings us to Pelosi's first stupid mistake as Speaker-to-be. Publicly endorsing Murtha was a tactical error, but one which will be forgotten in the long run. Hoyer understands politics and is unlikely to hold a grudge, and Pelosi is herself a "move-forward" individual. Murtha may not have won, but he rec'd the endorsement, which will likely make him more amenable to Pelosi's direction -- rather than being the one-note Dem as pointed out above. She is building a solid coalition in order to ensure that a Republican voting bloc does not reappear during her reign. Having a dependable Dem vote for Republican issues will return us to the just-passed nightmare of a rubber-stamp Congress. This is a situation Pelosi needs to neutralize before it has a chance to coalesce.

This is not the stunning defeat or humbling first attempt that the FOX pundits would have you believe; this is democracy in action, which America seems to have re-embraced as a guidebook to making things happen in the Nation's Capitol. This was not ascension by annointment, this is a vote, pure and simple. Two candidates, both well qualified, both of whom gave it their solid effort on behalf of a dream of making things better, not worse. Power grab, of course, but I'll take either of these two men over their predecessor any day.

In a week, it will all be gone and everyone will play nice for the short run (pun fully intended).
__________________________________________

SUSAN: I hope you are on the road to recovery and are eating gentle foods this morn.
__________________________________________

Suggested Title for the Docu-Ellison:

"Harlan Ellison's Suck-Down-the-Microphone Trip Down the Rabbit Hole: a No Holds Barred Collection of Tales, Thoughts and Visions From the Edge. His Stories, His Story, and History."

"Featuring Susan Ellison, who will be calming him repeatedly throughout the film."


M'Just sayin'.

I too had hoped the Democrats would take a stand against the Iraq war. But I also believe such a hope is probably not realistic until the percentage of voters who oppose the war reaches a critical mass. I think such an event is probably a year or so away. For what it's worth, I live in Hoyer's district, and the Navy is the largest employer here. There is no way in hell any Democrat who opposed the war could get elected from this district. Most of my Republican neighbors see Hoyer as a Ted Kennedy liberal who favors a strong military only out of political expedience. (Luckily, only a few of them belong to the DeLay/Brownback wing of the party.)

With all due respect...
Murtha was a bad choice.

The Democrats House Majority Leader can't have even the appearance of impropriety, otherwise it taints the whole win. We need to show the country and the world that we are going to hold ourselves to a higher standard, and if that means putting Murtha in the back seat, then that's what we do. Hoyer is a good man, and an elitist.

Hoyer is ...

Rated 100% by NARAL, indicating a pro-choice voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated 87% by the ACLU, indicating a pro-civil rights voting record. (Dec 2002)
Rated 15% by the Christian Coalition: an anti-family voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated F by the NRA, indicating a pro-gun control voting record
Rated 100% by APHA, indicating a pro-public health record. (Dec 2003)
Rated 100% by SANE, indicating a pro-peace voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated 87% by the AFL-CIO, indicating a pro-union voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated 100% by the ARA, indicating a pro-senior voting record. (Dec 2003)
Voted NO on declaring Iraq part of War on Terror with no exit date. (Jun 2006)

Murtha might be a great representative, but he was a bad choice for majority leader for the Dems.

-Keith

Murtha v. Hoyer
It was a poisoned race to begin with. Murtha has been under investigation for years, is on FBI surveillance tape talking about running his scams and very nearly taking a bribe, and recently called ethical reform legislation "total crap".

Hoyer is, as previously mentioned, a K Street style pieceocrap.

Say hello to the new boss, same as the old boss...not exactly the same, mind you, but not different enough to stop my back teeth from grinding.

Considering that Hoyers has bragged about establishing a K Street type project for Democrats, I would say that the Dems have gotten off to an inauspicious start, to say the least.

Alex Jay, Brian Siano, and anyone else going to PhilCon this weekend, have a great time and post some updates over in the forums to tell us all about it.

As for Harlan's documentary, how about "Eternal Sunshine of Harlan's Mind"

Hope you are feeling better, Susan!

Get well, Susan!
Just visited the board for the first time in days and learned of Susan's illness.

Get well, lady! Casa Isabella and all those within its confines send you much love and their best wishes.

Lieberman and Pump Shotguns aimed at feet
Lieberman is a senator, so it's slightly impossible for even these confused Deocrat representatives to make him House Speaker.

One of the hallmarks of the Democrat in American political life of the past thirty some years has been the ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. While one hopes this particular syndrome will have come to an end soon, it's still kicking some big time ass at the moment.

My wish is that Susan will feel better sooner, not later.

Milton Friedman is dead. He was 94. De mortui nihil nisi bonum. Here comes Frank.

With apologies to Ibsen, I like this as a title: "Enemy of the State - A Life of Harlan Ellison".

KOS

No chips 'bout it - thar be spineless, unreckonin' nose goblins representing' (and - bless us all - LEADING) the Democrats; like the Lorax - shortish, oldish, brownish, n'mossy. Completely unimaginative. Why else would it have TAKEN this long just to get the house back to begin with?

They have to ante up and that was a lousy start.

Next they'll start talking about getting Lieberman as House Speaker.

ADAM-TROY, HARLAN: Though currently at love's liberty, I have also in the past noticed the nanny-boo-boo achoo aspect of one's sickly significant other.
(So much so that I read her all the Pooh books while she was recovering; it was appreciated)

What would you call that? The Camille Consumptive Conundrum?

SUSAN: Please accept the adding of my wish to those blown by your way that you will soon be hale, heathy, and hellraisingly ready to kick the Old(er) Man's ass should he sass you.

IN OTHER NEWS: Woohoo! I gets ta see Webderlanders this weekend!

Susan,
Allow me to join the others in wishing you a speedy recovery.

Bob Ingersoll

Line 5, not 4.

This is what happens when I get REALLY angry.

he

Line 4: "he" not "she."

he

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
GAHDAMMED STOOPID MUTHUHFUGGIN' DEMOCRATS,

THE FUGGIN' GANG THAT COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT !!!!!!!!!

Couldn't even wait a fortnight before blowing off their foot with a pump shotgun. Rejected Jack Murtha as Majority Leader, just because she was Pelosi's anointed, when everyone in all of America...Republican, Greenpartyist, Democrat, Indy, Right- or Left-Winger, Libertarian, Chaosist...EVERYone knows it was Murtha boldly speaking out against Bush and the War ahead of all the other wee timorous slinkin' beasties, that WON THE FUGGIN' ELECTION for those pimplebrained nit-picking ambulatory pus-bags!!! Holy geeeezus gawd amighty, save us from the same stripe of shitheads we just started to get rid of.

See, you guys, the problem with having me "on your side" is that I cannot be counted on to toe the line. Dumb is dumb, Dem or Repub. Knout on the noggin is what they most deserve, all of 'em!

Pissed off royally, Yr. Pal, Harlan

Mr. Argendeli,

Having been on your wife's end of the emergency procedure (y'know, that could be a very tricky admission if taken out of context), and worried through a newborn locked tight in an incubator for his own good, I wish your family the best. It takes time, but much like labor this too shall pass, though it may not be in quite the way you expect.

Harlan

everything and everyone is going to be just fine, we just know it. susan, the movie, alla dat stuff.

Rick, Chloe and Chelsea

Documentary title
Harlan,
If the written history is not, nor will be, ready anytime soon, I humbly suggest that perhaps now is the time to use that wonderful title you’ve (semi)jested in the past:
Harlan Ellison- Working Without A Net.
(Better than “All the Jamooks and Mountebanks That Were My Life”)

Feel better, Susan.

Paul

Documentary title

As HArlan constantly mentions how much he loves his wife, I think the proper name for the documentary should be...

How Beauty Tamed the Beast

A day late and a dollar short, as usual
Allow Alia and I to add our wishes for Susan to feel better soon! Lia has a cold right now, and yes, she is still the cutest thing alive, even when hawking up a small Phlegmish village.

And big congrats to the Argendeli family on the return home! Where are the baby pictures?

Here's hoping you all have a great Thanksgiving... or as we like to call it, Día de los Glutónes.

Best to all,
Michael and Alia

Hope ya feel better soon, Susan! Not much sucks more than the week long feverish mind-fuck that the flu brings. Especially one of the real nasty strains. Hope ya'll feel better soon!

Request from Erik Nelson
I've been trading email with Erik Nelson, the fellow making the documentary about Harlan. Being a tad post-shy, he's asked me to pass along a request:

If you have any personal video or home movies of Harlan, or know of someone who has such material, please contact Erik and let him know what you have. The email address he provides is ejnels@aol.com.

KOS, the daily KOS wants his name back. You cannot go toe to toe with me fella. I hold little packets of anthrax in my secret gills. One flush of the colon and it's Fu Manchu with twenty thousand knots of forward thrust. Parry thrust ya mook.

---------

Danny Goldberg, who is the head of Artimus Records, and is a major player in the progressive movement in LA LA land, has a book out, where he castigates liberals who cannot understand youth culture, or who cannot get youth to join the movement, because of the cultural snobbishness from older progressives. Goldberg's prognosis is that progressives need to talk to kids in their own language, meaning, dumb it down to their level. I'm sure Goldberg doesn't mean it that way, but we know he has a motive in believing such stuff: Selling crappy records.

Hi Susan,

Harlan will get you up to wonderful health in no time at all. You know he worships you!! By the way Harlan and Susan, Cindy and I wanted to thank you for your concern and well wishes for our little family. Evangelia Francis Argendeli arrived home today after almost a week in Infant ICU. She is still small but has lots of room to grow. I am going to start reading a Harlan Ellison out loud to her soon. CIndy is quite sore after the emergency procedure but is delirously happy. The cats are confused.

Dear Susan:
Hope you rest well and feel better toute de suite.

D.

Get Well, Susan
Harlan: as a guy whose own better half gets bugs once every couple of months, I sincerely empathize with that observation. Whatisit about viral misery that makes the women we love cuter, whereas those of us belonging to the male persuasion just become balls of sweaty, moany pleghm, unfit for anything but storage in toxic-waste units?

A LATE BUT SINCERE WISH...
GET WELL SUSAN!!!

VASTLY TRIVIAL REPLIES

KOS:

Erik Nelson of Creative Differences has been apprised of your Super-8 offer. He says yeah fer shur. He'll be in touch by e.mail, I guess. Anybody else got something they think might succor the stew?

LATEST INTESTINAL BULLETIN:

Susan is much better today, but still in bed, weak as Thai tea. Nothing has gone in for two days, so whatever bug it was, it's had precious little to replicate on. We calculate one more day abed, which ought to bring The Electric Baby back up to her usual pixie self. (Here's the killer, though: in her comic pages p-jays, even with feverish mien, she is still the goddamnedest cutest thing you've ever seen. She gets very small, and I just want to to put her up on a shelf with the other exquisite Royal Doulton figurines.

Your good wishes, all of you, have scintillated her limited horizon. She tosses you all an infectious kiss.

Or is that an infected kiss?

Either way, Yr. pal, Harlan

AARRGGHH!
Somehow, via a devious process known only to the cybergremlins who have bedeviled me from the first time I (with fear and trembling) interfaced with a computer, I sent my previous message before it was complete. Obviously. Not that it matters in the Great Cosmic Scheme of Things, but I feel compelled to finish what it be I done started, ergo ...

... a better title would be THE LIVELY TIMES OF HARLAN ELLISON. (Sound of crickets chirping. Timing is all. Damn those cybergremlins!)

Best wishes and regards to Susan on her imminent (I hope) recovery.

Once more, with feeling: Damn those cybergremlins!

Having broken--yet again--the one-posting-a-day rule, should I be exiled to the outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth and endless reruns of THE LAWRENCE WELK SHOW, I will not complain. Justice done. Gentlemen, start the bubble machine!

It's About Time!
A documentary about Harlan? Splendiferous! Should it reach a silver screen out here in the Holy Hinterlands I will be the first in line. Is there a title? If not, I facetiously suggest BUGFUCK! (Not that I mean this to in any way reflect upon Harlan's state of mind--far from it. But he coined the term, or at least popularized it, so ... )

Nah, forget it. The studio euphemizers would render it ENTYMOLOGICAL COITUS! and then NOBODY would see it. I am sure that Harlan will title it and, considering that he's come up with some of the best titles in contemporary fiction, I know it'll be a winner. Then again, if Harlan is NOT allowed to title it, but some kitschmeister with an MBA from Harvard and the soul of a polyester leisure suit is, then ... how does THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HARLAN ELLISON strike you? Nay, verily! At least hold out for

get well
susan-if you have not already tried it, you may want to check out a non prescription anti nausea product called emetrol. has always worked wonders in our home, with 2 pharmacists around. make sure you can take it. as always,i remain obediently yours.

Get Well Soon!
Dear Susan,

Wishing you back in the pink ASAP.

Another cheese encrusted but nevertheless interesting movie idea
THIS ISLAND EARTH

Go ahead guffaw. (This movie has been indelibly branded by Mystery Science Theater phony Hip Ironic Detachment.) But if you trowel away the Velveeta at its heart is a kernel of a good idea.

You're a famous scientist in your field. You discover evidence of a technology miles ahead of anything available. You discover that other scientists have been aprroached and introduced to little snippets of this technology. Just enough to get their attention and arouse their curiousity.

When you pursue it you are at some point offered what amounts to a kind of test. In the book and the movie it is the building of the Interocitor, a kind of interplanetary communications device. When you pass the test you are presented with an invitation from a mysterious group operating below the radar of the scientific community known to you.

Of course the government gets wind that some famous scientists working on high profile projects are disappearing. Who are these people? What's going on? The chase is on.

Seems to me you could have a basis for a nifty thriller.

CA
Broken Clocks: I stand corrected (and Frank is right more than twice a day, I was too hard on him. Keep the faith Frank!)

Y'know, I had completely forgotten there are two Christopher Priests. Shit. Now I'm going to be up all night trying to figure out if I sent that gift subscription for "Scientology today" to the right Christopher Priest, or the wrong one?

Say, did Tesla play a role in our getting the second Christpher Priest?

Harlan, I actually have some super 8mm footage of you sitting in a plastic pyramid shaped tent in Phoenix from 1978. Would the BioPic dudes like to have it? They could digitize it and add it to the biopic.

Get well soon, Mrs. Ellison!

Sandra

I'd also like to add to the congratulations on the Ellison documentary. You've earned it, fella.

I'd also like to send get well wishes to Mrs. Nice Lady Susan hoping that by the time I send this posting the bug is good and dead and you're feeling closer to normal.

Get well, nice lady.

Chuck

Yuk, Harlan! Susan, please get well! BTW, got the replacement flyer you sent me. in 2 days this time. (Germs! Should I wash my hands after handling it??)

Oh, and adding my voice to the condodlences re: Jack Williamson as well.

Kristin

Earned a complement?
Would that be a couple of extra sailors for your ship, or what? (Think you meant "compliment" there, Ace.)

Susan, get better. I'd love to see a documentary on Harlan, but it's got to have some beauty in it, too.

DAMN.

The first thing I post that earns a complement from our Gracious Host... and it's not under my own name.

DAMN.

Harlan,

"Susan is down with the worst stomach flu I've ever seen in 21 years together."

Oh, jeezus - not one of life's better offerings.

Hope Susan gets through it fast, as I'm sure SHE does.

Take care.

KOS

KOS said: "I mean, even a broken (analog) clock is right twice a day..."

Sorry. Not so. A broken clock is NEVER right. The hands merely coincidentally point in a direction that corresponds with the time twice a day.

A broken clock is no longer a clock; it is a decoration piece, no more useful than a dirty drinking glass left upon the counter.

I hope Susan gets well soon! I had almost forgotten about the documentary and I couldn't be more pleased they're pushing on. I hope they also delve into the past and unearth some older footage from public appearances. There should have been an Ellison documentary every decade, now this one has to cover it all in a mere two hours. Have there been any attempts before?

CINDY & JIM A.:

Been meaning to call for days, since Susan posted our concern. Is everything copacetic? Please let us know!

With additional concern, Harlan

We hadda cancel almost EVERYthing today: Susan is down with the worst stomach flu I've ever seen in 21 years together. Poor sweetie was up ALL NIGHT (no hyperbole) vomiting, culminating in her falling asleep on the bathroom carpet at 4 AM.

Coulda done it all, including the dinner (Neil's here), but I do NO DOCU-ELLISON without my honey is in it!

I wish she would at least swallow a little broth or chicken soup.

Miserably, Harlan

BOB MORALES:

That last line. Now

THAT'S

funny!

Yr. Pal, Harlan

PATRICIA ROGERS:

Oh, thank you, ever so much. Indeed, if you would look over the introduction I did to Jack's collection WOLVES OF DARKNESS (I'm pretty sure that was the title) and maybe perhaps pull out a couple of paragraphs ... or as much as you think is appropriate ... I would be enormously touched, and grateful.

Thank you, thank you.

Yr. pal, Harlan

Harlan, the false modesty aint workin' sparkles. Your ego will shine through on the big screen like Lucrecia Borgia's dining habits. Don't worry, posterity is the kink, trapped in a never ending game of tag. You're it, my friend. The prom king had his peg leg caught in a whirling turbine. Take the crown, do the dance. We love ya.

---------

SIDNEY DOUBLEPOSTER:

Now THAT'S funny!

-he

Harlan:
That's great news! I look forward to getting a look at it as soon as its completed. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Kudos sir.

Stacy

More Docu-Don'ts
Harlan starts things off by appearing in front of a huge American flag and reciting Criswell's monologue from PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE.

Harlan explains how he invented the internet - which he doesn't even LIKE.

Showing one of his scrapbooks, Harlan yelps when a b&w 8" x 10" glossy falls out: it's Thomas Pynchon, Frank Sinatra and Harlan at the Grassy Knoll!

On a disaster relief telethon, Harlan thinks he's giving out the pledge hotline - but it's really Frank Church's Social Security number.

Harlan inadvertently calls the wrong Christopher Priest "macaca."

More ways the documentary could raise eyebrows
Michael Baigent presents irrefutable proof that Cordwainer Bird is descended from Jesus Christ.

In a pathetic attempt to show that he's more of a man than Harlan, G. Gordon Liddy performs a vasectomy on himself with a ball-point pen.

The endeavor somehow becomes "Caddyshack 3." Judge Smails turns down Harlan's final appeal in his suit against an unethical publisher. To obtain the necessary parcel for his last resort, Harlan enlists the aid of Carl the groundskeeper.

Pat Robertson is tricked into reading "The Place With No Name" while on camera. He runs screaming from the room, convinced that he's been brainwashed into turning gay.

Bob Iger tells Harlan that all is forgiven from that incident in the Disney cafeteria. A keen judge of vocal mimicry, Iger hires Harlan as the new voice of Mickey.

A panel discussion on "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" degenerates into a fight over whether AM's operating system was Windows or Linux.

Anytime someone in the documentary says "sci-fi," the word is bleeped out. If the printed word appears on screen, it is pixelated out.

Harlan's BioPic;

All I wanna know is, "Can we go to the premiere Unca' Harlie? Huh, can we, CAN WE!!!??!?!?!??!"

The Rialto in South Pasadena can be rented for a small sum for private screenings. Hint, Hint.

Let's start a fund drive to raise the money for our very own screening with His Nibs front and center.

Just An Idea...

Williamson Memorial
Harlan,
Is there anything you would like me to read for you at Jack's memorial tomorrow?
-Patricia

Ten More Ways For the Documentary To Raise Eyebrows
10. Begin it with a James-Bond style action sequence, seguing with Harlan parachuting off the Alps, before we go to a stylized credits sequence with a theme song by Shirley Bassey (or Nelly Mckay)

9. The entire movie takes the form of Harlan being interviewed by Borat

8. Claymation

7. A big-budget reinactment of the Adrian Samish moment, soon to become (with the movie's unexpected blockbuster success), a ride at Universal Islands of Adventure, with generations of theme park visitors sliding down that conference table toward a screaming animatronic studio executive, who falls over just as the ride evacuates into a gift shoppe selling Ellison vs. Samish in plush and gummi

6. Two hours of glacial nature footage, narrated by Harlan, featuring the squirrels in his backyard

5. Slow motion Wire-fu as typing technique

4. Harlan deriving life-saving warmth from ten thousand penguins, huddled against a blizzard in the cold Antarctic night (narration by Morgan Freeman)

3. Close-captioned for viewers with mouths

2. Harlan jumping up and down on a couch

1. Absolutely no footage of, or material concerning, Harlan Ellison whatsoever

HARLAN - Trepidate not, kind sir. The mere fact they wish to do such a film is a nice clap upon yourn shoulderblades.

Think this way:

WITH your invited participation we get Terry Dowling's THE ESSENTIAL ELLISON (35th and 50th editions), a beautiful compendium that is a true representation of your work and legacy.

WITHOUT it we get Andrew Porter's BOOK OF ELLISON. I would describe it, but my mother told me never to use such language in public.

Trepidate not. It would seem they want you at the party, and your friends are likely to say some very nice things about you.


(Though I'm a little confused by the PENNY ARCADE PRODUCTIONS logo...)
_________________________________________



SUSAN: Is there satellite TV in Wonderland yet???

Harlan,

I realize this may be a bit early, but do you have any idea of this will be released in select cities or only in New York and LA? I know Greg Ketter has a relationship with one of the local theaters here that shows documentaries (the Riverview) and was hopeful that it would be screened here in Minneapolis.

This is a wonderful honor and you are unquestionably deserving of it.

On a completely different subject, I was curious about something. I just finished listening to volume 1 of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream CDs and was wondering if you chose the stories in the collection or if they were chosen by the producers.

If they were chosen by the producers, were there any other stories you would have liked the opportunity to read?

Again, congratulations,

Mark

Top Ten Ways the Ellison Documentary could be EVEN FUNNIER
10. Scene from Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove is played. Documentary interviews script-boy from movie, who tells us Kubrick lifted the "precious bodily fluids" line directly from Ellison.

9. Harlan slips on a banana peel in front of his house as he's taking the crew on a tour around the outside.

8. Harlan is filmed stopping his car at an intersection, getting out, and escorting a group of elderly ladies across the street against the light.

7. Over 750 women with whom Harlan has slept are interviewed and all of them say he is a GREAT writer and a FANTASTIC driver.

6. At a luncheon for the EOE, Christopher Priest and Gary Groth re-enact the knife fight from Memo's From Purgatory in order to prove definitively that it couldn't have happened the way Harlan wrote it, and they are both mortally wounded on film.

5. Local owner of LA restaurant Mogos Mongolian BBQ has been saving Harlan's un-opened fortune cookies for 20 years, Geraldo Rivera is there for the documentary filming of the Grand Openings...and ALL the cookies contain the SAME MESSAGE: You Can Not Fall Off The Floor.

4. Jacek Yerka goes on record that Mind Fields is his least favorite book of all time.

3. It is revealed that Susan is a trans-sexual.

2. Footage is discovered of Harlan at an award banquet getting a titty-twister from Bob Silverburg.

1. At the end of the documentary, Harlan is killed and eaten in the LA sewer by an alligator. (Audio Only)

Frank does it, again.
Frank Church wrote:

"Yea, Cassini was great, NASA risked killing all of us with radiation poisoning, just so we could look at pretty pictures. I do think some scientists need to get out more."

Everyone's entitled to their informed opinion. You're ill-informed and wrong, again, Frank.

But you might be right.

I mean, even a broken (analog) clock is right twice a day...

Ellison documentary

I think it sounds like a terrific idea.

Top Ten Ways in which the Ellison Documentary could Not be Good
10. Directed by Uwe Boll

9. Directed by Michael Moore, who spends the film trying to get past studio security guards to interview Irwin Allen... never realizing that Allen's been dead since 1991.

8. A Film by Laurent Bouzereau: "'The Oscar': The Making of a Hollywood Classic"

7. Extracts from Harlan's stories read by actor-comedian Dane Cook.

6. Entire film focuses on Ellison's extensive collection of jelly glasses, his storage room, his memories about particular glasses, and his journey (three days, by car) to the Billings, Montana Jelly Glass Festival and Auction, where he fails to acquire the rare Flintstone "Pebbles Spits Up" glass that would have completed his Hanna-Barbera set.

5. Film actually portrays Morgan Spurlock spending a month esting nothing but Harlan Ellison books.

4. Late 1990s earthquake sequence accompanied with Sensurround.

3. Raging industrial-music soundtrack by Lars Ullrich is promoted as "a tribute to the man's ass-kicking, take-no-prisoners, balls-to-the-wall-with-flaming-heart-fury Gonzo legacy."

2. Entire film is actually a series of interviews conducted at rest homes for aging comedians, who were told that "Harlan Ellison, the manager of the Belasco theater for thirty years" has died, prompting them to babble incoherent reminiscences about a "dear old friend" who never actually existed.

1. "Painesville, Ohio: Cradle of Pride."

HARLAN: With all possible due respect ... shaddap.

Though I understand your trepidation, and I understand that perhaps there is a bit of the "Ike didn't get a biofilm; Alfie didn't get a biofilm; Ted, Gerald, Borges, Bob ..." feeling, where you fear being too hubristic ... screw it, man; you ARE worthy.

Yours has been a career marked by honors; a life marked by deeds; a person marked, as it were, by history.
... who himself did a goodly amount of marking on History's wall, himself. I think a docubio is a WONDERFUL idea.

Look at it this--or rather, THESE ways.

The movie will allow you to see great friends and people you admire say all kinds of nice things about you, long before either your mind or body require that your oeuvre or your carcass be eulogized. Think of Tom Sawyer at his own funeral, knowing he had many full years still ahead of him.

That's one; there are many more.

The movie will be seen by people who like you; it will give them enjoyment, and they will be more likely to go out and buy more of your books.
The movie will be seen by people who DON'T like you; and in looking for things with which they can hang you, they will still be inadvertently pushing gelt into your coffers.
The movie will be seen by people who barely know of you, and THEY will very likely go out and buy more of your books.
The movie will be seen by the mainstream press, who will be much more likely to a), ask for essays and opinion pieces and stories (NEW YORKER or VANITY FAIR, anyone?), and b) cause their readers to go out and ... well, you know the rest.

The movie will allow you to evangelize the world a bit; to expound on your own personal ethic. Maybe we'll see more people dumping lit cigarettes in pocketbooks, or the incidence of parcel-posted Punxatawny Phils will rise--but more likely, you'll make people think about the consequences of their beliefs, words, and deeds. Even if it's only a few, that's still a good thing.

The movie will enhance the sex lives of the unromantically-attached Webderlanders, who can point up to the marquee and say, "Yeah, I know him ... wanna go talk over coffee?"
[okay, maybe not that last one. And that's not necessarily a bad thing not to be happening, come to think.]

Twiddle your thumbs, scuff at the ground, and "aw-shucks" all you want, but I really can't see this as anything but a win-win-win situation.

Take the honor and wear it proudly.
Because, in a way, it is validation of your entire life and life's work; all you have ever done.
That validation, of course, being already evident in the life you currently enjoy: The friends you have, the home you have, the career you have, the love you share.

If it is true that the best revenge really IS living well ...

... the you must truly be The Man Who [Is] Heavily Into Revenge.

[or, to say all I just said much more concisely, I turn the dial to Zero:
"Flaunt it, baby; FLAUNT IT!!!"]



(*) and yes, I know it was a gopher, not a groundhog--but I am a slave to alliteration ...

Very cool! How could it not be good?

PRODDING POSTERITY IN THE POSTERIOR

Spent the entire day down at the Harrier Studio in Hollywood, in front of a gigantic green-screeen, doing teleprompter narrations of a dozen or so extended extracts from my stories for the documentary Erik Nelson's Creative Differences production company (who did Werner Herzog's GRIZZLY MAN among a hundred other documentaries) has been working on about ... well
... about, uh, me. Four years in prep, and it looks as if it's actually going to happen. I am much with trepidation about this.

Josh showed up for part of the shoot, and Huck Barkin came in for on-camera interview, and tomorrow Neil Gaiman hits town to be the "innocent tourist" who walks the viewer through my home.
Then a dinner-shoot at Corrientes 3.4.8. with Paul Guay, Susan Knight, Steven Barnes, Tananarive Due, my Susan, Erik, and Neil.

Figured you'd want to know about all this, but I GOT TO SAY ... I am much trepidatious about this whole thing.

They tell me it'll be ready for release some early after the holidays. R. Crumb. Harvey Pekar. Now me.

I am much trepidatious about this.

-Harlan

Talkin' Tao

Harlan - other than Bruce Lee, and his great etching in your life, which martial artists have you admired most?

Were you ever acquainted with Kam Yuen? (A Shaolin expert)

germany
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Aufiderzein!

ELLEN WILLIS, 1941-2006
http://www.villagevoice.com/nyclife/0646,durbin,75029,15.html

Easily one of the best writers - and more importantly, one of the best people - I've ever known.

Harlan is the magic rattling in a child's head. Good man, unfeeling, deadly universe.

Brother Theodore
My friend Kenton reminds me that Brother Theodore would have been 100 today. I am of two minds on this. Certainly I want for people to live as long as they want to. But, oh man, in his case it's probably for the best. Kenton rightly points out he would have **HATED** turning 100. On the other hand it might have been the launching point for one of the greatest rants of all time.

I don't believe in hell but I hope he's down there running around scaring the shit out of folks. Because they'll have it coming and because Brother Teddy will think he's in heaven.

- Barney

williamson,king
a magical morning of my life was spent under a tree in july with my pyramid paperback of the legion of time. blessings on him; peace to Harlan and Susan. Harlan-curious as to the choice of green mile as great american novel. i lean toward It and hearts in atlantis myself. but have no objection to mile and remain as always ,obediently yours

Quick response to Lee's post
Dude, you made me get misty. I felt the same way about Harlan's message and after I read your post I went upstairs to find my little five year old sleeping; my two year old boy's arm was around her chest. I kissed them both and rode that vibe that came through on your post.

You ain't the only one, bud.

Hey, you Forbidden Planet fans, there is a new dvd edition of the film with tons of extras and a Robby the Robot replica, out today. There is also a HD version based upon a new restoration of the film.

Williamson Obit

Dennis McClellan of The Los Angeles Times has written an appropriate obituary for Jack Williamson. Just thought you all ought to know that even the Times gets it right once in a great while.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-williamson14nov14,0,1595040.story?coll=la-home-obituaries

What the.....?
God bless Harlan Ellison!

Whether they believe in each other or not.....

Adam, I saw _The 27th Day_, and I really don't think it could be salvaged at all. It's partly due to that idiotic ending... but it's also due to my being a generally pessimistic person. Frankly, I think people'd use those capsules because they'd want to see what they did _first_. And even if they tried one of them, and wiped out Bahrain or something, it'd be only a matter of years before another pill-bearer was able to put that into the remote past, dissociate the horror from the urge to Make Something Happen, and try it again.

Think of it this way. How likely would it have been to create an atomic bomb, and then _not_ try it out on an actual city? And how often do we hear from people who think that using such weapons on Iran or North Korea'd be a worthwhile endeavor?

The _idea_ for _The 27th day_ is a neat _Twilight Zone_ sort of idea, but I couldn't see it as a morality play. As a black comedy, yes, definitely.

The 27th Day / Hardheadedness
Ezra:

As long as they could fix that astounding cheat of an ending, the cardboard characters, and the dialogue, THE 27th DAY does indeed cry out for a modern-day remake; I don't mind admitting that I've mused on it at length, myself, especially since I don't think I'd get the opportunity to work on such a project this decade. But my thoughts are aligned with yours. I imagine the capsules being given to, let's say, a starving tribesman in Africa...a disgruntled teen in a Palestinian refugee camp...an oppressed, abused wife living under a Taliban-type government...and a nihilistic suburban stoner in Los Angeles. Would we last a week?

Elsewhere in the world, I suspect the presence of some Ellisonian DNA in Patricia Goncalves Peirera, 21, a Brazilian housewife in Sao Paolo, Brazil. She was the target of a murder attempt by her ex-husband, who had wanted a reconciliation.

When she turned him down, he shot her.

Six times.

At point blank range.

In the head.

Not a single bullet penetrated her skull to enter the brain.

Peirera, who suffered no serious effects from the attack, was released from the hospital after about one day, when Doctors said that any bullets still lodged in her head could be removed with outpatient surgery...


ATC

Aww Frank, blow it outcher Warp Drive. Ignorance of science is a greater threat to this country than any possible radiation you might have received from the Cassini probe (which was none).

And to describe a picture of a storm larger than Earth itself moving twice as fast as the greatest Category 5 hurricane, that has been churning for millions of years and will probably churn for millions more, as "pretty"...

Well, how can anyone benefit from your usual astute and penetrating social and political analysis when you display such a fundamental lack of seriousness?

Duane, do you agree that ICANN made a poor choice in making the country-specific TLDs only two characters long? I wonder how they differentiated Mauritania from Mauritius with only two letters. I looked at ICANN's list and I couldn't tell. Also, I'm surprised that there hasn't been a push by science fiction fans to create a ".sf" TLD. I think I'm on fairly safe ground when I say that science fiction is hugely popular among hardcore computer users.

First, to the Argendeli family, I'm glad everyone survived the ordeal and congratulations on the new baby. May this be the last health crisis you ever experience.

I'd also like to give my condolences on the death of Jack Williamson. He certainly lived a long, full life but he also reminds us how our fleeting, mayfly existence can end too soon.

Especially when they bring some beauty into our world. We can use all the beauty we can get.

Chuck

Harlan,

Your post on Jack Williamson ‘bout broke my heart.

Just recently, I went in to kiss my five year old girl goodnight and found her crying quietly into her pillow. She was crying for fear that I might get hurt or sick, or even die. I held her gently for a few moments, and lied to her quietly in the dark, saying, “I will never go away. Nothing bad can get into this house. I will never let anything hurt you. ”

And she believed me, and went back to sleep.

I wish someone could do the same for you.