Unca Harlan's Art Deco Dining Pavilion

Archive - 05/11/2008 to 07/31/2008

Unca Harlan's Art Deco Dining Pavilion

Architecture
To Harlan, Susan, or anyone else who knows: Was the Lost Aztec Temple of Mars (described by James Moran as an "Escher painting in 15 dimensions" (I'm probably misquoting)) custom-built and can the architect be revealed?

Harlan: I had to switch off non-verified comments due to a spam attack, but I have switched it back over now - the world must not be denied your comment, future generations would curse my name if I prevented it. So comment away, sir. All hugs gratefully received and returned, naturally.

...ohhhhh, dear god...

I lost my brain in the toilet this morning.

This can't be good. This just can't be good.

What ta do! What ta do! What ta do!

electronic books
there are many of HE's works available in electronic form, for example at

http://www.fictionwise.com/servlet/mw?t=book.htm&bookid=329&id=2848

although I cannot imagine why anyone would want one since books are portable all on their own and require no electricity or other external force to enjoy thank you very much.

Homophobia is dangerous, as is racism or any other negative ism. We cannot snow flower petals on the monument to that. It has to be resisted, acted upon and squashed.

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

I personally find Mormons to be decent people, but fear of Christ is no excuse for fear of the wang.

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

National Atheist Congress? AKA the ego fest. Wink.

Hey, if you are all god, how about making an eyeball as complex as a bee's.

Just fuckin with my atheist friends.

Love nettles.

ny times
Harlan- I get the Times daily. Would you like my copy, re: the mention in the letter pages ? jz

Answer to Unca Harlan
Sir

I was browsing Amazon and saw an Edition of Shatterday that had some cover art that I liked.

When I clicked on the cover, to find out the publisher, it said Kindle Books.

Before I bought it from Amazon I thought I'd see if the HERC had a copy.

As I typed this, I also took a look at the Amazon page and realized I made a mistake. If I'd scrolled down to the bottom of the page I'd have realized that I was looking for the third edition of the book that Tachyon Publications published last year.

Sorry for causing confusion!

Lori

Kindling
Okay, is anyone else disturbed by the choice of the name "Kindle" for a device designed to supplant printed books? As in "kindling?" As in book _burning_? As in _the catalyst for a book-fed conflagration that will dazzle and excite our baser instincts while consigning civilization to the ashes_?

Just sayin'.

c.c. Harlan
July 31st, 2008

Orson Scott Card
Editor, Intergalactic Medicine Show
intergalacticmedicineshow.com

Dear Orson,

Please consider this letter a formal withdrawal of my April 1st fiction submission ("The Meditation Machine") from consideration in your online periodical, The Intergalactic Medicine Show. I issue this withdrawal only in the wake of deep reflection, much personal anguish and repeated re-readings of your article ("State job is not to redefine marriage") in the July 24th edition of The Mormon Times.

Please know, Orson, it pains me greatly to take this step. For I have admired you and your work for years. And, although I am a self-identified pagan and bisexual, I have spent many delightful hours immersed in the narrative ingenuity of your work while accepting your uniquely Christian/Mormon vision of that great imaginative sandbox that is the sci-fi multiverse. This is because I have always believed that science fiction and fantasy were areas where people of disparate political and religious beliefs (- to say nothing of differing orientations! -) could find common ground rooted in our shared humanity.

Your July 24th article puts the lie to that notion.

To equate social acceptance of gender differences with the end of democracy in America is spurious, hateful reasoning. A great many gay/bi/lesbian/transgendered military personnel from both my nation and yours are presently putting their lives on the line for these very ideals in the farflung battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq. To dismiss their orientations as "same sex dysfunctions" dishonors their persons, their spirits and their monumental, selfless sacrifices. These same "dysfunctional" individuals have volunteered for dangerous duty in an unpopular war to protect the freedom of others abroad. How dare you dishonor them and their service.

As a retired educator who has taught children of all three North American nations, I find it despicable that you would characterize America's schools as "propaganda mills." I can inform you from personal experience as a high-school teacher who labored many uncompensated hours for the benefit of his students by doing everything from planning lessons to buying school supplies with his own cash to patching roof-leaks and mopping floors to enduring tedious meetings with bigoted, narrow-minded "Christian" parents who evinced suspicion at my every Satanically-inspired move (like including J.D. Salinger books on reading lists) that schools are - far from being the ivroy-towered bastions of Leftist thought you envisage! - nothing less than shrinking outposts of free thought under siege from Conservatives like yourself. Home-school your kids if you wish, but do not dismiss those who labor in Education under the burden of the Bush II onslaught as anything less than heroes. They are. I know, because I was honored to labor beside them. Until you have, you have no right to question their integrity. Damn your impudence, sir.

Finally, as regards your stated vow to "act to destroy ... government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage," I offer this: that laws, however unpopular, represent the mandate of compromise in a pluralistic society. To threaten the structure of law, the integrity of government and the protections of diversity in a democratic nation amounts to nothing less than a proclamation of fascist principles. I enjoin you to examine your own committment to democracy before questioning or threatening the committment of others. If you do, you will find, in the streets - as in this letter, as in my withdrawal of my work from your desk, as in this statement of disagreement - a forceful and vigorous opposition. Gay or straight, pagan or Christian, conservative or liberal, we are ALL children of that same Controlling Intelligence that ordained and guided the hands of such heretics as Jefferson, Hamilton, Disraeli, Crowley, Parsons ... and Obama.

And yet. I still have room for you in my universe. Do you have room for me in yours?

Love is the Law - Love under Will.

Signed,

The Night Manager

Kindle
Harlan,

Kindle is the electronic reader being marketed by Amazon.com. They also, of course, sell electronic downloads of books, newspapers and periodicals to be read on said instrument.

The Kindle edition of Shatterday is described as eReads; 3rd edition (February 18, 2004).

Here is the link:

Jhttp://www.amazon.com/Shatterday/dp/B000FC18EK/ref=ed_oe_k

Harlan,

There's a nice shout-out to you in the letters section of today's New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/opinion/l31reading.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

It's just two columns over (in the print edition) from the Sari Botton op-ed cited below by Chris Barkley. And it's the third letter down in the online edition.

Rod Searcey

LORI KOONCE:

What the hell is the "Kindle edition of SHATTERDAY" ???????????

and ???????????

not to mention !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Puhleez respond ASAP.

Yr. bewildered Pal, Harlan

JAMES MORAN:

Dear Snookums: tried to enter a message at SPORK but was advised I had to do something I didn't understand before it would post my no-less-than-stunning comment. So I said fuggit and opted out. Ah me.

Hugs'n'such to you and the scintillant mezzo.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

Re: Orson Scott Card
I'm sure the sentiments expressed by Orson Scott Card are also expressed by others on various religious blogs with expected frequency. What I find most odd about the statements coming from him is that he's a science fiction writer who has written many novels about the future, and yet he clearly fears the future and wants the clock turned back 50 years. It's taken decades for society to move at a glacial pace to where things are today. In 1955 Charles Beaumont wrote a story titled "The Crooked Man" which appeared in Playboy and created quite a stir in its day. It's about a homosexual society in which heterosexuals can be arrested and imprisoned for expressing heterosexual love and where men and women meet clandestinely in dimly lit bars. Some people found this story very disturbing. Even threatening. Today it just seems like an obvious idea for a short story, but no one dared try it (or successfully marketed it) before Beaumont did and I expect the science fiction magazines of the day would have considered the idea taboo. But things have changed.

Where in the heck can we get Hydrox cookies? Please ask Unca.

Struck by New York by By Sari Botton
And I'd like to think I would receive the same help as well under the circumstances in New York City or anywhere else.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/opinion/31botton.html?th&emc=th

Chris Barkley
Cincinnati, OH

odds n' ends

Jim Ward - you are so spot-on right. If the massa loses his plantation because his slaves have been freed, well, that's a bummer. Better luck next time. My post arose from my ire at the illogic of the "Defense of Marriage" cloak that so much of this crap comes swaddled in. It's so easy to refute and no one in the media ever bothers.

KOS - a while back you mentioned that you attended USC cinema school in 1982. I was there for an embarrassingly long time, starting in 1983. Makes me wonder if we ever met.

Harlan - glad you're on top of your health issues. They are none of my damned business, but I'm glad anyway. I hanker to read new Ellison work for many years to come.

Roger - a god who hates is unworthy of worship, IMHO. I'm agnostic myself, leaning atheist as I age, but I try to remain open to the possibility of some sort of larger intelligence. But even if there is such a thing, if it's in the hate business, then it would seem that healthy response would be to resist it, not worship it.

MM

A SCOTT CARD COMMENT

As this is my "living room," as many of you have termed it in the past, and considering the high-intensity output of the last few days' postings in re Orson Scott Card's editorial, it seems incumbent upon me to say SOMEthing, lest my silence be taken for cowardice or disinterest.

Here is what I say:

I have known Scott for many years. He has always treated me and my opinions with either a deferential silence, or respect. He has treated me as a gentleman, and I have never found him to be less than the same. We do not agree on quite a few matters. But that has never stopped Scott from doing me a solid when such became necessary. I have a plethora of personal friends whose views on topics for which I would go to the battlements in resistence, are anathema to me. The list of such pals is longer and more startling than any of you can imagine.

Nonetheless.

I will purposely absent myself from this topic. In very short order I will be happily and joyfully attending the marriage of my friend George Takei and his partner, Brad; my friend Walter Koenig will be the best man; my friend Peter David will be flying in from the East Coast to drink in the grand event. So you know where I stand on "gay marriage" (like "giant shrimp" and "mental telepathy," et al, a strange verbal construction known tautologically as an oxymoron). (Except for my marriage, or, as my Unnamed Assistant says, only one out of every 50 OTHER marriages.)

Folks, unless something goes wrong at Cedars-Sinai next week, such as an overzealous intern-cum-fry cook abandoning a McCormack Thresher in my chest cavity, next April I will be in Atlanta as the keynot speaker for the National Atheist Congress (or whatever it's called). Further, on topics theological, deponent sayeth not.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

Bits and Pieces!
Barney: your comment on homosexuality really hit the point. I've tried asking my over religious mother why people would make a choice that would cause 'em nothing but trouble. Mom just tells me they are mentally ill and leaves it that at that. Makes me wanna tell her I'm bi and see what happens.

Dennis Thompson: I think that it's perfectlly all right to take the stance that you won't buy a persons work because you refuse to support their beliefs. If that's the stance you have then please accept my apologies for yesterday's little screed. It sounded to me like you were just dismissing OSC because of what he believes. My bad!

Susan: Does the HERC have a copy of the Kindle Book edition of Shatterday?

Peace and much love

Lori

MEDICAL APPOINTMENT REPORT #6

4:30 today, I go back to see Karlsberg. He will no doubt edify me as to what day next week I go in for the procedure. I'll let you know when I know.

Howie Zimmerman is in hospital already, in NYC. Diverticulitis, if I've come even close to spelling it properly. One of my best, long-time pals, used to edit STARLOG, worked for iBooks. If you know him, I'd appreciate your calling his wife Deane and passing along your own good tidings. I spoke to her yesterday.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

MEDICAL APPOINTMENT REPORT #6

4:30 today, I go back to see Karlsberg. He will no doubt edify me as to what day next week I go in for the procedure. I'll let you know when I know.

Howie Zimmerman is in hospital already, in NYC. Diverticulitis, if I've come even close to spelling it properly. One of my best, long-time pals, used to edit STARLOG, worked for iBooks. If you know him, I'd appreciate your calling his wife Deane and passing along your own good tidings. I spoke to her yesterday.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

James Moran---Thanks for the vacation review.

shagin---I got that you were being funny. Or at least I was 90% sure. I'm not 100% sure about anything these days.

Wotta Card

I will not denigrate Mr. Card as a writer or as person. I read an Ender book or two and they left me fairly indifferent. He did write a Bradbury pastiche -- can't recall the title of the story or the Bradbury tribute volume I read it in, but it had Douglas Spaulding going back to Green Town, Illinois as a middle-aged man and meeting up with a young female rocker refugee from LA; it doesn't turn out how you might think -- that was far and away the best thing in that book and a marvelous piece of work.

But I am sorry he sees fit to tie up his ignorance with his faith. The earlier remark on this page about limiting the amount of love in the world and the quote from "The African Queen" are apropos.

The fact of the matter is that the church had very little to do with marriage for the first 8 to 10 centuries after the death of Christ. Christian churches largely took couples' word for it that they were married, and wedding ceremonies took place outside the church -- on the porch -- in acknowledgement that the marriages really didn't have that much to do with the Church. See my review of Stephanie Coontz's marvelous _Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage_:

http://calitreview.com/139

or better yet, read her book and her earlier fine tomes such as _The Way We Never Were: America's Families and the Nostalgia Trap_.

Attitudes are changing. Although too many of the young today continue to fall for cigarettes, their view of gays and gay relationships tends to go far beyond those of many of their parents and grandparents. Change is coming, whether hapless, frightened Americans like Orson Scott Card are ready for it or not.

Finally, a last word on Bobby McFerrin and "Don't Worry, Be Happy." I disagree with Steve Barber that the song was intended as sarcasm, initially. McFerrin strikes me as a genuinely happy guy who loves his work and enjoys life. I think the song was generated out of very sincere and pure feelings, and from a simple tune, much as other original compositions of his, like "Thinkin' About Your Body," "I'm My Own Walkman," "Manana Iquana," or "I Hear Music" were. That's only a small part of his work, though; he started out as a serious jazz artist, sounding much like Al Jarreau, and has since moved into much more rarefied areas, such as African chant-songs and the a capella ensemble of multiple voices he called Voicestra. But nearly every album of his until recently also had a brilliant cover of a Beatles tune, as well as versions of compositions by Joan Armatrading, John Fogarty, Cream, Herbie Hancock, James Brown, and Duke Ellington. He's recorded whole albums with Chick Corea and Yo-Yo Ma.

But I think he was taken aback, even appalled, by the monstrous popular response to "Don't Worry, Be Happy" -- which he probably regarded as a very slight piece of work -- and I think his contempt for its popularity is reflected in the fact that in four concerts over nearly a decade I never saw him sing it live, and he was willing to release the rights for its use in advertising (a fruit drink, I think it was).

Steve,

The Con WAS fun. I left out most of the annoying Hollywood stuff that bugged me - agents and producers everywhere, climbers driving down solely to network, and a plethora of shows and movies that have nothing whatsoever to do with comics or science fiction.

Frank,

“Josh, but you're Hollywood!”

Sure. But I’m also a fan, and I’ve been going to San Diego for sixteen or seventeen years. And as I indicated in my post, I’m conflicted about the fact that every time I’ve gone recently, it’s been on some studio’s nickel. However, if you’ve tried to get a hotel down there lately, you understand why I’d jump at anyone who’d get me one. Hell, I'll promote kiddie porn if you'll get me a hotel room in San Diego.

On Mr. Card:

Nothing good has ever or will ever come from denying anyone the right to love whoever they want. It’s been my experience over the last four decades that homophobia always comes from the same place - fear of self. I don’t know anyone who’s well adjusted in their own sexuality who is offended by homosexuality or gay marriage. The notion that such things can somehow damage the culture is patently insane, and one day, when we’ve all reached a level of basic enlightenment, such people will be put into homes for their own good, right next to people who believe there’s a man who lives in the clouds and controls the world.

I have yet to meet a single homophobe who isn’t clearly confused about his or her own sexuality. Not one. If these people weren't so deadset on making the world a worse place, I'd feel sorry for them.

Introduction and HERC order
Hi everyone. I’ve been lurking around here for the last month or so, being a bit too nervous to actually jump in and contribute. Anyway, now that I’ve finally decided to say something, any confidence issues I had will probably vanish overnight, so you’ll hear from me again. A few things about me: I’m 19 years old, an arts student studying politics and philosophy, and I discovered Harlan’s work at the start of this year and have since been reading as much of it as I can get my hands on. Oh, and the reason I finally spoke up was Susan’s special offer for the IHNMAIMS game/mousepad/hintbook.

Susan:

Could you please put my name down for Shagin’s IHNMAIMS game/pad/book $40 special, as well as a copy of the City on the Edge of Forever trade paperback? Thanks. By the way, if you want me to pay for the shipping, given that my order will have a longer and more arduous journey than Shagin’s, then I’m perfectly happy to do so.

One very important thing, would it be possible for me to pay you and Harlan in $US cash? I realise that on the HERC store webpage it says to pay by cheque or money order, but these would be an enormous hassle to organise compared to simply sending cash. I hope this isn’t a problem.

My thanks to both you and Harlan,

Jonathan

Card-carrying nitwits
Barney Dannelke: the question as to why god keeps making more gay people is easily answered by a certain type of Christian and it's that people such as myself choose to be gay. Doesn't matter when you tell them that makes no sense and is unsupported by personal experience or the experience of one's friends or the medical profession. Or that if people could make such a choice they might choose against it in the many countries where gay people are still imprisoned or even executed for their behaviour.

People such as Orson Scott Card are unfortunately impervious to reason so one has to hope they're part of a shrinking minority. I believe they are, which is why their bluster has become more hyperbolic; they're losing the argument and they know it. A whole generation of teens is here now for whom sexuality is no big deal. Any kind of sex between men was still illegal in Britain until 1967. Fast forward forty years and we now have more or less equal rights across the board, civil unions for all, gay members of Parliament and the wonderful Captain Jack on our TV screens. Card is a dinosaur and he'd be better off saving himself further embarrassment by drinking a large cup of STFU.

James Moran: that's a great post. Soooooo jealous. I love LA.

Ye Powers That Be (TM)
Boy, that didn't go over like I expected...

BARNEY - The closest I come to being a "Christer" is swearing when I stub my toe. Faith and religion are two different things. I sometimes have the former, but have little use for the latter (there are ups and downs historically). I have more gay friends than straight friends. Hubby and I joke that we're a same sex couple - we're both bi. Hell, my boys have three Fairie Godfathers! I'll give ya the trillion mark...I was trying for sarcasm with that one.

The closest I come to being a "Christer" was my father insisting my brother and I were to be raised Catholic. My atheist mother agreed, but said that if he wanted us to go to Sunday school, he would have to take us. We went once.


MARK - Not certain that male same sex unions were legally sanctioned in Athens, have to check on that one. Most of Greece tolerated the thought that women could have same sex relations so long as they were also birthing children to their husbands. Sparta was famous for the "Use wives to get you sons, and boys and slaves for pleasure." philosophy.



Mea Scapula,
shagin

Marriage
I disagree that marriage is rooted in religion. I think history shows that marriages were primarily political and economic unions (today millions of people are in arranged marriages which reflect that). Religion assimilated marriage, as it has assimilated other secular and religious traditions as it has spread. Take Christmas, for example: to say that Christmas began as a celebration of Christ's b-day is an outright lie. All evidence shows that it was a

People of faith attempt to justify their views by making logic arguments. I find this hypocritical, at best. Either go with logic, or go with faith. Don't attmpt to justify religious views which spring from irrational belief systems with logic. When religionists do this, they open their own religious beliefs to logic, and then there is bad blood all around, because they don't stand.

Card's essential argument is that gay marriage violates natural law, and that religion protects/upholds it. In nature, however, there is diversity, not homogeneity (good word) which is what religion really promotes. Religion promotes homogeneity of both thought and action. From the distant past, up to today, religion has promoted homogeneity of _people_ by mass exterminations of other religious and ethnic groups. I hardly think religionists have earned the moral or ethical right to say what should and should not be acceptable under a secular government.

All evidence of the origins of homosexuality indicates that it is a natural state. Since homosexuals are a natural-born people, then they should have the same rights as every other natural-born person. Some people are born black: they should have the same rights as people born white. Some people are born of hispanic parents: they should have the same rights as those born of germanic parents. Some people are born without legs: they should have the same rights as people born with legs.

-Keith

Hi Barney. God does not hate homosexuals as people. What he does hate is the sin of homosexuality as much as any other type of sin be it theft,murder,lying,cheating, swearing or whatever. He would much prefer to love us all but we make that very difficult by our choices. The problem is we are the ones who choose to do all these things that are wrong, and are accountable for our actions.Yes,Satan is also in there trying to get us to sin, but we are the ones who choose to do so.

Holiday blog
Harlan: I've posted my long, rambling account of our holiday, so as requested I'm sending the link here:

http://jamesmoran.blogspot.com/2008/07/ellison-wonderland-and-other-stories.html

I must warn you though: I say nice things about you. If I keep this up, you'll get a reputation...

I have read and enjoyed some of Orson Scott Card's books, but can no longer support him financially by buying them. I am diametrically opposed to many if not most of his political and sociological views. But the primary difference between his position and mine is that my position allows for his disagreement and his does not allow for mine.

My photograph of the burning Constitution would undoubtedly make his day, but for all of the wrong reasons.
______________________________________

Marriage in the United States, as we have discussed over in the the Forums, is a State controlled ceremony conducted in many cases by churches. But, AS a ceremony regulated by the government -- and not any religious institution -- it has to apply equally to all people in order to be Constitutional. Defining it as a gender-based practice creates a government-sanctioned class system and that is unacceptable in our so-called "free society". So sayeth Article One of the 14th Amendment.

Remove the government regulation and the churchs can do anything they want. But as long as the authority to conduct the ceremony comes from the State the churchs have to follow the rule of law, which is equality. Those 47 states who have acted contrarily have degraded the Constitution.
______________________________________

I am continually surprised at the limitations placed on God by some of God's strongest adherents. If God is all things, then who are we to decide what God does and does not sanction?

"Followers" should get their minds and hands out of someone else's business, and allow God to handle it. Suggesting you're doing God's work is Hubris of the highest order -- and we all know God's views on THAT one.

More thoughts on Card
I really am trying to separate the discussion of the man from thew ork he produced. I understand and respect Mr. Thompson's position that he will not read any works by Mr. Card again. While I am not quite at that level, I confess that any works of his I read or re-read in the future will be viewed with a slightly different perspective than in the past.

A-T C, would you be so kind as to tell us where your thoughts on Card's comments were posted? I, and many others I am sure, would be interested in reading them.

Sandra, you are one of the people around here I call friend, but I am not sure we are on the same page on this one. There are plenty of examples in history, Ancient Greece being the most notable, that recognized a union between two members of the same gender. Add in all of the pagan religions that allow same sex unions or polyamory and there is plenty of historical basis that shows that the Powers That Be™ have, in the past, sanctioned unions other than between one man and one woman.

KOS, what are the cogent arguments against same sex unions? I would be very interested in hearing them. I work in HR and I have heard conservative friends of mine argue that companies should not be forced to cover same sex unions because they are too difficult to enforce (like people of different genders could not get married or stay married just for the benefits)

Not feeling so fucking gay today
*** Shagin ***

You don't have to apologize to me for your belief systems. Where they don't impinge on the quality of my day or that of my friends believe what you will.

But your math regarding atheists is terrible. I'd say you are off by one and possibly TWO orders of magnitude.

http://www.prb.org/Articles/2002/HowManyPeopleHaveEverLivedonEarth.aspx

That's IF you assume the first homo-saps circa 700,000 B.C. decided to worship ANYTHING right after they got walking upright and looking for predators in the tall grass sorted out.

I think formalized thought regarding things theistic and deistic came a wee bit later. But if you want to believe a few TRILLION people walked the Earth with mono-theistic tendencies, aside from the data being against you - carry on.

But consider one small local argument about homosexuality and "God's laws" and "man's laws" and one larger less localized argument.

1.) Small argument. If you Christer's would loosen up a little Harlan's friend Tom Disch might still be alive today. But no, everybody has to make everything so damned hard. Thanks for nothing.

2.) If God (trademarked or otherwise) REALLY hates homosexuals so much and homosexuals can't make homosexuals all by themselves then how come we keep getting a new batch EACH AND EVERY GENERATION SINCE THE DAWN OF HUMAN HISTORY? I think the God that you say actually gives a shit about this (or am I reading you wrong?) might be just a LITTLE bit more pro-active and not such a slacker on this issue.

I say humans are so congenitally fucked up as a species it's a wonder anyone ever gets laid via consensual sex - ever.

Have a nice day.

- Barney Dannelke

I am not trying to influence anyone from reading Mr. Card's work.
Nor anyone's work for that matter. I only stated that when I read his first article claiming gay marriage damaged the sanctity of his hetero marriage, I could no longer bring myself to support such a narrow mind by buying his books. Please read whomever you like, I do believe in listening to different views, but also have no desire to read "Mein Kampf", just in case I was wrong about this "Hitler" thing. Just like I know better than to watch "Fox News", they even tried to spin the earthquake coverage the other day!

right to marry
Delurking to express a minor point --

The views of so many posters here re the mind-numbing nastiness of Card's essay are inspiring, indeed. Where else but here can one find such elevated folk?

That the expansion of marriage rights by the state to same-sex partners is moral, just, and, in all likelihood offers no harm to couples of opposite sex. But what if that were not the case? What if divorce rates rose in Massachusetts?

The granting of full citizenship to slaves might have been "harmful" in some ways to free citizens of the South. Would that have made it any less of a moral imperative for the state to end slavery?

Thanks to you all for your thoughtful writing. Harlan, godspeed.

There's no great mystery here, folks. It's called BIGOTRY.

The struggle for gay rights is the civil rights struggle for our time. I know many folks resist comparing the gay rights effort to the racial civil rights struggle but bigotry is bigotry. It hardly matters what the object of your bigotry is. It's the same mental disease.

To be purged from oneself. To be fought in others. To be opposed wherever it raises it's loathsome head.

Wellllll
Okay, A-TC, I got to admit I was wrong about Card being creepy for writing "Kingsmeat".

Though not the first to comment on that tales' seeming sadism, that is beside the point. I'll give the story this: that I read it once in 1978 and in 2008 it is still with me sufficiently that I can recall most of the horror in reading it, and the way it made me think about what is "moral" and what "immoral".

Card is not creepy for his fiction.

Nor is Card creepy for being a mediocre writer in my somewhat informed opinion.

No, Card is creepy for actually writing that he considers himself a "moderate" on homosexuality, and that he often is criticized for being too "soft" on gays.

Do remember that he advocates the retention of anti-sodomy laws, and for their frequent use to imprison and/or otherwise punish gays in order to set an example for the rest of us not to go there.

"Pour encourager les autres!"

He's a creep. He's a hack. Not the first of either to write SF, nor the last.

Nevertheless I do agree: Writer as writer. his work the only thing that counts for judgement, that's here. Writer as human being, judged by his personal words and actions, we can leave that over there. Apples, oranges.

Marquis De Sade although a trifle odd, perhaps I think I could have shared a drink

Or two and never rued the day we met

Now creepy Card reverse I do regard, his books I choose, not him, to call refuse.

Don't think I'd share a drink with such a wretch.

"Over his bed hung a convex mirror from a 1984 Peterbilt Cabover. On it in Gill Sans was wtitten, "Objects in mirror are larger than they appear."

KOS

I heard there have been after shocks. Everybody still okay? I'll take rattlesnakes, copperheads and cottonmouth water moccasins-- I can't hang with y'all from California.

Talk about fearless,

Cindy



Darryl, my friend.
It's wonderful to read you.
:)
Don't stay a stranger,
Cindy


Josh,
I'm glad you expounded on your adventures. I love imagining Robert Culp's grin at the mention of Harlan's name. You were there-- thanks so much for writing it here.
:)
Cindy

Gay marriage
My position on this is simple.

I think gay people should have to suffer right along with the rest of us.

"Creepy" Card
Omitting for the moment Orson Scott Card's offensive comments on homosexuality -- which I have commented upon, at length, and without restraint, elsewhere -- and also avoiding any arguments about his quality as a novelist, I feel that I need to step in and take the opposite point of view on his story "Kingsmeat," which so revolted KOS.

It's a rough story. It's also a horror story, and, I think, an effective one. It is stomach-churning in that it focuses on very ugly subject matter, and looks close, without flinching. I have certainly read a number of horror stories by other writers that I have publicly derided as "not stories, but pathologies," stories that lingered on sadistic detail for no thematic point except sheer joy in the sadism, but I would not include this work, or the piece he calls Harlanesque, "Eumedides in the Fifth-Floor Laboratory," in that category; I think "Kingsmeat" is a nightmarish look at a man who had to commit great evils against his neighbors in order to ensure their long-term survival, and I believe it ultimately earns its right to present the details it describes.

Your mileage, on that particular work, may vary. But making judgments on a writer's character because one of their works has gone to the places that, in Stephen King's elegant phrase, "keep the gators fed," is an iffy proposition. I have certainly read writers I would say that about. But the same could be said of Harlan's "Prowler in the City etc." And I've written a couple of tales myself, one among them "Scars: A Romance in Seven Acts," that led the love of my life to say with a wince, "And I MARRIED you?"

You wanna call Orson Scott Card an asshole because of his views? Go ahead. Proclaim that far and wide. You wanna say he's a bad writer? Also your prerogative. You wanna say that his prose makes your skin crawl? Also extremely legitimate. But making judgments about his "creepiness" because some of his short stories have gone to some awfully dark places -- well, that's a test that'll be flunked by an awful lot of people who have written horrific stuff. I know I'd flunk it.

Lori,

Excellent point. I grew up in Arizona as a solid, solid republican. (In the 60’s, Democrats in Arizona were either just Republican’s that weren’t solid or lived in Tucson.) However, I read the stories and essays of a gentlemen with whom I shared few political views. And I continued to read Mr. Ellison until I came across an essay on gun control. And he changed my mind. Then I read a story on abortion. And he changed my mind.

Reading the stories and ideas of people with whom you disagree is important in questioning your basic understandings, fortifying your basic understandings, or just flat changing your mind.

Mike

I find it amazing how much effort and mental energy some people put into preventing other people from marrying.

Homosexuals have been forming permanent, monogomous relationships since the dawn of civilization (quite popular in Athens so I here). Now they simply want it recognized by law, so they may enjoy certain next-of-kin privileges (and occasionally have a little party with flowers and rings).

I have yet to here a single gay couple say: "We want to change the definition of Orson Scott Card's marriage". In fact, Orson Scott Card rarley comes up in the discussion. I can assure Mr. Card that the worlds homosexual community has very little to say about his marriage indeed.

And Mr. Card and like minded evangelicals seem to believe that should two men or two women ever declare "I do" to each other in a public space, their own marriages will collapse (even if they weren't invited to the ceremony). They honestly seem to believe that their own lives will be affected by such a thing.
Such people really need to mind their own beezwax.

On a side note, is it not a little rich for a mormon to write about the sanctity of marriage?


Happily Single

-Steve E. D.

Dennis Thompson
Mr Thompson

If you only read those authors whom you have commonality with, why bother reading?

I can only speak for myself, but I read not only to gain a little pleasure, but possibly to learn something as well.

It was said some time before I decided to chime in that one should learn to separate the writer from what is written. In Mr. Card's case I highly suggest it. Good people can think some really awful stuff, but does that make them worse people? I think not.
If I took your viewpoint I'd not be here, and would have missed out on some really wonderful stories and emotional expirences I'd have totally closed myself off to some wonderful reading.

Besides, whether or not Mr. Card likes it, some time in the not too distant future, gays are going to have the right to marry nationwide.

I really liked "Enders Game" I kept reading the books, and the quality of the writing fell every time.
Then Card started this gay marriage tripe, and I was forced to realize what a moron he was.
I'll never read anything of his again.

Card
Face it; Orson Scott Card is a creep.

I read a story of his about thirty years ago (inan an "Analog" anthology of original stories) in which he described in loving detail alien's with a taste for manflesh slicing the breasts off a young, lactating mother, so they could savor the taste of the milk in their pan-fried human breast strips. Oh, and he had a human chef cooking it for the aliens. The story was told from the viewpoint of the human slave who gathered the "meat" for the chef. Of course at the end the Humans wiped out the maneating aliena in gory detail. The "meat gathering" human slave came to a paritcularly gruesome end as I recall,some sort of "hoist on his own petard" folderol.

The problem was not the plot (you could write a touching story with that concept) but the way the Creep lavished loving detail on the pornographic aspects of the violence. It was disturbing not in a literary sense, like the best of horror (such as "Prowler..." in DV by our host), it wa just exploitation for titilation.

The story was basically pprn with a sadomasochistic bent. I finished the tale mainly because it had the fascination of a train wreck. I could not stop watching this semi-talented misanthrope of a writer expose his inner twisty-turning worm-riddled innards to the light of day, so to speak.

That put me off El Creepo Card for twenty years. Then, succumbing to the siren song of the old argument "Well, if it won an award it can't be TOO bad..." I picked up ALL the "Ender" books and read them in a few weeks, end to end.

"Ay ay ay!", as Josh might say. It was like a Literary Long March, slogging through page after page of, well, crap.

What a load. Horrible, dislikable characters, endless paranoid discussions of bizarre social theories and barroom "psychology", mixed with incredibly dumb concepts such as talking pig aliens who morph into trees at death. The videogame war concept done to death. Characters who have to be idiots for the plot devices to work. The pitter patter of Card's feet running arond in the backstage area of the stories, turning wheels and cranking up and down the cardboard scenery.

Face it, Old Creepy (in this case Card, not Alvin Karpis) is a walking train wreck of a writer. He is a moral leper so besotted with his own supposed moral rectitude and the "pain" of being teased as a child for his supposedly funny name (I've read his trants on this. Laughable. "Orson" never stopped Welles or Bean from being menschen of the first quality) that he can not see straight.

In this case, his works do reflect his nature. Of course that's IMHO.

Then again, I never read "Mychal's Songbird"; maybe it's a fuckin' masterpiece.

But I'll never know, because I still have the stench of those Ender books in my hindbrain.

As for his political rant about overthrowing the government: good luck, bucko.

People who read the "Ender" tripe at a young age are very defensive about Card, and many are now troubled over this. Sorry, but you know how that goes, feet of clay and all?

So yes, I dismiss him, his arguments, and the horse he rode in on.

I am conservative politically, by the way, but Gay Unions of any type don't bother me none. There are cogent arguments against the concept, but Card's are not among them.

KOS

Gay Marriage
I've said it once, or a thousand times.

Who thinks it's a good idea to argue that the overwhelming problem of the world is too much love?

Back to lurkdom.

Darryl

Gay Marriage thread

Neither Orson Scott Card nor any of the others who argue against same-sex marriage has yet to show how gay folks legally binding themselves to one another actually harms traditional marriage.

In other words, how exactly is it that gay marriage is going to impede the heterosexuals of the world from getting married and having kids?

Gay marriage has been legal in Massachusetts for a while now. Has there been a sudden jump in the divorce rate? Has there been a precipitous drop in the birth rate? Or I'll even settle for this: is there anywhere in Massachusetts today a man and a woman, currently divorced, who can both say in all sincerity that their marriage was a wonder in every way until the gays got to marry, at which point all their love and passion for each other just drained away? Show me those people, please.

Absent that kind of clear demonstration of harm, the arguments against gay marriage, when stripped of bloviation, boil down to: "It offends me."

Which translates to: "You're hurting my feelings."

Which no way no how trumps "Equal protection under the law."

MM

In re "permanent facts of nature":

ROSE SAYER (Katharine Hepburn): "Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above."

-- From THE AFRICAN QUEEN

MARK G. wrote: "For the record, could someone please explain to me, without descending into religion, why people care about who marries whom? As long as the individuals are consenting adults (and the definition of adult is a variable term, I realize), what is the problem here if it two men or two women want to get married?"

This is where it gets tricky, Mark. You can discuss the subject of marriage without delving too deeply into the matter of religion (which differs from faith), but it is important to recognize this is a slippery slope and too often good intentions will send you on a one way trip on your backside.

The concept of marriage, as opposed to a civic union, has roots in the rich soil of religion, organized or otherwise. There is not a culture on Earth today (or many yesterdays ago for that matter) that does not have religion as a foundation of thought and action. Even those governments which try to quell matters of religion or faith, or who seek to use religion or faith as tools to control the masses, recognize the need to chain the beast or become its next meal. Marriage and its linguistic brethren refer to those unions between individuals that have been blessed or recognized by the Powers That Be ™, the spirits, gods, and goddesses that define the unknowable.

Why would the Powers That Be (my apologies to the atheists in the crowd; historically you’re outnumbered a few trillion to one) give their blessing upon such unions, at least according to the brand of true believer? To make babies. Dress it up all you want, sprinkle on politics and fancy verbiage, but the blessings of the Powers That Be™ had to improve your chances of popping out the wee ones, right? And if the kids didn’t come, then you’d obviously offended said Powers That Be™. Shame on you. Don’t piss off the Powers That Be™ or Bad Things™ will happen. Two men can't make a baby. Two women can't make a baby. No making babies, no reason for blessings, no marriage.

Fast forward to today where marriage has come to encompass concepts such as wealth, status, and propriety, and at the heart of nearly every argument against same sex marriage is….wait for it…making babies. A man and woman, or a man and women, or a woman and men (I believe there is still one polyandrous culture out there, but don’t quote me), come together with the blessings of the Powers That Be™ to make babies.

It’s unfortunate that the word marriage has commandeered the concept of a civic union to tote its baggage around. The idea of marriage has defined reality; even the majority of people who seek a civic union conducted by a justice of the peace consider themselves “married” without nary a thought given to any religious or spiritual significance to the act. But what can they do now that they’re married? Make babies! Of course you can’t make babies without being married first, thereby receiving the blessings of the Powers That Be™. Ever wonder why bastard is a bad word?

Yeah, this is the dummies guide to marriage and religion, but it works. Add your favorite political interpretation, whisk in some convenient history, and bake until overdone.


shagin

Josh, but you're Hollywood!

My twenty-first post here
CARD V. GAYS:

That O.S.C. article was disturbing indeed—a prime example of how some will deterministically squeeze logic down a narrow groove, around blind spots and through flaming hoops—assiduously avoiding the Big Picture—to ‘prove’ some illogical notion they have a sentimental/spiteful devotion to.

(On a related note, anyone else excited about Bill Maher’s upcoming doc RELIGULOUS?! I can hardly wait!!!)

It is hurtful when someone you admire expresses views you disdain, though I guess one should be more grown-up about such eventualities.

Still, in the case of someone like James P. Hogan denying the holocaust, it just makes reading his books feel dirty. (Although one notices that he no longer mentions said denial on his website next to his other controversial views.)

On the other side of that coin, I’m seeing strong notices for Dave Sim’s JUDENHASS. But otherwise he talks some weird shit sometimes, for sure.

Sad and confused,
T.Y.

Why
Mark, it starts with one simple misconception. That it is a virtue to believe in something for which this is no evidence. After this, all things are possible. It seems that once you've taken this idea to your bosom that you can easily reconcile and justify nearly anything, even contradicting ideologies with the proviso that the everything else has to take a back seat to the crazy ideas presented in this one book and by the people who carry it around, in Card's case the even more ridiculous tales found in the Mormon bible.

I can't really explain how it's possible for a reasonable, rational person to believe that a being capable of creating a universe and populating it has been waiting around for billions of years so he/she/it could become upset or not where and when I stick my bits, the manner in which I do it and whether or not I should have some of it removed by a rabbi before hand but it seems to be their overriding concern.

At very least they give us something to talk about over dinner which depending again on who you are may or may not include ham or beef.

See Carlin on this. He seems to understand them well. Both the danger and the silliness they represent.

Also Connolly who sums up well with the line, "never trust anyone who has just one fucking book".

CARD'S CRAPPY CONSIDERATIONS
Sexual monogamy is not a "permanent fact of nature", as long as Card is using that phrase to support his argument. But human beings have evolved beyond indulging their biological natures at will (though not everyone at all times, of course).
How about "live and let live"?

On Orson Ccott Card
I wrote a blog entry about Card's editorial, and if you want to wade through all of it, it's at http://rpk.livejournal.com right now.

Generally, all one has to do is apply Card's logic to some similar issue, and his arguments either fall apart... or stand as echoes of some really awful historial legacies.

Card claims that courts have overturned laws that were enacted by majority vote" and are thus "making new law without any democratic process." This amounts to "the end of democracy in America." The same was said of court decisions that overturned discriminatory laws, like those of the Jim Crow era. The reason for overturning these was to establish equal rights and protection under the law. And yes, apologists for racial separation complained about these decisions in exactly these terms.

Card writes:
"No matter how sexually attracted a man might be toward other men, or a woman toward other women, and no matter how close the bonds of affection and friendship might be within same-sex couples, there is no act of court or Congress that can make these relationships the same as the coupling between a man and a woman.
This is a permanent fact of nature."

These statements may actually be _true_, but they're not an argument against gay marriage. Try applying it to another issue, and find the fallacies: "No matter how much an adopted child may love his or her adoptive parents, or how much adoptive parents love their adopted child, there is no act of court or Congress that can make these relationships the same as a child born to its own, genetic parents. This is a permanent fact of nature." See? The above might have some truth to it, but they're not profound truths, and they certainly don't amount to an argument against adoption.

As for Card's alleged call for revolt, here's his closer:

"How long before married people answer the dictators thus: Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage, and help me raise my children in a society where they will expect to marry in their turn.

"Biological imperatives trump laws. American government cannot fight against marriage and hope to endure. If the Constitution is defined in such a way as to destroy the privileged position of marriage, it is that insane Constitution, not marriage, that will die."

These are precisely the same kinds of arguments you'd have read in the anti-abolitionist literature of the 19th century. There was the "biological" argument about the inferiority of the "Negro race." There was the centuries long tradition of slavery, even sanctioned in the Bible, with bland assertions that governments shouldn't try to change such hallowed institutions. There is also the threat that, if the Government tried to outlaw slavery, slave-owners would rise up in revolt against their Government... well, they did.

So I'm really not impressed by Orson Scott Card's arguments. I am impressed that an otherwise imaginative and intelligent man would make such rotten arguments in public.

Eddie Izzard
Dear Susan and Harlan,

Are you still planning to see the show? If you are, please get in touch with pesky ol' me, please. You should have my number.

Love,
Amy

James, thank you very much for sharing that link with us, it is a sobering insight into the mind of Mr. Card. Harlan has spoken repeatedly of separating the writer from his works, that a person can be a lousy human being yet produce amazing works of art (Tolstoy was the example I believe he used), and I believe he is generally correct in this regard.

However, the level of hatred and bile spewed by Mr. Card makes me re-examine and re-interpret passages from several of his works, most especially Songmaster. I am not sure I will ever be able to read any of his works again without thinking of this rant.

For the record, could someone please explain to me, without descending into religion, why people care about who marries whom? As long as the individuals are consenting adults (and the definition of adult is a variable term, I realize), what is the problem here if it two men or two women want to get married? I could have sworn the Republicans said they wanted to keep government out of the bedroom, yet they feel the compulsion to dictate who can marry whom and a woman's reproductive rights?

I just don't get it

Mark

Orson Scott Card
I don't know if this is worth commenting on or not. On the one hand it's silly season stuff, but on the other hand people like Tim McVey had less than this to complain about to justify their extreme actions. Basically, in The Mormon Times, Orson Scott Card wrote an article which is basically a rant against Gay marriage which climaxes with him suggesting that any government which grants rights to Gays, which makes their lifestyle equal under the law to herterosexuals, deserves to be overthrown. You can read about it here.

http://www.thepoliticalcesspool.org/jamesedwards/2008/07/29/acclaimed-novelist-calls-for-overthrow-of-the-government/

In the past Card's political rants and praise of Fox News never really went any further than his website, but this time he may get more attention than he bargained for.

Steve, congratulations on the story! Don't forget the little people. (Insert your own joke here.)

Dr. Landsberg, as with others, we appreciate the unnecessary.

Rod Williams, my best to your mum. My ma's a trooper, but this year's been the one for 'mysterious glitches', and pain galore. So it goes. Health to you all.

Diane, thanks for the update. I was discussing operations and things with some work folk and one particularly squeamish person said to the effect, "I don't wanna know nothing. Just get in there and get it over with." I told her I found that to be incredible. I'm with you; I want to know the details, gory or no.

Dennis C. wrote "You have to question. You have to ask why. You can’t just unthinkingly shoot those people who are supposed enemies over there. You can’t unquestioningly agree that those others are inferior because they don’t believe. You can’t accept anything as Holy Writ or Gospel. Unless YOU decide it is. (So if you’re the same faith and political persuasion as your folks and your folks’ folks and your folks’ folks’ folks, then you really haven’t done a lot of thinking on your own, have you?)"
All i have to say is: HEAR, HEAR!

Harlan, I don't offer wishes for you to get better out of a selfish desire to read new stories, or hear more amazing exploits. Just stay as well as you can for yourself and those who love you.
Of course, 'living well is the best revenge', and alla that, so i'd say you've done just about everybody in. In spades.
Take care.

Paul

Nice post, Josh.

One simple observation. You (and others) have criticized and/or lamented that Comic-Con was too Hollywood this year. But given your post below that is probably a bad way to characterize the show. It sounds as if the "Hollywood" folks were pretty cool and amazing -- and kind of geeked out themselves from all reports. And the majority of projects had some sort of linkage to comic-dom, yes?

It seemed, to this reader, that you all were lamenting that film and television were encroaching on comics as a topic. It's as if your concerns are more from an overly-Marketing orientation, than anything too Hollywood. (After all, if it weren't for the filmmaking contingent, you'd have been an attendee rather than a presenter.)

Or I may be wrong.

Either way, your second post made the show sound a lot more fun than I'd been thinking. Maybe next year I'll brave the parking and lines again...

Maybe.

Gary Lee: Are you perhaps reffering to the Foundation Trilogy (as opposed to some story I'm not familiar with called The Foundation).

Not trying to be a smart-ass, I'm actually not sure which you mean. I find a 2011 dated movie called Foundation on IMDB, but theres no details.

I think that could be awesome, except one problem. As Asimov himself states in the forward to the fourth, Foundation is a series in which most of the action happened offstage and was simply talked about. I don't know if it would work that way on film.

And, who do I have to blow to get a part? That would be so awesome.

For some reason, some of the comments here have made me feel that I was a bit miserly with my Con report. There was much good to be found there, Hollywood notwithstanding.

I wasn’t at the Wolverine panel, but I heard about it, and it is pretty damn fine that Jackman made a point of singling Len Wein out and thanking him for his career. You don’t see that every day.

Thanks to Harlan, I got to meet and chat with the great Eric Shanower, and the very great Robert Culp. I don’t geek out very much, but Demon With A Glass Hand and I Spy were heavy shit when I was first putting myself together. The look on Culp’s face when I told him I had survived writing with his old pal Harlan was worth the entire trip. Shanower seemed a little perturbed that I was doing an Oz movie, though. I tried to assure him that it was faithful to the spirit of the books. Not sure I succeeded...

Also got to see Kyle Baker, who I worked with on an aborted project a while back. He told me his book The Bakers has been picked up by Fox for a pilot. Keep your fingers crossed. Kyle’s a goddam genius, and the world would be just that much lighter if he had a weekly series. Also, his graphic biography of Nat Turner has just been collected and published. I’m a fan, and hadn’t seen the last few issues, as there were, apparently, some problems with distribution. But fear not - it’s all there in one volume now, and definitely worth your time.

My pal Dan and I stumbled across Al Jaffee early on. Neither of us had the nerve to say anything. Talk about formative - the Mad guys are part of my DNA. I met Mort Drucker once, years ago, and was as stumble footed as a dumb kid. I’ve hung with George Clooney and Jet Li and spend a good deal of time with the guy who wrote A Boy And His Dog.... But the Mad guys are something else, man. They’re in my DNA. I bow and scrape. All others are mortal.

Ran into Malin Akerman at a party. She’d read for me last year while I was casting my movie. She was great then, and came very close to getting it, but didn’t. She was pleased to see me, and seems to have recovered from the pain of not getting the part. I’ll say - she’s Silk Spectre in Watchmen. I think she’ll be okay...

Had a very nice lunch with the fetching Peter David in between panels (him - not me. I just did the one). He remains one of the funniest sonsabitches you’ll ever meet, and if you’re ever having story problems, I recommend running it by him. He told me he’s coming to LA soon for an event that I’m not sure I can mention here, so I’ll hold off. But it’s a doozy.

Strangest moment for me was meeting THE biggest History Of Violence fan in the universe. Mark Hammill, of all people. He was lovely and effusive, and the whole thing felt like one of those Chris Farley skits - “Remember when Viggo shoots those guys in the diner? That was cool!”
And, lastly, seeing my old friend Bill Stout - my first boss in the film biz - was just grand. He’s been through a tough couple years, and you wouldn’t know it to look at him. He looked as hale and hearty as ever. The time I spend hanging out at his booth, catching up, are always a Con highlight for me. A mad genius and a true gentleman, being around Bill always reminds me how fortunate I am to know such grand people. (He’s also the cat who introduced me to our host here.)

Here’s some pics from the thing. It’s the usual assortment of costumed folks, but I never get tired of that silliness. And, as you’ll see, the great Stormtrooper Elvis was there again this year. Probably my favorite costumed dude...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=34723&l=3d43f&id=545501552

Questons?
Great Movies

Yes, Black Narcissus was wonderful, sets, music, the never ending wind through the monastery, it was all perfect, let hope they NEVER remake that one!, when I want to see what a movie could me made like it take a good look at that one.

Thief of Bagdad, WOW!, what a fantastic movie, saw it as a boy and wanted more then anything to have a bottle with a Genie in it, I found an old wine bottle and set it on my shelf hoping that it would somehow change into the real one, I love everyone in that movie and I guess I could go on and on about it till everyone here was sick to death of my yammering, but I do have a question……here goes.

Near the end of the movie there is a scene where Abu, ( played by Sabu ) gets the flying carpet from the old wise man, he also get a cool looking crossbow and some arrows,…..BUT, if you look closely you can also see a small golden box on the carpet as he files off to battle the bad guys, …what the hell was that for?, I’ve seen the movie a million times and it always gets me wondering?, I think it may be a part that they cut of the movie for some reason or another, maybe the box held something magical or ????, I just wish I knew the answer, anyway if anyone knows what that box was all about it would sure make my day.

And just for more info on Sabu, ( real name is Sabu Dastagir) lived in southern California and LOVE hot rodding!, very interesting guy, died in his wife’s arms, “ I want to be a sailor sailing on the sea….” rest easy guy, love ya.

gary

Mea Culpa
Sorry if my rant yesterday was misconstrued. I meant it entirely as support for Connie, against those yahoos who hate 'liberals' or pin labels on any other group to hate.

Apologies to any that it upset. Fueled by long sleepless night.

Anyone discuss that the guys who used to run New Line are making THE FOUNDATION into a film??? At first I shudder, but they did do a good job with LORD OF THE RINGS.

Health Matters
Harlan - good luck with your upcoming procedures. My brother and father have both had similar hoops to jump through in the last year and a half. They had stents inserted and are peachy-keen as of this time. Doesn't bode well for myself and others in my immediate family...ounce of prevention blah blah blah. Easier said than done when there's a juicy Porterhouse in front of you.

One liners, in most cases
I just dislike the song.

Did not know MdFerrin was all that, I will listen to some.

Conrad Veidt, from Caligari to Casablanca, what's not to like? "Vind!"

Saw "The Assassination of Jesse James, etc." just a while ago, wow, awesome flick.

Fucking earthquake woke me up from a nightmare, so quickly I forgot what it was about, so all afternoon I am, as was He Who Walked The Streets Of Providence, pursued by a nameless dread attached to shaky ground, which is another short story title for the book.

Yes, I was asleep at 11:32 AM, it's a job that I do well.

Comic Con, as related elsewhere, was too large, too crowded, too Hollywood and too short. See Thoreau if confused.

"Masa Hashimoto, son of Sugeru and Kazuko, retired Sumo champion, sake collector and fugu gormand, had a stomach ache."

KOS

Get Well
Mr. Ellison,

Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.

Earthly perturbations
Good to hear you're keeping well, Harlan. Best wishes again.

Earthquakes: we had one here in February....in England. 5.2 magnitude. You expect that in an earthquake zone but that's not how we think of our part of the world. I stood in the middle of the room watching a six-foot Ikea bookcase piled with all my heaviest art books *and* a cast-iron Underwood office typewriter (circa 1925) shake violently from side to side. 10 seconds that lasted a very long time.

Anti-war films: Come and See by Elim Klimov. Few people have seen or know about this and it's absolutely one of the best, if very tough viewing since it's so uncompromising. You know the thing with the explosions dulling the hearing in Saving Private Ryan and The Pianist? Klimov did that first. I'll say no more, just watch it.

Looney tunes: Orson Scott Card jumps off the deep end to a captive Mormon audience:

http://mormontimes.com/ME_blogs.php?id=1586

Gay marriage "the end of democracy in America" and other unfortunate bleatings. What a card.

My twentieth post here (unlike previous misnumbered misnomer)

EARTHQUAKE:

Yes, a 5.4 isn’t so much…on the ground, that is. My coworkers and I got to experience it on the 27th floor in Downtown L.A. I promise you that a wobbling high-rise adds a fresh element to the “Minor earthquake, so what?” experience. As Floor Warden, I had to actually tell people to stay away from the windows, and one of my own Crisis Management Team members started down a stairwell before I hollered her back! (I got made fun of for my bright, yellow vest too. Hmph!)


COMIC-CON:

Snapshots from Thursday: Got to tell Steve “The Dude” Rude how I think he’s the best all-around artist out there. You’d think he hears that a lot, but he was humbly surprised. Glad to hear a DOC SAVAGE flick is in the works. DOCTOR WHO’s Steven Moffatt is funny as hell. TORCHWOOD’s John Barrowman has the energy of a Saturn rocket. WATCHMEN’s Nite Owl ship looked cool. Saw Rose McGowan from a distance, and that ain’t bad. Saw Playboy’s Miss November 1998 up close, and that’s a high order of ‘ain’t bad’. Speaking of ‘ain’t bad’, THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO’s Connie Selleca has kept herself fit and lovely, AND she smiled at me. Crowd control sure helps, but it often felt like we were being herded like cattle. Josh is right: as Sundance went before it, the Con is pretty Hollywood now with the good and the bad that go with that.


ANTI-WAR FILMS (or at least war-adventure films with an anti-war message tossed in here or there):

May I also suggest: William Holden’s speech through gritted teeth in BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI: “You make me sick with your heroics! There's a stench of death about you!” Chaplin’s insistent belittling of the great dictator in THE GREAT DICTATOR. The 4077th’s constant digs toward military authority in M*A*S*H. War’s effect on children in AU REVOR, LES ENFANTS. The utter, wasteful murderousness of the art-loving Nazi in Frankenheimer’s THE TRAIN. How MOTHER NIGHT portrayed the war’s devastation even for a successful campaigner. CROSS OF IRON where Peckinpah really stuck it to the “glory of war”. THIS LAND IS MINE ably showed how being occupied turn neighbor against neighbor. Anybody seen the old BBC apocalyptic flick THREADS? That nuclear shit is nasty. Sergei Bondarchuk’s 1968 WAR AND PEACE (recently restored!) worked the trick of turning one off war, especially in the kaleidoscopic burning/looting/raping of Moscow sequence. UGETSU MONOGATARI was quite salient about the misfortunes of war in the lives of the poor. The recent IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH portrayed the psychological cost of war quite well. The production of A BRIDGE TOO FAR seemed to be as troubled a group effort as the Operation Market Garden it dramatized, but perhaps that underscored the dilemma of command incompetence. ANZIO wasn’t one of the better war films, but Peter Falk has a great short monologue revealing exactly why men make war—perhaps not an anti-war moment, per se, but it could leave one queasy. I also like Tornatore’s MALÉNA for its portrayal of how war alters civilians’ behavior, seeming to grant license for all manner of ugliness. Okay, I mostly love it for the generous footage of Monica Bellucci (and get the Special Edition for more of that, boys). And, of course, THE SOUND OF MUSIC—when lederhosened tots must warble treacle onstage to dodge Nazis, the goddamned Huns have gone too far.

Down by the riverside,
T.Y.

The Thief of Bagdad and Black Narcissus
Just wanted to further endorse the gorgeous print that Criterion's new Thief of Bagdad DVD sports. In a related note, there is a Blu-Ray disc of Black Narcissus, which is not region coded and will play on any Blu-Ray player, available from the UK, and the color will knock you for a loop. Truly breathtaking!

JOSH,

For some reason, I love your criticism about Comic-Con feeling too "Hollywood-y". I've heard similar artists mention the same sort of vibe in various interviews through the years. I haven't had a taste of it myself, but I guess it's only a matter of time.

MARK G - cheers, mate - good to BE back. Hope your decree absolute comes through soon. How is Hell's Kitchen doing? The best peanut butter ever.....I can feel my arteries furring up just thinking about it.....

*************************

Earthquakes - have experienced two minor quakes, both in England - the first when I was lying on a couch in the 80s, and again a few months ago sitting on my wooden chair in front of this very computer screen. Both a 2 on the Richter Scale (I know, I know, this seems like a hiccup to you hardened Californicates, but to us Brits, it was beyond our comprehension - the second one made it on to the front page of every national newspaper).

*************************

Bobby McFerrin - I also dislike DWBH, but I felt he redeemed himself with the soundtrack to Pixar's KNICK KNACK short (the original version, NOT the later bowdlerised one!).

*************************

Cheers
Rob E.

Susan: Part II
SUSAN: Funds in the mail, correct, accurate, and proper. Thanks muchly.


S.

LOOSE ENDS RAVELED

1. The earthquake was out in the San Fernando Valley, Chino Hills, twenty-five or so miles from us. Pomona City Hall and the Main Library sustained noticeable damage, dozens of shattered windows, facades rent, sidewalks fractured and upended. Nowhere near us. Ellison Wonderland rocked, rolled, a few small "precariously-poised" (a la SLIPPAGE stories) items went down -- the temblor was the first "big one" since the 1994 Northridge Thruster that royally fucked us over -- and it done lasted 20-25 seconds, which is a lifetime of fear when it activates the barely subcutaneous fear&flee recollections -- but we sustained absolutely no personal or domicile damage...until we find the secret little cracks in the wall, next January or April. We are fine.

2. You can stop wracking your brains. The mystery Dillon painting was, in fact, the illustration for the story I had intuited, passim the elements in the framed piece. I just got the title wrong. It wasn't from "Alive and Well and On a Friendless Voyage," it was "Kiss of Fire," which was EXACTLY the plot I recapitulated to Susan as we stared at the piece. Where I went wrong was attaching the wrong title to the right story, so when I checked the "Alive and Well..." file, it was bereft. But...!!!!! When that Most Imperial guitarist, the diligent bibliographer/editor of FINGERPRINTS ON THE SKY (now more than 700+ manuscript pages long as it nears its latest error-catching/error-correcting re-re-re-proofing status), Mr. Tim Richmond, called today and set me straight, I felt a LOT less Alzheimer'sish.

3. Our pal Len Wein had a helluva weekend. In front of 6500 fans jammed into one of the San Diego Convention Center's big venues, Hugh Jackman onstage shilling for Marvel was apprised that the man who had created Wolverine was sitting in front him, and the actor leaped from the stage, went SNIKKKKT and impaled Len through the chest adamantiumesquely. While shrieking, "Ghod bless y'cobber!" Well, most of that is true.

4. Karen Montagano: thank you for the stent data. I'm good to go in that department. In fact, DC Comics's Paul Levitz called last night and, it turns out, he is a close friend of the head of the Cardiac Unit at Cedars-Sinai, John Harrald (sp.?), and Paul will be contacting him to liaison with Ron Karlsberg, so I won't vanish into the bowels of that health facility, never to emerge. And thank you, Rick, for sending Karen's note along.

5. There was more, but I can't think of them now. If I haven't responded, for whatever reason, imagine what I would have said, and go away contented.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

Guys and girls , Don't worry. Be happy. Life is short. But very sweet. Even when you can't type and can't spell. Like me.Love, hugs and kisses. DiDi P.S. Still just a carefree 16. Forever, like Jack Benny's 39. Totally. Hope you feel well today, Harlan. One thing that happened after my stent procedure, was I felt better than I had in a very long time. I was less tired, could walk longer, lift my arms. The old brain began to click a little faster too. The oxygen is an amazing thing, fer shure. So I'm hopeful that maybe you will be less tired too, after your heart can pump more blood around. Frank, I'm am trying really hard to read a book by Mr. Chomsky. It is good, but not easy. Which is better than easy, but not good, I guess. The man is quite boggling my brain, though. I think I know what he means, read two more sentences and go "Whaaaaat?" Whatcha be talkin' about, Mr. C.? I had the same problems with Martin Buber many years ago. I finally got some of Mr. Buber, but it required much effort. But I say to myself, Self, say I, don't worry be happy.

Kos, judging an artist on one song, for shame. I don't judge Prince on one bad song. There is a whole canon on McFerrin; he is great. Blows my socks down. Makes my nipples hard, garsh.

Lesson number one:

Him with the amazing Richard Bona:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=iimMKWF7SK0&feature=related

Misted up, I did.

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

I remember seeing the film Earthquake as a kid. The theatre was in LA too. I remember I had an awful nightmare after. Sensaround, woooooooooooooo.

HERC, etc
Mr. Ellison and Susan:

I sent in a HERC and book order roughly two weeks ago. I apologize, I mistakenly did not check availability through you prior to mailing. Sorry for the faux pas and any inconvenience which may arise.

Sincerely, Dennis J.

But some individuals ARE better than others, not because of some metaphysical essentialism but because of their ACCOMPLISHMENTS.

Alexander I'll take your word that you're super smart but it would help the cause of communication if you discovered grammar and punctuation.

Earthquake
I've only endured one in my life. Hit New York a bunch of years back, in the wee hours of the night. Wakened by it, I thought, Hmmmph. That was an Earthquake. Interesting. Less than ten minutes later we got hit with one about twice as powerful, and I leaped out of bed to stand in the doorway. I'm sure Californians experiencing a temblor of that size would have chuckled at me.

Please don’t think you’re better than anyone else. Please don’t look down on any other group. It’s a cliché, but a true one, there’s only the human race and we’re all in this together.

PREACH ON BROTHER! HALLELUJA!

So many of my friends just never got this. I have a 151 iq, last time i was tested. I could be a member of mensa, i just havent taken one of their tests. I am, almost without fail, the smartest person in a room. You wouldn't know it, because I don't act it. I talk in ways that the people around me can understand. I treat people that can draw well as wonders well above me, even if, in other fields, they are a box of rocks. We all have our specialness, we all have our gifts. It doesn't make one better than another. (Except Unca Harlan. He is a demigod among men, the product of Zeus and some brainy librarian chick into light s and m. ) But so many of my friends in high school never got that, and the brainy ones acted the fool becuase of it.


Side Note, I have found myself an interesting new job. I am going to be door to door canvassing for an organization that supports various grassroots environmental campaigns. Should be interesting.

E A R T H Q U A K E
Felt the earthquake here in downtown LA. Floor rumbled and shook for about 10 seconds. Nothing fell over.

Earthquake??
Harlan, just checking to see if you and Susan are o.k. because I heard there was an earthquake in California.... from what I understand, it was pretty moderate - 5.4 magnitude? Take Care!

"Earthquake---Only been through one minor earthquake. Rattled the dishes in the cupboard for about 10 seconds here in southeast Michigan. Called wife at work to tell her. She indicated I was full of manure."

A lousy 5.6!

I've had orgasms better than THAT!

Earthquake---Only been through one minor earthquake. Rattled the dishes in the cupboard for about 10 seconds here in southeast Michigan. Called wife at work to tell her. She indicated I was full of manure.
-----

Stent surgery? Piece a cake. More harm done by the imagination thinking about it. But most surgeries are like that.
-----

Steve Barber---Thanks for the re-tip on Across the Universe. I was told to see it when it was in the theaters, but I didn't get a chance. Will be looking for it.
-----

Finder Doug should change his name to Sherlock Holmes.
-----

KOS said: Still trying 26 years later, but making steady progress: I am now up to the letter "V".

26 years, 26 letters in the alphabet. Which letters were the hard ones that have you behind schedule?
-----

KOS said: Man, do I hate hate HATE that lame-o Bobby McFerrin ditty about "Don't Worry, Be Happy!"

KOS, I think I love you. Wanna have sex to make up for that blonde you missed? I ain't blonde, and I sure as heck ain't attractive, but...
-----

Dennis Coleman---Well said. Unfortunately, if one has a closed mind, one is more likely to believe such crap.
-----

Dennis Coleman---Mary Ann. Always did like the dark haired ladies. First girl I ever had a crush on was Annette Funicello.
.

Gary,

Sorry I missed you. I found Batman #250 about three minutes after I walked onto the main floor. Very exciting!

Thank you, though.

Reply to Jeff R.:

Thanks! Apologies to HE for overlooking that fact. The few Star Trek books that I own are in a box deep in my closet, and wern't readily available when I posted that yesterday.
----
It is funny how news articles talk about recent movies making tons of money, and then go on and compare those figures to past films without taking into account inflation. Is this just stupidity on their part or do studio thugs purposely don't talk about the rise in ticket prices?

Hemingway
"Death in the Afternoon," by Hemingway gives you the impression that he knew all about bull fighting.
What didn't he know?
Every one of those bulls is drugged!

Wow...
My only previous earthquake experience was when I woke up after a tumultuous dream to find the water in the fish tank sloshing mysteriously.

That was a new experience of the most startling kind...a 5.8 it would appear.

Hope everyone is all right and intact.

Still shaking inside,

Jason

NO earthquakes, NO drama. Don't you people ever check your In-boxes for unscheduled drama memoes? Sheesh!

***

I received a call from my sister-in-law (not an ex, as she and my brother are not divorced, even though she left him ten years ago) saying my brother had called her and that he sounded "strange, not drunk, just strange". I went to see him yesterday, I'll be back again today. I dn't know if I can keep him holding on until Christmas. I don't know if this is a bad thing.

***

SUSAN - Such a sweetheart you are! Money order in the mail today. PC version, please. Harlan may go under the knife, but you're also affected by this. Take care of yourself as well.


shagin

Definitely felt it downtown (9th floor). Strong jerk and sway.

Moderate earthquake here in LA LA land. 5.7 mag according to reports. Hope Harlan &c. are OK.

Harlan Ellison
This is the first time I actually clicked on the forum section of this site that I check with from time to time. I usually come by to check and see about any appearances he may be making, as I'd love to meet him. Alas, it seems my last chance to meet face to face would have been roughly five years ago at an Akron Ohio event that I never received word about until ONE day too late. It's kind of sad because given his age, I truly wonder if he'll ever get around to making appearances in situations where I can get to them. The man is my hero, and every thing I've ever written is heavily influenced by his wonderful imagination. It's because of him that I've looked at creative writing in a completely different way, pushing the boundries of not only what is acceptable, but the unknown as well. He could hypnotize the people reading those words of his like no other. Thank you Harlan. You're the best.

BATMAN #251
JOSH

Just wondering if you got the Batman 251 you where after?, I got the comic and its yours if you want it?, just let me know and ill send it out to you, I got it on E-bay for just about nothing so dont worry about pay back or anything, sorry Kim and I missed you at the Comic Con but like you said, way to Hollywood!, have fun.

Gary.

Steve,

My panel was fun, but brief. I was sharing it with my very good friend, Dan Waters, who wrote Heathers and the new Sex & Death 101 (which is pretty damn brilliant). At one point, we were sniping back and forth in our usual idiom, and it occurred to me that none of the folks in the audience realized we were very old friends, so it may have come across a tad strange.

The Con was fun, but damn, man... WAY too much Hollywood. At one point, I found myself at a party at the Hard Rock Hotel that was EXACTLY like the parties I go out of my way to avoid in Hollywood, and had to grab a few Suicide Girls and comedians and flee the premises. I remember when it used to be about comics, man. Too many studios, too many distributors, too many agents, too many producers.

Which reminds me, I'd like to thank the lovely folks at Anchor Bay for the lovely accommodations and meals and per diem. Heh.

Shagin:

A special deal for you. If you still want IHNMAIMS computer game (PC or MAC) and the mousepad and the clue book, the price is $40 plus free shipping (add tax if needed). The price would normally be $56.00 plus shipping. Offer good until Sunday.

...Oh, go on...if anyone else wants this offer, it's good for one and all, until Sunday.

Rob--Cheers. It's the last episode of Dr. Who on Friday.

J.--still lacking the perfect pair of red leather shoes. It's my duty to keep trying.

Thanks one and all.--Susan

Writhing Octopi
I just wanted to step in and announce that Criterion's DVD of _The Thief of Bagdad_ looks utterly gorgeous, probably even better than when it was shown in theaters in 1940.

And who doesn't like Conrad Veidt? Or Sabu? Or Rex Ingram?

Don't Worry, Be Nitpicky
Steve Barber: I always thought McFerrin's song was purposely based on an insipid slogan taken from Meher Baba (as in, O'Riley) and wasn't meant to be "sarcastic" by any means.

And in fact, when looking up the song on Wikipedia (which I consider a dubious source, but what the hell), I found this quote from McFerrin:

"Whenever you see a poster of Meher Baba, it usually says 'Don't worry, be happy,' which is a pretty neat philosophy in four words, I think."

So, I dunno. I do think the song, whether used in an ironic or serious context, has absolutely had its day, and then some. But we'll probably never be rid of it until the planet explodes.

Defending Bobby McFerrin (though he doesn't need it).

Have you ever had someone misunderstand your intent when you were being sarcastic? Imagine a world where a song you wrote deliberately tongue in cheek with the intent of pointing out the absurdity of "Don't worry" becomes instead the anthem of that movement. Listen to the lyrics, not just the refrain.

Get the joke.
_________________________________________

He hasn't pimped it here yet, but I thought I would mention that our recent guest Britwriter James Moran has also just had his first short story published in a collection.

From his blog (sans picture of him holding the page with his name and story title):

"'Transmissions' is out, and I got my copies today. I am officially in a proper book. Well, my first published short story is, I'm not actually in the book myself, that would be uncomfortable. Check it out: That's my name! My story! Wheee! It's very exciting for me, because it's my first ever published story (and not my first ever story, as Wikipedia says, that would be the one I wrote when I was 4 years old - this one is much better than that one)."
_______________________________________

JOSH, KOS and any other C-Con attendee -- How was the convention? I heard they were much better at crowd control and handling than previous years.

JOSH - How did your session go??? (I think that's why you were attending, no?)
_______________________________________

Four days until the RIF-blade falls on my neck. The good news is that word is getting out and I've fielded several calls about jobs. Lets hope this means my own days among the unemployed are short...
_______________________________________

(DENNIS - Just to clarify: your rant was not directed at Connie, but at the dweebs SHE was referring to, yes? Otherwise I think you need to reread her post.)
_______________________________________

Last comment about my "Musicals" social disease. Fortunately others have to come to my defense. Like ATC we've seen AVENUE Q (which, if you haven't yet seen it you have no grounds with which to assault my person), as well as WICKED (and gonna see it again on Broadway this Labor Day weekend), ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, CHICAGO, FOSSE and 42ND STREET (And that's just in New York).

But I neglected one particular musical gem that was out last year in the movie houses. If you have not seen ACROSS THE UNIVERSE and a) are a Beatles fan, b) love love stories, c) love absurdist cinema, d) hated the Vietnam War, or e) all of the above, you "gotta get this thing" (as Eddie Izzard says at one point in his role as Mr. Kite).

Just sayin'.

Don't Worry, Be Happy


KOS wrote

:: Which reminds me: Man, do I hate hate HATE that lame-o Bobby McFerrin
:: ditty about "Don't Worry, Be Happy!"

I trust your hatred does not extend to the composer-singer and the rest of his work. If it makes any difference to you, I suspect he rather shares your opinion. I've seen him in concert four times, and he never once sang that song, even when he was touring to support the album it appears on.

If you're not familiar with his work, may I recommend to your attention the lovely "Thinkin' About Your Body," his gorgeous setting of The 23rd Psalm (McFerrin is also an ordained minister), his beautiful rendition of McCartney's "Blackbird" (performed with circular breathing, normally employed by wind players, so that he sings while inhaling air and therefore takes only two or three soundless breaths in the course of the whole song, from what I can tell), his incredibly intense version of "Sunshine of Your Love," his terrific setting of "Another Night in Tunisia" with the Manhattan Transfer, or, for a more entertaining, less cloying tune in the "Don't Worry" vein, a song called "I'm My Own Walkman."

Grayson:
Harlan knows about the "City" Fotonovel. He should. It contains a short interview with him. Also, he was once spotted throwing said Fotonovel across a room in (mock?) anger.

Harlan, I just hope you live long enough to dance on the graves of your worst enemies, no matter how many more decades it takes.

Us vs. Them -- re: Connie's post
Allow me a bit of a rant in relation to Connie Nelson’s posting.

The best way for the Ones In Charge (Pick one or several: Government, politician, corporation, religious leader, community, country, family, tribe, etc, etc…) to control someone is to make it a case of “us” vs. “them.” Make “Us” feel special, chosen, better than another tribe, family, religion, political persuasion, whatever.

Now those of us who are mature (somewhat) adults realize that’s all twaddle. Somehow in my formative years during the big Mary Ann vs. Ginger Debates, I realized: “Hey, everyone doesn’t feel the way I do, everyone doesn’t think like I do! And guess what: that’s OK!” But for reasons I can’t fathom, many don’t make that jump. Believe me, I’m no genius (thus the Mary Ann vs. Ginger Debates). But many stay stuck.

They have to feel ‘chosen’; they have to feel ‘better’; they have to be told that they have something vital that makes them special that NO ONE ELSE HAS. It’s a pure lie. But it helps those in control stay in control.

Here’s the truth lads and lasses. If you believe in the Bible, then we all came from Adam and Eve. If you believe in evolution, then we all came from that slithery creature that finally decided to check out dry land instead of his/her watery home. There are no divisions. All this tribe, family, religion, politics crap came later. None of that matters. You can’t be CHOSEN because we’re ALL CHOSEN. You can’t be SPECIAL because we’re all SPECIAL.

I’ve traveled to 20-plus countries, several times to Africa, many other places. Guess what? We Americans are NOT BETTER than anyone. We’re not FREER (stupid phrase), we’re not morally superior, we’re not more intelligent. Yeah, we have more stuff, but so the fuck what?

But we live in a world where various ORGANIZATIONS (Corporations, religions, governments, etc.) want to compartmentalize us, weaken us, control us. So we get “us” vs. “them”. We get Christian vs. secularist, Jew vs. Muslim, gay vs. straight, black vs. white vs. latino vs. Asian vs. native American, American vs. Everyone.

And when we feel weak, we want to retreat to a place where this Big Club can fight “them” for us, beat the crap out of them, out of someone, so we can feel superior. But it’s all bullshit.

I work with a great guy, outstanding member of the community, wonderful Dad, fabulous person to work with. But he feels he’s been born into a Chosen Group. So he is ‘saved’ and better than anyone. And he won’t let his kids see anyone outside of that group. And if push came to shove, he’d fight for that group against the rest of America and the rest of the world. I wanna shake him and say “it’s never gonna end if you have that attitude, that brain-slant!” But it won’t do any good. Cause he’s been mindfucked and he’s gonna stay that way.

Now the only way to combat this mind-control is to use the one weapon at your disposal: your Brain! Most of these organizations try to tell you NOT to use your brain: you have to have unquestioning faith in god/military/government/community, that’s the only way to salvation/peace/success. Bullcrap, of course.

You have to question. You have to ask why. You can’t just unthinkingly shoot those people who are supposed enemies over there. You can’t unquestioningly agree that those others are inferior because they don’t believe. You can’t accept anything as Holy Writ or Gospel. Unless YOU decide it is. (So if you’re the same faith and political persuasion as your folks and your folks’ folks and your folks’ folks’ folks, then you really haven’t done a lot of thinking on your own, have you?)

And that’s why you’re all here, on this forum. Because Harlan has never accepted anything unquestioningly. No politician or rabbi or minister or priest or official or executive has ever told him how to think. He uses his Brain Big-time. That’s one of the main reasons we all love him.

So you do the same.

Please don’t think you’re better than anyone else. Please don’t look down on any other group. It’s a cliché, but a true one, there’s only the human race and we’re all in this together.

So stop the stupid shit.

End of rant. Sorry if I’m stating the obvious, but so few people seem to act in a very ‘human’ way.

KOS -

"You can’t roller skate in a buffalo herd / But you can be happy if you’ve a mind to"

That would be "You Can’t Roller Skate In A Buffalo Herd" (naturally). Included on Miller's greatest hits album. Hie thee to iTunes and you can check the sound sample to verify that that's what you seek and, if so, you can be reunited with it for a tiny sum.

Roger Miller and happiness
Okay, this is one that is probably NOT up the Tin Pan Alley of most of you'se bumz and babes:

In 1982 I sort of burned out emotionally, for no good reason exept I could and did. I quit my job, went back to school (USC Cinema as a graduate student) and began to try to write movies. Still trying 26 years later, but making steady progress: I am now up to the letter "V".

Anyway, shortly after quitting my job, my sister talked me into going with her to a concert by Roger Miller ("King of the Road") at Knotts in Orange County, She had free tickets (she worked there). I wasn't a fan, but the price was right. When you're depressed you'll do the damndest things. (I think that will be the title of my first short story collection, someday.)

Towards the end of the concert Miller sang a song that had the refrain "You can be happy if you've a mind to" or something very similar. That was the only time I've heard the song. I would like to find a copy, but I can find no reference to it. As I recall, Miller wrote it (as with most of the songs he performed).

Anyone? Anyone? Sloan Phillips?

Which reminds me: Man, do I hate hate HATE that lame-o Bobby McFerrin ditty about "Don't Worry, Be Happy!" That concept seemed and still seems perfect for a decade overwhelmingly committed to narcissism and bad hair. I once missed carnal bliss with a very lovely blonde because I told her how much I hated that song when she told me "Don't worry, Be Happy!" in response to some righteous indignation I had over some forgotten matter. Man, was she ever pissed.

Them was some good times!

Fortunately, I saw a pic of her a couple years back. She gained at least a hundred pounds. I guess she stopped snorting Crystal Meth and started slam dunking Crispy Creme's.

I know, I know: cluck, cluck, wicked, insensitive sexist me, but I is the one laughing now!

(And she ws on a diet last I heard. Who knows?)

Currently working on "The Cerebrated Bursting Moth of Calistoga County".

KOS

"pressure on the wound". Pressure on the world is probably needed but not in the stent procedure. Not a typist, definately not a typist

hearts, stents and flowers
Hi, Harlan and Susan, I'm posting this in the hopes that the info might help. I had a stent implanted in Feb. of this year. I had been having chest pain for over a week and it got so bad with pressure that I finally mosied to Northwestern Mem. My EKG was fine, (I never had an abnormal one while all this was going on), but my enzymes were sky high. So they did the usual tests and found a 90% blockage I think of the left descending artery if memory serves. And this is the part I think might help : it's not a bad procedure. At all. I was awake, but very heavily sedated with tranquilizer and pain med. They inserted the catherter through my groin, like high up around hip, pelvis. Felt it but it didn't hurt. I watched the tube go up the artery in my leg. It was kinda cool. They found the blockage, shot it out with the balloon and placed a medicated stent. The medicine is to keep the blood from clotting around the stent, which would reblock the artery. This did not take very long. Then you have to stay completely still for several hours, I forget how long. This is to give the cut in the artery in the leg to heal over. They asked me to go to the bathroom before the procedure and this is very necessary because you can't go for a while later. They will keep pressure on the would by pressing on it hard. They continued to give drugs for pain and calmness which helped. After a while, I think a few hours, I could sip water. I had an IV. There really was no pain for me. I went home the next afternoon, had been eating and moving bowels and walking. The most uncomfortable part was having to stay still for so long and not being able to drink at first, (water) and not being able to read books or anything. But they gave me good drugs, kept a close eye on me and the nurses talked to me when I was awake. I slept a lot. Your procedue may well be different as we are different sexes, ages, and conditions. But I have always found it helpful to know what will happen to me... how I will feel when they are doing anything. I mean medical explanations are good and I like to have those, but it can remove fear to know what it actually feels like. This was my experience. I'm hoping yours is also great, and we all need you around for a long time. If I can give any more specific info, I am going to post my phone number at my house and address with Rick, and you can always use my sister's E-mail. Susan, I'm sure Harlan will be well. A love as strong and deep as yours is a powerful healer. Hang in there.

Immortality and Procedures
All the best for your procedure, Harlan.

I just finished reading the SF novel MARROW (2000) by Robert Reed. It features immortal human beings in the 999999th Century A.D. who have special genes that repair any bodily damage within minutes. If only....

My mum's having a small procedure done this week to explore a mystery glitch. But she's tough, having already survived the big C and a car accident in the last three years.

P.S. DTS: hope you also caught SPAMALOT at Her Majesty's Theatre here in Melbourne. Even the merchandise was silly and included coconuts and killer bunny slippers.

The politics and unintended consequences of hate...
This is a post like the other one, that I just felt I had to say, and an forum of intelligencia seemed to be the best place.
Yesterday, a man went into a church having a kids program and shot the place up. Apparently there was a letter bemoaning his inability to find work and blaming "those liberals". The question I have is what tools do we have to counter lables of hate, words? I'm at a loss. I wanted to write an essay on how dangerous the "them" and "us" culture is. How blaming another group is a tool used against us, that setting one population to attack another is as old as mankind itself. I thought this place may have some valuable input. IS there something to do?
I look forward to reading your input.

OH, and just a thought...Harlan,,,research Celiac Disease, adult onset has anemia as a symptom. Not meaning to pry, just thought I'd mention it.
Connie

A few of you good people have expressed thanks for my meager contribution, attempting to explain Harlan's medical condition. You are very welcome (and I admit I was uncharacteristically proud of myself for devising an intelligible and creative way to explain a stent) but clear communication and education to patients (and family and friends) is one of the major driving forces behind my practice of medicine. Moreover, since I consider Harlan the person on earth most deserving of our love, support, admiration, and awe, I would pretty much walk over burning coals for him, so what I have done here is as nothing. Any further assistance I can render will be more than gladly given -- just ask.

Harlan (and Collectors of Ellisonia):

The following is a link to a brief description of the photonovel version of 'The City on the Edge of Forever' published in 1977:

http://www.well.com/user/sjroby/lcars/1977.html#f1mp

Are/were you aware of this book? Was it published without your knowledge and/or without payment being directed towards you? I only ask because it isn't listed at the Webderland/Islets of Langerhans/Sequential Ellison sites, nor did you mention it in your 'Peris of the City' essay. The book definitely isn't essential, but completists will obviously want it. I can send you a copy if you need one, Harlan.

Best wishes on your medical issues,

Grayson

Mike Doran,

There's a perfectly wonderful place to discuss politics.

http://harlanellison.com/heboard/forum/

There, you are allowed as many posts a day as you please, so some in depth conversations can be had.

The Electoral College
This has been on my mind for a long time, and I gotta put it somewhere...I was fooling around on a site called 270towin.com, working out Electoral College combinations for 2008,using polls from different sites, and concentrating on states where it's really close between Obama and McCain. So far, I've come up with at least five different possible combinations which yield a 269-269 tie, which would send the election to the newly-elected House of Representatives. 270towin has a feature explaining how this House business works (create a tie on their interactve map and click where shown). I suspect even the "experts" on cabloid news don't know much of this. I realize that it probably won't turn out like this, but the simple possibility that it could is the most powerful argument for abolishing the Electoral College - which of course won't happen, because that would require an amendment to the Constitution, and if something as innocuous as the ERA couldn't get through, imagine changing how we elect Presidents. ... I remember the 1968 election, when Humphrey made the last-minute surge against He-Who-Cannot-Be-Named. Wallace carrted 5 states, and at least two or three big EV states were in doubt - Ohio was one; I can't recall the others. What I do recall was Brinkley saying to Huntley,"I don't think we're going to get a President tonight." If that had happened - if HWCBN-Humphrey-Wallace had gone to the newly elected (and mostly Democratic) House - I'm guessing that the 5 Wallace states would have controlled the outcome. And wouldn't that be a fine state of how-do-you-do? ... I know this has nothing to do with what you've been talking about lately, but I had to put it somewhere, and frankly the Webderland seemed as good a place as any. I ask your indulgence. ... and to Unca Harlan: Beat The Reaper Again.

We should think about Susan, she is reading this stuff as well. She will see to it that Harlan is a good boy.

Susan, keep our boy safe. You're a good woman.

Got any sisters?

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

Matt Taibbi, of Rolling Stone has a great new book, where he goes undercover, joining a fundamentalist church and also becoming a member of the 9/11 truther movement. He gets it right, for the most part, but does say that John Pilger is a truther. I'd have a bone to pick with him about that name. Pilger is an ace reporter.

What he says about how congress passes laws is so frighening I wanted to scream. How Republicans kept democrats from having any input on bills. How bills were written by corporations. The stuff fried my hair.

I needed a Hitchens stand in and Taibbi fits the bill.

Dr.Landsberg,
Thank you.
For you to come here and provide a detailed overview of what lies ahead for Harlan is a very big deal. We are beholden to you for your kindness.

Oh--and using Chinese finger cuffs to describe the mechanics of a stent- was brilliant!

You are a mensch.
:)
Cindy

mail
Susan-had a fine time at X-Files 2 with cash received but I buy Dr Who, SFX, Fortean times et al to read for myself to catch up on things. If Harlan is mentioned and you can use them- all the better. The mailers are free for me because of another venture altogether. And sending me reimbursement for postage isn't really necessary' Honestly. Harlan- good luck and if there's anything I can do.....jz

HARLAN
Message received. Thank you, and be well.

What else is there to say?
Telling Harlan to follow doctors' orders, or do what Susan says, is only adding to what they've already said. Sending prayers is nice, but it won't do much. I'm sure that he's researched his heart issues as well as he can (and asked the cardiologist all the questions he can think of) so we can't pass along any crucial information that'd fix everything. Sending Harlan stuff'd just clutter the house and make him feel obligated to the person who'd sent it, and he's got enough on his plate already.

So this is the best I can think of.

Harlan, DON'T FUCKIN' DIE on us, okay? I mean, _you_ got stuff to do. You've _done_ a lot of great stuff already. It's meant a lot to all of us. So basically, we want you to be _happy and healthy_ at the very least. And we'd feel _terrible_ if we got bad news about this. I know, you're doing your best, and the best thing most of us could do is keep out of your way while you're doing your best... so Good Luck on everything.

And DON'T DIE. There's too much good stuff that hasn't happened yet, and it'd be a shame for you to miss it. Which is about the best reason for not dying that I can think of.

Musicals
EZRA: To each his own, I guess. Didn't mind Drew Barrymore (and others) singing in "Everybody Says I love You," and it didn't make my hair go gray to hear what you heard. Even though it was flawed editing-wise, I enjoyed "Mama Mia" on the same "no brainer" level as I did things like "Little Trouble In Big China" and "The Mummy" or "The Mummy Returns." (And maybe I'm one of the few who think Meryl Streeps voice is pretty good, cause I enjoyed her singing).

STEVE: If ya like musicals, I just saw "Wicked" here in Melbourne with my daughter (who is such a fan she's seen it four times now -- she won a pair of tickets for a free showing two weeks ago, and caught in Chicago and St Louis). It was funny, well-staged, had some terrific numbers, all of which appeals to kids _and_ adults. We were on the second row, but it's one of those shows with some wild things going on (Flying Monkeys, etc) that would still look pretty cool from the cheap seats.

-DTS

Ditto from me on the Doctor Who finale. I've been telling people for weeks to keep their yaps shut about the last four episodes till the Channel With No Name airs them.

Harlan, good luck with the procedure. That ticker just keeps picking a fight with the wrong guy, doesn't it?

Addendum
Saw all those on stage.

Musicals
Pshaw. There have been plenty of worthwhile musicals on stage in the last few years. I happen to love BATBOY and URINETOWN and the hilarious AVENUE Q and the somewhat less hilarious but still pretty funny TWENTY-FIFTH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE and Stephen Sondheim's ASSASSINS. (Further back, I weep like a baby at LES MISERABLES.)

Meds and Musicals
I love musicals, West Side Story, and Singing in the Rain, “ what do you think I am dumb or something?”, and of course anything with Fred and Ginger, but those where not what I might call (chick flicks) type movies, those where made way back when guys didn’t have to sit with there wives or girlfriends and try to look happy, the last few musicals I’ve seen really put me off, Rent, Evita, even Phantom, all didn’t work for me, granted I didn’t see them on stage but they all didn’t do anything for me, way to much drama and not enough fun.

Harlan, If you don’t get better where coming over there and beat the crap out of you!, …..but with lots of love of course.

Gary.

Harlan, my best thoughts and wishes are with you, glad that the news was not as dire as your expected.

Ezra, I thought we gace you a get out of jail free pass for avoiding this film over at the Forums? Somehow, I think you really wanted to go see this film. And Barber, between the admission that you are looking forward to seeing Mamma Mia and your trip to the George Michael concert, I have to say that my respect for your musical tastes is decreasing rapidly. Thankfully you still have Cris around to redeem you somewhat

Mr. Ewen, good to have you back, my friend.

Mark

Ma Mumia!!!

Ezra revealed:

:: Pierce Brosnan...s-s-singing...SOS...


HEY!! You didn't give us any *** SPOILER ALERT *** on that one!

HARLAN,

No faux pas involving the new Batman movie this time, I promise.

Best of luck, and keep going strong. We need to see more of the tales you have locked away in that nogin.

Harlan, please let me add my thoughts and best wishes for a successful surgery, a speedy recovery, and good health for many years to come.

Dennis C, if you're interested in the myth of the "liberal media," I highly recommend "What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News" by Eric Alterman, which details and explodes said myth in detail. It was published in 2003, but remains highly, sadly relevant, as the study you cite makes clear. For more information, go to http://www.whatliberalmedia.com. (Disclosure: I am a friendly acquaintance of Eric's and post occasionally on his blog, Altercation.)

Dr. Landsberg - Thank you for your comments. On behalf of all of us in Webderland, we deeply (I mean deeply) respect any doctor who can rope and tie the otherwise "irresistable force" that is Mr. Ellison. Your explanation was perfect.
_______________________________________

MAMMA MIA! - I am embarrassed to say this publicly, but I am looking forward to seeing the movie. I've seen the play twice (London and Los Angeles -- Cris drew the line at Broadway for a triple play, pun intended). Yeah, and the Dark Knight too, blah, blah, blah...

(It takes a real man to admit he likes musicals.)
_______________________________________

FinderDoug is in LALALand in a little less than a month. Once again into the breach I leap as "Coordinator to the Stars". We're figuring something out, but the usual LA suspects -- and any unusual ones who'd like to meet Mr. Lane -- ought to send me an email so I can make sure you're on the guest list.
_______________________________________

HARLAN - Suggestion on the painting: Get me a photo of the work and I will post it on my site for others to see and maybe have it ring a bell. (If Josh or someone else with a digital camera can shoot it and email, that works perfectly.)

I have the bandwidth, and am not afraid to use it.

M-M-MAMA MIA! LET ME GO!!!
When my sweetie asked if I would take her to see MAMA MIA I was not excited admittedly but not completely repulsed. I figured "What the hell? How bad could it be?" If it would give her pleasure then what matter that it is not my own taste?

So we went. God help us we went.

Oh to be able to retreat into the sweet naive atheism that has sustained me these many years. For I know now the blind idiot god that dances and drools mindlessly at the heart of a contingent universe.

I have seen the face of evil.


Pierce Brosnan...s-s-singing...SOS...



"I have looked upon all that the universe has to hold of horror, and even the skies of spring and the flowers of summer must ever afterward be poison to me..."

j e s u s w e p t

Health Issues

Unca Harlan,

My thoughts are with you and Susan.

...AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT! reply
Harlan,

You're going about this info hunt for the Dillon painting all wrong. Think like Sherlock Holmes, and all will be revealed.

-Keith

PS - Thanks for the personalized Hint Book for the "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" computer game. I loved the character descriptions at the end; they made me read the story again. It is a more poingnant tale, now.

THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU
I'm currently listening to Jonathan Pryce reading H.G. Wells's classic on BBC Radio 4. God, I LOVE this book! If you have access to the Beeb's 'Listen Again' facility, you'll find it at the following location:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/book_bedtime.shtml

The first episode expires in less than 12 hours, with the remaining episodes at 11pm over the next four nights.

Regards
Rob E.

Harlan's health and other issues
Harlan:

Is there any timetable for when this surgery will actually take place? Just wondering -- sooner is always better (this from a guy who just delayed throat surgery for two months -- and mine was only an outpatient same-day thing).

And I hope I'm not too far out of line to ask that all the med insurance is OK? That's a big deal in my world right now.

****************************************************************

other minor issues that Harlan can ignore:

1. I just set my TIVO to record the DR.WHO season finale Friday as I will be busy that night. If people could refrain from discussing it in detail here right after the broadcast, I'd be grateful.

2. I know I flog the dead horse about remakes, but they're now gonna remake CAPTAIN BLOOD -- one of the GREAT swashbucklers of all time (I even like it better than the same team's ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD). CAPTAIN BLOOD, fer cryin' out loud.

3. For those interested in the election, one site I visit a lot is www.electoral-vote.com which basically lists all the polls done state-by-state. This site was right-on-the-money last election. So check it out. But today that site had a different poll that I'd like to quote:

"Republicans like to talk a lot about the "liberal media." Is it true? The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, which has been studying the media 20 years, has now released a study that shows 72% of the opinions expressed on CBS, NBC, and ABC about Obama were negative and 28% positive. For McCain the figures were 57% and 43%, respectively. The study, which covered the networks' nightly newscasts, began June 8, the day after Hillary Clinton conceded and the general election campaign began. "

Harlan, have you tried asking the Dillons? Or are you too embarrassed? If they don't remember, at least you'll know you're not alone.

Thespian Colonics!

While we're on the subject, do you REALIZE - and this appears to be a fact - that Lee Majors was originally to be cast in the role of Joe Buck in MIDNIGHT COWBOY!!

Let's not even get into the issue of acting range, it makes the concept of Stephen Boyd in THE OSCAR seem like Kenneth Branagh in HAMLET!

(And I don't wanna hear anyone bring up the dopey-assed alternative had the movie been downgraded to an Elvis vehicle)

HARLAN
Thanks. Call me at your convenience with the home address. I appreciate it.

--Jack

My Sincerest Apology and best wishes to you both
Harlan,

I wanted to apologize for stomping into the Pavilion like a bull in a china shop yesterday. I hadn't known about your medical concerns until after I posted.

My best wishes will be at your and Susan's side when you go into surgery for the stent.

I can empathize with you on the diabetes. I azm a wheelchair bound amputee due to my own diabetes. I've had this disease since 1986. Take care of yourself. Don't just ignore the diabetes like I did. Eat right and exercise as much as your chronic fatigue will allow you, lose the 70 extra pounds, and I'm betting that you'll lose the diabetes as well.

Harlan Ellison, you're in the best of hands. I vknow you're going to be ok because you've just got too much cussedness for you to be otherwise!

You're both in my heart. By the way, belated happy Sweetest Day!

My Sincerest Apology and best wishes to you both
Harlan,

I wanted to apologize for stomping into the Pavilion like a bull in a china shop yesterday. I hadn't known about your medical concerns until after I posted.

My best wishes will be at your and Susan's side when you go into surgery for the stent.

I can empathize with you on the diabetes. I azm a wheelchair bound amputee due to my own diabetes. I've had this disease since 1986. Take care of yourself. Don't just ignore the diabetes like I did. Eat right and exercise as much as your chronic fatigue will allow you, lose the 70 extra pounds, and I'm betting that you'll lose the diabetes as well.

Harlan Ellison, you're in the best of hands. I vknow you're going to be ok because you've just got too much cussedness for you to be otherwise!

You're both in my heart. By the way, belated happy Sweetest Day!

Prostrate cancer...or something like that
HARLAN: What the fuck!?! YOU said you weren't dicking around...and yet, and yet...I clearly remember you telling an audience at Chicago comic con (circa 1994 or '95) and then, while guesting on Bill Maher's TV show in 2000-something, you repeated the news, that you, in fact, have no dick!

So what's this about prostrate (or is it prostate) cancer? You telling me a man with no dick still has a prostate (prostrate)?
C'mon, buddy. Quit dickin around.

With good wishes for your health, well-being and continually
successful bowel movements (these get important to us older folks),
your buddy,
Roger Rab- er,
DTS

No heart damage is indeed good news. I had a stent put in back in '03 and the ticker is still ticking. I'd say the prognosis is good on that front.

Keep on keepin' on, oh Harlequin!

Chuck

Well no heart damage and prophylactic surgery is better than a poke in the eye, despite being the ordeal that it is. Fortunately a tenacious will often ranks right up there with a good immune system in aiding recovery.

And who knows...maybe they'll make the stent out of the 9th Metal, and you'll come out with the power of flight, as well.

Despair and Die!
Well, gee, Harlan, when you come on here and say: "I've talked to my doctor and the news ain't good" that has a tendency to create an ominous aura...no matter how much you then try to diminish it with, "but it ain't all bad" after the fact. Just trying to be a little solicitious, even though I know it will take a silver bullet (or maybe a rancid Zagnut Bar) to kill anyone as ornery as you, you ole coot!

Harlan's health status
I am posting in the hope of allaying the concerns of the countless friends who would like to know more about Harlan's medical condition. Harlan asked me to post this for all to see, so I have his explicit permission and am not violating his confidentiality. Without going into excruciating detail, the two issues of concern are his anemia and the closure of his right coronary artery. The anemia is not severe, but we don't yet have an explanation for it, I can't say anything more about it until Dr. Karlsberg does further tests. As for the right coronary artery, it is an important vessel that supplies blood to a large portion of his heart muscle. That portion of muscle, however, is working just fine, so there is as yet no adverse consequence of the blockage. And very soon, Dr. Karlsberg will make sure that there WON'T be any adverse consequence -- he will do so by placing a stent in that artery. A stent is a sort of a tiny, pop-open, reverse version of the classic (NON-PC WARNING!) "Chinese" finger cuffs we all encountered in childhood. The stent will go at the precise location of the one and only narrowed spot, thereby spreading the artery wide open again and restoring normal blood flow for many, many years to come. The procedure is straightforward and as near a slam dunk as any procedure in cardiology can be, so none of us need worry about the outcome. So there you go. If you have questions, I'll be happy to try to answer them. And by the way, Dr. Karlsberg is outstanding, so you are right when you mention that Harlan is in good hands.

Retrieving Ellisons


JANISSE A. RUSSELL in Spokane:

That's a helluva story about the scuzzball/dirtbag. Not only was he so low down and lacking in taste that he didn't KEEP the Mother Lode he had stolen, but he didn't have the sense God gave a turnip to sell them someplace where he could get the kind of money out of them they were worth.

But if you're looking to replenish your collection . . . you're not that far up the road, that you ought to make a day trip down here to Portland and visit Powell's Books. They usually have a pretty good selection of used Ellisons in stock, and more often than not there's a rarity in the locked cabinet at the end of the aisle, if you're in the mood and have a little money to burn. (I think I bought my hardcover Trident first edition of "Love Ain't Nothing But Sex Misspelled" out of that cabinet for $75 a few years back . . . maybe more than a few, now.)

Marshaling the Dillons
Harlan, I've combed my not insignificant HE collection for some clue to the L&D painting, with no luck. "Its origin and purpose still a total mystery ..."

I will, however, continue to cast about.

Good health and safe travels,

Zuz

Oh Harlan,
The news is greatly reassuring. No damage to the heart, no prostate cancer. Golden words! A two day procedure is still tough-- but you're a lion and you have an angel on your shoulder and another by your side. You're gonna be an old man some day-- about thirty years from now.

Yes sir, the heart has no damage! We'll take that.
God's good.
:)
Yer pal,
Cindy

HARLAN - Hell, I'm happy to have come as close as the living room. The Ol' Gray Finder ain't what he used to be...

So I'm going to sit over here quietly, spin the new one from the Roy Hargrove Quintet, go to town on the wonderful salt lick consolation prize I got for playing The Mystery Dillon Painting (the Screaming Yellow Zonkers would have been nicer, but losers can't be choosers, I suppose), and thank you for the medical updates, with a gentle reminder that your credit is always good here in da Finder clubhouse in beautiful Ashburn, VA, so take extra-special good care.

ROB EWEN - All's quiet on this front. On summer break between semesters. I'm almost level and "me" again. Just in time for school to begin once more, end of August. Still, in some weird, masochistic way, I'm looking forward to it... Thanks for the update!

STEVE B. (and anyone else of a lefterly-coast nature who might be concerned) - I descend on your fair state into LAX on the evening of Thursday, August 14; I'm back in a cloth window seat at the seemingly inhuman time of 6 am Sunday morning, August 17. In between, I have no hard and fast plans as yet, though I'm weighing some touristy/cultural options during this week, and am always up for a meal to break bread/make merry/swap tall tales (though this time, I'd like to pass on the police encounter and parking ticket). Look for an email in the next couple of days with further thinking on How I Plan To Spend a Last Small Slice of My Summer Vacation.

Harlan and Susan - Warm fuzzies for you both. The technology of today far outstrips the crack and grab of yesteryear. Be safe, and know that you're in our thoughts. You need anything, Doug and I will do all we can. The Jackanapes help depends on behavior and grades.


shagin

get well
I wish you swift recovery from all your ailments, Harlan, and patience & peace for you both.

Peg

Medical Report
Could be worse, as they say. Hope the touch-up lasts a thousand years.

Kubert
Harlan,

I hate to hell to do this, especially if you already know about it, but Joe's wife Muriel passed away two weeks ago.

Back when I was a student that woman did me a helluva solid once, and I can only hope I thanked her properly.

Advice
"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying." - Woody Allen

- Barney

Justathought, PA.

Mr. Ellison, you are a gent! Thanks for sharing your personal concerns with us -- we have no right to know, but ever the gentlemana nd caring of your fans, you chose to share.

While not a regular poster, I am a regular reader.

God Bless You! And may nothing but good things come your way -- and I mean that with a sincere heart.

Harlan's ticker
All things being equal, I'd say the news is pretty good.
I'm sure you'll be tormenting your foes for many years to come.
When it comes to HE versus the Grim Reaper, my money's on Harlan.
All the best.

Get Better Soon Boss!
BTW, what kind of "historical miniatures" do you favor?
I've got a dozen plastic totes full of the things myself :)
Take care!

Thank you, one and all. I feel fine, gang, jes' fine.

A rabid recommendation: if, as it is with me, you have only LOVED Joe Kubert's comic book work for the last half-century-plus, then you will join me in jumping up and down at the emergence (a couple of issues are out already) of the return of Joe's prehistoric wanderer, TOR, in a six-issue mini-series. Joe has to be even older than I, and I swear to betsy he hasn't lost a single foot-pound of inventive artistry. If you don't know Tor, but you love Edgar Rice Burroughs (are you there, Pogue?) and Robert E. Howard and Jean Auel and the Ice Age movies, treat yourself, yeah s'help me, TREAT yourself to the latest jewel in the Kubert Crown. And if you want to spread the above to Mike Gold and Heidi and the other comics websites, I will love you for it. Gawd! It's great to have Kubert back and roistering!

Yr. Pal, Harlan

Harlan,

Thank you for the update. The imagined picture was far worse than the real picture.

Of course we care. We all love you, else we wouldn't bother to hang around.

Best wishes
Harlan, I'm sorry to hear about your health challenges, but it sounds like you're in good hands. This is one reader who will be sending positive thoughts your way.

Harlan: both I and Jodie send you and Susan our very best. We're still placing bets on you outliving us all, just out of sheer bloody-mindedness. If there is ANYTHING we can do for either of you, at any time, please just say the word.

By the way, I hear whelks from Great Yarmouth are good for you...

"I would have said NOTHING, but there seemed to be genuine concern out there, so I paid obeisence to that brow-furrowing."

Lest you think otherwise, all is what it seems and there IS genuine concern "out here", even from those of us what don't pipe up all that much. Being all the way east and below the Manson-N***n line, ain't much I can offer you other than long-distance concern, but if there was, I would. Keep plugging away. Nothing but best wishes.

Jason

Unca H -

Thank you for the expansion on what is going on. We did not need it, do not really deserve the full explanation (it's a private matter, though we are concerned onlookers), but appreciate it nonetheless.

Again, take the volunteerage -- from all of us -- at face value. You need a ride, something from the market, munchies from the not-so-near deli, just give a shout. I'm not so much good at medical diagnostics, but it sounds like you're going to be annoying your detractors for some time yet to come.

That alone ought to piss 'em off.

Unca Harlan, I know that that was A. not your book, and B. not the size that you were stating. I was putting it there as something similar in my minds eye as what you described, to A. check with you if it is indeed similar, and B. give something that might be close for OTHERS to perhaps go, ohh, ive seen something like that, but bigger. I wasnt suggesting that that was the painting in question, sorry if it seemed that way.

Valley fever? Suckage. I have that myself, and its a, with you for life, type condition. its also known for being a big CAUSE of chronic fatigue syndrome in some people, both from lung congestion, and direct action. And its actions on the stomach can cause an issue with absorbtion of iron, so it may also have a hand in the anemia.

MEDICAL APPOINTMENT REPORT #5

Nothing like being upbraided and scolded by one's self-obsessed "friends" when one is trying to come to grips with new and life-altering circumstances.

I would like to thank Robert Morales, Josh Olson, Richard Dreyfuss and, particularly, that long-standing pal, the toe-tapping star of stage, screen, radio, radar, and crab grass, the well-known thespian and screenwriter, Mr. Charles Edward ("I AM D'BOMB, and I IS D'NUHDZ") Pogue, each of whom to varying degrees of my toleration called during the past 24 since I posted As Best I Could while in a fog of mental adjustment. I wish to thank them slavishly for their drooling affection and raw concern for my health, which took backseat to their PERSONAL concern that I wouldn't be around to flaggelate.

Folks, here's why the "advisement," rather than a long&precise disquisition on my status, its prognosis, and my uneducated guesses about my future and the length of same. Some of you sweetly used the word "teaser." I did not respond well to the use of that term. I ain't dicking with you. I would have said NOTHING, but there seemed to be genuine concern out there, so I paid obeisence to that brow-furrowing. No intention to dick with you. I ain't dicking with you.

I just don't know enough with medical precision to use the nomenclature, or to explain in layman's terms. In 1992 I had a quadruple heart bypass (pre-stent technology). Four grafts. As best I can interpret what Dr. Ron Karlsberg, my famous NY Times-accoladed cardiologist, and Dr. John Landsberg, my long-time friend and head of the medical unit up in Santa Barbara, tell me, the situation is roughly--roughly--this:

Of the four grafts, 1) is unbelievably still open and pumping like a madman, thus stunning all the MDs because such things close up, as a rule, within four to six years, and 12 years is mind-croggling to them (attesting, I suppose, to the validity of the old saw "meanness of spirit is life-saving"); 2) is "holding on by a thread" in Karlsberg's exact words, but it, too, is clacking away busily; 3) is moot, because it found a new route around the graft and is blithely doing its work having Moved To New Location in the Mall of Harlan; 4) is closed.

I am told I'll be going into the hospital for a two-day operation using the new tech that is enormously advanced over what I went through 12 years ago, when they cracked me like the Rockzilla lobster Jodie Kearns alluded to in her recent, welcome, post. Additionally, and this is where it gets too intricate for my autodidactic skills: apparently, I am now a diabetic, I am anemic, I am 70-lbs overweight, my sturdy heart is working overtime without pay to schlep my FatAss around, but the heart has NO damage, not now, not back then 12 years ago. I have no prostate cancer, I have developed a sinus runnynose condition from Valley Fever--which is another amazing story, for another time--and the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is still with me, keeping me on the verge of exhaustion like Harrison Bergeron. Nonetheless, I apparently will not be dying as soon as one might wish, and I've spent the last day signing the gorgeous Tom Kidd-illustrated limitation plates for Subterranean Press's 35th anniversary edition of DEATHBIRD STORIES. Now when I say "35th anniversary," please note that the limitation plates I received two years ago described this deluxe breathtaking boxed edition as the "32nd anniversary edition." I let them sit, but now they're signed, and going back to Bill Schafer tomorrow. They will be overstamped with the legend "35th anniversary edition" for publication early next year, which will be the thirty-FOURTH year since the first edition of DEATHBIRD STORIES was issued, but jackanapes that I am, I have insisted this be termed the thirty-FIFTH anniversary edition...so spectacular an event, that we had to publish the book a year earlier. YOU work it out, I'm happy just to be healthy and vertical enough to be doing the signing.

I will attempt, on your behalf, to get either Karlsberg or Landsberg to pop in here and post a reasoned, sensible, accurate report of what's going on with me.

Just to shut Charles Edward Pogue the fuck up.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

JANISSE A. RUSSELL:

Like Alexander, just preceding this response, you're simply not paying attention.

Apart from a "bookstore" here at Ellison Webderland, whereat you can purchase (in many cases) the exact same editions of the titles you lost, but several dozen other, later releases of many of my books. Not to mention that within the last three years such titles as STRANGE WINE, DEATHBIRD STORIES and SPIDER KISS and HARLAN ELLISON'S WATCHING and THE ESSENTIAL ELLISON and MIND FIELDS and SLIPPAGE and ANGRY CANDY have either been released in brand-spanking new editions, or remain available through our site here, or the from the publishers directly (Morpheus International, for instance, Tachyon for another, Houghton Mifflin for a third) and all it takes is a little effort. Clearly, you are so blinded by The Grudge, that you are not even availing yourself of this Holy Sepulchre we keep being told is the glory of The Electronic Age. The internet, and all the hundreds of thousands of small booksellers who post my titles on an overwhelming daily basis. I hate chastising a fan as sweet and as loyal as you, but...stop acting like a deer in the headlights. You can--but heavens know why you'd even want to--you can have a full shelf of replacement Ellison tomes by the end of next week. Just move yer ass, and use yer ingenuity.

Love ya, Janisse. Yr. Pal, Harlan

THE MYSTERY DILLON PAINTING

ALEXANDER: Thank you, but you're not paying attention. I made it clear that the Dillon in question is from one of MY stories, as published in a PLAYBOY-sized magazine. What you've linked to, is a BOOK, not by me but by the late great R.A. Lafferty. It is, yes, a Dillon...one of the many cameo paintings Leo & Diane did for the Terry Carr Ace Specials, after the Dillons had grown to be associated with my work, and after I had introduced Terry to them, and after they had won plaudits for their DANGEROUS VISIONS contribution. This is wrong in so many ways, it rivals the now-infamous "Naomi Campbell" response.

Yet: thank you for the effort.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

Harlan - let me join the throng and wish you the best concerning your health. Anything the UK Webderland contingent can do for you, we stand ready.
Best
Jes

THE MYSTERY DILLON PAINTING

FinderDOUG: Nope. The Dillon original you cite--from "World of the Myth" AKA "As Another Sees Us"--is hanging in the living room at this moment. The mystery painting, peculiarly, still hangs at this moment, unidentified, in the Blue Bedroom. Ah, so. Thanks for the nice try, however. And thank you for coming; Johnny has a nice parting gift for you offstage.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

JACK:

Sure, of course, the HERC address is ALWAYS open to you, but why don't you use my home address? Do you have it? I always THOUGHT you had it. If not, give me a call and I'll give it to you; or just pop in here and ask me to call you. Happy to do it, compadre.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

Harlan, don't peer over the abyss just yet. We will toast a big 100 for some old geezer, take that to the bank.

Exercise, eat better, think good thoughts, keep pissing off the dullards. Our love is real, baby.

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

No more product placement in movies and tv, pleassssssse. It's like sticking porn into some little kids face, or some abortion protester sticking a fetus into a woman's view. If you want to make a buck, do better pr on your films or start making better films, how about that.

Stuff
Harlan:
You know all of us stand ready to do anything we can for you at any time. Having been through several health crises of my own, I feel for you.


I don't know if I'm out of line here, but wouldn't it be cool to show DREAMS WITH SHARP TEETH at the American Cinematheque? For those who don't know, the Cinematheque took over and restored the old Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. They regularly show new documentaries, foreign films and tons and tons of old restored films (just about to start up their summer science fiction/horror series with a lot of old British films). They are considered an august and illustrious organization.

Usually they invite filmmakers and have a Q&A.

I know nothing will rival the great screening of DWTS at the Writers Guild (I'll remember that fondly forever), but if any of you think it's a good idea to try to get a showing at the Cinematheque, the programmers are:

gwen@americancinematheque.com and chris@americancinematheque.com

A caveat: they have absolutely ignored my suggestions for screenings in the past. But maybe there's force in numbers...

Best wishes
Best wishes and goodthoughts to the Ellisons as they deal with whatever needs to be dealt with.

Jan S.

Joe, you are the man. On some of the details, i was trying not to be spoilerific. But yes, that was the one. It was indeed a "young adults" novel, but I have found some of the best writing on that shelf (like william sleator, who is so harlan writing for kids).

Harlan
As always, whatever you need, you got it, whatever I can do, I'm there.

Best,
Shane

Harlan...

You know I'm sending good thoughts and much love to you and Susan.

Tony

alexander's book
alexander--I think you've misremembered some of the details sightly, but your identification of "Sandy" and his flask makes it a certainty that the book you're talking about is "The Westing Game," by Ellen Raskin, 1979. It's a mystery novel aimed at what I think they're calling "young adult" readers these days, but I still reread it with pleasure every few years. Great book.

Harlan, all best wishes from Indiana.

Hi Harlan,

Sorry about not being able to post for a while. Cindy and I (and Evangelia sho is just starting to assert herself) wish you good thoughts and healthy wishes. Cindy is out of town taking care of both her parents who have lately been hit with health issues. Her Father's continued from late last year and her Mom's more recently.

We are sure that Susan is doing a marvelous job and we wish you both nothing but the best.

J. Argendeli

Hi, Harlan, I'm sad after reading your post about the report from the doctor... My thoughts are with you and your's.

Apologies - haven't been here for a while, other than posting birthday greetings for H & S - not since I-Con, I think. I've had my second workplace in 18 months declare insolvency, and I've been scrabbling around in an attempt to gain employment elsewhere - which has finally borne fruit.

Have spent the best part of a week trying to catch up with everyone's posts. Hopefully, the following comments will have captured everything relevant:

*************************

HARLAN - hope your health checks aren't too disspiriting. Just seen your request for July's SFX - sorry to have been too late at that party.

And thanks for YOUR thanks for the Les Paul DVD. BTW, did I mention that you ought to check the back of the inlay sleeve for that one.....?

*************************

SUSAN - hello 'Flash'! Loved the photos in Vegas! I presume you're watching our favourite Doctor at the moment - I'll send you all the relevant pages from the usual magazine together this time round, if I may. Hope the Easter Eggs made it back home in one piece!

Any behind-the-scenes stories from James Moran you can share with us?

*************************

KICK REENEY - Congrats on the new addition to the family! Haven't seen an entry from you in a while - presume the baby is keeping you busy....

*************************

KOSMO - good to see your pertinent & pithy comments are still regular. How did the IT nightmare pan out? And thanks for showing us that gorgeous volume at I-Con - you were the envy of everyone there!

*************************

And everyone else from I-Con - PEG, DOUG, ADAM-TROY, JUDY, the RICHMONDS, PETER & KATHLEEN D. (how is the pink blanky?) - good to see your contributions on this site. Hope all is well with you and yours.

And AMY & BEN - met any giant clams lately? : )

*************************

Fond regards,
Rob E.

Well Harlan, I'm glad the medical news you got was not the worst, at least. I hope you don't have to go under the knife again. Stay well and take care of yourself.

I'm intrigued by the description of the artwork you rediscovered, but as Captain Ahab said after the whale bit his leg off; I'm stumped.

Ah, yes; well, good luck with all that, Harlan.

Chuck

I and my Question
Hi, Harlan! Hi, Susan!

I guess I should just begin at the beginning. I've been a fan and a collector of your work since the 1970s. In the early 1990s, I had almost everything you've ever written. Now, I have almost nothing. In this manner, the story unfolds.

I had a friend named Cindy. I trusted her with my children's lives, okay, she was that kind of a friend. She was as avid a reader as I am, and she began reading all of my books. On my recommendation, she began reading your work. She was the only person to whom I loaned books. I don't loan them to anyone any more.

Cindy had a boyfriend who was a real sleeze. I tried to tell her, but you know how those things go. Please keep in mind here that I (gentle soul that I am) am normally harmless, really. But when you hear this, I think you will forgive some homicidal tendencies.

Get this, now. Her boyfriend, in order to get back at her for an argument they were having, broke into my apartment, and stole my books. He knew just the ones to steal, too. He stole yours. As many of them as he could find. All I had left was "The Other Glass Teat", which I was re-reading and carrying with me . A full twenty year collection. Gone. Just like that. I have never been so pissed. That friendship ended quickly afterward.

To add insult to injury I found out later that this illiterate S.O.B. (Who couldn't read his way out of a bathroom stall complete with diagrams and phone numbers.) gave them to Goodwill. I tried to get them back, but by the time I found this out, the books were gone.

I put word out that if I ever see this person again, I will gouge his eyeballs out with my bare hands, attach them to his nuts with a rusty ball-peen hammer and feed them to the ravens. Then I'll kill him. Slowly.

Sorry. Grudges do go deep. I really am harmless. Besides, he ain't worth doing the time over.

My question is this: Are you ever going to re-release your works? Recently, I found a copy of "Deathbird Stories", but other than that, things have been pretty dry.

Unca Harlan, closest i could find to what you described was this.

http://www.noreascon.org/retroart/images/Dillon%20--%20Past%20Master%20cover.jpg

im sure thats not even close, but it sounds like this could be a small slice thereof.


Oddly enough, im trying to trace a story as well. Its a novel I read a long time ago (over a decade, a long time for me).
The base plot is that a rich man has died, and a bunch of unrelated people are told they are in the race for the inheritance. the main characters include a girl and her sister, the doctor her sister is engaged too, the girls father who is a bookie, an elderly gardner named Sandy who is addicted to cough syrup and keeps a flask with him at all times, full of his syrup, and several others i can't remember. Anyone recall the story? i can give more details about it, but i dont want to be spoileriffic, as im going to suggest it as something to grab from teh library, as soon as i find the title.

HARLAN
I'd like to send you something. Is it all right if I use the HERC address?

Harlan - Closest bell that your description rings is the illustration for "World of the Myth" - Knight Magazine, August 1964; caveat: I've only seen a small reproduction of said illustration, in black and white, so I lack all the color cues.

Second Posting Today - For Susan
SUSAN - If there is a PC version of the "IHNMAIMS" game, the clue book, and a mousepad available, I would like to place an order. Give the word on the total, and I'll have the money in the mail ASAP.


Sandra

"...neither is it as bad as some of you must've (I know) extrapolated..."

Well, that at least is good news. We will hang our hats on that until such time as you feel comfortable with offering more detail. Very best wishes winging your way. As always.

Your pal (one of MANY here assembled),
Steve J.

...AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!

I need the Archivist Praetorian Phalanx of the much- and deservedly-vaunted Flying Blue Monkey Squadron to tell me something.

It goes like so: Susan and I were doing some dusting in the Blue Bedroom, and I found myself staring at a group of paintings and posters framed on a wall I pretty much take for granted. I'm sure you've had this happen to you, as well ... you
get on a chair to dust the top of a bookcase or a chiffonier or a kitchen cabinet, and when you turn around, you're viewing a completely different topography, a not-alarming, even vaguely familiar, alien landscape ... and you smile gently, and you look upon that demesne with new eyes.

Well, that's what happened to me in the Blue Bedroom earlier today. I found myself staring afresh at half a dozen favorite framed items: my "Dumbo" lobby card; my Amelia Earhart "Amelia Lives" poster; a gorgeous Michael Whalen oil portrait of a brooding face in shadow, that I bought at a fan art show years before Michael turned pro; several other originals, nice pieces by artists less well-known; and ------

One of the many Dillon originals I've bought from Leo & Diane after manipulating editors and publishers into commissioning them to do the artwork for a story I'd written, that the magazine was planning to publish. I have quite a few more than spectacular Dillons, all over the house. And the one I had hung years ago, in the Blue Bedroom, unlike ALL the other Dillons (even one that had been done for a Tom Disch story in KNIGHT), illustrated a story...

The name of which I CANNOT REMEMBER.

Cannot remember what magazine it appeared in; cannot figure out what the story was about; cannot glean a plot clue from the painting; haven't a hint. This, as well you might perceive, distresses the holy shit outta me. My memory is excellent...I hope. But this one has me stumped. And I am distraught, and I appeal to you, the holy legion, to edify me.

Here's what I can deduce for sure:

1. It is in color, and it is PLAYBOY-sized, but "one-up," as they say in the trade (that is, it's one increment larger than the dimensions of PLAYBOY as it will be printed). It is wash and water colors. Obviously the Dillons.That means it has to be a men's magazine of the genre of PENTHOUSE, GALLERY, VIVA, KNIGHT, or one of the other short-lived slick men's mags. No earlier than the 70s or 80s, for sure.

2. It was NOT in a science fiction magazine unless it was OMNI (but it cannot BE from OMNI, because the art director almost never commissioned artwork; he bought reprint rights to already existing, surreal or classic paintings, mostly European, that were offered for cheap reprint prices as part of a "bundle" of artist proofs/transparencies from an agency). It was not in a digest. It was not in a black&white magazine; it WAS a slick.

3. It is a double-page spread, with the story beginning on the right-hand page, the art trailing across from the left-hand page integrating shapewise with the title, byline, blurb, beginning of the story. None of these last are on the framed art as it hangs in the Blue Bedroom.

4. Here's what it looks like, as best I can describe something that is mostly inferential and not mimetic:

From the top left left, going to the right, as follows: against a minimal wash background of shades of green and orange, the art transparent and overlapping image-next-to-image, a skull (pale and white, with small overlapping armadillo-like carapacial plates, staring at a 3/4 turn toward the viewer; the skull rests atop a man's head, very much collage-like, the man also staring a degree or two away from directly at us, but the eyeholes are solid red; the solid red is repeated in an asymmetric shape atop or behind the skull, leading the eye of the viewer to the right, to an asexual figure, pale and transparent, behind the skull, the man's head...AND...to the right of the staring red-eyed man...a young woman in left profile, her eyelashes thick, her eyes closed.

The mysterious figure above the skull, the man, and the young woman, has her left hand raised, palm outward (now on the right-hand page) and scattering from her hand are scintillances that surge in a line to the right hand margin where they go nova, white, coruscating, minimalistically opening a path through gradients of yellow that meld into the appearance of the yellow magazine page being sundered. In the butterscotch-yellow streamer, the painting is signed in black: L&DDillon.

I have just tried to describe the indescribable.

I thought at first it was from the initial publication of "The Diagnosis of Dr. D'arqueAngel" in VIVA, but when I went to that file I was angered all over again, these years later, when I saw again that they had truncated my title and published it as just "DARQUEANGEL." And the accompanying painting was not the Dillon I've just described. Then I thought the art might be interpreted as elements of "Alive and Well and On An Endless Voyage," because it sure as hell COULD be that, but the story appeared in F&SF, sans art, and I cannot recall in whatever men's slick magazine it might've been reprinted. It could be "Lonely Women are the Vessels of Time," but, again, it would have to be from a reprint.

I am stumped.

Can one of you, jogged perhaps by all of the preceding, take a swipe at this? I don't think this is a stumper that will respond profitably to a "guess," but if I've given you enough for one of you to say, "Yeah, I remember that story...and that art...or one or the other, if not both..." then pop in and pop off.

If this jogs the memory of a Barney, a David Loftus, a Leslie, a DougFinder, a Tim or a Scott or a Keith or a Langerhans Zuzel or a Michael Curtis, or even if it turns out to be a lurker...

Well...it'll be appreciated.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

My six year old daughter and I listened to Benny King's "Stand By Me" today, and she told me when it was over that, "even after a long time, when we are apart because you are in heaven, you will still look over my shoulder and I will still be looking through your love."

I'm not sure exactly what that means, but it proves that six year olds at least occasionally think about more than how to cadge the extra Pop-Tart without getting caught.

words and books
Re: Mother Carey's Chicken

"storm' pet"rel

Any of several small, tube-nosed seabirds of the family Hydrobatidae, usually having black or sooty-brown plumage with a white rump. Also,storm'-pet"rel. Cf. stormy petrel.

Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc."

"...called also Mother Carey's chicken." Merriam Webster Online Dictionary

I learned something today. "Mother Carey's Chicken", who knew? Now I know. Thanks!

Books are selling steadily, I will post a check the first of next week for actual and estimated sales.

Be well. Keep saying "No!"

KOS

Fair game
KOS,
The fair actually runs through next Sunday, August 3rd. Connie and I went down to Costa Mesa this morning to watch 300 cattle get driven up Harbor Blvd . Something you don't see everyday on the streets of Orange County.
Thanks for the recommendation, will try to remember to check out "Glow". My daughter Katie won a best in show at the fair one year (in her age group, which was pretty young at the time) so we usually do go check out the art exhibits.
As far as the current film topic, the scene I remember as showing a most horrific side of war, though it may not have been the subject of the whole film, was when Sophie was forced to make her Choice.

A good weekend to all here, a warm one for the locals, and a completely no strings attached best of wishes to Harlan and Susan.

HARLAN - We're here for you, whether it's support, silence, or a smile. Doug and I are a phone call or plane trip away if you need anything at all. As per the Jackanapes: "He can't get any sicker. I already have too many sick friends right now."


Sandra

Susan and Harlan, the reimbursement for the July issue of SFX was in the pile of mail upon my return from a family vacation to Alaska (I highly recommend the Alaska Inside Passage cruise). I'm glad that I was able to help out.

Also, in the pile were Volumes 1 and 2 of the The Complete Poetry and Translations of Clark Ashton Smith published by Hippocampus Press. I know Harlan is a big fan of CAS and I'm looking forward to reading these volumes.


Yr. Loyal Flying Blue Monkey,
David

Re: The Twilight Zone
ELIAS: Yes, by all means check out "Wordplay", from the 2nd episode of season one.

Yours
Tim

HARLAN - We are ALL here for you when and whenever you need it.

Keep us posted, as you have promised, and any errands and erratum you find that need attending let us (any of us here in your 'land) know.


Steve and Cris

MEDICAL APPOINTMENT REPORT #4 (not having no.'d #3)

Okay, the reports are back, and I've spoken to Ron Karlsberg. Just a few minutes ago.

The news is not good, as we all expected; but neither is it as bad as some of you must've (I know) extrapolated. I am being purposely vague and close-to-the-vest on this, for the moment.
It's hard enough for me to get work, just to keep the boat afloat in these parlous times, and at my age, without having potential sources of income running from me as if I were an IndyMac takeover.

So, I'll wait till it all sinks in, till Susan and I have come to terms with all of it, till you're all here together so I don't have to keep coming back to tell you not to worry. I do promise I'll keep you all in the loop, and this isn't "secret" or "do not spread it around," but if you would do me the kindness of keeping it among just us here, I'd be grateful. I know there are outpost observers from venues less than salutary to my well-being, and I can't do anything about THAT, but as Locus and suchlike pay me no mind even when a fucking feature-length documentary is made (except for that blathering nitwit Westphal)(if that's how he spells it), I don't need to alert them that I have a slightly rougher row to hoe than yesterday.

Try not to worry, despite my truly befuddled note above. I'll get back to you. Sooner, rather than later. There WILL be a sooner; later I'll worry about later.

Thank y'all for being around. You're good chums.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

I just got home from viewing the new X Files movie. I am a long time viewer of the show, which certainly helped with some of the back story. I enjoyed it but there just seemed to be something missing, which I can't quite put my finger on.I'm looking forward to hearing some other opinions about this movie.

KOS:

Stormy petrel, not "Storm" Petrel.

-he

Movies and fanboys and spoilers
I am looking forward to hearing and hopefully seeing more on LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT. My only experience was some short pieces on a program called SILENCE PLEASED, hosted by Ernie Kovacs and some footage used in the silent film spoofery program FRACTURED FLICKERS. I Would love to see it in its complete or near complete form.

Another find is what seems to be a near intact copy of METROPOLIS. A definative version was put out by Kino, with titles where there was missing footage. Now with the discovery of 16mm print in South America, the German Film Archive will start a restoration process of the whole print with the idea of preserving the film as one piece and using the missing footage to complete the all ready completely edition. From what I have been reading, with all the missing pieces in place a great many plot holes and inconsistancies will be resolved. The prints in the United States were severly edited on the original release, so Americans have never seen the stories unfold as Fritz Lang intended.

Now if we could only find a complete copy of The Magnificent Ambersons.

My choice for best anti-war film, aired only once on American television in 1964 and runs a scant 60 seconds. It is the infamous "Daisy" commercial that LBJ ran to suggest that his competitor Barry Goldwater, was a great war monger then he was.

Removing the voice over of LBJ at the end you still have one of the most iconic and forceful of anti war films. A little girl in a field plucking dasies, counting them and then a voice starts counting down backwards.....I will not give away the ending since we have all agreed, Spolilers are a very bad thing.

I am missing my first Comic Con, and strangely enough I am not suffering from too many withdrawl symptoms. To be honest, the Con for me has too crowded, too impersonal, and all too much of a trade show for Hollywood and Game companies, and less about the writers and artists of comic books, animation or the creators of speculative fiction.

I recall when the con was more intimate, the experience (to me) was more memorable and the city of san diego hated us being there, which gave our little gatherings a touch of the outlaw. Although how much an outlaw one can be when you have a gathering on unwashed, caloric challenged fanboys around maybe not be compatible to that word.

Speaking of which, if there is a group genetically inclined to play spoil sport with the endings of things it is certainly the fanboy. The fanboys I knew (roughly 1968 to 1986) when I was working at conventions, or managing Comic Book and Science Fiction stores was an arrogant sort and constantly trying to prove their superiority with a kind of rudeness that can only be done by people who need to scream "look at me".

They all wanted to tell you what 2001: a space Odessey meant, who Luke Skywalker's father was, the ending of the Sixth Sense. It was there way of showing that they were "in", that they were not outcasts, losers, freaks, or whatever view people might have had of them. Of course sharing all these bits of information were alas done with no wit, or intelligence, just a self satisfied arrogance and all they did was reinforce their image of what people thought of them AND spoil the experince for those who had not seen those films.

A wonderful compendium of things Mystery came out in the 1980's called MURDER INK, bound in the back of the book, sealed so one could not read it was a small pamphlet, with a warning not to open it if one was a true mystery fan. When one opened it, there was the 'spoilers' the end to at least 10 of the greatest mysteries of all time. I have often wondered how many resisted and have kept it untouched.

The only time that being a spoiler had real life consequences was when I took a course called The Crime Novel, at San Diego State. The professor, a true mystery fan made the course a joy to take. The class was mostly talking about favorite writers, watching a number of movies that he had 16mm prints of, and then as a final we delivered oral reports on a favorite author.

The oral report was 75% of the grade. The rest was just showing up. The teacher made is very easy for everyone. He had only one requirement: if you gave away the ending of the book you failed. He hated spoilers, he despised reviewers who proved how clever they were by spoiling the book for others. So, you could say what you liked, didn't like, describe the plot, but NEVER, EVER, give away the ending.

It was amazing how many could not keep their piehole shut. Out of 30 students, I think at least 8-10 could not resist going that one step too far.

A small pleasure for those looking at The Man From UNCLE dvds. Sreen Archives Entertainments along with Turner Classic Movies has put out a set of original sound tracks from the TV series and the UNCLE movies that were realeased overseas. I haven't seen any track listings to see if there is music from Harlan's programs, but if there is I will give you all a post.

"If Obama could run for President of Germany he would have it made." (Frank) -- Don't know what it looked like from over there but don't be deceived by appearances. Obama is a media star and a welcome presence after Bush, yes. He even has a fan base, I guess. But he's not the type of person to get *elected* in Germany. American politicians are a very unique breed for a unique electorate. In fact, you saw one major difference right there on that day, and you'd be quite shocked by the opinion polls that were done afterwards. Again, don't know what it looked like from over there, or what it was supposed to look like.

Remakes
So Darren Aronofsky is remaking ROBOCOP. Again, I ask why?

And just back from the movies and saw they're taking another stab at THE PUNISHER (doesn't look much different from the previous one)... and they've remade DEATH RACE 2000 as the rather grim/gray-looking DEATH RACE. Even with the estimable Joan Allen and the reliable Jason Statham, it doesn't look like much.

Yawn.

mail
Susan- received cash. Will use it to see X-Files 2 tomorrow. JZ

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/07/the-balcony-is-closed.html

Los Angeles Holiday
Susan was completely correct. Jetlag was Doom. With that and lack of sleep thanks to the sultry heat here, it has taken us this entire week to recover, but we're just about back to full fettle now. Exposure to solar radiation did turn me into Lobsterwoman for a while (not at all to be confused with Rockzilla), but I'll be back to my normal pasty self in a few days.

We had the most wonderful time in Los Angeles. We have so many happy memories, and hearts brimful with thanks to all the lovely people who were so very kind to us. Harlan Ellison was charming, hilarious (his use of the word 'Sanhedrin' in general conversation still cracks me up), and feisty as hell - which a Celt (not Brit) like me enjoyed very much. Susan was absolutely lovely, so much fun to be around, and so kind and thoughtful, and I hope she got the shoes we talked about...

And, oh driver! The gallant Steve Barber not only chauffered us about the city and was an absolute multivac of information, but was also just the loveliest company we could have asked for. He asked us at one point what the highlights of our trip were, and we told him. But what we didn't think to say was that, sometimes just sitting on a grassy knoll chatting and watching the waves come in is just as much of a highlight. His gorgeous chanteuse wife Cris, was lovely to meet and very kindly parted with him over the few days.

Jason Davis drove all the way from Burbank and spent hours in traffic just to pick us up and drop us off for dinner, which was amazingly generous. Equally generous was Josh Olson driving us back from dinner to our hotel in Santa Monica in his convertible car, which was no end exciting for us hicks who had never been in one before.

Now we're back there are so many things for us to miss: the Pacific ocean with miles of beautiful beaches and mountains in the distance, the laggard sunsets, Mexican food to die for (not hot, spiiiiiicy!), pastrami, giant shoe shops, diners... and there was so much more we could have packed in, so oh dear, we'll just have to come back!

I just read Roger Ebert's official "farewell".

The ship has left port and with that the end of an era.

The Balcony is Closed.

It was moving, and a reminder of what a good writer Roger can be. It's the one talent I look for in any film critic; that ability to pull you in and make you see and feel what he did all those years.

Comic Con
As Kim has said we went to the comic con and yes, to many people, we pushed our way through and tried not to step on anybody who might have fallen to the ground, we watched all the people pass us by and wondered why there not working?, we listened to the endless chatter about what movie was better batman or iron man, we walk and walked and walked, and by the end of the day my legs where killing me, and yes to many people.

But.

Walking through the mass of people I remembered as a little boy wishing I could be with superman or batman or any larger then life hero’s, as I got older of course I found out they didn’t really exist, but walking through the convention I glanced into the darkened corners of the hall and I thought I caught a glimpse of green lantern recharging his ring, and there over head high in the metal rafters a fragment of Spiderman’s web hung like a silver thread, and when I looked down there on the floor the imprint of Conan’s well worn boot, and if I listened very very carefully I still could hear the sound of “up up and away” and the beckoning roar of the Batmobile, and I was content.

To many people, yes, but if you looked with innocent eyes you could still see hero’s watching form the shadows.

Gary.

addendum(b)/corrections
Yes, I know "portmanteau" is a large suitcase. I meant to type "portcullis", which is inaccurate literally, but you get the point, one hopes...

Had to chime in on anti-war films: "The War Game" the 1965 BBC film on Nuclear War so realistic the "Beeb" refused to air it at the time. Written and directed by Peter Watkins, it won the Oscar for Best Documentary.

I will defend it as the best film of its' type, against all comers. If you have never seen it, STFU. Then get it and watch.

KOS

addendum(b)/corrections
Yes, I know "portmanteau" is a large suitcase. I meant to type "portcullis", which is inaccurate literally, but you get the point, one hopes...

Had to chime in on anti-war films: "The War Game" the 1965 BBC film on Nuclear War so realistic the "Beeb" refused to air it at the time. Written and directed by Peter Watkins, it won the Oscar for Best Documentary.

I will defend it as the best film of its' type, against all comers. If you have never seen it, STFU. Then get it and watch.

KOS

Conventions,. Fairs and other gatherings
If you live in SoCal do go to the OC Fair (it ends this weekend). Go to the art show, and look for the painting that won "Best In Show", titled "Glow". It's a masterpeice, and it's so simple yet brilliant. Literally.

Also go and watch (do NOT ride! You Have Been Warned.) the "Giant Airplane Propeller" ride in the Midway. Fucking Amazing. Nine of Ten Astronauts would puke from its' effects. Teenagers are immune.

In 1976 I lived in Kansas for no good reason other than that the United States government told me to go, so I did.

I discovered that there was to be a World Science Fiction Convention that year in Kansas City, Missouri. But a short drive from my location, I was immediately gifted with the desire to attend. That Robert Heinlein was the Guest Of honor only strengthened this desire, as I had grown up reading everything he wrote.

Came the day, and I arrived in downtown Kansas City, MO. A weekday, with crowds of people moving about the sidewalks and streets, while I lost my way searching for the Hotel Muehlebach (the main hotel for the convention).



The noon hour and the opening ceremony, featuring a speech by my then and now minor deity of SF knowledge Dr. James Gunn (more or less the anti-Gary Westfahl of SF scholarship, though to be fair, it is the other way around, with GW as the Anti-JG) approached.

I could not find the convention hotel.

In near despair, I hit upon a stratagem.

I had never been to any sort of Science Fiction gathering prior to this. Never had met an SF "fan" of the sort all too well known to all of us. But I surmised such a convention just had, HAD to be filled with slightly and summat "unusual" in appearance people. Summat.

"Look for the oddest person in the crowd on the sidewalk, and follow that person!" I thought. Holmes himself would have smiled at my logic.

I looked to my right, and there was a slightly portly young man, dressed in black, save for a green vest. He sported a black bowler, and diddy-bopped in a definitely purposeful manner, as if headed somewhere important. Bowlers being definitely out of fashion in 1976 KC, and the green of his vest being of a particularly garish quality, I immediately identified this as a person of interest, a veritable Storm Petrel to be followed to The Ends Of The World.

Yep, two blocks and one corner later, there it was "Welcome 34th World Science Fiction Convention" read the banner over the portmanteau of the Muehlebach. Green Vest disappeared into the lobby, shortly followed by myself.

Green Vest turned out to be Well-known (famous, even?) fan artist Phil Foglio. To me he'll always be "that funny looking guy I followed to find my first SF convention".

He was the most normal appearing person I saw (other than my reflection in an elevator door) for the next five days.

I've been to a few cons since then. A few dozen, even.

Yesterday Gary Lee and I drove down to Comic Con in San Diego. We picked up a pair of one day tix from a fellow on Craig's List. $95.00 each. Next year I buy online in time to not pay The Stupid Tax.

We arrived in time to literally walk through the doors of the convention main exhibit hall at precisely 9:30 in the Ayem as they opened.

Impressions: Too many people. My first CC four years ago, you could walk quickly and easily anywhere in the massive exhibit hall, even into and through the section with the massive Hollywood Studio/TV Network mega-displays. This year, even the aisles selling shitty Chinse action figures were elbow to elbow from wall to wall. The Hollywood/Corporate Media section was impossible. Lines of people waiting for some extremely minor SF series spear carrier to scribble their name in green Sharpie on a 2 x 3 foolscap poster print, dayhired studio flunkies everywhere in matching tee shirts trying to guide clots of sweaty fans this way into some giveaway or prop viewing area, and every booth featured a Billy Mays (OxyClean!) wannabee with one of those headset microphones screaming through a Spinal Tap sized PA system "Come into the (Warner, Fox, Nickelodeon, etc.) pavilion and we'll five you a free chance to win an (X-Box, movie prop, date with a sarlet, etc.) and talk to a Real Live Girl! (They at least have done their homework and Know Who They Are Dealing With).

Too many people. The lines for the snack bars were 100 people plus. I saw thirty or more in line for each of the little Starbucks carts in the lobby areas. Ditto for Super Pretzel and Mrs. Fields. YOu could get rich with a backpack full of Ham And Cheese On Rye.

Too many people.

No freebies to speak of this year. In years past I got piles of DVD's, VHS tapes, sample books, comics, even full sized posters. This year, nada. Well, one of those 2 x 4 foolscap poster prints, signed by the star and producer of something called "Resurrection Mary" from "The Famous Chicago Urban Legend!" that I've never heard of before yesterday.

The star of "Resurrection mary" was nice, gracious even, and stunningly beautiful. The producer at her side seemed dazed by it all, but somewhat cogent. Nice guy, wondering "How the hell did I get here and how do I get out?!" if ya ask me.

Most common line heard in the crowds: "Nice outfit!" invariably directed to some eighteen-year old girl with a good body in a tight Super Hero outfit (and this year I did not see ONE Super Girl or Wonder Woman. Hmmm.) (I did see a middle-ages Superman. Thousand dollar outfit, easy. A ten dollar gym membership would have been a good investment first. As Rotsler said, there ought to be a weight-limit imposed for those purchasing Spandex).

Line never heard: "Hey, you've lost weight!"

The first huckster to think of hiring a female model with "back trouble" to wear a super hero/anime outfit and stand before their booth handing out flyers was a marketing genius. The twenty-fifth such? Shoot him (they're all guys). Still, it was never boring to engage one of these women in conversation. If you treated them as a person you quickly found that the "Deer In The Headlights" look that flashed across their faces from time to time (when able to pause from their Joker Smile, covered a real person who was just trying to get by and maybe get a part in an HBO or Sci Fi Channel series. Good luck Girls.

Most amusing moment: Watching a line of people waiting for a 2 x 4 foolscap poster print, and hearing someones cellphone go off, playing the "Imperial Match" (Darth Vader's leitmotif), and observing no fewer than a half-dozen people all simultaneously and autonomically reach for their phone.

And yet: the art of comics, the original inkings and prints and occasional full color painting never failed to just blow me away. The glimpse of something from a Kirby or Kane, a Frazetta or Eisner, just reminds you of why you bother to try to experience something so brobdignagian and grown Topsy-Like out of control.

But it's Just Too ig, and too much glommed onto by the Corporate Media Monster. There ought to be something like this, devoted to just comics. Probably is, somewhere.

But it was fun.

KOS

Duane, maybe you are the liberal and David is the conservative. haha.

Will take a day off Wyatt.

ANTI-WAR MOVIES
ON THE BEACH is still one of the best.
Love to see it re-made by people who know what they're doing.

Had to share
Harlan is parodied in a webcomic that a friend of mine just linked me to. And he kicks much ass, quite literally!

http://www.faans.com/index.php?p=66 the next few pages has "Arlen" being attacked by good intentioned folk who think hes under mind control. They do not fair well against his wit or his fists.

Adam-Troy, to your excellent list, might I add the scene where the immortal words "I am Gunnery Sergeant Hartmann...." are uttered? One of the most riveting ten minutes of cinema EVER, regardless of genre.

David, perhaps Frank Church was referring to "the most spoofed anti-war scenes ever," though I don't necessarily view A Few Good Men as an anti-war film.

L'affaire LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT
One of the reasons that some of us remain so implacable in our doubt of the veracity of this latest LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT claim is that we've heard it all before -- many times. Sometimes it's a genuine attempt to take people in, other times it's just a playful goof with no real pretense of being The Truth. One of the cleverest of the latter is this page, created some time ago by Michael Gebert, author of THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MOVIE AWARDS:

http://www.michaelgebert.com/lam/lam1.html

For the record, here is what is actually known about LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT: A nitrate print did indeed survive well past the silent era. The last definitive documentation of it is an MGM inspection report from 1955. However, the last known print was destroyed in a 1967 vault fire.

Is it impossible that some stray release print is still out there somewhere, waiting to be discovered? No, I suppose it isn't impossible, but it is extremely improbable. Given that a release print (never mind a negative) would have to be on chemically unstable and highly flammable cellulose nitrate film stock, it isn't enough just to find an extant print. The print would need to have somehow escaped the physical decomposition that is the inevitable eventual fate of all nitrate film. Even now, a century later, nitrate prints occasionally turn up in viewable condition, but only where storage conditions have been optimal. That generally means archival storage. But where there is archival storage, there are records. That's why the author of this story had to go to great lengths to persuade us that an archive had mislabeled the print. Does that ever happen? Yeah, sometimes. But look at how many planets have to be aligned just so for this story to have any credence.

I just don't buy it. If I'm wrong, everyone is entitled to a horse laugh on me.

And by the way, that print that survived into the 1960s was screened by a number of film historians, perhaps most notably William K. Everson, and the general consensus was that this was not Lon Chaney's finest hour. To a Chaney fan, of course, it's all good, and I would be overjoyed to have the opportunity to see the film. But, honestly, the loss if it doesn't keep me up nights. Moreover, given the choice between rescuing it and rescuing, say, a complete copy of Von Stroheim's GREED, I would chuck LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT in the fire without a second thought.

To be clear: if this thing should pan out against all odds, I will be absolutely delighted to have been proven wrong. But I'm not holding my breath. Been there and done that. Many times.

Steve J.

Harlan:
My apologies and thanks for the correction. I believe I'll reread both books.

80's Twilight Zone Episode - "Shatterday"
I was not even aware an there WAS an 80's version of The Twilight Zone. I happened to stumble across it on Netflix.

I just watched the episode "Shatterday" and watched again with the audio commentary by Mr. Ellison.

Mr. Ellison, are you familiar with the episode "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room" from the 1959-65 Twilight Zone? It was written by Rod Serling. I heard in the commentary where you got your idea for "Shatterday." Let me make clear I am NOT NOT NOT (NOT to the infinite power) suggesting anything fescinnine.

His episdoe has a similar theme to yours. Just curious if you have ever seen it.

To reiterate, nothing nefarious is implied, suggested, etc.

I have to locate a copy of "Shatterday" to compare to the TV version.

Now to watch "Paladin of the Lost Hour."

Does anyone know if any of the other stories in the 80's series are worth watching?

(I got the word "fescinnine" from Word-A-Day which I subscribed to after reading about it in this forum. I was inspired to do so because everytime I read one of Mr. Ellison's essays I have to go to the unabridged dictionary at least once. Thank you for improving the vocabulary of your readers, sir).

Still no response from my pal, Sid,"finder" of ye old lost Chaney flick. Probably he's pursuing all the marvelous suggestions I forwarded his way. Probably.

On the anti-war movie... erm, front, I can't believe no one has mentioned J'ACCUSE! - c'est flabbergaste!

And thanks in advance for all the birthday wishes many of you are about to post, now that I've revealed that today is my natal anniversary. Off to see THE DARK KNIGHT...

war bore


No, Frank, you wrote: "The best anti-war scene in movie history..." -- see below. This kind of blithe sloppiness is precisely the reason I tend to ignore most of your posts in the Forums, as well.

Jan, I saw "The Bridge" many many years ago and have never forgotten it.

Another wonderful film that depicts both the seductive grandeur and beauty of war as well as its searing bitterness is Kurosawa's KAGEMUSHA (The Shadow Warrior).

I said one of the best, not thee best. I mention that film because of McCain and all the hoopla about his service.

The Horror, the horror.

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

If Obama could run for President of Germany he would have it made.

See what good beer does.

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

We need to bring back the Bretton Woods system.

Anti War Film

Years ago at USC I saw a film whose title I am ashamed to say I have forgotten. It was, I believe, a Polish film. Gorgeous black and white widescreen movie set in the 18th century, in the thick of a terrible war.

What was brilliant about it was that it was structured rather like Slackers -- you followed one character for ten or twelve minutes and then the movie "hands off" to another character and you follow him or her. Often the "hand off" was because the character you had been following was killed. In this way the audience was witness to a series of battles and atrocities committed by both sides, without ever having the chance to identify with any single character. None of the killing was justifiable or acceptable, because you weren't allowed to root for anyone.

Brilliant movie. If any of the wise heads here know which film I'm talking about, I'd love to know the name of it. It's stayed with me for twenty years.

MM

SHANE:

Not Redhook, New Jersey.

The Red Hook section of Brooklyn.

V*E*R*Y very VERY different venues.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

Written on my iPod Touch at S.D.C.C.
Harlan:
Happy, no, overjoyed to hear that your health is very good. I was watching the SciFi Channel mini-documentary and I was, well, emotional when you spoke about taking better care of yourself because you didn't want Susan wandering through EllisonWonderland looking for you. Yeah, I'm very happy to hear you're doing well and Susan knows where she can find you.
------------------

Diane Bartels:
If your brother enjoyed "Web of the City," he (and you) would also enjoy "Memos from Purgatory" which is Harlan's non-fiction account of infiltrating and running with a gang in Redhook, N.J.

-----------
Keith:
My job gets me down now and again, but the thing that perks me up is knowing that my work can never be outsourced to any country outside of the U.S. of A.

--------
By the way, if you have the 2008 Comic-Con Souvenir Book, turn to page #63 and read my article about Doc Savage.

Brian Siano wrote....
"So: either this is a hoax, and it's dragged in the names of some people known to some of us, or it's genuine, and we can have a thrill from being tangentially connected to the rediscovery of a long-lost Lon Chaney film."


Lori and Patrick are indeed members of my crew and, in fact, Patrick Martin is well known to Harlan, having visited the Lost Temple many a time, AND having designed the DWST poster. So....more than that, about the missing Masterpiece, I cannot say.

But images and likenesses are correct.

Erik

DOWNFALL
Oh, shit yeah, DOWNFALL. A film that took an awful lot of hell for presenting a Hitler who could be charming and who his closest associates could love; a Hitler who spares an avuncular smile for his secretary even as he and Eva are headed into the room where both will commit suicide. But one that also demonstrates his monstrousness. It's a fargin' absolute masterpiece and one that everybody should see.

KEITH - You still awake? God, I've had a couple of those days, and it ain't pretty. (I had to explain to two hundred uniformed police and fire department heads at an Emergency Ops Center why Verizon had no connectivity between 13 central offices in the Long Beach area. PD don't understand SS7 very well. And then I had to face the mayor...)
______________________________________________

It was a bad film, but the nuclear war conducted at the beginning of DAMNATION ALLEY is chillingly real.

And who could forget THE BED SITTING ROOM as an anti-war film?
______________________________________________

HARLAN - I'll add to the group of us pleased with your doctor's visit, but will reiterate that you looked healthy and vibrant last week and I hope you stay that way for a long time to come.

Great Anti-War Cinema

How about when brother fights brother in BIRTH OF A NATION? I found that pretty damn powerful.

It's really too bad that film has a second half - the first half is so good that it's doubly painful to watch the rest.

Harlan & Susan:
Off again to gigs up north, (just in case I fall off for a few days), they seem to like me there. Bernard Hill from "Lord of the Rings" came to see me the other night in New Bedford of all places. Anyhow, I will call early next week to update, chat and the like. Stay cool, Tim

And speaking of German films on the horrors of war, there's also
DOWNFALL. Mostly anti-madness etc., but the sight of children fighting to the death against seasoned Russian soldiers is almost as hard to watch as Frau Goebbels lovingly poisoning her children so they don't have to grow up in a world without National Socialism.

Chuck

Some more war titles :-)
There are so many good war movies. A significant one largely forgotten outside of Germany is the horrifying classic THE BRIDGE (Die Brücke)... "In 1945, Germany is being overrun, and nobody is left to fight but teenagers." (www.imdb.com/title/tt0052654/) One should also mention FULL METAL JACKET and THE CASUALTIES OF WAR for the record.

The All-Nighter
Well, the Cisco Phone just clicked over to 5:02am, and that marks 20 hours since I came into the office yesterday morning.

I'm good enough at my job that these emergencies don't happen often; but not good enough that they don't happen at all. In about 2 hours, give or take, I get to start explaining to people why the e-mail server is still down. Now, the jury is still out whether or not I'll be explaining this to 500 people, 20 people, or anyone at all. And my brain is fried. So my explanation will likely come as sarcasm, if I can't control it.

"Keith, is the e-mail system down?!"

Me: "No, you were fired." (or, also acceptable sarcasm: "Yes, I thought I'd give it Friday off."

"Keith, is there something wrong with everybody's blackberries, or is it just mine?"

Me: "RIM lost their latest patent infringement lawsuit. Throw it in the corner there: they'll be collected tomorrow."

"Keith, I can't get any work done if the e-mail is down. Should I just go home?"

Me: "Sure, but would you mind grabbing me a breakfast sandwich from Santa Fe Cafe before you go?"

Sometimes my job sucks.

-Keith

For shame, Adam! You've missed out on some even BETTER anti-war moments in film history...

The last four minutes of DR. STRANGELOVE. Oh, hell, the whole film.

The set-piece on the beach in THE STUNT MAN... especially that last line from a spectator and the protagonist's response.

The trial summation in BREAKER MORANT.

JUDGMENT AT NUREMBURG; even Shatner avoids overacting.

The opening fifteen minutes of THE KILLING FIELDS. (The rest is antigenocide and antipsychosis, not antiwar.)

LE ROI DE COEUR.

Strange viewing habits for a career officer, eh?

WAR! (funky beat w. subvocalization) What is it GOOD for? Abso...
Try getting that out of your head now mofos.

Boxing Euripides**

*** A-T-C *** And what about THE TROJAN WOMEN? Euripides is the shit. Let's just see how Hollywood product is holding up 2,423 years after the red carpet premier. Of course Xenocles took the prize that night*, but that hack is WAY out of print while guys like Heller and Vonnegut continue lobbing shit at the Trojan wall.

- Barney Dannelke

Hector, PA.

*McCain was there for the premiere but was unimpressed with the bleeding heart liberalism on display. He was mostly just there for the Dionysia Festival trim.

** See? No spoilers. It's just not that hard.

Brian After Midnight...
... which means that this isn't a double-post, technically speaking.

There's been some interesting news on that _London after Midnight_ story. I have to admit, after reading the guy's account of his discovery, I strongly suspected that it was a hoax. I've seen similar stories that were merely trolls for attention, and the guy's account seemed, well, not right to me.

But over at _Ain't it Cool_, Harry Knowles passes along some information that should be of very special interest to Webderlanders (http://www.aintitcool.com/node/37614). According to Knowles's correspondent, the guy dropped the name of Erik Nelson's personal assistant in his narrative. Knowles's correspondent claims to have run the article past her and, he claims, she vouched for the details and said the guy's a stand-up guy.

So: either this is a hoax, and it's dragged in the names of some people known to some of us, or it's genuine, and we can have a thrill from being tangentially connected to the rediscovery of a long-lost Lon Chaney film.

I _hope_ it's good news in the end.

Bush in New Zealand
Diane:
Please don't wish for Bush to be sent to New Zealand. It's a really great place full of really nice people -- went there in '06 on one of the best vacations ever.

It would resemble Mordor if he went there.

Hey, in that discussion of Worst Presidents Ever, why didn't HIS name come up? Gets my vote.
Along with that N**** guy whom I'm not allowed to mention. And don't give me that China crap about him. When he finally passed away, I did not join in with the "oh he wasn't so bad" brigade. I said: "Good Riddance."

Harlan: Yoo Da Man!
I've said it before, I'll say it again: Thank you! I have conveyed your solution to the guy, but have not heard a response yet. Naturally, I will keep you apprised of any and all developments. I keep telling people you are not only a sweetheart, but the repository of all and sometimes even useful knowledge. Do they take my word for it? Well, in this case, we shall see...

By the way - I was skimming the acknowledgements in the 50-year Essential Ellison, and, well, thanks for the props.

Love,
Doc

Susan,
Glad to be of help. When I get confirmation from Marco perhaps I will explain it to all here and extend the offer. Not that I doubt your shipping abilities in the least, mind you, I have benefitted from them first hand. Just want to ensure that the whole process worked.

Sue,
For the heck of it I also did a search for a sculptor named Musick. Might that D be a P? There is a Pat Musick who sculpts in steel and bronze among other types of art. She is in Vermont. This site gives contact info, send her the pix and see what she says. If you are interested, that is. Like I said I just searched for the heck of it. Seems to be an interesting lady, Masters degree in Design and a Doctorate in Philosophy.

http://www.carvingstudio.org/artists/Members/Pat_Musick/pat_musick.htm

A good day to all here. You locals get down to the OC fair and eat something on a stick! This year's theme is cheese. Yum.

http://www.gke.on.ca/ripeanuts/front.htm

DIANE BARTELS

I agree with you. Money is just money, but my STUFF is precious. Don't mess with my stuff.

Years ago, my brother tore the front cover of one of my comic books. He did it deliberately, and right in front of me while staring at me. What he did showed me just how evil a person could be. I shall never forgive him.

Hi, Cindy, Paul and all Lone Star staters, glad to hear all is well for you. Hope all continues so. Harlan, glad tests are all done. Hoping and Praying all comes back betterer than great. Frank, yes. Just yes to everything you said, specially the education. That is usually my response to your comments, yes, yes, yes. I cannot wait till Mr. Bush goes away. Maybe he can be persuaded to move to New Zealand or somewhere. Though why I want to pick on those poor folks, I know not. Harlan, here's a quirky story from long ago, that I'm just getting ready to share with you all. Years ago, my baby brother worked as a security guard at McCormick Place. There was a convention there in the late 90's of which you were a guest. A bad evil photographer was there trying to snap you, but mostly just harassing you. This was someone with whom you had had disputes before and he was supposed to leave you alone. So you got mad, and my brother said you were ready to dust the guy. Matt intervened, (not that you needed the help by a long shot but it was Matt's job) and the guy departed. Years later, Matt had a lot of time on his hands, and I lent him my copy of Web of the City. He wants me to tell you he read it 4 times in a row, and loved the book. He's not a big reader usually but he loved that book. I've been trying to get him to read more of you, but as he lost my copy of Web, I'm having the worstest time gaining the courage to lend him more books. I'm possessive about my books. Lend anyone money in a drop of the hat. But don't look at my books. Or my knick-knacks. Or my stuffed animals and dollies. 'Member, I'm only 16? I'm such a terrible liar. lol. Anyway, be well and happy Harlan and Susan and all.

Hi, Cindy, Paul and all Lone Star staters, glad to hear all is well for you. Hope all continues so. Harlan, glad tests are all done. Hoping and Praying all comes back betterer than great. Frank, yes. Just yes to everything you said, specially the education. That is usually my response to your comments, yes, yes, yes. I cannot wait till Mr. Bush goes away. Maybe he can be persuaded to move to New Zealand or somewhere. Though why I want to pick on those poor folks, I know not. Harlan, here's a quirky story from long ago, that I'm just getting ready to share with you all. Years ago, my baby brother worked as a security guard at McCormick Place. There was a convention there in the late 90's of which you were a guest. A bad evil photographer was there trying to snap you, but mostly just harassing you. This was someone with whom you had had disputes before and he was supposed to leave you alone. So you got mad, and my brother said you were ready to dust the guy. Matt intervened, (not that you needed the help by a long shot but it was Matt's job) and the guy departed. Years later, Matt had a lot of time on his hands, and I lent him my copy of Web of the City. He wants me to tell you he read it 4 times in a row, and loved the book. He's not a big reader usually but he loved that book. I've been trying to get him to read more of you, but as he lost my copy of Web, I'm having the worstest time gaining the courage to lend him more books. I'm possessive about my books. Lend anyone money in a drop of the hat. But don't look at my books. Or my knick-knacks. Or my stuffed animals and dollies. 'Member, I'm only 16? I'm such a terrible liar. lol. Anyway, be well and happy Harlan and Susan and all.

KEITH CRAMER - A belated thank you for the extravagant purchase. Cris said it's in the mail today and apologizes for the delay.
__________________________________

SUE - I would suggest, since you've now discounted Unca Harlan from the list of usual suspects, that you start pursuing "D. Musick" as your likely artist. I wasn't able to come up with any leads in a cursory glance of the internet, but that's probably your best bet.
__________________________________

BRIAN PHILLIPS - Always up for a how-dee-do. Lemme know when your details get solidified and we'll see if we can scare up a few other locals to meet up.

(I'm kind of wondering, mind you, how I adopted the role of Social Director around here...)
___________________________________

Pics of the Morans are still up on my site -- a bit of a relief since I kind of posted them before James gave me the official okay.
___________________________________

Lastly, and officially: To echo what was said below about debates, topics and other conversations -- the Forums (see link above) allow for multiple daily postings, rants, raves and even a SPOILER or two.

We have politics; religion; social debates; movie talk; tv talk; artistic comments; book reviews; personal updates and wellwishing; a wonderful section dedicated to Ellison literary analyses hosted by our trusty co-Mod JAN; and a whole assortment of peachy-keen topics for your enjoyment.

Yer 'nvited.

Whawhawhawha?
Frank,

I like A FEW GOOD MEN quite a bit -- saw it on Broadway with Ron Perlman as Jessup, and predicted right then and there that it would eventually be made into a movie with Cruise and Nicholson -- but that speech the "best" anti-war scene in movie history? Really?

Not the last shot of Peter Weir's GALLIPOLI?

Not the self-serving General ordering his soldiers on a hopeless mission for his own advancement in PATHS OF GLORY?

Not the Vietnamese village bombed to shit in in APOCALYPSE NOW?

Not the incursion in the otherwise gamey PLATOON?

Not the German soldiers dying in the snow, in the little-seen but appallingly horrific STALINGRAD?

Not the screaming child, holding her hands to her ears in a vain attempt to block out the sound of bombs in THE KILLING FIELDS?

Not the sweaty, terrified, miserable cast of DAS BOOT?

Not the little girl in the red dress, wandering through the Liquidation of her town, in SCHINDLER'S LIST?

Not Woody Harrelson screaming in agony as he waits to die in THE THIN RED LINE?

Not Henry Fonda as a U.S. President giving a certain order at the end of FAIL-SAFE?

Hell, anti-war scenes have excelled even in movies that were not specifically about war. I remember Blondie and Tuco blowing up the bridge two sides have been fighting over, to force the armies elsewhere in THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY.

And I edited the SHIT out of this post to minimize the spoilers even though none of these films are new; but some of these movies have up to half a dozen scenes that work as well as, or as it happens, better than the ones I cited.

That scene in A FEW GOOD MEN is just Jack Nicholson talking.

Cindy, yea, like these fucks aint boring. You know they need me to spice the curry. Wink.

We need a stealth hurricane to rid us of Bush's fake ranch.

Ya'll.

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

The best anti-war scene in movie history is that A Few Good Men rant by Jack Nicholson, the "you can't handle the truth" stuff. We want the McCain's of the world on the wall to serve some noble bs we convince ourselves of, then we refuse to understand the actual horror of war or what violence does to a human body, or that awful smell. Yea, we can't handle the truth, because the truth is we are all as guilty as that crazy Colonel.

I took K.M. Kirby's reaction to the pictures of the sculpture to be a jocular reference to "The Screaming Mimi" by Fredric Brown and/or the movie adaptation of the novel. Was I off base?

Steve J.

Hi Peg and Paul,
All's well here. We got a good soaking so far. Looks like we might get a little more. We were nearly in a drought and hurtin'. When you raise range fed cattle you rely on the rain, so nothin' but gratitude here.

Hope all's well with the both of you.

Thanks for the shout out.
:)
Y'all's pal,
Cindy


Harlan,
I am very glad you tended to business doctor-wise. May the results be so heartening that you can celebrating with barbecue guilt-free.

:)
Cindy


Frankie,
I found that a while back you said somethin' about my potential candidate of choice. If you're still interested in what I think I'll send you a message on the flipside board. I don't want to bore the peeps.
;)
Cindy

Re: Necro Waiters & Dayton Dragons
Harlan: You're welcome.

Tim

day late and a dollar short but...
To my (dated) knowledge, there used to be certain circumstances under which you could withdraw 401(k) funds without penalties, but if I recall you had to replace the money within a year. Which, to me, seemed to defeat the point (I mean, who temporarily needs that kinda cash!).

Nonetheless, I see you've decided to roll it over and that truly is the best option unless you're in dire circumstance.

cheers
Peg

Oh, LOFTUS:

Leave Trav Yoder alone. He's done as best he can with self-abnegation. The man is a Good Soul, but clearly has some issues with abject crawling. So leave him be. We're all learning these lessons in good neighborliness slowly, but steadily.

Harlan

DOC:

Call my pal Tim Williams at Sue Procko Public Relations in Hollywood. Tell him you are my bud; and ask him either to give you a good liaison name at Anchor Bay, or have him call said contact at Anchor Bay, and have that person get to you or, better still, the person who has that copy of the legendary "lost" Chaney film!

Miracle accomplished. You came to the right guy.

Harlan

KEVIN KIRBY:

Do you recognize something I don't--that statue-wise--or was that just you dropping by to make me crazy? If the former, please wise me up. If the latter, I'm gonna sic your old man on you! I am still your sorta godfather, do not forget.

Harlan

uSUE in CHICAGO:

I don't think I've ever seen that piece in my life.

For CERTAIN--as I do not have the skill to sculpt--it was not made by me. No which way.

And even though I sold many possessions when I left Evanston in 1960-61 to return to New York, that sculpture wasn't one of them. It is totally unknown to me, though I have searched my memory assiduously.

I fear your father may have been fabricating my involvement with the piece, or he just misremembered. But whatever, I am not attached to this story in any way.

Sorry.

Harlan Ellison

TIM CASE WALKER: Yes, it did. Thank you. I've been rather overwhelmingly otherwise-concerned of late, and let the thankyou slide. But, it got here, as I said, and--thank you.

Harlan

I appreciate all the info about cashing in a 401 K and the penalties you all mentioned are much higher than I expected. I have an additional 401 K from a previous job I worked 23 plus years and I will be moving the funds from my account I started at Citicorp into that one. It certainly makes a lot more sense. Thanks for all the info, I appreciate it greatly.

Doc

Looks like you've already got some hotshots on the case, but your friend might want to contact the UCLA film archives for advise and counsel, restring and preserving old nitrate prints is what they're all about.

http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/about/aboutus.html

MM

Heading to CA July 30-Aug 8th.
Actually, I will be leaving the 9th, but that is solely a travel day.

I'll have to see what my schedule will be, for the bulk of this time will be in San Diego (Aiee.).

Will anyone have any time for a how-do?

Doc, looks like Harry Knowles over at Ain't It Cool News has taken up the cause with this posting:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/37599

Trust me, I know Harry and he will make it a personal mission to ensure the preservation of this film.

Roger, I would follow Alan's advice and talk with a tax expert. If you withdraw the funds, you will pay your normal federal income tax (usually around 25-28%depending on your income level), possibly some state taxes, and a 10% penalty. Unless your situation is dire, lets say you are divorcing and facing humongozoid legal bills, I would refrain from this option

Yoder-lay-he-whooo


TRAVIS:

I am sorry sir, but to employ sarcasm as a default mode of communication is, almost inevitably -- nay, even by definition -- to use it as a defense mechanism.

Sarcasm, like pepper, is a strong condiment. It should be used sparingly.

To Doc, re London After Midnight
Assuming your friend ain't pulling our legs, tell him that film restoration expert Robert Harris is an active participant at the Home Theater Forum (http://www.hometheaterforum.com), and that dropping him a line over there might get him some good information. Harris is the man who restored _Lawrence of Arabia_, _My Fair Lady_, _Vertigo_, and most recently, the first two _Godfather_ films. If there's something to this story, then he'd be a good resource.

For what it's worth: I have no spoilers at all to share with anyone.

Travis,

To everything there is a season.

D.

Thanks, Harlan
HARLAN: Long-time lurker here, de-lurking to say: Thanks for taking the time to call me last night (UK time) and for remembering our previous meetings! Much appreciated.
I'm glad we were able to progress that little bit of business. A Titan Books Editor will call Susan tonight (again, pesky UK time!) to sort out the contract details. Hopefully all can be done before your meeting with Paul Levitz next week.
Once again, thanks for your time Harlan!
Best Wishes and Good Health!
BJR

Dear Unca Harlan -
You are Wise. You know people who Know People. You are a guy what Gets Things Done. Also, you're a classic film buff, to say nothing of your being a mensch. Then there's the matter of your beautiful singing voice, which doesn't really apply here, but deserves mention. Here is the difficulty, about which I wish to consult the Great & Powerful:

A fellow I know says he has found a print of a lost silent classic film: LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT, starring Lon Chaney. Apparently, it was tucked away in storage under its UK release title, THE HYPNOTIST. His backstory on the find can be found (and eventually read) here: http://thehorrordrunx.yuku.com/topic/753 , and naturally any other Webderlanders are welcome to peruse and suggest. His trouble is, he's having a whee of a time getting anyone who can do anything about getting it out to the public to get it out to the, erm, public. Before the print succumbs to its own nitrate-stock self.

Any ideas?

Moochas Smoochas,
Doc

PS - Glad your ticker is still ticking; regards to the lovely and elfin Missus...

My twentieth post here
Boys, I’m disappointed in a couple of you. Clearly, my glib rib-knuckling, which was written grinningly, was received sneeringly. I regret this. Text does not always convey tone well.

I will maintain, however, that using the hammer of sarcasm to pound the nail of overreaction to my minor misstep has merit. And so, accordingly, I fully expected and appreciated sarcasm in response, to wit:

- Wilson was right on board. Good one, Sam.

- Wyatt missed my tone, but he responded with a clever dig. Well done, Rick.

- Troy-Castro delivered a veritable system of catalogical sarcasm worthy of H.E. himself. Bravo, Maestro.

- Keith, I have observed the fans you describe. They can be a burden. I am not one of them. I do relish a venue in which to trade a brand and degree of caustic humor considered inappropriate elsewhere. (Like the cube neighbors in my office, one Lebanese, the other Jewish, who affectionately refer to each other as “Crazy Arab” and “Greedy Jew”—the harsher they are to each other, the more they laugh together.) I mean, my word, if we don’t enjoy caustic humor, how could we be Harlan Ellison fans?!

I’m fine with being corrected, and I accept justified criticism. I don’t think I have a problem, but you’re free to think so. I don’t use sarcasm as a defense; I use it as a default mode of communication. I thought we all did here. Was I wrong?

- Duane, that was good advice. Thanks.

- Harlan, I stand (well, sit, really) corrected. And I hope those mechanics keep your engine purring for a long time.

Jesus, look how serious I’ve been for several entire paragraphs! I gotta go find Crazy Arab and Greedy Jew and see if Evil WASP can play.

Peace, friends, peace.

GADFLYFUCK,
T.Y.

There's a storm coming.......

Several e-mails and thoughts of safety wending their way here. Thank you all for your concern, i believe we'll be fine. One of the positive things about living in almost-central Texas is that EVERYTHING, weather included, has a few hundred miles to go to get here. The rains will be coming, but we're still holding for predictions of 80 to 90 degrees. We can use the water (and how!) and the lightning will help short out all those angry negative ions in the air that terminal heat seems to produce.
Where I come from, rains are supposed to cool things down. Here, however, it just seems to make everything steamy. Of course, after record breaking weeks in the triple digits, temps in the 90's with t-storms sounds like a fine cold front to me.
Cindy, I guess you're alright as well; you may even get some of our leftovers. Peg, just keep us in the loop if this sucker turns round.
===============

DARK KNIGHT. I went in hoping it would be so much better than BATMAN BEGINS... and i was rewarded.
You have heard no hyperbole, anywhere. This is good stuff. Also excited as hell about WATCHMEN. But that's also just my childhood talking.
===============

Estelle Getty. It is no reflection upon my culture and masculinity to admit that i never really watched The Golden Girls, but when i did see it, I laughed.
That's all I have in way of tribute. Rest in peace.

aieeee


it's the statue!

HARLAN - Nitro works wonders, but the side effects can be unsettling. I prescribe rest, warm fuzzies, and a lovely wife named Susan.

***

Steve B. - Here's hoping the new position lasts long enough to get you the one you really want.

***

Roger - Keeping fingers crossed.



shagin

ROGER GJOVIG

Consult a tax expert. In addition to having to pay tax on the money AND there is likely a 10% additional penalty. (I read an article about this.)

It may be financially a Best Idea to simply move it to another investment option, which I believe can be done when leaving a company. One should always try to avoid messing with retirement money.

"Your 401(k) plan is an important part of your retirement portfolio. If you follow this misguided advice and are under 59 1/2 years of age, you will be taxed on the distribution at your ordinary income rate, and you will be assessed a 10% penalty. In addition, you will decimate your retirement nest egg."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-solin/smart-advice-for-the-huff_b_114386.html

This guy recommends "low cost index funds". I am not a financial couselor, but his article seems to make sense.

Thanks Mark, it is great to be back in the land of the employed.I actually have one more paycheck coming from citi and also a large severance check as well as deciding what to do what the 2 and 1/2 years of money I put into a 401 K account.I suspect I am going to cash that in since I will be making less than what I was earning before even though I know I will need to pay tax on it since it was a tax deferred account.
The X Files movie starts this weekend, I hope it is a good one.

When did a "Career" stop being a career?
Steve:
I'm saddened to hear about your "reduction in force." I liked it better when "RIF" meant "Reading is fundamental."

Best hopes for you.

statue follow up with link to photos
Thank you for helping me clear this up. I have taken picture and posted them here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76067457@N00/sets/72157606338620031/

The specifics:

I think it is bronze, cast with the lost wax technique. At least this is what I was told by my Dad along with the "made by Harlan Ellison" myth.
It is 14 inches high at it's tallest point, and 12 inches wide. I could not get a weight with a bathroom scale, I am guessing at least ten pounds. All in all it's not too big. Bigger that a chotchsky, smaller than a monument.

I was not looking to sell it, I was just curious if there was any truth to the the much passed on story. I am rather fond of it regardless of the origins. However if you do recognize it as something you once owned and want it back, I would happily send it along for the price of shipping. Assuming it's not a lost masterpiece that would be the cornerstone of my retirement fund, and that my sister (who also is fond of it) does not mind.

I feel I should clarify that my father is not dead, just no longer a part of my life. Also the type of person to alter the facts of a story to make it more interesting, and to then totally believe the new version from then on. Or until something better occurs to him.

Thanks again!

I do know that Alexander Hamilton did not trust the people, he thought they were a "great beast," because they tend to make decisions different than the "special class of men."

Don't need or want specialized classes running my life. Better to just be my own god and live with that. hehe.

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

Diane, central authority limits my ability to be free. We need temporary authority to dismantle the capitalist state, but that's a long ways off.

The people would have to be lots smarter than they are now. Education is so vital in this regard, especially education that shows people how to think for themselves. Most education in America and elsewhere tends to be about control. Making people either slaves or good consumers and shoppers, and pliable workers.

Book Book
Posted ten more books last night, and even more are going up today.

They are selling like Haggis on Burns' Birthday, so get there if you want one:

http://stores.ebay.com/Amparion-Gallery_Harlans-Books_W0QQcolZ2QQdirZ1QQfsubZ16QQftidZ2QQtZkm

If anyone is gonna be at Comic Con tomorrow, Gary Lee and I will be wandering the halls in a mutual daze most of the day, searching for an authentic Green Lantern Power Ring and/or a Forbidden Planet Krell Action Figure.

The Late Soviet Union, not to mention the bizarrely misnamed Peoples Republic of China had/have about as much to do with "bottom-up" socialist democracy as I do with Angela Jolie (though like me and La Jolie, they both desperately wanted/want to be identified with what they were never going to be themselves. (Wait, did I just imply I want to "be" Angelina Jolie? Hmmmm...)

That leaves aside the fact that every democracy in history has eventually committed suicide. That's why our constitution was originally written to set up a republic, and when asked, most members of the Convention that wrote said constitution explicitly stated they had NOT created a "democracy".

Subsequent generations have changed that, and the experiment to see if we are the first democracy to not commit suicide is well underway. I might say "The skids are greased.", but that would betray a prejudice, oops.

Good luck with that.

"For Forms of Government let fools contest; whatever is best administered is best."

Alexander Pope

Of course,e he also wrote:
"
"A person who is too nice an observer of the business of the crowd, like one who is too curious in observing the labor of bees, will often be stung for his curiosity."

Been there, stung like the Dickens.

KOS

For Tom and Marco:

Marco's package was sent out today.

Thanks--Susan

Harlan,

Although you did not state so explicitly, I shall assume/hope that everything turned out OK at the cardiologist appointment. Now if you could just do something about that insomnia...

Saw The Dark Knight last night and loved it. My review is posted over in the forums and is essentially spoiler free. If you have not seen the film, I would strongly encourage you to do so, it is well worth the investment

Mark

The FBI
The above named organization is having an open house in my office building today. Started yesterday, in fact. All sorts of exhibits about how they're protecting us 24/7, what a wise decision it would be to become an agent, etc. Not a word about what they did to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jean Seberg, and God only knows how many others.

It ain't Efram Zimbalist, Jr.

"They used Carotid doppler scan. They used full CT scan. They used centrifuge full-body scan. They used probes. They used applied physics. They used Raoul Mitgong, but he didn't help much.

And what the hell: they diagnosed him."

--From "Repent, Harlan, Said the Tickerdoctor"

Re: Dayton Dragons

Harlan, sir: Did the T-shirt arrive in one piece?

Dreams With Sharp Teeth----- UPDATE of sorts
I have netflicks and it is FINALLY avaialable to save in your Queue (once you register and are set up) and it lists the release date as (2008) though an official release date is unknown at this time

(For whatever stupid reason, none of the five seasons of the excellant series, Closed Case, are available either- though again, you can save them in your Queue and they will notify you as soon as it's available- in fact they will drop it into your list of films automatically once it IS ready and then you can have it shipped to your mailbox at your convenience.
BUT until it IS available....all you can do is wait)

I'll probably be able to see season 2 of Dexter before anything else is available....sigh

Pictures! We Got Pictures! (And for a small fee, paid in small...

At last. Photographic evidence that the mythical James Moran and Jodie Kearns were seen in the Los Angeles area last week. Despite rumors (rumours?) that the entire event was dreamed up by publicity hounds at the CM Run Talent Agency, there is proof.

www.barbergallery.net

Click on the FoE (Friends of Ellison)link on the lower left of the menu bar.

Paul: it was a pretty poor stab at wit, and I should know. But it also was a parody, and aside from the misspelling of the Colonel's surname, I stand by my stab.

Went back to the cardiologist yesterday, as I promised y'all I would. Carotid doppler scan. Full CT scan. Centrifuge full-body scan. (I'm sure I'm getting these nomenclature wrong.)(Nonetheless...)

Nitro under the tongue made me unsteady. Noise level in the Brighton Coffee Shop thereafter made me even unsteadier. Came home, went to bed. Woke at 4am, sat here dazedly, now about 6ish, going back to sleep.

Mr. Yoder: that's the rule here. There aren't many, but them as are...ARE. We have many other threads hereabouts if you require them.

Harlan

well hello, Dolly!
Things are fine in Houston, just heavy thunderstorms. Think the rest of the Texas contingent should be fine but folks like Cindy and Paul may be in for some hellacious storms. Dolly makes landfall far south of them but if it chooses to go north it may pass through their neck of the woods after it's weakened.

Y'all check in now, ya here?

(yes, Paul just posted but later, after the hellacious rains, ok?)

I may or may not know a good or bad rhetorical stab at wit, but I feel certain it was Col Nathan Jessep, not Harlan Jessup. Hellboy is rolling over in his Linda Hamilton, even as we speak.

Hi, all. Been away for a bit. Just a lot of stuff. My flying fickle, fated fingers are skimming over the keys making double erroneous strokes to correct ones. Never claimed I was a typist, she giggled diabolically. Harlan, hope all tests go well and you are fit as a fiddle and fine as fudge. (Love alliteration. You?)Alan Coil, I believe many community colleges as well as four years teach remedial reading courses in which comprehension is stressed. But in the exact instances with which I am familiar, they call them by other nomenclature, like adult basic skills, pre GED skills, etc., etc. And do I know what a rhetorical question is? You bet, though moi can probably not spell it. It's like Alan, art thou mad? Yes I know a said question when i hears one. Is the bear Catholic? Does our Holy Father perform his duty in the woods? Well that one is two, three Rosary decades. Anyway, cats are cool and dogs are cool. Have had both and loved both. Don't know which are smarter, just know that all the cats and dogs I've known have been way smarter, cooler, nicer and more loving than the majority of people I know. Present company excepted and excluded, but of course. My dear aunt Betty is staying with me. She is my mom's sis, and has brought great joy to my house and life. We've been traveling down memory lane. Can't for the life of me think how to spell reminicing???
Glad you are back, Rick. Harlan, I will not nag you or rag you. On the 3rd, I blew off my orthopod, and my rehab doctor. and I needed to see them both for Xrays and meds. But they ain't going nowhere and I ain't going nowhere and I just was not up to downtown on the pre Fourth. I've been good takin my meds and I have dumped fast food, and I'm trying with sweets and I haven't eaten meat in years, so my little old heart has to do its job too and pull its own. The book I mentioned here last post is by Stephanie Meyer, "The Host". I have discovered that she has written several and I look forward to same. Shan't see the Dark Knight flick, as I have never ever gotten the Batman thing. Sorry to all fans. And I am closing on a serious or at least thoughtful note. Hey, Mr. Churh, (guess I am in a formal mood), do you not advocate any central authority? Do you not fear the dissension and confusion that a government of worker's council's would bring to a nation of this size? Years ago, (yes as I am just 16 now, I was 3 at the time) I read the Federalist Papers. Must say I understood precious little of it. But this seemed to be the debate, except both sides of that issue agreed on some kind of central governing power, the disagreement stemming from its power and powers. I think a true council type government can only succeed in a small tribal type culture. Otherwise it seems to break down of necessity as the culture or nation grows. This seems to be what happened in the USSR and in China. In view of that, a truly representative democratic republic, (such as ours is not at this time, in my view) seems the both the fairest to the greatest number and the most efficient. She shrugs her shoulders, to indicate her lack of certainty and openness to be convinced otherwise. I fear I have been reading our Patron much to much. Well, just thought I'd pop in and aver that gravity is still with us, though I am not grave tonite and I did not fall off our planet. Be well, Harlan. My positive thoughts come your way. Diane

Harlan booksale
We're selling some books for Harlan. The first ten are up at my eBay store:

http://stores.ebay.com/Amparion-Gallery_Harlans-Books_W0QQcolZ2QQdirZ1QQfsubZ16QQftidZ2QQtZkm

We'll be adding lots more of the new books over the next few days, so check back for new titles. I'll post updates here as well.

Here's what's newly listed:

Blasphemy - Douglas Preston

Iron Angel - Alan Campbell

Derailed - James Siegel

Sabriel - Garth Nix

The Wheel of Darkness - Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

Still Waters - Nigel McCrery

Havemercy - Danielle Bennett, Jaida Jones

The Magicians and Mrs. Quent - Galen Beckett

Kushiel's Mercy - Jacqueline Carey

The Bourne Sanction - Eric Van Lustbader, Robert Ludlum

If you buy more than one book, it's just $1.00 additional shipping for each additional book after the first purchase (when shipped together).

Harlan thanks you!

KOS

Rick, lots of yummy tummy kisses for you buddy. You do do a thankless job here.

Welcome back snuggle bunny.

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

Mayhew, I am an anarchist/libertarian socialist. All forms of authority have to prove that they are legitimate, which most cannot, and if they cannot, they must be dismantled, replaced with people's centered democratic order--workers councils and that lot.

We are fun at parties as well.

Even parental authority is subject to our roving eye.

We take democracy verrry seriously. And we are paranoid, but in a good way.

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

CNN kept harping about the Dark Knight. No surprise, since Warners owns CNN.

Memories of Evanston
.
Harlan:

This just might be trivia too trivial to remember...but do you recall exactly where in Evanston that you lived and worked during your ROGUE days?

I lived in Evanston in the mid-80s when I was producing TV for WTTW and WLS and thought it was a beautiful little town. (I'm guessing it was even more so twenty years earlier). I have fond memories of schlepping my lawn chair over to the Northwestern campus on summer Sunday afternoons to read by Lake Michigan.

Anyway, I was just curious about your memories of the place and what part of the town was yours. Feel free to ignore this if you're not in a nostalgic mood

Perhaps Travis (or whomever) should consider what I call the "If I said this in front of a line of flesh-and-blood moviegoers on opening night, would I be politely shushed(*)?" test. To NOT subject a statement to such a test simply because "hey, we're online, and we can all just scroll past it, right?" speaks of the passive aggressive nature of, well, a certain class of comics and sf fans. Just sayin'.

(*) Politely shusshed = Giving a member of a certain class of comics / sf fans a much needed lesson in manners. Physically.

I know that community colleges offer classes on remedial reading, but do they also offer classes on REMEDIAL READING COMPREHENSION?

Also, does no one here understand the concept of a rhetorical question?
______________________

Steve,

Hang on to whatever job you can. California may not be as hard hit as the middle of the country, but good jobs are still kinda scarce.
______________________

I, too, read that Batman review. Twaddle.
______________________

I wish this ringing in my ear would go away.

Dear Travis
So, travis, you wrote: “Could this be one example of why the mainstream culture regards us S.F./comics fans as embarrassing, anal dorks in desperate need of some perspective?”

I don’t read science fiction or comic books anymore, so I can’t be classified as a fan.

But, I don’t like spoilers. I want to see the movie in question, so I choose not to read reviews about it that contain spoilers. For me, a spoiler is any information, besides opinion, about a movie. A spoiler is anything that gives away something, or sets something up, or references something in the movie that isn’t known by someone who hasn’t seen the movie. It can be as trifling as discussion about a pair of cuff-links worn by a character, up to plot points and dialog. See Adam-Troy’s post, earlier, if you’re confused about this. Adam-Troy makes a clear argument, because he’s a good writer.

I _have_ been to several conventions (to see Harlan, of course), and I can tell you what I see a lot of:

I see a lot of self-justified fans blustering and puffing up their chests when called out by their rude behavior, because they cannot take criticism constructively. Their egos are seriously bruised by the slightest hint of a remark that suggests they could be doing something that someone else thinks is wrong.

I think that might be your problem.

Your defense of your “spoiler” behavior speaks volumes. It is the kind of self-justified verbal self-defense practiced by someone being called out for their faux-pas. Someone trying to save face. I’m sure there is a psychological term for it, and if I was smart I’d know what it is, but let’s just call it the “sarcastic” defense:

TY: “Y’all’re kidding, right? I refer to one small element of the 150-minute THE DARK KNIGHT in the vaguest terms, certainly mentioning FAR less than the most scrupulous movie critic would in a review--which I took as a time-honored and widely accepted guide--and some of us piss ourselves?”

TY: “Wow.”

TY: “Could this be one example of why the mainstream culture regards us S.F./comics fans as embarrassing, anal dorks in desperate need of some perspective?”

TY: “Here’re some spoilers to churn your guts: ‘Batman’ makes SEVERAL decisions in this film, being that’s he’s by disposition such a highly decisive guy.”

TY: “Huh?! Didn’t see that coming, did ya? Once, he even decides to go swimming. UH-OH!!!!”

TY: “Fear no more. Since we’re feeling so sensitive, I will forthwith forefend from discussing any conceivable aspect of any much-anticipated adaptation. A pity we know who the director, writers and actors are beforehand, as their previous output gives us strong clues as to the sensibility of this crime drama. (OOPS! I said “crime drama”--SORRY!!!)

TY: Wait, here’s one more: ‘Tyler Durden’ is a sled. (Oh, no, he didn’t!!!!)

Travis, take a look inside yourself, and if you find any of the above quoted text worthy of your intellect, let me know and I’ll revise my opinion of your abilities. Otherwise, I’ll chalk it up to the visceral and emotional reaction it likely is.

Take care.

-Keith

There's too much irony, Cap...I'm going to need a bigger knife.
Well, Travis, I'm glad to see you have so thoroughly dispelled the image of comics fans as oversensitive dorks who get huffy and indignant over the slightest misconception or provocation.

Can we STFU about Batman now? I've already had a couple of major plot elements spoiled. Whether the hints are vague or not, I'd prefer to not be given them. They interfere with the sense of discovery and wonder that are critical to a good movie experience. I've already seen WANTED and HANCOCK, both of which were complete messes and unmitigated pieces of crap, and I'd like to enjoy one good superhero movie this summer.

My eighteenth post here
ON SPOILERS:

Y’all’re kidding, right? I refer to one small element of the 150-minute THE DARK KNIGHT in the vaguest terms, certainly mentioning FAR less than the most scrupulous movie critic would in a review--which I took as a time-honored and widely accepted guide--and some of us piss ourselves?

Wow.

Could this be one example of why the mainstream culture regards us S.F./comics fans as embarrassing, anal dorks in desperate need of some perspective?

Here’re some spoilers to churn your guts: ‘Batman’ makes SEVERAL decisions in this film, being that’s he’s by disposition such a highly decisive guy.

Huh?! Didn’t see that coming, did ya? Once, he even decides to go swimming. UH-OH!!!!

Fear no more. Since we’re feeling so sensitive, I will forthwith forefend from discussing any conceivable aspect of any much-anticipated adaptation. A pity we know who the director, writers and actors are beforehand, as their previous output gives us strong clues as to the sensibility of this crime drama. (OOPS! I said “crime drama”--SORRY!!!)

Wait, here’s one more: ‘Tyler Durden’ is a sled. (Oh, no, he didn’t!!!!)

BATMITEFUCK,
T.Y.

First, Roger, congrats on the new job, that is truly great news.

Steve, as I have already told you, my condolences on the lousy job situation. Been there, done that, and it ain't no fun, but I have every confidence that you will find a much better opportunity shortly.

I am heading to the Imax tonight to see the Dark Knight and I canot wait. This is the one movie I have been dying to see this summer and I am pretty certain it will not disappoint. Expect to see my review of the film in the Forums tomorrow

Mark

Ch-ch-ch-changes.

I was called yesterday by my boss to inform me that I am being riffed, a full three months after flying out the door at my previous employer. Fortunately, I guess, he is moving me to another department I really don't want to work for, but it will keep the puppies in kibble until I find something more interesting.

2008. A year FUBAR for us all.
_______________________________________

Left Field Comment: I am reveling in Nina Simone's "Sinnerman", Eddie Izzard's take on "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" (Class A funny and incredibly whimsical rendition) and Al Jarreau's extended live version of "Take 5" (whereupon he descends into a vocal riff that, God help me, sounds like the scene from LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS where Seymour electrocutes Audrey II).
_______________________________________

When he was still on active duty, Dad ate people like Colonel Jessup for lunch. With fava beans.
_______________________________________

To echo all of the comments below regarding SPOILERS.

As Jan noted: There is a very specific thread set up on the Forums to allow for those of you who have to talk about films an opportunity to get your rocks off *outside* of our patron's purview.

If Harlan starts the conversation, feel free to join in -- but doing otherwise is tantamount to "dancing with the Devil in the pale moonlight".

Seriously.

Yo.
I'm seeing THE DARK KNIGHT on friday. I wasn't very impressed by BATMAN BEGINS, so I hope this one will live up to the expectations. I'm a big Batman fan, and since ol Harvey Dent is a childhood favorite, I'm looking forward to see how Aaron Eckhhart does in that part.

/Anton.

Re: THE SPIRIT
The reason I'm looking forward to Miller's take on THE SPIRIT is that it has to be better than when I wasted two hours on that dreadful TV pilot from several years ago.

The current writers of The Spirit comic are Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier. I have been a fan of their work since I spotted their Groo comic at my local comic book store a long time ago, and have been following their work ever since.Very funny stuff.
Good news on the job front, I was offered a job which I accepted just yesterday. Woo hoo! I start Monday.

Most amusing bit of news today: The German population - known for being very constant - has shrunk by a whopping 1,5 percent overnight because of miscalculations in the 80s and 90s. A reminder how unreliable official statstics are. East Germans were last counted in 1981.

Guys, perhaps we should all generally talk about new movies in the Pop Culture forum Rick created for us. If someone starts over here, somebody will always come along who doesn't know the rules. Harlan is not the only one who's annoyed by this. The Europeans here often only get to see American movies a few weeks later as well.

The last truly marvellous film I saw: CASSANDRA'S DREAM by Woody Allen. Haven't seen one positive review anywhere, but that happens to a lot of his films.

Rick: Welcome "back" (or should I say goodbye)! Can we look forward to a little report - which places you enjoyed etc.? And how come you photographed James in the tube?

Our Master's Voice....
...as quoted in the NY Daily News.....

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2008/07/22/2008-07-22_one_dark_summer_at_the_box_office.html

Mr Wyatt, sir, given the recent acknowledgment of your skills and fulsome praise for your work by our fearless host I suppose now would be the time to ask for that raise, huh?



RE: THE SPIRIT
I was in the wonderful BIG PLANET COMICS store in Bethesda, MD over the weekend and the manager told me that he has had young folk come into the store inquiring after THE SPIRIT comics and being disappointed in finding out the art lacks the "SIN CITY" look. Of course the mind reels at this but how many of these clueless ones even know who Will Eisner is anyway? For that matter how many Spidey fans know who Steve Ditko is?

Kos,

I just read Mr. Westfahl's review (and I would never have bothered to read it had you not pointed it out).

What a poltroon!

First, he misreads one structural metaphor and spends a whole paragraph on his misreading, and then he completely misreads the plot point you mention.

This tendency for sloppiness and fulmination is hardly something new in Mr. Westfahl's writing, but I did find this an amusing example.

Thanks,

Steve Dooner

Westfahl!
Gary Westfahl writes a review of "The Dark Knight" for Locus Online (Don't go read it if you want to remain tabula rasa for the film, as it is one big spoiler and you are warned).

Towards the end of the nearly interminable and turgid review, Westfahl thumps his chest a bit:

"Indeed, why should I waste an entire weekend seeing a film twice, taking extensive notes, and laboring for hours and hours to generate a lengthy exegesis when I might emulate other reviewers and get by with a few breezy paragraphs about great acting, a lousy script, and good special effects? The answer is that, whatever my flaws might be, I am always obsessed with doing the best possible job at whatever I undertake — the one quality I share with the protagonists of this film."

So he sees the film twice. With notes taken! Twice, WITH EXTENSIVE NOTES.

I just saw the film earlier tonight. Westfahl is amusing in his inability to "get it", so what the hell, I read his review after returning home from the theatre. Cheap thrills, dirt cheap.

Now, I didn't pay THAT much attention to the plot. Just my usual "Ain't this fun!" sort of attention.

But I -DID- catch the plot point that Westfahl makes a BIG DEAL about in his review. A Big Deal in which Westfahl get's it complete "back asswards" wrong. I mean all the way, balls to the wall WRONG-O! A complete one-eighty misread. But since it fits with his "thesis" (critic's got to haves themselves a thesis, righty-o?!) he picks up the ball, spins around and runs ninety-nine yards plus change right into his own end zone, spikes the ball and finishes with his chest thumping dance.

You just cannot make this stuff up.

KOS

Oops post...
Welcome back, Rick. My bad for hitting send so quickly...


S.

Excerpt from CRITIC'S KVETCH review of JohnE's "SNOOZING WITH LOOSE DENTURES":

"...JohnE's portrayal of Colonel Harlan Jessup's infamous Dead Gopher Incident has all the appeal of a diaper full of used lima beans. Keanu Reeves' hoped for breakthrough portrayal of Frank Church as McCain's shotgunning friend in the closet was left on the cutting room floor, along with much of Frank's dignity. JohnE failed to capture Harlan's depth of character, glossing over the man's dedicated efforts to artificially sweeten the Equal's Rights Amendment, and the penultimate genius of "SEX AIN'T NOTHING BUT WHAT YOUR DEFINITION OF 'IS' IS". Instead, the self-proclaimed "artiste" wallowed in the spoiler-rich environs of Bruce Banner's quest for gender reassignment, thus re-imagining Marvel Comics' SHE-HULK...."





shagin

WYATT:

Geeeeeezus, man, am I glad you're back. What a shitty job!

-he

To the very best of my capacious recollective abilities, I can assure you I have never dabbled in metal sculpture, though I own much of it by masters. For whatever reasons, if you late father and your uncle said I was the source of the piece you own, I would bet good money they were passing along a tall tale.

When I left Evanston, after editing Rogue and getting divorced in 1959-60, I sold everything in my well-stocked bachelor's duplex. They may have bought such a piece I'd owned, and gotten confused as to the artist.

If you care to take good pictures from many angles, above and below, close and full-size indicated, and I recognize it as an icon from that period, I might want to buy it back. Depending.

Ball, or camera, in your ballpark.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

You wanna know why "One Post per Day"? I'll tell you why - because Wyatt and Harlan run this joint, and because they say so. THAT'S why. In here, as no where else on Earth, they are the Boss of You. If that doesn't sit right with you, well, that's a pity. Rick does the drudge work of making this place happen, and Harlan is the raison for its d'etre. And if "Because I say so, that's why," is good enough for my mommy, it's good enough for the rest of us. So there.

SPOILERS: So simple, even *I* get it - if you talk about (even indirectly, however clever you may perceive yourself to be) something that happens in a movie THAT IS A SPOILER. I haven't managed to escape to a movie house since Rob Zombie's "take" on HALLOWEEN - I missed IRON MAN, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL and KITT KITTERIDGE, but as Jebus is my witness, I'm gonna schlep myself out to see THE DARK KNIGHT, and if anyone here (or anywhere) wrecks it for me, I will personally track you to your lair, weave your nose hairs into your pubes and light them. Are we together on this?

"THE SPIRIT" TRAILER: I saw it. I was, to put it mildly, disappointed. I found it sad-making. It looks like Miller is merely ripping himself off by glomming the style used in SIN CITY (which I enjoyed, thank you). If Eisner is watching from some far-off place, I doubt he'll be pleased. Before anyone jumps in the middle of me, remember: this is my opinion, based on personal taste and the information available. Unless there's a great deal more to the movie than what I saw in that trailer, Miller's THE SPIRIT is going to fellate deceased, absinthe-shaded burrows.

RICK: Welcome home, Big Guy.

HE's artistic abilities
SUE: Given that Harlan can barely draw a straight line, I seriously doubt that he is responsible for your sculpture. In fact, I feel pretty fuckin safe in saying the only thing Harlan ever sculpted was probably either a stack of mashed potatoes or a swirly inside a kohler-fashioned, ceramic "kiln". (Would this keyboard shit you?)

Yours in art-based criticism,
DTS

THE DARK KNIGHT
"The Dark Knight" is BATMAN? Thanks for spoiling the movie for me, you jerks!
If I were selected to nominate for the SAG awards (nominators are chosen by lottery from the paid-up membership) I wouldn't hesitate to put Heath Ledger's name on the ballot.

Anyone know?
Okay this is probably coming from left field, but does anyone her know if Harlan ever dabbled in metal sculpture? I have this bronze statue, that my dad claimed was made by Harlan Ellison and he had bought it from him at a Chicago area Scifi convention in the sixties (or seventies I am not sure). It has always been known to us as the Demon Lovers, but whether this it's title I do not know. My dad is no longer around to ask, and was never the most reliable source. My uncle who was at the convention too has repeated the same tale, but also not so reliable. I have searched the web and have found no evidence that Harlan ever went near a metal sculpture. The sculpture itself does not bear his name, the only thing written on it is the words D Musick scratched onto the bottom. Could it possibly have been made by Harlan or is this another of my dad's tall tales? Any info would be welcome.

WATCHMEN and SPIRIT
Just following up my post yesterday about seeing the trailers for WATCHMEN and THE SPIRIT.

In reading up on who was making these films (Zack "300" Snyder directs WATCHMEN and Frank "the legend" Miller directs THE SPIRIT), I thought it was interesting that both guys said they didn't want to do it because they didn't think there should be movies made of these classics.
But both realized the studios were gonna do it anyway, so they figured they'd be the best ones to try not to screw it up.

So at least they're trying to be faithful to the originals, unlike some hotshot music video guy who'd just try to make them allegedly 'cool' and 'relevant'.

Again, we hope for the best. If they can do DARK KNIGHT well, why not more?

Spoilers
One of the potentially most powerful moments in THE DARK KNIGHT (I mean, other than obvious, mythos-related ones like the arc of Harvey Dent), has already been spoiled for me. It involves something done by a character who appears briefly, and I honestly wish that I could cheer the moment when it occurs; commentary putting parentheses around specific decisions made by Batman amount to spoilers as well. I think Harlan has put this in terms so clear a cinderblock could understand them.

Just in case he has not, here's another go. Lest anybody panic from the following, I say in advance that the SPOILER examples I concoct here are ringers, fictional, as I have not seen the film and am making them up out of my head.

So here are SPOILERS and NON-SPOILERS so you can tell the difference.

First, the NON-SPOILERS.

NON-SPOILER: "The movie sucks."

NON-SPOILER: "It's really good, the best superhero movie ever and a great movie in its own right."

NON-SPOILER: "Heath Ledger is phenomenal."

NON-SPOILER: "Batman is Bruce Wayne."

NON-SPOILER: "The Joker's a bad guy."

NON-SPOILER: "Say goodbye to 'Camp' forever! This is the movie that defines Batman from now on."

See? Not hard.

Here are SPOILERS.

SPOILER: "There's a great twist in the last ten minutes, one that completely changes the usual definition of what Batman is and what he will do in response to a personal tragedy..."

SPOILER: "Watch out for Alfred the Butler! He's the Wild Card!"

SPOILER: "Batman crosses a line that Batman should never cross."

SPOILER: "There's even an old-fashioned deathtrap, one that requires Batman's ingenuity in order to effect an escape."

SPOILER: "The revelation that Joker venom is responsible for making Katie Holmes look like Maggie Gyllenhaal, and the utter failure of the citizens of Gotham to notice, comes as a complete surprise!"

SPOILER: "One of the following characters dies. Commissioner Gordon, Alfred, Lucius Fox. It's not a spoiler because I didn't tell you which one!"

SPOILER: "The destruction of a major Gotham City landmark is a heavy-handed 9/11 allegory."

SPOILER: "Look fast for a hint that Catwoman appears in the next film!"

See? It's not hard!

Hey Travis,

No spoilers means NO SPOILERS! I did not know Batman had any decision to make in The Dark Knght. I do now! Did you HAVE to write this.

My seventeenth post here
ON BRADBURY:

Fans and slans, if you’re in the L.A. area from now to July 29th, I strongly recommend Ray Bradbury’s stage adaptation of his own famous FAHRENHEIT 451 at the Fremont Centre Theatre at 1000 Fremont Avenue in South Pasadena.

Apparently, R.B. has his own stage prod-co, Pandemonium Theatre Company, dedicated to adapting his works to live shows. He revised the tale slightly to beef up the role of ‘Fire Chief Beatty’, adding a significant nuance toward play’s end. The actor playing ‘Beatty’, Michael Prichard is FANTASTIC in the part: glib, perverse, by turns grotesque and tender, psychologically spiraling behind his civil veneer. The rest of the cast is serviceable to good; Prichard’s the one on fire here. His agile modulation of ‘Beatty’s rich monologues really underscore the timelessness of this story. (Found out that Michael Prichard has voiced over 500 audiobooks as well, including many Bradbury works and the entire ‘Travis McGee’ series. Gotta have!)

If you can’t make that, of course, keep your eyes peeled and try to see an F451 production in your area.

By the way, for those in L.A., Bookfellows in Glendale on Brand Boulevard is throwing a birthday party for Bradbury at noon on Saturday, August 23. Gonna try and make it myself.

ON THE DARK KNIGHT:

No spoilers/giveaways here. Found it a truly fine picture whose success in many aspects created minor flaws that may simply be necessary.

A near-NOSTROMO attention to ensemble development that produced invigorating complex character interplay left ‘Bats’ lost in the jumble at times.

Heath Ledger’s phenomenal performance is truly one for the ages; and it makes the strong-but-less-flashy performances of others pale in contrast.

The narrative validity of Batman’s fateful decision at film’s end is questionable to me as it seems to infantilize a citizenry which managed fateful decisions themselves in the previous sequence. However, it was in keeping with Batman’s nature, so perhaps I overquibble.

Overall, I found it a fond extension of the great film noir crime drama tradition of the ‘40s and ‘50s. In those fine films, there always seemed to be a discussion, whether made explicit in dialogue or indicated through incidence, about how to live in this world: (a) behave like a good person and risk being a sucker who loses everything anyway; or (b) look out for #1 contrary to any of society’s rules and risk being outcast, hunted, caged, killed or simply finding oneself psychically alone. THE BIG COMBO, DETOUR, THE HITCH-HIKER and many others rehashed this troubling question in fascinating scenarios. T.D.K. ramps the conversation up from Good vs. Bad to Order vs. Chaos, and perhaps it even requires ‘Batman’ and ‘the Joker’ to do that pas de deux justice.

Similarly, ‘Harvey Dent’s drama regarding the role of chance in one’s personal fate echoes that of film noirs like QUICKSAND and, yes, DETOUR again. So many of those great pictures are largely forgotten today despite shaming modern movies in comparison by having thematic throughlines sturdy as, oh, say, ‘titanium tri-weave fiber’.

ON CATS:

Sorry, H.E., I like cats. Like dogs as well though. I’m good with goldfish and parakeets too.

Know what I can’t stand? Vermicious knids.

Giant sandworms? Don’t get me started.

MOTHRAFUCK,
T.Y.

Just wanted to welcome Rick back to the States! I hope you had a blast tossing the flying disk.

Chuck

"shagin, we live in a world that has literary standards. And those walls have to be guarded by Writers of Stature. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Frank Church? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Ben Winfield and you curse the Pavilion. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Winfield’s suspension, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you WANT me on that wall. You NEED me on that wall.

We use words like yipyop, mensch, faunching. We use these words as the backbone to a life spent writing something. You use 'em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a woman who types under the blanket of the very website I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it! I'd rather you just said thank you, and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a keyboard and make a post. Either way, I don't give a DAMN what you think you're entitled to!" - Col. Harlan Jessup, USMC

(Did you, or did you not, mail a dead gopher?)

A third on The Dark Knight.

Adult, serious, comicbook fun. Any petty picks about the film are precisely that. I plan to fake a long meeting across campus and take in the IMAX version sometime this week.

Dept. Of See, We Did Good, Dad!

Welcome back, Rick.

Dibs on Harlan
So now that Rick's back I assume Harlan's available for some more website hosting/monitoring duties. I may be going on vacation this winter so I wanted to be sure to get my reservation in for my own site.

(As a completely irrelevant aside, I've often been exposed as being nowhere nearly as funny as I think, especially electronically.)

I cannot help but...
... to second Mssr. Messer : Dark Knight was more than I had expected.

As a Detroit troubadour once said, it was all that and a bag of chips. It was the whole damn party mix.

haven't seen Dark Knight yet but...
If you're waiting for the intial frenzy to die down a bit before inquiring after a certain caped crusader then allow me to recommend

HANCOCK

A great movie. Much darker and subtler than the trailers indicate.

WALL-E

Yeah I know what you're thinking...Where's Magnus, Robot Fighter when you need him? Sure cute robots abound. But also visually stunning and funny with a keen satirical edge.

MICHAEL MAYHEW

For extended conversation about many subjects, get to the Forum. Sign up is easy, and you can post 6 times a month, 6 times a week, or 6 times a day if you wish. The link is above as 'another place'.

Home safe
Hello! Just got back in the house, 13 hours after stepping on to the flying machine at LAX, and we are shambling around like zombies.

Thank you SO much to Harlan, Susan, Sharon, Steve, Cris, Jason, Josh, Len, Christine, and the tireless chefs in the several hundred restaurants we visited, for your incredible generosity and hospitality. I'll post a full report of our misadventures when I'm alive again, but for now, the Reader's Digest version: Best. Holiday. Ever.

We're absolutely exhausted, and had the best time in the world courtesy of our gracious, humble, and dashing host. And now we must both lie down for several days.

James and Jodie

(Criminy, is it Monday again already???)

WELCOME BACK RICK!!! I assume at some point we will get the lowdown on your journey, but it's good to have you back on the job. (I think Harlan was about to actually off a few people. It started as whac-a-mole, see, and then... -- well, wait, he's looking this way. Shhhhhhhh.....)

BTW - The James Moran in that picture certainly looks more terrorist-y than the British Gentleman we all ferried about LA. I guess the Tube does that to you.
________________________________________________

HARLAN - It was a pleasure to drive James and Jodie around LA. They are wonderful and genuine people (as are you and Susan, I will hastily add), and so it was not much of a trial to be their escorts. Later today I will post to my own blog about the week. Thank you for giving ME this opportunity.

And note to James ('cause I know you're looking in after crawling painfully to your computer with travel-head), I have a blog, too, and am not afraid to use it!! Cheers to Jodie.

I will also, in the next couple of days, post some shots of the Moran-Kearns as they tripped about the town and braved the spelunking at the Aztec Temple (carefully edited to remove all trace of useful information, of course).

SECOND BTW, to HARLAN - I spoke to James yesterday shortly before Sharon collected them and -- this may embarrass him, and perhaps even you -- he was thoroughly delighted at having had the opportunity to not only meet you, but to share a pint. (A cold pint, he specified.) But we both agreed that he could quite happily cross that one item off of his Life's To-Do List and he is thoroughly grateful to you and Susan for your hospitality.

I'm certain he will convey this directly, if he has not already, but I thought it should be noted.

I am back
When I came back from Europe I was living in a different house than the one I left. So it's been an interesting past few days trying to get little things together like a bed to sleep on and having internet. I appear to be fully set up now, though, and ready to do whatever the hell it is I do here again.

For those of you who have been following Harlan's comments here, I also have a picture of James Moran, taken on the tube in London. Ah, here it is:
http://rickwyatt.com/images/moran.jpg

B5 & JMS
Well I just found an interesting note on B5 from JMS that I thought I would share here.

http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-17720&topic=Marvel%20Comic

It seems that JMS has come to the point many had expected, that being if it can not be done right, then it is better not to do it. I am sorry it must be this way, but for myself, I agree with him.

Books and Moxie
Dear Harlan:

The books box arrived yesterday. Tomorrow I shall the box open, and thhe books listed on eBay, and I will get off payment to you.

I'll let the local favorites here know when they can get a first look at the listings, with right of first refusal for a week or so.

I've not yet read the New Yawker cover story, and found the hoo haw on the Talking Head Circuit over said cover silly. Where's the National Lampoon when you need it?

I will be reading it.

I don't choose my politicians based on whether they make deals with creeps or not, etc. All politics involves compromise. All of life does. Sturgeon's law applies everywhere. That Obama came out of Chicago, the only big city in the country that still has a real, functioning old time Political Machine every bit as wild and wooly as Tammany and Pendergast, well, that told me he had made more than one or two "quid pro quo" arrangements. Whatever.

oMy problem with Obama is that I disagree with the philosophy behind his positions. That his positions are wrong, by my light, is not because of what he wants to accomplish (we're all in favor of liberty, freedom and apple pie, etc. Almost all.), but because his ostensible aims, by my lights, will never be accomplished by the means he chooses to champion, and since those means are chosen based on a philosophy that, so long as he continues to use it, will lead him to failing policies

But to continue with that would lead to a discussion of political theory and philosophy, and I have already bombasted enough. Suffice to say anyone who votes against a politician for being a politician and making deals with scumbags to get ahead, well they might as well get their unlit lantern and start walking the world in search of that honest man who will get their vote. Good luck in that search. The elsser evil is not just a joke, it is the truth of politics. Trust no one, watch all of them. The moment you sign a blank check, you have given up accountability while retaining ultimate responsbility for what is done in your name.

I'm searching for a couple of Thursday tickets to Comic COn, because I philandered my time and never bought any months ago. Anyone got a couple for sale?

(eBay does, but the price...ehhhh)

KOS

Shagin:

Sometimes you need to be alone with the feelings you're experiencing today. Just don't forget to reconnect with your lifeline afterwards.

**NO SPOILERS HERE**

I just got back from The Dark Knight.

See it.

Just see it.

I will say no more.

Chuck

Harlan wrote:
"Are we clear?

ARE WE CLEAR????"

YESSIR! Perfectly clear, SIR! Putting myself in the corner, SIR!

***

Today was bad in ways I don't want to remember.

I want today to go away so I can find a hole to hide in and make everything else go away, too.



shagin

Dark Knight
No spoilers here but I just want to say I just this minute stepped back in the house from seeing THE DARK KNIGHT and wanted to share that Heath Ledger was truly amazing. I am a huge curmudgeon when it comes to popular entertainment and critical raves -- but he deserves all of the praise that's being heaped on him. What a great, great performance.
I'll miss him even more now.

Oh, and the trailers for THE SPIRIT and WATCHMEN both made me salivate madly. Looks like some good work there... we hope.

AN INEXCUSABLE OMISSION ON MY PART:

When thanking those who played major roles in getting the Moran/Kearn axis around LA (neither of whom drive), I stupidly forgot my mijo Josh Olson who, after we five had truly gorged ourselves at Mogo's Mongolian BBQ, graciously offered to drive them back across from the Valley, way out to the edge of Santa Monica. It was a serious length of schlepping, and Josh picked up on my body language that I was bushed; and, though he had somewhere to be thereafter, he wouldn't hear of me dragging my weary ass on the hadj. And, poopyhead that I be, I left him off the list of those golden few to whom I am beholden. My apologies, my friend.

Shamefaced, Harlan

more on The New Yorker

Regarding the recent issue of the New Yorker with the controversial Obama cover, I am wondering who here has actually read the article inside the magazine ("Making It" by Ryan Lizza). I ask because although I am an Obama supporter, and although the article presents him in a not at all flattering way, I thought it was very good.
I am especially interested to hear what the likes of Frank Church (who I feel is politically to the left of even an honest-to-goodness "Hollywood Liberal" like me) and KOS (who I'm pretty sure is far to the right of me, but in a get-your-facts-straight leaning Libertarian sort of way) will think of it.

For those who haven't had the chance, the focus of the article is Obama's political career in Illinois, and the various ups, downs, deals and compromises of that time. It's very much a dissection of the sausage-making aspect of politics, which I found to be interesting and instructive.

I know a lot of my fellow Obama supporters get upset when anything is written or said about the man other than pure praise, but the fact is that he is an ambitious politician. A very smart one, downright gifted I feel, and his politics align with mine for the most part, but he is still a politician (as was Abraham Lincoln). That means he sometimes does what is expedient, and he sometimes makes alliances with creeps.

I sometimes catch myself hoping that if the right person comes along, someone who agrees with me on most things, then I can vote that person into office and they'll realign government to it's proper course without ever getting mud on their coat. And then I can go on about my life. But the fact is that if we want Obama (or any other leader) to keep his promises and do right, we're going to have to hold his feet to the fire -- not in a nasty way, not in a way that so weakens him as to elevate others who are a hell of a lot worse -- but still and all it seems like getting someone elected is just the beginning of our job as citizens.

MM

PS I actually though the whole issue was solid. I also very much enjoyed the article about E.B. White, the poem by Robert Bly and the article about a controversial take on string theory. My only true unhappiness with the issue was that they did not select my caption ("Frankly, it's a grind") for the cartoon contest.

THE VISITING BRITS

Dr. Who/Torchwood/SEVERANCE writer James Moran and his most excellent mezzo-soprano Irish-lassie wife, Jodie Kearns (which last letter of her name I've erroneously dropped several times), are about an hour away from my assistant picking them up at their gorgeous Santa Monica hotel, for delivery to LAX and the loving wings of Virgin Airlines.

Their week-long visit was wonderful. They are charming, urbane, elegant, witty, and easygoing guests. Yet it could not possibly have gone off as smoothly and full of fun without the yeoman efforts of our own Steve Barber, aided by songstress-herownself Cris, and Jason Davis. I bow before their splendiferous selves.

Tuesday, return visit to the cardiologist, as I promised.

It has been, I must confess, an exhausting week. Opleezgawd, when is Wyatt coming home????

Yr. bushed Pal, Harlan

To: Tom Morgan:

Your check was received. The game will go out the middle of next week. Thank you for doing this.

With kind regards--Susan

We were told a long time ago the DVD would be released in October, if I remember correctly. And if the clip on youtube is really the only thing you've seen, check out the website for the film.

OLSON: Great interview! There was also a bit of info there that helped me.

Dreams With Sharp Teeth film & DVD release schedule?
Hello all-
I have been waiting and waiting to see the documentary Dreams With Sharp Teeth and I notice that the New York Times reviewed it in June

Anyone here know the film's release schedule? (Hopefully it will come to Cleveland somewhere, sometime)
Or perhaps someone knows when the DVD will be released?
Watching harlan on you tube ranting "Pay the Writer" is always a treat but I would really love to see the film already!!

That should be "Watchmen"
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/watchmen/

Watchman trailer - The next big thing?
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/watchmen/hd/

I think we're alone now....
Dear God...

Some guy has done a fly on the wall documentary on two stalkers who are obsessed with former eighties pop starlet, Tiffany. Kind of freaky and one that may have a few questions popping up about whether its ethical to give these people airtime on these folks. Check it out at:

http://youtube.com/itwanfilm

It's kind of like... well, like maybe giving lifeblood of recognition to these folks or looking at a strange fractal pattern created from roadkill. Who knows...

FAQ

The"N" Word
NIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXON.NIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXON
NIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXONNIXON.....

James Van Hise,

I think you took my question too literally. I provided the answers to my own question.

Afghan Hounds are very smart dogs, too, but they have personalities like cats---they want to be attended to. A friend did have a very friendly Afghan named Uzi.

The entire litter was named after weapons. It's an affectation among many dog people to name a litter after a theme, usually just a letter, but I had a dog where 'sun' was in every name.

Well, Uzi was so happy to see you that he'd get his 2 front paws on your chest to greet you. Unfortunately, he also urinated at the same time. Dampened many a leg in his time, but never got me. I always put my hand on top of his head so he couldn't jump up.

Sorry, Winfield.
See you when you get back from the woodshed though, and I can only hope that we'll all be the wiser and better for it.

As for me, the only "giveaway" comments I'll offer up on The Dark Knight are as follows: Quint dies, Hooper lives, Brody kills the shark, and Norman's mom is really Martin Balsam in drag. (Man, did that old dress ever fit horribly on him.)

Also, the only time I ever use the N-word in question is with Mojo in front of it. Were it not for Obama, I'd probably just write him in this year.

My sister has a Boston Bull Terrier/Chijuajua mix named Bull. He's actually pretty bulky for that kind of mixture. At first, Julie though she'd adopted a retarded dog, since she couldn't house train him, or get him to learn anything. Then she realized he's actually very bright, but very STUBBORN.

I mean: STUH. BURN.

She's since trained him to a point where he's easier to live with and he'll do tricks for his doggie snacks.

But man, is he headstrong.

He do love his Uncle Chuck. I have to guard myself when he lunges at me with unbridled joy -- his paws will hit at groin level otherwise. *Urk. I'm happy to see you too, Bull. Urk*

Chuck

Harlan: I'll ring you Monday when I'm near a phone at a polite hour. If nothing else, the odyssey of July 18th was an education in the vagaries of LA traffic, a lesson thus far eluded in my provincial existence.

CATS & DOGS & ANSWER FOR ATC
Dogs are pack animals. Owners are considered by them to be the "alpha male". With cats, the social structure is more fluid. Dogs may appear to be more intelligent because you can boss 'em around. Anthropomorphism colors a lot of our thinking.
ATC---The movie was "The Diary of Anne Frank", the director George Stevens.

BEN WINFIELD

Sorry to do this, kiddo; but we've asked people REPEATEDLY not to post giveaway comments (with or without the dodge "SPOILER," which will not fly, here) about new movies. With Rick away on vacation, the thankless chore falls to me. Your little post of earlier today is not a Felony, but KOS and others who've slipped and been sent to Coventry for it, would be justifiably miffed if I let you slide.

So. You are banished from the Pavilion through next Wednesday.

When the HELL is Wyatt coming home?!!?? I hate this.

Harlan Ellison

MS. ODELL:

I have asked people posting in my Pavilion to refrain from using "foul words" here. As I only know of ONE (1), single word so despicable that it offends me to the soul, I must tell you that a pallid "sorry, Harlan" does not excuse or condone the entry of the loathesome "N-word," and so if you fucking do it again, bitch, I will have sveral dozen kikes, niggers, spics, wops, micks, bohunks, redskins, slants, chinks and gooks, as well as wogs, canucks, spooks, greasers, dog-eaters and mockies seek you out and bullhorn your house 24/7 with a 207 decibel assault of nothing BUT that unspeakable epithet.

Are we clear?

ARE WE CLEAR????

Affronted, MIS-ter Ellison to you.

GARDYLOO TO JASON DAVIS

give me a call. I think you've got the number. I'm over my fit of pique, and wish to thank you for your Good Offices, however dilatory in conception.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

WHY IS THERE ONLY A ONE DAY LIMIT ON POSTING?
I expect the answer to this can be found by looking on such public boards as comicon.com and tcj.com. There you'll find bickering and a constant back and forth when people get into arguments which drag on endlessly, especially if you criticize the inking of Vince Colletta or suggest that Bob Kane didn't really create Batman like he said he did, or didn't draw the strip as much as he claimed. That's just 2 examples. Plus there's people who like to be contrary for its own sake and look for subjects they can weigh in on which they actually have no interest in all.

What Harlan Ellison creations are you reading/viewing currently?
I was just wondering which of Mr. Ellison's works you are currently reading/viewing? I am working my way through "The Beast That Shouted Love At the Heart of the World."

Mr. Ellison, thanks for your reply to my previous post. I re-read your essay about your beloved Ahbuh in your 50th Anniversary retrospective. Alas, my current landlord will not allow me to own a dog since the previous tenant allowed HIS dog to chew the place up.

So I have a little cat that adopted me last winter.

I hope this doesn't put me on your shit list.

P.S. Jefty Is Five.

It is a little after noon and I just got home from the gym. It's 80+ degrees out with high humidity here today. I've got a fun evening tonight with a street dance in Van Meter which is about 10 miles west of Des Moines with my favorite Iowa band Bob Dorr and the Blue Band. Tomorrow I'm going with a friend to the I Cubs game in the afternoon and the concert by Heart out at Prairie Meadows Casino in the evening. Woo hoo! Fun fun fun.

The Dark Knight

When the Joker was busy antagonizing that fat police officer in the holding cell, was anybody else tempted to yell out, "Hey, he's trolling!"?

'Cuz I was.

Dogs, Cats
I have had dogs and I have had cats.

As an independent adult, I limited myself to cats. I made this decision on the theory that dogs, being more social, required their humans to stay home much of the time; it is cruel, I think, for a single human being who works long hours away from home (as I did, sixty hours a week for years), and who then tries to maintain some semblance of a social life on nights and weekends, to have a dog who will then come to know you as the guy who walks him twice a day and then sleeps the rest of the time. Cats are preferable for somebody with that kind of living arrangement, as they sleep more than dogs, and because of their penchant for litterboxes can fend for themselves even if you don't come home for a long weekend. (You can abandon a dog with food and water for two days, tops, if it's paper-trained; a cat you can abandon, under the same conditions, for up to five, though it will be a bit smelly when you get back.)

So I made a practical decision to get cats, even though I frankly prefer the ebullient personalities of dogs. Given an absolute choice, I would have dogs. I love dogs because when they're happy to see you, they can barely contain themselves; cats perk up when they see you, but that often means nothing more than a raised head and a yawn.

That said, cats are fine pets, too. They are capable of playfulness and deep affection, and I had one, Pita, an acronym for Pain In the Ass, who loved me with a single-minded devotion I have not experienced from any other animal.(Among other things he always slept next to my head, purring.He's also the one who once panicked, ran like hell for the cat door, and forgot to duck. WHAM!)

But, yeah, I must say: the idea of using a housecat in a motion picture, and expecting it to do what you want...bwah-ha-ha-ha.

Dr. Horrible, Dr. Horrible, Telephone call for Dr. Horrible.
So, those not already aware, Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy (enh) and Firefly (YAY!), is doing an interesting project. Basically, hes made a 30 oddish minute short feature called Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Video Blog, about a low rent supervillian, played by Neil Patric Harris (also known as Doogie Howser, MD). It was put up in three parts, and part three just went live. This is at www.drhorrible.com.

The writing, direction, acting, singing, songwriting, and everything is EXCELLENT. It was non traditionally funded, and up until sunday at midnight, at which time it turns into a pumpkin available for sale at Itunes, and soon to be released in DVD format.

GO WATCH IT NOW! ZOD COMMANDS IT!

I have honestly not had a piece of fiction hit me that hard since the last time I read Sturgeon.

HARLAN - Not a problem. Hopefully we can hook up round abouts the beginning of November if it all works out.

***

JOSH - That was a neat article and film. Every reason to share.

***

THINGS YOU DIDN'T EXPECT YOUR PARENTS TO KEEP, BUT ARE GLAD THEY DID

* The identification card from the hospital basinet in the nursery from the day you were born.

* A picture of your maternal great-great-grandmother.

* The letter from your mother to her mother telling about your father's marriage proposal.

* The picture of your mother's Nigerian prince pen-pal (they were both teenagers) who offered to make her his first wife. I had to explain to my niece that he didn't mean marrying her and then divorcing her.

* A picture of your paternal grandfather who died when your father was seven.

* A picture of Richard Nixon on the campaign trail in Illinois in 1960 (sorry, Unca Harlan).


shagin

Steve: I abase myself before your superior chauffeuring skills. How you managed the traffic to and from Santa Monica in a timely fashion is a mystery I'm clearly not meant to comprehend. I retire humbly back to Burbank where a green light still means go.

Harlan and Susan: I apologize profusely for minutes of Moran magnificence lost as I maneuvered (probably not the right word...as it implies movement, which the traffic didn't much allow for)toward your rendezvous. I trust the rest of your evening was as pleasant in their company as was my approach to Ellison Wonderland.

A happy (and hopefully air-conditioned) weekend to all...

J

WHY IS THERE A ONE-A-DAY LIMIT ON POSTING HERE?

Okay, I am going to be the stick-in-the-mud who cries about shit.

1. Main reason---so that the site isn't filled with nonsense to the point where newcomers never get seen.

2. So that Harlan doesn't have to spend an hour here trying to find important questions or messages.

3. To force posters to THINK about what they are going to say, not just shoot from the hip, as one would in the privacy of their own home.

4. To teach patience. Having a funny or cute reply to someone else might not seem as funny or cute after 24 hours, And it makes it harder to respond in anger.

The only 2 reasons to post twice in 24 hours are to immediately correct an error in fact or typing (not 6 hours later), and to answer a direct question from Harlan. A maybe reason might be to pass along information that Harlan is awaiting, but that's akin to answering a question.

Now I know that a few people may have special dispensation to occasionally violate the rule, but most of us do not.

(signed)

SitM Coil

I SPY
LOL Josh, you should have seen me in the store - I actually cheered. I was so happy, I didn't care if anyone else saw.

I saw the new Batman movie at a matinee show today. While it is a very dark movie, at least compared with the Adam West Batman,it certainly is more in tune with the actually comics than the tv show was. There was a surprizing amount of humour in the film, at least the audience at the show I went to laughed more often than I expected, somewhere between a chuckle and a rib tickler.It was very entertaining.Heath Ledger in particular, was very good in the role of the Joker.
I found a copy of the Skeptical Enquirer at Borders thia week with Harlan's reminiscence about Arthur C Clarke.Woo hoo. I'm never sure if I can track down issues of magazines mentioned here that have articles about Harlan.Thanks for the mention.

HARLAN: spooky coincidence or table raps from the great beyond? Earlier this week I ran across a Bruce Lee videotape in the house and seemed to recall you once mentioned studying JKD with him. Made a note-to-self to ask here if you had already posted any especially memorable details from that experience.(Have you?) Today I swing by the board after a long hiatus and lo! Mr. Lee's name passes your lips....
Gotta love synchronicity...

Harlan even once dated Catwoman, figure that.

BATMAN NO 250
JOSH

I’m the upstart with the Batman script I asked you about, just wanted to let you know there is a Batman comic number 250 on Ebay right now, bidding is at 99 cents!, thought you might like to take a look, I just typed in (Batman comic number 250) and there it was, I hope to see you on Thursday at the Comic Con, don’t worry I’m not going to shove any scripts into your face, just wanted to say hello, I think Kim and I are coming down there together so look for two old guys who look out of place.

On the dog /cat thing, we have four doggies here, cant live without them, cat are ok I guess but no matter how much I tried I could never get one to fetch my slippers, our dogs won’t either so I guess it’s a draw.

I wonder what ever happen to the prop from “Demon with a glass hand”, its probably in some trash pit by now but I sure would love to know who might have it.

Thanks Laurie on the heads up for the SPACE PATROL book, ill look into it.


GML

Second Posts, I shall be silent anon

""Internets" is a widely used and even more widely recognized joke, Steve, mocking a certain moron president's UNintentional misuse of the word."


Yes, I have been apprised and stand most humbly corrected.

Barbers

"Internets" is a widely used and even more widely recognized joke, Steve, mocking a certain moron president's UNintentional misuse of the word.

(Josh Olson, for shame. "Internets". There ain't no effing "s" in internet. There are subnets, and there's the internet. Singular. You know this. I know you know this.)
___________________________________________

The Gorey thing: I am dumbfounded that a teacher would use this approach. Administrators are simple functionaries who are more concerned that one thing will lead to another until someone complains, and therefore have a rather limited view of what is acceptable and what is not. (What is not is anything other than vanilla.)

But the teacher? I agree, with all of the to-be-condemned-by-others violence of it, that the teacher needs a good slap along with Cher's immortal "SNAP OUT OF IT" as a chaser.
_______________________________________

On the subject of cats.

I have two dogs. I have two cats. If I were in a dark alley with moving shadows and the sound of a bucket clattering across the asphalt I would like one of my dogs (if not both) at my side.

If I were in a card game with my mortgage on the line, gimme a cat.

Our Alpha Pet is of the feline persuasion. He knows that attitude is 90% of the game and he plays it well. He's 14 pounds. The dogs are 70 and 85 pound Dalmatians, respectively. They know cats are sharp at five ends.

Dals are a very smart breed. (Some will tell you differently, that they are only middling because they're so hard to train. It isn't intelligence, it's focus. Dals have A.D.D.) Dals think for themselves. So do cats.

The question isn't one of intelligence, however, it's a question of reasoning. Dogs can think things through if they stop long enough, but they're equally capable of plunging headlong into situations that might be better served with a second's hesitation. Cats make decisions quickly, but are also capable of pondering. It's the pondering that's dangerous.

Dogs accept reality for what it is. Cats plot revenge.

I'm a cat person who loves dogs. But I figure it's best to stick with the cats.

You know the old adage of keeping friends close and enemies closer, yes?

"Dreams" In Miami! Tonight! Friday!
From da Paper:

Dreams With Sharp Teeth: Film tells the story of legendary writer Harlan Ellison, who has written pulp fiction, magical realism, detective stories, westerns, essays, screenplays and nonfiction works on political and social issues and television; 7:45 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Miami Beach Cinematheque, 512 Espanola Way, Miami Beach; $10, $7 students and members. 305-673-4567.

A buncha things:

We can bitch about the evils of the internets til the cows come home (and do so legitimately - the damn thing IS the spawn of Satan... sometimes), but there are some good sides. What a kick to see Anthony Tollin's name pop up here, and to discover that you colored the Batman story that knocked me out so much during my formative years. If you haven't seen it yet, sir, it would be my honor to send you a copy of the DVD that contains my VERY loving hommage to that story.

I want to second Jerry’s joy at the I Spy DVDs. I have no idea why they’re priced so low, but you can get all three seasons for less than $45, and they’d be a steal at twice the price. (Can’t say I share his enthusiasm for the Spirit trailer, though... I’m more than a little grossed out by the thought that the city is both his mother AND his lover).

On the subject of the teacher and the Gorey book, I can only say that some people need to be hit in the face very hard.

Cats - I’ve given up on Harlan, but the rest of you.... Shame on yez. Cats are individuals, just like dogs, and at least some people. I’ve had great cats, and I’ve had great dogs. But I’ve met clunkers in both species and I’ll say this - the highs are the same, but a bad cat is nothing compared to a bad dog. When I was a kid, I had a cat AND a dog, and all they ever did was play together. Both were friendly, loyal, and affectionate as hell. In my mind, at least, you gotta have both. And on the subject of their intelligence, it’s my understanding that cats are smarter than dogs, which is why it’s so much harder to train them. They know enough to know it’s not worth the effort...

Lastly, two bits of personal puffery:

- Next week, I’ll be down in San Diego, for two reasons: first, to find me a copy of Batman #250, and second, to do a panel promoting upcoming Anchor Bay releases. I’ll be pushing the Masters of Science Fiction box set, and talking about the experience of collaborating on the script with my pal H. J. Ellison. If you’re gonna be at the con, swing by on Thursday afternoon (2:00, I believe - check the schedule) and say hey.

- There’s a terrific website that I only recently discovered called Pursue The Passion. It’s run by a couple guys who weren’t sure what to do after college. They’ve been driving around the country for the last couple of years interviewing people who are happy in their work. It’s a pretty spiffy site, and there are some genuinely inspiring interviews to be found.

Anyway, they came by my place a couple weeks ago and talked to me, cos I gotta say it - I do love my work. Anyway, the interview (including a short video clip) is here, and if you don’t blink, you’ll catch a shot of our humble host:

http://www.pursuethepassion.com/interviews/2008/07/17/late-blooming-with-josh-olson/

Re: VOICES
That was Robert Culp's voice in "Demon with a Glass Hand," and Tim McIntire voiced Blood in that 1975 film version of A BOY AND HIS DOG. Good stuff!

Cats
Count me as more a dog person than a cat person, tho I'm allergic to both. I've probably posted this before, but since we don't spend our time in the archives hunting down my old posts, I'll say it again. I figured out why I dislike cats.

We all anthropomorphize animals to some extent. And with many animals, we tend to project the same human characteristics onto them over and over. And cat lovers and cat haters tend to project the same things onto cats; aloofness, independence, their ferocity in handling mice, etc. Cat owners even joke about how they themselves are "trained" by their cats to open those cans of food, and how their cats really don't need them.

But this is why I dislike cats. These are qualities I _hate_ in human beings. I'd rather deal with people who are friendly, who like me, and who are fairly intelligent. Having cats is like having furry little _rich people_ around the house, demanding service.

(As for cats and dogs and their relative intelligences: dogs are WAY smarter. They can do more complex things, like rescue and blind-escort. They have a wider repertoire of things they can do. The repertiore cats have is relatively simple, but it works well for them. Dogs, being smarter, can make more _bad choices_, too, which means they can _fuck up_ more frequently. Which makes them more like humans.)

"Correction, please!" -- Charlie Chan
That should, of course, be OuTer Limits, not "Ouer Limits!" Sorry!

VOICES
Harlan, not only do I hear your voice when I reread "A Boy and His Dog," but it's also very easy to imagine your voice coming out of the Glass Hand in "Demon with a..."

Did you offer your vocal talents for the BOY AND HIS DOG film, and the OUER LIMITS "Demon" segment?

On Cats in Movies
Insomnia provides the opportunity to relate this story on the subject of cats in motion pictures, which David Mamet tells in a recent book of film essays; I do not remember the exact details and I have since given away the volume, but I remember the sense of it.

Major Director X had a scene in one of his movies, where a cat entered a room and performed a complicated series of actions, all of which took place in one shot. Again, I do not recall the director, the film, or what the cat did that was so amazing; I wish I had Mamet's account to check. But let us say for the sake of argument that the cat runs across a beam, hops down onto the table, steals a pencil, jumps back up onto the beam, drops the pencil into a cup of coffee on the table, performs a double take, and then exits the room via the same route used for entry.

According to Mamet, when he saw this scene with a large crowd, the entire audience gasped. How the HELL did the moviemakers train a cat to do all that?

Mamet says that he watched the scene multiple times, looking for trickery, finding none. And that he wondered, for years, how the Director did it.

Finally, he writes, he encountered the Director and asked.

The Director laughed out loud. Turns out that the cat was not trained to do anything. He didn't even think a cat could be trained to do anything. They had a running camera pointed at it for hours, just on the off chance that it would do something interesting. Eventually, it did...

(Cats are trainable; anybody who has seen Key West's cat man, who nightly puts on a circus with house cats who use trapezes and tightropes on demand, and who dance with him, knows that. But, oh, Lordy, it is not easy.)

On Cats in Movies
Insomnia provides the opportunity to relate this story on the subject of cats in motion pictures, which David Mamet tells in a recent book of film essays; I do not remember the exact details and I have since given away the volume, but I remember the sense of it.

Major Director X had a scene in one of his movies, where a cat entered a room and performed a complicated series of actions, all of which took place in one shot. Again, I do not recall the director, the film, or what the cat did that was so amazing; I wish I had Mamet's account to check. But let us say for the sake of argument that the cat runs across a beam, hops down onto the table, steals a pencil, jumps back up onto the beam, drops the pencil into a cup of coffee on the table, performs a double take, and then exits the room via the same route used for entry.

According to Mamet, when he saw this scene with a large crowd, the entire audience gasped. How the HELL did the moviemakers train a cat to do all that?

Mamet says that he watched the scene multiple times, looking for trickery, finding none. And that he wondered, for years, how the Director did it.

Finally, he writes, he encountered the Director and asked.

The Director laughed out loud. Turns out that the cat was not trained to do anything. He didn't even think a cat could be trained to do anything. They had a running camera pointed at it for hours, just on the off chance that it would do something interesting. Eventually, it did...

(Cats are trainable; anybody who has seen Key West's cat man, who nightly puts on a circus with house cats who use trapezes and tightropes on demand, and who dance with him, knows that. But, oh, Lordy, it is not easy.)

Cats and Coburn
I have the DVD of the last Doctor Who story from the classic series, "Survival". The fake looking cheetah people were forgivable, the obviously phony house cats less so, but at least the current cat thread explains why.

The week before last, I caught an afternoon showing of The Magnificent Seven on AMC; first time I've ever had the pleasure, though I've seen the original Seven Samurai at least a couple dozen times. James Coburn does a damn fine Seiji Miyaguchi.

KOS,

This executive producer wanted the cat scene in the movie, at all costs? What, was he some kind of closet furry?

Geez, and the guys wearing the suits call the ARTISTS weirdos.

Cats and dynamite
I can think of a reason why a TV show in the early sixties,with basically no budget and five days per episode for production (!) would not want to use cats in an episode.

As Harlan said, cats are poopyheads. I know. I hve two. Te mvie and YV business is full of poopyheads already. Why add more to the mix?

A friend did a low-budget film. Quarter-million, two week shooting schedule with locations in the mountains in snow, and all sorts of other expensive stuff. The cast were a pain in some cases, the crew nearly mutinied over the food, the editing was rushed to make a festival submission deadline, and yet: the ONE thing the producer/director remembers and grimaces over when he watches the film is the scene set in the female leads apartment, wherein her cat walks across the sofa and looks at her boyfriend. It took longer to shoot that scene than ANY other in the movie. An entire day. The walking oxymoron cat trainer kept insisting the cat would do it, just be patient. The cat just sat there licking itself, and taking naps. A day for a four second shot.

Apparently the Exec. Producer (i.e. the guy who ponied up the quater-mill) wanted the cat scene. A lot.

Life is too short to wait around for the cat to hit its' mark. You may quote me on that. I suspect Roger Corman never used cats.

Walter Slezak, the great character actor, for one film had to sit in a boat floating in a studio tank while another, nearby, boat was blown to pieces by dynamite. The director assured Walter it was perfectly safe, they had an explosives expert handling the dynamite. A piece of cake.

The explosives expert, nicknamed "Lefty", planted the charges, and held up his right hand to signal the director that all was ready, and the direcctor called "action!"

That was when Walter noticed the explosives "expert" had only two fingers left on his right hand...

KOS

Brian Siano's post about the teacher and the Gorey book really got to me. As a teacher myself, it upsets me when teachers give students the impression that reading comes in two categories--the stuff that is approved by your school and the stuff you shouldn't dare to read. This kind of narrow minded thinking is part of the reason that many students never explore literature long enough for a book to really blow them away. I am sorry to say I have run into a lot of this idiocy in my career including one incident in which the assistant principal called me a "psychotic" for reading a story about the Ticktockman to my class. People like that teacher (and my AP) shouldn't be allowed to educate the young--but, all too often, they are the ones running the schools and sitting on the school boards. Sad, infuriating and all too true.

To all Space Patrol fans: I highly recommend the book Space Patrol. It came out last year and it not only covers every aspect of the show--Commander Cory, Cadet Happy etc.--but it does a wonderful job of explicating the social context in which the show existed. There are chapters about the Ralston Rocket, the actors themselves and their Pasadena Playhouse background and the long term impression this show made on so many young fans. A very fun and sometimes even a moving read for fans and also those who have an interest in the culture of the science fiction of the 1950s.

REPLY TO ELIAS

I used cats in "Soldier" because I imagined them as stealthier, more liquid than dogs, if intended as skirmishers. But make no mistake, I really don't like cats. I am a "dog person," and the reason "A Boy and His Dog" stars a dog, and not a cat ... well, it's simple: I think dogs are intelligent, and cats are poopyheads. (Besides, I wrote the novella for my dog, the late Ahbhu, who asked me to write him a story in which the dog is the smart one, and the human is, well, a jerk, so I obliged. We were very close. And when you read Blood's voice in the story(ies), please hear MY voice.

Yes, I met Jimmy. We were both students of Bruce Lee.

And welcome to our little neighborhood nook. Enjoy.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

The OUTER LIMITS -
Does anyone know why CATS were used as telepathic scouts in the future?

I was primarily familiar with Mr. Ellison's work due to his scripts on various series on the "telly." That changed last year when I bought his 50th Anniversary retrospective.

After reading "A Boy and His Dog" I wondered why dogs weren't used as scouts in the tv adaptation of "Soldier."

Does anyone have any answers/theories?

PS - I loved FLINTLOCK. I can just see James Coburn smart-assing (in a good sense) his way through that script in the same way he did in the FLINT movies.

Does anyone know if Mr. Ellison ever met James Coburn?

SHAGIN: Sorry, Toots, but circa Labor Day days ... we will not be available. At all. Adventure already planned. Sorry.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

All in one day: I watched the teaser trailer to Frank Miller's THE SPIRIT and was in awe, picked up all three seasons of the classic TV show I SPY at around $12 a season (!), and came back with my monthly batch of comics... Ah, nothing like being a kid again!

On the other hand
I had at least two English teachers in high school who were so happy to see one of their students reading they allowed me to read during their lectures.

In the front row.

And, yes, I was reading science fiction.

Mike

I remember back in junior high, having a history teacher that would do absolutely nothing for the entire length of the period. Kids would be wandering around, talking, doing cartwheels in the aisles while she just sat there, having assigned us something vital like a crossword puzzle. I read.

At the end of the semester, she said I made poor use of my time by constantly reading in class and gave me an "S" (for "satisfactory") in cooperation. The only time in my entire academic career I was not given an "E" (for "excellent.")

Of course, that was a long, long time ago, and it would be ridiculous to harbor any resentment or bitterness for such a trivial and ultimately meaningless incident.

...Fuck you, Ms. Finley.

Hello All
Greetings Everyone.

I've been lurking here for a while, having recently become familiar with Mr. Ellison's work. Started out with Strange Wine, then picked up the Essential Ellison 50 Year Retro and have been catching up ever since. Got The Glass Teat vols 1 & 2 a couple of weeks ago. I believe Mr. Ellison's writing is some of the most important work of the last half of the 20th century.

I look forward to participating on the board. I've mailed a HERC enrollment and order for assorted recordings, etc.

Good Day.

HARLAN - I'm finally slipping out from under my rock and will prospectively be descending on LA the evening of August 14, spending the weekend and skipping back to the east on the evening of the 17th. I'm finalizing the major arrangements in the next couple of days.

If you and the missus are around and available that weekend, I'd love to break bread, pinch claw and catch up, now that my head is back to being only half a bubble off plumb, as opposed to the mournful I-CON Fret and Stresshole you had to bellow at in Stony Brook in April. Send up a flare on your next orbit and let me know if you want to come out and play.

And any LA-area Webderlanders (you know who you are... yes, you, and you, and certainly you - no, no, not YOU) who might be interested in a friendly "Hello" - or, conversely, wish to throw stones or collect material for new voodoo dolls - feel free to poke or prod and we'll see what develops.

Brian Siano,

Sounds like a teacher who needs to be disrespected and thrown across the room.

1. The teacher should be disciplined for unprofessional behavior.

2. The teacher should be made to buy a copy of the book he confiscated and give it to the nephew.

3. The nephew needs to be moved to another classroom asap. He will never get an honest grade from that teacher.

4. I still think somebody should kick that teacher's butt across the room.

First: "epigone \EP-uh-gohn\, noun:
An inferior imitator, especially of some distinguished writer, artist, musician, or philosopher."

See Harlan, I really DO know how to use a dictionary.
_______________________________________

A very pucblic thank-you to Harlan and Susan for a fantastic dinner at Gardens of Taxco last night. Eeet was Veeeery Spiii-cey and fun. The Morans enjoyed themselves immensely, though both were painfully massaging their quite full stomachs. The food was tremendous, and we all sincerely enjoyed your company. The Eleanor Roosevelt piece was alone worth the price of admission.

(Cris, BTW, after reading your note below, turned a very fetching Jodie Kearns shade of pink and said "aaawwwww...")

Our Brit friends are spending the day today knocking around Santa Monica and the Westside. Jason Davis takes over the reigns tomorrow, while I try to return a few phone calls at work.
________________________________________

Adam-Troy: Is this a riddle for us to suss out, or are you going to give???
________________________________________

Finally - Harlan seemed to be in excellent health and spirits last evening.

(Just adding my "eyewitless" news account to the evidence fer what it's worth, Yer Honor.)

Various
THE BIRDS: I recently covered its status as borderline science fiction -- and the surprisingly non-insulting reason Hitch cited for denying its status as science fiction -- in this article.

http://www.scifi.com/sfw/screen/classic/sfw18874.html

Among the reasons I agree with that assessment: birds do occasionally attack people. You may recall that I warred, for several days, with a bird outside my home that decided it hated me.

GOREY: Agreed, any teacher who abuses a book in that manner is not a teacher. I had one in elementary school who told my parents, "It is better for a child to read nothing than to read science fiction." (The specific book being complained about was I, ROBOT, which I was carrying around.) I was present when this was said, and to my credit, I said to her, "That's the single dumbest thing I ever heard a grownup say."

ON SELF-INDULGENCE: Rewriting the last chapter of a novel due out next year, one that I had to write in a hurry and did not quite nail, the ending being particularly weak. The ending will still be weak, but not quite as weak as before. (I dunno how to fix it 100%; if I did, I would.) Anyway, a joke occurred to me that maybe...MAYBE...half of one percent of the readership will get. Setting up the joke required a global search and replace of a character name. It is a joke there only because the .5 % of the readership capable of getting it, and the author, will both giggle because of its presence. This was a serious moral dilemma on my part. It's goin' in...!

Anyone who'd like to see what Ben Grimm is supposed to look like in ANY movie, take a gander at Josh Brolin over on the board (courtesy of robochrist, natch).

Who knows how long he'll be able to hold on to his human form, so Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Step right up!

KOS,

Hitch was going to do War of the Worlds in the early 30's. You can blame Wells himself for talking him out of it!

the Gorey details

Brian Siano related:

:: the teacher took it from his hands, read two pages, and
:: _threw it across the room_ before confiscating it.


That "instructor" should be canned, for:

1. Treating a book with such disrespect.

2. Treating a child with such disrespect.

3. Not even knowing, apparently, who Edward Gorey was.

Harlan...happy to hear good things from the doc
I lost my sainted mother-in-law Monday to congestive heart failure...after 4 heart attacks, 3 different bypasses, numerous stents and caths and a pacemaker with 3 different leads over the last 20 years.

Do what the docs and Susan tell you health-wise. We love you and want you around a for a long long time.

Back to the darkness with Mr. Cranston...
Tally

Good to know Harlan's heart is in good hands... er... well, _metaphorically speaking_, that is, in the case of Susan, but _almost literally true_ in the case of his physicians.

To Jan, re using a show's actors anmd characters in commercials. It may seem "insidious" nowadays, but it was more or less the rule as far back as old time radio: in recordings of _The Shadow_, you'd hear Orson Welles, in character as The Shadow, talk about how substandard car tires could make you skid... unless you were using his sponsor's tires. (And remember, we didn't think sugary cereals were all that bad back then.)

Oh, here's something that nmay warm your hearts. A few years ago, I gave my nephew a copy of Edward Gorey's _The Ghaslycrumb Tinies_. The kid was initially shocked, but he started giggling over it. A few weeks ago, I saw him again, and he asked me if I had another copy. Why? He was caught reading it in school... and the teacher took it from his hands, read two pages, and _threw it across the room_ before confiscating it.

His parents tell me I'm a bad influence. Well, at least I don't _steal people's books_ and _throw them around like garbage_.

Space Patrol etc.
Funny this came up as I had just checked out some Captain Videos on youtube. My guess is that you can also easily find the other shows there, like here www.youtube.com/watch?v=HENYBq5Ksyg (Space Patrol) or here www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTUJvYVF-X4 (Captain Midnight).

What I found most remarkable is that - the kinescopes preserving the commercials along with the shows - the advertisement in those days was as indidious as it is today and more so. *Characters from the shows* endorsing Sugar Cereal (I think that was the actual name) as breakfast, lunch, and dinner AND in between? As a means to provide you with quick energy whenever you need it? Saw this on Captain Video. How insidious to make the kids' heroes and scientist characters say that stuff. And of course their Captain Video Agent Identification Rings were only sold as part of a package with more sweets.

It's those kinds of things that really distinguish the way people grew up in the US from the way they grew up in Europe in those days. (Today, slightly different story.)

BTW, Laurie, I much enjoyed your story about the stewardess!

Bird Patrol
Of course I thought of "The Birds" when I thought of Hitch and SF.Thought it was borderline SF, but nevertheless that's SF.

So, I wish Hitch had made ONE movie with spaceships in it!

There, I said it. I am a spaceship junkie. But I do have standards. They got to have big honking fin's on 'em. I'm talking Fifty-Nine Cadillae DeVille fins.

Laurie, I suspect you are right re: "Space Patrol", A year or so ago, when this was bugging me as it does regularly, I read up on all the early to mid-fifties Space Shows. Of all of them, SP seemed the one likely to be the best candidate. You added a datum that makes it seem likelier: that SP was preserved as kinescopes. I recall distinctly that the show I saw had that odd visual look that only kinescopes have, similar to early black and white videotape.

I will have to hunt down some huckster who offers those old tapes, and track this episode down.

There was a song I heard perhaps three or four times, in portions snatched here and there, on LA FM rock and roll radio in early 1974. The melody of said song bugged me for over thirty years. Finally, about three years ago, when I discovered iTunes, I tracked it down.

Weird, how the song was pretty good, OK even, but not nearly as good as thirty years of wondering who the hell performed it had made it seem.

I mean, it was Peter Frampton! ("Sail Away")

I became determined to track this show down when I read Howard Waldrop's absolutely top-notch tale "Mr. Goober's Show" about two kids in the fifties catching a truly "out of this world" show on an old mechanical TV set they discovered in a back room of their weird aunt's up state New York home.

Disturbing tale, perfectly told.

By the way, did you know that the BBC in the mid-1930s broadcast mechanical TV (mechanical television used whirling discs with spiral patterns of holes punched in them, timed by radio pulses to be in sycnrony (transmitter and receiver), and home hobbyists used acetate discs and modified disc sound recording machines to do home video recording. In the nineteen-thirties. I kid not. The Scottish (had to be a Scotsman in this story!) engineer that developed the system made the first video recordings with a TV camera in the 1920s. Nineteen-Twenties.

Theirs nothing new but the TV history you never knew.

I recall summers in Kansas in the seventies leaning on the fender of my car, drinking a Pepsi and watching moths fly into the weird purple-blue light of the giganto-sized bug zappers the Quick-Mart's placed over their front doors. Sometimes particularly large moths would do a sort of spiraling death-dive into the humming electrodes, and hit them Just Right. Instead of catching a wing and setting off some nice electrical arcing for a second or two, then falling in a more-or-less whole but fried carcass, these moths would hit an electrode dead center, there would be a Death Star Explosion-like mininova of light, a Ladyfinger volume "pow", and a spreading star shell pattern of bug glowing embers that would spiral outwards and arc gently down like nuclear fallout after a Plumb-Bob shot on the Nevada desert circa 1957.

Eerily beautiful.

Someday there will be a blood sport with breeders of gigantic moths and millions of cheering fans betting how far the embers will spread, and critics marking how spectacular and beautiful the color and pattern of the ashes.

Mark my words. Probably gonna start in Japan first.

All reminds me of "City of the Singng Flame" by Clark Ashton Smith. Heard it read on Hour 25 once, perhaps by the great Mike Hodel. Nothing like it, story or reading thereof. Mike's readings ought to be available somewhere. I imagine they're on the web, somewhere. There was this guy out near Barstow who was the semi-official Hour 25 archivist, and made a hobby of recording al the shows.

I miss the old radio Hour 25. I miss real radio, with real weird shit. Real weird people. Idiotological Talk Radio and the Art Bell Franchise just don't cut it.

Man, I am a weird old geezer with my weird old memories. Bring on the next gen, this one is done. Almost.

KOS

HARLAN: Let's hear it for advanced tech!

Doug and I will be in your neck of the woods come Labor Day weekend. We'd love to treat you and Susan to dinner sometime that weekend if previous obligations, time, and good health allow. Of them all, good health is top of the list.


Sandra

MEDICAL APPOINTMENT REPORT #2

Today was the visit to the cardiologist. I posted the wrong time. It was 3:30, not 4 or 4:30whatever. As I promised you, I went.

I think Ron Karlsberg -- who is one of the foremost cutting-edge heart jockeys in the world -- and if you doubt that, I urge you to Google up his name, he was on the front page of the New York Times just a few days ago -- amaze yourself and check it out, because it is the astonishing technology he uses that prompted the Times to highlight him -- the technology he'll be utilizing on me next Tuesday -- I think Karlsberg was nonplussed
that I was as sprightly as I seemed to be. We had a long getting-each-other-in-the-loop consultation, then he did a full blood work-up, then we discussed what was to come next, and he was not overjoyed that today I weighed 202, heaviest in my entire life, and he decided to put off the X-rays till Tuesday, along with the CT scan, because he wanted to use the astonishing technology you're going to Google up on the NY Times site. Reason he wanted to do that, was because he called my close friend and My OTHER Doctor, John Landsburg, up in Santa Barbara, and John told Ron that Susan and I were to go back up there to see the urologist, more bloodwork, etcetera...
and with Ron's heavy folio of Ellisonian Innards to work with, John could work the several miracles he's been faunching to unleash upon me.

Then Suze and I went to dinner at her favorite restaurant, The Gardens of Taxco, where we met up with James Moran and his wife, Jodie Kearn (a spiffy Irish lass), and their chaperone, the estimable Steve Barber--capping the group with the presence of (I'll be here through Thursday, please don't forget to tip your waitress, thank you and good night, ladies and gentlemen) the Skylark of the West, Cris BAH-buh!!! Would you put your hands together for CUH-RISSSSS BAH-buuuuuh! (Sound of rolling applause akin to the sonority of giant waves hitting the cliffs at Entremont.)

All four of them seemed cheery, happy, well-fed, and, in Jodie's case, beach-pink and healthy.

Next medical bulletin after the eye doctor on Thursday.

I hope you're enjoying the candor.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

KIM OWEN SMITH:

Address noted; box goes out tomorrow.

Uh, Hitchcock did indeed do just one science fiction film.

It was called "The Birds."

Yr. Pal, Harlan

Space Patrol
Lauri

Wow! I didn’t think anybody remembered the old “Space Patrol” TV show, but I guess there are a few of us out there, its strange but I can still remember some of the episodes very clearly, ( I can remember things 5o years ago but cant remember where I put my car keys?) anyway does anybody remember the offer they made to send away cereal box tops and you got a really cool cardboard control panel with little plastic knobs and things on it so you could pretend you where flying with commander Cory, Happy and that very sexy Tonga to battle the evil Prince Baccaratti?, well I had one for a time but as with all things I threw it out when I got older and developed a big crush on Annette form the Mouseketeers.

When I got my first car, I was 13 at the time and couldn’t drive but I had saved some money and brought one for $50, it ran very good and I named it the “Terra five” after the show, all good memories there, I also think you might be right about the scene that Kim asked about but I also think it might be form that old Swedish version of “Flash Gordon”, there was a episode where they where on a planet with lighting and fire, and they had to go outside to use some kind of drill?, that might be the one too?.

GML

sfx
Harlan-sending sfx with the sfx fan poll. You are #55. You'll enjoy the company down there, trust me.jz

@STEVE BARBER
On the other hand, they are quickly developing an aversion to LA traffic.

It took me 20 minutes as a freaking 10 year old passenger in LA, driving to Disneyland, to be sick of it. And that was 15 years ago.

@Frank Church, I said az was going to go blue this election. We've always been right at the edge the last couple decades. YEE HAW!

Also, I and my wife wear leather masks. We are both quite straight.

Steve,

My contact info should be in your inbox. I'm free Friday, as it happens.

Jason

I have a titanium implant in my upper jaw, and I still can't contact Mars. I even tried while wearing my aluminum foil cap.

Harlan, once the new tooth gets placed over the titanium implant, you might have a long break-in period getting used to the solidity of the post. This thing is like an iron bar compared to the other teeth. It doesn't give or wiggle like a normal tooth. I don't think a shot in the face with a hockey stick could damage it.

The New Yorker Cover

The New York Times cartoonists have had some interesting response cartoons to the controversy: http://www.uclick.com/client/nyt/tt/ (Tom Toles, Jeff Danziger and Tony Auth)

My own take is the cover is not the crime against humanity that some of my fellow Obama supporters make it out to be, but that as satire it somehow misses the mark.

It seems like the trick with satire is to snuggle right up close to an accurate depiction of the real world and then add a twist or amplification that pushes the whole thing over into funny commentary. Amp too much and you're being too obvious, not enough and it's hard to tell if the piece is meant to be satirical.

It sounds like Barry Blitt (the artist) felt like taking all of the smears and lumping them into a single image was enough to make the artwork clearly satirical. For a lot of people it is. But I fear that plenty of others see Blitt's compendium of smears and just nod their heads: "Yup."

On the whole I like his work (I subscribe to the magazine and recognize his style), and it sounds like his heart is in the right place. Those smears were worth satirizing -- I'm just not sure he pulled it off.

MM

Reply to Anthony Tollin
Sorry, Anthony. Your credit is indeed listed at the bottom of the the first page of the reprinted story. That's what happens when I'm in a rush--I miss critical information that I should have included. Kudos for being modest enough to not directly point out that you were the story's colorist. Yer a classy guy!

That New Yorker cover
Sorry, Frank Church - I give it a thumbs up.

Harlan - just chiming in with best wishes for the cardio appointment; hope all is tickety-boo with the ticker. And I trust Mr. Moran had a brilliant visit.
Best
Jes

No, Harlan, we are thoughtful, caring people. A toothless Harlan would not be a pleasant thing.

May that heart bark someone else's dead body back alive. Love scanners we could call it.

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

Barber, it's called sprawl. Why I hate LA.

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


Josh, you should have had Batman come out of the closet. Would spice things up.

Leather masks--yea, he's gay.

----------

Obama is even ahead in Arizona. Ah, the hilarity.

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

Shame on the New Yorker.

KOS, I might know about that 1958 show....
It may very well have been a re-run of the show Space Patrol which ran for a couple of years, 1953-54, I believe. It was kinescoped. I have a number of the videotapes made from the original kinescopes and I think I remember a scene such as the one you described. But to be sure, I'd have to spend more time than I have available now to go through some of the videos.

Space Patrol was a terrific show for those low tech days, good writing, great acting, directing etc. A book came out a couple of years ago going into some detail about the history of the show and its cultural context. (Title of book: Space Patrol). I was a major fan of this show when I was a kid.

The Huey, Dewey and Louie decimal system
Brian,
I remember browsing in the school bookstore years ago and being pleasently surprised to see the Harlan Ellison Hornbook on display. Then I noticed what shelf it was on:

Music

And this was a college bookstore. I related this one to Harlan at a book signing and he got a kick out of it.

Harlan Ellison's Watching (the skies?) - A Borders Exclusive
So, I go to Borders, to buy a gift for a friend and after I browse through the stacks for a while, I find "Harlan Ellison's Watching".

WHERE do I find it?

Science Fiction!

Now, I know the longstanding issue of Ellison not writing Science Fiction, but this is a book of FILM commentary.

So I says to a manager, I says, this book here, it's misfiled. It should be next to Ebert's books, upstairs. The manager said that corporate made the decision and she couldn't change it.

The website, correctly, lists this under Media-Media(isn't that an Elvis Costello song?)-General Film.

So, if you want to read good film criticism, look next to David Eddings.

I'd hate to think where they would have filed Asimov's book about Gilbert and Sullivan.

Brian "Smithee" Phillips

It is my pleasure escorting the Morans about town. (Wyatt, Cramer, Lane, Loftus and Weems would recognize many of the sites we visited.) And they both were "blown away" by the hospitality shown them in Sherman Oaks.

(As we drove back down Mulholland, James kept shaking his head muttering "I still can't believe that really happened". I did my best to convince him it hadn't but Jodie kept shushing me.)

On the other hand, they are quickly developing an aversion to LA traffic. They may be going native much faster than expected.

My own "arrived home at 7:30pm" observation? This is one effing big town.
_________________________________________________

JASON DAVIS - Send me your contact info again s'il voous plait. I've misplaced the previous note and may need to beg your assistance if you're free on Friday.

Nothing much
Steve Jarrett - thanks for that link! My inner geek (heck, my outer geek!) just loved it!! I shared it with a number of my engineering coworkers. (To quote one, "Yep, it's official. You're a geek." *laf*)

Harlan - stay healthy. Crossed fingers for good reports all around.

Cheers
Peg

UNCA HARLAN,

Speaking on behalf of the rest of the annoying nags, THANK YOU for posting updates on your medical condition. We do understand that we are not actually entitled to this kind of personal information, and we are therefore appropriately grateful that you are willing to extend us the courtesy of being kept apprised. Because we do care, and we do worry about you, ya big lug.

Steve J.

Harlan,

Best of luck on that Cardio appointment. May all your tubes be clear and your ticker ticking smartly.

To Twain afficianados: the July 14 issue of TIME has "The Dangerous Mind of Mark Twain" on the front cover. You might already know about it, but just in case, there's the info.

Chuck

11... 11 Alive!
Michael Rapoport: you and I grew up watching the same 6 o'clock Trek reruns on the same channel in the same 70s. I must report that a decade later, when WPIX ran what is still the greatest TV late night lineup ever (Odd Couple at 11, Honeymooners at 11:30, Trek at 12:00 and Twilight Zone at 1:00), they for what seemed weeks kept running freaking "Catspaw" over and over, first on a Monday, then the following Tuesday, then the following Monday again (or something like that). "Spock's Brain" would have been a blessed relief.

The Strangest Man I Ever Met
Harlan's recent dental experiences reminded me of the gentleman referred to in my header. Used to insist that the dentist never give him novacaine, no matter how painful the experience would otherwise be. Called it, "An interesting test of will power." Also used to tell me that, no later than the mid-1980s, some unspecified catastrophe was going to cause the entire United States government to collapse, at which time he would singlehandedly take over. He planned to get the trillions of dollars necessary to run a country from all the best selling STAR TREK books he was going to write.

No, I am NOT making this up. I won't even go into how he used to tell me that there's nothing wrong with cannibalism because "meat is meat."

It takes all kinds...

chrestomathy
K. O. Smith
Modernism Too
12523 Limonite Ave.
Suite 440-153
Mira Loma, CA 91752

Lacy is, indeed, a bit of a prude. However, once you say the magic words, "Have some madeira, m'dear?" (while proffering the requisite actual glass of Madeira), the gates swing wide and les bon temps roullez if ya know what I mean?

(From time to time I make typo's that are of such a felicitous nature I suspect some subconscious skullduggery going on in my mind.)

Yeah, sayeth not I knew; the comma I did not. Something new every day. You're the best, and cheapest, copy editor I ever had.

By the way, I am impressed, Harlan, that you went through Army Ranger training (something new I learned). Did that include jumping out of a perfectly good airplane while it was in flight?

A titanium implant!? Holy moley and Betty Spaghetti, that sounds kind of cool!

I think Shyamalan is beyond help. Gary told me, by the way, that when he first saw "The Sixth Sense", he picked up in about five minutes that the protagonist was what he was. There was a visual cue that gave it away. I guess it was intentional by the director, but one never knows, do one?

TV Mystery Show:

Around about 1958. give or take a year, I was flipping the channels on the tube on a weekend afternoon (likely a Saturday, but who knows?). I came across the last few minutes of an SF type of show. It was a group of men, wearing "space suits" sort of, with weird pointy helmets that made them look vaguely like walking shellfish. They were on some sort of desert planet, deserty looking anyway, with rocks and little hillocks.

The leader was trying to get his men to safety, but there were these periodic lightning storms muckng things up a bit. Some of the men were arguing with him about which way to go, and he insisted he was right. Then a bolt of lightning hit him, as I recall while standing on a hillock (perhaps to espy better the way to safety?), and he expired. That was it. It may have been a segment from a serial or series.

I have wondered for fifty some years what the hell that show was! Anyone? Bueller?

I wish Alfred Hitchcock would have done just one SF film.

Hedy Lamarr held several patents, from her own inventions, in missile and torpedo guidance system technology. She even was honored by a professional engineering society for her innovative work. This may perhaps have been the only time a bombshell with a heavenly body actually helped guide bombs through the heavens...

My dream celebrity wrestling death match is Hedy vs. Ingrid Bergman. My money's on Tondelayo.

KOS

Harlan is mentioned in an interview with Guillermo Del Toro in the latest Rue Morgue magazine Issue 80 July, 2008.

ATTENTION, YOU ANNOYING NAGS

MEDICAL APPOINTMENT REPORT #1:

An hour-plus in Dr. Perlaza's dental chair. Titanium implant post into upper left quadrant jawbone. No pain. Not a scintilla, even after the novocaine has worn off. If you are seeking a SPECTACULAR dental surgeon in the LA area, Harold Perlaza on Van Nuys Blvd. in Sherman Oaks is nonpareil. You have my unadorned full-out recommendation. Tell'm Harlan sent you. Two weeks, more X-rays and the sutures removed; six months the new tooth goes in, atop the implant moly.

Tomorrow 4:30, Beverly Hills, the cardiologist I blew off last week. I'll report in.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

Whoa...
Grace Slick,
Big Trouble in Little China,
Denny O'Neil,
and
Spock's Brain...

Have a Baader-Meinhoftastic day, guys!

Movies -- and thanks
ALL: I agree with Ezra about "HellboyII" -- haven't seen it but read lots of magazine articles that make it sound like a must-see -- same for "Dark Knight." And because it opened here alreayd and the girls talked me into going, I have to say that "Mama Mia!" was actually a fun movie. Definitely worth seeing (and singing scenes after the credits roll are worth staying in your sea over). Yeah, it's based on schmaltzy, pop songs, but...hell, every now and then a harmless, no-brainer movie can be fun (like "Big Trouble in Little China," "The Mummy," etc).

FRANK: You're right, of course. Unfortunately, too many parents these days either don't make for good role models or aren't interested in putting time and effort into raising their kids (rather than foisting them off on relatives babysitters, etc, when there's some free time).
--DTS

"The Batman Nobody Knows"
Andrew Lambacher wrote:
"Well, I have that story in the hardcover collection THE GREATEST BATMAN STORIES EVER TOLD (DC Comics Inc., 1988), and I can provide that proper credit.
The story is a 6-page tale from BATMAN #250 (July 1973). Titled "The Batman Nobody Knows," the story was written by Frank Robbins (not Denny), the art credited to Dick Giordano, edited by Julius Schwartz."

But Andrew, after you went to the trouble of looking up the story's credits in THE GREATEST BATMAN STORIES EVER TOLD, you omitted the colorist's name (located at the very bottom of the first page).
That particular DC colorist, BTW, ranked "The Batman Nobody Knows" as one of his all-time favorite Batman stories, and colored the tale multiple times (including a tabloid-sized reprinting). The story is a wonderful example of what some comic book scripters, especially lifelong pros like Frank Robbins, used to be able to accomplish in only six pages.
The multi-talented Frank Robbins once told me that he routinely penciled and inked all six JOHNNY HAZARD daily strips on Monday, then would do the art for the Sunday on Tuesday (and finish the day by scripting the next week's strips). Then he'd write and draw DC Comics stories Wednesday through Friday.

Harlan in Film Comment
Check out the July/August 2008 edition of Film Comment. Right there, on the very last page, titled "Closing Shots", on the lower left hand corner, you will see picture of our esteemed host, Erik Nelson and Adam Leon at the screening of "Dreams With Sharp Teeth" at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

rah
In Spider Robinson's introduction to the new Easton Press edition of STARSHIP TROOPERS, he mentions that Robert Heinlein had a complete set of Jefferson Airplane records, due to an interest in Grace Slick. Just wanted to mention that, think it's cool in it's own way...

Andrew,

Thanks for the info. Someone at the Chicago Wizard Con managed to conjure that up as well, but I promptly forgot, so now I can hop on over to the greatest comic book store in the world (Meltdown, on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood) and pick it up. It's been many decades since I read it, but I've always loved that story.

The DVD came out last week, and is selling exceptionally well, I'm told. The reviews on the internet have been especially hilarious - I've been the target of internet movie geeks before, but they got nothin' on the comic kids. Some of these people.... well, William Shatner said it best on SNL many years ago.

Anyway, I'm very proud of my segment, and once Warners gets off their asses and sends my my DVDs, I'll be passing one along to our esteemed host.

And speaking of whom: Shagin's post reminds me - Harlan, we are on for the big Labor Day adventure, as long as you kids are still up for it.

and another from 2002;

http://www.sfwa.org/news/2007/jhensley.htm

Joe L. Hensley
*** Todd ***

Here's a link to a photo. The folks there ought to be able to tell you who provided it and who could grant permissions on it.

http://www.morgan-nay.com/obit.aspx?id=159

- Barney Dannelke

Request by MYSTERY SCENE for a Joe Hensley photo
Hi Ed,

Art Taylor has written a terrific article about books dealing with civil rights which discusses THE COLOR OF HATE.

Would you happen to have a photo of Joe Hensley? If not, could you maybe post a query on your blog to see if anyone else has one we could use in Mystery Scene?

Hope all is well with you!

Best,
kate


Kate Stine, Editor in chief
Mystery Scene Magazine
331 W. 57th Street, Suite 148
New York, NY 10019-3101
www.mysteryscenemag.com
Tel: 212-765-7124

Ed here: I don't have a photo of Big Joe but maybe one of you out there could help out. He was one hell of a guy and one hell of a writer.

Reading material
New issue of "Skeptical Inquirer" is on the stands with Harlan's tribute to Arthur C. Clarke.

Saw HELLBOY II last night. These movies have a strange curse of being burdened with oddly limp and wet villains, but otherwise I liked it a whole lot better than the first.

Answering Josh
Josh Olson is the subject of a new interview at Comic Book Resources regarding his segment for the now on-sale BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT. When asked about his inspiration for the story, Josh answers, "If I was the second guy to have done this, I'd be a thief. But I've seen about three of these stories now, and I'm the fourth, so it's a genre now. There was an issue of "Detective Comics” that I think Denny O'Neil wrote in the late '60s or early '70s. It's three kids around the campfire, Bruce Wayne is the scout master. I haven't been able to find that story since I read it, I'd like to give it the proper credit." Well, I have that story in the hardcover collection THE GREATEST BATMAN STORIES EVER TOLD (DC Comics Inc., 1988), and I can provide that proper credit.

The story is a 6-page tale from BATMAN #250 (July 1973). Titled "The Batman Nobody Knows," the story was written by Frank Robbins (not Denny), the art credited to Dick Giordano, edited by Julius Schwartz.

Dorman, blame the popular culture. It promotes the idea that backstabbing and petty competition are the norm. To get ahead you have to fuck over the other person. You see this in all the popular reality crap. We have a very loud society, and the pathology surrounding poverty and the naked class divisions don't help much. Right wing talk radio can be blamed for lots of it, even though they keep harping on about "virtue." I spit in that void and hit bullseye every time.

Forcing kids to be nice doesn't work, they will just think that you are being mean, or what you said, being a fascist. Show them a positive role model--sounds like Oprah shit, but sometimes she is correct. Doctor Phil just masterbates in her shadow.

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

I love the Bugliosi book, but it would be helpful if Mr. Bugliosi wouldn't go on television complaining about the amount of time he is allotted. He even got angry at Amy Goodman, when he was on Democracy Now. She gave him about twenty minutes, which is more most people get. Sure, she gives Chomsky the full hour, but it's Chomsky. haha.

Be nice Bugliosi. Be thankful that anyone has you on.

HARLAN wrote - "SANDRA: We were away for several days. I usually only check here once, sometimes twice, a day (since Rick went AWOL) and otherwise leave it alone. Your phone call request came in a few minutes after I posted and then shut everything down, and got in the car and went. I have just now seen your request. Sorry I missed helping you out this time, but I hope by now everything is back in balance. I fear I'll be unavailable all this week, through Sunday, as I am up to my agenda in dentist, cardiologist, urologist and opthalmologist appointments, not to mention that James and Jodie Moran are here from the U.K. and in concert with the estimable Steve Barber, I'll be engaged making their LA hegira a pleasant one. So, sadly, no phone calls, please."


No problems. I'll relay everything here. Doug and I are planning on being in your neck of the woods over Labor Day weekend and we would like to treat both you and Susan to dinner. Let us know if this works for you.

Life, appointments, and health will always take precident. Be good to yourself. Susan, take care of yourself as well. You are both in our thoughts.


Sandra

returned from rusticating
July 4th vacation offers a chance to catch up on cultural activities as well as opportunities to experiment with high explosives.

1. ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD

What can I say about this brilliant movie other than if at all possible you should see it in a theater because it is so visually stunning. I dare say that no matter what environments or ecologies we discover in outer space few will be so weirdly beautiful as Antartica. And contrary to what you may have heard, there ARE penguins in this movie, in one of the film's most haunting sequences.

Great soundtrack too!

2. HELLBOY II

This movie shifts gears a little but from the original (which I also loved) but is succeeds because it contains that simple comic book spirit of joy and fun that has been largely lost in most of the "superhero" adaptations in their quest to be dark and heavy and worst of all relevant. Great monsters! Thrills & spills! Funny as hell! I really love the new member of the team enuff said...

3. THE HAPPENING

M. Night Shyamalan is without a doubt a talented director but he obviously drank the auteur kool-aid at some point. He needs a good writer real bad. Any volunteers?


I saw some TV too. Fascist cop shows where the knowing and wise but brutal “good guys” save us from the evil-doers by shredding the Bill of Rights at every opportunity, interspersed with drug commercials. I’m glad old hands like David McCallum have steady work but jeez, no thanks!

loving who?
LOVING WHO?

I like so many others am a big Doctor Who fan, I started watching them when they first came out on Saturday mornings on KCET, they ran about 90 minuets and where really fun, at that time I was just meeting my wife Margaret and she would always let out a little sigh when I got up early and tuned on the TV to watch the show, I recorded all of them on my VCR and at the end I must have had thirty of forty tapes all recorded with six hours each of Who!, its was great, but then I got a new VCR and they didn’t work on the new set up, so nothing to do but copy over them, OUCH, that hurt.

Now my wife loves the show, she always makes jokes about it of course but I know she’s just having fun, as for Star Trek, years ago when the first movie came out, (star trek the motion picture) they got the old model of the enterprise out of storage and where going to us it for promotion, well it needed lots of work to get in shape but like all uncaring corporations they didn’t want to spend any money getting it done, but some friend of mine got together and pitched in to put it back into great condition for the opening, they didn’t get paid but when asked why they would work so hard and not get anything for it they said,

“ hey man it’s the enterprise that’s way!”,

Great guys!

I MUST BE VERY BRIEF .........

SANDRA: We were away for several days. I usually only check here once, sometimes twice, a day (since Rick went AWOL) and otherwise leave it alone. Your phone call request came in a few minutes after I posted and then shut everything down, and got in the car and went. I have just now seen your request. Sorry I missed helping you out this time, but I hope by now everything is back in balance. I fear I'll be unavailable all this week, through Sunday, as I am up to my agenda in dentist, cardiologist, urologist and opthalmologist appointments, not to mention that James and Jodie Moran are here from the U.K. and in concert with the estimable Steve Barber, I'll be engaged making their LA hegira a pleasant one. So, sadly, no phone calls, please.

KOS: We've lost your address. Books ready. Nowhere to send'm. Plz restock my address bin, the one in my noggin. Oh, and I THINK you meant LADY Godiva, not "Lacy." Lacy was her prudish but transparent daughter. And the expression in law is not "Further deponent says no more," it is: Further, Deponent sayeth not.

KEITH: Clue book, signed, already gone in the mail. Thanks, kiddo.

DAVID RAY: Thank you for the SFX, when it arrives.

JESSI LEE: Felicitations on the manifestation of your bouncing homunculus. Read the baby Ellison???? Is that not in the law's hornbook as CHILD ABUSE, EXTREME????? Well, if you MUST, I suggest a choice item called "The Little Boy Who Loved Cats."
(Heh heh)

Yr. otherwise-involved pal, Harlan

Brains
Heh...the Spock's Brain thread offers the perfect opportunity to follow up on something I promised to post in here some months ago.

About 15 years back I used to hang out with a friend of mine on Saturday nights and watch videos, usually of the sf-related variety. He was successful in turning me on to Python and Gilliam's Brazil, I'd eventually screened him a few of the vintage Outer Limits episodes for him including Soldier and Demon with a Glass Hand, and he tried returning the favor by showing me Doctor Who.

Unforutnately it was The Brain of Morbius, and to say the least, it didn't really take with me.

Granted, that story tends to be well regarded by fans of classic Who...but for years, even after reading some of the novelizations and HE's introductory essay to the American Pinnacle editions, I was always a good deal enamored of the *idea* of Doctor Who than the execution, as far as I was able to see it. Hence, I've always had to suppress a chuckle at the passage: 'I envy you your first exposure to this amazing conceit. And I wish for you the same delight I felt when Michael Moorcock, the finest fantasist in the English-speaking world, sat me down in front of his set in London, turned on the telly, and said, "Now be quiet and just watch."'

Only recently in the wake of the new DW revival have I been able to convince myself to sit still and enjoy those those older shows. Even then I still consider Brain of Morbius to be just too silly and hackneyed for its own good, but I've recently rented it again on video (the truncated 60-minute edition), and finally managed to pick up on the subtler nuances in it. Possibly when the DVD hits the shelves in October, I'll get to have a look at the complete story and might have a better opinion after that.

The Spock's Brain Phenomenon


In a sort of related happening, I've noticed at various times in my life that someone will recommend some new place for lunch or dinner, and they'll go on and on about it, but when they take me, suddenly, the service is poor, the food is blah, and they will say something like "gee, when I've been here before the food has been so much better, and the waitress was cute and friendly," et cetera ...

And of course many people insist that when you're shooting craps, and the dice fly off the table, no matter what you do, whether you call "same dice" or not, your next roll will always be a seven. That one I know from personal experience isn't true EVERY time ...

But from now on, I am going to refer to this stuff as "The Spock's Brain Phenomonon."

Adam-Troy: I'm convinced that the Star Trek phenomenon of which you write is no accident. My introduction to Star Trek was as a kid in the 70s, when WPIX in New York ran the series every weeknight at 6 pm (caused some arguments with my mother about coming to dinner, I can tell you) ... and it seemed like they ALWAYS ran the inferior third-season episodes much more frequently than the others. "Spock's Brain" was indeed in heavy rotation, but the one I remember them running the most was "Spectre of the Gun," the OK Corral episode.

Periodic Videos
This is one of those ideas that is so good, and in retrospect so obvious, that you have to wonder why someone didn't think of it sooner. It's an ongoing web project from the University of Nottingham. When you go to the web page you find the periodic table of the elements. Click on an element's box in the table, and you see a short video about the element and its properties. Nice.

Here's the URL: http://www.periodicvideos.com/

Steve J.

Sa-mokin'
Steve Barber: "JohnE - My grandfather died after a long bout with emphysema, and my mother-in-law from complications arising from lung cancer.

Your wife has got every reason to be terrified."

Well, yes she does (and I felt a wee ripple of trepidation myself here and there, to be honest), and that's why I knew right then and there I had to remove that look of fear in her eyes. I cannot say with any rock-solid certainty that I would have quit smoking on my own without a good smack from reality (and the smack I received was pretty light, considering the alternatives). But y'know -- screw me. I smoked merrily away for most of my life and had a good time doing it, so whatever consequences befall me in that sense are my rightful comeuppance. It's the realization that my extraordinary wife deserves much, much better than I've been giving her that changed my mind. I'm not sure sometimes of my value to myself -- which may be why I took up smoking in the first place -- but there's no denying the value I have to her, which is miraculous and astonishing and must be treated with the deepest respect, else I am a churlish cad whose existence is, in fact, quite valueless.

I went to the doctor yesterday and told him my emphysema-free lungs feel like one of those inflatable rafts you toss out a helicopter, is how well I'm breathing now. Now all I gotta do is prevent fat-ification, or I'll have a whole new slew of health problems to deal with. Thanks to everyone for their kind comments and support.

Laurie: I have not heard Blood and Smoke, sounds interesting, I will investigate!

Andre Norton
Story in today's LA Times about the fight over Andre Norton's estate:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-norton15-2008jul15,0,2339844.story

Is there any estate that doesn't have a battle over who gets control?

HURL
My friend Bill Wilson not only had a book dedicated to him, he had an entire chapter of a book written because of him: i.e., "The Vomit Chapter," in "MY OX IS BROKEN!": ROADBLOCKS, DETOURS, FAST FORWARDS, AND OTHER MEMORABLE MOMENTS FROM TV'S THE AMAZING RACE.

It was written because for a while there every single time he saw an episode of THE AMAZING RACE, somebody was vomiting. Indeed, his first exposure to the show, based on my urging, was the spicy-soup outing in Budapest, which caused a group intestinal rebellion. It was the single most extended
barfathon in the show's history. And he and his lady both came to the temporary conclusion that it was what the show was all about. I had to tell them, no, that's NOT what the show is all about. So they gave the show another try after several additional eps, and again caught an episode where somebody vomited.

I have compared this to the phenomenon of being a STAR TREK fan back when the show was first on, getting your skeptical friend to finally watch an episode, and it turned out to be "Spock's Brain." (It was always "Spock's Brain." Whatever you think of STAR TREK in particular, this phenomenon is not limited to STAR TREK. Whatever the show you really, really like, happens to be, of any genre, it is always the equivalent of "Spock's Brain" that they catch. So you then look like an idiot.)

With THE AMAZING RACE, it was vomit. And I've pointed out that the show does not try to make its contestants vomit, but that vomit is a by-product of running around doing athletic things while eating strange foods. It happens. Occasionally. It's not something you see every episode.

Now, there have been vomit incidents on other reality shows, whenever folks were asked to do something physically difficult, or when it's otherwise appropriate. My wife is a fan of the splenetic Chef Gordon Ramsey, who has been known to gag when one of the contestant chefs on his several cooking shows serves him something particularly unappetizing. (And seriously, how do some of those incompetents ever go back to work as chefs, ever again, when the shows establish on national television that a couple of them don't even know well enough to check the freshness of raw seafood?)

But again, in none of these cases is vomit the POINT.

Enter HURL.

Which starts tonight on G4.

HURL is in such bad taste that, just based on the concept, I nominate it for most repellent reality show of all time.

Contestants are induced to eat massive amounts of food
that sits heavily in the stomach: in the case of the first episode, macaroni salad, pounds of it. And then they're subjected to activities designed to induce the gag reflex, in the case of the first episode being spun at high speeds inside
steel cage balls.

The last contestant to puke wins the cash.

I am not kidding.

I will also not be watching.

In 2008, this is what's on television.

You have to be kind
BARNEY (And ADAM): Regarding being a guy and hesitating to help kids -- I say to hell with that. I know what Adam's talking about (if there are typso after this, sorry, not fixin em -- broken pinky)0. I udnerstand the trepidation -- I've thought about it from time to time when it's brought up in this sort of discussion. But at the time something liek that happens, it should be iimpossible for any responsible adult -not_ to stop and talk to the kid. I've done it many times throughout my life -- single and married. Sometimes mom or dad was just around the corner. Sometimes a little further. Same deal with women by the side of ther road fixing a flat; or women or older folks needing help with a door or bag or whatever. It's always been second nature just to stop and offer help: a hand, the strenght of my arms, whatever.

I'm alwasy surprised when someone -- usually someone who knows me -- says that was nice, or you're a nice guy, if they see me do these things. The thing is: I don't give the notion or attempt to help a lot of thought. Furthermore, I'm NOT necessarily a nice guy: and of all people, my wife or daughter should know that (they live with me for chrissake, and have experienced my ocassional surliness -- mean and bearlike for sure).

This is gonna sound semi-fascist (maybe not that harsh) but I think schools (and following their example, parents -- vice-versa preferably, but we know what sort of cretins can become parents) should start teaching kids common courtesies again. In grammar school, where it either takes hold or it's lost. The one common element I've noticed all over America -- and in quite a few of the countries I've visited -- is a lack of common courtesy. If people can't even be bothered to acknowledge each other with a nod, a good morning and/or a little help with a door (or a bag, etc), who can expecte them to actually make an effort to help when it really counts? (Like when a child is lost, a senile man or woman is wandering the street, etc., etc.)

Kurt Vonnegut had it right. The formula is simple; but a rare discovery in the man or woman next to you. You have to be kind, goddamnit.

So it goes,
DTS

The Experiment... The Children. . .
The young Ms. Dannelke's experiment is a sad indictment of humanity's herding instincts, but Adam-Troy-Castro and John A. Bell bring up another issue which concerns me greatly: society's parodoxical relationship with children.

I've been working with kids (6-14) for five years now, and I'm probably going to make a career out of it.

No one I mention this to can avoid making a joke about pedophilia.

It seems that society has become so preocupied with sex that even ordinary adult-child interaction is viewed through that prism. Everything has been eroticized to the extent that even grandfathers and stuffed toys are seen as somehow sinister.

The paranoia is reflected in the schools now, which forbid any kind of physical interaction with children, from taps on the shoulder to a high five (nevermind a hug, the average five year old's demands notwithstanding). It's really nothing to do with molestation precautions: it's all about this hyper-sexualized neurosis.

Its become exceedingly dangerous for a man to approach a child in a public place, even one obviously in distress. Leading him to the security kiosk would be misconstrued as an attempted kidnapping - how could you prove that it wasn't, if someone intercepted you?

Of course its no excuse for not contacting security, but its a really sad thing that grown ups can't directly help children in need without having their motivations questioned.

-Steve A.J.D.

P.S. You said it Rob. Weak monsters suck.

Barney: I was once on a Southwest airline flight and I witnessed two women being very emotionally abusive with a little boy who resembled them (I assume they were relatives of the child). They were speaking to him in a cruel contemptuous manner and telling him he was stupid. I could see his face through the space between the seats and he looked desolate and as if he was used to hearing such things. I was trying to figure out what to say or do (they were in the row ahead of me and couldn't see me, probably did not know they were being overheard) when the flight attendant arrived and responded very assertively, very politely and very firmly, contradicting what they had said, talking kindly to the boy and then, when he responded to her intelligently, saying to the women, "You see? He's not stupid at all. He's a fine boy." I had been hesitating and felt ashamed that I had not responded so well nor as quickly as that flight attendant did. I wrote a letter to Southwest Airlines describing the incident and giving her name which was Allison Woods. They sent me back a letter saying they had given her a special commendation and noted it in her work file. Sometimes it is hard to know what to do but there is no question that when these things occur, we have to act and do our best, not just stand on the sidelines as, apparently, most people will do.

John: Congratulations on kicking the habit. Sometimes it takes an extreme situation to give us a moment of clarity. My father used to smoke PallMalls. He was a screenwriter and suffered during the McCarthy era. One day, out of work due to the blacklist, he and I sat in front of the TV screen watching Joe Welch sock it to McCarthy during the Army-McCarthy Hearings. As Joe Welch said, "Have you no shame, sir....?" my father, who had just smoked one cigarette out of a new pack, threw the rest of the pack into the wastebasket, overjoyed to see McCarthy being confronted that way. He said it had given him the strength to kick cigarettes forever. He never smoked again.

P.S. Have you ever listened to the Stephen King audio, Blood and Smoke? It is three stories read by King, all of them with cigarettes playing a very interesting role in the unfolding stories and themes.

When Monsters Come Out Of The Closet

M. Mayhew:

"My one issue with the film is one that I find I'm having more and more with both monster flicks and superhero movies -- bulletproof, bombproof, missile-proof organic creatures just don't wash with me anymore. I just don't buy it and it feels like lazy writing. You wanna say it's very hard to hurt or kill, okay. Or you want to blow it up but then the pieces regenerate or something that feels vaguely like real biology, I'm with you. But depleted uranium tank rounds will punch through damned near anything -- it's very hard to believe that something made of flesh, bones and hide would not at least be hurt by that sort of stuff."

Therein lies one of those profound issues some have with the genre itself.

I actually have the OPPOSITE problem.

If the beast is relatively easy to take out just because of a couple a lousy warheads it's a TOTAL let-down for me. What a pussy of a reptile! I'd send him back to the egg he wasn't even worthy of to begin with!

That's the prevailing rule for me.

But Cloverfield largely sidestepped that problem because - and this is what turned me ON about the flick - it entirely subjective. We're trapped in the mayhem with that small group, literally seeing only what THEY'RE seeing. They're being attacked by something unknown, and, for the most part, unseen.
Moreover, we can imagine that the creature is being televised all over the world and therefore assume so much more data is reachng everyone outside. Our group is cut off from EVERYTHING.

Really cooooooooooooooooooooolllllllllllllll.

We only get glimpses of what's "out there". But for the most part the enemy is unseen. That's what makes this thing work.

That doesn't mean, of course, you can't take issues with SOME things. But I don't care. The fact that so much of the cgi is used with such restraint (I'd say about 60% of the movie has sfx shots and you don't even know it), in a time when I'd gotten overdosed with that stuff, sells me fast.

Before I move on HERE'S was MY main problem with the material: When a movie is set up as something akin to cinema verite, where you meet people who act like so many you meet everyday, and then expects the viewer to slide into the world of the phantasmagoria, the premise gets harder for me to accept.

This is the problem I had with DESCENT.

I almost had the same problem with Cloverfield. The party scene in the beginning - SO different in tone to what followed - made suspension of disbelief something of a challenge. But, fortunately, the problem faded quickly because that sequence was reasonably short.

Nevertheless, as a rule, I think monster flicks work better when the tone opens and remains on some level of surrealism. That way I can accept almost anything to come, and even take it seriously enough if the rest is done right.

The reason I like the very first Godzilla from the early 50's is because it opens in medias res; the very first shot is that of a devastated cityscape without a sign of life. That sets the rest of the way for the kind of logic you need for such a story. Suspension of disbelief isn't a problem.

Having said that, the risks of its approach aside, Cloverfield was a unique surprise in a time when I'd come to hate almost every current effects flick out there.

Quitting Smoking
My 78-year-old Mom just quit after smoking since age 14 -- but it took a diagnosis of early-stage emphysema to get her to do it. She actually used to try to tell me that her doctor said it would be too much of a shock to her system to quit (and I said I needed that doctor to sign all my 'sick' days off from work pronto!). It's a nasty addiction.

The Experiment
Barney,

Just an FYI: a few months ago, I was in a large grocery store in Sedona, AZ (where my wife and I lived until 2 weeks ago.) As I was shopping, I noticed a young boy, maybe 7 or so, was wandering back and forth, looking up and down some aisles, and starting to get teary-eyed. Right as I realized he was lost (and I was walking towards him), a woman came by and asked, "Are you lost? Are you looking for your mom?" The boy said yes, and the woman immediately said, "okay, let's go find her." She took the boy in hand and walked with him to the front of the store, and the management asked over the loudspeaker if his mom could come up front. So, yes, some people *do* take charge, and I've found that when you're confronted by a situation like this (particularly involving a child), the best thing to do is to reassure the kid and seek help, but to also bring attention to you and the situation to others, if possible. This should mitigate any idea that you're a "creep" up to no good.

However... a friend of mine who used to run a store in San Francisco told me about an acquaintance who visited him once with his young granddaughter. They were sitting in the front window of the store, eating lunch and playing some game with the girl's stuffed animals, and the grandfather occasionally made motions to the girl with the animals like, "this monkey's gonna get you! This zebra's gonna get you!" (You know, as if the animals were tickling her.)

The girl was laughing and everyone was having a fun time... until a man walking by the store stopped, walked in, and literally questioned the grandfather about what he was doing (in full view of the street and other patrons of the store.) The grandfather replied, "I'm playing with my granddaughter." The man replied, "I think your behavior is questionable, and I'm calling the police!" The owner of the store, who knew the grandfather's character was above reproach, basically had to tell the stranger to leave, or *he* would call the police. The guy walked out, still issuing threats about what he had "witnessed."

Now, the passerby might've literally been mentally ill, but in the insanely litigious age we live in, trying to help people -- even children in need -- might lead people to not want to get involved. A sad state of affairs, indeed.

-- Jon

Great, first the gays take all the sand and now we lose Barber's cure to the universe. What next?

Jessi Lee,
Congrats on the new addition. There is a quote I read long ago which is pretty corny but when I first read it I had recently become a parent and it has stuck in my head for years. I may have a few words wrong but basically "To decide to become a parent is to decide that for the rest of your life your heart will be running around outside your body". Welcome to the club.

JohnE,
Good luck fighting the good fight. Sounds like you may have already won. Connie's mother and mine both smoked for forty years or so and both ended up in wheel chairs with Oxygen tubes in their noses. It amazes me how many kids still smoke. Perhaps the schools should just hand out buttons that read "I am so desperate to look cool that I will kill myself". Tell the kids whenever they get the urge to smoke just put on the button. It will save them money and give them extra years of life and deliver exactly the same message to their friends that the cigarette was going to.

Buchanan and Bush and Wilson (Woody, not me)
KOS, you're right, of course, Sumter=Lincoln's watch, not Buchanan's. But the Confederacy was begun under Buchanan's presidency, so my comment labeling him James "What do want me to do about it?" Buchanan still holds, in regards to the dissolution of the Union. In any event, I was just citing him as an example of a poorly performing Chief Executive.
Wilson may be legitimately be considered a contender for worst president of the 20th century---but of all time, I have to stick to my selection of George W. (God told me to invade Irag) Bush.

To Do or Not To Do...
something...*anything*...that is the question.

I've been aware of how few people will actually take it upon themselves to do something when a situation warrants it since I was 11 years old and the only person at a crowded intersection to walk a few steps to call emergency services after a pedestrian was struck and dragged by a car. There were at least 30 other people within yards of the accident and dozens more who witnessed it.

Since then I've also sadly noticed how people will actively seek out reasons why they shouldn't act and even try to convince others why they shouldn't either.

I'd far rather make a mistake than not take action.
-------------
Dear Ellisons, the check for the lion arrived. Thanks.

Jan S.

Instinct (continuing Barney's thread)
A couple of decades ago I was driving alone down a very busy semi-urban thoroughfare: one of those commercial sprawls with chain-stores on both sides, where the flow of traffic was sufficiently busy that crossing it on foot amounted to taking your life in your hands.

It was a divided highway, with a chain-link fence between the two sides. If you wanted to cross, there was an overpass.

I was in the leftmost lane on my side, doing about forty.

Up ahead, I saw an old man who was out of either stupidity or senility crossing on foot. He had made it to the chain-link fence in the opposite lane, and was pushing his way through a loose section to make it to my side. He would have been okay had he kept his footing and stepped onto the concrete lip of the divider. Instead, the flap let go like a trap door. He plunged through it and landed flat on his back in my lane, maybe three or four car-lengths ahead of me.

I yelled and jerked my wheel to the right, cutting off two lanes of traffic to avoid him. Horns blared. I hopped the sidewalk to get off the road, scraped my undercarriage, rammed the car into Park in the middle of a strip-mall parking lot, then leaped out and ran like hell back wher I had come, expecting to see the old guy flattened before I could get there.

By the time I arrived a woman who had succeeded in pulling to a stop within her lane was helping the confused old man to his feet. I shouted at her: "Is he all right?" She shouted back that he seemed to be okay. My heart was still pounding as I went back to the car, where it was being cursed at by people who couldn't get out of their parking spaces. I explained what had happened and one of them STILL cursed at me.

Since that incident (which was subsequently bolstered by a couple of others), I have lived with the knowledge that with a second to react, I ***did something***. It's a liberating knowledge, one that sometimes comforts me when I think I've been a selfish shit. I have also thought about that nameless woman, who given an instant to react, did the same. And I think about it again when I hear of, or see, incidents such as the recent one where a man was struck by a car in full view of a street full of witnesses and left to lie there while more cars sped by.

I can understand being frozen by the moment, or being too afraid to react; that's just human. But the several situations in my personal experience where people made the conscious decision to do nothing remain alien to me. I'll never understand it.

Steve,

When I get Bahleted, I click the back arrow, and there is my post! I fill in the needed information, and post. Mozilla Firefox, btw.

JohnE wrote: "Six weeks this past Saturday since I had my last cigarette, cold turkey plus a little Chantix. and so far not a single moment of temptation. I passed."

Smoking related lung cancer killed my father, his brother, and may well be killing my brother (who is terrified by the thought of going to the doctor, and with my mother so recently gone he's found a new excuse not to make an appointment). I will be your biggest cheerleader.


Not A Rabid Anti-Smoker, But Happy To Support Those Who Quit,
shagin

("BAHLETED" my ass, Rick. Is there any way to preserve what had been typed in the "Your Comments" section so that the bahleted page doesn't wipe out what had been a truly inspiring and impeccably written essay on the world as we know it? I solved all the major problems, and even had some nice things to say, but it is all now, as they say, mere stardust.)
___________________________________________

BARNEY - A somewhat downcast congratulations to your daughter for an experiment that, perhaps, revealed a bit too much about ourselves to be enthusiastically recieved. It reminded me of the recent events in Hartford in which a 78 year old man was run down by a speeding motorist, only to lie in the street ignored by the plentiful pedestrians on the sidewalk. If you haven't seen the video, do so only on an empty stomach. It will make you sick.

I sincerely hope the local paper has been apprised of the experiment.

(Like ATC, I have gotten involved in several instances to help people, for which I was lucky to recieve even a curtly worded "thank you" for the effort. But, IMHO, you have to act if for no other reason than to rage against the machine.)
___________________________________________

JohnE - My grandfather died after a long bout with emphysema, and my mother-in-law from complications arising from lung cancer.

Your wife has got every reason to be terrified.

JohnE
Good on ya. I wish you well. I had an old girlfriend one time whose mother had smoked her whole life. One day she simply through her cigarettes away and was done with them (for good, as far as I knew). When I asked her why she said that she just didn't want to be controlled by those things anymore. Other than the obvious health concerns, that had been the most sensible reason I'd heard for quitting.

Now I read yours and I sincerely hope that you can reverse your damage and be there for your wife and family. You've had a chance to become aware of yourself through another's eyes and it sounds like it was a good thing.

Thoughts and Revelations
I was a smoker for 25 years, and then six weeks ago the bill came due. After a few years of playing a game I call Pretending to Quit Smoking, I was diagnosed by an Emergency Room physician with COPD (Cardio Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder), as in emphysema, which said physician cheerfully informed me was irreversible and barely treatable. I had to get on the Internet at home to discover it was also the Number Four Cause of Death in these here United States.

So I called my personal doctor, with whom I was currently playing yet another round of Pretending to Quit Smoking, and told him I had COPD. "No, you don't," he replied promptly, and by golly he was right. The bottom line is that I DID do serious damage to my lungs, but if I sucked on these two inhalers twice a day for awhile I could actually reverse and repair the damage. And oh yeah, I had to fucking QUIT SMOKING. That would help as well.

But that isn't why I quit.

Lying in the ER that night with an oxygen tube up my nose -- I had not been a hospital patient in nearly 40 years, having broken my arm when I was seven -- I pondered the insanely cheerful ER doctor's diagnosis and had a very grave and serious talk with myself, something I usually manage to avoid. I had brought myself to this place, and had done so willingly and with full knowledge of what I was doing, so no sorrow for myself did I feel. But then I looked over at my wife of four years, who had the most frightened and despairing look in her eyes I have ever seen. "He'll never, ever quit smoking," said her eyes, "and he'll die and leave me here alone." In that moment I knew I had to take that look away, forever. I do not exaggerate when I say that my wife is the kindest, gentlest, most guileless and deeply loving person I have ever known, and I like to believe I have a smidgen of a chance at one day being worthy of her. So this was a real test: if I'd experienced any other thought other than my decision to take that look from her eyes, I would have proven myself as terrible a person as I sometimes think I am.

Six weeks this past Saturday since I had my last cigarette, cold turkey plus a little Chantix. and so far not a single moment of temptation. I passed.

School

"Paladin of the Lost Hour" by flashlight last night at quarter after two in morning right after my wife wakes and nags me for the last time to go to sleep.

I've been paid for and published exactly one short story (April 1st, 2008). While I'm only technically a professional I still think I can offer a bit of useful advice to those thinking of trying their hand at the trade; Don't go to University.

I work at one, a rather good one if you put any stock in rankings or are concerned with reputations, and they seem to think there's no value whatsoever and spend no time at all learning how to do what the authors they read do or how to reproduce it. They are honing weapons of critique here. A school for the new army of the Appreciator Elite whose obsession is with how finely than can chop literature without ever making any themselves.

If you want to learn to write then read Ellison (that's you Harlan, not Ralph, thought the latter is fine as well) and Bester and King and all the others.

Engineers and Chemists should not go down the self directed instruction route as things tend to fall down and become poisoned if you don't have a formal education in these subjects.

Sorry, JaNie...

Jamie
page 345..."It became clear to Sturgeon and myself that I knew virtually nothing about love but was totally familiar with hate, while Ted knew almost nothing about hate, yet was completely conversant with love in almost all its manifestations."

Looking for a quote by HE about Theodore Sturgeon
I think HE wrote it in the introduction to Sturgeon's "If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?" in one of the 'Dangerous Visions' volumes.

The gist is, "(TS) taught me everything I know about love, and I taught him everything he knows about hate."

Can anyone check that for me?

BTW:
Why don't you just put, "What is the name of Harlan's wife"? For those of us with disabilites it makes it pretty GDhard to get anywhere.

Package arrived!
SUSAN & RICK:
The package arrived in perfect condition!
Thank you very much to both of you for the patience and understanding. And Susan, thanks for the goodies!
Cheers,
Luca

UNCA Harlan, its the things that are toughest to do that end up most worth it, yes no?

More nun humor. Two nuns are biking in the city for some early morning exercise. One tells the other to follow her down a side street. The side street goes past a bunch of dingy buildings, and down a long stretch of rough cobblestones. The second nun catches up, and says, "Wow. I've never come this way before." The first nun says, " I know, its the cobblestones. "

On a subject near and dear to my heart, the internetization of mass media, Joss Whedon has a new project out. Dr. Doogie Howser is now, Dr Horrible, a mad scientist, in a three part vignette that will be initially broadcast on the intertubes for free.

http://www.drhorrible.com/

give it a look all. The trailer looks fantastic.

Jessi Lee -- Congratulations! May there be twice as many moments of joy for every moment of hair tearing frustration...and you'll have many of those.

***

Barney -- I wish I could nay say the results of your daughter's experiment, but my huaband and I were on the other end of that response today. We went to Wild Waves without our kids, two adults searching for a bit of togetherness and sanity as we ran around giggling like newlyweds. While on one of the water rides, a large winding "river" where people could relax and splash while tubing, a mother with two young girls was having trouble helping her older daughter to get positioned correctly (the girl was not tall enough or strong enough to deal with the currents if she fell into the water). Hubby, being the Boy Scout of my dreams (s'true...he's an Eagle Scout), asked the girl if she needed help. The girl finally nodded yes, and he leapt off of our double tube to help her get situated. Her mother was right there, and while she thanked him, she watched his hands and manner very closely. She couldn't believe that a stranger was helping her daughter.

Kinda sad, but he helped, and the little girl enjoyed the ride with her family.


shagin

I'm sorry, I'm going again. Anyone who wants to follow up on this more, the e-mail is always right up there.

*** Adam *** This is the most common reaction I've heard. But the failure (because of the way they set up the experiment) goes past the "I didn't want to appear to be a creepy pedophile" factor. This was a WELL trafficked area of a brand new mall. The mall security kiosk was located in a dog leg right around the corner.

NO couples stopped.
NO women with children stopped.
NO adults in ANY configuration could be bothered to walk the 175 feet or so around the corner to notify mall security.

This was not walking up to some little kid all by yourself on a street and risking some sort of litigious nonsense . This was something readily and obviously much more shameful. This was a sick lapse of judgment on the part of dozens of well heeled adults. There are shots of people averting their eyes and one telling shot of a mother having her kid look away.

I *WISH* this were something other than what it was. This was something utterly failed and broken.

- Barney Dannelke

The Experiment
Barney, I wonder how much of the failure to help is due to the instinct for self-preservation. Before I started dating my wife, there was an incident where I spotted a toddler wandering around the housing complex by herself. I *did* help, and found her parents, but first I hesitated, thinking for an instant of the possible fine impression caused by me as the fortyish guy living alone, approaching and leading a small child on the loose. I'm not saying it's right, but we have so demonized strange adults approaching children alone that many adults may resist being the one to step up. Just a thought.

Grrrr.

Not "one" but rather, WON.

sigh.

Speaking of babies
***Harlan*** That baby picture of Kyla I sent you well over 20 years ago officially expires next week when she hits the 21 wall. Tempus freakin' fugit and all that.

Proud poppa moment. My daughter and two of her classmates just one 1st prize in the National American Psychological Association contest for essentially doing lab field work. The lab experiment itself sort of makes me ill, as it was an examination of the psychological phenomena whereby the more people who are present the less likely any one person is to take responsibility of a human distress situation. It's a combination of transference and something else. I have the details upstairs.

Yes, this is PURE Kitty Genovese territory - and yes she's read THE WHIMPER OF WHIPPED DOGS.

In the experiment a young child (she was 11 but looked 8 or 9) was left SEEMINGLY alone (her mother, one of the students was less than 40 feet away and there were other controls) and in apparent mild distress (worried looks, soft sobbing, etc. - she does this act ridiculously well and turns it on and off like a light switch) for the better part of an hour in an upscale well trafficked mall in the Lehigh Valley to see how long it would take for someone to stop and ask the girl if she needed help or assistance. They were looking for lots of factors like gender and age bias and how the "problem" was approached. They were ready to break this data down eight ways to Sunday - which is part of what they were given the award for. Only ONE problem.

NOBODY stopped.

NOBODY alerted mall security.

So, a good day for my daughter and her college resume.

A ***VERY*** bad day for the citizens of the Lehigh Valley.

- Barney Dannelke

Congrats, Jessi with no 'e'.

Lord, I miss freedom fries.

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

Dorman, look for Jim Loewen's masterwork, Lies My Teacher Told Me, the standard in alternative history--the only history that matters.

Facts are like fresh water.

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

Kim, you are not resentful, a very good thing.

Now let me braid your hair.

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

Colombiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Dig their coke.

"Aliens"
Jan brought up the subject of the movie Aliens, back in my special effects days I worked for a couple of wonderful guys named Bob and Denny Skotec , they where the ones behind all the great miniatures and lots of other things in that movie, I was going to work on it with them but at the last moment they moved the whole production to England, its really killed me!, but what can you do.

But then I heard later the whole project was fraught with illness, bad food and a lot of other things, but still I do wish I had my name on that film, its one of my all time favorites, and I want to thank Bob and Denny for doing such a great job, those two brothers gave me my first break and I owe them a lot, there both “old school “ movie guys and have done a great deal for the industry.

Harlan,

I suspect Caitlin Kiernan could use a spot of encouragement right about now. You might call her if you get a moment.

Regards,

The Night Manager

The French
OK, I'm not the history expert, so I won't tread there, but French movies blow chunks?

Renoir's RULES OF THE GAME and GRAND ILLUSION and BOUDU SAVED FROM DROWNING and LA CHIENNE
Truffaut's 400 BLOWS and JULES AND JIM and DAY FOR NIGHT
Cocteau's BLOOD OF A POET, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, LES ENFANTS TERRIBLES
Godard's BREATHLESS, WEEKEND, CONTEMPT, MASCULINE/FEMININE, ALPHAVILLE
Alain Resnais' LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD and HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR

Plus Rene Clair, Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer, Agnes Varda, Louis Malle, Jacques Tati, Jean Vigo

Nah, I don't think French movies blow chunks.

Ben Bova: Believe it or not, there are more than a few laughs in
Ben Bova: Believe it or not, there are more than a few laughs in science fiction

By BEN BOVA
7:00 p.m., Saturday, July 12, 2008

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/jul/12/ben-bova-believe-it-or-not-there-are-more-few-laug/


Two views of Thomas M. Disch
Novelist James Sallis remembers his friendship with the late science fiction author.
By James Sallis
July 13, 2008

http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-bk-tomdisch13-2008jul13,0,3532164.story

To Jessie Lee
Jessie Lee; Congratulations on the new arrival! May he bring you nothing but joy and may he know nothing but health and happiness.

The history...addendum
OOPS: The sentence beginning, "Since a Civil War..." is missing these words: "so the Border Wars were, by definition, the true beginning of that national conflict;"

Sorry for the double-post, but as The Dude has been known to say: "New Shit has come to light." (In this case, the knowledge of an overlooked typo. In this particular model of Human Bean, brain speed is sometimes a bit faster than the hands -- or lips).

Best wishes...and keep on abiding,
DTS

The History Men Don't Know -- or Recognize
KOS: Don't not sure if you know it (quite a few don't), but the Civil War actually started _before_ Ft. Sumter. Got a chance to do some research for a magazine piece (for now defunct, "Kansas City Magazine") concerning the Kansas/Missouri border wars between the "Jayhawks" and the "Bushwhackers." Since a Civil War is described as a "war between opposing groups of citizens of the same country"; some well-known events in Lawrence, KS were even taking place about this time.

But getting history books to change something as ingrained -- and as iconic and symbol-laden -- as firing on Ft. Sumter would be like getting Republicans to admit that they turned a blind eye to blantant chicanery in the 2000 election voting fraud that took place in Florida, or that they now walk in lock-step with ogres like ____(pick any name from the roll call of a well-known Fundamentalist Christian Group) or Rupert Murdoch, or that their candidate and "elected" President (the ever eloquent Dubya -- who _really_ doesn't have an IQ lower than a snail's butt) helped set America back (politically, economically, scientifically, culturally, etc., etc.) by about 15 to 50 years (depending on the specific target, economics or otherwise).

More's the pity.
-DTS

New Baby
I just wanted to share my happy news that I had my first baby Monday July 7. His name is Jack Elliot and he was 7 pounds 6 ounces and 21 inches long.

Now I just need to figure out which Ellison stories will be good to read to a little boy.

Please take a minute ...

... to visit the page Shane linked. It's a short piece very much worth reading.

D., who likes the French

My interesting find of the day.

Q: Why weren't you involved with the sequel, Aliens (1986), which James Cameron did?
Ridley Scott: Very simple: they didn't ask me! To this day I have no idea why. It hurt my feelings, really, because I thought we did quite a good job on the first one.

hmmm

KOS: When you say "If we had stayed the hell out of WW1 there would have been ... no WW2," it makes me wonder how you got to visit the Alternate Earth where things went down that way, or if, perhaps, things aren't quite as proven as you make them sound.

There were something like 20 million people killed in that war, yes? I think, after that kind of loss of life and treasure, ending things with a negotiated settlement -- no winners, no losers -- would still have left massive festering resentments leading to... the next awful slaughter. You have made a study of history and I have not, but my sense of human nature says that you don't get a happy ending from World War 1, Wilson or no.

Also, when you say "The EU is just trying to recreate what Wilson destroyed" I think you're missing the key issue that membership in the EU is voluntary. As a matter of fact you have to work hard to join. That's a big difference. Plus the individual nations get representation and power-sharing in the decision-making process. It's not really the same, it seems to me.

Rob: What an odd coinkydink, I just yesterday watched Cloverfield for the first time too. My feeling was that they got a lot of stuff right, and I enjoyed their willingness to stay very dark in terms of tone. I have friends who saw the film in the theater and said the sloppy handheld look made them feel a bit motion sick, however (the style worked well on my TV).

My one issue with the film is one that I find I'm having more and more with both monster flicks and superhero movies -- bulletproof, bombproof, missile-proof organic creatures just don't wash with me anymore. I just don't buy it and it feels like lazy writing. You wanna say it's very hard to hurt or kill, okay. Or you want to blow it up but then the pieces regenerate or something that feels vaguely like real biology, I'm with you. But depleted uranium tank rounds will punch through damned near anything -- it's very hard to believe that something made of flesh, bones and hide would not at least be hurt by that sort of stuff. At least for me.

That seems a long enough post, so I will spare you all the joke I was going to share. Lucky you!

MM

Two views of Thomas M. Disch By James Sallis

Two views of Thomas M. Disch
Novelist James Sallis remembers his friendship with the late science fiction author.
By James Sallis
July 13, 2008

http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-bk-tomdisch13-2008jul13,0,3532164.story

I know what you mean
"...an inept president (who two married friends of mine who are child psychologists have diagnosed as being a possible victim of fetal alcohol syndrome)in a nuclear age..."

You do mean William Jefferson Clinton, right?

LOL!

Buchanan was not in office when the Reb's fired on Fort Sumter. He allowed the crisis to slowly fester, but the Reb's only put fire to powder once "Ape" Lincoln was in office and tried to resupply Anderson and his troops.

There's nothing new except the history you don't know.

Certainly Wilson was the worst president of the twentieth century. If we had stayed the hell out of WW1 there would have been a negotiated peace, no "dolchstoss legende" or Versailles to feed any German victimization. no Hitler, perhaps no Stalin (the Germans would have kept many of the territories they got in the Brest-Litovsk treaty, hamstringing the nascent Soviet state) and definitely no WW2. The Germans of 1917 were not the Nazi's. They had a more "democratic" form of government than half of the countries they were fighting (more so than either Russia OR Great Britain), and were not notably more anti-semitic than any other European nation (indeed, markedly less so than either France or Russia at that time).

You want to know who to blame for the stupid idea that we can carry democracy to places like Iraq on the points of our bayonets? Wilson. (another bad idea from the French Revolution. Virtually every bad idea of the twentieth century has a French Connection. They contribute two things to Western Civilization: really good cuisine and really bad philosophy. Their movies blow chunks also).

You can also thank Wilson for popularizing the loopy idea that if one government is a danger, then a "trade association" of governments that looks out for the interests of governments worldwide is somehow better for everyone involved. Sort of like expecting the American Chamber of Commerce to rein in Wal-Mart! (This is why it is a "duh" moment of the first order when Russia and China veto any UN action against a "rogue" regime like Mugabe's in Zimbabwe).

His "Fourteen Points" were the start of the Second World War. We're stll paying for the breakup of large trans-national states into little pissant countries. The EU is just trying to recreate what Wilson destroyed.

Hell, bring back Austria-Hungary ANY day. And does anyone besides me know (or care! LOL) that the son of the last Hapsburg emperor, Otto Hapsbutg, is not only sfill alive but actively involved in European politics?

The more it changes the more it stays the same, indeed.

KOS

Alan Coil Wrote:
"Does anybody here know how to keep one's rabbits from running away?"

Shootin' em?

You vill never escape Stalag 17!

Rob,

If you saw Cloverfield on DVD, have you explored the easter eggs yet? Go to Scene Selection, then select scenes 13-17 and wait about a minute. Chapter 17 will appear. Be sure to click on the box that says "Supplemental Files". Have fun!

Chuck

I just watched Cloverfield for the first time.

Cloverfield is the best monster movie (with its open-faced nod to the best behemoth flicks of the 50's) of the entire era - whether or not you're INTO that genre.

It even has a kick-ass score - the "Cloverfield Overture" by Michael Giacchino in the closing credits; literally the ONLY movie of - AGAIN! - this entire era that offered one.

And the cgi effects were refreshingly restrained for narrative utility, in a time when Hollerwood has, for the most part, abandoned any real storytelling.

Anything that ends with "I had a good day" is a fun flick.

Reply
Steve Barber: Yeah, THE SHALLOW END OF THE POOL, really a novella chapbook, should be out in a few weeks. It's a killer. Then there are two novels next year, one of them THE THIRD CLAW OF GOD, the next Andra Cort. Thanks for the plug opportunity!

I know Oliver Stone's making the Dubya biopic with Josh Brolin, but really, he should be played by Steve Carell...

The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder
I reviewed it here:

http://www.worldfamouscomics.com/tony/back20080704.shtml

Tony

Reading
Just one of those lazy California days sitting around reading magazines -- yes those archaic things you actually hold in your hands, turn pages, etc.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY has a decent obit on Disch -- not big, but at least decent. The trades haven't said a word about him yet (what has he done LATELY?).

EW also reviews a new book on Steve Ditko that looks good: STRANGE AND STRANGER: THE WORLD OF STEVE DITKO. I was a big fan of his DOCTOR STRANGE work, so I'll be checking it out.

And for those fellow non-believers, I just discovered THE HUMANIST magazine -- lots of great articles... and the newest issue is their Literature issue (a survey says Humanists/secularists read 10 books a year to the 4 books by most adults).
A quote from this issue: "The National Congress for Educational Excellence has compiled a list of key words and phrases that godless humanists often use. If any of these words are in your vocabulary, you are probably a secular humanist: academic freedom, analysis, career education, creative writing, human growth, identity, parenting, racism, world view, and self-understanding."

2ND POST IN 24 HOURS SO I WILL BANISH MYSELF FOR A WHILE
FRANK

You're right about Wilson and his attack on civil liberties with the Espionage Act, etc., etc.---but an inept president (who two married friends of mine who are child psychologists have diagnosed as being a possible victim of fetal alcohol syndrome)in a nuclear age trumps all other candidates, in my humble opinion.

If you really look at the history, Woodrow Wilson may have been the worst President ever. He did more crimes in office and may have gave other Presidents the idea that crime in office doth pay.

Bush is corrupt, but mostly inept. Just want to see him go away.

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

Mr. Humour has to save the day.

Why didn't Peter Pan ever want to grow up?

He didn't want to be a Wal-Mart greeter.

VARIOUS
FRANK CHURCH---I posted about the Bugliosi book some weeks ago---you're right, THE PROSECUTION OF GEORGE W. BUSH FOR MURDER is a terrific book, full of documentation about the bloody blunders of the worst American president. I give him that title, because though there were bad presidents before---James "They fired on Fort Sumter? What do you want me to do about it?" Buchanan, anyone---Buchanan and Pierce and Grant, et al, didn't have the power to fuck up the PLANET.

2 jokes, giving equal time, for Unca Harlan's Jokebook:

Guy tells his shy new bride on their honeymoon, "Sweetie, I know you're not comfortable talking about sex, so we'll just work out some signals. When you want to have sex, just hold my penis and give it two tugs. And when you're not in the mood, just signal me by holding my penis and giving it 500 tugs."

Okay, turnabout is fair play...

Guy on honeymoon shows his new bride his penis for the first time, and says, in a gently instructive voice, "And what do we call this, my dear?" She thinks about it, and says, sweetly, "A wee-wee." Bridegroom chuckles and says, "No, no, sweetie, we call this a dick." She thinks it over and says, "Naw. I've seen dicks, and that's a wee-wee."

Yours in Groatism, Have to Get a Day Job So I Can Not Quit It.

I had the chance to go to two awesomw concerts this week. I went on Wednesday night to see Tinsley Ellis, an incredible blues guitarist, at Blues on Grand here in Des Moines. Wow, what a show. Last night I went to the Simon Estes ampitheater downtown along the Des Moines River to see The Bodeans who play rock/pop and also played an incredible show. I had a little more than an ounce of fluid drained off my left knee Friday, so was feeling much better and nearly pain free for the first time in two months and was excited to be able to get up and dance.
I'm still job hunting, I have another interview early this coming week and have a very good recomendation from a long time friend who is acquianted with the manager at that store. It's been just a month since I've been off work, but still it feel very wierd not to be going to work each day.

David, you wound me. What, nobody likes a good pun around here??
____________________________

"Does anybody here know how to keep one's rabbits from running away?"

The police have this device called "The Boot" that might come in handy. Otherwise, keep them in cages.
____________________________

Shagin - The Ellisons are out of town, I think, for a doctor's appointment.
____________________________

ATC - Regarding our Dear Leader's eloquence: "Make it stop. Pleeez just make it stop!!"

PS - I read you have a new book coming out????
____________________________

Frank - It was the caffeine that made me blame coffee for my problems. I stand chastised. It was the Vicodin.

Now pass the bottle of tequila and leave me on a chair by the door.

SPLITTING HARES

Does anybody here know how to keep one's rabbits from running away?

Dear David Silver
First, I'm not violating the rules: "One post per day per person.... The ONLY exception is if YOU, specifically, are asked a DIRECT question from Harlan."

Well, I answered my direct question from Harlan already, and here's my post...

Your Manilow comment is actually a spoiler. Not a plot spoiler, but a "fun" spoiler. Now I'm going to go into this damn movie with that hanging over my head, waiting for the ah-ha moment when the Manilow thing will click and thus allow me to watch the rest of the movie without any expectations.

Shame on you, sir.

I love you posts, typically. I know you're a clever guy. You don't have to prove it by making clever comments which take away from someone else seeing something new and fun.

Take care.

-Keith

Comments on Harlan
Masters of DVD Author: JOHN LATCHEM

. . . If the show is called “Masters of Science-Fiction,” it’s pretty much a given Harlan Ellison would have some input. . . .

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/news/html/breaking_article.cfm?article_id=13108


Director Del Toro Clears Up Maze of 'Hobbit' Rumors By Bob Strauss

. . . I'm a guy who can safely say I don't like sci fi, but I like Ray Bradbury, I like Theodore Sturgeon, I love Richard Matheson, I love Harlan Ellison ... individual authors. . . .

http://www.redorbit.com/news/entertainment/1474258/director_del_toro_clears_up_maze_of_hobbit_rumors/

Did you hear the one about the frugal young Scot?
I haven't been through here in over a month due to business and other life matters. Did y'all miss me? (Sounds of crickets chirping in the distance...) Okay, I'll interpret that silence as reverential respect. Anyway, I return to learn of yet another sad, sad passing (Disch was right there with Budrys as one of my favorite literary voices and a genuine intellectual challenger to all things status quo), but also a smattering of poor attempts at levity in the face of these losses (although bonus points go to the penguin joke...I doubt I'll be able to eat vanilla ice cream for quite some time without cracking up). What the heck, here's my entry in the joke fest:

A frugal young Scot was out with his girlfriend when she made the sad observation that he'd look ever so much more handsome if he'd only loosen the purse strings and get himself a new kilt. His old one had become quite frayed and faded, and something of an embarassment. He despaired over this because, being so frugal, he knew this wasn't an expense to take lightly, but he also didn't want to disappoint the lady he loved so much. That's when he realized he could save a great deal of money if he sewed the garment himself. So the next day he visited a merchant and chose the appropriate two yards of tartan for his fine full kilt, and was further delighted to learn that there was a sale that no frugal Scot could resist...four yards for the price of two! I'll impress my lassie, he thought, by using the additional fabric to make a magnificent matching scarf for her! Later that afternoon he completed the kilt and was so delighted with the result that he dashed off to show his girlfriend as soon as possible. Now, as often was the custom among frugal Scottish gents during the warmer times of the year, he wore no under garments, and as he dashed across the fields the tender leaves of the tall grass tickled his male parts. By the time he reached his lady's home, unbeknownst to him, he was fully and obviously erect. When his girlfriend opened the door, he excitedly gestured downward and exclaimed, "Lassie, look what I've brought fer ya!" She gazed with astonishment, not at the new kilt, but at the enormous bulge that poked up beneath it, and before she could respond, the frugal young Scott added, "Aye, and I've got two more yards at home to wrrrrrrap around yer neck!"

Saw the first showing of "Hellboy II" yesterday. Darn good popcorn movie. No spoilers here, but, I swear, you'll never be able to listen to Barry Manilow in quite the same way! Go see it...

Going to catch "Wanted" today. Granted, I'm a movie whore, and tend to love just about everything I see, but it's been a particularly fruitful summer film season. "Wall-E" was so good and so rich with smart visuals, it really requires repeat viewing (Lori and/or Gwyneth, you wanna join me for a matinee?), I got a kick out of "Get Smart", "Kung Fu Panda" was hilarious, then there was "Hulk" and "Ironman", and the other day I really enjoyed "Kitt Kitteridge" (I'm a complete sucker for good G-rated kids' flicks). Having fun! How about you?

Oh, God
We should know by now that the louder and longer a conservative Republican politician goes on about the evils of homosexuality, the more likely this is going to happen eventually.

http://wonkette.com/401018/anti-gay-alabama-attorney-general-caught-being-gay

And, oh God, we're so close to getting rid of him for good, but there he is at the G-8 summit, talking about Diet Coke, complaining about his Dad's frailty, chewing with his mouth open, and leaving a meeting with Nicholas Sarkozy with a jaunty, "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter!"

And, oh God, it seems to be just a small taste of how he came off during the meeting. He had a mike slip where he said, "I'm not gonna talk too damn long like the rest of them..." Oh, God...

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/09/asia/notebook.php

Invoice
Harlan,

$28.85.

OR....

The IHNMAIMS CLUE BOOK, which I do not have.

-keith

Harlan, the July issue of SFX is on the way. Please don't worry about reimbursing me. The magazine is a thank you for giving me 25+ years of reading enjoyment and the honor of meeting you (and Susan) 4 times over the last 16 years!!

David

"Barber - he started it, blame him."

Oh. That's it. Throw the other kid under the bus.

More books!
Hey, Harlan,

(Always wanted to say that...)

Uhm, I had no problem with the minor bit o' hot water I got myself in. Coventry was rather nice, hardly Durance Vile. Lacy Goidiva and I got on famously. Played footsie in the palace hot tub, further deponent sayeth no more.

Please do, the books send that is. Same address as hitherfore, and I will offer for sale as in time past.

KOS

HARLAN: If we're to be held to the standards of Redd Foxx's stand-up, I have a feeling that the dialog here is going to get mighty... "zesty". Under the (read as "my") current circumstances, that was the best joke I could come up with; as for the thing with the Basques, it was my sole defense against Barber - he started it, blame him. All is well with you and The Loverly Susan, I hope?

Cheers,
Doc

HARLAN -- May I call you later this evening or sometime this weekend regarding a personal matter? Not an emergency, and either you or Susan would be a welcome voice at the other end of the line.


Sandra

KOS:

Are you speaking to me these days?

If so, are you ready for another box of books?

If not, I'm sorry I hurt your feelings; but Rick insisted that I be "a tough grader."

Yrs. in trepidation, Harlan

CHURCH:

COLOMBIA, not "Columbia."

"Columbia" is the gem of the Ocean. Colombia is the gem of YO MOMMA.

he

KEITH CRAMER: Tiny Tim and logos in hand. Multidimensional & apt thankyous. What do I owe you? The priority mail was close on $5 alone. Post me a total here, and check'll go out by tomorrow.

DAVID RAY: Same goes for you remunerationwise re: the issue of SFX. WhaddaIoweYa?

As for these things y'all have been posting, which ugly groats you mislabel "jokes," well folks, as Redd Foxx used to say to wannabes in his audiences ... don't lose your day jobs.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

Name That Joke
A consortium of science fiction fans now own a race horse. I'm thinking of buying a share for 300 dollars. Does this sound like the set-up to a joke, or what? "These science fiction fans decide to buy a racehorse..."

No, really.

"Those wedding gangs are breaking up that old belle of mine!"

A few years ago Tim Powers got a letter from a Geman reader of one of Tims' novels. The correspondent asked why a certain character in the novel, in the middle of some scene, paused for lunch.

Mystified, Powers searched through the novel, but could not find the cited passage in any English edition. He then took his copy of the German edition, and with the help of a German speaking acquaintance found ir.

Seems the German publisher had contracted with an ad agency to place into EVERY novel a reference to a certain brand of soup.

We ought to check the German edition of a certain well known story?

"The bowl of Schroeder's Potato Soup smelled delicious. I have no mouth, and I must scream."

KOS

I KNOW THAT JOKE

I know the joke with the punchline of "You got the ugliest one".

I don't think anybody can tell it as good as a friend from work did. Sparky is a good-ole-boy from the hills of Kentucky who has never lost his hilly twang. I heard him tell the joke at least 5 times, and each time he got gales of laughter. Sparky always called everybody "Son". His punchline was spoken:

Wahh-hul, shoot, Son, you picked the ugliest one."

Saw this story on CNN and wanted to share it. Too much news of death and despair lately, here is an uplifting story about siblings who were separated during the Holocaust and recently reunited:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/07/11/holocaust.reunion/index.html

I would tell my favorite joke, but it involves a priest and a litle boy and would probably offend the Catholics in the audience

Barber, always blaming coffee. Now cut that shit out. Coffee innocently suns itself on the hills of Columbia and you piss on Juan Valdez and all the work that he does.

Say I'm sorry, fuckin mook.

Drink decaf pooks.

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

Vincent Bugliosi, the lead prosecutor in the Manson case has a new book out that is a barn burner. He makes the legal case that Bush should be tried for murder for the war and the lies surrounding it. In the book he says things that I would not even say. Bugliosi has really been radicalized as of late.

Vital read.

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

Cindy, hope you are not voting for McCain.

No joke , joke
ok here mine for all you trek fans

"a Cardassian, a Klingon and a Ferengi go into a bar..."

I don't remember the middle but the punchline is....

"thats no Borg that's my wife!"

funny?...........

Two Jokes, two tellers
One told to me by Mark Palko (who visits this board on occasion).

A fella walks into a bar, which is located two floors up from street level. He sits down next to another fellow who has been there for a bit. The been-there-for-a-bit fellow says, "Hey, mac. I'm going to make you a bet. If you buy me five whiskey sours, I bet you I can down them all, jump out that window and fly around this building THREE times. If I don't, I'll pay you back double what you paid for the drinks."

Sensing a sure thing , the first fellow buys the drinks, the other guy drinks up, gets up and without hesitation, jumps out the window and, sure enough flies around the building three times and comes back in, looking smug. He sits back down.

The first fellow says to the bartender, a bit miffed at buying five drinks for a stranger, "Set me up with what he had!"

He drinks all five drinks, strides toward the window, jumps out the window, plummets to the ground and breaks his arm.

The bartender looks up, shakes his head and says:

"You are one mean drunk, Superman."

2nd joke:

A husband and wife are sunning themselves at the beach. The man says to the woman, "Honey, I'm going to get us some hot dogs and sodas, OK?"

She says, "OK! Sounds good."

He says, "Back in a bit. Don't go in the water."

She says, "Fine. I won't."

He says, "'cause you know what happens when you do."

She says, "Fine, fine. No going in the water."

He says, "So, you'll be right here, right?"

She says, "I'm not going in the water! I'll be here."

He goes away, fights the concessions line and twenty or so minutes later, he comes back to their spot on the beach and the assistant lifeguard is over his wife, attempting to pump the water out of her lungs and giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

The husband runs over to the head lifeguard and asks, "What's going on? That's my wife over there!"

The head lifeguard says, "She's your wife? You oughta keep an eye on her. That crazy broad must have thought she could swim and my guy pulled her from the surf! He's giving her artificial respiration."

The husband replies, "Artificial, my foot! Give her the real thing! I'll pay for it!"

Ah'm powerful sorry,
Brian Phillips

Robert R. wrote: "To explain: A friend and myself sometimes pass the time by swapping punchlines to jokes ... to see if we recognize the joke, to see if we can invent a joke to go with the punchline, et cetera"

A similar incident that sticks in my mind happened years ago while my gaming group was waiting for the action to start.

Friend One: "I have a joke."

Friend Two: "I have a punchline. Let's see if they match."

The result?

Joke: What did the man say to the buddist hotdog vendor?
Punchline: "Rectum? Damn near killed him!"


shagin

Cris' gig in Pasadena, which I mentioned here last week, has been cancelled. Hey, it happens. From the email she sent out:

"Well.... change of plans. Apparently The Vault staff is not communicating properly. The owners had previously booked another band in on July 12th and the booking agent wasn't in the loop. So they canceled on us. More than 3 days notice would have been preferable but... maybe another date. We'll see. Just a little flaky for my taste."
________________________________________

Posted some additional "More that meets the eye" shots to my website. Yeah, I know it's a technique that's been done for years, but I'm having fun.
________________________________________

No jokes, puns or punchlines come to mind this morning. I blame the coffee.
________________________________________

HARLAN - David Ray tells me he will post the copy of SFX to you this evening after work.

Punchline without Joke
And the truck driver said, "well, no wonder, you picked the ugliest one of the bunch!"

To explain: A friend and myself sometimes pass the time by swapping punchlines to jokes ... to see if we recognize the joke, to see if we can invent a joke to go with the punchline, et cetera.

I think we started this because on the the TV show HOMICIDE, there were several episodes over the years where a scence would begin with one detective saying the punchline of a joke, something like, "So the bear said, 'you don't really come here to hunt, do you?!'", and all the other detectives would laugh. It was years before I learned what the joke was that went with that punchline ... and once I did, I realized it had been more fun to imagine what joke could go with that punchline, than to learn the actual joke ... if you follow me ...

Yet another joke
Four nuns are waiting in line to go to confession.

The first one enters the confessional and says, "Bless me Father, I have sinned. I was in a crowded elevator the other day, and my little finger accidentally touched a man's penis through his trousers. This caused me to have impure thoughts." The priest is unfazed. After twenty years, he has heard it all in that chair, and he has a ready penance for her. "Dip your little finger in the holy water," he says, "and say one Hail Mary."

The first nun leaves to perform her penance and the second nun enters the confessional. "Bless me Father, I have sinned," she begins. "The other day, I was reaching for a collection plate, and my hand accidentally grabbed a man's penis through his trousers. This caused me to have impure thoughts." Again, the priest is ready with a penance. "Dip your hand in the holy water," he says, "and say three Hail Marys."

At this point, the fourth nun in line taps the third on the shoulder and says, "Listen, let me go ahead of you."

"Ahead of me? Why?"

"Well, think about it. Do you really expect me to put my mouth in that holy water after you've had your ass in it?"

Late Ripostes R Us
Damn, but you gotta keep yer eye on the ball, or rather this board. Get distracted for a coupla days and voom! - someone delivers a wee snickering cheek slap. And from His Eminence Karl 'Dog Wagger' Rove!

Aye, well, Karl, me bucko - ye said that "living" in Scotland was punishment enough. Egad sir! How true! Low gun crime, free health cover, no Republicans - what a shocking level of suffering we must endure. Ooooh, punish me, punish me!

Now, will ye be having one caber or two with yer humble pie?

;-)

Night night.
:)

The Epstein-Barr virus is one of those that never goes away. As a member of the herpes virus family, once it takes residence in the body it doesn't leave. I got mono for the first time in college after working multiple jobs, taking classes, and running myself into the ground. Knocked me on my ass for nearly a full semester.

There seems to be some common-knowledge misinformation that once you get mono, you'll never get it again. Definitely not the case. I had another outbreak about eight years later. Went from being in phenomenal shape--I was cycling, inline speed skating, and kickboxing--to being barely able to stand in the span of a week. All it took was two all-nighters for a work project to tear me down.

It doesn't seem to affect me on a daily basis, but I'm still very conscious of when my body tells me it's time to rest. I guess I'm just trying to say that if you've ever been diagnosed with mono/E-Bv that you need to be careful because it's always there, lurking, waiting for the opportunity to resurface. And for you type-A folks (guilty), fatigue from stress can give it the same opportunity that physical exhaustion does.

--
Ryan

More lighthearted frivolity


ATC:
Here's a link to the outtakes from "Where the Hell is Matt?"
http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/dancing_outtakes.html?height=360&width=430

THANK YOU ATC
for the pick-me-up.luv y'all m.

To St. Pete Charlie (and his girlfriend)
Charlie, I got nailed by a bit of incompetency by a doc when I still lived in St. Pete a few years ago; long story short, one of the things I ended up with (after being bedridden for eight months) was a diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (a blood test showing big gobs of Epstein-Barr virus was a piece of confirming evidence).

Anyway, I'm better than I was but not over it. I have less brain fog and I don't feel like there's a period every day where I'm being put under by an anesthesiologist. What may or may not have helped me is following the nutritional advice of a doctor who specializes in treating CFS and fibromyalgia. His name is Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum and his website is http://www.endfatigue.com.

He's written a book about the stuff, travels the country giving seminars, and has clinics that you can go to for treatment if you're willing/able to travel. It may be worth a shot; at the very least, he beats the snot out of a doc who told me all I could do was live with it and hopefully outlast it. Maybe so, I suppose, but do you have to say so?

Yea, Ezra, yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, buddy.

The fourth Amendment is now toast. The democrats gave us this bill, with no lube.

argggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

Nagging
Harlan
like you I had the quadruple bypass, its was no fun, then came the constant nagging form my wife to get some rest, take your pills, dont pick up that its to heavy, on and on and on, you want to tell them to shut up because your a big boy now and can take care of yourslef, and you know you can too!.

(ok here it comes)....BUT!, there just trying to say in there own way that they care for you thats all, so I keep my mouth shut and say "yes dear", yea, I guess I'm a wimp and should be thrown out of the macho club on my ass but its better then having no one, so please allow us our little nags.

now I got to run, its time for my pills and maybe a little rest,....and dont tell anyone ok?,...but I care.

Doctors
I'm just saying that if I hadn't gone to the doctor when I needed to, they wouldn't have discovered my kidney cancer in time -- and I wouldn't be sitting here typing this. I'm just saying...

Not chiding in the least, no, it's a free country. But I'm just saying...

Damn I'm so depressed.

Poor Thomas Disch. Why is it that we reward our most sensitive creators with indifference if not an outright kick in the teeth? Their suffering is our shame.

And the FISA bill. "Monstrous" is right.

Fuck our chickenshit congress!

Fuck Obama for looking both ways before he crossed the road!

Fuck the American people for our big gaping yawn!

Exchange from no more than 60 seconds ago:

Young Jackanapes (from his room): Mom?

Me (living room): Yeah, hon?

Young Jackanapes: If Harlan's going to the doctor, does that mean I don't get to shoot him anymore?

Me: Pretty much.

Young Jackanapes (coming out, dressed): Aw man! I was going to Master Chief him with my Nerf guns.

Me: I'm certain he appreciates the thought.

(This surreal moment brought to you by "Mornings With The Odells".)


shagin

book
Harlan- book sent out. Can get another copy of SFX if needed.jz

A Pick-Me-Up
(Grumblerumble rove won't testify grumblerumblerumble...)

If this doesn't cheer you up and make your heart
swell, you really need to think pharmaceutical.

http://www.vimeo.com/1211060?pg=embed&sec=1211060&hd=1

This guy started this strange hobby on his own, but has since found sponsors and is making his FIFTH video of the kind. In short, it is his JOB. What a great job.

SFX, Health and Very Bad Puns
(In reverse order) Okay Doc, you one-upped me. Basques indeed.
_______________________________

HARLAN - Two items, you old codger.

One: SFX. If David Ray is not able to score you a copy of the correct issue, James Moran -- the rather British gentleman winging his way to Ellison Wonderland next week -- has offered to back-order it. He had a copy that "got binned", but is more than happy to do this other for you. Merely gimme the word. (David Ray, if you can't find it, shoot me an email.)

Secondly: Health. Yeah, I know, "pot calling the kettle" (only in reverse order since I'm much more the effing kettle, in this case the large-ish variety mostly found in a witch's fireplace). That isn't my point.

For a man with a reputation of having no friends whatsoever -- it's true, I read it on fantagraphics.com a couple of years ago -- there are a lot of us in the room what care how your ticker fares. Granted, it's been a shit year for most of us, some more than others, but we're all but bit players here in YOUR world even though we star in our own.

(Loftus is playing four or five different roles, however. Inside joke for us what lives in the Forums.)

So go to bed, get some sleep, take your meds, and if you act up again Susan is going to thwack you with a rolled up copy of The Essential Ellison, 50th Anniversary Edition. Signed.

Capisce???


(Don't MAKE me go all Dannelke on your backside.)

Lion
Mr. E., I was happy to help out. Thanks for letting me know that it arrived safely. I'll try to keep an eye out for the hippo, too.

Jan S.

Some nice comments about Dreams with Sharp Teeth referenced in the Year's Best Movies:

http://www.cinematical.com/2008/07/07/the-best-and-worst-of-2008-well-the-first-half-anyway/

KOS: surprisingly, I have heard of this desert previously. Neil Gaiman used it as a setting within the Sandman series. Thanks for the link, I always wondered what singing dunes sounded like (and it is good to have you back)

Harlan, no admonitions, just a fervent hope that the second half of 2008 is better than the first for all of us

Mark

That desert
SOmehow it got cut from my post.

It's the "Talikhmakan Desert". Translates to: "Many go in, Few come out".

KOS

Three things you never knew about sand
Concrete in Saudi Arabia is made with imported sand. The sand naturally occurring there is too fine, from wind erosion, to make good concrete.

I have beent old by a very successful cinematographer (David Hausen) that one reason German lenses are so excellent is that there is a beach on the Baltic coast of Germany with perhaps the best sand for glassmaking of anywhere in the world. Sounds like an "urban legend" to me, but he's the expert, not I.

In many deserts there are "singing sand dunes". You can hear a sample of it here:

http://www.pmmh.espci.fr/fr/morphodynamique/SongOfDunes.html

One of the earliest reports of this phenomenon was in the journals of Marco Polo, who heard them in Cetnral Asia,

Deserts: I have always found delightful the name of the most severe and forbidding desert along the ancient Silk Road running across central ASia from far western China to the Black Sea:

Then there's the Gibson Desert of Western Australia. Two explorers worked together mapping that area in the nineteenth century. One was named Gibson, the other, I forget. They decided to split up to explore more efficiently. So Gibson went one way, the other guy the other way. Gibson was never seen again. At least they named the desert after him.

KOS

WORKING WITHOUT A NET
YES YES YES!!! I have the feeling there is something deeply and elementally necessary about this book. I sit lotus-style, hands folded in lap, in patient anticipation, quivering only slightly.

Yes,

J

Thomas Disch on Fresh Air
Terry Gross re-ran part of a 1988 interview with Thomas Disch. You can hear it here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92367071

This was the first time I ever heard his speaking voice. He discusses "The Brave Little Toaster", mostly.

Brian Phillips

Being Weary
Harlan, is that the Epstein-Barr (CFS) issue? My girlfriend has suffered from same since she was 15. In fact, all day yesterday, she barely made it out of bed for any length of time. Yet, as an older student at the local university, she still manages to get straight A's (usually the top student in each class even though English is her second language) and honor accolades in her pursuit of a psychology degree. She had a bit of a breakdown yesterday (as happens frequently) worrying that when she gets her degree that she'll have no energy to pursue any kind of career. A very daily struggle for her (and for me to help keep her on track). She has done the doctor route, read the books, changed the diet, etc., all to no avail. A horrible condition that zaps the life energy. I thought there was some hope last year with Dr. Chia's findings of locating the potential virus in the stomach causing CFS. I'd be happy to send you a copy of his article from the Clinical Pathology Journal, if you're interested. All my best to you and Susan.

RE: "Dear, McDonald's. Last week I ate a cheeseburger at your restaurant. If I would've known it was created by gay loving hands, I wouldn't have purchased it. Don't you guys know gays were behind the holocaust? First Jews, and now the family.
What is next, McDonald's? Are you going to help gays eradicate sand? WHAT WILL WE DO WITHOUT SAND!?!?"

This is hysterically funny. It reminds me a little of the Lewis Black routine where he mentions overhearing someone say "if it hadn't been for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college" and then is stuck thinking about what it meant until blood comes out of his ears.

Senator Vile and the Giant Prophylactic
Hi folks,

Anyone dismayed by the eulogies for Helms (who would have been so far to the right of UK politics he'd be in the neo-Nazi wilderness) should go to this page for a chuckle:

http://blogs.poz.com/peter/archives/2008/07/in_memory_of_je.html

In 1991 Aids activists turned up at the wretch's (empty) house and covered it with a giant condom in protest against his health policies. The prank was funded by David Geffen, no less.

RIP Tom Disch. Stay healthy Harlan.

JC

Harlan will ___________ when Harlan is good and ready and fully prepared to ___________. Fill in the blanks as appropriate. I don't believe that, being human only more so, he is immune to fear; but I also don't believe he's ever let it get in the way of doin' what needs doin'.

And