Harlan Ellison's Art Deco Dining Pavillion RSS

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DWP — Mon, 15 Mar 10 23:45:54 -0400

Kris Nelson,
No,it's not legal but would have to be taken up by the Clarke estate.
On the other hand this,
http://www.wattpad.com/284306-i-have-no-mouth-and-i-must-scream-by-harlan
can be corrected.

Wisdumb

Eno Ni Ainrofilac — Mon, 15 Mar 10 23:28:28 -0400

HE: "You just can't underestimate human stupidity!"

ME: "Sure ya' can. But there ain't no money in it."

Is this legal?

Kris Nelson — Mon, 15 Mar 10 23:21:15 -0400

http://www.wattpad.com/107882

And if not, what should be done about it?

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Semi-Writer — Mon, 15 Mar 10 15:45:16 -0400

I ordered Davies' book from Amazon.co.uk, as I didn't trust using the US Amazon link. Amazon.com didn't seem to separate the original "Writer's Tale" from the updated release very well, and I wanted to make sure to get the right version.

It just got here today--700 pages of gorgeousness. And a shirtless David Tennant. How can you beat that? http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Zc5rxuWpe0ch2QDbnMdt4A?authkey=Gv1sRgCJDA6aiNkYjbbg&feat=directlink

Back off. Can't type now. Must read. Did I mention the shirtless bit? (pitches cell phone out the window)

This message will self-destruct in ten seconds

Greg Hurd — Mon, 15 Mar 10 15:31:14 -0400

I had to look and then I had to look: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Kennedy_Montgomery

This one could be the next (female) Glen Beck
-cue drug rehab music-

Tony you are priceless "DC Comics, the glory hole of comics" I would have put my money on Image, though.

Peter Graves will be sadly missed. I did not know of his relationship to James Arness.

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Steve Barber — Mon, 15 Mar 10 14:56:50 -0400

In the Dep't of "From a Sow's Ear" category:

Cris today took delivery of a 1958 Cable upright piano direct from my not-recovering cousin's soon-to-be-ex-apartment. Purchased, from his parents, for a paltry fee plus moving costs. They wanted to keep it in the family, but ensure he was no longer responsible for its lack of upkeep.

The garage sale went well, and as I alluded to elsewhere I had the opportunity to speak frankly to his mother and father -- aka: The Enablers. Things are moving rapidly, but so far my hands are clean save for a thin layer of dust off the piano.
___________________________________

HARLAN - Got your message Saturday. Much appreciated and fully understood. Further, the deponent sayeth naught.
___________________________________

HARLAN #2 - It seems to me that this "Pay the Writer" thing is becoming a bit of a mantra. Whoudda thought?
___________________________________

Civility. I sincerely hope it's not that I've gone to the dark side and become an old fart, but it DOES seem to me that a lot of people (young and old alike) have developed the "Your movie is interrupting my texting" boorishness. We were at a Gladys Knight concert some months ago in which I had to ask a couple to refrain from talking at least three times right in the middle of a song. They weren't arguing. They were hard of hearing. They weren't mentally disabled.

They were, simply, trying to speak over the music. As if they were sitting in their living room with the stereo on.
______________________________________

I was just discussing words with someone in my office. Our favorite word of the day: "Flustrated".

Used in a conference call this morning by a woman who was getting agitated about the lack of progress. "I'm very flustrated with that department."

Flustrated.

Various

Kristian Bland — Mon, 15 Mar 10 14:08:30 -0400

ATC,
I'd love to read your essay, but the draconian enforcers of decency at my workplace have blocked the site on account of 'malware' for some unclear reason probably having more to do with ignorance than anything else. Ah well, I'll check it out when I get home.

CLIFFORD METH,
I read you piece and loved it. I was a bit surprised to hear that it'd been taken down, but not at all shocked by the news. We live in litigious times, where the mere threat of legal action is often costly enough to prompt all sorts of reversals of support. The last time I personally experienced such a thing was about a year or so ago, when I posted an essay critical of school districts buying and using computer software to both teach and grade student writing (a practice that's becoming far too widespread).

Within a few hours of posting the essay, I received a cease and desist letter from the software's publisher claiming libel where there was none. When I told them to shove it, the company then turned their attention to my employer (a school district), threatening all sorts of nasty things. Eventually, I conceded to removing the pronoun identifying the software by name, but kept the rest of the essay intact. The company was less than happy about it and continued to pester me for a few months before finally giving up and letting it go. The irony is that my little essay received a lot more attention due to their actions than it would have, had they let it slip by without bringing out the lawyers.

That said, now that I'm leaving my current job and joining the ranks of the Hearst Corporation with a professional, full-time writing gig, I hopefully won't run into the problem of being directly targeted again, or at least the likelihood will be slightly lessened. The essay I mentioned earlier was posted on my personal blogspot site ( http://coqdiddles.blogspot.com ), so I had no publisher protections for it's content, seeing as how personal blogs are self-published creatures. I work hard to not spew libelous statements all over the Internet, but defamation cases can be a real bitch if the suing party has the patience and bank account to pester you into submission, which they often do. Still, it will be nice to have some sort of buffer sitting between myself and the legal wolves when next I offend some delicate corporate sensibility, and at least Hearst has deep legal pockets.

Don't be too hard on the ComicsBulletin, though. This publishing gig is tough in the current financial climate, you know. After all, just look at what happened to Peter Parker...

-Kristian

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Zack Malatesta — Mon, 15 Mar 10 14:00:54 -0400

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have nothing to say.

Zack Malatesta

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Jerry — Mon, 15 Mar 10 13:41:15 -0400

Bravo! He was right, Kennedy was wrong... I can only imagine what Mr. Landau was feeling after the screening, after seeing what had been done to Phelps in that movie.

--

Landau tees off on Kennedy: http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/101196/martin-landau-berates-kennedy.jhtml

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Jim Thomas — Mon, 15 Mar 10 13:15:10 -0400

Landau tees off on Kennedy: http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/101196/martin-landau-berates-kennedy.jhtml

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Mary — Mon, 15 Mar 10 13:07:49 -0400

I will miss Peter Graves...I remember watching the reruns of "Mission Impossible" on KTLA...Graves to me was always very classy, talented, and to my surprise, a really funny guy. "Airplane" ranks as one of my top favorites "Roger, Roger!" "I am serious...and don't call me Shirley."

As I read about Peter Graves, I remembered back to 1996 when the "Mission Impossible" movie premiered...there was a young Kennedy interviewing one of my favorite actors, Martin Landau. Kennedy I never really liked...a loud mouth with not a whole lot going on upstairs as far as I was concerned. She proved it to me when she looked at Landau with a surprised look during a very disasterous interview and exclaimed, "I didn't know 'Mission Impossible' was a TV show!" Or something like that...before that she had the nerve to ask him "What are you doing here?"

Oh sweet baby chile precious, I thought, you are in for it now. And how!

Landau berated her for her lack of knowledge...and it kills me that I can't find any video of that interview...I really wanted to post what he said. (Why I only remember what that silly twerp said ticks me off...) In later years, Kennedy acted surprised that Landau had become so upset. Seeing as she had never done her homework and never bothered to watch any of the episodes, I don't blame Landau in the slightest. I've never forgotten that show...who could forget Mr. Phelps coolly presenting each mission at the beginning of each episode? How could anyone forget Rollin Hand?

Didn't know it was a TV show, huh Kennedy? Your loss...

And speaking of comics and paying writers their due

alejandro riera — Mon, 15 Mar 10 12:56:11 -0400

The Jack Kirby estate is finally suing Marvel Comics:

http://thresq.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/03/kirby-marvel-lawsuit.html

To Tony Isabella

John Zeock — Mon, 15 Mar 10 12:28:53 -0400

Concerning the SF Channel- have you ever seen MONSTER! made in 1999 from a script by Ronnie Christensen ? M.Emmet Walsh plays Lloyd , a monster movie star from the 50's. He played the lead in a series of monster films. But the town of New Purgatory is in some sort of time loop and the monster movies all really happened and the townspeople forget and now Walsh is 70 and really not able to defend the town again. I'm not saying it's Ernest Lehman or Nigel Kneale or Steve Moffat or Harlan Ellison but it's a wonderful little movie.

The Fraternity of the Pavilion

Clifford Meth — Mon, 15 Mar 10 12:21:18 -0400

Dennis C: Loved that quote from Harlan so much that I am tattooing it on my left bicep. Already put it on my FaceBook page where started an e-feud between comics writer Chuck Dixon and ex-Batman artist Norm Breyfogle. Harlan, you is always stirring up the shit!

Tony I: Thanks for the no prize. Almost good as being paid on time. Almost.

Alex Jay: Sorry to disappoint but I am no longer Jewish. After some of the things I wrote about certain Chabbad rabbis, my bris was revoked. They wouldnt even let me have the foreskin back; claimed theyd mailed it to Los Angeles where it was planted and grew up to be a blogger.

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Frank Church — Mon, 15 Mar 10 12:09:15 -0400

Tony Isabella, blame your malaise on Ohio. The place brings out the wolves and the black rubber gloves.

I doubt a buckeye trades very good on the market.

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

Dean Baker has a swell idea: tax speculative investments. Could bring in a hundred billion a year.

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Mark Goldberg — Mon, 15 Mar 10 11:06:18 -0400

Not sure if many of you have seen this, but Josh Olson is doing a great job providing commentary on SXSW for Ain't It Cool News. His first piece can be found here:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/44271

Mr. Meth, I salute you, sir, excellent work

A-T C, I thank you for the laughs and unique take on the X-Men and Magneto. Tomorrow would have been my Mom's 63rd birthday so the laughter is especially appreciated right now

Mark

The idea house in Schenectady won't play in Peoria.

Brian Phillips — Mon, 15 Mar 10 10:44:07 -0400

When Harlan Ellison is asked where he gets his ideas, he has been known to say that there is an idea warehouse in Schenectady.

Before I heard that anecdote, I used to perform improvisational comedy, with the L.A. Connection in Sherman Oaks, CA. The head of the troupe bought some radio ad space and asked the members to come up with radio spots. In the spirit of Stan Freberg, I wrote one that treated ideas as babies and the theater as the place to raise them into scenes. The "location" ideas were cute, a screed weaseled it's way in, etc. The patrons could bring in their "ideas" and watch them grow.

In a form of theater where one must use space work to convey the presence of objects and imaginary beings, from scripts that mostly didn't exist, my radio ad was turned down for being too "abstract".

The only ad I heard on the air was one of the troupe's women talking about the L.A. Connection and the admission discount in a sexy voice.

I know that I wasn't exactly cheated out of a Clio, but that didn't exactly ooze originality (or humor), either.

Moral: Some people think there really is an idea warehouse. Just don't put it in an advertisement!

George Lois sleeps yet another night in peace,
Brian Phillips

Plug

Adam-Troy Castro — Mon, 15 Mar 10 09:26:52 -0400

Available for free online, for a limited time: my essay for THE UNAUTHORIZED X-MEN, an open letter to the super-team's most dangerous enemy pointing out exactly why his master plan for the future of mutantkind will never work. "Dear Magneto."

http://www.smartpopbooks.com/815

Is terror energy?

Ezra — Mon, 15 Mar 10 08:24:52 -0400

I'm not sure Peter Graves would have considered it a jewel in his long and varied career but my favorite of his films is an understandably obscure B flick from way back in 1952 called RED PLANET MARS.

Graves plays a scientist who builds a cosmic radio and makes contact with an advanced civilization on Mars. Turns out the red planet is a utopia with a Supreme Leader who likes to quote the Sermon on the Mount. The movie has everything; evil Russians, evil ex-Nazis, and Morris Ankrum.

No need to defend this movie as a classic of western cinema but it pleases me to take it out every once in a while and no need to defend that either.

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Tony Isabella — Mon, 15 Mar 10 04:20:54 -0400

Activate venting...

I start the new week hoping that it's much better than the last two weeks. Too much bad news for people I love and I am not yet at liberty to write about it.

But I am looking forward to possibly getting out for lunch a couple times this week and spending time with folks near and dear to me.

And, so far, I've resisted the urge to punch anyone in the face. It was touch-and-go there for a while.

In other news...

Someone mentioned Rich Johnston. I'm a big fan of his Bleeding Cool website. I'm bone-weary of the comics news media that does little more than republish press releases and suck up to some of the most idiotic and vile comics execs in the business.

Was talking with a West Coast friend about Hollywood, which is, of course, the glory hole of Hell. So many comics writers and editors and executives dream of working in Hollywood. My own ambitions in that area are virtually non-existent.

1) I want to write a cheesy "giant monster" movie for the SyFy Channel and have it introduced by a monster movie host like my beloved Ghoulardi (the late great Ernie Anderson).

2) I want to get paid big bucks to be a special consultant on a big-budget Black Lightning movie, preferably over the objection of DC Comics, the glory hole of comics.

One last thing. I'm rethinking that whole "not punching anyone in the face" thing.

Love you all, but especially Harlan.

Come over here, you hunk of Ellison cutie pie you, I want to tickle you within an inch of your life.

Hey, it's Monday, cut me some fucking slack.

Harlan mention and goodbye, Mr. Phelps

Dennis C — Sun, 14 Mar 10 22:41:17 -0400

Harlan was mentioned in a blog at Dawn.com -- here's the passage (and you have to love this professor, whoever he is):

"But my professor keeps the students self-worth alive by quoting the American writer, Harlan Ellison, who said, The chief commodity a writer has to sell is his courage. And if he has none, he is more than a coward. He is a sell-out and a fink and a heretic, because writing is a holy chore."

And here's the link if you wish to read it all: http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/world/19-double-click-my-favourite-waste-of-time-hh-11

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

RIP Peter Graves. Met him once briefly -- seemed a salt-of-the-earth kind of guy.

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

Very heartened to see a great turn-out at the Buck Henry tribute at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica. Almost a full house came out to hear Mr. Henry speak and see the films "TAKING OFF" (Buck Henry stars; it's Milos Forman's first American film) and "CATCH 22" (Buck wrote the screenplay).

One reason I love L.A.: People do have a sense of film history. Also a pretty good turn-out Friday night at CineFamily to see A "BOY AND HIS DOG" and "THE BED SITTING ROOM".

Most of these are on DVD, but fans out here took the time to go see them all in beautiful 35mm in a theater, as they were meant to be seen. Bravo.

The vanishing Clifford Meth column

Clifford Meth — Sun, 14 Mar 10 16:45:40 -0400

Glen Hauman at ComicMix.com graciously reposted my column. Assuming no one threatens to pull out his nose hairs one by one if he doesn't take it down, you'll find it here:

http://www.comicmix.com/news/2010/03/14/what-happened-to-clifford-meths-column-read-it-here/?cid=20977#c20977

I'm still waiting for the, "You'll never work in this town again!" phone call.

To: Steve Perry

ATC — Sun, 14 Mar 10 15:43:29 -0400

My Father, with whom I used to go to many many movies even into adulthood, used to tell me that I was going to get killed someday, confronting assholes behind me in movie theatres who would not stop talking. (I make a scene if I have to. No problem with it, whatsoever.)

My wife, who is usually fearless, found herself too frightened at the moment to confront tis particular bastard. As for me, I was so caught up with the show (which was loud as well as spectacular), I missed the to-do entirely. I don't know what I would have done.

Errata

steve Perry — Sun, 14 Mar 10 11:52:13 -0400

"face," not "fact."

Mea culpa.

Perry

Incivility

Steve Perry — Sun, 14 Mar 10 11:50:03 -0400

ATC --

I suspect most of us have had similar experiences. At a Randy Newman show a while back, a guy who must have been given tickets sat behind me yakking to his date while we were trying to listen. People started turning around and shushing and he ignored it. FInally, I said, "Excuse me, could you keep it down a little?"

"Hey, I'm just trying to talk to this little girl here."

"Yeah, and we are trying to watch the show. Why don't you talk to her in the lobby?"

"Maybe I'll talk to *you* in the lobby."

"After the show, I'll be more than happy to do that."

He shut up, and a few minutes later, departed.

Wasn't in the lobby after the concert, alas.

Recall Harlan's story of the movie crawl years ago in NYC, and what happened to somebody who got lippy in a balcony? The Three Most Important Things?

http://harlanellison.com/iwrite/mostimp.htm

I'm sort of of the Edmond Burke frame of mind here -- all that's necessary for such crap to continue is that people let it pass. (And it's a good reason to learn some basic self-defense stuff, just in case it gets to that. Useful, the non-violence of the strong, as Meyer Baba called it. You don't have to punch folks out, but at least you have a choice. Man elbows my wife in the fact is going to need to use his health insurance instanter.)

Perry

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Frank Church — Sun, 14 Mar 10 11:20:53 -0400

How about Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden kicking Israel in the butt for ramping up settlements in East Jeruselem. "It was a slap in the face to the Vice President."

Once again my boy Noam is right, Alexander Cockburn is dead wrong, the Israel lobby has power but the US always tilt toward their interests first, no matter who is whispering in their ear or passing notes.

My guess is Nuttenyahoo wants Hamas to ramp of terrorism so that he can be the hero and ramp in the right wing takeover with Leiberman running the arab hate brigade.

Dangerous to Israel, dangerous for the world.

--------

Kudos to David Brooks for admitting the naked fact that Barack Obama is no socialist. No shit.

The top three liberal economists, Dean Baker, Joe Stiglitz and Paul Krugman say that Obama didn't have a big enough stimulus, that it was larded with tax cuts to buy the right. Obama favored the banks, not regulating them enough. These guys are all to the left of Obama, are they commies? No, they are mainstream corporate liberals. They say Obama needs to go left. I say Amen.

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Ben Winfield — Sun, 14 Mar 10 09:34:59 -0400

CLIFF,

I wish I could offer some genuinely useful words of advice, but right now I'm only pissed off at my own frustrating urge to work in the one industry that always seems populated by the most sharks.

I did make a video out of these insecure fears, partly drawn from reactions to Tim Burton's ALICE IN WONDERLAND:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aLg-pz8cJQ

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Alex Jay Berman — Sun, 14 Mar 10 09:28:24 -0400

CLIFF: When I read your piece on that larger comics website, I crowed and fistpunched the air, I did. My secondary immediate thought, however, was, It's a damned good thing Cliff is Jewish." Otherwise, Saperstein (related to Abe, you think)'s actions might stand alone as yet another shonda fur de goyim.

(By the by, I WISH I could do things like that in my own work as a union Chief Steward--but though I do use the threat of me making upper managers' lives hell, it has to be implicit and veiled and couched in terms of legal or Congressional action, lest I myself be brought up on disciplinary charges ...)

TONY, ROBERT: Though often an ass, Rich Johnston has the redeeming action of often posting which companies are stiffing which writters and artists, and that has often led to them getting paid. Now, if more comics websites would follow suit, maybe that cowardice would abate.

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Tony Isabella — Sun, 14 Mar 10 08:02:09 -0400

My heroes of the weekend are:

Clifford Meth and Robert Morales.

Cliff's article is terrific. I've been calling him my ALPHA DAWG OF THE WEEK. And, if no one else will keep his article up, I can run it as a guest edition of TONY'S ONLINE TIPS.

Robert earns my praise for this quote:

"People in comics always err on the side of cowardice."

If comics professionals were ever willing to nut up when the larger companies like DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, IDW, and others are screwing over writers and artists, there might be a chance that those companies would act in a more moral and responsible manner.

Asshole of the Day

Adam-Troy Castro — Sun, 14 Mar 10 06:15:03 -0400

Asshole of the Day: The guy sitting next to my wife at at the Cirque Dreams show yesterday, who arrived well into the performance, elbowed his way down the aisle, plopped his stupid ass down and began texting. He continued to text and yakk on the cell phone, treating the show as wallpaper, at which point the people around him started asking him to stop; at which point he stood up and started threatening them, at one point drawing his fist back for a punch and getting Judi on the backswing. He and his girlfriend stormed down through the aisle, ranting and cursing about being "harassed." During the part of the show they stayed to see, they didn't laugh, didn't applaud, did not appear to enjoy themselves; I think they thought they were being subjected to colossal lameness, which is understandable as nothing on stage had anything to do with them personally. Neither did the sensibilities of the audience members around them or -- frankly -- the safety of the performers, who did not need an eruption in the audience when they were conducting difficult acrobatic manuevers off the ground. And no doubt they returned home with a story to tell about the asshole *SHOW* that interrupted their important texting.

The Specter General - Cogswell

Phil Nichols — Sun, 14 Mar 10 05:09:53 -0400

Anyone interested in judging the accuracy of Harlan's Worldcon costume can view the original cover art here:

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?ASTJUN1952

(Click on the picture and it will enlarge.)

- Phil

HARLAN

Jack Skillingstead — Sun, 14 Mar 10 03:38:11 -0400

Miss you, man. Hope all is going well.

PETE'S PHOTO EXPLANATION

W. Owen Powell — Sun, 14 Mar 10 01:35:05 -0500

"Hell, I'M not paying forty bucks for a pre-internet fanzine just because it's got a geeky, pencil-necked, semi-nude photo of Galactic Warrior Ellison in it."

I admit that I actually spent the majority of the past 24 hours thinking (or probably just hoping) that was just Galactic Warrior Ellison during his J.R. "Bob" Dobbs period. This has to be the one and only instance in which I end up preferring my explanation of events to his.

I've also referred at least one person from Riddell's LiveJournal over here to check out Clifford's article. (I definitely will not presume to flame either Jason in this or any other venue over the demise of the link.)

Like I'd pointed out in Paul's entry, it doesn't quite top the gopher story but then what ever could?

Croatoan Finds Henry Berry Lowrie

Rob — Sun, 14 Mar 10 01:20:28 -0500

About two years ago, I got to readin' a story titled CROATOAN.

Wuz by some heifer named Hurl-On-Alison, er some such.

Thanks to the prose and the compelling reference, it drew my curiosity about North Carolina's Indian history, the mystery surrounding the 16th century colony at Roanoak, and the "Lost Tribe".

The trail of information led me to the 1830's, one of the worst eras for the Native Americans. It was the era of the Trail of Tears, the mass absorption of Indian lands, and the extermination of native peoples in the east and across the nation. I read about their fates through and after the period of the Civil War. Laws, public opinion, and social circumstances all demeaned the status of any non white in the country. And the spark that lit the flame of racism and injustice in Robeson County was a law passed prohibiting non-whites from owning firearms. Without the right to carry a gun, Robeson County natives were left without a way to defend themselves and with a prohibited means of hunting. The rules allowed a white farmer to graze his cattle on an Indian farm or tie his mule somewhere on Indian land.

Against this backdrop I learned of Henry Berry Lowrie, a non-white, whose exploits began around 1864, and nearly shook the foundation of white-supremacist Conservative politics.

I'd never heard of Lowrie, and I was surprised given his quixotic role in history, which would later place him in the dime novel romances.

Lowrie was something of a Robin Hood figure to the Lumbee and Tuscarora people, fighting for the cause of Indian rights and self-determination; his story reminds ME of John Brown. He led an outlaw gang in North Carolina during and after the Civil War. It seemed to begin when the Lowries were accused of stealing food and harboring Union pows. Henry's father and brother were executed after a kangaroo court was convened. Henry Lowrie then embarked on a crusade of robberies and murders, white supremacists in particular, which led to what was called the Lowrie War.

Lowrie's band became a powerful force opposing the conservative Democratic power structure, which was pro-white supremacy. Because of this, they gained the sympathy of the non-white population of Robeson County. The authorities were unable to stop the Lowrie gang, largely because of this support!

Interestingly, according to texts, Lowrie's defense of his actions was not based on the tribal identity of the native population, but on the fact that they were in the same situation as himself, and his family based solely upon their race!

This should have made it into someone's film! I'm planning to immerse myself more in Lowrie's story, as well as the 16th century Croatoan mystery in some depth. Lots of fascinating potential there.

I find the REAL stories of American history far more compelling than the bullshit "Davy Crockett-type" myths, yet it isn't surprising when these stories challenging White sovereignty are lost in the celebration of Manifest Destiny.

Lowrie's story falls in the margin of what any repressed peoples do in the last extremity. It's the sort of storm that takes place as fewer and fewer options are available.

I owe all this to the clue in Harlan's short story, which, tangentially, I highly recommend!

Best to Cliff -

Jason Sacks — Sun, 14 Mar 10 00:40:46 -0500

I want to emphasize that as the editor of the piece and editor-in-chief at ComicsBulletin I both support and encourage Cliff to do everything he can to expose the horrible acts of this scumbag. It sounds like Richard Saperstein is the exemplar of exactly the sort of lowdown ripoffs of creative types to whom Mr. Ellison has dispatched his most scathing scorn.

I'd also like to emphasize that Comics Bulletin encourages Cliff to find another outlet for his story. It's a story that should be told, and one of the great thing about the internet is that there are many places where once can post information.

Are we cowards for not running this piece? I know I've personally written a number of pieces for this site for which I have had to stick my neck out for fear of it being cut off, but I stood behind what I wrote. Of course, you would have no visibility into those situations. It's easy to see Cliff's post in a vacuum. Judge us as you will. We're certainly not engaged in oppressive actions because both Jason Brice and I encourage Cliff to take his column to another site, or post it to his blog.

I would appreciate your not posting ad hominem attacks on Jason Brice, the site owner. He lost his mother in a sudden accident less than 72 hours ago and I really would appreciate his name not being flamed all over the internet. If you'd like to flame anyone, flame me. My address is above. I'd welcome comments from anyone interested in offering them.

Again, both Jason Brice and I completely support Cliff in his efforts to bring news of this man's ripoffs to light. These shitheels deserve to get what's coming to them. Mr. Netzer, I think you're right - this moving of the column will only help Cliff's cause. I think it's important to emphasize that that is the really important issue here.

Clifford Meth

Michael Netzer — Sat, 13 Mar 10 21:55:24 -0500

Well done Clifford! That the article was pulled down will bring 10 times more attention to it. It's not possible to suppress such a good story nor to run away from it. You're a big inspiration!

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Josh Olson — Sat, 13 Mar 10 21:53:50 -0500

Cliff,

Good on ya, friend.

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Robert Morales — Sat, 13 Mar 10 19:09:24 -0500

Clifford Meth,

this is what I told Harlan when last we spoke a week back and it certainly applies re: your column's abrupt excision:

People in comics always err on the side of cowardice.

Good luck to you!

Clifford's deleted article

Vince Paladino — Sat, 13 Mar 10 18:59:35 -0500

Removing the article was an oppressive action probably given impetus by fear. Cliff is being forthright concerning a personal/business experience, how does this expose the publisher to legal action? It doesn't sound like a legitimate cause for removal. If the publisher was threatened, how could he take any such threat seriously? This is a story presenting one man's view of an event. Any disputations can be expressed by the other party and given equal consideration by readers. In short, what the hell is the problem?

* An important note on why writers get screwed *

Clifford Meth — Sat, 13 Mar 10 17:47:17 -0500

After receiving numerous emails that my column was down, I *just* contacted Jason Sacks, the editor at ComicsBulletin who initially accepted and posted my column "Welcome to Hollywood." Jason is a friend of many years--our association reaches back decades into the early days of comics fandom. I hold no animus for this guy now or ever.

The call to pull my column, I was told, came from the site's owner Jason Brice who did so from fear of legal reprisals.

Mr. Brices actions, I fear, are nearly synonymous with why a man like Richard Saperstein thought he could get away with not paying me what he contractually owed me. This merits some discussion, I think, and what better place than here?

A larger comics website has offered to run my column without edits. Well see if that really occurs. Most people I find (sadly, sadly) will *not* stick their necks out in matters like this. Frankly, my agent should have been the one to come to my initial defense. That, is what I naively believed, what agents are for. But his 10% of my measly $5K was hardly worthy of the effort. In other words, it had nothing to do with integrity.

More on this as it unfolds. In the mean time, thank you to the handful of you who have commented or emailed me. Right now, Im fairly nauseous from this development and unable to say more.

No title.

Chuck Messer — Sat, 13 Mar 10 17:00:40 -0500

You don't mess with Texas.

And you do NOT fuck with New Jersey.

Chuck

My column

Clifford Meth — Sat, 13 Mar 10 16:15:51 -0500

Sensei Ellison,

Yes, the column that I re-posted here at the Pavilion (sans italics, which require a knowledge of HTML, which I lack) is the same one you'd have seen via the URL that I'd provided earlier.

The pity of it, beyond the obvious, is that I genuinely *liked* Richard Saperstein. Which I suppose doesn't make me a bad judge of people because, as Peter David once assured me, Hollywoods inhabitants are not necessarily people.

How good it must feel for you, sir, to have inspired entire generations of otherwise shrinking writers to actually stand up for their rights.

Clifford

MadCon 2010 - Guest Banquet

Jon C. Manzo — Sat, 13 Mar 10 15:53:24 -0500

Hey Everybody,

Due to your quick responses to my last posting here, I'm pretty sure that the Saturday Night Banquet with the Guests at this year's MadCon is SOLD OUT; I'm just waiting for the Monday morning mail at the P.O. Box to be certain, for those of you mailing checks instead of using Paypal.

Anybody else thinking about ordering Banquet Tickets, please drop an email to me at the above-listed email address or at madcon2010@gmail.com; if we have any openings or add an extra table (if we add another Guest!), I will let you know.

For those of you who have signed up already, thanks for your early support for this venture. For those of you who have yet to sign up, whaddya waitin' for?! The Guest Banquet may be sold out, but we'll be doing a great many other things over the three days of MadCon 2010. And Harlan has said that this will be his last convention as a GOH, so don't miss out.

Meanwhile, Happy Daylight Savings Time to all. Remember to set your clocks forward.

Jon C. Manzo

Ghosts of Times Past

Steve Perry — Sat, 13 Mar 10 15:39:18 -0500

Old photographs never die, they just come back to haunt us years later. Worse now, when they can be scanned and digitized and uploaded into the aether where they will circulate as long as computers are around.

We don' need no steenkin' paper ...

George Eastman and his Dry Plate Company are responsible for millions of black-and-white skeletons in a whole lot of closets. I've seen a lot worse than a skiffy constume in my own closet.

Perry

PETE'S PHOTO EXPLANATION

HARLAN ELLISON — Sat, 13 Mar 10 15:23:46 -0500

You guys ain't got no Sense of Literary History, and the seller of this item sure as hell don't know nuthin'.

I am not dressed as "Tarzan," I am dressed as the lead character in Theodore Cogswell's cover-featured ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION magazine feature novelette, "The Specter General," a very popular then-current story. I was at my first (or perhaps second) World SF Convention, was a teen fan, smoked a pipe, carried my tobacco in a pouch thrust in the loincloth waistband and, as dopey-as-a-teenager, was posing for a photo prior to the Costume Contest. It's as simple as that.

Some one of you...if you give a shit...might want to contact the seller, and let him/her know the provenance explanation on the piece is wrong. Or maybe you won't. Hell, I'M not paying forty bucks for a pre-internet fanzine just because it's got a geeky, pencil-necked, semi-nude photo of Galactic Warrior Ellison in it.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

CLIFFORD METH REPLY / 5 minutes later

HARLAN ELLISON — Sat, 13 Mar 10 15:11:01 -0500

I'm clearing (reading, answering if necessary) the Pavillion. After answering the Thursday thing, I read on and came to the Saperstein column. Read it, LOVED it only, then realized THAT might've been what you wanted me to see as posted on the comics site. Are we up-to-speed?

Harlan

CLIFFORD METH REPLY

HARLAN ELLISON — Sat, 13 Mar 10 15:01:18 -0500

Cliffie:

Last Thursday you left a post here referring me to a comics site. Pulled it up as best I could. Wouldn't fill in, so I have no idea what you intended me to know. Sorry, mate.

Harlan

No title.

Tom Morgan — Sat, 13 Mar 10 12:11:36 -0500

Steve,
Thanks for the video. I remember that being her last song and how she seemed to be really living the words. Good luck with the garage sale and not getting caught up in the downward spiral. Quicksand forms all around these people, and as you have seen those close must choose whether to be sucked in or step back and hold tightly to the tree trunk of reality.

ATC,

"Friendship is not a weather vane, capable of changing direction in a moment under the influence of prevailing winds."

That is a wonderful sentence. Another example of why I come here. Mind if I steal it?

Rob,
When you accepted Harlan's offer on the condition of "playing nice" I admit to a skeptical "Yeah, right, let's see how long this lasts". It seems to me you are taking your pledge seriously. There are still nasty comments in general, but not specific attacks on individuals. And they do still come your way, (increasingly so lately) so I know you have been tempted to dust of the old flame thrower. But you haven't, that I have seen. I know you are doing this for Harlan and not me but for what it is worth I want to say that I, for one, have noticed and appreciate it. Can I get a second?

A good day to all here. Off tonight for another cruise with the Prairie Home Companion folks. Have been saving up $ and vacation time for this one for a while. Y'all hold down the fort now, ya'hear?

No title.

shagin — Sat, 13 Mar 10 11:52:02 -0500

"How are things going for you today, Sandra?"

"We have a clog in our main line, and all the plumbing has backed up into the shower downstairs."

"My, what an interesting new smell you've discovered."

"My name is Mike Rowe, and this is my job."

*sigh*

Luckily, the plumber works on Saturdays.

shagin

No title.

Frank Church — Sat, 13 Mar 10 09:16:33 -0500

Barber, have your friend read the new Ozzy autobiography. He will never touch liquid fire again.

How Ozzy Osbourne is still alive is amazing. His liver should be in the Smithsonian.

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

Big government doesn't create wealth you say? Case in point Bill Gates:

His father, Bill Gates Sr. went to college on the GI bill. He got a house through the VA. Bill Gates mother was a public school teacher. Because of government money Bill Gates had the education money to become what he is today. Big government works.

I didn't even mention the fact that the Pentagon system proped up the integrated circuit, until it became cheap enough to use in personal electronics. The internet is also from the Pentagon--the Arpanet.

Not only does it create wealth without it capitalism would fail.

No title.

Steve Barber — Sat, 13 Mar 10 06:34:11 -0500

CLIFFORD - Huzzah! Loved the essay/blog. Pay the writer! Pay the ARTIST!

******

In moments I am headed out the door to assist with the garage sale of my cousin's furniture and belongings. (Quick recap: 50 yr old alcoholic. Lost home, job, car and son on a recent binge.)

His parents -- particularly his mother -- are still enabling him according to his brother. I provided them with the name of a good friend of mine ho just happens to be president of the Long Beach Substance Abuse Foundation. My friend said "have him call me". His parents "showed" my cousin the information and let him essentially shrug at it.

It might be a tense day at ye olde garage sale, cuz as some a you know I have trouble not speaking my mind.

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

Another Video!!!

Cris at the Coach House, singing her signature song "Nobody Else But Me".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slIMGOfFrgE

I'm SO proud of my lady I could bust.

No title.

Gwyneth Guest (M905) — Fri, 12 Mar 10 22:07:36 -0500

Mr. Meth, your saga put a big Cheshire Cat grin on my usually sour puss. (That's vinegary visage not...defunct Berkeley Hunt Club.)

I'm an old Iowa gal, via London, so, if I ever need something done "Jersey-style", may I call on you for creative consultation? For a fee, of course.

Pay the writer!

No title.

shagin — Fri, 12 Mar 10 21:46:27 -0500

YJ, upon seeing the photo: "That's Harlan? Cool! When can I get a pipe?"

shagin

PHOTO

Jack Skillingstead — Fri, 12 Mar 10 21:12:19 -0500

Some things are simply beyond explanation. I like the pipe, especially.

Incriminating Photos

Pete — Fri, 12 Mar 10 20:29:39 -0500

Hey,
Anyone care to explain this;
http://cgi.ebay.com/1952-fanzine-SCIENCE-FICTION-NEWSLETTER-Harlan-Ellison_W0QQitemZ270396971602QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAntiquarian_Collectible?hash=item3ef4ea5a52

No title.

john zeocks — Fri, 12 Mar 10 17:20:04 -0500

50's monster films on tcm all night, fresh fruit, hot chocolate,not bad...

Cut and paste

Eno Ni Ainrofilac — Fri, 12 Mar 10 15:02:16 -0500

is not my friend "So here" ought be "were"

Moguls was in India

Eno Ni Ainrofilac — Fri, 12 Mar 10 14:57:29 -0500

So why did we start to refer to Hollywood Studio bosses of the Golden Age as dem Indian Mongol Mogul Babar folks?

Anyway.

My favorite Hollywood Mogul story (and then we also call bumps on ski slopes moguls instead of, maybe, "snow chancres" or something?) is only peripherally about a mogul.

Herman Mankiewicz, who in one way or another, depending on which of several conflicting sources you consult, wrote some/all/none of Citizen Kane, but definitely got some screen credit for writing it, was married to the daughter of Louis B. Mayer of MGM fame.

Mank loved the ponies over at Santa Anita, just down the road in the San Gabriel Valley somewhat south of Hollywood.

Mank loved the ponies, but his love was unrequited.

When he would go bust, he would hit up his father in law for a raise (Mank was a house writer, on staff at MGM, whatever they caled it in those ancient days, he got paid a salary to sit and write movies. Ah, the very thought!)

After a few iterations of this, Father-In-Law Louis laid down the law, No More Gambling!

So Mank stayed away from the ponies for a spell. Until Mrs. Mank took a long trip to the East Coast to visit family and friends, and left Mank to his own devices in Los Angeles. Without her overisight and daily reports to papa, Mank was soon back at the track.

Back at the track, and losing epically.

The Mank bank accounts were soon empty, and Mrs. Mank was due home the day after tomorrow.

So, of course, Mank hocked every stick of very nice furniture in his very nice house. He found a pawn shop that would loan him several thosuand on the furniture, and they showed up with a moving van, and hauled it all away to a warehouse.

Money in hand, Mank hied hisself to Santa Anita, and started betting. Win some, lose some, until he put the last of it on a long shot spavined nag, and it somehow stumbled across the finish line, in first place.

Mank pulled the wining ticket from his coat pocket, and with it came the telegram he had pocketed that morning. The telegram from his wife, advising him of when her train would arrive at Union Station downtown.

Glancing at it, Mank saw, to his horror, that he had misread the telefram earlier. Mrs. Mank was not in fact dur to aarrive home the day after tomorrow. She wouold be home that same afternoon. In less than three hours.

Mank rushed to the pawn shop, barely making it before closing, paid off the ticket, begged the owner, greased the owner with a C note to get the truck drivers to work past closing, and bribed a motorcycle cop that had chased the speeding Mank to the pawn shop with another Franklin to escort them, with siren wailing, through Beverly Hills to Manse Mank. WIth Mank sweating and hauling furniture like a stevedore, they restocked the house in minutes.

The moving van turned the corner away from Mank's street as the taxi with Mrs. Mank turned the same corner.

"SO who's moving, honey?" asked Mrs. Mank as she came in the front door.

And Mank rose from his easy chair, knocked some clinker from his pipe to the ashtray on the coffee table, stretched as if he had sat reading away the afternoon waiting for her, and mumbled "Oh, the drivers So, here lost, they actually stopped to ask for directions. How was your trip, dear?"

They don't make them like that, anymore.

No title.

Jan — Fri, 12 Mar 10 14:26:44 -0500

I agree with you, TONY and MICHAEL, very much so. I was more concerned with the contras because the pros are why Harlan intends to do it.

I must admit the concept, with the titles and all, sounds funny and Harlan-esque. But not in the best sense - he wouldn't have done it with Angry Candy or Deathbird Stories. But you're right, not everything Harlan does is as serious as those, and who knows what'll be in it.

Dear Mr. Meth,

Sara Slaymaker — Fri, 12 Mar 10 10:49:01 -0500

Now, you are my hero as well.

Pay the Writer

Clifford Meth — Fri, 12 Mar 10 10:17:50 -0500

Posted the link last night:
http://www.comicsbulletin.com/meth/126836656076529.htm

But here's the story (dedicated to you, Rabbi Harlan):

-------------------------------------
I've been away from this column for so long that an explanation is in order. I'm tempted to say it was something like a summer vacation where, by virtue of missed flights, I didn't come home for yearsbut the truth is I sank belly-deep into a myriad of projects, most of which were destined to fail. So before we go any further, let's get some closure:

Dave Cockrum's Futurians and I have been attached at the hip for what seems like a lifetime. Besides being a fan of the project, I penned a back-up story that Dave illustrated for Futurians #0 (1995, Aardwolf Publishing) then personally walked the intellectual property into Starz Entertainment (nee IDT Entertainment) a decade later. How excited was Iand how excited was Davewhen they optioned rights and Stephen Brown, executive producer of Showtime's "Masters of Horror" series, asked me to write the treatment and first draft for what they planned as a theatrical release. This came back-to-back with a script-editing assignment working with Peter David on Gene Roddenberry's "Starpoint Academy" as well as script vetting for Stan Lee's POW Entertainment. Seriously fun stuff. And happening fast.

Then came the long fizzle.

The animated "Everyone's Hero," which you've likely never heard of (and good for you), the first and only IDT-E motion picture, was such a piece of offal that it dragged everything else down the crapper with it. Subscribing to the infinite monkey theorem, IDT-E took a bedtime story from IDT founder Howard Jonas and handed it to Rob Kurtz, a mediocre writer at best with several unimpressive episodes of TV's "Will and Grace" on his resume. I remember when Kurtz's script was dropped on my desk and I was asked to give it a read. The next day I turned in detailed notes. Four words, to be precise. "This stinks on ice," I wrote with a red felt pen. Why waste words? Kurtz had polished a turd. With turd. But apparently there was too much invested politically so "Everyone's Zero," as it was prophetically known around the water cooler, was produced and then released to unsuspecting audiences on September 15, 2006 where it enjoyed a paltry run at the box office before disappearing. IDT would have been better off investing its mad money with Bernie Madoff. Game over.

By the time rights for the Futurians reverted, Dave Cockrum was already long gone, having passed away in November, 2006, from complications resulting from diabetes. My sweet friend had gotten a big kick out of seeing Halle Berry play his Storm character and hoped like hell to see the Futurians up on the big screen, too. I took small comfort in knowing he'd enjoyed the option money and knowledge that his characters were alive in the minds of many.

Enter Richard Saperstein.

When we first met, Saperstein, a former president of The Weinstein Company, had already accumulated impressive producer credits on such real films such as "JohnQ" and "Se7en" (starring Brad Pitt) and, for you comics fans, that first ho-hum "Punisher" movie. He told me Bob and Harvey Weinstein referred to IDT-E as the yarmulkes.

One of Saperstein's scouts, a distractingly beautiful blonde (whose name, alas, escapes me), had encountered some of my short fiction and recommended me to her boss. Then Harlan Ellison connected me with crackerjack agent Marty Shapiro. Several sold options later I'd learned a little something about the Hollywood game of sell it and maybe, just maybe, they'll get around to it before rights revert.

Flash forward: Rights reverted. The stories that I'd written were mine again when Saperstein resurfaced to option my series Snaked from IDW Publishing. The clear-eyed, charming, disarmingly frank, unreasonably tall (for a Jew that is), Long Island-raised producer and I were now having regular chats. Consequently, at my suggestion, Saperstein also made overtures to Dave Cockrum's widow Paty Cockrum and eventually delivered a contract that would tie up all entertainment rights to The Futurians. I couldn't wait to see the Blackmane action figure! Further, the deal attached me as first writer and executive producer of the film project. The Futurians, it seemed, would fly again.

But nothing happened. Again.

Was it bad timing? Bad luck? A whispered story I heard from a big kahuna at United Talent Agency was that Saperstein was looking for funds. It was certainly possible; the economy had gone all to hell and I have no idea what my producer friend had in the hopper besides my own Snaked. I clearly recall Steve Niles backing away from one of Saperstein's offers; maybe he knew something I didn't. All I can tell you for certain is the Futurians contract was never consummated, despite an agreed-upon price, lengthy emails back and forth from Saperstein's attorney, and three-way phone conferences with Saperstein, myself and Mrs. Cockrum.

And then Snaked went all to hell, too.

I'm not a member of The Writers Guild of America so, via IDW's young agent and not the aforementioned Mr. Shapiro, I'd been contracted as a non-guilded writer to do the film treatment for Snaked. If the treatment passed muster, the contract said the first draft was mine. There were various payment schedules including a reasonable kill fee, should my treatment be rejected. IDW and I split the option money.

So off I went to write a treatment. One treatment. But I gave them 16 drafts. I'll say it again: Sixteen. Uncle Harlan screamed that I was being taken advantage of as the contract only called for a single pass, but imagine, my friends how it is: you're so hungry to see your baby grow up and become a movie that you bend over backwards until your own chiropractor can't recognize you. Each set of notes generated a page-one rewrite.

"Make it a little more like The Dark Knight" they said when that film was released. "We're looking for something a little more Iron Man-esque," they said when that one was released. Clearly, they didn't know what they wanted, but what they didn't want was my story. A protagonist eating his own baby? What were they thinking?

Yes, 16 drafts before I finally said enough. And then they sat on it. And then they sat on it some more. And then they decided that they wanted to go with another writer. Saperstein broke the news to me over dinner in New York, somewhere between the dessert and the check. Such is life. Frankly, at that point, I was relieved. Just one small matter left:

Pay me.

Weeks went by. Then months. Still no check. I had a kill fee of $5K coming and I wanted it. Calls to Saperstein brought nothing but empty promises and then they didn't even bring that. So, reluctantlybecause I'm the last guy to go tell teacherI phoned my young agent.

"Bad news, Cliff," said the agent. "Richard's not going to pay you."
"We have a contract," I said. "Of course he's going to pay me."
"No he isn't. He's pretty sure you won't sue him. The fee is too small and you'd have to fly to Los Angeles to file for damages. Apparently this is how he does things."
"Tell me this is a bad joke."
"Sorry Cliff," said my agent. "Welcome to Hollywood."

I paused for a moment. Took a deep breath then exhaled. Then I took another one. "Don't go anywhere," I said. "I'll call you right back." Then I exhaled.
Thirty minutes later, we were back on the phone.
"Get a pen," I said.
"I've got a pen," my agent replied. "What is it?"
"Write this down." I proceeded to read him Richard Saperstein's parents' names and home address. I spelled the street slowly so there'd be no mistake.
"What is this?" asked my agent, a nice young man whose heart was palpitating so audibly now that it came through the phone like tom-toms. I'd have worried about him but he's half my age. Guy that young should have a healthy heart.
"That's Richard's parents' address," I repeated.
"Are you out of your mind?"
"Tell Richard his parents didn't raise him right," I said.
"Cliff, you can't do this!" said my agent.
"Welcome to New Jersey," I said.

Two days later, I received a check from The Genre Company, Richard Saperstein's production company. I took the check to the bank. Eurekait was good.

Charles Manson walks into a room and says, "Is it hot in here or am I crazy?"

And that, my friends, is how I spent my summer vacation.

Hey Chicago Doctor Who fans

alejandro riera — Fri, 12 Mar 10 09:55:35 -0500

Looks like we may have a sneak preview of the first two episodes of the good Doctor as part of the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo:

http://www.mediumatlarge.net/

Auctions past and future

Jan Schroeder — Fri, 12 Mar 10 07:36:27 -0500

Harlan had posted a report here on his dinner with the auction winner back in mid-to-late February and I took the liberty of sending a copy to Spider and Jeanne. I know this isn't really a blog but it's not really a forum, either. Bulletin board, maybe?

Coming up soon is some *very* cool stuff donated by David Gerrold and a regular poster here who might or might not want to identify himself. Also some lovely hand-made items and signed hardcovers. Keep an eye on the seller name DreamForJeanneAuctions.

We thank you for your support and now return you to your regularly scheduled conversations already in progress.

Jan S

No title.

Rob — Thu, 11 Mar 10 23:04:39 -0500

In the course of my most recent learnins' about the studio moguls of the old Hollywood system, I've discerned but TWO figures who had courage to risk profits in favor of a social conscience:

Harry Warner, who was determined to enlighten as well as entertain, and Darryl Zanuck, who took the first major steps to portray blacks as real human beings - tearing from the horrendous decades-pervasive "happy porter" stereotypes - and address race issues as they really were.

This is the kind of integrity we need in the Federal legislature!

I am alarmed - short of stark panic - about this week's news of Wall Street starting all over again making profits with our tax money. The most the Blue Dogs and Centrists in Congress can declare now, is that, knowing they won't be re-elected they've now little motivation to do ANYTHING. THAT'S the mentality we're dealing with now? "I took this job for the money. If I'm heading out the door I might as well just ride it out".

I'm going to find Harry Warner's grave...DIG'm up...and place his gracious cadaver in the seat of the Senate Majority. We'll see SO much more get done!

auctions etc

Kristin A Ruhle — Thu, 11 Mar 10 22:39:53 -0500

Just heard about how the dinner with Harlan auction came out - on Spider Robinson's podcast! what was he quoting - your blog? you don't have a blog.....

Finding your inner Ellison

Clifford Meth — Thu, 11 Mar 10 22:24:30 -0500

This one's for you, Uncle H

http://www.comicsbulletin.com/meth/126836656076529.htm

Reminder

Dennis C — Thu, 11 Mar 10 21:35:54 -0500

Anyone in the LA area:

There's a screening tomorrow night of A BOY AND HIS DOG with Richard Lester's THE BED-SITTING ROOM. The post-apocalyptic double bill starts at 8:00 at CineFamily, which is the old Silent Movie Theater, 611 N. Fairfax.

(and if you are going and feel like meeting up, I'm including my email above)

Harlan's Double

Michael Mayhew — Thu, 11 Mar 10 20:28:07 -0500

Oh Jan, you are wrong, wrong, wrong!

One of the things I have enjoyed for years is that each new Harlan book is so well designed - an object to admire as well as something to read. I LOVE that Mephisto in Onyx has just stark artwork on the front and the title on the back, I LOVE that Angry Candy is written in a very small font on the cover surrounded by tons of black negative space, and I LOVE the idea of a double book that gives you two covers for the price of one.

Harlan's been mixing formats in his books for a very long time - essays, stories, long intros, screenplays, graphics, and cool interstitials are usually held together by an overarching theme, and I betcha dollars to donuts he's got some interesting intellectual glue holding his double book together as well. As soon as I read the description I started to wonder what we'll find on the very last page of each half, right before the flip. I bet it will be visually interesting and fun and make you think.

Plus, both titles made me laugh out loud, good and hard, after a long day that had offered very little indeed to laugh about.

I'm keen on this idea - enthusiastic to buy this new thing.

MM

True Tales to Astonish

Andrew J. Wilson — Thu, 11 Mar 10 19:49:41 -0500

Well, what a lot of drama there's been on this board recently...

Here's a very undramatic story to counter the trend:

I've met our host -- once -- at the Scottish convention where he and his good wife became an item, I believe.

He delivered an extraordinary G.o.H. speech, full of piss and vinegar, which I didn't agree with in the round ("You all read Jeffrey Archer!"), but very much enjoyed... But I ran into Unca Harlan at the bar later...

I'd ordered a -- big -- round of drinks for my friends and carried half of them over to our table. I returned to get the rest and found a gentleman in a Panama hat blocking my way...

"Excuse me," I said, and found myself confronted with a serious contender, who snarled, "What?"

"Can I get the rest of my drinks?" I asked.

The Serious Contender agreed -- and I recognized the man in the Panama hat:

"Ah, Mr Ellison! Would you like to join us?" I asked.

Our host politely declined, explaining that he had a previous engagement ... which -- as it turned out -- was with Susan, who had been instrumental in getting him to attend this con in Glasgow.

Mr Ellison was a gent.

He won't remember this, but I do.

Life goes on.

ROB EWEN

Keeney — Thu, 11 Mar 10 19:15:45 -0500

where in Hell's Teeth are you?

email me

now

peace,
Rick

the new

Tony Rabig — Thu, 11 Mar 10 13:43:35 -0500

Jan,

As a former librarian and bookseller, my take on the new double (as yet unseen, so this is just current best guess).

The librarian in me would more than likely put the book around 818.54, where you'd likely find a number of such story/essay/poetry volumes from 20th-century American writers. If the final contents were, say, 2/3 essays and 1/3 fiction, I might put it in 814.54. Mostly fiction, 813.54. But sight unseen, I'd lean toward 818.54. You Library of Congress classification fans will have a different set of numbers in mind. If I wanted to put it where it would stand the greatest chance of being noticed by the casual browser and there was enough fiction to argue for a spot on the regular fiction shelves, that's where I'd put it. (And the fanboy in me is telling the librarian to buy two of 'em and stick one in fiction and one in 814.54...)

Having worked in one of Chicago's better stores, and browsed in a lot more shops in and out of Chicago, I can say that Harlan's work is extraordinarily likely to wind up in the sf section. With luck, this volume will be placed both there and in the ever-dwindling sections bookstores devote to essays nowadays. I was in the bookstore when the Ace volumes were coming out, and the covers -- nifty though they were -- shrieked "Fantasy Here!" even for the Glass Teat volumes and The Deadly Streets. So we'd put 'em where they should have been, and in sf as well. Gotta say, though, that sales were always better out of the sf sections. Why that should be so, imho, is a discussion for some other time in the forum.

Long-time sf readers (mystery and westerns too) will take the flip-side layout in stride. Ace did doubles for sf, mystery, and westerns; if memory serves, Tor did a similar layout for its doubles, and I think HardCase Crime has recently done a few like that as well. And long-time readers of Harlan's work should be thoroughly used to mixes of short stories and essays in the same book. Doubt it'll be a real problem for anyone.

Bests to all,

--tr

No title.

Grayson — Thu, 11 Mar 10 13:09:24 -0500

Harlan,

Thanks for the info!

--Grayson

From the Department of None-of-My-Business

Jan — Thu, 11 Mar 10 12:20:53 -0500

Harlan: Skip if you seek no comments about projects in progress. I count on you to do what you wish.

It's about the "Ace Double" book: I can appreciate the fun aspect and publicity value of it, but I think these should absolutely be two books, even though it will take additional time to "generate" the content. Neither kind of writing, when they come from you, needs the help of the other and it therefore shouldn't even remotely look like it does.
A book of essays would have a fighting chance of being sold from the essay section or table or amazon category, but the double would most likely be stocked in the SF/horror section. Libraries would have the same problem.
And won't this be like releasing two books concurrently, each taking attention away from the other? No critic will look just at the essays or just at the stories. "Anyway, on to the essays on the flipside..."
It also brings to mind concepts like "gimmick" and "compromise". It'll *look* like an attempt to prove your versatility and/or to get essays published that can't stand on their own. I imagine the very contrary is true. A solid book of entertaining and interesting essays is a rare thing, and I think we all hope to get another one from you some day.
One could do doubles with older material (uncollected?) and perhaps in combination with another writer.
Won't people who read the double on trains be embarrassed when people look at them from their right-hand side?
Readers will also be drawn to the essays while they read the stories, and to the stories when they read the essays. It'll be like having two interesting books to read at the same time, and people will rush through the first one.
Perhaps such disadvantages were already taken into consideration; I don't know all the facts.

Needless to say, I am very happy there will be uncollected essays in book form and wish you good luck with all the other projects you mentioned as well.

Because I haven't mentioned it in a while...

John Zeock — Thu, 11 Mar 10 11:52:53 -0500

The Best SF Novel You've Never Read- SHADOWS IN THE SUN by Chad Oliver AND The Best Novel You've Never Read- THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford.

No title.

Frank Church — Thu, 11 Mar 10 10:59:22 -0500

Corey Haim dies at 38! Motherfucker, drugs suck.

----------

Steve Barber, I love you! Hold me, cuddle me, give me that Clara Bow eyedream.

How lovely was Clara, by the way. Did you guys know that Bela Legosi had a go? I was born at the wrong time.

----------

Let's not forget about the White Rose society.

No title.

Steve Barber — Thu, 11 Mar 10 09:25:53 -0500

If I may be permitted, may I derail the Pav from a four year old debate that was in questionable taste and motivation right from the start?

Thank you.

HARLAN - If you don't mind, and if it's our business, can you give us an update on how the Keonig family is faring? Our thoughts have been with them, and the outpouring here on the Pav was truly heartrending as we all had our little attempt at consoling the unconsollable. Obviously it's not going to be a good story, but there are fans of both Walter' and Josh's work who come to this board frequently and wish the family (and friends) well.

If it's not asking too much or still too painful to want to discuss, that is.

Not to make Harlan's corner of the world a Cindy admiration

Darryl — Thu, 11 Mar 10 09:15:51 -0500

Society, but...

Cindy? Has anyone ever told you you're a frakking ROCK STAR! Well you are.

D.

By the way, hello back, Cindy.
Two posts in two days. I gotta lurk for 6 months now.

No title.

Mark Goldberg — Thu, 11 Mar 10 07:32:19 -0500

I posted this on my Facebook page but ya know what, screw it I will post it here also. Too damn much bad stuff been happening lately, and here is a story of one of the most courageous men I have ever heard of, a British POW who broke into Auschwitz:

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article7039572.ece

Mark

No title.

George C. Scotland — Thu, 11 Mar 10 06:13:09 -0500

Oh, Willis-Grope...the Firestarter-ricochet of the Webderland group mind...

Addendum

Phil Nichols — Thu, 11 Mar 10 04:27:36 -0500

Oops, sorry, p = Phil Nichols ...slip of the typing fingers!

Heads-up for the LAWYERS!

Thu, 11 Mar 10 04:26:48 -0500

This might already be on Harlan's attorney's watch-list, but I don't think I've seen it referred to before:

Another website with tons of complete works for download:

http://bearsite.info/General/Library_of_Science_Fiction_and_Fantasy/

- Phil

I might be crazy

The Former Fool — Thu, 11 Mar 10 03:53:04 -0500

Thanks for the prayers Frank. Here's some data for you, from Scientific American:

"The popular conception of nuclear power is straight out of The Simpsons: Springfield abounds with signs of radioactivity, from the strange glow surrounding Mr. Burn's nuclear power plant workers to Homer's low sperm count. Then there's the local superhero, Radioactive Man, who fires beams of "nuclear heat" from his eyes. Nuclear power, many people think, is inseparable from a volatile, invariably lime-green, mutant-making radioactivity.

Coal, meanwhile, is believed responsible for a host of more quotidian problems, such as mining accidents, acid rain and greenhouse gas emissions. But it isn't supposed to spawn three-eyed fish like Blinky.

Over the past few decades, however, a series of studies has called these stereotypes into question. Among the surprising conclusions: the waste produced by coal plants is actually more radioactive than that generated by their nuclear counterparts. In fact, the fly ash emitted by a power planta by-product from burning coal for electricitycarries into the surrounding environment 100 times more radiation than a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy."

From:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste

If this is right, then if we replace coal power plants on a one for one basis with nuclear,we reduce radiation emitted to the environment from power production by ninety nine per cent.

That we would also get a guaranteed cut in carbon emissions of about two thirds makes this pretty attractive to me. That stops global climate change in its tracks.

You argue having a defined "allowed" legal limit for a dangerous substance (in this case ionizing radiation emitting pollutants from a nuclear power plant) does not mean that it is "safe".

Every type of food the government certifies as fit for human consumption is allowed by law to have well defined amounts of foreign matter. You might as well argue that just because the government "allows" a certain number of rat hairs and mouse feces per candy bar doesn't mean that candy bar is safe to eat. Oh, if you don't eat candy bars, the same goes for your Nutrigrain or CLIFF bar or whatever you eat. Organically produced foods are allowed even more of any "natural" contaminants than non-organic foods. If farmers don't use chemical fertilozer and pesticide, you get more of the natural stuff. It's one or the other. Almost any dirty, unsafe and downright lethal material you can imagine is listed in some FDA or other government agency regulation as having an "allowable" level in human food. Same goes for dangerous stuff in what we drink, breathe, wear and live in. No wonder Howard Hughes went nuts.

Say, were you and Howard friends?

But seriously, the bar must be set somewhere, because you can never get to zero levels of every contaminant.
c
I do not believe you sincere in claiming to believe we know nothing of "human nature". All that term means is "What do humans do?"

We study history, We see what humans have done. Same with current events. What are humans doing now? See what patterns are there. The ones that happen the most, we label "human nature". We don't know all of it, we don't know much of the "why" of it, but we have a huge pile of data on the "what" of it. That data is what we "know" of "human nature". I suspect your problem with that fact is that you don't much like what it says about humans.

Join the club.

But denying what we know is not the answer to the problem of not liking what we know of "human nature".

Tell me Harlan Ellison needs to study worms to know "human nature". With a straight face, I mean.

"Daniel White for the greater good" is all about human nature, and it's insights came from the writer having observed it up close and personal for a lifetime.

Same for Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn.

Are Twain and Ellison clueless of "human nature"? That's what you argue, if you believe "we" know nothing of "human nature".

That sure sounds crazy to me, colloquially speaking, as I am sure you also meant it. Or did you recently get your Psych.M.D.?

I may be crazy, I may need your prayers, but that don't fret me none when I remember how the pot also called the kettle "black".

Nerd Off!

J. Herzog — Thu, 11 Mar 10 01:29:18 -0500

Friend of Harlan Patton Oswalt in SF trivia combat with John Hodgman:

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2010/03/science-fiction-trivia-challenge-john-hodgman-vs-patton-oswalt-.html

I saw it

Eronisle Ni Newo — Thu, 11 Mar 10 01:27:02 -0500

You know, I remember the special award given to Harlan at LACON.

I saw the whole schtick between Harlan and Connie Willis. I was just watching what I thought were two old friends having some fun with each other for the audiences enjoyment as well as for each others.

I was also there at the closing ceremonies when Connie Willis made her "Tell Harlan Ellison to keep his hands off me!" comment. My response at the time was literally "What was THAT all about?!"

I had not been on the internet in the intervening time, I didn't know of the hue and cry raised there.

I took away from the whole matter that Connie Willis acted poorly. She fucked Harlan over, because it was easy to do, a crowd pleasing act to throw him under the bus. Pure schadenfreude in action. The bystanders were like the people raking off their tee shirts and running alongside the white Bronco in the infamous OJ Simpson "Slow Chase", urging him on.

I also freely admit I had never read more than a few of her stories, mostly in Asimov's when they first came out, that I found her stories, well, forgettable. Just not my cuppa. Never read her novels either, and I was never taken with her public persona. or sense of humor. I was tone deaf to it. I know of her huge award numbers and that she is highly regarded as an emcee. My own peculiar taste, no doubt, but I never saw it in what I had read or seen of her here and there. My loss, but there you have it.

But my gut feeling is she fucked Harlan over just to be one with the crowd that was eager to see it happen.

I recall how Harlan loved to trade verbal jabs, painful and intensely personal ones at times, with his truly loved friend Isaac Asimov. I see this whole affair as if Doctor A. had, right after one of those legendary sessions such as the legendary battle at Discon in 1974, had shortly thereadter gone to a public venue where Harlan was not present, and said to huge applause, "I wish Harlan Ellison would keep his fucking mouth shut about me!", and then allowed Harlan to be pilloried far and wide as a slanderer of Isaac Asimov.

Isaac Asimov never did, never would have done, such a thing.

Her character was revealed as weaker than the temptation to go for the easy, ego feeding, play to the crowd.

As for her defenders, not one in ten of them give a fuck for her, or for Harlan other than as an easy venuet for the venting of spleen, of which they have overmuch.

And that's enough on this. Piss on 'em, I says.

Audience recruitment

Semi-Writer — Thu, 11 Mar 10 00:45:02 -0500

Being one of the poor saps that got sucked into the world of doing audience work in Hollywood, audience work is, well, weird.

In this, I'm not counting the free "hey, you get to be a test group to see a Major Motion Picture!" deals going on. (I did that for "Without a Paddle." Major movie, my ass.) Or the kind of radio station giveaways that lure in audience members (a Paramount Studios evening publicizing the DVD release of Jerry Lewis' "The Nutty Professor," with free DVD and gift bag). But here's some of the paid events I've done:

The worst gig: "The Megan Mullally Show." High summer, just south of Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. We stood in line against a concrete wall for two hours. No shade, no seats (did I mention Hollywood, as in "scummy sidewalks"?), no bathroom, no water and no food. Finally they shuffled our group through the studio gates and into... get this... an air-conditioned tent with seats and tables and water dispensers! Yea. Rather than have us sit inside a tent and wait for the show to start, we sweat our asses off on the street. Plus, we occupied the tent for maybe five minutes before going into the studios. Then to complicate things, the casting company neglected to mention it was a two-show shoot, not one, with what is termed a "walkaway lunch." That's shorthand for "those without money on you won't be eating today" and "be back in line RIGHT on time." After a hasty lunch grabbed at any place that wasn't packed by our fellow audience members, we returned for a two-and-a-half-hour wait in the sun. While the tent sat EMPTY.

A cool gig: "The Greg Behrendt Show" in Culver City. We were efficiently put into lines upon arriving at the gate, and passed through security in a smooth, efficient and respectful manner. Restrooms were readily available. Extras holding was a comfortable second studio next door to Behrendt's studio with an assortment of bean bag chairs, comfortable chairs, and TV sets showing the shoot next door (for those on standby and who didn't make it into the audience after capacity was reached). Greg was very involved in the audience and kept things lively, and made an awesome host.

A twisted gig: "Deal or No Deal." Did it three or four times. Same studio building as Behrendt's show, but a totally different vibe. Those not seated in the audience had to either wait in a tiny, second holding area for stand-bys just off the set, or go to a barrren studio farther down the lot where we, grown adults with nothing better to do but sit in folding chairs and wait, actually GOT YELLED AT if we fell asleep. Plus, that's a show for the beautiful people. Me, being not-so-beautiful, got stuck far up into the rafters each time I did it.

A coulda-been-worse gig: "Just For Laughs" at some little studio somewhere. Audience members seated on plywood-constructed benches painted black, providing cut-aways and a laugh track for "funny" (ahem) videos from Canadian pranksters. The saving grace was both the polite P.A. staff and a certain comedian you just might have heard of. Sinbad was simply awesome--he was not just there to earn a paycheck, but to have fun and make sure we had fun, too.

A look-ma-I'm-on-television gig: "The Price is Right" at CBS. Sorry to spoil the illusion. The audience really does consist mostly of real people brought on as contestants, but when they don't have enough of Mr. and Mrs. America around, there are some paid people filling in the back and sides (never to "come on down," of course). Drew Carey, not Bob Barker. And yes, my mother saw me on TV.

The eh-it's-a-living gig: "The Craig Ferguson Show," also at CBS. I liked it well enough the two times I did it, and it was shot efficiently, but I don't even remember who his guest stars were.

Oh, and the average amount of money you make for gigs like this? $40. Usually cash. I got a regular minimum-wage paycheck for a few of them, though. Depends who does the hiring and how big the company is that you're dealing with.

Sometimes I wonder....

Kristin A Ruhle — Wed, 10 Mar 10 21:18:54 -0500

..what would have happened at the L A Worldcon if.

In an alternate universe: Harlan doesn't let us/Susan talk him out of getting into a public brawl with a fellow author named rhymes-with-feast, so he has to get bailed out after spending Hugo night in jail, but Connie Willis is safe! Ok, she's safe anyway, but you know what I mean.

Lay off the violence, get a sex scandal instead.

Only, the latter is probably worse when it comes to making your name mud....

If two men get into a fight and one gets the *** beat out of him you might persuade people the asshole deserved it! (having already persuaded me for one!) But when it's between a man and a woman there is a lot of pressure in these politically correct days to side with the woman.

I'm *really* glad I was not at that con, and heard about it later so I could be more distanced emotionally from it - I've felt anguish and divided loyalties before when people I respected turned on each other. If you feel caught in the middle, it hurts.

Everyone knows about the sex scandal but only those of us who were webderlanding at the time know about the non-violence...if you want to know, dig through the pavvy archives...

Kristin
who likes you, Harlan
who respects Connie Willis

and who has female fannish acquaintances who (if anyone brings up the subject) say HE groped them in an elevator (or something of that sort) years ago, and who are unlikely to be talked out of their negative opinion of HE...

SUSAN JUST REMINDED ME ...

HARLAN ELLISON — Wed, 10 Mar 10 19:02:07 -0500

The tv show was called "The Conspiracy Zone."

-he

catch up time

concentricfridays — Wed, 10 Mar 10 18:40:56 -0500

I just ordered up GENTLEMAN JUNKIE and MEMOS FROM PURGATORY as E-Reads editions. Can't get enough! Ah, there will be a double whammy GJ? "Just shoot the thing, before the technology changes!"
GLASS TEAT yeah, alright! Peggy Lipton on an airline flight ... hmmm, wearing a skirt?

Going back to the days when Pyramid paperbacks had me entranced by all those hard-to-get titles. Miniature squares and circles just under the cover indicating availability. I must be in a Dream Corridor. And PRETTY MAGGIE MONEYEYES for audio via iTunes. (I gush.)

No title.

J Hitchcock — Wed, 10 Mar 10 18:22:37 -0500

Here's a link which gives some detail about the show which our host mentioned

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conspiracy_Zone

For Cindy

shagin — Wed, 10 Mar 10 17:32:31 -0500

Cindy
TEXAS - Wednesday, March 10 2010 15:32:25
Sorry.

*bonk*
Don't you DARE apologize!

Sandra

GRAYSON OH MI GAWD OH MI GAWD OH MI GAAAAAARGHHH

HARLAN ELLISON — Wed, 10 Mar 10 16:30:08 -0500

I remember E X A C T L Y where (not when, precisely) the photo with that bonkers guy was taken! Done in response to a polite "may I have my picture taken with you?" not in ANY way validating this dude's celebrity.

Can't remember the name of the short-lived tv show. Kevin Nealon was the host. It had to do with ghosts, crop circles, UFOs, all the usual demented shit know-nothings believe. A "studio audience" had LITERALLY been recruited by going up and down streets in Hollywood, to supermarkets and pizza stands, and paying five bucks a head to any ne'er-do-well who'd sit still for the taping. Or maybe it was just a ticket TO the taping, no five bucks. Who can remember that ways back, ten or more years ago.

I was HIRED, for pay, to come in as the "nay" voice of Sanity, and I wheeled in my (literally, a)library cart stacked high with issues of THE SKEPTICAL ENQUIRER, volumes and volumes debunking Area 51 and Roswell and flying saucers, et al ...

And the guy on the "yeah, this shit is all true, lookee I got a piece of gum that says it all happened, it's cosmic gum" was Sean David Morton.

Oh mi gawd!

THAT is why I'm up there on his egosite. Kill me now.

Ubiquitously, Yr. Pal, Harlan

(Who commemorates THIS one in the Walking Dead file.)

Let It Be Over

Adam-Troy Castro — Wed, 10 Mar 10 16:28:52 -0500

Harlan, you just defended yourself very well, as always. I know you'd like to leave it at that. But forgive me for taking it a little bit further.

To me, the most instructive thing about the "grope" meme is that it has made the hue and cry over The Last Dangerous Visions go away. A few years ago, before "the grope," that particular issue was the biggest thing the trolls obsessed on; they worried about it at length, like dogs fighting over a bone. I'm not saying that TLDV isn't a problematic issue; I believe it is, and any fair assessment of Harlan's public career needs to address it.

But that's not the point. I'm saying that just a few years ago it was the one item folks who would never, ever think of reading a Harlan Ellison story for themselves, used to wave like a talisman if they wanted the counterfeit edginess that goes along with slamming icons.

Since "the grope," TLDV doesn't ever seem to come up.

Now, perhaps you want to argue that "the grope" is a more serious transgression. But a more serious transgression would not normally make discussions of less serious transgressions go away. UNLESS the outrage and moral huffiness and vast expenditures of electrons that came from people who previously obsessed about that lesser transgression and trumpted it at every opportunity, people who in many cases hadn't even been born when TLDV was originally announced, was all just a shuck, the faux-outrage of the ninety-nine people in any lynch mob who don't really care about the alleged crime but still want the thrill of going along with the hundredth who may actually be acting out of a perceived moral impulse. Those ninety-nine just want to show they think what they have been told to think; they want to feel virtuous, as they attack today's object of hate.

(This is a well-known fact in politics. John Edwards turned out to be a pretty maggoty piece of work, really, but the endless talk of his hundred dollar haircut -- really, who gives a shit about that? -- was just lynch mentality at its finest: a meme, something people parroted without thinking, in order to join a chorus of many.)

Me, I think of the "grope" incident as Harpo (and in context I do mean Harpo, not Groucho) Marx pestering Margaret Dumont, with her full cooperation. That was not the real Harpo Marx and the real Margaret Dumont; that was the assumed personas of both performers, who in a normal social situation would never act that way. Comedy -- especially improv comedy, which this was -- whether it succeeds in being funny or not -- is transgressive, and it's very possible for a sane and reasonable person to argue over whether lines were crossed. But that's not what is happening here. Somehow, overnight, the skit was re-imagined and reinterpreted, as if Connie Willis was not standing up there KNOWINGLY treating Harlan Ellison as an uncontrollable little boy who misbehaved; as if she did not act unflappable at the moment; as if she did not hug him with genuine affection five seconds after suffering an allegedly grievous assault; as if almost everybody in the audience didn't watch and laugh, understanding as even a five-year-old would understand that characters were being played; as if there had been a genuine communal gasp of horror and not a wave of appreciative applause. As if, somehow, belatedly, the actual event, and not the interpretation of it, had changed.

My observation as someone who was THERE is that after a friendship of many years, Connie Willis showed no outward signs of being upset at the moment. But that, by the next day, when she addressed a large crowd with, "Harlan Ellison needs to keep his hands to himself," it was a applause line.

My observation as someone who, like any human being who ever lived on the Planet Earth, has wronged friends without conscious intention -- in at least one case, with accidental invasion of another's personal space -- is that IF the friendship is worth one iota more than personal appearances, it's capable of healing from more grieviously inflicted wounds, and is not subject to the influence of voices assuring the one allegedly wronged, "You ought to hate this guy." Friendship is not a weather vane, capable of changing direction in a moment under the influence of prevailing winds.

My observation as someone who visited a devastated Harlan only afe days later is that he was far less concerned about any damage to his reputation than repairing bridges with someone he admired and valued and who had turned on him with absolute finality after the moment of his offense. (Whether because she really felt herself victimized, because she had been talked into feeling victimized, or because the crowd insisted that she should feel victimized, is a something I don't pretend to know. I do know what I fear. "You ought to hate this guy.")

Note that all of these observations are valid even if Harlan crossed a line. He might have. That's a fair argument. But I don't think true moral outrage is the force that keeps bringing the incident back into the public eye. I think for many it's the thrill of being able to flatter themselves that they're better than the object of this week's Two Minute Hate. And because, hey, it's really fun to poke the tiger.

And all of that, ALL OF THAT, is secondary to the most important thing, which is that most of us are better than our respective worst moments, and that anybody who intends on reducing us to such a hateful blurb is not really interested in knowing the truth anyway.

REPLY TO GRAHAM RAE

HARLAN ELLISON — Wed, 10 Mar 10 16:01:17 -0500

No reason to be Skittish, Scottish. Perfectly reasonable question to ask. Yes, SLIPPAGE was my most recent book of stories. Yeah, it was a while back.

Reasons, of course. Lots of reasons. I'm just not getting stuff off the brink and into the hands of my various publishers. In stacks, that meet my eye every day, are:

A FISH HEAD IN ASPIC
the new boxed limited COMPLETE GLASS TEATS
the updated 2-volume boxed set of GENTLEMAN JUNKIE and
THE DEADLY STREETS
YR. PAL, HARLAN
THE DISCARDED (with Josh Olson)

and a new book, half stories never-collected or brand-new and
half essays either new or uncollected, but major

This last one is built like an Ace Double, back-to-back and upside-down, with one side titled THE LAST PERSON TO MARRY A DUCK LIVED THREE HUNDRED YEARS AGO and the other side titled
WHY DO YOU KEEP CALLING ME ISHMAEL, WHEN YOU KNOW MY NAME IS BERNIE?

Where are they, Graham, as my name slides beneath the post-Atlantean tidals? Why, they're right here. Maybe you'll see them if I can keep my train running, or mayhap I will let time-wasters like "Er..." play on my deathly passions and divert me into jeremiads like the last one...that I swear...on the graves of my mother and father...I will not mention again.

Graham, I'm dancing as fast as I can. But as my doctor said, when he looked at my most recent blood-plate: "Well, you've lost 47 lbs. You're down to 161. You've got the heart thing well under control, no cancer, no prostate problem, blood pressure fine, second-stage diabetes thing not bad, so you're in very good health for a man 75 years old." So I'm leapin' up&down in my li'l pixie heart, because cummin-up May, I'm going to be 76, and THEN he says, "The only trouble with you, son, is you're SEVENTY-five, not TWENTY-five!"

And I wept.

Well, not actually. But, yeah, SLIPPAGE was my most recent; and I'm dancing as fast as I can, Graham. Thank you, mate, for asking.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

No title.

Cindy — Wed, 10 Mar 10 15:32:25 -0500

Sorry.

No title.

Cindy — Wed, 10 Mar 10 15:30:32 -0500

I'll tell you this, Harlan,

If the same thing had happened to any of us here--with us in the Willis part... and some miscreant took the sweet little joke and exchange, churning it and twisting it into what they have here-- we would have broken down doors, taken cross country flights, made phone calls and rented bill boards. We would have shinnied to the top of the Chrysler Building and shouted at the tops of our lungs, " HARLAN HAS DONE NOTHING WRONG!" We would have told the story over and over and over again-- or as my Paris said when she was in first grade, " I will tell the truth until they hear me."

I do not know, let alone understand this Willis person-- but it would seem she is not and never has been your friend. You have lost nothing... and it cost you nothing to learn what she is. Those who love you love you still.

Your friends, and I presume to count myself among them, would die for you. We'd have your back-- come hellfire or havoc and we would fuckin' DIE before we'd stand silent and allow ANYFUCKINONE to judge you harshly for something you did not-- and WOULD NEVER have done.

FUCK them.
Love,
Cindy

Hey Darryl.

No title.

Ezra — Wed, 10 Mar 10 15:01:46 -0500

Yes but would you have wanted an Irishman in the engine room when the Tholians were bearing down on the Enterprise?

As we say in the 'hood...

Darryl — Wed, 10 Mar 10 14:31:50 -0500

OH, SNAP. Good on you, Harlan.

P.S. I know, I know, it's the 'burbs. But it used to be the 'hood. Honest. It did. Really.

ER ...

HARLAN ELLISON — Wed, 10 Mar 10 14:01:18 -0500

1. As far as I know (dear me, I do seem to be having trouble untangling the actual knotted agendas of cowardly ambush bugs bleating a series of 5th-hand opinions about someone who STANDS BEHIND HIS REAL NAME), as I say, as far as I know...you have never met me, you just squat out there in the marsh, your ass painted blue, snurffling at the moon far above you...yet you prefer to believe the lie that diminishes me, rather than any truth that destroys by even a scintilla, your godknowswhy dislike of me.

2. The photo of Connie Willis leaning FORWARD and KISSING ME is, by actual timing, as taken off the longer big-screen broadcast of THE ACTUAL HAPPENING (not some reinterpretation by a mean spirited dullard not fit to scrape the gum off my shoe), right then and there, not four years later, that photo...

WAS TAKEN SEVEN (7) SECONDS AFTER THE ALLEGED "GROPE" ...

you moron.

3. I left the stage less than a minute later. Susan and I were in the car, and on the way back to Los Angeles TEN minutes later. Got home in the evening, I pay no attention to the internet unless it's this site, and knew nothing of any of it till sometime Sunday, when somebody or other called me and told me that the craven Patrick Nielsen Hayden--somewhere in the middle of the audience--and as we know "Hell hath no fury like that of the uninvolved"--had told the world, via the fuckin' laptop he apparently takes with him everywhere including the toilet, that I had "groped" Willis. Called Willis immediately.. Not home yet from Worldcon. Wrote a letter, sent it Monday by Overnight Mail. Never got a reply. Four years, and, well, nothing. The "apology" you cite, was written to assuage assholes such as you, because I had NO IDEA what had happened, and I figured, "Well, Connie and I are pals, SHE knows we were doing a bit we'd done twenty times before, SHE will set this right. We're friends." Not a word. Four years, not a word.

4. You know why someone accused of something bad--whether individual like me, or corporation like the FBI--is discouraged or forbidden from simply saying "I'm sorry" and have done with it? It's because of farts like you, who twist an attempt to set things straight as an admission of guilt, leading to a lawsuit.

5. If, in fact, I had "groped" Connie Willis, in front of something like 1700 people, and it was recorded, and seven seconds later she was enthusiastically kissing me in front of those same 1700 people, then Connie Willis should have shown SOME (SOME /SOME / THE TEENIEST) start or reaction or moue at having been "groped" mere seconds earlier, and Connie Willis PROPERLY should sue me for open and flagrant sexual harassment! Even four years later.

6. Since she hasn't, bigmouth, nor has she evinced ANY harm from this accusation, it falls to me, Er...(fill in your name and mug shot here)...that you might A) transfer your interest in this matter to Connie Willis or B) just go the hell away and stop sniping, you poor yellow wingnut.

Harlan Ellison

No title.

Rob — Wed, 10 Mar 10 13:14:50 -0500

Barney: "...there's nothing I can do about what others post so I'll do what Adam-Troy does and treat this site as an annex to Facebook and slap some content up in between Harlan's posts"

...I - I have content!

Why, I'm FULLA content!

No title.

dj — Wed, 10 Mar 10 13:12:56 -0500

Scotland compares to Ireland like Hell compares to Purgatory; The Scots play the bagpipe, the Irish the harp(I don't even know what Scottish music is except for that dreadful instrument)Scots eat Horrible Haggis, the Irish eat savory Corned Beef and Cabbage. Ireland is the Emerald Isle, Scotland the rugged, inhospitable North.

Kafkaesque Melville

cynic — Wed, 10 Mar 10 13:00:00 -0500

just watched the film, Bartleby. the well is not dry.
next up; The Trial.
can't even watch a movie without adding to my reading list, damn.

No title.

Grayson — Wed, 10 Mar 10 12:52:22 -0500

So there is this dude by the name of Sean David Morton who was recently sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for securities fraud. This a man who claimed to use his psychic powers to exactly predict the rise and fall of the stock market. Apparently, dimwitted investors ended up sending him millions of dollars.

This case is somewhat unique because Morton, unlike others who set up such schemes, is deep into New Age b.s. Examples: UFOs, earthquake prediction, psychic powers, remote viewing, etc., etc. When the news broke that he was being sued it was covered in the New York Times and by many other news organizations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/05/business/05psychic.html

He has also claimed to have met the Dalai Lama and provided Gene Roddenberry with creative ideas for Star Trek: The Next Generation. Extensive documentation of all this nonsense can be found on the UFO Watchdog website. (Strange, a UFO website that goes after the real weirdos.)

http://www.ufowatchdog.com/hall-of-shame/24-sean-david-morton

Normally, I wouldn't bring all of this up but there is a Harlan connection. The man has several websites and one of his pages is called Six Degrees of Sean. Basically, it shows him posing with a bunch of celebrities to show how important he is. One of the pictures is with Harlan.

http://lizardicommunications.com/delphi/about.html

No doubt at a convention or other public appearance by Harlan. (Of course, I don't expect you to remember when this picture was taken.)

--Grayson

Scotlad.

Graham Rae — Wed, 10 Mar 10 11:09:25 -0500

Can I ask a question that may well get me killed? What was the last book of short stories Harlan put out? I seem to recall it being Slippage, which was great, but it was a long time ago and I wonder if anything has been out since then short storywise. And yes, I know every book I have not read by the author is new, and blah blah blah, but I'm just curious, is all. I mean no harm by the question.

I am laughing about how bloody trepidatious I am being in writing that question. Ridiculous!

Scotland is indeed a beautiful country, all hills and Highland and haggis and heather, with smiling all-white ancestral populace, as many white Americans like to believe. YEAH RIGHT. I lived in a post-industrial shopping mall, inspiration as it may have been to Robert Burns in the 18th century. The most beautiful parts in the Highlands are NOT owned by Scottish people, and are so beautiful and unspoiled because all the poor people living there were thrown out to make way for sheep by the landowners during the 18th and 19th centuries during an act of cleansing known as the Highland Clearances. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme motherfuckin' chose. Bring a tear to a glass bloody eye. So beautiful! And the golf! THE GOLF!!!! Tired of hearing bloody middle class Americans obsess over St. Andrew's like it's actually an important place or something. I suppose to them it's Golf (I often accidentally type 'gold' by accident for that word, which I suppose is quite telling) Mecca, but people look confused when I tell them I never knew Scotland invented golf until I came to the U.S., and never knew ONE SINGLE PERSON in Scotland who played golf:

"You're joking, right?

"Nope. Would I joke about a serious subject like that?" (I admit, sometimes my humor is held close to my chest, much to American bemusement)

That piece of shit Donald Trump wants to build a gold golf course on a beautiful stretch of unspoiled Aberdeen coastland. He's getting to, and he'll displace people who have lived there for centuries simply because he wants his fucking disgusting vanity project and his mother was "seriously Scotch." Which is a DRINK, not a nationality. Guess he never saw Local Hero, eh?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Hero

Thus endeth the Scotland rant. Feel free to rip and rend and tearyeye-tear away at this tearaway...

Harlan Whimsy From The YJ

shagin — Wed, 10 Mar 10 11:01:18 -0500

Before hurling teen insults, angst, and Aspbergerish confusion my way last night (really, really rough night), YJ did manage to make me smile:

YJ: You know, mom, remember, now that they're doing all of the movies in 3-D, right?

Me: Yes.

YJ: They should make a 3-D movie of Harlan's Harlequin story. Harlan could do the voices. 3-D jelly beans!

Me: That would be fun.

(That would definitely speak to the seven-year old in me.)

shagin

No title.

Frank Church — Wed, 10 Mar 10 11:00:38 -0500

Wolcott is right. I hope that was not meant as a putdown.

-----------

Adam Troy Castro, calm down. You are a big softy.

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

Did you guys know that Obama has a four percent approval rating in Israel? That's just for benign comments about settlements. Imagine if Barry was really tough against them.

Boy did they stiff Biden on settlement building. Looks like the long relationship is going sour.

Source: Jeruselem Post.

No title.

Jan — Wed, 10 Mar 10 10:50:34 -0500

The earlier "HARLAN" POST was me.
Brian, you made it worse! Going away now.

No title.

Jan — Wed, 10 Mar 10 10:47:32 -0500

Oops, that was me - mistyped!
Don't laugh, it's because of the password, dammit. Not trying to prove Steve's point.

No title.

Brian Siano again — Wed, 10 Mar 10 10:47:11 -0500

My apologies: the Abebooks list can be found at http://www.abebooks.com/books/satan-lucifer-dante-inferno-screwtape/devil-books.shtml

Some publicity for Harlan

Brian Siano — Wed, 10 Mar 10 10:46:29 -0500

I'm on the maling list for Abebooks, which is a network of used book stores. Today, they sent out a sheet about Devilish Books: "Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Mephistopheles, the prince of darkness - call him what you will, but the devil is a such an intriguing force of evil that countless writers across many centuries have woven a devil, the devil or simply demonic themes into their work."

The lkst includes such titles as _The Mysreious Strange_, _The Master and Margarita_, _Melmoth the Wanderer), _Blood Meridian_... and _Deathbird Stories_.

I know, used books, no royalties to the author... but it's nice to be recognized.

No title.

Harlan — Wed, 10 Mar 10 10:45:29 -0500

It's funny what names some people have. Perhaps heavy sighs and "er" are the most common sounds they hear in the company of others.

DWST worthy of Netflix
www.cinemablend.com/dvdnews/FlixWorthy-Two-Writers-Two-Con-Men-And-1-000-Corpses-23345.html

The LA Times article on the two Oz film projects (one scripted by Josh) in development
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2010/03/wizard-of-oz-remake-new-dorothy.html
The comment on this at Collider.com: "The way my sources spoke, its a hit whoring article on very old news."
www.collider.com/2010/03/09/is-warner-bros-really-off-to-see-a-new-wizard-of-oz-not-so-fast/

One more Oscar review: "I love the hell out of The Oscar, even though its easily one of the most overwritten and overacted movies ever made."
http://thebureauchiefs.com/2010/03/doctor-ks-cult-classics-game-called-on-account-of-oscar/

JMS to write WONDER WOMAN and SUPERMAN comics starting in July
www.aintitcool.com/node/44204

No title.

Steve Barber — Wed, 10 Mar 10 10:36:04 -0500

"*** Steve *** No, sorry. Still hatin'. "

Feh. Bah. Humbug. ;-)

But I do like the idea of posting interesting tidbits and minutiae that might be of interest to others. The mood here HAS been edgy. Too many people thinking they're "Harlan Ellisons-in-training" and too little practical or stylistic skill to carry it off properly. Yeah, yeah, imitiation is the sincerest form, blah, blah, blah.

I figure I'm just gonna be the very best Steve Barber I can, and will let our esteemed continue to be the best HE *he* can be.

A'sides, he write much more better than me does.

___________________________________

Follow up on my cousin's situation. Again, much sincere appreciation for the thoughts and guidance last week. It goes like this:

Cousin tried to commit suicide by downing 24 non-prescribed anti-anxiety meds. Thought better of his decision and called 911. They fetched him and he spent the next two days in hospital. During that time he lost his job, had his car repo'd, and the custody of his son revoked by a judge.

His parents live in an assisted-living facility, so he can't move in. His two brothers are taking a hard line, as is his father (and his cousin).

I have reached my own independent conclusion that the alcohol and drugs are symptoms, not causes. I truly believe he needs to be institutionalized -- against his will if necessary -- for some intensive therapy. Not my decision, but I'm talking regularly to his older brother and letting him know the resources for exactly that.

As a sample of the disconnect, as a result of his actions he obviously will be unable to regain custody of his son any time soon. His lawyer, who had been engaged in an effort to gain FULL custody, has returned the retainer to my cousin's parents (who were funding the attempt). My cousin has told them that they need to spend that money -- from their retirement fund, mind you -- and buy him a new car. He insists the new car is so that he can look for a new job. He also told them he'll need money for a new apartment.

And so it goes.

content

Barney Dannelke — Wed, 10 Mar 10 07:01:39 -0500

*** Steve *** No, sorry. Still hatin'. However, there's nothing I can do about what others post so I'll do what Adam-Troy does and treat this site as an annex to Facebook and slap some content up in between Harlan's posts.

Like Harlan's ant joke, "we do what we can." In that spirit...

Neil Gaiman Writes a Final Love Letter to Batman
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/04/a-love-letter-t/
My birthday is in September. Hardcover. Hint hint effing hint.

- Barney

Guilty Pleasure

Rod Williams — Wed, 10 Mar 10 05:48:08 -0500

Q: It is wrong to laugh out-loud frequently during old episodes of MAD TV?

In Australia, this late-night digital TV filler competes with various infomercials (Zumba, Proactiv), broadcaster test patterns, and global weather auto-updates.

The jokes that opened this year's Academy Awards ceremony via Martin and Baldwin reminded me of MAD TV's writing.

-Rod

boorish behaviour

Michael Benedetti — Tue, 09 Mar 10 21:40:46 -0500

I choose not to have an opinion about behaviour that I did not personally witness. I have not personally discussed the issue with either party. I did read one parties public apology. I have read nothing from the other party

On the other hand, I can come to this website and witness ongoing boorish behaviour of tiresome anonymous trolls. I haven't read the attendant apologies offered by these 'persons', or did I miss them?

You know folks, that I you take it to one of the myriad of blogs in which persons, who like yourself, weren't there, offered their 'valued' judgment on how one incident defines a life,
would just be a drop in the pool of many similar 'opinions'. and what fun would that be? Who would even notice your 'contribution'?

Weird

Kris Nelson — Tue, 09 Mar 10 20:42:08 -0500

Strange - people here actually waste precious moments of their life talking about an alleged boob grabbing incident by the guy who wrote "I Have no Mouth and I must Scream".

Doesn't anyone talk about his work anymore?

Hey, my neighbor grabbed my friend's boob tonight. No one cares? You know why? Because it wasn't fucking Harlan Ellison, that's why. So. The. Fuck. What.

Does this generate free publicity for the man? Next actual subject please...

James Wolcott on

Clipping Service — Tue, 09 Mar 10 20:01:28 -0500

THE OSCAR

http://tinyurl.com/ycs4ew8

"Harlan Ellison's rivet-gun dialogue-writing is like a deranged sniper firing away with a blindfold on, hitting everything out of sight. Such a fun film."

paper dukes

Keith Cramer — Tue, 09 Mar 10 19:31:01 -0500

Er and Heavy Sigh,

Healthy people move on; people with problems dwell and obsess on one thing. If you continue to live in 2006 you will fail to grow as human beings. Everything that can be said about that incident has been said. You both might want to try to contact a certain Jim and lowercase rich: you both seem to have a lot in common with them, and perhaps you could form some sort of group, like a book club (although you guys could call it something like a Spite Club), and discuss it all you want. You really owe it to your families to stop obsessing about it. How much better a son, or brother, or father would you be if you focused on them instead of one incident that doesn't concern you at all, which happened years ago? Possibly a much better one; but you'll never know until you get to it. Criminy. It's almost worse than an Internet Porn addiction, but where oh where is your happy ending?

Harlan,

Non-sycophantically, you could call me a dick and punch me in the face and I'd still say you did nothing wrong in the Willis situation. I might hit you back, though. Just to prove Im no sycophant, I still dont like that Nazi uniform painting to deck your next book. Ugh. I thought you had better taste than that. My reality is crumbling.

-Keith

Hip Shots

Steve Perry — Tue, 09 Mar 10 18:49:37 -0500

Well, no one has ever accused HE of pondering overlong before he speaks. And as has happened to most of us -- certainly me -- sometimes we talk first and think later, and this has a tendency to come back to haunt us. Especially in this day when the media are hiding under every leaf and stone, microphones and cameras handy, recording everything everybody says, does, and soon enough, thinks ...

I have myself apologized for things that I did not believe merited an apology, for reasons I thought good and sundry at the time, only to realize later that such was not the best course of action. (Sometimes peace is better than victory. Some of you might be married or in a long-term relationship, and if you, you undoubtedly understand this.)

Then again, sometimes there can come a realization that stepping up and taking the weight gets you a burden you didn't expect, nor did you deserve.

Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry, but ... hold up a second here, tapping your bumper with mine is not an admission that I ran down ten little old ladies just to watch them bleed.

Well, HE said he shouldn'ta dunnit. Yeah, I expect that's surely true, given the hoo-hah that ensued. I'd regret the fuck out of doing it, too, were it me.

Did HE and CW get together beforehand and work out the logistics of who-was-gonna-say-and-do-what, and set up a call-and-response? I doubt that. But she certainly was being Mistress Dominina to his Lou Costello -- "I'm a baaad boy." -- and that's how the improv was going.

The hand on the boob? Probably not the smartest thing our Esteemed/Maligned Host ever did.

Humor is one of those things that lives on the razor's edge. Too little, maybe a thin smile. Too much, a grimace and groan. And when you dance the razor's edge, you will now and then get bloody ...

And certainly you can look at it out of context and get all into the whatta-male-chauvinist-pig rant, but this is the guy who camped out in egg-frying-on-the-sidewalk-heat to deny his money to a state that wouldn't ratify the ERA.

Yes, yes, might as well get this out now, and who cut a wide swath through available women when he was younger and feisty, and as far as I know, never lacked for willing partners.

But in the end, I expect that people who want to consider this some kind of sexual assault had their minds made up before they saw the vid. What's there and what they think is there don't have to agree for them to believe what they want.

Perry

Petty Mendacity?

Heavy Sigh — Tue, 09 Mar 10 16:42:57 -0500

Er
Was It the same person who also wrote,
"I was unaware of any problem proceeding from my intendedly-childlike grabbing of Connie Willis's left breast, as she was exhorting me to behave."

and wrote this immediately after,
"Did I fail to mention, I am 100% guilty as charged, and NO ONE should attempt to cobble up mitigating excuses for my behavior? As with everything else I REALLY DO (as opposed to the bullshit that is gossiped third-hand by dolts), I am responsible for my actions 100% and am prepared to shoulder all consequences, instead of shunting them off to Vice-President ScaryGuy."

Jason Brock

Dennis C — Tue, 09 Mar 10 16:31:16 -0500

He said he just spoke to you, Harlan, so all is well, I hope.

JaSunni

Dennis C — Tue, 09 Mar 10 16:14:26 -0500

Harlan:
Graham already posted Jason Brock's email:JaSunni@jasunni.com -- I sent him an email; I'll let you know if I get a response. He has a website, but no phone contact info.

I don't know him; just got the screening information from the Cinematheque website.

When he contacts me, I'll let you know.

--Dennis

No title.

Er, again — Tue, 09 Mar 10 15:23:50 -0500

"For me to grab Connie's breast is in excusable, indefensible, gauche, and properly offensive to any observers or those who heard of it later."

Ten guesses who wrote that.

No title.

Er — Tue, 09 Mar 10 15:22:28 -0500

Oh, yeah she kissed him. That totally means he didn't grope her at all. Sure.

Here's another take on what happened: http://scendan.livejournal.com/586135.html

I think that one nails it.

Rumor Central

Adam-Troy Castro — Tue, 09 Mar 10 14:43:51 -0500

Adam-Troy Castro is a multiple award nominee in the fields of science fiction and horror. He is, however, far more famous for his misbehavior at conventions, which include incidents where he brought custard pies to slam in the face of his fellow panelists,tossing a wheelchair-bound fan over the balcony at a Worldcon hotel, flying cross-country to fill Robert Silverberg's mailbox with shaving cream, sabotaging the brakes of the van that later hit Stephen King, spiking the Nebulas banquet with dangerous hallucinogens, rotating naked on Hugo rockets, and french-kissing Greg Feeley. Most of the major editors in the field have restraining orders against him. The FBI is investigating charges that he employs taxidermy to preserve hot girls from conventions, key among them the hot girl from that convention in the midwest who dressed like like Rose from DR. WHO dressed like Belle from CONFESSIONS OF A CALL GIRL dressed like somebody's Gor fantasy. Believe everything you hear. He's a dangerous guy.

Make that, maybe, 5

Alejandro Riera — Tue, 09 Mar 10 14:02:17 -0500

Barney!

Just sent my check yo MadCon so, who knows, our paths may cross this september and you may share some of your Puerto Rican adventures with me and the wife.

Chicago Webderlanders: Who else is going? And are there plans for some sort of shindig? Too early to organie I know, but may not be a bad idea to throw the idea out there.

AR

Wipe

Wade — Tue, 09 Mar 10 14:01:34 -0500

wiping - as in: to clean or dry by rubbing

Sorry for the three post

Science Fiction Hall of Fame

Wade — Tue, 09 Mar 10 13:29:54 -0500

Well, that's HORSE SHIT!!! I did a little knocking on some doors this year and figured for a different group of inductees. I'll be whiping my ass with the EMP membership this year. Mother fuckers.

Sorry for the two post

misreading Ellison

Keeney — Tue, 09 Mar 10 13:22:37 -0500

Harlan,

"Whether true or false, what is said about men often has as much influence on their lives, and particularly on their destinies, as what they do."
-Victor Hugo: from the second paragraph of LES MISERABLES.

And I say you're a mensch.

Rock on, Big Dawg,
Rick

MARK GOLDBERG

HARLAN ELLISON — Tue, 09 Mar 10 13:19:46 -0500

iI will never be inducted into the "Science Fiction Hall of Fame" in Seattle. That will never happen. I've been aware of the preceding since before it opened its doors.

Let it go. I did, years ago.

Harlan

No title.

Graham Rae — Tue, 09 Mar 10 12:43:18 -0500

Jasunni production company website says email

jasunni@jasunni.com

to contact them.

Just to put a time stamp on this...

Barney Dannelke — Tue, 09 Mar 10 12:36:28 -0500

Make that 7 banquet tickets left.

- Barney

STEPHEN / WRIGLEY FIELD

HARLAN ELLISON — Tue, 09 Mar 10 12:36:09 -0500

This may be an approximation, but the source is accurate:

Benjamin Franklin said, "It makes many, many good deeds to make a good reputation, but only one evil rumor to destroy it."

Yes, folks, I know: "let it go, let it go."

Three easy words, as possible to effect as the one knife in YOUR chest, each one of you, that remains in your heart, no matter how much you pull to free it. It has become the favorite nyaah nyaah nyaah of unlovely twerps and snipers.

But I thank YOU, Stephen, again and again, for posting that photograph of Ms. Willis and I smooching. It was taken within ten seconds AFTER the alleged barbarity. Ten SECONDS!!!!!!

I am having very clear prints electronically pulled for me. I
won't send them to her, that liaison was dead by the day after the brouhaha had circled the globe. But I will make sure they turn up when the world least expects it.

Yes, Stephen, and all others, this is a matter so moot in the face of the tragedies that have tsunami'd us the past month, that it really has the whiplash of a dandelion spore striking my cheek. But...nonetheless...betrayal hurts, false accusation hurts...whining may not help but, well, I'm too far into the Game of Life not to pick at the petty mendacious shit, because I can't much alter the steering on the Truly Large Ones.

Thank you, Stephen.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

Hooray

Kristian — Tue, 09 Mar 10 12:26:31 -0500

Wow, for a second there after I read "Beaumont", I thought maybe Unca Harlan played some part in a documentary about the lonely Texas town in which I live. Just for a second though, then reason crept back in and I made the Twilight Zone connection. All is once again right with the world.

In other news, I've finally decided to make the jump out of a technology career and plunge headfirst into a writing career by accepting a job with a Hearst publication. I'm pretty excited about it, especially considering that they were able to meet my admittedly picky salary requirements. I can't go into much detail as to what I'll be doing just yet, but I promise it's exciting stuff - even if it's only me who gets excited.

I hope everyone is doing well. My world sort of turned upside down over the past couple of months, so I haven't been posting anything at the pavilion. I aim to get back in the swing of things really soon, though. Best laid plans and all.

-Kristian

CALL OUT TO DENNIS C.:

HARLAN ELLISON — Tue, 09 Mar 10 11:49:07 -0500

Since you seem to be a whole lot more "up" than I, on this Beaumont documentary in which I had a small part, might I impose on you in a small way to try and find me a contact number either for the director, Jason Brock, or his production company, JaSunni Productions? I have both bits of referral data arround here somewhere .. somewhere ... but ...

So. If your computer skills can abet me, I would be grateful.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

MadCon 2010 - Saturday Night Banquet

Jon C. Manzo — Tue, 09 Mar 10 11:36:03 -0500

I just wanted to let all of you know that we are 85% Sold Out for the Saturday Night Banquet with the Guests at MadCon 2010 (Sept. 24-26, 2010, Madison, WI). The reason that we are limiting sales for this event is that we are guaranteeing that each table will feature at least one of the MadCon Guests, giving our attendees a chance to get some quality time with these amazing people.

Not counting any orders on their way or already in our P.O Box, this means we have about 8 seats left for the Banquet, which will feature an exclusive after-dinner talk by Harlan. If you're thinking about it, don't wait too long.

As usual, any questions about this or any aspect of MadCon 2010, feel free to email me directly. And for those of you who have already purchased your memberships and/or banquet tickets, thank you for supporting MadCon.

Jon C. Manzo
MadCon 2010 Co-Chair

No title.

Mary — Tue, 09 Mar 10 11:14:58 -0500

Been doing some spring cleaning lately, and discovered some interesting treasures in my book collection. I found a paperback copy of "The Moon Men" by Edgar Rice Burroughs that back in the day was a mere 40 cents. (I bought it at a used book store for $4...how things have changed!) I also found "Cyborg" by Martin Caidin, "Soldier Ask Not" by Gordon Dickinson, and "Age of Miracles" by John Brunner. I see some serious reading in my future :)...Interesting thing about the copy of "The Moon Men"...no date of publication, just a mention that the book was first published, but not when the paperback was printed. Anybody know why that is?

I also found a collection of stories from the "Galaxy" magazines...I repeat, I sense some heavy duty reading time in the next few weeks...

No title.

Mark Goldberg — Tue, 09 Mar 10 10:51:59 -0500

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame just announced its 2010 inductees: Octavia E. Butler, Richard Matheson, Douglas Trumbull and Roger Zelazny.

At the risk of possibly sounding foolish, why has Harlan not been inducted yet?

Also, it looks like I will be on a panel for ConVergence here in Minneapolis with a topic of Harlan Ellison: The Bad Guy of Science Fiction Literature? The description of the panel is:

We've all heard stories about the kind of guy Harlan is. Some people love that about him. Others don't. Share you stories and your opinions of the writer nobody is neutral about.

Keeney, I may need you to buy a ticket and help me with crowd control on this one....

Craig Ferguson

Iain Aitken — Tue, 09 Mar 10 10:33:26 -0500

It appears the Mr Ferguson is a bit of a topic of discussion, for reasons that are unlikely to become clear in the ofrseeable future. Now, I am not a huge fan of his, though I have to respect anyone that manages to come out of Cumbernauld and manage to create anything even close to an international career. Most folk from that horrible "New Town" just want to drink themselves to oblivion and produce carbon copies of themselves, who in turn will get a nose bleed if the get further than 2 miles away from the concrete hell they call home.

Joking aside, Cumbernauld is an awful place. I had a girlfriend who lived there many years ago and I have to say it left a scar on my memory just visiting the place. I would much rather run through Death Valley than walk through Cumbernauld. The place is a dump. The people are tribal and unpleasant. The town's main shopping center is regarded as being the worst piece of architecture in the whole of Scotland and some would say the UK. It really has got nothing very much going for it.

As Frank points out, Scotland is very pretty. It is. Its a fantastically beautiful country. Majestic hills, sweeping valleys, scenery that moves even the stoniest of hearts. But there is one thing the spoils all those wonders. A small minority of the Scots. The kind of people who vandalise their own houses, they really are THAT dumb. The kind of scum who just destroy everything, just because theyre bored and want to see something burn. And I havent even started on the religious bigots who use football as an excuse to shout their poisons to anyone who will listen. And it is so deeply ingrained into the Scottish psyche, it is now impossible to erase.

Scotland, this little country that is north of England... We are capable of such great things. We have given the world great thinkers, innovators and story tellers. There is an old saying "Necessity may be the mother of invention, but Scotland is where she gives birth". Little more than past glories now perhaps. But its still great to see a local boy done good. Even a schemey, alky radge like Craig Ferguson.

So dont be too hard on the lad. He did better than me, he got out, and he worked his way ever higher. Good luck to him I say.

No title.

Frank Church — Tue, 09 Mar 10 10:14:32 -0500

Craig Ferguson is a middle of the road dude, not very cutting edge. He doesn't want to bring fire to the buffet. He balms the eyeballs, is the Kate Smith line of hip. Scotland aint the problem.

Scotland is purdy.

---------

Noam Chomsky recently said that Rush Limbaugh and Palin are sincere. Ah, I love you Noami but maybe retirement is a good option.

Patton Oswalt is writing a Serenity comic.

Wade Chitwood — Tue, 09 Mar 10 09:33:07 -0500

http://splashpage.mtv.com/2010/03/08/exclusive-patton-oswalt-adds-a-new-chapter-to-firefly-universe-with-serenity-float-out/

No title.

Chuck Messer — Tue, 09 Mar 10 08:05:16 -0500

BEAVERS TO BE RE-INTRODUCED IN SCOTLAND, 400 YEARS AFTER

???

How did you guys reproduce?

Chuck

No title.

Graham Rae — Tue, 09 Mar 10 06:15:57 -0500

'Radge wee midden' can have various interpretations, I suppose, but I always took it to mean an 'insane small dungheap.' But it's all in the inflections and intonations. 'Radge' means crazy (a word popularized by Irvine Welsh, who is from Edinburgh, where Aguilera received her backhanded compliment), 'wee' is obvious, and 'midden'...well, it can have a few meanings, and my spinterpretation was always 'dung heap.' But really what it means in Scotland, and it's sort of difficult to explain, is that a person is a disgrace, an embarrassment (or em-bare-assment in Aguilera's case). What the Scottish trickster (and you will scarcely find a wit sharper than a Scottish one, unless it's Irish) was pointing out to her was that, what with her making crazy videos where she was presenting herself as basically a poledancing cagefighter (is that song called 'Dirty'?) et al, she was crazy and a fighter and frightening. He would have used the same expression on crazy Scottish women (or even men) too.

I dunno. I think that's pretty much exhausted the (Sl)Aguilera (i.e. slagging Aguilera) insult subject.

G.

Christina Aguilera

Steve Swanson — Tue, 09 Mar 10 05:27:37 -0500

Graham

Over here monosyllable foreign slang is fun.

To look up your Christina reference, I went to the fount of all knowledge The Internets.

Poking around in the urbandictionary.com Stephen of Wrigley Field mentioned, I come up with Radge wee midden meaning cesspool of a slut. Close?

Looking for the Christina MTV Incident:

GOOGLE: Christina Aguilera Scotland

{click click}

BEAVERS TO BE RE-INTRODUCED IN SCOTLAND, 400 YEARS AFTER

{click click}

Nope no thats not it.

Oh, heres something

{click click}

BBC NEWS
The crowd inside the massive big top went crazy when the American singer reveled that she had been complimented by a cute Scottish man.
She told the crowd: He said I was a radge wee midden. Which I am told means sexy little lady, so I will take it like that.

Either she is a very, very sharp entertainer who knows how to work a crowd or her translator is a very, very sharp translator who knows how to think on the fly. Im inclined to pick the latter.

Dying publications

Dennis C — Mon, 08 Mar 10 20:35:34 -0500

Variety fired Todd McCarthy today -- he was an esteemed critic and reviewer who'd been with the publication for over 30 years.

Roger Ebert tweeted: "Variety fires Todd McCarthy & I cancel my subscription. He was my reason 2 read the paper. RIP, schmucks"

Yeah, why bother having someone review films who knows about film history? Just have a kid do it.

Josh Alan Friedman, his dad Bruce Jay and Mel Shestack

SubtropicBob — Mon, 08 Mar 10 20:03:46 -0500

Hi Harlan -
I think you might enjoy seeing some of the posts that Josh Alan Friedman recently put on his blog about the 1950s and 1960s men's adventure magazines. As you know, Josh's dad is Bruce Jay Friedman, who once edited Male, Men, Man's World, Swank and True Action for Martin Goodman's Magazine Management company before he became a famous writer.

Josh (who has written some great books himself) has put up a series of posts about the Magazine Management gents. The latest one is about editor Mel Shestack -- who I expect you knew. That post is here -http://joshalanfriedman.blogspot.com/2010/03/magazine-management-part-v-mel-shestack.html

Best regards to you and Susan...

- SubtropicBob

P.S. I've been re-reading The Glass Teat lately and enjoying it immensely. Egads! Some great and awful shows and events to remember.

Thank You, Rick, For Removing That Most Recent Post

shagin — Mon, 08 Mar 10 17:14:25 -0500

Your vigilance and care for the board as a whole, and the Pavillion in specific, is much appreciated.

Sandra

No title.

Steve Barber — Mon, 08 Mar 10 16:31:43 -0500

*addendum to "No, I'm fine, really, thanks for asking."
Wow do I hate this board anymore.*

No, Barney, I have to disagree. By and large this is a better board than most. It's the individual contributors who I am finding objectionable.

But it's the internet, even as we try to insulate this site from the below the belt trollisms of the anonymous fools -- and even the snark from the known quantities -- we have to recognize that until/unless Rick makes this a non-public environment, Harlan and his site are going to attract those who think that wandering the halls in some sort of Harry Potterish "Cloak of Invisibility" and making snarky comment makes them, somehow, greater human beings.

Even amongst the regulars we have angst and agita. Maturity isn't always OUR strong suit, so why should we expect better from the sort of personality who thinks sniping at things from inside a dormouse's teacup is the epitome of time well spent.

A Moment Of Honesty

Rob — Mon, 08 Mar 10 16:21:16 -0500

When I begin fantasizing about coiffed anal hairs, I have to worry about where my life is going!

addendum to "No, I'm fine, really, thanks for asking."

Barney Dannelke — Mon, 08 Mar 10 15:44:02 -0500

Wow do I hate this board anymore.

Audio books etc

Phil Nichols — Mon, 08 Mar 10 14:05:32 -0500

shagin,

I have a lifelong addiction to audio media. For single-narrator readings, I prefer there to be no sound effects or music, as this makes the listening experience more akin to having someone read to you. The performance is everything, and this is why Harlan's readings are so effective.

If the story is a proper dramatisation, with a cast of actors, anything goes in my book - voice, effects, music, whatever helps evoke the scene. If you haven't already heard it, check out the 2000X series on CD - some excellent dramatisations, and an enthusiastic host who you may have heard of...

The old X MINUS ONE series from the 1950s had some wonderful bare-bones dramatisations of SF stories. You can find the whole series for download for free from www.archive.org

Top tip for US residents: check out the BBC stations Radio 4 and Radio 7 (www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 and www.bbc.co.uk/radio7). In the UK, radio drama is still a living, breathing art form - new plays and readings every day, and all of them available for listening online for up to seven days after broadcast (from anywhere in the world).

DTS

Stephen — Mon, 08 Mar 10 13:54:07 -0500

For those curious about the comments of an American who has left the states and not always spoken kindly of where he started, I will simply point to the copious amounts of "data" we have available right here in the Art Deco Dining Pavilion. To wit, the posts of Dorman aka DTS and the responses to same.

As for that other pale blue scottish person haunting late night television ... well, I don't watch because I can't stay up that late any more. One of the many joys of parenthood.

As for the 82nd annual academy awards last night, I didn't watch but am not surprised at who won. Admittedly, Adam-Troy Castro called them all first and wasn't surprised either.

'Radge wee midden' ... heh. Found all them thar funny words on the urban dictionary site. You probably only need the first to get the gist: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Radge

Alex Jay Berman: give'em hell! Make'em take on what they propose for the rest of us, with no special treatment or exemption for themselves. Regardless of the issue.

As for that incident in 2006, this sums up what I hope should be the final word on the subject:
http://www.midamericon.org/photoarchive/06worldcon036.JPG

No title.

Graham Rae — Mon, 08 Mar 10 12:15:01 -0500

I do not begrudge Ferguson getting out of his old home town, which genuinely is a grey soulfree concrete jungle, and having success. It would be parochial and mean-spirited to do so. But his recent stand-up I mentioned was just full of lowblow-bellowing bitter bilious bile blowing at Scotland, getting pathetic laughs out of garbage like stereotype jokes about the Scots being pennypinchers, et al.

It was obvious that Ferguson's life in Cumbernauld was horrible, as evidenced by his writing about it in his autobio, but he doesn't seem to have outgrown that anger and moved on in his life and to be able to contextualize his pain and life in Scotland, even from a distance. His act was just in such bad faith, is all, and to be perfectly honest...I don't find him all that funny anyway.

A poor Sean Connery (who will ALWAYS be America's favorite Scotsman) impersonation doesn't make an entertaining act. Ferguson just relied on ranting in that stand-up in much the same way as he did 20+ years ago in that Bing Hitler clip. Just not my cup of tea. Can't say I've really seen too much of his late night show, but what I have seen really hasn't been up to much, to me at least.

Nice to see that I am intriguing Americans enough with my gibberjibberjabberwafflebafflebabble to make them look up Scottish colloquial terms of endearment, or lack thereof. Here's another one for you: look up the time Christina Aguilera was crowing about being called a 'radge wee midden' by a Scotsman a few years ago at the MTV Awards in Edinburgh, and tell us why it's so utterly hilarious.

No title.

Chuck Messer — Mon, 08 Mar 10 11:45:49 -0500

As far as Craig Ferguson is concerned, I've enjoyed his show, but never more than the night he "experimented" with his guest Stephen Fry. It showed a whole different side to Ferguson I hadn't seen.

I can't say I've seen him run down Scotland, not seriously. His humor is usually aimed at himself, especially regarding his achoholism.

I'd love to see Britain some day, all of it, including Scotland.

But I don't expect to see any sea serpent in any loch.

I looked up "fae the heid-the-baw Cumbernam jakey"

"for the halfwit, idiot, silly or stupid (dick head?) Cumbernam alky"

Close? From what I've read, heid-the-baw is not necessarily derogatory. Maybe a playful swipe?

Once again, I'd love to see Scotland some day. But no sea serpent hunting.

Chuck "I'm comin', Beany boy!" Messer

Audiobooks

shagin — Mon, 08 Mar 10 10:25:15 -0500

My introduction to audiobooks was our esteemed host's PALADIN OF THE LOST HOUR (a moment of wondrous silence for that reading, and, let's face it, I could listen to Unca Harlan read a Chinese menu and enjoy the hell out of it), and the other spoken word pieces I picked up from HERC. Great service, that HERC. Run by a goddess.

Between one twist in the road and another, I've started listening to short fiction podcasts: The Drabblecast; PodCastle; PseudoPod. The range of production values is interesting, as is the interpretations of the stories. PodCastle and PseudoPod take the approach that the story must be able to stand on its own, supported only by the strength of the reading, while The Drabblecast presents the stories more in the fashion of radio productions - the readings are supported with background music and the occasional sound effect.

I've dipped my toes in the audiobook water, as it were, but I've yet to take a chance on listening to a novel. It's hard enough listening to short stories or essays while driving or doing chores around the house. I want to wrap my full attention around the audio presentation, which makes for hazardous driving conditions. I'll be ordering THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS as funds allow, and plan on enjoying that snuggled in bed with Harlan and my imagination to keep me company.

For the webderlanders out there with their ears on, do you have a preference for the type (I suppose) of audio production? Straight reading? Music? Sound effects? Any suggestions on audio treats, or performers who breathe new life into the works?

shagin

No title.

Frank Church — Mon, 08 Mar 10 09:22:50 -0500

James Cameron got butt fucked, yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Hurt Locker was the nuclear butt plug--the only nuclear I like. yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Tarantino was robbed on screenplay. Boooooooooooooooo!

A film about war wins, so does a Nazi. The first ever tea party Oscar. har har.

-----------

Mayhew, welcome to the reality club.

Craig Ferguson

Steve Swanson — Mon, 08 Mar 10 04:36:45 -0500

Golly

Tough crowd

I didnt expect such negative responses concerning the post I made earlier about Craig Ferguson. I certainly havent noticed an anti-Scottish attitude on his show. Jokes, sure. But mostly jokes at his own expense especially about the years wasted as a drunk. Dark jokes that probably are a reason why he resonates with me. He plays(?) the buffoon well but I have the feeling he has the ability to be so much better and deeper. After watching the Bing Hitler clip - maybe, maybe not.

But I miss Snyder. I wish we had something on TV closer to him and his style of interviewing.

fae the heid-the-baw Cumbernam jakey = drunken fool from Cumbernam with balls for brains. ??Right??

Steve

Gawd.

Semi-Writer — Mon, 08 Mar 10 02:32:24 -0500

(In a world with a lot bigger issues... can we lay off the grope already? A boob is a boob is a boob. I cared so little for mine own that I cut 'em down from a 44F to a 34C. Anyway, in the legend of Ellison, you'd think the violent act of breaking an executive's pelvis--accident or not--would be a more serious issue, fer crissake.)

On a personal note, my cousin's obit was published this weekend in the Detroit papers (http://www.detroitmedia.com/deathnotices/display.php). He's being viewed at the same funeral home as Grandma was last year, maybe even in the same room. He was only 44. Three and a half years younger than me. I still don't think I've wrapped my head around this.

ATTEN; Steve Barber

maggie hoyal — Mon, 08 Mar 10 01:55:53 -0500

I was gifted with the good genes in the family. Manic-depression an alcoholisem. I wasn't a thief or a con but I created a lot of painful cercomstances for those who loved me by not learning how I could help myself and not taking responsibility for this double threat. Noone could rescue me or help me until I myself sought the right kind of help that is out there. The right Dr.s, the apropreate meds and yea the rooms of A.A. My story was different then your family member. I was self sufficient from the age of 14 and independent to a fault. Accepting help did not come easy. But the help had to be from trained professtionals not family. Rescueing just prevents you from reaching that pit in your soul where you wake up and say no more. For many years now my family knows it can turn to me for help. Who has more experience in how to weather a crisis and come out alive. I joy in a 23 year love afair with my husband and a great adult child. It took years to win back the trust of my family and friends. I now hold that as one of my dearest treasures. The odds are against a good out come. The hourly, daily year after year work of staying sane and sober never ceases and the rewards might seem meager to some. To me it is all.

assorted, Nukes and nothings

Michael Mayhew — Sun, 07 Mar 10 23:37:12 -0500

1) The so-called "grope." Okay, I just watched the video. I had to watch it a couple times even to see what the deal was. Finally spotted the alleged act. There's nothing to see. The best way to know is watch her face. She doesn't react. At all. Doesn't flinch or look surprised. Just bends down and they visit for a second. I don't get what the big deal is.

2) Nuclear power. I don't agree that it should be taken off the table, but I am very, very wary. The consequences of screw-ups are enormous. Chernobyl poisoned a huge area of the Ukraine and Belarus. There are still enormous problems with birth defects and cancer in that part of the world - way above average. The site is profoundly radioactive. And yes, it's easy to argue that the Soviet civilian program was very flawed, and we do things differently. But in this country we, too, have industrial accidents. And people make mistakes. And machinery breaks. With a nuclear power plant, the consequences of failure are very, very bad.

Again, not saying it should be absolutely ruled out, but I do not have an easy confidence in anyone's ability to make those systems truly safe.

3) Thinking of power (and forgive me if I brought this up once before and then forgot), does anyone know if some smart person has done the calculations for the power that would be generated if a large percentage of the homes in a sunbelt city - say LA or Phoenix or Las Vegas - had rooftop photovoltaic systems. I ask because it seems like it would be telling and a scientific approach to the question of solar viability, at least in the Southwest. What would happen if the energy currently beating down on our roofs was converted using current technology? Would it make a massive difference or be fairly modest? I get the feeling that several on this board have put some serious thought into the question. I'd be genuinely curious to know the answer.

4) Where's KOS? There have been a few discussion around here lately where I was expecting Kim to jump in and speak up and then I realized I hadn't seen postings from him in a while. KOS? You around? You lurking? You okay?

MM

Various and Sundry

Alex Jay Berman — Sun, 07 Mar 10 20:18:21 -0500

STEVE BARBER: At what point do you walk away? You already knew the answer when you asked; you just didn't like it. You can only try yo help someone who lies and wrongs you so many times; the sponge of caring gets wrung out. Allowing yourself to be the well such people keep going back to, you risk allowing their mendacity to color your attitudes toward those who truly deserve your caring and support.

At what point? As several others have pointed out, the point is now. And yes, you may hate yourself for it, but the other option is damaging.

(Oh; if an eightysomething security guard from Philly who plays a passable jazz harp (more Larry Adler than Toots Thieleman) starts crushing on your wife and her pipes, that's my fault.)

ALL: So this week, I get to work on Congressmen and Senators to better benefit federal employees. Sometimes, I just love my job.

Carter, and Mr. Rae

James Levy — Sun, 07 Mar 10 18:41:09 -0500

Jimmy Carter tried to level with the American people, and nobody has made that mistake again (unless you count Mondale, who said that to cover the mounting debt accruing from the Reagan tax give-away he'd raise taxes--a brave if suicidal blunder).

Mr. Rae, I have a special dislike for people who leave their homeland to come to America and then, to curry favor, shit on the place of their birth. Since I would be angry and disgusted if an American left his homeland and pulled the same crap, it is only fair to disdain anyone else who would indulge in such boorish behavior. But the average citizen of my country eats that swill up, and never thinks what he or she would think if an American acted so distastefully.

It is also why I dislike foreigners who take our coin to betray their nations; since it would not upset me to see an American who did this lined up against a wall and shot (although I would not endorse that action as I believe the death penalty to be almost always wrong), I can't see how (except under a handful of circumstances) such turncoats can be see as anything but scum.

...And Did Anyone Listen?

Rob — Sun, 07 Mar 10 15:55:41 -0500

I was just listening to Carter's 'Malaise' speech from 1979 on YouTube:

WOW:

"...We have learned that MORE is not necessarily BETTER. That even our great nation has recognized limits...in a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities and our faith in God, too many of us now worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns...this is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning."

TALK about prophesy!!

How many times did this warning re-surface, with over half the population, instead, suckling Reagan's "9 most 'terrifying' words"?

Look what it's taken for these people to get the point.

I said it before and I'll say it again: we have FAR too many stupid, brain-dead primates populating the country!

No title.

Graham Rae — Sun, 07 Mar 10 15:31:27 -0500

Please consider this an addendum from the last post. Craig Ferguson used to be...DIFFERENT back in the day. A crazed alkie who called himself Bing Hitler (yep), here's so primo footage of him pre-sobriety (and good luck to him on that):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp5SfUbjWew

No title.

Graham Rae — Sun, 07 Mar 10 15:27:45 -0500

Craig Ferguson comes from the concrete jungle hell Cumbernauld (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbernauld) in Scotland, around 12 miles where I come from in Falkirk. Please DO NOT encourage rage-filled alcoholics from Cumbernauld IN ANY WAY. The outcome can ONLY be dire. I'm surprised the man is still alive, judging by the stuff he says in his autobio American on Purpose (avoid his novel - it's absolutely terrible). He's a typical Scottish angry funny alcoholic (met a thousand guys just like him - seriously) who had the good luck and talent to make it in showbiz. And I'm only sort-of joking. Good luck to him. He should calm down his Scotland-hating rants (as in his recentish stand-up show 'A Wee Bit O' Revolution,' as I believe it was called, tho I may be wrong) and realize that hating the whole country is NOT the same as hating the life HE lived there and how fucked-up HE was there. His anti-Scottish ranting really sticks in the craw, especially when he tells America he wants to be 'America's favorite Scotsman.' Pure bloody hypocrisy fae the heid-the-baw Cumbernam jakey (ask for explanation)..

Speaking of Scotland and art. Here's a short story of mine that wordworkers here might like (sorry to be self-promoting, but it's apropos):

http://textualities.net/graham-rae/storytailor/

One other thing. I saw the Chicago premiere of the excellent new documentary William S Burroughs: A Man Within (www.burroughsthemovie.com) on Thursday night. Can highly recommend it to anybody interested in WSB (whom JG Ballard was deeply obsessed by). I have a question for Harlan, if he doesn't mind. I was just wondering what you thought of WSB or his work, Harlan, seeing as how of the two of you come from such diametrically opposed ends of the drink-n-drug spectrums, what with you being so straightedge (i.e. a punk music subculture who don't believe in drinking booze or taking drugs) and all, where WSB...eh...simply wasn't. Think he merited being inducted into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters? Think he brought anything to the writing game? Any thoughts on his legacy? Just curious. Guy's a big inspiration to me, at least wordworkwise; his sad scary disturbing life you can DEFINITELY do without.

Thanks,
G.

No title.

Steve Swanson — Sun, 07 Mar 10 13:28:08 -0500

Now for something completely different (and shiny Im throwing something shiny out in front of you all, forget the current subjects, BE HAPPY!!! SHINY STUFF!!!!!!).

Craig Fergusons Late Late show is now available in full episode form on cbs.com, not just the short frustrating clips as in the past. The 2/23/10 show is one where he tries an experiment. No audience, one guest, comedian Stephen Fry. Fergusons monologue was about how the show is an experiment; to paraphrase - its being done now and it has been done in the past but he hasn't done it before. Mentions Tom Snyder and suggests we fire up the colortini just before popping off to a commercial.

Ferguson is a good night time host but the people he has on (or has to have on) leaves me feeling like he is wasting his talent and my time. He is much better when there is more time to discuss things with a single guest like Snyder use to do.

Suggestion: watch the show. If you liked it and if you would like to see the return of this type of format with a bright, witty guy, write in to CBS (like I did) and tell them. (If you dont like it, dont write. OK?)

Steve

No title.

Frank Church — Sun, 07 Mar 10 10:20:11 -0500

Harlan is wise not to answer this mookfuck. We should just ignore this jackal. He or she is the cranky drunk on the barstool who has bills and catshit piling up in his/her house, but blames the world instead of inspecting the culprit in the mirror.

You can get drunk on tea, but lord why eat the cup and shit shards of bloody ignorance?

Put this mook on ignore, let the thing wallow in self pity.

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

If Avatar wins you will see a terrorist crime. Look on the news and you will see me in cuffs, with foam flecks on my lips

This Moment Brought To You By The Oscars...

shagin — Sun, 07 Mar 10 08:27:46 -0500

I've mentioned the LIO comic strip before. If you haven't picked up the books, or favorited the site, by now...shame on you! Here's a bit of whimsy to take your mind off of unpleasantries and put you in the mood for the evening's presentations. Safe for work and kids, although the kids may not get it.

http://www.gocomics.com/lio

The Virtual Grope

Adam-Troy Castro — Sun, 07 Mar 10 05:58:18 -0500

Oh, god. Not again.

I was there, fourth row center, when the moment happened. I was there as the story grew in the telling. I was at Harlan's house, afterward, when he was devastated by the public excoriation and the dissolution of what had been a treasured (but, I openly note, apparently wafer-thin and subject to public vote) friendship. You don't want me to say what I think of this non-incident. You really, really don't.

Sigh, indeed.

W. Owen Powell — Sun, 07 Mar 10 02:51:44 -0500

Christ, we're going on about THIS again??

One would think the prospect of James Cameron (fingers crossed) getting his ass handed to him by his ex-wife tonight would be a far more timely and less moldy topic for discussion.

No title.

Sigh — Sat, 06 Mar 10 22:53:57 -0500

Anyone care to acknowledge that in three plus years Connie Willis has said nothing to exonerate Harlan Ellison.
Two people know what really happened.
One has kept quiet.
The other should stop bringing the matter up.

The grope...again?

Tony — Sat, 06 Mar 10 21:18:11 -0500

I watched the link. I'd seen it before, but I watched it again and while I know Harlan needs no one to defend him I have to say that to me (to me, you see, you can see what you want to see) it looks like he raises his hand a bit to get her to lean towards him so he can speak directly to her and not over the PA. If he touched her blouse that's all it was. A touch. Notice the difference in height. A loud-ish room and he wanted to speak directly to her, so he makes a motion to get her attention so she can lean a bit to hear him. Any brouhaha after seems to be from people expecting Harlan to act a certain way and taking something simple and making it worse to meet their expectations. Perception is reality.

Chuck:

Sara Slaymaker — Sat, 06 Mar 10 19:38:14 -0500

My Favorite Year: a classic, and one of my all-time favorite Peter O'Toole movies(along with the Stunt Man). My favorite exchange:
"This is for Ladies only!"
"So is this, mum, but occasionally I have to run some water through it."
Thank you for reminding me of this fabulous little gem. I have to go find it on dvd now...

No title.

Chuck Messer — Sat, 06 Mar 10 18:46:58 -0500

I'm reminded of a line from the movie, MY FAVORITE YEAR.

The Alan Swann character (for those who may not have seen the movie, he was played by Peter O'Toole) goes to dinner at the main character's mother's apartment.

At one point, Uncle Morty (played by the incomparable Lou Jacoby) asks, "That paternity rap a few years ago - did you shtup her?"

Swann tells him no, he didn't. Morty looks downcast. Swann smiles and says, "Morty, I've gotten away with some things I shouldn't have and been blamed for things I never did."

I think our esteemed host can sympathize.

Chuck

Auditions for the Ray Bolger role in Wizard of Oz

Steve Perry — Sat, 06 Mar 10 16:27:21 -0500

We had the grope/no grope discussion a while back and I believe I posted the link and invited folks to go have a look at the video. Hand on the lady's chest, yes. Grope? No. And all part of the gag they had been playing, bad little boy and stern mama, so you need the context anyhow.

Can you sing it in C? If I only had a brain?

What I want to see are the videos of the chandelier-dropping and the elevator-shaft shoving.

Sometimes you have to wonder about how boneheaded people can be -- if somebody shoved a fan, even a rabid one, down an elevator shaft, doesn't anybody think there might be, oh, I dunno ... legal ramifications? LIke A&B, or Attempted Murder, or Manslaughter, or even Murder Two? Did I miss the piece in the paper wherein our Esteemed Host was brought up on those charges?

The late Ted Sturgeon, toward the end of his time here, used to autograph his stuff with a stylized Q, with a long tail and an arrow on the end, and the symbol meant "Ask the next question."

Obvious that the folks who think Harlan did these things didn't bother to do that.

Hey. You hear that Ellison killed somebody?

Really? No shit? Is he in jail?

Um ... no.

Why the hell not?

Um ...

Unless, of course, the IZC -- International Zionist Conspiracy, run out of Geneva, is it? and the Trilateral Commission got together and hushed it up?

Yeah. That's got to be it.

Perry

Dear "Um", re: Harlan & Connie

Robert Morales — Sat, 06 Mar 10 15:27:43 -0500

You're absolutely correct - there are legions of people who THINK it happened. Then there are those who can look at the footage and SEE no "groping" manifested, not according to the English language nor the laws of physics:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4653991510586546104&ei=W-GSS9yXOMftlQfa2MD2Ag&q=harlan+ellison+connie+willis&hl=en#

I Saw ALICE IN WONDERLAND Today

Bob Ingersoll — Sat, 06 Mar 10 14:30:21 -0500

Overall, I enjoyed it. But one thing drove me to distraction. A mistake that was repeated over and over and over again in the movie. Even in the closing credits.

SOMEONE get ahold of screen writer Linda Woolverton or director Tim Burton and tell them that the name of the creature was the Jabberwock. Jabberwocky was the name of the poem about the creature! I could almost understand this mistake, if Johnny Depp didn't recite the poem during the movie.

Bob

No title.

Um . . . — Sat, 06 Mar 10 12:34:14 -0500

"Groping Connie Willis's bosom in front of thousands of people as it was televised five times life-size on 2 viewscreens in the auditorium...

Didn't happen."

Dude, you really have to let this go. Everyone except you and the people on this board thinks it happened. Connie Willis thinks it happened. You do yourself no favors denying it.

Let it go.

Duane - re Kurosawa

Tony Rabig — Sat, 06 Mar 10 12:12:48 -0500

Duane,

Turner Classic Movies will be running about 14 tons of Kurosawa movies on Tuesdays this month. Check the schedules at the TCM site & crank up the recording device of your choice.

Bests to all,

--tr

The Wrong Man

DTS — Sat, 06 Mar 10 12:11:49 -0500

ALL: In case, any of you, like Steve Barber -- who should've known better, since my ocassional, smart aleck-but-always-jovial, anonymous posts in the past were made because I'd posted already that day, and because the two or three times anyone got upset over the past 10 years, I immediately came clean to Steve or Rick -- thought that, because my post below followed Harlans, _I_ was "Reddy" well,...ya got the Wrong Man (as ol' Jimmy Stewart once said). Barber emailed me saying he was glad I was sticking around. A nice note, but...damned if I know why anyone would think I would go nuclear on anyone who didn't break out their WMDs first.

Besides, didn't ANYone read my note defending Mr. Church (entitled "I Heart Frank Church," it's a classic on all the same sex internet chat sites already). I KNOW Frank didn't read it, cause I got nada, squat, BUPkis, in response from him for my sweet nothing (by the way Frank: tttthhhhpptt! That's a raspberry! From here on out: NO MORE JELLO FOR ME, MA! (10 points to the one who can figure out which Coppola film that line was in).

Sorry for the extra post in less than 24 hours, Rick. But it was Barber that made me do it. He is, in fact, the devil (no shit. Check out the horns...red skin...tail...uh...waitaminute. Nah, he's just a Republican). :)

Cheers,
DTS

Pardon me

Steve B — Sat, 06 Mar 10 12:06:03 -0500

Chernobyl is exactly the technology used by the Soviets in the '70s.

Technology marches on, and nobody is building a reactor using the Chernobyl design -- or the Three Mile Island design, for that matter. That was my intended point.

No title.

Steve Barber — Sat, 06 Mar 10 12:02:45 -0500

I flew up to Walnut Creek yesterday for a company presentation and had a wonderful lunch with a few of the "Webderland Regulars". It was a pleasure meeting Gwyn, Lori and David Silver face ta' face. Let's do it again, only next time I trek into the city you all don't sit on a train for a half hour...

Thanks again.
________________________________________________

Frank, yer confusing me.

"The forty thousand number is from government studies."

"Yea, I trust the government."

There ain't never been a meltdown worse than Chernobyl. As a result of that particular disaster, a lot more safeguards are built into reactors these days.

(Were you aware that the plant continued to operate and supply power some fifteen years after the meltdown???)

Chernobyl was built in 1977, and is of a completely different platform with different safeguards than were used by the Soviets in the seventies. Technology advances.

As we have noted in many, many posts below, your solutions will take decades to implement, on only supply a fraction of the needed power. Short of continuing to rape the land for oil and coal, all of the so-far alternate energy sources are reliant upon conditions that change. No single source of regular, reliable, and large-scale electricity exists beyond nuclear. Solar is required to sit in a sunny site, is capable of supplying only a portion of the expected energy needs in the future, and has a monumental impact upon the ground over which the cells are installed. Hydro destroys large tracts of land. "Bio Fuels" redirect land use away from food production and require large amounts of agricultural water to produce.

By taking nukes off the table out of a fear of what "might" happen in a worst case scenario -- most of which is engineered into the design -- forces the world to continue to rely upon oil and coal.

Your argument against nuclear power uses the same logic as "You can't live in Seattle because Mt. Rainier is a volcano" or "There might be a terrorist sneaking into America, so we should seal our borders and vet out every person with a strange sounding name" or "We have to cancel the space program because we know shuttles crash and it might hit someone on the ground some day" or "The government is going to take over healthcare" or "We HAVE to invade Iraq. Saddam has WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION and IS NOT AFRAID TO USE THEM!". Etc, etc, etc.

Yes, there are risks. This is why many companies and governments practice risk management. Why they put together disaster plans.

Fear makes for bad decision making. I'm not saying your fear is irrational -- it's reasonable to express doubts and insist upon steps to address those fears. But until a better option is created, until solar becomes productive enough and reliable enough. Until wind becomes reliable. Until Hydro becomes less damaging. less expensive and more universally available. Until biofuels don't take the food off of consumers' tables. Until technology advances to the point where nuclear power is a thing of the past and all of our energy needs are met through purely eco-friendly means, then all we are left with is either a reliance upon nuclear power as a better alternative to coal and oil -- or economic and sociological disaster.

You fear the ultimate disaster scenario (omitting when a dam collapses, or refinery releases toxic clouds a la Bhopal, or deaths from widespread heatwaves/frigidity when unreliable power sources fail -- not a lot of sun in the winter and usually little wind in the summer unless you're in SoCal). Worst case scenarios don't happen terribly often. In the history of the world, far more people have been killed by "conventional" fuel sources; by breathing in pollution; by cancer caused by toxic by oil and coal byproducts; by the explosions of tanker ships in harbors like Houston; by massive spills of oil into our oceans; by breathing in clouds of coal ash.

In an ideal world, stopping THAT pestilence in the short run ought to be a higher national priority than war in far-off places, but we don't live in an ideal world. You may live in fear of the absolute, most horrible, most extreme example of what MIGHT happen -- but when when you consider all of the alternatives and found them wanting, any remaining option must, of necessity, be on the table.

Just sayin'

No title.

Duane — Sat, 06 Mar 10 11:30:06 -0500

Hey Frank,

This month's issue of National Geographic (with the howlin' wolf on the cover) contains an article entitled "Small Town Nukes" in the aptly named THE BIG IDEA section. It is an article I suggest, vigorously, that you read, despite the ominous sounding title.

There is cutting edge science taking place in nuclear power, and a cursory understanding of it would greatly inform your arguments. Not saying it would convince you one way or the other, but you would have at your disposal the knowledge and data that is CURRENTLY under consideration at the Department of Energy and Congress. And that knowledge and data ain't "your father's nuclear power" anymore.

As for everything else, I've had my dustups with Frank in the past, and the Zen saying that emerged from my bruised cranium is simply "Frank is Frank." Makes my time here a lot more enjoyable, and frees up my energies to pursue Truth and Justice in ways that I care about.

**

Saw Kurosawa's RAN last night at the Landmark on Santa Monica Blvd. and Sawtelle. Words just don't do it justice. Sadly, it's the first time I've actually seen a Kurosawa film, and I'm a 40-something, but it definitely won't be the last.

I may be late to the party, but it's always the right party.

No title.

Frank Church — Sat, 06 Mar 10 10:47:36 -0500

You don't answer insanity but you do have to rebuke it. A certain person, who will not be named, needs serious help. I feel for you and am worried. As a former homeless man I know about the walking mentally ill, they are everywhere, thrown out like trash from an uncaring system, the same system this poor soul wants to guard our secure nuclear salad bar. All I can do is pray for this person, hoping they get help.

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

Caldicot:

"When the Spaniards began to explore the Americas, they brought with them the smallpox virus, that killed tens of thousands of people. European explorers to Polynesian Hawaii in the 1500s, infected the natives with microbes. We killed a large number of Aborigines from just the common cold and flu in Australia."

She doesn't sound pro-smallpox to me.

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

The enlightenment is dangerous as is democratic polity. Certainly I was misinformed. The trains should run on time, the books should be burned. Words just confuse our human nature, something we know so much about.

We hardly know shit about ants let alone humans. Anyone who says they know shit about human nature is a fiend.

I hate to go back to my black matter.

We have to study simple worms to find out things because we know so little about human complexities.

-----------

The forty thousand number is from government studies.

And I really do want that nuke plant to be rushed through, just in time for President Sarah Palin to lessen security at it--ya know, small government being the vogue.

I take it the Pentagon has very little security? Odd that someone with box cutters could fly a plane into it.

Yea, I trust the government.

Yikes, people scare me.

There are two kinds of people in this world, Spinard.

Jan — Sat, 06 Mar 10 05:15:35 -0500

Those with bubblegum cards, and those without.

Reviews of Harlan's U.N.C.L.E. episodes -
http://benzadmiral-uncle.blogspot.com/search/label/Harlan%20Ellison

No title.

Ezra — Fri, 05 Mar 10 22:16:41 -0500

Easy enough to poke at the Enlightenment from our vantage point simply because no it did not usher in paradise on earth.

But it did create the concept of the autonomous human being as a locus of rights apart from bounded social roles.

And made it possible to consider women as other than property. And effectively undermined slavery.

And created the concept of secular republican democracy. Allowing us at last to pry the grasping fingers of our priests from around our throats.

Of course it is besieged from both within and without, mostly by our brain dead religions which, like Count Dracula, are a long time dying. But die they will. In fact they are already dead. Like a tree struck by lightning awaiting that inevitable wind which will cause it to topple.

"Why go back to the moon?" seems to me to be a perfectly legitimate question in the current circumstances. You want to go to the stars? Then don't invest in horse and buggy technology. Invest in energy research.

That's Why...

DTS — Fri, 05 Mar 10 22:07:09 -0500

HARLAN: That's why I love this place, buddy. Because, you, like the rest of us, realize we can all be a bit too human, and you're ready to forgive and move on, as long as we don't make a habit of being snarky. Which is another reason I like this board: for the most part, none of the regulars (your trusty typist included) are interested in making a habit of acting like snide, self righteous pundits who can't see all sides of the city for their blinders -- or roaming the cyberhalls like like a pack of feral dogs, ready to pounce on the first animal that doesn't fit in.

Cheers From Down Under (where my buddy Irving and I just missed being washed away in a toadstrangler of a storm: torrential rain, thunder, hail -- come to think of it, there IS some place like home...),
DTS (a former KANSAS city native)

"REDDY KILOWATT" REDUX

HARLAN ELLISON — Fri, 05 Mar 10 20:33:55 -0500

A day or so ago, one of our regulars -- otherwise, and under no nom de plume, a good neighbor here -- posted a perfectly sane series of opinions ... rudely.

I have spoken to "Reddy," and "Reddy" is a bit shamefaced at the tone of voice, directed at Frank Church (whose "voice" uh er ahem once in a while similarly get a tot too gravelly), that caused the dust-up resulting in MY er uh haarrummm imprudent suggestion of banishment.

Well, to make it short..."Reddy" may not be around, but our friends are our friends, and the entire matter should be a clarion to all of us, when we get hot under the collar, to temper our vitriol by remembering...as small and elite as this site may be, it nonetheless tries to live by standards of civility that pre-date In Your Face All The Time.

There are enough wrongos out there ready to be mean to each of us, with or without sane suasion, so let us all Be Nice.

Welcome back to our old friends, hello and siddown to our new ones.

Yr. Pal (so goddam tactfully y'wanna just puke), Harlan

No title.

Okay — Fri, 05 Mar 10 19:25:02 -0500

I missed Harlans orders to leave, both one posted the the other day I just read, and apparently an earlier one referred to by Steve Barber

I am leaving.

No smart ass.

I'm sorry.

Period.

Hoo Biy, Reddy and whatever other personality exhibited

Steve Barber — Fri, 05 Mar 10 19:05:55 -0500

Really, seriously, on behalf of nuclear proponents everywhere: stop being an ass.

Harlan has already asked you to leave. For whatever thing brought you here, have respect for that thing and respect his wishes. That we know your identity makes all the more zero-sum from your end.

Please.

Apologies for errors

Hoo Boy — Fri, 05 Mar 10 18:54:02 -0500

Lots of typos.

Sorry about that. Better to have typos of good thoughts than perfect typing of bullshit.

"Guess what, I won,. Deal with it!"

Ook Ook.

Love Song

Clipping Service — Fri, 05 Mar 10 18:47:17 -0500

to "The Oscar". FINALLY getting the praise it so richly deserves!!

http://tinyurl.com/yjzdvzp

Costs

Hoo Boy — Fri, 05 Mar 10 18:35:44 -0500

Nuclear does create s a small amount of carbon dioxide when you build, create the fuel and maintain the plants. So, did you think you can build wind turbines, solar cells and anything else without using some electricity created by burning something somewhere, and so on?

It takes nine years to build a nuclear power plant, and it costs 9 billion to build one largely because of the Greens suing, enforcing laws that require nine years of paperwork and everyone wetting their beaks at the river of money that flows to pay for all those legions that oppose and their counterparts that work to get past the opposition.

Cut the paperwork, streamline the process, and you could do it in a third the time and cost, easily.

Helen Caldioott is not an expert on nuclear power, or much of anything other than that "Americans are wastrels who ought to use the backs of their hands like us Good Aussies do, rather than napkins" as I once heard her opine. If that's the state of public hygiene Down Under (doubtful), I'd advise Dorman to not shake hands when out and about, but rather bob his head in greeting like a Komodo Dragon in heat.

Caldicott is a former GP MD who is, to not put too fine a point on it, crazy. As physicians sometimes do, she long ago and far away bought into the "I Am A Little Tin God On A Pedestal Who Must Be Listened Too Or There Will Be Consequences!" complex. She is little mroe than a common scold, with crazy as a chaser. See her comments on the "right to life" of the smallpox virus (which we thought for a few years had been eradicated from existence, since its only known host is the human body, and thought we had gotten the last host, until our Russian friends AKA The Late Soviets revealed they had kindly kept a few vials filled with smallpox in a Siberian lab freezer. They used it in ICBM warheads. It is a particularly virile weaponized strain that kills 99 plus per cent of infected humans.Small pox has killed and maimed perhaps ten billion humans in its time, but according to your pal Caldicott, we have no right to kill it off forever. Strange ethics, but there you have it, you are a strange fellow, ethically speaking.

Oh, and my point, numbnuts, was that Depleted Uranium is NOT A GOOD THING to sling around, BUT that slinging Uranium of any type around the entire nation is not associated in ANY way with nuclear power., it is an illogical and basically, well, y'know, once again, crazy argument. Which is why, of course, like a dog to vomit, you cannot resist using it. You love crazy. You think crazy equals radical equals wisdom. What it comes down to, in other words, is that crazy people use crazy logic in service of crazy ends. Crazy is just that, crazy.

Get The Point, Now?

So of course, in true "begging the question " (a term finally used FOR ONCE correctly!) you go off on the dangers of it again, instead of just letting that particular Dumb As A Sack Of Rocks non-argument go. Typical Frank Church example of either missing the point, or pretending to obtuseness in order to avoid addressing the real point. As usual with Frankers, it's either Dumbth, or Stupid Monkey Games, if not both.

Nuclear plants are an attractive and easy target for terrorists?

On the first, well dang me, should we alert the media?

On the second: Is that possibly why nuclear power plants have armed guards with Shoot To Kill orders? Why every police force local, state, and federal has contingency plans to prevent such an attack for every nuclear plant that exists in their jurisdiction (and probably in others as well, planners being the meticulous sort they are.)

How many nuclear plants have terrorists taken over and immolated themselcve in while killing thousands of innocents?

None.

How many such attempts have been both planned and actually attempted?

None.

Terrorist would certainly would like to take over a nuclear plant, and have have ha the opportunity to do so for decades, and in some cases have pulled off some pretty dastardly deeds.

But somehow they just missed this one?

Why has not one been attacked by terrorists in the USA? Is your argument that Steve Kroft from a TV show walked into a CHEMICAL plant proves that a terrorist can walk into a nuclear plant? Really? So if a mook with a gun can rob a bank, Fort Knox is at risk?

Eight.

Crazy, then stupid, and then there's Frank Church Logic.

EVERYhing is dirtier, more dangerous and scarier than you've been led to believe by lobbies and panglosses. Everything is ALSO LESS scary, LESS dangerous and LESS scary than the army of creeps, nuts and anti-technology yahoos would have you believe.

Bottom line, Chernobyl was bad, likely about ten thousand dead, short and long term, and many more sickened. But that was a worst case scenario, and it ACTUALLY HAPPENED/ Actually did happen, and yet, it was not as bad, a horrible as what Frank assures us will happen in a "better case" scenario that might happen here if we dont listen to his Wisdom.

Not to mention that burning coal kills about ten thousand or more Americans alone every year, in mining, transportation and respiratory deaths, the latter lingering and slow, over years and decades. Deaths completely avoidable if we switched to nuclear power as our primary source for base load grid power.

Put that sentiment into your emotional appeal for the poor people dying from technology Frank Church, you simple minded easily led by the nose bleeding heart patsy. I have dealt with your ilk for forty years, and there is no end to your lunacy. Your sort are a dime a dozen, and I'm looking for the guy supplying the dimes.

Unbelievable. Frank uses Green sources, a completely prejudiced group against nuclear, hardly fair-minded, and then accuses the nuclear industry of being untrustworthy. I don't trust EITHER of them. I want government to supervise the building, perhaps even build and operate them (how about the Navy, who have a virtually unblemished record running reactors 24/7 for over fifty years, all at sea, most of the time underwater, while moving at high speed!) build and run them?

Oh, and we have already HAD something WORSE than a meltdown. Chernobyl, an disaster caused by the nearly unbelievable stupidity of the Soviets,. A reactor exploded in a chemical (hydrogen gas) not nuclear explosion, caught fire, melted down, BURNED, all in a plant with NO, ZERO ABSOLUTELY NO containment building *that big, two foot think reinforced concrete and steel dome around EVERY SINGLE WESTERN NUCLEAR PLANY), in a country with very poor disaster services, bad health care and a culture of :Just Cover It UP, We Don't Care If People Get Sick And Die", with ALL of that "going " for it, Chernobyl did not get "Forty Thousand immediate deaths and uncounted more from later, collateral effects."

I know, I know. I have broken a Butterfly on the wheel. Well, perhaps not a butterfly, more like a horsefly, but you get the point, and so do I.

Fuck Off, Frank. I have no respect for you, don't find you amusing, and would gladly pay two cents to have you shipped to a third world country where you can amuse the locals with your zany antics. In bout three days they would end the show with their terminally Bad Review of it.

The fact is, Frank and his crazy friends want their electricity, but they want it without any of the prices ANY tech that can make enough electricity to keep modern civilization running (thousands of megawatts of base load power in other words, 24/7 with no downtime, broadly speaking), anything like THAT that will inevitably have a downside, so they won't want it. The Perfect Is The Enemy Of The Good.

Their vision of the future is a lap top for them use in an organic, fair trade coffee shop where they might post screed to placed such as this, all powered by bicycle generators. But they won't be on the bike. People like the rest of us will be, while Frank, or one of his friends, takes their turn at pointing the shotgun in our general direction to make sure we keep pedaling.

If we were to try to run away, they'd have the dogs out pretty fast. That's how elates. operate, even if "Enlightened".

Frank and those like him see themselves as better than the rest of us, above the fray of dominance and pecking order. In reality, they re just another set of humans, eager to control others. Theres always been a sub-set of humanity that just cannot resist the urge to stick their nose into everyones business and boss them around.

Seeing that, however, would require them to take off their Rose Colored glasses, put some mirrors in their intellectual houses, and see themselves as they truly are: just another herd seeking control how the rest of the Humans act More Stupid Monkey Games under another name, in other words. Dominance and pecking order, Mark Two, Once more With Enlightenment.

Just ask Rob. It's called Human Nature, and Emma Goldman *the slut even Lenin thought w3as nuts!) and her foolish Pollyanna attitude to human nature as quoted by Frank Church once, Be Damned.

Gosh Wow, the nuttiness of both sides, it's so HUMAN!

Which is where our other, somewhat saner but still goofy House Whack Job cum WIngNut comes in for a gardy loo halloo.

SO, Rob, humans have all these flaws, are unreliable, are basically crazy a good part of the time, AND you think that government, which is human nature on steroids, writ large in crayon because it is a blunt instrument, that government will somehow erase those human foibles and Do Good, inevitably?

I must have misunderstood something.

If one human is an unreliable easily nisled fool, then 300 million humans in concert are savants? At the least, it's true that if 150 million plus one humans agree on something, they can't go wrong?

I threw in that last so you could not throw Dubya at me.

Of course you will deny this, and work out the calculus to prove that 300 million idiots are savants, perhaps if they only choose savants from among them and follow along behind.

So 300 million idiots are good at choosing savant leaders?

Nope, sorry, still don't get how that works.

Perhaps we should just let the Enlightened Robs of the 300 million do the choosing?

A select party, who will hold the reins of power in stewardship for the benighted masses.

Yeah, that has worked SO well in the past.

On, look here, Frank tried to explicate how he thinks radicalism works and how he actually is a consistent and deep thinker!

Jefferson was a radical, yeah. I would never have voted for him. Ae vice president he stabbed Adams in the back, he was a sexually abusive slaveholding/raping "Holier Than Thou" hypocrite with a flair for Enlightenment rhetoric that got him his Good Rep, though in actuality his ethics were such as not be worth a plugged or unplugged coin with his face on it. He'd get my vote only if it was his flaming red head or, oh, Stalin or Adolph.

The Enlightenment mainly gave us mass terror as a political instrument of the middle class, good roads, and sexual liberation. You can get a blow job without the risk of going to jail (assuming you did not pay money for it!), and drive home without hitting too many potholes, in other words. But still get accused of being an Enemy Of The People,, and shot in the back of the neck at the end of the day.

Other than that, the Enlightenment has been a wash. Human business a usual. "Under the Ancien Regime Man has been exploited by his Fellow Man, Under the New Regime it will be exactly the Reverse!"

I see that Rob has lost his focus on Former Nazis hanging swastikas over their alleged bunglaows and moved on to full blown Space Cadethood.

But his research skills are, once again, the Achilles Heel of his argument.

The Ares program was a boondoggle. It is deader than a doornail. The stack of slightly modified shuttle solid fuel booster segments named Ares was proejected to be so unstable in flight that engineers were worried the whole stack would fly to pieces at MAX Q, (maximum aerodynamic stress, usually a minute or two into flight to orbit). Ares had all the drawbacks of the solid boosters that blew up Challenger, AND all the flaws inherent to the "Can Of Spam on top of a bomb" system used before the shuttle. A truly Dumb "Back To The Future" concept that is thankfully now in the Smithsonian with the stuffed dodo and other mishaps of nature.

The one "Ares" that "flew" (a short sub-orbital lob late last year) was not even an Ares. It was a short stack of shuttle booster segments, solid fuel, with a Potemkin upper stage filled with water. It had a few minor components intended for the final Ares, but otherwise was a complete and typical NASA dog and pony show to shoot something off in a desperate "Two Minute Warning Play" to try to get Obama's attention.

Obama either did not care or saw through it, and killed the program,. This administration has zero interest in human space flight. One staffer at the White House put it simply: "Go back to the moon? Why?"

Private enterprise may work it out and get us the stars. Right now, government is interested in two thing: healthcare, and getting re elected. Jobs, the environment, health (not HealthCare Reform), energy crisis, defense, ANYthing else is way back on the burner. After November, after the Health Care Reform brouhaha has finally been "settled", then maybe some of the real stuff will be addressed, Until then, fuhgeddaboutit!

Hothouse logic, as usual in here.

OOk OOK, you mooks.

No title.

Chuck Messer — Fri, 05 Mar 10 18:30:13 -0500

I thought I'd mention that Beaumont also played the school principal in THE INTRUDER.

Chuck

Armenians

Joe madden — Fri, 05 Mar 10 17:00:30 -0500

will never get a fair shake. Kinda like the way the Ukrainians have been ignored. Ah well, guess their genocides were not Hollywood enough for them. Maybe they should refer to themselves as Darfurmians?

Beaumont

Dennis C — Fri, 05 Mar 10 16:41:19 -0500

I should also mention that they screen the Beaumont documentary in the afternoon at the Egyptian Theater on March 27th, then in the evening, they screen two of Beaumont's films: 'THE INTRUDER' and 'BURN, WITCH, BURN' (based on the classic Fritz Leiber story).

(And in other weekends in March, Werner Herzog is appearing there with some of his films -- www.americancinematheque.com)

Also, a welcome to Kim to the Pavilion -- have fun here -- we're a good bunch, honest.

No title.

Frank Church — Fri, 05 Mar 10 14:45:00 -0500

I tend to say that I am a radical, but radical just means that you are within the principles of the enlightenment, which in todays crazy society seems radical because that tradition, our American tradition, has been forgotten. My Noami sums it up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0LA-lbMv3I

Nobody should want a master to govern them. Simple.

I'm mainstream guys, unless you think Jefferson and Adam Smith are crazy. Would Fox news think Jefferson was a marxist if he was President today? youbetcha'

Documentary

kim — Fri, 05 Mar 10 05:29:13 -0500

Dear Sir,

Watched the documentary on you and loved it. I had a dad like you. And your statement at the end of the Doc was so Him. He lived how he wanted he was so anti establishemnt, he read 7 books a week, he was an amazing man. Having said that growing up in a house like that makes it hard to fit into this world. I want to talk to people who have opinions. I am a visual artist and I am constantly being told how opionionated I am. Well, Change my opinion of it if you think I am wrong. People just want you to stand there and smile. ANyway it was refreshing. I felt like I was at home. My Dad was in the kitchen sitting at the table drinking his coffee with a cigarett buring between his fingers while he hold the paper and screams thos GD republicans....love that dad!

Thanks for being real Harlan

No title.

Rob — Fri, 05 Mar 10 03:24:42 -0500

DJ,

I meant "ARES" - yes!

I doubt news of the mission losing its budget and personnel took anyone by surprise, even though they already spent 3 billion on it. But, ultimately it will move ahead. Who knows how long the delay will be, or who will manage it in the future? But one day the mission will move forward. I just hope I'm still alive to see it!

NASA may lay off 4,000 employees. The WHOLE country is going to HELL!!

Semi Writer's only vice

Iain Aitken — Fri, 05 Mar 10 03:23:08 -0500

Hey Seni-Writer

Just a quick few words to say that I also share that peculiar vice. Pinball. Loved it for years. I think the very first machine I ever played was Kiss (based on the rock band) and I was instantly entranced. From that day forth I have been unable to walk past a new machine without giving it a try. Some with limited success others with a grand champion credit to my name.

I still contend however, that the best pinball machine yet created is The Addams Family. It just plays like a dream, has some very amusing features (Hit Cousin It springs to mind) and a very good table layout. Its been a firm favourite of mine for a long number of years. It was never my best scoring table though. That was never the enjoyment in it, it just played beautifully.

My highest scoring table is White Water. The Scotrail depot in Edinburgh Waverley had it in the staff bothy. Previously they had Star Trek TNG but it was a bit worn out. White Water was nice and shiny new, not straight out of the factory, but just run in enough to be sweet. So, I had my break on that day in Edinburgh so I saw the new machine. Up to the plate steps I. After all I had an hour and a half to kill. 50p into the slot and 1 credit. 80 minutes later, same credit, last ball. CRACK CRACK CRACK (the joyous sound of the replay solenoid).... GRAND CHAMPION!!!

No-one in the bothy spoke to me for a long time. After all I was based in Glasgow and they dont take kindly to having some Weegie's name on their pinball table's top score for about 3 months. At the time they replaced it (with Fishy Tales) my name was still at the top. Happy days.

Charles Beaumont Docu

Phil Nichols — Fri, 05 Mar 10 01:05:08 -0500

For those who cannot make it to the Charles Beaumont documentary screening (damn that Atlantic Ocean, always getting in my way!), there is a ten-minute preview of it here:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=370403493407

This clip features Bradbury, Ackerman, Zicree... and a certain Unca.

- Phil

Thurs-da-day

Semi-Writer — Thu, 04 Mar 10 21:29:07 -0500

Mr. Harlan, Sir: always an honor and a privilege. Apoligeez 2 U four any badd riting that yew have endoored. Life is about advancement. If we ever practiced our craft to perfection from Day One, there would be no point in continuing, am I correct? We must learn, we must grow... By the way, being a non-drinker, non-smoker and non-partier, pinball was my main activity in the Navy. My favorite games ranged between "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (on a properly-working machine with both side guns functioning, you'd get inundated with at least ten pinballs at once) to "Creature from the Black Lagoon" (a simpler drive-in 1950s motif). Zee machines, zey speak to us!

Mark: thank you for the support. Strangely, since hearing the news, I've myself somewhat removed from my feelings about my cousin's passing. That will have to be worked through before any real grief can be dealt with, huh?

Le: the whole "no boyfriend" situation has actually not been a bad thing. Imagine! In this day and age, here's a woman who makes it to the age of 40 with absolutely no concerns for latex allergies, side effects from birth control pills, sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies, abusive relationships, co-dependency issues, or any of the other pitfalls that come with cohabitation! Okay, "love" would've been a nice emotion to experience. And I have been told in no uncertain terms that I ought to go and get myself-- Well, anyway... But, lifestyle-wise, not being attached to a husband, boyfriend or lover has been one of my better decisions and has kept me out of trouble.

Illiterati

Kris Nelson — Thu, 04 Mar 10 20:35:11 -0500

"Obama is actually a non-American-born spy for the liberal blood-drinking Venusians."

Man! I KNEW it!! Darn liberals - it's the 3 eyes that really gets you...actually, it has consistently been figures of the right that have eerily reminded me of aliens with religious fixations...like Cylons, except without a plan...

Harlan, I realize that an in-depth P.O.V. look at all the authors in the world is an impossibility here in your Pavilion, but for some bizarre reason I am wondering what your experiences with (either personally or just an appraisal of the work) Robert Anton Wilson might have been? If your views on this are on record elsewhere I apologise and hope I can be pointed to them.

Thank you.

-Your friendly neighborhood Kris

Alternative Iggies

Michael S. — Thu, 04 Mar 10 18:18:51 -0500

Harlan:
Regarding "Iggy": I still think you'd have been much more comfortable, back in '78, camping out in my (relatives') back yard, per the pre-Winnebago plan. Sure, it was a few scenic miles from the con site (recall the view up Central Ave. at the beginning of "Psycho"), but I would have happily chauffeured you to/from in my semilegendary Lemonmobile. (And yes, I'd even planned to check the neighborhood irrigation schedule beforehand to ensure you wouldn't wake up one morning to discover yourself floating away on your air mattress.) (Irrigation, for the uninitiated, being a curious Phoenix custom whereby lawns are periodically flooded, via a network of ditches and canals, with nearly a foot of water.) All in all, a great plan; sorry it didn't work out that way!

To: Dennis C, re: Beaumont documentary

Le — Thu, 04 Mar 10 17:35:09 -0500

Dennis C-

Thank you for the heads-up regarding the upcoming screening of that Beaumont documentary! I will definitely try to make it. I want to see what The Man has to say! I've always liked that Beaumont saying on what working in television is like that Mr. Ellison likes to quote.

Charles Beaumont documentary with Harlan

Dennis C — Thu, 04 Mar 10 15:49:50 -0500

If you're in Los Angeles, the American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theater is showing a documentary on the great Charles Beaumont, with the participation of our host...

The listing:

Saturday, March 27 3:00 PM
CHARLES BEAUMONT: THE SHORT LIFE OF TWILIGHT ZONES MAGIC MAN, 2009, JaSunni Productions, 110 min. Dir. Jason Brock. Charles Beaumont was one of the primary writers on the TV series THE TWILIGHT ZONE, but fell prey to a mysterious illness that ended his life when he was 38. This documentary pays tribute to an underrated artist and includes interviews with Roger Corman, writers Richard Matheson and Harlan Ellison, and others who knew or admired Beaumonts work.

AHOY, ZAMBRANA !

HARLAN ELLISON — Thu, 04 Mar 10 14:34:34 -0500

Small, amusing cutting-of-trail. You've got my number...give me a call for explication.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

Ripple in a Pond

Steve Perry — Thu, 04 Mar 10 13:41:21 -0500

Maybe, Unk, if you set the record straight enough times in public forums -- fora? -- some of those lurking might be able to counter the bushwah next time it comes up in conversation.

"Hey, didja heard what Harlan Ellison did?" Followed by the usual canards.

"Didn't happen, dude," we can say. "I asked the man himself and got it straight from the source."

One candle, curse the darkness and all.

Perry

According to news reports...

Joe madden — Thu, 04 Mar 10 13:07:45 -0500

Our current president is backing off on a resolution that holds that the mass murder of Armenians by the Turks should not be referred to as the big G.
See, this is one of the problems with our species as a whole. Like the directions on a bottle of shampoo we keep rinsing and repeating, rinsing and repeating.
Oh look, my hair is filthy. No problem, I'll just rinse and repeat.
Now, if I could only find some glass cleaner so I can see myself in the mirror.

Joe

REPLY TO STEVE PERRY

HARLAN ELLISON — Thu, 04 Mar 10 11:52:16 -0500

You remember correctly. Showers were provided by the Worldcon at their comp'd Hospitality Suite; the asst. mayor of Phoenix (a woman) had the parking meters hooded so I never even paid for the campervan; ate only food we'd trucked in; didn't even buy gas: filled up on the Nevada side, drove to Phoenix, drove back, refilled for return trip back in Nevada.

Not even a candy bar in Arizona.

All of this is recorded history.

Nonetheless, there are, to this day, boobs who try to find a "yeah, but" inconsistency in a straightforward narrative.
(I.G.: I was at a Con party very late one night, I was exhausted, I was chatting with friends, sitting upright at the head of someone's bed, I fell asleep. Woke after a while, shuffled out into the hall overlooking the atrium, schlumpfed to the elevator, went down, got in the van, in 135 degree heat, no air conditioning, and went back to sleep. To this day, Jerry Pournelle's son, who'd been hanging around the railing overlooking the atrium, swears I slept the night in the hotel, thus making me a liar and a poltroon.

I wish I could dot the i and/or cross the t as to whether or not I even BOUGHT any art at that year's worldcon art show...because it's too long ago to remember, or to give a damn about. But...

Let's say I bought two and a half million dollars worth of fan or pro art. Who the hell asks where lives the starveling fan who drew that pencil sketch of a dragon smoking a calabash? And even if, by chance, what I did/did not buy was created by an artist somehow somewhichway associated with Arizona, my beef
(and the National Organization for Women's beef) was with the STATE of Arizona and its peabrained legislators and misanthropic voters, not its sf/fantasy fans.

Benjamin Franklin, I think it was, said: "It takes many good deeds to make a good reputation, but only one bad rumor to ruin it."

Story of my life. I damn near ALWAYS cop to what I did, but...

Throwing a fan down an elevator shaft...

Dropping a chandelier on a ballroom full of people...

Groping Connie Willis's bosom in front of thousands of people as it was televised five times life-size on 2 viewscreens in the auditorium...

Didn't happen.

And yet, Steve, the boobs continue to bruit it about as fact. As well as the facts that the Earth is flat, circled by the sun, the Loch Ness monster ate Judge Crater and Amelia Earhart,
and Obama is actually a non-American-born spy for the liberal blood-drinking Venusians.

Too late in the game to try and prise open such noggins to let the light of rationality illuminate the terrain within.

But thanks for asking.

Yr. Pal, Harlan Ellison

Old Memories Bubble Up Through the Murk

Steve Perry — Thu, 04 Mar 10 11:04:17 -0500

For the guys at the bar who might not know, a brief set-up before I address a question to Unk:

In, I think, 1978, the WorldCon was held in Phoenix, Arizona. HE was the GoH, and it was at this event where we first officially met, though I had spoken to him at a speech he gave once before. (The meeting was through the aegis of Hank Stine, then editor at Galaxy, and Jesse Bone was there. As I recall it, I was sitting at a table in the hotel lobby with Jesse and Hank and HE came out of his two-by-four A-frame visquine writing bubble, said, "It's time for my Guest of Honor speech, get up, let's go." and we all got up and went.)

Um. Anyway, the state of Arizona, having dragged its boot heels on ratifying the ERA, HE allowed as how he was gonna go because he'd signed on, but that he wasn't going to spend any money that would benefit the state. The walk-the-walk stuff he does. So he scored an RV, brought in his own food, slept in the camper and kept his wallet closed.

Impressed me then. Still does.

But: Somebody I knew at the con later came back and told me that this wasn't so. That HE had spent money at the art show, bidding on and buying a painting or paintings. (As it happened, I was, for a moment, bidding against Unk for one of these paintings, a small portrait of something I recall as being a robot preacher, though the fog of time might have blurred that. I lost the bid.)

I maintained that the artists for the works were out-of-staters, and that the monies Unk spent went to them, and not the Great State of Arizona. And that HE was being very careful to dot i's and cross t's in such regard.

I dismissed the discussion -- been a lot of years and all -- but I ran into this guy recently online and it jogged that old memory. What better place to clear it up than here?

Is that how you recall it, Unk?

Perry

No title.

Mark Goldberg — Thu, 04 Mar 10 10:07:42 -0500

Semi, I am so sorry for your loss. You know how to reach me if you want/need to talk.

Frank & I disagree on damn near everything, but even I thought that hitjob by an anonymous source was out of line. However, I did want to respond to Frank's latest vendetta piece against Israel. First, there is no proof that Israel was responsible for the hit on an admitted terrorist. Second, here is an article by Alan Dershowitz on the taking out of a Hamas leader:

http://frontpagemag.com/2010/03/04/a-spy-scandal-about-nothing/

No title.

Frank Church — Thu, 04 Mar 10 09:03:59 -0500

"Frank Church is not my concern...Frank can be a bit much sometimes."

Yea, to hell with Frank and his b--, ah, runz.

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

Let me at least defend my position.

Depleted Uranium still has trace amounts of dangerous material-- it is a heavy metal. It can be dangerous in large amounts--large amounts being the working word when dealing with our war in Iraq. Cancer rates have been shooting up at the same time that DU gets used. An oddity, possibly? What about the soldiers who are coming back sick. It aint just the tainted hummus.

My sources on the dangers of nuclear power are Doctor Helen Caldicot, an expert on nuclear effects, Greenpeace and others in the green movements.

Nuclear has far more dangers than good things.

One last time:

One meltdown would kill forty thousand people, not counting the amount of people who get cancer later.

Nuclear plants can put out permissible amounts of trace elements. Permissible doesn't mean safe.

Nuclear plants are a big economic risk, the main reason why none have been built. They would have to be highly subsidised by the government, which would nullify any economic benifit.

It takes nine years to build one. Would not meet the time goals of ending greenhouse gas emisions.

The process that creates nuclear fuel creates greenhouse gasses.

Big companies would find ways to get around safety, since many of these companies already do.

It would be a prime and easy target for a terrorist attack. I remember the 60 Minutes where I think Steve Kroft easily walked into a chemical plant undetected.

I cannot see one benefit of nuclear. Pass.

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

Ok, so Israel uses stolen passports, sends agents into Dubai and kills a leader of Hamas!

Great way to start up the peace process. Are they insane?

No title.

dj — Thu, 04 Mar 10 08:03:51 -0500

Hey Rob,

The Ares(Not Aries)Program is dead in the water and sinking faster than a Camry's resale value, courtesy of Obama's proposed NASA budget; Space 1999 style Moon bases too.

No title.

Rob — Thu, 04 Mar 10 00:59:53 -0500

"I used to have an open mind but my brains kept falling out."
- Stephen Wright

Y'know, it fascinates me:

Too often, it seems the more ignorant people are the more obdurate they tend to be. While conceit is not exclusive to this group, it's almost a common adjunct!

Case in point: Recently, I listened to the droolings of Ben Stein and Dennis Miller on the subject of global warming. They scoff at it, discarding it as bogus while directing at lay people questions like, "if it's global warming why is the temperature dropping?"...RATHER than taking the questions to the scientists themselves!

It astounds me!

They will challenge information without EVER seeking clarification from the experts, a VERY simple solution that SHOULD seem obvious!

In short, they are apparently wiser and more savvy than the people who spend their professional lives doing the research! There is no need to KNOW, just to BELIEVE. I'M convinced more than half the human race bears this sterling emblem!

The more ignorant people are the more arrogant they tend to be: It's among the deficiencies in human nature, which have, historically, contributed to so much horror.

JEEZUS:

ONE of us better come up with some sort of happy news here, or we'll all be chunderin' up, "MEMENTO MORI!"

Nearest I can conjure right now, 2010 will be the year NASA lays to rest the Shuttle!

Why is this particularly good?

Because they are now embarking on the Aries spacecraft, the program that will officially lead to manned Mars missions. The design revisits the vertical rocket, but with reusable boosters; it's mission: to transport material to the moon by 2015 and begin building Gerry Anderson-style moon bases. From there, they will eventually launch a team to Mars.

(Temporarily, for the next 5 years, NASA will be outsourcing orbital flights to a private rocket outfit)

We're about to see the rebirth of revolutionary space flight.

To: Semi-writer, re: "trust issues"/ Andrew Koenig

Le — Wed, 03 Mar 10 23:36:45 -0500

I enjoyed reading your post. But wow, you never had a boyfriend!

"May you always have the innocence to risk love and the maturity to preserve it."(Anonymous)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I was very, very, very sorry to hear about Andrew Koenig. "Jeffty is Five" was the first Harlan Ellison story I ever ever read, and it was so sad to learn that the individual who served as inspiration for that magnificent story took his own life....

Baja Oklahoma noir -- and one heck of a canine actor

DTS — Wed, 03 Mar 10 23:16:24 -0500

LADIES & GENTLEMEN: Presenting Cindiana Jones, the Queen of Texas Noir. :)

ALL: I _know_ it's not hip to recommend sentimental films, but...I'm a sucker for good dog flicks. And I also happen to dig the ouevre of Lasse Halstrom. It didn't seem to get much cinema play either in the states or Down Under (before his latest, "Dear John," hit theaters), but "Hachiko: A Dog's Tale" nearly had me crying like a baby. Terrific job of acting by all involved, nice, job of directing ("seeing" with a dogs eye) by Hallstrom, and a pretty darn good script (especially when one considers that the story doesn't involve pratfalls or silliness -- just a relationship between a man and his best friend -- and yup, it's an Americanized version of the actual Japanese story, but it still works). The Akita playing the title role is gorgeous (_NOT_ as gorgeous as my irrascible, goofy, smart-as-a-whip Staffie/boxer mix buddy, Irving -- who is actually _called_ that by women who see him, several times a day; and who, like Hachi, will NOT deign to play goofy games of fetch or retrieve, he's too complicated -- but still: a nice looking dog. And one heck of an actor. Check out the film.

Cheers,
DTS
P.S. John Z: I meant "C" -- lost a "C" from your last name (but now that you've signed it the same twice, that extra c was obviously a mistake -- and one you would've taken a teasing over in grade school, no doubt.

No title.

Semi-Writer — Wed, 03 Mar 10 22:08:09 -0500

My cousin died today--it's too early and we don't know the details yet, but the message that filtered down to me was that he was found stretched out on the sofa at one of his funeral homes in Detroit. He owned two, one in the city and one in the suburbs, and had been a mortician ever since attending the funeral of a friend in high school and being impressed by the way the friend's service was handled. It's assumed heart attack or heart failure or something like that at this point. He hadn't even reached the half-century mark yet. His daughter will only have vague memories of the man she called Daddy.

Strangely, I now find myself emotionally removed from the situation, feeling more anxiety than grief; I'm praying for that particular family branch to keep their cool and not lose it on one another. It's not that I didn't care for my cousin; he was my mother's godson and her favorite nephew, and one of the sweetest souls that my family could boast of.

But whether certain lifestyle factors had anything to do with his early passing, please, let me beg all of you to try and do the following. Stop smoking; this is one area where there can be no such thing as moderation. Cut back on your alcohol consumption. If you're in the morbidly obese range, look into healthier eating habits (I despise the word "diet"--I think Richard Simmons got it right, the first part of that word is "die"); even such a simple act as eliminating baked goods once a week counts as trying. If there is a stress factor in your life, seek counseling. There are so many unhealthy things that can slip into our lives when we're not looking and work to sabotage us on a steady, insidious level, and not all of them are drug-addled friends with dependency issues.

The important thing being, we have to recognize and at least TRY to change the unhealthy things in our lives and not to become complacent to them.

Harlan:

Sara Slaymaker — Wed, 03 Mar 10 21:31:19 -0500

Well said.

Steve Barber: There is nothing I can add that hasn't already been said here. They're right. The best way to help is not to help.

As for Cris - damn, that lady can sing!

Reply to J. Hitchcock

Jan Schroeder — Wed, 03 Mar 10 20:50:20 -0500

Yes, addiction is a sickness. But when it comes to dealing with addicts, true compassion is to not enable them to remain addicts. Even providing them with a roof over their head can be enabling. As long as they know that they have somebody to rescue them, even minimally, they don't have the incentive to do what needs to be done to recover.

The one I had to turn my back on eventually ended up as my (now ex) husband and he's got 28 years sober.

Jan S.

La Musica!

Steve Perry — Wed, 03 Mar 10 19:59:36 -0500

Barber --

Thanks for the link. Nice pipes, the lady has.

Perry

"REDDY KILOWATT"

HARLAN ELLISON — Wed, 03 Mar 10 18:58:34 -0500

I have no idea who you are (that is a lie), and I will leave it to others who are regulars here (you'll know what you're looking for) to track you back. But while I have absolutely no problem with your opinions, I have capriciously decided that the manner in which you couch them, your language, and your surliness, make you someone I want the fuck OUT OF HERE! This is not the first time you've done this, under a variety of moronic fake-names, but if Rick Wyatt and the others who come here will unearth you this last one time, I will personally make it a small mission to grieve you as much as I can. Frank Church is not my concern...Frank can be a bit much sometimes...but I just don't like the cut of your jib, son.

I want you to go away as quietly as possible, no smartass Farewell to the Thessalonians. Just get the hell outta my house, and never come back.

Harlan Ellison

No title.

Steve Barber — Wed, 03 Mar 10 15:32:39 -0500

J Hitchcock -
I'm going to violate the one a day post and do proper penance later because I believe you're jumping to a completely inaccurate and unfair conclusion.

It's fair to state that the majority of people coming to this site have no problems whatsoever with the casual user, or the person who is the down-the-hallway cloud puff but otherwise nice guy.

The issues dealt with below -- at my request for guidance -- involve users and addicts who are beyond the pale. The exceptions who ruin the lives of those around them. Who have addictions that devastate families, destroy careers, and, yes, kill people.

These are not the stories of "evil drug lords", these are real lives and real people ruined by dint of an addict's priorities. I see nothing inane, not one, in the recountings of personal tragedy and shared support.

I, for one, found a lot of comfort in what you found to be inane, and since I'm the sonuvagun who's going through the shit right now, I'm kind of annoyed that you're taking potshots at the lives of others. As we say in the itnernet: Your Mileage May Vary.

(But even if it does, what possible use is it to "take the other side" when the subject is addiction. Not usage: addiction. Big diff.)

See youse guys in a coupla days. As for me, I appreciate the feedback.

Where's my shovel?

Reddy Kilowatt — Wed, 03 Mar 10 14:59:29 -0500

About half the time Frank Church writes something here, I have to get my shovel out and get to work shoveling the bullshit off the floor.

Framk, you fucking technophobic high-functioning moron, depleted uranium means it's radiation is "depleted". It's toxic effect, if any, is from the CHEMICAL properties of uranium, not the minimal radiation.

But you knew that, and even though the radiation is minimal from DEPLETED uranium, I'll give you that it has SOME radiological effect, and I'll let "hormesis" (which you ought to look up if you never learned about it, you mook you) and so shooting depleted uranium bullets in Iraq was not a Good Thing.

So how does that mean nuclear power is a bad idea here? I mean in any logic other than that of your Crack Baby Brain?

France get's 70 per cent of its electricity from nuclear power.

Japan gets 80 per cent of its electricity from nuclear power.

Neither Japan or France is a sewer of radiation. Neither hsas scads of people dying from any form of radiation.

If you buy into Human Caused Global Climate Change (which somehow I imagine you do), you ought to support a nearly carbon free (some in the building of the plants and in the maintenance, none from the routine operation of) power source that is safer than any other. It's killed or maimed hundreds to thousands less than any other power source.

More people die in a year installing rooftop solar (from falls) than have in over fifty years from nuclaar power accidents. That's true EVEN if you include deaths from nuclear reactors that exist(ed) not to provide power but to provide weapons grade radioactives for the military.

Even if you include the hundreds of reactors operated in the past and the dozens still operated today by the several navies that use it for ships and submarines. Even if you include the Soviets/Russians, who have acted as Stupidly as Possible with nuclear power and thus have killed the overwhelming majority of people killed by it.

I suspect when you lived in your van down by the river, you left most of your brains there when you moved back into your parents basement.

Perhaps your diet of Funyum's and Mountain Dew has deprived your brain of several essential amino acids?

I look forward to yet another inchoate post from you, shortly. after you have finished masturbating to the latest Mother Jones.

Drugs, Addiction & Other Bad Things

J. Hitchcock — Wed, 03 Mar 10 14:53:11 -0500

You good people certainly make some good points & a some rather inane ones to be honest. But in the interest of balance I provide the following quote from the late great Bill Hicks

Wouldn't you like to see a positive LSD story on the news? To base your decision on information rather than scare tactics and superstition, Wouldn't that be interesting? Just for once? Today, a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There's no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we're the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather."

Most of the stories shared here have a similar theme "The evil drug lord attacked my friends brain & through Icy superiority I saved myself by casting off this wretched leach, Boy wasnt I lucky & Brave"

Certainly over indulgence in anything for a long period of time will end badly (But doesnt life end badly anyway?) & of course no one should feel obliged to support the addicts habit but remember they are an addict & they have a sickness.

Now I'm certainly not saying that you should join the first junkie you see in an alleyway & get wasted, but a little understanding & compassion couldnt hurt

Best to All

Adam-Troy:

Jeff R. — Wed, 03 Mar 10 13:57:04 -0500

I was once in a fairly similar situation, although there were no drugs involved. Nevertheless, the person in question was not only an emotional vampire, but a financial one as well.

You did the right thing.

One Last

Adam-Troy Castro — Wed, 03 Mar 10 12:40:07 -0500

I haven't thought of this incident in decades.

During my freshman year in college, I had a very good friend -- actually, at that point, my only friend -- in the engineering program who introduced me to recreational drugs. Nothing worse than pot, hash, and nitrous oxide...but where I pulled back, pretty much for good, after that brief flirtation, he did not. When I returned to school after summer vacation, he had graduated to coke and acid, and was about to drop out of school.

His argument in favor of drugs was that they made everything more vivid. I quickly noted that the arguments were circular. He thought drugs were great because they improved certain music and certain movies; conversely, he loved certain music and certain movies because they improved so much when using drugs. Before long that was his number one yardstick of quality. I asked him more than once about stuff that was most entertaining when sober, whether that didn't have some kind of inherent value even more impressive, and he declared that such things were shallow, one-dimensional, not worth his time. He interpreted virtualy everything from this angle. For instance, he made a big deal about John Hurt in the kitchen-table scene in ALIEN (back then a new movie), because he thought Hurt's cigarette in that scene was likely pot, and because he thought that meant the alien bursting out of the poor dude's chest would "hurt even more." Literally, that's what he took from that scene. He had similar things to say about CLOCKWORK ORANGE, and how druggy it was; again, it was all he seemed to care about, aesthetically.

(Because I saw this syllogism close-up and ad nauseum, I have never been impressed by drug-influenced imagery for its own sake. Never, ever.)

A townie, he had been kicked out of his parents's house because of his lifestyle choices, and he asked if he could stay with me for a few days. I was living in one room of a rooming house, in a space no larger than two hundred square feet; giving you an idea of my living conditions, my big steamer trunk was both my coffee table and my desk. Still, I said that he could stay if he didn't mind using his sleeping bag.

Two nights later, I was already snowed under with work, and was about to go turn off my lamp so I could turn in for the night. He wasn't ready to sleep yet. He wanted to read. In retrospect, I should have told him to go to the house's communal kitchen and read at the table; it was late enough that he would not have been disturbed. I said, well, I need the lamp out to sleep; I have classes in the morning. He begged for ten more minutes. Ten minutes later, he was still wired from whatever he was on, and needed more time awake even after I insisted it was lights-out. Compromising, he draped his canvas dufflebag over the lamp, occluding the light to a little cone that only affected his space. Was that okay? Reluctantly, I said yes. But turn out the lamp when you're done.

In the morning, the room smelled acrid. The air was visibly hazy. We'd slept through something. We didn't discover what until he took the dufflebag off the lamp. It had melted and blackened. He'd left the lamp on all night, under the heavy canvas, and the trapped heat had built up, and there'd been a fire, fortunately smothered by the canvas. The lamp was many years old. He had destroyed it.

He acted contrite. He didn't offer to pay for the lamp or recognize that he could have killed us and everybody else in the house.

Two days later. He entered the room where I was working on an important paper, and said that he had found a place to stay, three blocks away. All I needed to do was help him move his stuff. It would only take three trips. I was reluctant to leave my homework, but I did offer to help him on one trip. He said, "Well, can we take as much on that one trip as we can humanly carry?" I reluctantly agreed.

We got almost a block before the weight and bulk of all the stuff started causing us problems. I was putting some down so I could shift the load when he muttered, "Selfish bastard would only take one trip."

Angered at this guy who had destroyed my property and who I had sheltered for a week, and who now called me a selfish bastard, I quite deliberately started to put my load down so I could abandon him.

I was still bent over my load, when he rushed over and brandished his fist in my face. "You put that down and I'll beat the shit out of you."

Now thoroughly incredulous, I said, "Fine. Let me stand up and we'll go at it."

He said, "You better not."

I was still bent over and holding about fifty pounds. "Let me stand up and you can do whatever you fucking want."

He agreed to let me stand.

I put the weight down, but before I could straighten even a millimeter, he broke his promise and slammed me hard in the ear. It sounded like an explosion going off. There was no question of defending myself. I was off-balance and he'd gotten the first punch. He didn't have to do that. I was then, as now, a physical wimp; he would have beaten the shit out of me in any event, but he'd broken the contract and made sure this would not be a fair fight. I fell over and he was still punching me, in the back, in the stomach, and in the face, when a patrol car with two uniformed cops pulled over and yanked him off me.

I'll give him credit for this much: his explanation to the cops was entirely truthful. He just didn't think he was wrong.

One of the cops said, incredulously, "The guy who gave you a place to stay for a week was helping you move your shit and you beat him up because he wasn't moving fast enough?"

He was taken aback, "Well, if you put it that way, it sounds pretty crappy."

"How else would you put it, sir?"

"He was, I don't know, being a dick."

I was asked whether I wanted to press charges. I told them no, but I sure as shit wasn't going to help him move his stuff. I said that I planned to return to my room and stack his belongings outside. He whined, "But I can't move this stuff myself!" I told him, "Move everything in ten-foot increments and you should be fine."

As I walked away, he was -- I swear to God -- asking the cops if they could give him a ride to his new apartment, with his stuff in the back seat. They might have helped me, as the victim, if the situation had been reversed. But not him. Oozing contempt, they told him that they were cops, not moving men; that he'd caused his own situation and that they had no sympathy for him.

A few hours later, after what must have been a humiliating moving job from hell, the guy knocked on my door. I at first refused to open it, telling him that all his belongings were outside for the taking. He begged to talk to me. There was still enough of a ghost of our prior friendship for me to open the door, even though I feared another attack.

Breaking what ended up being a thirty-minute, invective-filled conversation into two sentences, he told me that he was willing to apologize for beating me as long as I was willing to apologize for being so unreasonable with him. And I told him to get fucked. I certainly wasn't going to help him move the rest of his stuff (yes, he asked).

He asked me if I was going to let our friendship end. I told him that it had ended. I wished him well but asked him to never talk to me again.

Last I heard, he was sleeping on someone else's couch.

I don't think he ever became an engineer.

I went through some rough times in the weeks that followed, because it took time to make some new friends and I was not then capable of being alone with my own head and not having rough times. I self-flagellated. But from the perspective of fifty, I look back on my young self and say, "You did the right thing. That guy was poison. He would have dragged you down with him."

No title.

Frank Church — Wed, 03 Mar 10 11:30:59 -0500

Why did we forget about Iraq? They still only have six hours of electricity a day. Water is becoming scarce. Cancer rates are shooting up because of our depleted uranium--another good reason not to try nuclear power here. Four point five million refugees have fled. We are jailing Sunnis so that they won't vote.

Yea Newsweek, Iraq is a real success.

On Addiction and Drawing the Line

Dennis J — Wed, 03 Mar 10 11:12:05 -0500

Way back when I was a...junior, in High School, I had a very close friend who decided to go to the same one I was attending (it was a vocational/trade school). This person could not wait to get into "the scene" as it were. We grew up in the 1980's, a time when "partying" was every where in our entertainment, our environment, our lives. This kid practically salivated at the chance to become part of it.

For the first year or so I took it upon myself to try to protect him. He was about 2 1/2 years younger than me, and I had managed to stay on the path of sobriety thus far.

A month or so into his sophomore year, the changes started to happen. He began letting his hair grow long, his face became very oily and it seemed he didn't pay much attention to grooming (still, the girls LOVED him for god knows why), his choice of friends became questionable. It was obvious to anyone close to him that something was very, very wrong.

As time past and his decline continued, my parents saw what was happening and became concerned. They ran into him at the local mall one night, and my father confronted him. Of course the excuses shot out of his mouth like pea soup from Linda Blair, with equal effect, I might add.

One summer day I called at his house and was told by his brother that he was "gone". He had be forcefully committed to an in-patient rehab facility, by his parents.

I didn't see him again for several months. When he returned, it appeared that he was much, much better. However, as addicts are wont to do, he fooled us all. Soon enough, the "friends" returned, his constant bumming money off of me returned, and my stupidity returned. He was adept at manipulating me for money. Oh boy was he good. He was good, and I was an idiot. It becomes a "lethal embrace". They latch onto you like a vampire, emotionally as well as physically.

Time went by and my parents continued to beg me to disassociate myself from him. I thought I couldn't. His friendship meant so much to me at one time, and there was always the guilt, knowing I should have done more to protect him. I should have tried harder, and besides, I wasn't an addict he was.

Then one day I heard someone say something that forced me to confront the situation. A manager I worked for said "When you swim with sharks, you either get eaten by one, or you become one". On my next visit with this friend, the craving for more money and the look in his eye said "Give me what I need, sucker". I terminated the relationship. We had harsh words, and I haven't heard from or seen him again. That was 1995. Recently, on Facebook, I reconnected with his brother. He told me that this person has not changed, and has spent the last 10 years in and out of prison. This did not surprise me or upset me.

What upset me the most was discovering that this person has a 5 year old son. This shot through my heart like a hot blade. Will the cycle repeat itself? Will the boy be ok? It makes me sick just thinking about it.

Take the stand. Break the chain.

No title.

Jan — Wed, 03 Mar 10 10:44:24 -0500

Now has a table of contents (mostly the usual selections) and a cover: Fritz Leiber - Selected Stories (edited by Jonathan Strahan and Charles N. Brown)
http://nightshadebooks.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=158
Intro by Neil Gaiman, coming next month.

Cindy

Michael Mayhew — Wed, 03 Mar 10 10:44:22 -0500

You and I can argue about health care till we're both blue in the face, but "ain't that a sight" is one for the ages, and something I know I'll be using in my own life.

Thanks for that,

MM

insightfu

keeney — Wed, 03 Mar 10 09:01:58 -0500

i was, of course, referring to the martial art.

CINDY

Keeney — Wed, 03 Mar 10 09:00:52 -0500

that was awesome

"Ain't that a sight."

Like something out of a Cormac McCarthy or Elmore Leonard novel. Insightfu, and useful, and poignant, and funny allatthesametime.

very nice,
Rick

Rod Taylor

John Zeock — Wed, 03 Mar 10 08:53:40 -0500

Ironically, before TIME MACHINE, Taylor traveled through time in WORLD WITHOUT END, an underrated (not necessarily good, you understand, just Not Awful) 50's SF film. (costume directed by the artist Vargas)I've always had a soft spot for a comedy he did with Jane Fonda, Robert Culp and Cliff Robertson, SUNDAY IN NEW YORK.

Thank You

Steve Barber — Wed, 03 Mar 10 08:32:09 -0500

Each and all, I sincerely appreciate the thughts and collective wisdom. Not only the wonderful messages here, but a call from a friend last night who inequivocably told me to get away as fast as I could. And if I didn't my friend was going to box my ears FOR me. This is good. This is reassuring. (I also spoke to a coworker who is heself many years dry, who also told me I needed to walk away.)

Consider proof in the pudding, and he is effectively cut off from our lives. I'm waiting to hear from his mother or brother to find out what went down on Monday.

But thank you.

Sometimes that little voice in the back of your head should be told to just shut the f*ck up.
_____________________________________

On a far happier note, we've uploaded a video of Cris and the band playing OLD DEVIL MOON at the Coach House.

WARNING: This ain't yo' mama's Petula Clark version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ult1HRoFLdM

Steve Barber

Laurie — Wed, 03 Mar 10 08:28:05 -0500

Just wanted to add my support to all that has been said here about your situation with your cousin.

I am old enough to have been in some comparable situations. The hard part for me was to remember that my support of an out of control addict would not do that person any real good and could very easily do him/her harm. There is no upside potential in helping him, either for him for anyone else.

From the brief time I have spent in your company, I sense that you are a kind person, one who would jump to the rescue of anyone significant in your life if you thought it would help; in this case, it will not! That is the main thing to bear in mind when you draw the line with your cousin.

It's kind of like that movie (Bodysnatchers?) where alien pods take over the minds and wills of human beings. This isn't your cousin anymore. His best chance of regaining control of his mind and will lies in taking charge of his situation himself and that will never happen if he has any kind of support during his "alien mind control" days.

I know I am only repeating what has been said here in previous posts. But I know how hard it is to turn away from someone you care about, someone who is family. So I thought I would add my agreement to add strength to what you have to do; letting him go is so much easier said than done, I know. Remember, when dealing with pod people, your moves must be counterintuitive. Refusal to give your cousin support is the best form of love you can give him at this time.

No title.

Cindy — Wed, 03 Mar 10 08:19:23 -0500

Steve Barber,
He did it-- he earned it-- step aside. Hes going to reap the whirlwind and anyone standing too close will be collateral damage. Youre a great guy-- through and through so your natural inclination is to try and pull him from the torrent, But youll risk your own good life and he has chosen his.

Trust me, as hard as it is, sometimes you just have to step back and say, Aint that a sight.

Cindy

Various

Adam-Troy Castro — Wed, 03 Mar 10 06:05:33 -0500

On the subject of addiction, I looked up the exact quote from that movie, GEORGIA, and found it in a review by Roger Ebert; Ebert sets it up so perfectly that I appropriate his frame as well.

(excerpt begins)

"Georgia" is a movie about Sadie, but it is no mistake that it's named after her sister. Sadie is one of those emotional black holes that occupy the center of many families, a victim who sucks all love and concern down into the oblivion at her center. As Georgia observes wearily near the end of the film: "Sadie's pain must be fed. And we're all here to serve."

(end excerpt)

Pretty much. And I've known people like that.

I received an email from a guy I hadn't seen in thirty years, an old college acquaintance struggling with depression who remembered me being so "self-confident and focused" (me?) that he wanted me to help him write the letter he would leave behind when he abandoned his wife and small child. When I refused he wanted me to vet the letter he had already written. I told him absolutely fucking not. He protested that his marriage wasn't working. I told him that he then owed his wife the dignity of being told face-to-face. I never heard from him again. But I could have been sucked into a major drama. No thanks. No way.

*

Incidentally, GEORGIA has the best scene of Jennifer Jason Leigh's career. Which is saying a hell of a lot.

*

You know those sentences you glimpse in passing that your mind perversely misreads? Here's one. The ONION AV CLUB had a headline, "Gwyneth Paltrow Possibly Miscast In Role of Marlene Dietrich." My gaze swept that line and ended that sentence with "...in Role of Marlon Brando." Yeah. I'd say so.

Tree limbs

DTS — Wed, 03 Mar 10 02:43:31 -0500

JOHN Z: Damn, son! That tree limb walloped ya hard enough to dislodge a Z from your last name (if I recall correctly). Glad ya woke up in time to thaw out.

Cheers from Down Under (home of the Ghost Gum, a thick mother of a tree that is ALWAYS losing limbs which crush unsuspecting campers at night),
DTS

No title.

Rob — Wed, 03 Mar 10 00:26:05 -0500

Welcome once again to...

TOUT TIME AND TEA

Tony Rabig points out that Rod Taylor is "always gonna be the Time Traveler".

Well, RUB mah belly till I cry "UNCLE!", he's MY Time Traveler, too!

Since the early 1980's, I've revisited Pal's The Time Machine almost every year. It's been like a pilgrimage for me since the age of 10. I let the flaws go by, most of which come up toward the end of the film (they pretty much begin and end when Weena turns into a "Liberated Woman"), because it has so many redeeming elements. ONE of those elements is definitely Taylor.

Now to erect a blunder:

I mentioned a film called "Dark Side of the Sun".

Well, let's try for "Dark of the Sun", and we have a movie that really EXISTS!

Finally, I put the verb in past tense regarding Taylor because, given his retirement status, the LAST thing I saw him in was an episode of Chuck Norris' stupid-ass series, Walker, Texas Ranger.

And even in THAT - where Rod plays a corrupt but conflicted lawyer - the performance was excellent. (So, good, in fact, that I chanced upon the episode while channel surfing; I paused only because this actor seemed so interesting to watch. He was complex and smart. It took me about 10 minutes to recognize him because I'd never seen him with white hair...and the realization blew me away!)

I had to thank Chuck for mentioning Taylor's appearance in Inglourious Basterds. I didn't know about that.

And, at last, I have to add one more TOUT to the ever-growing list:

Rod Taylor also kicked-ass in the classic Twilight Zone, "And When the Sky Was Opened" - the one where 3 astronauts return to Earth and literally disappear one-by-one. He was so damn good!

No title.

shagin — Tue, 02 Mar 10 21:37:46 -0500

STEVE: Drop me a line if you need to talk further. I'm facing such a dilemma myself, and my best advice is what others have said. Take care of yourself, take care of Cris. You may still love him, but there are times when love must be expressed in a firmer, less giving, voice.

For myself...I love the person my brother was. I've had to admit that I no longer love the person he has become. If he is not out from under the deck of my house in the next 48 hours (taking advantage of the opportunity Home Depot has provided for him), then I must call the police. He is no longer allowed in my house unsupervised with either boy, not for fear of their physical safety, but for their emotional and mental well being.

shagin

On Abandoning the Addict

Adam-Troy Castro — Tue, 02 Mar 10 20:02:56 -0500

The brilliant movie GEORGIA has a line where the title character says something of her sister Sadie, a user of both drugs and people: "Her pain always has to be fed."

I have had to walk away from people who wanted just one more chance from me. One told me he hated me and then called with an urgent request for help the next day. When I reminded him tht he'd just told me the day before that he hated me, he angrily said that bringing that up was just like me. He wrote dramas with himself at the center and everybody else as supporting characters. Maintaining his melodrama was taking me more time than maintaining anything else I got from the friendship. I dumped him. He badmouthed me to all and sundry. I got over it.

I had a distant relative who borrowed, literally, hundreds of thousands from various friends to maintain an upscale lifestyle. It didn't end until everybody he'd known since childhood stopped taking his calls.

You've got to draw a firm line. Got to. Vampirism is what it's about.

Adventure pulp

Lars Klores — Tue, 02 Mar 10 19:45:54 -0500

Harlan,

Glad you can still use it. $38 should cover the book plus shipping. Will have it off to you tomorrow.

--L

No title.

Chuck Messer — Tue, 02 Mar 10 19:44:32 -0500

What everyone else said, Steve.

There was an individual nicknamed Lurch who had an addiction problem. The safety net kept him housed and fed and he kept on getting high until one night he got so happy and out of it he fell asleep on a sidewalk and froze to death.

I'm all for the social safety net and for the kindness of family and friends when someone is having trouble. But, there comes a time when an individual, an addict has to be told that he can no longer abuse the trust of others, the kindness of strangers or those who know him. So, it seems like it's time to walk away, even though it may hurt like in ice pick to the heart.

RIP Lurch. Killed by kindness.

Chuck

HOLY COW !!!!!!!

HARLAN ELLISON — Tue, 02 Mar 10 18:03:30 -0500

Lars:

Wow! Heck, yes!!!!!

Tell me what I'll owe you.

Hotdiggity.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

Walking Away

Lori Koonce — Tue, 02 Mar 10 17:02:58 -0500

Steve

You walk when you realize that you and the people you care about the most will be destroyed if you don't.

You walk when you realize that no matter what you do, you cannot make this person want his sobriety.

We can talk about this on Friday if you'd like, but like Jan said, your cousin has gotta find his "bottom" on his own. I watched a good friend go down the tubes during a serious drug addiction. The hardest thing I ever did was to tell her that I loved her, but I couldn't stay around and watch her screw up. I had a chance to talk to her a decade after that, and she told me that my actions that day were one of the best things that ever happened. It was one of the things that sobered her up.

Love has gotta get tough at times.

Walking Away

Jan Schroeder — Tue, 02 Mar 10 16:34:46 -0500

Reply to Steve Barber - I only know one piece of advice that I know is good advice: You have to take care of yourself before you can take care of anyone else. In the case of your cousin, that probably means that yes, you have to walk away for your own sake. Even if he's trying to get sober, he'll have to do it by himself and for himself and that probably won't happen as long as he thinks he's got a safety net with you or anybody else. Anybody he can count on for money, a roof, bail or anything ends up enabling him to stay addicted. It's almost become a cliche that a substance abuser has to hit bottom but that's exactly what has to happen. Sometimes they're not able to climb back up and that hurts you, too. But if they do, they'll thank you eventually.

Best wishes for your family.
Jan S.

LET IT GO.

Gary Lee — Tue, 02 Mar 10 16:26:40 -0500

Steve Barber

When do you walk away?, well I guess when you cant give anymore, I had a wonderful uncle who unfortunately had bouts of deep depression and other mental problems, I would talk to him about them and he would nod his head and agree with everything I said, then the next day he would go off and do some really dumb thing that would mess things up once more. He was a good guy but we found out to late that he had this problem all his life and even though you try and try you get to a point thats it you or him?

Its really hurts, there is nothing I can do?, maybe he will change? Maybe?, maybe?my uncle died not to long ago, the darkness that followed him all his life finally took him, they called it natural causes but it was the thing inside him that finally won. I know I could have done more but what I dont know?.

But remember that pain needs feeding and if you dont let it go it will take you also.

Let him go, Save yourself and those you love.

Gary.

George Surdez - Adventure pulp 3/15/30

Lars Klores — Tue, 02 Mar 10 14:51:51 -0500

Hi Harlan,

About a year or so ago you requested the Adventure pulps containing both parts of George Surdez's "They Came from Yesterday." I saw you received the 3/1/30 issue, containing Part 1, but I never saw that you located the 3/15/30 issue containing part 2. I have one in my possession if you would like it. Let me know.

Best,
Lars

P.S., Chair says hi.

No title.

Steve Barber — Tue, 02 Mar 10 14:41:18 -0500

"people who they could call at a moments notice who could not only kill but bury the body without rousing a police investigation."

(HARLAN, you said you wouldn't tell.)
________________________________________

Trust but Verify, part 2 million. My cousin, who I have referred to as a "recovering" alcoholic has pulled one over on us all. He is not recovering. He has lied, repeatedly over the last three years. Has added addiction to painkillers as a side activity. As a result he has in the last week lost his job, his apartment, custody of his son, and was today thrown out of his parents' house for the last and final time.

This is perhaps the eighth time in the last twenty years in which he has misled the family, costing them money, health, and agony. Cars wrecked. DUI. Arrests. DUI with children in the car. Drugs. Gangs. Feigned suicides. Calls to 911. Lies, theft, playing for sympathy. Fraud. Etc.

He is a year older than I am. He just might not make it any further.

At what point do you walk away from this sort of damaged individual? Do you?

I really want to know.

Rod Taylor's best

Wade Chitwood — Tue, 02 Mar 10 14:03:54 -0500

A couple of my favorite Taylor movies besides the biggies:
"Darker Than Amber" and "Chucka".

No title.

Ezra — Tue, 02 Mar 10 12:19:54 -0500

If you're talking perfomances by Rod Taylor don't forget THE BIRDS although it would definitely take a scriptwriter to make me prefer Tippi Hedren to Suzanne Pleshette.

Why I didn't finish my script-a true life adventure

John Zeock — Tue, 02 Mar 10 12:13:32 -0500

I was having 2nd act problems ( a writing cliche if there ever was one). One thing that's always worked for me is to go back to the beginning and do over what was done and hit the problem with a running start. I put my moleskine notebook and the 2 Conklin Mark Twain rollerballs I was using in my shirt pocket. I went outside once the snow stopped to survey the damage done to the trees on my property-almost all of which are old friends, with the emphasis,unfortunately on the "old". We're getting an arborist to repair the damage but there were branches already broken I wanted to get down. I went to the first tree and took the pruning pole and lifted it up. And then...I can't believe no one heard or saw something. Maybe it was the time of day or my location on my lawn. I still am not sure what exactly happened-some sort of Rube Goldberg, Tex Avery chain of events. I came to after 40 minutes in a bank of melting snow with what I thought was a cracked open chest. There was a broken branch to my side. What I thought was blood was blue and black rollerball ink all over my chest. My thought is that the notebook and pens kept me from worse. I called an old friend who's an orthopedic surgeon (unemployed for 15 months means no health care) and she checked me out, said I was basically OK but would hurt like a motherfucker for a few days and then wrote a prescription for 10 Oxycontin 40 mg. Hard to focus. Next year for the script (did I mention my 3 dogs also ate my homework..?)

No title.

Frank Church — Tue, 02 Mar 10 12:04:39 -0500

Harlan's not rich? I thought all writers lived in mansions and had private cooks and people who they could call at a moments notice who could not only kill but bury the body without rousing a police investigation.

The scales, they done slipped, my liege.

I'm also seen in here as mean. Best to be mean to the right people.

You have fewer friends, but cultivate a better quality.
---------

Jim Bunning, you whiskey soaked lard monkey, thanks for killing the GOP single handedly.

They must cage this guy at night. Mook of the year award, fer sure.

When Cheney dies, take this sack of nails with ya.

P.S. (Gardez-vous)

Steve Perry — Tue, 02 Mar 10 09:34:51 -0500

Unk --

I didn't send the little creep anything -- I was just asking if anybody else here was getting this stuff besides me. You being a dial-up guy, you probably didn't read the jump to my site, in which I tracked the little fucker down using his email and found a similar posting to an alternative-rock blog where he was trying to score a signed poster that also saved him from suicide ...

Perry

Psychotic?

Steve Perry — Tue, 02 Mar 10 09:22:07 -0500

I spent five or so years working in the medical field, first as a nurse, then as a PA-C at a Family Practice clinic. One of the first things you learn in training is that illness brings out the best and worst in people. A little old lady with seventeen kinds of fatal disease will behave like a saint. A muscular jock of a football player with a bad hangnail will scream and carry on like he's been slashed with a samurai sword.

You never know which you will get.

It's like altitude sickness or nitrogen narcosis -- you can't tell who is going to come apart until it happens, and it's a combination of physical and psychological that is difficult, if not impossible, to control. Like fight-or-flight syndrome, the reactions are hardwired. That granny wants to punch your lights out because you jostled her sore hip is more instinctive than not. It's not really her fault.

Ask anybody who works in a hospital or clinic and you'll get a slew of horror stories about crocks -- i.e. bad patients.

You get taught this and you try to be objective as you can, to allow for what often seems unreasonable. Guy is sick, he's off his feed, he snaps when he doesn't mean to. You cut him slack. But being human yourself and having bad days of your own, sometimes smiling at somebody who is expending her entire knowledge of anglo-saxon at you in a voice that will shatter wrought iron is passing difficult.

Yeah, you had a bad day, but kicking the dog repeatedly isn't going to make it better.

Insulting the waiter might get your food spat onto. Pissing off the nurse who controls your pain meds might get you a few minutes extra lying there waiting for it.

I understand somebody feeling like shit and taking it out on folks around 'em. I have less sympathy for somebody pretending to be ill and using that to gain something, which was what my previous post was about.

Perry

shagin

Jim Thomas — Tue, 02 Mar 10 09:18:05 -0500

I just bought a small chest freezer from HD, if that helps. ;)

To be delivered tomorrow, in fact.

Rod Taylor & The Time Machine

James Van Hise — Tue, 02 Mar 10 08:14:29 -0500

It went kind of unheralded at the time but several years ago a special edition of The Time Machine was released on dvd which has a special feature consisting of an all new scene filmed with Rod Taylor and Alan Young which forms an epilogue to the George Pal film. In it the Time Traveler returns, meets with his old friend Philby and they talk about what happened when the Time Traveler returned to the future, and he warns Philby about a day in World War Two where he'll be killed if he doesn't avoid a certain event. It's quite touching actually and is sort of the sequel we never got to see.

No title.

Chuck Messer — Tue, 02 Mar 10 07:57:32 -0500

Rod Taylor played Churchill in INGLORIOUS BASTERDS. Yep, he's still around.

Chuck

And a little more Rod Taylor

Tony Rabig — Tue, 02 Mar 10 05:42:49 -0500

The movie doesn't get much play, but if you get a chance, check out The Deadly Trackers, a western Taylor did with Richard Harris in the early 70s. Taylor's the heavy in that one, and as loathsome a character as you'd ever want (or not want) to meet. If memory serves, Maltin and some other places give it a "bomb" rating, but don't let that stop you. (Kinda liked the flick myself.)

And Taylor once played John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee. Movie was Darker Than Amber -- don't think it's ever been released uncut on VHS, it's never been on DVD, and I can't recall ever seeing it on a television schedule. But in that movie is one of the more brutal fight scenes ever, between Taylor and bad-guy William Smith...

No. Stunt. Doubles.

Google "Rod Taylor" "William Smith" "fight" and check it out. Smith's site had a long interview with him and there was a lot of info on that sequence.

To me, though, Taylor's always gonna be the time traveler.

And about that "was" stuff, Rob -- I think Taylor's still here, or have you heard something we haven't?

Bests to all,

--tr

This One May Be Hard to Top

Jeff R. — Tue, 02 Mar 10 04:15:38 -0500

I once spent an hour on the telephone calming down someone who was having laser surgery on her eyes the next morning. When I called her the next evening, to ask her how everything turned out, she screamed at me that I was bothering her too soon after the last time that I talked to her.

Top that if you can.

Sincerity in a world of scams

Semi-Writer — Tue, 02 Mar 10 01:10:29 -0500

Scams in book form. Dandy.

Speaking of which, you would not goddamned BELIEVE how many scams there are going on through the want ads! It's bad enough that legit jobs are a thing of the past to begin with, but then you've got the spammers 'n scammers out there working their magic. About one out of every three ads out there is (allegedly) for a "sales person" or a telemarketer, and a disturbing number of ads are also directing users towards bogus websites which are designed to loop you into their company and/or steal your information. This is both a bad thing when it comes to protecting one's individual's personal security and another hurdle for the desperate job hunter (me).

Now, I'm cynical and have some serious trust issues--to the point where I've never even had a boyfriend. I simply can't or won't let someone into my heart, or my body, or my life, like that. Running into so many roadblocks in the process of job-hunting is NOT helping my particular complex towards people. But some things DO reassure me in humanity's sincereity, like some of the people I've met here in Harlan's world. Now, I went into the story of what happened on Sunday (Purim) in depth on my blog, but let me just sum up that event here by saying this: on Sunday, someone took a leap of faith based on their religious views and helped me out with a Purim gift, not knowing that I'd studied Judaism, come very close to conversion, and could appreciate their mitzvah in full as a result. I then took 10% of their generosity and directed it back towards the organization, Judaism By Choice, that taught me to understand Judaism to begin with.

Those of us in the world with pure, noble intentions will always find and help each other, and then we must pass on our good fortunes when we have the chance. It is both an obligation and an honor to do what you can for your fellow man. On Sunday, I was fortunate enough to pass that blessing on right away thanks to that initial expression of generosity.

I don't have hardly anything of my own, but I do frequently donate to organizations like Out of the Closet and Goodwill--people leave things curbside in L.A., and I'll scoop them up, clean them up and donate them on a regular basis rather than see them go in the trash. Might not be much, but I make the effort. Those items are then sold at a profit to support community programs. Everyone wins.

No title.

Rob — Mon, 01 Mar 10 23:57:54 -0500

TOUT TIME AND TEA

Y'know...Rod Taylor was a VERY good and charismatic actor!

I just ran 3 old movies: 36 Hours (the whole thing BRILLIANTLY dominated by both Taylor and James Garner), Fate Is The Hunter (with Glenn Ford), and Dark Side Of The Sun (a favorite of Marty Scorcese's)...

This guy could do comedy and drama with equal flair and intensity, while continually tempering machismo with an engaging introspective intelligence. He had lots of range; I found myself believing every line and gesture. A consistently fun actor to watch.

No title.

shagin — Mon, 01 Mar 10 21:01:51 -0500

Believe me when I recommend that you shop Home Depot if you have any construction, gardening, remodeling, or home care needs. The company has done my brother a solid, for all that he is a blathering drunk planted in my living room when I would much rather he find where ever he's been sleeping in the woods and pass out.

A mixed blessing of a night. This is good, right?

Sandra

TCM

Dennis C — Mon, 01 Mar 10 19:39:41 -0500

Not only is TCM showing THE OSCAR but it's also showing tons of rare Kurosawa! On March 9th, such tasty treats as IKIRU, THRONE OF BLOOD, HAKUCHI, THE LOWER DEPTHS and more.
On the 16th, THE BAD SLEEP WELL, HIGH AND LOW, RED BEARD, I LIVE IN FEAR, SCANDAL
On the 23rd, SANSHIRO SUGATA, THE MOST BEAUTIFUL, THE MEN WHO TREAD ON THE TIGER'S TAIL, NO REGRETS FOR OUR YOUTH, ONE WONDERFUL SUNDAY, DRUNKEN ANGEL, STRAY DOG, RASHOMON, SEVEN SAMURAI, YOJIMBO, SANJURO, DODES'KA-DEN..

How will I find the time to watch all those...?

P. S.

HARLAN ELLISON — Mon, 01 Mar 10 19:31:24 -0500

Ignore everything after "Selah."

Deleted line jumped back up from who-knows-where.

-he

STEVE PERRY & THE TURNIP TRUCK

HARLAN ELLISON — Mon, 01 Mar 10 19:27:12 -0500

...since neither of us has recently fallen off same, I shouldn't have to vouchsafe this gardyloo, but for those among you who are not as USUALLY savvy as Perry, who may have received one of these Letters Imposing On Your Good Nature and Privacy, kindly note as follows:

There is a book self-published (originally a guy in the UK) and its title is HOW TO GET MONEY OUT OF RICH PEOPLE, and it is as morally corrupt and mendacious as its title suggest.

BUT...beyond that...and this is true, s'help me...you can check it out...

The scam-artist "author" then provides a list of "rich" people, and their addresses. Now, if you want to ascertain just how bald is this con...fuggit folks, MY MY MY MY name is on that list, and I'm about as fuckin' blue-collar as you can get. Rich? Yeah, if you also believe beans are magic, and we are in reality the clone-children of Alien Gods whose names always begin with "X." Or "Z." Once in a while, "Q."

And here, Steve Perry, and anyone else not a whitling, here's the DEAD GIVEAWAY of these pseudo-boohoo pleas, by way of spam E.Mail Nigerian Bank Account 3-card monte grifts:

The purveyor of this overpriced volume even gives them a SAMPLE LETTER to use on dimwitted yokels! And the first one or two lines ALWAYS

ALWAYS
ALWAYS
ALWAYS

contain the following (either copied EXACTLY or varied very very little, because you already had to be a "mark" to buy the fuckin' book, so the IQ level of the schmuck who got taken in the first place, is way

LO)

"Dear Mr./Miss Whoever,

I have learned that you sometimes help people who are less fortunate than yourself..."

THOSE EXACT words or minor variables ON those words, will precede the outlining of their (or their blind child's) malaise, the outline of their dream to (create a charity, open a macrobiotic bakery, start a wickerworks furniture factory in Middlesex) and on and on and on and...

99 times out of 100, Steve (and all the rest of you)

THIS IS NOTHING BUT A SELFISH SCAM!

They will ooze worship to succor your shriveled little auctorial egos, and they will get SOMETHING FOR NOTHING. The same goes for bookplates without your books attached. They will get your scrawl, slap the 10cent bookplate in, and sell it on e.bay as a signed edition!

Look, folks, I am way past giving a shit if total strangers on the internet think I'm a mean, bad guy. Fuck'm.

But I do worry for some of YOU, who are goodhearted hicks with a naivete the size of a silo. Kick me for being a meanie, if you choose, but DO LISTEN to an old con-man who has been there, done all that, sold "gold bricks," shilled for tips on the street and in the carny, who has bamboozled and conned his way to the age of 75, and who can sniff a grifter a continent away.

"I Understand you take pleasure in helping those who are less fortunate than yourself..."

Geeeezus, Perry!! From YOU???? I expected cleverer.

With irrefrangible faith in the Second Coming, any minute now, I remain, Yr. Pal, Harlan.

Selah.

He then not only gives the poor suckers who have laid out a SUBSTANTIAL PRICE to buy this ream of horse

Dear Mr. Steve Perry:

Sara Slaymaker — Mon, 01 Mar 10 18:41:52 -0500

I've never read any of your work but I'd really like to, so would you mind autographing copies of your entire body of work and shipping them to me? Oh, and please pay the shipping costs as I can't afford it, because I have Whipitis Mistressmentosa, which causes me to spend all of my money on Dominatrix websites.

Gotta love those people. Can't live with them - can't cut them into tiny pieces and feed them to your ferrets.

No title.

Graham Rae — Mon, 01 Mar 10 18:35:16 -0500

Dear Mr. Harry Ellyson,

I'm a great fan of your work, but I suffer from leprosy. I can't afford to buy your books, nor even get out to the library, what with the communicable aspects of Hansen's Disease (the man told me he wasn't happy to have a disease like ours named after him) but I wanted to tell you how reading your work saved me from suicide...

I wonder if you could send me some books. I am a cheapskate, and my body is rotting (and yeah, my fave joke is 'What did the leper say to the prostitute? Keep the tip.' Hilarious. I don't think), and the dense visceral joy jolt provided by some gratis literature received from your good self would be more than I could articulate. "O would that I could afford to buy your books!" And if you don't ship me any free books you are worthless scum who could frighten the wrinkles out of a mule's ass on par with Dick Cheney's continued existence.

Why can't you get decent haggis in America?

(Deep sigh)

I know you may feel cynical that I have leprosy, because that's what you writers are, professional cynics, but watch Papillon with Steve McQueen and you will see the story of my life. Had I lived on an island, as I seem to recall the film was set on. Only a hard-hearted harridan could fail to be moved by my ploy. Please send books or cash. Or invest with my Nigerian banker Mr. Zalowonge. He will definitely not steer you wrong.

Yours sincerely and with great faith in your capitulation to my emotional blackmail,

Graham Rae.

reply to Steve Perry

Stephen — Mon, 01 Mar 10 16:42:51 -0500

for my namesake's benefit: go buy a copy of _The Essential Ellison_ from the Kilimanjaro Corp and commit the essay "Xenogenesis" to memory. Then buy another 10 copies and beat yourself about the head and neck with them the next time you feel guilty about being asked to work for free. Because that's what you're really talking about. Ignore the parts about warm vomit and whatnot, but pay attention when they mention that NO ONE ever calls back to tell you that they were all right and made it to a better place in their lives after dumping on you with their suicidal thoughts.

There are other essays, of course, that deal with the subject at hand. But HE's is the stuff, even 15+ years on.

A Rememberance

Lori Koonce — Mon, 01 Mar 10 16:30:05 -0500

Uncle Harlan

Feel free to pass this on to the Koenig family if you like. I just thought it may make you feel a tiny bit better.

Twice Andrew Koenig brought joy to my life. The first time was when he played Robert "Boner" Staboni on Growing Pains. I didn't realize he was the person who had that role from all the pictures I had seen of him, with long hair and all. But, while poking around the internet to answer a question, I found a picture of him with shorter hair. I remembered shout mumbling "BONER" when I saw it. I started watching Growing Pains because my parents watched it. I continued watching it because the character Andrew played gave my a little hope. I was a lot like Boner at that point in time, and it was nice to know that prehaps I could end up like he did.

And of course the second time was on my hands and knees in the Dublin (CA) Public Library when I found a copy of Shatterday and the wonderful story Jeffty Is Five.

Contacting Jeff Stafford at TCM.COM

Doctor Zombie — Mon, 01 Mar 10 15:41:02 -0500

Apparently Jeff Stafford goes by the handle of "morlockjeff" on TCM's movie blog "www.moviemorlocks.com".

His personal page there is at this address:

http://moviemorlocks.com/author/morlockjeff/

If you click on one of his titled movie reviews at the above address, and scroll to the bottom of the review, there is a "comments" section where you can leave a comment for Jeff Stafford.

I have taken the liberty of posting such a comment, a "heads up" that Harlan Ellson wants to talk with him, along with directions for Jeff Stafford to come here and reach Harlan directly, should he wish.

Hope this helps.

Doc. Z.

No title.

Robert Morales — Mon, 01 Mar 10 15:21:21 -0500

Frank, don't sweat it. Just emailed Stafford and talked to Harlan.

Cheers.

No title.

Frank Church — Mon, 01 Mar 10 15:01:48 -0500

I tried Harlan. Stafford doesn't seem to have any contact info.

No Greater Love Has A Parent...

shagin — Mon, 01 Mar 10 14:52:22 -0500

...than listening to a forty minute explanation of a child's favorite interest, understanding less than half of what is said.

But it's important to YJ, so it's important to me.

*eyes crossed*
shagin

Curious

Steve Perry — Mon, 01 Mar 10 14:21:55 -0500

There are a fair number of writers who drop round here, and I'm curious to see if y'all are prey to this kind of thing. (Another list to which I post has already drawn some responses and I find it fascinating.)

To wit: Now and then I get something like this in my email inbox:

"Dear Mr. Perry,

I'm a great fan of your work, but I suffer from (some horrible, debilitating, often fatal illness.) I can't afford to buy your books, nor even get out to the library, but I wanted to tell you how reading your work saved me from suicide ... "

This is usually followed by a request for books, an autographed something or the other, or just a deep sigh and "O would that I could afford to buy your books!" and the implication that only a mean-spirited son-of-a-bitch could read this and not hurry to ship a copy of everything he'd ever written to the shut-in.

I got another one today, the disease being osteogenesis imperfecta. It's a real disease, but I'm not feeling convinced that the email writer has it ...

Here's a link to my blog where I discussed it in a post:

http://themanwhonevermissed.blogspot.com/2010/03/between-lines.html

Perry

JAN IN THE EU, and ANYBODY ELSE

HARLAN ELLISON — Mon, 01 Mar 10 14:09:29 -0500

Jan posted a referral to the Turner Classic Movie (TCM) site. To a new review of "The Oscar" by JEFF STAFFORD. You know how feckless are my e.abilities to reach such a person; to thank him; but if one of you could either get me a phone number, or let him know how to get to me...well, the usual shamefaced, fumbling, primordially dial-up gratitude will be forthcoming.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

The Free-Appropriation Writer

Andrew Laubacher — Mon, 01 Mar 10 12:41:47 -0500

So, David Shields claims that REALITY HUNGER is the most personal book he's ever written? Balderdash! Maybe he should actually try writing an entire book instead of cribbing off of his betters.

John Twelve Hawks

Jeff R. — Mon, 01 Mar 10 09:44:40 -0500

Dennis C.: I've read the first of the "Fourth Realm" books and own the second; I'd characterize it as a combination of contemporary conspiracy/paranoia and Tibetan Buddhism. The Harlequins struck me as more like ninjas than anything else and the whole did not seem particularly derivative of anything our host has produced. JXIIH, whoever he is, is no prose stylist. Two of the main characters are named Michael and Gabriel and you can't get much more obvious than that, but he knows something about writing a thriller.

No title.

Rob — Sun, 28 Feb 10 12:47:09 -0500

The ever-humbling constant variable:

As our sun burns its hydrogen in its core and gets hotter the earth will become more like Venus in 2 billion years from now.

What will our descendants be by then? WHERE ever our species re-locates, we will be something completely different from what we are today.

Trying to imagine a human being 2 billion years from now absolutely shatters the brain case!

Once we try to step outside the constraints of our fleeting subjective realities, we begin to sense a big joke nature has played on us. Most of us glance at the stars perceiving those points of light in real time, oblivious to the fact that the TRUE universe lies in a far different position. This speaks metaphorically to our own delusions.

In the words of H.G. Wells:

Rest enough for the individual man, too much and too soon, and we call it death. But for man, no rest and no ending. He must go on, conquest beyond conquest. First this little planet and all its winds and ways, and then all the laws of mind and matter that restrain him. Then the planets about him, and, at last, out across immensities to the stars....

And when he has conquered all the deep space, and all the mysteries of time, still he will be beginning.

No title.

Graham Rae — Sun, 28 Feb 10 11:43:42 -0500

Sorry to hear about your friend Andrew Koenig, Harlan. Suicide hits us all hard. Had a cousin who committed suicide at 21; got a short story out of it, and a non-cynical one at that. A terrible shame that a young man decided he couldn't take life anymore, in the case of both Andrew and Jim Smith, my cousin.

Life. It's a beauty and a bitch. What else can you say?

G.

John Twelve Hawks

Dennis C — Sun, 28 Feb 10 10:27:39 -0500

Don't know if this was discussed here before -- perhaps before my time in the Pavilion.

Just read that the writer John Twelve Hawks has sold his Fourth Realm Trilogy to be made into a feature film or films.
I haven't read them -- and apparently this is a pseudonym because the reclusive writer is 'off the grid' as the article says.

But in summarizing the plot, they say that in the future, a secret organization controls the world via constant observation. Trying to rebel against these constraints are a group called the Travelers and their protectors, the Harlequins.

Hmmm. A future where an all-seeing tyrant controls the population and is defied by the Harlequin... sound familiar?

Has this Twelve Hawks ever said that Harlan's classic story was an influence? Has anyone here read the books?

Can anyone enlighten me about this?

No title.

Mary — Sun, 28 Feb 10 09:55:53 -0500

In response to that New York article...I have but one thing to ask that plagarist...

Remixing or just plain laziness on your part?

If you can't write something that is uniquely your own, then please don't sit down in front of a laptop and type out that garbage. I would like to hear what YOU think, not what everyone else has already written.

"Remixing"...(insert derisive snort here)my sweet aunt!

No title.

Michael Rapoport — Sun, 28 Feb 10 07:46:35 -0500

An article on the literary plagiarist's new excuse: It's just "remixing."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/weekinreview/28kennedy.html?ref=weekinreview

No title.

roberta tennant — Sun, 28 Feb 10 05:54:40 -0500

This quote from the Wikipedia page for Andrew Koenig:

Writer Harlan Ellison spoke of the young Andrew by his given first name of Josh as being the inspiration for his story "Jeffty Is Five."

...I had been awed and delighted by Josh Koenig, and I instantly thought of just such a child who was arrested in time at the age of five. Jeffty, in no small measure, is Josh: the sweetness of Josh, the intelligence of Josh, the questioning nature of Josh."

In Peace...and Remembrance of Andrew...

Roger Ebert

John Q. — Sun, 28 Feb 10 04:42:13 -0500

Roger & his wife Chaz are set
to appear Tuesday on Oprah show:

oprah.com/oprah_show.html

(click the Tuesday button on
the right and there he is!)

New links

Jan — Sun, 28 Feb 10 04:40:44 -0500

First, my condolences to the Koenig family and their friends.
The memorial website with guestbook, Andrew's Burma Photographic Journal etc.: www.walterkoenigsite.com

---

Stephen Jones' Mammoth Book of the Best of Best New Horror out April 12. "...includes the best of the annual anthologies, including international selections, an impressively researched necrology, and a list of indispensable contact addresses for the dedicated fan and aspiring writer of true horror."
www.amazon.com/Mammoth-Book-Best-New-Horror/dp/076243841X/
Included: Mefisto in Onyx as best story from 1993 volume.

Publishing's Grumpy Old Visionaries - An interview with Harlan's agent and E-Reads founder Richard Curtis and Random House editorial director Jason Epstein about the future of publishing.
www.ereads.com/excerpts/2010/02/publishings-grumpy-old-visionaries.html

Josh Becker, director and writer of The Complete Guide to Low-Budget Feature Filmmaking, said: "Oh, I did see "Dreams With Sharp Teeth" and totally enjoyed it." (from Q&A section, www.beckerfilms.com/post.html)

Like Harlan, Kurt Vonnegut was also filmed, pestered and followed around for many years, and the resulting documentary will be called Kurt Vonnegut: American Made.
www.duckprods.com/projects/vonnegut/index.html
Clearly a difficult labor-of-love project - I hope Harlan or Erik have been or will find time to get in touch with the director whose website that is, or vice versa. (Robert Weide; saw his work on Curb Your Enthusiasm.)

The Oscar on TCM Sunday, March 7,2010 8:00 PM - Jeff Stafford wrote a new article.
www.tcm.com/thismonth/article/?cid=290138

Boston Globe review of DANGEROUSLY FUNNY: The Uncensored Story of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour by David Bianculli
http://tinyurl.com/y9z7q88
(Also see the current American Public Television documentary special, Smothered: The Censorship Struggles of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.)

Did we know this? "What was the book that most influenced your life or your career as a writer?"
Gaiman: "Probably Harlan Ellison's Shatterday (1980). It's a collection of Ellison's short stories, as powerful as any good Ellison collection, and I read it on a plane trip on very bad day in 1982, and Harlan's commentary in one of his introductions to stories -- on doing things, on being a writer and not just thinking you were a writer, on using the time you have -- did more to turn the almost-22-year-old me into the writer I would one day become than anything else. I got off the plane determined to be a writer." (From Barnes&Noble Meet the Writer, 2005)

Spanish retrospective on Visiones Peligrosas - http://tinyurl.com/yfx464f

Legal commentary regarding the "publishing package problem", using Deathbird Stories as an example (this was written by Harlan's former lead counsel)
http://scrivenerserror.blogspot.com/2010/02/a221p.html

He also has a link to the SFWA page about writers rights which has improved considerably:
www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/

No title.

Chuck Messer — Sun, 28 Feb 10 02:53:39 -0500

So much sadness going around these days.

Harlan, I thought I'd let you know about an aquaintence of yours who is giving death the finger. Roger Ebert has his voice back. It's not his original voice, but a synthesized voice put together by a scottish firm (yay, Scotland!) which sounds like Mr. Ebert's. Looks like he plans to stick around a while. I thought you'd like to know.

And now, something different. Minas Tirith done in matchsticks. Prepare to be amazed. It's a work of art:

http://www.matchstickmarvels.com/MinasTirith.htm

Chuck

For Unca' Harlan: Watch Me!

Gwyneth Guest (M905) — Sat, 27 Feb 10 21:38:36 -0500

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jC2kryuf0U

Unca' Harlan and Susan - gentle hugs for you and to share.

GG

No title.

Sara Slaymaker — Sat, 27 Feb 10 20:33:00 -0500

Harlan & Susan, I've been thinking about you a great deal the past few days. I don't know the Koenigs and so can only offer heartfelt condolences from yet another faceless stranger, but for you, who have always been an unwitting bulwark of strength and sanity for me for so long, I offer the same in return. Feel free to draw as much strength and sanity - and love - from me as I can send your way.

I sent this to a friend a couple of days ago, and with her understanding, I will re-post it, because I think it needs to be said, especially to those of you who do suffer from depression.

While I don't suffer from depression myself (and god only knows how I managed to dodge that bullet), my daughter Jessie does, and she did try to kill herself a few years ago.

There are no words to describe the terror and helplessness you feel when you realize that this person that you love so much, that you live and breathe every day, cannot hear you, is not going to listen to you no matter what you say, and has entered a tunnel down which you cannot follow. I have always contended that suicide is the most selfish act a person can commit - Jessie refutes that and says it's the most selfless thing a person can do. She understands why I feel that way, but doesn't agree - I can't fathom her point of view.

I bless every day the fact that she did not succeed, and worry, constantly, that she will try again someday - despite her assurances that she is beyond that. I don't believe I will ever be beyond it.

Please think about this the next time you find yourself at the mouth of that tunnel. We love you. We don't want you to go.

No title.

Andrew J. Wilson — Sat, 27 Feb 10 19:10:40 -0500

As someone who, sadly, knows all too well about the curse of depression, let me remind everyone who frequents Unca Halan's Board: depression is rage turned inwards.

There are many things in this world to be depressed about; there are an equal number of things to rage against.

Recently, I was in a very dark place -- with good reason -- but I found one last splinter of kryptonite in my soul and began to "flyte", as we say in Scotland. Swear words were everywhere. My wife smiled and said, "It's good to have you back!"

It might not be pretty, but it's necessary.

Don't. Let. The. BASTARDS. Grind. You. Down.

I'd conclude by saying "peace", but that's too sixties and too hippy for my taste...

Put on the Ramones instead, and work out how to take AM offline for once and for all.

Good night and good luck.

No title.

Mary — Sat, 27 Feb 10 18:15:29 -0500

It's been a bit heavy in the news lately...so much is being focused on those who have passed...while I've no wish to diminish their loss, I'd like to pass this along to those of us still around...

Walls for the wind,
And a roof for the rain,
And drinks beside the fire -
Laughter to cheer you
And those you love near you,
And all that your heart may desire!

The Irish always know how to say it best.

andrew koenig's passing

michael maguire — Sat, 27 Feb 10 17:50:35 -0500

Harlan and Susan,
Ten months ago, on his 27th birthday, our baby boy took enough pills to sleep forever. No parent should ever have to bury their child. I have no words of wisdom for the Koenigs, only the offer of hope, with time and friends, that you will make it through the pain. At least like my son, they can be sure he is no longer in pain. Michael

Another tragic loss

Roberta Tennant — Sat, 27 Feb 10 16:08:54 -0500

Seen on the Net: Osmond family members have notified ET that Marie Osmond's teenaged son Michael Blosil leapt to his death Friday night in Los Angeles.

Michael, who was in his late teens and is one of Marie's eight children, died after jumping from his downtown Los Angeles apartment at about 9 p.m. on Friday night. He left a note explaining he intended to commit suicide due to his life-long battle with severe depression that left him, he said, feeling as if he had no friends and could never fit in.

We're told that his mother Marie, who helped him fight the condition throughout his life, is devastated by the loss. Donny and Marie's Las Vegas show has been canceled tonight.

Something is terribly wrong with this world....

Condolences

James Moran & Jodie Kearns — Sat, 27 Feb 10 14:41:44 -0500

Just heard the sad news - our heart goes out to the Koenigs, Harlan and Susan. Thinking of you all.

James & Jodie

No title.

Ben Winfield — Sat, 27 Feb 10 13:22:23 -0500

I`m afraid I'm going to have to channel something similar to Cordelia's reply when first asked by King Lear to articulate her love for her father, as far as Andrew Koenig goes.

R.I.P.

THANK YOU

HARLAN ELLISON — Sat, 27 Feb 10 12:39:22 -0500

You are good and kind people, all of you, and I smile wanly back into your dear faces.

Harlan

To the Ellisons and Koenigs...

Laurie — Fri, 26 Feb 10 17:45:03 -0500

Thank you to Mr. Guthrie, wherever he is, for the beautiful poem.

Nothing I can say will make anything better, I know. But I wanted to extend my sympathies at such a tragic and untimely loss.

Laurie

No title.

Chuck Messer — Fri, 26 Feb 10 16:50:22 -0500

The only thing I can think of is to pass on a poem from a friend of mine who passed away recently. I think it's one of his best and speaks to all who have felt the wings of the deathbird brush their faces.

nothing ever dies

the stars continue on
until their time must herald darkness
and the cycle must repeat
in the blinding blaze of everything
again, and galaxies
must be reborn
to every sun
and versions of the earth

and the wise void sings

nothing ever dies
because love and energy
are constants ,
rules we have yet to know,
and the dance begins anew
athwart the seeming passage into midnight's maze,
the lightlesss labyrinth. the glowing
gate that opens to the endless road
of alternity
for we are all immortal

nothing ever truly dies

the journey stretches on before us,
the destination not what matters,
but the act of faith called walking
as we leave the sullen world
to take our place among triple suns
and iridescent nebulae

while the arrow rushes forward
and time's globe circles
and enfolds us ,
a refreshed womb
begun before the first quickening
of brilliant life
and ceaseless time

and the bright void sings us into being
for we are not, and will never be,
alone.......

Willam R. Guthrie (18 december, 10:53---11:14 a.m.)......

More condolences

Dennis C — Fri, 26 Feb 10 15:40:05 -0500

I can't say more about the tragedy of Andrew.

I did want to say that ten years ago, a friend of ours committed suicide. She'd actually euthanized her cats and was kind of on the road doing a final 'see the country' trip. No one knew what to do about her or what she was going to do.

That's when I had kidney cancer and after surgery couldn't do much around the house. So she heard about it and came and helped me and my wife -- walking the dog, whatever we needed.

We invited her over for Halloween dinner and we played games. That was the last night of her life. She chose to spend it with us. She also left us with a suitcase full of notes for her family and friends. (She didn't kill herself on our premises but at a local hotel.)

We were angry at first. But then I realized that in her pain, she'd blessed us by sharing her final night with us. I console myself with that.

Just felt like sharing that.

No title.

Randy Johnson — Fri, 26 Feb 10 13:41:07 -0500

Condolences to the Koenigs, as well as Susan and you.

No title.

Alex Schor — Fri, 26 Feb 10 12:32:39 -0500

Dear Harlan and Susan,

My deepest, deepest sympathies to you and the Koenigs. I am so sorry.

Alex

No title.

Tony Isabella — Fri, 26 Feb 10 12:03:11 -0500

Damn.

My condolences to the Koenigs and the Ellisons.

Tony

No title.

Frank Church — Fri, 26 Feb 10 11:59:30 -0500

Why God, why?

oh no.

No title.

Duane — Fri, 26 Feb 10 11:53:05 -0500

I'm so sorry to hear about the Koenig family's loss.

I had a close friend who was bipolar; unfortunately he took his own life ten years ago, and I still miss him to this day.

There is so much work to be done to better understand how to help and treat those with this debilitating illness.

Andrew Koenig

Andrew Laubacher — Fri, 26 Feb 10 11:24:20 -0500

My heart goes out to Andrew Koenig's family and friends. Any untimely death is tragic and diminishes us all.

Andrew Koenig

Jon C. Manzo — Fri, 26 Feb 10 10:30:13 -0500

My condolences to the Koenigs and to you and Susan at this time. I never met Andrew, but if he was anything at all like his father, I'm sure he was a mensch.

Jon C. Manzo

Andrew K

Michael Mayhew — Fri, 26 Feb 10 10:02:48 -0500

H - condolences to you, Susan and the Koenigs.

I don't know what else to say, except that I am awfully sad and sorry about the loss of a man who sounds like he was very decent, and the pain that's left behind for those who loved him.

MM

No title.

Diane Bartels — Fri, 26 Feb 10 09:51:10 -0500

I am so sorry. My deepest sympathy to you and Susan and Andrew's family. Diane

Andrew

Wade — Fri, 26 Feb 10 09:22:08 -0500

I just heard about Andrew this morning. What can I say that hasn't already been said - sorry can't cover it. Be strong.

Wade

Andrew Koenig

Iain Aitken — Fri, 26 Feb 10 08:14:44 -0500

All I can say is that this is an awful thing to happen to anyone.

Its a terrible loss of a young man, a deeply sad event.

I feel so sorry for the whole family and their friends.

Harlan & Susan

Paul Michael Barkan — Fri, 26 Feb 10 07:35:36 -0500

My heartfelt sympathies to you and the Koenigs. Very sad...

No title.

Gwyneth Guest (M905) — Fri, 26 Feb 10 07:33:28 -0500

Dear Harlan and Susan,

Please accept and pass along to Mr. and Mrs. Koenig my deepest sympathy. Please let them know how much all of us, their friends and fans, love them and want to support them through this time. Please let Andrew's Mom and Dad know that they did everything they could possibly do to help Andrew.

For everyone here, remember what Mr. Koenig said in the press conference: when you or someone you love is exhibiting these signs, reach out to them, intervene for them.

With sincere condolences,

Gwyneth

No title.

Ray Carlson — Fri, 26 Feb 10 07:15:13 -0500

Unca Harlan & Susan,

I am so very, very, sorry. I was floored when I heard the news last night. My heart goes out to the Koenigs.

No title.

Barney Dannelke — Fri, 26 Feb 10 06:56:44 -0500

My sincere and heartfelt condolences to the Koenigs. And to you and Susan as well. - Barney

No title.

Paul — Fri, 26 Feb 10 05:55:14 -0500

My deepest commiseration to you, Harlan and Susan, and to the Keonigs on the loss of their son, Andrew.

Courage.

No title.

Joe Walker — Fri, 26 Feb 10 05:16:36 -0500

My sincere condolences to the Koenigs and everyone else who will be devastated by this. There are no real words for some things.

Andrew Koenig

Alex Krislov — Fri, 26 Feb 10 04:44:43 -0500

Harlan, Susan, my condolences. I never met Andrew, but from what you and David G say, that was my loss.

Harlan, Susan, Mr. and Mrs. Koenig:

Jeff R. — Fri, 26 Feb 10 03:24:35 -0500

Very, very sorry. Honestly don't know what else to say...

No title.

David Jessup — Fri, 26 Feb 10 02:45:15 -0500

With hope that chill winds will in time be replaced by warm memories.

Our condolences to all who were, and will be, touched by this young man's life.

No title.

Rob — Fri, 26 Feb 10 02:21:57 -0500

Just saw this news about Walter Koenig's son. It's hard to imagine the terrible wrench when this happens (I still remember Bill Cosby's tragic loss). My genuine condolences!

No title.

drdespicable — Fri, 26 Feb 10 00:08:23 -0500

My heartfelt condolences to the Keonigs and their friends.

No title.

W. Owen Powell — Thu, 25 Feb 10 22:50:10 -0500

My deepest and most sincere condolences to Walter and Judy, to Harlan and to everyone else who knew Andrew.

Perspective

Steve Perry — Thu, 25 Feb 10 22:02:13 -0500

Sorry, Harlan. I know that doesn't cover it, it's what I can offer. So sorry.

Perry

No title.

Brian Siano — Thu, 25 Feb 10 22:00:57 -0500

I'm sorry to hear about Andrew Koenig. It's even sadder when I remember that he was part of the inspiration for "Jeffty is Five." It's terrible to witness the end of a life you've seen from the beginning, and my deepest condolences to his family and friends.

No title.

Dennis Thompson — Thu, 25 Feb 10 21:56:24 -0500

My deepest sympathy for all of Andrew Koenig's family and friends.
A sad day, I also got the terrible news that someone who would not be known to anyone here, who was somewhat of a childhood hero to me passed. Too young, both of them.

Oh, no. ;(

Kristin Ruhle — Thu, 25 Feb 10 21:07:11 -0500

I have Yahoo as my homepage, and saw the top story.

I'm so sorry.

Kristin

Oh, no. ;(

Kristin Ruhle — Thu, 25 Feb 10 21:07:09 -0500

I have Yahoo as my homepage, and saw the top story.

I'm so sorry.

Kristin

No title.

Mary — Thu, 25 Feb 10 20:53:15 -0500

I can't even begin to imagine what the Koenig family is going through tonight, but my thoughts are with them.

My condolences to them and to you, Harlan.

I have a son

James Levy — Thu, 25 Feb 10 20:20:02 -0500

That's the only thing that comes to mind right now. And the terror of dimly imagining what the Koenig's must be going through.

I've been sitting for 10 minutes waiting to write the next line. All I can think of is, "take care, Webderlanders."

For Another Time

Adam-Troy Castro — Thu, 25 Feb 10 20:07:06 -0500

(Adam) I would reply to Steve Perry, now, on the subject of Roy Horn's injury -- I know from speaking to one of the investigators that the circumstances were very different from what has been publicly and sensationally reported, and do not reflect at all poorly on the tiger's relationship with Roy -- but that discussion will have to wait until another time, as will my other thoughts on the handling of animals. All other conversations must suffer an intermission, right now; let's just call this a placekeeper.

(From Judi and Adam) Harlan, we are deeply saddened by this loss of a young man we've never met, who found himself in a dark place and did not know how many were trying to shine a light on the darkness he thought he saw. Our deepest condolences to you for the loss of this special person you knew since his childhood, and to the Koenig family for the empty place Andrew left behind. There are no sufficient words.

Really at a loss for words, so I'll just repost this bit

Josh N — Thu, 25 Feb 10 19:55:41 -0500

Before you make that final, final decision, check it out again. Talk to somebody. And for families who have somebody who they fear are susceptible to this kind of behaviour, dont ignore it, dont rationalize it. Extend a hand.~ Walter, the other day (or today)

Canada

Claire — Thu, 25 Feb 10 19:54:59 -0500

Hi Harlan.
I have never posted anything on here before, but I just heard the tragic news about Andrew Koenig, and I feel compelled to say a few words, even though I am not particularly eloquent.
I did not know Andrew, and I do not know Walter or Judy or Danielle, but I do know how much he was loved by his wonderful family, and by you and Susan.
I do not presume to imagine that condolences from a perfect stranger are going to make the pain of this awful tragedy any easier to bear, but I feel tremendous sadness for Andrew, and for everyone who knew him and loved him, and I just wanted to tell you how genuinely and profoundly sorry I am for your terrible loss.
You and Susan, and the Koenig family have my heartfelt sympathies, and you are all in my thoughts tonight.
Claire.

No title.

Michael Rapoport — Thu, 25 Feb 10 19:05:12 -0500

My deepest condolences and sympathy to the Koenigs, and to you, Harlan.

Harlan and Susan

John Zeock — Thu, 25 Feb 10 19:03:41 -0500

So sorry

Andrew Koenig

J. Hitchcock — Thu, 25 Feb 10 18:46:00 -0500

When I posted the notice from the Walter Koenig site about this, I hoped that this would turn out okay. It didnt work out that way.

To Quote the late Matt Price "No pithy punchline, just the obvious observation - life is fragile, hug your loved ones"

Deepest Sympathys to his Friends & Family

Best to All

No title.

Charlie — Thu, 25 Feb 10 18:38:37 -0500

My heartfelt condolences to his friends and family...very sad...very tragic.

No title.

Cindy — Thu, 25 Feb 10 18:35:58 -0500

Oh God, Harlan,
I am so sorry.
The poor kid. The poor, poor kid.
His sweet parents-- it's just heartbreaking.

Cindy

No title.

Jim Thomas — Thu, 25 Feb 10 18:30:49 -0500

Oh, God, that's terrible.

Harlan, Susan, my thoughts and condolences are with the Koenigs and with you.

JOSH KOENIG (ANDREW)

HARLAN ELLISON — Thu, 25 Feb 10 18:28:48 -0500

He was a remarkable child. Not just "a good kid," he was a
remarkable, remarkable person. If you'd known him...

Harlan Ellison

No title.

Andrew F — Thu, 25 Feb 10 18:17:27 -0500

My most sincere condolences to the Koenigs and all of their friends.

No title.

FInderDoug — Thu, 25 Feb 10 18:12:58 -0500

My most heartfelt condolences to the Koenigs, and to you, Harlan and Susan, for your loss.

No title.

Kris Nelson — Thu, 25 Feb 10 18:11:21 -0500

Deepest condolences to all on the Koenig's loss...

No title.

Dennis C — Thu, 25 Feb 10 18:05:52 -0500

Very, very sorry to hear the news about Andrew. I also hate that Walter and his wife had to go on camera and show their pain. They should have been spared that, but then they would have been hounded by the TMZ's of the world until they said something. Sad state of the world. And nothing sadder than a parent having to bury a child.

No title.

Mark Goldberg — Thu, 25 Feb 10 18:04:32 -0500

Harlan & Susan, my deepest condolences.

Mark

No title.

Jack Skillingstead — Thu, 25 Feb 10 18:00:35 -0500

This is dreadful news. I'm sorry.

No title.

Shane Shellenbarger — Thu, 25 Feb 10 17:59:51 -0500

My condolences to both of you and The Koenigs.

Andrew Koenig

Jerry Seward — Thu, 25 Feb 10 17:50:34 -0500

Damn... I am in tears right now. My sincerest condolences....

No title.

Chuck Messer — Thu, 25 Feb 10 17:33:47 -0500

GODDAMNIT.

Sad, sad day

Alejandro Riera — Thu, 25 Feb 10 17:28:33 -0500

I am so so sorry for the Koenig's loss. My sincerest condolences to them and to you Harlan.

I Just Heard the Bad News

Brad Haupt — Thu, 25 Feb 10 17:27:00 -0500

I am so sorry for your loss, and for the loss of the Koenigs' as well. I was really dreading this when I first heard that he was missing. Speaking from experience, as someone with depression myself, anyone who thinks they may have serious depression needs to seek help! It will not go away on its own.

Brad
M666

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Steve and Cris — Thu, 25 Feb 10 17:19:36 -0500

HARLAN, SUSAN - Just saw the news report and press conference.

I am deeply sorry for your loss and that of the Koenig's.

No title.

shagin — Thu, 25 Feb 10 17:15:37 -0500

May his pain be at an end.

HARLAN: A word or three cannot ease your pain, but please know they are sincere. I'm sorry for your loss.

With a candle lit one last night,
Sandra

I'm terribly sorry for your friends

Joe madden — Thu, 25 Feb 10 17:14:40 -0500

Joe

The Koenigs are on Headline News now.

Brian Phillips — Thu, 25 Feb 10 17:10:14 -0500

It is as we feared. I am sorry and prayerful.

Brian Phillips

No title.

JohnEWilliams — Thu, 25 Feb 10 16:13:15 -0500

I mean your friend's son. Jesus.

No title.

JohnEWilliams — Thu, 25 Feb 10 16:12:48 -0500

Harlan,

I am very sorry for the loss of your son's friend.

JW

A Tragedy

Roberta Tennant — Thu, 25 Feb 10 16:11:33 -0500

If indeed Andrew Koenig has been found, and he is deceased, what a terrible tragedy for everyone.

Being familiar with depression and its effects upon many friends and family members, as well as myself, I believe that probably nothing could have been done to help him, once he stopped taking his medication, except commitment if he were found to be a danger to himself, and even that is not a long-range solution.

If his death is found to be a suicide, what a dreadful burden that will be for his loved ones to bear. Any manner of death is horrible, but suicide seems to take an especially grave toll on those left behind, because they feel they could have prevented it.

However, as someone who has been suicidally depressed, and known friends and family who have reached that point, I can say that sometimes no power on earth can convince a person to live when life seems so agonizing and hopeless.

So many, many creative people are suffering from unipolar or bi-polar mood disorders. These illnesses are difficult to diagnose and treat and take a dreadful toll of bright, promising lives.

My deepest sympathy for all of Andrew's family and friends.

Roberta Tennant

Police say they believe remains of 'Growing Pains' actor found

Fred — Thu, 25 Feb 10 15:47:54 -0500

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/vancouver/2010-02-25-andrew-koenig-body-found_N.htm

By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
VANCOUVER Police said they discovered a body in a vast urban park and they believe it is the remains of missing American actor Andrew Koenig.

Vancouver police said the body was discovered about noon Thursday in Stanley Park, a location police have been searching for days since Koenig was reported missing Feb. 18 after he failed to return to California.

Vancouver police have scheduled a 8 p.m. ET press conference at the park with the Koenig family.

The discovery comes just a day after Koenig's parents came to the Olympic host city from California to appeal for assistance in locating their son, known for his role as Richard "Boner" Stabone on the television series Growing Pains.

Walter Koenig, the man's father and an actor himself who played Pavel Chekov in the original Star Trek series, said his son was in the midst of a life-long struggle with depression.

Apex Predators

Once Bit, Twice Shy — Thu, 25 Feb 10 13:56:41 -0500

Hey, Steve Perry -

"...but I'm not in any hurry to risk being eaten by something bigger than me."

Have you met my ex-wife?!

"if you are dealing with a predator that is bigger, faster, stronger, and has a record of taking out members of your species, for you to get close enough to them to let them have a shot? What does that say about you?"

NOW you tell me!

Of course, that descrition ALSO fits my divorce lawyer, agent AND (ex) Mother In Law!

But seriously, folks...

Step Right Up ...

Steve Perry — Thu, 25 Feb 10 12:51:42 -0500

So, orcas really like a tasty harbor seal for lunch. And you don't want to be mistaken for a harbor seal, so you put on a black wet suit that makes you look like, I dunno ... a harbor seal?

If you read the story past the jump, you'll see that this particular whale had an attitude, and that trainers who deal with these critters sustain injuries frequently. That more of them aren't killed is probably as much due to luck as anything.

Once upon a time I was a guest at a convention that had brought in a young tiger from a local safari park. Had him in a portable chain-link fence upon a stage, and offered to let me have my picture taken standing next to the big cat. He wasn't fully grown, only a couple-three hundred pounds of beautiful, fanged critter.

Remember Sigfried & Roy? And the lovingly-raised-from-a-kitten white tiger who decided to chow down on Roy on stage?

Would I like to get into a cage with the tiger?

I appreciate the offer, but, no, I don't think so.

Now, my mother never told me to stay out of tiger cages, but I kind of figured that one out on my own, you know?

Yeah, something is going to get us all eventually, but I'm not in any hurry to risk being eaten by something bigger than me.

At that con, there was a fan sitting on the front row, chowing down on a burger and fries, and the tiger was watching every move the guy made. I dunno if you saw the video of the Indians on top an elephant who had a tiger come through the tall grass and hop up like it was nothing to give the guy in front a friendly claw. It's on YouTube. A six-foot chain link fence is about as much impediment to a tiger as stepping over your shoes in the hall is to you. Remember the guys razzing the tiger at the San Francisco zoo a while back?

I left that room pretty quick.

Lot of dogs bite people, some people get killed by them, and there are risks everywhere; however, if you are dealing with a predator that is bigger, faster, stronger, and has a record of taking out members of your species, for you to get close enough to them to let them have a shot? What does that say about you?

Animals, particularly those who are not domesticated, don't behave like the ones in cartoons. Anthropomorphic overlays -- especially on the cute ones -- is apt to get you in deep shit. I'm not going into the cage to pet the Giant Panda, either. They bite people all the time. Aw, look how cute it is!

Oops.

Yeah, we want to show everybody we are the top predator, that we can make the lions jump through flaming hoops and the killer whales slide up on the deck to have their chins scratched, but it's a foolish and dangerous conceit. If I see somebody walk up and spit in the Kodiak bear's eye, me, I'm rooting for the bear. The gene pool is better off without some folks.

Perry

DOCTOR WHO on BBC America

John Zeock — Thu, 25 Feb 10 12:38:40 -0500

April 17, 2010

Write this down

alejandro riera — Thu, 25 Feb 10 12:37:54 -0500

BBC America has confirmed that the brand new season of Doctor Who starts on April 17:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118015764.html?categoryid=14&cs=1&ref=bd_tv

No title.

Frank Church — Thu, 25 Feb 10 11:58:47 -0500

You also rarely see killer whales kill people. There has to be a backstory. Maybe the whale ate some bad scrod.

-----------

No title.

Charlie — Thu, 25 Feb 10 05:05:46 -0500

Dogs and cats, for the most part, are domesticated animals and can be great companions for humans. Killer whales, elephants, tigers, and lions are not. I would never go to or support Sea World, animal circuses (especially Barnum & Bailey), and many zoos. However, I do recognize that some well-managed zoos perform a service in protecting endangered species in a preserve environment. That was terrible and tragic what happened to the trainer, and she knew the risk - just as we all assume a risk when we drive a dangerous instrumentality daily. We just hope an accident never befalls one.

Andrew Koenig

Perrianne Lurie — Thu, 25 Feb 10 04:41:01 -0500

I just found this on Salon:

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/celebrity/index.html?story=/mwt/feature/2010/02/24/andrew_koenig_mystery

Y'know

Adam-Troy Castro — Wed, 24 Feb 10 20:15:50 -0500

"What part of killer whale is so difficult to understand?"

In defense of that trainer -- who I saw perform -- trained people perform with killer whales without particular danger all the time, just as people perform with big cats all the time. Tigers kill people, but I have stood next to an untethered tiger under the authority of its trainer and placed my hand on its shoulder. (I also steered clear, that day, of a lion who was acting ill-tempered.) We live with dogs and trust them with our children; the fatalities at the jaws of dogs who have gone bad do not change that fact. We live with horses and trust our children to ride them, even though horses can take your head off with a single panicked kick; it doesn't change the fact that horses are still ridden all over the world. About all this proves is that animals have wills of their own.

Man - The Most Intelligent Animal

Steve Perry — Wed, 24 Feb 10 19:20:06 -0500

I put this on my blog, and I have to pass it along:

At SeaWorld in Orlando, an orca, aka Killer Whale, killed its trainer in front of an audience who paid to watch the show.

"Distraught audience members were hustled out of the stadium immediately, and the park was closed."

I bet. Little Mary and Johnny, come to see the cute big black and white critter will probably have a few nightmares to tell their shrinks about down the road.

Wait until those videos make their way back home: Yeah, we went to Disney World, saw Mickey and Donald; and to Epcot, and then we went to SeaWorld.

Check this out -- hit the lights there, wouldja, Martha ...

I believe we have had the discussion about people who taunt tigers, step into the lion's cage, or stand in a tub of salt water and stick their fingers into the 220-socket, and even though I shouldn't have to, I'm adding this one to that collection.

Which part of "killer whale" is unclear?

I'm sorry about the trainer, it's a tragedy, but there are a couple of factors that put this one into the are-you-out-of-your-mind? category. Tilikum, that's his name, the orca -- was already connected to two deaths. One was a guy who hopped the fence and into the tank, and probably died of hypothermia, but who had a few marks on him from his swimming pal; the other was in Victoria, B.C., where Tilikum used to live, when a trainer fell into the water with him and couple of his buddy orcas.

Now this woman in Florida was not in the water swimming with him, because of this guy's rep; however, she was close enough so he managed to hop far enough out of the tank to grab her and haul her under. Whether she drowned or he chomped her hard enough while shaking her to do her in isn't known yet.

Local police are calling it "an industrial accident."

Is it just me, or isn't the term "Killer Whale" a big enough red flag? Especially one who already done in a couple of folks? This isn't somebody's pet lap kitty, you are talking about an animal that will attack and eat a Great White Shark, and who can chomp you in half with one bite.

And who already got away with it a couple times. What, they are gonna cut his herring ration?

You want to get into the cage with the hand-reared White Tiger? Go right ahead. Live in a tent pitched in the feeding ground with the brown bears in Alaska? Be my guest. Swim with Shamu? Fine. If they eat you, it is your own damn fault. You should have known better.

TO RICK KEENEY

HARLAN ELLISON — Wed, 24 Feb 10 19:09:14 -0500

Thanks.

Harlan

The Oscar

Wade — Wed, 24 Feb 10 18:53:31 -0500

The Oscar is on TCM 03/07 5:00 Pacific

sorry

Keeney — Wed, 24 Feb 10 14:16:01 -0500

I meant "Andrew"

sorry

Walter Koenig

Keeney — Wed, 24 Feb 10 12:53:16 -0500

I'm posting this link because it appears reliable and has been updated in the past hour. It is 2.51p. here in MN.

Also there is info here I'd not seen anywhere previously.

With that:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/vancouver/2010-02-24-koenig-missing_N.htm

Rick

No title.

Frank Church — Wed, 24 Feb 10 07:36:38 -0500

Cindy, will you quit that!

Justice is a long slog. It took hundreds of years just to end slavery, then you had another hundred years of demonizing of black life. Justice is slow, painfully slow. Best to keep working in its stead and keep the fires goin. Hugs

No title.

shagin — Wed, 24 Feb 10 06:13:27 -0500

CINDY wrote: "I am diminished."

Not in the least! You put up on helluva fight, standing up for what you believed in. Never think less of yourself because the desired result did not come to pass. There aren't many people who can stand as tall as you have.

Sandra

Correction!

Paul Michael Barkan — Wed, 24 Feb 10 03:26:27 -0500

_Belated_ Happy 100th, Django.

January 23, 1910

Centennial

Paul Michael Barkan — Wed, 24 Feb 10 03:16:00 -0500

Happy 100th birthday, Django Reinhardt!

I hope that you will be writing the Star Trek Sequel!

Roberta Tennant — Wed, 24 Feb 10 02:07:53 -0500

I think that would be outstanding for the quality of the ongoing saga. And I read that you would like to be involved with the sequel, so that's the best of reasons right there.

I believe that you would bring your genius to a legend that has been given short shrift in the writing arena way too many times, and in doing so place it among the classics of film.

Respectfully, Roberta Tennant

No title.

Cindy — Tue, 23 Feb 10 21:38:17 -0500

Sam Scantlin died. He was 68 years old. He didn't live to see justice served-- I couldn't make it happen.

I am diminished.

Cindy

No title.

Mary — Tue, 23 Feb 10 12:58:07 -0500

I went on Facebook to search for Andrew Koenig, and came across his fan page as well as his profile. The fan page is full of genuine concern. I left a note on that page...don't know if he'll check there, but if he does check here by chance...

Andrew...you're loved more than you know. Call home, let your family know you're okay. The door's open, a lot of candles in a lot of windows are lit. People just want to know if you're all right.

No title.

Frank Church — Tue, 23 Feb 10 11:19:36 -0500

Light must win this time.

HARLAN

Steve Barber — Tue, 23 Feb 10 08:50:38 -0500

Diane makes a good suggestion. A number of us are on Facebook, but you need to find someone who has already "befriended" Andrew in order to send him a note. He would ignore, I am sure, anyone new who isn't already in his circle.

But I agree that he's likely looking in on that place and that a message might have the ability to get through.

If I can facilitate or otherwise consult please don't hesitate to call. I know yu have enough offers to help on your end that I don't want to simply add to the din unless needed.

A review from Locus Magazine

shagin — Tue, 23 Feb 10 07:36:31 -0500

....I'm the victim of a drive-by reviewing....

*blink*

Thank you very much for the link.

This is good, yes?

Sandra

No title.

Diane — Tue, 23 Feb 10 07:19:00 -0500

Harlan, this from 40 min ago. The National Ledger on line reports the police have had reports and sightings of Andrew. They are convinced he's alive.
As someone who has had clinical depression most of her kife and been suicidal to the point of attempts, I think it may be in his mind. But it is a hard thing to take your own life. Especially if you are loved. As Andrew so patently is. I think if you could get access to Facebook or twitter, and send him a message, it would have a great meaning from you. He posts on those sites a lot. He may be checking them on and off. It was those I loved that kept me here when I would wonder around contemplating the continued value of my existence. I have much empathy for your young friend and his family and you. Let me know how else I could help.

No title.

Diane — Tue, 23 Feb 10 06:19:05 -0500

I meant I could not find the time of the NPR post.

Andrew

Diane Bartels — Tue, 23 Feb 10 06:08:13 -0500

Could not find time. This is NPR's website. I couldn't find the address, but Rick or Steve could. ABC News Website repeats the same police data as of 30 minutes ago. They also include a lot of stuff from his Hollywood friends regarding his depression. But that is just speculation. A lot of his celebrity friends are looking for him on Facebook and Twitter. I don't do either of those, but I wsill try to get access to friends who do. His dad and mom are flying to Vancover today to help. He sounds like a wonderful loving person.

No title.

Diane Bartels — Tue, 23 Feb 10 05:51:04 -0500

Hi, Harlan. There is a lot of talk from Andrew's friends iut there. But the most reliable news source quoting the Vancouver police is National Public Radio, yesterday. They saidhis cell phone is now turned off, but last received a text Feb 16.Constable Tim Fanning of Vancouver Police said"Electronic info leads them to believe he is ok." They think he is just lying low." This was dated yesterday. Forgot to check the time. Will go there and check and come back.

b

A review from Locus Magazine

Your Friendly Internet Browser — Tue, 23 Feb 10 02:13:20 -0500

From "Lois Tilton reviews Short Fiction, #1" at LOCUS ONLINE

http://www.locusmag.com/Reviews/2010/02/lois-tilton-reviews-short-fiction-1.html

"The Vessel Never Asks for More Wine" by Sandra M. Odell

One day, Eileen almost steps into the path of a bus, but a stranger pulls her back to the curb. She seeks out the man to thank him and finds him strange indeed, with the strange name of Borgio Yilmaz.

The only remarkable feature in an otherwise plain face were his eyes, almond shaped, the right slightly larger than the left, and the caramel gold that edged a desert dune at sunrise. Ashes and the shadows of memories lingered in the creases around those eyes, unexpected in a man his age.

Eileen soon comes to suspect he has been stalking her, but the reason is not what she supposed.

Here is a poignant tale about the tragedy of immortality, strongly colored by loss. The title is very appropriate.

RECOMMENDED

No title.

shagin — Mon, 22 Feb 10 21:47:24 -0500

HARLAN: I want, desperately, for reliable word if only to ease your concern and the even greater concern of his parents. The candle is still lit.

***

TO ALL: Thank you for the kind words, unexpected because I was posting about Andrew. When I've a mind, I'll share the, now humorous, story of being carted off to the hospital in handcuffs. I gotta laugh about it. Sure beats the alternative.

***

Write, write, write, wrong, right, write...

shagin

No title.

Alan Coil — Mon, 22 Feb 10 21:09:10 -0500

Harlan,

SF Gate posted this 90 minutes ago saying police believe he is still alive and not wanting to be found.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/abraham/detail??blogid=95&entry_id=57748

AN APPEAL

HARLAN ELLISON — Mon, 22 Feb 10 20:59:19 -0500

Does anyone out there know anything

ANY
thing

reliable
RELIABLE

pleasegod, no "I heards" or "ET is reporting" or "Nancy Grace says" or...

PLEASE no rumors!!!!

If you know ANYthing, from a sane, non-Matt Grudgelike source, a reliable news source...PLEASE...

I've known Andrew since he was a little boy, and...

PLEASE, but no random third-hand craziness, PLEASE.

Harlan

No title.

Lori Koonce — Mon, 22 Feb 10 20:12:48 -0500

Shagin: You know my credentials as far as depression goes. Cindy gives you a bit of good advice when she says not to be afraid to get professional help if things don't get better soon. I know that the first step is the most scary, but you'll be so much better off if you take it.

My Email above works, and I promise to answer anything you may want to ask. Just know that you've got a cureable problem. I, and everyone here, care and will do what we can to help you.

With much love and understanding

Lori

No title.

Cindy — Mon, 22 Feb 10 19:57:06 -0500

Shagin,
Keep swimming; the rip is usually only a hundred yards wide and if you keep easing toward the shore at an angle you'll make it out. Don't fight the current, just relax and remember the rough times make the silky even smoother. What everyone says is right, we care about you and we're here to listen. But please, if you don't start feeling better quickly, do not delay seeking out medical help--it's a life raft when you need it.

I hope you're better soon.
Cindy

Harlan,
:)
C.

Drag Harlan?

Steve Dooner — Mon, 22 Feb 10 19:32:20 -0500

Yes.

But does Harlan have the legs for it?

(sorry, for the obvious joke.)

Steve Dooner

"DRAG" HARLAN

Keeney — Mon, 22 Feb 10 18:34:48 -0500

"From out of the shimmering haze that veiled the mystic eastern space came a big black horse bearing a rider." -Charles Alden Seltzer (1921)

fun stuff

RIck

Andrew Koenig

Semi-Writer — Mon, 22 Feb 10 18:27:53 -0500

Hopefully, he's not done anything drastic and has just needed to find something new to experience. A moment of peace and quiet away from the usual pressures of life.

I'm a year younger than Andrew and also in the depression boat, with a heavy oar of anxiety on one side and PMDD on the other. And because I'm battling three different elements, medication isn't a "fix" for it. (In fact, I've tried to get myself on depression studies in L.A. but have been rejected--the PMDD makes it too hard to tell the difference between regular depression and a severe hormonal downturn. Even though being hit by both at the same time can be quite devastating.)

The PMDD is, strangely enough, the worst of the three to deal with because of its severity, and yet it's the most understandable because its effect is cyclical. Physical discomfort coupled with emotional instability, which goes away... then comes back, then goes away... but that's good. It's good because the PMDD reminds me no matter how bad the regular depression hits, it NOT a permanent fixture of who and what I am. Even though the depression seems like it's been going on so long that it's ingrained into my soul, it's not. It's a long-suffering symptom but it's not the be-all, end-all of my personality.

No title.

Graham Rae — Mon, 22 Feb 10 17:24:42 -0500

And yes, I know an unprecedented three posts in one day (which I will NEVER do again; maybe I can say I'd saved up a lot by not posting for months) transgresses all laws Newtonian and Ellisonian about excess internet verbiage, but here's a link to the incident information in question; it's about you, Harlan, so I figure it's okay. Hopefully. And thanks for that amusing last reply. Made me genuinely laugh for the first time in days. Seriously. Cheers m'man.

http://www.jgballard.ca/deep_ends/jgb_ellison_fight.html

G.

Won't post for 2 days

John Zeock — Mon, 22 Feb 10 17:12:23 -0500

Harlan-remembered why else I got the book. Seltzer was from Cleveland and the father of Louis Seltzer, editor of the Cleveland press. He also worked for years as a carpenter and contractor before deciding to be a writer and wrote for Argosy for years. Drag Harlan was made twice-as Drag Harlan in 1920 and Siverspurs in 1936. Will stay away now for 2-3 days.

No title.

Graham Rae — Mon, 22 Feb 10 17:09:01 -0500

Why are you speaking in mockney to a Scotsman? Do you think that'll (chuckle) endear you to me any, you fahkin septic tank cahnt?

Genuinely laughing here. Sorry.

And actually, a wee while after I posted here asking about that story, somebody on a William S Burroughs site I write for sent me a link to the very swift-death-demonstration lift anecdote in question. So, sorry for asking you; I just never had time to say I had heard it soon after. You're right though, it's a funny anecdote. Unnerving a man who spent years in a Japanese WWII prison camp is no mean feat! Congratulations!

I am chuckling here.

Thank you Harlan, Jock-jockeying (ask me if you don't know what 'Jock' means in Londonese) shocking schlock spit-hocking mockney verbatim aside.

G.

No title.

SUSAN ELLISON — Mon, 22 Feb 10 16:50:53 -0500

Dear Alex:

Yes, the I HAVE NO MOUTH game is still available.

No, we don't have THE ESSENTIAL ELLISON available.

If you send me a SASE to the HERC address (P.O. Box 55548. Sherman Oaks, CA 91413), I'll send you a complete book list.

All best--Susan

Harlan

John Zeock — Mon, 22 Feb 10 16:42:57 -0500

Glad you liked it, That was,I believe , for your 75th. Your pal,John.

Apropos of Nothing ...

Steve Perry — Mon, 22 Feb 10 16:40:42 -0500

For some reason, a vagrant memory popped into my head: Back when Art and Lydia (Arthur Byron Cover and Lydia Marano) had the brick-and-board version of Dangerous Visions, on Ventura, there was a signing at which our Esteemed Host was featured. Eighties? Nineties? The decades run together.

I happened to be in town and dropped round. Whilst in the loo, I noticed that amongst the many scribbles on the wall was one that tickled my fancy:

"I have no talent and I must write ..."

Works for me ...

Perry

REPLY TO GRAHAM RAE

HARLAN ELLISON — Mon, 22 Feb 10 16:38:18 -0500

'Ere, mate...I dwanna come off like a ponce...nor a tosser...nor a wanker...nor a toff 'er nuffin', but...wall, issa well-known anecdote, an' nawt one ('mong a few such) I tell on meownself. It's damn funny, an' mebbe someone else 'ere knows it, but, wall, YOU unnerstan', right?

Yr. mate up the High Road, "Arlan

JOHN ZEOCK !!!!!!!

HARLAN ELLISON — Mon, 22 Feb 10 15:57:32 -0500

Remember, oh, something akin to two years ago, you sent me an old, dj-less 1921 western novel by Seltzer titled

"DRAG" HARLAN

? You do? Good. Because it came to the top of the stack beside my bed, after I gave up with utter contemptuous disgust at SHORT STORIES FROM "THE NEW YORKER" that was an abominable stuffed-shirt All White Men All The Time amalgam of uber-precious blank-shots of "the cosmically small point made" -- and I realized all of us, up to Kerouac, had been hobbled and yak-yoked by that self-anointed fountainhead magazine's power and prestige from writing what WE wanted to write without a cultural literary cringe...

Yeah. Right. Back to the point, John.

You sent me an old book, because of the title.

I started reading it yesterday. Gee whiz, it's terrific! Gunplay and everything. Thank you ever so much, John. It's as if I'd been dessicating in an auctorial Gobi and you came by and handed me a can of cool pomegranate wine.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

P.S.: Honi soit qui mal y pense. The "drag" is the way this gunslinger draws...with a slight hesitation...a "drag"...that discombobulates his opponents.

No title.

Graham Rae — Mon, 22 Feb 10 14:25:41 -0500

Hi Harlan. A belated thanks for your reply about JG Ballard; not been near the net much recently. In the last bit of the reply you make a cryptic interesting-sounding reference to an 'elevator incident'. I have never heard this story before. Would you mind at all recounting it? Sounds entertaining.

Thanks so much man, you really helped cheer up a dreich (Scottish word for 'dreary/grey') snowy Chicago day with your reply.

G.

No title.

Mark Goldberg — Mon, 22 Feb 10 13:20:04 -0500

Sandra, I am hoping you are feeling better physically and mentally. You know how to reach me if you need to talk

Thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of Andrew Koenig. The story is starting to get some wide exposure, as CNN just picked it up as the lead story in their entertainment seciton.

I steal this closing line from one of my favorite baseball writers Buster Olney (I am trying to be optimistic, big change for me) "And today will be better than yesterday"

Mark

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Chuck Messer — Mon, 22 Feb 10 12:45:08 -0500

Shagin: If your state has an indigent care program (and I can't imagine why not) you might want to go there to have your depression checked out. If it's clinical depression like mine, it's easily treatable and the medication I use hasn't had any adverse side effects. Plus, you can get thirty days of generic for about four bucks.

During a couple of bouts with unemployment, I made use of Colorado's indigent care program, with good results. Just bring something to read to the waiting room. Best of luck, what ever you do.

Chuck

Two things

Robert Morales — Mon, 22 Feb 10 12:37:05 -0500

1. Tony Isabella, I just shot you an email.

In the unlikely event the wish to film me recurs, let me state herewith I've absolutely NO interest in being in front of a camera. That's Mr. & Mrs. Ellison you hear laughing on their side of the continent.

2. This is utterly NSFW, but for its lucidity, hilarity, sanity and sheer ingenuity, it's the best public health ad I've ever seen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WPNhlzGoM0

Andrew Koenig

W. Powell — Mon, 22 Feb 10 12:17:02 -0500

It's a minor speck of trivia in light of the more urgent situation, of course, but worth mentioning nonetheless.

Andrew Koenig was also Harlan's inspiration for the title character in Jeffty Is Five.

I'm praying, praying down to my marrow that he turns up safe and sound.

IHNMAIMS Game

Alex — Mon, 22 Feb 10 12:00:09 -0500

Having recently read the brilliant short story "I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream", I recalled that I'd heard of a computer game with the same name. After scouring the internet for traces of this exotic wonder, I came across this site. It appears that it can be ordered through the Kilimanjaro Corporation (http://harlanellison.com/ordrbook.htm). Is this still available, or has the game vanished into the mists of time, as so many of the really good ones do?

Also: The "Essential Ellison" as listed on this website is the 1991 edition. Can the 2001 version be purchased through Kilimanjaro?

(Hopefully barging in here to bluntly ask questions of Harlan isn't frowned upon- this seems to be the available avenue of contact)

Paging Robert Morales

Tony Isabella — Mon, 22 Feb 10 11:16:42 -0500

Is the Robert Morales who posts here the same Robert Morales who wrote the Truth series at Marvel? If so, my friend Jonathan Gayles, an associate professor in the department of African American Studies at Georgia State University, would like to interview you on camera for a documentary. He's interviewed me twice so far, even coming to my home for the second interview.
If you're that Robert Morales, e-mail me and I'll send you Jonathan's contact information. Thanks.

Depression

Adam-Troy Castro — Mon, 22 Feb 10 10:46:30 -0500

As someone who considers his twenties a decade lost to the paralysis that comes with depression, I share one tip: it is next to impossible to maintain depression in a swimming pool. It might have something to do with the soothing effect of cold water, and it might only provide half an hour of relief, but that half hour can be critical to someone who has been self-flagellating for weeks and days. Get access to a pool and use it.

*

Harlan, I am hoping for the best for your friend's son.

No title.

diane bartels — Mon, 22 Feb 10 09:45:45 -0500

Shagin, been to the depression war myself a couple times. Cannot be cheered out of it;t'aint a simple or easy thing, no way no how. Just to remind or call to your attention - you are loved here and I am sure there and everywhere. Plus you can write well enough to get published, which means you have both talent and determination.And Harlan respects you personally and professionally. Way cool. Take care. Diane

No title.

Jrank Jurch — Mon, 22 Feb 10 08:10:42 -0500

Jan, waves.

I'm gonna add some bottom...

Tom Morgan — Mon, 22 Feb 10 00:15:23 -0500

Steve B.,
No thanks necessary, I was glad to be at the show. I have to admit I was a little worried. I have been to Cris' site and listened to the one minute samples that are provided. A nice voice but I wondered if the material was a little mellow for what may be a rowdy crowd wanting Stanley. My fears were of course unfounded. She knew exactly what she was doing up there. Her voice and her crack band had the audience eating out of her hand.
As for Stanley I agree that he put on a great show. I loved the Goodbye Pork Pie Hat opening. It was the only time I saw a bass player who had a bass player. But for me it was stained by the fact that as you say:
"The volume must have been set to twenty three"
I have had the same experience several times at the Coach House. It is a low ceiling industrial building, and they have a PA that would sound good in an arena. I spent much of his set with my fingers in my ears. It was just TOO FUCKING LOUD!!!. And no, it's not because I'm too old, it's because my ears still work.

Frank,
I assume you meant Tom Campbell, not me. He was mentioned for buying things. I just went to a concert.

A good day to all here.

Re: ANDREW KOENIG

shagin — Sun, 21 Feb 10 19:22:23 -0500

As I'm battling my own demons of depression, I hope he is found soon. And safe.

A candle is lit.

shagin

No title.

Rob — Sun, 21 Feb 10 19:13:14 -0500

SHUTTER ISLAND...

I've had this one on my "TO SEE" list since catching the preview, which told me 2 things: Scorcese, and a segue from computer-game action.

I've been catching lots of post-WWI era Gothic Expressionist films, so the timing for this is quite good. (Most recent example, I just saw a remarkable early sound John Barrymore - SVENGALI; the director, Archie Mayo, used sweeping zooms from close-up to wide pan a few times, floating above surreal Expressionistic cityscapes, which, today, would have obviously been a cgi shot!)

Yeah, I'm very open-minded about this one.

While I'm on the subject, I also want to hype another early sound film, heretofore, unknown to me: A FREE SOUL, 1931, with LIONEL Barrymore and Norma Shearer. This was Barrymore when he was still
thin and young-looking...in a mind-blowing performance that apparently one him a well-deserved Oscar.

A VERY well-written film!!

Once more, with feeling

Rob Wrong, Meet Right — Sun, 21 Feb 10 16:32:07 -0500

And then came ROB!

Rob, AKA Angry Rob, whose qualification as Political Scientist is. presumably, that he once lived with a former poster painter whose favorite color was red, tells us that fascism is the ownership of government by one person.

Well, Rob, while there is no commonly accepted definition of Fascism, that does not mean you can just make up your own. Nope, sorry.

Besides, there already is a term for government owned by an individual.
.
Its called monarchy, Rob. . Just the oldest form of government we have. By your hokey definition, any absolute monarchy is a fascist state. Louis Quatorze, the Fascist! On the flip side, does this mean it was Mussolini who actually said L Etat, Cest moi!?

No, it wasnt. Once again, Rob speaks out of his ass, directly into the chamberpot of stupidity.

Im not surprised at his confusion on this point, since Angry Eob also regularly throws about the term Corporatism and how the rising power of corporations in America is obviously a sign of Fascism looming on the horizon and coming soon to your neighborhood.

Hes a regular Jeremiah on that one.

,Look up the definition of :Corporatism, however, and you will find the only link with modern business Corporations is the root Latin word corpus. Theyre two different things.

Thats the genius of the auto-didact Political Sicentist, though. They can square the circle, politically, just by clicking their heels together twice with their eyes closed, and wishing really hard. Well, t hey think they can, anyway.

Classically sloppy thinking from one who thinks of the Netherlands as heaven. A nation whose main draws are euthanasia (over a thousand cases a year) , with a thriving popular movement to legalize assisted suicide for anyone over seventy, even if in perfect health, if they are tired of living. Why, they are so progressive they would even allow the elderly to outsource the job if they would rather not do the work solo.

If that is not enough of haeven for you, the Netherlands is also where a Muslim can run down in the street an artist that offends him, shoot him several times,, cut his throat, and when put on trial (yes, shooting people in the streets is still against the law in Holland. Give them time, Progress has to evolve), proudly ranted he would do it all over again given the chance. Ah, but at least the Dutch have progressed enough that when a member of the Dutch Parliament was critical of Islam in a speech, he was put on trial for Hate Speech.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_14228767

Though you can get all the ganja and hash you can stand, cheap, legal and with a live sex show thrown in. I guess if you are so jaded even that pales, you really ought just die.

Yes, he Netherlands is heaven. At least , it is if you are Rob. After all, the cuddly Dutch government picks up the tab for your medical bills, even for the death potion when you do decide to do the body politic a favor and end your life so they can use their money to cure some sex workers of the clap, rather than wasting it just to pry a few more years from the claws of Father Time for your decrepit ass.

After all, Progress requires sacrifice!

Welcome to the barrel, Angry Rob!

It seems some of you are no longer screeching, but instead throwing dung. I seem to have struck a nerve, or three.

My work here is done. Move along.

ANDREW KOENIG

Attention Please — Sun, 21 Feb 10 16:17:37 -0500

Andrew Koenig, the son of Star Trek actor Walter Koenig, is missing. The last time Andrew
Koenig was seen was on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Andrew Koenig never boarded his flight back to the US, and he hasn't heard from since then.

He was last seen at a bakery in the Stanley Park area of Vancouver.

Andrew Koenig, 41, was working as a camera operator on the show "Never Not Funny" as well
as doing improv in Los Angeles. Best known as "Boner" from "Growing Pains", Andrew also
had a role in "Deep Space Nine", and is a talented actor director, editor and photographer as
well as a passionate activist. In 2008, he was arrested at the Rose Bowl while protesting
China's part in the genocide in the country of Burma.

This is a serious matter that has Koenig's friends and family gravely concerned. If you have
seen him, emailed him or had any contact after the 14th or spent time with him during his stay
in Vancouver please call Detective Raymond Payette of the Vancouver PD at 604-717-2534.

Please share this and send prayers and positive thoughts. If you wish to leave Walter a note,
visit his site at: www.walterkoenigsite.com

Screenplay contest

Joe madden — Sun, 21 Feb 10 14:24:55 -0500

Just started one. Not going to rush. Its only my second and I'm taking my time. Think I'd like to direct as well. If I can get funding.

Joe

P.S.
I'm in Canada. Funding? HA!

No title.

Jan — Sun, 21 Feb 10 13:44:16 -0500

Frank, it's J-Day. Only people who start with J are meant to speak.

Josh

Jim Thomas — Sun, 21 Feb 10 12:19:04 -0500

Shutter Island was a great read--good to hear that the movie turned out well.

Re the contest: Well, that's what you get for reading their fucking scripts...

Josh

John Zeock — Sun, 21 Feb 10 10:52:12 -0500

Have to work on my delivery...was kidding

Shutter Island

Josh Olson — Sun, 21 Feb 10 10:29:16 -0500

What a sensational flick. Scorsese's lunatic, over the top style fits the material like a glove, and there's a moment at the end that takes everything to the next level. Leo's great, as is the rest of the cast, and it's a delight to see my pal Dennis Lehane continue his winning streak when it comes to Hollywood adaptations. There's a ridiculously entertaining movie for adults in theaters right now, folks. Go check it out.

John,

RE: The Philly screenwriting contest - I was a judge for that contest one year. They'd whittled the thousands of entrants down to six or so they felt were the best.

They were so painful to read, I will never judge another screenwriting contest.

No title.

Frank Church — Sun, 21 Feb 10 10:20:32 -0500

Let me make this very clear. I completely am against the Democrats health care bill and am glad that it got killed. We can't get single payer--yet, but we need a strong public option and negotiate prices on drugs and medical procedures.

-----------

Rabig, Seconds. What are you, an elitist? Watching that artsy junk. The Tea party would have you flogged...

hehe.

-----------

Remember all the stuff about the angry left? "Why can't those lefties be more optimistic, like Ronnie Raygun?"

Now it makes complete sense that the right is angry and we are denying them the right to protest by condemning it. Ah, irony.

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

Tom Morgan, buy me a puppy?

This should be fun...

John Zeock — Sun, 21 Feb 10 09:50:11 -0500

Just found about this morning about the Philadelphia Film Office and their Best Philly Based Script Contest. First prize-$10,000.00. Have a deadline of submission of March 1st. So have today to come up with idea and plot it out and then,at best, 2 days to write the damn thing! Then type it up and mail it out. Just like "the term paper is due WHEN ??" Love this kind of challenge. L-O-V-E IT! Whether Grand Illusion or Red Zone Cuba emerges is anybody's guess. Hey, do think I could get Josh Olson to read it ?

Dinner and Auctions

Jan Schroeder — Sun, 21 Feb 10 09:11:27 -0500

To Harlan,
Many thanks for the report on your dinner with Tom Campbell. I'd hoped that it would be a nice time for all and it sure sounds like it was.

To Tom Campbell (if he happens by),
As one who loves grabbing the check when it's not expected, congratulations of a lovely coup!

To All,
I've got a couple of auctions going at http://shop.ebay.com/dreamforjeanneauctions/m.html?_dmd=1&_ipg=50&_sop=12&_rdc=1 including Spider's own 12-volume set of Theodore Sturgeon's short fiction (V13 due out this year). There will be more to come, including some choice items from David Gerrold. David's also helping with the script of the "Stardance"

Jeanne continues therapy and seems to be in good spirits. For more info on the "Stardance" project and Jeanne, check out http://stardancemovie.blogspot.com/

If anybody has anything they'd care to contribute to the auctions, the above email is un-booby-trapped.

Thanks all!

Jan S.

No title.

Charlie — Sun, 21 Feb 10 07:53:40 -0500

Just read that Walter Koenig's son, Andrew, is missing. Hope all is ok. Nice story about Mr. Campbell.

No title.

shagin — Sat, 20 Feb 10 18:17:32 -0500

TOM CAMPBELL: For putting your money where your mouth is to help Jeanne Robinson, and for warming them cockle things in Harlan's heart, you are more than welcome in my neck of the Washington state woods, my tab.

***

My pleasures of today are these: I can now ingest solids without them evacuating as quickly as they were introduced. YJ is attending a hockey game with a friend. Hubby is at the Olympics for the last weekend of his once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Be safe.

shagin

BUT WAIT .... THERE'S MORE ....

HARLAN ELLISON — Sat, 20 Feb 10 16:31:00 -0500

It's been a long, event-suffused week, filled with good frinds and laughs and small adventures (in several of them, a friend-I-shall-not-name and I played Robin and Robin in crime-fighting adventures. (Neither of us is tall enough to be Batman, so we each had to be Robin. But in a REALLY manly way. Although, harrumph, of course, there's nothing wrong with...)

Ahem.

Where was I? Oh, ah yeah, got it. I'm toddling away from this threshing machine of monologuery, but ne'er fear im here.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

P.S.: Yes, I know, Cindy. Two replies. I haven't forgotten.

RICK KEENEY'S FAVORITE PHOTO

HARLAN ELLISON — Sat, 20 Feb 10 16:23:34 -0500

Rick: the photo you posted earlier today.

Poul Anderson and me.

Poolside at a motel in Columbus, Ohio, during a Midwestcon, in 1957 or 1956. If '57, I was fresh out of Ranger Basic Training at Fort Benning, Georgia. If '58, I was on weekend leave from either Fort Knox, Kentucky or detached duty at Camp Breckinridge.

Poul was, as usual, playing the heightist card.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

PRAISING TOM CAMPBELL

HARLAN ELLISON — Sat, 20 Feb 10 16:15:23 -0500

Loath as I am to post here -- and as you know, I seldom post anywhere else in this terra incognita of bytes -- when it's the sort of personal day-to-day that heat-rashes FaceBook and the rest, on occasion a remarkable thing comes to pass and, like you, I am compelled to draw some small notice to it.

Short background. Some months ago, last year, one of the two regular Jans who enrich us with their presences here, posted a gardyloo that the writer Spider Robinson's most excellent co-writer and wife, Jeanne, was in dire medical straits.

A Katrina-style sandbagging operation amidst Spider and Jeanne's
friends surged forth site-to-site on the internet, in an attempt to raise that gargantuan amount needed for surgery, et al. And the true&faithful responded staunchly. Jeanne is, today, medically, far better than she was at outset. (I would say more specifically, but in truth, I know not much more than that. I'm sure one of our Jans or someone closer to Spider will enhance the foregoing.)

For our part, Susan and I entered the list of auction items with a guarantee to the highest bidder of "dinner for two withthat cute li'l Ellison couple."

The winner, if I can be allowed the cognomin, was a gentleman from Washington state named Tom Campbell. He paid a potload.

We were supposed to've done That Thing back last August-December, but health at both ends put the kibosh on THAT. But night before last, Thursday 18 February 2010, Tom flew down, I put together an all-star cast of Alonquin Round Table conversational stars (I do not feel comfortable listing all 12) and we had a banquet at Mogo's Mongolian Barbeque, one of my favorite joints...for more than thirty years.

Now here's the jaw-dropping part.

This lovely man, Tom Campbell, who had laid out of pocket a LOT of money to sit and watch me shovel groceries down my neck, outflanked me, outplayed me, outsmarted me, waaaaaay outclassed me, and well before I was screaming at Lisa, our waitress, to break up the checks into Dutch Treat sections, this Campbell guy had pre-paid damn near when we all walked INTO the restaurant, five hours earlier, and wouldn't let anyone--PARTICULARLY ME--pay a cent.

Ah swow, ah felt like Campbell's bitch.

In this life, we seldom meet the kind of diamond-pure mensches our moms and dads wanted us to grow up to be.

Tom Campbell is class.

I had to impart this. I have no idea if he'll ever see it, but it had to be logged in somewhere, if not here, then possibly carved into the northern massif of the Rock of Eternity.

A good weekend to all of you, and very awestruck hugs'n'such to Mr. Tom Campbell.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

No title.

Rob — Sat, 20 Feb 10 14:24:16 -0500

The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it comes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group.

-FDR

Why does the country have to commit suicide before even the preponderant dopey morons grasp this fact?

I need a serious shot of Celexa!!

No title.

DJ — Sat, 20 Feb 10 13:51:06 -0500

Medicare is truly a very well run government health agency. I speak from experience; I took care of my Mother for many years and never had any difficulty getting her high quality medical care.
There is absolutely no reason Medicare should not be expanded to cover everyone in this nation. Of course it will be expensive but all the money businesses and private individuals are paying to private insurers can instead be used to pay additional taxes with. Also many of the private insurance agents who would lose their jobs with a single payer system could be transferred to new Medicare administration jobs that would be created. Medicare gives seniors a choice of Health Plans,Medical Groups and individual doctors and specialists, all of which can be changed if they're dissatisfied with their medical care.

No title.

Tony Rabig — Sat, 20 Feb 10 13:02:27 -0500

Re: Health care and a more pleasant fyi

Myself, I lean toward the views expressed by Ray, Kate, & Cindy, and have never heard anything that strikes me as a good argument in favor of the-term-which-must-not-be-used. Not looking to rehash the debate, because Steve Perry nailed it a few posts back, I think. Nobody's gonna change any minds here. But I have to ask -- if Reid and Pelosi ever get the mutant-camel-on-steroids spawn of their versions to Obama's desk and he signs it, can we call it you-know-what then?

NOW FORGET THAT CRUD AND SET THE TIMERS ON YER VCRS/TIVOS/WHATEVERS. Barring schedule changes, on Friday night/Saturday morning, Feb 26/27, at 2am Central, Turner Classic Movies will be running SECONDS, with Rock Hudson, Salome Jens, Will Geer & John Randolph. This is a must-see blood-chiller, Turner doesn't run it all that often, and last time I checked used copies of the DVD were $40 and up on Amazon. You'll like it. Trust me. And if memory serves our host (who will correct me if I'm wrong) is on record saying SECONDS is one nifty piece of work.

Bests to all,

--tr

Told ya....

alejandro Riera — Sat, 20 Feb 10 12:05:54 -0500

....new trailer is out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNiQ7nnQYcU

Harlan mention

Dennis C — Sat, 20 Feb 10 10:23:16 -0500

Harlan is mentioned in this article on Huffington Post about Phyllis Schlafly

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lea-lane/phyllis-schlafly-drooling_b_468670.html

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

Liked SHUTTER ISLAND quite a bit and can't talk about it without giving anything away, but an amazing cast down to the tiny roles. Jackie Earl Haley's one scene blew me away...

They also showed the trailer for CLASH OF THE TITANS -- it kicked ass. I had no desire to see it, but this changed my mind. Looks like fun.

No title.

Jan — Sat, 20 Feb 10 10:19:40 -0500

That was too kind, Barney. I trust you found the letters by M.T. or were already aware of them (certainly in transcribed form). I also enjoyed the Heinlein form letter and Salinger's thoughts on having a movie made from Catcher.

Folks, if you go to www.lettersofnote.com, find the category menu on the right and click on 'author', for example. This currently seems the best way to navigate, unless you're looking for someone specific.

Disclaimer: Not my site, don't necessarily approve blabla...

Ten rules

Clipping Service — Sat, 20 Feb 10 10:16:08 -0500

for writing fiction, from people who know:

http://tinyurl.com/ygzq42z

Number 10 from Elmore Leonard:

"Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip."

The Ghost of Summer Past

Steve Perry — Sat, 20 Feb 10 10:06:45 -0500

Great picture, Keeney. Got to be what? Forty, fifty years old, that photo. (For those of you who don't know, that's Esteemed Host to the left, and the late Poul Anderson to the right. A lovely man, Anderson was. Figures into one of my best hallucinations -- or spook experience, depending on your worldview ...)

Perry

The Ghost of Summer Past

Steve Perry — Sat, 20 Feb 10 10:06:28 -0500

Great picture, Keeny. Got to be what? Forty, fifty years old, that photo. (For those of you who don't know, that's Esteemed Host to the left, and the late Poul Anderson to the right. A lovely man, Anderson was. Figures into one of my best hallucinations -- or spook experience, depending on your worldview ...)

Perry

Speaking of the new Doc

alejandro Riera — Sat, 20 Feb 10 10:01:31 -0500

A new trailer is airing tonight on BBC One. Expect You Tube to be flooded with uploads of the same. I'll try and post a link later in the day. Fellow Whovians might want to keep an eye out for this.

The DR.

John Zeock — Sat, 20 Feb 10 09:51:11 -0500

Titles of first 3 episodes announced- 1. The 11th Hour 2. The Beast Below 3. Victory Of The Daleks.

No title.

Steve Barber — Sat, 20 Feb 10 08:50:46 -0500

TOM MORGAN - A very sincere thank you for trekking to the Coach House last night. I apologize for spending a grand total of, what?, thirty seconds in conversation. (Did you even realize it was me standing at the stairs right before you were seated?)

I hope you enjoyed the evening as much as we did.
____________________________________

Cris rocked the house last night, kids. I can say this, I have witnesses. The band was just spot on, and Cris nailed the stage presence thing. And had a great time doing it.

The audience really seemed to dig her, and at one point after being hugged by numerous strangers after the set (and more than a few pecks on her cheek) she leaned into me and said "I can see what Harlan must go through..."

As Tom will attest, Stanley Clarke raised the roof. Literally. The volume must have been set to twenty three, and with a bass that's heart-pounding time. But the real revelation from his band was the drummer, Roland Bruner. Only in his mid-twenties (and looking like the teens), Roland is just jaw=dropping astounding.

I do not hyperbolize when I say he's the modern successor to Krupa and Rich.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_JI0ne32Dk

(And he's also one of the nicest guys ever, meeting Cris up in the green rooms by clasping her hands together and saying "beautiful lady of song, it's a pleasure to meet you" with a small bow. I think the lady may have melted a bit and gone home with the wrong guy had Security not intervened by bringing in some fans to talk to Stanley at that very moment.)

Note for future reference: this guy is going to make a huge mark on jazz.

(HARLAN, I know you can't Youtube. I'll find a way to pass his playing on to you.)

But all in all, way cool gig. We're watching the video tomorrow and may post sections on Youtube if they recorded well enough.

Today: three hours at the LB Mardi Gras and a fundraiser guest appearance tonight.

(I'll be the roadie with the big smile in the back of the room.)

one of my favorite photographs

Keeney — Sat, 20 Feb 10 07:03:56 -0500

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3583/3826109405_24125058d9.jpg