"Is god an evil dwarf?"
Oct. 7th, 2010 02:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greygirlbeastFirst things first. Gimp sucks gangrenous donkey ass. Really, I spent half of yesterday fighting with it, trying to finish up the layout on Sirenia Digest #58. Not a speck of intuitive design anywhere in the goddamn programme. Not a whit. I so miss Photoshop 7 (which, you will recall, was rendered useless when I updated to OS X 10.6.3).
So, I'll likely be buying the dumbed-down version of Photoshop, as soon as I am able.
Anyway...on the subject of Sirenia Digest, thanks to Gordon Duke for helping me get it out last night. I swear this issue was cursed. But, by now, all subscribers should have it. Comments would be lovely. Thanks.
Yesterday is a veritable blur. Something very, very cool happened. Potentially very cool. But right now it's a Secret. There was a very cool phone call, and I'll talk about it whenever I am able. There was also a lot of email. No, more than that. A lot a lot. The phone call and all the emails and fighting Gimp to get the digest out. That was pretty much yesterday.
Oh, and did I mention I had a great meeting with an editor from Dark Horse during the HPLFF? Well, I did. More on that as it develops.
I did also pause to take stock of how many short stories I've been commissioned to write between now and the end of 2011. I'm going to be very busy, but very busy is good. And I have to get the Next Novel written. I've asked that the deadline be extended again. I think this is the third extension. I'm losing track, and I'm losing patience. Fortunately, my agent and editor seem a little more patient with me than I am. So, the deadline for Whatever The Next Novel Will Be Called is now March 1, 2011, which means the earliest you can expect it in bookshops is probably late autumn 2011. We call this optimism, the mothmen and I.
I was going to write more about Portland, but it's getting late, so that's going to have to wait until tomorrow. Hopefully, the impressions won't fade. And there are more photos below, behind the cut.
Oh, and a big thank you to Steven Lubold for another wonderful package, which included a copy of Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica (Harvard University Press). Which I intend to read as soon as I finish China Miéville's The Kraken. Which I am loving, by the way.
---
We watched the new episode of Glee last night, and, well, it was troubling. These guys have probably said it all better than I will, but here I go anyway. The series has always teetered on the edge of smarm. Somehow, that's usually part of its wonky appeal. But last night, not only did it cease to teeter and plunge head first into insipid greeting-card sentimentality, it also spent an hour hassling atheists. Or, as the Brits say, god bothering. I love that term. Finn sees Jesus in a grilled cheese, and embarks on a journey into magical thinking. And, somehow, this is a set up for an episode that does it's best to convince us that we should all believe in "god" because it makes life easier than it is when you don't believe in god. Yes, it was that stupid. Also, I have to point out that— despite the fact that Ryan Murphy is gay, and one reason I love the show is that it's so queer friendly —there's something disturbing about the episode's choice of atheists. Kurt, a gay character. And Sue Sylvester, who's played by an openly lesbian actress. Now, I'm almost certain the creators of the show didn't intend to send the message that gays are godless infidels who need to be prayed for and saved and all that crap, but that's still the message that the episode sends. That, and how religious harassment is acceptable, and the separation of Church and State is repressive, and it's okay for school councilors to preach to students, and...well, lots of this sort of shit. The episode stopped just short of forcing Kurt to recant his atheism, but, for fuck's sake, that horrid scene between Sue and her older sister. It was superficial and nauseatingly insincere. Also, while Glee usually bends over backwards to be multi-cultural, only Judeo-Xtianity seems to be acceptable brands of spiritualism. There was a Sikh woman, the acupuncturist treating Kurt's dad, but she was sort of treated as a quack.
It could have been an interesting episode dealing with belief and the lack thereof. It could have looked at both intelligently without condemning or proselytizing. It failed miserably on both accounts. I love this show, but last night's episode was almost enough to make me stop watching.
---
And to end this entry on a less sour note, here are more HPLFF photos, shots of the Hollywood Theater and of some of the slides that appeared before the films. Oh, and one from my keynote speech. By the way, clips from Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown were shown each night, and it's weird as hell seeing myself projected twenty-feet high:
Though it looks like I'm imploring the audience to worship Dagon, I'm actually talking about the artist who did the cover of the 1965 edition of Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (Arkham House).
All photographs Copyright © 2010 by Caitlín R. Kiernan and Kathryn Pollnac.
So, I'll likely be buying the dumbed-down version of Photoshop, as soon as I am able.
Anyway...on the subject of Sirenia Digest, thanks to Gordon Duke for helping me get it out last night. I swear this issue was cursed. But, by now, all subscribers should have it. Comments would be lovely. Thanks.
Yesterday is a veritable blur. Something very, very cool happened. Potentially very cool. But right now it's a Secret. There was a very cool phone call, and I'll talk about it whenever I am able. There was also a lot of email. No, more than that. A lot a lot. The phone call and all the emails and fighting Gimp to get the digest out. That was pretty much yesterday.
Oh, and did I mention I had a great meeting with an editor from Dark Horse during the HPLFF? Well, I did. More on that as it develops.
I did also pause to take stock of how many short stories I've been commissioned to write between now and the end of 2011. I'm going to be very busy, but very busy is good. And I have to get the Next Novel written. I've asked that the deadline be extended again. I think this is the third extension. I'm losing track, and I'm losing patience. Fortunately, my agent and editor seem a little more patient with me than I am. So, the deadline for Whatever The Next Novel Will Be Called is now March 1, 2011, which means the earliest you can expect it in bookshops is probably late autumn 2011. We call this optimism, the mothmen and I.
I was going to write more about Portland, but it's getting late, so that's going to have to wait until tomorrow. Hopefully, the impressions won't fade. And there are more photos below, behind the cut.
Oh, and a big thank you to Steven Lubold for another wonderful package, which included a copy of Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica (Harvard University Press). Which I intend to read as soon as I finish China Miéville's The Kraken. Which I am loving, by the way.
---
We watched the new episode of Glee last night, and, well, it was troubling. These guys have probably said it all better than I will, but here I go anyway. The series has always teetered on the edge of smarm. Somehow, that's usually part of its wonky appeal. But last night, not only did it cease to teeter and plunge head first into insipid greeting-card sentimentality, it also spent an hour hassling atheists. Or, as the Brits say, god bothering. I love that term. Finn sees Jesus in a grilled cheese, and embarks on a journey into magical thinking. And, somehow, this is a set up for an episode that does it's best to convince us that we should all believe in "god" because it makes life easier than it is when you don't believe in god. Yes, it was that stupid. Also, I have to point out that— despite the fact that Ryan Murphy is gay, and one reason I love the show is that it's so queer friendly —there's something disturbing about the episode's choice of atheists. Kurt, a gay character. And Sue Sylvester, who's played by an openly lesbian actress. Now, I'm almost certain the creators of the show didn't intend to send the message that gays are godless infidels who need to be prayed for and saved and all that crap, but that's still the message that the episode sends. That, and how religious harassment is acceptable, and the separation of Church and State is repressive, and it's okay for school councilors to preach to students, and...well, lots of this sort of shit. The episode stopped just short of forcing Kurt to recant his atheism, but, for fuck's sake, that horrid scene between Sue and her older sister. It was superficial and nauseatingly insincere. Also, while Glee usually bends over backwards to be multi-cultural, only Judeo-Xtianity seems to be acceptable brands of spiritualism. There was a Sikh woman, the acupuncturist treating Kurt's dad, but she was sort of treated as a quack.
It could have been an interesting episode dealing with belief and the lack thereof. It could have looked at both intelligently without condemning or proselytizing. It failed miserably on both accounts. I love this show, but last night's episode was almost enough to make me stop watching.
---
And to end this entry on a less sour note, here are more HPLFF photos, shots of the Hollywood Theater and of some of the slides that appeared before the films. Oh, and one from my keynote speech. By the way, clips from Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown were shown each night, and it's weird as hell seeing myself projected twenty-feet high:
Though it looks like I'm imploring the audience to worship Dagon, I'm actually talking about the artist who did the cover of the 1965 edition of Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (Arkham House).
All photographs Copyright © 2010 by Caitlín R. Kiernan and Kathryn Pollnac.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-10-07 06:51 pm (UTC)Shakespeare's got to get paid, yo. Or so I can hope.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-07 06:52 pm (UTC)Shakespeare's got to get paid, yo. Or so I can hope.
All my toes are crossed.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-07 06:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-07 06:56 pm (UTC)Kraken is *brilliant*: the best thing China's written since Perdido Street, and a hell of a lot of fun.
All the opening stuff in the British Museum was wonderful, in part because I know it first hand, and he did a great job of communicating that great space.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-07 07:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-07 07:20 pm (UTC)that is an amazingly beautiful old theatre. i hope the interior was as impressive. great atmosphere for the film fest. i like the old single screen theatres so much better than the stadium seating multi-plexes. but then, i'm a luddite.
Sadly, the interior hasn't aged quite as well, though it's still nice. And there are actually three screens, a big one downstairs, and two small ones upstairs that were added at some point.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-07 08:24 pm (UTC)If I had more exacting standards, Pages even has a page layout mode which allows you to place the content in layers, which I imagine is how the Photoshop process works.
Anyway, I mention this in case you were not aware of your options as you shop around. We all have better things to do than fight with technology.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-07 08:27 pm (UTC)I actually do the text layout in MS Word. It's simple and dirty, but it works. It's the image and cover layout I use Photoshop for. And while I'd truly love to make the digest available in other formats (though, I say again, I hate Kindle, Nook, etc.), that first paragraph made my head spin.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-07 09:07 pm (UTC)Using Word makes more sense. I was trying to figure out where Gimp came into the picture.
ebook format
Date: 2010-10-08 01:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-07 10:50 pm (UTC)- Mel
no subject
Date: 2010-10-08 06:49 am (UTC)Hmmmmm. Let me think on it, but thank you.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-08 02:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-08 06:48 am (UTC)I love that you used the Alternate Cover.
Yep. It was a special request, like the Dagon slide.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-08 01:49 pm (UTC)And it's amazing that it was on the big screen like that.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-08 02:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-08 06:12 pm (UTC)And it's amazing that it was on the big screen like that.
Wish you could have been there.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-08 01:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-08 06:11 pm (UTC)(I suspected it wouldn't, since it's as user friendly as Nyarlathotep's genitals)
HAHAHAHAHA
Seriously.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-08 05:23 pm (UTC)I quite liked "John Four." It felt almost like a Lovecraftian sequel to "Metamorphosis A."
Though it looks like I'm imploring the audience to worship Dagon, I'm actually talking about the artist who did the cover of the 1965 edition of Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (Arkham House).
See if you can still say that when the acolytes start showing up.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-08 06:13 pm (UTC)I quite liked "John Four." It felt almost like a Lovecraftian sequel to "Metamorphosis A."
Hmmmm. Interesting.
See if you can still say that when the acolytes start showing up.
Well, if it's tax exempt, I'm all for it.
merviss
Date: 2010-10-09 05:54 pm (UTC)