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greygirlbeast1. Gods, I'm not awake. And to blame we have the Ambien I took at 4:45 a.m., although what we really have to blame is (drum roll, please) THE. BEST. ROLEPLAY. EVER. Which I got in Insilico last night. My thanks to Omika, Abiki, Fifth, Pinbacker...and others. Really, it's like being lodged in the forebrain/motherboard of an early William Gibson novel, this rp. Smart, immersive, simulationist, literate, and exquisitely hard. And to think I spent almost two and half years trying to find a sim that has its shit together, and players on the same wavelength as me, and that I suffered so much lousy rp and silly-ass ooc drama.* Anyway, wow, but I am so painfully not awake. Oh, I'm playing Xiang, a very confused little toaster.
2. Yesterday, I wrote 1,269 words on "Hydrarguros," for Sirenia Digest #50. The story really seemed to find itself yesterday afternoon. And then Jason Statham showed up. On Facebook, I wrote "Gods, I've just realized Jason Statham is narrating my new sf story. That is, the narrator's voice, as I hear it in my head as I write is that of Jason Statham." Sort of Jason Statham as he was in Snatch. Later, also on Facebook, I added, "You have to imagine Jason Statham starring in a film version of David Bowie's Outside, playing Nathan Adler, only it's not a movie about art crimes, but a movie about drugs from Mars." Which isn't precisely right, but somewhere in the neighborhood.
3. Okay, so...I've keep putting off talking about Peter Straub's very wonderful new novel, A Dark Matter (due out February 9th). Mostly, that's because I know enough to know I'm no good at reviewing books (would that more readers knew this of themselves), and I'm not going to do the book justice. I can heap praise upon it, which it deserves, but which is also insufficient. I could, in theory, reduce it to some book-reportish synopsis, but that would be criminal. So, I won't do either. You're just going to have to trust me on this. I've been reading Peter since 1981, and this is one of his very best. There are such moments of surreal, transcendent weird. Worlds bleed together. It is, in a sense, about the price of expanding one's consciousness. In another sense, it's about the charlatans who promise expanded consciousness, and, specifically, about the sorts who peddled those wares in the sixties. More than anything, this is a novel about consequence. In brilliantly inverts many of the readers expectations, turning its plot back upon itself, as we watch its characters struggle to come to terms with an unspeakably bizarre event from their pasts, in order to heal their present lives. You want to read this novel. Spooky read the whole thing aloud to me while I was sick, before she got sick. We expect to read it a second time in a few months. Thank you, Peter. You just shine, man.
4. Last night, we watched Anthony Bourdain in the Philippines (our fondness for this man seems to know no bounds), and then watched Rob Zombies' remake of Halloween 2. I'm still parsing my thoughts on the film. It was, in many ways, a much more ambitious film than his Halloween remake, and it had some fine moments, but, in the end, I don't think it was as good as the first film (and certainly not as good as The Devil's Rejects). Mostly, I think Mr. Zombie needs to a) stop casting the atrocious Sheri Moon Zombie in his films, even if she is his wife, because the woman simply cannot act, and she's holding him back; and 2) I think it's time for him to try something new. We now know he can make very, very good slasher films in the spirit of the '70s and '80s classics. Now, I'd like to see him do something different, because I think he has it in him, and it's time to grow artistically.
5. Email this morning from the woman who'll be reading both Low Red Moon and Threshold for the Audible.com adaptations. They start recording tomorrow, and need correct pronunciations for trilobite names. So, I think all the audiobooks are now in production, which is just amazing.
6. I'm now going to go drink what's left of my coffee and try to wake the fuck up. Excuse me.
*Within a few weeks, Insilico proved itself almost as bad, or worse, than the rest of Second Life, and I had to start eating my words.
2. Yesterday, I wrote 1,269 words on "Hydrarguros," for Sirenia Digest #50. The story really seemed to find itself yesterday afternoon. And then Jason Statham showed up. On Facebook, I wrote "Gods, I've just realized Jason Statham is narrating my new sf story. That is, the narrator's voice, as I hear it in my head as I write is that of Jason Statham." Sort of Jason Statham as he was in Snatch. Later, also on Facebook, I added, "You have to imagine Jason Statham starring in a film version of David Bowie's Outside, playing Nathan Adler, only it's not a movie about art crimes, but a movie about drugs from Mars." Which isn't precisely right, but somewhere in the neighborhood.
3. Okay, so...I've keep putting off talking about Peter Straub's very wonderful new novel, A Dark Matter (due out February 9th). Mostly, that's because I know enough to know I'm no good at reviewing books (would that more readers knew this of themselves), and I'm not going to do the book justice. I can heap praise upon it, which it deserves, but which is also insufficient. I could, in theory, reduce it to some book-reportish synopsis, but that would be criminal. So, I won't do either. You're just going to have to trust me on this. I've been reading Peter since 1981, and this is one of his very best. There are such moments of surreal, transcendent weird. Worlds bleed together. It is, in a sense, about the price of expanding one's consciousness. In another sense, it's about the charlatans who promise expanded consciousness, and, specifically, about the sorts who peddled those wares in the sixties. More than anything, this is a novel about consequence. In brilliantly inverts many of the readers expectations, turning its plot back upon itself, as we watch its characters struggle to come to terms with an unspeakably bizarre event from their pasts, in order to heal their present lives. You want to read this novel. Spooky read the whole thing aloud to me while I was sick, before she got sick. We expect to read it a second time in a few months. Thank you, Peter. You just shine, man.
4. Last night, we watched Anthony Bourdain in the Philippines (our fondness for this man seems to know no bounds), and then watched Rob Zombies' remake of Halloween 2. I'm still parsing my thoughts on the film. It was, in many ways, a much more ambitious film than his Halloween remake, and it had some fine moments, but, in the end, I don't think it was as good as the first film (and certainly not as good as The Devil's Rejects). Mostly, I think Mr. Zombie needs to a) stop casting the atrocious Sheri Moon Zombie in his films, even if she is his wife, because the woman simply cannot act, and she's holding him back; and 2) I think it's time for him to try something new. We now know he can make very, very good slasher films in the spirit of the '70s and '80s classics. Now, I'd like to see him do something different, because I think he has it in him, and it's time to grow artistically.
5. Email this morning from the woman who'll be reading both Low Red Moon and Threshold for the Audible.com adaptations. They start recording tomorrow, and need correct pronunciations for trilobite names. So, I think all the audiobooks are now in production, which is just amazing.
6. I'm now going to go drink what's left of my coffee and try to wake the fuck up. Excuse me.
*Within a few weeks, Insilico proved itself almost as bad, or worse, than the rest of Second Life, and I had to start eating my words.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 05:46 pm (UTC)All right, now I really want to read it.
looking for the "on" switch
Try the very small toggle switch just above the nape of your neck.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 05:49 pm (UTC)All right, now I really want to read it.
I'm actually enjoying writing it.
Try the very small toggle switch just above the nape of your neck.
Oh, that's right! I just need a good reboot.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 05:55 pm (UTC)Glad to hear it.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 05:56 pm (UTC)Glad to hear it.
Doesn't happen often.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 06:11 pm (UTC)Awesome. You deserve it.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 06:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 06:42 pm (UTC)Caitlin, thank you for those more than generous comments on A Dark Matter. I think you see that book very clearly, and I'm grateful.
Thank you so much for writing it.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 07:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 06:19 pm (UTC)Looking at the link, it seems very pretty. Wish I could get into SL, but I fear it's just not something I can approach. I hope you continue to find some solace and (gasp!) recreation out there.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 06:43 pm (UTC)I hope you continue to find some solace and (gasp!) recreation out there.
Thank you. I can certainly use a good dose of both.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 08:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 08:47 pm (UTC)I'm not sure she'd cut it in a grammar-school play.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 08:48 pm (UTC)You're using the name Xiang in SL now? First name or last name?
First, Xiang Shim. Though, of course, she'd likely introduce herself more formally, as Shim Xiang.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 08:53 pm (UTC)and Zombies... it comes to mind that he would eat Brains and drink Blood with the best of them because its local cuisine!
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 09:08 pm (UTC)Alas, the only brains consumed were goat.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-27 01:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-27 01:19 am (UTC)Do people still say "hubba hubba"?
no subject
Date: 2010-01-27 05:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-27 09:23 am (UTC)I will have to spend some time exploring this place! Certainly sounds exciting!
Wave if you happen to see me, I am Aricelli Valencia in game. =p
no subject
Date: 2010-01-27 03:52 pm (UTC)I just realized that you play in SL... All this time I thought you were playing elsewhere. I have been RPing in Toxia in SL for quite some time
Sorry. The less I say about Toxia, the better.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-27 06:23 pm (UTC)Well, in that case please don't hold it against me!
no subject
Date: 2010-01-27 10:28 am (UTC)I'm also glad that Tony B. went and ate like *a regular person* in the P.I....freakin' Andrew Zimmerman just went around and dug into logs looking for worms. Ridiculous.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-06 02:37 am (UTC)